SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 371 
And that of making an empty bladder swell in the same engine. Then the 
experiment of making a body swim in the middle of the water. And that 
of two well-wrought marbles which were not separated but by the weight of 
forty-seven pounds.” 
No mention being made here of the “one which did while she 
was there turn a piece of roasted mutton into pure blood,” we are 
left to conjecture entirely as to the nature of this experiment, which 
Pepys correctly designated as “ very rare.” 
The frequent references in the ‘ Diary’ to Pepys’ visits to 
taverns invites attention to the probable origin of the Royal Society 
Club being traceable to these social assemblages held usually after 
the meetings of the Society had broken up. For example, under 
date February 15th, 1664-5 :— 
“After this being done, they to the Crown Tavern behind the ’Change, 
and there my Lord* and most of the company toa club supper. Sir P. 
Neale, Sir R. Murrey, Dr. Clerke, Dr. Whistler, Dr. Goddard, and others, 
of the most eminent worth. Above all, Mr. Boyle was at the meeting, and 
above him Mr. Hooke, who is the most, and promises the least, of any man 
in the world that ever I saw. Here excellent discourse till ten at night, 
and then home.”—Vol. ii., p. 248. 
And again (June 4th, 1666), “To the Crown, behind the 
Change, and there supped at the Club with my Lord Brouncker, 
Sir G. Ent, and others of Gresham College.” 
Weld * says the Royal Society Club was founded in 1743, under 
the designation of the “ Club of the Royal Philosophers,” and bases 
this statement, apparently, on the fact of the original “ Rules and 
Orders to be observed by the Thursday’s Club called the Royal 
Philosophers” bearing date October 27th, 1743. 
The late Admiral William Henry Smyth, however, in his amusing 
‘Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club,’ 
privately printed in 1860, observes (p. 10) :—“ Though the com- 
mencement of the oldest minute-book which has descended to us 
_ is assumed as the date of establishment, it would appear, both from 
circumstance and tradition, that the Club was certainly in existence 
before the year 1743.” This supposition of the gallant Admiral is 
abundantly borne out by the ‘ Diary, which proves, indeed, that 
the existence of the “Club” was about coincident with the 
establishment of the “ Society.” 
* Lord Brouncker, + * Hist. Royal Soe., vol, i., p. 491, 
