6 The Statural Hi/lory 



ftuck faft in the mud like a poft, with his feet downward, and 

 for the prefent fo difturbed in his fenfes, that he neither knew 

 how he came out of the boat, nor could remember either Thun- 

 der or Lightning that did effect it. * Others, in another boat a- 

 bout ten or twenty yards diftance from the former, feltadifturb- 

 anceand (baking in their boat, and one of them had his chair 

 ftruck from under him, without hurt. But of this no more, a 

 full relation of the accident being already given by the Reverend 

 and Learned X? J ohnWallis Savilian ProfefTor of Geometry in 

 the Univerfity of Oxford, and publiGi'd in our Englifti Philofo- 

 phical Tranfa&ions p . 



12. What hapned before or after thofe Tern pefts, I was not 

 fo curious in thofe days to obferve,but it might indeed be wifh'd, 

 as the learned and obferving D r 2foi/eadvifes q , thatfome old Al- 

 manacks were written inftead of new ; that inftead of the con- 

 jectures of the weather to come, fome ingenious and fit Perfons 

 would give a faithful account from divers parts of the world, not 

 only of the Storms, with the antecedents and confequents of 

 them, but of the whole weather of the years paft, on every day 

 of the month ; as it was induftrioufly begun above 300 years 

 ago, by William Merh Fellow of Merton College, who obferved 

 the weather at Oxford for every day of the month for 7 years 

 together; vi%. from January Anno Dom. 1337, to January Anno 

 Dom. 1344. the MS copy of which Obfervations yet remain in 

 the Bodleyan Library r ; For from hence in time we might exa- 

 mine upon fome grounds, as the learned D r Bcale well remarks, 

 how far the positions of Planets, or other fymptoms or conco- 

 mitants, are indicative of weathers, and probably be forewarn'd 

 of Dearths,Famines, Epidemical Difeafes,<src. and by their caufes 

 be inftrufted for remedies, or prevention. Certainly from fuch 

 Calendars we might learn more in few years, then by Obferva- 

 tions at random all the days of our lives ; and if they might be 

 had from foreign and remote parts *, we fhould then be in fome 

 hopes of true Inveftigations of heats and colds, and of the 

 breadth and bounds of coafting Rains and Winds. 



13. Next the Tragedies (it being as agreeable to my Method, 

 as feafonable to the Difcourfe) it will not be amifs to prefent the 



P Fhilofoph.Travfatl.Numb. 13. s Thilofliph. TravfaB-Hvm 90. ' MS.DigfyfiL iy6- * Such ob- 

 fervations of the leather every day of the month through the "whole year 1671, inert made by Erafmus Bar- 

 tholine>tfW are printed inter Atta McdkaTho. Bartholini Obf. 130. 



Reader 



