60 Obituary Notices of Felloivs deceased. 



recovered the use of the limb in so far as to wield his 'pen with his 

 wonted energy, but with no little pain. He married in middle age, 

 and left a family. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 

 1865, and of the Royal in 1886. 



J. D. H. 



SOPHUS LIE. 1842-1899. 



MARIUS SOPHUS LIE, the son of a Norwegian pastor, was born on 

 the 17th of December, 1842, at Nordfjordeide.* Educated in a 

 private gymnasium in Christiania, he entered the .University of that 

 city in 1859. He does not appear to have displayed any special pre- 

 dilection for mathematical pursuits in his student days ; and even 

 after passing, in 1865, his qualifying examination as a teacher, he 

 remained in doubt as to the particular direction of his life. He 

 gave private instruction in mathematics, and, after spending some 

 time on astronomy, he turned to the consideration of the foundations 

 of geometry a subject to which he devoted more special attention in 

 later years. 



It was only in 1868, at an age much later than the average at which 

 great mathematicians are wont to .settle down to their life-work, that 

 Lie found his true bent. In that year the works of Pliicker on 

 modern geometry first gave him the impulse towards research, and 

 inspired him with original ideas, the gradual development of which 

 gave him the first indication of his possession of mathematical powers. 

 Thenceforward his life was one stretch of industry and activity, and 

 the only interruptions to his creative work were the illnesses which 

 overshadowed his later years, and were, without doubt, largely due to 

 the exceeding strenuousness of his devotion to his investigations. 



*The writer of this notice wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to two 

 articles on Lie by Professor Dr. F. Engel : one in the ' Jahersb. d. deutschen 

 Mathematiker-Vereinigung,' vol. 8 (1900), pp. 30 46; the other in 'Bibliotheca 

 Mathematical 3rd ser., vol. 1 (1900), pp. 166204. Reference should also be 

 made to an appreciation by Noether, ' Math. Ann.,' vol. 53 (1900), pp. 1 41. 



