Trin. Coll. Cambridge
Oct 12. 1835
My dear Sir
If you apply <1> to [illegible deletion] Prof. Phillips, <2> York, who is our perpetual assistant Secretary to the British Assocn you will learn whether your name is at present on the list, and what sums are due from you to the Assocn. If you are not at present a member there will be no difficulty in your becoming one when we troop together at Bristol, <3> and if you make known your intention to your friends at Bristol, it may of [sic] use as an encouragement to them in making their arrangements for the reception of the body, as some local force is of course desirable –
At the last meeting at Dublin we voted a certain sum to be applied under direction of Prof Hamilton, <4> to the trial of Mr Jarrard’s solution <5> of equations in some numerical cases: which is I think the best way of learning whether the method is of any value. I am glad to hear that you are employed still in mathematical speculations, and shall be glad to see any of your labours on all occasions – Do you know an article on [illegible] ( I think [illegible]/ a paper on the rationalisation of Integrals by Sir Edward Bromhead? <6> It is in the Phil. Mem. for 1816, but is not likely to be similar to what you are doing –
Believe me my dear Sir Yours very faithfully
W. Whewell
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. This letter is a reply to WHFT’s Doc. No: 05515.
2. Prof John Phillips (1800–1874), BAAS founder & geologist.
3. The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Bristol began on 22 August 1836.
4. Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865), Irish mathematician.
5. George Jerrard (1804–1863) mathematician, generalized Erland Bring’s 1786 reduction of a quintic equation to show that a transformation could be applied to an equation of a degree of n to remove several of the terms. It is believed that he knew nothing of Bring’s reduction, and the removal of terms was not considered to be an adequate solution of the problem of equations above the quadratic.
6. Sir Edward Thomas Bromhead (1789–1855), mathematician.