ces of
that extraordinary man whom the original charter describes as "our
well-beloved Benjamin, Count of Rumford?" Well, you will find a portrait
of him, it is true, if you search far enough, hung high above a doorway
in a room with other portraits. But one finds it hard to escape the
feeling that there has been just a trifling miscarriage of justice in
the disposal. Doubtless there was no such intention, but the truth seems
to be that the glamour of the newer fame of Faraday has dazzled a little
the eyes of the rulers of the institution of the present generation.
But that, after all, is a small matter about which to quibble. There is
glory enough for all in the Royal Institution, and the disposal of busts
and portraits is unworthy to be mentioned in connection with the lasting
fame of the great men who are here in question. It would matter little
if there were no portrait at all of Rumford here, for all the world
knows that the Royal Institution itself is in effect his monument. His
name will always be linked in scientific annals with the names of Young,
Davy, Faraday, and Tyndall. And it is worthy such association, for
neither in native genius nor in realized accomplishments was Rumford
inferior to these successors.

FROM LIQUID CHLORINE TO LIQUID HYDROGEN

Nor is it merely by mutual association with the history of the Royal
Institution that these great names are linked. There was a curious
and even more lasting bond between them in the character of their
scientific discoveries. They were all pioneers in the study of those
manifestations of molecular activity which we now, following Young
himself, term energy. Thus Rumford, Davy, and Young stood almost alone
among the prominent scientists of the world at the beginning of the
century in upholding the idea that heat is not a material substance--a
chemical element--but merely a manifestation of the activities of
particles of matter. Rumford's papers on this thesis, communicated to
the Royal Society, were almost the first widely heralded claims for this
then novel idea. Then Davy came forward in support of Rumford, with
his famous experiment of melting ice by friction. It was perhaps
this intellectual affinity that led Rumford to select Davy for
the professorship at the Royal Institution, and thus in a sense to
predetermine the character of the scientific work that should be
accomplished there--the impulse which Davy himself received from
Rum-ford being passed on to