i8o 
LETTERS FROM THE REV. WM. DERHAM, D.D. 
Dec. : 5 9. 1709. 
Sr 
I here send you two lists of our R.S. for your self, & another 
for whom you please. You will see Mr. Flamsteed’s name out, 
no doubt by some of his enemies means : but indeed he gave them 
grounds for it by refusing to pay the I2d p r week. Dr. Harris 
is chosen secretary in the room of Mr. Waller, the rest of the ofhceis 
are continued. I have marked one of your Lists with the number 
of Votes each man had that was continued, or chosen into the 
Council. There was a kind of tugging about the Secretary, some 
very pathetically solliciting for Mr. Waller, as others did for Dr. 
Harris. Dr. Harris had 23 Votes. Mr. Waller but 19. Dr. Harris 
being a person not only abundantly able, but also diligent, & living 
in Town, will, I hope, be a means to benefit the Society, & mend 
the Transactions, which some have (out of disrespect to Dr. Sloanc) 
discredited more than they dsserve. 
I beg the favour of you to lend me your Willoughby of Birds, 
& your Microscopes, which shall be returned w th great safety, & 
what convenient speed I can, wdi many thanks from 
S r 
Your much obliged humble serv* 
Wm. Derham. 
Our humble Services be pleased to accept of. 
r o * » . 4 
At the period when the Rev. John Flamsteed had to leave 
the Royal Society the entrance fee was 10s., and the subscription 
was is. per week. Now the subscription is £3, and the entrance 
fee, which at one time was fixed at £10, is remitted. Dr. Harris 
was only secretary for one year, and from what I have already 
said about him (ante p. 26), I should doubt if he was as suitable a 
person to fulfil that post as the worthy Doctor appears to have 
considered him. 
Doctor (afterwards Sir Hans) Sloane, 1660-1753, was the 
distinguished Physician and Collector to whose industry and 
public spirit we owe the origins of the British Museum. He left 
his vast collections, which had cost him over £50,000, to the 
nation on condition that £20,000 should be paid to his family. 
He was greatly interested in Botany and Natural History and 
was an active member of the Royal Societ}L to whose Transac¬ 
tions he contributed several papers. 
From 1693 till 1712, he was one of the two Secretaries of the 
Society, and on Sir Isaac Newton’s death in 1727, he was chosen 
its president, which post he filled until 1741. He was created 
a Baronet in 1716. Sloane appears to have been an intimate 
friend of Dr. Derham, and he certainly was of Dacre Barrett. 
