Silvestre François Lacroix
Published: 1816
Total Pages: 750
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As part of their campaign to introduce the continental notation into Great Britain, Babbage and his friends Herschel and Peacock translated and published S. F. Lacroix's Sur le calcul differentiel et integral (1802). Babbage had begun the task of translation while still at Cambridge, but for one reason or another set it aside uncompleted. "A few years later Peacock called on me in Devonshire Street, and stated that both Herschel and himself were convinced that the change from the dots to the d's would not be accomplished until some foreign work of eminence should be translated into English. Peacock then proposed that I should either finish the translation which I had commenced, or that Herschel and himself should complete the remainder of my translation. I suggested that we should toss up which alternative to take. It was determined by lot that we should make a joint translation." Some months after, the translation of the small work of Lacroix was published (Babbage 1864, 39). Part I of Lacroix's work, on differential calculus, was translated by Babbage; Part II, on integral calculus, was translated jointly by Peacock and Herschel. The "Appendix" was written by Herschel, and he and Peacock collaborated on the notes. Acceptance of the new notation was slow at first, but by 1820 the d-notation had triumphed at Cambridge, largely due to the support and influence of William Whewell, the future dean of Trinity College.