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“The Philosophical Magazine” and the History of Mathematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2017

Gino Loria
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Extract

Before reviews devoted to particular branches of science had come into existence, results obtained by individual research were diffused by means of letters to those who were likely to be interested. At a later date they were published in encyclopaedic journals, in literary periodicals, and in the Proceedings of the various academies. This makes it extremely difficult to obtain accounts both accurate and complete of much that has been written in this or that particular subject. To assist in removing this difficulty, and to bring within the reach of the student the results of historical research, I have suggested, for instance, an examination of the periodicals, etc., which, while not exclusively devoted to science, may nevertheless contain material of the greatest value to us in the history of science. The suggestion had the honour of receiving the approval of one eminent bibliographer, and, in his turn, he did for three rare German periodicals what I had done for two of the most celebrated Italian literary journals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 8 , Issue 126 , December 1916 , pp. 325 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1916

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References

page 325 note † F. Müller, Die “Bibliothèque Germanique,” das “Journal littéraire d’Allemagne” und die “Nouvelle Bibliothèque germanique” als Quellen für die Geschichte der Mathematik in XVIII. Jahrhundert. (“Festschrift M. Cantor anlässlich seines achzigsten Geburtstags,” Leipzig, 1909, pp. 62-77.)

page 325 note ‡ Il “Giornale de’ Letterati d’ Italia” di Venezia e la “Raccolta Calogerà” come fonti per la storia delle matematiche nel secolo XVIII. (Abh. zur Gesch. der Mathematik, IX. Heft, 1909 241-74).

page 325 note § I. Phil. Mag. XXXII. 1848, 419-21; II. Id. XXXIII. 201-06; III. (?) XXXIV, or Id. 513-24; IV. Id. XXXV. 1849, 497-510; V. Id. XXXVI. 1850, 382-94; VI. Id. XXXVII. 1850, 198-212; VII. Id. IV. Ser. I. 1851, 536-44; VIII. Id. II. 1851, 444-46; IX. Id. III. 1852, 286-90; X. Id. 523-25 (? Id.).

page 326 note * The biographical and bibliographical information given by Poggendorf (Handwörterbuch, t. 1, p. 527) is scanty and incomplete. He is said to have been born about 1794, and to have died on Jan. 6th, 1851. Supplementary information as to Davies and his work may be obtained from the following periodicals, quoted by Sir James Cockle in the Phil. Man. IV. Ser. Vol. I. pp. 536-7, inaccessible to me: The Mechanic’s Magazine, n. 1431; The Architect and Civil Engineer, n. 166; The Expositor, n. 18.

page 326 note † There is a rather curious letter from Maclaurin’s son, addressed to Nourse, the publisher of Goldsmith’s Animated Nature, with the object of contradicting the following particulars therein related of the great commentator of Newton. “For one person to yawn is sufficient to set the rest of the company a-yawning. A ridiculous instance of this was commonly practised upon the famous Maclaurin, one of the professors at Edinburgh. He was very subject to have his jaw dislocated; so that when he opened his mouth wider than ordinary, or when he yawned, he could not shut it again. In the midst of his harangues, therefore, if any of his pupils began to be tired of his lecture, he had only to gape or yawn, and the professor instantly caught the sympathetic affection; so that he thus continued to stand speechless, with his mouth wide open, till his servant, from the next room, was called in to set his jaw again.” Maclaurin, the son, characterised this story as absolutely false, and quoted as proof of the contrary the testimony of hundreds of respectable individuals who had gone through the Edinburgh course. There is no mention of the story in Mr. Tweedie’s recent biography of Maclaurin (Mathematical Gazette, Vol. VIII. pp. 133-151).

page 327 note * Additions to the late Mr. T. S. Davies’s Notes on Geometry and Geometers (Phil. May. IV. Ser. Vol. IV. 1852, 28-33, 201-9).

page 327 note † On the Additions made to the Second Edition of the Commercium Epistolicum (Phil. Mag. XXXII. 1848, 446-456) and On the Early History of Infinitesimals in England (Id. IV. Ser. Vol. 4, 1852, 321-330). In the first of the volumes quoted above will be found another article by De Morgan, entitled An Account of the Speculations of Thomas Wright of Durham, which deals with an interesting episode in the history of Astronomy.

page 327 note ‡ On the Connexion of Pope Gerbert with the Geometry of Boethius (Phil. Mag. XXVI. (?) 1850, 529-39).