4 6 



NATURE 



[Nov. 13, 1879 



was followed in December, 1855, and February, 1856, by 

 papers on \" Faraday's Lines of Force." In 1857 he ob- 

 tained the Adams Prize, in the University of Cambridge, 

 for his paper on the " Motions of Saturnian Rings." His 

 paper on the "Theory of Compound Colours, and the 

 Relations of the Colours of the Spectrum," which was chiefly 

 instrumental in gaining the Rumford Medal, was read 

 before the Royal Society on March 22, i860. His 

 " Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field," in- 

 cluding a brief sketch of the Electromagnetic Theory 

 of Light, was read before the Royal Society on December 

 8, 1864. The results of Clerk Maxwell's experiments 

 on " The Viscosity and Internal Friction of Air and other 

 Gases," were made known to the Royal Society in the 

 Bakerian Lecture read, February 8, 1866. Then follow his 

 Royal Society papers " On the Dynamical Theory of Gases," 

 in May, 1866, and "On a Method of Making a direct 

 Comparison of Electrostatic with Electromagnetic Force, 

 with a Note on the Electromagnetic Theory of Light," 

 in June, 1868. Lately he took great interest in Graphical 

 Statics, and contributed a long paper "On Reciprocal 

 Figures, Frames and Diagrams of Forces," to the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, in December, 1869. Among his 

 most recent papers are a paper on " Stresses in Rarefied 

 Gases arising from Inequalities of Temperature," read 

 before the Royal Society on April 11, 1S78, and a paper 

 on "Boltzmann's Theorem," read before the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society. It would take too long to enume- 

 rate his articles and reviews published in the Pliilosopliical 

 Magazine and in Nature. His contributions to the ninth 

 edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica" include the 

 articles "Atom," "Attraction," "Capillary Action," 

 " Constitution of Bodies," " Diagrams," " Diffusion," 

 "Ether," "Faraday," and "Harmonic Analysis." "Har- 

 monic Analysis" was the last article he wrote. 



One of the most remarkable of his works is the re- 

 cently-published volume of the Electrical Researches of 

 the Hon. Henry Cavendish, of which Prof. Maxwell is the 

 editor. The MSS. are in the possession of the Duke of 

 Devonshire, and are now at Chatsworth. They were 

 entrusted by him to Prof. Maxwell shortly after the com- 

 pletion of the Cavendish Laboratory. Some of Cavendish's 

 experiments were repeated by Prof. Maxwell with all the 

 appliances of modern apparatus, and others were carried 

 out by his pupils. 



Most of the apparatus which he employed in his re- 

 searches has been presented by Prof. Clerk Maxwell 

 to the Cavendish Laboratory, together with many of his 

 books. He always regarded the laboratory with great 

 affection, and the University owes much to his liberality. 

 One of the most interesting pieces of his handy-work 

 now preserved in the laboratory is a plaster model of 

 Prof. Willard Gibbs's thermodynamic surface, de- 

 scribed in the fourth edition of " Maxwell's Theory of 

 Heat." All the lines on the surface are drawn by his own 

 hand, many of them being mapped out by placing the 

 surface obliquely in the sunshine and marking the bound- 

 ary between light and shade. Another valuable model 

 constructed while Prof. Maxwell was at Cambridge is 

 his dynamical illustration of the action of an induction 

 coil in which two wheels represent by their rotation the 

 primary and secondary currents respectively, the wheels 

 being connected through a differential gearing to which a 

 body of great moment of inertia is attached, the rotation 

 of which represents the magnetism of the coil. A fric- 

 tion break represents resistance, and a spring may be 

 attached to the secondary wheel to represent the capacity 

 of a condenser placed in the secondary circuit. Among 

 other valuable pieces of apparatus presented by Prof. 

 Maxwell to the laboratory are the receiver, plates, and 

 inertia bar employed in his researches on the viscosity 

 of air and other gases, his colour-top,, portions of the 

 "colour-box," including the variable slits, with the wedge 

 or measuring their width, a polariser and analyser made 



of thin films of stretched gutta percha, the mechanism 

 for illustrating the motion of Saturnian rings, a real image 

 stereoscope, and the dynamical top, whose moments of 

 inertia about three axes, which are at right angles to each 

 other, can be so varied by means of screws that the axis 

 of rotation can be made that of greatest or of least 

 moment of inertia. When the axis of rotation is the 

 mean axis, the motion of the top is, of course, unstable. 

 When Prof. Maxwell came to Cambridge in 1857 to 

 take his M.A. degree, he brought this top with him from 

 Aberdeen. In the evening he showed it to a party of 

 friends in college, who left the top spinning in his room. 

 Next morning he espied one of these friends coming across 

 the court, so jumping out of bed, he started the top anew, 

 and retired between the sheets. The reader can well 

 supply the rest of the story for himself. It is only neces- 

 sary to add that the plot was completely successful. 



Prof. Clerk Maxwell's papers will be placed in the 

 hands of Prof. Stokes, who is one of his executors, in 

 order that they may be published or catalogued and pre- 

 served in such a way as to be readily available to those 

 wishing to consult them. 



The death of James Clerk Maxwell is a loss to his Uni- 

 versity and to the world too great for words. He rests 

 from his labours, but his works will follow him. 



Wm. Garnett 



NOTES 



The following is the list of officers to be proposed at the 

 anniversary meeting of the Royal Society on December I : — 

 President— William Spottiswoode, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D 

 Treasurer— John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D., V.P.S.A. Secre- 

 taries—Prof. George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., 

 Prof. Thomas Henry Huxley, LL.D. Foreign Secretary — 

 Prof. Alexander William Williamson, Ph.D. Other Members 

 of the Council — George Busk, V.P.L.S., Prof. Arthur Cayley, 

 LL.D., Major-General Henry Clerk, R.A., Edwin Dunkin, 

 F.R.A.S., Augustus G. Vernon Harcourt, F.C.S., Sir Joseph 

 Dalton Hooker, C.B., K.C.S.I., D.C.L., John Whitaker 

 Hulke, F.R.C.S., Lieut. General Sir Henry Lefroy, C.B., 

 William Newmarch, Inst. Fr. Corr., Prof. Alfred Newton, 

 M.A., V.P.Z.S., Prof. William Odling, M.B., V.P.C.S., Sir 

 James Paget, Bart., D.C.L., William Henry Perkin, Sec. C.S., 

 Charles William Siemens, D.C.L., John Simon, C.B., D.C.L., 

 Prof. John Tyndall, D.C.L., LL.D. 



A MEMORIAL strongly recommendi ng Lord Rayleigh's election 

 (if he can be induced to become a candidate), to the Professorship 

 of Experimental Physics at Cambridge, is in circulation. Lord 

 Rayleigh's merits for such an appointment are perfectly well 

 known to our readers. We understand that his election will 

 be supported by many of the professoriate. 



We are pleased to hear that Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson is 

 now much better, and able to conduct the correspondence in 

 connection with the Challenger work. 



The death is announced, at Florence, of Miss Martha Charters 

 Somerville, the only surviving daughter of Mrs. Mary Somer- 

 ville, in her sixty-sixth year. Miss Somerville enjoyed a pension 

 of 100/. a year, in recognition of the services rendered to science 

 by her mother. 



The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures will be given by 

 Prof. Tyndall. The subjects will be Water and Air. 



On Tuesday night Dr. W. W. Hunter, the Indian Director- 

 General of Statistics, delivered a lecture at the Philosophical 

 Institution of Edinburgh, on the subject of " What the English 

 had done for India." Contrasting the present English condition 

 of the country [with what it has become, since we have had 

 to do with it. Dr. Hnnter showed that the improvements in the 

 land, and in the lot of the people had been immense. We need. 



