"Gauss was probably the first to obtain a clear idea of the possibility of a geometry other than that of Euclid, and we owe the very name Non-Euclidean Geometry to him. It is clear that about the year 1820 he was in possession of many theorems of non-euclidean geometry, and though he meditated publishing his researches when he had sufficient leisure to work them out in detail with his characteristic elegance, he was finally forestalled by receiving in 1832, from his friend W. Bolyai, a copy of the now famous Appendix by his son, John Bolyai."