Text-Book of Last Century. 29 



Divinity."* This is, to our knowledge, the first appearance 

 of algebra at Yale. President Stiles, in his diary for Novem- 

 ber 9, 1779, gives a list of books recited in the several classes 

 at his accession to the presidency. Ward's Mathematics is 

 in this list.f It thus appears that this was used as a text- 

 book at both Yale and Harvard. It was studied also at Dart- 

 mouth. At the institution, now called the University of 

 Pennsylvania, instruction was given by lectures, but Ward's 

 Mathematics was in the list of books of reference recom- 

 mended to students. 



Ward's Mathematics was once a favorite text-book in Amer- 

 can colleges. It was used as early as 1737 at Harvard and as 

 late as 1787 at Yale and Dartmouth. It was, probably, the first 

 book from which American students learned algebra. A brief 

 description of this now rare book may, therefore, be of some 

 interest to teachers of to-day. 



Ex-President D. Woolsey speaks of the author of Ward's 

 Mathematics as the Ward who was " President of Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, and Bishop of Exeter." J The only Ward 

 answering this description is Seth Ward, but I shall prove that 

 the author of the book in question is not Seth Ward, but John 

 Ward. The latter wrote a book, called " The Young Mathema- 

 tician's Guide" and a "Compendium of Algebra." The latter 

 work treated very briefly of that which was " fully handled at 

 large " in the part on algebra in the former work. We have of 

 John W^ard also a posthumous work containing a " New Method 

 of Navigation of Parallel Parts"; "Compendiums of Prac- 

 tical and Speculative Geometry and of Plane Trigonometry." 

 I have consulted several biographical dictionaries, as well as a 

 Life of Seth Ward,§ but have found no mention of a book or 

 books by him, that are called " Ward's Mathematics," or that 

 embrace those subjects that are most likely to have been taught 

 to students just entering upon the study of mathematics. The 



* Yale Biographies and Annals, 1T01-1T4.'), by Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 

 t Yale College; A sketch of its History, by William L. Kingsley, Vol. II, p. 498. 

 t Yale ColleRe; A Sketch of its History, by William L. Kingsley, Vol. II, p. 480. 

 S Life of the Right Reverend Seth, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, by Walter Pope, 1697, 

 London. 



