New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-12-25
PROFESSOR TYNDALL
as He WAS KNOWN AT THE NoYAI. I'M.
STITUTION. AND TO THE PUBLIC
AND TO HIS FRIENDS.
+.

that OF the Professor Whether the meeting took
place In the Royal Institution Of which he was
so long the executive head or in society. the i'm
preston was precisely the same. He had in the
drawing-room the manner of the lecturedesk.
just as he had in the lecture-desk the manner Of
good society The two were nterdependent and
permanent Before he withdrew from active life
and from London. used TO see him often. and
sometimes in circumstances which left a vivid
picture in ones mind He was Resident Director
Of the Royal Institution in London from the
death of Faraday, whose pupil and friend he was,
down to his retirement in 1881
It may almost be said that during that period
he was the Royal Institution. 1t was then that
the most brilliant and the least practical and
useful part of its scientific work was done. Tyn-
dali an ideal Director. He frst-rate
man of science He stood next after Huxley, who
stood next after Darwin, in the Darwnan
trilogy. His place in pure science OF the
very highest, but there were, and are. many men
very eminent in pure science who would have
been very unfit directors Of the Royal Institution.
The establishment in Aibcmarle Street Is
halfway hous, between Silence and Society It
performs great deal Of scientific work of high
value, quite independently OF other than scientific
influences. But It appeals to The public. 1t gives
courses of lectures great variety Of subjects.
resort of one OF the several sets OF London
society. the most cultivated SET, and it was
Tyndall who made them Literature not
excluded. 1t was at the Royal Institution that
Rcnan delivered his celebrated lectures Mar
Gus Aureus. asterward published Many celebrl-
ties, English and foreign. have there made their
bows 10 the London public; or TO 30 much of 1t
could get access to the very nconyenient III
ventilated, and dangerous ecture-room Of the
Institution. | used sometimes to say to Tyndall
that expected TO be poisoned by the bad air,
or burned to death on the narrow and crowded
stairs. You will die in good cause" was all
the answer to be extracted from him
You could not get him tc admit that anything
wrong with his darling institution. He was
proud Of it. as, in spite of thess and some other
physical drawbacks, he had right to be- He
delighted in a brilliant audience and in brilliant
lecturer and spared 10 pains to bring the two
together There 10 shadow of Jealousy
think he knew well enough his merits as a
lecturer Perhaps he courted comparisons; at
any rate, he did not shrink from them. He got
the best men he could None of them, / think
or not more than one. was his superior in his
own line: in one sense he was certainly superior
TO all. He was face princeps in the difficult art
OF presenting delicate scientific experiments TO an
audience. He rehearsed his effects as carefully
as a stage manager those Of the theatre; and the
ecture-room OF the Royal Institution was a
theatre Nothing ever went wrong, nor missed
fire. lie took infinite pains 70 prevent any scien-
tIfc experimental miscarriage People who
cared nothing for science came TO hear him be-
cause ne spoke WELL and to see the perform
ances because the performances were so good
In truth, lecturing Is. with the English. seldom
a fine art, or studied such. They are after
the root Of the matter and do not always, nor
often. consider form a style The lecturer seldom
troubles himself about his voice or his delivery.
Tyndall had harsh voice. but he made 1t do
its work He spoke clearly. His sentences had
a beginning a middle and end He .
born rhetorician and. which is perhaps more.
trained rhetorlcan. OF course he not Eng
lish: he was Irish. or. at most, Anglo-Irish his
ancestors having migrated two centuries ago
from Worcestershire to Ireland. But he and his
forbears had during these two hundred years
breathed the air of Ireland and had become in
many respects altogether Irish. You would never
be in doubt when you heard Tyndall speak
among what people his youth had been spent
and his accent acquired.
Nor could YOU doubt that the fervor and force
of his written and spoken style owed something
and owed much u his Irish blood, or TO Irish
influences of some kind He had the quckness
of wit characteristic Of the Irish. and not char
acterstic OF the English. He had the want Of
humor. of a sense OF humor. also which his
countrymen 50 often want. at least in the conduct
Of life and in the affairs of this world. The
want Of 1t leads men to take exaggerated views
Of the importance of things which concern them
selves. Tyndall took himself very seriously;
sometimes too seriously. OF course he had a
right TO- He knew the value Of his work. and
,xac parhanS sometimes a tri1e anxious that
other men should know it too. and admit IT.
Sometimes they did not admit it because they
saw that not to admit it leased him.
That was however. only occasional He had
the Just pride which most very distinguished men
Of science have: the desire to be judged by his
peers and by them alone; not regarding or re-
gardng little. the applause or censure OF the In
competent 1t was indeed, the thoroughness and
precision of his training and his methods in re-
search which hay at the foundation OF his
public successes in the lecture-room. He under
stood the conditions OF experiment. That seems
a simple thing to say but of how many men IS
Il true or of how many men OF science in Eng
land who are not near the top? II came out in
his DISPUTE with DR. Bastian about the develop
ment Of germs in a very early stage of the germ
controversy DR. Bastian insisted that under no
conditions could the propagation OF these inter-
estinp organisms be prevented. He simply, SAID
Tvndau did not understand how TO conduct tho
experiments The precautions necessary to ln-i
sure the exclusion OF germs existing In the at
mosphere were minute for any but hrst-
rate manipulation to carry out. Nay. after long
series of these experiments had been conducted
nrvotelv IN the Royal Institution itself by Tyn-
dali. he satisfied himself that the whole at
mosphere OF the place had become mpregnated
with them. and he transferred his investigations
elsewhther.
II was. perhaps the very splendor OF his sue
cess in popularizing science which blinded people
IN the merit of his purely scientific work and 10
the extent and value Of his researches. Men OF
science have themselves done something to spread
this view They are apt TO pay no tribute to the