Mathematical Works of Colin Maclaurin

1. Geometrica Organica (London, 1720).
   
   
2. A Treatise of Fluxions, 2 volumes (Edinburgh, 1742).
   
   
3. A Treatise of Algebra, with an Appendix, De Linearum Geometricarum Proprietatibus generalibus (1748) (translated into English in the fifth edition, 1788); edited by Maclaurin's literary executors, Martin Folkes, Andrew Mitchell and John Hill, chaplain to John Herring, Archbishop of York.
   
   
4. An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy, published (1748) by subscription by Patrick Murdoch for the benefit of Maclaurin's children, prefaced by a memoir of Maclaurin.
   
   
5. Publications in the Philosophical Transactions -
   
   
   
   1. Of the Construction and Measure of Curves, No. 356 (1718).
      
      
   2. A New Method of describing all kinds of Curves, No. 359 (1719).
      
      
   3. A Letter to Mr Folkes on Equations with Impossible Roots, May, 1726, No. 394.
      
      
   4. A second such letter, March, 1729, No. 408.
      
      
   5. On the Description of Curves, with an account of further improvements, and a paper dated Nancy, 27 Nov., 1722, No. 439 (1732).
      
      
   6. An Account of the Treatise of Fluxions, No. 467.
      
      
   7. An Account of the Treatise of Fluxions, continued, No. 469.
      
      
   8. A Rule for finding the Meridional Parts of a Spheroid with the same exactness as of a Sphere, No. 461 (1741).
      
      
   9. Of the basis of the Cells wherein the Bees deposit their Honey, No. 471 (1743).
6. Publications in the Physical and Literary Society, Edinburgh, Vol. I.
   
   
   
   1. On the sudden and surprising changes observed in the surface of Jupiter's body.
      
      
   2. On the cause of the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic.

A full historical and critical survey of the Geometria Organica is given by C Tweedie, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1915, 36, 87-150.

Last Updated April 2007