MATHEMATICS 165 



knowledge of a given field that the visiting student cannot 

 afford to ignore the opportunity of working with them. 

 Thus, within a few years past two younger men as well- 

 known as BOUTROUX and FRECHET were to be found at 

 Poitiers; and, to mention but one other name, BAIRE 

 was at another provincial university. The university 

 of Toulouse has always had a strong mathematical 

 faculty. 



The dean of French mathematicians, still active, is 

 DARBOUX, perhaps the most distinguished living worker 

 in the field of differential geometry. His great treatise 

 is the standard authority on that subject. In spite of 

 the demands made on his time by his other duties (he is, 

 for example, permanent secretary of the Academy of 

 Sciences), he continues to give each year a course at the 

 Sorbonne on higher geometry that no visiting student 

 can afford to miss. It would be worth while to sit under 

 him, if only to absorb something of his great charm as a 

 lecturer. 1 



PICARD is equally noted for his life and inspiration in 

 the class-room; he is one of the few men who are great 

 both as teachers and investigators. For nearly forty 

 years his contributions to the theory of functions and to 

 differential equations have been of fundamental im- 

 portance. Many of them have been summed up in his 

 great "Traite d'analyse," of which the fourth and last 

 volume is still in preparation, and in the two volumes 

 of the "Theorie des fonctions algebriques de deux vari- 

 ables independantes." The field represented by this 

 last work has of late years especially occupied his atten- 

 tion. His lectures at the Sorbonne share with Darboux's 

 the distinction of being among the most popular under 

 the Faculty of Sciences. 



1 [We regret to chronicle, since this chapter went to press, the death 

 of this eminent scientist. AUTHORS.! 



