The Theory of Optics

A VERY full account of the German edition of the above work appeared in these pages rather more than two years ago (October 18, 1900), under the title “A Modern Text-book of Optics.” To what was then said little need be added. Prof. Michelson, in his preface to the translation, expresses the facts when he writes, “But no complete development of the electromagnetic theory in all its bearings, and no comprehensive discussion of the relation between the laws of radiation and the principles of thermodynamics have yet been attempted in any general text in English.”The Theory of Optics.By Paul Drude. Translated from the German by C. R. Mann and R. A. Millikan. Pp. xxi + 546. (London: Longmans and Co., 1902.) Price 15s. net.