To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

W

HOEVER be the author of Cantabrigiana, he has done me honour in having mentioned me in such a cause, and with fuch men as those whom he has enumerated. But I was not of Trinity. What claim the University of CAMBRIDGE has in me, or I in that, is to be referred (and I fear it is but little) to Peter-house: to which college I was fent by my father, because it was a small one (a reason which did not altogether answer his expectations and mine) and for two other reasons of more prevailing and fatisfactory inducement; that the learned and excellent Dr. LAW, father to the present CHIEF JUSTICE, who was also of Peter-house, then presided in it, and that Dr. JOHN JEBB, whose name will always be repeated with respect and affection by every lover of liberty and peace, of litera. ture and science, of humanity and the welfare of mankind, had been a fellow of it, as the author of Cantabrigiana has remarked, and then refided near the college, in confequence of his marriage with Miss TORKINGTON, a lady truly worthy of him. I am, your's fincerely,

CAPEL LOFFT.

Trofton, near Bury, Suffolk, 4th Jan. 1804.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

you think it worthy of public attention, you will please to infert the account of the following discovery in your valuable Magazine.

۱

As the influx of company to Cheltenham, for two or three years past, has been fo confiderable, that the faline wells have been drank dry every morning, in the height of the season, and the salts, prepared from them not fufficient for ordinary confumption, I have fuperintended boring the ground on the fouth fide of that town during the greatest part of last sum mer, for the difcovery of new springs, and have fo far fucceeded, that a well has been funk forty-one feet deep, and fix feet wide, which at this time contains twenty

London, Dec. 26th, 1803.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

A

SIR, MONG

your numerous Readers,

there must undoubtedly be fome, who, with myself, labour under that inconvenience arifing from the peculiar ftructure of the visual organ, called Myopia. I take leave therefore, Sir, to offer to the notice of my brother Myopes who may be your readers, the following obfervations; and to request also that fome one will make known through this medium, whother his experience will furnish additional proof of the facts which I have taken the liberty to state; or whether, on the contrary, he may have found reason to allow the dicta of fome fcientific men on this fubject; which, fo far only as my fmall experience has furnished me with proofs, feem to be not well founded.

This disease, arifing from a too great convexity of the cornea, whereby the rays of light converge too foon, and confequently unite before they reach the retina, is faid to be always in a progressive state of amendment; the eye gradually flattening as we approach old age. In conformity to this doctrine, doctrine, it is usually recommended to perfons who require the aid of concave glasses, to begin with the deepest which they can conveniently bear: as the neceffity for them will be continually decreaf ing, or, in other words, the eyes by their natural decay will be gradually adapting themselves to glasses of a lower number..

Now, Sir, facts the very reverse of this, have appeared to me to be established in each of the few cafes into which I have had an opportunity of inquiring. In these cafes, though few, I can fully rely upon the fidelity of the statements; for this defect of Myopism prevails confiderably in my family, and it is from this source that I draw my information; and in each instance it has been found that with the advance of years, glasses deeper than those formerly used, were neceffary; or, at least, advantageous; inasmuch as they defined diftant objects with greater accuracy.

The