The higher arithmetic, or the theory of numbers, is concerned with the properties of the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, …. These numbers must have exercised human curiosity from a very early period; and in all the records of ancient civilizations there is evidence of some preoccupation with arithmetic over and above the needs of everyday life. But as a systematic and independent science, the higher arithmetic is entirely a creation of modern times, and can be said to date from the discoveries of Fermat (1601–1665).

A peculiarity of the higher arithmetic is the great difficulty which has often been experienced in proving simple general theorems which had been suggested quite naturally by numerical evidence. ‘It is just this,’ said Gauss, ‘which gives the higher arithmetic that magical charm which has made it the favourite science of the greatest mathematicians, not to mention its inexhaustible wealth, wherein it so greatly surpasses other parts of mathematics.’

The theory of numbers is generally considered to be the ‘purest’ branch of pure mathematics. It certainly has very few direct applications to other sciences, but it has one feature in common with them, namely the inspiration which it derives from experiment, which takes the form of testing possible general theorems by numerical examples. Such experiment, though necessary in some form to progress in every part of mathematics, has played a greater part in the development of the theory of numbers than elsewhere; for in other branches of mathematics the evidence found in this way is too often fragmentary and misleading.