CHAPTER li 



PRINTED BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON FLUXIONS 

 BEFORE 1734 



54. The earliest printed publication in Great 

 Britain on the new calculus was from the pen of 

 John Craig, a Scotsman by birth, who settled in 

 Cambridge and became a friend of Newton. Later 

 he was rector of Gillingham in Dorsetshire. He 

 was " an inoffensive, virtuous man," fond of mathe- 

 matics. In 1685 he published at London a book 

 entitled, Methodus figuraruin . . . quadraiuras 

 determinandi. At that time nothing could be 

 known about fluxions except through private com- 

 munication. In 1684 Leibniz published his first 

 ideas of Differential Calculus in the Leipzig Acts. 

 Craig used in 1685 the calculus of Leibniz and also 

 the notation of Leibniz. Continental writers cali 

 Craig the introducer of the theory of Leibniz into 

 England. On p. 28 of his book, Craig derives 

 dp = 4Snr*jy^d_y from p= lónr^jy^, and arrives at a 

 differential equation (aiquationem differentialem). 

 The meanings of <^, dy, dx, etc. , are not explained 

 but taken for granted, reference being made to 

 Leibniz. In 1693 Craig published another book in 

 which the notation of Leibniz is used. He con- 



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