tics at Cambridge. In 1710 he turned Arian and was expelled from the
university. His work on _Primitive Christianity_ appeared the following
year. He wrote many works on astronomy and religion.

[277] Ditton (1675-1715) was, on Newton's recommendation, made Head of the
mathematical school at Christ's Hospital, London. He wrote a work on
fluxions (1706). His idea for finding longitude at sea was to place
stations in the Atlantic to fire off bombs at regular intervals, the time
between the sound and the flash giving the distance. He also corresponded
with Huyghens concerning the use of chronometers for the purpose.

[278] This was John Arbuthnot (c. 1658-1735), the mathematician, physician
and wit. He was intimate with Pope and Swift, and was Royal physician to
Queen Anne. Besides various satires he published a translation of
Huyghens's work on probabilities (1692) and a well-known treatise on
ancient coins, weights, and measures (1727).

[279] Greene (1678-1730) was a very eccentric individual and was generally
ridiculed by his contemporaries. In his will he directed that his body be
dissected and his skeleton hung in the library of King's College,
Cambridge. Unfortunately for his fame, this wish was never carried out.

[280] This was the historian, Robert Sanderson (1660-1741), who spent most
of his life at Cambridge.

[281] I presume this was William Jones (1675-1749) the friend of Newton and
Halley, vice-president of the Royal Society, in whose _Synopsis Palmariorum
Matheseos_ (1706) the symbol [pi] is first used for the circle ratio.

[282] This was the _Geometrica solidorum, sive materiae, seu de varia
compositione, progressione, rationeque velocitatum_, Cambridge, 1712. The
work was parodied in _A Taste of Philosophical Fanaticism ... by a
gentleman of the University of Gratz_.

[283] The antiquary and scientist (1690-1754), president of the Royal
Society, member of the Academie, friend of Newton, and authority on
numismatics.

[284] She was Catherine Barton, Newton's step-niece. She married John
Conduitt, master of the mint, who collected materials for a life of Newton.

_A propos_ of Mrs. Conduitt's life of her illustrious uncle, Sir George
Greenhill tells a very good story on Poincare, the well-known French
mathematician. At an address given by the latter at the International
Congress of Mathematicians held in Rome in 1908 he spoke of the story of
Newton and the apple as a mere fable. After the address S