RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



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



Various. — Among recent deaths of well-known workers in 

 mathematics, we may notice the following : Sir W. D. Niven 

 died on May 29, 191 7, at seventy-five years of age, and Dr. 

 W. H. Besant on June 2 in his eighty-ninth year. 



The London Mathematical Society has just passed, without 

 notice, its fiftieth year of activity. This fact, and some points 

 in the early history of the Society, were mentioned, among 

 other matters, in Sir Joseph Larmor's Address (Proc. Lond. 

 Math. Soc. 191 7, 16, 1-7). 



There has recently been a good deal written about the kind 

 of mathematical typography which should be used to secure 

 uniformity and clearness combined with the least unnecessary 

 trouble possible for the printer. Some time ago the London 

 Mathematical Society issued a leaflet on the subject, and the 

 suggestions contained in it have been commented upon in 

 Nature and the Mathematical Gazette. G. Peano, who has 

 always paid great attention to typographical convenience in 

 his mathematical and logical work — and this is the most striking 

 of the external features in which his work differs from that of 

 Frege — has lately (Atti delta R. Accad. delle Scienze di Torino, 

 191 5-16, 51, 229-36) explained some methods of writing mathe- 

 matical formulae so that they may be easily printed. 



Judging by a note in the American Mathematical Monthly 

 for May, 191 7 (p. 254), the Committee on the Fortschritte and 

 the Revue Semestrielle, referred to in Science Progress for 

 July, has been able to make very little progress owing to the 

 fact that the last numbers of the Revue have not reached 

 America. At the same time it may be pointed out that there 

 have been a great number of discussions, both in this country, 

 in France, and in Italy, on the question of some common action 

 by the nations of the Entente in the organisation of scientific 

 literature, which has hitherto been almost entirely in the hands 

 of Germany. We may refer to the letter of Prof. Eugenio 

 Rignano in Nature of January 25 of this year, to another letter 

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