Arthur Cayley

Arthur Cayley (August 16 1821 - January 26 1895) was a British mathematician. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics.

The Collected Papers

In 1889 the Cambridge University Press requested him to prepare his mathematical papers for publication in a collected form---a

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request which he appreciated very much. They are printed in magnificent quarto volumes, of which seven appeared under his own

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editorship. While editing these volumes, he was suffering from a painful internal malady, to which he succumbed on January 26,

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1895, in the 74th year of his age. When the funeral took place, a great assemblage met in Trinity Chapel, comprising members of the

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University, official representatives of Russia and America, and many of the most illustrious philosophers of Britain.

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The remainder of his papers were edited by Prof. Forsyth, his successor in the Sadlerian chair. The Collected Mathematical

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papers number thirteen quarto volumes, and contain 967 papers. His writings are his best monument, and certainly no mathematician has

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ever had his monument in grander style. De Morgan's works would be more extensive, and much more useful, but he did not have behind

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him a University Press. As regards fads, Cayley retained to the last his fondness for novel-reading and for travelling. He also

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took special pleasure in paintings and architecture, and he practised water-color painting, which he found useful sometimes in

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making mathematical diagrams.

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