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656, but threw important light on the conditions which must be fulfilled in order to secure complete sterility. But original research is not the only way in which a man can advance the cause of science. All-important though it is, it nevertheless often happens that an original investigation is too abstruse to be followed by more than a few experts; nor is it by any means necessarily the case that an eminent investigator is equally successful in expounding to others, especially to a mixed audience, the results at which he himself or other investigators may have arrived. The general diffusion of science depends largely on the clearness with which its leading principles and results are expounded, whether by lectures or by treatises, in which, while they are scientifically sound, popularity of style and general readableness are not sacrificed to the dry exactness of scientific detail. Most of us have had opportunities, whether at the Royal Institution, with which the name of Tyndall has so long been connected, or elsewhere, of being impressed with the singularly lucid style and graphic expression with which he expounded to his audience the salient points of the scientific subject which he brought before them. Nor was it only in clearness of verbal exposition that he excelled; the manipulative skill with which his original investigations were carried on served him in good stead in his more popular expositions; and by the aid of that "domestic sun," which even the murky atmosphere of a London winter could not obscure, he was enabled in very many cases to exhibit to the audience the actual results of experiments which had first been carried out in the quiet of the laboratory. Nor is it our own countrymen alone who have had the benefit of Dr. Tyndall's lucidity of exposition. Our friends across the ocean have flocked to hear and have appreciated the lectures which ho has there delivered as a free gift to transatlantic science. But oral lectures, after all—the lectures at least of one individual—can only reach a fraction of the community; nor do they admit of that pause for thought which the learner requires in endeavoring to make himself master of a new subject. But the same qualities of mind which enable a man to be a clear and interesting lecturer fit him also to be the author of eminently readable books; and for the general diffusion of science which is taking place we owe much to the writings of Dr. Tyndall.


 * When the project of a dinner was first mentioned to me by a very old and steadfast friend of mine, who, to my regret and his, is not here to-night, had any dream, or vision, of the assembly now before me risen on my mind's eye, I should have declined the risk of standing in my present position; for I should have doubted, as I still continue to doubt, my ability to rise to the level of the occasion. Gratitude, however, is possible to all men; and I would offer you, sir, my grateful thanks for