ARITHMETIC. IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES OF OPERATING BY NUMBERS ARE ANALYTICALLY EXPLAINED AND SYNTHETICALLY APPLIED. ILLUSTRATED BY COPIOUS EXAMPLES DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. BY DANIEL ADAMS, M. D., AUTHOR OF THE SCHOLAR'S ARITHMETIC, SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY. ETC. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY ROBERT B. COLLINS. HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of New Hampshire PREFACE. THE "Scho ar's Arithmetic," by the author of the present work, was first published in 1801. The great favor with which it was received is an evidence that it was adapted to the wants of schools at the time. At a subsequent period the analytic method of instruction was applied to arithmetic, with much ingenuity and success, by our late lamented Countryman, WARREN COLBURN. This was the great improvement in the modern method of teaching arithmetic. The author then yielded to the solicitations of numerous friends of education, and prepared a work combining the analytic with the synthetic method, which was published in 1827, with the title of " Adams' New Arithmetic." Few works ever issued from the American press have acquired so great popularity as the "New Arithmetic." It is almost the only work on arithmetic used in extensive sections of New England. It has been re-published in Canada, and adapted to the currency of that province. It has been translated into the language of Greece, and published in that country. It has found its way into every part of the United States. In the state of New York, for example, it is the text-book in ninetythree of the one hundred and fifty-five academies, which reported to the regents of the University in 1847. And, let it be remarked, it has secured this extensive circulation solely by its merits. Teachers, superintendents, and committees have adopted it because they have found it fitted to its purpose, not because hired agents have made unfair representations of its merits, and, of the defects of other works, seconding their arguments by liberal pecuniary offers a course of dealing recently introduced, as unfair as it is injurious to the cause of education. The merits of the "New Arithmetic" have sustained it very successfully against such exertions. Instances are indeed known, in which it has been thrown out of schools on account of the "liberal offers" of those interested in other works, but has subsequently been readopted without any efforts from its publishers or author. The "New Arithmetic" was the pioneer in the field which it has occupied. It is not strange, then, that teachers should find defects and deficiencies in it which they would desire to see removed, though they might not think that they would be profited by exchanging it for any other work. The repeated calls of such have induced the author to undertake a revision, in which labor he would present acknowledgments to numerous friends for important and valuable suggestions. Mr. J. HOMER FRENCH, of Phelps, N. Y., well known as a teacher, has been engaged with the author in this revision, and has rendered important aid. Mr. W. B. BUNNELL, also, principal of Yates Academy, N. Y., formerly principal of an academy in Vermont, has assisted throughout the work, having prepared many of the articles. The revision after Percentage is mostly his work. |