XCIII. Description of a Rare Species of Orthoceratites, in a Letter from Dr. Nicholas de Himsel, to William Watson, M. D., F. R. S. From the Latin. p. 692. A species of orthoceratites found in Kelwick near Fulham. The fragments were imbedded in a grey calcareous stone, and the specimens were of various sizes. Fig. A, pl. 8. A portion of an orthoceratites, the lower part of which adheres to the stone; it consists of calcareous stone, and gradually decreases to the top. Although from the fragments we might suppose the orthoceratites to be a cylinder, yet the fragments when joined, shew it to be a cone, and it seems to me, from the thickness of its syphon, that this orthoceratites must have been more than two feet long. I have seen a specimen in another calcareous stone found at the same place, of two feet and a half length, but it was so brittle that it was not possible to get it out entire. This portion of orthoceratites is coated by its surrounding shell at a bc. Five joints are visible, which were once the cavities or thalami, and are situated close together, and through them passes on one side a thickish siphon or tube, which in almost all the orthoceratites in my possession is always remote from the centre, but here is situated at the periphery. The siphon lessens gradually, from which circumstance we may judge of the length of the cone of this specimen. The inner part of the crust or shell a b c which covers the joints, is crystalline, consisting of small irregular sparry crystals.-Fig. B. Another portion in which the joints are thinner, and the siphon placed at the periphery, covered with its shell at a. At b is seen the shelly septum, which proceeding from the superior joint invests the part rs of the siphon.-Fig. B. C. A portion of an orthoceratites of grey calcareous stone, but the siphon consists of sparry fluor finely crystalized.-Fig. c. Another portion divided through the axis, and with the outer part covered by the sheil, marked with slight circular striæ. From the interior part fig. D its internal conformation appears, The smaller siphon xz, placed between the centre and the periphery, appears freed from its surrounding joint half way, the remaining half being covered by the lower joint cde. The joint a b is filled up by pellucid polygonal crystallized spar; but the joint c d e is filled by flesh-coloured sparry stone. The superior part of the siphon is shown at x, where the rays going from the circumference to the centre are visible. Between the sparry crystals in the joint a b appear black streaks here and there, which are filled with asphaltum: so likewise the cavity of the joint a b, as well as the convex surface of the joint ce, which is received into the first concavity, are coated by a lamina of asphaltum.-Fig. E. Another part of a larger orthoceratites, shewing its exterior.-Fig. F. Its interior as divided through the middle, with a pretty thick siphon. abc and the other slight streaks are the diaphragms separating the joints ab which constitute the siphon, and surround the thinner membrane of the siphon, which is still apparent at o and p. These diaphragms are thicker in the vestiges of the siphon, and are placed on each other at their lower part. The siphon in this specimen is situated between the centre and periphery.-Fig. G. The striated calcareous matter which filled the siphon, and its interior part, looking toward the centre opposite the periphery.-Fig. H. The posterior side, nearer the periphery.-Fig. 1. The concave part of a large joint in which the whitish particles of the testaceous diaphragm now crystallized m n rare seen, with the siphon passing through them.-Fig. K. Another portion of a large orthoceratites, shewing its external appearance, with the siphon g placed at the periphery. The diaphragms are here seen proceeding on each-side from the joints, joining each other, and concealing the siphon from the exterior part. A is a small portion of the thickish shell, with which this orthoceratites is still covered. XCIV. A Further Account of the Effects of Electricity in the Cure of some Diseases. By Mr. Patrick Brydone. p. 695. ner. A young woman of Aiton had her right leg drawn back by a contraction of the muscles that bend the knee, so that she had not been able to put that foot to the ground for near 12 months. She had taken the advice of some surgeons in the country, and had used several remedies to no purpose. At last, hearing the cure of the paralytic woman, whose case Mr. B. sent some time before, she insisted on being brought hither; and underwent a course of electrical shocks for nearly 2 months, receiving every day at least 50 or 60 in the following manShe sat close by the machine, and grasping the phial in her hand, she presented the wire to the barrel or conductor, and drew the sparks from it for about a minute. The phial being thus charged, she then touched her knee with the wire, and thus received such severe strokes, as would sometimes instantly raise a blister on the part. The joint was at last so much relaxed, as that she could walk home with the help of a crutch, though her leg was so weak that she had very little use of it. little use of it. After she had continued in this state for some weeks, she was advised to use the cold bath: but that soon brought back the contraction; and he had been since informed that she was worse than ever. A soldier's wife of about 30 years of age, was seized with a slight palsy, about Newcastle, on her way to this country: but before she got to this place, she had lost all the feeling in her left side, and so far the power of it, that she was brought to Mr. B. in a cart. After receiving 600 strokes from the electrical machine in the usual way, and in the space of 2 days, she recovered the use of her side, and set out on foot to make out the rest of her journey. However, for fear of a relapse, he gave her a recommendatory letter to Mr. Sommer, surgeon at Haddington, as she was to pass through that town, and as he knew that he was likewise provided with an electrical apparatus. A young woman from Home, a village in Berwickshire, complained of a coldness and insensibility in her left hand and wrist, of two years standing. When Mr. B. felt that hand, it was as cold as stone, while the other was sweating; and she told him that it never had been warmer all that time. He made her draw the sparks from an egg (which for some other purpose was suspended by a wire from the conductor) for about half an hour; and at the end of that time he found the dead hand in a far greater sweat than the other. She then wrapt it up in a piece of flannel, as she used so do, and retired. Next day she told him, that since the operation she had been able to put off and on her cloaths without help, which she had not been able to do for a 12 month before. She was again electrized; and believing she was then quite well, she went away: but some weeks For the first account, see p. 163 of this vol. of these abridgments.-Orig. after the coldness of her hand beginning to return, she made him another visit, was again electrized, and was dismissed a 2d time apparently cured. This was about 2 months before, and he had heard nothing of her afterwards. He adds further, that several persons had been relieved of rheumatic pains, by And a woman was cured of a deafness of 6 months electrizing the parts effected. standing, contracted, as she imagined, by cold. This woman held the phial in her hand, while another person standing on a cake of resin gave her the shock, by putting the end of the wire into her ear. This manner of electrizing brought always on a profuse sweat over the head, which was encouraged by wrapping it up in flannel. The first day she came here to Mr. B. she could scarcely hear what was spoken by those about her; but in 5 days she seemed to be perfectly cured.* XCV. An Account of the Black Assize at Oxford, from the Register of Merton College in that University. Communicated by John Ward, LL.D. With some additional Remarks. p. 699. que Anno nono D. Bickley Custodis, 1577. Vicessimo primo Julii in vestiario Dñus custos et octo Seniores dispensarunt cum Decreto de concione et appictantia habendis, die Dominico post festum S❝ Petri ad vincula, ne vocata et conveniente turba, morbus ille, qui ante quindies quamplurimos infestarat, dissipatior et periculosior fiat. Etenim 15, 16, et 17, hujus Julii aegrotant plus minus trecenti homines; et infra duodecim dierum spatium mortui sunt (ne quid errem) centum scholares, praeter cives non paucos. Tempus sine dubio calamitosissimum et luctu plenum. Nam quidam lectos disserentes, agitati nescio quo morbi et doloris furore, suos custodes baculis caedunt et abigunt; alii per areas et plateas insanientium more circumcursant; alii in profundum aquarum praecipites insiliunt; nemo tamen, summo Deo gratia, desperanter perit. Franguntur omnium animi. Fugiunt medici, non propter necessitatem fratrum, sed propter se et cistas creati. Relinquuntur miseri. Domini, doctores, et collegiorum praefecti, ad unum pene omnes abeunt. Custos noster; longe omnium vigilantissimus, domi apud nos manet; ́in aegrotis omnem curam, laborem, diligentiam impensus|| collocat; die toto, et nocte etiam intempesta, eos sedulo invisit. Moriuntur e nostris quinque. Omnis aula, omne collegium, aut domi, aut in via ad patriam, suos habet mortuos. Mirari quis posset multitudinem ad medicastrorum domos cum matulis citato cursu properantium. Pharmacopolarum etiam conservata, syrupos, olea, aquas * To these cases are subjoined the attestations of the patients themselves, and of the minister of the parish. It was judged proper to reprint this curious historical document in the original latin, + Sic in regist. § Sic in regist. Sic in regist. 1 dulces, pixides, cujusque generis confectiones, brevissimo tempore exhausta. bus hic insigniter violentus, ita neque diu duravit. Nam infra unius mensis Vicessimo quarto Julii Joannes May, socius et artium magister, in collegio vitam finit. Sepelitur in ecclesia. Vicessimo septimo ejusdem Browne clericus moritur in collegio. Vicessimo octavo ejusdem Gaunte portionista moritur in collegio. Vicessimo nono Dnus Lea, electus probationarius 20 Julii, moritur in collegio. Additional Remarks, by Tho. Birch, D.D., Sec. R. S. p. 702. Camden, in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth,§ observes, that almost all, except women and children, who were present at the assizes at Oxford, at the trial of Rowland Jenkes, a Bookseller there, for seditious words, died, to the number of about 300. Mr. John Stow, in his Chronicle of England,|| enlarges * Sic in regist. ↑ Sic in regist: Page 285, edit. Lugd. Batay. 1625. Sic in regist. this number, and affirms, that there died in Oxford 300 persons, and in other places 200 and odd, from the 6th of July to the 12th of August; after which died not any of that sickness; for one of them infected not another: and this historian agrees with Camden, that not any one woman or child died thereof. Dr. George Ethryg, a physician, who practised at that time at Oxford,* in the 2d book of his Hypomnemata quædam in aliquot Libros Pauli Æginetæ, seu Observationes Medicamentorum, quæ hâc ætate in usu sunt, printed at London in 1588, in 8vo, mentions, that on the first night of the appearance of the disease about 600 fell sick of it; and that the next night 100 more were seized in the villages near Oxford. Lord Bacon, in his Natural History, evidently refers to this, and one or two more instances of the same kind in the following passage, Century x. N° 914. "The most pernicious infection next the plague is the smell of the gaol, where prisoners have been long and close and nastily kept; whereof we have had in our time experience twice or thrice, when both the judges that sat upon the gaol, and numbers of those that attended the business, or were present, sickened upon it and died. Therefore it were good wisdom, that in such cases the gaol were aired before they be brought forth." We have likewise an account in Mr. Anthony Wood, that at the quarter-session at Cambridge, in Lent, in the year 1522, and the 13th of the reign of Henry the 8th, the justices, gentlemen, and bailiffs, with most of the persons present, were seized with a disease, which proved mortal to a considerable number of them; those who escaped having been very dangerously sick. With regard to the unhappy instance of the same kind of contagion, which happened at the session in the Old Bailey, in May 1750, see Dr. Pringle's excellent work, intitled, Observations on the Diseases of the Army in Camp and in Garrison.+ XCVI. A Description of the Plan of Peking, the Capital of China; sent to the Royal Society by Father Gaubil, è Societate Jesu. Translated from the French. p. 704. KING CHE. THE COURT.-In this plan are the inclosures of walls, which form as it were three cities. The 1st is the imperial palace, or imperial city. It is called Kong tching or Tse kin. The 2d inclosure is Hoang tching. The 3d inclosure is King tching, or Royal City. Maps and descriptions of this being to be met with in other books; any further account of it is omitted as unneces sary here. * Wood Hist. et Antiqu. Universit. Oxon. lib. i. p. 295, and Athen. Oxon. vol. I. col. 237. + Hist. et Antiquit. Universit. Oxon ubi supra. + Page 290, 2d edit. |