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

6o HISTORY OF THE THEORY OF DETERMINANTS

WRIGHT, W. J. (1875): KEMPER, D. (1876):
STUDNICKA, F. J. (1876): MULLER, H. (1876).
[Tracts relating to Modern Higher Mathematics. Tract No. 1,
DETERMINANTS. viii+72 pp. London.]
[Determinants. The Analyst, iii. pp. 17-24.]
[Pocatkove nauky o determinantech. Casopis pro pestovdni math.
afys., vi. pp. 49-58, 97-105, 201-211.]
[KURZE UND SCHULGEMNSSE BEHANDLUNG DER DETERMINANTEN.
19 pp. Metz.]
Everywhere except on the title-page Wright's tract is styled
'Elementary.' It is of course more commonplace in its character
than its immediate predecessor in English, Dodgson's (1867). If
Todhunter's sketch in his ' Theory of Equations ' had been published
separately, it would have been much preferable to Wright's; the
latter, however, is somewhat more extended in range.
The others are very elementary.
GUNTHER, S. (1876): HOZA, F. (1876).
[Das allgemeine Zerlegungsproblem der Determinanten. Archiv
d. Math. u. Phys., lix. pp. 130-146.]
V
[Prespevek k theorii podlizenych determinantui. Casopis pro
pestovdcni math. a phys., vi. pp. 21-34; or, in German, Archiv
d. Math. u. Phys., lix. pp. 387-400.]
Both these papers concern Laplace's expansion-theorem, their
claim to attention being based on fullness of exposition and illustration. Taken together they occupy thirty pages of one and the
same volume of the Archiv. In the former, which is the more
ambitious, the question of the sign-factor is made a rather serious
matter. *
* In this connection 1 take the opportunity of noting an unseen school-program
published at Danzig in 1868: NEUMANN, Ueber Vorzeichensbestimmung in,Flrmeln der Determinantentheorie.