Abstract
George Peacock's A Treatise on Algebra of 1830, contained in its preface the first published recognition that Algebra need not necessarily be always associated with Arithmetic, and that non-arithmetical Algebras were possible. The work also contains the first statement of Peacock's principle of the permanence of equivalent forms. It is shown in this paper that Charles Babbage had all these ideas in almost identical or superior form in an unpublished work The Philosophy of Analysis written in 1821. Peacock certainly had access to his friend Babbage's writings, and the suggestion is made of unconscious assimilation rather than deliberate plagiarism.
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