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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Correspondence Explorer

Choose two people to view all letters between them.

Showing 49 letters from 1661–1682

49 letters from John Beale; 0 letters from Robert Boyle

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Interact with the map by zooming, clicking hotspots, and selecting items to see more details. Hit play on the timeline to show correspondence over time.

Presents a mnemonical problem

Reference number: EL/OB/97
1662

Concerning the King's skill in physiognomy; concerning uses of seaweed; that Oldenburg has been persuaded to send Beale's proposal for supply of aqua vitas

Reference number: EL/OB/98
1663

Concerning Caleb Morley's alphabets, titles and notations, which he says he is able to interpret; concerning artificial memory

Reference number: EL/OB/99

Latin verse

Reference number: EL/OB/100

Concerning Wimberton who left his body for medical research stating that 'the anatomy of the living is more instructive than of the dead'; discussion about why medicines are fickle; concerning Mr Waller and 'winds of the spleene'

Reference number: EL/OB/101

Discussion about mnemonical matters, particularly about his memory, and then considers the memory of dogs and other animals

Reference number: EL/OB/102

Discussion about a person's memory; concerns publication of his work

Reference number: EL/OB/103

Covering letter enclosing his notes on various examples of medical treatments eg: gout cured by opening vein in foot; 'oyle of wheate'; balm leaf cordial; bite of poison; discussing colds, measels, corns

Reference number: EL/OB/104

Account of the plight of farmers during bad times; how the Society could publicise problems

Reference number: EL/OB/105

How to raise and care for sheep with extracts from Columella (in Latin), and comparing practices of old writers of Italy with customs in Britain; how to care for goats and cows; examples of a variety of medical treatments; details of alewives; concerning a Greek woman who claimed to heal people

Reference number: EL/OB/106

Concerns how to improve woollen manufacture; details about clothiers in Herefordshire and Worcestershire and about trade in sheep; how should art, science, trade or manufacture be restored or improved

Reference number: EL/OB/107

Account about turkeys, geese, ducks, peacocks, pigeons, hens, doves

Reference number: EL/OB/108

Highlighting aspects of rural life and encourages the Royal Society to 'allow an Anniversary Seasone for Rurall Accommodations'

Reference number: EL/OB/109

Concerning barometrical observations; concerning springs and a well in Dorset which should be investigated by brewers and housewives; concerning weights and measures

Reference number: EL/OB/110

Entitled 'Of springs, fountains, lakes, waters etc' around the Mendip Hills

Reference number: EL/OB/111

Sends a medical recipe made with coloquintida to kill tapeworms with instructions for use; discussion about worms; concerning a shining sand; about a dog that fell into a disused mine and was rescued alive three weeks later

Reference number: EL/OB/112
1664

Discussing Boyle's 'History of Colour' which Beale received through Henry Oldenburg

Reference number: EL/B1/40

Concerning flowers changing colours; using a microscope to see changes in colours of flowers; concerning the results from Oldenburg's hydrostatic, which Beale borrowed

Reference number: EL/OB/113
1665

Concerns holding breath under water; concerning work that was carrried out on ice, snow and freezing

Reference number: EL/OB/114

Account of healing a man's hand by Greatrix and an account from Lionel Beacher

Reference number: EL/OB/115

Concerning the work of Palladius, particularly 'de Institione', and essays by Mr Fynch; concerning suitable air for fruit and liquor of cherries; concerning religion, tradition and revelation

Reference number: EL/OB/116

Details about nurseries of fruit trees for cider; discussing editions of texts

Reference number: EL/OB/117

Concerning papers on thermometers and baroscopes and about sale of weather-glasses; discussion about his thermometer; concerning mackerel (see EL/OB/119 for further details about mackerels)

Reference number: EL/OB/118

About mackerels and how they shine in the dark after boiling

Reference number: EL/OB/119
1666

Concerning 'transanimation' or 'the life or soule is in the blood'; blood transfusion of a young person into an old person; case of an 80-year-old man who married a young woman, had children by her, and then felt healthier than before marriage; observations of baroscopes and scales and thermometers; concerning weight of air for a healthy person

Reference number: EL/OB/120

Discussing Boyle's written work; wishing for a paper on heat and flame

Reference number: EL/OB/121

Concerning Oldenburg's paper on light and flame; concerning the skills of dairymaids in making cheese; concerning the motion of liquids; concerning yeast and bread-making; concerning 'fairy rings' in pastures; that he has received a Latin manuscript about plants and their affiinities; concerning glaciation

Reference number: EL/OB/122

Discussing 'how heate may be graduated by weights' and how cold can be measured by thermometers; concerning fermentation

Reference number: EL/OB/123

Suggesting the best ways to publish Boyle's writings (continued in EL/OB/125); wishes the manuscript 'De cognoscendis sine duce Herbis' to be translated

Reference number: EL/OB/124

Concerning Boyle's writings continuatiing from letter EL/OB/124; concerning a statical baroscope

Reference number: EL/OB/125

Concerning Eramus's work; concerns the publication of Boyle's work

Reference number: EL/OB/126

Discussing possible correspondents, particularly wishing to learn from American plantation owners about their husbandry practices; discussing baroscopes

Reference number: EL/OB/128

Note at top reads: 'This was intended for Mr Boyle if it had beene legible' Considers what items will retain heat for the longest

Reference number: EL/OB/129

Concerns warming a home with a tepid spring in frosty weather; concerning the differences in barometric observations; about certain animals being lighter in weight than their bulk; concerning a college in Seville which teaches the art of navigation

Reference number: EL/OB/130

Enthusiasm about the transfusion experiments and what it could mean for future research; discussing magnets, and about telescopes not being tested for causes of obscurity; sending letters

Reference number: EL/OB/131

Discussing baroscopes and thermometers; concerning fermemtation; concerning gold and diamonds; concerning falling bodies

Reference number: EL/OB/132
1670

Concerning a woman who could sense if the plague was within 30 miles from her through pain in her sores; suggesting that by interpreting dreams the mysteries of prophecies might be unlocked; general discussion about astrology

Reference number: EL/B1/55

Concerning a woman whose sores hurt when the plague had struck people who lived thirty miles away from her; other details about the plague; discussing dreams; concerns predicting comets

Reference number: EL/OB/133
1671

Concerns promoting English reputation to satisfy expectations of foreigners; concerning a catalogue of inventions

Reference number: EL/OB/134

Concerning terrestrial rotation; details about mines from William Strode; observations of broken flints and discussing fossils

Reference number: EL/OB/135

Proposing to set up two committees for the 'advancement of learning'; that an Oxonian had prepared a list of scholars who wished to correspond with the Royal Society; concerning Lister's paper about petrified shells and then discusses marcasite mineral and other stones; concerning creation and generation

Reference number: EL/OB/136
1672

Concerning a nursery-man, Henry Starre of Stalbridge; recommending books on the manner of ordering fruit trees and about French gardeners; concerning the money spent on French and Spanish wines; concerning apples and pears for cider and perry and that laying down cider for sixteen or more years was worth it

Reference number: EL/OB/137
1673

Discussing a published work about cold, hydroscopes and 'aurum fulminans' to take fire

Reference number: EL/OB/138
1676

Concerning publication of his pamphlet on nurseries; concerning Anthony Lawrence's propagation of orchards in south-west England; naming where there are substantial nurseries in England and Ireland; states that he sends a fourth letter on horticulture to Henry Oldenburg with outline of contents (cultivating young orchards)

Reference number: EL/OB/139
1680

Concerning Boyle's 'aerial noctiluca'; discussing the recent wars on the continent; concerning Boyle's work in general; improvement to the microscope design by Hooke and by Leeuwenhoek; concerns publishing bills of mortality from New England

Reference number: EL/OB/141

Concerning an epigram from Henry Lavor (in text in Latin) suggesting that it could be used at the beginning of the volumes (this work not identified); further details about New England; information about the depth of the soil at Barbados

Reference number: EL/OB/142
1682

Wishes Dr Spratt to continue writing the History of the Society; concerning Wilkin's real character; concerning Parker's demonstration of the laws of nature; wishes someone could write on a regular basis about philosophical developments in Scotland

Reference number: EL/OB/143

Discussing books by Dr Tillotson; concerning Parker's demonstration of the divine authoirty of the law of nature; concerning entries for the 'memorials'

Reference number: EL/OB/144

Concerning Houghton's work on husbandry and trade, particularly about England's foreign trade; concerning Mun's work about England's foreign trade; that the Royal Fisheries should secure Newfoundland

Reference number: EL/OB/145