A Hitherto Unpublished Letter of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton as a Probabilist

In 1693, Isaac Newton answered a query from Samuel Pepys about a problem involving dice. Newton’s analysis is discussed and attention is drawn to an error he made. On November 22, 1693, Samuel Pepys wrote a letter to Isaac Newton posing a problem in probability. Newton responded with three letters, first answering the question briefly, and then offering more information as Pepys pressed for cla...

Elizabeth Gaskell and mesmerism: an unpublished letter.

The work of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) is not often seen as a source for the student of medical history. However, the picture of her as a undemanding writer dealing primarily with domestic life found in Lord David Cecil's Early Victorian novelists' has now largely been replaced by an approach that recognizes her engagement with the wider social issues of mid-nineteenth century England. Criti...

Never at rest. A biography of Isaac Newton

mendable enthusiasm and praiseworthy humility. His object has been to present to his fellow neurologists, especially those entering the speciality, certain topics that he judges to be important, interesting, and handleable. It is, therefore, necessary to realize at once that Dr. Spillane's book is not a history of neurology. It is a survey of selected subjects arranged chronologically, from Gal...

Isaac Newton on Mathematical Certainty and Method

Isaac Newton and the astronomical refraction.

In a short interval toward the end of 1694, Isaac Newton developed two mathematical models for the theory of the astronomical refraction and calculated two refraction tables, but did not publish his theory. Much effort has been expended, starting with Biot in 1836, in the attempt to identify the methods and equations that Newton used. In contrast to previous work, a closed form solution is iden...