quidem munificentiæ speciosum hoc in quo convenimus theatrum gratulanter agnoscimus, huic uni debemus. Noverat quippe vir cordatus medicorum hujusce societatis solertiam, et indefessum in corporibus dissecandis scrutinium. Senserat vir sensatus inventa nova et omnibus retro sæculis ignota, hac ex societate prodiisse. Ut itaque non deesset theatrum tantis ausibus, talibus inventionibus, et futuris sectionibus, apprime accommodatum, sumptibus propriis et μeyaλogía singulari, hoc ipsum exstruendum curavit. Hoc, inquam, adeo affabre fabricatum, muniisque publicis concinnatum, ut omnium in Europa quæ mihi videre contigit longe sit pulcherrimum; quod ne gratis dixisse videar, favore vestro fretus, auditores humanissimi, instantias aliquot adjiciam. Theatrum Anatomicum Viennense forma est satis humili, nec fornice nec tholo superbum, neque ducentorum auditorum capax. Altorphinum propè Norinbergum, quod primo et ante alia in Germania exstructum fuisse, præsenti mihi narravit clarissimus professor Doctor Mauritius Hoffmannus; ejusdem ferè dignitatis cum Viennensi est, neque auditores multo plures capit. Leydense ædificio satis eleganti, lectoribus eruditis et auditoribus peregrinis clarum, Londinensi nequaquam æquiparandum. Theatrum Patavinum antiquitate et lectoribus præclaris nobile, a Theatro nostro licet Tramontano se superari, Palladio vel Scamozzio judice facile fatebitur. Monspeliense ex lapide quadrato fabricatum, formæ est arctioris, pro numero tamen auditorum satis amplum. Theatrum Parisiense, sectionum frequentia et prælectionibus egregiis clarum, maximæ tamen Europæ civitati minime congruum, nec cum Cutleriano conferendum. Ne vos tædio afficiam, Romanum, Pisanum, Lovaniense, lubens prætereo, unum pro cunctis fama loquatur opus. Vivas itaque munificentissime Cutlere, meritò sanè viventi tibi præsentes largimur honores, qui non solibus tantum sed et beneficiis annos metiris, qui anteactæ vitæ fruitione bis vivis,† etiam cum vivere desinis gloria immortalis etiamnum victurus, laudibus et encomiis a * Omnis Cæsareo cedat labor Amphitheatro, Unum pro cunctis fama loquatur opus.—Martial. Ampliat ætatis spatium sibi vir bonus: hoc est, Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.-Martial. virtutis cultoribus non tantum quotannis sed quotidie celebrari dignissimus. Veram certe virtutis et gloriæ sempiternæ semitam calcarunt qui virtutes beneficas coluerunt, virtutisque cultoribus, donariis et liberali manu prospexerunt. Nullum virtuti sepulchrum est, nullibi sepelitur quæ nunquam moritur, ubique decantatur quæ undiquaque colitur. Diuturnum certe hunc honorem non donant statuæ, non marmora conferunt. Tunc enim, cum marmora Messalæ findet caprificus:* cum Curios jam dimidios, cum Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem, edax annorum reddiderit, tunc, inquam, perennabunt illustria nomina, et immortalis Heroum memoria vitabit Libitinam.† Nos interim in vivis tantorum virorum muneribus beati, ad grati animi officia, pares laudes et encomia, nostro præunte exemplo, posteros incitabimus. Ita enim futura sæcula non solum fautores nostros munificos, sed et nosmetipsos nostraque hæc instituta collaudabunt, neque nos tantorum bonorum immemores censebunt aut ingratitudinis infamia mulctabunt. Quandoquidem verò beatius est dare quam accipere, laudari itidem quam laudare, nunquam uti speramus deerunt animi generosi, qui beatorum hunc numerum expleant, etiamque in hac societate ornatissima genii publici viri, qui laudandorum catalogum adaugeant. Hoc enim erit, colendissime Præses et Collegæ honoratissimi, non tantum luce aliena, sed, cum Apolline medicorum patre, propriis radiis fulgere. Det bonorum omnium Largitor, ut quibus benefaciendi animus non deest, iisdem et facultates suppetant, quibus vero facultates suppetunt, iisdem animus non deficiat. Ut vero beneficiis non indigni, aut ea minus promereri videamur, benefactorum non tantum memoriam, sed et virtutes colamus. Justitia quæ regnum firmat, collegium etiam Regia authoritate munitum, stabiliat. Præsidi Colendissimo reverentiam et obsequium præstemus, mutuam inter nos amicitiam et con * Marmore Messalæ findet caprificus. Juvenal. When a wild fig tree shall cleave the monument of Messala the great family of Rome: as we see elders and wall flowers and shrubby plants with us in the clefts of old walls and spoil them. + Libitina the goddess of funerals, from whose temple they provided funeral necessaries, taken figuratively for death itself; as Horace, "Pars mei vitabit Libitinam." and Juvenal, "quando Libitinam evaserit æger." cordiam amplectamur, præclaris collegarum inventis nova adjicere conemur, humanitate, comitate, et morum suavitate, ornemur: nihil denique Æsculapio indignum, nihil a dignitate medica alienum perpetremus. Ita enim, Amplissime Præses, et Collegæ ornatissimi, in sæculo generoso et civitate munificentissima erit certe, erit inquam, cur præclara additamenta, immo et montes speremus. * Montes, great matters: "promittere montes." [ACCOUNT OF A THUNDER STORM AT [MS. SLOAN. 1866, fol. 96.] June 28, 1665. AFTER seven o'clock in the evening there was almost a continued thunder until eight, wherein the tonitru and fulgur, the noise and lightning were so terrible, that they put the whole city into an amazement, and most unto their prayers. The clouds went low, and the cracks seemed near over our heads during the most part of the thunder. About eight o'clock, an ignis fulmineus, pila ignea fulminans, telum igneum fulmineum, or fire-ball, hit against the little wooden pinnacle of the high leucome window of my house, toward the marketplace, broke the flue boards, and carried pieces thereof a stone's cast off; whereupon many of the tiles fell into the street, and the windows in adjoining houses were broken. At the same time either a part of that close-bound fire, or another of the same nature fell into the court-yard, and whereof no notice was taken till we began to examine the house, and then we found a freestone on the outside of the wall of the entry leading to the kitchen, half a foot from the ground, fallen from the wall; a hole as big as a foot-ball bored through the wall, which is about a foot thick, and a chest which stood against it, on the inside, split and carried about a foot from the wall. The wall also, behind the leaden cistern, at five yards distance from it, broken on the inside and outside; the middle seeming entire. The lead on the edges of the cistern turned a little up; and a great washing-bowl, that stood by it, to recover the rain, turned upside down, and split quite through. Some chimneys and tiles were struck down in other parts of the city. A fire-ball also struck down the walk in the market-place. And all this, God be thanked! without mischief unto any person. The greatest terror was from the VOL. IV. 2 A noise, answerable unto two or three cannon. The smell it left was strong, like that after the discharge of a cannon. The balls that flew were not like fire in the flame, but the coal; and the people said it was like the sun. It was discutiens, terebrans, but not urens. It burnt nothing, nor any thing it touched smelt of fire; nor melted any lead of window or cistern, as I found it do in the great storm, about nine years ago, at Melton hall, four miles off, at that time when the hail broke three thousand pounds worth of glass in Norwich, in half-a-quarter of an hour. About four days after, the like fulminous fire killed a man in Erpingham church, by Aylsham, upon whom it broke, and beat down divers which were within the wind of it. One also went off in Sir John Hobart's gallery, at Blickling. He was so near, that his arm and thigh were numbed about an hour after. Two or three days after, a woman and horse were killed near Bungay; her hat so shivered that no piece remained bigger than a groat, whereof I had some pieces sent unto me. Granades, crackers, and squibs, do much resemble the discharge, and aurum fulminans the fury thereof. Of other thunderbolts or lapides fulminei, I have little opinion. Some I have by me under that name, but they are è genere fossilium. THOMAS BROWNE. Norwich, 1665. |