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THE ELEMENTS

OF

PHYSICS.

BY THOMAS WEBSTER, M.A.

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

FELLOW OF THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AND SECRETARY TO
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR SCOTT, WEBSTER, AND GEARY,

CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE.

1837.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY A. SWEETING, BARTLETT'S BUILDINGS.

PREFACE.

In the work which is now brought before the public it has been my endeavour to set forth a scheme of that part of Natural Philosophy, which is generally included in the term Physics, on a plan calculated to lead the student regularly through the various subjects, and to engender the habit of systematizing and of arranging his knowledge. It has been my especial aim in the following pages to familiarize the student with processes, reasonings, just inferences, and inductions, rather than to present to him a collection of facts. The acquisition of a fact is but the first step in the study of nature; an inquiring mind stimulated thereby rests not until this fact is referred to its proper place in the system of the universe, so that the mutual relation subsisting

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