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SCIENCE.

COWARD, WILLAM,) was born at Winchester, in the year 1656 or 1657, He completed his education at the University of Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1677; and, in 1680, was chosen probationer fellow of Merton College. He graduated M. A. in 1683; and commencing upon the study of physic, took his degrees of bachelor and doctor in that faculty, in 1685 and 1687, successively. He practised his profession first at Oxford, Northampton, Ipswich, and London; but it is in the character of a metaphysician alone, that he has become celebrated. His chief metaphysical work appeared in 1702, under the title of Second Thoughts concerning the Human Soul; demonstrating the nature of the human soul, as believed to be a spiritual, immortal substance, united to a human body, to be a plain heathenish invention, and not consonant to the principles of philosophy, reason, or religion; but the ground only of many absurd and superstitious opinions, abominable to the reformed churches, and derogatory, in general, to true Christianity. This gave rise to a controversy between Dr. Coward and various writers, of whom Mr. Broughton and Mr. Turner appear to have been the most formidable. He answered them both in separate pamphlets, and afterwards repeated his doctrines in a work entitled The Grand Essay, or a Vindication of Reason and Religion against the Impostures of Philosophy. He was now considered an avowed enemy of revelation, and his works contained so much that was at variance with the general opinion, that they were presented to the house of commons, a committee of which was directed to examine into their contents, and to discover the author, printer, and publisher. Dr. Coward, having acknowledged himself to be the writer, was called before the house, when he declared that he never intended any thing against religion; that there was nothing contained in his books, either contrary to morality or

religion; and that if there were, he was heartily sorry, and ready to recant the same. The house, however, came to the resolution, that Dr. Coward's books contained doctrines and positions contrary to the doctrine of the church of England, and tending to the subversion of the Christian religion, and ordered them to be burnt by the common hangman. This proceeding, as might be expected, only excited a greater interest with respect to his doctrines; and he, in consequence, published a new edition of his Second Thoughts, which was followed by a treatise, entitled The Just Scrutiny, or a Serious Inquiry into the Modern Notions of the Soul. Dr. Coward's other publications are, a tract, entitled Opthalmiatria, in which the theory of vision is treated of by him in a very scientific manner; The Lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, an heroic poem; Licentia Poetica; and Critical Observations on the Principal Ancient and Modern Poets. He died some time in the year 1725, at Ipswich.

DALE, (SAMUEL,) was born in 1660, and practised as an apothecary at Braintree, in Essex, until about the year 1730, when he became a licentiate of the College of Physicians, and a fellow of the Royal Society. He attained much celebrity as a medical and botanical writer, and died in June, 1739. His principal work was published in 1693, under the sanction of the College of Physicians, and entitled Pharmacologia, seu Manuductio ad Materiam Medicam. It went through several editions in London, and four on the continent, and procured for the author a very high reputation. "This work," says Pulteney,

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may be said to have been one of the earliest rational books on the subject; and between the first and last editions, an interval of forty years, much of that credulity which had obtained respecting the powers of simples, had abated." He also edited Silas Taylor's Antiqui ties of Harwich and Dover Court, and

was the author of ten papers, principaly, made for the Observatory at Greenrelating to natural history and pear-wich, was the original from which the macy, in the Philosophical Transactions. best foreign instruments were con

HARRIS, (JOHN,) was born about, the year 1670, and received his education at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. in 1687, and M.A. in 1991. He took orders in the church, and obtained some considerable preferments, the last of which was a prebend of Rochester. He took his doctor's degree in 1699, and, about the same time, became a fellow of the Royal Society, of which he became secretary and vice-president. The chief works by which he distinguished himself are, A Treatise on the Theory of the Earth; A Treatise on Algebra; A Translation of Pardie's Geometry into English; Astronomical Dialogues, which went through three editions; and his Lexicon Technicum, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, in two volumes, folio. This work entitles the author to honourable notice, as the one on which all subsequent dictionaries of science, and cyclopædias, have been based. Dr. Harris also printed several sermons, and left unfinished A History of Kent, which was published after his death. This, took place on the 7th of September, 1719, after a life more distinguished by the brightness of his intellectual, than the excellence of his moral, qualities. "Dr. Harris," says Mr. Gough, in his British Topography, "died an absolute pauper, at Norton Court, and was buried in Norton Church, at the expense of John Godfrey, Esq., who had been his very good friend and benefactor."

structed by English artists. Dr. Bradley's sector, by which he discovered two new motions in the stars, was of Graham's invention and make; and our modern orreries are all founded on the model of one constructed by the subject of our memoir. He died in 1751; at which time he was a fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he communicated several ingenious and important discoveries, relating chiefly to astronomical and philosophical subjects.

THRELKELD, (CALEB.) was born at Kirkoswald, in Cumberland, on the 31st of May, 1676. In 1608, he graduated M. A. in the University of Glasgow; and, shortly afterwards, settled at Low Hudd.esceugh, in the character of a dissenting min ster. Having, however, acquired, while at the former place, a taste for physic and botany, he turned his attention to the study of them; took his degree of M.D. at Edinburgh, in 1712; and removed to Dublin, where, for about a year, he acted both as divine and physician. Finding his practice increase, he dropped his character of the former; sent for his family to join him; and occupied, with much success, his whole time as a practitioner in medicine, till the period of his death, which occurred on the 28th of April, 1728. The only work he published appeared the year previous to his decease, under the title of Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum, alphabetice dispositarum; sive, Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis, præsertim Dubliniensibus GRAHAM, (GEORGE,) was born at Instituta, with an appendix, by Dr. Gratwick, in Cumberland, in 1675, and, Molyneux. He dedicated it to the in 1688, was apprenticed to a watch- Archbishop of Armagh, and described it maker, in London. Before the expira- as "the first essay of the kind in the tion of his apprenticeship, he was taken kingdom of Ireland." The preface is into the family of the celebrated Tom- remarkable for the quaint style in which pion, who treated him with parental it is written, but proves him to have affection as long as he lived. Mr. been a man of some erudition in the Graham soon became the most eminent science of botany; although, according among his profession; his time-pieces to Dr. Pulteney, he was "better acwere the most accurate that had ever quainted with the history of plants, before been invented; and several as- than with plants themselves." Among tronomical instruments, which he im- other curious observations in the work, proved and contrived, contributed he says, "The Irish grammarians regreatly to the advancement of that mark, that all the names of the Irish science. The mural arch, which he letters, are names of trees." He intro

duced, also, into the work, some severe, and rather coarse, strictures on Dillenius, who, however, thought them too contemptible to answer; and only noticed them in a letter, wherein he observes of Threlkeld, that "there was but one plant recited in the book which was not known before as a native of Ireland." He appears to have been an amiable man, and very popular among the poor, to whom he was a great benefactor, both in his professional and moral relation to them.

HALES, (STEPHEN,) was born at Beckesbourn, in Kent, in 1677, and educated at Bennet College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow, in 1702. During his residence at the university, he studied, besides divinity, various branches of science and natural philosophy, and constructed a planetarium upon the Newtonian system of astronomy. Having graduated M. A., and entered into holy orders, he was, in 1710, presented to the perpetual curacy of Teddington, in Middlesex; and, not long after, he vacated his fellowship by accepting the living of Portlock, in Somersetshire, which he exchanged for that of Faringdon, in Hampshire. In 1717, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and, in the following year, communicated to that body an account of some experiments concerning the effect of the sun's heat in raising the sap in vegetables. On this subject, he published a work, in 1727, under the title of Vegetable Statics, &c., which is esteemed a model of experimental investigation, and has been very highly praised by Haller. A second edition appeared of it in 1731; and, in 1733, the author published a kind of sequel to it, under the title of Statical Essays, containing Hymastatics, or an account of some Hydraulic and Hydrostatical Experiments made on the Blood and Blood-vessels of Animals, &c. He had, in the meantime, been appointed one of the trustees for settling a colony in Georgia, and presented by the University of Oxford with the degree of D.D. In 1739, he obtained the gold medal of the Royal Society, for a paper containing An Account of some Experiments on Sea Water, &c., and on the Solution of the Stone in the Bladder. In 1741, he communicated his invention

of ventilators for renewing the air in mines, prisons, hospitals, and the holds of ships; a plan which he subsequently applied to the cleansing and preservation of corn. In 1753, he was elected a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences; and, on the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales, he was made clerk of the closet to the princess dowager. A canonry of Windsor was also offered him; but he refused it on account of its probable interference with his usual plan of spending his time. He died at Teddington, in January, 1761, having passed through life without an enemy; "and, perhaps," says Dr. Aikin, "the records of biography cannot produce a character more marked by the union of blamelessness with active benevolence." Pope mentions "plain parson Hale," as a model of sincere piety; and Haller calls him "pious, modest, indefatigable, and born for the discovery of truth." He communicated several papers, besides those already mentioned, to the Transactions of the Royal Society; and published, anonymously, A Friendly_Admonition to the Drinkers of Gin, Brandy, and other Spiritous Liquors, which has been several times reprinted, and distributed gratis.

LONG, (ROGER,) was born in the year 1679, and educated at the University of Cambridge, where he became master of Pembroke Hall, and Loundes's professor of astronomy. He is known to the scientific world, by a valuable treatise on this science, and also as the inventor of a curious astronomical machine. This was a hollow sphere, of eighteen feet diameter, in which more than thirty persons might sit conveniently; and within side the surface, which represented the heavens, were painted the stars and constellations, with the zodiac, meridians, and axis parallel to the axis of the world, upon which it was easily turned round by a winch. He died on the 16th of December, 1770, having previously graduated D. D., and been twice chosen vice-chancellor of the university. He is said to have been a very ingenious and facetious person; but his pretensions to the latter character are scarcely supported by the following anecdote: -As he was walking, one dusky even

ing, with a Mr. Boufoy, through the streets of Cambridge, that gentleman, on coming to a short post fixed in the pavement, took it for a boy, saying, in a hurry, "Get out of my way, boy." "That boy, sir," said the doctor, "is a post-boy, who turns out of his way for nobody." The relator of this anecdote adds, "Of late years, he has left off eating flesh-meats; in the room thereof, puddings, vegetables, &c.; sometimes a glass or two of wine."

HADLEY, (JOHN,) was born about the year 1680, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, in 1717. He contributed various papers to the Philosophical Transactions; but he is chiefly celebrated for his account of the reflecting instrument for taking angles, commonly called Hadley's quadrant, or sextant. The first idea of this excellent instrument was suggested by Mr. Hooke, and Sir Isaac Newton is said to have brought it to completion. It consists of an octant, or the eighth part of a circle; an index, speculum, two horizontal glasses, four screens, and two sight vanes. Two sorts of observations may be made with it: the back observation, when the back of the observer is turned towards the object; and the fore observation, when the face of the observer is turned towards the object. Navigation is much indebted to this instrument for the very great and rapid advances, which it has made of late years. Angles may be taken by it, with equal facility at the mast head as upon deck; and, supposing many islands to be visible from the former, and only one from the latter, no useful observation can be made by any other instrument. One of its most invaluable properties, in making marine observations, is, that it is not affected by the ship's motion; for, provided the mariner can see distinctly the two objects in the field of his instrument, no motion nor oscillation of the ship will injure his observation. Mr. Hadley, to whom we are indebted for the first description, but not for the invention of the quadrant that bears his name, died on the 15th of February, 1744.

CATESBY, (MARK,) was born about 1680, and early imbibed a taste for the study of natural history, which induced

him, in 1712, to make a voyage to Virginia, where he remained seven years, occupied in collecting its various productions. He returned to England in 1719, but, at the suggestion of Sir Hans Sloane, and other eminent naturalists, almost immediately reimbarked for America, with the professed purpose of describing, delineating, and collecting the most curious natural objects in that country. He resided chiefly in Carolina, whence he made excursions to Georgia, Florida, and the Bahama islands; and, on his return to England, in 1726, he began to prepare for publication the result of his researches, which appeared in two volumes, folio, under the title of The Natural History of Canada, Florida, and the Bahaman Islands. The work came out, originally, in numbers, and was considered by far the most splendid that had been then executed in England. A reprint of it took place in 1754 and 1771; and, to the last edition, a Linnæan index has been added. Mr. Catesby died in 1749, having been previously elected a fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he contributed a paper assertive of the migration of birds on his own observation. A plant of the tetrandous class has been called, after him, Catesbea, by Gronovius.

COTES, (ROGER,) was born at Burbage, in Leicestershire, of which place his father was rector, on the 10th of July, 1682. He received the rudiments of his education at Leicester School, where he displayed such ability for the mathematics, that his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Smith, requested him, as a pupil, in his own house. He was afterwards sent to St. Paul's School, and from thence, in 1699, to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was chosen a fellow in 1705, being at the time tutor to the sons of the Marquess (afterwards Duke) of Kent, to whose family he was related. In January, 1706, he was appointed Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy, being the first upon that foundation. In the same year, he graduated M. A.; took orders in 1713; and, shortly afterwards, published the second edition of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, with an admirable preface, in which he expressed the true method of philosophizing, shewed the

foundation on which the Newtonian philosophy was built, and refuted the objections of the Cartesians and all other philosophers against it. The author did not long survive the high reputation which this work obtained for him: he died, regretted as an irreparable loss to science, on the 5th of June, 1716. Newton is recorded to have said, "If Cotes had lived, we had known something." He left several valuable works behind him, which were published by his relation, and successor in the professorship, Dr. Robert Smith. They are entitled, Harmonia Mensurarum; Hydrostatical and Pneumatical Lectures; and A Compendium of Arithmetic, Of Dioptrics, and the Nature of Curves. In the Philosophical Transactions, are published his Logometria, and An Account of the great Meteor, which was seen in 1715.

ALSTON, (CHARLES,) a native of Scotland, was born some time in the year 1683; and, having procured the patronage of the Duchess of Hamilton, while pursuing his studies at Glasgow, was enabled, with her assistance, to gratify his inclination for following the profession of physic. About 1716, he accompanied his friend, the celebrated Alexander Monro, to Leyden, whence, after studying for three years under Boerhaave, he proceeded to Edinburgh, and gave lectures on botany and materia medica. His talents, in conjunction with those of Rutherford, Monro, Sinclair, and Plummer, laid the foundation of the school of physic at Edinburgh, where he died, on the 22nd of November, 1760. Dr. Alston is principally held in estimation as a botanical writer, in which character he published, besides an Index Plantarum, and Index Medicamentorum, for the use of his pupils, a work called Tyrocinium Botanicum Edinburghense, 1753. It was written in opposition to the system of Linnæus, whose arguments on the sexes of plants he strove hard to invalidate; and, "if the Swede's doctrine," said Dr. Pulteney, "could have been easily shaken, the learning and abilities of Alston were sufficient to have effected his purpose." Dr. Alston's medical papers appear in The Edinburgh Medical Essays, entitled A Dissertation on Tin as an Anthelmentic; A Dissertation on

Opium; and A Case of Extravasated Blood in the Pericardium. But his most popular and valuable work was published ten years after his death, containing an account of his Lectures on the Materia Medica, which must be considered, however, more as a history of its past, than an account of its present, state. In 1743, he communicated to the Royal Society what he then called A Paradoxical Discovery, respecting the power of quick-lime, in which he fancied he had discovered a property that would preserve it from exhaustion under repeated effusions of water. This opinion was contested by his friend and colleague, Dr. Whytt; during his controversy with whom, he published A Dissertation on Quick-lime and Limewater; which, however, tended more to confirm his adversary's opinions than to support his own. Alstonia, in botany, a genus of plants of the class polyandria, and order monogynia, is called after his name.

COLLINSON, (PETER,) was born in 1694, and brought up, by his father, who was a Quaker, to the business of a wholesale man's mercer. He carried on this business in London, in partnership with a brother, devoting all his leisure to the pursuit of natural history, to which his attention had been turned at an early age. He communicated several papers to the Philosophical Transactions, and was made a member of the Royal Society in 1728; he was also a member of the Society of Antiquaries. On the establishment of the subscription library at Philadelphia, he undertook the direction of its purchases in London for more than thirty years; and it was through his means that the celebrated Dr. Franklin was first incited to the pursuit of electrical experiments. He maintained a correspondence with scientific men in almost every part of the world; and few learned foreigners came to London without paying him a visit. Horticulture was his favourite pursuit, and his botanical collection at Mill Hill, near Enfield, was, at the time, one of the most considerable in England. Linnæus, with whom he formed an intimacy, has perpetuated his name among botanists, by giving it to an American plant of the diandrous class, under the title of Col

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