26 
The Hon. Henry Cavendish : 
[January, 
Every discoverer, now-a-days, whether great or small, as 
soon as he finds hislight, — whether it be a six-thousand-candle 
eleCIric lamp or only a halfpenny dip, — immediately hastens 
to place it on the top of the tallest hill he can find, so that 
it may shine forth literally uvbi et orbi . Many lights, it is 
true, give forth only a feeble glimmer; but it is surely better 
that we should be at times overburdened with crude obser- 
vations of possibly valueless faCls, than that a single particle 
of truth should be concealed, or its publication delayed even 
for a day more than is absolutely necessary. 
There never was a period in the world’s history when 
scientific observation was so universal as in the present 
year of grace, and it never before had such a chance of 
being so thoroughly controlled by publication and criticism. 
An important discovery in any branch of physical science 
is now made public with a rapidity that has never before been 
equalled, and the paper, article, or even telegram containing 
its history is published and re-published, discussed and criti- 
cised, in every civilised language. The observations described 
are repeated and tested in half a hundred laboratories, and 
the slightest incorrectness or mis-statement is pounced upon 
with the utmost eagerness, and published with the same 
universality as the original researches themselves. The 
numerous facilities which we possess for spreading and 
sifting scientific observations are bearing fruit every day, 
and the scientific press — although its office is to colledt and 
distribute faCts rather than to criticise them — has become 
as great a power in its own particular sphere as its elder 
sister, the political press, has in the hands of our political 
fellow-workers. 
We have been led into making these remarks upon the 
great publicity which is now given to scientific researches 
by a perusal of the excellent sketch of the great Cavendish’s 
life and character, which serves as an introduction to the 
collection of his electrical researches, * the principal of 
which are now published for the first time through the libe- 
rality of the University of Cambridge. The work has been 
edited by and brought out under the direction of the late 
Prof. James Clerk Maxwell, who was lost to science almost 
before the ink of the last proof was dry. It is indeed a 
striking example of the fitness of things that these hitherto 
* The Electrical Researches of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, F.R.S, 
Written between 1771 and 1781. Edited, from the Original Manuscripts in 
the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., by J. Clerk Maxwell, 
F.R.S. Cambridge University Press. London: Cambridge Warehouse, 
17, Paternoster Row. 
