RAY. 157 



in procuring objects for description. In one of his 

 communications from Geneva is a passage respecting 

 the celebrated Malpighi, which exhibits the character 

 of that great anatomist in a favourable light : — " I 

 had several conferences with S. Malpighi at Bono- 

 nia, who expressed a great respect for you, and is 

 not a little proud of the character you give him in 

 your Method. Plantar. Nov., which book I had pre- 

 sented him withal a day before. Just as I left Bo- 

 nonia I had a lamentable spectacle of Malpighi's 

 house all in flames, occasioned by the negligence of 

 his old wife. All his pictures, furniture, books, 

 and manuscripts, were burnt. I saw him in the 

 very heat of the calamity, and methought I never 

 beheld so much Christian patience and philosophy 

 in any man before ; for he comforted his wife, and 

 condol'd nothing but the loss of his papers, which 

 are more lamented than the Alexandrian Library, or 

 Bartholine's Bibliothece at Copenhagen." 



Of the epistolary correspondence of this gentle- 

 man, and of Sir Hans Sloane, it may be interesting 

 to some of our readers to peruse a specimen : — 



Dr Robinson to Mr Ray. 



" London, August 1, — 84. 



" Sir, — I have sent you two Macreuses, male 

 and female, and hope they will come safe to Black 

 Notley. My ingenious and worthy friend Mr 

 Charlton (now at London) procur'd them for me 

 at Paris, who hath them both design'd to the life 

 in proper colours by the most accurate hand in 

 France. If you saw the pictures I believe they 

 would give you a better insight than these skins, 

 which are a little broke and chang'd ; yet never- 



