XI. An essay towards the calculus of functions. Part II

Abstract

In a former Paper which the Royal Society honoured with a place in the last Volume of their Transactions, I endeavoured to explain the nature of the calculus of functions, and I proposed means of solving a variety of functional equations containing only one variable quantity. My subsequent enquiries have produced several new methods of solving these, and much more complicated functional equations, and have convinced me of the importance of the calculus, particularly as an instrument of discovery in the more difficult branches of analysis; nor is it only in the recesses of this abstract science, that its advantages will be felt: it is peculiarly adapted to the discovery of those laws of action by which one particle of matter attracts or repels another of the same or of a different species; consequently, it may be applied to every branch of natural philosophy, where the object is to discover by calculation from the results of experiment, the laws which regulate the action of the ultimate particles of bodies. To the accomplishment of these desirable purposes, it must be confessed that it is in its present state unequal; but should the labours of future enquirers give to it that perfection, which other methods of investigation have attained, it is not too much to hope, that its maturer age shall unveil the hidden laws which govern the phenomena of magnetic, electric, or even of chemical action. When functional equations containing two or more variables occur, their solution presents still greater difficulties than those we have already considered; the new relations which arise, necessarily require a new notation to distinguish them. I shall endeavour, as far as I am able, to apply or extend that already in use; but, as it is almost impossible in the infancy of a calculus to foresee the extent to which it may be carried, or the new views which it may be necessary to take of it, the notation I have used should only be considered as of a temporary nature; it may be employed until some more convenient one be devised: perhaps, how ever, it might be more advantageous that it should not be altered until our acquaintance with this subject becomes more intimate, and until the infinitely varied and comprehensive relations displayed in the doctrine of functions, have been more minutely examined.