“Arithmetic for Schools”

Abstract

IN NATURE of May 20 (p. 51) there appears a criticism of my “Arithmetic for Schools,” in which your reviewer states:—“In the purely arithmetical part of the book logical accuracy is attempted with considerable success. Want of grasp is much more evident in the part which deals with the applications. Then the division into subjects is strangely illogical, and slight inaccuracies of thought and language occur. Is it really the case, for example, that rate of interest (p. 181) is totally independent of time?” These are very serious charges to make against a book of the kind, and ought not to be made without very good reason. As your reviewer suggests the inferences (1) that the book is divided into parts, one of which contains the “pure arithmetic,” and the other the “applied,” and (2) that it is stated that rate of interest is totally independent of time, and as neither of these inferences has any foundation in fact, it seems only fair to myself that your reviewer should be asked to quote verbatim the other slight inaccuracies on which he bases his general statement.