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DITTON, HUMPHRY (1675-1715)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 325 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DITTON, See also:HUMPHRY (1675-1715) , See also:English mathematician, was See also:born at See also:Salisbury on the 29th of May 1675. He studied See also:theology, and was for some years a dissenting See also:minister at See also:Tonbridge, but on the See also:death of his See also:father he devoted himself to the congenial study of See also:mathematics. Through the See also:influence of See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton he was elected mathematical See also:master in See also:Christ's See also:hospital. He was author of the following See also:memoirs and See also:treatises:—" Of the Tangents of Curves, &c.," Phil. Trans. vol. See also:xxiii.; " A See also:Treatise on Spherical Catoptrics," published in the Phil. Trans. vol. See also:xxiv., from which it was copied and reprinted in the Acta Eruditorum (1707), and also in the Memoirs of the See also:Academy of Sciences at See also:Paris; See also:General See also:Laws of Nature and See also:Motion (1705), a See also:work which is commended by Wolfius as illustrating and rendering easy the writings of Galileo and See also:Huygens, and the Principia of Newton; An Institution of Fluxions, containing the First Principles, Operations, and Applications of that admirable Method, as invented by Sir Isaac Newton (1706). In 1709 he published the Synopsis Algebraica of See also:John See also:Alexander, with many additions and corrections. In his Treatise on See also:Perspective (1712) he explained the mathematical principles of that See also:art; and anticipated the method afterwards elaborated by See also:Brook See also:Taylor. In 1714 Ditton published his Discourse on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and The New See also:Law of Fluids, or a Discourse concerning the Ascent of Liquids in exact Geometrical Figures, between two nearly contiguous Surfaces. To this was annexed a See also:tract (" See also:Matter not a Cogitative Substance ") to demonstrate the impossibility of thinking or See also:perception being the result of any See also:combination of the parts of matter and motion. There was also added an See also:advertisement from him and See also:William See also:Whiston concerning a method for discovering the See also:longitude, which it seems they had published about See also:half a See also:year before. Although the method had been approved by Sir Isaac Newton before being presented to the See also:Board of Longitude, and successfully practised in finding the longitude between Paris and See also:Vienna, the board determined against it.

This disappointment, aggravated as it was by certain lines written by See also:

Dean See also:Swift, affected Ditton's See also:health to such a degree that he died in the following year, on the 15th of See also:October 1715.

End of Article: DITTON, HUMPHRY (1675-1715)

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