MACLAURIN. 



eldest son, who was then to set out on his 

 travels. After a short stay at Paris, and 

 visiting- oilier towns in France, they fixed 

 in Lo train, where he wrote his piece on 

 the percussion of bodies, which gained 

 him the prize of the Koyal Academy of 

 Sciences for the year 1724 But his pupil 

 dying soon after at Montpelier, he re- 

 turned immediately to his profession at 

 Aberdeen. He was hardly settled here 

 when he received an invitation to Edin- 

 burgh ; the curators of lhat university 

 being desirous that he should supply the 

 place of Mr. James Gregory, whose great 

 age and infirmities had rendered him in- 

 capable of teaching. He had here some 

 difficulties to encounter, arising from 

 competitors, who had good interest with 

 the patrons of tiie university, and also 

 from the want of an additional fund for 

 the new professor ; which, however, at 

 length were all surmounted, principally 

 by the means of Sir Isaac Newton. Ac- 

 cordingly, in November 1725, he was in- 

 troduced into the university, as was at 

 the same time his learned colleague and 

 intimate friend, Dr. Alexander Munro, 

 professor of anatomy. After this, the 

 mathematical classes soon became very 

 numerous, there being generally upwards 

 of one hundred students attending his 

 lectures every year ; who being of differ- 

 ent standings and proficiency, he was 

 obliged to divide them into four or five 

 classes, in each of which he employed a 

 full hour every day, from the first of No- 

 vember to the first of June. In the junior 

 class he taught the first six books of " Eu- 

 clid's Elements," plane trigonometry, 

 practical geometry, the elements of forti- 

 fication, and an introduction to algebra. 

 The second class studied algebra, with 

 the eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid, 

 spherical trigonometry, conic sections, 

 and the general principles of astronomy. 

 The third went on in astronomy and per- 

 spective, read a part of " Newton's Prin- 

 cipia," and had performed a course of 

 experiments for illustrating them ; he af- 

 terwards read and demonstrated the ele- 

 ments of fluxions. Those in the fourth 

 class read a system of fluxions, the doc- 

 trine of chances, and the remainder of 

 " Newton's Principia " 



In 1734, Dr. Berkley, Bishop of Cloy ne, 

 published a piece called the " Analyst," 

 in which he took occasion, from some dis- 

 putes that had arisen concerning the 

 grounds of the fiuxionary method, to ex- 

 plode the method itself ; and also to 

 charge mathematicians in general with 

 htfidelity in religion, Maclaurin thought 



himself included in this charge, and be- 

 gan an answer to Berkley's book; but 

 other answers coming out, and as he 

 proceeded, so many discoveries, so many 

 new theories and problems occurred to 

 him, that instead of a vindicatory pam- 

 phlet, he produced a complete system of 

 fluxions, with their application to the 

 most considerable problems in geometry 

 and natural philosophy. This work was 

 published at Edinburgh in 1742, 2 vols. 

 4to. ; and as it cost him infinite pains, so 

 it is the most considerable of all his 

 works, and will do him immortal ho- 

 nour, being indeed the most complete 

 treatise on that science that has yet ap- 

 peared. 



In the mean time, lie was continually 

 obliging the public with some observa- 

 tion or performance of his own, several 

 of which were published in the fifth and 

 sixth volumes of the Medical Essays at 

 Edinburgh. Many of them were like- 

 wise published in the Philos. Trans, as 

 the following : 1. On the construction and 

 measure of curves, vol. 30. 2. A new 

 method of describing all kinds of curves, 

 vol. 30. 3. On equations with impossible 

 roots, vol. 34 4 On the roots of equa- 

 tions, &c. vol. 34. 5. On the description 

 of curve lines, vol. 39. 6. Continuation 

 of the same, vol. 39 7. Observations 

 on a solar eclipse, vol. 40. 8 A rule 

 for finding the meridional parts of a sphe- 

 roid, with the same exactness as in a 

 sphere, vol. 41. 9. An account of the 

 treatise of fluxions, vol. 42. 10. On the 

 basis of the cells, where the bees deposit 

 their honey, vol. 42. 



In the midst of these studies, lie was 

 always ready to lend his assistance in 

 contriving and promoting any scheme 

 which might contribute to the public 

 service. When the Earl of Morton went, 

 in 1739, to visit his estates in Orkney and 

 Shetland, he requested Mr. Maclaurin to 

 assist him in settling the geography of 

 those countries, which is very erroneous 

 in all our maps ; to examine their natural 

 history, to survey the coasts, and to take 

 the measure of a degree of the meridian. 

 Maclaurin's family affairs would not. per- 

 mit him to comply wit!) this request ; he 

 drew up however a memorial of what he 

 thought necessary to be observed, and 

 furnished proper instruments for the 

 work, recommending Mr. Short, the 

 noted optician, as a fit operator for the 

 management of them. 



Mr. Maclaurin had still another scheme 

 for the improvement of geography and 

 navigation, of a more- extensive nature ; 



