

PREFACE. 



HAVING been requested by the Master and Fellows of 

 Gonville and Caius College to superintend an edition of the 

 mathematical writings of the late George Green, I have fulfilled 

 the task to the best of my ability. The publication may be 

 opportune at present, as several of the subjects with which they 

 are directly or indirectly concerned, have recently been in- 

 troduced into the course of mathematical study at Cambridge. 

 They have also an interest as being the work of an almost 

 entirely self-taught mathematical genius. 



George Green was born at Sneinton, near Nottingham, in 

 1793. He commenced residence at Gonville and Caius Col- 

 lege, in October, 1833, and in January, 1837, took his degree 

 of Bachelor of Arts as Fourth Wrangler. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to say that this position, distinguished as it was, most 

 inadequately represented his mathematical power. He laboured 

 under the double disadvantage of advanced age, and of inability 

 to submit entirely to the course of systematic training needed 

 for the highest places in the Tripos. He was elected to a 

 fellowship of his College in 1839, but did not long enjoy this 

 position, as he died in 1841. The contents of the following 

 pages will sufficiently shew the heavy loss which the scientific 

 world sustained by his premature death. 



