AND ROBERT MARSHAM. 261 



LETTER VI. 



WHITE TO MARSHAM. 



Selborne: Feb. 25th : 1791. 



Dear Sir, 

 It was elegantly remarked on our common friend, & my 

 quondam neighbour Doctor Stephen Hales, by one who has 

 written his character in Latin, that — "scientiam philosophi- 

 cam usibus humanis famulari jussit." The observation was 

 just, & the assertion no inconsiderable compliment : for un- 

 doubtedly speculative enquiries can bear no competition with 

 practical ones, where the latter profess never to lose sight of 

 utility. 



As I perceive You loved the good old man, I do not know 

 how I can amuse You better, than by sending you the follow- 

 ing anecdotes respecting him, some of which may not have 

 fallen within your observation. His attention to the inside 

 of Ladies tea-kettles, to observe how far they were incrusted 

 with stone (tophus lebetinus Linnaei) that from thence he 

 might judge of the salubrity of the water of their wells: — 

 his advising water to be showered down suspicious wells from 

 the nozle of a garden watering-pot in order to discharge 

 damps, before men ventured to descend; — his directing air- 

 holes to be left in the out-walls of ground rooms, to prevent 

 the rotting of floors & joists ; — his earnest dissuasive to young 

 people, not to drink their tea scalding hot; his advice to 

 water-men at a ferry, how they might best preserve & keep 

 sound the bottoms or floors of their boats; — his teaching the 

 house-wife to place an inverted tea-cup at the bottom of her 

 pies & tarts to prevent the syrop from boiling over, & to pre- 

 serve the juice; — his many tho' unsuccessful attempts to find 

 an adequate succedaneum for yeast or barm, so difficult to be 



