STERN, MORIZ ABRAHAM:

By: Isidore Singer, Frederick T. Haneman

German mathematician; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main June 29, 1807; died at Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 30, 1894. He studied philology at the University of Heidelberg, and prepared himself for a rabbinical career. Later, however, he took up the study of mathematics at the University of Göttingen, where in 1829 he became privat-docent. In 1848 he was appointed assistant professor, and in 1859 professor, of mathematics. In 1887 he resigned his professorship and settled in Bern, where his son was professor at the polytechnic.

He took an active part in the Reform movement, and was the author of the following works bearing on that subject: "Brief an Gabriel Riesser vom 29. Dec., 1842," reprinted in Ludwig Geiger's "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland," 1887, vol. ii.; "Offene Briefe über den Reform-Verein," in "Der Israelit des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts," 1844, 1845.

The following is a partial list of Stern's works in the fields of philology and mathematics, a completeenumeration of which may be found in the "Vierteljahrschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich," 1894.

• Philology: "Ueber die Monatsnamen Einiger Alter Völker," Berlin, 1836; "Die Dritte Gattung der Achämenidischen Keilinschriften," Göttingen, 1850; "Die Sternbilder im Buche Hiob, Kapitel 38, Vers 31, 32," in "Jüdische Zeitschrift," 1866.
• Mathematics: "Observationum Infractiones Continuae Specimen," Göttingen, 1829; a fourth edition of Winterfeld's "Anfangsgründe der Mathematik," Brunswick, 1833; "Theorie der Kettenbrüche und Ihre Anwendung," in Crelle's "Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik," Berlin, 1834; "Darstellung der Populären Anatomie," Berlin, 1834; "Himmelskunde," Stuttgart, 1846 (2d ed. 1854); "Lehrbuch der Algebraischen Analyse," Leipsic, 1860.

Stern published also "Lehrbuch der Mechanik" (Berlin, 1835-36), a translation from the French of Poisson.

S. F. T. H.