hemselves to believe that this comparatively young man--he was
scarcely forty at the time--could have made a discovery that went far
beyond their knowledge. His paper on the subject was discussed rather
coldly and without any recognition of the far-reaching significance of
the work that he had accomplished. A distinguished representative of
the University of Berlin criticised it severely. As the law was
advanced on mathematical as well as experimental grounds, the opinion
of the university authorities at Berlin was looked upon as extremely
important, since at the time mathematics was the _forte_ there. The
minister of education took his cue from the authorities at Berlin. Ohm
and his friends urged his appointment to a university position. This
was not only refused, but was rejected in such terms that Ohm offered
his resignation as a teacher. His resignation was accepted with
regrets by the ministry, but with a distinct expression that Ohm must
not expect other than a gymnasium position. The consequence of this
misunderstanding was that other teaching institutions in Germany would
not give him a place on their staff, because of the danger of
misunderstanding with the ministry of education. Ohm had to accept a
private tutorship in mathematics in Berlin and a few hours of teaching
in a military school, for which he was paid three hundred thalers a
year. This would be something over $200 in our money, though money was
worth, in buying power, probably two or three times as much as it is
at the present time. Six precious years of Ohm's life, at the very
acme of his powers as an investigator, were thus spent away from the
larger educational institutions and their opportunities for research,
because men would not accept the great discovery that he had made, and
could not be brought to understand that a genius might come along to
revolutionize all their thinking, though he did his work from an
obscure position, and practically attracted no attention {409} before
he found this wonderful clue to the maze of electrical science, which
meant so much for the elucidation of difficulties hitherto insoluble.

Always men find some excuse other than their own unwillingness to
confess that they were wrong. It is to this that they object, and not
the acceptance of the new truth. In the course of writing the
biographies of the Makers of Modern Medicine, published last year, and
the Makers of Electricity, which is now preparing for the press, o