The Royal Society Archives. Compiled by A. H. Church, D.Sc.,
F.R.S. (For the author, Oxford.)—Dr. Church gives in this pamphlet a list of the authors of a multitude of papers pre- served in the archives of the Royal Society. Of these names there are upwards of fifteen hundred; the papers number three thousand six hundred and fifty-one. Some of these names are distinguished, such as John Abernethy, Henry Brougham, Cavendish, Captain Cook, Erasmus Darwin, Sir Humphrey Davy, Euler (the mathematician), and Benjamin Franklin. Of the papers Dr. Church is able to give us only a few glimpses. By way of frontispiece we have a facsimile of the letter in which Linnaeus acknowledged his election into the Society. It is written in elegant Latin. " Utinam aliquid esset," he writes, "in me hoc honore dignum, ntinam beneficiis provocatus vicem reddere possem l" Benjamin Franklin writes that he had been killing fowls with electricity, but found turkeys very difficult subjects. Only by combining all the jars be could get was he successful. He seems to have been an early heretic re classical studies. The Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's ask for the Society's advice in the matter of protection against lightning. William Herschel names the planet discovered by him Georgium Sidus ; the world has not accepted it. Mr. Boverick "desires the honour of showing to the Royal Society a landau with four persons, six horses, &c., all drawn by a single flea." Antoine Gaubil, S.J., sends, with a paper, a specimen of a Chinese "bank-note" bearing the name of Hung Wu, who began to reign A.D. 1368. These specimens make one wish for more.
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