by no means "old Benjamin Martin" when Horne
wrote this pamphlet in 1749. In fact he was then only forty-five. He was a
physicist and a well-known writer on scientific instruments. He also wrote
_Philosophia Britannica or a new and comprehensive system of the Newtonian
Philosophy_ (1759).

[336] Jean Theophile Desaguliers, or Des Aguliers (1683-1744) was the son
of a Protestant who left France after the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. He became professor of physics at Oxford, and afterwards gave
lectures in London. Later he became chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He
published several works on physics.

[337] Charles Hutton (1737-1823), professor of mathematics at Woolwich
(1772-1807). His _Mathematical Tables_ (1785) and _Mathematical and
Philosophical Dictionary_ (1795-1796) are well known.

[338] James Epps (1773-1839) contributed a number of memoirs on the use and
corrections of instruments. He was assistant secretary of the Astronomical
Society.

[339] John Hutchinson (1674-1737) was one of the first to try to reconcile
the new science of geology with Genesis. He denied the Newtonian hypothesis
as dangerous to religion, and because it necessitated a vacuum. He was a
mystic in his interpretation of the Scriptures, and created a sect that
went under the name of Hutchinsonians.

[340] John Rowning, a Lincolnshire rector, died in 1771. He wrote on
physics, and published a memoir on _A machine for finding the roots of
equations universally_ (1770).

[341] It is always difficult to sanction this spelling of the name of this
Jesuit father who is so often mentioned in the analytic treatment of
conics. He was born in Ragusa in 1711, and the original spelling was
Ru[=d]er Josip Bo[vs]kovi['c]. When he went to live in Italy, as professor
of mathematics at Rome (1740) and at Pavia, the name was spelled Ruggiero
Giuseppe Boscovich, although Boscovicci would seem to a foreigner more
natural. His astronomical work was notable, and in his _De maculis
solaribus_ (1736) there is the first determination of the equator of a
planet by observing the motion of spots on its surface. Boscovich came near
having some contact with America, for he was delegated to observe in
California the transit of Venus in 1755, being prevented by the dissolution
of his order just at that time. He died in 1787, at Milan.

[342] James Granger (1723-1776) who wrote the _Biographical History of
England_, London, 1769. His collection of prints was rem