REVIEWS. 
297 
*“ Captain Evans, Hydrographer to Her Majesty,” is told that “ considering 
the trouble I have taken year after year to induce him to give some attention 
to the subject, and that now he tells me that he has not been influenced by 
my writings, I think it is his duty to state what is the cosmical cause, if 
not that indicated by the theory of vis inertiae.” The said theory is then 
applied to the correction of Kepler’s law, and to demonstrate the falsity of 
the “ linea recta ” axiom in Newton’s law. “ This I claim to have done,” says 
our author. “ I have proved it false by showing the new theory of vis 
inertiae, which is incompatible with that so-called axiom, to be true.” 
After each lecture, which seems to have elicited “ loud applause,” cries of 
<l hear, hear,” and occasionally of “ Shame! No, no,” “members or ex- 
members of the Council of the Royal Society and the scientific staff of the 
Challenger Expedition ” were “ specially invited to discuss what was said by 
the lecturer.” 
This they strangely and unaccountably neglected to do. Perhaps it would 
be best to follow their example. 
W. H. Stone. 
LLOYD’S PHYSICAL PAPERS,* 
A N honoured name in the annals of science is that of Humphrey 
Lloyd ; none the less so because it takes back the younger votaries 
of science to an almost prehistoric period. “ There were giants in those days,” 
and it is subject for sincere joy and heartfelt congratulation that one or two 
still survive, not only in physical but in intellectual vigour. 
Malus, Eresnel, Baden-Powell, Wheatstone, Barlow, and Pereira have 
passed away, not without leaving their mark on physical science ; and 
the links which connect them with modern acquisitions are well represented 
in the present volume. Indeed it is no small service conferred on science 
when a veteran in the army that makes war upon nature condescends to 
•collect for his subalterns and juniors a record of his fights. Each paper in 
this book is like a clasp on the medal of “ a Peninsular.” “ Orthes, Nivelles, 
Badajoz, Torres Vedras,” bear no distant relation to “Report on the Present 
•State of Physical Optics,” 1834 ; “ Observations of the Direction and Intensity 
•of the Terrestrial Magnetic Force in Ireland ; ” “ On the Determination of the 
Horizontal Intensity of the Earth’s Magnetic Force in absolute measure ; ” 
“ Notes on the Meteorology of Ireland ” and “ On the Rise and Progress of 
Mechanical Philosophy : Introductory Lecture delivered in the Philosophy 
■School of Trinity College in Hilary Term, 1834.” 
The great defect of physics as a study is the difficulty of knowing what 
Fas been done before. Hence immense waste of work in reinvestigation and 
rediscovery. “ The older writers on physics were sad plagiarists of our new 
•discoveries,” saith the genial and patient teacher of physics at much-abused 
South Kensington. But with more retrospective compilations like this and 
the similar work of Sir William Thomson, many a wasted hour might be 
* “ Miscellaneous Papers connected with Physical Science.” By Humphrey 
Lloyd, D.D., D.C.L., Provost of Trinity College Dublin, formerly Professor 
of Natural Philosophy in the University. Reprinted from several Reports and 
Transactions. London : Longmans. 1877. 
