20 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



investigation of the air had taken shape. He studied anatomy 

 and made original contributions to that branch of science, notably 

 in regard to the transfusion of blood from one animal to another. 

 He was one of the first naturalists to investigate the structure of 

 insects with the microscope. Being gifted with great skill and 

 accuracy as a draughtsman, he was able to produce remarkable 

 drawings of what he observed. His fame as the most dis- 

 tinguished architect that Britain has produced has somewhat 

 overshadowed his other accomplishments. To him the Royal 

 Society owes a deep debt of gratitude for the constant and loyal 

 service which he rendered to it in its early days. He was chosen 

 President in 1680. 



This group of distinguished and ardent prosecutors of experi- 

 mental philosophy gathered around them within the pale of their 

 newly constituted society a representative company of all that 

 was most notable in the general society of the day. In literature, 

 having at the very outset elected Abraham Cowley, they 

 added the three most illustrious living poets of England- 

 John Dryden, John Denham, and Edmund Waller. They had 

 already among their original number one or two prominent 

 Churchmen who were not only theologians but true men of 

 science, such as Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester, Ward, then 

 Bishop of Exeter, and Sprat, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. To 

 these they added a few others, the most conspicuous being Isaac 

 Barrow, who was not more distinguished as a divine than as a 

 Greek scholar and mathematician, the first occupant of the 

 Lucasian chair at Cambridge (in which he was succeeded by his 

 pupil, Isaac Newton) and afterwards Master of Trinity College. 



In the list of original members of the Royal Society the peerage 

 was likewise represented by upwards of a dozen members, one of 

 whom, Lord Brouncker, an eminent mathematician, was chosen to 

 be the first President. Perhaps the most noteworthy peer was the 

 famous Duke of Buckingham, who among his various tastes and 

 occupations had some acquaintance with chemistry and took out 

 a patent for glass-making, but who is perhaps best remembered as 

 Dryden's Zimri. 1 Politicians, men of affairs, civil servants, and 



1 As both the poet and the duke were original members of the Royal Society, they may 

 have met at some of the Society's meetings. 



