368 JAMES EDWARD OLIVER. 



It may be added that he was one of the ablest pupils of the elder 

 Peirce. 



With regaid to his mathematical ability, Cajori * writes that " in 

 1849 he had already displayed extraordinary mathematical power," 

 and " in the Harvard Catalogues of 1854 and 1855 we find J. E. Oliver 

 taking advanced courses of mathematics such as were offered at that 

 time by no other institution in the land." 



Shortly after graduation he received an appointment in the Nautical 

 Almanac office in Cambridge under Professor Peirce, where he met 

 several men of unusual mathematical ability. 



In 1861 he was elected a Fellow of this Academy, and in 1873 an 

 Associate Fellow. In 1871 he was appointed an Assistant Professor 

 of Mathematics at Cornell University, and in 1873 he was appointed 

 Professor, and retained the office during his life. 



He was also a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the 

 National Academy. He was also a member of the Council of the 

 American Mathematical Society. 



Professor Oliver's published communications on mathematical sub- 

 jects may seem fewer than might have been expected, considering his 

 great ability. He seems to have been actuated less by a regard for repu- 

 tation than by what he considered as his immediate duty. Mrs. Oliver 

 writes that '• his chief original work was done before his advanced 

 students," and that, " when his intellectual curiosity was satisfied, he 

 begrudged the time necessary to write it out for publication." 



Professor Burr (Cornell Daily Sun, April 3, 1895) writes of him 

 that "his mind was too discursive in its method and too unpractical 

 in its bent to lead him largely into publication, and it is as a teacher 

 and a man that he will be longest and most aflfectionately remembered. 

 He was absent-minded, unmethodical, prone to digression, but his 

 acuteness of mind, his power of sustained research, his comprehensive- 

 ness of view, his utter freedom from bias, his unflagging enthusiasm, 

 made his leadership for those who had the wit and mettle to follow it 

 a thing of perpetual inspiration." 



Besides these peculiarities of his intellectual temperament, if I may 

 use such an expression, which were without doubt unfavorable to 

 publication of original results, there was also another difficulty. The 

 excessive work required of him as mathematical professor at Cornell 



* Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 3, 1890, p. 178. The 

 Teacliing and History of Mathematics in the United States, by Florian Cajori, 

 M. S. (University of Wisconsin), etc. Washington, 1890. 



