2 Law 

NATURE 
121 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1870 

PRACTICAL PHYSICS 
HE Vicissitudes of Families of Words, and especially 
of scientific nomenclature, would require another 
Burke to write their changeful history. Take, forinstance, 
the word Pizlosophy,—how odd its present distorted mean- 
ing as compared with its literal sense, and how curious 
its alliance with such terms as Natural, Experimental, 
Mechanical, Chemical, and the like. Then, again, take 
\cience,—how strange its present opposition to Learuing, 
and how remarkable the adoption of the word History 
in conjunction with Natural! Most surprising of all, 
however, is perhaps the opposition set up between 
the words zazural and physical ; which has gone to such 
length that Prof. Huxley, in his recent Address to the 
British Association, could properly and intelligibly employ 
such a phrase as “those phenomena of nature which we 
call physical.” 
In French, the equivalent term for Natural Philosophy, 
“philosophie naturelle,” is still sometimes used, and in a 
sense, if not coincident with, yet kindred to, that of its Eng- 
lish representative ; in German, however, the similar term, 
“Natur- Philosophie,” has assumed a totally different mean- 
ing, and the word “Philosophie” by itself is, if possible, 
still farther from the English pxzZesophy, For the latter 
word, in its English meaning, there is no equivalent what- 
ever in German ; while the occurrence of such expressions 
in English as Philosophical Instruments, co-existent with 
Moral Philosophy, strikes the German ear and intellect 
as insular eccentricity, But the German terminology is 
also in this respect not free from oddities. Thus, while 
“Experimentalische Physik” and “ Theoretische Physik” | 
(or sometimes “ Mathematische Physik”) cover nearly, 
although not precisely, the ground occupied by Experi- 
mental Philosophy and Natural Philosophy (inthe orthodox 
sense) respectively ; the word “ physikalisch” has assumed 
a meaning opposed not to Moral but to Chemical, and a 
distinction has grown up between “physisch” and 
“ physikalisch,” corresponding to that between the English 
terms Natural and Physical, 
To the terms just mentioned, Prof. Kohlrausch has now 
added a new one, on the title-page of a recently published 
little work, entitled, “‘ Praktische Physik.”* He thereby 
designates a series of practical exercises designed 
originally for the students who frequent the so-called 
“ Physikalische Prakticum” in the University of Gottingen, 
for the purpose of being initiated into the use of physical 
instruments and the execution of. physical operations. 
A work of this nature has long been a desideratum ; 
although it has had a kind of forerunner in Prof. Frick’s 
well-known “Physikalische Technik,” ze. Technical 
(or Operative) Physics, and to be distinguished from 
“ Technische Physik,” which. means Physical Technology, 
or the application of Physics to manufactures and 
arts. Prof, Frick’s work, however, of which three editions 
have appeared, was intended rather as an instruction in 
the making of lecture experiments and in the handling of 
the required apparatus, replacing in so far the older works 
* Leitfaden der Praktischen Physik. Von F, Kohlrausch. (Leipzig, 
1870.) 
VOL. Ill. 
| instruments and new procedures. 

of Abbé Nollet* and Sigaud de la Fond ;+ while the present 
work of Prof. Kohlrausch is designed as an_ initiation 
| into original experimental measurements and researches. 
It has long appeared to the present writer as a kind of 
double drawback, inherent to current lectures as well as 
text-books on philosophy, that while, in all instances, 
more time or space is devoted to the description of 
apparatus and practical processes than is necessary or 
useful for the common student, they are yet, in this very 
respect, insufficient for the intending physicist. Taking 
in hand the best kind of treatises on Physics, whether of 
an entirely elementary or a more ambitious character, it 
will be found that a preposterous amount of space is taken 
up by drawings of instruments which the general student 
will never have to handle in his life, and by explanations 
of the manner in which certain procedures, measurements, 
and so forth have been taken, which it is practically 
equally useless for him to,know, and which as a means of 
educating the mind have.no. value, while they tend to make 
science repulsive. On the other hand, the most voluminous 
works cannot but be pronounced, in this very respect, as 
deficient, if the wants of the young physicist are taken 
into account. Special works, like those of Profs. Frick and 
Kohlrausch, go some way towards supplying this want ; 
and it is to be hoped also that, by multiplying or extend- 
ing their scope, they will prove not only of additional 
benefit to intending physicists, but also to ordinary 
students, by ridding the vulgar treatises, and eventually 
lecture courses, of much superfluous matter that acts as a 
serious incumbrance and impediment to the spread of 
veal physical science. 
Prof. Kohlrausch’s little book, of scarcely more than one 
hundred pages, reproduces, or very nearly so, the practical 
curriculum familiar to those who, in former time, attended 
at Géttingen the exercises which Profs. Weber and Listing 
superintended there for many years. The subjects selected 
range over a considerable field, and include a variety of pro- 
blems ; butthe work was not intendedtobeexhaustive. Com- 
mon weighing, specific weights and densities, thermometry, 
magnetism and galvanism, and optical instruments, furnish 
the chief topics on which exercises are indicated. Of 
course, the work is not designed to be read by itself, but 
to serve as a manual of instruction in the practical execu- 
tion of the several processes. Nor should it be thought 
that even practical work of the kind here indicated can 
serve as a training for future discoveries, any more than 
early verse exercises make any one a poet ; it completes, 
and familiarises with, the knowledge of discovered truths, 
but does not teach the discovery of truth. Original 
research of high value can he made as little on the 
pattern or with shreds of old, as genuine poetry can be 
composed in imitation and with patches borrowed from the 
ancients. Scientific investigation is a work of inspiration, 
and if directed towards a new aim, requires also novel 
Chemical operations 
proper possess, it is true, a considerable degree of uni- 
formity, and are capable of methodical treatment and 
| exposition ; but physical processes and manipulations are 
multiform, numerous, and difficult to classify. This is the 
reason why physical laboratories are as yet few and far 
between, and none of them so systematically organised as 
the chemical laboratories ; and that, while the workers in 
+ Cabinet de Physique. 
H 
* L’Art des Expéricnces. 
