Report on the Study of Mathematics on the Continent of Europe (An Old Book)

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During my recent visit to the United Kingdom, I met Prof. Grattan-Guinness of Middlesex Polytechnic. While discussing with him, he disclosed that a galley proof of the Report On the Study of Mathematics on the Continent of Europe in the early part of the 20th century written by W. H. Young, Sc.D., F.R.S., formerly Hardinge Professor of Pure Mathematics, Calcutta University, might be available from his daughter Prof. R. C. H. Tanner Young. I thought as a document this report would be of great interest to the academicians throughout the world. I met Mrs. Tanner and requested her to hand over the report prepared by her father Prof. Young on behalf of the Calcutta. University. She expressed her great satisfaction at this proposal and immediately handed over the copy to me. Later on Prof. Guinness and Prof. Tanner were kind enough to write an introduction to this book.

The Syndicate of the Calcutta University had asked Prof. Gaston Darbouse, the doyen of French mathematicians, to suggest a suitable person to found the new department of Pure Mathematics. At this suggestion Prof. W. H. Young was appointed the first Hardinge Professor of Pure Mathematics in August 1913, at a salary of $1,000 per year.

After sometime the Senate and the Syndicate of the Calcutta University decided to accord the necessary facilities to Prof. Young to tour Europe for the purpose of completing and renovating his knowledge of academic matters on the content. Later on this tour was extended to other countries such as America, China and Japan. On his return he submitted this report which the University wanted to publish immediately. By the time the galley proof was ready. Prof. Young left Calcutta University to accept an assignment in the University of Wales. The proof was sent to him but this matter was not further pursued. In 1913 an unfortunate controversy arose between the Syndicate headed by the Vice-Chancellor Asutosh Mookerjee and Mr. Bampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam in regard to the affairs of a school. The Lieutenant-Governor even threatened to resign the Chancellorship of the University. Controversy with the Government of India arose in regard to three appointments to the postgraduate department of Arts.

Thus did the woes of the University begin. Inspite of great financial handicaps, Sri Asutosh was firm to develop the Post-Graduate teaching and research in the University. On 27th September, 1913, he gave an account, before the Senate, of the teaching arrangement in the Post-Graduate departments of Arts and Science. In his statement he specially mentioned Professor Young, a fellow of the Royal Society of England as the Hardinge Professor of Pure Mathematics. He was not only keen to appoint him but also he was responsible for sending him to various countries in order to develop the newly founded department of Pure Mathematics inspite of acute financial stringencies.

This clearly shows the vision of Sir Asutosh for establishing the Post-Graduate teaching and research in the University. Before I conclude I record my most sincere thanks to Prof. Guinness and Prof. Tanner for their interest in this matter and to Shri Arun Roy, Registrar, Calcutta University without whose active help it would have been impossible to publish this book.

This book contains the text of a report on the teaching of university mathematics in Europe and elsewhere, prepared by William Henry Young (1862-1943). The circumstances of its preparation have been described in detail elsewhere.' Therefore we need recall here only the principal points.

Young and his wife Grace (1868-1944) formed one of the most productive partnerships in the history of mathematics.2 During nearly thirty years of collaboration they produced between them three books and over two hundred research papers, chiefly in the foundations and applications of mathematical analysis.3 However, this book is related not to their creative work but to Young's career as a professional mathematician. In this career he was less successful than in his research, for he obtained only a few appointments, each one for short periods. One of these jobs was as the first Hardinge Professor of Mathematics at the University of Calcutta. He took up his appointment in the autumn of 1913, and soon realised that the creation of a department of mathematics at Calcutta, and the development of university mathematics `elsewhere in India, was hampered by the authorities' lack of experience and acquaintance with the problems involved.

So he proposed to Lord Hardinge (the Viceroy of India) that the University finance visits by him to Universities in Europe and elsewhere, so that he could obtain at first-hand information on the conditions prevailing there. The proposal was accepted, but the start of the First World War in the Autumn of 1914 prevented the visits and hindered the preparation of the report.

Eventually he made one trip to Japan and America in 1915, and another during 1.916 which included some European countries. He obtained other information from correspondence with prominent mathematicians of his acquaintance and from recent publications of the International Commission on Mathematical Education. In the case of England, he drew on his personal experience. He seems to have written up the report during 1916; but for health and other reasons he terminated his appointment at Calcutta in 1917. The report did not advance beyond the set of printed and partially corrected galleys which he kept among his papers. One of us, R. C. H. Tanner, the Youngs' eldest daughter, has been responsible for the preservation and organisation of their collective papers since their death, including the annotated set of galleys of the report. It is from these galleys that this book has been edited for publication under the direction of Professor Bose.

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