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both in respect to this and other orders of plants, especially the cryptogamiæ, yet there still remains much to be done, as he believes every skilful reader will easily allow.

From all that has been observed, he would draw a few conclusions in favour of the proposals in question. First, then, the uncertainty of authors on this branch of botany shows, that it requires a still further examination than has hitherto been made.* 2dly, That though in general, since the writings of Linneus, figures have been in a great measure laid aside, yet in this, and some other obscure parts of botany, they may be employed to good purpose. 3dly, That the curious in botany ought to consider themselves as particularly obliged to those who are inclined to labour and make researches in the obscure, and, according to the vulgar opinion, contemptible parts of nature, especially this order of plants, some of which are used for the table, and not a few of them are of a poisonous nature, so that a mistake may, and has perhaps sometimes proved of fatal consequence.

LXXX. Of a Remarkable Agitation of the Sea, July 28, 1761; and of two Thunder Storms in Cornwall. By the Rev. Wm. Borlase, M. A., F. R. S. p. 507.

On Tuesday, July 28, 1761, the day quite calm, the sky lowering and cloudy, thunder at times all the day, the tide in Mount's bay was considerably agitated. Between Penzance and Marazion, there is a level of sands, on which there is good travelling when the tide is out: but when the tide is full, the sands are covered. At 10 A. M. the driver of a plough, belonging to William Tregennin, laden with tin, for Penzance coinage, driving as usual on the then bare sands, found himself and the plough on a sudden surrounded by the sea. The horses were frightened and plunged, the oxen stood still, the driver and his boy could neither recollect how they should help the cattle or secure themselves: several people saw them at a distance, but dared not to approach; and in a few minutes when all was given up for lost, the sea retired and left them, safely to pursue their journey. Mr. B. came to Chandour, a small village at the western extremity of these sands, about 11, and found several persons standing on the shore, intent on the several extraordinary fluxes and refluxes of the tide at that time, and was informed, that at the first agitation, when the plough was surprised by the sea, the water must have risen about 6 feet perpendicular. During his stay he observed the sea flowing and retreating several times, and by his watch it was 7 minutes flowing, the water rising about a foot and half, or somewhat more,

♦ Since this was written by Mr. Hudson, much new light has been thrown on the structure and economy of the fungi by the celebrated Hedwig of Germany; and their different species have been accurately described and figured by Mons. Bulliard in France, and by Mr. Bolton in England.

and the like time nearly in retiring. About half past 11 he was obliged to move homewards, and as he passed by the brim of the water, observed that the sea advanced and retired, and was not settled; but the alterations were then small, and scarcely perceptible. In the more western parts of this bay, the agitations were very apparent; and, by the papers, the like agitations were felt in the harbours of Falmouth, Fawy, and Plymouth.

On the same day, about 8 o'clock P. M. the wind at east, Fahrenheit's thermometer at 64, the atmosphere continuing in the same calm, sultry, and grumbling temperature, the fiercest lightning, accompanied in the same moment with a thunderclap, broke over Ludgvan church; it came from the northwest, and fell on the southern pinnacle of the east side of the church tower. The lightning threw down great part of the pinnacle and stones of the tower, then descended by the belfry and steeple, doing much damage in its course, and passed through the body of the church, damaging the pews, &c. but particularly the pulpit and altar.

More furious still was the thunder storm on the 11th of January last, which fell on the church and tower of Breâg, about 7 miles east of this place. About a quarter past 4 P. M. the barometer as low as 28, the wind blowing hard at south west, on a sudden it grew very dark, and a shower of hail, not remarkably large, followed, accompanied with the fiercest flash of lightning and the most violent explosion of thunder; the lightning and thunder being almost instantaneous. The havock made on the church is past description or conception. The western side of the tower was rent from almost the top to the bottom, the crack not in a straight line but irregular, and from 1 to 5 inches wide; the south east pinnacle split into a thousand pieces, and scattered all over the spacious church-yard and church town; two of the battlements on the western, and four on the eastern and southern sides of the tower struck off, and every one of the windows of the church, excepting one in the jet out north aisle, shattered to pieces, presented a most dismal prospect.

It is difficult to say in what direction the force proceeded, it is apprehended it must have penetrated the tower, through the middle of the arch over the belfry door, which though locked and strongly bolted, was burst open; the centre of the arch was divided, and the top stone of that remarkably fine one over the window cracked athwart; the lightning must therefore have passed directly up the tower, through the midst of the wall, the outside of which has the exact appearance of being battered by cannon-ball, and is quite bulged out between the first and second ring. Had not this been the case, how could such a large quantity of entire stones, and fragments of others of a prodigious size, be forced out of their places, as well on the inside as the outside of the wall?

The stones of the pinnacles and battlements were scattered in all directions;

one, of at least 150lb. weight, fell on the top of a house, about 60 yards to the south, another was cast full 400 yards to the north, one very large one to the south-east of the church; a long stone, which served for a bench, adjoining to the south stile, was cracked cross ways, and one end turned quite upside down. The lightning in passing through the church did every where very great damage. It is remarkable that about the middle of the south aisle, over one of the arches, a round hole, of about 2 inches diameter, was pierced through the carved oak, directly under the plaster, and a piece of the main soil, of more than a foot in length struck off, and part of it burnt to a charcoal. The eastern part of the tower is likewise somewhat damaged, and a small crack appearing on the inside of the wall. Two of the standing pinnacles are much damaged, and part of the cross of the north-western one is struck off; the corners of the tower are very firm, so are the buttresses, excepting the southernmost one of the west end, some stones of which are moved out of their places. Thus the beauty of this admired tower is quite destroyed, never more to be retrieved, as the top of it, as far down as the leads, must be entirely taken off, and the western side is condemned from top to bottom.

LXXXI. On two Remarkable Cases in Surgery. By John Huxham, M.D., F.R.S. p. 515.

June 12th, 1747, Mr. T. Adams, surgeon at Liskard in Cornwall, was sent for to assist John Sr, of the parish of St, Clear. The messenger informed him he had cut his throat from ear to ear. When he came to him he found a very large wound, near 7 inches long, 3 parts round his neck; the trachea cut almost through; but the knife had luckily escaped wounding the jugular arteries. No considerable hæmorrhage ensued, and that was entirely stopped. Mr. A. endeavoured a reunion of the parts by suture; which he performed in the following manner. He first made 2 stitches through the external parts and wind-pipe, which he conveniently performed, as the wound admitted of introducing his fore finger and thumb into the trachea, and left them untied, till he had brought the 2 ends of the wound into contact by suture; then tying the 2 stitches, it had a fair aspect for reunion; which by superficial dressing and bandage was completed in a month's time. As soon as he had dressed him he was able to speak, and informed him, as well as his neighbours, that his wife had made that desperate attempt on his life in a wood, coming from her father's house to the place where she was a servant, by first blindfolding him with handkerchiefs, and then, under pretence of taking measure to make a new shirt for him, took off his stock, unbuttoned his collar, cut his throat, and then ran from him. After he had been about a fortnight employed about his business, as a carpenter, he complained of a troublesome tickling cough, and loss of appetite. His complaints grew worse,

and he was fearful of an ulcer being formed internally, as he had every appearance of a consumption. But coming one day to him, he complained of a soreness externally. On examining, he found a little matter formed, and on opening it, extracted a little silk, about the length of a small pin, which relieved his complaints entirely. He lived 2 years in perfect health, and died of the small-pox.

June 28th, 1756, Mr. A. was desired by the parish of Duloe, to attend Charles Rs, who, 2 days before had been struck by lightning. On his examination, he found it had pierced through his coat, waistcoat, and shirt, a little above the middle of the deltoid muscle of the right arm. It had burnt to tinder almost all the sleeve of the shirt, waistcoat, and inside of the coat sleeve, but the outside appeared untouched, except where the lightning pierced. The flesh of his arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, was burnt, especially where the lightning pierced, a full inch deep, and onwards to the wrist and fingers less and less deep, till it did but just destroy the scarf skin; it pierced again near the umbilical region in a different direction, but not so deep: his thighs were burnt in various directions, but not so deep; from the right knee downwards on the outside, it first burnt the hair, then the scarf skin, and continued on deeper, especially about the ancle and instep of the foot. The left leg much in the same manner on the inside, but not so deeply burnt. His waistcoat, breeches, and stockings burnt on the inside as his coat sleeve, and the outside appeared untouched his buckles melted in his shoes in various directions. In this deplorable condition, his arm and the other parts appearing greatly inflamed, Mr. A. bled, and gave him a purging draught to empty his bowels, and the next day put him on the use of the bark: the applications were a warm spirituous bath, and the common digesters. By these means there was a separation begun; in 2 days the edges of the burnt parts beginning to separate, when he thought to assist nature by deep scarification; but to his very great surprize, he could no more thrust his knife through the burnt parts than through hide leather, or a thong; by which means the separation was rather slow, and the stench intolerable. By the end of July he was able to walk abroad; and about the middle of August perfectly healed.

The lightning came through the upper part of the window; a pair of sheepshears lay in the window, behind his back, which Mr. A. imagines collected, and threw it in such various directions about his body. Another man sat by him, slightly struck about his neck and left shoulder. It is remarkable, while the inan of the house went to his cellar to draw a jug of cyder, on his return he found his wife and children along the floor, and the 2 men fallen forward, with their faces on the table, all insensible. The man so much hurt recovered his senses first.

LXXXII. On the Success of Mons. Daviel's Method of Extracting Cataracts. By Andrew Cantwell, M. D. p. 519.

The extraction of the crystalline from the posterior chamber, by an incision made in the cornea, with a design to cure the cataract, seems to have been first attempted by Mr. Daviel. It is true, surgeon Petit, and the oculist St. Ives, extracted it out of the anterior chamber in 1708, and the following years; but that operation was designed only to rid this chamber of an accidental burden fallen into it, in couching the cataract; and it is very reasonable to believe it was only the examples of these 2 operators that led Daviel into this new method, which has wonderfully facilitated the cure of that disorder, and cleared up the many difficulties that appeared in it.

The Greeks and Arabians considered the glaucoma as an incurable cataract; and the moderns pretended that the incurability proceeded from the nature of some other distemper complicated with the cataract. It was hard to tell why, the cataract once couched, the patient should remain blind, or why it should rise again into its place.

This new operation shows that not only the crystalline, but even sometimes its capsula, and sometimes only the anterior membrane of this bag, are opaque, sometimes adherent to, sometimes separated from, the body of the crystalline. Sometimes the anterior membrane of this bag has been found opaque; and the crystalline transparent, and in all these cases the patients have recovered their sight.

With this account Dr. C. sent a small box, in which were 3 packets. No 1 contained a portion of the anterior membrane of the capsula crystallini. This humour, being still transparent, was left untouched. The patient saw perfectly well after the operation. N° 2 contained an opaque crystalline, and a portion of the anterior side of its bag, quite opaque. The patient recovered his sight. N° 3 contained the whole bag and crystalline, extracted the 14th of this month. It adhered to the posterior and superior side of the iris; and was quite whole and plump when drawn out. In this last case it commonly happens that some portion of the vitreous humour follows; sometimes it mixes with the aqueous, and comes off with it; sometimes the eye appears quite sunk; and sometimes the vitreous humour filling as it were the posterior chamber, makes the iris bulge forwards, and appear prominent on it, the whole together resembles a kind of hernia. These two last cases require a nice and prudent hand: the prominent vitreous humour is to be cut off in 2 or 3 days after the operation, the eye then banded, but not compressed, and the patient laid in his bed, the head lower than usual, till the rest of the vitreous humour gets back into its cells, and remains there. This he had seen examples of; the vitreous humour regenerates, and though a 4 L

VOL. XI.

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