Abel sent this pamphlet to serveral mathematicians including Gauss, who he intented to visit in Gottingen while on his travels. In August 1825 Abel was given a scholarship from the Norwegian governent to allow him to travel abroad and, after taking a month to sttle his affairs, he set out for the Continent with four friends, first visiting mathematicians in Norway and Denmark. On reaching Copenhagen, Abel found that Degen had died and he changed his mind about taking Hansteen’s advice to go directly to Paris, preferring not to travel alone and stay with his friends who were going to Berlin. As he wrote in a later letter:-
Now I am so constituted that I cannot endure sollitude. Alone, I am depressed. I get cantankerous, and I have little inclination to work.