?3§f Swntific NQtices-*r Miscellaneous. [Mabch, 



J., Th^ soeGimea had a colour intermediate between steel grey 

 apd lead grey, and an uneven fracture ; it had no tendency to 

 §oil, and was moderately hard. Sp. gr. 5477. Before the 

 blowpipe it decrepitated atrongly, and afterwaids fused with 

 great facility. — (TrommsdorfF's Neues Journal der Pharraacie.) 



Miscellaneous. 

 6. The Sritish Museum. — Mr. Goodwynh Manuscripts. 



Those who are interested in mathematical computations, and 

 the tabulation of their results for practical purposes, will learn 

 with pleasure that the curious and extensive tables of the late 

 Henry Goodwjni^ Esq. of Blackheath, have^ by th^ advice of 

 Dr. Gregory, Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military 

 Academy, been deposited by Mr. Goodwyn's family in the 

 library of the British Museum. The following copy of J)c. 

 Gregory's account of the general nature of the manuscripts will 

 serve to convey the requisite information to our readers. 



The late Henry Goodwyn, Esq. of Blackheath, being for 

 several years kept by ill health from the juore active pursuits 

 of life, devoted a great portion of his time to the most labo- 

 rious computations, many of them relating to topics and leading 

 to results that are exceedingly curious and interesting : — some to 

 annuities; others, to the determination ofpowers and roots; several 

 of these he appUed to practical inquiries relative to interest, and 

 others to the reduction and comparison of weights and mea- 

 sures, whether British or Foreign ; and to the formation of a 

 general system ; and others he rendered applicable to the rules 

 of mensuration, and to still higher inquiries f^mong mathemati- 

 cians. 



In the pursuit of these researches, he developed various in- 

 teresting properties, indicative of the mutual connection be- 

 tween circulating decimals and prime numbers entering either 

 simply or compositely into the denominators of fractions re- 

 spectively equivalent to those decimals ; of which properties 

 some have been long known to mathematicians, while others 

 had almost, if not altogether, escaped their notice. A few of 

 these are explained in the quarto appendix to the pamphlet to 

 which this paper ig attached ; * and, in that appendix, one of 

 Mr. Goodwyn's ingenious improvements in computation is 

 described and applied. 



The results of his persevering and long-continued labours 

 have, as yet, been only very partially laid before the public in a 

 few detached pamphlets, volumes, &,c., copies of all which are 

 herewith transmitted : but, his two works of greatest labour, the 

 one denominated A Table af coinpkle Decimal Quotie^its ; and 

 the other, A Tabulous Series of Decimal Quotients tor all the 



• Entitled " The First Centenary of a Concise and Useful Table of Complete De- 

 cimal Quotients,'' with a Specimen of " A Tabular Series," &c. 



