INTRODUCTION
WHILE to a mathematician the actual knowledge of pure matherequired for a student to pass the Examinations of the Institute of Actuaries may not be large, to the average candidate who is breaking fresh ground the amount appears to be heavy, and when that knowledge has to be gained by reading parts only of standard works on mathematics his difficulties are multiplied.
It was for this reason that the Council invited Alfred Henry to produce his book on Calculus and Probability. That book is now out of print and Henry is no longer with us. Had he been alive he would have been the first to acknowledge that his book did not cover all the ground that is now required.
The Council have thought it to be very desirable that a new Text Book of a more comprehensive design should be published for the benefit of our students, and in looking round for a man of sufficient experience to undertake such difficult and laborious work, they were happy in giving a unanimous invitation to Mr Freeman.
This book is the result and it will, I am confident, be found to be a comprehensive work, at any rate so far as the student is concerned, on Finite Differences, Summation, Differential and Integral Calculus and Probability.
Mr Freeman has, I am glad to see, commenced with a chapter on Elementary Trigonometry, a knowledge of which, as he states himself, is essential to a proper understanding of the Differential and Integral Calculus.
The whole work should prove to be a Text Book of great value to actuarial students.