AMERICAN MATHEMATICS 463 



Society, which is now one of the strongest mathematical societies of the 

 world and has probably a larger income than any other similar organ- 

 ization. It publishes two journals and its frequent meetings furnish 

 favorable opportunities to renew zeal and to cooperate in the more 

 important advances. These meetings serve also as a good medium to 

 spread reliable information in reference to young men of promise and 

 to secure for them more prompt recognition than would otherwise be 

 possible. 



One of the most hopeful signs as regards American mathematics 

 is the fact that our students are in close contact with several of the 

 mathematical centers of Europe. It is no longer true that nearly all 

 Americans who go abroad for the purpose of studying mathematics lo- 

 cate in the same institution or in the same country. In recent years, 

 Italy has grown rapidly in favor, while the leading universities of Ger- 

 many and France continue to attract a considerable number of our best 

 students. The rapid interchange of ideas resulting from the scatter- 

 ing of our mathematical students in foreign countries is doing much 

 to dispel prejudices, to make American mathematics cosmopolitan, and 

 to awaken a keener appreciation of the advantages and the disadvantages 

 of our own institutions. 



If one bears in mind the facts that our library facilities were very 

 poor until recent years and that no locality offers in itself any special 

 inducements for mathematical study, one should perhaps be surprised 

 by the rapid mathematical advances during the last few decades rather 

 than by the fact that we have not yet attained to greater national 

 eminence. It remains to be seen whether we shall ever be on an equality 

 with the leading mathematical nations of the world. The rapidity with 

 which we have obtained respectful recognition and the American 

 eminence in some of the other sciences might reasonably awaken the 

 hope that we may be not far from the time when we shall deserve, in 

 the strictest sense, the position pictured in the first paragraph in such a 

 friendly spirit. 



