The Late Prof. Clifford's Papers

Abstract

IN the “Mathematical Papers” (pp. 628-37) I was able to print the syllabuses of a series of ten lectures delivered by Prof. Clifford to a class of ladies at South Kensington in the spring and summer of 1869. Whilst turning over a collection of miscellaneous papers, in a box, Mrs. Clifford and I had the good fortune to light upon a manuscript quite ready for printing, and this (“Mathematical Papers,” p. 628) subsequently formed part of the volume on “Seeing and Thinking;” but we could not find any trace of any more manuscript of the above-mentioned series of lectures. Just before the recent Easter holidays Prof. Karl Pearson returned to me a few pages of manuscript bearing on the International Scientific Series volume which I had lent him, and with them he sent me a large note book which had been in the late Prof. Rowe's hands. On opening this book I at once saw that it contained very full notes of other lectures of the course. In fact, Lecture II. (“On Plane Surfaces and Straight Lines”) is quite ready for press, as is also, I think, Lecture III. (“On the Rotation of Plane Figures”); Lecture IV. (“Of Similar Figures”) is a fragment, and still more fragmentary is Lecture V. (“The First Principles of Calculation”). Of Lecture VI. (“The Theorem of Pythagoras”) there are two loose sheets of figures: on one sheet is “the Bride's Chair,” and the figures on this and the other sheet show that my information was correct, and that the remarks on pp. 633, 637 are ad rem. As Lecture IX. (“On the Shadows of a.Circle”) is very fully illustrated in the recent volume edited by Prof. Pearson, we see that we are in possession of a fairly complete presentment of Prof. Clifford's views on the subjects of the course of lectures.