Jacobi in a posthumous memoir, which has only this year appeared, has developed two remarkable methods (agreeing in their general character, but differing in details) of solving non-linear partial differential equations of the first order, and has applied them in connexion with that theory of the differential equations of dynamics which was established by Sir W. R. Hamilton in the 'Philosophical Transactions’ for 1834-35. The knowledge, indeed, that the solution of the equation of a dynamical problem is involved in the discovery of a single central function, defined by a single partial differential equation of the first order, does not appear to have been hitherto (perhaps it will never be) very fruitful in practical results.