PREFACE. XI 



In 1847 Maxwell entered the University of Edinburgh where he remained for three 

 sessions. He attended the lectures of Kelland in Mathematics, Forbes in Natural Philosophy, 

 Gregory in Chemistry, Sir W. Hamilton in Mental Philosophy, Wilson (Christopher North) 

 in Moral Philosophy. The lectures of Sir W. Hamilton made a strong impression upon 

 him, in stimulating the love of speculation to which his mind was prone, but, as might 

 have been expected, it was the Professor of Natural Philosophy who obtained the chief share 

 of his devotion. The enthusiasm which so distinguished a man as Forbes naturally inspired 

 in young and ardent disciples, evoked a feeling of personal attachment, and the Professor, on 

 his part, took special interest in his pupil and gave to him the altogether unusual 

 privilege of working with his fine apparatus. 



What was the nature of this experimental work we may conjecture from a perusal of 

 his paper on Elastic Solids, written at that time, in which he describes some experiments 

 made with the view of verifying the deductions of his theory in its application to Optics. 

 Maxwell would seem to have been led to the study of this subject by the following cir- 

 cumstance. He was taken by his uncle John Cay to see William Nicol, the inventor of 

 the polarising prism which bears his name, and was shewn by Nicol the colours of unan- 

 nealed glass in the polariscope. This incited Maxwell to study the laws of polarised light 

 and to construct a rough polariscope in which the polariser and analyser were simple glass 

 reflectors. By means of this instrument he was able to obtain the colour bands of unannealed 

 glass. These he copied on paper in water colours and sent to Nicol. It is gratifying to 

 find that this spirited attempt at experimenting on the part of a mere boy was duly 

 appreciated by Nicol, who at once encouraged and delighted him by a present of a couple of 

 his prisms. 



The paper alluded to, viz. that entitled " On the Equilibrium of Elastic Solids," was 

 read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1850. It forms the third paper which Maxwell 

 addressed to that Society. The first in 1846 on Ovals has been already mentioned. The 

 second, under the title " The Theory of Rolling Curves," was presented by Kelland in 1849. 



It is obvious that a youth of nineteen years who had been capable of these efforts 

 must have been gifted with rare originality and with great power of sustained exertion. 

 But his singular self-concentration led him into habits of solitude and seclusion, the tendency 

 of which was to confirm his peculiarities of speech and of manner. He was shy and 

 reserved with strangers, and his utterances were often obscure both in substance and in 

 his manner of expressing himself, so many remote and unexpected allusions perpetually 

 obtruding themselves. Though really most sociable and even fond of society he was 

 essentially reticent and reserved. Mr Campbell thinks it is to be regretted that Maxwell 

 did not begin his Cambridge career earlier for the sake of the social intercourse which 

 he would have found it difficult to avoid there. It is a question, however, whether in 

 losing the opportunity of using Professor Forbes' apparatus he would not thereby have lost 

 what was perhaps the most valuable part of his early scientific training. 



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