ELEMENTS OF ALGEBRA

on the basis of

M. Bourdon

embracing Sturm's and Horner's

theorems and practical examples

by

Charles Davies

A. S. Barnes & Burr

New York

PREFACE

THE Treatise on Algebra, by M. Bourdon, is a work of singular excellence and merit. In France, it has long been one of the standard Text books. Shortly after its first publication, it passed through several editions, and has formed the basis of every subsequent work on the subject of Algebra, both in Europe and in this country.

The original work is, however, a full and complete treatise on the subject of Algebra, the later editions containing about eight hundred pages octavo. The time which is given to the study of Algebra, in this country, even in those seminaries where the course of mathematics is the fullest, is too short to accomplish so voluminous a work, and hence it has been found necessary either to modify it essentially, or to abandon it altogether.

In the following work, the original Treatise of Bourdon has been regarded only as a model. The order of arrangement, in many parts, has been changed; new rules and new methods have been introduced: the modifications indicated by its use, for twenty years, as a text book