The Burning of Conic Sections

The study of mathematics was a central component of Trinity's 19th-century curriculum, and an unusual tradition reflects this. By the 1840s, freshmen were required to complete courses in algebra and plane geometry, and sophomores faced the challenges of solid and spherical geometry, trigonometry, surveying, and analytic geometry, including the rigorous study of conic sections. So formidable was this requirement that the sophomores were overjoyed to receive passing grades. At some point in the 1840s, students began staging a mock burning and funeral of "Conic" at the conclusion of their sophomore year. Similar traditions regarding mathematics requirements were prevalent at other colleges and universities, and Trinity's ceremonies undoubtedly drew their inspiration from the initiation rites conducted by "secret" undergraduate societies then popular.

What may have begun as the burning of a copy of a textbook soon became an elaborate nocturnal ritual replete with costumes and special music, including a funeral dirge with lyrics composed for the occasion. In time the entire student body participated, with freshmen obliged to attend in their nightgowns. Friends and family also were invited, and the ceremony became a public event. The proceedings were held in back of the Old Campus near the "Little" River (also known as the Hog or Park River) just before Commencement, which in those days occurred in July, the academic year ending somewhat later than it does today.

Printed programs for the "Concrematio Conicorum" soon became customary, and the terminology that was used playfully drew on Latin then studied by all undergraduates. By the early 1860s, the occasion was known as the "Burning of Analytics,"reflecting a change in the curriculum that called for a more generalized but no less demanding study of analytical geometry. Almost 30 years later, a description in the undergraduate newspaper, The Trinity Tablet, of the trial of Anna conducted by the Class of 1890 on May 31, 1888 reveals how elaborate the ceremony had become. "A verdict of guilty was reached with little difficulty," the Tablet reported, "and the judge sentenced Anna Lytics to be burned at the stake." A procession then formed with a grand panjandrum, priests, high priests, "flamens," acolytes and pall bearers, followed by Mephistopheles and the rest of the class. The pyre consisted of an "immense heap of seventy-five barrels saturated with oil and filled with tar.…" While it blazed, all sang dirges and then gleeful songs, listened to an oration, and proceeded to the gymnasium "where refreshments were served and songs and yells continued until midnight." Reportedly, late the following morning smoke was still issuing from the pyre.

The tradition of the "Burning of Analytics" gradually died out in the 1890s. Course requirements for the baccalaureate degree had changed by that time as had the emphasis on analytical geometry in the curriculum.