CHAPTER IV 



JURIN'S CONTROVERSY WITH ROBINS AND 

 PEMBERTON 



Robins's ' ' Discourse^ " and Review of it 



117. Benjamin Robins was a native of Bath and 

 a self - educateci mathematician of considerable 

 reputation. 



The debate carried on by Bishop Berkeley with 

 Jurin and VValton induced Benjamin Robins to 

 issue a publication, entitled, A Discourse Concerning 

 the Nature and Certamty of Sir Isaac Newton's 

 Methods of FluxionSy and of Prime and Ultimate 

 Ratios, 1735.^ Evidently Robins felt that Berkeley 's 

 attacks should be met, and that Jurin was not the 

 man to defend Newton satisfactorily. Robins was 

 a man of mathematica! power ; his exposition is 

 regarded by Professor G. A. Gibson as very able, 

 and far superior to that of Jurin. ^ Without naming 

 either Berkeley or Jurin, and without referring to 

 their articles, Robins proceeds to his task. The 

 whole foundation of the doctrine of fluxions is 



' This paper is repuhlished, along with subsequent articles on the 

 same subject, in the Matheniatical Tracts of the late Benjamin Robins, 

 E^q. ... in two volumes, edited by James Wilson, M.D. London, 

 1761, voi. ii, pp. 1-77. 



- G. A. Gibson, Ice. cit., pp. 22-25. 



96 



