George Salmon
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226027179
2008-07-16T14:31:42Z
Seanwal111111
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I edited this article on 18 Jan 2008. Since then I've read a 50-page bio of Salmon (by Rod Gow) and now I'm re-doing part of what I wrote earlier.
[[Image:GeorgeSalmon(1819-1904).jpg|right]]
The Reverend '''George Salmon''' ([[September 25]], [[1819]] - [[January 22]], [[1904]]) was, firstly, a [[mathematician]] whose publications in algebraic geometry were widely read in the second half of the 19th century. But he was also an [[Anglican]] [[theologian]] who devoted himself mostly to [[theology]] for the last forty years of his life. His publications in theology were widely read too.
==Education==
George Salmon spent his boyhood in [[Cork City]], [[Ireland]]. His father was a linen merchant. He graduated from [[Trinity College Dublin]] at the age of 19 with exceptionally high honours in mathematics. In 1841 at age 21 he was appointed to a position in the mathematics department at Trinity College Dublin. In 1845 he was appointed concurrently to a position in the theology department at Trinity College Dublin, having been confirmed in that year as an Anglican priest. He married in 1844.
==Mathematics==
In the late 1840s and the 1850s Salmon was in regular and frequent communication with [[Arthur Cayley]] and [[James Joseph Sylvester|J.J. Sylvester]]. The three of them together with a small number of other mathematicians (including [[Charles Hermite]]) were developing a system for dealing with n-dimensional algebra and geometry. During this period Salmon published about 36 papers in journals. In these papers for the most part he solved narrowly defined, concrete problems in algebraic geometry, as opposed to more broadly systematic or foundational questions. But he was an early adopter of the foundational innovations of Cayley and the others. In 1859 he published the book ''Lessons Introductory to the Modern Higher Algebra'', which for a while was simultaneously the state-of-the-art and the standard presentation of the subject, and went through updated and expanded editions in 1866, 1876 and 1885, and was translated into German and French.
Meanwhile back in 1848 Salmon had published an undergraduate textbook entitled ''A Treatise on Conic Sections''. This text remained in print for over fifty years, going though five updated editions in English, and was translated into German, French and Italian. Salmon himself did not participate in the expansions and updates of the more later editions. The German version, which was a "free adaptation" by Wilhelm Fiedler, was popular as an undergraduate text in Germany. Salmon also published two other mathematics texts, ''A Treatise on Higher Plane Curves'' (1852) and ''A Treatise on the Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions'' (1862). These too were in print for a long time and went though a number of later editions, with Salmon delegating the work of the later editions to others.
In 1889 Salmon received the [[Copley Medal]], the highest honorary award in British science, but by 1889 Salmon had long ago quit math and science.
==Theology==
From the early 1860s onward Salmon was primarily occupied with theology. In 1866 he was appointed to a prestigious chair in theology at Trinity College Dublin, and gave up his mathematics department post at that point. In 1871 he accepted an additional post of chancellor of [[St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin]].
One of his early publications in theolgy was in 1853 as a contributor to a book of rebuttals to the Catholic [[John Henry Newman]]'s series ''[[John_Henry_Newman#The_Tracts_for_the_Times |Tracts for the Times]]''. Arguments against Roman Catholicism were a recurring theme in Salmon's theology and culminated in his widely-read 1889 book ''Infallibility of the Church'' in which he argued that certain beliefs of the Roman church were absurd especially the beliefs in the [[infallibility of the church]] and the [[Papal infallibility|infallibility of the pope]]. Salmon also wrote books about eternal punishment, miracles, and interpretation of the New Testament. His book ''An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament'', which was widely read, is an account of the reception and interpretation of the gospels in the early centuries of Christianity as seen through the writings of leaders such as [[Irenaeus]] and [[Eusebius]].
==Bibliography==
[[Image:Jeorge Salmon at Trinity.JPG|250px|thumb|right|Sculpture of George Salmon in Trinity College Dublin]]
*A treatise on conic sections (1848)
*A treatise on higher plane curves: Intended as a sequel to a treatise on conic sections (1852)
*Lessons introductory to the modern higher algebra (1859)
*A treatise on the analytic geometry of three dimensions (1862)
*The eternity of future punishment (1864)
*The reign of law (1873)
*Non-miraculous Christianity (1881)
*Introduction to the New Testament (1885)
*The infallibility of the Church (1889)
*Thoughts on the textual criticism of the New Testament (1897)
==External links==
*{{MacTutor Biography|id=Salmon}}
*[http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Miscellaneous/other_links/Salmon_theology.html George Salmon: from mathematics to theology] — An examination of Salmon's motives for switching from math to theology
*[http://math-doc.ujf-grenoble.fr/LiNuM/TM/Gallica/S099673.html Complete text of Salmon's book A Treatise on the Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/analytischegeome028825mbp Complete text of Salmon's book Analytische Geometrie Der Kegelschnitte (in German translation)]
*[http://www.tracts.ukgo.com/george_salmon.htm Many selections from Salmon's theological publications]
*[http://www.maths.ucd.ie/~rodgow/salmonims.pdf A 50-page biography of Salmon written in 1997 by math professor Rod Gow]
[[Category:1819 births|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:1904 deaths|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:Irish mathematicians|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:British mathematicians|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:19th century mathematicians]]
[[Category:People from County Cork|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:Theologians|Salmon, George]]
[[Category:Irish Anglicans|Salmon]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal|Salmon]]
[[Category:People associated with Trinity College, Dublin|Salmon, George]]
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