humour by representing a company of fossil fishes which bitterly complain to each other that not only had they been destroyed and buried as a consequence of the just punishment of impious mankind, but that the descendants of the iniquitous human beings who had perished in the Flood now dared to assert that these fossil fishes had never been living organisms, but were mere freaks of nature, perhaps engendered in the rocks by some occult influence of the stars.

The insatiable curiosity and industry of the Zurich Professor cannot be better illustrated than by transcribing the titles of the various subjects discussed in one of his communications to the Royal Society, of which he had been elected a Fellow in 1703. This letter is docqueted in the Society's archives as "Otia Aestivalia " or the amusements of the writer's summer leisure, and is dated February 8, 1722-3-"On the Height of Mount St. Gothard-Cataracts of the Eye-An icy Dendrites-A membranous Kidney-Some of the most curious crystals of Switzerland-Anatomy of a male Badger A lunar Eclipse-A worm found in the Skin of a Weazel-Fly's and Knats at Baden-Little Beetles from Mexico."

It should be added that this worthy man in the midst of all this observational activity found time to take an active part in public questions and that in particular he was largely instrumental in procuring the abolition of capital punishment for witchcraft. He died in 1733 at the comparatively early age of 61, having outlived his son, the Translator of Kaempfer, by four years.

His younger brother, John, another notable member

of the family, after serving with the Dutch army and acquiring proficiency in mathematical pursuits and in the art of fortification, returned to Zurich and received there the appointment of military engineer to his Canton. On the death of the Professor he was called upon to undertake some of the duties of that active citizen. But he is best remembered as a botanist, for the excellent treatise on the grasses and their allies which he published in 1719.

It will thus be seen that the Translator, John Gaspar Scheuchzer, came of a good stock. He was born in 1702 and took the degree of philosophy at Zurich in 1722, choosing for his dissertation, doubtless at the paternal suggestion, the subject of the Deluge. As his father had established such friendly relations with the Royal Society, it was natural that the son should be sent to England to push his fortune. Sir Hans Sloane, the well known President of the Society, at once took him by the hand and appointed him to be his librarian. Under the same protecting auspices he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the early summer of 1724, and in the spring of 1728 was chosen Foreign Secretary of that learned body, in conjunction with Dr. Dillenius. He appears to have interested himself in medical matters, for he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London on 22nd March 1724-5 and was created doctor of medicine at Cambridge in 1728, on the occasion of the visit of George I to the University. His career was abruptly cut short by his death in 1729 in the house of his friend and patron, when he was only twenty-seven years of age. He was buried in the Churchyard of Chelsea.

His translation of Kaempfer's work was the chief literary achievement of his brief life. He published two or three papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on the Measurement of the Height of Mountains and on Bills of Mortality. He also wrote an account of the success of inoculating small-pox, which was published in the year of his death. Of unpublished material, he left two volumes of manuscript notes, chiefly relating to his reading, which together with a number of letters from his father, brother, and others, are preserved in the British Museum. He is said to have been a good antiquary and an accomplished medallist and naturalist. Though he passed away before he had much opportunity of distinguishing himself he left enough accomplished to prove him to have been no unworthy member of his family, and to have deserved the sincere regrets with which he was followed to the grave.

To the King

May it please Your MAJESTY,

OUR MAJESTIES gracious Condescension to approve of my Design of publishing this History of Japan emboldens me, with the most profound Respect and Humility to lay it at Your MAJESTIES Feet.

It gives an account of a mighty and powerful Empire, which owes its Greatness to itself, and the flourishing Condition it is in, to its being debarr'd all Communication with other Nations: It unfolds the Rules and Maxims of a Government, where the mutual checks, jealousies and mistrusts of Persons invested with Power are thought the most effectual Means to oblige them to a faithful discharge of their respective Duties: It shews a long Series of Ecclesiastical Emperors, all descended of one Family, who sway'd the Scepter of Japan for upwards of two thousand Years, and still keep up their Titles, Rank and Grandeur, tho' dispossess'd of the supreme Power by the Secular Monarchs: It describes a valiant and invincible Nation, a polite, industrious and virtuous People, enrich'd by a mutual Commerce among them

J. I

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