Obituary, 409 



into exile, Caucliy continued Lis publications with his former zeal. He 

 issued five volumes of "Exercises Mathematiquus," entirely his own, while 

 at the same time he was performing the duties o^l^Lofe^OY of Analysis and 

 Mechanics in the Polytechnic School, supplying the chair of Poisson in 

 Analytical Mechanics at the Faculty of Sciences, and also working upon 

 his Traite d' Analyse Algehriqiie, and his Leeons de Calcul difftrentiel et 

 integral, with three volumes oi Applications, There are few questions in 

 pure analysis or analysis applied to physics, mechanics or astronomy, on 

 which he has not left traces of his rare penetration and superior talent. 



A devoted partisan of the Bourbon dynasty, he followed it voluntarily 

 into exile, and for some time occupied himself only with literature and 

 poetry and the scientific education of the Count de Chambord. In 1837, 

 he returned to France, when he resumed his academic chair, which, con- 

 trary to the rules, had been left vacant, protected from intrusion by the 

 admiration which his genius had inspired. 



With an active imagination, he rarely completed the worts he began. 

 He made a vow over the tomb of his fother, that he would not permit 

 himself to be led away by the fertility of his mind from finishing what 

 he undertook: but notwithstanding his respect for the memory of his 

 father, he did not keep his vow, — which is little surprising, considei'ing that 

 liis temperament was so opposed to confinement for any length of time 

 to one subject. 



The name of Cauchy will remain associated with the greatest conquests 

 in modern transcendental analysis. His determination of the number of 

 I'eal and imaginary roots of algebraic equations; his rigorous method of 

 calculation by approximation for these same roots; his new theory of the 

 symmetrical functions of the coefficients of equations of any degree; his 

 niathematical theory of light, and particularly of dispersion, including his 

 a-priori valuation witliout any previous photometric experiment and no 

 data but two angles, sustain the exalted reputation with which he entered 

 on his career. 



But with a singularity not without parallel, he thought less of his 

 niathematical genius and scientific works than of the scraps of poor 

 verses which he composed at his leisure.- He was not confident of being 

 a good mathematician, while sure he was a great poet. 



Augustin Cauchy died suddenly on the 23d of iMay, in consequence of 

 a catarrhal affection which at first seemed of little moment, and which 

 had not prevented his occupying himself to the last with a memoir 

 that he read to the Academy on the 4th of the month. This memoir 

 '^^as on the use in astronomy of regulating coefficients, (" regulateurs 

 coefficients"), an artifice in calculation on which he rested the highest 

 ^opes, classing it among the greatest discoveries. 



Statues of Gay Lussac and Eiiemie Geoff ray St. Ililaire.— Gay Lussac 

 <iied ia 1851. Soon afterwards it was proposed to erect a monument to 

 o«e who had rendered so eminent service to both theoretical and prac(ical 

 pHysitis and also to chemistry. But his flimily, which was rich, objected 

 to a subscription in its behalf; and they will erect one at their own ex- 

 pense. It will stand on the square between the College de France and 

 tlie Sorbonne, in both of which institutions he was for a long tune Pro- 

 fessor. 



SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXIV, NO. 72. — NOV,, 1857. 



52 



