The theory of determinants in the historical order of development, by Sir Thomas Muir.

84 HISTORY OF THE THEORY OF DETERMINANTS
if brought about by the vanishing of 11 and 21 will not ensure
the vanishing of the other 2-line minors of the matrix; but he
does not see that the vanishing of {1234}, {1235}, {1236}, {1237}
in the previous example, if brought about by the vanishing of
A, B, C, D, will be equally ineffectual.
GRASSMANN [H.] (1854, February, April).
[Sur les differents genres de multiplication. Crelle's Journ.,
xlix. pp. 123-141.]
[Extrait d'un memoire de M. Grassmann. Comptes rendus...
Acad. des Sci. (Paris), xxxviii. pp. 743-744.]
Grassmann, having become aware of Cauchy's three communications to the French Academy in January of 1853, claims that
the principles there established and the results deduced are
absolutely the same as those published by himself in 1844. He
says (p. 127), "Les clefs algebriques de M. Cauchy ne sont au
fond que les unites relatives; et ses facteurs symboliques conviennent, du moins dans un certain rapport, aux quantites
extensives telles que je les ai definies. La difference ne consiste
qu'en ce que M. Cauchy regarde les clefs algebriques seulement
comme un moyen pour resoudre divers problemes de l'analyse et
de la mecanique et qui, les problemes etant resolus, disparaissent,
tandis que d'apres les principes etablis par moi, on est en etat, a
chaque pas du procede, d'attribuer une signification independante
aux unites relatives et aux quantites qui en sont composees,
qu'elle que soit d'ailleurs la marche que l'on suive."
MAJO, L. DE (1854, March).
[Metodi e formole generali per 1' eliminazione nelle equazioni
di primo grado. Memorie... Accad. delle Sci. (Napoli),
i. pp. 101-116.]
This is a carefully written but curiously belated exposition,
the author apparently being quite out of touch with the writers
of his own time, and possibly not familiar with any of the older
writers save Cramer, Bezout, and Hindenburg. In the first six
pages he defines " il polinomio P(cbc,3... s,) " after the fashion