128 Britain's Heritage of Science 



country owes its pre-eminent position in the history of applied 

 mathematics. Routh's " Dynamics of Rigid Bodies " is much 

 more than a text-book, and has become almost a classic ; he 

 has also given us valuable contributions to the investigation 

 of the " stability " of motion. 



Second to Routh in the Tripos list of 1854 stands Clerk 

 Maxwell, one of the men whose work forms one of the 

 great landmarks of science. But, as in the case of Kelvin, 

 much should be said in addition to what has already appeared 

 in the first chapter. The subject of colour vision attracted 

 Clerk Maxwell's attention at an early period, and his experi- 

 ments on the subject helped to establish Young's physio- 

 logical theory which reduced all colour sensations to three 

 primary effects. In dynamics his investigations on Saturn's 

 rings are fundamental. The conclusion arrived at is " that 

 the only system of rings which can exist is one composed 

 of an indefinite number of unconnected particles revolving 

 round the planet with different velocities, according to their 

 respective distances. These particles may be arranged in a 

 series of narrow rings, or they may move through each other 

 irregularly. In the first case the destruction of the system 

 will be very slow, in the second case it will be more rapid, 

 but there may be a tendency towards an arrangement in 

 narrow rings which may retard the process." 



In pure mathematics, Cambridge in modern times gave us 

 Sylvester (1814-1897) and Cayley (1821-1895). Both started 

 life by being called to the Bar, but soon returned to their 

 favourite subject. Sylvester was second wrangler in the 

 Tripos of 1837, but, being a Jew, could not take his degree. 

 After four years' teaching at University College, London, as 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy, he accepted the Chair of 

 Mathematics at the University of Virginia in 1841. He 

 returned to England in 1845, and during the next ten years 

 was connected with a firm of accountants. In 1855 he 

 became Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military 

 Academy, Woolwich, but on the foundation of the Johns 

 Hopkins University in 1877 he returned to the United States. 

 In 1883 he went to Oxford as successor to Henry Smith. 

 Sylvester's work dealt mainly with higher algebra and the 

 theory of numbers. He possessed great originality; his 



