BEZOUT, ETIENNE (1 73o-1 783 ), French mathematician, was born at Nemours on March 3 r, r 73o. He studied mathematics in opposition to the wishes of his parents. In 1763 he became ex aminer of naval entrants in mathematics, and a few years later he undertook similar work for the artillery. Bezout wrote two text books, Cours de mathematiques a l'usage des gardes du pavilion et de la marine, avec un traite de navigation (r 764-69) and Cours de mathematiques a l'usage du corps royal de l'artil lerie (1 7 7 o-7 2) . These were adopted in a number of schools; they ran into many editions and were translated into other Euro pean languages. He was very conscientious in his work as an examiner, and in the limited time at his disposal for mathematical research he studied the theory of equations. Bezout's work on this subject was of great value to the geometers of the time, who were being hindered by the lack of knowledge in algebra. He pub lished papers in the Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences in 1764 and 1768. In the first of these papers he used determi nants, but did not deal with their general theory. His most im portant work was the Theorie generale des equations algebriques 0779), which contained much valuable material on the theory of elimination. Bezout was a member of the Paris Academy; he died of fever on Sept. 27, r 7 83.