Eye-witness account of Newton's death

Author: John Conduitt

Source: Keynes Ms. 130.15, King's College, Cambridge, UK

Published online: August 2004

Additional Information
- Notes on the Electronic Edition
  - You are currently reading the diplomatic version of this text. Diplomatic transcriptions offer a detailed representation of the document with minimal editorial intervention. All deletions and additions are rendered in the text and abbreviations have not been expanded. Switching to the normalized view of this text will hide 12 deletions, silently include 9 additions and apply 12 editorial regularizations.
- Revision History
  - 1 January 2001
    - Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young
  - 1 June 2004
    - Tagged transcription by Rebekah Higgitt
  - 1 August 2004
    - Checked against microfilm by John Young
  - 25 October 2006
    - Coding audited and updated to Newton v2.0 DTD by Michael Hawkins
  - 20 April 2009
    - Updated to Newton V3.0 (TEI P5 Schema) by Michael Hawkins
  - 29 September 2011
    - Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins
- Download THEM00177.xml and schema (advanced users only)
Related Texts
- This document is part of Keynes Ms. 130
  The previous part of this document is Notes on Newton's suitability for canonisation if not deification [Keynes Ms. 130.14]
  The next part of this document is Note on Newton's 'unpromising' infancy and (deleted) eulogy of Alexander Pope [Keynes Ms. 130.16]

<1>

& the book com̄only laying before him & w^ch he read often at last was a duodecimo bible, he writt the smallest but {illeg} a very distinct & legible hand & to the I found his eyes bloodshod one morning & he complained something swam before his eyes & when I asked him what he thought had occasioned that disorder he said he believed that he had overstrained the optick nerves for for a \the/ morning or two last past he had waked before the sun was quite up & had endeavoured to see what a clock it was then \on his {wat{ch}}/ by a very little light that came thro the curtain & shutter \upon w^ch he left that off & found out the hour by feeling the hand & his eyes soon recov{ered}/ at one time he had thought so intensely on the sun & looked so much on the body of it to make his observations that for some time it appeared constantly before his eyes – He wrote small \but very/ distinct & legible hand & to the last his hand was very steady —

|Had voided two stones broken – together as big as a pea – 3 years ago|

Sect Came to town perfectly well told me the 1^st of March — the sunday before he had slept from 11. to 8 – his great fatigue in town \& complaisance/ brought his mar he brought his distemper upon him – he was ill on the friday foll^g \being 3^d/ – continued so – I not hear{ing} till Saturday the 11. sent Mead & Cheselden – stone in bladder he seemed easier on Wed^day – 15 & wee had some hopes – but he grew worse & sense failed him weaker & weaker \on Friday a violent looseness/ – his senses perfectly to on Saturday 18 – a long discourse with D^r Mead – that evening seemed to be insensible & conti grew weak{er} & all Sunday was quite insensible & seemed to be quiet & free fom pain – on Monday the 20^th at 1 – in the morning he died without any gre appearance of pain —–

made no necessities

patient thought

Philosophy less mischeivous

day Oliver died measure force of wind by jumping /with & against it\

use legs have legs —–

<2>

handiness —– E. Pembroke's {song} have legs & use legs – day Oliver died – tried —

Morality of Socrates – knowledge of Pythagoras Story of Socrates standing in the market place 24 – hours {distrait} –

His furnace at Cambridge preserved religiously & shewn to strangers —

Story of Caton the joiner at Cambridge who made a tub a {sic} square hollow piece of wood nine foot deep filled with water, glasses at distance let fall balls of wax – S^r Isaac at bottom looking glass broke – wonder being very thick – Caton you do not know the force of water —