September 29, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



465 



quire that pamphlets of laboratory instructions 

 be in general published in three languages, 

 and it would appear that the most advantage- 

 ous phvn would be to use a three-column page 

 — with a polyglot repetition of all material 

 always before each student. This program 

 (as to the absolute novelty of which no ade- 

 quate investigation has been made) would at 

 least soon enable the men to use one selected 

 foreign language for scientific purposes, and it 

 would at the same time invite a cursory ac- 

 quaintance with another. 



Those students taking, e. g., French and 

 physics, would, of course, on this basis, meet 

 for laboratory work in physics separately from 

 those taking German and physics ; but the plan 

 would seem worthy of trial even if it were 

 found impracticable to hire as laboratory as- 

 sistants in all the respective sciences mainly 

 men capable of fluently speaking French or 

 German. The plan could of course be intro- 

 duced in an experimental way in connection 

 with but one science and but one of the mod- 

 ern languages. Bert Russell 



Washington, D. C. 



SYLVESTER AND CAYLEY 



On page 484 of the third edition of Ball's 

 " Short Account of the History of Mathe- 

 matics " occurs the sentence : 



He [Sylvester] too was educated at Cambridge, 

 and while there formed a life-long friendship with 

 Cayley. 



The two words " while there " seem inad- 

 vertently to have slipped in. Without them, 

 Ball's sentence states two facts. With them, 

 it seems capable of the paraphrase, 



Cayley and Sylvester were students at Cam- 

 bridge at the same time and formed then a lifelong 

 friendship. 



Both of these statements are errors, and 

 readily proved erroneous. Thus in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society, May 9, 1898, 

 page xii, we read: 



In 1831, at the age of seventeen, Sylvester was 

 entered at St. John's College, Cambridge. He 

 came out first in his first year. 



In the same Proceedings, July 13, 1895, page 

 ii, we read of Cayley: 



Accordingly, he went to Cambridge. He was 

 entered at Trinity College on 2d May, 1838, as a 

 pensioner, and began residence in the succeeding 

 October at the unusually early age of seventeen. 



He thus entered Cambridge at the same age 

 as Sylvester, seventeen, but seven long years 

 after him, and Sylvester had previously de- 

 parted forever, never again to reside in Cam- 

 bridge. 



In the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 

 Vol. LXIII., ]STo. 393, page xii, we read of 

 Sylvester : 



He pursued his studies till January, 1837, when 

 he came out Second Wrangler. Being unwilling to 

 sign the Thirty-nine Articles, he was unable to take 

 a degree, to obtain a Fellowship, or to compete 

 for one of the Smith 's prizes. On the death of 

 Dr. Ritchie in the same year he became a candi- 

 date for the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the 

 London University College. He was appointed to 

 the Chair at University College in the session 

 1837-38. He had some difficulty in drawing dia- 

 grams on the black-board to illustrate his lectures. 



Sylvester left London for America to accept 

 a professorship in the University of Virginia, 

 but in 1844, when the foundations of the 

 theory of invariants had been laid by Boole, 

 Sylvester was back in London. For years he 

 resided at 28 Lincoln's Inn Fields. 



In the Proceedings, LVIIL, No. 347, p. vi, 

 we read of Cayley : 



He was unwilling to take holy orders. In con- 

 sequence, it became necessary to choose some pro- 

 fession. Cayley selected the law, left Cambridge 

 in 1846, entered at Lincoln's Inn. 



And on page viii : 



It can hardly be that 2, Stone Court, proved an 

 inspiration to mathematical researcn. 



Thus separately thrown upon the rocky 

 courts of the law, and by the same cause, the 

 religious disbarments of Cambridge, the two 

 were brought together. The biography in 

 Sylvester's Collected Works feelingly refers to 

 their fateful meeting. The ensuing union of 

 their congenial and complementary minds en- 

 dured without break. 



Sylvester presented the first of Cayley's 

 series of Royal Society Papers, and, inversely, 

 Sylvester told me that if he wanted to know 

 anything, he asked Cayley. In the Proceed- 



