In 1808, Napoleon I (1769 1821), emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815, commissioned a series of official reports on the progress of scientific research since 1789. First published in 1810, this report on the current state of mathematics was written by French mathematician and astronomer Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre (1749 1822). A Professor at the College de France and Director of the Paris Observatory, Delambre was appointed permanent secretary for the mathematical sciences of the Academy of Science in 1801. As such, he was charged with examining the state of mathematics in higher...