1865.] REVIEW — YOUMANS OX FORCE. 153 



original contribution to this subject will be found in a thesis by 

 Dr. Maurice Bucke on the Correlation of Physical and Vital Forces, 

 Montreal, 1862. 



Our object at present, however, in noticing Dr. Youmans's 

 book is to bring before our readers his sketch of the life and 

 scientific labors of Count Piumford, to whom, as he has proved, 

 belongs the merit of having, long before any other one, shown that 

 heat was a mode of motion, demonstrating its immateriality and 

 the conversion of its mechanical force into heat. It is, says Dr. 

 Youmans, with a just feeling of national pride, that we recall that 

 " the two men who first demonstrated the two capital propositions of 

 pure science, that lightning is but a manifestation of electricity, 

 and heat but a mode of motion, were not only Americans by birth 

 and education, but men eminently representative of the peculiari- 

 ties of American character — Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin 

 Thompson, afterwards known as Count Bumford." 



" Benjamin Thompson was born at Woburn, Mass., in 1753. 

 He received the rudiments of a common school education ; became 

 a merchant's apprentice at twelve, and subsequently taught school* 

 Having a strong taste for mechanical and chemical studies, he cul- 

 tivated them assiduously during his leisure time. At seventeen 

 he took charge of an academy in the village of Rumford (now 

 Concord), N. H., and in 1772 married a wealthy widow, by whom 

 he had one daughter. At the outbreak of revolutionary hostilities 

 he applied for a commission in the American service, was charged 

 with toryism, left the country in disgust, and went to England. 

 His talents were there appreciated, and he took a responsible posi- 

 tion under the government, which he held for some years. 



" After receiving the honor of knighthood, he left England and 

 entered the service of the elector of Bavaria. He settled in 

 Munich in 178 4, and was appointed aide-de-camp and chamberlain 

 to the Prince. The labors which he now undertook were of the 

 most extensive and laborious character, and could never have been 

 accomplished but for the rigorous habits of order which he carried 

 into all his pursuits. He reorganized the entire military estab- 

 lishment of Bavaria, introduced not only a simple code of tactics, 

 and a new system of order, discipline, and economy among the 

 troops, and industrial schools for the soldiers' children, but greatly 

 improved the construction and modes of manufacture of arms and 

 ordnance. He suppressed the system of beggary, which had grown 

 into a recognized profession in Bavaria, and become an enormous 



