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Possible source of error :

• Lituus :

The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

See Scholium, page 85 :

quam Litui Figuram appello propter formae similitudinem.

You can see also some "old" source, like :

• Thomas Jephson, The Fluxional Calculus: An Elementary Treatise (1826), page 381.

I think that a possible source of error is the following entry (dated : Jan.1997) of the authoritative web -site of MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

Lituus : The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

See Scholium, page 85 :

quam Litui Figuram appello propter formae similitudinem.

This source can explain why the mistake is repeated into many recent books and web-pages (see e.g. Wolfram MathWorld's entry, with explicit reference to MacTutor Archive).

We can comapre it with some "old" source, like :

• Thomas Jephson, The Fluxional Calculus: An Elementary Treatise (1826), page 381.

Possible source of error :

• Lituus :

The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

See Scholium, page 85 :

quam Litui Figuram appello propter formae similitudinem.

Possible source of error :

• Lituus :

The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

See Scholium, page 85 :

quam Litui Figuram appello propter formae similitudinem.

You can see also some "old" source, like :

• Thomas Jephson, The Fluxional Calculus: An Elementary Treatise (1826), page 381.

Possible source of error :

• Lituus :

The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

Possible source of error :

• Lituus :

The lituus curve originated with Cotes in 1722. Lituus means a crook, for example a bishop's crosier. Maclaurin used the term in his book Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. The lituus is the locus of the point $P$ moving in such a manner that the area of a circular sector remains constant.

But MacTutor list of Maclaurin's publications does not list Harmonia mensurarum, while it is named as Cotes' posthumous work.

See Scholium, page 85 :

quam Litui Figuram appello propter formae similitudinem.