748 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



thirty days, having collected the ma- 

 terials a considerable time before ; 

 yet we must regret the a|)pcarance 

 of haste and disorder which deforms 

 a production of such rare and intrin- 

 sic excellence. 



After a sncccssful suit of eleven 

 months, at Vienna, Boscovich re- 

 turned to Rome, and received from 

 the senate of Lucca, for his zealous 

 services, the handsome present of a 

 thousand sequiiis, or about ^.450. 

 Thus provided with the means of 

 gratifying his curiosity, he desired 

 and obtained leave to travel. At 

 Paris he spent six months, in the so- 

 ciety of the eminent men who then 

 adorned the French cajiital ; and, 

 during his stay in London, he was 

 elected, in 17C0, a fellow of the 

 Royal Society, and he dedicated to 

 that learned body his poem on 

 eclipses, which contains a neat 

 compendium of astronomy. The 

 expectation of the scientiiic world 

 was then turned to the transit of 

 Venus, calculated to happen in the 

 following year. Boscovich, eager 

 to observe it, returned through Hol- 

 land and Flanders, to Italy, and 

 joined his illustrious friend, Correr, 

 at Venice, from whence they sailed 

 to Constanfino|)le, having on their 

 way visited the famous plain of 

 Troy. In Turkey he scarcely en- 

 joyed one day of good health, and 

 his life was repeatedly despaired of 

 by the physicians. After spending 

 half a year in this miserable state, 

 he returned in the train of sir James 

 Porter, our ambassador at the Porte; 

 and having traversed Bulgaria, Mol- 

 davia, and part of Poland, his in- 

 tention was to penetrate into Russia, 

 if the agitation which there prevailed 

 on the sudden death of Peter, had 

 not deterred him from executing his 

 project. The diary of his journeyj 



Avhich he published in Italian and 

 French, is but a poor book, fidl of 

 pedantry, and patched up oJ trilling 

 and insipid remarks. Yet such were 

 his pride and blind partiality, that 

 he regarded with contempt the 

 wholesome criticisms to which it 

 gave occasion. Boscovich began his 

 travels at too late a period of life to 

 prolit much by them. 



At Ronje his arrival was welcomed, 

 and he was again consulted on varit 

 ous plans of public improvement. 

 But in the spring of 176 I, he Mas 

 called by the Austrian governor of 

 Milan, to fill the mathematical chair 

 in the university of Pavia. The 

 honotirs which he received provoked 

 t!ie jealousy of the other professors, 

 who intrigued to undermine his 

 fame. Jie took the most cli'cctual 

 mode, however, to silence them, by 

 publishing his dissertations on optics, 

 which exhibit an elegant synthesis 

 and well devised set of experiments. 

 These essays excited the more at- 

 tention, as, at this time, the inge- 

 nuity of men of science was parti- 

 cularly attracted to the subject by 

 Dolland's valuable discovery of 

 achromatic glasses. 



The expulsion of the Jesuits from 

 the dominions of Spain, prevented 

 Boscovich from going to California, 

 to ftbscrve the second transit of Ve- 

 nus, in 1769, and which expedition 

 the Royal Society of London had 

 strongly solicited liim to undertake ; 

 and, as his rivals began now to stir 

 themselves again, he sought to dis- 

 pel the chagrin, by a second jour- 

 ney into France and the Nether- 

 lands. At Brussels he met with a 

 peasant famous for curing the gout, 

 and from whose singular skill he re- 

 ceived the most essential benefit. On 

 his return to Italy, he was trans- 

 ferred from the uuiwrsity of Pavia, 



to 



