Plot is known for looking for natural curiosities in several English counties, and for writing Natural History of Oxfordshire[2] in which he described the fossilised femur of a giant (now known to be from the dinosaurMegalosaurus) and Natural History of Staffordshire, in which he describes a double sunset.[3]
In 1677 he became a fellow of the Royal Society as a result of his exhibition of minerals, and in 1682 became the society's Secretary, and joint editor of the Philosophical Transactions (144 - 178) [1]. In the field of chemistry he searched for a universal solvent that could be obtained from wine spirits, and believed that alchemy was necessary for medicine. After 1686 Plot focused more on archaeology, but misinterpreted Roman remains as Saxon. He stressed the unusual; he studied echoes in order to learn about air, mineral waters, and recognised types of earth in layers, but believed that fossil shellfish were coincidental mineral crystallisations, and that some spring water must originate from the sea flowing through underground channels.[4]
^Plot 1705 Page 144: §. 155. Here it may be remembred that 'tis possible, that Shells found on the Tops of Mountains, may be brought thither by the Fall of Spouts. vid. Nat. Hist. of Staff. Chap. 7. §. 45. And that real Shells found deep in the Earth, may be brought thither by the vast Subterraneous Indraughts coming from the Sea, which occasion Springs, see Mercurius Centralis and Nat. Hist. of Stafford-shire, Chap. 2. §. 71, 72.
^ Turner, Anthony (Autumn 1996). "Robert Plot (1640–1696)". Sphæra, formerly the newsletter of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford (issue 4). Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
