QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 73
educational trend was duplicated elsewhere in the world. During his Italian cam-
paign Napoleon founded the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, which reopened in
1843 after a long hiatus. In Russia a university opened along with the Petersburg
Academy of Sciences in 1726, and the University of Moscow was founded a genera-
tion later (1755) with the aim of producing qualified professionals. It was not until
the nineteenth century, however, that the faculty in Moscow began to engage in
research. The University of Stockholm opened in 1878 with aims similar to those
of the institutions just named. In Japan an office of translations was opened in the
Shogunate Observatory in 1811. It was renamed the Institute for the Study of For-
eign Books in 1857 and became the home of a department of Western mathematics
in 1863, taking on two Dutch faculty members in 1865. By 1869 only Western
mathematics was being taught, and the teaching was being done by French and
British teachers.
7.2. Mathematical societies. Another aspect of the professionalization of math-
ematics was the founding of professional societies to supplement the activities of the
mathematical sections in academies of sciences. The oldest of these is the Moscow
Mathematical Society (founded in 1864). The London Mathematical Society was
founded in 1866, the Japanese Mathematical Society in 1877. The American Math-
ematical Society (originally the New York Mathematical Society) was founded in
1888 and the Canadian Mathematical Society in 1945.
7.3. Journals. These educational institutions and professional societies also pub-
lished their own research journals, such as the Journal de I'Ecole Polytechnique
and the Journal de I 'Ecole Normale Superieure. These journals contained some of
the most profound research of the nineteenth century. Other nations soon emulated
the French. The German Journal fur die reine und angewandte Mathematik was
founded by August Leopold Crelle (1780-1855) in 1826. Informally, it is still called
Crelle's Journal. The Italian Annali di scienze matematiche e fisiche appeared
in 1850; the Moscow Mathematical Society began publishing the Matematicheskii
Sbornik (Mathematical Collection) in 1866; the Swedish Acta mathematica was
founded in 1881. By the end of the nineteenth century there were mathemati-
cal research journals in every European country, in North America, and in Japan.
The first American research journal, The American Journal of Mathematics, was
founded at Johns Hopkins University in 1881 with the British mathematician J.J.
Sylvester as its principal editor, assisted by the American William Edward Story.
The first issue of The Canadian Journal of Mathematics was dated 1949.
Questions and problems
3.1. Compare the way in which mathematicians have been supported in various
societies discussed in this chapter. If you were in charge of distributing the federal
budget, how high a priority would you give to various forms of pure and applied
research in mathematics? What justification would you give for your decision?
Would it involve a practical "payoff" in economic terms, or do you believe that
the government has a responsibility to support the creation of new mathematics,
without regard to its economic value?
3.2. Why is Seki Kowa the central figure in Japanese mathematics? Are compar-
isons between him and his contemporary Isaac Newton justified?
