TOt. ij PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 65 



Preserving of Ships from being Worm-eaten. N" 11, p. 190. 



There is in the Indian Seas a kind of small worms * that fasten themselves 

 to the timber of the ships, and so pierce them that they take in water every 

 where ; and so weaken the wood, that it is almost impossible to repair them. 

 Many things have been tried to prevent this evil, but without success. Some 

 have lined their ships with deal, hair and lime, &c. but, besides that this does 

 not altogether prevent the worms, it much retards the ship's way. The Por- 

 tuguese scorch their ships to such a degree, that in the quick works there is 

 formed a coally crust of about an inch thick. But this is dangerous, as often 

 burning the whole ship ; yet the reason why worms do not so destroy Portugal 

 ships, is conceived to be the exceeding hardness of the timber employed by them. 



A person in London suggests, that the tar extracted out of sea coals may 

 be a good remedy against these noxious worms.-J- 



Account of a Book lately published, entitled. The Origin of Forms 



and Qualities, illustrated hy Considerations and Experiments, By 



the Hon. Robert Boyle. iVMl, j&. 191. 



This curious and excellent piece is a kind of introduction to the principles 

 of the mechanical philosophy, explaining, by observations and experiments, 

 what may be according to such principles conceived of the nature and origin of 

 qualities and forms ; the knowledge of which either makes or supposes the 

 fundamental and useful part of natural philosophy. In doing of which, the 

 author writes rather for the corpuscularian philosophers, as he is pleased to call 

 them, in general, than any party of them, keeping himself thereby disengaged 

 from adopting an hypothesis, with which perhaps he is not so thoroughly satis- 

 fied, and of which he does not conceive himself to be under the necessity of 

 making use here ; and accordingly forbearing to employ arguments that are 

 either grounded on, or suppose atoms, or any innate motion belonging to 

 them ; or that the essence of bodies consists in extension ; or that a vacuum 

 is impossible ; or that there are such glohuli coelestes, or such a materia sub- 

 tilis, as the Cartesians employ to explain most of the phasnomena of nature. 



The remainder of this memoir consists of a rather minute description of the 

 contents of this ingenious book, which is now in the possession of all the learned. 



New Observations on the Planet Mat^s. By Mr. Hook. N" 11, p. 198. 

 There was very lately produced a paper, containing some observations, made 



* The teredo navalis. Linn. 



■\ The most effectual method of preservmg tlie bottoms of ships is that now in use, sheathing 

 them with copper. 



VOL. I. I 



