rad (ae. 21 @ § 
a 
© pal 
‘ - 
7 
/ 
7, H. S. CARSLAW. 
scanty justice to the man whose memory we are met to 
honour. And amistake almost equally serious is that 
which we commit when we call the logarithms to the base 
e Napierean Logarithms, if, by giving them his name, we 
mean that they are in any way associated with Napier. In 
fact, the place of the number e in the theory of logarithms, 
as well as the possibility of defining logarithms as exponents, 
were discoveries of a much later date. — 
The announcement of Napier’s invention was made in 
1614. It is remarkable that before 14 years had passed, 
the logarithm tables, almost in the form in which they are 
used at the present time, had been completed and published. 
Few more far-reaching inventions have ever been made. 
Still fewer have been brought to perfection in so short a 
time. 
