84 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



to the yellow jaundice, a disease wherewith I was never 

 before acquainted. It has not proceeded to any great 

 height, and hath rendered me rather indisposed and list- 

 less than sick. I hope it is now leaving of me. This hath 

 taken me quite off making any farther experiments upon 

 trees ; but yet I must acquaint you, that upon careful 

 and exact trial made in branches of walnut, birch, syca- 

 more, and willow, cut off and held perpendicularly, the 

 cut end downwards, we found that they would all bleed 

 entire as they were, without topping the twigs at all; 

 neither could we find that topping of them did sensibly 

 promote their bleeding. As for willow, we observed that 

 the young shoots being cut clear off, and held perpendi- 

 cularly as before, would drop, though from an incision 

 made in the branch where it was cut off it would not 

 bleed. The place of Aristotle I have not yet looked out 

 in the Greek, nor considered. I think something might 

 have been gathered from it to that purpose you speak of, 

 if any one had diligently heeded and weighed it ; but I 

 doubt whether yourself, or Dr. Hulse, had any hint from it. 

 The flying or sailing of spiders through the air is, for 

 aught I know, your discovery ; from you I had the first 

 intimation and knowledge of it. Dr. Hulse acquainted 

 me with no more than the shooting out their threads. I 

 would not be so injurious to any man, especially to so 

 esteemed a friend, as to rob him of any part of the reward of 

 his ingenious endeavours and transfer to another what is 

 due to him, though it be as much commendation to find 

 out a thing by one's own industry, which hath been already 

 discovered by another, as to invent it first ; this last being 

 rather a happiness than anything else, though I know the 

 world will hardly be induced to believe that two men 

 should hit upon the same discovery at the same time. 

 You do well, in my judgment, to be free and commu- 

 nicative of your notions and inventions ; treasuring up 

 secrets being an argument to me of a disingenuous spirit, 

 or of a weak stock in them that seek to get or uphold 

 their fame thereby. Those secrets, too, for the most part. 



