Method of Fluxions

Newton's Method of Fluxions and Bayes's anonymous defense appear in print

Newton's calculus treatise reached print in English before its own Latin original did — nine years after its author had died.

A posthumous translation

In 1736 Henry Woodfall printed John Colson's English translation of Newton's unpublished Latin treatise as The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series, and John Nourse sold it in London.

Newton had written the Latin treatise in about 1670–71 and died in 1727. The Latin original itself was not printed until a later collected edition, so English readers got the translation first. Colson supplemented it with commentary on the interpretation and foundations of the fluxional method.

A separate, anonymous book

Also in London that year, an anonymous tract titled An Introduction to the Doctrine of Fluxions defended mathematicians against objections raised in George Berkeley's 1734 attack, The Analyst. Its author was Thomas Bayes, though his name was absent from the original title page. The tract had 50 numbered pages, plus preliminary and advertising leaves.

Bayes discussed fluxions and prime and ultimate ratios in answer to Berkeley. The tract was not a companion volume commissioned for Colson's publication, and no evidence establishes that the two books were released on the same day or as a coordinated project.

What can and cannot be dated

Only the year is securely established for both publications; no common day or month has been verified. Newton's manuscript is variously dated 1670–71 or given as completed in 1671.

The attribution of the anonymous Introduction to Bayes is accepted in bibliographies and in scholarship. Newton's manuscripts and earlier mathematical communications had circulated well before 1736, so this was not the occasion on which anyone first learned of his calculus.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

Only the year 1736 is securely established for both publications; no common day or month has been verified.
Newton’s manuscript is variously dated 1670–71 or completed in 1671.
Attribution of the anonymous Introduction to Bayes is accepted in bibliographies and scholarship, but his name did not appear on the original title page.