Mathematician, born at Tartaras, near Lyons, France, on the 11th of August 1730; died in Paris on the 14th of January 1814. From 1752 until the revolution of 1793 he was professor at Mezières, and, under the empire, was connected with the polytechnic schools in Paris. He became a recognized authority upon mechanics and dynamics, and his Complete Course of Mathematics is a standard work. In the compulsory retirement that followed the Revolution he wrote his famous Essai sur l’Historie Générale des Mathematiques.
