THE VALUE OF SCIENCE 181 



main of analysis; they have entered by the same door; they have been 

 imagined in view of applications. 



The theory of partial differential equations of the second order has 

 an analogous history. It has been developed chiefly by and for physics. 

 But it may take many forms, because such an equation does not suffice 

 to determine the unknown function, it is necessary to adjoin to it 

 complementary conditions which are called conditions at the limits; 

 whence many different problems. 



If the analysts had abandoned themselves to their natural tenden- 

 cies, they would never have known but one, that which Madame 

 Kovalevski has treated in her celebrated memoir. But there are a 

 multitude of others which they would have ignored. Each of the 

 theories of physics, that of electricity, that of heat, presents us these 

 equations under a new aspect. It may therefore be said that without 

 these theories we should not know partial differential equations. 



It is needless to multiply examples. I have given enough to be able 

 to conclude : when physicists ask of us the solution of a problem, 

 it is not a duty-service they impose upon us, it is on the contrary we who 

 owe them thanks. 



IV 



But this is not all ; physics not only gives us the occasion to solve 

 problems; it aids us to find the means thereto, and that in two ways. 

 It makes us foresee the solution ; it suggests arguments to us. 



I have spoken above of Laplace's equation which is met in a multi- 

 tude of diverse physical theories. It is found again in geometry, in 

 the theory of conformal representation and in pure analysis, in that 

 of imaginaries. 



In this way, in the study of functions of complex variables, the 

 analyst, alongside of the geometric image, which is his usual instru- 

 ment, finds many physical images which he may make use of with the 

 same success. Thanks to these images he can see at a glance what pure 

 deduction would show him only successively. He masses thus the 

 separate elements of the solution, and by a sort of intuition divines 

 before being able to demonstrate. 



To divine before demonstrating ! Need I recall that thus have been 

 made all the important discoveries? How many are the truths that 

 physical analogies permit us to present and that we are not in con- 

 dition to establish by rigorous reasoning! 



For example, mathematical physics introduces a great number of 

 developments in series. No one doubts that these developments con- 

 verge; but the mathematical certitude is lacking. These are so many 

 conquests assured for the investigators who shall come after us. 



On the other hand, physics furnishes us not alone solutions; it 

 furnishes us besides, in a certain measure, arguments. It will suffice 



