180 LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D.
Dec. : * 9. 1709.
Sr
I here send you two lists of our R.S. for your sell, & another
for whom you please. You will see Mr. Flamsteed's name out,
no doubt by some of his enemies means : but indeed he gave them
grounds for it by refusing to pay the I'd pr week. Dr. Harris
is chosen secretary in the room of Mr. Waller, the rest of the officers
are continued. I have marked one of your Lists with the number
of Votes each man had that was continued, or chosen into the
Council. There was a kind of tugging about the Secretary, some
very pathetically solliciting for Mr. Waller, as others did for Dr.
Harris. Dr. Harris had 23 Votes. Mr. Waller but 19. Dr. Harris
being a person not only abundantly able, but also diligent, & living
in Town, will, I hope, be a means to benefit the Society, & mend
the Transactions, which some have (out of disrespect to Dr. Sloane)
discredited more than they dsserve.
I beg the favour of you to lend me your Willoughby of Birds,
& your Microscopes, which shall be returned wth great safety, &
what convenient speed I can, will many thanks from
Sr
Your much obliged humble servt
Wm. Derham.
Our humble Services be pleased to accept of.
At the period when the Rev. John Flamsteed had to leave
the Royal Society the entrance fee was 10s., and the subscription
was 1s. per week. Now the subscription is £3, and the entrance
fee, which at one time was fixed at £10, is remitted. Dr. Harris
was only secretary for one year, and from what I have already
said about him (ante p. 26), I should doubt if he was as suitable a
person to fulfil that post as the worthy Doctor appears to have
considered him.
Doctor (afterwards Sir Hans) Sloane, 1660-1753, was the
distinguished Physician and Collector to whose industry and
public spirit we owe the origins of the British Museum. He left
his vast collections, which had cost him over £50,000, to the
nation on condition that £20,000 should be paid to his family.
He was greatly interested in Botany and Natural History and
was an active member of the Royal Society, to whose Transac-
tions he contributed several papers.
From 1693 till 1712, he was one of the two Secretaries of the
Society, and on Sir Isaac Newton's death in 1727, he was chosen
its president, which post he filled until 1741. He was created
a Baronet in 1716. Sloane appears to have been an intimate
friend of Dr. Derham, and he certainly was of Dacre Barrett.