Mathematical and Physical Papers

A FEW months ago we reviewed the fourth and fifth volumes of Lord Kelvin's “Mathematical and Physical Papers,” and now we have the sixth and concluding volume. Sir Joseph Larmor is to be congratulated on the conclusion of a task which, however congenial to him, must have caused him a good deal of labour and anxiety. And the work has been done in the best possible way. The short notes appended here and there are very helpful, but the personality of the editor is never obtruded; indeed, it might sometimes, with advantage perhaps, have been more in evidence. The error, if it be one, is on the right side, and it may be that in connection with the selection of letters which we understand it is proposed to publish, we may have more of the editor's views on the various scientific questions, still unsettled, which are raised in these volumes.Mathematical and Physical Papers.Vol vi., Voltaic Theory, Radio-activity, Electrons, Navigation and Tides, Miscellaneous. By the Right Hon. Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin. Arranged and revised, with brief annotations, by Sir Joseph Larmor, Sec.R.S. Pp. viii + 378. (Cambridge: University Press, 1911.) Price 10s.