In 1773 Lagrange
treated determinants of the second and third orders and used them for purpose
other than the solution of equations In 1801, Gauss used determinants in his
theory of numbers The next great contributor was Jacques - Philippe - Marie Binet, (1812) who
stated the theorem relating to the product of two matrices of m-columns and n-
rows, which for the special case of m = n reduces to the multiplication theorem Also on the same day, Cauchy (1812) presented one on the same subject