diaries Hermite. 143 



Comme vous dutes commencer par oil je finis, il y a necessairement 

 une petite sphere de contact. Dans la suite, si vous m'honorez de 

 vos communications, je n'aurai qu'a apprendre." 



The talent that Hermite showed during his course at the Ecole 

 Poly technique indicated mathematics as his obvious career. He passed 

 through the usual initial stages until, in 1862, he was appointed to a 

 post specially created for him on the initiative of Pasteur. This post 

 he held until 1869, when he succeeded Duhamel as professor of higher 

 algebra at the Sorbonne, and as professor of analysis at the Ecole- 

 Polytechnique. The latter chair he occupied only until 1876 ; he con- 

 tinued the former until 1897, when he retired from active teaching. His 

 life appears to have passed in a quiet round, devoid of events of general' 

 external interest ; but its influence was indicated by the character of 

 the formal celebration of his seventieth birthday, when he was presented 

 by pupils and a host of friends and admirers from all countries with 

 a medal struck for the occasion. 



Hermite had been elected a member of the Academic des Sciences 

 in 1856, in succession to Binet. He became a Foreign Member of our 

 Society in 1873 ; at the time of his death, there was only one Foreign 

 Member senior to him. He was made an honorary member or a 

 foreign associate of many (perhaps of most) of the learned societies of 

 the world. In recognition of his discoveries, he had received a number 

 of decorations from various countries : thus he was numbered among 

 the knights of the Prussian " Ordre pour le Merite." 



He died in Paris on the 14th of January, 1901. The words of 

 Jordan, Darboux, Appell, Painleve, arid others, were an indication, riot 

 merely of the loss to science, but also of the sense of personal loss to- 

 friends which was caused by his death.* 



He wrote nearly 200 papers, which have been published in a great 

 variety of places.! Many of these papers appear in the guise of letters 

 to mathematical friends, a form of communication which he practised 

 through his whole life. 



In addition, his lectures at the Ecole Polytechnique were published 

 (in book form) in 1873 : his lectures at the Sorbonne were published 

 (in lithographed form) first in 1882, and they have now reached the 

 fourth edition. Also he appended, to the 1894 edition of Serret's 

 ' Differential and Integral Calculus, 7 a " Note on the Theory of Elliptic 



* The writer of this notice wishes to acknowledge his indebtness to an article 

 by M. Emile Picard, " L'CEuvre scientifique de Charles Hermite," 'Ann. de 1'Ec, 

 Normale,' 3 e ser., vol. 18 (1901), pp. 934. There is also a brief notice by 

 M. Jordan in " Liouville's Journal," 5 e ser., vol. 7 (1901), pp. 9195 ; and a sketch, 

 together with a bibliography of Hernaite's writings, is given by M. F. Mansion in 

 the "Revue des Questions Scientifiques," 2 e ser., vol. 19 (190L), pp. 353396. 



f It is understood that his works will be published in a collected edition by 

 Gauthier-Villars, to be edited by Picard, who is Hermite's son-in-law. 



