[Rarebooks] fa: ATHENIAN MERCURY 1691-93 - SCIENCE & MEDICINE (King's Evil, Hemodynamics, Magnetism, Royal Society &c.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/m67yjdw

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


1691 Athenian Mercury: 3 Issues SCIENCE & MEDICINE - ROYAL SOCIETY - KING'S EVIL
The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 4, Numb. 17 [AND] Vol. 5, Numb. 15 [AND] Vol. 10, Numb. 15. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1691-93. Three sheets, folio (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), printed on both sides. Light wear and small pinholes to the left margins, short closed tear to one margin; a few light creases; some browning, spotting to the edges.
Three separate issues of this popular late seventeenth-century English periodical, the first newspaper to use the question-and-answer format. With numerous discussions of topics related to SCIENCE AND MEDICINE (the third of these issues devoted entirely to such subjects), including:
	- THE ROYAL SOCIETY, in a reply to the question, What are the Royal Society now a doing, and what have they done for these several Years last past? and the Reason that we hear so little or nothing from 'em? The answer makes a reference to Robert Boyle.
	- ACOUSTICS: What is the Nature of an Eccho, and how may an Artificial one be made? Also: What is the Reason that when you lay a Leaf of a Tree over any hollow place,… and strike upon the Leaf, it shall break with a Noise like a Pot-gun?"
	- METEOROLOGY: What's the Reason that I can blow either Hot or Cold out of my mouth, according as I hold my Lips closer or wider? The lengthy answer deals with the atmosphere and cites an experiment conducted at the Accademia del Cimento in Italy. There are several other "atmospheric" queries, including I have heard it affirm'd, that a square inch of Air is able to perform the same Effects that the weight of the Atmosphere doth, which seeming a Paradox to me, I desire if you think it true, to illustrate it to me by some Experiment… In their reply, the editors again refer to Robert Boyle, describing an "Experiment tryed by Mr. Boyle with a Glass Bottle." 
	- SCROFULA: the editors respond to several queries, including Whether or no the Kings of England really cure the Disease known as the Kings Evil? and What's the Reason that his present Majesty King William has never yet toucht for the Evil, and why is that Divine Gift neglected..?
	- HEMODYNAMICS: Gentlemen, What think you of the Opinion of Des Cartes [Descartes] concerning the Pulse of the Arteries, that they are caused by the Pulsation of the Heart, driving the Blood through 'em..?
	- BAROMETRIC PRESURE: It has been observed by many Seamen, particularly by myself,… that if a Bottle having nothing else in it but Air be stopt up with a very strong, close, big Cork, yet upon letting it down so many Fathoms deep, when I drew up the Bottle, I found the Cork within the Bottle, I desire to know the Reason of it?


1693 Athenian Mercury: AN ACCOUNT OF THE LOADSTONE - LODESTONES & MAGNETISM etc.
The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 10, Numb. 16. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1693. One sheet, folio (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), printed on both sides. Light wear and small pinholes to the left margins, light browning to the edges, light stain in the upper margin.
A complete issue of this popular late seventeenth-century English periodical, the first newspaper to use the question-and-answer format. Unusually, this issue is devoted to a single topic, in this case, An Account of the Loadstone [Lodestone], its origins and properties, "that you may the better therefore apprehend the Solution of [its] various Effects..." Also unusual is the presence of woodcut illustrations, uncommon in the Mercury. Several experiments are described, including one derived from Jacques Rohault.
The best-known and longest-lived of all seventeenth-century literary periodicals, The Athenian Mercury was the first advice column and the first newspaper to use the question-and-answer format. A widely-read staple of the coffee houses, it is also generally considered the first major popular periodical in England as well as the first miscellaneous periodical, and the first to appeal to both men and women. Published twice weekly from 1691-1697 by the eccentric pamphleteer and prolific publisher John Dunton, the Athenian Mercury took its name from Acts 17:21 ("For all the Athenians and strangers  which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing"). Over the course of its 580 numbers, Dunton and his two principal writers, Richard Sault and Samuel Wesley (father of Charles and John Wesley), answered nearly 6000 questions, both weighty and frivolous, on a dizzying array of topics, including theology, philosophy, politics, health, natural history, science, literature, courtship and marriage, sex, etiquette, etc., etc.