0« DOCTOR HALLEY'S SERIES for the Calculation of LOGA. 

 RITHMS, by the REV. RICHARD MURRAY, D. D. late 

 FROYOST of Trinity College near Dublin.*— Read Nov. i6th, i8oi. 



JLiORD NEPER was, Tvithout difpute, the inventor of logarithms. In 

 the year 1614 he publilhed a fketch of his plan, together with forae 

 fliort tables of logarithms calculated by himfelf, under the title of miri- 

 fici logarithmorum canonis defcriptio ; and the obvious ufes of the 

 fcheme were fo many and great, that the invention was received with 

 eagernefs by almoft all the mathematicians in Europe, many of whom 

 fet themfelves about improving the hint, and calculating larger tables. 

 Of thefe the principal was Mr. Henry Briggs, who went twice into 

 Scotland to confult with the inventor ; at which times they agreed upon 

 fome alterations to be made in the tables, and fettled the plan of thofe 

 logarithms that are the moft convenient of all for ufe, and which arc 

 known by the name of Vulgar Logarithms ; they are alfo frequently called 

 Briggs's Logarithms, becaufe. Lord Neper dying ftiortly after their fecond 

 confultation, the whole bufmefs of forming the tables devolved upon 

 Briggs. 



A 2 Thefe 



* This eflay was found among the papers of Doftor Murray, after his death. He had, 

 drawn it up, fhortly after his appointment in 1763 to the profeflbrftiip of mathematics,' 

 for the inftruflion of his pupils, and much of it therefore is employed in explanations, 

 which, had he defigned it for publication in the prefent mode, he would have retrenched ; 

 but, as the whole is Ihort, it has been thought advifeable to give it in its original form. 



