During the past decade we have witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of students seeking higher education as well as the development of many new colleges and universities. The inevitable nonuniformily of conditions present in different institutions necessitates considerable variety in purpose, general approach, and the level of instruction in any given discipline. This has naturally contributed to the proliferation of texts on almost any topic, and the subject of mathematical physics is no exception. There is a number of texts in this field, and some of them are undoubtedly of outstanding quality.
Nevertheless, many teachers often feel that none of the existing texts is properly suited, for one reason or another, for their particular courses. More important, students sometimes complain that Ihey have difficulties studying the subject from texts of unquestionable merit. This is not as surprising as it sounds: Some texts have an encyclopedic character, with the material arranged in a different order from the way it is usually taught; others become too much involved in complex mathematical analysis, preempting the available space from practical examples; still others cover a very wide variety of topics with utmost brevity, leaving the student to struggle with a number of difficult questions of theoretical nature. True enough, a well-prepared and bright student should be able to find his way through most of such difficulties. A less-gifted student may, however, find it very difficult to grasp and absorb the multitude of new concepts strewn across an advanced text.