The purpose of this book,
is to acquaint the student with mathematical language and mathematical life by
means of a number of historically important mathematical vignettes. This book
will also serve to help the prospective school teacher to become inured in some
of the important ideas of mathematics—both classical and modern.
Levi
Leonard Conant was an American mathematician specializing in trigonometry. The
title of this work might lead the reader to suppose that it is principally
mathematical, but the treatment adopted by the anthropological. It is a study
of the evolution of the idea of number in primitive conditions and the
survivals of early forms in later stages of culture.