AN

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

OF

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

[With 217 Wood-engravings.]

BY

ROBERT HUNT,

PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE, GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF MINES,
AUTHOR OF POETRY OF SCIENCE,' RESEARCHES ON LIGHT,'
'HANDBOOK TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION,' ETC.

LONDON:

REEVE AND BENHAM,

HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1851.

PREFACE.

INTIMATE association with those institutions which are devoted to the diffusion of useful knowledge, has led to a conviction that, notwithstanding the increasing desire manifested amongst their members to cultivate an acquaintance with physical science, the means has not been afforded by which this important study might be facilitated.

Impressed with the idea that it is quite possible to render every truth intelligible by the most simple language that it is practicable to teach physical science so far as to render all the great deductions from observation and experiment satisfactorily clear, without encountering the difficulty of mathematics,—this Elementary Treatise has been written. It is hoped that