The New Physics and its Evolution By Lucien Poincaré Inspecteur-Général de l'Instruction Publique Being the authorised translation of Prefatory Note He M. LUCIEN POINCARE is one of the distinguished family of mathematicians which has during the last few years given a Minister of Finance to the Republic and a President to the Académie des Sciences. is also one of the nineteen Inspectors-General of Public Instruction who are charged with the duty of visiting the different universities and lycées in France and of reporting upon the state of the studies there pursued. Hence he is in an excellent position to appreciate at its proper value the extraordinary change which has lately revolutionized physical science, while his official position has kept him aloof from the controversies aroused by the discovery of radium and by recent speculations on the constitution of matter. M. Poincaré's object and method in writing the book are sufficiently explained in the preface which follows; but it may be remarked that the best of methods has its defects, and the excessive condensation which has alone made it possible to include the 210046 |