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James Joseph Sylvester
Times obituary
Mr. James Joseph Sylvester, F.R.S., Hon. D.C.L. Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford, died yesterday in Hertfordshire, Mayfair, in his 83rd year. In him the scientific world of Europe has lost one of its foremost men. The region of pure mathematics in which he worked is so remote from popular study that only specialists can understand the great contributions made by him and his friend Professor Cayley, "the great twin-brethren of modern algebra," to human knowledge. Sylvester's influence was exercised partly through a series of memoirs in mathematical journals, partly by the living voice in lectures, when he developed from time to time new theories and ideas which became fruitful in his own and other minds, and gave an enormous stimulus to the study of his subject His written work is to be found in some 300 pages, the earliest of which dates from 1839, while the latest is more than half a century older. Their range was thus described by Cayley in 1889: "They relate closely to finite analysis and cover a large part of its subjects: algebras, determinants, elimination, the theory of equations, partitions, functions, the theory of forms, matrices, reciprocants, the Hamiltonian numbers, etc.: analytical and pure mathematics occupy a less prominent position, and mechanics, opties, and astronomy are in fact absent." Moving very much in the same field as Professor Cayley, he was strikingly different from him; he had neither his method nor his power of wide reading, and for want of this he often remade mathematical theories. On the other hand, he had more imaginative power. His work was done by fits and starts of sudden inspiration. His lectures, often off-subject, had the unique interest of showing the workings of a master mind, always engaged in discovery and exhibiting the processes by which it moved.
John James Sylvester, the youngest son of Abraham Joseph Sylvester, was born in London on September 3, 1814. From the Royal Institution, Liverpool, he went to St. John's College, Royal, Cambridge, and was Second Wrangler in 1887. As a Jew, he would not take his degrees nor compete for the Smith's prizes, still less obtain a Fellowship. He entered at the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1850; but he mainly dedicated himself to teaching. He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at University College, London, from 1837 to 1844, then Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia Beturning to England he gave up mathematics for a time and was on the point of taking up the profession of accountant when, through Lord Brougham's influence, he was made Professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1855. Fifteen years later he retired, but in 1877, on the foundation of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, he migrated to America as the first Professor of Mathematics in the new university. As Professor and as editor of the American Journal of Mathematics, he practically founded the study of higher mathematics in the United States. In 1883, on the death of Henry Smith, he was elected Savilian Professor of Pure Geometry in Oxford and became a Fellow of New College, where he lived a loyal and devoted member of William von Wykham's foundation. In Oxford he produced his theory of reciprocants and, through the force of his teaching and the foundation of a mathematical society, he did much for his subject. Due to the failure of his eyesight and general health, in 1893 he retired from active duty in London where he spent most of his time at the Atheneum Club. Throughout his life learned societies at home and abroad vied in doing him honours. A Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839, he received the Royal Medal in 1860, the Copley Medal in 1880, and the De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society (of which he was the current president) in 1887. He was a Fellow of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples, and of the Academy of Sciences in Boston, a Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, and of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Royal Academy of Science of Berlin, of the Lyceum of Rome, of the Istitulo Lombardo, of the Société Philomathique, and Associate of the Royal Society of Belgium. He had honorary degrees from Oxford, Debrecen, and Edinburgh, and was an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
In 1890 he published "The Laws of Verse," and the subject always had great attractions for him. Original verse and translations by him appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, the Alkenerum, the Nature, and in privately printed ly-sheets. He had a gift for language and a sense of rhythm, but though his verses had poetic quality, he was not a poet; but with characteristic simplicity he always regarded his poetical work as deserving to rank with his mathematical achievements. He was anxious over the rhythm of a sonnet as over the construction of an important mathematical formal. Sylvester always retained the secret of personal youth From the time when, as a young man, he was an enthusiastic pupil of Gounod to the day when, at 81, he took up speculations in philology and writing Latin epigrams, he showed a childlike and buoyant freshness of interest which younger men envied while they smiled at his extravagance. Detects of temper sometimes obscured his real amiability of character and seriously injured his work as a teacher. But he has left in his own writings, and in those which, directly or indirectly, are due to his inspiration, a great and permanent influence on mathematical studies.
____________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
In the memoir of Professor Sylvester in The Times of Tuesday, it is stated that he passed his degree examination at Cambridge in 1837, but being a Jew was unable to take a degree.
It is right that it should be added that he thereupon came over to Trinity College, Dublin, which was the first of the older universities to remove all religious restrictions on graduation, and obtained his first ordinary degree from us. Many years afterwards we did ourselves the honour of conferring on him a higher honorary degree.
GEORGE SALMON,
Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.
Provost's House, Dublin, March 17
Mr. James Joseph Sylvester, F.R.S., Hon. D.C.L. Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford, died yesterday in Hertfordshire, Mayfair, in his 83rd year. In him the scientific world of Europe has lost one of its foremost men. The region of pure mathematics in which he worked is so remote from popular study that only specialists can understand the great contributions made by him and his friend Professor Cayley, "the great twin-brethren of modern algebra," to human knowledge. Sylvester's influence was exercised partly through a series of memoirs in mathematical journals, partly by the living voice in lectures, when he developed from time to time new theories and ideas which became fruitful in his own and other minds, and gave an enormous stimulus to the study of his subject His written work is to be found in some 300 pages, the earliest of which dates from 1839, while the latest is more than half a century older. Their range was thus described by Cayley in 1889: "They relate closely to finite analysis and cover a large part of its subjects: algebras, determinants, elimination, the theory of equations, partitions, functions, the theory of forms, matrices, reciprocants, the Hamiltonian numbers, etc.: analytical and pure mathematics occupy a less prominent position, and mechanics, opties, and astronomy are in fact absent." Moving very much in the same field as Professor Cayley, he was strikingly different from him; he had neither his method nor his power of wide reading, and for want of this he often remade mathematical theories. On the other hand, he had more imaginative power. His work was done by fits and starts of sudden inspiration. His lectures, often off-subject, had the unique interest of showing the workings of a master mind, always engaged in discovery and exhibiting the processes by which it moved.
John James Sylvester, the youngest son of Abraham Joseph Sylvester, was born in London on September 3, 1814. From the Royal Institution, Liverpool, he went to St. John's College, Royal, Cambridge, and was Second Wrangler in 1887. As a Jew, he would not take his degrees nor compete for the Smith's prizes, still less obtain a Fellowship. He entered at the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1850; but he mainly dedicated himself to teaching. He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at University College, London, from 1837 to 1844, then Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia Beturning to England he gave up mathematics for a time and was on the point of taking up the profession of accountant when, through Lord Brougham's influence, he was made Professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1855. Fifteen years later he retired, but in 1877, on the foundation of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, he migrated to America as the first Professor of Mathematics in the new university. As Professor and as editor of the American Journal of Mathematics, he practically founded the study of higher mathematics in the United States. In 1883, on the death of Henry Smith, he was elected Savilian Professor of Pure Geometry in Oxford and became a Fellow of New College, where he lived a loyal and devoted member of William von Wykham's foundation. In Oxford he produced his theory of reciprocants and, through the force of his teaching and the foundation of a mathematical society, he did much for his subject. Due to the failure of his eyesight and general health, in 1893 he retired from active duty in London where he spent most of his time at the Atheneum Club. Throughout his life learned societies at home and abroad vied in doing him honours. A Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839, he received the Royal Medal in 1860, the Copley Medal in 1880, and the De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society (of which he was the current president) in 1887. He was a Fellow of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples, and of the Academy of Sciences in Boston, a Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, and of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Royal Academy of Science of Berlin, of the Lyceum of Rome, of the Istitulo Lombardo, of the Société Philomathique, and Associate of the Royal Society of Belgium. He had honorary degrees from Oxford, Debrecen, and Edinburgh, and was an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
In 1890 he published "The Laws of Verse," and the subject always had great attractions for him. Original verse and translations by him appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, the Alkenerum, the Nature, and in privately printed ly-sheets. He had a gift for language and a sense of rhythm, but though his verses had poetic quality, he was not a poet; but with characteristic simplicity he always regarded his poetical work as deserving to rank with his mathematical achievements. He was anxious over the rhythm of a sonnet as over the construction of an important mathematical formal. Sylvester always retained the secret of personal youth From the time when, as a young man, he was an enthusiastic pupil of Gounod to the day when, at 81, he took up speculations in philology and writing Latin epigrams, he showed a childlike and buoyant freshness of interest which younger men envied while they smiled at his extravagance. Detects of temper sometimes obscured his real amiability of character and seriously injured his work as a teacher. But he has left in his own writings, and in those which, directly or indirectly, are due to his inspiration, a great and permanent influence on mathematical studies.
____________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
In the memoir of Professor Sylvester in The Times of Tuesday, it is stated that he passed his degree examination at Cambridge in 1837, but being a Jew was unable to take a degree.
It is right that it should be added that he thereupon came over to Trinity College, Dublin, which was the first of the older universities to remove all religious restrictions on graduation, and obtained his first ordinary degree from us. Many years afterwards we did ourselves the honour of conferring on him a higher honorary degree.
GEORGE SALMON,
Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.
Provost's House, Dublin, March 17
