Society consisting of a President Council and Fellows which shall be called by the name of the President Council and Fellows of the Royal Society of London for and improving of Natural knowledge of which Society we do by these presents declare our self to be Founder and Patron And we do hereby make and constitute the said Society by the name c. to be a Body corporate to be continued under the same name in a perpetual succession And that they and their successors whose studies are to be imployed for the promoting of the knowledge of natural things and useful Arts by Experiments To the glory of God and the good of mankind shall by the foresaid name of President Council c. be inabled and made capable in Law to levy hold possess and injoy Lands Tenements c. Liberties Franchises Iurisdictions for perpetuity or Terms of Lives or Years or any other way as also Goods Chattels and all other things of what Nature or Kind soever And also by the name aforesaid to Give Grant Demise or Assign the said Lands Goods c. and to do all things necessary thereabout And the said Persons by the name aforesaid are inabled to implead be impleaded sue defend c. in any Courts and before any Iudges Officers c. whatsoever of the King His Heirs and Successors in all and singular Actions Real and Personal Pleas Causes c. of what kind soever as any of His Subjects within his Kingdom of England or Corporations are by Law capable and inabled to do And the said President Council and Fellows are impowr'd to have a Common Seal for their use in their Affairs and from time to time to break change and make anew the same as shall seem expedient unto them And his Majesty in Testimony of his Royal Favour towards the said President Council and Fellows and of His especial esteem of them doth Grant a Coat of Arms to them and their Successors viz. On a Field Argent a Canton of the three Lyons of England For a Crest an Eagle proper on a Ducal Coronet supporting a Shield charged with the Lyons aforesaid and for Supporters two Talbots with Coronets on their Necks The said Armes to be born c. by the said Society upon all occasions And that His Majesties Royal Intention may take the better effect for the good Government of the said Society from time to time It is establish'd That the Council aforesaid shall consist of 21. Persons whereof the President for the time being alwayes to be one And that all Persons which within two Moneths next ensuing the date of the said Charter shall be chosen by the said President and Council and in all times after the said two Moneths by the President Council and Fellows and noted in a Register to be kept for that purpose shall be Fellows of the said Society and so accounted and call'd during life except by the Statutes of the said Society to be made any of them shall happen to be amoved And by how much any Persons are more excelling in all kinds of Learning by how much the more ardently they desire to promote the Honour Business and Emolument of the said Society by how much the more eminent they are for Integrity Honesty Piety Loyalty and Good Affection toward His Majesty His Crown and Dignity by so much the more fit and worthy such Persons are to be judged for reception into the Society And for the better execution of his Royal Grant His Majesty hath nominated c. His Trusty and Well-beloved William Viscount Brouncker Chancellor to His dearest Consort Queen Catharine to be the First and Modern President to continue in the said Office from the date of the Patent to the Feast of Saint Andrew next ensuing and until another Person of the said Council be duly chosen into the said Office The said Lord Brouncker being sworn in all things belonging thereto well and faithfully to execute the said Office before His right well-beloved and right Trusty Cosin and Counsellor Edward Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor of England in the words following I William Viscount Brouncker do promise to deal faithfully and honestly in all things belonging to that Trust committed to me as President of the Royal Society of London for improving Natural Knowledge So help me God And His Majesty hath nominated c. the Persons following His Trusty and Well beloved Sir Robert Moray Knight one of His Privie Council in His Kingdom of Scotland Robert Boyl Esquire William Brereton Esquire eldest Son to the Lord Brereton Sir Kenelme Digby Knight Chancellor to His dearest Mother Queen Mary Sir Gilbert Talbot Knight Master of His Iewel-house Sir Paul Neile Knight one of the Vshers of His Privie Chamber Henry Slingsby Esquire one of the Gentlemen of His said Privie Chamber Sir William Petty Knight Timothy Clark Doctor of Physick and one of His Physitians Iohn Wilkins Doctor of Divinity George Ent Doctor of Physick William Erskyne Esq one of His Cupbearers Jonathan Goddard Doctor of Physick William Ball Esquire Matthew Wren Esquire John Evelyn Esquire Thomas Henshaw Esquire Dudley Palmer of Grayes-Inn Esquire Abraham Hill of London Esquire and Henry Oldenburg Esquire together with the President aforesaid to be the first and Modern 21 of the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society aforesaid to be continued in the Offices of the Council aforesaid from the date of the Patent to the Feast of Saint Andrew next following and from thence till other fit persons be chosen into the said Offices The said Persons to be sworn before the President of the Society for the time being well and truly to execute the said Offices according to the form and effect of the aforesaid Oath to be administred to the President by the Lord Chancellor as aforesaid For the administring which Oath to the said Persons and all others hereafter from time to time to be chosen into the said Council full Power and Authority is Granted to the President for the time being And the said Persons duly sworn and all other from time to time duly chosen into the said Council and sworn are to aid advise and assist in all affairs businesses and things concerning the better Regulation Government and Direction of the Royal Society and every Member thereof Furthermore Libertie is granted to the said Society lawfully to make and hold meetings of themselves for the searching out and discovery of Natural Things and Transaction of other businesses relating to the said Society when and as often as shall be requisite in any Colledge Hall or other Convenient place in London or within 10. Miles thereof And Power is Granted to the said Society from time to time to nominate and choose yearly on Saint Andrews day one of the Council aforesaid for the time being to be President of the Society until Saint Andrews day next ensuing if he shall so long live or not be removed for some just and reasonable Cause and
Society in their Philosophical Studies and Indeavours full Power and Authority is granted unto them to require take and receive from time to time dead bodies of Persons executed and the same to anatomize to all intents and purposes and in as ample manner and form as the Colledge of Physitians and Company of Chirurgions of London by what names soever the said two Corporations are or may be called have had and made use of or may have and use the said Bodies And for the improvement of such Experiments Arts and Sciences as the Society may be imploy'd in full Power and Authority is granted unto them from time to time by Letters under the hand of the President in the presence of the Council to hold Correspondence and Intelligence with any Strangers whether private Persons or Collegiate Societies or Corporations without any Interruption or Molestation whatsoever Provided that this Indulgence or Grant be extended to no further use than the particular Benefit and Interest of the Society in Matters Philosophical Mathematical and Mechanical Full Power and Authority is also granted on the behalf of the Society to the Council to erect and build one or more Colledges within London or ten miles thereof of what form or quality soever for Habitation Assembling or Meeting of the President Council and Fellows about any affairs and businesses of the Society And if any abuses or differences shall ever hereafter arise and happen about the Government or Affairs of the Society whence the Constitution Progress and Improvement or Businesses thereof may suffer or be hindred In such cases His Majesty Assignes and Authorizes His right Trusty and right Well-beloved Cosen and Counsellor Edward Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor of England by himself during his life and after his decease the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England the Lord High Treasurer of England the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal the Lord Bishop of London and the two principal Secretaries of State for the time being or any four or more of them to compose and redress any such differences or abuses And lastly His Majesty straightly charges and commands all Iustices Mayors Aldermen Sheriffs Bayliffs Constables and all other Officers Ministers and Subjects whatsoever from time to time to be aiding and assisting unto the said President Council and Fellows of the Royal Society in and about all things according to the true intention of His Letters Patents This is the Legal Ratification which the Royal Society has receiv'd And in this place I am to render their publick thanks to the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellor of England to Sir Ieffery Palmer Atturny General and to Sir Heneage Finch Sollicitor General who by their cheerful concurrence and free promotion of this Confirmation have wip'd away the aspersion that has been scandalously cast on the Profession of the Law that it is an Enemy to Learning and the Civil Arts. To shew the falsehood of this reproach I might instance in many Iudges and Counsellors of all Ages who have been the ornaments of the Sciences as well as of the Bar and Courts of Iustice. But it is enough to declare that my Lord Bacon was a Lawyer and that these eminent Officers of the Law have compleated this foundation of the Royal Society which was a work well becoming the largeness of his Wit to devise and the greatness of their Prudence to establish According to the intention of these Letters Patents their Council has ever since been annually renew'd their President their Treasurer their Secretaries chosen The chief employments of the Council have been to manage their Political affairs to regulate disorders to make addresses and applications in their behalf to guard their Priviledges to disperse correspondents but Principally to form the Body of their Statutes which I will here insert An Abstract of the Statutes of the Royal Society WHatever Statute shall be made or repeal'd the making or repealing of it shall be voted twice and at two several meetings of the Council This Obligation shall be subscrib'd by every Fellow or his election shall be void WE who have hereto subscrib'd do promise each for himself that we will indeavour to promote the good of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded that we will be present at the Meetings of the Society as often as conveniently we can especially at the anniversary Elections and upon extraordinary occasions and that we will observe the Statutes and Orders of the said Society Provided that whenever any of us shall signifie to the President under his hand that he desires to withdraw from the Society he shall be free from this Obligation for the future Every Fellow shall pay his admission money and afterwards contribution towards the defraying of the charges of Observations and Experiments c. The ordinary meetings of the Royal Society shall be held once a week where none shall be present besides the Fellows without the leave of the Society under the degree of a Baron in one of His Majesties three Kingdoms or of His Majesties Privie Council or unless he be an eminent Forreigner and these only without the leave of the President The business of their weekly Meetings shall be To order take account consider and discourse of Philosophical Experiments and Observations to read hear and discourse upon Letters Reports and other Papers containing Philosophical matters as also to view and discourse upon the productions and rarities of Nature and Art and to consider what to deduce from them or how they may be improv'd for use or discovery The Experiments that be made at the charge of the Society Two Curators at least shall be appointed for the Inspection of those which cannot be perform'd before the Society by them the bare report of matter of Fact shall be stated and return'd The Election of Fellows shall be made by way of Ballet and their Admission by a solemn Declaration made by the President of their Election The Election of the Council and Officers shall be made once a year Eleven of the present Council shall be continued by Lot for the next year and ten new Ones chosen in like manner Out of this new Council shall be elected a President Treasurer and two Secretaries in the same way The President shall preside in all meetings regulate all debates of the Society and Council state and put Questions call for Reports and Accounts from Committees Curators and others summon all extraordinary meetings upon urgent occasions and see to the execution of the Statutes The Vice-President shall have the same power in the absence of the President The Treasurer or his Deputy shall receive and keep Accounts of all money due to the Society and disburse all money payable by the Society He shall pay small sums by order of the President under his hand but those
little to be suspected for making men pervers and ungovernable that it is the best praeservative against disobedience One of the principal Causes of this is a misguided Conscience and opposing the pretended Dictates of God against the Commands of the Sovereign This I have already shewn that these labors will moderat and reform by abolishing or restraining the fury of Enthusiasm Another is idle poverty which drives men into fulleness melancholy discontent and at last into resistance of lawful Authority To this Experiments will afford a certain cure they will take away all pretence of idleness by a constant cours of pleasant indeavors they will employ men about profitable Works as well as delightful by the pleasure of their Discoveries they will wear off the roughness and sweeten the humorous peevishness of mind whereby many are sowr'd into Rebellion But the most fruitful Parent of Sedition is Pride and a lofty conceit of mens own wisdom whereby they presently imagine themselves sufficient to direct and censure all the actions of their Governors And here that is true in Civil affairs which I have already quoted out of my Lord Bacon concerning Divine A litle Knowledge is subject to make men headstrong insolent and untractable but a great deal has a quite contrary effect inclining them to be submissive to their Betters and obedient to the Sovereign Power The Science that is acquir'd by Disputation teaches men to cavil well and to find fault with accurate subtilty it gives them a fearless confidence of their own judgments it leads them from contending in sport to oppositions in earnest it makes them believe that every thing is to be handled for and against in the State as well as in the Schools But the unfeign'd and laborious Philosophy gives no countenance to the vain dotages of privat Politicians that bends its Disciples to regard the benefit of mankind and not the disquiet that by the moderation it prescribes to our thoughts about Natural Things will also take away all sharpness and violence about Civil The Work of that is so vast that it cannot be perform'd without the assistance of the Prince It will not therefore undermine his Authority whose aid it implores that prescribes a better way to bestow our time than in contending about litle differences in which both the Conquerors and the Conquer'd have always reason to repent of their success That shews us the difficulty of ord'ring the very motions of senseless and irrational things and therefore how much harder it is to rule the restless minds of men That teaches men humility and acquaints them with their own errors and so removes all overweening haughtiness of mind and swelling imaginations that they are better able to manage Kingdoms than those who possess them This without question is the chief root of all the uneasiness of Subjects to their Princes The World would be better govern'd if so many did not praesume that they are fit to sustain the cares of Government Transgression of the Law is Idolatry The reason of mens contemning all Iurisdiction and Power proceeds from their Idolizing their own Wit They make their own Prudence omnipotent they suppose themselves infallible they set up their own Opinions and worship them But this vain Idolatry will inevitably fall before Experimental Knowledge which as it is an enemy to all manner of fals superstitions so especially to that of mens adoring themselves and their own Fancies I have now at last brought my Reader by a tedious compass to the end of our Journey And here I desire him to look back and to make a reflection on the matters of which I have treated In the first part of my Discours I have alleg'd the Causes by which these Studies were suppress'd in all former Ages which have bin Interest of Sects the violence of Disputations the plausible Arts of Speech the Religious Controversies the Dogmatical Opinions the poverty of the Vndertakers and the want of a continual race of Experimenters In the Second I have shew'd by what steps the Royal Society arose what it has propos'd to attempt what cours it has taken to make its Observations universal and perpetual what assistance has bin afforded it to that purpose and about what particulars it has bin conversant In the Third I have try'd to free it from the false scandals of Ignorance and the praejudices of several ways of life and to prove that its effects will more immediatly refer to our own Country My Reader now beholds an Assembly setled of many eminent men of all Qualities who have ingag'd to bestow their labors on a design so public and so free from all suspicion of mean or private Interest What foundation they have within themselves for defraying the expence of their Trials and Intelligence may be ghess'd by their Number which at this present amounts very neer to Two Hundred as appears by this following Catalogue which I have rang'd Alphabetically The King's Majesty Founder and Patron His Royal Highness the Duke of York His Highness Prince Rupert His Highness Ferdinand Albert Duke of Brunswick and Lunenbourgh The Duke of Albermarle the Earl of Alesbury the Earl of Argill the Lord Ashley the Lord Annesley Mr. Ashmole Sr. Robert Atkins Mr. Austin Mons. Auzout Mr. Awbrey The Duke of Buckingham the Lord George Berkeley the Lord Brereton Mr. Bagnal Mr. Bains Mr. William Balle Mr. Isaac Barrow Dr. George Bate Dr. Bathurst Dr. Beal Mons. Beaufort de Fresars Sr. Iohn Birkinhead Mr. Blunt Mr. Boyl Mr. Brook Dr. Bruce Mons. Bullialdus Mr. Burnet Sr. Edward Byshe The Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellor of England the Earl of Carlile the Earl of Craford and Lindsay the Lord Cavendish the Lord Clifford Mr. Carkess Mr. Carteret Dr. Charleton Sr. Winstone Churchill Sr. Iohn Clayton Sr. Clifford Clifton Mr. George Cock Sr. Richard Corbet Dr. Cotton Dr. Cox Mr. Thomas Cox Mr. Daniel Cox Mr. Creed Mr. Crispe Sr. Iohn Cutler The Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Devonshire the Earl of Dorset Mons. Vital de Damas Sr. George Ent Mr. Ellise Mr. Iohn Evelyn Sr. Francis Fane Mons. le Febvre Sr. Iohn Finch Mr. Henry Ford Sr. Bernhard Gascoigne Mr. Ioseph Glanvile Dr. Glisson Mr William Godolphin Mr. Graunt The Lord Hatton Mr. Haak Mr. William Hammond Mr. William Harrington Sr. Edward Harley Sr. Robert Harley Mr. Harley Dr. Henshaw Mons. Hevelius Mr. Abraham Hill Mr. Hoar Dr. Holder Mr. Hook Mr. Charles Howard Mons. Huygens Mr. Richard Iones the Earl of Kincardin Sr. Andrew King Mr. Edmund King the Earl of Lindsey the Lord Bishop of London Mr. Lake Sr. Ellis Leighton Mr. Iames Long Sr. Iohn Lowther Mr. Lowther Mons. Hugues de Lyonne The Earl of Manchester Mons. Nicolas Mercator Dr. More Dr. Iasper Needham Dr. Needham Mr. Thomas Neile Mr. William Neile Mr. Nelthorp Mr. Newburgh Sr. Thomas Nott the Earl of Peterburgh Mr. Packer Mr. Samuel Parker Sr. Robert Paston Dr. Iohn Pearson Dr. Pell Sr. William Persall
Common of Lancashire and elsewhere of Divers and Diving their habit their long holding their breath and of other notable things observ'd by them Relations of the Effects of Earthquakes and the moving and sinking of Earths of deep Mines and deep Wells of the several layers of Earth in a Well at Amsterdam of the shining Cliffs in Scotland of the layers of Earth observ'd in divers Clifts of Screw-Stones Lignum Fossile Blocks buried in Exeter River Trees found under ground in Cheshire Lincolnshire and elsewhere of a Coal-Mine wrought half a mile from the shore under the Sea of the fatal effects of damps on Miners and the ways of recovering them Relations of the extraordinary strength of some small Loadstones taking up above 150. times their own weight of several English Loadstones of the variation of the Loadstone observ'd in two East-India voyages and other places of the growing of Pebbles inclos'd in a glass of water of several excellent English clays of Gold found in little lumps in a Mine in England of the moving sands in Norfolk Relations about refining Lead and Tin-Oar of hardning Steel so as to cut Porphyry with it and softning it so much as to make it easie to be wrought on of impregnating Lead-Oar with Metal after it has been once freed of Petrify'd Teeth and a Petrifi'd humane foetus of several wayes of splitting Rocks of living Muscles found in the midst of Rocks at Legorn of the way of making Quick-silver of things observable at the bottom of the Sea of a soft Metal which hardens after it has taken off the Impression and the way of reducing such impressions into as small a proportion as is desir'd Relations about Agriculture of ordering of Vines of the setting and planting of Trees several wayes of Elms growing from chips of new Trees sprung from rotten roots of several kinds of Trees growing one out of another and in the place of others of the best wayes of pruning of making a kind of Silk with Virginia Grass of a kind of Grass making stronger Ropes than the common Hemp of a new way of ordering Mulberry Trees in Virginia of a Locust Tree Bow standing bent six months without loosing its Spring of a way of improving the planting of Tobacco Relations of the usefulness of changing seed yearly of the steeping liming sowing it several wayes of freeing it from Worms preserving it long as eighty years of freeing it from smut of the causes and first signs of smut of the Instrument and way of chopping Straw for the feeding of Horses of Plants growing in meer Water of others growing in meer Air of several Indian Woods of the growing of the divided parts of Beans of the growing of chopp'd stalks of Potatoes of ordering Melons of keeping their Seed and producing extraordinary good ones without transplanting Relations of the growth breeding feeding and ordering of Oysters of a Sturgeon kept alive in Saint Iameses-Park of the moveable Teeth of Pikes of young Eeles cut alive out of the old ones Belly of the transporting Fish-spawn and Carps alive from one place to another of the strange increase of Carps so transported of Snake-stones and other Antidotes of Frogs Frog-spawn Toads Newts Vipers Snakes Rattle-Snakes Relations of several kinds of Poysons as that of Maccasser and Florence of Crawfishes of the Generation growth life and transformation of Ants of Cheese worms leaping like Fleas of living Worms found in the Entrails of Fishes of Insects found in the sheathing of Ships of the generation of Insects out of dead Cantharides of Insects bred in mens Teeth Gums Flesh Skin of great quantities of Flies living in Winter though frozen of the wayes of ordering Silk-worms in France Italy Virginia and of their not being hurt in Virginia by Thunder Relations of Swallows living after they have been frozen under water of Barnacles and Soland Geese of a new way of hatching Pigeons of the way of hatching Chickens in Egypt of Eggs proving fruitful after they had been frozen of recovering a tir'd Horse with Sheeps blood Relations of several Monsters with their Anatomies of the measure of a Giant-child of Stones found in several parts of the Body of an unusual way of cutting the Stone out of the Bladder of a Womans voiding the Bones of a Child out of her side eighteen years after her having been with child of grafting Teeth and making the Teeth of one Man grow in the mouth of another Relations of several Chirurgical operations of renewing the beating of the heart by blowing into the Receptaculum chyli of the Art of perfectly restoring Nerves transversly cut practis'd in France of a Mummy found in the Ruines of Saint Pauls after it had lain buried above 200. years of breaking the Nerve to the Diaphragm and of its effects of cutting a Stetoma out of a Womans Breast of making the blood Florid with Volatil and Coagulating with Acid Salts Relations of sympathetick Cures and Trials of the effects of Tobacco-oyl for casting into Convulsion fits of Moors killing themselves by holding their Breaths of walking on the Water by the help of a Girdle filled with Wind of Pendulum Clocks of several rare Guns and Experiments with them of new Quadrants and Astronomical Instruments of Experiments of refraction made by the French Academy of a way to make use of Eggs in painting instead of Oyl of the Island Hirta in Scotland of the Whispering place at Glocester of the Pike of Tenariff A RELATION OF THE PICO TENERIFFE Receiv'd from some considerable Merchants and Men worthy of Credit who went to the top of it HAving furnish'd our selves with a Guide Servants and Horses to carry our Wine and Provisions we set out from Oratava a Port Town in the Island of Tenariffe scituated on the North of it at two miles distant from the main Sea We travelled from twelve at night till eight in the morning by which time we got to the top of the first Mountain towards the Pico de Terraira here under a very great and conspicuous Pine tree we brake our fast dined and refresht our selves till two in the afternoon then we proceeded through much Sandy way over many lofty Mountains but naked and bare and not covered with any Pine trees as our first nights passage was this exposed us to excessive heat till we arrived at the foot of the Pico where we found many huge Stones which seemed to have been fallen down from some upper part About six a clock this evening we began to ascend up the Pico but being now a mile advanced and the way no more passable for our Horses we quitted and left them with our Servants In this miles ascent some of our company grew very faint and sick disorder'd by fluxes vomitings and Aguish distempers our Horses hair standing up right like Bristles but calling for some of our Wine which was carried in small Barrels on a Horse we found it so wonderfully cold that we could not drink it till we had kindled a fire