Mathematics 569 



general enlightenment thus disseminated that something like 

 adequate provision has been recently attained in our colleges 

 and universities for the pursuit of the higher branches of 

 mathematical science. 



A summary comparison of the status of mathematical 

 science in our country at the time of the foundation of the 

 Smithsonian Institution with the present status shows that 

 great progress has been made during the half-century which 

 has since elapsed. At the beginning of this period a few 

 only of our educational institutions afforded opportunities for 

 the pursuit of studies in mathematics beyond the elements of 

 algebra and geometry. Now almost every State in the Union 

 has a college or technological school whose curriculum em- 

 braces the calculus, with its applications to mechanics, astron- 

 omy, geodesy, etc. ; and not a few of our institutions of learn- 

 ing are provided with the libraries and the teaching staff 

 essential to the prosecution of research in the most advanced 

 fields of pure and applied mathematics. At the beginning 

 of this period there was no journal in the country devoted to 

 purely mathematical work. Now there are three such jour- 

 nals, while many others offer ready publication to the physi- 

 cal and technological applications of mathematics. During 

 the past two decades, particularly, there has been a note- 

 worthy development throughout the country of interest in all 

 branches of pure mathematics. Quite recently our mathe- 

 maticians have organized an association, under the name of 

 the American Mathematical Society, for the special purpose 

 of advancing their favorite science ; and the reproach of Eu- 

 ropeans that we have hitherto shown little capacity for cul- 

 tivating the more abstract domains of mathematics seems 

 destined to be removed in the near future by the formation 

 of a distinctively American school of mathematicians. Not 

 less striking and gratifying than these advances in a theo- 



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