Who. . . is not familiar with Maxwell's memoirs on his dynamical theory of gases?. . . from one side enter the equations of state; from the other side, the equations of motion in a central field. Ever higher soars the chaos of formulae. Suddenly we hear, as from kettle drums, the four beats 'put n=5. ' The evil spirit v vanishes; and. . . that which had seemed insuperable has been overcome as if by a stroke of magic. . . One result after another follows in quick succession till at last. . . we arrive at the conditions for thermal equilibrium together with expressions for the transport coefficients.
The remedy is worse than the disease.