12 president's address — SECTION A. 



The content of the Science of Mathematics has grown so enor- 

 mously that there are few, even among professed mathematicians,. 

 who can lay claim to a knowledge of more than a part. The physicist, 

 the engineer, and other practical men are inclined to believe that with 

 this development the mathematician is losing sight of what they" 

 believe is the chief reason for his existence : namely, to provide useful^ 

 tools which they may employ in the physical sciences. 



When one speaks of the growth of Mathematics, it is hardly 

 necessary to point out that we do not refer to the undergraduate course 

 at our Universities. Changes in it there have been, and should continue 

 to be. Doubtless those chiefly concerned are inclined to think that it 

 has developed past recognition. But the alterations are mostly in 

 matters of detail or method. In its chief characteristics the course 

 remains the same. It must range over Geometry in its wider sense. 

 Analysis, and Applied Mathematics. Its aim is twofold. On the one 

 hand it seeks to provide a suitable introduction, for the student with a 

 mathematical mind, into the Science of Mathematics. At its close 

 he is ready to devote himself to higher study in one or other of the 

 three main divisions of which I have spoken. The other object before 

 us is just as definite. Our courses, in greater or less degree, have to 

 serve as a portion of the training of the physicist, the engineer, the 

 statistician, or other professional man, of whose equipment the tooia 

 which Mathematics provides form a valuable and necessary part. 



However, as scientific men, we must protest against the view that 

 the path of practical utility is to be that along which mathematical 

 development is to take place. And the protest is called for in this 

 country at the present time. To me it seems a matter for great regret 

 that in several of the younger Universities room has not been found 

 for a separate Chair of Mathematics, the subject being combined with 

 Physics, and the professorship being called a Professorship of Mathe- 

 matics and Physics. Of course, it is well understood that this 

 arrangement is simply a temporary one, and rendered necessary by 

 the funds available not being sufficient for the endowment of separate 

 chairs. Still, Mathematics is not simply a handmaid to Physics ; each 

 science must stand by itself ; and the dignity, both of the University 

 and of these two branches of knowledge, demands that these temporary 

 expedients should not be allowed to remain in force any longer than 

 is absolutely necessary. 



But though this protest is necessary in this country and at the 

 present time, the need for it is a recurrent one, and we find such 

 remonstrances frequently made in the development and growth of 

 Mathematics as a Science. And they have been called for at times 

 even in the house of her friends. 



In Jacobi's letters we come upon the following sentences : — " I 

 have read with pleasure Poisson's report upon my work (the Funda- 



