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Articles for inclusion in the newsletter and general enquiries
should be sent to Leigh Wood, School of Mathematical Sciences,
UTS, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007. Leigh's email address is
leigh@maths.uts.edu.au
Leigh Wood
National Coordinator
International Organisation of Women and Mathematics Education
William Moses Feldman was born at Pinsk in Russia (now in Belarus) on
November 17 1880, son of Israel Feldman. When William was eight years old
the family moved to London, where he received a rabbinical education at
Jews' College. But he insisted on becoming a physician, and so he then
studied medicine at London Hospital. He gained his diploma in 1904 and
began medical practice in Whitechapel Road. He graduated from the University
of London as M.B., B.S. in 1911, and as M.D. in 1920. He became an eminent
p\ae diatrician, writing several books on child health (in English and
Yiddish) which were very well-received, with A Manual of Nursery
Hygiene (2nd edition, 1912) being translated into Italian. He became a
Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1926 and a Fellow in 1935, held
appointments at several hospitals in London, was a Lecturer and Examiner
for the London County Council and an Examiner for the General Nursing
Council for England and Wales.
Imagine a picture here.
William Moses Feldman
Dr William Moses Feldman married his cousin Hilda Kate Feldman in 1913, and they had two sons and a daughter. He was active as a member of Stepney Council, Member of the Council of the Society for the Study of Inebriety, and on the Council of the United Synagogue and Jews' College. In the Royal College of Medicine he became Vice-President of the History of Medicine Section, and wrote a noteworthy paper on ``The life and medical work of Maimonides'' ( Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. v.28 (1935), 23-26). He was strongly interested in mathematics and astronomy, became a member of the British Astronomical Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1927 and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1934.
Dr William Moses Feldman was dismayed by the innumeracy of many medical and biological researchers; and so he wrote a large textbook of Biomathematics (Griffin, London, 1st edition 1923, 2nd edition 1935, revised and enlarged by Cedric A. B. Smith for the 3rd edition 1954 and 4th edition 1969). He invented that word ``Biomathematics'', which is listed in some major modern dictionaries; and at least one university in the U.K. now has a Department of Biomathematics.
The rabbinical literature is a library of commentaries, written by many rabbis between the -4th century and the +8th century, on Jewish religion and traditions, based on the Hebrew books of the Old Testament. The earlier texts ( Mishnah ) were written in Hebrew (in a dialect later than that used in the Old Testament), and the later texts ( Talmud ) were written in Aramaic. The texts are extremely terse, and literal translations of them are almost impossible to comprehend. In order to understand the texts, they must be approached through the medi\ae val commentaries, written in Arabic and in medi\ae val Hebrew. But in order to understand those medi\ae val commentaries, they must be approached through modern commentaries, written in German, English, French, Yiddish and modern Hebrew! The rabbinical literature includes many passages relating to astronomy, mainly in connection with the Jewish calendar, in which each month started at the first sighting of a new moon. Various elementary mathematical concepts are used, mainly in connection with the calendar, taxation and mensuration.
M. L. Cailingold was a one-man printer and publisher of Jewish literature in the East End of London. He invited Dr Feldman to take advantage of his rabbinical education and scientific knowledge and write a work for which he was almost uniquely qualified - a history of the knowledge of mathematical and astronomical matters revealed in the rabbinical literature. Dr Feldman acted on that admirable suggestion, and wrote his remarkable pioneering monograph on that immensely difficult topic: Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy . That was proofread by his 14 year-old son Vivian, and was published by Cailingold in a very small edition in 1931. It was reviewed very favourably by Selig Brodetsky in Nature (September 3, 1932, 328-329) and by Frank Robbins in J.B.A.A. (November 1932, 31-33), but was reviewed unfavourably by Solomon Gandz in ISIS (v.19, 1933, 208-212). Dr Feldman pointed out that, comparing rabbis in general, the greater authority on religious matters displayed the lesser comprehension of mathematics and astronomy.
Dr William Moses Feldman died very suddenly at the age of 58, from a heart attack on July 2 1939. Several obituary articles were published: The Lancet (July 8, 1939, p.101); The British Medical Journal (1939 July 15, 1939, p.148); Monthly Notices Roy. Astr. Soc. (v.100, 1940, 246-247); and Who Was Who 1929-1940 . Later articles about him were published in S. R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine , Boston, 1952, p.57, and in Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London continued to 1965 (edited by R. R. Trail), Royal College of Physicians, London, 1968, p.127.
Dr William Moses Feldman's monograph on Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy was reprinted by Hermon Press in New York in 1965. The eminent historians of science Bernard R. Goldstein and N. Rabinovitch contributed a chapter on ``Hebrew Mathematics'' to The history of Mathematics from Antiquity to the Present: A Selective Bibliography (edited by Joseph W. Dauben, Garland Publishing Inc; New York & London, 1985). The list of publications in that chapter starts with the 1965 reprint, concerning which Goldstein & Rabinovitch comment that ``Although marred by omissions and errors, this book can serve as an introduction to the field''. And indeed, Feldman's monograph has still not been superseded as an introduction to its subject. Many of the errors and omissions in Feldman's pioneering study were remedied by several scientists in the USA, who contributed supplementary material which was appended to the corrected 3rd edition published by Hermon Press in 1978 (reprinted unchanged as the 4th edition, 1991).
In 1993 I met Dr Vivian Feldman, a retired psychiatrist in Auckland with a strong interest in mathematics. He told me that his father had invented the word ``Biomathematics'' and published a large textbook of that subject, and that after his father died he had assisted Cedric A. B. Smith in revising the text for the 3rd and 4th editions. Also, he told me that he had assisted his father in 1931 by proofreading his father's monograph on Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy .
I had known of that monograph from Goldstein & Rabinovitch's chapter, and Dr Vivian Feldman was astonished and delighted to see the 3rd edition (1978) from the University of Auckland Library, and then to receive a copy of the 4th edition (1991). I am most grateful to Dr Vivian Feldman for providing me with information about his father, including the photograph of Dr William Moses Feldman graduating as M.D. in 1920.
Department of Mathematics
University of Auckland