Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/466

462 would fill from forty to forty-five volumes, and that the expense would be about half a million francs. As funds had been provided to cover this expense, the publication was begun, but it soon appeared that the estimates were entirely too low and that the expense would be almost twice as large as the original estimate, in view of the additional material found at various places.

The great permanent value of the works of Euler has encouraged the "Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Lausanne" to make an appeal to all mathematicians, and others interested, to join hands by means of the society mentioned above in securing the completion of this monumental publication. This society seems to be unique in the history of mathematics, but it bespeaks forcibly the spirit of cooperation which has led in recent years to much bigger mathematical undertakings than were possible in former years. The reflex action of these big undertakings on the mathematicians themselves is an element of considerable interest.

The mathematical activities to which we have directed attention in the present article were selected, in the main, on account of their special interest at the present time. The most important activities, however, are those whose permanency has secured for them a place among the fundamental elements which enter unnoticed into our intellectual life, and whose effectiveness is increased by the fact that they are not impeded by effusion. As mathematics is such an old science, the educator naturally looks to its activities with a view to predicting in some measure the future activities of the younger sciences. Hence it is especially interesting to note those activities which imply vigor, and promise for still greater achievements in the mathematical sciences.