"The first British publication of great significance bearing upon the calculus is that of John Wallis, issued in 1655. It is entitled Arithmetica Infinitorum, sive Nova Methodus Inquirendi in Curvilineorum Quadraturum, aliaque difficiliora Matheseos Problemata, and is dedicated to Oughtred. By a method similar to Cavalieri the author effects the quadrature of certain surfaces, the cubature of certain solids, and the rectification of certain curves. He speaks of a triangle, for example, "as if" (quasi) made up of an infinite number of parallel lines in arithmetic proportion, of a paraboloid "as if" made up of an infinite number of parallel lines, and of a spiral as an aggregate of an infinite number of arcs of similar sectors, applying to each the theory of the summation of an infinite series. ...he expresses his indebtedness to such writers as Torricelli and Cavalieri. He speaks of the work of such British contemporaries as Seth Ward and Christopher Wren, who were interested in this relatively new method, and, indeed, his dedication to Oughtred is the best contemporary specimen that we have of the history of the movement just before Newton's period of activity. All this, however, was still in the field of integration, the first steps dating... from the time of the Greeks."

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