(5)

1. Anagrams of "Isaacus Newtonus

on draft of a letter to

the Council about some matter at the Mint. Note of quotations in ludo puerorum, scala philosophorum, and rosario.

2. Directions as to some details of an alchemical process given by a Londoner acquainted with Mr Boyle and Dr Dickinson. On the back the beginning of a letter in which mention is made of Mr Pepys asking Sir I. N. for a method of finding the longitude

at sea.

3. List of Alchemical works. A classification of the same with dates. On the back an account of gold and silver moneys coined since Christmas (no year), in which the guinea is put at 218. 6d. 4. Another list of Alchemical authors with dates.

5.

Another list of Alchemical authors, with extracts from Act of Parl. 5 Car. II., on coinage, on the back.

7. A treatise on Chemistry, extracted from various authors, similar to nos. 18, 31, above; with some odd papers partly duplicates.

8. Two chapters apparently of another such treatise, headed "Reductio et sublimatio" (2 fol.), and "Separatio elementorum" (1 fol.) compiled as before.

9. Recipes for cements. Address of 2 stampmakers. Mathematical diagrams and lists of alchemical works.

10. Opus Galli Anonymi. With a note by Newton "Simile est hoc opus operi Fabri..." It gives a recipe for the Philosopher's stone and medicine but it does not state what the material operated on is; the preparation consists in repeated digestions and distillations.

11. Alchemical operations-references to the pages of several books.

12. Experimenta Raymundi (2 fol.).

13. Observationes (heads of Alchemical process).

14. Ex Fabri Hydrographo Spagyrico (1 f.).

15. Ex Hercule prochymico (1 f.).

16. Miscellanea from Raymund and others (1 f.).

17. The Regimen, in seven aphorisms and notes thereon (2 f.).

18. Index chemicus (commencement only).

19. Various extracts from alchemical works (9 f.).

20. Out of 'La Lumière sortant des Ténèbres' [above, no. 6], and commentary thereon (1 f.), but incomplete.

21. Fragment out of some treatise with pictures-no beginning or end.

22. Recipes for lutes, with some addresses on the back.

23. Recipes for some alchemical medicines, with address of a druggist.

24. Other alchemical operations, one a translation, and one not in Newton's hand.

25. Abstract of Yarworth's "Processus "-incomplete, extending to Chap. v.

26. An alchemical tract entitled " Manna," not in Newton's hand, but with additions and notes at the end in his hand.

27. Recipe for Regulus Martis; on the back some arithmetical calculation.

28. Copy (not in Newton's handwriting) of a letter from Mr John Casswell, Oxford, Oct. 14, 1694, to Mr John Flamsteed, giving an account of some observations on magnetism.

29. Account of a method for making aqua fortis and for refining silver, in Conduitt's hand.

Packet marked VI. containing the following papers on Alchemy:

1. Some alchemical receipts, not in Newton's hand.

2.

Queries, not in Newton's hand.

3. A medicine to transmute copper, ditto.

4. Alchemical receipts, ditto.

5. To make artificial pearl, ditto.

6. No. 73. An incomplete copy (76 pp.) of Yarworth's

"Processus," not in Newton's hand.

N.B.-The several copies of Yarworth are not identical.

*III.

Two bound MS. copies of Yarworth's "Processus," both incomplete. A MS. book on Alchemy, containing

The apocalyps or revelation of the secret spirit, by an unknown author.

Quotations from divers writers on alchemy.

An unknown author upon the philosopher's stone.

Ex epistolâ Johannis pauperis.

De Alkymiæ veritate

δε Λαπίδίβυς ε.

The breefe of Sir Edward Vere's book. Aug. 18, 1610.

IV. NOTES OF EXPERIMENTS, ALL IN NEWTON'S HAND.

1. Dec. 10. 1678 to Jan. 15. Subliming antimony with salammoniac. Alloying antimony with lead and other metals. (No definite result of value.)

2. Jan. 1679-80. Subliming antimonial sublimate with lead antimoniate &c. Jan. 22. Action of nitric acid and salammoniac on antimony sulphide &c. and further sublimations. (Most of these experiments are roughly quantitative.)

3. Feb. 1679-80. Fusing antimony with vitriol and other things. Sublimation of various metals by help of antimony and salammoniac &c. Action of oil of vitriol on galena, of nitric acid on sublimate of antimony, and others of a like kind.

4. Aug. 1682. Similar experiments; some on lead ore, others on an alloy of tin and bismuth which he seems to call Diana.

5. July 10 (no year), "vidi *philosophicum." Sublimations of calx albus with salammoniac.

6. April 26, 1686. On a volatile salt of zinc (apparently the chloride), and on an alloy derived from ores of iron, antimony, tin, lead, and bismuth. May 16. "On ven. vol."

7. Mar. 5, 1690—1 and Mar. 16. On some bismuth compounds and the action of aqua fortis on alloys of tin and bismuth and zinc.

8. Experiments and observations, Dec. 1692 and Jan. 1692-3. Working of barm. He says "in distilling new wine before fermentation, the flegm rises first, and then the spirit, but after fermentation, the spirit rises before the flegm." Other experiments. Comparison of the fusibility of alloys of lead, tin, and bismuth, in which is given

as the most fusible an alloy of 5 of lead +7 of tin + 12 of bismuth. April 1693 and June 1693, further experiments.

9. April 1695. Experiments with antimony and ores of iron, copper, and tin, and sublimations with salammoniac. Feb. 1695—6, sublimations of antimony with iron ore.

10. Notes of Chemical Experiments, without date:

Action of aqua fortis on antimony sulphide, &c.

Sublimation of alloy of antimony and lead with salammoniac, &c.
Experiments on lead ore and other things.

Do. on copper &c.

Other experiments.

11. De metallo ad conficiendum speculum componendo et fundendo. Printed by Brewster, ii. 535.

V. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

1. Notes on Magnetism. It does not appear whence they are taken. The observations (some of which are erroneous) do not seem to be Newton's, though here and there remarks upon them seem to be his.

2. De Natura Acidorum, with a copy. This is printed in Horsley's Newton, iv. pp. 397-400.

4 1

3.

Eleven points for enquiry in Physics.

4. De Gemmis in genere, notes, mostly from Berquen, Boethius, Tavernier, and Boyle. Index of refraction in diamonds is given on the authority of Halley. On p. 3 is mentioned a very fragile and soft western Topaz which he found to have a specific gravity 4.27, though the sines of refraction were as 14 to 23 (could this be Baryte?). On p. 7 he deduces from the cleavage that gems are crystallized like salts from juices which turn to stone. At the end are the gold and silver standards of different countries.

5. De Gemmis. Other notes mostly included in the preceding, but on p. 1 are given reasons for thinking the diamond coagulated from a fluid and fat substance, which he does not seem to have incorporated in the preceding.

6. Of Gemms. Part of the foregoing in English.

VI. A MANUSCRIPT NOTE-BOOK

containing

On the fly-leaf-Notes of the value, hardness and other qualities

of gems.

pp. 1 to 22, of colours. Articles 1-5 from Boyle's experiments and considerations touching colour, 1664.

Arts. 6 to 21, experiments with prisms; 22 and 26 on internal reflection at or near the critical angle; 27 to 43 on effects of thin plates of air between glasses.

44-47, further experiments with prisms; 48, colours from admixture; 49, reflection at two contiguous surfaces of glass; 50, colours of thin plates of glass, soap-bubbles, &c.; 51-53, on colours by internal reflection in spheres of water; 54, effect of oblique rays on the size of the spot at contact of 2 glasses; 55, diminished reflection of glass in water; 56 and 57, light reflected from powders, &c.; 58-62, effects of distorting the eye-ball; 63, coloured impressions of objects remaining when the eye is no longer directed to them; 64, on the action of the retina and optic nerve (quoted by Brewster i. 432 from Harris, omitting the last paragraph), and on p. 22, notes of the thickness of vibrations of light.

p. 22, notes from Boyle on increased sensitiveness of sight and hearing produced by sickness. Of vegetable substances precipitating

vitriol black.

p. 23, a receipt for ink.

66

pp. 25-41, extracts from Boyle on the mechanical origin of Heat and Cold," Oxford, 1675. The observations on p. 25 as to the expansion of glass, and those on the elasticity of springs are not in Boyle on Heat and Cold. The book quoted in the MS. is called the "History of Cold," which is not the title of the 1675 edition, but forms part of the title in the collected works.

p. 45, quotations from Boyle. Some incomplete trials of the height at which a thermometer stands in several substances-melting wax, tin, lead, &c. on Mar. 10, 1692-3. An experiment for determining the expansion of air by heat, also that of linseed oil (Brewster, ii. 366).

p. 49, extracts from Boyle's new experiments touching the spring of the air. At the bottom of this page and on

p. 50, account of experiments on flame-with conclusion that flame and vapour differ only as bodies red-hot and not red-hot.