196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



due to the example and inspiration of Peirce. Though he was a poor 

 teacher for ini^ilferent students, he was the best for superior intellects. 

 He simply led, and charmed them into following him as far and as fast 

 as they could. While his text-books were an enigma to those who 

 had little mathematical capacity, they fascinated minds of the highest 

 order in this direction. Hence, in eveiy class in college, a very few 

 wi^re found competent to read Bowditch's version of Laplace, and 

 obtain glimpses of the meaning of Peirce's ideal algebras. Observa- 

 tories, the United States Coast Survey, the Nautical Almanac, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and schools of science exist, partly as cause 

 and partly as effect of this new development. Bowditch's Practical 

 Navigator, first published in 1802, has carried his name, long ago, 

 over every ocean and into every port in the civilized world, and his 

 scientific reputation, as the earliest American expounder of the higher 

 geometry, is slowly following after. 



The four volumes of Dr. Bowditch's Translation and Commentary 

 were published successively, in 1829, 1832, 1834, and 1839, at the 

 sacrifice of one quarter of hi whole property. The expense was 

 largely increased by the \ oluminous commentary. This was really 

 of the nature of an original work, and was rendered necessary by the 

 frequent gaps which Laplace had left in his own publication. Mr. N. 

 I. Bowditch says, in his biography of his father, that Dr. Bowditch 

 himself was accustomed to remark, " Whenever I meet in Laplace 

 with the words, Thus it plainly appears, I am sure that hours, and 

 perhaps days, of hard stuily will alone enable me to discover how it 

 plainly appears." 



The attention of Mr. James B. Francis of Lowell was attracted by 

 the following passage in a recent work of W. W. R. Ball of London : 

 " The Mecaniqne Celeste is by no means easy I'eading. Biot, who 

 assisted Laplace in revising it for the press, says that Laplace him- 

 self was frequently unable to recover the details in the chain of reason- 

 ing, ai.d, if satisfied that the conclusions were correct, he was content 

 to insert the constantly recurring formula, 11 est aise a voir" * 



Mr. Ball refers to the Journal des Savants, February, 1850. Mr. 

 ?>ancis has found the volume in the Boston Public Library. Tlie 

 title of the paper, translated, is, " An anecdote relating to Laplace : 

 read to the French Academy at its special session, on February 5, 

 1850, by Mr. J. B. Biot." I find that Biot reprinted the paper in 

 1858, in his Melanges Scientijrques et Litteraires. As INIr. Francis 



* A Short Account of tlie History of Mathematics. London, 1888, p. 387. 



