CRITICI SMS BY BRITISH WRITERS 269 



quarto form and in the Latin language, the in- 

 clusion in the Appendix of matters foreign to the 

 subject of the hook, together with the attempt 

 to maintain a system of notation and mode of 

 exposition that was beginning to be considered 

 provincial, caused the hook to ''fall still-born 

 from the press." 



Encyclopcedia Britannica, 18 io 



229. In the fourth edition of the Encydopcsdia 

 Britannica, Edinburgh, 18 io, the article "Fluxions" 

 is wholly rewritten, and is much more extensive than 

 the article in former editions. There is a lengthy 

 historical introduction, and emphasis is placed upon 

 work done on the Continent. It observes "that 

 there is no work in the English language that ex- 

 hibits a complete view of the theory of fluxions, 

 with ali the improvements that bave been made 

 upon it to the present time." Mention is made 

 then of "several excellent works in the French 

 language," mentioning Cousin, Bossut, La Croix, 

 L'Huilier. 



Letting « be " any function " of x, the //;;/// of 

 the ratio {u —u) \ h is defined as "a quantity to 

 which the ratio may approach nearer than by any 

 assignable difìference, but to which it cannot be con- 

 sidered as becoming absolutely equal." The article 

 asserts that the method of fluxions " rests upon a 

 principle purely analytical, namely the theory of 

 limiting ratios ; and this being the case, the subject 

 may be treated as a branch of pure mathematics, 



