I" 168 ] 



XXXI. HJ/Iotical Sketch of the InJ}iiutioii end Progrefs of ihi 

 Rojal Soc'ielj of London. 



E^ 



[Continaed-from p. 38.] 



A'EN, within a few years after its inflitiitioa, the :^)cioty 

 had acquired a confiderablc library, and a good collcftion of 

 natural curiofitics. ' A Mr. CoUval vva?, in ihefe things, one 

 of its fi rd and moft munificent bcnefaotors. Mr. Hooke, the 

 fnft curator of the Society, had the care of the books and cu- 

 riofitics; and ihey were arranged according to a claflification 

 of all the fpccics in nature, contrived l>v the famous Dr.VVil- 

 kins. Mr. Henry Howard beftowed on the Society the 

 whole Arundelian library, coniilVmg of fome thbufands of 

 printed books, with fevcral hundreds of choice mantifcripts. 

 From the time, alio, of the great fire, after which the build- 

 ings of Grefliam-collegc were ac>;^in occupied as an exchange, 

 Mr, Howard aftorded tlie Society a place of teni^orary ac- 

 commodation in Arundel houfe. 



Among the communications to this Society, within the firft' 

 feven years after its incorporation by charter, were many cu- 

 i'iou> theoretical dilcourfes. Such were an hypothefis of the 

 Biotions of die moon^ and of the fca; a tiicory of fire and' 

 flame; an hypothefis of the form and fpring of the air; a 

 difcourfe <jf the poflible height of the air, and its rarefaction- 

 upward ; a difcouifc about improving wood tor dyeing, and 

 for fixing colours ; dilcourfes upon ieveral mercurial experi- 

 ments; a dilcourfe of annealing and tempering ftcel : dif- 

 courfes about cyder and coflee; a difcourfe of the poffibilitv 

 of the retardation Of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and 

 of their goii>o- (lower and flower the longer thev laft; — with' 

 a multitude ot others, which it were inconvenient and tedious 

 here to enumerate in detail. 



As their yicws were more exprefsly and dircclly than thofe 

 of their prefent fucceflors in the Royal Society to the improye- 

 mcnt of the arts, they cjuiokly formed accurate hKtorics of 

 n)anv of the moft ufeful of thefe. Among their papers, w ith- 

 in the firlt fevcn years after the Society's iultituiion, were to 

 be f()und, an l>iltory of Englifh mines and ores, two fcparate 

 hiftorics of linneries and tin- working, hiftories of iron- 

 making, of lig.ium follilc, of faflVon, of alkermes, ofyerdi- 

 grcaft , of the bleychina; of vyax, of colours, of the making 

 of alum, of the preparation of ialt from fait water, of ena-- 

 mcUino-, of engraving, ofvarniihing, of dyeing, of refining 

 gold, of making polalhcs, ike. The procclles of making 



bread. 



