Notices respecting New Books. 141 



The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell. Edited by W. 1). 

 Niven, M.A., E.R.S. Two Vols., 4to : Cambridge, at the 

 University Press. 



At length this long-looked-for memorial work has appeared, in two 

 substantial volumes, and will be welcomed by the many students 

 of Maxwell, both in England and on the Continent, to whom the 

 earlier papers were rather inaccessible. 



There are some odd omissions ; for instance, there is nothing 

 about the determination of the B.A. standard of resistance. It 

 may be regretted also, perhaps, that a few more of his less labo- 

 rious contributions to science are not included in the collection, for 

 all that he threw off was brilliant and suggestive, and one had 

 hoped for something like a complete series of notes of his Lectures 

 at Cambridge, but we must be thankful for such of the lighter pro- 

 ductions as it has been decided to include. It is a great pity when 

 in these collected works nothing but the solid memoirs are inserted. 

 These of course must appear, but they are necessarily more or less 

 known, and will naturally be hunted up by students of the par- 

 ticular branch; but the multifarious contributions to periodical 

 literature of a great man are usually of far more than ephemeral 

 interest, and though not of course ranking along with his serious 

 productions, yet are very helpful and suggestive, aud are extremely 

 likely to get overlooked and forgotten. 



A real memorial volume should, we think, include almost all 

 that a man has thought it worth while to print, unless of obviously 

 only temporary interest ; but it is difficult to say what will not be 

 interesting to posterity. Even a selection from correspondence 

 might be judiciously included. How grateful we are now for mere 

 scraps of private letters from Newton. Look at the little scrap 

 thrown off to his friend Dr. Law, accidentally preserved, and 

 printed in « Nature,' May 12, 1881 : to the eye of reverence and 

 affection a personal glimpse like that is full of interest. It is 

 hard for contemporaries to realize the view that posterity will take 

 of the relative moment of the works of a man of genius. Some- 

 times a few brilliant flashes, now not quite intelligible, will, in 

 the light of subsequently acquired knowledge, be even more highly 

 appreciated than solid work that has become a semi-commonplace 

 of science. It is for posterity that memorial volumes are largely 

 intended, and from its point of view should they be regarded by 

 its Editor. 



A very interesting biographical preface by the Editor opens the 

 first^ volume, which contains the boyish paper on Ovals, some 

 Optics, the theory of Colour Perception, the paper on Lines of 

 Force, and the great memoirs on Saturn's Biugs and the Dyna- 

 mical Theory of the Electromagnetic Eield. 



The second volume contains the papers on Viscosity and general 

 Kinetic Theory of Gases, the determination of " v,'' the work on 

 Graphical Statics, other matter more or less incorporated in the 



Phil Mag. S. 5. Vol. 31. No. 189. Feb. 1891. M 



