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organic and inorganic chemistry, and physics ; they 

 ranged from the invention of a sea-gauge to the 

 study of solvents for the stone, and he seems to 

 have experimented on every force in Nature. The 

 titles of his two volumes of Statical Essays (1726- 

 1733) show the great extent of his non-clerical 

 work : — 



Volume I. Statical Essays, containing Vegetable 

 Statics, or an A c count of some Statical Experiments 

 on the Sap in Vegetables, being an Essay towards a 

 Natural History of Vegetation ; also, a Specimen of 

 an Attempt to Analyse the Air, by a great Variety 

 of Chymio- Statical Experiments, 



Volume II. Statical Essays, containing Hcemo- 

 statics, or an Account of some Hydraulic and Hydro - 

 statical Experiments made on the Blood and Blood- 

 vessels of Animals ; also, an Account of some 

 Experiments on Stones in the Kidneys and Bladder, 

 with an Enquiry into the Nature of those anomalous 

 Concretions, 



''We can never want matter for new experi- 

 ments/' he says in his preface. " We are as yet 

 got little further than to the surface of things : 

 we must be content, in this our infant state of 

 knowledge, while we know in part only, to imitate 

 children, who, for want of better skill and abilities, 

 and of more proper materials, amuse themselves 

 with slight buildings. The farther advances we 

 make in the knowledge of Nature, the more pro- 

 bable and the nearer to truth will our conjectures 

 approach : so that succeeding generations, who 

 shall have the benefit and advantage both of 



