Letter 4555

Posted on February 23, 2019 by -

Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. John Ray – Jan. 29, 1786


Item info

Date: Jan. 29, 1786
Author: Dr. Hans Sloane
Recipient: Mr. John Ray

Library: The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by Dr. Derham, and original letters of John Ray in the Collection of the British Museum
Manuscript: The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by Dr. Derham, and original letters of John Ray in the Collection of the British Museum
Folio: 189 - 190


  • Language
    English
  • Library
    The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by Dr. Derham, and original letters of John Ray in the Collection of the British Museum
  • Categories
    Jamaica, Philosophy, curiosities
  • Subjects
    English philosophers, French philosophers, Hortus Dei, Jesuit's-bark, Pyrenees, cinchona bark, mountains of Auvergne, tree prints
  • Date (as written)
    Jan. 29, 1786
  • Standardised date
    January 29, 1686
  • Origin (as written)
    London
  • Others mentioned
    Dr. Magnol Mr. Hally French ambassador to the king of Siam a Jesuit Duke of Albemarle Dr. Robinson
  • Patients mentioned

Original Page


Transcription

SIR,-I have talked a long while of going to Jamaica

with the Duke of Albemarle as his physician, which, if I do, next to the serving his grace and family in my pro- fession, my business is to see what I can meet withal that is extraordinary in nature in those places. I hope to be able to send you some observations from thence, God Almighty granting life and strength to do what I design; but our voyage having been put off so often, I doubt it very much. I am glad to hear by Dr. Robinson that your elaborate and excellent work goes on so fast as to begin already to print the trees. Great feuds are like to be between the French and our philosophers about the magnitude of London and Paris, our alleging that London is as big as Paris and Rouen both together; and being urged by them to give some proof for what they say, I intend to print certificates from hearthmen here, and ingenious men there, that in London are 100,000 houses, and in Paris but 24,000. There is no less a dispute on another account. The French ambassador to the king of Siam, carrying a Jesuit with him, he made several obser- vations, and found that that kingdom was misplaced in longitude, to the east, about 22 degrees; but Mr. Hally says that he long ago found that out, and gave an account of it in the ‘Transactions.’ But I am mistaken if there were not something rectified about that a great while ago by some learned men. I suppose you have had an account of Dr. Magnol’s new appendix; it is but small and less worth than I thought, for when I was there he designed to simple the Pyrenees and Hortus Dei, or mountains of Auvergne, where are many curiosities. We are now mighty solicitous about the Jesuit’s-bark, or Cortex peruvianus, it being so good a drug, that they begin to adulterate it with black cherry and other barks dipped in a tincture of aloes, to make it bitter; but the bitterness of the adulterated bark appears upon its first touch with the tongue, whereas the other is a pretty while in the mouth before it be tasted. I am, &c.

London, Jan, 29, 1786.

Edwin Lankester, ed. The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by Dr. Derham, and original letters of John Ray in the Collection of the British Museum (London: Printed for the Ray Society, 1848), pp.

Letter destination presumed as Black Notley as Ray’s location in his prior and letter and response to Sloane is Black Notley. Ray was also considered not to have left Black Notley after 1679.

The date in the publication is noted as 1786, this must be an error and should rather be 1686.



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