Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Abel, Niels Henrik

Abel, Niels Henrik, one of the ablest and acutest mathematicians of modern times, was born at Findöe in Norway in 1802, and died near Arenclal in 1829. Considering the shortness of his life, the extent and thoroughness of his mathematical investigations and analyses are marvellous. His great powers of generalisation were displayed in a remarkable degree in his development of the theory of elliptic functions. Legendre's eulogy of Abel, "Quelle tête celle du jeune Norvegien!" is the more forcible, that the French mathematician had occupied himself with those functions for most of his lifetime. Abel's works, edited by M. Holmboe, the professor under whom he studied at Christiania, were published by the Swedish government in 1839.