When the manuscript of this treatise approached completion, Doctor Chace requested the Mathematical Association of America to undertake its publication, generously providing the means necessary to assure its appearance in a form commensurate with its importance. Upon learning of the desire of the Trustees to contribute to the success of the undertaking in every way possible, Doctor Chace made the further offer to donate to the Association a certain number of copies, adding the suggestion that these be then sold at a price considerably below the cost of publication. This was done with the desire not merely to assist financially an organization of which he was a charter member and to which he has always contributed with great liberality, but to make it possible for the individual and institutional members to purchase the work much more reasonably than would have been possible had it been simply a commercial product. The proceeds from its sale are to constitute an endowment of the Association known as the Arnold Buffum Chace Fund.
The Association takes pleasure in making these facts known, and at the same time in expressing its high appreciation of this notable work of a well-trained scholar in mathematics, of the interest which he has always shown in the cultivation of the science in this country, and of his generosity in connection with this publication.
Raymond Clare Archibald
David Eugene Smith
Publication Committee
on behalf of
The Mathematical Association of America
