A Discourse Concerning the Origine and Properties of Wind. With An Historicall Account of Hurricanes, and other Tempestuous Winds

Oxford, Printed by W, Hall for Tho Bowman..., !671. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, 156 x 97 mms., pp. [viii], 302, including half-title, engraved plates on pages 18 and 19, 24, recently rebound in full antique-style panelled calf, raised bands on spine, black morocco label. A very good copy. The Church of England clergyman Ralph Bohun (1639 - 1716) was also an accomplished meteorologist, having learned much from his time tutoring John Evelyn's son (also John): "After five years in Evelyn's household, 'having well and faithfully performed his charge' (Evelyn, 4.566), Bohun went to reside in New College, and published in Oxford his Discourse concerning the origine and properties of wind: with an historical account of hurricanes, and other tempestuous winds (1671). 'By reason of my residence in a place principally concerned in naval affairs' (Preface), presumably a reference to Evelyn's interests and his house at Deptford, Bohun was enabled to compare the observations of ships' captains with the writings of classical philosophers, whose experience never compassed the distant East and West Indies now so familiar. Of the moderns, Isaac Vossius seemed reliable. Bohun then discusses both the regular, meaning trade winds and monsoons, and tempestuous winds, among which he includes waterspouts, tornadoes, and hurricanes, devoting space to individual accounts of such devastating events. Dismissing predictions based on superstition, he notes that an acquaintance living near the sea can foretell storms several hours before they arrive from the action of his barometer. His only other known writing is the commendatory poem prefixed to the second and subsequent editions of Evelyn's Sylva." Madan, III, 2881.