July 13, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



47 



would, perhaps, not be so useful in the 

 class-room, than the modern text-book. It 

 contains some explanation of the applica- 

 tions of conic sections to physical problems, 

 and some sections which are in the author's 

 own words 'speculative.' In 1873 he pub- 

 lished a book of 83 pages on ' The Elements 

 of Logarithms'; in 1888 a pamphlet of 67 

 pages called 'An Outline of the Elements 

 of Analytic Geometry. ' This is something 

 more than a syllabus ; it is rather a sum- 

 mary of the principles of the subject with 

 short explanations. He published several 

 books of mathematical tables, of which the 

 last, 'Mathematical Tables Chiefly to Four 

 Figures,' was published in 1879. These 

 tables are well arranged and are widely 

 used. He wrote few articles for scientific 

 periodicals, the last one being 'On Certain 

 Systems of Quaternion Expressions and on 

 the Removal of Metric Limitations from 

 the Calculus of Quaternions,' printed in 

 the Transactions of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society for October, 1904. He 

 was the author of a few other short ar- 

 ticles, one of which is 'A Rule Relating 

 to the Calendar,' which appeared in the 

 Harvard Register in 1881. He edited in 

 1881 a course of Lowell lectures given in 

 1877-8 by his father, to which he added 

 certain appendices. In the course of his 

 administrative work he wrote, as dean of 

 the graduate school and as dean of the 

 faculty, numerous reports to the president 

 of the university, remarkable for their 

 clearness and even more so for the richness 

 and dignity of his style. 



Professor Peirce was interested always 

 in the social side of mathematics. When 

 he began to teach at Harvard there was a 

 mathematical club which held weekly meet- 

 ings during the term in the lecture room 

 of Professor Benjamin Peirce in Univer- 

 sity Hall. The club was small and not 

 confined to members of the university. At 



the meetings James Peirce sometimes spoke. 

 In later years a ' Mathematical Conference, ' 

 established by the department, has held 

 fortnightly or monthly meetings, at which 

 papers were presented by the students and, 

 less often, by members of the teaching 

 force. James Peirce was usually present 

 at these meetings, attending them probably 

 oftener than any other member of the 

 faculty. Once or twice he presented 

 papers, among the last, one of great in- 

 terest on the history of mathematical teach- 

 ing in Harvard University. Two years ago 

 these conferences were discontinued, and 

 were replaced by a mathematical club to 

 which belonged both the teachers and the 

 students of mathematics. In this club, too, 

 Professor Peirce took the greatest interest, 

 and at its first meeting read a paper on 

 'The Analytic Geometry of Descartes.' 



In 1881 was founded by the teachers of 

 mathematics and physics of Harvard and 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy a club known as the M. P. Club, the 

 purpose of which was to bring together the 

 teachers and advanced students of these 

 subjects at both institutions as well as 

 other people interested, to hear and discuss 

 short papers, and to provide pleasant so- 

 cial intercourse. James Peirce was elected 

 its president, and continued to serve in 

 this office until his death. He gave the 

 club much thought and time, and took a 

 deep interest in its welfare. One meeting 

 each year was usually held at his house 

 and that meeting was generally the pleas- 

 antest of the year. Of late years he felt 

 that he had served too long as the club's 

 president, and on several occasions offered 

 his resignation, but in his own phrase, he 

 always returned to his home ' unresigned. ' 

 He was a very regular attendant and a 

 most modest and charming presiding offi- 

 cer. The first subject discussed by this 

 club was 'Can there be a discontinuous 



