A THIRD LIST OF WRITINGS OX DETERMINANTS. 

 By Thomas Muik, LL.D., F.R.S. 



I. The first " List of Writings on Determinants " was published 

 in the Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Vol. XVIIL, pp. 1 10-149. 

 It covered the period 1693-1880, and contained 589 titles of books, 

 memoirs, etc., which had appeared within that period. In the pre- 

 paration of it the primar\ object aimed at was to provide working 

 mathematicians with the means of knowing what had been done by 

 their predecessors, and so to make research less laborious and at the 

 same time more fruitful. It was also intended that the material thus 

 collected should be immediately used by myself in the writing of an 

 ■exhaustive histor}- of the theory ; and in part this intention was 

 •carried out in the years 1884-89, the first volume of the work having 

 •been published in 1890. 



The second list api)eared in the same journal. Vol. XXL, pp. 

 299-320, and covered the period 1784-1885, thus supplying omitted 

 titles, 84 in number, belonging to the period of the first list, and 

 giving the titles, 176 in number, for an additional period of five 

 years. 



2. The present list is similar to the second, but is much 

 more extensive, the new period dealt with being three times as long. 

 It opens with the supply of omissions made in the previous lists, 

 and contains in all more titles than these two lists put together. 



In view of the repeated gleanings thus seen to have been made, 

 and in view of the fact that the literature of quite recent times can 

 •be examined easily and with little chance of making omissions or 

 mistakes, it is highly probable that the 1744 titles which the three 

 lists together contain form a practically complete conspectus of all 

 the work that has been done on the subject from the earliest 

 times up to the close of the nineteenth century. The existence of 

 the International Scientific Catalogue and other publications of a 

 more special character makes the twentieth century a matter of com- 

 paratively little concern to the collector of historical material. 



3. As in the case of the previous lists, the writings meant to be 

 included are those which concern the theory or the histor x of the 

 theory; all papers which contain mere instances of the application 

 ■of the functions are carefully omitted. At the same time, if a paper, 

 while professing to deal with a mere application of determinants, or 

 •even to concern a totally different subject, should, nevertheless, 

 throw some sidelight on the theory, it has been as scrupulously 

 noted as if its title bore reference to the theorv. and to the theory 

 ■onlv. 



