50 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 703. 



and West Indies, in Africa, and most parts of Europe. Some specimens of 

 which he gave in his Ten Centuries, and here gives a publication of others with 

 elegant and lively icons, besides explications, by way of decades, which will 

 convey a most clear and lasting idea of the things themselves, and leave to pos- 

 terity many noble materials towards raising the immense structure of nature, 

 which is not to be carried on without the joint stock of all ages, and the gene- 

 rous contributions of such as think fit to promote the liberal arts and sciences. 



jlibstract of a Letter to Dr. Edward Tysoriy from the Rev. Mr. Charles Ellis, 

 giving an Account of a young Lady, born Deaf and Dumb, taught to Speak. 

 That Coster first invented Printing, j4nno 1430. Of the Physic Garden at 

 jimsterdam, and the Chamber of Rarities at Boln. Of a Monstrous Birth. 

 Of the Quarry at Maeslricht. Fr. Linus's Dials at Liege. The Cachot or 

 Rooms cut in the Rock of the Castle in Namur. Sir Jo. Mandevilles Tomb at 

 Liege, ^nd the Friesland Boy with Letters in his Eye, Dated Bruxelles 

 ^^ July, 1699, N° 286, p. 14 16. 



At Haerlem [ visited Van Dalen, the author De Oraculis; he is setting forth 

 another piece De Sacerdotio Veterum, a learned and instructive work. He 

 showed me besides his own, a curiosity of a young lady born deaf and dumb, 

 yet taught by Dr. Amman to speak very intelligibly; she is about 17 years old; 

 and I heard her read Dutch and Latin. 



The first book printed by Coster, I find is not Donatus, as the Inscriptiones 

 Hollandicae say, nor Virgil nor Tully's Offices, as others have reported; but a 

 Dutch piece of theology, printed only on one side of the paper; and after this 

 is a single page of Latin, entitled Liber Vitae Alexandri Magni, which made 

 some believe it to be Q. Cnrtius, but it is a monkish Latin of that time. This 

 and the theology were printed in 1430; whereas the Inscriptions and some other 

 authors have told us from Coster's picture, that printing was invented by him 

 in 1440. But a picture of Coster before another Dutch piece, bound up in the 

 same volume, and printed 1432, bears the date of 1430, under which picture is 

 the inscription mentioned by Mr. Ray, only the date 10 years sooner, and the 

 Tetrastic, which is transcribed by the author of the Inscriptions from an effigy 

 of Coster, which was then extant in the garden in this place, but is not now to 

 be found. 



I saw at Amsterdam a curious physic garden, admirably furnished, and in 

 excellent order, which, as having more space, and more foreign plants, far 

 exceeds that at Leyden; here are also series of lectures. At Boln is a hall well 

 furnished with rarities, considering there is no university, schools, nor gardens, 

 nor any professors. Here occurred a rarity, not then publicly exposed, two 



