_ 1888. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 23 
Dr. H. C. Borron read the following communication : 
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE LUNAR SOCIETY. 
Since reading the sketch of the Lunar Society, which flour- 
ished in Birmingham one hundred years ago, I have visited 
that city ; and aided by the bibliographical skill and antiquarian 
knowledge of Samuel Timmins, Esq., I secured some additional 
items concerning this historic association. 
Dr. Priestley, in his pamphlet on the Generation of Air from 
Water, dated 1793, in a note to his Dedication to the Members 
of the Lunar Society (already quoted), states that they met 
“‘every month, on the Monday that was nearest to the full 
moon,” which shows that the members met on a determinate 
day of the week. He then adds, ‘‘ We had nothing to do with 
the religious or political principles of each other, we were united 
by acommon love of sctence, which we thought sufficient to 
bring together persons of all distinctions, Christians, Jews, 
Mahometans, and Heathens, Monarchists and Republicans.” 
The reputation of this social society of philosophers was not 
merely local, but reached the continent; for the French chemist, 
De la Méthérie, writing to James Keir from Paris on the 9th 
January, 1789, begs to assure the learned Lunar Society of the 
high esteem and regard in which he held the members. 
We have a little additional information concerning Dr. Henry 
Moyes, whose disputation with the venerable Smeaton we had 
cited. Dr. Moyes was a Scotch chemist, who had the affliction 
to be deprived of his sight by small-pox in infancy, and yet ac- 
quired an extensive knowledge of natural philosophy and lan- 
guages, and became a “ pleasing philosophical lecturer.” His 
chemical experiments were of course performed by an assistant. 
In a letter dated, February 6th, 1783, Priestley introduced 
Moyes to Sir Joseph Banks in very flattering terms, calling him, 
** A phenomenon in philosophy, being quite blind, yet superior 
to most who see.” 
The first meeting of the Lunar Society, after the frightful 
riots of July, 1791, must have called for all the philosophy which 
the learned victims could muster. We find several allusions to 
it: Priestley, in writing to Keir on the 22d July (1791), and 
again on the 29th, from London, expresses the hope that he may 
be permitted to return to Birmingham before the next Lunar 
Society, and begs that the meeting be not made to depend upon 
his arrivai. And Mr. Galton, writing to Priestley on Monday, 
September 5th (1791), expresses pleasure at the prospect of 
seeing him in Birmingham, and says: ‘‘ Our Lunar meeting 
will be held on Monday at Barr, will that influence you to leave 
