170 MALUS. 



possible number of discoveries uncontested and incon- 

 testable ? and that under the pressure of these preoccu- 

 pations he had forgotten for an instant an abstract 

 maxim of philosophy ? However this may have been, 

 the integrity and perfect honour of Malus will never be 

 called in question. 



In the collection of thoughts from which I have just 

 given extracts, I read : — 



" There are very few men, who, when they die, leave 

 behind them any traces of their existence." 



I hazard little in asserting that Malus Avill be reck- 

 oned among these privileged few. His name will go 

 down to the most distant posterity, coupled with one of 

 those great discoveries which, independently of their 

 individual merit, have opened a vast career to the inves- 

 tigations of science. The immortal name of Malus will 

 remain ever inseparable from that of polarization, under 

 which all the most curious, the most fertile, the most bril- 

 liant phenomena of modern optics are grouped. 



