A French mathematician and probabilist, born May 26, 1667 in Vitry, France, died November 27, 1754. As a Protestant, he fled to England in 1685 after being jailed when the Edict of Nantes was repealed. There he was a friend of Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, was elected to the Royal Society in 1697.

He published The Doctrine of Chances in 1718, and Miscellanea Analytica in 1730. He predicted the day of his death by analyzing his sleeping habits. He died a poor man, but a happy one.