On the Difficulty of Correct Description of Books/Editor's Note
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EDITOR'S NOTE.
Augustus De Morgan was born in 1806 and died in 1871. From 1828 to 1831, and again, from 1836 to 1866, he was professor of mathematics at University College, London. He was a prolific writer on scientific subjects, especially mathematics and logic, but published comparatively few books, the overwhelming mass of his writings being printed in scientific journals, such as the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, the Philosophical magazine, Cambridge and Dublin mathematical journal, etc. His contributions to The Athenaeum and to Notes and queries were very voluminous, so much so that when his widow was compiling a list of his writings for the Memoir which she published in 1872, she felt obliged to omit them on account of their number. For twenty-seven years, from 1831 to 1857, De Morgan contributed one article a year to the Companion to the Almanac; and of the Penny encyclopedia he wrote about one sixth.
After his death Mrs. De Morgan published Memoir of Augustus De Morgan . . . With selections from his letters. London, 1872. There are other sketches of our author in the Monthly notes of the Royal Astronomical Society for February 1872, not signed, in Encyclopedia Britannica by W. Stanley Jevons, and in the Dictionary of national biography by Leslie Stephen.
A list of such of Augustus De Morgan's writings as are of more or less interest bibliographically, follows; no attempt has been made, however, to include his contributions to The Athenaeum and to Notes and queries:
Old arguments against the motion of the earth. Comp. to the alm for 1836, p. 5-20.
Notices of English mathematical and astronomical writers between the Norman conquest and the year 1600. Comp. to the alm. for 1837, p. 21-44.
References for the history of the mathematical sciences. Comp. to the alm. for 1843, p. 40-65.
On the ecclesiastical calendar. Comp.to the alm. for 1845, p. 1-36.
On the earliest printed almanacs. Comp. to the alm. for 1846, p. 1-31.
Arithmetical books from the invention of printing to the present time being brief notices of a large number of works drawn up from actual inspection by Augustus De Morgan . . . London Taylor and Walton . . . 1847.
[2], xxviii, 124 p.; letterpress: 14½ x 8½ cm.
On the additions made to the second edition of the Commercium epistolicum. The . . . philos. mag. New and united ser. vol. xxxii, p. 446-456, June 1848.
On some points in the history of arithmetic. Comp. to the alm. for 1851, p. 5-18.
A short account of recent discoveries in England and Germany relative to the controversy on the invention of fluxions. Comp. to the alm. for 1852, p. 5-20.
On the authorship of the account of the Commercium epistolicum, published in the Philosophical transactions. The . . . philos. mag. Fourth ser. vol. iii, p. 440-444. June 1852.
On the early history of infinitesimals in England. The . . . philos. mag. Fourth ser. vol. iv, p. 321-330, Nov. 1852.
On the difficulty of correct description of books. Comp. to the alm. for 1853, p. 5-19.
The progress of the doctrine of the earth's motion, between the times of Copernicus and Galileo: being notes on the antegalilean copernicans. Comp. to the alm. for 1855, p. 5-25.
A budget of paradoxes. By Augustus De Morgan. . . . [Reprinted, with the author's additions, from the 'Athenaeum.'] . . . London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1872.
vii, 511 p. letterpress: 17½ x 10 cm.
Among the witnesses examined by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the constitution and government of the British Museum in 1847-1849 Augustus De Morgan was one of the more prominent, and his testimony contains some very interesting elucidations of bibliographical principles. It is to be found in the Report of the Commissioners . . . London, 1850, under questions 5704*-5816*, 6481-6528, and 8966-8967, being p. 375-384, 425-431, and 591-595 of the Report. Part of his testimony has been reprinted by Mr. Frank Campbell in his The theory of national and international bibliography, . . . London 1896, p. 279-291.