Letter 3277

Woolhouse is happy to inform Sloane that his Natural History of Jamaica was announced ‘au Public’ in a Parisian journal. He sends a copy of the journal. Abbé Bignon received Sloane’s letter. Woolhouse hopes the publications of Mr Flamsteed and Mr Costes, author of ‘L’Histoire de la Mesure des harmonies’, do not encounter any more difficulties. There was a problem with a Parisian journal, involving a reprimanding letter to the editor that was forwarded to Mr Jurin. Mr Vogues, a translator, has left for Saint-Domingue to serve as a Medecine du Roi. There was an election at the Academie des sciences to replace one of its chairs, Mr Hartsoeker, but no-one has yet been chosen. Le Comte de Maurepas has been attending Academie meetings and recommends that Dr Scheuchzer of Zurich take up Hartsoeker’s place. The Italians want Mr Manfredi to take the chair, the physicians suggest Mr Boerhaave, the chemists want Mr Stalh of Prussia, and Abbé Bignon wants Mr Woodward. Woolhouse suggests that Sir Isaac Newton would make a good candidate, as would Abbé Conti. A Jesuit published a critique of ‘la Chronologie de Mr Newton’. If Newton wants to publish a reply in a Parisian journal Woolhouse can arrange it. He hopes his service to the Royal Society is satisfactory. John Thomas Woolhouse was an English oculist and physician. He practiced physic in London, served James II for a time, and in 1711 secured a position at Paris’s Hospice des Quinze-Vingts. He served as the King of France’s oculist, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1721, and a member of both the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Sciences of Bologna. Woolhouse was criticized for charlatanry by some contemporaries (Anita McConnell, Woolhouse, John Thomas (16661734), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29954, accessed 17 July 2013]).