WITH NOTES. 403 



Thames, and which carried twelve rowers, besides some 

 passengers, for whom the effete air was again rendered 

 respirable by a liquor, the composition of which Drebell 

 never would communicate to more than one person, 

 and that person told Mr. Boyle what it was.&quot; The 

 Marquis, might, likewise, even be acquainted with 

 Napier s statement of his secret inventions. 



Evelyn, in his Diary, informs us on the 1st of August, 

 1666, &quot;I went to Dr. Keffler, who married the 

 daughter of the famous chymist, Drebbell, inventor of 

 the bodied scarlet.&quot; On which his editor, Mr. Bray, 

 remarks, u Cornelius Van Drebbell, born at Alkmaar, 

 in Holland, in 1572 ; but in the reign of Charles I. 

 settled in London, where he died in 1634. He was 

 famous for other discoveries in science the most im 

 portant of which was the thermometer. He also made 

 improvements in microscopes and telescopes; and 

 though, like many of his scientific contemporaries, 

 something of an empiric, possessed a considerable 

 knowledge of chemistry, and of different branches of 

 natural philosophy.&quot; Diary, vol. ii. p. 9. 



Pepys, in his Diary, under date the 14th of March, 

 1662, says : &quot; This afternoon came the German, Dr. 

 Kimffler, to discourse with us about his engine to blow 

 up ships. We doubted not the matter of fact, it being 

 tried in Cromwell s time, but the safety of carrying 

 them in ships *, but he do tell us, that when he comes 

 to tell the King his secret, for none but the Kings, 

 successively, and their heirs must know it, it will 

 appear to be of no danger at all.&quot;- Pepys Diary, ed. 

 1858, vol. i. p. 264. 



Dr. Robert Hooke, in his &quot; Philosophical Collections,&quot; 

 published in 1679, has &quot; an account of Jo. Alphon. 

 Borellius s De Mo. Animalium,&quot; two volumes quarto, 

 containing, among other things, &quot; A way to make a 



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