205 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1703. 



the more, because they were all very transparent ; and whereas a great many 

 salt particles are so soft, that in moist weather they are dissolved into a watery 

 vapour, these were so hard and so dry likewise, as if they had been the salts 

 of chalk ; and if one shook the glass in which they were, they came off from 

 it, especially those salt particles that were pretty large. 



After these observations I took another view, by the help of a microscope, 

 of several pieces of my mountain or rock crystal, just as I had broken it off 

 from the stone, in which I had formerly discovered, amongst others, some 

 such figures as are represented in fig. 5 ; and now observing again a hexangular 

 piece of crystal, which ended also in a point of the like shape, I discovered in 

 it several pointed small blue crystals, as in fig. Q. These were of several 

 sizes, and some of them a finer blue than the rest. 



I also discovered in another piece of crystal much the like figures, but 

 none of them were blue, some of which were as transparent as crystal, and 

 others again as dark as if they had been nothing but a blackish earth ; some of 

 them lay much deeper in the crystal than the others. 



I had one piece of crystal, in which I counted above 30 little blue figures, 

 such as in fig. Q, and some of them so very small, that they appeared no larger 

 through a microscope than a grain of coarse sand to the naked eye ; and as far 

 as I could judge of them, they were most of them hexangular ; but I observed, 

 that some of them were not so perfect and regular as the rest ; one point of 

 them being larger than the others, as in fig. 10. 



j4 Register of the Weather for the Year J 692, kept at Oates in Essex. By 

 Mr. John Locke* N° 298, p. J917. 



This is a register of the state of the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer, 



♦ From the place (Oates) and date of this register, as well as from the style of the few lines of 

 introduction, it appears to have been drawn up by the great Mr. Locke, during his retirement at 

 Lady Masham's seat at Oates in Essex. This celebrated philosopher and politician was bom at 

 Wrington, near Bristol, in l632, and educated at Westminster school j from whence he removed 

 to Christ Church, Oxford, of which he became student. After taking his degree in arts, he pur- 

 sued the study of physic, in which he made great proficiency, and had some practice. But his 

 tender constitution but ill suiting with the fatigues of that profession, he accepted the offer of going 

 abroad as secretary to Sir Wm. Swan, envoy to the elector of Brandenburg. 



This employment continuing only for a year, he returned to Oxford, where he was prosecuting 

 his medical studies, when, in 1666, an accident brought him acquainted with lord Ashley, after- 

 wards earl of Shaftesbury. That nobleman conceived so high an opinion of his abilities, that he 

 took him into his confidence, and persuaded him to turn his attention to politics ; an advice which 

 he so well profited by, that he acquired great celebrity, and was consulted by the most dis- 

 tinguished persons of his time. About 1 669 Mr. Locke attended the earl and countess of Northum- 

 berland into France ; but that nobleman dying at Turin, Mr. Locke, who was left in France to 



