176 LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D.
statements he makes. It was obviously for the purpose of
obtaining data tor this paper that he wished Dacre to have
these guns discharged.
The Doctor when in London appears to have been on the
look out for books for his friend Dacre ; of those he mentions the
first is John Ray's Observations Topographical, etc., published
1673 ; the next by the same author is entitled A Collection of
Curious Travels and Voyages containing D.L. Ranwolff's Itinery
into Eastern Countries, 1693.
I can find no book by "Dr. Spar" in the British Museum, but
it is possible he referred to Joannes Caspar Sparr, who published
two books on medicine in Latin in 1673, and 1674 respectively.
His allusions to "Huntingdon and Mr. Graves" I cannot
follow.
In 1702 Alex Pitfield translated or, as he terms it, "Englished"
from the French a book which he entitled A Natural History of
Animals.
Willughby's book referred to is his De Historia Piscium,
published at Oxford in 1686.
"P. George" is obviously George of Denmark, the Prince
Consort.
The Rev. John Flamsteed, born 1646, died 1719, was the first
Astronomer Royal. His catalogue and observations of the stars
were published at the cost of Prince George. He suffered from
constant bad health, the result of an attack of rheumatic fever
in his youth. Flamsteed was a pious and conscientious man,
patient in suffering, and very abstemious ; but his natural
irritable temper would brook no rivalry, and he had constant
disputes with Sir Isaac Newton and Halley, which embittered
the end of a life worn out by worry and ill-health.
John Ray, whom the Doctor very properly describes as
"famous," was born 1627. and died on 17th January 1705. The
eloquent addresses by Professor Boulger on Ray's life and work,
and on his domestic life, together with Mr. Fitch's paper on
"John Ray as an Entomologist.6 "renders it superfluous to
say more about him here, beyond perhaps quoting from the
6 "The Life and Work of John Ray and 'their Relation to the Progress of Science"
(Trans. Essex Field Club, vol iv pp. 171-1881 ; "The Domestic Life of John Ray at
Black Notley" (Proceedings E.F.C, IV., clix.-clxiv), and "John Ray, Samuel Dale and
Benjamin Allen : A Eulogy" (Essex Naturalist, vol xvii.. pp. 145-164). By Prof. G. S.
Boulger, F.L.S., and "John Ray as an Entomologist," by Edward A. Fitch, F.L.S. (Proc.
E F.C. IV., pp. clxv.-clxix.)