Letter 3575

[fol. 67] March 19. 1729 Sir I received lately yours of the 17 Jan. last whereby I was very glad to learn that you had received at the same time by Mr Coleman the teeth of the shark, & found them they very teeth of the Lamia, & Canis Carcharias, & I agree with you that the serpents tongues of Malta may have come from this sort of Fish. I must now entreat you to present my most humble acknowledgments unto the Royall Society for the rare present of severall choice new books that are come to my hands, whereof I am sending abstracts about Italy to informe this part of the learned world with the progress we make in all manner of sciences, & shall have them soon printed at Bologna by that Accademie call’d the Instituto. The great discovery made by Mr Bradly will be very acceptable, when seen per extensum as you make me hope, by the next Transactions, which are to come to me with another token of the Society’s bounty, for which be pleased to anticipate my truest thanks. The Chronologie of Sr Isaac Newton takes here very much, being come over translated into French, & the objections of F. Souciet have mett with the ridicule they deserved so that his glory is fully vindicated in his Opticks, & Chronologies. We have suffer’d here a few weeks agoe an allmost irreparable loss by the death of the most illustrious Monsigr Bianchini, whose new Globes of Venus, & the book explaining the same I hope is by this time come to your hands with other books collected by me for the use of the Society, & I am endeavouring to gett somebody to publish his plan of the Domus Aurea Neronis, that he has left wanting very little of being quite finished, & that would be very acceptable to the learned world for the severall curious discoveries, & very probable conjectures he has made assisted by vast erudition never before collected out of antient Authors. You will find here annex’d some letters of my learned correspondents, to inform you with the litterary news of these parts, & also some reflections of the Monsigr Bianchini upon a paragraph of a letter of the ingenious Dr Derham to me, whereby he very clearly settles the difference between Mr de la Hire, Dr Derham, & Father Carbone of Lisbon. A curious Freind of mine would fain to know whether the Thermometers of John Fowler in Smithins Alley near the Royall Exchange mention’d in ye Phil. Trans. no. 398 Paragr. VIII. cap.1. be safely transportable, & what be the price of all those mention’d in said Chapter, for he would in such a case order a merchant to send them over, & I would entreat you to cause the kind assistance of some intelligent person in the purchase thereof. [fol. 68] Since you are so kind as to undertake to forward the subscriptions for the edition of the Chronological Table of the Emperours of China that will be ready here for the press in two months time, I would further entreat you to take upon your self the receiving of them to the number of fifty at a louis d’or a piece, & every subscriber shall have seven Tables for his share, & you might be pleased to pay the whole summ to Mr Green, who might give you a bill of exchange for the said summ upon Messrs Godfrey, & Chambrelan of Leghorne his correspondents for me to whom I would immediatly dispatch the three hundred, & fifty copies directed to you, to be sent over by some good ship, that you might make the due distribution unto the proprietors receiving them by the same way & direction you continually do the other things I send you over, & upon the sure hopes of your exhibition I now advance the money out of my own pocket to forward so usefull a piece of work. I am extreamly obliged to you for all your favours, & remain Your most Obedient, & most humble servant Thomas Dereham