Letter 3455

[fol. 165] Rome 22 May 1728 Sir Whereas I had caused to be sent a long time agoe to Leghorne to be shipt off those books & papers I mentioned to you in a former of mine , & that the shipp has delaied as usuall its departure, I have butt just received the Bill of Ladeing, which you will find herein, & hope it will come to your hands at the same time that you may hear the St Thomas coming up the River, so I entreat to recover the small case, & make acceptable unto the Royall Society the Collection I have made for them of the newest Philosophicalls Lucubrations of these parts. I suppose you will have received long before now the book of Rizzetti which I sent you by a person coming over hence directly for G. Britain, whom I changed also with a letter for you, & relating to the said book, I learn that at Bologna they try over again ye Optick experiments of Sr Issak Newton to confuse ye false suppositions of ye Author. Here enclosed you will find a small dissertation of a curious Apothecary of this Town, that has desired me to present it unto ye R. Society, & if his Hipothesis holds true, there might be found a true Antidote against the Gout. I am promised very soone the answers of the Professors of Padua to Dr Rutty, which I shall duely send him & Monsigr Bianchi is att work to send by my means his Observations upon the Jovial satellites unto Mr Derham, unto whom I entreat you to make my best compliments, & tell him tis the reason why I have not returned yett an answer into his last letter. At the mouth of the River Arno in Tuscany they caught a fortnight ago a Dogfish of 1100 pounds weight in whose belly they found the head of a young stagg with the horns 4 inches long, & all the skin of the body not yet saturated, by the length whereoff they judged [fol. 166] the Animal might have been of about 60 pounds weight & tis supposed that out of the forests of Pisa it went to drink in the river & was swallowd up by the sea monster, a thing that has never happened before in those parts. We have lately in this Town a Woman delivered of a Child by the Navel that is in a fair way of recovering, & you will find amongst the books an account of that by the Anus last year at Venice. I will not give you further trouble, butt Remaine with reall esteem, & trueth Sir Your most Obedient & most humble servant Thomas Dereham