Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Introduction as far as possible complete. Thus e.g. In the case of Archimedes I have collected practically all the propositions in conics to be found in his numerous works with the substance of the proofs where given; and I hope that the historical sketch as a whole will be found not only more exhaustive, for the period covered, than any that has yet appeared in English, but also not less interesting than the rest of the book.