The Theory of Electric and Magnetic Susceptibilities : Unfinished Second Edition

John Van Vleck published his classic monograph “The Theory of Electric and Magnetic Susceptibilities” in 1932 while on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin. In his later years, he worked on a second edition which unfortunately was never completed. After his death his wife Abigail gave his notes for the second edition to Chun Lin. These notes contain additions and other, mostly minor, changes to Chapters I, II, III, IV, and VI of the first edition. There are no notes for Chapters VII XIII. Chapter V, “Susceptibilities in the Old Quantum Theory, Contrasted with the New” in the original edition was to have been omitted. In its place was an entirely new chapter entitled “The Local Field and the Dielectric Constants of Condensed Media” that was inserted after Chapter III. The old Chapter IV, “The Classical Theory of Magnetic Susceptibilities” would become Chapter V in the new edition.