240 GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE 



a suitable teaching position, although not in Munich, where 

 at the time a possibility existed, but at the Polytechnic in 

 Nuremberg.^ Ohm filled this post for sixteen years, during 

 which recognition of his achievement, particularly from 

 abroad, gradually came to him. In his sixtieth year he 

 finally realised his desire to obtain a post in a University; he 

 was called to Munich. Five years later he died after a short 

 illness. He never married, and was always very simple in 

 his tastes. 



KARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS 



1777-1855 



Gauss was called the prince of mathematicians. Here we do 

 not propose to give an estimate of his mathematical achieve- 

 ment; we can only show to what extent he was an investi- 

 gator of nature. He was one of the great mathematicians 

 who did not deny in his work the original purpose of mathe- 

 matics, that of forwarding our knowledge of nature, although 

 pure mathematics - mathematics as a mental science - had 

 decidedly more attraction for him. 



Gauss was in actual fact also an investigator of nature 

 throughout his life. At the age of twenty-four he already 

 calculated the orbit of the first small planet, Ceres, dis- 

 covered in 1 80 1, which could only be observed for a short 

 time, since it soon approached too near the sun; without 

 Gauss' calculation it would have again been lost, that is to 

 say not at that time have been recognised as a special planet. 

 This successful calculation from a very short observation of 

 the orbit aroused even Laplace's admiration; but Gauss 



1 Compare the detailed statements in the collection of his posthumous 

 manuscripts made by L. Hartmann, Aus G. S. Ohm's handschrijtlichetn 

 Nachlass, Munich, 1927. 



