Fermentation and its bearings on the phenomena of disease : a discourse delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow, October 19th 1876 : under the auspices of the Glasgow Science Lectures Association / by John Tyndall.

  • John Tyndall
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fermentation and its bearings on the phenomena of disease : a discourse delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow, October 19th 1876 : under the auspices of the Glasgow Science Lectures Association / by John Tyndall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ]iai5 come to pass tliat my own studies as a scientific man liave been in great part pursued in that particular domain which had been enriched by the discoveries of Leslie; while the A'cry instruments used by DaA^y, and which I first saw figured in the pages of the journal just mentioned, are the identical and familiar instruments with which my lectvu-es in London are now illustrated. Another point brought more or less home to me in those early days was the injury inflicted on the learner by bad scientific exposition. It does more than the negative damage of withholding instruction. It daunts the young miiid, and saps the motive power of self-reliance. This I had expe- rienced; and the essays referred to had this special value for me, that they not only instructed me, but gave me faith in my own capacity to be instructed. Since those days I have written books myself, and in doing so have tried to remember, and to act on the remembrance, that the labour spent in logically ordering one's thoughts, and in saying what one has to say clearly and con-ectly, is labour well bestowed. The i^osition assumed at the outset has, I think, been now made good. Glasgow in my case cast its bread upon the Avaters, and lo ! it has returned after many days. Of the nutritive A'alue of the retiu-n it is not for me to sjieak ; for it may well have been soured by foi tuitous ferments, mixed by the world's tainted atmos])here with the first pure leaven derived from the pages of The Practical Mechanic's and I'huiineers Magazine. The figure of speech here employed will become more intelligible as we proceed ; for it is my desire and intention to spend the coming hour in speaking to you about ferments, not in a metaphorical, but in a real sense. Proper treatment is, I am persuaded, the only thing needed to make the sub- ject both 2)leasant and profitable to you. For our knowledge of fermentation, and of the ground it covers, has augiuentcd sui'prisingly of late, while every fresh accession to that know- ledge strengthens the liope tliat its final issues will be of in- calculable advantage to mankind. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the age in