EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



should, by Act of Parliament, be banished to a distance 

 of five or six miles from London. For an improvement 

 of the air, Evelyn suggests large plantings of aromatic 

 trees and plants. 



Evelyn quotes aptly in support of the injurious influ- 

 ence of smoke the words of Lucretius 



"Carbonumque gravis vis, atque odor insinuatur 

 Quam facilis in cerebrum." 



In another subject of civic hygiene Evelyn showed 

 himself to be ahead of his time, by his contention that 

 intramural burials should be prohibited by Act of Parlia- 

 ment. 



About 1648-1649 the club was divided; some of the 

 members, among whom was Dr. Wilkins, afterwards 

 Bishop of Chester, having removed to Oxford, formed 

 themselves into the Philosophical Society of Oxford, at 

 first meeting at Dr. Petty's lodgings in an apothecary's 

 shop, for the convenience of inspecting drugs, and then 

 at the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, warden of Wadham College. 

 Dr. Wilkins became afterwards, jointly with Henry Olden- 

 burg, one of the first Secretaries of the Royal Society ; 

 he was an inspirer of the younger men, and at that early 

 date saw in prophetic vision navigation by submarine 

 vessels, and travelling through the air by means of flying 

 machines. 



The Oxford Society was a powerful auxiliary to the 

 newly founded Royal Society ; the two Societies com- 

 municating to each other the principal papers of their 



3 



