July 13, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



43 



mores were not required to study mathe- 

 matics. Under the administration of Presi- 

 dent Eliot the elective system developed 

 rapidly, but no further change in the 

 mathematical requirement appears until 

 1884, when the freshman requirement was 

 dropped. From the autumn of that year 

 the study of mathematics in Harvard Col- 

 lege has been wholly elective. Just what 

 part James Peirce played in the develop- 

 ment of the elective system is uncertain. 

 He was active always for the freeing of 

 students from restrictions, and for any 

 movement which seemed to him likely to 

 promote true scholarship. He was an ad- 

 vocate of the elective system, and was al- 

 ways, in the faculty, a staunch supporter 

 of every step in the direction of greater 

 liberty to the student. 



He was absent from Cambridge from 

 1859 to 1861. In 1861 he returned to the 

 university as assistant professor of mathe- 

 matics. In the previous year Mr. Eliot 

 had been made assistant professor of mathr 

 ematics, but in this year he was called to 

 take charge of the work of the scientific 

 school. The mathematical teachers in Har- 

 vard College were then Professor Benja- 

 min Peirce, James Peirce and a single 

 tutor, Solomon Lincoln. In the courses of 

 instruction offered in that year the only 

 change from the list of 1853 is the addi- 

 tion of an elective in quaternions, given by 

 the elder Peirce, 



In 1863, at the request of a number of 

 professors, the corporation ordered that — 



The president, with the (full) professors in all 

 departments of the university, be authorized to 

 meet and associate themselves in one body for the 

 consideration of its educational interests, and for 

 the arrangement of such courses of lectures as 

 may be thought expedient for the benefit of the 

 members of the professional schools, graduates of 

 this or other colleges, teachers of the public schools 

 of the commonwealth, and other persons. 



This body was known as the university 

 senate. The establishment of the senate 



laid the foundation of the graduate school, 

 in the development of which James Peirce, 

 though not a member of the senate, played 

 a prominent part. This body instituted 

 various courses of 'university lectures,' 

 including, in the words of James Peirce, 

 'many of high value and interest in all de- 

 partments of learning.' These courses 

 were generally short, consisting each of 

 not more than five or six lectures. In 

 1863-4, the first year of the lectures, three 

 courses were given on mathematical sub- 

 jects: 'The Theory of Space developed by 

 Quaternions' and 'The Connection of the 

 Physical and Mathematical Sciences,' by 

 Benjamin Peirce, and 'Special Investiga- 

 tions in Dynamics,' by William Watson. 

 In the following year these courses were 

 repeated with the addition of a fourth on 

 'Determinants' by James Oliver. Appar- 

 ently the courses in mathematics did not 

 meet with a very cordial reception, for in 

 the third year only one mathematical 

 course was offered, 'The Development of 

 the Universe,' by Benjamin Peirce. In- 

 deed, it may be supposed that this course 

 was philosophical as much as mathematical. 

 In 1866-7 this course was repeated, and 

 Thomas Hill, the president of the univer- 

 sity, gave courses on 'Methods of Teaching 

 Elementary Mathematics,' and on 'A Con- 

 stant Product.' In 1867-8 Benjamin 

 Peirce gave for the first time a course of 

 university lectures on 'Linear Calculus.' 

 It is probable that this course dealt with 

 the linear associative algebras invented and 

 developed by him. In that year James 

 Oliver gave a course on ' Geometry of Three 

 Dimensions.' In the following year there 

 were no courses of university lectures in 

 mathematics, but in the catalogue of the 

 scientific school, which was at that time an 

 institution especially intended for advanced 

 study and research, is printed this note: 

 ' Private instruction in the various branches 



