8S JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



"The importance of the task undertaken by Maxwell in 

 connection with Cavendish's papers will be understood from 

 the following extract from his introduction to them : 



"'It is somewhat ditticiilt to account for the fact tliat 

 though Cavendish hud prepared a complete description of his 

 experiments on the charges of bodies, and had even taken the 

 trouble to write out a fair copy, and though all this seems to 

 have been done before 1774, and he continued to make experi- 

 ments in electricity till 1781, and lived on till islo, he kept 

 his manuscript by him and never published it. 



44 'Cavendish cared more for investigation than for publica- 

 tion. He would undertake the most laborious researches in 

 order to clear up a dilliculty which no one but himself could 

 appreciate or was even aware of, and we cannot doubt that the 

 result of his enquiries, when successful, gave him a certain 

 degree of satisfaction. l.ut it did not excite in him that 

 desire to communicate the discovery to others, which in the 

 cose of ordinary men of science generally ensures the publica- 

 tion of their results. How completely these researches of 

 Cavendish remained unknown to other men of science is shown 

 by the external history of electricity.' 



44 It will probably be thought a matter of some difficulty 

 to place oneself in the position of a physicist of a century 

 ago, and to ascertain the exact bearing of his experiments. 

 Jiut Maxwell entered upon this undertaking with the ut- 

 most enthusiasm, and succeeded in identifying himself with 

 Cavendish's methods. He showed that Cavendish had really 

 anticipated several of the discoveries in electrical science 

 which have been made since his time. Cavendish was the 

 first to form the conception of and to measure Electrostatic 

 Capacity and Specific Inductive Capacity ; he also anticipated 

 Ohm's law." 



During the last years, of his life Mrs. Maxwell had 

 a serious and prolonged illness, and Maxwell's work 

 was much increased by his duties as sick nurse. On 

 one occasion he did not sleep in a bed fur three weeks, 



