1831: Reflection in my final days

Dear Journal,

            I’m afraid this will be my last entry, for I write to you with number days. A few months ago I was diagnosed with a deadly disease, which I believe in modern days is now known as breast cancer. I know that death is an inevitable outcome of life, and these 55 years of life are a gift, compared to all the young lives taken in the Revolution, but I still cannot help but feel melancholy. I feel disappointed, not in my supposed “failure” to marry and move out of the house, but disappointed that death is a finite end to the work that I have done in mathematics and physics. There is so much to be discovered, and it pains me that death is my only restriction in conquering the vast amounts of information that remain untouched. I do think I have made my mark in history through the work that I’ve done, and I am proud of that. I have even won the recognition of Napoleon himself; in 1816, I won the grand prize in his mathematical challenge, on the third try. I was recognized in this victory as myself, Sophie Germain, and not Monsieur Le Blanc. Winning this prize gave me a well-timed boost in esteem, for I had lost confidence in my mathematical prowess when Gauss, my writing correspondent, stopped replying to my letters. I found that after our correspondence died out, pure mathematics no longer satisfied my interests and I began to delve into the world of physics. My interest in vibrating surfaces began in 1808, when I saw the acoustician Chlandni demonstrate the vibrating nodes of plates with grains of sand at the French Academy of Sciences. Napoleon was impressed by his demonstration, and offered a prize of three thousand francs for anyone who could provide a theoretical description of the nodes patterns. My final entry contained the basic hypothesis that the elasticity of the nodes was proportional to the sum of the inverses of the principal radii of the curvature of the surface, and I proved this by utilizing concepts from Euler and algebraic reasoning. To compile my findings, I wrote “Memoir on the Vibrations of Elastic Plates” (Tanzi). 

                              These are sketches of my theory of elasticity, dating to 1821.

            Although this was the first mathematical explanation for the resonance of nodes vibrating, my prestige still lay on my work with the Fermat theorem. In my later years, I received a medal from the Institut de France for my discoveries on this theorem, thus becoming the first woman to attend lectures at the Academy of Sciences in Paris. It was through this that I reconnected with my esteemed mentor Gauss. I think in part to mend our friendship; he has been lobbying to the University of Göttingen to award me an honorary degree. However, I have little faith that I will live to receive this degree, for this disease is painful and it weakens me. This is where I must stop my account dear journal; I have lost the strength to hold my quill any longer.

Au revoir,

Sophie Germain


Tanzi, Cristina. "Sophie Germain's Early Contribution to the Elasticity Theory." MRS Bulletin 1 Nov. 1999, Issue 11 ed.: 70-71. Web. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=9029787&jid=MRS&volumeId=24&issueId=11&aid=9029786