Andre Marie, professor of mathematical analysis in the Polytechnic School of Paris, and one of the most distinguished philosophers of this century, was born at Lyons in 1775. Among his numerous publications, on various branches of knowledge, he is best known by his Electro-Magnetic-Dynamic papers, which were afterwards embodied in two volumes entitled Recueil des Observations Electro-Dynamiques, Paris, 1824-26. His mechanical invention is there exhibited in the various beautiful contrivances by which he demonstrated the force and direction of electromagnetic currents, and his sagacity by the philosophical spirit with which he explained the phenomena. His speculations On the Application of the Calculus of Variations to Mechanical Problems, as well as his first publication in 1820, Considerations on the Mathematical Theory of Games of Chance, are specimens of refined and profound speculation. He also showed an early interest in the Chemical Theory of Definite Proportions. In 1824 he published a remarkable paper On the Surface-curves of Luminous Waves; and about 1830, a good Essay on the Philosophy of the Sciences. Besides these larger works, he was the author of several papers in Le Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique, and in Memoires de l'Institut, on mechanical philosophy and natural history. Ampere died at Paris in 1836, at the age of 61.

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