An Account of Two Books

An Account of two Books: 1. A Discourse of the State of Health in the Island of Jamaica, with a Provision calculated for the same, from the Air, the Place, and the Water; the Customs and manner of Living, &c. By Thomas Trapham M.D. Coll. Med. Lond. Soc. Hon. This Book is divided by the Ingenious Author into ten Chapters, with a Conclusion. Chap. 1. Treateth of the Air of Jamaica. As, amongst other particulars, of the Winds there, and several kinds of Breezes; with the Distempers they introduce. Shewing also, that 'tis thick and moist, though very hot. That it aboundeth with a Volatile Nitrous Salt; from the speedy rusting of Iron, and the great fruitifying quality of the Rains and Dews there. With a Digression of the Nature or Production of Nitre, &c. Chap. 2. Of the Place. As, with other matters of note, Whence not subject to Hurricanes. Description of Port Royal: with the advantages and inconveniences therein with respect to health. Account of the Sugar-works: and of the Distempers which proceed from much drinking of Rum, and other hot Liquors. Two great Rarities: the one a sort of Trees, not rotten, but living and growing, the Bark of which shines in the dark most vividly, especially in rainy weather. The other a sort of Seeds, endued with an inward throbbing Puls or Spring of Motion: by means whereof they will also leap sometimes above a span high upon a Table; and being placed at a distance, continue that leaping motion one towards another: which power of self-motion they also retain, in some degree, for many days. Descriptions of several Parts of the Island. Of the Cacao, and other Plants here produced. A Natural History of the Countrey promised. Chap. 3. Of the Water. As of the River de Coure. How cured by the Spaniards, &c. A better water near the Port. Danger of Well-water, especially at Ligany. Rivers and Springs abound. A Vegetable which being cut, affords a copious pious and healthful Liquor. Uses of the Coco Nut-tree. Chap. 4. Of the Customs and Manners of Living. Where a suitable and regular Diet is recommended. Best Wine for the Jamaicans brought from Madera. How the Jamaican to order himself in the night. Whence it is, that in Jamaica four Males dye for one Female. Of Chocolate (the Manna of the West-Indies) its preparation and use. Of Fruits, Flesh, and Fish, which the best. Particularly, the Sea-Tortoise excellent food. With several observations of this Animal. Of the Manaty or Sea-Cow. The Jew-fish, &c. Here no venomous Creatures, &c. Chap. 5. Of the Intemperatures and Diseases of the Place in general, and Fluxes in particular. The Diseases here, few, and simple. Small Pox, Plague, Consumptions, Stone, but rare. As also the Diseases incident to Women in Northern Countries: Childbirth easie to admiration. Symptoms and cure of the Simple Flux, Bloody Flux, and White Flux. Chap. 6. Of the Fevers in Jamaica. As their Nature, Remedies. Usually Intermittent. The use of China herein. Chap. 7. Of the Dropsy, called the Countrey Disease. A specifick Remedy hereof growing in Jamaica, called the Dumb Cane, because, whosoever toucheth it with his Tongue, becometh dumb for some hours. Applied by the Author only outwardly. How to be prepared and used: and its odd effects. Occasionally of the Herb Verbene very successfully applied in the Pleurisie. The use of a Decoction of Savanna Weed, a sort of Spikenard. Chap. 8. Of Worms. Whence so frequent in Jamaica; especially in Children, Women, and Infirm. Amongst others, Jamaica Aloes one specifick for them, &c. Chap. 9. Of the Lues Venerea. Some conjectures of its Original. Description of the Yaws, cured in Jamaica with ease and certainty by a methodical use of Vomits, Purging, and Bleeding: together with a Remedy for external sores, of ease preparation; which is also described. A Conjecture, That many of the Symptoms in the Yaws and Pox, may proceed from little Animals, bred in and about the Spermatick Parts. The use of a Balsamick Juice in the Pox, discovered by wild Boars. Chap. 10. Of the Dry-belly-ach. How occasioned. Its terrible Symptomes. Often proves Chronical. Bathing a sure Remedy. A Specifick to be used with the forementioned Balsome. The Conclusion. Wherein Baths are recommended for preventing most of the forementioned Diseases. The Author's Opinion of the Production of Ambergrise. II. Catalogus Stellarum Australium: seu Supplementum Catalogi Tychoi, exhibens Longitudines & Latitudines Stellarum fixarum, quae prope Polum Antarcticum sitae, in Horizonte Uraniburgico Tychoi inconspicua fuerunt, accurato Calculo, ex Distantias supputatas, & ad Annum 1677. complectum correctionibus. Cum ipsis Observationibus in Insula S. Helena (cuius Latitudo 15 gr. 55 m. Austr. & Longit. 7 gr. 00 m. ad Occasum a Londino) summâ Curâ & Sextante satis magno de Cælo depromptis. Opus ab Astronomicis haltenus desideratum. Accedit Appendicula de Rebus quibusdam Astronomicis, notatus non indignis. Authore Edmundo Halleio, & Coll. Reg. Oxon. THE diligent and most accurate Author introduceth these his Observations with a Preface; therein noting, That from his said Observations it is most clear, that all the Astronomical Tables hitherto extant, are defective in Calculating the Motions of Celestial Bodies: that Saturn moveth much more slowly, and Jupiter more swiftly, than by those Tables is reckoned upon. That hereupon, he began to go about to correct them; but presently foresaw, that could never be well done, without a more correct Catalogue of the fixed Stars: the performance whereof, is already undertaken by other excellent hands. That he therefore chose rather to take upon himself the stateing of the places of the fixed Stars near the Southern Pole, and out of our Horizon: which no one, that he knoweth, hath, with proper Instruments, before undertaken. What Frederick Houtman's Instruments were, by whose Observations in Sumatra, Blaeu pretended to correct his Celestial Globe, our Author knows not; but saith, That by comparing that Globe with this his present Catalogue, it it appeareth he understood little of Astronomy. Which considering, and being also approved and encouraged by divers persons of much Worth and Honour, as my Lord Brouncker, Sir Joseph Williamson, Sir Jonas Moore, and others, & even by the King also, he thereupon furnished himself with such Instruments as were necessary for his purpose: which he particularly mentions and describes. Of these, he saith, he made the utmost and most assiduous use that could be, in a place of so thick and cloudy a Sky, as that of St. Helena, contrary to common report, prov'd to be; having restored about 350 fixed Stars, which were omitted in Catalogo Tychohico. The places whereof he presumeth he hath truly assigned, taking in, or not without respect to, the places of some of the Stars in the forementioned Catalogue; in which the Obliquity of the Ecliptick is supposed to be 23 gr. 31 m. 30 s. which (saith our Author) is most certainly too much. Yet because he designed not a correction of the whole Sphear; and because it appears not, as yet, within half a minute, how great that Obliquity is; and that this his own Catalogue may be easily reduced to any Obliquity, he thought not fit to meddle with that. After the Preface, follow the Observations themselves: wherein to his own, the Author hath added an ancient Catalogue out of Clavius's Commentaries In Sphaeram Jo. de Sacrobosco; and that of Bartschius & Tabulis Rudolphinis Kepleri: that being compared with these his Observations, it might evidently appear how very much the Ancient Globes do almost everywhere differ from the Heavens. From these Observations, as he proceeds, he also proposeth some conjectures of the corruptibility, or at least the mutability of the fixed Stars. Next there is a Table of the Right Ascensions of the Southern fixed Stars, and their Distances from the Pole: For the use of Navigators. Hereto is subjoyned an Observation of Mercury by our Author, sic. Mercurii Transitus sub Solis Disco. Oct. 28. Anno 1677. Cum Tentamine pro Solis Parallaxi. Of his conjectures here made about the Suns Parallaxis, in his This aforesaid Preface, he saith, That were the place of Mercury's Node once found, from this his Observation of Mercury, the Suns Parallax might be deduced. Hereto are added, by our Author, Modi quidam penè Geometrici pro Parallaxi Luna investiganda. Of which, there are three proposed, Yet the best way of finding the same (as the Author noteth in his Preface) would be, by comparing the Meridian Altitudes of the Moon, observed both in St. Helena and in Europe at the same time. The concluding Chapter is entitled, Quaedam Lunaris Theoria Emendationem spectantis. Wherein it is (as is noted in the said Preface) that Astronomy is at present most of all defective. And that the discovery hereof would lead us to the most exact way of finding out the Longitude of places. LONDON, Printed for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society. 1679.