HERMITE, ar'nfft', Ctimit.Es (1S22-1901';. one of the hest-known French mathematicians of the nineteenth century. Ile was born at Dieu Ze Meurthe, and received his early education in the 1.ye(s. Louis-le-t:rand. He entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1842, but left at the end of the year, in order to devote his attention exclusively to mathematics. From 1848 to I876 he was connected with the Ecole Polytechnique in various capacities, and from 1862 to 1873 was maitre de in the Ecole Normale Sup&ieure. From 1876 until his death he gave his time to the university, where he held the chair of higher algebra (1569-97). Ile was a member of the Academy of Sciences. and a grand officer of the Legion of honor (1892). Ilis work was chiefly along the line of theory of function., in which subject he was for many years the leader in France. His first great work, the one which secured for him his election to the Academy of Sciences, was Sur la theorie de la transformation des fonclions abelicnnes (Comptes rendns, 1855) At about the same time begin his discoveries in the new theory of algebraic forms and in the, theory of numbers. His most remarkable mem
oirs, twenty-six in number, Sur quelques appli cations de la theoric des functions elliptiques, appeared in the Comptes remlus (l877.83). His memoir.Sur requation du .5I'me dcgre(1S60).may be said to have finally settled the great, question of the solubility of the quintie equation to the entire satisfaction of the mathematical world. His memoir Sur la fonetion exponentielle ( 1874). in which he proved the incommensurability of e. paved the way for Lindemann's proof (ISS2) of the incommensurability of sr. Hermite was a very prolific writer. A substantially complete list of his memoirs maybe found in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Soc4-ty of London, vols. iii. and vii. Besides his memoirs, which contain his most valuable contributions, he published a emirs Wanalysc (le l'Erolr Poly technique (1873; 2d ed. IS94). and assisted Ser ret in editing Lacroix's calculus (9th ed.. Paris, NS], 2 vols.). Consult articles by Mitt:tr.-Leffler and Picard in Acta Mathematic°, vols. xxiii., xxiv. (Stockholm, 1901.02).