SIR W. R. HAMILTON AND PROFESSOR SYLVESTER. TO THE EDITOR
OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In the very interesting review of Volume II. of Mr. R. P. Graves's " Life of Sir W. R. Hamilton," is one assertion which is likely to mislead, and does an injustice to one of the greatest of living mathematicians. It is stated that the torch which Hamilton lighted has been carried onward by Kelland, Tait, and nine others, including, of course, Professor Cayley. The name which, on this roll, is "conspicuous by its absence," is that of Professor Sylvester, who has not only carried onward that torch, but, exceeding all that has been done by the eleven put together, has blown that torch into a conflagration, and kindled a bonfire which illuminates the whole range of mathe- matical analysis. By showing that the calculus of Quaternions falls into a corner of the great Theory of Matrices, Sylvester has, once for all, assigned its true place in Universal Algebra, of which it is but a geometrical application.—I am, Sir, &v., C. M. INGLEBY.
United Service Club, S.W., September 1st.
[We acknowledge at once the justice of Mr. Ingleby's cor- rection.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
