TO PROFESSOR W. G. ADAMS.

                                                                        Natural Science Tripos,
                                                                           3d December 1873.

     I got Professor Guthrie's circular some time ago. I do not approve of the plan of a physical society considered as    an instrument for the improvement of natural knowledge. If it is to publish papers on physical subjects which    would not find their place in the transactions of existing societies, or in scientific journals, I think the progress   towards dissolution will be very rapid. But if there is sufficient liveliness and leisure among persons interested in    experiments to maintain a series of stated meetings to show experiments, and talk about them as some of the Ray Club do here, then I wish them all joy; only the manners and customs of London, and the distances at which   people live from any convenient centre, are very much against the vitality of such sociability.

     To make the meeting a dinner supplies that solid ground to which the formers of societies must trust if they would   build for aye. A dinner has the advantage over mere scientific communications, that it can always be had when   certain conditions are satisfied, and that no one can doubt its existence. On the other hand, it completely excludes   any scientific matter which cannot be expressed in the form of conversation with your two chance neighbours, or   else by a formal speech on your legs; and during its whole continuance it reduces the Society to the form of
     a closed curve, the elements of which are incapable of changing their relative position.

     For the evolution of science by societies the main requisite is the perfect freedom of communication between each   member and any one of the others who may act as a reagent.

     The gaseous condition is exemplified in the soiree, where the members rush about confusedly, and the only   communication is during a collision, which in some instances may be prolonged by button-holing.

     The opposite condition, the crystalline, is shown in the lecture, where the members sit in rows, while science flows    in an uninterrupted stream from a source which we take as the origin. This is radiation of science.

     Conduction takes place along the series of members seated round a dinner table, and fixed there for several hours,   with flowers in the middle to prevent any cross currents.

     The condition most favourable to life is an intermediate plastic or colloïdal condition, where the order of business  is
(1) Greetings and confused talk; 
(2) A short communication from one who has something to say and to show;
(3) Remarks on the communication addressed to the Chair, introducing matters irrelevant to the communication   but interesting to the members;
(4) This lets each member see who is interested in his special hobby, and who is  likely to help him; and leads to
(5) Confused conversation and examination of objects on the table.

     I have not indicated how this programme is to be combined with eating. It is more easily carried out in a small   town than in London, and more easily in Faraday's young days (see his life by B. Jones) than now. It might answer    in some London district where there happen to be several clubbable senior men who could attract the juniors from   a distance.