170 MALUS. 



possible number of discoveries uncontested and incon 

 testable ? and that under the pressure of these preoccu 

 pations he had forgotten, for an instant an abstract 

 maxim of philosophy ? However this may have been, 

 the integrity and perfect honour of Malus will never be 

 called in question. 



In the collection of thoughts from which I have just 

 given extracts, I read : 



&quot; There are very few men, who, when they die, leave 

 behind them any traces of their existence.&quot; 



I hazard little in asserting that Malus will be reck 

 oned among these privileged few. His name will go 

 down to the most distant posterity, coupled with one of 

 those great discoveries which, independently of their 

 individual merit, have opened a vast career to the inves 

 tigations of science. The immortal name of Malus will 

 remain ever inseparable from that of polarization, under 

 which all the most curious, the most fertile, the most bril 

 liant phenomena of modern optics are grouped. 



