SAUNDERSON, Nicholas (1682-1739), mathematician, was born at Thurlstone, Yorkshire, in January 1682. When about a year old he lost his sight through smallpox; but this did not prevent him from acquiring, by the help of kind friends, a good knowledge of Latin and Greek, and pursuing with assiduity and success the study of mathematics. In his twenty-fifth year he commenced lecturing in Cambridge on the principles of the Newtonian philosophy, and, though he was not a member of any of the colleges, the university authorities placed no impediment in his way. In November 1711 he was selected to succeed Whiston, the Lucasian professor of mathematics in Cambridge, after having had the degree of master of arts conferred upon him to render him eligible for the appointment. He was created doctor of laws in 1728 by command of George IL, and in 1736 was admitted a member of the Royal Society. He died of scurvy on the 19th of April 1739....
Saunderson possessed the friendship of many of the eminent mathematicians of the time, such as Newton, Halley, De Moivre, Cotes, and for the first of these he entertained a profound veneration. Whether from an inflexible love of truth, or from a motive less exalted, he was accustomed to speak his sentiments regarding persons very freely, and friends as well as enemies were criticized without reserve. As is frequently the case with the blind, his senses of hearing and touch were extraordinarily acute, and he could carry on mentally long and intricate arithmetical or algebraical calculations. He devised for his own use a palpable arithmetic, an account of which is given in his elaborate Elements of Algebra (2 vols. 4 to, Cambridge, 1740), which he did not live to publish. Of his other writings, prepared for the use of his pupils, the only one which has been published is The Method of Fluxions (1 vol. 8vo, London, 1756). At the end of this treatise there is given, in Latin, an explanation of the principal propositions of Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy.
[342 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]