[ 273 ] 
fall ; for which he had little or no care taken of 
him. He has ever fince this accident had fome com- 
plaints in his fide at times, but not conftantly j nor 
have they ever been fo bad, as to prevent his adting 
in his bufinefs as a failor, till within a few weeks 
before he applied to me. 
London, Hatton Garden, 
June 28, 1753. 
XL. ExtraSl of a Letter fro?n Mr . James 
Dodlbn to Mr. William Moimtaine, F.R.S . 
May 26, 1753. 
Read July 5, /"TT^HE world has, without difpute, 
J /53- been 0 bPg e£ i the invention of 
fluxions, for many concife methods of calculating 
the peripheries, areas, and folidities, of curvilinear 
figures ; but it mull be confefled, at the fame time, 
that the moll ufeful, even of thofe, had been com- 
puted before, tho’ by methods more laborious ; and, 
confequently, fince the truth of the principles of 
fluxions was long difputed, that art feems rather to 
have received, than to have afforded, any advantage, 
in thofe cafes. 
Neper and Briggs calculated their feveral tables of 
logarithms, with almofi: infuperable labour ; and Van 
Ceulen was rendered famous for his approximation to 
the quadrature of the circle, on account of the acknow- 
leged tedioufnefs of its computation. The methods 
of computing logarithms were indeed improved, by 
the afliftance of the properties of the Hyperbola, and 
M m the 
