﻿146 Notices respecting New Boohs. 



The second statement is that Professor Quincke's results 

 were different from mine, that he observed sometimes an 

 increase, sometimes a diminution, of the velocity of light 

 whose plane of polarization is parallel to the lines of force. 

 Our results are not really inconsistent. The phenomena were 

 different because the physical actions examined were different, 

 perhaps as widely different as conduction and convection in the 

 somewhat similar experimental question of the conduction of 

 heat in fluids. j 0HN Xeer. 



Glasgow, 18th June, 1894. 



XV. Notices respecting New Boohs. 



Electromagnetic Theory. By Oliver Heaviside. 

 (" The Electrician " Printing and Publishing Company.) 



HPHIS work consists largely of definitions and summaries, and it 

 -*- may be considered as giving something like a bird's-eye view 

 of the more theoretical and recondite portions of electromagnetic 

 science dealt with in Mr. Heaviside's previous, and most valuable, 

 work, ' Electrical Papers/ 



Omitting a comparatively short introduction, the present work 

 may be said to contain three long chapters, whose titles are : 

 " Outline of Electromagnetic Connections," " The Elements of 

 Vectorial Algebra and Analysis," and " Theory of Plane Electro- 

 magnetic "Waves." 



Within the limits of an ordinary review it would be impossible 

 to follow Mr. Heaviside in detail in his exposition of the processes 

 at work in the electromagnetic field, even if my knowledge were 

 so complete as to enable me to do justice to every portion of the 

 abstruse and elaborate work for which Mr. Heaviside is so well 

 known. I must therefore confine my remarks to comparatively 

 few of the interesting and important questions so ably dealt with 

 by him ; and it will, no doubt, be better if I select chiefly those 

 portions of the work in which he appears in opposition, sometimes 

 rightly and sometimes wrongly (according to my judgment) to 

 prevailing views. 



A reader of Mr. Heaviside's writings is at once struck by the 

 extraordinary style which distinguishes him from every other 

 English writer on Mathematics or Physics ; and the impression 

 which is produced by this style is often the reverse of pleasing. 

 There is a complete absence of the conventionalities which are 

 generally recognized as proper to the writing of a scientific treatise. 

 Mr. Heaviside is the Walt Whitman of English Physics ; and, 

 like the so-called " poet," he is certain to raise aversion to his 

 peculiarities. A few typical instances must suffice for quotation. 

 Thus, in p. 142, he pays a well-deserved tribute to printers in the 

 words " Compositors are very intelligent, read mathematics like 



