Abstract
“HIGHER Mathematics,” edited by Mansfield Merriman and Robert S. Woodward, is a text-book for classical and engineering colleges, and is a work containing 600 pages. Each chapter is written by a different author, and is devoted to some special branch of mathematics; chapters i., ii., iii.,&c., dealing with solutions of equations, determinants, and projective geometry respectively. The eleventh and last chapter, a reprint of which we have before us, is written by Mr. David E. Smith, of the Michigan State Normal School, and deals with the “history of modern mathematics.” Of course it has not been intended here to give a complete history of modern work, but just a sufficient survey of the whole domain to give a student an intelligent idea of the way in which the more recent advances have been made, and the ends gained thereby. Each mathematician has, as a rule, his own speciality; but each of these is one link in the chain which, when put together, forms the whole. Such a history as Mr. Smith gives here fulfils this point, and its shortness and conciseness will be favourable to students of mathematics. The text is increased in value by the numerous footnotes, and a short bibliography is given at the end; this latter is, however, by no means complete, as the author remarks, but he gives references for those who wish to go further afield. For a biographical table of mathematicians he refers to Fink's “Geschichte der Mathematik,” p. 240, and for the names and positions of living mathematicians to the “Jahrbuch der Gelehrten Welt,” published at Strassburg.
History of Modern Mathematics.
By David E. Smith. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1896.)
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History of Modern Mathematics. Nature 54, 435 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054435b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054435b0