8CIEKTIFIC NEWS. 7^ 



The annual publication called the Ladies Diary or information . 

 ^yma«'*^/»»anacA:, has every year, lor upwards of a century, '^^"fj^g'^jj^'J' * 

 contained a certain number of matliematical problem?, to be writers of the 



answered in the Diary of the foilosving year. The publics- n»athematicai 

 ■' ,11 • questions and 



tion of these has answered several valuable purposes; >n their answers 

 particular it has awakened the attention of many to the \nt\\Q Ladies 

 study of the ujathematical sciences, who would not other- 

 wise have thought of them: the questions have served to ex- 

 ercise the ingenuity, and call forth the exertions of young 

 mathematicians, some of whom have in time arrived at great 

 Eminence, as cultivators of mathematical learning: and, 

 lastly, the work has served as a repository for the preserva- 

 tion of many curious mathematical disquisitions, which, but 

 for this mode of publication, would never have been known 

 to the world. 



The beneficial influence, which the Lady's Diary has 

 exerted upon the state of mathematical science in this 

 country, has been long felt and acknowledged ; and has 

 been particularly noticed by the writer of that very valuable 

 analysis of the Mecanique celeste, given in the Edinburgh 

 Review. Speaking of the comparative state of mathemati- 

 cal knowledge in England and on the Continent, he says : 

 •' A certain degree of mathematical science, and indeed no 

 inconsiderable degree, is perhaps more widely diffused in 

 England than in any other country in the world. The 

 Ladies Diary, with several other periodical and popular 

 publications, are the best proofs of this assertion. In these 

 many curious problems, not of the highest order indeed, 

 but still having a considerable degree of difficulty, and far 

 beyond the mere elements of science, are often to be met 

 with. And the great number of ingenious men, who take a 

 share in proposing and answering these questions, whom 

 one has never heard of any where else, is not a little 

 surprising. Nothing of the same kind we believe is to be 

 found in any other country. — The geometrical part has al- 

 ways been conducted in a superior style; the problems 

 proposed have tended to awaken curiosity, and th^ 

 solutions to convey instruction in a much better manner, 

 than is always to be found in more splendid publications." 

 —(See Edin. Rev, vol. Xf, p. 282, 



