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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

topics which were beginning to excite so much interest,and even in a condition to take a part in the discussion ;and, in 1674, communicated to Oldenburgh some se-rieses of his own. In 1676, Newton , at the request ofOldenburgh, wrote an account of his method of quadra-tures, containing also his method of fluxions, concealedunder an anagram. This was sent to Leibnitz ; who,in 1677, replied to Oldenburgh by sending a shortaccount of an equally general method which he hadinvented, which he called the differential calculus, andof which he gave the principal rules and notation. Anaccount of it was first published in the “ Acta Eru-ditorum,” in l6'84.

Thus, while Newton ’s method remained known onlyamong his friends and correspondents, that of Leibnitz was publicly announced, and spreading rapidly on theContinent. Two most able coadjutors, the brothersJohn and James Bernoulli , joined their talents to thoseof the original inventor, and illustrated the new methodsby the solution of a great variety of difficult and in-teresting problems. Such was the reserve of Newton ,and so little were his methods known or followed upamong his countrymen, that the first book which ap-peared in England on the new geometry (as it wascalled), was a treatise by Craig, professedly derivedfrom the writings of Leibnitz and his disciples.

Thus far, then, the history of these important inven-tions is clear. Two valuable and general methods ofanalysis, applicable to the solution of the same classesof problems, though differing in their notation, and inthe mode in which the first principle was conceived,were discovered, separately and independently, by New-ton and Leibnitz , within a very short time of each other.Newton ’s invention was first in order of time, but notpublished to the world till long after. Leibnitz couldnot have derived his idea from that of Newton , thatidea being concealed in cypher: he discovered it inde-pendently, though rather later in time, but was the firstto publish it. Newton , in his Principia, gave testimony