A MATHEMATICAL TEXT-BOOK OF THE LAST 

 CENTURY. 



BY FLOEIAN CAJORI. 



In the early days of Harvard and Yale, mathematics (includ- 

 ing arithmetic, geometry and surveying) was studied during the 

 last year in college and was, seemingly, looked upon as being a 

 crowning pinnacle rather than a foundation • stone of college 

 education. Algebra was an unknown science to the early stu- 

 dents of Harvard and Yale. The exact date when it began to 

 be taught it is difficult to ascertain, but it appears that Harvard 

 existed about 100 and Yale 40 years before algebra came to be a 

 part of their respective college courses. 



At William and Mary College in Virginia, it was taught ear- 

 lier than at either of the two oldest New England colleges. 

 Hugh Jones was one of the early mathematical professors there. 

 In his book, "The Present State of Virginia," published in 

 1724, he gives a list of the school-books which he wrote, men- 

 tioning among others, " Accidence to the Mathematick, espec- 

 ially to the Arithmetick in all its parts and applications, Alge- 

 bra, Geometry, Surveying of Land, and Navigation." These 

 were not printed, but existed only in manuscript, and were very 

 short and elementary. Jones's history shows that algebra was 

 taught at William and Mary before 1724. 



At Harvard algebra was not taught in 1700, for Rev. John 

 Barnard, who graduated that year, states in his autobiography 

 that he was " an utter stranger to " this science, though he had 

 some familiarity with geometry and trigonometry.* Wad- 

 worth's Diary (p. 27) gives the mathematical studies for 1726, 

 but algebra is not mentioned. No conclusive evidence has, in 



* Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. XXVII, p. 540, 1877. 



