394 4 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
conquered at Cairo, on the occasion of the memorable 
battle of the Pyramids, when the Institute of Egypt 
sprung into existence. It consisted of forty-eight mem- 
bers, divided into four sections. Monge had the honour 
of being the first president. As at Paris, Bonaparte 
belonged to the section of Mathematics. ‘The situation 
of perpetual secretary, the filling up of which was left to 
the free choice of the Society, was unanimously assigned 
to Fourier. 
You have seen the celebrated geometer discharge the 
same duty at the Academy of Sciences ; you have appre- 
ciated his liberality of mind, his enlightened benevolence, 
his unvarying affability, his straightforward and concili- 
atory disposition : add in imagination to so many rare 
qualities the activity which youth, which health can alone 
give, and you will have again conjured into existence the 
Secretary of the Institute of Egypt; and yet the portrait 
which I have attempted to draw of him would grow pale 
beside the original. 
Upon the banks of the Nile, Fourier devoted himself 
to assiduous researches on almost every branch of knowl- 
edge which the vast plan of the Institute embraced. The 
Decade and the Courier of Egypt will acquaint the reader 
with the titles of his different labours. I find in these 
journals a memoir upon the general solution of algebraic 
equations ; researches on the methods of elimination ; the 
demonstration of a new theorem of algebra; a memoir 
upon the indeterminate analysis; studies on general 
mechanics ; a technical and historical work upon the 
aqueduct which conveys the waters of the Nile to the 
Castle of Cairo; reflections upon the Oases; the plan 
of statistical researches to be undertaken with respect ‘to 
the state of Egypt; programme of an intended explora- 
