It is not impossible that the mathematical positions in the Academies will one day become what the University chairs in Arabic are now. It still remains true that, with negative theorems such as this, transforming personal convictions into objective ones requires deterringly detailed work. If I explained my investigations as broadly as Fourier's book is written it would take me just a quarter of the time and several huge volumes.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
When I was a student, abelian functions were, as an effect of the Jacobian tradition, considered the uncontested summit of mathematics and each of us was ambitious to make progress in this field. The younger generation hardly knows abelian functions. In mathematics, as in other sciences, the same process can be observed again and again. First new questions arise, for internal or external reasons, and draw researchers away from the old questions. And the old questions, just because they have been worked on so much, need ever more comprehensive study for their mastery.