LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D.
171
impeached for fraud and was out of office during Queen Anne's
reign, on the accession of George I. he again became First Lord
of the Treasury. He took a great interest in literature and
science, and was President of the Royal Society from 1695 to
1698. He was the patron of Rymer's monumental work, the
Foedera.
Lord Somers—1651-1716—John Somers, Lord Chancellor,
created Baron Somers 1697 ; was much connected in public
life with Lord Halifax, and from 1699 to 1704 was, like that
nobleman, President of the Royal Society. It has been said
that William of Orange reposed more confidence in him than in
any other Englishman.
The "Mr. Hawkesby" the Doctor speaks of, was Francis
Hawksbee who was admitted Fellow of the Royal Society in
1705, having already attained a reputation as an experimentalist.
In 1709 he dedicated to Lord Somers a book on Physico-Mecliaiii-
cal Experiments. The Pneumatic Engine, as the Doctor terms
it, was the air pump, then comparatively recently invented by
the Hon. R. Boyle, and was called the "Machine Boyleana."
Robert Boyle—1640-1696—son of Richard Earl of Cork, was
a most distinguished natural philosopher and chemist. He
appears while at Eton to have been a youthful prodigy of learning
and industry. He employed Robt. Hooke as a chemical assistant
and set him to contrive a less clumsy machine for exhausting
air in a closed vessel than that already invented by Guericke.
The result was the above-mentioned machine. Boyle took a
leading part in founding the Royal Society, and wrote many
books on scientific and religious subjects.
Mr. Petiver, whose collection the Doctor visited, was in many
ways a remarkable man : born 1663, he died 1718. He was
educated at Rugby, and 1683 was apprenticed to the Apothecary
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He became in course of time
Apothecary to the Charterhouse and obtained a considerable
practice, although he was in his profession somewhat of a quack.
He was a particular friend of the celebrated John Ray, who
in the preface to the 2nd Volume of his Historia Plantarum
acknowledges the assistance he had received from Petiver, and
in the course of that great work refers frequently to the latter's
museum, and also to his writings.
Petiver corresponded with naturalists all over the world