Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward [MS. SLOAN. 1847.] [April, 1682.] Dear Sonne,

I presume by this time you receaved my letter, by Captain Lulman. I receaved yours last weeke, with Dr. Grewe's paper of proposalls, and I am willing to subscribe for one booke myself, and will shewe the paper unto others, and probably some may subscribe, butt others may bee backward, there having been so many subscriptions to other bookes, and some now on foot. I should bee willing to do him any service. You had a kind of fungus not usual, fungus ligneus lanterniforis, like the lanterne of a building; and you had also I thinck the draught thereof. I have also a draught by mee; if you remember not what you did with it, I can send you the draught. It was found within a rotten willowe. Of the Lapis obsidianus Islandicus you had a peece, which I receaved from Island; and I have another peece of three times the bignesse. There is a rock of it in Island, butt at a good distance from the sea, and I beleeve it is not usual to meet with such a stone. Among the draughts of birds which Mr. Martyn had, I thinck there is the icon of an unusuall kind of locust, which was given mee long ago, and brought from the West Indies, butt I never sawe another; which I was fayne to call locusta sonora, as supposing that Odde horny excursion or prominence, running beyond the 3 Probably, "Proposals for printing his Anatomy of Plants," which were read to the Royal Society, March 15, 1681-2, and printed in that year, fol. Lond. 1682. 340 DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENCE. [1682. head, made the sound the lowder. I have the animal, and will have it drawne out, if need bee. Wee all long to heare of my daughter Browne's safe delivery. Pray present my service to my sister Whiting and Mr. Whiting. God blesse you all.

Your louing father, Thomas Browne.

TO THE Most Illustrious THE ROYAL SOCIETY, The following CATALOGUE IS Most Humbly PRESENTED By the Author NEHEMIAH GREW.

At a Meeting of the Council of the Royal Society, July 18th 1678. Ordered, THhat Dr. Grew be desired, at his leasure, to Make a Catalogue and Description of the Rarities belonging to this Society. Thom. Henshaw Vice-Præses R. S.

Extract of a Letter, written to the Publisher by Mr. Leeuwenhoek from Delft, April 21. 1676; Concerning the Texture of Trees, and some remarkable discovery in Wine; together with some Notes thereon* * The Numeral figure in the margin and body of this Letter refer to the like figures in the Notes made thereon. SIRSir,

Monsieur Constantin Hugens of Zulichem was pleased to shew me the Comparative Anatomy of the Trunks of Plants, written by Doctor Grew, and told me, that he had very ingeniously and learnedly discoursed upon that subject; though I, by reason of my unskillfulness in the English Tongue, could have little more than the contentment of viewing the elegant Cuts.

I have formerly written unto you, viz. in my Letter of August 15 1673. That I had discovered in several Trees (1) two sorts of vessels or pores, and did conceive, that the matter which serves for the increase of Trees was in (2) the greater vessels sent upwards, and that some small particles did again descend in the smaller Vessels to the roots, whereby was maintained a (3) Circulation also in Trees.

But not finding by the figures of Dr. Grew, that he hath discover’d those (4) two sorts of Vessels in the wooddy>woody part, I here take (654) the liberty of sending you the Eight part of the transverse Slice of an Ash-sprig of a years growth; and shall withall acquaint you, that besides those two sorts of Vessels in wood, I have discover’d a (5) third sort; these two going directly upward, and this third issuing out of the middle or the pith, going horizontally to the circumference: So that the (6) whole body of Wood hitherto viewed by me, consists of nothing but finall hollow pipes.

ESCALOPES.

HEREHere are all the Sorts mentioned by Dr. Lister (g)(g) De. Cochl. Marinis, Tab. 5. . viz. the large one with 14 Ridges and as many Furrows, with the Striæ in straight Lines from the Head to the Margin, enclining to a Red, four Inches in Length and 4 ½ in Breadth; another five broad; a third less, but of a different Colour, yellowish. His 2d Sort is curiously striated with twenty Ridges; it is red, spotted with white: This strictly corresponds with his in Length, almost two Inches, larger than which he had not seen one. But here is a very fine one with a Purple Blush within, that exceeds it in a 5th Part: And a third that is less than either, yet a like Number of Furrows. The Doctor's third Sort is easily distinguish'd from all others by its Narrowness being but one Inch broad and almost two in Length. A Scallope from the Irish Shore, the largest I have seen, being above half a Foot in breadth, and near two Foot in Circumference. Don. Rev. Jos. Wilkinson Dubl. Twenty of the small Scalopes, some striated, others smooth, with Variety of Colours, single strip'd, and spotted, about half Inch broad. Dr. Grew mentions the Coralline Scallop without Ears. Here is one that answers his Description, save the Colour, which is Orange. But the most remarkable of all is an Ash-coloured one, from the Top of the Apalatæan Mountains, that part Virginia on the West, from the Rest of the American Continent; upon which Mountains great Numbers of them, and other Shells, are found, which is an undeniable Argument of an universal Deluge. Don. Roger Gale Arm.

Even the smallest Pecten or Scallope, hath Auriculæ, whereas the largest Pectunculus, or those of the Cockle-kind, want the Ears.

Of Cockles, here are the white, brown, and blew, or deep Ash-coloured, differently striated. The large Cockle with Prickles, or Pectunculus echinatus, from Tees and Scarborough after Storms, and from the Irish Shore; it is above two Inches broad, (three by the Convexity) hath 20 deep Furrows, and upon the intermediate Ridges certain sharp Prickles, ten upon a Ridge: This is well delineated by Dr. Lister (h)(h) Idem N° 35. . Another of them 6 ½ Inches in Circumference, the Striæ in these are from the Head to the Margin. One of the common Size without Prickles, and hath also transverse Striæ towards the Margin. Another with eighteen of these Circular Lines from Side to Side, and those so deeply furrowed that they almost obscure those from the Head to the Margin; one Side of these is much shorter than the other. The small white Cockle hath the Shell equally extended on both Sides: Of this Sort here is an entire Cockle, only a Quarter of an Inch long, yet hath 26 Ridges.

The Carolina Dish Cockle; it is two Inches above a Quarter of a Yard round, will contain near half a Pint of Water; it has 36 of the like Ridges, with the Pectunculus echinatus, but none of the Aculei; it was brought from thence, and given me by Chr. Gale Esq; her Majesty's Attorney General in Carolina.

A very thick Shell four Inches broad, with ten Ridges, of which the middlemost is very high; one End of the Shell is compress'd; it is white with Purple Spots.

As to the Muscle Kind, the common Sort are 2 ½ Inches broad, and little above one in Length (i)(i) Idem, p. 182. ; but here is one that is full two Inches long, and four in Breadth: In other Things it agrees with the Vulgar being on the out-side, Ex cæruleo niger, and within albescit ex cærulea: It was sent me from Ireland. A Muscle Shell from Bermuda's; it is of the usual Size, but different Colours, viz. reddish and yellow. The ponderous thick shell'd Mussel from the rapid River Tees near five Inches broad; the thin and light ones from Ponds and Still-Waters: The largest that so curious and inquisitive a Person as Dr. Lister had met with, was two Inches and 3 ½ (k)(k) Idem, de Cochl. Fluviat. p. 146. . But one here is 3 ½ one Way, and half a Foot the other; it is Yellowish and Green without, and a shining Bright within. Another somewhat less, but beautiful, strip'd with green, yellow and dark Colour.

Other Bivalves that suit the 19th, 20th and 21th. in the 4th Table of the Cochl. Marin. The 22d also, which is remarkably thick and almost round, with small Circular Lines on the Convex Side, and upon the Hinge within are two or three Protuberances or Teeth, with Cavities betwixt to receive those of the other Valve: Some of these are near a Foot in Circumference, others but six Inches; and as to Colours, Dark, White and Yellow. The 23d is slender, with small Striæ from Side to Side. One that hath also transverse Lines from the Head to the Margin.

The Sheath-Shell, as it is commonly called, because of its Form; it is improperly called a Long Shell, because, saith a noted Author, the Length of a Shell is properly from the Navel to the Edge directly opposite (l)(l) Dr. Grew's Mus. Reg. Soc. p. 143. , and the Breadth between the two Sides thence produced, so that this Shell is but one Inch in Length, and seven in Breadth. Most of these are white, but where the Cuticula remains it is greenish, and curiously variegated with white and dark Colours, as in Dr. L's Figure of it (m)(m) Dr. Lister de Cochl. Marinis, Tab. 5. 37. .

The Bivalve of the Tellina Kind, differ from all the Sorts of the Pectunculus, in that they are of a Rhomboide Form, longer from Side to Side, than from the Head to the opposite Margin. One here strictly answers the Colour of Dr. Lister's (n)(n) Idem, p. 190. , Ex viola purpurascens; three other very beautiful transparent Shells, but larger (near three Inches), one clear white, the other two variegated with Crimson. Small ones of this smooth transparent Kind, little more than half an Inch broad. Others a little rounder, and of various Colours, White, Blew, Purple, and with brown Stripes. The laminated Tellina is of a more solid, thicker Substance, liker the common Cockle, but consists of three or four of those Lamina which gradually encrease in Breadth, from the Head to the Margin. Of these I gathered great Variety in Holland, 35 Years ago, which do yet retain the Beauty of their different Colours, some regularly shaded with lighter and deeper Tinctures at the Edge of each Lamella. Here are of them from half an Inch to above an Inch and half in Breadth.

I shall conclude these with the last of Dr. Lister's Bivalves (o)(o) Idem, Tab. 5. 39. , which is a thin white Shell striated both Ways, and sometimes, tho' rarely, found at the Mouth of the River Tees.

After the double Shells, or with two Valves, there remain some which are made up of several Shelly Pieces, conjoined as the Balanus and the Concha Anatifera. The Balanus or Conick Centre-Shell is in Shape somewhat like a Tulip, the Shelly Plates being pointed at the Top, and standing up as so many Leaves; they always grow fixed to some other Body: Here is one fixed to a Stone; another to an Oyster Shell; several upon a Barnacle, and no less than 18 small ones upon a little Limpet in less than the Compass of an Inch; which, I suppose, to be the Species that Dr. Grew (p)(p) Grew's Mus. R. S. p. 148. calls the Spunge Centre-Shell: But the Form is best discovered in the Balanus Major; two of which are upon that remarkable Escalope from Virginia before-mentioned.

The Barnacle or Concha Anatifera Britannia, is the other plurivalved Shell, that by a long Neck, somewhat resembling a Wind-pipe, sticks to, and breeds upon any Wood or other Matter floating in the Sea. It hath in it some Cirrhi, which have been fancied to resemble a little Bird, which was formerly believed to grow to the Bigness of a Goose. See the old Notion expressed by a very ingenious Gentleman in the Phil. Trans. (q)(q) N° 137. But the most judicious and rational Account (there being no such Thing as Equivocal Generation in Animals) is given by my honoured and kind Friend Dr. Sloane, in his Voyage to Jamaica (r)(r) Dr. Sloane's Voyage, p. 32..

Of the Asteriæ, or Star-stones.

HEREHere are most of those observed by the learned and accurate Dr. Lister, in this his Native Country, together with others from Westmoreland, Glocester, (Lassington-stones), and Northamptonshires. Mr. Moreton's third Sort called Peter-stones. Here are of the Litorales, as well as Arvenses, but the most of them from the Foot of the Yorkshire Woulds. The largest of them is scarce an Inch and half long, wherein are 17 Joints; but here are others with so very thin Joints that there are 16 of them in ¾ of an Inch. Some are very small, yet of five Rays, others an Inch and half in Circumference. The single Joints have sometimes the fairest Figures of the Stars, consisting of five Angles; the middle of each of which is a little hollowed, and the Edges more prominent and thick furrowed, by which the several Joints are knit together, the Ridges and Furrows being alternately let into one another; in the Center of the five Angles is a Hollow or Point. Of these, piled one upon another, are made pentagonous cylindrical Columns. Dr. Plot says, to the Number of 15, in which Number yet he wants 7, that is, he found none of 5 Joints, nor of 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 or 14 (e)(e) Plot's Oxon, p. 86.. But I have a distinct Column of every Number, from the single Joint to 18; and in them most of the Sorts so accurately described by Dr. Lister (f)(f) Phil. Trans. N° 112., except with the Wires adhering; but here are of the Wires, though broken off, both in single Joints, and longer Pieces, which are very small, slender, and of a round Figure, being set together not by indented Suture, but per harmoniam (g)(g) Idem, p. 277., like the Antennæ of Lobsters. Others smooth from the Shore of Hull. Most, if not all of these Columns, are visibly bent and inclining. The Angles of some of them are more obtuse, of others more acute, and consequently deeper chanell'd, than where the Angles are blunt and round. Here is also a third Sort that is very rare, which have five flat Sides without any Indentings in the Form of a Star. Some of both Sorts have a small Pin-hole in the middle of each Joint, betwixt Angle and Angle. Others the more rarely have a Knot, or Joint of Wires remaining at some of the Holes. Some again have each other Joint more protuberant, or standing further out than the intermediate ones. The Asteriæ are of different Colours acording to the Matter they are found lodged in, as white, brown, blewish and ash-coloured. A ferruginous Body that seems to be Lh's. Siphunculus cylindracius ferruginosus, N° 1212, from Welsale in Staffordshire. A much less from the Shore of Hull.

Ichthyodontes Cuspidati, or Glossopetræ of different Sizes, from a Quarter of an Inch, to an Inch and half, both of the smooth and serrated, and of several Colours, viz. white, yellow, sad Colour, blewish and black, the larger Sort filled with rough Stone of their different Colours, though the Teeth themselves be smooth, bright, and shining. One of that Sort called Ornithoglossum, from its Likeness to the Magpies Tongue, Lh. 1266. All from my Lord Bishop of Carlisle. The Plectronites, so called from its resemblance to a Cock-spur adhering to Chalk; see the Figure Phil. Trans. N° 200. Fig. 13. sent me by Roger Gale Esq;. As also Glossopetræ from the Isle of Malta, where they are called Serpents-Tongues, though they are in Reality Sharks-Teeth. Another sort of Fossil Teeth are the Scutellati or Grinders, commonly called Bufonitæ; of these here are all the three Sorts, from the said Benefactors, viz. Orbiculati, Umbonati, and Scaphoides; some of the two former Sorts are filled with Stone, but the Name of the last shews it to be hollow; and in Figure somewhat resembling a little Boat of that, with one End narrower than another: See Fig. 12. in the said Trans. These Bufonitæ are of various Colours, a brighter and deeper brown, blewish and dark black, all bright and shining; one hath an Areola upon the Convex Side, surrounded with Rays. Another sort from Malta, called the Vipers Eye; the Gift of Seignior Altchribell; the black Speck in the middle, which is very protuberant, is surrounded with a Circle of pale Yellow, and that with another of blewish White; the rest of the Stone is black; these are frequently set in Rings. The same Italian Gent. gave me another Stone, which he brought from the Red Sea, and is said to be a Fish's Eye; it is a Kind of Pisolythus, the Humours of the Eye, with the Tunica Uvea, and the Iris, are not ill-represented (h)(h) Grew's Mus. Reg. p 258.. Hither also may be referred the Oculi Cancrorum, a crustaceous Stone, said to be taken out of Crab's Eyes; of these I have both the blewish and white, of a less and larger Sort, better than 1 ½ Inch round, which Mrs. Sus. Maddox brought me from Prussia.

Mr. Lhywd next to the Bufonitæ placeth the Siliquastrum Phaseolatum, so called because it resembles the Pod of a Bean or Pulse; the Surface is black and shining, the lower Side, where it should join the other Valve is a white Stone; it is the first Fig. in Phil. Trans. N° 200. His second is a broader Species, which he Names Siliquastrum lupinatum the inner Part of this is a reddish Stone. Some here are different only in Colour, brown or black, others in Form, being more Gibbose. Here are also the smallest Sort: Most of them sent me by my grand Benefactor, my Lord Bishop of Carlisle. To these Siliquastra, or rather (to use the local Word) single Swads, being but one Valve, may fitly be added the entire Beans; one of these (Don. Jab. Cay M. D.) both in Form and Colour resembles the great Garden Red Bean; the other is lesser, and dark coloured, but both of them; as many of the finer Pebles, are a sort of Touchstone. A third represents a compress'd Bean, and is of a bright brown Colour. The said ingenious Physician sent along with it, the Triorchis, or Stone resembling Three Nuts. To which may be added another in the Form of a Nutmeg, and which is most curious, one from the East-Indies that doth so naturally represent Half a Nutmeg, as well on the Inside, as without, that many Persons will not be persuaded by their Eyes, that it is otherwise, till their Taste convince them of their Infidelity. Don. D. Tho. Wilson Merc. Dublin. A Stone very like a Gall for making writing Ink, and another to half a Ball of Gascoigne Powder.

But to return to Mr. Lhwyd's Method, from whence these Resemblances of Fruits have made me swerve. Ichthyospondylus clepsydratus, one of white Stone resembling a Joint of the Back-bone of a Fish. Another, that by the Colour may be called Anthracinus, but from the Form is called the Fairy-hower-glass. Don. R R. D D. Episc. Carleol. A blewish Stone with the Spine and Ribs of a Fish perfectly impress'd upon it: Twas found in a River in Craven, and sent me by Major Dawson. Another of white ruble Stone from Stowel in Glocestershire. These are both hollow like a Mold, but here is one that is very rare, being protuberant, and having the very Bones themselves, eleven on either Side. The Spina dorsalis very curious, little more than an Inch long. I know not where else to place what relates to the Members of other Animals, and some to the Parts of Humane Bodies. Of which one hath the fancied Resemblance of a (deformed) Face, with a Cavity on each Side for the Ears; it is a blewish Stone: Another of a bright shining Yellow, doth better correspond with that of a Kidney; and a third of a white Stone, with the Testicles; given me by Dr. Plot, who calls them Orchites or Lapides Testiculares (i)(i) Nat. Hist. Oxon. pag. 127.. In the same Table VII. Fig. 8. he represents a Sort of Toad-stone quite different from the Bufonites before-mentioned, being a reddish Liver-coloured real Stone, convex above, and concave below: This here is 2 ½ Inches round, and of the dark Red. Another of a yellow Colour from the River Tees.

The Belemnitæ are the last Classis in Mr. Lhwyd's Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia: Here are of different Sizes and Colours, from little more than ½ Inch to to to 4 ½ in Length. Dr. Plot's of that Dimension was but 1 ¼ round, but this is 2 ½; yet but a Fragment (nor was that of Dr. Lister's any other) (k)(k) De Lapid. pag. 226. of the Yorkeshire Belemnites maximus niger. An entire one of the same Dimensions from the Hedington Quary Com. Oxon; it is hollow for 1 ½ Inch at the Base; it enclines to a Yellow, and when vehemently rubb'd takes up a Straw like Amber, which the black one will not do, though as large. Don. D. Rog. Gale Arm. A lesser from Cricklade Hill Com. Gloc. radiated like a Star from a closer Center. Another from Croydon Chalk-Pits in Surrey. Don. D. Jo Woodward M. D. One that in three Inches Length is not much thicker than a Goose Quill; and another that in less than one Inch in Length is very near two in Circumference. The Medulla in one of the hollowed Belemnites consists of a white Sort of Selenites or Spar. The Generality of these Thunderbolts, as the Vulgar call them, are of a Conical Figure, from a thick Basis tapering to a Point: But amongst some sent me by my Lord Bishop of Carlisle, there is one Cylindrical, or equally thick from End to End; and another that is thickest in the Middle, and gradually slenderer to both Ends: The former of these hath the Rima or Chink, the whole Length, which the second hath only at the Basis; and another at the small Point, but the Generality want it. As to Colour, here are the black, whitish, ash-coloured, reddish, brown and Amber-coloured.

Dr. Grew, amongst the Regular Stones in the Musæum of the Royal Society, reckons also the Lapis Amianthus, and the Hæmatites. Of the former of these, called also Asbestinus, and the Thrumstone was made the incombustible Cloth; it consists of glossy, parallel, fine Threads. It was anciently spun and woven into Sheets, wherein the Bodies of the Emperors were wrapped, to keep the Ashes entire from those of the Funeral Pile. The Art is of late revived, and a Specimen of the Cloth presented to the Royal Society, who made the Experiment; and instead of being consumed in the Fire, it came out entire and more refined. There is lately found of this Stone both in Scotland and Wales, of which an incombustible Paper was made at Oxford (a)(a) Phil. Trans. N° 172.. Don. Hans Sloane M D. The Hæmatites or Blood-stone: Dr. Lister affirms the English to be as good, if not better, than that brought from the East-Indies. Another which seems to be the Hæmatites, that admits a good Polish.

[5 July 1710 at Gresham College]

On 5 July, Saturday morning, we drove to Gresham ColledgeCollege.[*]

Gresham College. This, in 1710, was the former dwelling-house of the founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, in Bishopsgate Street. The work of the college began in 1597. The old house was demolished in 1768. Dr. Robert Hooke, the renowned mathematician, lived thirty-nine years in the old college and died there on 3 March, 1703.

The Royal Society met in the college from 1660 to 1710, in which year the Society removed to 2 Crane Court, Fleet Street, and carried on its affairs there till 1780, the date of the Society's removal to Somerset House.

It is really a Grammar School, named after its founder, Gresham, v. Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 664 sq. Many excellent persons of good parts have been professors there, and, as is well known, the Royal Society uses it as its headquarters. It is an old building, extensive and irregular; and the inner part, where the Society has its apartments, is still the best. Both in Germany and elsewhere an exalted idea of this Society has been formed, both of it and of the collections they have in their Museum, especially when one looks at the Transactions of this Society and the fine description of the Museum by Grew.[*]

GREW. This was Nehemiah Grew, 1641-1712, the professor of the anatomy of plants. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 November, 1671. In 1672 he was appointed Curator to the Society. He had taken his degree as a doctor of medicine at Leyden in 1671.

Thus foreigners have just grounds for amazement when they hear how wretchedly all is now ordered. But it is the sight of the Museum that is most astounding. It consists of what appear to be two long narrow chambers, where lie the finest instruments and other articles (which Grew describes), not only in no sort of order or tidiness but covered with dust, filth and coal-smoke, and many of them broken and utterly ruined. If one inquires after anything, the operator who shows strangers round—v. Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 687—will usually say: 'A rogue had it stolen away,' or he will show you pieces of it, saying: 'It is corrupted or broken'; and such is the care they take of things! Hardly a thing is to be recognized, so wretched do they all look. But that is the way with all public societies. For a short time they flourish, while the founder and original members are there to set the standard; then come all kinds of setbacks, partly from envy and lack of unanimity and partly because all kinds of people of no account become members; their final state is one of indifference and sloth. This has been the case with this Society too. The first six years of its Transactions are better and contain more than all the rest put together. They can be purchased complete for twelve pounds. Now scarcely anything is done by them. The Society does not meet during the whole of the summer and very little from Michaelmas onwards. The present Secretary, Dr Sloane,[*]

Von Uffenbach refers shortly here to SIR HANS SLOANE, who was Secretary of the Royal Society from 30 November, 1693, till 1712, and to SIR ISAAC NEWTON, 1642-1727, who was President of the Society from 1703 to 1728. He mentions the name of the noted Dr. John Woodward here, and interviews and describes him later.

is certainly an honest fellow of great parts, but he is very much occupied by his own extensive Praxi medica as well as with his own great collection. The President, Newton, is an old man and is prevented both by his office as Director of the Mint and by the management of his own affairs from concerning himself much about the Society. For the rest, if one excepts Dr Woodward[*]

JOHN WOODWARD, 1665-1728, the physician and geologist; F.R.S., 30 November, 1693; F.R.C.P., 22 March, 1703. He died at Gresham College on 25 April, 1728.

Von Uffenbach was greatly edified with Woodward's characteristics and peculiarities.

and one or two other Englishmen as well as the foreign members, there are none but apothecaries and other such people who know scarce a word of Latin. Such members contribute little to the honour and usefulness of the Society. But to return to the subject of the Museum, I will mention one or two of the things that pleased us most, although they have all been described by Grew, and some of them also in Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 666. The great magnet with thirty-two compasses made by Dr Wren for the purpose of research on variationes and delineationes is one of the most remarkable articles. The magnet itself is round and nearly six inches in diameter and is not mounted. The two poles are marked with a cross. The operator did two charming experiments for us with this magnet. First he took a paper of filings and held the north pole of the magnet over it, so that for the moment the filings piled themselves up on top of each other and stood up on end, being also churned up like water. The other was more notable: having placed the magnet in a hole cut in a board, he strewed this with file-dust; when he struck the lower side of the board in one or two places, all the filings divided themselves into lines, which stretched from each pole round the circumference of the magnet to the middle point of the pole; and in this position they remained, however much and often he might strike the board. It looked exactly like the copper engraving made by the Cartesians to illustrate their hypothesis of the effect of the magnet, for which they have been mocked by Thomasio and others. This is much more clearly shown by Fig. XLII and the following description and elucidation of it: the letter a refers to a great round figure which represents a table with thirty-two small holes in its circumference, c, in which there are placed magnetic needles, these being covered with glasses like other compasses. In the middle a round hole had been cut, and in this was placed a spherically cut loadstone, 6, the two poles of which are marked with a cross, d. After this stone had been set in position with its north pole, all the needles standing round revolved towards e along the lines f and e. The dots round the loadstone represent filings, m, which had been thinly sprinkled about; and these range themselves neatly in accurate semi-circles when one knocks underneath the table, so that they move and raise themselves. Straight lines radiated from either pole; but the nearer it was to the sides, the better was the semi-circle formed—better, indeed, than it is here represented. If one then altered the stone with the poles, setting them for example by the line gh, having been formerly on that from ef, and knocked again on the table, the semicircle and figures made by the filings altered their position and lay in the former order with lines due north and south along the line gh, which was all prodigiously curious. We also noticed the chair made of some special root, which is spoken of in Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 319p. 685 n.319. There was a label hung on it with these words: 'This Chair given by John Lord Sommers Baron of Evesham President of the Royal Society from Chusan in China, 30 Juny June 1702'. The root looks almost as full of veins as our walnut wood, of which cupboards are made. Moreover it is maintained both in that passage in Vieu of London and by the operator that the chair is not jointed but made from a single block of wood, so it is certainly very curious; but I cannot possibly believe that art did not come to assist, so elegantly is it carved. We saw also the ovula of a female who had died of the dropsy, some of them being as big as a cherry. They were in glasses filled with spirit. There were other things there too, mostly of a common sort; I was delighted at the way in which all these things were fastened to small glass balls and floated in the spirit, so that all may be seen with ease. Even when the spirit is somewhat evaporated, the things sink with the balls and do not hang without moisture and perish, which they do when fastened to the glass or the stopper, as they usually are. We also found notably ana uterus with the bladder and other parts appertaining thereto; all had been excellently preserved, so that all the veins, ligaments, nerves, etc. were clearly to be seen. We also noticed the four black boards, on which all the venae arteriae and nerves of the human body are very well arranged, v. Vieu of London, p. 666, n. 3. But because these boards hang quite unprotected on the wall, they are ruined by dust and smoke, so that they look utterly black and wretched, which is indeed a pity. We also saw an incomparably fine Nautilum petrefactum. But there is no need to mention anything more, for all is described in detail in the works to which I have referred, especially in that of Grew. I only wish that all had been in good condition and that we could have observed it at our leisure.

Then I asked to be shown the Library. Like the Museum it is shut away in small cupboards in a very long narrow passage. As is known and can be read in Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 686, it was presented by the Duke of Norfolk, and I have the printed catalogue in quarto. There are some good manuscripts which I found in two cupboards standing together. But we could scarce glance at them—in such haste was the operator in his English fashion, thinking indeed that he had already spent too much time with us in the Museum. We saw also, standing on one of the book cupboards, the iron oven with which Dr HoockHooke had succeeded in hatching out some eggs in the Egyptian manner, v. Vieu of London, Vol. II, p. 683, n. 253. This too was spoiled. On the ground lay the prodigiously large antlers of a fallow deer, which had been found in a bog in Ireland. On either side there were eight wide branches and the antlers were seven feet one inch apart in diameter. We also saw here the model of a fortress which a clergyman called Christner had made extremely accurately and well. It was very large and, when all had been put together, would probably measure two surveyor's rods.

Finally we were shown the room where the Society usually meets. It is very small and wretched and the best things there are the portraits of its members, of which the most noteworthy are those of Boyle and HoockHooke.[*]

ROBERT HOOKE, the experimentalist, astronomer, inventor and chemist; F.R.S., 3 June, 1663. He was perpetual Curator of the Royal Society. In 1667 he was appointed surveyor of the City of London. He was an extraordinarily able mechanic. He was Secretary of the Royal Society from October 1677 to November 1682.

John Aubrey wrote: 'He is but of middling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his face but little belowe, but his head is lardge: his eie full and popping, and not quick; a grey eie.' Aubrey had the highest opinion of Hooke, eccentric as Aubrey's views were.

He was born on 19 July, 1635, according to John Aubrey.

Hooke was a leading inventor of balance-springs for watches. The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, by RichardWailerWaller, 1705, should be referred to.

We saw here also two fine globosglobes and a wooden model of an invention by which one man can move two oars with the help of a cord as swiftly and evenly as two men could. This was done by means of half a wheel fastened to an axle, which lies on two bars. It will be described in the Transactions and engraved there in copper, so there is no need for me to remark on it further here. At the side of this room stood a large and handsome pendulum-clock, on which this inscription might be read: Societati Regali Ad Scientiam Naturalem promovendam institutae dono dedit Reverendus in Christo Pater Sethus Episcopus Exon. ejusdem societatis Sodalis in memoriam Laurentii Rook, viri omnium litterarum genere instructissimi in Collegio Greshamensi primum astronomiae dein Geometriae Professoris dictaequae societatis nuper Sodalis qui obit 1662. In the afternoon we were at Mareschall's, where my brother cut glass.