W A L 



Cycloidc, &c." was publifhed in 1659. His talent for de- 

 cyphering recommended him to Charles II., by whom he 

 was gracioiifly received after his reftoration ; and who, be- 

 fides continuing him in his offices at the univerfity, made him 

 one of his chaplains in ordinary. In 1660 he was concerned 

 with thofe who were employed in reviewing the book of 

 common prayer ; and having complied with the requifitions 

 of the aft of uniformity, he retained his conneftion with the 

 church till his death. Having fuggefted that it was poffible 

 to teach a deaf man to fpeak, he tried his ilall. in 1660, upon 

 two deaf fubjeds, with a confiderable degree of fuccefs. 

 After the eftablilhment of the Royal Society in 1663, 

 Dr. Walhs, who was one of its firft members, very much 

 contributed to its reputation and permanence by his own 

 communications, and by his account of mathematical pa- 

 pers, tranfmitted to it by other perfons. He alfo publifh- 

 ed, in 1663, his traft " De Proportionibus," and his illuf- 

 tration of the laws of motion in the colhfion of bodies ; and 

 in 1668 he prefented to the public his hypothefis concerning 

 the tides, in his treatife " De ^llu Maris, Hypothefis 

 nova." In the following year appeared the firft part of his 

 principal work, intitled " De Motu," which was followed 

 in the two fucceeding years by the other two parts ; and in 

 1 67 1 he completed the whole, under the title of " Mecha- 

 nica, five de Motu, Traftatus Geometricus." His other 

 publications were " Horocii opera Pofthuma, with Flam- 

 ftead's Difcourfe on the Equation of Time," 1673, and 

 •'Archimedes' Arenarius," and "Dimenfio Circuli," " Pto- 

 lemsei Opus Harmonicum," with Latin vcrfion, and notes, 

 1680, and an " Appendix de Veterum Harmonica, ad ho- 

 diernam Comparata ;" " Porphyrii in Harmonica Ptole- 

 msei Commentarius ex Codice Manufcripto, Graece et La- 

 tine editus, et Manuelis Bryennii Harmonica ex Cod. Man :" 

 his " Algebra," 1684, with his Arithmetic of Infinites, the 

 Infinitefimal Method of Leibnitz ; and that of Fluxions, 

 by fir I. Newton ;" — " Three Differtations upon Melchi- 

 zedek. Job, and the Titles of the Pfalms," 1685 ;— " In- 

 ftitutio Logica," 1687 ; " Ariftarchus Samius de Magnitu- 

 dine Sohs et Lunx," with " Pappi Alexandrini Libri Se- 

 cundi Colleftionum Mathematicarum hadtenus defiderati 

 Fragmentum," 1689 ; and alfo a letter to fir Samuel More- 

 land, in order to prove that Des Cartes borrowed his im- 

 provement in algebra from his countryman Harriot : — " The 

 Doarine of the Ever-blefled Trinity," 1690; and " On 

 the Chriftan Sabbath," 1 691. About this time the cura- 

 tors of the univerfity-prefs at Oxford began to coUeft his 

 mathematical works, with a view of publifhing them in the 

 Latin tongue. The firft volume was committed to the 

 prefs in 1692, and the firft two volumes appeared in 1696 ; 

 and the third volume, containing the Commerciura Epiftoh- 

 cum, or Letters concerning the original Author of the Me- 

 thod of Fluxions, and a Letter concerning the annual Pa- 

 rallax of the Earth, from Mr. Flamftead, was publilhed in 

 1698. Thus clofed the fcientific and literary labours of 

 Dr. Walhs, who died in Oftober 1703, in the 88th year of 

 his age ; leaving behind him one fon and two daughters. 

 Of his general charafter, moral and political, it will be fuf- 

 ficient to fay, that he was prudent and moderate, endea- 

 vouring, in the collifion of parties, to promote what he con- 

 ceived to be the true intereft of rehgion and fcience, and of 

 the public community. As a mathematician, he is thought 

 to have excelled in judgment and induilry more than in ge- 

 nius. Biog. Brit. Hutton's Math. Dift. 



Dr. WaUis was the firft in our country who wrote on fym- 

 pathetic vibrations, and the difcovcry of LefTons Harmo- 

 aiques, or the harmonics of a fingle ftring ( Phil. Tranf. ) ; 

 7 



W A L 



but he feemed not to know that Galileo and Lemnii Roffe 

 in Italy, and Pere Merfenne in France, had preceded him 

 in accounts of that phenomenon. See Basse Fondamon- 

 TALE, and Harmonics. 



Dr. Wallis was the firft man of fcience in England who 

 had read the Geeek writers on mufic piibliftied by Meibo- 

 mius, who underftood modern harmony, and who denied it 

 to the ancients. He pubhftied Ptolemy's Harmonics, with 

 a Latin tranflation, and notes ; Porphyry ; and Bryennius. 

 He feems to have iludied and underftood the fubjeft of the 

 mufic of the ancient Greeks better than any of our countrj'- 

 men. His papers in the Phil. Tranf., his Appendix to 

 Ptolemy's Harmonics, and notes on the authors he has 

 tranflated, are fuch as manifeft at once, by their clearnefs, 

 learning, meditation, and fcience. 



Wallis'j Bay, or Harbour, in Geography, a bay in the 

 ftraits of Magellan ; 12 miles N.E. of Cape Forward.' 



Wali.is'j Ijland, a fmall ifland near the fouth-eaft coaft 

 of New Ireland, at the entrance of Gower's-harbour, called 

 Ifle de Marteaux by M. Bougainville ; 9 miles N.W. of 

 Cape St. George. 



Wallis'j IJlands, in the South Pacific Ocean, difcover- 

 ed by Capt. Wallis in the year 1767, furrounded by a reef 

 of rocks. The inhabitants were robuft and aftive, quite 

 naked, except a kind of mat wrapt round the middle. No 

 other animal was feen, either bird orbeaft, except fea-fowl. 

 The trees were of different forts, and many of them large, 

 the only fruit were a few cocoa-nuts. S. lat. 13° 18'. W. 

 long. 177°. 



WALLISHOFEN, a village of Switzerland, in the 

 canton of Zurich. Here the French were defeated by the 

 Auftrians ; i mile S.W. of Zurich. 



WALLKILL,apoft-townftiip of New York, in Orange 

 county, with 42 1 3 inhabitants, on a creek of the fame name ; 

 20 miles W. of Newburgh. 



WALLOE, or Valloe, a town of Denmark, in the 

 ifland of Zealand ; 3 miles S. of Kioge. 



WALLOE, a town of Africa, on the Ivory coaft. N. 

 lat. 5° 20'. W. long. 4° 55'. 



WALLOOR, a town of Hindooftan, in the Carnatic ; 

 5 miles S.E. of Ongole. 



WALLOP'S Island, an ifland in the Atlantic, near 

 the coaft of Virginia. N. lat. 37^ 48'. W. long. 75° 

 28'. 



WALLSEY, ore of the Shetland iflands, on the North 

 Atlantic Ocean, fituated near the eaft coaft of Shetland ; 

 about fix miles in length, and three in breadth. N. lat. 60° 

 35'. W. long. 1° 5'- 



WALMER Castle, a fort of England, on the call 

 coaft of Kent, near Deal. See Deal. 



WALMERSLEY, a townfliip of England, in Lanca- 

 (hire ; 4 miles N. of Bolton. 



WALNEY, a narrow ifland in the Irifh fea, feparated 

 from the coaft of the county of Lancafter by a narrow chan- 

 nel ; about nine miles in length, but hardly one in breadth. 

 It has two or three fmall villages, and a chapel. The fouth 

 end is about 16 miles W.N.W. from the mouth of the 

 Lune. N. lat. 54° 3'. W. long. 3° 10'. 



WALNUT, a townfliip of Ohio, in the county of Fair- 

 field, containing 694 inhabitants. — Alfo, a townfliip of 

 Ohio, in the county of Pickaway, containing 759 inha- 

 bitants. 



Walnut Hills, a mountainous ridge in the Mifliflippi 

 territory, on the eaft bank of the Mifliffippi, near the mouth 

 of the Yazoo ; N. lat. 32° 20'. 



Walnut- 



