THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 107 



courses on ants, for example, was taken from a report by Dr. 

 King, March 11, 1666, " Concerning Emmets or Ants, their Eggs, 

 Production, Progress, Coming to Maturity, Use, etc/ 7153 This is a 

 case of malicious misrepresentation. The experiments are puerile 

 enough to be sure, but the effort is an honest one; the truth, whether 

 worth knowing or not, is sincerely sought. By Shadwell's own 

 definition this is not a legitimate field for his satire ; for here is no 

 affectation, no presumption. Or, again, he consciously misrepre 

 sented facts in his satire on "eels in vinegar", which appears in 

 The Virtuoso and was copied from it in The Basset-Table. The 

 source of this material is a letter to the Secretary of the Royal 

 Society by Leeuwenhoek from Delft, April 21, 1676. 154 This scien 

 tist had been making some microscopical experiments with "wine of 

 last year's growth". "In this wine, I have divers times observed 

 small living Creatures, shaped like Eels", etc. "Eels in vinegar" 

 are ridiculous enough, but the discovery of microbes (bacilli) is a 

 great and serious scientific event. Or, finally, there is a culpable 

 vilification in the satire on the transfusion of blood, which was in 

 fact a seven days' wonder in London. 155 This operation was tried 

 many times in England as well as in France and Italy. The first 

 case reported to the Royal Society was June 20, 1665, a trans 

 fusion between two dogs. During the month of July, 1667, news 

 reached London of two operations performed in Paris, in which the 

 blood was transfused from a sheep into a maniac. Several mem 

 bers of the Society being therefore eager to try it for themselves, 

 a committee waited on Dr. Allen, Physician to the Hospital (Bed 

 lam) to ask for a "victim". "The truth on it is, we shall never 

 get any but Mad-men for that operation". 156 The request was 

 not granted, but in November, 1667, the experiment was really 

 performed at the Arundel House where the Society was then 

 meeting. Arthur Coga, a poor student, offered himself a willing 

 sacrifice for a guinea. Pepys says the fellow was " phantastic ", 

 and Dr. King writes of him, "He spoke Latin well, but that his 

 Brain was sometimes a little warm". About twelve ounces of 



153 Phil. Trans. Mar. 11, 1666. 



164 Ibid. April 21, 1676. 



"6 Of. Phil. Trans. 



The Virtuoso, Act IV, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack. 



