CHAP. XII.] LITERARY LABOURS. 375 



and great uncle to the present Duke of Devonshire. 

 He published only two papers relating to electricity 

 " An Attempt to Explain some of the Phenomena of 

 Electricity by means of an Elastic Fluid" (Phil. Trans. 

 1771) and "An Account of some Attempts to Imitate 

 the Effects of the Torpedo by Electricity" (Phil. Trans. 

 1776). He had prepared, however, some twenty 

 packets of manuscript on Mathematical and Experi- 

 mental Electricity. These, after his death, were placed 

 by the then Earl of Burlington, now Duke of Devon- 

 shire, in the hands of the late Sir William Snow Harris, 

 who appears to have made an abstract of them, with 

 a commentary of great value on their contents. Of 

 this abstract and commentary Professor Maxwell was 

 unable to gain possession, but the Cavendish Manu- 

 scripts were placed in his hands by the Duke of 

 Devonshire in 1874. The manner in which the con- 

 tents of these manuscripts were investigated by 

 Professor Maxwell, and the series of experiments he 

 conducted in order to test Cavendish's results, will be 

 referred to in Part II. The final proof-sheets were 

 returned to press during the summer of 1879, and 

 the book was published in October of the same year. 

 The letters on this subject, which will be found below, 

 are types of very many that were written by Maxwell 

 respecting the Cavendish papers. 



The title of the book as published in October 1879 

 (one thick volume, 8vo) is An Account of the Elec- 

 trical Researches of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, 

 F.R.S., between 1771 and 1781. Few or none could 

 have performed that task as he has performed it. 



