554 
quantities ‘of a new fpecies, fhowing the 
fequels of which thefe irrationa/s are the 
terms or the fum, and pointing outa direét 
and general method of making in them all 
the poffible reductions. 
In the fame year appeared his work on 
the Elimination of unknown Quantities ia 
Algebra. This elimination is the art of 
bringing back thofe equations which in- 
clude many unknown quantities, to equa- 
tions which only cantain one. The per- 
fe€tion of refearches in this art would 
confift in obtaining a generaj and particu- 
Jar formula of elimination in a form the 
moft concife and convenient, in which the 
number of equations and their degrees 
Thould be defigned by indeterminate let- 
ters. Vandermonde, while he confidered 
the geometers as very diftant from this 
point, had fome glimpfe of a poffibility 
of reaching it, and propofed fome new 
methods of approaching nearer it. 
In 1778, he prefented, in one of the 
public fittings of the academy, a new Syf- 
tem of Harmony, which he detailed more 
fully in another public fitting of 1780. 
In this fyftem, Vandermonde » reduces the 
modes of proceeding adopted until his 
time, to two principal rules, which thus 
become eftablifhed on effeéts admitted by 
all mouficians. ‘Thefe two general rules, 
ene on the fucceflion of according founds, 
the other on the arrangement of the parts, 
depend themfelves on alaw more elevated, 
which, according to Vandermonde, ought 
_to rule the whole fcience of harmony. 
By the publication of this work, he 
fatisfactorily attained the end he had pro= 
Vandermonde.—Flandrin. 
[Sur. 
He was foon after attacked by a diforder 
in his lungs, which almoft taking away his 
voice, manifefted itfelf by alarming fymp= 
toms, and conduéted him by rapid fteps” 
to the tomb. 
In the mean time, the Reprefentatives 
of the People fought, by the eftablifhment 
of Normal fchools, to repair the lofs 
which Letters had fuftained, and to open 
again the fources of inftruétion throughout 
the whole extent of the Republic. Van- 
dermonde was hereupon invited to difcufs 
before them the principies of political 
-economy. ‘The little time he had to pre- 
pare himfelf for a work which he had not 
forefeen, and to colleé his fcattered me- 
ditations on the great interefts of nations, 
the nature of the roftrum in which he 
was to deliver his fentiments, the feeblenefs 
of his voice, the fhort duration of the 
{chool, which deprived him of one of his 
principal advantages, that of progreffing 
confiantly towards his end, all thefe ob- 
ftacles concurred to prevent his ideas from 
being received by a numerous affembly, 
with the favour which his geometrical 
works kad obtained from ifolated readers. 
Some time after (fays Lacepede) you 
admitted him one of your members, and, 
in fpite of the progrefs of his malady, 
which became more alarming every day, 
he was juft beginning to fulfil, among his 
old and new affociates, the duties you had 
impofed upon him, when death fuddenly 
ftruck him -almoft within thefe . walls, 
on the rith Nivofe of 1795. Thus 
were his laft moments, like the reft 
of his life, devoted to the {ciences and the 
pofed to himfelf, and obtained the fuf- arts. 
frages of three great men, reprefentatives, 
fo to fpeak, of the three great fchools of 
Germany, France, and Italy : Gluck, Phi- 
lidor, and Piccini *. 
With thefe labours, intermingled with 
frequent refearches on the mechanic arts, 
as well as on objects of political economy, 
the attention of Wandermonde was taken 
up; when, July 14, 1780, the voice of 
liberty rofounded over the whole furface 
of France, and fuddenly all the thoughts, 
as well as all the affeétions of Vander- 
monde, were engaged on the fide of li- 
berty +. 

* Ice was referved for Goffec, one ef our 
affociatés, to furnifh a more {lid bafis for the 
rales of harmony, by difcovering a feries of 
founds which nature communicates to fuch as 
are determined to ranfack her fecrets, and the 
@etail of which will equally intereft the friends 
of the phyfical {ciences, and thofe of the fine 
ays. 
+ Some parfeug have reproached Lacepede for 
= Eg 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
BrocGRAPHICAL NoTicE RELATIVE 
TO FLANDRIN, A CELEBRATED 
FRENCH VETERINARIAN. By F. 
H. GILBERT; PRoressor-DIREC+ 
TOR-ADJUNCT OF THE VETERI- 
NARY SCHOOL, AND MEMBER OF 
THE CouNCIL OF AGRICULTURE, 
AND OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE 
oF Paris. 
ig the death of a celebrated artift is a 
public calamity, it is particularly fe 
when he is taken away inthe midft of his 
career, from an art yet in its infancy, and 

not having reprefented Vandermonde as am 
affeicate egies atrocious clafs of men, whe 
covered France with the fcaffold,; with ruins, 
and crimes. His reafon for this was, that, 
ia his,opinion, difcuffions on political opinions- 
ought not to be admitted inte the fanctuary. of 
the iciences. = 9° Saree 
which 
