STURM, JACQUES CHARLES FRANÇOIS, the discoverer of the algebraic theorem which bears his name, was born in Geneva in 1803. Originally tutor to the son of Madame de Stail, he subsequently resolved, in conjunction with his school-fellow Colladon, to try his fortune in the French metropolis. Sturm soon made the acquaintance of the foremost mathematicians in the capital, and obtained employment on the Bulletin Universelle. On the discovery of his important theorem, namely, the determination of the number of real roots of a numerical equation which are included between given limits, in 23d May 1829, he rapidly rose to fortune and public honours. He was chosen a member of the French Academy in 1836, and was afterwards appointed to succeed Poisson in the chair of Physics at Paris. He presented numerous memoirs to the academy, of which it has been said that an impartial posterity will place them by the side of the finest memoirs of Lagrange. Sturm died on the 18th of December 1856.