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See also:MACLAURIN, See also:COLIN (1698–1746) , Scottish mathematician, was the son of a clergyman, and See also:born at Kilmodan, See also:Argyllshire. In 1709 he entered the university of See also:Glasgow, where he exhibited a decided See also:genius for See also:mathematics, more especially for See also:geometry; it is said that before the end of his sixteenth See also:year he had discovered many of the theorems afterwards published in his Geometria organica. In 1717 he was elected See also:professor of mathematics in Marischal See also:College, See also:Aberdeen, as the result of a competitive examination. Two years later he was admitted F.R.S. and made the acquaintance of See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton. In 1719 he published his Geometria organica, sive descriptio linearum curvarum universalis. In it Maclaurin See also:developed several theorems due to Newton, and introduced the method of generating conics which bears his name, and showed that many curves of the third and See also:fourth degrees can be described by the inter-See also:section of two movable angles. In 1721 he wrote a supplement to the Geometria organica, which he afterwards published, with extensions, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1735. This See also:paper is principally based on the following See also:general theorem, which is a remarkable See also:extension of See also:Pascal's hexagram: " If a See also:polygon move so that each of its sides passes through a fixed point, and if all its summits except one describe curves of the degrees m, n, p, &c., respectively, then the See also:free See also:summit moves on a See also:curve of the degree 2mnp . . . . which reduces to mnp ... . when the fixed points all See also:lie on a right See also:line." In 1722 Maclaurin travelled as See also:tutor and See also:companion to the eldest son of See also:Lord Polwarth, and after a See also:short stay in See also:Paris resided for some See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time in See also:Lorraine, where he wrote an See also:essay on the percussion of bodies, which obtained the See also:prize of the See also:French See also:Academy of Sciences for the year 1724. The following year he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of See also:Edinburgh on the urgent recommendation of Newton. After the See also:death of Newton, in 1728, his See also:nephew, See also:John Conduitt, applied to Maclaurin for his assistance in See also:publishing an. See also:account of Newton's See also:life and discoveries. This Maclaurin gladly undertook, but the death of Conduitt put a stop to the project.
In 1940 Maclaurin divided with Leonhard See also:Euler and See also:Daniel See also:Bernoulli the prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences for an essay on tides. His See also:Treatise on Fluxions was published at Edinburgh in 1742, in two volumes. In the See also:preface he states that the See also:work was undertaken in consequence of the attack on the method of fluxions made by See also:George See also:Berkeley in 1734. Maclaurin's See also:object was to found the See also:doctrine of fluxions on geometrical demonstration, and thus to See also:answer all objectionsto its method as being founded on false reasoning and full of See also:mystery. The most valuable See also:part of the work is that devoted to See also:physical applications, in which he embodied his essay on the tides. In this he showed that a homogeneous fluid See also:mass revolving uniformly See also:round an See also:axis under the See also:action of gravity ought to assume the See also:form of an See also:ellipsoid of revolution. The importance of this investigation in connexion with the theory of the tides, the figure of the See also:earth, and other kindred questions, has always caused it to be regarded as one of the See also:great problems of mathematical physics. Maclaurin was the first to introduce into See also:mechanics, in this discussion, the important conception of surfaces of level; namely, surfaces at each of whose points the See also:total force acts in the normal direction. He also gave in his Fluxions, for the first time, the correct theory for distinguishing between See also:maxima and minima in general, and pointed out the importance of the distinction in the theory of the multiple points of curves. In 1745, when the rebels were marching on Edinburgh, Maclaurin took a most prominent part in preparing trenches and barricades for its See also:defence. The anxiety, fatigue and See also:cold to which he was thus exposed, affecting a constitution naturally weak, laid the See also:foundation of the disease to which he afterwards succumbed. As soon as the See also:rebel See also:army got See also:possession of Edinburgh Maclaurin fled to See also:England, to avoid making submission to the Pretender. He accepted the invitation of T. See also:Herring, then See also:archbishop of See also:York, with whom he remained until it was safe to return to Edinburgh. He died of See also:dropsy on the x4th of See also:June 1746, at Edinburgh. Maclaurin was married in 1733 to See also:Anne, daughter of See also:Walter See also:- STEWART, ALEXANDER TURNEY (1803-1876)
- STEWART, BALFOUR (1828-1887)
- STEWART, CHARLES (1778–1869)
- STEWART, DUGALD (1753-1828)
- STEWART, J
- STEWART, JOHN (1749—1822)
- STEWART, JULIUS L
- STEWART, SIR DONALD MARTIN (1824–19o0)
- STEWART, SIR HERBERT (1843—1885)
- STEWART, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1540—c. 1605)
- STEWART, STUART
- STEWART, WILLIAM (c. 1480-c. 1550)
Stewart, See also:solicitor-general for See also:Scotland. His eldest son John, born in 1734, was distinguished as an See also:advocate, and appointed one of the See also:judges of the Scottish See also:court of session, with the See also:title of Lord Dreghorn. He inherited an See also:attachment to scientific See also:discovery, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1782.
After Maclaurin's death his account of Newton's philosophical discoveries was published by See also:Patrick Murdoch, and also his See also:algebra in 1748. As an appendix to the latter appeared his De linearum geometricarum"proprietatibus generalibus tractatus, a treatise of remarkable elegance. Of the more immediate successors of Newton in Great See also:Britain Maclaurin is probably the only one who can be placed in competition with the great mathematicians of the See also:continent of See also:Europe at the time. (B. W.)
M'LENNAN, JOHN See also:FERGUSON (1827-1881), Scottish ethnologist, was born at See also:Inverness on the 14th of See also:October 1827. He studied at See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
King's college, Aberdeen, where he graduated with distinction in 1849, thence proceeding to See also:Cambridge, where he remained till 1855 without taking a degree. He was called to the Scottish See also:bar in 1857, and in 1871 was appointed See also:parliamentary draughtsman for Scotland. In 1865 he published See also:Primitive See also:Marriage, in which, arguing from the prevalence of the symbolical form of See also:capture in the marriage ceremonies of primitive races, he developed an intelligible picture of the growth of the marriage relation and of systems of kinship (see See also:FAMILY) according to natural See also:laws. In 1866 he wrote in the Fortnightly See also:Review (See also:April and May) an essay on " Kinship in See also:Ancient See also:Greece," in which he proposed to test by See also:early See also:Greek facts the theory of the See also:history of kinship set forth in Primitive Marriage; and three years later appeared a See also:series of essays on " See also:Totemism " in the same periodical for 1869–187o (the germ of which had been contained in the paper just named), which See also:mark the second great step in his systematic study of early society. A reprint of Primitive Marriage, with " Kinship in Ancient Greece " and some other essays not previously published, appeared in 1876, under the title of Studies in Ancient History. The new essays in this See also:volume were mostly See also:critical, but one of them, in which perhaps his guessing See also:- TALENT (Lat. talentum, adaptation of Gr. TaXavrov, balance, ! Recollections of a First Visit to the Alps (1841); Vacation Rambles weight, from root raX-, to lift, as in rXi vac, to bear, 1-aXas, and Thoughts, comprising recollections of three Continental
talent is seen at its best, " The Divisions of the Irish Family," is an elaborate discussion of a problem which has See also:long puzzled both See also:Celtic scholars and jurists; and in another, " On the Classificatory See also:System of Relationship," he propounded a new explanation of a series of facts which, he thought, might throw See also:light upon the early history of society, at the same time putting to the test of those facts the theories he had set forth in Primitive Marriage. Papers
on " The See also:Levirate and See also:Polyandry," following up the line of his previous investigations (Fortnightly Review, 1877), were the last work he was able to publish. He died of See also:consumption on the 14th of June 1881 at See also:Hayes See also:Common, See also:Kent.
Besides the See also:works already cited, M'Lennan wrote a Life of See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
Thomas See also:Drummond (1867). The vast materials which he had accumulated on kinship were edited by his widow and A. See also:Platt, under the title Studies in Ancient History: Second Series (1896).
End of Article: MACLAURIN, COLIN (1698–1746)
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