300 What Did Galois Do or Know?
The first piece of evidence is the continuation of the above quotation: ‘In the first
instance it would seem that the [theory] of solution of equations by radicals would
end there.’ Unfortunately the text on that side of the paper ends at this point, and the
other side merely lists titles of four memoirs.
Another is Dossier 9, which includes:
The proposed goal is to determine the characteristics for the solubility of
equations by radicals. . . that is the question to which we offer a complete
solution.
He then acknowledges that in practice ‘the calculations are impracticable,’ but
attempts to justify the importance of the result nonetheless:
... most of the time in algebraic analysis one is led to equations all of
whose