On 13th December 1750, William Brownrigg, M.D., F.R.S. (through William Watson, F.R.S.), presented to the Royal Society the following specimens:—
1. Platina, in dust, or minute masses, mixed with black sand and other impurities, as brought from the Spanish West Indies.
2. Native Platina, separated from the above-mentioned impurities.
3. Platina that has been fused.
4. Another piece of Platina that was part of the pummel of a sword.
Mr. Watson read several papers “concerning a new semi-metal called Platina” one of which was the Memoir by Dr. Brownrigg, who says:— “This semi-metal was first presented to me about nine years ago by Mr. Charles Wood, a skilful and inquisitive metallurgist, who met with it in Jamaica, whither it had been brought from Carthagena, in New Spain. And the same gentleman hath since gratified my curiosity by making further inquiries concerning this body. It is found in considerable quantities in the Spanish West Indies (in what part I could not learn), and is there known by the name of Platina di Pinto. The Spaniards probably call it Platina, from the resemblance in colour that it bears to silver. It is bright and shining, and of a uniform texture; it takes a fine polish, and is not subject to tarnish or rust; it is extremely hard and compact, but, like bath-metal or cast-iron, brittle, and cannot be extended under the hammer. . . . When exposed by itself to the fire, either in grains or in larger pieces, it is of extreme difficult fusion, and hath been kept for two hours in an air furnace in a heat that would run down cast-iron in fifteen minutes: which great heat it hath endured without being melted or wasted; neither could it be brought to fuse in this heat by adding to it Borax and other saline fluxes. But the Spaniards have a way of melting it down, either alone or by means of some flux; and cast it into sword-hilts, buckles, snuff-boxes, and other utensils.”
Dr. Brownrigg’s paper gave the details of many experiments; as to these, he wrote from Whitehaven, February 13, 1751 (n.s.):— “The gentleman, whose experiments on Platina I mentioned to the Royal Society, was Mr. Charles Wood, who permitted me to make what use of them I pleased; and I did not pretend to have made any new discovery, nor to know so much of that body, as hath long been known to the Spaniards. I might indeed have made use of his authority, but he was not ambitious of appearing in print." One of Charles Wood’s living representatives is his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Howitt (née Botham), a picturesque poetical authoress, sometimes publishing works entirely her own, and sometimes in partnership with her husband, Mr. William Howitt, who died at the age of eighty-four, on 3d March 1879. She herself has long had an honourable place in the literature of her country, her guiding sentiments being (as she herself avows), “the love of Christ, of the poor, and of little children.” In 1885 she wrote recollections of her life in a well-known periodical. As to those articles, the Spectator said:— “Nothing in Good Words is more interesting than the autobiography of Mrs. Howitt. This venerable lady, now in her eighty-sixth year (an excellent portrait is given of her), writes as pleasantly and as vigorously as ever. Her reminiscences of her education (which was very much her own work) are particularly interesting.”
XII. Captain Breval.
John Durant Breval was the only surviving son of the Rev. Francis Durant de Breval, D.D., S.T.P., Prebendary of Westminster. He entered the famous school of Westminster in 1693, and was in 1697 elected from it as a student of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1698 he was one of the young poets who welcomed King William on his return after the peace of Ryswick. In 1704 he was M.A. and Fellow of Trinity College. The renowned Dr. Richard Bentley had become the Master of the College in 1700; and before many years of office he began and maintained a series of quarrels with the Fellows. Unfortunately, too, in the Lower House of Convocation the Master of Trinity and Prebendary de Breval had a violent altercation. The Prebendary’s death in January 1708 (n.s.) did not mitigate Dr. Bentley’s animosity. Mr. John Breval became at that time embroiled in the case of a lady maltreated by her husband. So active was his interference in a special instance of ill-usage, that the husband raised an action against him for assault. Breval was advised that the summons was illegally framed, and did not appear before the court, and he was outlawed for non-appearance. Such a case raised a great deal of talking; and, of course, some one made a scandalous insinuation against the gallant Fellow. Acting upon this insinuation, and without further enquiry, Dr. Bentley deprived him of his Fellowship on 5th April 1708. The Senior Fellows formally and energetically
