Life and Work

I have the honour to draw your attention to the case of S. Ramanujan, a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Madras Port Trust. I have not seen him, but was yesterday shown some of his work in the presence of Sir Francis Spring. He is, I am told, 22 years of age and the character of the work that I saw impressed me as comparable in originality with that of a Mathematics Fellow in a Cambridge College; it appears to lack, however, as might be expected in the circumstances the completeness and precision necessary before the universal validity of the results could be accepted. I have not specialised in the branches of pure mathematics at which he has worked, and could not therefore form a reliable estimate of his abilities, which might be of an order to bring him a European reputation. But it was perfectly clear to me that the University would be justified in enabling S. Ramanujan for a few years at least to spend the whole of his time on mathematics without any anxiety as to his livelihood, and I would suggest that they should communicate with Mr. G. H. Hardy, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge with whom he is already in correspondence and' assure Mr. Hardy of their interest in him.