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XXVIII.—The Theory of Hessians in the Historical Order of Development up to 1860.
1908
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
SPECIAL cases of the determinantwhereuis a function ofx, y, z, ..., may well have appeared at a very early date in the history of determinants. The case whereu=ax2+2bxy+cy2may be viewed as traceable to Lagrange (1773), and the case whereu=ax2+by2+cz2+2dyz+2ezx+2fxyto Gauss (1801); but it is certain that in those cases the elements of the determinants were not looked on as second differential-quotients ofu. The general conception first occurred to Hesse in the year 1843.
doi:10.1017/s0370164600011809
fatcat:6736dqtktjc3xecbyhi5duzkne