The general objective of this treatise is to give a systematic presenta tion of some of the topological and measure-theoretical foundations of the theory of real-valued functions of several real variables, with particular emphasis upon a line of thought initiated by BANACH, GEOCZE, LEBESGUE, TONELLI, and VITALI. To indicate a basic feature in this line of thought, let us consider a real-valued continuous function I(u) of the single real variable tt. Such a function may be thought of as defining a continuous translormation T under which x = 1 (u) is the image of u. About thirty years ago,...

The most immediate one-dimensional variation problem is certainly the problem of determining an arc of curve, bounded by two given and having a smallest possible length. The problem of deter points mining and investigating a surface with given boundary and with a smallest possible area might then be considered as the most immediate two-dimensional variation problem. The classical work, concerned with the latter problem, is summed up in a beautiful and enthusiastic manner in DARBOUX'S Theorie generale des surfaces, vol. I, and in the first volume of the collected papers of H. A. SCHWARZ. The...