, 1876-11-11
sir w. Thompson on American
SCirnCC.

Sir William Thompson has returned to
England with the most favorable impress
sions regarding the progrr>, Of science IN
this country. In lis recent address oS
president Of the Physical Scirnc"' see.
tion Of the British Association he began
us follows
"A conversation which ! had with
Prof. Ncwcomb one evening last June IN
prnf Hcnrys drawing.room in the Smith
sonian Institute, Washington, has forced
me to rive all my spare thoughts ever
since to Hopkins problem of procession
and mutation. assuming the earth rigid
spheloiCal shell filled with liquid, SIX
weeks ngo when | landed in England
after most interesting trip to America
and back, and became painfully con-
scious that must have the honor to adj
dress you here to-day, l wished to write
on address of which science in America
should he the subject. | came home,
indeed vividIy impressed with much that
/ had seen both in the great Exhibition
of Philadelphia and out oft. showing
the truest scientific spirit and devotion,
the originality, the inventiveness, the pa
tient, pcrsevering thoroughness OF work,
the appreciativeness and the generous
open-mindeduess and sympathy from
which the great things of science come"
Warming with his theme, Sir William
referred to some of our noted men OF SCI
cnce in these words:-
~ wish could speak to you OF the
veteran Henry, generous rival OF FaradHy
in electromagnetic discovery; of Pierce,
the founder of high mathematics in
America; of Bache, and of the splendid
heritage he has left to America and to the
world in the United States Coast Survey
of the great school of astronomers which
followed-Newton, Newcomb, Watson,
Young, Alvan Clark, Rutherford, Draper,
father and SON. Of Commander BeIknap
and his great exploration of the Pacific
depths by piano-forte wire with imper-
feet apparatus supplied from Glasgow,
out of which he forced success in his
own way and of Capt. sigsbee, who
followed with like fervor and resolution,
and made further improvements in the
apparatus by which he has done malvels
OF easy, quick, and deepsea sounding in
his little surveying. BIake' and OF
the admirable official spirit which makes
such men and such doings possible in the
United States naval service, | would
like to tell you too, of my reasons tor
confidently expecting that American hy-
biography will soon supply the data
from tidal observations, long ago asked
of our own Government in vain by a
committee of the British Association, by
which the amount of earth's elastic yield
ing to the dIstorting influence of sun and
moon will be measured; and ot my strong
hope that the Compass department of the
American navy will repay the debt to
France, England, and Germany, so ap'
preciatively acknowledged in their re-
print of the works Of Poisson, Airy,
Archibald Smith, Evans, and the Liver
pool Compass Committee, by giving in
return fresh marine survey OF terrestrial
magnetism to supply the navigator with
data for correcting his compass without
sights of sun or stars. | should tell you
also of 'Old Prob's' weather warnings
which cost the nation $250,0OO year
money we'll spent, say the Western farm
ers, and not they alone in this the whole
people of the United States are agreed
and though Democrats or Republican:
playing the economical ticket may fol
half a session stop the appropriations fol
even the United States Coast Survey, NJ
one would for moment think of starving
Aold Prob; and now that eighty per cent
of his probabilities have proved true, ant
Gen. Myer has for month back ceased
to call bis daily forecasts probabilities,
and has begun to call them indications
what will the Western farmers call hin
this time next year ?"
Sir William Thompson also observed
that the United States Naval Obserya
tory is full of the very highest science
under the command OF Admiral Davis.
He referred in complimentary terms Il
the scientific apparatus he saw at Phila