His own opinion was that curvilinear coordinates were his most important contribution, but there are strange twists and turns in the history of mathematics and very soon after Lamé introduced them curvilinear coordinates became obsolete through the generalisations introduced by Hermite, Klein, and Bôcher .
Kanyang sariling opinyon ay na kurbilinyar coordinates ay kanyang pinakamahalagang kontribusyon, ngunit may mga kakaibang twists at lumiliko sa kasaysayan ng matematika at lalong madaling panahon pagkatapos ng mababaw na nagpasimula ng mga ito kurbilinyar coordinates ay naging lipas na sa pamamagitan ng generalisations ipinakilala sa pamamagitan ng Hermite, Klein, at Bôcher.