I. 



SQUARING THE CIRCLE 



NDOUBTEDLY one of the reasons why this 

 problem has received so much attention from 

 those whose minds certainly have no special lean- 

 ing towards mathematics, lies in the fact that 

 there is a general impression abroad that the governments 

 of Great Britain and France have offered large rewards for 

 its solution. De Morgan tells of a Jesuit who came all the 

 way from South America, bringing with him a quadrature 

 of the circle and a newspaper cutting announcing that a 

 reward was ready for the discovery in England. As a 

 matter of fact his method of solving the problem was 

 worthless, and even if it had been valuable, there would 

 have been no reward. 



Another case was that of an agricultural laborer who 

 spent his hard-earned savings on a journey to London, car- 

 rying with him an alleged solution of the problem, and who 

 demanded from the Lord Chancellor the sum of one hun- 

 dred thousand pounds, which he claimed to be the amount 

 of the reward offered and which he desired should be 

 handed over forthwith. When he failed to get the money 

 he and his friends were highly indignant and insisted that 

 the influence of the clergy had deprived the poor man of 

 his just deserts ! 



And it is related that in the year 1788, one of these de- 

 luded individuals, a M. de Vausenville, actually brought an 



9 



