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Gallois Galois GALLOIS GALOIS Individual works include Grundzfige der schlesischen geometer with Michel Rolle and Pierre Varignon . He Klinratologie (Breslau, 1857); Uher die Verbesserung der stated his intention of publishing a critical translation Plan eten elem en te (Breslau, 1858) ; Uber eine Bestimmung of Pappus, but nothing came of this project . Instead, der Sonnenparallaxe arts korrespondierenden Beohachtungen he stimulated the quarrel between his two colleagues des Planeten Flora (Breslau, 1875) ; and Mitteilungen der concerning differential calculus and impeded its set- Koniglichen Universitdts-Stern warte Breslau fiber hier hisher tlement until 1706 . gewonnene Resultate fur die geographischen and klimato- Despite this negative attitude, the consequences of logischen Ortsverhdltnisse (Breslau, 1879). If . SECONDARY LITERATURE . Works on Galle and his which might have been disastrous, Gallois deserves work are W . Foerster, "J . G. Galle," in Vierteljahrsschrift recognition by historians of science for his activities der Astronornischen Gesellschaft, 46 (1911), 17-22 ; and D . as a publicist. Although he wrote somewhat fancifully Wattenberg, J. G. Galle (Leipzig, 1963). and with little concern for coherence, he was of H . C . FREILSLEBEN service in his time as a disseminator of ideas and his work is still valuable as an historical source . GALLOIS, JEAN (b. Paris, France, 11 June 1632 ; d. Paris, 19 April 1707), history of science. The son of a counsel to the Parlement of Paris, BIBLIOGRAPHY Gallois seems to have distinguished himself in that city around 1664 by the breadth of his learning, I . ORIGINAL WORKS . Gallois's translations and other works include Traduction latine du traite de paix des by his knowledge of Hebrew and of both living and Pyrenees (Paris, 1659) ; Breviannn Colhertinum (Paris, classical languages, by his interest in the sciences, and 1679) : "Extrait du livre intitule : Observations physiques et by a genuine literary talent . Today his name is associ- mathematiques envoyees des Indes et de la Chine . par ated with the famous Journal des sgavans. He collab- les P. P. Jesuites . A Paris . par l'abbe Galloys," in orated with its founder, Denys de Sallo, from January Memoires de mathematiques et de phisique tires des registres to April 1665, during the brief period in which the de I Academie royale des sciences (31 July 1692), pp. 113- new publication provoked the violent polemics that 120; "Extraitd'un ecritcompose par Dom Frangois Quesnet, led to its suspension ; and it was to him that Colbert religieux benedictin, et envoye a l'Academie royale des assigned its resumption . Gallois made the periodical sciences, touchant les effets extraordinaires d'un echo," a success, publishing forty-two issues as sole editor, ibid (30 Nov . 1692), pp . 158-160; "Extrait du livre intitule : beginning in 1666. The Academie Royale des Sci- Divers ouvrages de mathematiques et de physique par messieurs de ('Academie royale des sciences," ibid. (30 Apr. ences, established that year, found a vehicle of ex- 1693), pp . 49-64 ; and "Reponse a 1'ecrit de David Gregory pression in the Journal,- yet, despite its support, the touchant les lignes appelees Robervalliennes qui servent number of issues published decreased to sixteen in a transformer les figures," in Memoires de !'Academie royale 1667 and to thirteen in 1668. Named a member of des sciences pour l'annee 1703 (Paris, 1705), pp. 70-77 . the Academy in 1667, Gallois temporarily assumed Many accounts of sessions are in the MS registers of the duties of the perpetual secretary, Jean Baptiste Proces-verbau x de .s seances de !'Academie royale des sciences Duhamel, who was on a diplomatic mission to (1668-1699), passim . Correspondence with Leibniz is England . The Journal des sgavans continued to appear Hannover, LBr 295, 35 fol. under Gallois's editorship, but with steadily decreas- II . SECONDARY LITERATURE . See Denis-Franr ois ing frequency . Camusat, Histoire critique desjournaux (Amsterdam, 1734), pp . 214-3 10 : Bernard de Fontenelle, "Eloge de M , l'abbe Gallois entered the Academic Frangaise in 1673 Gallois," in Histoire et memoires de !'Academie royale des and in 1675 turned over the editorship of the Journal sciences pour l'annee 1707; and "Bibliographic de Jean to the Abbe Jean-Paul de La Roque, although he Galloys," in Histoire de !'Academie royale des sciences depuis became involved with the Journal again in 1684 . 1666 jusqu'd son renouvellement en 1699, II (Paris, 1733), Meanwhile, the death of his patron Colbert had led p. 360 . him to seek the position of custodian of the Royal PIERRE COSTABEL Library. A few years later he was appointed professor of Greek at the College Royal . His name is mentioned GALOIS, EVARISTE (b. Bourg-la-Reine, near Paris, in conjunction with various publications planned by France, 25 October 1811 ; d. Paris, 31 May 1832), the Academic Royale des Sciences, especially in mathematics . 1692-1693 . Starting in this period Gallois became an There have been few mathematicians with person- opponent of the introduction of infinitesimal methods alities as engaging as that of Galois, who died at the in mathematics . age of twenty years and seven months from wounds With the reorganization of the Academic Royale received in a mysterious duel . He left a body of des Sciences in 1699 Galloois was made pensionary work-for the most part published posthumously-of 259 GALOIS GALOIS less than 100 pages, the astonishing richness of which the next two years he followed the second-year was revealed in the second half of the nineteenth preparatory mathematics courses taught by Vernier, century . Far from being a cloistered scholar, this then the more advanced ones of L.-P.-E. Richard, who extraordinarily precocious and exceptionally pro- was the first to recognize his indisputable superiority found genius had an extremely tormented life . A in mathematics . With this perceptive teacher Galois militant republican, driven to revolt by the adversity was an excellent student, even though he was already that overwhelmed him and by the incomprehension devoting much more of his time to his personal work and disdain with which the scientific world received than to his classwork . In 1828 he began to study his works, to most of his contemporaries he was only certain recent works on the theory of equations, a political agitator . Yet in fact, continuing the work number theory, and the theory of elliptic functions . of Abel, he produced with the aid of group theory This was the period of his first memorandum, pub- a definitive answer to the problem of the solvability lished in March 1829 in Gergonne's Annales de of algebraic equations, a problem that had absorbed nzathematiques pores et appliquees ; making more ex- the attention of mathematicians since the eighteenth plicit and demonstrating a result of Lagrange's con- century ; he thereby laid one of the foundations of cerning continuous fractions, it reveals a certain modern algebra . The few sketches remaining of other ingenuity but does not herald an exceptional talent . works that he devoted to the theory of elliptic func- By his own account, in the course of 1828 Galois tions and that of Abelian integrals and his reflections wrongly believed-as Abel had eight years earlier- on the philosophy and methodology of mathematics that he had solved the general fifth-degree equation . display an uncanny foreknowledge of modern math- Rapidly undeceived, he resumed on a new basis the ematics . study of the theory of equations, which he pursued Galois's father, Nicolas-Gabriel Galois, an amiable until he achieved the elucidation of the general prob- and witty liberal thinker, directed a school accommo- lem with the help of group theory . The results he dating about sixty boarders. Elected mayor of obtained in May 1829 were communicated to the Bourg-la-Reine during the Hundred Days, he re- Academic des Sciences by a particularly competent tained this position under the second Restoration . judge, Cauchy . But events were to frustrate these Galois's mother, Adelaide-Marie Demante, was from brilliant beginnings and to leave a deep mark on the a family of jurists and had received a more traditional personality of the young mathematician . First, at the education . She had a headstrong personality and was beginning of July came the suicide of his father, who eccentric, even somewhat odd . Having taken charge had been persecuted for his liberal opinions . Second, of her son's early education, she sought to inculcate a month later he failed the entrance examination for in him, along with the elements of classical culture, the Ecole Polytechnique, owing to his refusal to follow the principles of an austere religion and respect for the method of exposition suggested by the examiner . a Stoic morality . Affected by his father's imagination Seeing his hopes vanish for entering the school which and liberalism, the varying severity of his mother's attracted him because of its scientific prestige and eccentricity, and the affection of his elder sister liberal tradition, he took the entrance examination Nathalie-Theodore, Galois seems to have had an for the Ecole Normale Superieure (then called the early youth that was both happy and studious . Ecole Preparatoire), which trained future secondary Galois continued his studies at the College Louis- school teachers . Admitted as the result of an excellent le-Grand in Paris, entering as a fourth-form boarder grade in mathematics, he entered this institution in in October 1823 . He found it difficult to submit to November 1829; it was then housed in an annex of the harsh discipline imposed by the school during the the College Louis-le-Grand, where he had spent the Restoration at the orders of the political authorities previous six years. At this time, through reading and the Church, and although a brilliant student, he Ferussac's Bulletin des sciences mat hematiques, he presented problems .
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