230 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



"are perhaps the most valuable part of the work, and will convey a much 

 needed precision of ideas to many students of physics whose want of mathematical 

 training deters them from consulting the rather formidable writings of the original 

 workers in this field. The connection of Young's modulus of elasticity... with the 

 more fundamental elastic constants... is demonstrated in full.... In his treatment of 

 the compression of solids and liquids the author is able to make valuable contributions 

 derived from his own experimental work. 



"In the chapter on 'Gases' a long extract is given from Boyle's 'Defence of the 

 Doctrine Touching the Spring and Weight of Air,' in order to show how completely the 

 writer had established his case in 1662. As to this there can hardly be two opinions ; 

 and Professor Tait is fully justified in insisting upon his objections to ' Marriotte's Law.' 

 In Appendix IV a curious passage from Newton is discussed, in which the illustrious 

 author appears to speak of Marriotte sarcastically. It is proper that these matters 

 should be put right...." 



A paragraph from Balfour Stewart's review of Tail's Heat (Nature, 

 June 26, 1884, Vol. xxx) seems to be worthy of quotation as an interesting 

 description of Tail's melhod and style in all his books. 



" A treatise on heat by one so eminent, both as physicist and teacher of Physics, 

 needs no apology, and yet no doubt the author is right in stating that his work is 

 adapted to the lecture room rather than to the study or the laboratory. Freshness and 

 vigour of treatment are its characteristics, and the intelligent student who reads it 

 conscientiously will rise from it not merely with a knowledge of heat but of a good 

 many other things beside. 



"'If science,' says our author, 'were all reduced to a matter of certainty, it could be 

 embodied in one gigantic encyclopaedia, and too many of its parts would then have... 

 little more than the comparatively tranquil or rather languid interest which we feel in 

 looking up in a good gazetteer such places as Bangkok, Akhissar, or Tortuga. 1 Not 

 a few text-books of science are precisely of the nature of such a guide without its 

 completeness, and while they carry the student successfully to the end of his journey, 

 the way before him is made so utterly deficient in human interest that he reaches his 

 goal with a sigh of relief, and looks back upon his journey with anything but satisfaction 

 as a task accomplished rather than a holiday enjoyed. Now the presence of such a 

 human interest is the great charm of the work before us. It may be a fancy on our 

 part, but we cannot help likening our author to the well-known guide of Christiana and 

 her family. Both have been equally successful in the slaughter of those giants 

 whom the older generation of pilgrims had to find out for themselves and encounter 

 alone. But here the likeness ends, for it is quite certain that those who place themselves 

 under the scientific guidance of our author will not be treated like women or children, 

 but they will be taught to fight like men. And surely to combat error is an essential 

 part of the education of the true man of science, for, if not trained up as a good soldier 

 of the truth to defend the king's highway, he will be only too apt to turn freebooter and 

 gain his livelihood by preying on the possessions of others." 



These text-books, especially the Heat and Properties of Matter, were of 



