Abstract
AMONG men of science there is no difference of opinion as to the value of the original Latin work, “De Magnete,” of which this is a translation. Some time ago (NATURE, vol. xlii. p. 279) we gave an account of a meeting held at Colchester by members of the Essex Field Club and the Gilbert Club, for the purpose of doing honour to the memory of Gilbert, who was born there in 1540. In a speech delivered at this festival Lord Rayleigh not only spoke highly of Gilbert's work, but went on to say that although we owe to an investigator who lived so long ago the theory that the earth is a great magnet, we are not much in advance of that position at the present time, as nobody has yet explained the origin of terrestrial magnetism. It was most desirable that a work which may be said to have marked a definite stage in the evolution of physical science should be presented in an English form, and this has now been done by an American scholar, who, as he himself explains, has “translated with latitude, keeping in view the author's sense more particularly than his words, and amplifying without altering the former.” Mr. Mottelay has also brought together in a short biographical memoir the leading facts relating to Gilbert's career. The volume is well printed on good paper, and will be very welcome to students of the history of scientific ideas.
William Gilbert of Colchester, Physician of London, on the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, and on the Great Magnet the Earth. A New Physiology, Demonstrated with Many Arguments and Experiments.
A Translation, by P. Fleury Mottelay. (London: B. Quaritch, 1893.)
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William Gilbert of Colchester, Physician of London, on the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, and on the Great Magnet the Earth A New Physiology, Demonstrated with Many Arguments and Experiments. Nature 47, 556 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047556a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047556a0