Brook Taylor, an English mathematician, born at Edmonton, Aug. 18, 1685, died in or near London, Dec. 29, 1731. In 1701 he entered St. John's college, Cambridge, and in 1708 wrote his treatise on the "Centre of Oscillation," which was published in 171 3 in the " Philosophical Transactions." In 1712 he was chosen a fellow of the royal society, and from 1714 to 1718 was its secretary; and he contributed papers on magnetism and mathematical subjects. His Methodus Incrementorum (1715) is the first treatise in which the calculus of finite differences is proposed for consideration, and contains the first enunciation of the celebrated theorem which bears his name. In 1715 he conducted a controversial correspondence with Count Raymond de Montmort on the tenets of Malebranche, and in 1719 ho published his "New Principles of Linear Perspective." His Contemplatio Philosophica was published posthumously, with a memoir by his grandson, Sir William Young (1793). He left a number of works which are still unpublished.