vi WORK AT MANCHESTER 151 



In the year 1870 Mr. Macmillan asked me to join 

 Huxley and Balfour Stewart as editors of a series of 

 science primers. Huxley wrote the introductory 

 volume, to which reference has been made. This 

 seemed to me more difficult than the subsequent ones, 

 and more fitted for reading after the special primers 

 had been studied than before. I wrote the Chemistry, 

 Balfour Stewart the Physics, Geikie the Geology, 

 Jevons the Logic, Hooker the Botany, &c. The 

 Chemistry primer appears to have met a want. It 

 was written from the purely objective point of view, 

 and was intended to serve as the first step in chemistry 

 for young boys in schools. The experiments described 

 were of an exceedingly simple nature, and of such a 

 character that they could be made by the boys them- 

 selves. The total number sold up to the present 

 year (1906) amounts to 355,000. Translations have 

 appeared in Icelandic, Polish, German, Italian, Japan- 

 ese (1874, published by the Educational Depart- 

 ment of the Japanese Government), in Bengali (Cal- 

 cutta, Thacker and Co., 1876), in Turkish (J. R. 

 Alexander, American Mission Training College, 

 Assiout, 1892), in Malayalam (Krishnan Pandalay of 

 the Presidency College, Madras, 1893), in Tamil 

 (T. P. Masilamany Pallai, Jaffna, 1903). 



The following characteristic letters, hitherto unpub- 

 lished, were written by Clerk Maxwell to my colleague 

 Balfour Stewart with reference to the primers : 



GLENLAER, DALBEATTIE, 



June 25, 1871. 

 DEAR STEWART, 



I was very glad to see your handwriting again. I hope you 

 are now quite strong again. I have written my name on the 

 sheet you sent me. I have endeavoured to do so in a con- 

 sciencious [sic] manner, but I have failed entirely, as the. 



