An Account of the Comet Seen in May 1759. By J. Bevis, M. B.

they have applied to them mercurial plaisters; the effect of which time will shew. As he is now discharged out of the hospital, they have directed him to bathe continually in the ocean, which happens to be very convenient to his habitation; and have directed him to anoint his limbs with the foamy juice of the quercus marina, which lies in plenty along the shore. I shall attend to the event of this process, and send your Lordship a particular account of it. I am, with all regard, Your Lordship's much obliged, and most obedient humble Servant, Dublin, May 24. 1759. William Henry. XVI. An Account of the Comet seen in May 1759. By J. Bevis, M.B. Read May 3, 1759. I had acquainted some of my friends, that it was my opinion a comet would hardly arise above our horizon of London Sunday April the 29th; but that probably we might see one April 30th. Sunday was very clear; but I could not see it. Monday, not so clear: however, I saw what I took for the comet thro' the smoke of the town, about ten, near the horizon. Tuesday, May 1. saw it very plainly, at Mr. Short's, from nine to eleven. We compared it by means means of the equatorial instrument with $\alpha$, $\beta$, and $\varepsilon$ corvi; whence its right ascension, at 8 h. 45 m. mean time, comes out $159^\circ 55' 9''$, and its south declination $25^\circ 52' 14''$. Wednesday, May 2d, observed it again at Mr. Sisson's in the Strand, with a sector of 5 feet radius, and compared it with $\beta$ corvi; whence, at 9 h. 6 m. mean time, its right ascension $158^\circ 47' 37''$, and its south declination $22^\circ 19' 23''$. The increasing moon had now much weakened the light of the comet, so that the tail and nucleus could not be distinguished as last night. I think I may now venture to pronounce this to be the same as the comet of 1682; and am about making out its future track. If I presume rightly, it will in a short time become in a manner stationary, but diminish very fast both in size and light; the earth and it both receding from each other almost in a right line. It is at this time about four times nearer to the earth than the sun is. May 3. 1759. J. Bevis. An Account of the same Comet: By Nicolas Munckley, Esq; Communicated by Nicolas Munckley, M. D. F. R. S. Read May 3, 1759. THE first certain view I had of any appearance, which could be the expected comet, was on the evening of the 30th of April, about S. S. W. a little lower than the middle of Hydra. But I did not attempt to determine its place place with any precision, till a second observation had made me more fully satisfied of its being the phenomenon I wished it. The following evening, May 1st, its place about ten o'clock (as well as I was able to fix it with no better assistance than a common globe, a quadrant, and Senex's planisphere) was, right ascension about 160 deg. declination a little more than 25 deg. S. in a part of the heavens not formed into any constellation, about 9 deg. below the star in Crater, mark'd in Bayer's catalogue α, and nearest to χ in Hydra; which last star was about 3 deg. to the east of the comet. It is a luminous appearance, very evident to the naked eye (notwithstanding the light of the moon, within two or three days of her quadrature), yet rather dim than splendid; large, but very ill defined. The telescope, at the same time it magnifies it, seems to render it more obscure. The nucleus appears to me to be rather surrounded with a circular haziness, than to have a tail in any particular direction, especially as seen thro' a telescope. Hampstead, May 1. 1759. Nicolas Munckley. P.S. The 2d of May I saw the comet again very distinctly with the naked eye; but being then in London, without either globe or planisphere, I did not pretend to settle its place. The cloudiness of the evenings prevented my seeing the comet any more till the 5th and 6th of May: and on these days partly thin clouds, and partly the increasing light of the moon, rendered it much less easily discernible, both by the naked eye eye and in the telescope. As the same causes obscured almost all the stars near it, I had great difficulty in fixing its place on the globe. It appears however, now, evidently, to be moving contrary to the order of the signs, and more considerably northwards, i.e. slowly retrograde, with a decreasing south latitude. Hampstead, May 6. 1759. N. M. XVII. A Catalogue of the Fifty Plants from Chelsea Garden, presented to the Royal Society by the worshipful Company of Apothecaries, for the Year 1757, pursuant to the Direction of Sir Hans Sloane, Baronet, Med. Reg. & Soc. Reg. nuper Praeses, by John Wilmer, M.D. clariss. Societatis Pharmaceut. Lond. Socius, Hort. Chelsean. Praefectus & Praelector Botanic. Read May 3, 1801 1759. A Cinos Syriaca, folio tenuiore, capsulis hirtutis. Mor. Hist. 1802 Ægilops Lobelii. 1803 Ambrosia maritima. C. B. 138. Ambrosia quibusdam. J. B. 3. 190. 1804 Arum Zeylanicum humile latifolium, pistillo purp. Miller. 1805 Astragalus caulescens erectus pilosus, floribus spicatis, leguminibus subulatis pilosis, Lin. Sp. Pl. 756. 1806