ings held in London in 1645. "In that year," he
writes, "there had sprung up an association of certain worthy persons
inquisitive in Natural Philosophy, who met together, first in London,
for the investigation of what was called the new or experimental
philosophy, and afterwards several of the more influential of the
members, about 1648 or 1649, finding London too much distracted by civil
commotions, commenced holding their meetings in Oxford." Among those who
removed to Oxford were, "first, Dr Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr
Goddard, whereupon our company divided. Those at London (and we when we
had occasion to be there) met as before. Those of us at Oxford, with Dr
Ward, Dr Petty, and many others of the most inquisitive persons in
Oxford, met weekly for some years at Dr Petty's lodgings, on the like
account, to wit, so long as Dr Petty continued in Oxford, and for some
while after, because of the conveniences we had there (being the house
of an apothecary) to view and make use of drugs, and other like matters
as there was occasion. We did afterwards (Dr Petty being gone to Ireland
and our numbers growing less) remove thence, and (some years before his
Majesty's return) did meet at Dr Wilkin's lodgings in Wadham College."

This account is plain enough: it differs from the story told by Sprat in
this point only, that Sprat omits reference to the first meetings in
London between 1645 and 1648, and to the meetings in Oxford at Dr
Petty's lodgings. The causes of these omissions are not far to seek.
Sprat was a youth of seventeen in 1651, the year of his admission into
Wadham: it is difficult to believe that he was present at the gatherings
of men many years his senior in Dr Petty's lodgings, or knew as much as
Wallis did of the infancy of the Royal Society. No Oxford man is to be
entirely trusted when writing about his own College, and Sprat laudably
claimed for Wadham the honour of being the cradle of the great
association.

In his history of the Royal Society, published in 1667, he gives a full
account of its growth and objects, though not of its beginnings.

"It was some space," he writes, "after the end of the Civil Wars at
Oxford, in Dr Wilkins, his lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then
the place of resort for virtuous and learned men, that the first
meetings were held which laid the foundation of all this that followed.
The University had at this time many members of its own who had begun a
free way of rea