OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 277 



ular Vortices and the Mechanical Action of Heat, the Transformation 

 of Energy, the Science of Energetics, and on various subjects connected 

 with Naval Architecture. 



On assuming liis professorship, lie gave an introductory lecture on 

 the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics ; a discourse that 

 deserves a wide circulation, as a forcible refutation of the fallacy still 

 too prevalent of an incompatibility between theory and practice. 



But the most valuable of Professor Rankine's works are his four 

 Manuals on Applied Mechanics, Civil Engineering, tlie Steam Engine 

 and other Prime Movers, and Machinery and Mill Work. These 

 treatises constitute an imperishable monument to his memory. They 

 are widely known in this country as well as abroad, and are used as 

 text-books in many of our scientific schools. Their merits are well 

 summed up in a recent notice of Professor Rankine by an eminent 

 engineer, who says : " Rankine's text-books on engineering subjects 

 are by far the most satisfactory that have been published in any 

 country. At the time of their publication they have always been in 

 advance of the professional knowledge of the day, but they possess 

 much greater merits than that of mere novelty. Rankine was pecul- 

 iarly happy in discriminating between those branches of engineering 

 knowledge which grow from daily experience and those which depend 

 on unchangeable scientific principles. In his books he dealt almost 

 exclusively with the latter, which may, and certainly will, be greatly 

 enlarged, but, so far as they have been established, can never change. 

 Hence his books may become the permanent principle of engineering, 

 — a mine which smaller men may work for many years, rendering his 

 knowledge available by giving it a popular setting of their own. By 

 the bulk of the engineering profession, the books are considered hard 

 reading ; but, as engineering education improves, they will more and 

 more be recognized as both wonderfully complete and essentially 

 simple. Rankine, by his education as a practical engineer, was emi- 

 nently qualified to recognize the problems of which the solution is 

 required in practice ; but the large scope of his mind would not allow 

 him to be content with giving merely the solution of those particular 

 cases which most frequently occur in engineering as we now know it. 

 His method is invariably to state the problem in its most general form, 

 to find the general solution, and then to apply this solution to special 

 cases. This method does not render the books easy reading for stu- 

 dents, nor does it give the most convenient book of reference for the 

 practical man ; but it has produced writings, the value of which is per- 

 manent instead of being ephemeral." 



