"Soon after I became settled here, I spent some of my leisure time in reading Emerson's 'Optics,' a work I bought at an old bookstall. I was not very successful with it, owing to my deficient mathematical knowledge. On the May Science Examinations of 1881 taking place at Newcastle-on-Tyne, applied for permission to sit, and obtained four tickets for the following subjects:--Mathematics, Electricity and Magnetism, Acoustics, Light and Heat, and Physiography. During the preceding month I had read up the first three subjects, but, being pressed for time, I gave up the idea of taking physiography. However, on the last night of the examinations, I had some conversation with one of the students as to the subjects required for physiography. He said, 'You want a little knowledge of everything in a scientific way, and nothing much of anything.' I determined to try, for 'nothing much of anything' suited me exactly. I rose early next morning, and as soon as the shops were open I went and bought a book on the subject, 'Outlines of Physiography,' by W. Lawson, F.R.G.S. I read it all day, and at night sat for the examination. The results of my examinations were, failure in mathematics, but second class advanced grade certificates in all the others. I do not attach any credit to passing in physiography, but merely relate the circumstance as curiously showing what can be done by a good 'cram.' "The failure in mathematics caused me to take the subject 'by the horns,' to see what I could do with it. I began by going over quadratic equations, and I gradually solved the whole of those given in Todhunter's larger 'Algebra.' Then I re-read the progressions, permutations, combinations; the binomial theorem, with indices and surds; the logarithmic theorem and series, converging and diverging. I got Todhunter's larger 'Plane Trigonometry,' and read it, with the theorems contained in it; then his 'Spherical Trigonometry;' his 'Analytical Geometry, of Two Dimensions,' and 'Conics.' I next obtained De Morgan's 'Differential and Integral Calculus,' then Woolhouse's, and lastly, Todhunter's. I found this department of mathematics difficult and perplexing to the last degree; but I mastered it sufficiently to turn it to some account. This last mathematical course represents eighteen months of hard work, and I often sat up the whole night through. One result of the application was a permanent injury to my sight.