The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-17
LORD KBLv1N's STUDENT DAYS.


 Book of the Jubilee,' commemorating
 the ninth jubilee of the university and was written by H. s. Carslaw:
 Lord Kelvin's long and intimate
 connection with Glasgow University will ever remain one of her proudest
 boasts. He has shed great light on
 Glasgow and his country, and physicists all over the world have turned for in- spiration to the rooms in our Univer- sity, where the first physical laboratory In our country Sprang into being, and l where, during the fifty-three years of his professorship, surrounded by en- | thusiastic workers, he labored with such marvellous success in advancing the ] bounds of almost every department of
 physical science. Of his career after his | return in 1S46 to his Alma Mater as
 Professor, much has been, written. It
 is my purpose to attempt to throw
 some light on the early student days in
 Glasgow, of her most distinguished son; the influence of which he has always so fully and gratefully acknowledged. "On his appointment to the Presiden- cy of the Royal Society in 1S9, his stu dents presented Lord Kelvin with an address of congratulations. Many will remember these words in his reply-I have been a student of the University of Glasgow fifty-four years to-day, and hope to continue a student of the Uni
 Versity so long 5 l live His wish was
 no idle one. When the burden of ad-
 vancing years made it necessary for
 him in 1899 to ask permission to retire
 from his chair, he requested the Senate
 to permit his enrolment as Research
 student. Hence it comes that in the
 Matriculation Album for the year 1899
 we find this entry-Kelvin, age 75,
 and in the column devoted to years of
 attendance in the University, from
 1S345 to 1S40-1 as student; from 1S46-99 as Professor--a record unique in the annals of any university. This is Lord Kelvin's last matriculation.
 Lord Kelvin was born in Belfast, in June, 1920 His father was at that time Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Academical Institution there; and, for merly student of our University, he returned to it as Professor of Mathe matics in 1892 An accomplished mathe- matician, he was perhaps best known in Scotland as a successful teacher, ana We read that those who were his pupils spoke with delight of his voluntary catechetical hours, in which viva voce questions were proposed and rapidly passed from bench to bench, in a class of ready and enthusiastic students Mathematicians and Natural Philoso- phers, teachers and students alike, may view the custom with mixed feelings; and some, possibly, will remember the occasion on which Lord Kelvin in his customary daily oral examination find- ing difficulty in obtaining quick re- sponse to his enquiries, wrote the word aphasia on the board, gave it's deriva- ton and described it as a virulent dis ease common to the students of Natural Philosophy; he might have added, and not unknown in other classes:
 We have seen that the future pro- lessor entered the university at the ex- traordinary age of ten years and half; his brother James being two years old CT It is somewhat difficult to picture the classes of the time. It is equally to find that at the end of his first winters work he carried off two prizes in the Humanity Class; this be- fore he was eleven. In the next session we follow him to the Glasses of Natural History and Greek--we wonder what the present occupant of these chairs would say to a stripling under twelve who presented himself at their lectures and his name figures Tn both prize ct Gxrt,1 ,a I, u ie f,nt nrk ir1c hn hard worked school boy of to-day; hut what would the child of twelve think of ] the holiday task of translatiug Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods. with full parsins f If the first three dialogues! This is the | piece of work for which William Thom- son. Glasgow College, receives a prize 1 n May, 1886. Next session We find the | TWO brothers together in the Junior ' Class, of the Junior Di- | vision of which they are first and sec ,nd prizemen. They appear again at | be head of the list for the Monthly Voluntary Examinations on the work of he class and it's applications. Proceed ng to the Senor Mathematical Class n fS37-S, they again stand at the top, Tor have they failed to present them elves for the Voluntary S-iaminations William is not satisfied with this class, ut in addition receives the second prize n the Junior Division of Professor Robert Buchanan's Logic Class, having IS near rival John Caird, Greenock-- he name of our late revered principal low appearing in the lists.
 Tn session 1S3S-9 there is evidence of lis presence in the Class of Astronomy nder Professor Nichol the father of ne of our distinguished professors of English literature; but we would like 0 have further information regarding is apparent neglect to give the solu- ions of various problems and demon- trations proposed on May 1st, 1S3S, to he Mathematical Class of that year. the summer vacations were | pent in travel abroad, Records of such remain; and we find that dur lg one, of fortnight's duration, with ( 'ourier's great work for companion, { e so mastered the contents of that l poch- making treatise Chat great I poem, as in after years { e called iD that his first published pa h Frankfort, 1S40-Was a com < lete defence of Fourier against a { harge of error, made by no less an au- ( tority than Professor Kelland of I We have only two further essions to chronicle, bringing that umber up to seven. In 1S3940 he ob- tins University prize for the best es- av m fhe Fiol1re of the Fla rth. and e