for ours doth sometimes. I know not who invented it, and it is not well compounded, yet it doth much good; it is this, R. Rad. Raphani rustic. 3iij. Cort. Ligni Sassafras 3iij. Rad. jalappæ, Rad. Mechoacan. à 3. Trium Santal. à ǝij. Rassuræ Eboris 3. Crem. Tartari 3j. Limaturæ Chalybis 3ij. Conserv. Cochlearia hortensis 3j. Theriacæ Diatessar. 3vj. Conserv. Marrubij Conserv. Absynt. vulgaris ā 3. Oxymel. scyllit q. s. m. f. Electuar. I thinke to have this made ready, but if you please to adde or alter it, it shall not be made up till I hear from you, sir. R. Conserv. Absynt. vulgaris žij. Conserv. Rosar. Rubrar. 3xij. Cort. Winter. 3j. Limaturæ Chalyb. 3iij. Syr. de Quinq. Rad. q. s. m. f. Electuar. And so it may be a standing medicine, as well as the other. They make use of pills in old coughs and diseases on the lungs, which they call pilulæ nigræ, which are these, R. Rad. Enulæ Rad. Irid. florent. Sem. Anisi Sacchari Cadi à lib. j. Picis liquidæ q. s. m. f. Massa but I præscribe more of a strong diacodium they make. Pray, sir, write me word how you make your syrupus de scordio, for it is not knowne in London. Pray, sir, thinke of some good effectual cheape medicines for the hospitall; it will be a piece of charity, which will be beneficiall to the poore, hundred of years after we are all dead and gone. The purging electuary, which is divided into boluses of half an ounce, or six dragmes, as it is ordered, is thus, B. Electuarii lenitivi 3xij. Cremor. Tartar. Ziij 3vj. Jalap. Pulv. Zijß. Syr. Rosar. solutivi q. s. m. f. Electuarium. We make much use of caryocostinum and jalep powdered, which are also often taken in four ounces of the purging decoction, which is made of senna, rhubarb, polypody, sweet fennell seeds, and ginger. Their scurvy grass drinke is good; they allow three barrells every weeke of it, to every barrell they put a pound of horse raddish, four handfulls of common wormwood, fifteen handfulls of scurvy grasse, garden scurvy grasse, fiften handfulls of brokelime, and fiften handfulls of water cresses, to a barrell of good ale; which the poor people like very well. St. Thomas Hospitall is larger than ours, and holds forty or fifty persons more; we have divers of the kings soldiers in the hospitall. My wife sent downe the last weeke, a pastborde box, by the waggons, with candlesticks for Mrs. Pooly, and chocolate for my lady Pettus. My duty to my most dear mother, and love to my sister, and Tomy. Your most obedient sonne, EDWARD BROWNE. When I am out of towne, there are divers other physitians who will willingly præscribe for me at the hospitall. These for Sir Thomas Browne, at his house, in Norwich. Miscellaneous Correspondence. WHITEFOOT in his "Life of Sir Thomas Browne" says, that "he was not only consulted by the most eminent men at home, but likewise by the most learned foreigners; viz. Gruter, Windet, Theodorus Jonas of Iceland, &c." Letters from all these, and a number of other persons have been found among his papers but, unfortunately, Sir Thomas's replies to the greater number of those letters have not reached us; for which reason a selection only has been made of them. There are four Latin letters from Isaac Gruter, the first in 1650, the last in 1675, on the subject of a Latin translation of the Pseudodoxia, which he contemplated, and seems to have had in hand during those twenty-five years, but which never made its appearance. The letters of Windet, a medical practitioner, residing at Yarmouth, and apparently not a foreigner, are most tedious and pedantick ;—written in Latin, profusely ornamented with Greek and even Arabick, but utterly destitute of interest. All these, and several other Latin letters of a similar stamp, from persons still less known, have been omitted. Three Latin communications from Theodore Jonas, not strictly epistolary, are reserved for another part of the work. They probably supplied the information contained in Sir Thomas' communication to the Royal Society respecting Iceland,' and may afford some illustration to that paper. Mr. Duncon2 to Sir Thomas Browne. [BIBL. BODL. MS. RAWL. CCCXCI.] ESTEEMED FRIEND, Haveinge perused a booke of thyne called Religio Medici (and findeinge these sound assertions followinge— "To aske whare heauen is, is to demand whare the presence of God is "-" Moyses committed a gross absurditye when with these eyes of fflesh he desired to see God."3 Wee are much contested agst by some, because we can't comply to their tenett in that particular, viz. that with their ffleshly eyes they shall see God. "There is surely a piece of divinitye in us, some thinge that was before the elements "4. "That God loves us for that part which is, as it were himselfe, and the traduction of his holy spirit.")5 Judgeinge thee juditious, I therewith send thee a booke to peruse; and if thou desire any personall conferrance with me, or any of my friends concernynge the principalls of our religion, (which we believe is the immortal religion, though generally accounted herisie) I shall indeauer it, in the same loue I present this booke to thy vieue, who am a lover of mankinde in generall, and thyselfe in particuler. SAMUEL DUNCON. 1 Printed in the Posthumous Works, 8vo. 1712. His 2 In reply to my enquiries respecting this Samuel Duncon, I have been favoured with the following particulars, by a member of the Society of Friends, resident in Norwich. "We trace Samuel Duncomb in many of our books, both printed and manuscript. He was in jail in Norwich, in 1660, for refusing to take an oath, and again in 1664. In 1670 he wrote a letter to the magistrates from prison. signature is always put Duncomb in the printed books, whilst in the registers of the time, I see he appears to have lost his wife and two sons, both spelt Duncon. I also find the following entry, 1679, Samuel Duncon of Norwich, departed this life the 12th day of the 8th month, 1679, and is the 72nd person buryed in Friends burying place there." 3 Rel. Med. i, § 49. Mr. Henry Bates to Dr. Browne. [BIBL. BODL. MS. RAWL. CCCXCI.] From the Court at Greenwich, Aug. 28, 1647. HONOURED SIR, If my boldnes bee a sinne, I hope your goodnes will make it veniall, and give me leave to kiss your hands. Sir, amongst those great and due acknowledgments this horizon owes you, for imparting your sublime solid phansie to them, in that incomparable piece of invention and judgment, R. M. give mee leave, sir, here at last to tender my share, which I wish I could make proportionable to the value I deservedly sett upon it, ffor truly, sir, ever since I had the happines to know your religion, I have religiously honourd you; hug'd your Minerva in my bosome, and voted it my vade mecum. This makes mee think, that though my library was plundered from mee long since, I have it still in my pocket, onely chymically quintessentiated into the spirit of science, or, secundum vulgus et ævum, 'reformed,' but into a more noble and sacred religion then those two are like to produce. Oh how oft in that litle house, soe well filld, have I recreated my soule, and that with more varieties and delights then all the folioes and booke-follies of the time could affoord mee. Three lines at any time will fill me to the brimme of admiration, yet can I never bee satisfied, still sitio, and every reading produces new graces. Had Alexander light on't in his time, sure Homer had gone to the paystry. Or were Ptolemy alive now, the next straightsman of Yarmouth would land another Septuagint there, with supplication that you would honour theire Alexandria with a present of the rich meditates in R. M. And let the Cimons and Triuialists of the time bite or snuffe, or say what they can ad oppositum, it shall never move mee from the truth of my first conceptions. I received it at first as one of the blessings almighty God had, by your faire hands, sent to this age, and was accordingly thankfull; nay, and I am of that opinion still, that next the Legenda Dei, it is the VOL. I. 2 A |