hic cables, and Mr. Varley has
calculated tables to enable any electrician at a glance to infer from
two readings by this electrometer the insulating power of any
telegraphic cable.

Sir William Thomson is no specialist. Many people are accustomed to
associate his name with the Atlantic Cable, and with that alone. This,
however, is a great mistake, for he has made many important additions to
the science of magnetism, respecting which he published a number of
valuable papers between the years 1847 and 1851. He has also displayed
extraordinary acumen and intelligence in the investigation of the nature
of heat. Neither should it be forgotten that Sir William has speculated
a great deal on the ultimate constitution of matter--an inquiry which
has occupied the attention of all great physicists in modern times. Last
year he published in _Nature_ an article which, running from four
different lines of argument, seeks to establish proof of the absolute
magnitude of the atoms of matter. Of this argument Tyndall
says:--"William Thomson tries to place the ultimate particles of matter
between his compass points, and to apply to them a scale of
millimetres."

In the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Sir William has published an article
describing the instruments--chiefly invented by himself--which were used
in laying the Atlantic Cable. In the same contribution he describes the
expeditions undertaken in 1857 and 1858 for the purpose of laying the
Atlantic Cable, and the difficulties that had to be encountered in that
great enterprise. This he was eminently qualified to do from his
experience as acting electrician on board the _Agamemnon_ during the
progress of the work which resulted in the completion, in August, 1858,
of the Atlantic Cable, and the astonishment of the world at finding the
two opposite shores of the great ocean placed in instantaneous
communication with each other. For some time after the cable was laid he
remained at Valentia, endeavouring to bring his galvanometer to still
greater perfection. From the subsequent failure of the Atlantic Cable,
and until it was finally established as a successful "institution," Sir
William was busily employed in seeking to make more perfect and easy the
difficult science of submarine telegraphy; and in the expeditions of
1865 and 1866, which he accompanied, his counsel and assistance proved
of inestimable value.

From the Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir William received the Keith Prize