The Foundations of Einstein's Theory of Gravitation

Abstract

PURELY mathematical workers have often found occasion to remark on the prophetic vision of Riemann. He possessed that special genius which catches glimpses of truth, of no special significance to a contemporary, which one day are found to have an importance greater even than the seer himself had dreamed. Certainly this has proved so with much of Riemann's work. His famous Habituationsschrift, “On the Hypotheses which lie at the Bases of Geometry,” was presented to the faculty of philosophy at Göttingen in 1854, and, in an English translation by Clifford, was brought to the notice of the British public in the columns of NATURE (vol. viii., Nos. 183–84, pp. 14–17, 36, 37). It may be permissible to quote one or two prophetic phrases:

The Foundations of Einstein's Theory of Gravitation.

By Erwin Freundlich. Authorised English translation by Henry L. Brose. Preface by Albert Einstein. Introduction by Prof. H. H. Turner. Pp. xvi + 61. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1920.) Price 5s. net.