In the short sketch which I propose to give of the History of Mathematics in Scotland up to the end of the 18th century I must limit myself mainly to the work of the Universities. An adequate treatment of the subject would involve considerations of a general educational character that would range over the relations of the school to the University, the distribution of the various subjects of study and the place of mathematics in the educational system; but it is, of course, impossible to undertake such an extensive investigation at present, though it seems to me that an investigation, with special reference to mathematics, is greatly needed and might form the subject of a research that would be of real value as a contribution to the development of educational ideas. It would be improper, however, to omit all reference to school mathematics, since the school conditions determine, to a considerable extent, those of the University, as current discussions in Scotland clearly show, even though a sound appreciation of the relations between school and University may at times be lacking.

Introduction. The present note, though in continuation of the preceding one dealing with rational curves, is written so as to be independent of this. It is concerned to prove that if a curve of order n, and genus p, with k cusps, or stationary points, lying on a quadric, Ω, in space of any number of dimensions, is such that itself, its tangents, its osculating planes, … , and finally its osculating (h – 1)-folds, all lie on the quadric Ω, then the number of its osculating h-folds which lie on the quadric is

Two proofs of this result are given, in §§ 4 and 5.

In comparison with the general plane quartic on the one hand, and the curves having either two or three nodes on the other, the uninodal curve has been neglected. Many of its properties may of course be deduced from those of the general quartic in the limiting case when an oval shrinks to a point or when two branches approach and ultimately unite. The modifications of properties of the bitangents are shewn more clearly by Geiser's method, in which these lines are obtained by projecting the lines of a cubic surface from a point on the surface. As the point moves up to and crosses a line on the surface, the quartic acquires a node and certain pairs of bitangents obviously coincide, viz. those obtained by projecting two lines coplanar with that on which the point lies. A nodal quartic curve and its double tangents may also be obtained by projecting a cubic surface which has a conical point from an arbitrary point on the surface. Each of these three methods leads us to the conclusion that, when a quartic acquires a node, twelve of the double tangents coincide two and two and become six tangents from the node, and the other sixteen remain as genuine bitangents: the twelve which coincide are six pairs of a Steiner complex.

If L, M, N denote Prof. Study's Dual Coordinates of a straight line (see Proc. Edinburgh Math. Soc., 44 (1926), 90–97), any (homogeneous) equation F (L, M, N) = 0 must define a certain system of lines. By the nature of dual numbers we must have

where U and V are functions of l, m, n, λ, μ, ν, the ordinary (Pluckerian) coordinates. Since F = 0 implies U = 0 and V = 0 the system of lines is a congruence. But it is a congruence of a very special kind, whose nature will now be considered.

1. The cardinal function is the interpolation function

which takes the values αr at the points α + rw. Its principal properties were discovered by Professor Whittaker, amongst others that

(A) When C (x) is analysed into periodic constituents by Fourier's integral-theorem, all constituents of period less than 2w are absent.

Let R be a (1 — 1) relation between the members of two similar classes A, B1. It correlates the members of a subclass X of A to the members of a certain subclass Y of B1 and thus defines a relation ρ connecting X and Y. It is clear that ρ is a (1 – 1) relation and that it has the property (M). If X1ρ Y1, X2ρY2, then implies

In looking for a compact way of writing down the partial fraction formula in general, with repeated factors, I noticed how the expansion of a determinant by its top or bottom row suggested a method. The following gives a formula perfectly easy to write down in any given case where the factors of the denominator of the fraction are known. Incidentally it gives, as a determinant, the integral of a rational fraction f(x)/Q(x) where f(x) and Q(x) are polynomials, Q(x) having higher order.

The result of dividing the alternant |aαbβcγ…| by the simplest alternant |a0b1c2…| (the difference-product of a, b, c, …) is known to be a symmetric function expressible in two distinct ways, (1) as a determinant having for elements the elementary symmetric functions C, of a, b, c, …, (2) as a determinant having for elements the complete homogeneous symmetric functions Hr. For example

The formation of the (historically earlier) H-determinant is evident. The suffixes in the first row are the indices of the alternant; those of the other rows decrease by unit steps. This result is due to Jacobi.

§1. The Lamé Functions of degree n (where n is a positive integer) may be defined as those solutions of the equation

which are polynomials in the elliptic functions sn x, cn x, dn x of real modulus K. Such solutions only exist for certain particular values of the constant a; there are 2n + 1 such values and 2n + 1 corresponding Lamé functions.

Professor W. P. Milne has shown that if a pencil of plane cubic curves cut in two triads of points which are apolar to the members of the pencil, then the other three points of intersection also form an apolar triad to the pencil. I propose to show how to obtain a simple geometrical construction for the third apolar triad though the cubics in this case are not perfectly general. The method of approach is by means of Grassmann's construction for a cubic curve and the use of apolar theorems established for a curve described in this manner.

The standard method of establishing rigidly the tests for a maximum or minimum value of a function of two independent variables, depending as it does on the use of Taylor's Theorem and on a very critical consideration of the Remainder in that theorem, presents difficulties so considerable that it is not surprising that most text-books on the Calculus frankly decline to enter on the discussion, and assume the necessity and sufficiency of the well known Lagrange's Condition. It is the object of this paper to show that a satisfactory proof of the tests may be given, from the purely geometrical standpoint, without recourse to Taylor's Theorem. The method requires only an elementary knowledge of the process of changing the independent variables in partial derivatives, and may therefore be introduced comparatively early in the Calculus course.