first volume of my 'Natural History of Jamaica*.' I wish it were better for you. Pray tell me the faults you find in it, in doing which you will oblige your most obedient servant, HANS SLOANE." "SIR, London, May 24, 1707. "I give you many thanks for your letter, and present of two volumes of dried Plants. You will find by myCatalogue, that I have taken notice of most of the Synonyme names you mention; however I will look. I will send you the Catalogue if you have it not, otherwise the History will be imperfect. If you have it not, I have a duplicate to spare for you, and will send it you by the first conveyance. The dried Plants (yours and mine compared) will ascertain many of the names, and I intend to do it as carefully as I can. I am very much obliged to you for your intended favours. I have had so many, I cannot tell how to receive them; only they are not to be had but by such a curious person, and of such there are but very few. HANS SLOANE." "SIR, London, Jan. 27, 1708. "I give you a great many thanks for the favour of your letter and fine present, which I long since received, and which was very grateful to me, for there were many Birds I had not before seen. The small long-bill'd Water-fowl you sent me up seems to be either the Sea-lark, or one very near akin to it, which come frequently into fresh-water rivers. There are many of this sort of several sizes, of which I believe this to be one. I am extremely obliged to you for this favour, and shall not be wanting upon any occasion to shew you that I am, with great sincerity, your most obedient and faithful servant, HANS SLOANE." "SIR, Nov. 22, 1712. "It is some time since I proposed you to be a Member of the Royal Society, as a person extremely well qualified, by your knowledge in Natural History and other Learning, for promoting the very good ends of their institution. I was seconded by several persons, who knew, or had heard of your abilities and worth. Lately, there being a great meeting, you was elected a Member, of which I wish both you and the Society joy and success. I hope you will be pleased now and then to communicate to the Society such things as are proper and fall in your way. I remember you said you had several letters from Mr. Lhwyd. I am, with great sincerity, your most obedient, &c. HANS SLOANE." June 27, 1713. "SIR, "I am commanded by the Society to give you their most hearty thanks for your letter, which I received some time since, and communicated to them. It contains abundance of particulars very well worth notice and publication; and as such things fall in your way, they will be very welcome to the Society, and particularly to your most obedient, &c. HANS SLOANE." "Mr. Derham's Lectures for Mr. Boyle are worth your perusal. They are lately printed." *The first Volume of this valuable Work was published in 1707, and dedicated to Queen Anne; the second, in 1725, was dedicated to King George I. April 11, 1713. * SIR, "I am ashamed I have not sooner acknowledged the receipt of yours and Mr. Lloyd's letters. I have communicated most of them to the Society. What I thought might be by some ill taken, I withheld. The Society ordered me to return you thanks, and to desire that as any thing curious offers, you would please to note and communicate it. Having a new kind of Establishment, they intend to promote the end of their institution, and call on all their Members for help. None is better qualified than yourself; so I hope I shall hear frequently from you, which will be esteemed a great happiness, by HANS SLOANE." "SIR, May 27, 1714. "The Volume of Transactions for 1713 being finished, and therein many letters of yours, I beg you would let me know how to send it you. I am your most obedient, &c. HANS SLOANE."* "SIR, Sept. 27, 1720. "I received your very obliging letter, and have so many obligations by your former communications that I shall never get out of your debt. I am very sorry that your stay in London both times I have seen you here has been so short, that I have not had that opportunity of conversation with you that I could' have wished for, and particularly your thoughts of many Fossils, Birds-eggs, Plants, and otherNatural Rarities andAntiquities, which I have gathered together. I do not know that I could have so great a pleasure, as to be able to shew you in about a fortnight or month's time, at leisure, what I have of those kinds. However, I live in hopes that some time or other I may be so happy. In the mean time, to supply that, letters are the best remedies, and I should be extremely glad now and then to hear from you, and will promise to return you any accounts I think may be for your entertainment. Dr. John Scheuchzer hath wrote and published a book of Grasses; if you have it not, I will endeavour to get you` one; he hath sent me the specimens of those he mentions. "I am your most obedient servant, "SIR, HANS SLOANE." March 9, 1720. "I am extremely obliged to you for your letter and present, which I received last night, and which gave me a great deal of pleasure in turning over, and which will give me more when I have time to compare them with Mr. Buddle's, Petiver's, and others, which I hope will be very soon. One of them, the Lanuginosus, &c. I had formerly from Mr. Lhwyd from Wales, but before from the mountains on the South of the Streights of Magellan, called Terra del Fuego, brought me from thence, with many other Plants, by an acquaintance of mine, who passed through to the South Seas in 1689, or thereabouts. I am extremely obliged to you likewise for your offer of Eggs, of which I have several, but many broken and decayed; so that, if it falls in your way, I should be glad to have many of them fresher. If to them you would add some of the smaller Nests, they would be welcome. Count Marsigli hath wrote a Book 'De Architectonicâ Avium,' wherein he describes the Nests he saw on the confines of Turkey, and the Danube, one of which he says floats. I will furnish you with the books out of print which you want, having some of them already twice over; for they are good, and not very common. Please to let me know the names of the rest. you want, that I may send you most of them together; for I have reserved in a garret some such duplicates, and without compliment I shall be glad to have an opportunity to serve you; and will add some other books that I think you have not, which I have twice over. "It is many years past that Mr. Petiver took notice to me, that Dr. Sherard, who was so well qualified and situated to please the curiosity of his English friends, had quite left off any kind of communications with any but those of other Countries; which I attributed to his value for them, and contempt of others. After his arrival, Mr. Petiver again, and even on his death-bed, took notice of it with some warmth. Upon the Doctor's arrival, I was not wanting in assuring him of all the services I could do him, and that I intended, as soon as I could, to look out my duplicates of dried Plants from all parts of the world; that I had promised, and intended, to divide them amongst my curious friends (wherein I always reckon you one, and a great benefactor); and that, because he hath a curious and large collection already, I designed, and do design, he shall have the first, and consequently largest share. In the first place, after I had boughtMr. Petiver's Collections, Books, &c. for a considerable sum, he wanted Mr. Buddle's MSS. and Collections, which I had lent Mr. Petiver, and which he had before I had brought them to my own house. This, he told me, was to answer some queries he had promised to Mr. Vaillant and others. Then he told me he wanted Dr. Plukenet's Collections as well as Mr. Petiver's. I told him that I was then printing my second volume of the Natural History of Jamaica,' which is now near finished, the plates of which had been graved this 20 years; and that I intended, after that was published, to take my Collections of dried Plants to put in order; that they were 200 volumes, some of which were very large; that Mr. Petiver's Collections he had seen in great confusion; but that, if their labels and references, which lay loose, were not kept with them, neither he, nor any body else, could ever put them to rights; and therefore prayed him to go on with some other parts, and that in half a year mine would be ready. About six months ago, I told him that at his desire I had laid aside my other affairs; that one, the first volume of Dr. Plukenet's, was ready for him to carry home; that, before he wanted a second, it should be ready, and so on till he should have all. And now he tells me, on my minding him two days since, that he is not ready till he hath done some trifles for Mr. Vaillant's book, and that he hath sent for a young and emi nent July 1, 1721. nent Physician to help him. Now you may judge by this account what I can do more, for I shall be always ready to assist HANS SLOANE." him. I am your most obedient, &c. "SIR, "I am extremely obliged to you for the last letter I had from you of the first of April. I did, the first proper opportunity, communicate it to the Royal Society, after I had received the particular mentioned in your letter, which lay at the carrier's a long time through a mistake, but came safe at length.-The instrument you mention and sent, I know not what to make of; but saw in Mr. Gale's hands one of them in the mould as it was made, taken up with many others in Yorkshire. As for the underground timber, I am of your opinion; as you will see by a letter I wrote on that occasion to Lord Cromarty, which is printed in one of the Transactions, which I have sent you, together with as many of them as were printed at my charges, which I desire you would accept. I have likewise sent to the carrier's, in a box directed to you, most of the books you wanted. I could not find amongst our Booksellers one of your number, but had some of them duplicates; so cut them out of the volumes. Finding them out, and binding of them again, hath taken up too much time ere they I will send you the were sent, which I hope you will excuse. others as I can find them, for they are very scarce. I shall venture to send some others, when I come to make an end of settling my Library; and as they are not of any moment to me, if you would be so kind as to let me know what you want farther, perhaps I may furnish you. I forgot to tell you that the Royal Society ordered you their thanks for your letter. I am your most obedient and most humble servant, HANS SLOANE." July 28, 1721. " SIR, "I received your very agreeable present yesterday, for which I return you my most hearty thanks. I will take care of the remaining books in your Catalogue, so soon as I can find them. I shall be very glad in that or any thing else to shew how much HANS SLOANE." I am, sincerely, your most obedient, &c. August 22, 1721. "SIR, "I thank you for yours of the 17th, and for your present, which is altogether rare here, where we have sometimes the Black-game. The business of the Inoculation of the Small-pox hath been tried, and so far succeeds, as that they are all well who have tried it, after going through sickness at stomach, fevers, and eruptions of one kind or other; and I think all of them, except one that had had the small pox, the true small pox with matter in the pustules, and at the wounds where the matter was applied. He that had the distemper before, had his wounds healed presently. We intend to try if carrying in people just up of the I have small-pox will infect these inoculated people or not. thought it an experiment of great consequence to mankind, and HANS SLOANE." therefore have forwarded it all I could. « SIR, " "SIR) September 14, 1721. "I thank you for yours of the 10th, and hope ere this the distemper you mention in your parts is at an end. It seems by the symptoms to be highly malignant and contagious. I think, if you came at the beginning, bleeding seems to be a proper remedy, for the symptoms are apoplectic and lethargic, which both are often relieved by venæsection. Blisters and alexipharmacs seem also very proper, and none better than those you have ordered. I remember since the first use of vesicatories all over the head shaved in this town, by an old very good Physician, Dr. Barwick in maniacal cases; but since, I have, with the concurrent opinion of other Physicians, applied them to cases where the brain and genus nervosum are highly affected, with great success. They lie on three days and nights, and are not dressed as other blisters, for the cuticula doth not rise; but after three days the head is dressed with a melilot plaister as usual. Sometimes bleeding with leeches at the temples is of great service in delirious cases. Those who have been inoculated by the small-pox are discharged from Newgate; only one of them is about a month hence to be put to bed to one ill of that distemper, to see whether, after inoculation, she will take it the ordinary way. The persons inoculated had only a common purging potion given them, a week before the operation, and the like after their recovery, and no other medicines the whole time. "I saw the Consul* at his lodgings once, when Dillenius and he were settling Mosses, but have not seen him since. HANS SLOANE." November 28, 1721. "SIR, "I deferred giving you thanks for your extraordinary fine present of potted Woodcocks, which came very safe, and were extraordinary good; thinking at the same time to have sent you some of your wanted books, with other novelties in our way, but the Booksellers and Binders having disappointed me, I am perfectly ashamed of my neglect. I therefore now give you most hearty thanks, and have nothing in our way worth your notice, save that the inoculating the small-pox goes yet on without any rub. A child of a year and half old hath been infected, and communicated the small-pox to three of the same family. Seventy have been inoculated at Boston in New England, whereof two have died, the rest recovered, and concerning this there will be (I am told) an account published very soon, and the objections against this practice will be answered. Dr. Sherard goes on, and is now with Dillenius on Mosses; he hath had Mr. Buddle's collection of them from me this six weeks, and shall have what else he wants in due time, when he is ready for them. There are two or three people, well qualified, going abroad, to Guinea, Maryland, and the Canaries or East Indies, from whose travels there may reasonably be expected observations of considerable consequence to Natural Historians; ad though by Mr. Vernon and Mr. Jones in such undertakings * William Sherard, Esq.; of whom hereafter. my |