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Dr. whistler obiected that this module it self was not satisfactory but that
experiment ought to be made wth. such an instrument as both the
ball and counterpoise might be immersed in the water and and when
soe immersed salt might be added to make the specifique grauity
of the water greater that then it might appear which would sink
whether the Ball or the counterpoise to wch.
Sr. Iohn Louther answerd that the matter ^/was the same &/ appeard as plaine whilst the
balls hung in air as if they were suspended in Water, for as the weight
of any body suspended in water was always made soe much lighter as
the weight of the a quantity of water aequall to it in bulk did weigh &
consequently the heauier the water the more would it take off from the
weight of the ball, the same thing must necessarily follow in air
Howeuer because in the experiment of weighing that had been made both
the ball & the counterpoise had not hung in the same medium It was
desired that an experiment should be shewn to verify that asserti
on, wch. mr Hooke promisd to giue order for against the next Meeting.


Then mr. Hooke shewd the Iournall de Scauans wherein was conteind
the obseruation of mercury in the Sun made by mor: Gallet at Auignon
the manner of wch. he in short explained to be very ingenious proper
and accurate and seemd not Defectiue in any materiall circumstance
necessary to be taken notice of in the obseruation that It had remar
ked ten seuerall immersions of mercury taking the Declinations &
Right ascensions of it in euery of those places by a method very ex
=act and that thence he had deduced by trigonometricall calculation
the Longitude /&/ Latitude of in those seuerall places & the inclination
of the orb and the trew time of the coniunction. that he had taken
notice that the body of was ovall whose longest diameter was
parallell to the aequinoctiall and that at the emersion of it out of
the eastern side of the sun it semed to spread it self as it were all ouer
vpon the paper limb of the sun appering 4 times as big in Diameter -

As also the ^/same/ acquainted the society with the contents of a Letter of mr Hally
from St. Hellena Directed to Sr. Ionas more giuing an account of the
same obseruation made by him in the said Island. But the Letter was
restored to Sr. Ionas more. from either of wch. obseruations singly the theory
of would be very much rectifyed, and from the comparing of them
both together the parallax and Distance both of the & will be experimentally verifyd

Ref: CELL/RS/HF_166  © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters