V 



Javendish's views and results by the light of modern theory and 

 methods. Especially valuable are the methods applied to the deter- 

 mination of the electrical capacities of conductors and condensers, a 

 subject in which Cavendish himself showed considerable skill, both of 

 a mathematical and experimental kind. 



During the later months of 1878, and the beginning of 1879, 

 Maxwell's health was not good, but no apprehensions of anything 

 serious were felt by his friends. In the month of May of the latter 

 year he looked very ill. Hopes were entertained, however, that when 

 he returned to the bracing air of his country home he would soon 

 recover. But it was not to be. He lingered through the summer 

 months at Glenlair, with no signs of improvement, his spirits 

 gradually sinking. As a last resource he was brought back to Cam- 

 bridge in October that he might be under the charge of his favourite 

 physician, Dr. Paget. Nothing, however, could be done for his 

 malady, and, after a painful illness, he died on the 5th of November, 

 1879, in his 49th year. 



It is difficult to convey a correct impression of the variety and 

 extent of Maxwell's information on all sorts of subjects. Knowledge 

 of every kind was interesting to him, and there were few topics of 

 conversation to which he could not bring his own peculiar light. He 

 was almost as much at home with the students of philosophy and 

 theology as with those of physics. But if there was one subject more 

 than another in which his conversation was always interesting, it was 

 the literature of his own country, his acquaintance with which, and 

 especially with English poetry, was remarkable alike for its extent, 

 its exactness, and the wide range of his sympathies. His critical 

 taste, founded as it was on his native sagacity, and a keen appreciation 

 of literary beauty, was so true and discriminating that his judgment 

 was in such matters quite as valuable as on mathematical writings. 



He wrote often in verse, chiefly poetical epistles to intimate friends, 

 and occasional epigrams, but none of these have been published. The 

 published pieces are few in number, all dealing with some scientific move- 

 ment, speculation or incident of the hour, and all conceived in a spirit 

 of happy good-humoured banter. With the exception of "Notes on the 

 President's Address," British Association 1874, when Dr. Tyndail was 

 President, which appeared in "Blackwood," these pieces are to be 



found in the pages of "Nature," under the signature^. The in- 



dt 



vention of this signature is due to Professor Tait, in whose work on 

 Thermodynamics, one of the equations of the subject is written in the 

 dp 



fornr^-=JCM, the right hand side of the equation being Maxwell's 

 initials. 



The list of Maxwell's published memoirs and writings of every kind, 



