248 Life of John Btvis, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 



•with polishing glass for optical purposes, in which he was 

 quite aa adept. 



Having taken his degrees, as far as doctor of physic, he 

 left the university, and made the tour of France and Italy, 

 and on his return commenced the profession of medicine 

 in London, where he had great practice. But the study of 

 physic aflTorded him no pleasure to compare with that which 

 he received from contemplating the divine works of the 

 Omnipotent in the heavens. 



As early as the year 173S he had procured an excellent 

 collection'of astronomical instruments*, for the purpose 

 of furnishing a new obscLvrstory, which he had built under 

 his own particular direction, at Stoke Newington, on the 

 north side of London. In this place, when he had esta- 

 blished himself, he became a most indefatigable observer, 

 which is proved by three volumes in folio, filled with ob- 

 servations, which he made between the fith of March in 

 that year and the 6th of March in the following year. Pfom 

 these he selected the most important, n)akiug one vokmie 

 of igGpatres, on large paper, where it frequently occurs 

 that the transits of one hundred and sixty stars, &c. have 

 been observed in one niglit. 



Dr. Cevis continued to observe the heavens with the same 

 assiduity ti^l the year 1743, when, finding he had collected 

 sufficient materials, he imposed on himself the laborious 

 task of arranging, and publishing by subscription, a work 

 entitled " Ura/iographia Briia?mici7 ; or An exact View of 

 the Heavens, on fifty-two Plates ;" similar to thatof Boyer, 

 representing the constellations and all the fixed stars that 

 had been observed by astronomers, together with a consi- 

 derable number that had only been observed by himself. 

 In this work, which he announced in 1*48, are two hemi- 

 spheres, which represent the constellations as they were laid 

 down by the anlient astronomers f. To each plate he wrote 

 a particular explanation, with remarks ; and joined a com- 

 plete catalogue of all the fixed stars, with their magnitudes 

 and positions for that time. 



These plai:es, which would have done honour to his coun- 

 try as well as to himself, notwithstanding they have been 

 engraved for so many years, have never cou)e before the 

 public,on the following account :— He had engaged a person 



* Among others he hr.C in his possession a curious wire micrometer ca- 

 pable of an inclinatory motion, which once belonged to the celebrated astro- 

 nomc Hc-velius. 



f Siaular, perhaps, to plates 33 and 34 of Bode's small atlas. 



to 



