118 Britain's Heritage of Science 



1820 and 1822, and subsequently Plumian Professor of 

 Astronomy. Already in his earliest work he strongly advo- 

 cated the continental system of notation, but little progress 

 was made at the time. His views began to prevail mainly 

 through the efforts of Babbage, combined with those of 

 two other Cambridge mathematicians, George Peacock and 

 John Frederick Herschel, the son of Sir William Herschel 

 the great ast onomer. 



Charles Babbage is widely known in connexion with 

 an ambitious calculating machine which he proposed to 

 construct. His first machine was designed mainly for the 

 preparation of astronomical tables; his second was to 

 perform all kinds of arithmetical operations, but it never 

 emerged from the state of general design, and no detailed 

 drawings were made. His mathematical work, however, 

 was not without importance. He was generally active in 

 the cause of science. It was partly through his efforts that 

 the Royal Astronomical Society was founded, and he strongly 

 supported the British Association in its early days. It is 

 notewor hy that at the second of its meetings he strongly 

 urged that " attention should be paid to the object of 

 bringing theoretical science in contact with the practical 

 knowledge on which the wealth of the nations depends." 



Babbage occupied for a time the Lucasian Chair of 

 Mathematics, but spent the last years of his life in London. 



George Peacock (1791-1858), another important member 

 of the new group, occupied for a time the Lowndean Chair 

 of Astronomy, which he resigned on his appointment to the 

 Deanery of Ely. He played an important part in the founda- 

 tion of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and in the 

 early history of the British Association. For the latter body 

 he wrote an account of the progress of mathematical analysis, 

 the first of the important series of reports in different 

 branches which are published in its annual volumes. 



Of John Herschel we shall have to speak in another 

 connexion; his name is introduced here because his earlier 

 work deals with mathematical analysis, and helped to 

 introduce the differential notation. 



In their endeavours to reform the teaching of mathe 

 matics Peacock and Herschel were assisted by William 



