THE 



EDINBURGH 

 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Art. I. — Some Account of James Stirling, F. R. S. By S. P. 

 Rigaud, F. R. S. Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the 

 University of Oxford. Communicated by the Author. 



James Stirling was a very eminent mathematician, but hard- 

 ly any thing seems to be generally known about him ; and 

 Hutton * was able to collect very little more than the record 

 of his death from the obituary of the GentlemaiCs Magazine. 

 He was not, however, one of those common-place men who 

 just come into the world " to look about us and to die ;" a 

 few additional particulars will therefore not be without an in- 

 terest in themselves, and, by recalling attention to his memory, 

 may be the means of our learning more. His family may yet 

 be resident in his native country, and when they find that his 

 name is still honoured as it deserves, they may, if they are 

 able, be induced to give us further information about him. 



He was the third son of Archibald Stirling of St Ninians, 

 in the county of Stirling. On the 4th of January 1711, he 

 was admitted a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, and, on 

 the 10th of the same month, he became one of SnelPs exhibi- 

 tioners in that society. At this time he was in the fifteenth 

 year of his age, and consequently, he must have been born in 

 1696. The particular day of his birth is not preserved in the 

 Cniversity Registers, from which these dates are taken. 



* 1'hil. Trans, dbr. vol. vi, p. 4)28. 



NKW SEIUKS, VOL. V. NO. II. OCTOBER 1831. N 



