178 LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM. D.D. 
hast, but you may keep it longer till my affairs will permit me to 
wait upon you myself, & then I will bring Du Hamel, w ch is full 
of a great variety of pretty things. 
I have some Beer & Cider w ch both want fining: For w ch 
use I beg the favour of you to give me a Bough of your Green Beech, 
w ch if I mistake not you said groweth m your park. I desire both 
our humble services may be accepted by your Lady, Son, & Daughters 
as being 
S r 
Your much obliged humble servh 
W. Derham. 
May 19. 1705. 
The Lexicon the Doctor returned was the Lexicon Technicam 
or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, published in 1704. 
The Rev. John Harris, D.D., 1667-1719, was a mathematician 
and author of many books, among which was an inaccurate 
History of Kent. He became a member of the Royal Society 
in 1699. He held several livings, but was culpably improvident 
and generally in distress. He died an absolute pauper, and was 
buried at the expense of an old friend and patron. 
J C. Sturmis was a noted German Mathematician and Philo¬ 
sopher, of which science he was professor at Altdorf, where he 
died in 1703. He published a German translation of Archemedes, 
and also many scientific works of his own. 
Jean Baptiste Du Hamel, born 1624, died 1706, was a French 
philosopher of great reputation ; he visited England and while 
there made the acquaintance of Boyle and they becane con¬ 
siderable friends. He wrote several books, of which, perhaps, 
the best known was Philosophia Veins et Nova, etc., etc., which 
was so highly thought of that it was translated into the Tartar 
language, in order that a copy might be presented to the Emperor 
of China. 
I am not able to find out anything about fining beer by use 
of beech boughs, nor can I identify the variety of beech which 
the Doctor called “ green.” 
S r 
I here return w th many thanks your Willughby, w ch you should 
have had sooner, but I used it for the Birds I had occafion to 
mention in my History of the Great — w ch I sent the Society 
but this week. 
You mav rem r an ace 1 I gave in the Transactions of an odd sort 
of Conical Light I saw in the Heavens one Evening, w ch I have seen 
since, & can account for the Phenomenen. If I mistake not I 
have met w th in the LeipsiT Acta Erndit. such an other appearance 
seen bv Hevelius. I beg the favour of you to lend me that Volume 
