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SCIENCE PROGRESS 



RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



MATHEMATICS. By Philip E. B. Jourdain, M.A., Cambridge. 



At the meeting of the American Mathematical Society on 

 December 27 and 28, 191 8, it was voted that a committee of 

 three should be appointed to report to the Council at the April 

 meeting on " steps which should be taken to organise or pro- 

 mote the publication, in America or elsewhere, of an adequate 

 and comprehensive survey of the current mathematical litera- 

 ture of the world." The committee appointed was E. W. 

 Brown, G. A. Miller, and R. C. Archibald (Amer. Math. Monthly, 

 1919, 26, 90). At this moment the present quarterly account 

 of recent work in mathematics is the only one in English 

 which aims at any high degree of completeness : it is not 

 creditable to the Governments and scientific institutions of 

 English-speaking countries that this work should have been 

 left to private endeavour {cf. Science Progress, 191 7, 11, 

 686-90). 



An account of the latest doings of the Mittag-Leffler Insti- 

 tute for pure mathematics appears elsewhere in the present 

 number. 



Education. — E. J. Moulton {Amer. Math. Monthly, 191 8, 25, 

 429-34) considers the content of " a second course in calculus." 

 B. A. Howard {Math. Gaz. 191 9, 9, 317-21) considers the 

 teaching of geometry to first-year pupils {cf. Science Progress, 

 1919, 13, 521). 



A report of the teaching committee of the Mathematical 

 Association on the teaching of mechanics is published in the 

 Math. Gaz. (191 8, 9, 265-92). The concluding part of a sug- 

 gested introduction to infinite series by W. J. Dobbs is also 

 published in the same Gazette (1919, 9, 299-301). 



In these accounts of Recent Advances, mention has pre- 

 viously (Science Progress, 1916, 10, 607) been made of the 

 " Research Papers " of the University of Edinburgh. The 



