The purpose of this paper is to present a system of arithmetic stronger than those usually employed, and to prove some syntactical theorems concerning it.We presuppose the lower functional calculus with identity and functions, and we start with three of Peano's axioms. The other two (0 ϵ N and x ϵ N .⊃. x′ ϵ N) we do not need since our variables are anyhow restricted to natural numbers. Sometimes in the interest of a uniform notation for functions, we write Sx instead of x′.Next we have two axioms for μ (the smallest number such that) as follows. A third axiom for μ must wait until we have defined ≤.Now we introduce the central feature of the system, the following rule of definition.RD. Let Φ be a previously unused symbol. Then we can introduce it by a pair of definitions of the following form (n ≥ 0), where F(x1, …, xn) is a wff in which no symbol occurs which was not previously defined (in particular, not Φ), and in which no free variables occur other than x1, …, xn (and possibly not all of these), and G(x1, …, xn, y) is a wff in which no free variables occur other than x1, …, xn, y (and possibly not all of these), and in which no symbol occurs which was not previously defined, except that Φ may occur but only if its last argument is y.