Wallis, JOHN

Wallis, JOHN, mathematician, was born at Ashford, Kent, 23d November 1616, was trained at Cambridge, and took orders, but in 1648 became Savilian professor of Geometry at Oxford. He sided with the parliament, was secretary to the Westminster Assembly, but strenuously favoured the Restoration. His principal work is his Arithmetica Infinitorum, but he wrote on proportion, mechanics, the quadrature of the circle (against Hobbes), grammar, logic, theology, and the teaching of the deaf and dumb, and edited some of the Greek mathematicians. He was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He died 28th October 1703. A collected edition of his works appeared in 1791.