DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

Worthing, October 6, 1810.

My dear Sir,—I shall be most happy in assisting you to form a judgment from your own observation of the utility of my little instrument; but I cannot forbear to trouble you with a few specimens of wool, which I imagine will exhibit the appearances so obviously as at least to convince you of the perfect practicability of the method. You will observe, by merely looking through them at a candle, that there is a manifest difference in the size of the rings, and if the colours are not sufficiently conspicuous when the card is used, the central hole may be made a little larger with a bodkin; and a common pair of spectacles, such as you would use in mending a pen, will be amply sufficient for remedying the flatness of the eye.

I do not apprehend that the different magnitude of the different fibres of the same fleeces is any objection to the use of the instrument; on the contrary, it possesses the singular advantage of detecting at once the inequality where it exists, and of giving the mean dimensions of the whole at the same time where the difference is not too great. I have mixed together, for example, two small specimens, which measured separately 21 and 31. The mixture, though evidently irregular, gave the dimensions of about 24, varying from 23 to 27, according to the part of the lock which was to be examined, and this is surely a much greater inequality than can ever exist in any contiguous part of the same fleece. But, however this may be, the fact is that the circumstance does not actually destroy the validity of the indications of my micrometer, as I shall further exemplify to you by an account of my examinations of some specimens of the finest wool, with which I have been favoured by Mr. H. Sheppard, an ingenious manufacturer at Frome, Somersetshire. You are, perhaps, better acquainted than I am with the history of Mr. Western’s flock, which stands in so elevated a situation between the Saxon and the Spanish productions.

Specimens of Wool from Mr. Sheppard, as measured by the Agricultural Thermometer.

Grey beaver woolNo. 11½ to 12
Angolaabout 14
Prime Vigonia 14½
Foreign coney 15
American rabbits 15
Yellow rabbits 15
Scotch hares 15
Siberian hares 15, 16
British coney 16
Finest sealabout 18
Alpaca (a single long hair) 18½-20
Goats 19
Saxon 20
Peruvian black 21, 22
Mr. Western’s Southdown, ‘reckoned the finest in the kingdom’ 23½
Lioneza 24-29
Peruvian light brown 29
Peruvian dark brown 31
Dust of the puff-ball (Lycoperdon borista) rubbed on glass, very distinct, giving about 1⁄12000 inch diameter  3½

[APPENDIX III.]
TABLE OF THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814
OMITTING SHILLINGS AND PENCE.

INCOME.
YearProprietorsLife
Subscribers		Annual
Subscribers		Miscellaneous
Ground Rents,
Dividends, &c.		Grand
Total
£££££
17995,827  514   37—6,379
18008,0472,280  719—11,047
18012,323  363  456  3313,474
18021,417  5031,003   752,999
18031,134  2451,624  5123,516
1804  808  4372,271  2483,765
18051,837  3873,845  4346,504
18061,134  1262,691  1904,141
1807——1,426   131,560
1808—  1261,615  1381,880
1809[41]—  2791,778  2892,347
1810—  8121,7232,3344,869
1811—1,7311,869  7194,319
1812—  9132,172  2443,329
1813—  5841,978  5423,104
1814—  7101,7631,9374,410
EXPENDITURE.
YearHouseLecturesLibraryPrintingWorkshopSurplus,
Funds,
Exchequer
Bills,
Given to the
Library, &c.		Grand
Total
££££ £££
17995,147— 15184——5,777
18004,193  802174216  14,47110,115
18014,868  812269376708—7,078
18025,113  844255344502—7,059
18031,6671,014250478326  1573,894
18041,777  872210181118  4203,579
18051,9991,096287193320  8134,710
18061,7391,493464384  47[42]1,8055,935
18071,8161,451440258——3,967
18081,8341,12842299——3,484
18091,9051,326420375—Debts, 2,068
1810  562  499220375—2,5244,180
18111,796  886322157—1,7844,945
18121,080  533190172—1,1653,140
1813  872  783222150—1,1753,202
18141,322  727352180—1,8704,451