404 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1747-8. 



were presented by the doctor to the museum of the Royal Society. They re- 

 tained a very strong and singular smell, though they were immediately cleansed 

 from the rotten flesh, and well washed. 



The Motion of Projectiles near the Earth's Surface considered, Independent of 

 the Properties of the Conic Sections. By Mr. Thomas Simpson* F. R. S. N" 

 486, p. 137. 



After so much has been already said on the motion of projectiles in vacuo, it 

 may seem needless to attempt any thing further on that head ; yet as a thorough 

 knowledge in the art of gunnery is become more than ever necessary, and as gen- 

 tlemen employed in the practice of that art are too often deterred from applying 

 themselves to the theory, by the difficulties they imagine they shall meet with 

 in the conic sections, Mr. S. gives those thoughts on the subject, in which little 

 or nothing new is to be expected besides the method. 



When he first drew up this paper (which was about 2 years ago) he intended, 

 had health permitted him, to make the proper experiments, to have also at- 

 tempted something with respect to the resistance of the atmosphere, the effects 

 of which are too considerable to be entirely disregarded : but if the amplitude of 



* Mr. Thomas Simpson, f.r.s., and professor of mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at 

 Woolwich, was born at Market-Bosworth in Leicestershire, in 1710. He was bred to his father's 

 business, that of a stuff- weaver, which he followed a considerable part of his life ; but by the most 

 sedulous application to study, in cultivating his excellent natural talents, he acquired so deep a know- 

 ledge of mathematics, as entitled him to rank with the most scientific men of his age. He com- 

 menced his communications to the Ladies' Diary in 1735, by questions published there in 1736, 

 which show him to have been then no inconsiderable mathematician at 25 years of age. 



About the year 1736 Mr. S. came up to London, to better his condition, and for some time he 

 worked at his trade in Spitalfields, and gave lessons in mathematics at leisure hours, to which profes- 

 sion he afterwards wholly devoted himself. 



His first separate publication, a Treatise on Fluxions, in ^to, came out in 1743 ; which was fol- 

 lowed by several other excellent works, at short intervals, during the rest of his life. In 1743 he 

 was appointed professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; and in 1745 

 he was elected a f. R.s. Besides Mr. S.'s own separate publications, and several papers in the Phi- 

 los. Trans., he had many pieces inserted in various periodical works ; as magazines, and the Ladies' 

 Diary, of which last and very useful little work, he was the editor, from the year 1754 to 1760, both 

 inclusive ; during which time he raised that work to a high degree of respectability. But Mr. S.'s 

 great and continual application to study at length subdued his constitution, though naturally strong, 

 and terminated his useful labours ; he being quite worn dovvn, in 176l, when only in the 51st year 

 of his age. 



Mr. S. was a rare instance of the effects of diligent application united to natural good talents. He 

 raised himself to the first rank in the mathematical sciences. He had a fine genius ; and produced 

 many excellent discoveries; and he was' one of the most elegant writers on the subject of his labours. 

 In Dr. Hutton's Dictionary may be seen a pretty full account of Mr. S.'s life, with a particular ana- 

 lysis of his various publicatiotu. 



