Dbceiubee 27, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



873 



did much to make that work what Max- 

 well intended it to be, that is, an interpre- 

 tation of Faraday. "If by anything I have 

 written," saj's Maxwell, "I may assist any 

 student in understanding Faraday's modes 

 of thought and expression, I shall regard it 

 as the accomplishment of one of my princi- 

 pal aims — to communicate to others the 

 same delight which I have fou^nd myself in 

 reading Faraday's Eesearches." It is in this 

 sense only that the Hertzian experiments 

 mark a completion of what Maxwell had 

 apparently left undone. They enable us to 

 understand more clearly Faraday's modes 

 of thought and expression, because they 

 supplied the force and the vigor of living 

 experiment where many a physicist saw 

 formerly nothing but the inhospitable 

 realms of what, to many of us, appear as 

 dead symbols only of Maxwell's intricate 

 mathematical analysis ; and, above all, 

 they revealed to us the beautiful simplicity 

 of the loftiest among the many lofty con- 

 ceptions of Maxwell's electro-magnetic 

 theory, that is the 'Electro-magnetic 

 Theory of Light.' 



" The connection between light, elec- 

 tricity, and magnetism," says Hertz, " was 

 the favorite subject of his (Faraday's) re- 

 search." The same statement applies to 

 Maxwell. The Electro-magnetic Theory of 

 Light is the oroivning effort of his immortal 

 work. The fundamental idea in Maxwell's 

 many-sided view of the phenomena of elec- 

 tricity and magnetism is undoubtedly the 

 idea that the same fundamental laws gov- 

 ern the phenomena of electricity, mag- 

 netism and light. To formulate these laws 

 was the ultimate problem of his great work, 

 and when he found its solution it mattered 

 little whether he could or could not devise 

 a logically clear and consecutive course of 

 analysis which would lead others to the 

 same result. Hence the complaint on the 

 part of mathematical physicists,* trained in 



*Tlie Frencli school of the mathematical physicists 



the school of Euclid, Newton and Am- 

 pere, because they miss in Maxwell 

 that perspicuity and logical sequency 

 which we all admire so much in the 

 writings of the mathematical school of 

 the last century. The fundamental 

 laws of Maxwell's electro-magnetic the- 

 ory, capable, as they are, of explaining not 

 only the phenomena of electricity and mag- 

 netism, but also the phenomena of light — 

 these laws are the building which Maxwell 

 proposed to raise on the foundation of 

 Faraday's discoveries and conceptions, the 

 various mechanical hypotheses, on the other 

 hand, concei-ning the physical properties of 

 the medium which enabled him to carry 

 out his plan in accordance with a predeter- 

 mined design — these hypotheses are mere 

 scaffolding, which can and must now be 

 taken away if it obstructs our view of the 

 finished building. 



It is well to quote here several passages 

 from an essay iu which Hertz discussed 

 this matter iu his characteristically pro- 

 found way.* "And now, to be more pre- 

 cise, what is it that we call the Faraday- 

 Maxwell theory?" * * * * "Many a man 

 has thrown himself with zeal into the study 

 of Maxwell's work, and even when he has 

 not stumbled upon unwonted mathematical 

 difficulties has nevertheless been compelled 

 to abandon the hope of forming for himself 

 an altogether consistent concej)tion of Max- 

 well's ideas. I have fared no better my- 

 self. ]N"otwithstanding the greatest admira- 

 tion for Maxwell's mathematical concep- 

 tions, I have not always felt quite certain 

 of having grasped the physical significance 

 of his statements." * * * * " To the ques- 

 tion, 'what is Maxwell's theory?' I know 

 of no shorter or more definite answer than the 



seems to be especially displeased. One has only to 

 refer to the ivritings of Poincare, Bertrand, Duhem, 

 etc. , to prove the correctness of this statement. 



* Electric Waves, translation by D. E. Jones, p. 20, 

 B. Theoretical. 



