20 Proceedings. 



{^PJiysical and Mathematical Section.'] 



Ordinary Meeting, October 24th, 1888. 



Dr. James Bottomley in the Chair. 



Mr. Faraday read extracts from a letter from George 

 Harvey, F.R.S.L. & E., communicated to the British Associa- 

 tion, at its first meeting fifty-seven years ago, on " the very 

 remarkable circumstance of the geometrical analysis of 

 the ancients having been cultivated with eminent success 

 in the northern counties of England, and particularly in 

 Lancashire." So far as Mr. Harvey was aware, the true 

 cause of this singular phenomenon of men in humble 

 life, surrounded by conditions which might have been ex- 

 pected to develope a taste for exclusively mechanical 

 combinations, becoming familiar with Porisms and Loci, 

 Sections of Ratio and Space, Inclinations and Tangencies, 

 subjects confined amongst the ancients to the very greatest 

 minds, was not known. Mr. Faraday suggested that the 

 Section should endeavour to collect information with a view 

 to the full historical elucidation of the phenomenon. Men 

 in advanced years, who might be able to furnish information, 

 are constantly passing away, and as their knowledge on the 

 subject is unrecorded, it is lost. Mr. Faraday urged that a 

 circular letter should be issued, asking for information, and 

 that the materials thus collected should be arranged by a 

 committee, or some one mathematician nominated by the 

 Section, and presented as a memoir to the parent society. 



Dr. Bottomley made some remarks on a problem of 

 maxima and minima values. 



