28 Colorado College Studies. 



fact, been found that algebra was studied at Harvard before 

 1786. A diary kept by a student in that year makes it certain 

 that it was taught then.* It is exceedingly probable, however, 

 that this branch had been part of the college course for at least 

 fifty years preceding this date. Peirce, in his history of Har- 

 vard (p. 237), says that in the early part of the presidency of 

 Dr. Holyoke (1737-1769), "and probably many years before," 

 the text-books were the following: Ward's Mathematics, Grave- 

 sand's Philosophy, Euclid's Geometry. Now, Ward's Mathe- 

 matics contained a chapter on algebra, as we shall see j)res- 

 ently. But that in itself can hardly be considered conclusive 

 proof that algebra was taught then. Ward's mathematics may 

 have been studied only in parts. It contained, for instance, a 

 chapter on geometry, but the regular text-book in that subject, 

 Peirce tells us, was Euclid and not Ward. 



At Yale, algebra was probably introduced in 1742. Our rea- 

 sons for this belief are as follows: In a memoir of Samuel 

 Hopkins, who was a Yale graduate of 1741, it is stated that when 

 he was a student, metaphysics and mathematics found their 

 place in the fourth year.f This statement agrees with what 

 we know of the earliest course of study at Yale, in which 

 mathematics was taught only in the Senior year, and which 

 embraced arithmetic, geometry, surveying, and astronomy. 

 So long as mathematics was not taught earlier in the course, 

 it is not likely that algebra was added. The addition of 

 algebra to the four mathematical subjects already enumera- 

 ted would make the amount of the year's work in mathe- 

 matics incredibly great. It is not likely, then, that alge- 

 bra was studied before 1741 at Y^ale. But in 1742 we wit- 

 ness a complete revolution in the course of study. In that year 

 the rector advises students to pursue a regular course of 

 academic studies in the following order: " In the first year to 

 study principally the Tongues, Arithmetick, and Algebra; the 

 second. Logic, Ehetoric, and Geometry; the third, Mathema- 

 ticks and Natural Philosophy; and the fourth, Ethics and 



*01d Cambridge and New, by Amory: North American Revieic, Vol. lU, 1872, p. 118. 

 tProf. E. A. Park s Memoir of Samuel Hopkins, Second Edition, p. 13. 



