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user2554
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Question about a lesser-known "class number formula" of Gauss

My question refers to article 301 of section 5 of Gauss's D.A - there Gauss gives an asymptotic formula for the mean number of classes of forms with positive discriminant ($D>0$):

$$h(D) = \frac{4}{\pi^2}log (D) + \frac{8}{\pi^2}C+\frac{48}{\pi^4}\sum\frac{log (n)}{n^2} - \frac{2log 2}{3\pi^2}$$

where $C$ is the Euler-Mascheroni constant. This formula is noteworthy because Gauss also tries to evaluate the error term in this class formula. I tried to search on the web for references to this analytic result of Gauss but all i found is articles about his asymptotic class number formula for forms with negative discriminant ($D<0$), which Gauss gives in the next article of D.A (article 302).

My question is mainly about getting a reference for this result of Gauss. If such a reference doesn't exist, i'll be glad to hear an expert opinion on the historic significance of this formula (Gauss did publish this formula; thereby it's plausible that it did have influence).

user2554
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