MAXWELL, James Scottish natu ral philosopher: b. Edinburgh, 13 Nov. 1831; d. Cambridge, England, 5 Nov. 1879. He was edu cated at Edinburgh and at Trinity College, Cam bridge, and in 1856 was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the Marischal College, Aberdeen, and held that office till its amalgama tion with King's College to form the University of Aberdeen in 1860, when he was appointed to a similar chair in King's College, London. In 1857 he obtained the Adams prize at Cambridge for an essay 'On the Stability of Motion of Saturn's Rings.) From 1855 to 1872 he pub lished his investigations on 'Perception of Color, and Color which obtained for him the Rumford medal and his election as F.R.S. He resigned his chair in 1865 and in 1871 was elected unopposed to the newly founded chair of experimental physics at Cam bridge. He directed the formation of the Cavendish laboratory founded by the Duke of Devonshire and opened in 1874. In 1871 he
published his 'Theory of Heat,' which has gone through several editions. In 1873 appeared his great work, 'Electricity and Magnetism.' Max well's fame will rest on his being the one who took the first grand step toward the discovery of the true nature of electrical phenomena. He 'ejected the theory of electrical '