BOCHER, MAXIME (1867-1918), American mathemati cian, son of Ferdinand Bocher, professor of French at Harvard, was born in Boston, Mass., on Aug. 28, 1867. He was educated in the Cambridge Latin school and at Harvard college at which he graduated in 1888. Later he studied at the University of Goet tingen from which he received in 1891 the degree of doctor of philosophy for his dissertation Uber die Reihenentwickelungen der Potentialtheorie. After serving as instructor in 1891-94 and as assistant professor in 1894-1904, he was made professor of mathe matics at Harvard. In 1913-14 he was exchange professor at Paris. He exercised great influence on mathematics and mathe matical instruction in America, especially through his seminar teaching in which he stimulated students to undertake mathe matical research. His own later work was chiefly concerned with differential equations, series and higher algebra. He died in Cam bridge, Mass., on Sept. 12, 1918. Besides elementary texts on trigonometry and analytic geometry, he wrote Introduction to Higher Algebra (1907 ; Ger. trans. by Hans Beck 191o) and An Introduction to the Study of Integral Equations (1909) . He was one of the editors of Annals of Mathematics in 1896-1907, and again in 1910, and (with L. E. Dickson) was editor of the Trans actions of the American Mathematical Society in 1907-09 and again in 1911.
See G. D. Birkhoff, "The Scientific Work of Maxime Bocher," Bull. Am. Math. Soc., Vol. xxV., pp. 197-215, and "The Life and Services of Maxime Bocher," ib., pp.