I76 LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM DERHAM, D.D. 
statements he makes. It was obviously for the purpose of 
obtaining data for this paper that he wished Dacre to have 
these guns discharged. 
The Doctor when in London appears to have been on the 
look out for books for his friend Dacre ; of those he mentions the 
first is John Ray’s Observations Topographical, etc., published 
1673 ; the next by the same author is entitled A Collection of 
Curious Travels and Vogages containing D.L. Ranwolff’s Itinery 
into Eastern Countries, 1693. 
I can find no book by “ Dr. Spar ” in the British Museum, but 
it is possible he referred to Joannes Caspar Sparr, who published 
two books on medicine in Latin in 1673, and 1674 respectively. 
His allusions to “ Huntingdon and Mr. Graves ” I cannot 
follow. 
In 1702 Alex Pitfield translated or, as he terms it, “ Englished ” 
from the French a book which he entitled A Natural History of 
Animals. 
Willughby’s book referred to is his De Historia Piscium, 
published at Oxford in 1686. 
“ P. George ” is obviously George of Denmark, the Prince 
Consort. 
The Rev. John Flamsteed, born 1646, died 1719, was the first 
Astronomer Royal. His catalogue and observations of the stars 
were published at the cost of Prince George. He suffered from 
constant bad health, the result of an attack of rheumatic fever 
in his youth. Flamsteed was a pious and conscientious man, 
patient in suffering, and very abstemious ; but his natural 
irritable temper would brook no rivalry, and he had constant 
disputes with Sir Isaac Newton and Halley, which embittered 
the end of a life worn out by worry and ill-health. 
John Ray, whom the Doctor very properly describes as 
“ famous,” was born 1627. and died on 17th January 1705. The 
eloquent addresses by Professor Boulger on Ray’s life and work, 
and on his domestic life, together with Mr. Fitch’s paper on 
“ John Ray as an Entomologist. 6 ” renders it superfluous to 
say more about him here, beyond perhaps quoting from the 
6 “ The Life and Work of John Ray and their Relation to the Progress of Science ” 
(Trans Essex Field Club, vol iv , pp. 171-188' ; “ The Domestic Life of John Ray at 
Black Notley ” (Proceedings E.F.C. IV., clix.-clxiv), and “John Ray, Samuel Dale and 
Benjamin Allen : A Eulogy ” (Essex Naturalist, vol xvii., pp. 145-164). By Prof G. S. 
Boulger, F.L S., and “ John Ray as an Entomologist,” bv Edward A. Fitch, F.L S. (Proc. 
E F.C. IV., pp. clxv.-clxix.) 
