348 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



made him one of his examining chaplains. In 1858 he was appointed 

 Donegal Lecturer in Mathematics, and he taught engineering students 

 the elements of the calculus. In 1859 he proceeded to the degrees of 

 B.D. and D.D., and he published in 1861 his first series of sermons 

 preached in the Chapel of Trinity College. 



It is evident, from what has been said, that Salmon's duties as tutor 

 and lecturer were not of the highest order. There was much routine 

 work in his lecturing, and much vexatious waste of time in supervising 

 a large chamber of pupils. There was little scope in his subordinate 

 position for the exercise of his strong personality in effecting direct 

 improvement in the Mathematical or in the Divinity School. And 

 owing to the method of appointing honour-lecturers, he had but little 

 chance of permanently influencing the abler mathematical under- 

 graduates with whom he came in contact. During these years, how- 

 ever, he produced indirectly in the teaching of mathematics an 

 enormous change which extended far beyond his own university. He 

 published his four great text-books the " Conic Sections" in 1847, the 

 " Higher Plane Curves " in 1852, the " Lessons Introductory to the 

 Study of the Modern Higher Algebra " in 1859, and the " Geometry of 

 Three Dimensions " in 1862. To a great extent those books remain 

 the standard works on their respective subjects. They have been 

 widely translated, and they have passed through numerous editions in 

 the translations as well as in the original. Moreover, during his 

 tutorship, Salmon published most of his original papers. 



It was natural that a man of Salmon's originality and versatility 

 should have desired a post of greater responsibility and of wider scope 

 lor initiation, as well as freedom from the irksome duties of a tutorship. 

 In 1862 Salmon was regarded as the fitting successor to Graves in the 

 chair of mathematics. Hamilton, who was working with the greatest 

 vigour on his "Elements of Quaternions," was ineligible even had he 

 desired to exchange the chair of astronomy for that of mathematics. At 

 that time an examiner for Fellowship was of necessity a Fellow, but 

 Hamilton had never sat for Fellowship. Acting on the advice of his 

 friends, Hamilton had notified to the Board that he was a candidate 

 lor the Professorship of Mathematics when it was vacant in 1843. 

 "Their answer through the Eegistrar, Dr. Wall, was an inquiry 

 whether he intended to present himself as a candidate at the next 

 Fellowship examination, and an intimation that in that case it would 

 be requisite for him ' to get into full orders' This reply concluded the 

 negotiation."* Salmon laboured under no such disability. Next to 

 Hamilton he was the most distinguished mathematician in the Univer- 

 sity. " He was an admirable teacher," says Sir Eobert Ball, who 



* Graves' " Life of Hamilton." Vol. ii, p. 423. 



