SAMUEL DALE AND THE DALE FAMILY. 6l 
neighbour, Dr. Benjamin Allen, ot Braintree 67 ), we find Dale 
writing 68 to one John Houghton, of St. Bartholomew’s Lane, 
in London, an apothecary, and probably an old fellow-student, 
about a certain Essex Mineral Spring, of which he had had ex¬ 
experience, finding its water like that at Epsom, but more 
active. He does not indicate its whereabouts ; but, as he 
says that it is referred to by Merrett in his Pinax, it was 
probably that at South Weald, near Brentwood. 69 
Again, we find Dale w r riting, ?1 on 2nd December 1693, to 
Dr. Martin Listei 72 in reference to conchology. He mentions 
having called on Lister in London (doubtless with an intro¬ 
duction from Ray), hoping to see his collection of shells, in 
w r hich hope he had been disappointed, as Lister w r as not at 
home. Since then, Dale had sent Lister a copy of “ my book ” 
(clearly the first edition of the Pharmacologia, then just out) 
and had received from Lister one of his own works in return. 
Dale, proceeding, says :— 
“ For some years past, I have had a curiosity of collecting English 
shells and have sometimes thought [that], among those I have (which 
are farr short of what you figure and describe to be of English produc¬ 
tion), there are some which either you have not mett with or, at least, 
I cannot make them out to be the same/' 
Accordingly, he sends to Lister “ specimens of all the species I 
have, of which I beg your acceptance,” asking him for the loan of 
a selection in return. 
In Entomology, too, Dale was more or less expert, as w r e 
learn from passages in the “ Common-place Book ” of his neigh¬ 
bour, Dr. Benjamin Allen, whom he sometimes helped in the 
naming of uncommon insects. 73 Again, When Ray died, in 
1705, leaving unfinished his great Historia Insectorum, Sloane 
suggested to Dale that he should finish it. Dale’s reply was 
that, so far as English insects w^ere concerned, he felt himself 
equal to the task, but that foreign species w r ere beyond his 
powers. 74 
But nowhere is Dale’s wide knowledge of natural objects 
67 See Essex Nat., xvi., pp. 145-175, and xvii.,pp 1-14. 
68 Sloane MS. 747, fo. 13. 
69 Pinax Rerum Naluralium Britannicarum (1666), p. 220. See Christy and Thresh, Mineral 
Waters and Medicinal Springs of Essex, pp. 12-16 (19x0). 
71 Stowe MS. 747, fo. 24. 
72 Martin Lister (1638 ?-i7i2), zoologist, physician; F.R.C.S. (1687) ; F.R.S. (1671), was a 
correspondent of Ray. He removed from York to London in 1684. Author of Histories- 
Conchyliorum (1685-92), with one thousand figures. 
73 See Essex Naturalist, xvii., pp. 150-151, 155, 163-167, etc. 
74 See Journ. of Botany, xxi., p. 197. 
