Scope and Contents

A discussion, probably inspired by Sir Isaac Newton, of whether it was Willebrord Snell or Voss who discovered a law of refraction first, from which Rene Descartes arguably derived his version at last.

Scope and Contents Notes to an extended conversation with Fatio de Duillier, fellow enthusiast of Newtonian science at Oxford, and especially important to Gregory between December 1691 and May 1694, when he was cut off from direct contact with Sir Isaac Newton, whom he had offended in a published commentary on his 'abrumpent' mathematical series. Topics include magnetic attraction, refraction and colour, and movement of solids through fluid, with anecdotal remarks by de Duiller about ships, tides, and the...