62
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
seen more clearly than in the Appendix he added to his edition
of Silas Taylor's History and Antiquities of Harwich and Dover-
court (1730: see post). Therein, he gives descriptive lists
of all the natural productions of the district—the Crag Fossils
in the Cliff (pp. 18-19 and 273-326), the Marine Plants (pp.
337-448), the Land Plants (pp. 349-377), the Mollusca, etc.
(pp. 377-390), the Birds (pp. 396-409), the Cetacea (pp. 409-
419) and the Fishes (pp. 420-438). Dale's appendix and notes
made this, for the period, a notable scientific Work.
Of the nine articles contributed by Dale to the Philosophical
Transactions between 1692 and 1732, most dealt with subjects
other than botany.
Dale's studies in local archaeology and topography have
passed hitherto practically unnoticed. Yet they were con-
siderable. Thus, in The History of Harwich and Dovercourt, the
original author's manorial history, his account of the monu-
ments in the church, and so forth, are all annotated by Dale with
knowledge and skill. Further, between 1710 and 1730, Dale
greatly helped his neighbour, the Rev. William Holman (1669-
1730), the Congregational Minister, of Halstead, in collecting
materials for the latter's contemplated "History of Essex." The
Rev. Philip Morant, the Essex historian, says75 of Holman that
"His neighbour, Samuel Dale, assisted him very much and made
great improvements [in his matter]."76 Holman's History of Essex,
the earliest ever seriously attempted, was never published as
intended, though his matter was used nearly fifty years later
by Morant, as the basis of his well-known History of Essex (two
vols., folio, 1768)77 Had it ever been published, no doubt we
should have known much more as to Dale's labours in connec-
tion with the matter.
Dale's literary labours, though small in quantity, were
of considerable value. His Pharmacologia (1693), dedicated
to the (Royal) College of Physicians, and the earliest complete
treatise on its subject, Was in Latin. Later editions, also in
Latin, were published in England in 1710 and 1737.78 His
75 Hist. of Essex, i., Preface, p. [1] (1768). See also Essex Review, iii. (1894), pp. 261-266.
76 There are in the British Museum (Lansd., 814, ff. 68-69) copies of two letters from Dale
to Holman dated 30th April and 18th November 1724, both somewhat curt and formal in tone
and of no special interest.
77 Holman's original manuscript collections still exist, being preserved in part among the
Hills Manuscripts in Colchester Castle and in part among the Rawlinson Manuscripts in the Bod-
leian Library (see Essex Review, iii., p. 266: 1895).
78 Pharmacologia, seu Manuductio ad Materiam Medicam, &c., &c., third edition, much
altered and added to. London: Printed by Win. Innys and Richard Manby, Printers to the
Royal Society, 1737, 460 pp., post 40. Prof. Boulger informs me he has seen an edition, described
as "Quinta Editio, ex scripsis Hermani Boerhave," published at Amsterdam in 1751.