Such is, then, the general office necessarily belonging to the
differential calculus in the complete solution of the questions which
exact the employment of the transcendental analysis; to produce, as far
as is possible, the elimination of the infinitesimals, that is, to
reduce in each case the primitive differential equations so that they
shall contain only the differentials of the really independent
variables, and those of the functions sought, by causing to disappear,
by elimination, the differentials of all the other known functions which
may have been taken as intermediaries at the time of the formation of
the differential equations of the problem which is under consideration.
2. _Employment of the Differential Calculus alone._ For certain
questions, which, although few in number, have none the less, as we
shall see hereafter, a very great importance, the magnitudes which are
sought enter directly, and not by their differentials, into the
primitive differential equations, which then contain differentially only
the different known functions employed as intermediaries, in accordance
with the preceding explanation. These cases are the most favourable of
all; for it is evident that the differential calculus is then entirely
sufficient for the complete elimination of the infinitesimals, without
the question giving rise to any integration. This is what occurs, for
example, in the problem of _tangents_ in geometry; in that of
_velocities_ in mechanics, &c.
3. _Employment of the Integral Calculus alone._ Finally, some other
questions, the number of which is also very small, but the importance of
which is no less great, present a second exceptional case, which is in
its nature exactly the converse of the preceding. They are those in
which the differential equations are found to be immediately ready for
integration, because they contain, at their first formation, only the
infinitesimals which relate to the functions sought, or to the really
independent variables, without its being necessary to introduce,
differentially, other functions as intermediaries. If in these new cases
we introduce these last functions, since, by hypothesis, they will enter
directly and not by their differentials, ordinary algebra will suffice
to eliminate them, and to bring the question to depend on only the
integral calculus. The differential calculus will then have no special
part in the complete solution of the problem, which will depend entirely
upon the integral calculus. The general question of _quadratures_ offers
an important example of this, for the differential equation being then
_dA = ydx_, will become immediately fit for integration as soon as we
shall have eliminated, by means of the equation of the proposed curve,
the intermediary function _y_, which does not enter into it
differentially. The same circumstances exist in the problem of
_cubatures_, and in some others equally important.
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