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History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, 19004926. By Sir Edmund Whittaker. (Nelson. 32s. 6d.) THE ,developments in physics during the first quarter of this century—the discovery of the structure of the atom and of the trans- mutability of the elements and the invention of relativity theory and of quantum theory— form one of the climactic chapters in human achievement. The brilliance of Sir Edmund Whittaker's history is commensurate with the greatness of his theme. So long as the fame of this period endures, his book will be the authoritative record of the manner in which the results were attained. He was himself one of the pre-eminent mathema- ticians of the period, he was personally acquainted with all the leading contributors, and, early in the period, he had himself produced a profound study (revised and republished in 1951 as the first volume of the present work) of the previous develop- ments that were precisely those which led up to the ones here described. No future historian of this period will reproduce such qualifications. Rarely can it have been possible\ so confidently to hail a newly- published book as being destined to remain a classic.
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