COCKLE, SIR JAMES (1819-1895), English lawyer, and mathematician, was born on Jan. 14, 1819. He was the second son of James Cockle, a surgeon, of Great Oakley, Essex. Edu cated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered the Middle Temple in 1838, practising as a special pleader in 1845 and being called in 1846. He joined the western circuit and was appointed chief justice of Queensland in 1863. He was knighted in 1869, retired from the bench, and returned to England in 1879.
Cockle is more remembered for his mathematical and scientific investigations than as a lawyer. He attacked the problem of resolving the higher algebraic equations, notwithstanding Abel's proof that a solution by radicals was impossible. In this field Cockle achieved some notable results, amongst which is his re production of Sir William R. Hamilton's modification of Abel's theorem. Algebraic forms were a favourite object of his studies, and he discovered and developed the theory of criticoids, or dif ferential invariants ; he also made contributions to the theory of differential equations. He was a member of many scientific societies in Queensland and England. He died in London on Jan. 27, A volume containing his scientific and mathematical researches made during the years 1864-77 was presented to the British Museum- in 1897 by his widow. See the obituary notice by the Rev. R. Harley in Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. 59.