Cambridge, April 1, 1992 From: Andre Joyal Recently (Feb 12 1992), Colin Mclarty raised up a question about the creation of axiomatic homology theories by Eilenberg and Steenrod. The question is of historical and epistemological interest. He received an answer from Peter Freyd and also from Micheal Barr. The latter suggested to ask Eilenberg directly (I understand that Colin took up the suggestion). Sammy Eilenberg is presently visiting Cambridge and I showed him a copy of the discussion between Mclarty, Freyd and Barr. Sammy made some comments which I reproduce below after recalling the discussion itself. I also added further informations from Sammy. -Andre -------------------------------------------------------------------------

From CATEGORIES@mta.ca Wed Feb 12 04:31:19 1992