Abstract
THIS is one of the Clarendon Press Series, hence we are saved all necessity of remarking upon the get-up of the volume. We had hardly expected that Mr. Hensley could have imparted any freshness to his treatment of so hackneyed a subject as an Elementary Algebra, but he has done so, and we have read his work with much interest. It does not follow the usual course observed in similar treatises either in its contents or in their arrangement. Our author himself expressly states that the work professes to be an introductory one on algebra. He takes up the scholar who has been well-grounded in arithmetic and endeavours to explain from the outset what algebra is, what its aims, and what the chief forms of its utility. In this attempt he has succeeded, and the work is likely to be of use to students who are reviving an acquaintance with the subject acquired at school, but especially is it suited to self-taught students. For these latter it is, we think, one of the best text-books hitherto brought out. The first seventy pages are devoted to the symbols, signs, and elementary rules; in this section we have a good chapter on Ratio and Proportion, including a glance at incommensurables. Though treated at this length, the scholar is hardly likely to grow weary in his work, and he is laying at the same time a safe and solid foundation for future use.
The Scholar's Algebra: an Introductory Work on Algebra.
By Lewis Hensley. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Macmillan and Co., 1875.)
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The Scholar's Algebra: an Introductory Work on Algebra . Nature 13, 304 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/013304a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013304a0