The first edition of Mr. Watson's book was published in 1876. The present, a revised, much improved, and expanded volume, is issued also in a handier form. The book is, of course, essentially mathematical: it deals almost exclusively with the ideal perfect gas, and supposes that figment of the mathematical mind) "perfect elasticity" to exist for the molecules. It seems to us that, till we know more about the internal kinetic energy of molecules and its law of dissipation into the surrounding ether, the kinetic theory of gases must remain where Dr. Watson leaves it, a mathematical exercise rather than a workable physical theory. Dr. Watson keeps clear of physics pretty generally, and even the name of Van der Waals does not appear in his treatise. It lacks a table of contents or an index. Such books, especially when published by a university press, are now very uncommon, and soon the reviewer will feel able to pass them by with the single comment "no index"!
—The Academy and Literature, Volume 45 [1894]