RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



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



The three parts of the Jahrbuch iiber die Fortschritte der 

 Mathematik for 191 2 were published in 19 14 and 191 5, and 

 form a volume of 1,208 pages. The volume for 191 3 has not 

 yet begun to appear. The Jahrbuch is usually published about 

 two years after the date of the year it reviews, and so this 

 delay is much greater than usual. We must not forget the 

 immense service that German mathematicians have done, and 

 are doing, to the world by such work as this ; and it seems a 

 pity that such works should be advertised on the cover of the 

 Jahrbuch as Wie England eine Verstandigung mil Deutschland 

 verhinderte . 



The Jahrbuch is conscientiously written by an international 

 committee of sixty-three mathematicians : two are from Poland 

 one from Russia, two from Holland, two from Switzerland, one 

 from Sweden, two from Italy, one from Belgium, two from 

 Austria, one from Bohemia, one from Denmark, two from 

 Great Britain (of whom one has ceased to contribute), and 

 forty-six from Germany. Even in times of peace the account 

 of mathematical work appears too long after the original work 

 for some purposes, but now Prof. Lampe, of Berlin, the editor- 

 in-chief, writes that the printing of the volume for 191 3 j s 

 partly done, but it has had to stop on account of difficulties 

 caused by the war. 



Another periodical having ^partly the same function is the 

 Dutch Revue semestrielle des publications mathcmatiques , pub- 

 lished by the Mathematical Society of Amsterdam. The chief 

 advantage of the Revue over the Jahrbuch is that it appears 

 within a fairly short time of the articles it reviews. A short 

 account of each article is given, and no attempt is made at 

 criticism. The list of periodicals which are regularly abstracted 

 in the two half-yearly numbers of the Revue is apparently quite 

 complete . Another point in which the Revue has a very decided 

 advantage over the Jahrbuch is that in the Revue references 



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