Letter 0537

Northleigh was called away to the country sooner than he had expected, otherwise he would have waited on Sloane. He desires more of Sloane’s company and conversation than ‘that transient Interview we had at the Coffee House’ allowed. Northleigh wishes he could have visited hospitals with Sloane and is was looking forward to seeing, whether in scabies or pustules, ‘those little Vermicelli; or Pellicelli as my Italian Virtuoso calls them’. Northleigh has written several essays on pustules but cannot discover their animation. He comments that he distrusts his ‘opticks’ and his glass more than the veracity of the thing. He wonders whether a colder climate prevents their maturation. He asks about membership in the Royal Society and, if he is admitted, what fees or contributions are due. John Northleigh (1656/7-1705) was a physician and pamphleteer. He trained as a lawyer before studying medicine and setting up a practice in Exeter. Northleigh published several works on contemporary politics (Andrew M. Coleby, ‘Northleigh, John (1656/7–1705)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20331, accessed 9 July 2014]).