Petersburg, the night does not exceed three hours, during which the natives enjoy a continued twilight: but in December the sun is not visible more than three hours above the horizon.

The czar Peter, who was indefatigable in his endeavours to improve and civilize his subjects, neglected nothing which he thought could contribute to these purposes. He condescended even to institute and regulate assemblies at Petersburg: these were opened at five in the afternoon, and the house was shut at ten: between these hours the fashionable people of both sexes met without ceremony, danced, conversed, or played either at cards or at chess, this last being a favourite diversion among the Russians. There was likewise an apartment appointed for drinking brandy, and smoking to bacco. Plays and operas were likewise introduced for the same purposes; but as Peter had little relish, and less taste, for those entertainments, they were performed in a very awkward manner in his lifetime: however, since his death these performances have been brought to a greater degree of art and decorum.

This great northern legislator established, in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, manufactures of linen, paper, saltpetre, sulphur, gunpowder, and bricks, toge ther with water-mills for sawing timber. He instituted a marine academy, and obliged every considerable family in Russia, to send at least one son or kinsman, between the ages of ten and eighteen, to this seminary, where he was instructed in navigation, learned the languages, was taught to perform his exercises, and to live under the severest discipline. To crown his other plans of reformation, he granted letters patent for founding an academy, upon a very liberal endowment; and though he did not live to execute this scheme, his empress, who survived him, brought it to perfection.

Peter the great has been much censured for transferring the seat of the empire from Moscow to St Petersburg; the former of which lay nearer to the centre of his dominions. But these objections will have but little weight with those who consider the consequences of the removal. The new city is nearer than Moscow was to the more civilized parts of Europe; and from an intercourse with them the manners of the Russians have been improved, and the nobility in particular have lost much of their feudal importance. Above all, the grand object of Peter, that of having a formidable navy in the Baltic has certainly been obtained, and the empress of Russia is now the arbitress of the north, and in some degree the mediatrix of all Europe. In short, the erection of St Petersburg was perhaps one of the best acts of Peter's reign, and has in its consequences been the most beneficial. Indeed it is at least probable, that if through any revolution the seat of government should be again transferred to Moscow, we should nowhere see the traces of these memorable improvements, which the passing century has given birth to, but in the annals of history; and Russia would again, in all probability, relapse into her original barbarism.

The erection of such a city as Petersburg in so short a time is truly wonderful. Mr Coxe says his mind was filled with astonishment, when he reflected that so late as the beginning of the 18th century, the ground on which it stands was one vast morass, occupied by a very few fishermen's huts. The present divisions of the town, some of which we have already mentioned, are

called, 1. The Admiralty quarter; 2. The Vassili Ostrof Petersburg. or Island; 3. The Fortress; 4. The island of St Petersburg; and, 5. The various suburbs of Livonia, of Moscow, of Alexander Nevski, and of Wiburg.

The late empress has done so much for this city, that she may not improperly be called its second foundress. It is nevertheless, still an infant place, and, as Mr Wraxall observes, only an immense outline which will require future empresses, and almost future ages, to complete."

"The streets in general, says a late traveller, are Coxe's Trabroad and spacious; and three of the principal ones, vels. which meet in a point at the admiralty, and reach to the extremities of the suburbs, are at least two miles in length. Most of them are paved; but a few are still suffered to remain floored with flanks. In several parts of the metropolis, particularly in the Vassili Ostrof, wooden houses and habitations, scarcely superior to common cottages, are blended with the public buildings; but this motley mixture is far less common than at Moscow, where alone can be formed any idea of an ancient Russian city. The brick houses are ornamented with a white stucco, which has led several travellers to say that they are built with stone; whereas, unless I am greatly mistaken, there are only two stone structures in all Petersburg. The one is a palace, building by the empress upon the banks of the Neva, called the marble palace; it is of hewn granite, with marble columns and ornaments; the other is the church of St Isaac, constructed with the same materials, but not yet finished.

"The mansions of the nobility are many of them vast piles of building, but are not in general upon so large and magnificent a scale as several I observed at Moscow they are furnished with great cost, and in the same elegant style as at Paris or London. They are situated chiefly on the south side of the Neva, either in the Admiralty quarter, or in the suburbs of Livonia and Moscow, which are the finest parts of the city." See NEVA.

"Petersburg, although it is more compact than the other Russian cities, and has the houses in many streets contiguous to each other, yet still bears a resemblance to the towns of this country, and is built in a very straggling manner. By an order issued many years ago by the government, the city was inclosed within a rampart, the circumference whereof is 21 versts, or 14 English miles."

The public hospital is under an admirable system of management, both with regard to the cleanliness and comfort of the inmates. The revenues arise from the surplus profit of the Lombard bank, and amount to' about 120,000 roubles per annum; by which provision is made for upwards of 200 people in the house, and assistance given to 15,000 out patients.

The Foundling Hospital, though inferior in magnitude to that of Moscow, had 6000 children on its lists in 1813, of whom 600 were kept within the house. The expense incurred for the whole is 40,000 roubles per annum. The children upon being sent here are im mediately vaccinated, and when recovered, placed out with different families to nurse, till the period of their education commences. They are next selected, according to their natural talent, for the several employments, liberal or mechanical, to which they seem most in. clined, and are brought up accordingly under excel

Petersburg, lent preceptors. Some are sent to the manufactories; some to the military schools, and others kept at home, and instructed in the arts or the belles lettres. The fashionable promenade of the boulevards consists of three avenues of trees carried round three sides of the admiralty, a building which exhibits perhaps the longest regular façade in Europe: it is upwards of a quarter of an English mile in extent, adorned at in tervals with six several porticoes, and surmounted rather fantastically, with a thin taper dome and spire.

The academy of arts is zealously patronised by the government; and from the revenues allotted to it, is well furnished with models from the antique, as well as other matters suited to the institution. The labours of the students exhibit some of the highest specimens of imitative excellence. Their designs in architecture are of great merit, and their pictures possess a free style of execution, combined with chasteness and harmony of colouring, seldom equalled in any modern school.

The mint is a pretty large establishment, furnished with a very complete coining apparatus, exactly similar to that employed in London, and made in England by Messrs Watt and Bolton. The labourers are all peasants, and receive merely soldiers pay. They are daily stript to the skin, and so narrowly searched, that even the cunning of a Russian cannot find a secure mode of peculation. From excessive issues the paper money has long been very low in value. In 1814, according to Mr James, the paper rouble was worth only 10d. instead of 3s. 4d.

Of the edifices lately erected in Petersburg, the cathedral church of the virgin of Casan is the most magnificent. It was opened in 1814, having been 15 years in building, and cost no less than 15,000,000 of roubles. The plan was furnished by Worowitchki, a Russian slave, educated at the imperial academy under the patronage of his master Count Strogonov. He displayed an extraordinary genius for architecture, and not only planned the cathedral, but superintended the execution of the work. He just lived to see it finished. The building is in the form of a cross with a cupola in the in the centre; each arm of the cross terminates with a Corinthian portico; and that in the front is received into a grand semicircular colonnade four columns in depth. The arc of this colonnade was intended to have been ornamented with the statues of St Peter and St Paul, raised on gigantic blocks of solid granite ten or twelve feet high, but this has not yet been accomplished. The design is thought to be wanting in harmony; but the decorations are chaste, and the effect of the whole is noble and imposing in a very high degree.

Education among the higher classes of the male sex is very much neglected. The tutorage of a French abbé at home, and a short residence at one of the universities, is the only chance given to the son of a man of consequence for pursuing the belles lettres, or for acquiring any other knowledge than such as may be picked up in society. But the professional education of those who are destined for the civil, military or com mercial line is much better. Girls are brought up with a degree of attention proportionate to the neglect with which the other sex is treated. The Couvent de Demoiselles, and the Institute of Catherine, both flourishing under the patronage and perpetual inspection of

the empress dowager, are the chief seminaries for fe- Petersburg. males at Petersburg. Notwithstanding the timidity of the female character, a public examination is held every three years, and rewards are bestowed on those who have made the greatest progress. The convent contains two separate establishments, one for the education of 260 girls, the daughters of the burgeois, the other for those of the class of nobility. The period of education is about nine years, during which they re ceive instruction in the French, German, and Russian languages, in the Russian history, in natural philosophy, music, dancing, embroidery, writing, arithmetic, and geometry.

There are various manufactures in the city or neighbourhood conducted by the government. There is a cotton manufactory on the Neva, for which 600 boys and girls are furnished from the Foundling hospital. There is an imperial plate glass manufactory worked: by the emperors slaves; an extensive cloth manufactory; a porcelain manufactory, and several others. It is believed that the government loses considerably by these establishments, but they are supported with the view of naturalizing these species of industry.

The trade of Petersburg is extensive. The number of ships entered at the port in 1813, was 690, of which. 343 were British.

We have already said that Petersburg is very liable to be inundated. An inundatiou of a very alarming nature took place when Mr Coxe was there in September 1777, of which the following account was given in Journal St Petersburg, September 1777: 66 In the evening of the 9th, a violent storm of wind blowing at first S. W. and afterwards W. raised the Neva, and its various branches to so great a height, that at five in the morning the waters poured over their banks, and suddenly overflowed the town, but more particularly the Vassili Ostrof and the island of St Petersburg. The torrent rose in several streets to the depth of four feet and a half, and overturned, by its rapidity, various. buildings and bridges. About seven, the wind shifting to N. W. the flood fell as suddenly; and at midday most of the streets, which in the morning could only be passed in boats, became dry. For a short time, the river rose 10 feet 7 inches above its ordinary level." All our readers have unquestionably heard of the equestrian statue of Peter I. in bronze. We shall give an account of that extraordinary monument in Mr Coxe's own words. "It is (says he) of a colossal size, and is the work of Monsieur Falconet, the celebrated French statuary, cast at the expence of Catherine II. in honour of her great predecessor, whom she reveres and imitates. It represents that monarch in the attitude of mounting a precipice, the summit of which he has nearly attained. He appears crowned with laurel, in a loose Asiatic vest, and sitting on a housing of bearskin his right hand is stretched out as in the act of giving benediction to his people; and his left holds the reins. The design is masterly, and the attitude is bold and spirited. If there be any defect in the figure, it consists in the flat position of the right hand; and for this reason, the view of the left side is the most striking, where the whole appearance is graceful and animated, The horse is rearing upon its hind legs; and its tail, which is full and flowing, slightly touches a bronze serpent, artfully contrived to assist in supporting the vast

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Petersburg.

death; all deserters who should return to their respec- Petersburgtive corps within a limited time; and releases all criminals condemned to hard labour, provided they had not been guilty of murder."

weight of the statue in due equilibrium. The artist has, in this noble essay of his genius, represented Peter as the legislator of his country, without any allusion to conquest and bloodshed; wisely preferring his civil qualities to his military exploits. The contrast between the composed tranquillity of Peter (though perhaps not absolutely characteristic) and the fire of the horse, eager to press forwards, is very striking. The simplicity of the inscription corresponds to the sublimity of the design, and is far preferable to a pompous detail of exalt ed virtues, which the voice of flattery applies to every sovereign without distinction. It is elegantly finished in brass characters, on one side in Latin, and on the opposite in Russian. Petro primo Catharina secunda, 1782; i. e. Catherine II. to Peter I.

"The statue, when I was at Petersburg, was not erected, but stood under a large wooden shed near the Neva, within a few yards of its enormous pedestal. When Falconet had conceived the design of his statue, the base of which was to be formed by a huge rock, he carefully examined the environs of Petersburg, if, among the detached pieces of granite which are scattered about these parts, one could be found of magnitude correspondent to the dimensions of the equestrian figure. After considerable research, he discovered a stupendous mass half buried in the midst of a morass. The expence and difficulty of transporting it were no obstacles to Catherine II. By her order the morass was immediately drained, a road was cut through a forest, and carried over the marshy ground; and the stone which, after it had been somewhat reduced, weighed at least 1500 tons, was removed to Petersburg. This more than Roman work was, in less than six months from the time of its first discovery, accomplished by a windlass, and by means of large friction balls alternately placed and removed in grooves fixed on each side of the road. In this manner it was drawn, with 40 men seated upon its top, about four miles, to the banks of the Neva; there it was embarked in a vessel constructed on purpose to receive it, and thus conveyed about the same distance by water to the spot where it now stands. When landed at Petersburg, it was 42 feet long at the base, 36 at the top, 21 thick, and 17 high; a bulk greatly surpassing in weight the most boasted monuments of Roman grandeur, which, according to the fond admirers of antiquity, would have baffled the skill of modern mechanics, and were alone sufficient to render conspicuous the reign of the most degenerate emperors.

"The pedestal, however, though still of prodigious magnitude, is far from retaining its original dimensions, as, in order to form a proper station for the statue, and to represent an ascent, the summit whereof the horse is endeavouring to attain, its bulk has been necessarily diminished. But I could not observe, without regret, that the artist has been desirous to improve upon nature: and, in order to produce a resemblance of an abrupt broken precipice, has been too lavish of the chissel.

"The statue was erected on the pedestal on the 27th of August 1782. The ceremony was performed with great solemnity, and was accompanied with a solemn inauguration. At the same time the empress issued a proclamation, in which, among other instances of her clemency, she pardons all criminals under sentence of

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Mr Coxe informs us, that the weather is extremely changeable in this capital, and the cold is at times extreme; against which the inhabitants take care to provide (see PEASANT), though some of them nevertheless unfortunately fall victims to it. "As I traversed the city, (says Mr Coxe), on the morning of 12th January, I observed several persons whose faces had been bitten by the frost: their cheeks had large scars, and appeared as if they had been singed with an hot iron. As I was walking with an English gentleman, who, instead of a cap, had put on a common hat, his ears were suddenly frozen: he felt no pain, and would not have perceived it for some time, if a Russian, in passing by, had not informed him of it, and assisted him in rubbing the part affected with snow, by which means it was instantly recovered. This, or friction with flannels, is the usual remedy; but should the person in that state approach the fire, or dip the part in warm water, it immediately mortifies and drops off. The common people continued at their work as usual, and the drivers plied in the streets with their sledges, seemingly unaffected by the frust; their beards were incrusted with clotted ice, and the horses were covered with isicles.

"It sometimes happens that coachmen or servants, while they are waiting for their masters, are frozen to death. In order to prevent as much as possible these dreadful accidents, great fires of whole trees, piled one upon another, are kindled in the court-yard of the palace and the most frequented parts of the town. the flames blazed above the tops of the houses, and cast a glare to a considerable distance, I was frequently much amused by contemplating the picturesque groups of Russians, with their Asiatic dress and long beards, assembled round the fire. The centinels upon duty, having no beards, which are of great use to protect the glands of the threat, generally tie handkerchiefs under their chins, and cover their ears with small cases of flannel."

The police of this city has been much admired. This establishment consists of a police master, two presidents, the one for criminal, the other for civil cases, and two consulters, chosen from the burgher class. Te this is committed the care to maintain decorum, good order and morals; the attainment of which is thus accomplished.

The residence is divided into ten departments, each of which has a president who must possess a correct knowledge of the inhabitants in his own department, of which he is regarded as the censor morum. His house must be a refuge both night and day for all in distress; and he must not leave the city for two hours under any pretext whatever, without appointing a substitute to act in his absence. The constables and watchmen of his department are subject to his orders; and in the discharge of his duty, he has two sergeants to attend him.

The night watchmen have stations assigned them, and are to be aided in the seizing of offenders, or in any service their commanders may require. There is also a command of 120 men, who are suported by a regiment

This piece of political mechanism is so harmoniously connected in all its parts, that it becomes the admiration of every foreigner.

So extraordinary is the vigilance observed by every part of this admirable whole, that all secret inquisitions are totally superfluous. The police has a knowledge of every person in the residence; travellers are subject to certain formalities, in consequence of which to hide the place of their abode, or the time of their departure, are alike impracticable. Every householder must declare to the police who lodges with him, or what strangers have put up at his house. When travellers leave the town, they must publish in the newspapers their name, quality, and place of abode, three different times, and produce the papers containing such advertisement.

PETERSBURGH, in America, is a sea-port town in Virginia, 25 miles southward of Richmond, seated on both sides of the Appamatox river, about 12 miles above its junction with James river, and contained 5668 inhabitants in 1810. There is no regularity, and very little elegance in Petersburgh. It is merely a place of business. The Free Masons have a hall tolerably elegant; and the seat of the Bowling family is pleasant and well built. It is rather unhealthy. Like Richmond, Williamsburgh, Alexandria, and Norfolk, it is a corporation; and what is singular, Petersburgh city comprehends part of three counties. The celebrated Indian queen, Pocahonta, from whom descended the Randolph and Bowling families, formerly resided at this place. It is a place of considerable trade. Tobacco is the staple produce, of which above 20,000 hogsheads are annually received at the warehouses.

PETERSFIELD, a handsome town of Hampshire in England, and sends two members to parliament. It is seated in W. Long. 1. 5. N. Lat. 51. 5.

PETERWARADIN, a fortified town in Sclavonia, and one of the strongest frontier places the house of Austria has against the Turks, seated on the Danube between the Drave and the Save. E. Long. 20. o. N. Lat. 45. 20.

PETIOLE, in Botany, the slender stalks that support the leaves of a plant.

PETIT, or PETITE, a French word signifying little er small.

PETITE Guerre, denotes the operations of detached parties and the war of posts. See WAR, Part III. PETIT Sergeanty. See SERGEANTY.

PETIT Treason. See TREASON.

PETIT, John, a doctor of the Sorbonne, very early gained to himself a character by his knowledge, and those eloquent orations which he pronounced before the university of Paris. He was employed in the famous embassy which was sent from France to Rome, for the purpose of healing the schism in 1407; but he soon lost all the honour which he had acquired. John Sans Peur, duke of Burgundy, having treacherously contrived to assassinate Louis of France, duke of Orleans, only brother to Charles VI. John Petit, entirely devoted to the views of the murderer, maintained in a public disputation, at Paris, the 8th of March 1408, that the murder was lawful. He had the effrontery to assert, that "it is allowed to employ fraud, treason, and VOL. XVI. Part I.

every other method, however base, in order to get rid of a tyrant; and that no faith ought to be kept with him." He dared to add further, that "the man who should commit such an action, not only deserved to be exempted from punishment, but to receive a reward." This sanguinary doctrine was loudly exclaimed against; but the duke of Burgundy's powerfu! influence sheltered Petit for some time. Some eminent writers, however, of that period, with Gerson at their head, denounced the doctrine to John de Montaigu, bishop of Paris, who condemned it as heretical the 23d November 1414. It was likewise condemned by the council of Constance the year following at the instigation of Gerson; but no notice was taken either of Petit's name or his writings. In fine, the king, on the 16th of September 1416, ordered the parliament of Paris to pronounce a severe decrce against this dangerous performance; and it was also censured by the university. But the duke of Burgundy, in 1418, had interest enough to compel the grand vicars of the bishop of Paris, who then lay sick at St Omer's to retract the sentence which that prelate had past in 1414. Petit died three years before, i. e. in 1411, at Hesdin; and his apology in favour of the duke of Burgundy, with all the particulars of that infamous transaction, may be seen in the fifth volume of the last edition of Gerson's works. Father Pinchinat, of the order of St Francis, and author of the Dictionary of Heresies, in 4to, has endeavoured to vindicate his order from a charge brought by some writers, who have called Petit a Cordelier, or Franciscan Friar. "He proves very clearly (says Abbé Prevot) that he was a secular priest; and adds, that upon the same evidence, Father Mercier, a Cordelier, had a warm dispute in 1717 with M. Dupin, who had given this title to Petit in his Collection of Censures. He represented to him (says he), before a meeting of the Faculty, the falsity of such a claim, and the injury which he offered to the order of St Francis. Dupin, convinced of his error, candidly owned that he was led into it by following some infidel writers, and promised to retract it in the new edition of the Censures, which was published in 1720. M. Fleury, who had committed the same mistake, promised also to make amends for it by a solemn recantation; but dying before he had an opportunity of doing that piece of justice to the Cordeliers, the continuator of his Ecclesiastical History, who had not such opportunities of information, fell into the same fault." (Pour & contre, tom. x. p. 23.). If we take the opinion of L'Advocat's Dictionary, it would appear no fault was committed; for it gives a list of the pensioners of the dukes of Burgundy, in order to prove that John Petit was a Cordelier. Indeed, it is highly probable that if Dupin, Fleury, and Father Fabré, did not alter their opinion, it was owing to a firm persuasion that they had committed no error.

PETIT, John Lewis, an eminent surgeon, born at Paris in 1674. He had so early an inclination to surgery, that Mr Littre, a celebrated anatomist, being in his father's house, he regularly attended that gentleman's lectures, from his being seven years of age. He was received master in surgery in the year 1700; and aequired such reputation in the practice of that art, that in 1726 the king of Poland sent for him to his court, and in 1734 the king of Spain prevailed on him to ge into that kingdom. He restored the health of those Gg princes;

Petitet

Fetit princes; and they endeavoured to detain him by offering him great advantages, but he chose rather to return to France. He was received into the academy of sciences in 1715 became director of the royal academy of surgery; made several important discoveries; and invented new instruments for the improvement of surgery. He died at Paris in 1750. He wrote an excellent Treatise on the Diseases of the Bones, the best edition of which is that of 1723; and many learned Dissertations in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, and in the first volume of the Memoirs of Surgery.

PETITIO PRINCIPII, in Logic, the taking a thing for true, and drawing conclusions from it as such, when it is really false; or at least wants to be proved before any inferences can be drawn from it.

PETITION, a supplication made by an inferior to a superior, and especially to one having jurisdiction. It is used for that remedy which the subject hath to help a wrong done by the king, who hath a prerogative not to be sued by writ: In which sense it is either general, That the king do him right; whereupon follows a general indorsement upon the same, Let right be done the party: Or it is special, when the conclusion and indorsement are special, for this or that to be done, &c. By statute, the soliciting, labouring, or precuring the putting the hands or consent of above twenty persons to any petition to the king, or either house of parliament, for alterations in church or state, unless by assent of three or more justices of the peace of the county, or a majority of the grand jury at the assizes or sessions, &c. and repairing to the king or parliament to deliver such petition with above the number of ten persons, is subject to a fine of 100l. and three months imprisonment, being proved by two witnesses within six months, in the court of B. R. or at the assizes, &c. And if what is required by this statute be observed, care must be taken that petitions to the king contain nothing which may be interpreted to reflect on the administration; for if they do, it may come under the denomination of a libel: and it is remarkable, that the petition of the city of London for the sitting of a parliament was deemed libellous, because it suggested that the king's dissolving a late parliament was an obstruction of justice; also the petition of the seven bishops, sent to the Tower by James II. was called a libel, &c. To subscribe a petition to the king, to frighten him into a change of his measures, intimating, that if it be denied many thousands of his subjects will be discontented, &c. is included among the contempts against the king's person and government, tending to weaken the sanie, and is punishable by fine and imprisonment.

PETITORY ACTION, in Scots Law. See Law, No clxxxiii. 18. 20.

PETITOT, JOHN, a curious painter in enamel, who was born at Geneva in 1607, reached a great degree of perfection in the art. He was wonderfully patient in finishing his works, but he had the address to conceal his labour. He only painted the heads and hands of the figures: the hair, grounds, and drapery, being executed by Bordier his brother-in-law. These two artists had the credit of associating and labouring together for fifty years, without the least misunderstanding between them. It is asserted by an ingenious French writer, that Petitot and Bordier derived the knowledge of the most cu

may

rious and durable colours proper for enamelling, from Petitat, Sir Theodore Mayerne at London, who recommended Petiver. Petitot to Charles I. He had the honour to paint the portraits of that monarch and the whole royal family, and continued in England until Charles's unhappy end: he then went to Paris, where he was highly favoured by Louis XIV. and acquired an ample fortune. Being a Protestant, the revocation of the edict of Nantz obliged him to retire to Geneva; but settling soon after at Veray in the canton of Beru, he passed the remainder of his life in ease and affluence. He died in 1691. Petitot be called the inventor of painting portraits in enamel. Though his friend Bordier made several attempts before him, and Sir Theodore Mayerne had facilitated the means of employing the most beautiful colours; yet Petitot completed the works, which under his hand acquired softness and liveliness of colouring that will never change, and will ever render his works variable. He made use of gold and silver plates, and seldom enamelled on copper. When he first came in vogue, his price was 20 louis's a head, which he soon raised to 40. It was his custom to take a painter with him, who painted the picture in oil; after which Petitot sketched out his work, which he always finished after the life. When he painted the king of France, he took those pictures for his copies that most resembled him; and the king afterwards gave him a sitting or two to finish his work.

PETIVER, JAMES, a celebrated English botanist, was contemporary with Plukenet; but we are wholly unacquainted with the precise time of his birth. He was by profession an apothecary, having served an apprenticeship under Mr Feltham, apothecary to Bartho lomew's hospital. He settled in Aldersgate-street when he commenced business on his own account, where he continued during the whole of his life. His business was extensive; and he was afterwards chosen apothecary to the Charter-house. Excepting Sir Hans Sloane, and Mr Courten, he was the only person after the Tradescants, who made any important collections in natural history, previous to those of the present day. He employed the captains and surgeons of different ships to bring him home specimens; and by means of printed directions he enabled them to select proper objects. In this manner his collection soon became so valuable, that he was offered 4000l. for it by Sir Hans Sloane, some time prior to his decease; but, after he died, it was purchased by that naturalist. His fame was extended both at home and abroad by his valuable museum. He was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society; and having become acquainted with Ray, he assisted him in arranging the second volume of his History of Plants. He died on the 20th of April, 1718; and his funeral was honoured by the attendance of Sir Hans Sloane, and other eminent men, as pall-bearers.

He published several works, on different subjects of natural history, such as Musci Petiveriani Centuriæ decem, 1692-1703, 8vo: Gazophylacii Naturæ et Artis, Decades decem, folio, 1702, with 100 plates: A catalogue of Mr Ray's English Herbal, illustrated with figures, folio, 1713, and continued in 1715: Many small publications, which may be found enumerated in Dr Pultney's book: Many papers in the Philosophical Transactions; and a material article in the third vo lume of Ray's work, entitled, Planta Rariores Chinenses,

Madras