The discovery of the genius of S. Ramanujan of Madras promises to be the most interesting event of our time in the mathematical world. From the first results which he communicated, the mathematicians of Cambridge at once believed that he had uncommon ability, and the effect of personal acquaintance with the man and conversation as to his methods has been in my own case to replace that belief by certainty. At the same time the importance of securing to Ramanujan a traning in the refinements of modern methods and a contact with men who know what range of ideas have been explored and what have not cannot be over estimated.

Unassisted by knowledge of contemporary achievements in Europe, Ramanujan has among other things developed two of the most fruitful and subversive theories which have been studied there during the last ten or fifteen years, theories which still are to be found only in contributions to the various scientific journals and are not admitted to current text books and treatises. Who can say, had his power not been employed in the invention of these tools, what other machinery he might by now have built or what uses unnoticed by the others he might have observed for the processes themselves? Inspiration is not confined to the making of a single discovery, and it is always a loss to science when two men do the same work.

At On the other hand, we have learnt in Europe what Ramanujan has not yet discovered, that the more powerful a method may be the more carefully it must be used. It is often thought that mathematical genius includes an instinct for the avoidance of fallacies, but it is not true to say more than that genius includes a potential faculty of detecting danger. A trained mathematician is often aware intuitively when special care is necessary, but that this intuition, which no English analyst would trust his reputation, may be developed in a man of genius, the fact that Ramanujan himself has sent to Cambridge a number of demonstrably false results proves conclusively. At present all his results must necessarily be regarded with some suspicion till they have been independently obtained, a state of affairs which must not continue.

I see no reason to doubt that Ramanujan himself will respond fully to the stimulus which contact with Western mathematicians of the highest class will afford him. In that case his name will become one of the greatest in the history of mathematics, and the University and City of Madras will be proud to have assisted in his passage from obscurity to fame.