234 
Analyses of Books. 
[April, 
The Electrical Researches of the Honourable Henry Cavendish , 
F.R.S., written between 1771 and 1781. Edited from the 
Original Manuscripts in possession of the Duke of Devon- 
shire, K.G. By J. Clerk-Maxwell, F.R.S. Cambridge : 
University Press. 
As a matter of course these researches have now, a century after 
their production, an interest which is mainly historical. Henry 
Cavendish has always been to us a remarkable phenomenon. 
There have been men his equals and doubtless his superiors in 
intellect, but there probably never was a man in whom every 
other phase of human nature remained so exclusively in the 
back-ground, if indeed it could be said to exist at all. The hopes, 
the fears, the desires, the passions, and the temptations of ordi- 
nary men were in him conspicuous chiefly by their absence. He 
had no place on the ethical plane, which slopes from virtue down 
to vice. He was free even from the ambition, the vanity, the 
love of notoriety, and from the feelings of rivalry and envy 
which not a few savans manifest to a deplorable degree. An 
instinctive love for truth led him constantly to observe and to 
experiment with the utmost care and exactitude. But he was 
in no haste to publish his results. We read in the work before 
us : Cavendish cared more for investigation than for publication. 
He would undertake the most laborious researches to clear up a 
difficulty which no one but himself could appreciate, or was even 
aware of, and we cannot doubt that the result of his inquiries, 
when successful, gave him a certain degree of satisfaction. But 
it did not excite in him that desire to communicate the discovery 
to others which, in the case of ordinary men of science, generally 
ensures the publication of their results. How completely these 
researches of Cavendish remained unknown to other men of 
science is shown by the external history of electricity. 
Thus Cavendish fell into an error opposite to that of our official 
scientists and Brodgelehrten, who in their haste to “ take date,” 
are said sometimes to mistake the researches of others for their 
own. But Cavendish was no “ Brodgelehrter.” 
We have here a case of heredity. Lord Charles Cavendish, 
the father of Henry, was also an experimentalist of merit, and, 
like his son, cared little for publication. Dr. Franklin said of 
him : “ It were to be wished that this noble philosopher would 
communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes 
many, and with great accuracy.” 
It is here noticed that, whilst Henry Cavendish had a wonder- 
ful power of making corredt observations and getting accurate 
results with clumsy instruments, he had a less inventive genius 
in devising improved apparatus than some of his contemporaries. 
The extent to which he has anticipated the results of more 
recent physicists is remarkable. He not only anticipated 
