LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D. 
169 
Spunge, Cork, Rush, the ffarine of Mallows, &c were admirable, 
as being what I never before so plainly saw. I am in great hast 
Sb 
Your much obliged & most humble servant 
W. Derham. 
Christopher Schreiner wrote several treatises in London on 
optical and astronomical subjects. 
The Doctor alludes to the last vol. of J. Ray’s Historia 
pi ant arum. 
Upminr. Jun. 15, 1704. 
S r 
I here send you by this Messenger your two books w ch I borrowed, 
for w ch I give you many thanks. 1 beg the favour of borrowing 
the next vol. of your Transactions, & Dr. Plot’s Hist : of Stafford¬ 
shire, & Mr. Newton’s Opticks if you can spare them. 
I was yesterday at London, where I saw Mr. Newton’s new Con¬ 
trivance of Reflecting glasses. They were to have been tryed yester¬ 
day before the R.S. in the presence of Lds. Hallifax & Somers, 
&c., but the day did not favour us. We were however regaled 
by Mr. Hawkesbv’s Ex pts . in the Pneumatick Engine viz : 1. 
A very light Feather descended as swiftly as a piece of Lead in the 
exsucked Receiver. 2. Tepid water first gently rose w th small 
bubbles, & as the Rec r was emptied of Air the bubbles encreased, 
till at last (w n quite evacuated) it boy led with the greatest violence, 
as if the greatest fire had been under. 3. A glass vial included, 
& by a certain artifice evacuated w th in the Receiver, was broken 
into 1000’s of pieces by y e admission of the Air into the Rec 1 '. 
Having an hour’s leisure, I also visited Mr. Petiver’s Rarities, 
w ch are indeed many, & exceeding curious. Among others 
1 could not but admire the Huming-bird ; the true Dragon (a very 
ellegant Animal indeed), the vast Frog called by our Americans 
the Bull-Frog, from its bellowing noise ; the Nasicornes ; Mantes ; 
exotick serpents, Papilios, & hundreds of other rarities both English 
and exotick, : many of w ch are described in his lec.turies & more 
intended. I also there saw Hoefnagle’s & Hollar’s,Tables of Insects 
both great Rarities, both foi their Sculpture and to be come at. I 
presented him with a. very rare Squilla aquatiea w ch I catched 
yesterday going to London in one of the Ponds on this side Stratford. 
I never saw the same before. I am very confident it was a Squilla,* 
but Mr. Petiver thought it to be the Aurelia of the Great Libella. 3 4 
But v* hath no forcipes as this had ; w th w ch it vehemently stroke 
Mr. Petiver divers times, as the Squillae do. He keeps it alive 
in water to see whether it will have anv transmutation. 
I here send you a Specimen of a. very curious Table of Logarithms, 
w ch they say will exceed Vlack’s. The elegance of the Figures 
{whose stamps are made on purpose for this work) & the goodness 
of the Paper deserves praise. The book is pretty forward in the 
Press. 
I saw Mr. Ray’s last Vol : of Plants w cn is now published & 
3 The Squilla or “ Mantes Shrimp ” it, of course, a Marine Crustacean. 
4 A great Dragon-fly, one of the Libellulida;. 
