WALLIS, wollis. JOHN (1616-1703). An English theologian and mathematician, born at Ashford. He was educated for the ministry at Cambridge. He took the depTee of B.A. at Emmanuel College in 1637, received the M.A., and was ordained in 1640, and soon after be came a fellow of Queen's College (1644 He sided with the Parliament in the Civil War and was of great service to his party in deciphering intercepted messages of the Roy alists. lie became or: adept in cryptology and received a generous remuneration for his work. In 1649 he was chosen Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford, which chair he held until his death. Wallis was a student of polemics, language, mechanics. and theology. but his genius for mathematics eclipsed his ability in other lines. He greatly systematized and extended the new geometry. extended the application of K(Ader's law of continuity (see (_'ocTINI'ITYI, first made popular the present meaning of free tional and negative exponents, and introduced the symbol -r for infinity. His work on qtmdratures was original and included a dis cussion 61 such enrves as represent = + + x2 - His attempt at interpolation was the beginning of a more general method employed by mathematicians of the seventeenth century, which later enabled Newton to generalize Hie binomial formula.
Wallis inciTasi.d the power of algebra by the systematie use of formulas, gave the law for forming the suecessive eonvergents of a con tinued fraction. and suggested (16851 a modern graphic interpretation of imaginaries. I 1 k chief works a re rill( mot ica 1mQngurvn, ( 16551 : 7'ruvtutus dr Sri., ion ( 'on iris Yore 11bl/if/I) yosi I is ( 16.15) ; Ili .1 nordo Con foetus ri Nem i circa li Tiartat (1(1511) ; tr Cr/Hold( (105J); l'onintcreinnt L'pistolicu in (loss) ; .1/nincSiS Uni reniodis 11(157); 11 (Alan ivo, sire' de 11 ot Tract ut ux (rontrt rirns I 1609-70-71) ; 11r L rur i lc !I ()ruin& ion( I imp, isit io ("row. I ri,a 11(i62 and 1674); Treatise on Algebra 11685: Latin trans., 1693) ; institutio Logiew (1087); GM HI ģIfl i lea Lingua' nylim tar (1(i52), ills complete works were published in Oxford (1693 99),