Some Criticisms of Robert Simson by Sir T. L. Heath

Sir T. L. Heath's translation of The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, with its Introduction and Commentary, is not merely a worthy tribute to the lasting merits of Euclid's work, but is at the same time a most valuable history of elementary geometry; the language in which he describes the character of Camerer's edition of Euclid's first six books is even more applicable to his own: “No words of praise would be too warm for this veritable encyclopaedia of information.” There may, however, be room for difference of opinion on matters of detail, and I propose in this note to call attention to one or two passages in which I think he is in error in his criticism of Simson, whose edition of Euclid formed the basis of so many English text-books and kept alive the traditions of Greek geometry in this country long after Euclid's Elements had disappeared as a text-book on the Continent.