The late Sir George Paget published, in 1850, an autograph letter from Dr. Ward the learned divine and stout-hearted Royalist, who was master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, from 1609 to 1643. Both the letter and Harvey's reply show the interest taken by King Charles in such scientific curiosities; but Harvey's letter is also valuable because the peculiarities of its writing and annotation led to the discovery that the manuscript lectures in the British Museum [pp. 52-69] were in the handwriting of Harvey. It must, therefore, be looked upon as the origin of most of the recently acquired knowledge of the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, of his methods of observation, of his reading, and of his system of arrangement, and of verbal exposition. Dr. Ward's letter is as follows:-- "SIR,--I received your letter by which I understand his Majesty's pleasure that I should send up the petrified skull, which we have in our College Library, which accordingly I have done, with the case wherein we keep it. And I send in this letter both the key of the case and a note which we have recorded of the Donor and whence he had it. And so with my affectionate prayers and best devotions for the long life of his sacred Majesty and my service to yourself I rest "At Your Command, "SAMUEL WARD. "SIDNEY COLLEGE, _June 10, Sunday_." The address is-- "To his much honoured friend Doctor Harvey one of his Majesty's Physicians at his house in the Blackfriars be this delivered." The following is Harvey's reply; it is written on the back of Dr. Ward's letter:-- "Mr. Doctor Ward, I have showed to his Majesty this skull incrustated with stone which I received from you, and his Majesty wondered at it and looked content to see so rare a thing. I do now with thanks return it to you and your College, the same with the key of the case and the memorial you sent me enclosed herein, thinking it a kind of sacrilege not to have returned it to that place where it may for the instruction of men hereafter be conserved." The letter and skull have been preserved in a small ancient cabinet of carved oak, which stands in the Library of Sidney College. The skull is very curious. It is that of a young person and is encrusted with carbonate of lime, which is very hard and compact and is spread over the bone in such a manner as to resemble a petrification of the soft parts. The "note of the Donour" states that he was Captain William Stevens of Rotherhithe, one of the elder brethren of the Trinity, and that he brought the skull in 1627 from Crete where it was discovered about ten yards (circiter passus decem) below the surface of the ground in digging a well near the town of Candia.