Feb. 5, 1880] 



NATURE 



321 



original notes, the "Electrical Researches of the Hon. 

 Henry Cavendish." This work has appeared only within 

 a month or two, and contains many singular and most 

 unexpected revelations as to the early progress of the 

 science of electricity. We hope shortly to give an account 

 of it. 



The works which we have mentioned would of them- 

 selves indicate extraordinary activity on the part of their 

 author, but they form only a fragment of what he has 

 published ; and when we add to this the further state- 

 ment, that Maxwell was always ready to assist those who 

 sought advice or instruction from him, and that he has 

 read over the proof-sheets of many works by his more 

 intimate friends (enriching them by notes, always valuable 

 and often of the quaintest character), we may well wonder 

 how he found time to do so much. 



Many of our readers must remember with pleasure the 

 occasional appearance in our columns of remarkably 

 pointed and epigrammatic verses, usually dealing with 



scientific subjects, and signed -J-? The lines on Cayley's 



portrait, where determinants, roots of — 1, space of n 

 dimensions, the 27 lines on a cubic surface, &c, fall 

 quite naturally into rhythmical English verse ; — the 

 admirable synopsis of Dr. Ball's Treatise on Screws ; — 

 the telegraphic love-letter with its strangely well-fitting 

 volts and ohms j and specially the " Lecture to a Lady 

 on Thomson's Reflecting Galvanometer," cannot fail to 

 be remembered. No living man has shown a greater 

 power of condensing the whole marrow of a question into 

 a few clear and compact sentences than Maxwell shows 

 in these verses. Always having a definite object, they 

 often veiled the keenest satire under an air of charming 

 innocence and naive admiration. Here are a couple of 

 stanzas from unpublished pieces of a similar kind : — first, 

 some ghastly thoughts by an excited evolutionist — 



To follow my thoughts as they go on, 

 Electrodes I'd place in'my brain ; 



Nay, I'd swallow a live entozoon, 

 New feelings of life to obtain 



next on the non-objectivity of Force — 



Both Action and Reaction now are gone ; 



Just ere they vanished 

 Stress joined their hands in peace, and made them one, 



Then they were banished. 



It is to be hoped that these scattered gems may be 

 collected and published, for they are of the very highest 

 interest, as the work during leisure hours of one of the 

 most piercing intellects of modern times. Every one of 

 them contains evidence of close and accurate thought, 

 and many are in the happiest form of epigram. 



I cannot adequately express in words the extent of the 

 loss which his early death has inflicted not merely on his 

 personal friends, on the University of Cambridge, on the 

 whole scientific world, but also, and most especially, on 

 the cause of common sense, of true science, and of 

 religion itself, in these days of much vain-babbling, 

 pseudo- science, and materialism. But men of his stamp 

 never live in vain ; and in one sense at least they cannot 



1 This nom deplume was suggested to him by me from the occurrence of 

 his initials in the wcll-kn iwn expression of the second Law of Thermo- 

 dynamics (for whose establishment on thoroughly valid grounds he did so 

 much) -f? = J. C. M. 



die. The spirit of Clerk-Maxwell still lives with us in his 

 imperishable writings, and will speak to the next genera- 

 tion by the lips of those who have caught inspiration from 

 his teachings and example. 



P. G. Tait 



CENTRAL AMERICAN BIOLOGY 

 Biologia Centrali- Americana ; or, Contributions to the 

 Knowledge of the Fauna and Flora of Mexico and 

 Central America. Edited by F. Duncane Godman 

 and Osbert Salvin. 4to. Zoology, Parts I and 2, 

 1879. Botany, Parts 1 and 2, 1879. (London, 1879, 

 published for the Editors by R. H. Porter, 10, Chandos 

 Street, Cavendish Square, W.) 



"SPWENTY years ago the Natural History of Central 

 -L America was almost unknown to us. With the 

 exception of a few stray papers in periodicals— most of 

 them of ancient date — the student had no means of 

 becoming acquainted with the many rich and rare forms 

 of life which are found in that part of the Neotropical 

 Region. Mexican and Central American specimens were 

 scarcely found in our museums, and were looked upon as 

 the greatest rarities. Within recent years all this has 

 been changed. Naturalistsand collectors have ransacked 

 every part of the Central-American Isthmus, from the 

 frontiers of the United States down to the Panama 

 Railway, and though, no doubt, much remains to be done, 

 the fauna and flora of this district are perhaps, on the 

 whole, better explored than those of any other part of th 

 region to which they belong. 



It is to one of the authors of the work now before us, 

 more than to any other person, we believe, that this great 

 change in our knowledge of the fauna and flora of 

 Central America is due. Mr. Osbert Salvin first became 

 interested in the plants and animals of Guatemala more 

 than twenty years ago, when he was induced by the 

 example of the late Mr. George Ure Skinner — a name 

 well known to collectors of orchids and humming-birds, 

 to visit this district and to explore the verdant forests of 

 Vera Paz. Since that period Mr. Salvin has made three 

 other journeys to Central America— accompanied on one 

 of these occasions by his friend and fellow-labourer, Mr. 

 Godman. Besides that, the joint collection of Central 

 American birds and butterflies amassed by these two 

 gentlemen, has been largely increased by the aid of 

 native collectors employed in various parts of the 

 Panamanic sub-region, while mammals and reptiles 

 from the same sources have been furnished to the 

 British Museum, and series of plants to the Royal 

 Herbarium at Kew. Numerous papers contributed by 

 Messrs. Salvin and Godman themselves, or by fellow- 

 workers upon materials furnished by them to the Ibis, 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, the Annals 

 of Natural History, and other periodicals, testify to the 

 success that has rewarded their efforts, not only as re- 

 gards the discovery of new forms, but also as to the better 

 knowledge of many which were previously but little 

 known. 



After twenty-two years' labour on the particulars our 

 authors have wisely determined that the time is come 

 when they may safely undertake a general work upon this 



