Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward. DEAR SONNE, [MS. SLOAN. 1847.] Nov. 28, [1679.] I receaved yours. I am glad to heare wee have so many shipps launched and hope there may bee more before the spring. God send faythfull, valiant, and sober commanders, well experienced and carefull; above all, if places bee sould or given by favor only, such virtues will concerne butt contingently. The French are a sober, diligent, and active nation, and the Duch, though a drincking nation, yet managed their warre [more] carefully and advantageously then the English, who thought it sufficient to fight upon any termes, and carry too many gentlemen and great persons to be killed upon the deck, and so encreaseth the number of the slayne and blott their uictories. Pray represent my service to sir John Hinton when you see him, tis a long time agoe since I had the honour to knowe him beyond sea. Mr. Norborne maryed sir Edm. Bacons daughter, who was [a] very good lady, and dyed last summer, and I thinck hee was a member of the last parliament. Performe your businesse with the best ease you can, yet giving every one sufficient content. I beleeve my lady O. Bryan is by this time in better health and safetie; though hypochond and splenitick persons are not long from complayning, yet they may bee good patients and may bee borne withall, especially if they bee good natured. A bill is inclosed; espargnez nous autant que vous pourres, car je suis age, et aye beaucop d'anxieté et peene de sustenir ma famille. God send my L. Bruce well in France and well to returne, surely travelling with so many attendants it must bee a great charge unto him. Dr. Briggs wrote a letter to mee concerning the bronchocele of his sister who was touched. Your mother and sisters remember to you, and Tom presents his duty. God blesse you all. Your loving father, THOMAS BROWNE. These for Dr. Edward Browne, in Salisbury Court, next the Golden Balls, London. Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward. [MS. SLOAN. 1847.] Dec. 9, [1679.] DEAR SONNE, Wee are all glad to understand that the bill of mortallety decreased so much the last weeke; for people were fearefull that there might bee somewhat pestilential in the disease. The sentences of Cateline's conspiracy were, I beleeve, much taken notice of, and were very apposite to our present affaires. Wee understand the king hath issued out a proclamation for all papists or so reputed to depart from London ten miles; which makes men conceive that the parliament will sitt at the prefixed time. I sawe the last transactions, or philosophicall collections of the R. S.5 Here are some things remarkable, as Lewenhoecks finding such a vast number of litle animals in the melt of a cod, or the liquor which runnes from it; as also in a pike or . . . . . . . . .; and computeth that they much exceed the number of men upon the whole earth at one time; though hee computes that there may bee thirteen thousand millions of men upon the whole earth, which is very many. It may bee worth your reading, as also that of the vast inundation which was last yeare in Gascoigne, by the irruption of the waters out of the Pyrenean mountaines; as also of a flying man, and a shippe to sayle in the ayre, wherin here are some ingeneous discourses; likewise the damps in coale mines, and Lorenzini, a Florentine, concerning the torpedo; beside some other astronomicall observations. God blesse you all. Your mother and sisters send their respects, and Tom his duty. ..... Your loving father, THO. BROWNE. These for Dr. Edward Browne, in Salisburie Court, next the Golden Balls, London. 5 See "Hooke's Philosophical Collections," published in 1679, &c. in which will be found all the subjects of which notice is here taken. Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward. DEARE SONNE, [BIBL. BODL. MS. RAWL. CVIII.] Dec. 15, [1679.] : Some thinck that great age superannuates persons from the vse of physicall meanes, or that at a hundred yeares of age 'tis either a folly or a shame to vse meanes to liue longer, and yet I haue knowne many send to mee for their seuerall troubles at a hundred yeares of age, and this day a poore woeman being a hundred and three yeares and a weeke old sent to mee to giue her some ease of the colick. The macrobii and long liuers which I haue knowne heere haue been of the meaner and poorer sort of people. Tho. Parrot was butt a meane or rather poore man. Your brother Thomas gaue two pence a weeke to John More, a scauenger, who dyed in the hundred and second yeare of his life and 'twas taken the more notice of that the father of Sir John Shawe, who marryed my Lady Killmorey, and liueth in London, I say that his father, who had been a vintner, liued a hundred and two yeares, or neere it, and dyed about a yeare agoe. God send us to number our dayes and fitt ourselues for a better world. Times looke troublesomely; butt you haue an honest and peaceable profession which may employ you, and discretion to guide your words and actions. Madame Peirce went to London last weeke and I beleeve is now there. send Mr. Peirce still better in health, and to bee wary in preseruation of himselfe, the cold weather may be disaduantageous vnto him. My seruice at your opportunity to them both. I am very glad that you are prouided for chirurgeon's hall, if there should be any lecture this yeare which you say is yet vncertaine, so that your buisinesse should continue or encrease, you need not yet giue any suspicion of your leauing that place. God blesse my daughter Browne and yourself. Your loving father, God THOMAS BROWNE. For Dr. Edward Browne, in Salisbury Court, next the Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward. [MS. SLOAN. 1847.] DEAR SONNE, Dec. 22, [1679.] You sett downe a plentifull list of good medicines. Lambs-wooll in water is also very good where men's stomacks will beare it. I remember Captain Bacon, Sir Edm. Bacon's father, of Redgrave, a tall bigge man, had once such an excruceating dysuria, acrimonia et ardor urine that hee was beyond all patience; it being at that time of yeare when peaches were in season, I wished him to eat six or seven peaches, butt before the morning hee eat twenty-five, and found extraordinary relief, and his payne ceased. Have a care of your self this cold weather, wee are all in snowe, and tis now a proper time to freez eggs or the galls of animals with salt and snowe; as also how blood of animals freez, and how marrow in a small bone, and whether it will freez through the bone, the bone being covered with snowe and salt, with the like. I am fayne to keep my self warme by a fire side this cold weather. Tom presents his duty, and all their love unto my daughter, yourself, and all friends. I rest your loving father, THOMAS BROWNE. Your sister Betty hath read unto mee Mr. Ricaut's historie of the three last Turkish emperours, Morat or Amurah the Fourth, Ibrahim, and Mahomet the Fourth, and is a very good historie, and a good addition unto Knolls his Turkish historie, which will then make one of the best histories that wee have in English. These for Dr. Edward Browne, in Salisburie Court, next the Golden Balls, London. 6 Ale mixed with sugar, nutmeg, and the pulp of roasted apples. Sir Thomas Browne to his son Edward. [MS. SLOAN. 1847.] Jan. 5, [1679-80.] DEAR SONNE, Present my service to Sir John Churchman and his lady. Sir John is a discreet and sober person and courteous, and his lady, though shee bee somewhat hypochond. fearefull, and complayning, is a kind gentlewoman; they have been used to apply unto some one physitian in London, and not more, I thinck, except upon very great occasion. Sir John hath an estate within four miles of Thetford; unto which hee cometh every yeare about July, and returnes in October. Autumne was twelvemoneth his lady fell sick of the autumnall spurious ague, and I being then within three miles, shee sent to mee, I found her weake and dispirited, despondent, and even despayring ever to go to London agayne; butt I comforted her to some good satisfaction, though I conceave shee did butt half beleeve my predictions of her recovery in time. I knowe not where in London shee liveth; remember mee also to her daughter, who is a sober and modest young gentlewoeman; they had also a sonne or two, butt young; the answering their doubts doth give them good content. Dr. Jasper Needham hath showne himself a kind and right honest gentleman, and you may wish well unto his relations. There was a woeman or mayd in Suffolk who had a julking and fluctuation in her chest and somewhat upwardly: so that when shee stood and stroked her chest it might be heard by the standers by, and I once heard it; shee dyed, as I remember, about a yeare and half after, and in her chest was found a cystis containing above a quart, as I take it, of a matter like thick whaye, of this, Dr. Fairfax, now of Woodbridg gave an account to the R. S. about seven yeare past, and it is printed. There is a man in 7 He died in the preceding November. 8 Dr. Nathaniel Fairfax sent a paper to the Royal Society, which was published in the Phil. Trans. Nov. 11th, 1667, under the title, "Anatomical Observations on a Humane Body, dead of odd diseases, as they were communicated by Dr. N. F.” The case alluded to is that of a young woman of Rumborough, in Suffolk, who died T VOL. I. |