PREFACE.

method than attempted to give an impartial description of both. I have no doubt that the method which I have called the German one will also find its supporters, and will be expounded with a skill worthy of its ingenuity. Maxwell is likely referring to the "action-at-a-distance" theories favored by German physicists like Weber and Neumann, as opposed to his own "field" theory.

I have not attempted an exhaustive account of electrical phenomena, experiments, and apparatus. The student who desires to read all that is known on these subjects will find great assistance from the Treatise on Electricity original: "Traité d’Électricité" of Professor A. de la Rive, and from several German treatises, such as Wiedemann’s Galvanism original: "Galvanismus", Riess’ Frictional Electricity original: "Reibungselektricität", Beer’s Introduction to Electrostatics original: "Einleitung in die Elektrostatik", etc.

I have confined myself almost entirely to the mathematical treatment of the subject, but I would recommend the student, after he has learned—experimentally if possible—what phenomena are to be observed, to read carefully Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Electricity. He will there find a strictly contemporary historical account of some of the greatest electrical discoveries and investigations, carried on in an order and succession which could hardly have been improved if the results had been known from the first. These are expressed in the language of a man who devoted much of his attention to the methods of accurately describing scientific operations and their results *.

It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is found in its original state of discovery.

* Life and Letters of Faraday, volume 1, page 395.