shirt was changed, and sitting up in bed, he was refreshed with a glass of strong wine and a piece of bread. After this he rose and dressed, and took a gentle walk.

Dr. B. observed, that no patient who came thither received the least prejudice by the waters, though all did not receive a like benefit for their respective disorders. But one gentleman in particular, who came paralytic in the whole inferior extremities of his body, occasioned by hard drinking, was so far relieved as to walk without help. Others were cured of disorders in the skin, and relieved in rheumatic and many other complaints.

'LXXIV. A Specimen of the Labour of a Kind of Bees,* which lay up their Young in Cases of Leaves, which they Bury in Rotten Wood. By Sir Fran. Eyles Styles, Bart., F. R. S. p. 844.

Mr. S. makes no doubt but these bees are the same as described in the Phil. Trans. by Sir Edm. King, Mr. F. Willoughby, and Dr. Lister. The specimen was found in some park pales near Windsor in the latter end of the summer. One of the bees hatched, and crawled from its case, on Whitsunday, and by an empty case Mr. S. saw, that was broken open much in the same manner, he imagined another had hatched, and flown away a little before. The remainder he presumed would not come to life, as he observed that some foreign insect had made its way into some of the cases; and others might have been chilled in the winter by the fracture of the wood in which they were inclosed.

LXXV. On a Case of a Luxated Thigh Bone reduced. By Mr. Charles Young, Surgeon at Plymouth. p. 846.

As John Down, a middle sized man, aged about 40, was, on the 21st August 1759, harnessing his master's horses, they suddenly took fright and ran away with the chaise. He had his back towards the chaise, the wheel of which as it rolled very swiftly along struck him on the upper and hinder part of the right thigh. He fell to the ground and was unable to rise again, and complained immediately of a violent pain in his right hip. Mr. Y. came to him soon after the accident, and caused him to be put to bed; when on examination, he found his only complaint was the violent pain about the articulation of the femur with the ischium, which was increased by any, even the least, motion of the limb. The toe was turned in toward the heel of the left foot, and the heel of course out

The bees of this kind are generally referred by authors to the species called by Linneus apis centuncularis; but from more accurate modern observations, and more particularly from those of the ingenious Mr. Kirby, in his work entitled Monographia Apum Angliæ, it appears that 3 or 4 species have been usually confounded together under one common name. It is probable however that the species here intended is the apis willugbiella of Mr. Kirby.

ward; and the whole limb, from the head of the femur to the toes end, distorted in proportion.

Mr. Y. thought it was very evident at first sight, that there must be either a fracture of the femur, or a dislocation of its articulation with the ischium. The former he thinks would have been easily discoverable. But as by laying his hand on the great trochanter, while an assistant turned the foot inward and outward alternately, he could perceive that the motion of the great trochanter corresponded exactly to the motion of the lowest end of the femur, he concluded that had there been a fracture, it must have been between the great trochanter and the head of the bone. And had this been the case, he expected to have been able to discover it, by the grating that is always to be felt, when the 2 broken ends of a bone are moved against each other. But no such thing being perceivable, and yet the limb so much distorted, and the pain so violent, and confined to the parts about the joint, he took it for granted, and pronounced the case to be a dislocation of the femur; and consequently endeavoured to reduce it by the usual method of extension. To this end, 2 men extended the limb, by pulling on napkins tied round the ancle, while others counteracted them, by pulling at a sheet passed between his legs, and secured at the bed's head, turning the foot outward as they made the extension. This gave him great pain; but the limb soon became in every respect parallel to the other. It appeared as long, and on laying it down on the bed, the great toes and heels of both feet lay exactly in the same position; and the only difference he could perceive in the 2 limbs was, that there was a little flatness about the hip of the right side. In short, the difference between the 2 limbs was so little, that he began to think he had been mistaken in his opinion of a dislocation (for it was evident there was no reduction made by the extension, for that could not but have been perceived both by the patient and himself) and that the distortion of the limb was owing to nothing else than an involuntary contraction of the muscles, occasioned by the violence of the blow. He therefore bled him, confined him to lis on his back, and charged him to move as little as possible, imagining that rest would be his most effectual remedy. He continued in much pain for some days; but by degrees grew tolerably easy, except when the limb was moved; and at about 12 days after the accident, he could suffer the limb to be lifted to and fro gently, with little or no pain at all. Notwithstanding which, he could no more lift it of itself than at first, when it was much more painful. This embarrassed Mr. Y. good deal. He was convinced there was no fracture of the limb in any part; and thought from the circumstances above related there could hardly be a dislocation. He therefore desired the opinion of 2 other surgeons, who on seeing the position of the limb, and inquiring into all the circumstances, which did and had attended it, agreed with him in opinion, that it was no fracture, and 3 S

VOL. XI.

that it was equally unlikely under these circumstances there should be any dislocation. For the right leg, when placed by the side of the other leg, was exactly parallel to it, and continued so, unless the patient, either when asleep or at any other time, moved his body, so as to drag his leg: in that case the toe was always found inclining inwards and the heel outward; but never so but that it might be replaced, without the least difficulty or pain to him, but just so as one might have done by a limb that was paralytic. They therefore recommended rest, hoping that further rest and time would recover the perfect ease and strength of the limb. But some days passing without any alteration, Mr. Y. gave him a strong purgative, and repeated it every other or every 3d day, for several times, in order to reduce the muscles, that he might the more plainly feel any thing through them. For though he was in point of height but middle sized, he was pretty fleshy, and the glutei muscles consequently too thick to suffer any thing to be felt with any degree of distinctness through them. This answered his expectation fully; for by repeating the purgative often and at short intervals, his living sparingly, and being confined to his bed, he became much emaciated, insomuch that the head of the femur was plainly felt through the muscles, dislocated backward, and lying in the space between the os ischium and os sacrum. Of this he acquainted the gentlemen who had examined it before, and desired them to examine it a 2d time, which they did Sept. 25, and were immediately. convinced that the os femoris was dislocated, and that it was the head of the bone which was felt through the glutei muscles, in the space between the ischium

and sacrum.

To the head of the bone's lying in this place, it was probably owing that Mr. Y. was at first deceived; since its being there allowed a greater latitude of motion, than could possibly have been the case any where else; which may serve to account for the parallelism of the limb to that of the other, notwithstanding a luxation. But on turning the foot inward and outward by turns, while an assistant laid his hand on the head of the bone, a grating was perceived, both by them and the patient. This somewhat surprised them at first; but as this grating was never to be perceived without pressing pretty hardly on the head of the bone at the time the limb was turned round, and as the head of the bone was plainly felt to turn round, whenever the 'thigh had that motion given to it, they concluded it could be nothing but the side of the head of the femur against the edge of the ischium.

Convinced of this, they determined to make an extension: and to that end, brought him to the foot of the bed, and placed him on his back, with the bed's post between his thighs, which was wrapped round with cloths, to prevent its galling him. A napkin was tied round his leg at the ancle, which two assistants pulled by, while a 3d turned the knee outward, and he had his hand on the

head of the bone, pressing it downward. As soon as the extension began Mr. Y. perceived plainly the bone sink under his hand, which he had hardly time to say before it gave a snap, which was felt by the patient, and heard by them all, and the bone was reduced. ·

In about 6 or 7 days he was easy, and able to walk over the room with crutches, and bear a considerable weight of his body on the right leg: and from this time he recovered strength very fast, and had long been as strong in that leg and thigh as in the other, without any even the least difference in length, or any other respect.

Mr. Y. was induced to send to Dr. Huxham the above case of John Down, because it is asserted by some surgeons, and among those of the greatest character too, that a luxation of the head of the femur is little less than impossible; and that what is generally taken for a luxation of this joint, is a fracture of the bone at its neck.

A fracture of the neck of the bone probably happens more often than a dislocation. But the above case has proved that it may happen, and that without any extraordinary violence, provided the force is aptly applied. Indeed any force applied in the direction of the thigh downward can hardly have any tendency to dislocate it at all: and any force from below upward will be sustained by the head of the femur bearing against the upper part of the acetabulum, till the neck, the weakest part, gives way.

But though it may not be possible that the femur should be luxated by any force applied in a direction parallel to that of the thigh, in an erect posture of the body, it is not equally impossible it should be dislocated by a force applied in a contrary direction. For in the above case the blow was received on the upper and hinder part of the thigh, in a direction forward, from the wheel of the chaise, which must necessarily have a tendency to drive it round forward, and consequently cant the head of the femur out of the acetabulum backwards, where it is less deep than it is either above or below. On the fore part of the acetabulum it is yet more shallow, and therefore less force is required to dislocate it that way, and more especially as there is on that side less strength of muscles to resist.

It was probably a fortunate circumstance for this man, that Mr. Y. thought himself mistaken in his first opinion of its being a dislocation; for had that been clearly the case, he would have used every method, and every assistance to be had, to have reduced it immediately; and most likely, while the muscles remained in their full strength, and contracting involuntarily, and that violently too, as they will sometimes do on attempting an extension of them, and under which circumstance, the muscular fibres oftentimes rather break than give way, should have failed of being able to reduce it; and in that case the man must have re

mained a cripple as long as he lived: whereas now, though 25 days from the time of the accident, the muscles were so much weakened by his being confined to his bed, and wasted by his frequently repeated purges, that they very easily gave way, and the reduction was effected with as little difficulty as ever he saw in a dislocation of the humerus.

Might not the giving strong purgatives, and frequently repeating them, so as to render the muscles of strong muscular subjects more lax and weak, be a means of reducing luxations of the humerus, which are not reducible by any method of extension, as is often found to be the case?

LXXVI. On a Samnite Etruscan Coin, never before fully explained. By the Rev. John Swinton, B. D., of Christ-Church, Oxon. F. R.S. p. 853. This, according to Mr. S. is a silver Etruscan coin, of the size of the consular denarii, similar to some published by Oliviari and others, and struck about the year of Rome 663.

: LXXVII. On the next approaching Transit of Venus over the Sun. By Roger Joseph Boscovich.* p. 865.

Such prognostications of the approaching transit are useless now.

We shall

í soon have occasion to contemplate the observations made on the real appearances of it in the year ensuing.

* This celebrated astronomer and mathematician was born at Ragusa in Dalmatia in 1711, and of died at Milan in 1787: consequently at 76 years He entered the order of the Jesuits at age. Rome in 1725: in whose college there he was appointed professor of mathematics in 1740; where he soon distinguished himself by a number of excellent astronomical and mathematical dissertations. In 1750, assisted hy his brother Jesuit F. Maire, he conducted the measurement of a degree in the ecclesiastical state. And through his influence with the ministers of other courts, it is said he procured to be made similar measurements, by Liesganig in Austria and Hungary, by Beccaria in Piedmont, and even by Mason and Dixon in America. He likewise effected the restoration of the celebrated gnomon at Florence. And in 1759 he published at Vienna his Philosophiæ Naturalis Theoria. From Vienna he was called to Milan, where he taught astronomy and optics during 3 years. And he may be considered as the founder of the observatory of the Jesuits in that city; from which afterwards arose the Imperial observatory of Brera.

On the dissolution of the order of Jesuits in 1773, B. was invited to Paris, where he was naturalized, and appointed a director of the optical instruments of the marine. But feeling disgusted here at some envious attacks from the literati, he quitted France in 1783, and repaired once more to Italy. B. was an elegant general scholar, and even a poet, as appears by his excellent poem on the eclipses of the luminaries. The consideration which he enjoyed in several European courts implicated him also in politics. Hence the Republic of Lucca successfully settled through him a most important state affair.

In 1786 he published at Bassano a collection of all his works, in 4 volumes 4to. entitled Opera ad Opticam et Astronomiam Pertinentia: also the Nautical Astronomy in a 5th vol. was published in 1787. B. wrote also Elements of Mathematics and Physics, and a treatise on Dioptrical Telescopes. In the same year 1786 he went to Milan; where, at the desire of the emperor Joseph, he undertook the superintendance of the measurement of a degree, and the formation of a new map of Lombardy. But a stroke of the palsy put a period to all his usefu! labours the beginning of the year following.