8. The first of these men may have been Keane Fitz Gerald, or Fitzgerald, of Poland St., London, F.R.S., 1756, who contributed papers on such diverse subjects as improvements to and uses for the steam engine, improvements to the thermometer and barometer, and methods of “checking the too luxuriant Growth of Fruit-Trees”; Phil. Trans., L (1757–58), 53–7, 370–4, 727–32; LI (1759–60), 823–33; LII (1761–62), 71–5, 146–54. The second of these men was almost certainly Dr. Charles Morton, physician and secretary of the Royal Society; see above, p. 71 n.

9. This note may have been written at almost any time between February 1759, when BF received his doctorate at St. Andrews, and August 1762, or during his second mission to England. According to established practice, it should have been printed with similarly undated documents at the end of Volume VIII, but through an editorial error it was misfiled and overlooked until the present volume was in preparation. It must therefore be printed, with apologies, among other undated documents apparently belonging to 1762.