518 DOCTOR FRANKLIN [1778. 



of our paper, having had a principal share in establishing that 

 manufacture among us, many years ago, by the encouragement I 

 gave it. 



If in anything I can serve you here, it will be a pleasure to 

 Your obliged friend and humble servant, 



B. Franklin. 



London, March 20th, 1772. 



Sir : 



I received your obliging letter of Nov. 27th. It was forwarded 

 to me from Bristol, by Mr. Cowper, who mentioned on the back 

 of it, that the box should be forwarded, also, as soon as it came on 

 shore. Not receiving it in some time, I wrote to him about it, and 

 had for answer, that it had been sent three weeks since, and I 

 should find it, on inquiry, at Gerrard's Hall, Basing Lane. I have 

 inquired there, and they know nothing of it ; so, I fear it is lost, 

 which I am the more concerned at, as your Observations Vs eve in it, 

 which I am now deprived of. I shall, however, make some farther 

 inquiry, and write to you more fully per next opportunity. In 

 the mean time, it is both Dr. Fothergill's advice and mine, that 

 you never send anything, for London, by way of Bristol, that con- 

 veyance being subject to such accidents, but always directly hither. 

 I am, sir, your obliged friend and humble servant, 



B. Franklin. 



London, Feb. 14th, 1773. 



Sir : 



A considerable time after its arrival, I received the box of seeds 

 you were so good as to send me, the beginning of last year, with 

 your Observations on the Spots of the Sun.* The seeds I distributed 

 among some of my friends who are curious : please to accept my 

 thankful acknowledgments for them. The Observations I commu- 

 nicated to our astronomers of the Royal Society, who are much 

 pleased with them, and hand them about from one to another, so 

 that I have had little opportunity of examining them myself, they 

 not being yet returned to me. 



Here are various opinions about the solar spots. Some think 



* For a portion of these "Observations," see the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society, at London, vol. lxiv. p. 194. 



