VOL. XLVni.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRAKSACTlbNS. 447 



takes notice, that as the electrical attraction has been observed so early, as to be 

 mentioned by Theophrastus ; so its luminous appearance, though only considered 

 as a meteor, is mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Lysander, Pliny, and other 

 ancient as well as some modern authors. Seneca particularly affirms, that Gy- 

 lyppo Syracusas petenti visa est Stella super ipsam lancem constitisse : and that in 

 Romanorum castris visa sunt ardere pila, ignibus scilicet in ilia delapsis. Caesar, 

 in his history of the African war, says, in a violent stormy night, Legionis pi- 

 lorum cacumina Sua sponte arserunt : and Livy mentions two similar facts. To 

 these may now be added one from Mr. Fynes Moryson, who in his Itinerary, 

 observes, that at the siege of Kingsale by the lord deputy Montjoy, where Mr. 

 Moryson attended him in the camp, on the 23d of December 1601, all the 

 night was clear, with lightning, as in the former nights were great lightnings 

 with thunder, to the astonishment of many, in respect of the season of the year, 

 ' that this night our horsemen set to watch, to their seeming, did see lam^ 

 burn at the points of their staves, or spears, in the midst of these lightning 

 flashes.' 



LXI. Extract of a Letter of the Rev. Joseph Spence, Prof, of Modern History 

 in the University of Oxford, to Dr. Mead, F.R.S. Dated By fleet near fVey- 

 bridge, Surrey, Decemb. 7, 1733. p. 486. 



I have lately received a letter from Signor Pademi at Portici ; in which, speak- 



and at the same time obtained the degree of m. a. from Aberdeen. In 1744 he was presented to the 

 rectory of St. Michael, Wood-street ; and about 2 years after, to that of St. Margaret Fattens. In 

 1752 he was elected Secretary to the r. s. ; and the next year had the degree of d. d. conferred on 

 him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1761 he was presented to the rectory of Depden in Essex, 

 But in 176(5 he died suddenly by a fall from his horse. 



Dr. Birch was moderately learned, and of rather slow parts; but he was an exceedingly industri- 

 ous and indefatigable compiler, and a very useful secretary to the r.s. He had a considerable share 

 in compiling the General Dictionary, historical and critical, 10 vols, folio : and he published the lives 

 of Mr. Boyle, Archbishop Tillotson, Henry Prince of Wales, and other works of a similar kind. He 

 also wrote an Inquiry into the Share which Charles the 1st had in the Transactions of the earl of Gla- 

 morgan, 8vo, 1747. But by far his most useful work, was the History of the Royal Society, in 4 

 vols. 4to, 1756, &c. This work he was enabled to compile by his situation of Secretary to the r. s., 

 which gave him access to the archives of that learned body, whence he extracted and published what 

 may be deemed the real Transactions of the Society, being the minutes and records from the books 

 kept by the committee, by whom all the real business of the Society is, or ought to be, conducted. 

 Thus we have in this work a curious and useful detail of the Society's concerns, from the beginning 

 of the institution to the end of the year l687 ; and probably would have been continued to his own 

 time had his life been longer spared. And it would be a most useful and meritorious service, if that 

 curious work were continued to the present times, by some other secretary of the Society ; for no 

 person can execute that task, but such as can have access to the minute books of the committee. 



Dr. B. bequeathed his books, Mss., and a legacy of sSoOO to ihe British Museum, the money to 

 go towards increasing the stipend of the two assistant librarians. 



