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win university distinctions, and to grow old in the plenitude 
of college dignities ; it is a great thing to wear civic honour, 
and to enjoy, for any good reason, a social celebrity ; hut 
Hodgkinson aspired to more. He thirsted for enduring and 
world-wide fame, and he has won it. How few are there of 
the young men of this ardent and crowded Lancashire, even 
of those who may achieve what are esteemed the greatest 
successes of life, who will find, when their hair is grey, that 
their names are printed year by year as seals of science in the 
industrial manuals of all civilized nations ! Hodgkinson 
diminished instead of increasing his little patrimony, in the 
search of truth equally abstruse and beneficent ; but this 
proud memory he has left behind him — that, go where you 
will in any clime of earth, if you meet a man fit to give 
counsel about constructions, and to take the command of 
labour, he will have in his breast pocket a little book, in 
which many of the most precious oracles and most pregnant 
formulse are stamped with the great name of Hodgkinson. 
And this is fame — fame that will grow higher and speak 
louder, as the world grows happier and wiser. For ages and 
for ages the discoveries of Hodgkinson will economize 
millions of treasure to the governments and the nations of the 
globe, and prevent the destruction of innumerable lives.” 
A Paper by Professor W. Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S., 
Honorary Member, was read, entitled ie Observations on 
Atmospheric Electricity.” 
I find that atmospheric electricity is generally negative 
■within doors, and almost always sensible to my divided 
ring reflecting electrometer. I use a spirit lamp, on an 
insulated stand a few feet from walls, floor, or ceiling of my 
lecture room, and connect it by a fine wire with the insulated 
half ring of the electrometer. A decided negative effect is 
generally found, which shows a potential to be produced in 
the conductors connected with the flame, negative relatively 
