256 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Euclid. The amount of geometrical ground that can be covered by 

 means of the algebraical methods in one year by an average pupil is 

 about equal to that which can be acquired by the same pupil in three 

 years following the Euclidean method. And as there is no loss what- 

 ever in rigidity of proof, the natural consequence is surely that of two 

 pupils who have devoted an equal period of time to mathematics dur- 

 ing their school training, the one employing in his geometry the 

 modern methods and the other the Euclidean, the former must be 

 more prepared for the intelligent use of mathematical formulae and 

 reasoning in the university or the technical school than the latter. 

 This consideration, indeed, derives still more strength from the fact 

 that the proving of geometrical propositions by means of operations 

 upon algebraical symbols extends the mental grasp of algebra itself. 



Professor Perry appears to have hopes of speedy reform in this 

 respect, the University of Oxford having decided to omit Euclid from 

 the 'locals' of 1903, Oxford being capable of setting the pace for the 

 great schools and the principles of the Society for the Improvement 

 of Geometrical Teaching having made, during the past twenty years, 

 sufficient theoretical headway to ensure the opportunity of the change 

 being welcomed and grasped. 



At the same time, it is to be remembered that the mathematical 

 is not the whole or the only training even for the engineering mind. 

 We have the constant reminder of Faraday's example in this respect. 

 Faraday was able to reason most accurately and profoundly upon 

 curves, centers of motion and other phenomena arising from his 

 experiments in electricity and magnetism, although he was obliged 

 to confess in a letter to Professor Clerk Maxwell that although he 

 had tried hard he had never been able to understand even simple 

 equations in algebra a comforting confession for others to whom 

 mathematical studies have been a great difficulty ! but perhaps more 

 profitably to be regarded simply as a proof that a sufficiently helpful 

 text-book was not placed within his reach at the struggling period 

 when he laid the foundations of his marvelous self-culture. 



