There had been a tradition of rigorous analysis at the École Polytechnique begun, of course, by Cauchy himself. Jordan was aware that his work was at a level that would be somewhat inappropriate for engineering students for he once said to Lebesgue that he called it "École Polytechnique analysis course" since:
May nagkaroon na ng isang tradisyon ng mahigpit na pagtatasa sa École Polytechnique sinimulan, of course, sa pamamagitan ng Cauchy kanyang sarili. Jordan ay kamalayan na ang kanyang trabaho ay sa isang antas na ay tila hindi naaangkop para sa engineering para sa mga mag-aaral na siya ng isang beses sinabi sa Lebesgue na siya ito na tinatawag na "École Polytechnique pagtatasa ng kurso" dahil: