G.T.Q.H.
Mar 1, 1992
Citations
0
Influential Citations
0
Citations
Journal
The Mathematical Gazette
Abstract
The great classicist Richard Porson spent time during his final illness in 1808 on various algebraic problems, and this was one of them. Porson was a great English eccentric and distinguished Cambridge academic. A single story about him will indicate why died in his forties. Invited to dinner by the artist John Hoppner and finding mat his host had hidden all the drink, Porson searched his hostess's bedroom. He soon drained the only bottle he could find there, though this subsequently turned out to be paraffin for the lamp. Anyone attempting Porson's equations is advised to lay in some vintage paraffin in the hope of lubricating the brain cells.