It Is Indeed Peculiarly Appropriate That He Should Be
Followed In The Honourable Post Of President By One Who Has Done So Much
To Apply Mathematical Power In The Various Branches Of Physical Science
As Lord Rayleigh Has Done.
In the field of the discovery and
demonstration of natural phenomena Lord Rayleigh has, above all others
enriched physical science by the application of mathematical analysis;
and when I speak of mathematics you must not suppose mathematics to be
harsh and crabbed.
(Laughter.) The Association learned last year at
Southport what a glorious realm of beauty there was in pure mathematics.
I will not, however, be hard on those who insist that it is harsh and
crabbed. In reading some of the pages of the greatest investigators of
mathematics one is apt to become wearied, and I must confess that some
of the pages of Lord Rayleigh's work have taxed me most severely, but
the strain was well repaid. When we pass from the instrument which is
harsh and crabbed to those who do not give themselves the trouble to
learn it thoroughly, to the application of the instrument, see what a
splendid world of light, beauty and music is opened to us through such
investigations as those of Lord Rayleigh. His book on sound is the
greatest piece of mathematical investigation we know of applied to a
branch of physical science. The branches of music are mere developments
of mathematical formulas, and of every note and wave in music the
equation lies in the pages of Lord Rayleigh's book. (Laughter and
applause.) There are some who have no ear for music, but all who are
blessed with eyes can admire the beauties of nature, and among those one
which is seen in Canada frequently, in England often, in Scotland
rarely, is the blue sky. (Laughter) Lord Rayleigh's brilliant piece of
mathematical work on the dynamics of blue sky is a monument to the
application of mathematics to a subject of supreme difficulty, and on
the subject of refraction of light he has pointed out the way towards
finding all that has to be known, though he has ended his work by
admitting that the explanation of the fundamentals of the reflection and
refraction of light is still wanting and is a subject for the efforts of
the British Association for the Advancement of Science. But there is
still another subject, electricity and the electric light, and here
again Lord Rayleigh's work is fundamental, and one may hope from the
suggestions it contains that electricity may yet be put upon the level
of ordinary mechanics, and that the electrician may be able to weigh out
electric quantities as easily and readily as a merchant could a quantity
of tea or sugar. (Applause.) It remains for me only to fulfil the
commission which Professor Cayley has entrusted to me of expressing his
great regret that his engagements in England prevented his being with
us, and in his name to vacate the chair of president of the Association
and to ask Lord Rayleigh to take his place as President for 1884.
(Applause.)
[_Lord Rayleigh then delivered the Presidential Address, a copy of
which is appended to this work._]
Lord Rayleigh was loudly applauded at the conclusion of his address.
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