The society was founded for the purpose of studying, repeating and even modifying the most notable philosophical experiments of the day, such as those made by Von Guericke, Boyle, Hooke and others, and its proceedings were published in 1676 and 1685 under the title of “Collegium Experimental sive Curiosum, etc.” =A.D. 1673.=--Hevelius--Hevel--Hovel--Hövelke (Joannes), an eminent Polish astronomer, member of the English Royal Society, and a great friend more particularly of le Père M. Mersenne, of Gassendi and of Kircher, publishes during 1673 the first part of his great work “Machina Cœlestis”--dedicated to Louis XIV--the entire second part of which, issued in 1679, was destroyed by fire with the exception of seven copies. This explains its extreme scarcity. It was this work which led to the public controversy between Hevelius and Dr. Hooke who published, in London, during 1674 his “Animad. in Mach. Celest. Hevelii.” It is said that, next to John Flamsteed, Hevelius was the most accurate observer of the heavens in his day (“The Reliquary,” London, Vol. XIV. pp. 149–159 and Vol. XV. pp. 34–38; “Journal des Savants” for March, June and November 1836). He had already published “De Variatione acus magneticæ” (_Opusc. Act. Erudit. Lips._, Vol. I. p. 103), also a report of the variations of the magnetical needle during 1670, which can be found in the _Phil. Trans._, Vol. V. for 1670, p. 2059, or in Hutton’s abridgments, London, 1809, Vol. I. p. 514. REFERENCES.--Larousse, “Dict.,” Vol. IX. pp. 266–267; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XXV. pp. 285–294; Delambre, “Hist. de l’Astron. Mod.,” Vol. II. pp. 434–484; Weidler, “Hist. Astron.,” p. 485; “Mem. Roy. Soc.,” 1739, Vol. I. p. 274. =A.D. 1675.=--Boyle (Robert), Irish natural philosopher and chemist, seventh son of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, and one of the first members of what he calls the “Invisible” or “Philosophical” College, which has since become the Royal Society,[47] gives, in his “Philosophical Works,” the result of his many experiments upon magnetism and electricity. John Evelyn in his letter to Mr. Wotton, March 30, 1695 (“Memoirs, Diary and Correspondence,” by Wm. Bray, London, p. 716), says of Boyle: “It must be confess’d that he had a marvailous sagacity in finding out many usefull and noble experiments. Never did stubborn matter come under his inquisition but he extorted a confession of all that lay in her most intimate recesses; and what he discover’d he as faithfully register’d, and frankly communicated....” Prof. Tyndall remarks (“Lecture,” February 4, 1875): “The tendency to physical theory showed itself in Boyle. He imagined that the electrified body threw out a glutinous or unctuous effluvium, which laid hold of small bodies, and, in its return to the source from which it emanated, carried them along with it.”