WAR 



WAR 



under the fame parallel." On parallaxes and tranfits he 

 alfo made a variety of obfervations, which were publiflied in 

 the tranfaftions of the different focieties to which he be- 

 longed. The phenomena of the magnet and of the northern 

 lights were alfo objedls of his attention ; and he fuggefted 

 that fome conneftion fubfifted between them, and that the 

 variations of the magnetic needle are violent in proportion to 

 the intenfity of the lights. He likewife furnifhed the 

 Academy of Sciences, and alfo our ingenious traveller, Mr. 

 Coxe, with tables and obfervations relating to births and 

 deaths, as well as to population in general, not only in 

 Stockholm, but in various other places. 



In llietching his charaAer, one of his biographers fays, that 

 ♦' he was a man of great integrity, modeft and friendly in his 

 difpofition ; zealous for the advancement of fcience, and ever 

 ready to make any facrifice which could tend to promote the 

 good of his country." His merit induced king Adolphus Fre- 

 derick to ereate him, in 1759, a knight of the Polar Star ; 

 and he was a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and 

 member of the Academies of Peterfburgh, Paris, Gottin- 

 gen, Copenhagen, and other learned inftitutions. Although 

 his genius was not brilliant, his judgment was found and dif- 

 criminating, and his labour, induftry, and perfeverance, were 

 indefatigable. Notwithftanding the intenfenefs of his ap- 

 plication, which allowed him few intervals of relaxation and 

 amufement, his habits were regular and temperate, and 

 ferved to prolong his life to an advanced period. Towards 

 the clofe of it, however, his fight and hearing decayed ; but 

 neither his ftrength nor fpirits feemed to decbne till the 

 fummer of 1783, when a diabetes, which baffled all medical 

 flcill, carried him off in the month of December in that year. 

 His papers on a variety of fubjefts occur in the following 

 volumes of the Philofophical Tranfaftions, viz. xlvii. lii. liii. 

 Ivi. Iviii. hx. Ixv. and Ixvii. Coxe's Travels in Sweden, &c. 

 vol. iv. Gen. Biog. 



WARGO, in Geography, a fmall ifland in the gulf 

 of Bothnia, near the eaft coafl. N. lat. 63° o'. E. long. 



20' 57' Alfo, a fmall ifland on the weft fide of the gulf of 



Bothnia. N. lat. 65° 17'. E. long. 21° 47'. 



WARGOCZ YN, a town of Poland ; 40 miles N.W. of 

 Lublin. 



WARGRAVE, a town or populous village of England, 

 in Berklhire, on the right bank of the Thames ; 7 miles 

 N.E. of Reading. 



WARI, a town of Hindooftan, in Baglana ; 28 miles 

 E. of Bahbelgong. 



WARIANAGUR, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car- 

 natic ; 16 miles S. of Tiagar. 



WARIBA, a river of Guiana, which runs into the 

 Atlantic, N. lat. 6° 54'. W. long. 59° 8'. 



WARIGARl Bay, a bay on the ifland of St. Vincent, 

 fouth of Hungary Point. 



■ WARIN, a town of Mecklenburg ; 10 miles S.E. of 

 Wifmar Alfo, a river of Brafil, which runs into the At- 

 lantic, S. lat. 4° 55'. W. long. 36° 58'. 



WARING, Edward, M. D., in Biography, defcended 

 from an ancient family at Milton, in the county of Salop, 

 was born in 1734, and finiftied his education at Magdalen 

 college, Cambridge, where he was confidered, when he took 

 his firft degree in 1757, as 3 prodigy in thofe fcienccs which 

 form the fubjeft of the bachelor's examination. At the age 

 of 25 years, in 1759 he was eleAed Lucafian profeflbr of 

 mathematics, not without giving offence to fome of the 

 fenior members of the univerfity, who difapproved the ap- 

 pointment of fo young a man to occupy a chair which had 

 been dignified by a Newton, a Saunderfon, and a Barrow ; 

 and the firft chapter of his " Mifcellanca Analytica," which 



was circulated in vindication of his fcientific charafter, was 

 the occafion of a controverfy of fome continuance. The 

 attack was commenced by Dr. Powell, mafter of St. John's, 

 and the young profeflbr was ably defended by Mr. Wilfon, 

 afterwards judge Wilfon, a gentleman held in high eftima- 

 tion. In 1760, Waring received the degree of mafter of 

 arts by royal mandate; and in 1762, his " Mifcellanea 

 Analytica" was publiflied, with a dedication to the duke of 

 Newcaftle. This work amply vindicated his early elevation 

 to the profeflbrfliip, and extended his fcientific fame through 

 Europe ; fo that he was eleiSted member of the focieties of 

 Bologna and Gottingen, and honoured by exprefllons of 

 liigh regard by the moft celebrated mathematicians, both at 

 home and abroad. Speaking of this mifcellany, comprehend- 

 ing moft fubjefts in pure mathematics, he himfelf fays, " In 

 my preface I have given a hiftory of the inventions of dif- 

 ferent writers, and afcribedthem to their refpeftive authors, 

 and likewife fome account of my own. To every one of 

 thefe fciences I have been able to make fome additions, and 

 in the whole, if I am not miftaken in enumerating them, 

 fomewhere between 3C0 and 400 new propofitions of one 

 kind or other, confiderably more than have been given by 

 any Englifli writer ; and in novelty and difficulty not infe- 

 rior ; I wifh I could fubjoin, in utility. Many more might 

 have been added, but I never could hear of any reader in 

 England out of Cambridge, who took the pains to read and 

 underftand what I have written. But I muft congratulate 

 myfelf that D'Alembert, Euler, and La Grange, three of 

 the greateft men in pure mathematics, of this or any other 

 age, have fince publiflied and demonftrated fome of the pro- 

 pofitions contained in my ' Meditationes Algebraicae,' or 

 ' Mifcellanea Analytica,' the only book of mine they could 

 have feen at that time; and D'Alembert and La Grange 

 mention it as a book full of excellent and interefting difco- 

 veries in algebra. Some other mathematicians have inferted 

 fome of them in their pubhcations. The reader will excufe 

 my faying fo much, there being fome particular rcafons wliich 

 influenced me." Medicine alfo engaged our author's atten- 

 tion, and in 1 767 he took his degree of doftor ; but though 

 he took pains by attending leftures and hofpitals in London 

 to perfeft himfelf in the medical art, it does not appear that 

 he ever gained much praftice. His manner, it is faid, was 

 not very prepofleflTing ; but his want of fuccefs he had 

 the lefs reafon to regret, as he had a very liberal patrimony, 

 and as he was fufficiently amufed by his favourite fcience. 

 He refided for fome time at St. Ives, after taking his 

 doftor's degree, and in 1776 he married ; but as the air of 

 Cambridge, whither he removed, did not agree with Mrs. 

 Waring's conftitution, he went to live on his own cftate at 

 Plaifly, about eight miles from Shrewfljury, and profecuted 

 his mathematical inquiries. He alfo direfted his attention to 

 other fubjefts, and printed at Cambridge, in 1796, a work 

 entitled " An Eflay on the Principles of Human Know- 

 ledge," which was never publiflied. Attached to his 

 country retreat he feldom left it, except when he occafion- 

 ally attended the Board of Longitude in London, of which 

 he was a member. A violent cold terminated in his death, 

 which happened in Auguft 1798, in the 64th year of his age. 

 His integrity was inflexible, his modefty difguifed the 

 fuperiority of his underftanding, and his habits and manners 

 were fimple and plain. 



In the extraft we have given from his own account of his 

 writings, fome may fuppofe that he incurs the charge of 

 vanity and felf-adulation ; but occafions may occur in which 

 the moft modeft men are called upon to do themfelves juftice, 

 which was the cafe with regard to Dr. Waring. To fay 

 nothing of the difpar^ging refleftions which his early ap- 

 pointment 



