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ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 165 
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party influence, holds itself in the first position in public 
esteem by taking the greatest care always to recruit its 
ranks solely from among those who are most worthy. 
Malus had become major, a rank corresponding with 
that of lieutenant-colonel, December 5, 1810. The gov- 
ernment had often entrusted him with the mission to 
classify in their order of merit the officers of artillery and 
engineers at their departure from the Practical School of 
Metz. He became afterwards examiner of the pupils of 
the Ecole Polytechnique for descriptive geometry, and 
the sciences dependent on it. 
On the 14th Vendémiaire an TX.* Malus wrote from 
Benisouf to his friend Lancret: “I live here like a her- 
mit; I pass whole days without speaking a word.” It 
appeared that our friend often abandoned himself to his 
taste for silence. The pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique 
and the Ecole d’Application, related that in going over 
their exercises he contented himself by pointing out with 
his finger the’ parts on which he required explanations, 
without saying a word. ‘This mode of asking, which con- 
trasted so singularly with that of some other examiners, his 
contemporaries, not a little astonished them. But they 
did not the less do complete justice to the enlightened 
patience, the intelligence, and the perfect honesty which 
characterized all the decisions made by Malus at the close 
of his examinations. Malus filled, ad interim, in 1811, 
the functions of Director of Studies at the Ecole Poly- 
technique. There were only wanting some regimental 
formalities to entrust to him definitively this important 
employment. 
The companion of his choice whom he went to seek at 
Giessen after the expedition to Egypt, threw over his 
* October 5, 1800. 
