Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

LONDON PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET,

AND CHARING CROSS.

This Book is Dedicated

ΤΟ

HER DEAR CHILDREN,

BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE MOTHER,

MARY SOMERVILLE.

Florence, Nov. 1, 1859.

b

PREFACE.

[ocr errors]

IN bringing another edition of the Connexion of the Physical Sciences' before the public, I have endeavoured to show the progress they have made, and the great changes that experimental philosophy has introduced of late years into the history of physico-mathematical research. In consequence of my residence abroad, I have been deprived of much assistance and information from my scientific friends in England, which would have proved most useful and available under other circumstances. From the same cause I may not have explained certain subjects with all the clearness I might otherwise have done. Perhaps it may be considered that I have adopted certain views and new principles before they had been sufficiently established: if so, I must plead as my excuse, the conviction that they will ultimately take the rank I have assigned to them in the history of science.

Florence, Nov. 1, 1858.

« PreviousContinue »