October 4, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



427 



heading of Pure Analysis. The number of 

 his other articles in pure mathematics at this 

 time was 46, 23 being classed under each of 

 the two headings, analysis applied to arith- 

 metic and analysis applied to geometry. 

 From this it appears that only about one 

 third of Poincare's writings were devoted to 

 pure mathematics. 



Poincare won great fame in connection 

 with his prize memoir relating to the prob- 

 lem of three bodies. In 1885 King Oscar 11. 

 of Sweden offered a prize for the solution of a 

 question in reference to this general problem, 

 and one half of this prize was awarded to 

 Poincare for his article entitled, " Sur le 

 probleme des trois corps et les equations de la 

 dynamique," published in the Acta Mathe- 

 matica in 1890. In the Bibliotheca Mathe- 

 matica for 1904, page 198, Enestrom calls at- 

 tention to the interesting fact that the copy 

 of this memoir for which the prize had been 

 actually awarded contained a serious error, 

 and that the given published article was reaUy 

 prepared for the press after the prize had 

 been awarded. 



Among the other prizes received by Poin- 

 care we mention the gold medal of the Eoyal 

 Astronomical Society of London, the Syl- 

 vester medal of the Eoyal Society of London, 

 the Bolyai prize of the Hungarian Academy 

 of Sciences, and the Lobatchefsky gold 

 medal of the Kasan Mathematical Physics 

 Society. In addition to these foreign prizes 

 Poincare received two prizes from the Paris 

 Academy and a gold medal from the French 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 He received anTionorary doctor's degree from 

 each of the following universities: Cam- 

 bridge, Christiania, Oxford, Glasgow, Brus- 

 sels and Stockholm. 



To those who would like to establish a con- 

 nection between the university athlete and in- 

 tellectual greatness, between physical powers 

 and the intellectual giant, Poincare was a de- 

 cided disappointment. He was only about 5 

 feet 5 inches in height, was somewhat stooped, 

 at least in the latter part of his life, and his 

 weight was about 154 pounds. Even as a 

 child he was rather weak and did not gener- 



ally engage in the rougher sports of the boys 

 of his age. He cared little for politics and 

 achieved his greatness solely through his 

 scholarly services. When he entered the 

 French Academy he was told that he was 

 born a mathematician and would die a mathe- 

 matician. He had, however, the good fortune 

 to live in a country where mathematical at- 

 tainments are held in high esteem even by the 

 general public. 



As evidence of the high popular regard for 

 Poincare we may mention the fact that the 

 French Ambassador occupied the chair last 

 May when Poincare gave the first lecture of a 

 series of four at the University of London. 

 The account of Poincare's funeral which ap- 

 peared in Science, August 9, 1912, furnishes 

 further evidence along this line. On this oc- 

 casion M. Jules Claretie spoke as follows, ac- 

 cording to Nature of July 25: 



In the name of the French Academy, I have the 

 honor of saluting Henri PoinoarS on behalf of a 

 company of which he was justly one of the most 

 illustrious members. When his colleagues called 

 him, not yet thirty-two years of age, to take hia 

 place amongst us, it was a poet that this mathe- 

 matician, this geometer, this philosopher, this poet 

 of the universe, succeeded. And, from the first 

 day, we were conquered by the simple and limpid 

 eloquence of this master writer, who, knowing 

 everything, verifying everything, illuminated with 

 his definitions, animated with his observations and 

 guided with his counsels our researches, the study 

 of our language. 



It is not to-day, nor is it here, that one must 

 study the work of this great man, who, scarcely 

 full-grown, had already at one bound mounted to 

 the summits. One might say, in many and elo- 

 quent tones, how much the country owes to this 

 son of the borders of Lorraine, to this child of 

 Nancy, who has shed luster upon the whole of 

 France. Before his grave the French Academy 

 can only express its sorrow, and deplore the loss 

 of a great seeker after truth, that stopped all too 

 soon in the midst of his work. He would be a 

 bold man who would assess the worth of a scholar. 

 In celebrating his fame, we can only do homage 

 to a philosopher whose thoughts will have so fer- 

 tile, so profound an action on the new generations. 



Passion for scientific truth did not suffice for 

 him, he loved literary beauty, and this incom- 



