Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Johann Eberhard Rau to Hans Sloane – April 12, 1730
Item info
Date: April 12, 1730
Author: Johann Eberhard Rau
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4051
Folio: ff. 17-18
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Transcription
Johann Eberhard Rau (1695-1770) was a Protestant theologian and professor. He studied at the University of Marburg and was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin for his scientific achievements in 1729. He received a professorship at the University of Frankfurt in 1746 (Otto Friedrich, “Rau, Johann Eberhard”, in: General German Biography (1888), S. 379-380 [Online version]; URL: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd131494376.html?anchor=adb).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Jean de Fontaney to Hans Sloane – December 1, 1705
Item info
Date: December 1, 1705
Author: Jean de Fontaney
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 99-100
Original Page
Transcription
Fontaney recommends the three missionaries destined for China. They will serve Sloane by collecting curiosities for him. Fontaney asks Sloane to recommend them to the East India Company, with whom they will be travelling.
Jean de Fontaney (1643-1710) was a Jesuit priest who led Louis XIV’s mission to China in 1685. He and his team were admitted to the Academie des Sciences and equipped with astronomical and geological instruments to collect information on their trip. Fontaney was also a distinguished teacher of mathematics and astronomy at the College de Louis le Grand. His work was published in the Journal des Scavans and Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences (David E. Mungello, Curious land: Jesuit accommodation and the origins of Sinology, University of Hawaii Press, 1989: pp. 329-330).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Bezaleel Sherman to Hans Sloane – July 20, 1720
Item info
Date: July 20, 1720
Author: Bezaleel Sherman
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 347-348
Original Page
Transcription
Sherman thanks Sloane for replying to his letter requesting advice on investing in the South Sea Company, even though Sloane would not help him. See: Sloane MS 4045, fols. 339-340.
Bezaleel Sherman was a surgeon.
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Bezaleel Sherman to Hans Sloane – July 12, 1720
Item info
Date: July 12, 1720
Author: Bezaleel Sherman
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 339-340
Original Page
Transcription
Sherman asks about the bones of a calf fetus he sent Sloane some years back. See: Sloane MS 4041, fols. 198-199, 204-205. He is not doing well financially and asks that Sloane help him find investment opportunities in the South Sea Company. Sherman is unable to ride and cannot work as a result.
Bezaleel Sherman was a surgeon.
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Philip Rose to Hans Sloane – January 8, 1721/22
Item info
Date: January 8, 1721/22
Author: Philip Rose
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 175-176
Original Page
Transcription
[fol. 175]
hon.ble S.r
This day I was to wait on you, between nine
and ten in the Morning, and I understood that
you went out at eight. Since that I called
between Eleven and twelve at old Man’s; where
about Eleven you did call, before I came.
I had been glad to have had a short conference
with you, but for this time I am disapointed;
however S.r I hope I am not out of yr Thoughe,
and though the Common Report maketh The
Contagion Bill somewhat severe, I am resolved
to submit to what Regulations, The King
and parliament, or King and Council, with
The wise advice of y.r self and other
select physicians, shall determine Mrs. Wagener
who liveth in Jermyn Street, over against Berry
or Duke street end S.t James, is the patient who
produced that Fungous excrescence you have by
you. She hath one son, viz. Colonel Lloyd of
The Guards. what I set down in this Letter
is not to publish her name to the world; but onely
to intimate, that That Gentlewoman, will at any time
when the Question is asked by a Physician, confirme
what I have printed, or written upon the Labels relating
to her case. This S.r I hope will be fully satisfactory
to you, as to the Truth and Genuiness of That product, and the person from whom it came.
S.r Hans I wish you and y.r Lady and good Family, a happy new year and a numerous repitition of The Like, being with all due Respect Hon.ble S.r y.r Faithfull and most obedient servant Phil. Rose. Jan. 8. 1721/2
Philip Rose was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1691. In 1728 he was forgiven 12 pounds owed to the College (http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/3854).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Timothy Harris to Hans Sloane – April 19, 1723
Item info
Date: April 19, 1723
Author: Timothy Harris
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 347-348
Original Page
Transcription
Harris reminds Sloane of the ‘Indian Pastoral’ he sent. He praises Sloane’s knowledge of philosophy and calls him ‘Master in all other Liberal Arts and Sciences’. ‘Kings bench prison’ is unpleasant and Harris again asks that Sloane help him get out of ‘the horror & dismality of the place’. He hates to have to write Sloane, but he has been incarcerated for four months for a small debt. If Sloane helps him he will publish the ‘Indian Pastoral’ and give it to the ‘East India Company’ men. The bearer will take Sloane’s reply to Harris.
Timothy Harris was Keeper of the Coffee House in Ormond Street, London.
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Johann Georg Steigertahl to Hans Sloane – September 24, 1720
Item info
Date: September 24, 1720
Author: Johann Georg Steigertahl
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 23-24
Original Page
Transcription
Steigertahl asks for Sloane’s view of the actions of the ‘compagnie d’Harbourg’. The ‘conseil prive’ has not yet agreed on a position. He informs Sloane of the latest news from Hanover and assures him of the health of George I and Prince Frederick.
Johann Georg Steigertahl (1666-1740) was the personal physician to George I of England. He was a member of the Royal Society and secured the purchase of Engelbert Kaempfer’s collection of East Asian curiosities for Sir Hans Sloane in 1723 (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Steigerthal).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
S. Mapletoft to Hans Sloane – August 15, 1724
Item info
Date: August 15, 1724
Author: S. Mapletoft
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4076
Folio: ff. 127-128
Original Page
Transcription
Fols. 127-128
I beg leave to remember you…Mr Greenhill was to consult you in a settled disorder of his head, a species of vertigo, brought upon him first by removing from Hartfordshire a clear sharp air to … a dampy fen air, in which he has been about ten years, his first disorder was just upon entrance, a slow continued nervous feaver, which went of[f] but sluggishly and seems to have shock’d and weaken’d the whole nervous system the badness of the air still contributing, that life is con’t but with unplesantness not long before He apply’d to you. He was gradually seiz’d with near a total desperation of life. his Blood stagnating in his extreme parts and they went cold, but was happily relieved and only then, by bleeding. He is about five and thirty years of age and born certainly with as strong and firm stamina vitae as any man and is as well and robust as possible this unhappiness above excepted, has much endeavour’d to make out for the air by increase exercise, in an use of which, He says always, he is better but no sooner discon’t, than a return of his disorder, He is of a plethorick habit and eats moderately drinks and sleeps very well, but no sooner wakens than than the usual complaint, He bleeds as oft as there seems any advanced fulness of blood, takes vomits, purges and has us’d the most efficacious alteratives but always without any sensible relife, though I do imagine they back future ills; but this is justly observable. He never changes ye air, but finds an almost immediate abatement of this disorder
[Sloane: Elect, cephal. chalybeat, pil calhart]
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Johann Georg Steigertahl to Hans Sloane – October 15, 1720
Item info
Date: October 15, 1720
Author: Johann Georg Steigertahl
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 34-35
Original Page
Transcription
Steigertahl received word of his losses in the South Sea Bubble. He did not lose all of the capital he invested in the Company. The King has been feeling slightly better after getting some exercise while hunting.
Johann Georg Steigertahl (1666-1740) was the personal physician to George I of England. He was a member of the Royal Society and secured the purchase of Engelbert Kaempfer’s collection of East Asian curiosities for Sir Hans Sloane in 1723 (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Steigerthal).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Anne Hamilton to Hans Sloane – February 2, 1720/21
Item info
Date: February 2, 1720/21
Author: Anne Hamilton
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 64-65
Original Page
Transcription
Hamilton thanks Sloane for coming ‘to a small agreement with [his] niece’, who had given her ‘poor friend so much trouble’. It took ‘a thousand pound’ to be ‘happily rid of her’. She asks Sloane to ‘pay our Legacies to my daughter Hamilton and leave what papers you find with her’.