June aq, 1893] 



NA TURE 



195 



expression— difference of potentials. Sometimes he calls 

 it pressure, but he apologises for that, as he says it is 

 popular. Sometimes he calls it potential, which we 

 think is rather the expression to be apologised for, since 

 it is wrong, the potential of ^ai body having years ago i 

 been defined as being the difference between its potential 

 and that of the earth. Sometimes he calls it the volts, 

 but to speak of the volts of a dynamo being too 

 high is like telling your tailor that a coat has too 

 many inches when you mean it is too long. Volt- 

 age again appears to us. as bad as amperage, a 

 name which, by the bye, enters into the heading of 

 the last table in the book. If we talk of the amperage 

 instead of the value of the current in amperes, why not 

 speak of the microfaradage of a condenser instead 

 of its capacity in microfarads, or of the feetage of 

 a tall man as being 6i ? The names current, resistance, 

 capacity, &c., require a short analogous name for difference 

 of potential. Years ago Mr. Latimer Clark suggested 

 that the name potency was going a-begging. How 

 would this do as short for potential difference if the 

 industrial name, pressure, be objected to.' But, the 

 shortest abbreviation of all is the initials of the words 

 potential difference and our own, P. D. | 



CAPTAIN COOK'S JOURNAL. 



Captain Cook's yournal during his First Voyage round 

 the World, made in 1{.M, Bark " Endeai'our," 1768- 

 1781. A literal transcription of the original MSS., 

 with notes and introduction. Edited by Captain W. 

 J. L. Wharton, R.N., F.R.S., Hydrographer of the 

 Admiralty. Illustrated by maps and facsimiles. 

 (London : Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, 1893.) 



/'APTAIN WHARTON has rendered excellent service 

 ^-' to naval and colonial history, and to geographical 

 science, by editing a transcript of Captain Cook's journal 

 of the voyage of the Endeavour, which was undertaken 

 chiefly for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus 

 across the sun's disk, and which led to the founding of 

 the Australian Colonies by Great Britain As is well 

 known, the published accounts of that voyage are two, 

 and neither of them satisfactory. The only very com- 

 plete one is that compiled by Dr. Hawkesworth, from 

 the journals of Cook, and of Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) 

 Banks, who accompanied the great navigator as a volun- 

 teer, taking with him an eminent scientific man, Dr. 

 Solander, a pupil of Linnd, two artists, and servants, all 

 of his own providing. The other is a brief and defective 

 fournal kept by Mr. Parkinson, one of Banks's artists, who 

 died before the expedition reached England. It con- 

 tains rude illustrations of the scenery and peoples of the 

 Pacific Islands, which, if faithful reproductions of the 

 originals (which I doubt), would show that his artistic 

 powers were contemptible. Parkinson's narrative, which 

 was edited by his brother, was published surreptitiously. 

 It was suppressed by authority, and is, happily, not 

 frequently met with. 



Dr. Hawkesworth, on the other hand, has been severely 

 and justly censured for the method he adopted, namely, 

 NO. 1235, VOL. 48] 



the fusion of the journals of Cook and Banks,' and for attri- 

 buting to their authors inept reflections of his own, an oper- 

 ation for which, even had it been advisable, he had not 

 the ability, from his obvious want of appreciation of the 

 distinctive labours of the navigator and of the naturalist." 

 The result is a narrative in which the performances of 

 the actors are inextricably confounded, and the records 

 of Cook, and doubtless also of Banks, in some cases 

 garbled. With regard to the reflections, they are com- 

 paratively of small account, and there is little difficulty 

 in recognising and rejecting them ; they were in keep- 

 ing with much of the literary style of the age, and Dr. 

 Hawkesworth assures the reader that his whole work 

 was before publication submitted to and approved by the 

 members of the expedition then in England. 



Unsatisfactory as Hawkesworth's account of the voyage 

 is, it has the inestimable advantage of in some measure 

 filling what would otherwise be a lamentable void in the 

 annals of science, for strange as it must appear, not even 

 a meagre life of Banks has ever been written, and but 

 for Hawkesworth's work and " Cook's Journal," there is no 

 published account of his indefatigable labours during the 

 expedition. Banks, no doubt aided by Solander, kept a 

 full journal of many events that happened during the 

 voyage, which the commander had not the opportunity 

 of witnessing or recording ; and the admirable observa- 

 tions on the physical features, populations, languages, 

 economic products, manufactures, zoology, and botany, 

 of the islands, and coasts visited, are presumably for the 

 most part his. Cook, indeed, especially mentions the 

 signal services which Banks rendered, especially in the 

 management of the natives, in acquiring their languages, 

 in provisioning the ships, and in collecting information 

 and objects of interest ; and it needs no reading between 

 the lines of his concise narrative to prove his apprecia- 

 tion of his companion, who he invariably took with him 

 wherever he landed. 



The materials for the reproduction of the journal of 

 which Captain Wharton has availed himself with great 

 judgment, area complete copy of " Cook's Journal" in 

 the possession of the Admiralty ; another belonging to 

 the Queen, that was transmitted to England from 

 Batavia, thus containing everything of importance ; and 

 thirdly, a duplicate of this last, which having been appro- 

 priated by the Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Philip 

 Stephens, passed to his descendants, and from them by 

 sale first to Mr. Cosens in 1868, and in 1890 to Mr. John 

 Corner. The latter gentleman was arranging for the 

 publication of his copy, with the view of devoting the 

 proceeds to the restoration of Hinderwell Church, the 

 parish church of Staithes, whence Cook ran away to 

 se.1, when he suddenly died, and the carrying out of his 

 project devolved upon his son, who completed the 

 arrangements which led to Captain Wharton's under- 



1 Scmelimes alluded to as the journals of Mr. Banks and of Dr. Solander, 

 though there is no reason to suppose that the latter individual kept any 

 journal independently of that of Barks, of^whom he was probably the 

 amanuensis, as Mr. Orton(the ship's clerk) was of Cook. 



2 A conspicuous example of this is Hawkesworth's omission of thepassage 

 in Cook's journal (Whaiton, p. 322) dwelling on the unaccountable absence 

 of the corba-nut (except of its shells cast upon the beach) on the east coast 

 of Australia, which is a most remarkable feature ip the geographical distri- 

 bution of that plant. A few living specimens exist at Rockhampton and 

 Keppel Bay, but in an unhealthy state, producing no fruit, and probably 

 introduced by Europeans. 



