Mansion, Paul (1844-1919)

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Mathematician, historian of science and professor at the State University of Ghent, born in Marchin (Hoei) on 3 June 1844 and died in Ghent on 16 April 1919.

Biography

Paul Mansion was born in Marchin on 3 June 1844 into a family of ten children. He attended secondary school at the municipal college of Huy (Hoei). Because his father died at an early age, Mansion was brought up by his mother Fernande Devreux and his older brothers and sisters. On 15 October 1862, Mansion was admitted to the Normal School of Sciences at the University of Ghent. He obtained his aggregate in 1865, after which he started working as a temporary repetiteur for the courses in mathematics at the School of Civil Engineers in Ghent. On 13 August 1867 he obtained a doctorate in physics and mathematics at the city university and on 7 April 1870 he obtained the special doctorate in mathematics at the University of Liège. On 3 October 1867, Mansion succeeded Professor Mathias Schaar at the University of Ghent as professor of infinitesimal mathematics and higher analysis. In 1870 he was appointed professor and in 1874 he was promoted to full professor. He was charged several times with the courses in higher algebra and probability. In 1890, Mansion was also assigned to the new subject history of mathematics and physics. This course had just been added as a compulsory subject to the curriculum of the science faculty of the state universities. Mansion was chosen as the teacher for this subject because he had already started a similar course in the Teachers' Training College a few years before. Moreover, Mansion himself undertook historical research into the history of mathematics. The new course was encyclopaedic in nature and covered the earliest sources up to the Modern Age. Mathematics was given ample space, but physics was hardly dealt with. Mansion did discuss the work of Galileo as the founder of modern physics, and he also gave an overview of the various astronomical systems and their history. In 1898, Mansion became inspector of training at the École préparatoire du Génie civil. In 1909, he was finally admitted to emeritus status.

Mansion was appointed a corresponding member of the Académie royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles on 15 December 1882 and an effective member on 15 December 1887. He was Director of the Class of Sciences and President of the Academy in 1903. He was also a corresponding member of the Société royale des sciences de Liège, of the Mathematical Society of Amsterdam, of the Académie pontificale des Nuovi Lincei and of various other scientific societies. He was one of the founders of the Société scientifique de Bruxelles.

Work

Mansion studied several areas of mathematics. As part of his special doctorate, he investigated the multiplication and transformation of elliptic functions. This became one of his favourite subjects. In 1873, the Academy awarded him for his important work on first-order partial differential equations. Mansion was also interested in probability theory and devoted several studies to it, including a commentary on a course taught by his predecessor Emmanuel-Joseph Boudin. He also tackled Jacques Bernouilli's law of large numbers. He presented several publications on non-euclidean geometry, the theory of elimination in algebra, differential equations and quadratic equations. In 1874 Catalan and Mansion founded the Nouvelle Correspondance Mathématique. The journal was disbanded in 1880 and replaced the following year by Mathesis, headed by Jean Baptiste Joseph Neuberg and Mansion himself. The latter published several articles in the journal, including on non-euclidean geometry and the history of mathematics. Mansion wrote several didactic works. His textbook Cours d'Analyse infinitésimale was published in 1887 under the title Mélanges Mathématiques and he published a collection of his notes.

Mansion also carried out research into the historical roots of mathematics, usually combined with purely mathematical work, for example on non-euclidean geometry. As an introduction to his textbook Cours d'Analyse infinitésimale (1887) he wrote a forty-page treatise on the history of the subject. He also published articles on Galileo and Copernicus.

Publications

• The complete list of all publications by Mansion can be found in DEMOULIN, Alphonse, "La vie et l’œuvre de Paul Mansion", in: Annuaire de l’Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1929, 117-147.
  

Biographical contributions

• "Pagani (Gaspard-Michel-Marie)", in: Biographie Nationale, vol. 16, 1901, kol. 465-469.
• "Schaar (Mathias)", in: Biographie Nationale, vol. 21, 1911-1913, kol. 554-557.
• "Timmermans (Jean-Alexis)", in: Biographie Nationale, vol. 25, 1930-1932, kol. 262-283.
  

Bibliography

• DEMOULIN, Alphonse, "La vie et l'oeuvre de Paul Mansion", in: Annuaire de l’Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1929, 77-147.
• GODEAUX, Lucien, "Mansion, (Paul)", in: Biographie Nationale, vol. 30, 1958, kol. 540-542.
• GODEAUX, Lucien, "Paul Mansion 1844-1919", in: Florilège des sciences en Belgique pendant le 19^e et le début du 20^e siècle, Brussel: Académie royale de Belgique Classe des sciences, 1968, 129-132.
• MAWHIN, Jean, "De wiskunde", in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, 103-105.