174 Hi/Ioru-al Sketch of the Injlltution 



tions of the body ; its Imnes, joints ; their Tranfaftions pre- 

 fent an alR^mblage of fafts fuch as mult, in comparilon, put 

 to (lia'.nc the indullrv of Inter anaiomilis. 



In chemiltrv, thev inv( liigatetl the nature and compofition 

 of phofphorus, of the BoKigna ftonc, of vegetable and mi- 

 neral acids, &c. An engine to eonfume Imoke vvas made 

 known to them by M. Juftel. A melb.od of imitating the 

 pottery of China appears alfo amona: their papers. Sir Ro- 

 bert Southwell communicated an account of the method of 

 drcffing buck and doe (kins, which was praftifed by thi? 

 Caribbces in the Weft Indies. The pholphorefcent quahties 

 of wood, putrid flefh, the furface of the fea, See. were par- 

 ticularly examined in papers communicated by Mr. Boyle 

 and Dr. Beale. 



Nor were iheii- endeavours confined to the improvement 

 merely of phyiical and mathematical fciliice. Mr. Lodwick 

 gave an eflliy towards an univerfa! alphabet. Dr. Wallis in- 

 vented a method of leaching ))erfons deaf and dumb to fpeak 

 and underftand language. Mr. Edward Lloyd communi- 

 cated fome valuable obfervalions in philological fcience. 

 Another gentleman gave a paper of highly curious obferva- 

 tions and conjectures concerning the Chinefe charafters. 

 The coUecition of their papers aflords likewife fome valuable 

 illullrations of difficulties in chronology. Roman, Grecian, 

 Saxon, Runic, Eavptian, and Perlian antiquities have alfo 

 a variety of new lights thrown upon them in thefe papers. 

 The firft account of the difcovery of the famous ruins of Pal- 

 myra appears here in two communications from Mr. Timothy 

 Landy and Mr. Aaron Goodyear. When the members and 

 correfpondents of the Society were 'engaged in journeys and 

 voyages, they never failed to rcgifter for its information at 

 leall fome of the more extraordinary fa6ls which came under 

 their notice. And a number of its papers are, in confequence 

 of this, nari'atives of Inch obfervations, interefting in the 

 hisheft degree at once to philofophers and to mere popular 

 curiofity. 



Yet about the beginning of the i8th century the members 

 of the Society were themfelves diOatisiied with the progrefs 

 and fuccefs of their etlbrts. They began to feel that their firft 

 ardour of inquiry had become cool. They complained, that 

 " thedifcnurawing negled: of the great, the impetuous contra- 

 diction of the ignorant, and the reproaches of the unreafon- 

 able, had unhappily thwarted them in their defign to perpe- 

 tuate a fucccHion of ufeful inventions." Nor was it to have been 

 expcdled that the fears for religion and liberty in the latter 

 part of the reign of Charles the Second and his fucceflbr, th^ 



civil 



