TUTOR'S ASSISTANT; BEING A COMPENDIUM OF ARITHMETIC, AND A COMPLETE QUESTION-BOOK FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. BY FRANCIS WALKINGAM A New and Emproved Edition, TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN APPENDIX ON THE DECIMAL COINAGE. By J. R. YOUNG, LATE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, BELFAST COLLEGE. LONDON: G. ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET; 1855. 181. c. 60. PREFACE. THE work of which a new and improved edition is here presented to the public, has for nearly a hundred years enjoyed an amount of favour from Schoolmasters and Teachers far surpassing that which any other book on ARITHMETIC has ever received. It is of importance, therefore, in a performance of such universal acceptance, and exercising such extensive influence in the machinery of education, that sound principles should be inculcated throughout. If error be anywhere taught, it becomes, in so far as the error prevails, an instrument of mischief rather than of good. In all the editions that have been consulted during the preparation of the present one, what is, perhaps, the most important rule in arithmetic-the Rule of Three-is based upon erroneous views of the doctrine of proportion. It is true that by one wrong step opposing and counteracting another, the influence of both is in the end neutralized, and the correct result arrived at; but nothing can justify a departure from scientific accurary in a book on arithmetic; and the method alluded to is opposed equally to the true principles of science and to the dictates of common sense: the blemish is removed in the present edition. Besides this necessary modification in the mode of stating a question in the Rule of Three-and which is introduced throughout, wherever proportion is concerned,-a new rule has been inserted, for the more easy management of examples in the Double Rule of Three, or Compound Proportion; and many other improvements and simplifications will be found to have been supplied in different parts of the work, in Geometrical Progression, for instance, pp. 87-8, and in what concerns Interest and Annuities. But as to plan, and arrangement, and practical illustration by examples, Walkingame has been substantially untouched. It is certainly overstepping his province for an editor to replace his author's work by his own, except in so far as the removal of errors and obscurities may justify it. The purchasers of "Walkingame's Arithmetic" have surely a right to something more of the author than his title-page; and yet in some editions all resemblance to the original book, excepting the title-page, is obliterated. The editions upon which the present is more especially based, are the fifteenth and twenty-first, both by Walkingame himself the latter bears date 1785. This and all the intermediate editions are merely reprints of the fifteenth. The book is more especially valuable for its copious variety of examples, and extensive range of subjects; and, in its present more modernized, improved, and corrected form, it is hoped that it may continue to sustain the character it has so long possessed, as a favourite school-book of practical arithmetic. THE Publishers take this opportunity to announce that it is their intention to supply a simple and easy COURSE OF MATHEMATICS, adapted to School purposes, as well as for the instruction of those who may be preparing for the Universities, for the Naval or Military professions, or for Mechanical and Engineering pursuits. The work will be comprised in three volumes, printed in the same type as that now before the reader; and as it is intended to render each volume complete in itself, they will be published, and may be purchased, separately. The range of subjects will be pretty nearly co-extensive with that of Hutton's Course, as enlarged by Dr. Gregory-a work, the wide circulation of which, in numerous editions, largely contributed to awaken that taste for scientific pursuits, and to stimulate that spirit of inquiry, the practical results of which are developing themselves in our own day. The treatment of these subjects however, will, in many respects, be different: the latest improvements will be introduced, and the antiquated notation, in certain parts of Hutton, abandoned. It is intended to publish the first volume, to contain the principles of ALGEBRA and TRIGONOMETRY, with their practical applications, early in January, 1855, and the second and third volumes at intervals of three months: the number of pages in each will be about 224, and the price as low as possible. The Publishers conceive that there is need of a work of this kind: at all events they feel that they are not infringing upon pre-occupied ground. There exists no School Course of theoretical and practical Mathematics at present. They have only to add, that the preparation of the Course is committed to Professor Young: those who are acquainted with his mathematical writings can form an opinion as to how the work will be executed. Farringdon Street, September, 1854. |