295 
of Wednesday, January 15, 14 to 4, was set as an example of 
discontinuity introduced into a problem in a way somewhat 
different, I think, from any of those discussed in Mr Todhunter’s 
essay’. In some of Mr Todhunter’s cases the discontinuity 
was involved or its possibility implied in the statement of the 
problem, as when a curve is precluded from transgressing the. 
boundary of a given region, or where its curvature must not 
be negative. In the case of figures of revolution considered as 
generated by a plane curve revolving about a line in its plane, 
this forms a boundary of the region within which the curve 
must lie, and therefore often forms part of the curve required for 
the solution. | 
In the problem now before us there is no discontinuity in 
the statement, and it is introduced into the problem by the 
continuous change of the co-efficients of a certain equation as 
we pass along the curve. At a certain point the two roots of 
this equation which satisfy the minimum condition coalesce 
with each other and with a maximum root. Beyond this point 
the root which formerly indicated a maximum indicates a, 
minimum, and the other two roots become impossible. | 
New Fellow elected: A. Freeman, M.A., St John’s College. 
February 17, 1878. 
The PRESIDENT (PROFESSOR HumpHRY) in the Chair. 
(1) On the name “ Odusseus” signifying “ setting sun,” 
and the Odyssey as a Solar Myth. By Mr Patsy. 
This shewed that the name of Odysseus or Ulysses was 
more probably connected with Suopevos Hduos, “setting sun,” 
than with éréyos, “dwarf.” It was shewn that all the details 
1 Researches in the Calculus of Variations, dc. 
