HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

47130

GREENLEAF'S

MATHEMATICAL SERIES.

INDUCTIVE COURSE.

FIRST LESSONS IN NUMbers.

A BRIEF COURSE IN ARITHMETIC.

THE COMPLETE ARITHMETIC.

The BRIEF COURSE and the COMPLETE ARITHMETIC are
each published with and without answers.

KEY TO THE COMPLETE ARITHMETIC, for Teachers only.
(In preparation.)

COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY HENRY B. MAGLATHLIN.

UNIVERSITY PRESS:

JOHN WILSON AND SON, Cambridge.

PREFACE.

THIS Arithmetic, undertaken at the suggestion of many educators of distinction, has been prepared with special reference to training for practical business, and to development of mind power through fixed habits of attention and lucid processes of reasoning.

To secure skill, rapidity, and accuracy in the use of numbers, required in common transactions, a large number of comparatively simple business questions has been provided, and prominence has been given to subjects of the most practical value.

That useful mental discipline may be attained the theory and principles of numbers have been clearly presented, and problems have been given requiring thought and discrimination.

The inductive plan has been followed throughout, principles have been developed from methods, rules derived from analyses, and oral and written exercises combined in a rational manner.

The greatest care has been observed to have the definitions brief, clear, and accurate, and the solutions simple, concise, and logical.

The methods employed are those which business experience, or test in the school-room, has shown to be the best.

Decimals to three places, and United States money, are simply treated at the beginning with integers.

The problems are abundant and varied, based on recent and reliable data, and drawn from the actual experiences of life. In

commercial arithmetic the usages of the best business houses have been followed.

Several hundred examples which have been used in examinations by superintendents of public instruction in various cities and towns leading in educational matters, have been collected, and arranged as exercises for testing proficiency, and for supplementary practice, to be drawn from at the teacher's discretion.

Much matter formerly considered necessary in an arithmetic, but which modern progress has rendered useless or antiquated, has been omitted.

The Appendix contains tables for reference; information of a somewhat technical nature for the business man, the mechanic, and the farmer; subjects of minor importance to the majority of pupils; and rules and applications not needed in the body of the work.

Indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged to school superintendents of various cities and towns for examination papers and valuable suggestions; to the Metric Bureau for information and cuts; to Boston Custom-House officials for copies of invoices ; to the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and to various college authorities, for entrance test-papers to be found in the Appendix.

Credit is due to all the able teachers who have aided, during the past three years, in the preparation of the Inductive Course, of which this book is a part. The larger share of this credit belongs to Mr. G. A. SOUTHWORTH, the successful and experienced Master of the Prescott Grammar School, Somerville, Mass., by whom much work has been done. His practical knowledge of what both teachers and pupils need in a text-book has been of great advantage.

The work is given to the public in the expectation that it will meet every reasonable requirement of our common schools and seminaries.