MACLAURIN, Coux, an eminent mathematician, was b. in 1698 in Kilmodan, in Argyleshire, Scotland. He was educated at Glasgow university, where be took the degree of ist.A. in 1713; and after four years of close study obtained, in 1717, after a severe competitive trial, the professorship of mathematics in Marischal college, Aber deen. In 1719 lie visited London, and was received as member of the royal society, at the same thne making the acquaintance of many eminent men, Newton among the rest. Here he published his Geometria Organira (1720), an elaborate treatise on the " descrip tion " of curves. Ile afterwards visited France in the capacity of tutor to a son of lord Polwarth, and while there wrote a dissertation on the impact of bodies, which gained the prize of the academy of sciences in 1724. The following year he was appointed assist ant to James Gregory, professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, and S0011 after succeeded him in the chair. He died in 1746. IIis writings, distinguished for their originality, profundity, clearness, and elegance of style, gave a strong impetue to the study of mathematical science in Scotland. His works. besides those above-men
tioned, are: A Treatise of Fluxions (Edinburgh, 1742), a work written in defense of New tou's discoveries against the attack of Berkeley, and the first in which the principles of fiuxions were logically arranged; A Treatise on Algebra (1748), left incomplete by the author; An Account of SIP Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (Lond. 1748), also incomplete and posthumous, which contains explanations of all Newton's discoveries, the optical one3 excepted; and a number of papers which were published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. His most important scientific investigations related to the " form of the earth," the "tides," and the action of the wind on the sails of ships and wind-mills. IIis memoir on the tides was, in 1740, presented in competition for the prize offered by the academy of seiences; but three other competitors, Euler, Daniel Beruouilli, and father Cavalleri, having appeared, the academy divided the prize among them.