Trin: Coll: Apr: 27th 86
Hon'd Sirs
I communicated your letter of the 27th of March to our Society, who, being extreamly sensible of the favour you have done them in accepting of their correspondence, have ordered me to return their humble thanks, & will not fail punctually to acquaint you with whatsoever they think worth your knowledge.
I have here inclosed a demonstration of the 2nd & 5th books of Euclid, & the whole doctrine of proportion, done (I think) more breifly than heretofore, & withall so easily, that bare addition, subtraction, multiplication & division, with understanding the Analytical marks, is all that is required to demonstrate 'em; The method & margent made use of is that delivered by Dr. Pell in his Algebra. A description & account of the new diall, Mr MOlyneux designs to print very soon, & to transmitt to you. As for the experiments of Injection, tho very many were made, I find but few registred, one is as follows (the rest I can soon procure from Dr. Mullen, if desired) he injected an infusion of [damaged oyl?] in Brandy & water into the jugular vein of a dog, which killed [it within] 2 or 3 minutes, imediately the heart was opened, & the right [ventricle] & auricle were found full of coagulated bloud very hard & black. As to the mathematicall girl, a scholar of Mr Tolet's not yet 11 years of age, the skill she has attained to in those arts is really prodigious, & we think we have in no small measure answered the end of our institution (which is to promote naturall & Mathematicall knowledge) in making so strict a tryall & examination of her; whereby 'tis manifest how soon the powers of our mind are capable of being improved, what strength of memory & even judgment may be expected even in the most tender age, & that perhaps Mathematicks (of all studies) is the most fitt to be learnt while we are very young; for this girl seems not to have a more particular genius for these studies then any others; She has been with all severity examined in the most difficult questions of Arithmetick, in all the troublesome doctrine of fractions & practise of the rules of False & Alligation, in some of the most knotty questions of Algebra, in Euclid's Geometry of which she demonstrated whole books before us, through all Trigonometry both plain & sphericall, In speculative & practical Musick, in Astronomy & the doctrine of the shere; She gave also a particular account of the Calendar, of the Mechanicall power & their use & application, & of some part of Opticks, & All these she perform'd (as far as we cou'd judge) not by rote, but as if she had a full understanding & comprehension of them, the particular papers, wherein all she has done is contained, being too bulky for a letter, shall be sent to you by some private hand.
The consideration of Mr Hook's Levell being committed to Mr Molneux, he produced one before the Soc: last meeting very nicely & accurately made, & thereby explained all the properties & curiosities thereof, giving an account of the reason of its niceness & other affections, [which] he did in a great measure by hanging on the point I (I refer to the scheme which was sent us) a plain pointed Plummet, together with the compounded or circular pendulum; this simple Pendulum in its various postures demostrated the propoerties of the othe compounded one very plainly; The only inconveniences he cou'd discover in the Machine were these two, viz: that tho the instrument continue in the same posture, yet the Pendulum being moved will scarcely ever twice fix exactly over the same point; the other is, that the least breath of wind renders it hardly practicable, when abroad in the field; He concluded all with great commendations of the inventor & invention, which received the applause of the whole meeting. 2 or 3 monstrous productions were lately presented to us, an account of which shall be soon sent you.
I am
(Hon'd Sirs)
Your most humble Servant
St George Ashe
Mr Molyneux & I are extreamly thankfull for the honour done us by our admission into the Royall Soc: (of which we had no certain information till your letter came) what mony is to be paid for our entrance shall be soon transmitted.
Addressed: To the secretaryes of the Royall Society at Gresham College, London
Journall Book RS no. * pag. 62
Entred into the LetterBook RS No. 10 pag. 309
Read May:18:86