This work gives an up-to-date account of the theory of dielectrics suitable for graduates and final-year undergraduates in physics, chemistry, electrical engineering and materials science. There is a concentration on the basic principles of the subject, without a detailed discussion of experimental data. The macroscopic behaviour of dielectric materials receives most attention; nevertheless an adequate introduction to the microscopic theory of dielectrics is given. The treatment is necessarily mathematical, but sufficient verbal explanations are given so that the physical ideas are not hidden beneath a morass of mathematical symbols. Detailed derivations of key results are provided in appendices, together with extensive lists of references and further general reading.

This fourth and final volume of The Collected Papers of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) contains three previously unpublished and important manuscripts, namely, System of Rays and two lengthy letters to de Morgan on definite integrals and Hart on anharmonic coordinates. In addition, the volume contains reprinted papers on geometry, analysis, astronomy, probability, and finite differences, as well as a collection of papers on other topics. A cumulative index for all three volumes is provided, as well as a CD-ROM with all four volumes of the Collected Papers.