394 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- 



