264
SECOND MEMOIR ON THE
[407
number of the proper solutions, I use these results to determine a 'posteriori in each
case the expression of the Supplement; the expression so obtained can in some cases
be accounted for readily enough, and the knowledge of the whole series of them will
be a convenient basis for ulterior investigations.
The Principle of Correspondence for points in a line was established by Chasles in
the paper in the Comptes Rendus, June—July 1864, referred to in my First Memoir; it
is extended to unicursal curves in a paper of the same series, March 1866, “ Sur les
courbes planes ou a double courbure dont les points peuvent se determiner individuelle-
ment—Application du Principe de Correspondance dans la theorie de ces courbes,” but
not to the case of a curve of given deficiency D considered in my paper of April 1866
above referred to. The fundamental theorem in regard to unicursal curves, viz. that in
a curve of the order m with ^ (m — 1) (m — 2) double points (nodes or cusps) the
coordinates (x, y, z) are proportional to rational and integral functions of a variable
parameter 6,—as a case of a much more general theorem of Riemann’s—dates from the
year 1857, but was first explicitly stated by Clebsch in the paper “ Ueber diejenigen
ebenen Curven deren Coordinaten rationale Functionen eines Parameters sind,” Crelle,
t. LXiv. (1864), pp. 43—63. See also my paper “ On the Transformation of Plane
Curves,” London Mathematical Society, No. III., Oct. 1865, [384].
The paragraphs of the present Memoir are numbered consecutively with those of
the First Memoir.
Article Nos. 94 to 104.—On the Correspondence of two points on a Curve.
94. In a unicursal curve the coordinates (x, y, z) of any point thereof are pro
portional to rational and integral functions of a variable parameter 6. Hence if two
points of the curve correspond in such wise that to a given position of the first point
there correspond ol positions of the second point, and to a given position of the second
point a positions of the first point, the number of points which correspond each to
itself is =a+a. For let the two points be determined by their parameters 6, 6'
respectively, then to a given value of 6 there correspond a! values of 0\ and to a
given value of 6' there correspond a. values of 0 ; hence the relation between (0, 0')
is of the form (0, l) a (0', l) a =0; and writing therein 0' = 0, then for the points which
correspond each to itself, we have an equation (0, l) a+a '=0, of the order a+a'; that
is, the number of these points is = a + a.
Hence for a unicursal curve we have a theorem similar to that of M. Chasles’
for a line, viz. the theorem may be thus stated :
If two points of a unicursal curve have an (a, a!) correspondence, the number of
united points is = a + a.'. But a unicursal curve is nothing else than a curve with a
deficiency D = 0, and we thence infer :