Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/316

 . The final result was to show that the application of mathematical calculus to physiological problems was premature. Keill's essays were, however, much esteemed, and are still regarded as of some historical importance (see, Brit. Med. Journal, 1883, i. 654). He also made a series of physiological observations on himself, after the manner of Sanctorius, published as ‘Medicina statica Britannica,’ in the third edition of his essays.

Keill's chief work appeared first as ‘An Account of Animal Secretion, the Quantity of Blood in the Humane Body, and Muscular Motion,’ London, 1708, 8vo; 2nd edit. enlarged under the new title of ‘Essays on several Parts of the Animal Œconomy,’ London, 1717, 8vo; 3rd edit. (Latin), ‘Tentamina Medico-Physica, &c. Quibus accessit Medicina statica Britannica,’ London, 1718, 8vo; 4th edit., containing in addition ‘A Dissertation concerning the Force of the Heart, by James Jurin, M.D., with Dr. Keill's Answer and Dr. Jurin's Reply; also Medicina statica Britannica, &c., explained and compared with the Aphorisms of Sanctorius, by John Quincy, M.D.,’ London, 1738, 8vo. He wrote also ‘The Anatomy of the Human Body, abridged,’ London, 1698, 12mo, 15th edit. 1771; ‘An Account of the Death and Dissection of John Bayles of Northampton, reputed to have been 130 years old’ (Phil. Trans. 1706, xxv. 2247); and ‘De Viribus Cordis’ (ib. 1719, xxx. 995).

[Biographia Britannica, 1757, iv. 2809 (based on information from the family); The Case of the late James Keil, Dr. Phys., represented by John Rushworth of Northampton, Surgeon, Oxford, 1719, 8vo.]  KEILL, JOHN (1671–1721), mathematician and astronomer, was born at Edinburgh on 1 Dec. 1671. James Keill [q. v.] was his brother, and Dr. John Cockburn [q. v.] was his uncle (cf., Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. 202). After attending school at Edinburgh he joined the university, attained distinction in mathematics and natural philosophy under Dr. David Gregory, and graduated M.A. When Gregory in 1691 became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, Keill accompanied him, and being admitted at Balliol College on a Scotch exhibition, was ‘incorporated M.A.’ on 2 Feb. 1694, although, according to Hearne, it was customary to incorporate Scottish masters of arts as bachelors only. Like Gregory, Keill was an enthusiastic student of Newton's ‘Principia,’ and began expounding the Newtonian principles ‘by proper experiments in his private chamber at the college.’ He was appointed lecturer in experimental philosophy at Hart Hall, and, as soon as suitable apparatus could be contrived, he opened the first course of lectures on the new philosophy which had been delivered in Oxford. Desaguliers, who in 1710 succeeded him at Hart Hall, calls him the ‘first who taught natural philosophy by experiments in a mathematical manner … instructing his auditors in the laws of motion, the principles of hydrostatics and optics, and some of the chief propositions of Sir Isaac Newton concerning light and colours.’

Keill's ‘Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth’ (Oxford, 1698) increased his reputation. He disproved Burnet's deductions and the similar hypothesis which Whiston had propounded earlier, while at the same time he refuted the notion of ‘vortices’ on which Descartes and others had based their systems. Incidentally he attacked Spinosa, Hobbes, and Malebranche, and vindicated the literal interpretation of the Mosaic account of the creation; he also applied Huyghens's theorems of centrifugal force to explain the figure of the earth. To a new edition, issued in 1724 in London, he appended a dissertation on the celestial bodies by Maupertuis (who was then in England).

After printing in 1699 a somewhat severe rejoinder to the replies of Burnet and Whiston, Keill was chosen deputy to Dr. Millington, Sedleian professor at Oxford, and seems to have joined Christ Church (ib. ii. 26). His lectures were from the first highly successful. They were printed in 1701 under the title ‘Introductio ad Veram Physicam,’ and became well known on the continent. Halley is said to have pointed out in a friendly way numerous errors in the first edition (ib. i. 90). Two additional lectures and many corrections were introduced into the second edition, published at Oxford in 1705. Other editions appeared in London in 1715, and at Cambridge in 1741. To a translation into English, published in 1736, Maupertuis, who suggested the venture, appended his theory of the ring of the planet Saturn. The ‘Introductio’ was considered Keill's ‘best performance,’ and was generally welcomed as an excellent introduction to the ‘Principia’ of Newton.

Disappointed of obtaining Gregory's chair at Oxford on his death in 1708, Keill apparently sought some post under government, and in 1709 he was appointed ‘treasurer of the Palatines,’ i.e. of the fund subscribed for refugees from the Palatinate. In this capacity he conducted the exiles to New England, and on his return in 1711 received vague promises of other preferment from Harley, the lord treasurer. After subsisting for nine months on Harley's bounty, he was offered in September the post of mathematician to the Venetian republic, and having informed