LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D. 169
Spunge, Cork, Rush, the ffarine of Mallows. &c were admirable,
as being what I never before so plainly saw. I am in great hast
Your much obliged & most humble servant
W. Derham.
Christopher Schreiner wrote several treatises in London on
optical and astronomical subjects.
The Doctor alludes to the last vol. of J. Ray's Historia
plantarum.
Upminr. Jun. 15, 1704.
Sr
I here send you by this Messenger your two books wch I borrowed,
for wch I give you many thanks. I beg the favour of borrowing
the next vol. of your Transactions, & Dr. Plot's Hist : of Stafford-
shire, & Mr. Newton's Opticks if you can spare them.
I was yesterday at London, where I saw Mr. Newton's new Con-
trivance of Reflecting glasses. They were to have been tryed yester-
day before the R.S. in the presence of Lds. Hallifax & Somers,
&c., but the day did not favour us. We were however regaled
by Mr. Hawkesby's Expts. in the Pneumatick Engine viz : 1.
A very light Feather descended as swiftly as a piece of Lead in the
exsucked Receiver. 2. Tepid water first gently rose wth small
bubbles, & as the Recr was emptied of Air the bubbles encreased,
till at last (wn quite evacuated) it boyled with the greatest violence.
as if the greatest fire had been under. 3. A glass vial included,
& by a certain artifice evacuated wth in the Receiver, was broken
into 1000's of pieces by ye admission of the Air into the Recr.
Having an hour's leisure, I also visited Mr. Petiver's Rarities,
wch are indeed many, & exceeding curious. Among others
I could not but admire the Huming-bird ; the true Dragon (a very
ellegant Animal indeed), the vast Frog called by our Americans
the Bull-Frog, from its bellowing noise ; the Nasicornes ; Mantes ;
exotick serpents, Papilios, & hundreds of other rarities both English
and exotick, : many of wch are described in his lecturies & more
intended. I also there saw Hoefnagle's & Hollar's Tables of Insects
both great Rarities, both for their Sculpture and to be come at. I
presented him with a. very rare Squilla aquatica wch I catched
yesterday going to London in one of the Ponds on this side Stratford.
I never saw the same before. I am very confident it was a Squilla,3
but Mr. Petiver thought it to be the Aurelia of the Great Libella.4
But yt hath no forcipes as this had ; wth wch it vehemently stroke
Mr. Petiver divers times, as the Squillae do. He keeps it alive
in water to see whether it will have any transmutation.
I here send you a Specimen of a very curious Table of Logarithms,
wch they say will exceed Vlack's. The elegance of the Figures
(whose stamps are made on purpose for this work) & the goodness
of the Paper deserves praise. The book is pretty forward in the
Press.
I saw Mr. Ray's last Vol : of Plants wch is now published &
3 The Squilla or "Mantes Shrimp" is, of course, a Marine Crustacean.
4 A great Dragon-fly, one of the Libellulidae.