248 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



is the noted Maria Gaetana Agnesi, of the University 

 of Bologna. 



The Italian originai was first published at Milan 

 in 1748. The two volumes of the translation were 

 printed at the expense of Baron Maseres. In an 

 introduction, Hellins points out that Colson hoped 

 to interest the ladies of England in the study of 

 fluxions by his translation of the work of the great 

 Italian lady, " And, in order to render it more easy 

 and useful to the Ladies of this country, ... he 

 [Colson] had designed and begun a popular account 

 of this work, under the title of The Pian of the 

 Lady's System of Analyticks ; explaining, article by 

 article, what was contained in it. But this he did 

 not live long enough to finish." 



215. Colson dealt wìth Agnesi's work somewhat 

 as Stone had dealt with that of De L'Hospital, 

 inasmuch as both translators substituted the nota- 

 tion of Newton in place of that of Leibniz. The 

 word fluxions (''flussioni") occurs in the originai 

 Italian of Agnesi's masterly work. How Colson's 

 conscience may have troubled him, when a fluxion 

 stood out in his translation as something " infinitely 

 little," may be judged when we consider that in 

 1736 he brought out an English translation, with 

 an extensive comment, of Newton's Method of 

 Fluxions. With Newton a fluxion always meant 

 a velocity. 



We quote a few passages from Colson's Agnesi 

 (voi. ii, pp. 1,2): 



"The Analysis of infinitely small Quantities, 



