Mathematical Treasure: Peacock's Treatise on Algebra

George Peacock (1791–1858) was an English mathematician and mathematics reformer. Together with his Cambridge classmates John Herschel and Charles Babbage, he founded the Analytical Society, a group of young mathematicians intent on bringing continental calculus to the British Isles. Peacock is especially well known for his attempts to make algebra into a deductive science. He put forth his ideas in his Treatise on Algebra (1830). Many consider Peacock’s theories to foreshadow the development of modern abstract algebra.

In the Preface, Peacock discussed his concepts for algebra. (Peacock’s Preface can also be read at the MacTutor History of Mathematics website.)

The first page of text opens with a listing of definitions.

The images above were obtained from the Internet Archive's digitization of the copy owned by Stanford University.

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