JON 



JOU 



literature, and it required a geometrician 

 of the first class to sustain the weight of 

 so important an undertaking ; for which, 

 as D'Alembert justly observes, " the 

 combined force of the greatest mathema-* 

 ticians would not have been more than 

 sufficient." 



Mr. Jones was fully aware of the ar- 

 duous nature of such a task ; but the im- 

 portunity of his numerous acquaintance, 

 and particularly of his friend Lord Mac- 

 clesfield, induced him to commence, and 

 to persist till he had completed his de- 

 sign, the result of all his knowledge and 

 experience, and, what he had reason to 

 hope, would prove a lasting monument of 

 his talents and industry. Scarcely had 

 he sent the first sheet to the press, when 

 his illness, which proved fatal, obliged 

 him to stop the impression ; but before 

 his death he entrusted his MS. fairly tran- 

 scribed, to the care of Lord Macclesfield, 

 who promised to publish it, as well for 

 the honour of the author, as the benefit 

 of his family. The Earl survived his 

 friend many years; but the MS. was for- 

 gotten or neglected, and after Lord Mac- 

 clesfield's death was not to be found. 

 "Whether it was accidentally destroyed, or 

 whether, as has been suggested, it was 

 lent to some geometrician, who basely 

 concealed it, or possibly burnt the origi- 

 nal, to prevent the advantages which he 

 derived from it from detection, cannot 

 now be ascertained. Such is the relation 

 given in the " Anecdotes of Bowyer,"on 

 which Lord Teignmouth remarks, that 

 there is no evidence in the memoranda 

 left by Sir William Jones to confirm or 

 disprove these assertions. Mr. Jones is 

 said to have possessed the best mathema- 

 tical library in England, containing almost 

 every book of that kind which was to be 

 met with. By a bequest in his will, it be- 

 came the property of Lord Macclesfield, 

 and forms at present a distinguished part 

 of the Macclesfield collection at Sher- 

 borne Castle, in Oxfordshire. He had also 

 collected a great quantity of MS. papers 

 and letters of former mathematicians, 

 which have often proved useful to the 

 writers of their lives, &c. After his 

 death, these were dispersed, and fell into 

 the hands of different persons, and, 

 among others, into those of Mr. Robert- 

 son, librarian and clerk to the Royal So- 

 ciety, from whose executors Dr. Hutton 

 purchased a considerable number of 

 them. 



JONK, or JOXQJTE, in naval affairs, is a 

 kind of small ship, very common in the 

 East Indies : these vessels are about the 

 bigness of our fly-boats, and differ in the 



form of their building, according to the 

 different methods of naval architecture 

 used by the nations to which they belong. 

 Their sails are frequently made of mats, 

 and their anchors are made of wood. 



JOURNAL, a day-book, register, or ac- 

 count of what passes daily. 



JOURNAL, or DAY-BOOK, among mer- 

 chants, is that wherein the transactions 

 recorded in the waste-book are prepared 

 to be carried to the ledger, by having 

 their proper debtors and creditors ascer- 

 tained and pointed out. For a more dis- 

 tinct account of which, see BOOK-KEEP- 

 IXG. 



JOURNAL, at sea, is a register, kept by 

 the pilot and others, wherein notice is 

 taken of every thing that happens to the 

 ship from day to day, with regard to the 

 winds, the rhumbs, the rake, soundings, 

 &c. and in order to enable him to adjust 

 the reckoning, and determine the place 

 where the ship is. 



In sea journals, the day, or twenty-four 

 hours, terminate at noon, because the er- 

 rors of the dead reckoning are at that pe- 

 riod generally corrected by a solar obser- 

 vation. The first twelve hours, from noon 

 to midnight, are marked with P. M. signi- 

 fying after mid-day ; and the second 

 twelve hours, from midnight to noon, are 

 marked with A. M. signifying after mid- 

 night; so that the ship account is twelve 

 hours earlier than the short account of 

 time. There are various ways of keep- 

 ing journals, according to the different no- 

 tions of mariners concerning the articles 

 that are to be entered. Some keep such 

 a kind of journal 45 is only an abstract of 

 each day's transactions, specifying the 

 weather, what ships or lands were seen, 

 accidents on board, the latitude,longitude, 

 the meridional distance, course, and run. 

 These particulars are to be drawn from 

 the ship*s log-book, or from that kept by 

 the pilot himself. Others keep only one 

 account, including the log-book, and all 

 the work of each day, with the deduc- 

 tions drawn from it. Notwithstanding the 

 form of keeping journals is very differ- 

 ent in merchant ships, yet .one method 

 appears to be invariably pursued in the 

 navy, which, however, admits of much 

 improvement, for no form can be properly 

 called perfect, that leaves as great a space 

 for one day's work, which may not be in- 

 teresting, and can therefore be told in a 

 few lines, as for another, which may pro- 

 bably abound with important incidents, 

 and consequently require much room. 

 According to circumstances, the matter 

 must be greater or less, and the appropri- 

 ated space should admit of all. 



