i62 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



John Muller, 1736 



154. John Muller, a German by birth, dates bis 

 Mathematical Treatise^^ 173^, from the Tower of 

 London, and dedicates it to the master-general of 

 the ordnance. He was appointed in 1741 head- 

 master of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 

 He was * ' the scholastic father of ali the great 

 engìneers this country employed for forty years. " 



The author's method of explaining fluxions is 

 somewhat unique. *' I make no use of infinitely 

 small quantities nor of nascent or evanescent 

 velocities ; and yet I think to bave explained those 

 Principles, so that any Person of a moderate 

 capacity . . . may be fully convinced of the Truth 

 thereof" (Preface). He begins his conic sections 

 with the postulate: ''Grant that two infinite 

 quantities, differing from each other by a finite 

 quantity, may be esteemed equal. " He then 

 explains that this postulate '*is bere of use only 

 to shew the connection of the Conic-Sections," and 

 hastens to assure the reader that ''whenever we 

 make use of it in the demonstration of any Proposi- 

 tion, we shall give always another Demonstration 

 independent on it." 



In the Republick of Lctters, June, 1736, occurs the 

 foUowing comment : 



" He introduces this [Conic-Sections] by a Postu- 

 latum that sounds very absurdly to those that are 



^ A Mathematical Treatise : Containing a System of Conic-Sections ; 

 with the Doctrine of Fluxions and Fluents, Applied to various Subjects. 

 By John Muller. London, 1736. 



