the dura and pia mater being both deftroyed, and a confiderable effufion of blood from the veffels of the brain,

These bones were removed with great care and dexterity; for as their points went fo far into the brain, the nicety confifted in removing them fo that the inftrument might not pafs too far into the fubftance of the brain, and confequently deftroy the patient. In fine, the boy recovered beyond expectation, and is now entirely well, though it is three months fince he received the hurt. Therefore the faid Dr. Brachen publishes this for the information of thofe who are bigoted to an opinion, that if the brain was wounded till the lobe or particular part of the brain was rotted or confumed away, the cafe would be defperate.

In this inftance the dura and pia mater were both much fhat tered, and at length two drachms of the fubftance of the brain came away during the operation, befides what was afterwards caft out at the wound in times of dreffing (which was confiderable) and all this without any very bad fymptoms, Several credible perfons were eyewitneffes to the truth of this relation.

Account of an animal furviving the lofs of all the small guts, extracted from a letter to PETER COLLINSON, Efq; from the Rev. JARED ELLOT, M. A. at Killingworth in Connecticut, New England, Sept. 14, 1762.

HE hon. Samuel Lynde, one

TH

having fent for a man to fpay a a number of fow pigs, fome time after this operation, one of the pigs creeping under a fence, by ftraining burft the stitches, and all the fmall guts iffued out at the orifice, as big as a perfon's fift; the pig was lively, and ran about with its mates as though it felt no pain: but Mr. Lynde defired a perfon that happened to be prefent to kill the pig, to prevent a linger ing death, which he imagined muft inevitably be the cafe; this the man declined to do, but faid that he would try an experiment; he took a fharp knife, and cut off all fmooth, and applied a plaifter of pitch to the wound; the pig ran about, and feemed otherwise well; the plaifter foon fell off, and the pig dunged out at the orifice the fow-gelder had made, for a time, and then by the natural paffage, and the wound healed up.

This fwine, the whole time, feemed to be as well as the rest of

the litter, grew as faft, and at killing time was as fat as any of the other. This was very strange, when fo large a portion of the inteftines was cut away. I told the gentleman that if I had known of it at the feafon of laughter, would have travelled to his houfe (which was ten miles) to have feen how nature had provided, under fuch a mutilation, for the prefer vation and fupport of that animal,

Account of a boy living a confiderable time without any kind of nourish

ment.

Grenoble, July 20, 1763.

mention was made of a child in

the

the parish of Chateauroux, near Embrun, who had taken no fuftenance for near a year, We hear that he is ftill alive, and even more healthy than last year; that he has ftrength enough to climb trees, and carry provifions to his father's labourers in the field. This child, notwithstanding his abftinence, has a full and fresh countenance: his perfon is not difagreeable; his extremities, however, are extremely lean and cadaverous. The fkin and mufcles of the abdomen adhere to the vertebræ of the back, and confequently moft of the digestive vifcera are obliterated. He fell into this condition at the end of a great fickness, when he felt an invincible averfion to all food; an averfion which he has continued ever fince, and which will not permit him to taste any food.

Account of a cat that lived twentyfix months without drinking. From the Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the year 1753

M. L'Abbé de Fontenu of the Royal Academy of Infcrip. tions and Belles-Lettres, to whom the academy is indebted for feveral curious obfervations, was pleased to communicate this year a very fingular one. Having remarked how cats often habituate themselves, and oftener than one could wifh, to dry warrens, where they certainly cannot find drink but very seldom, he fancied that these animals could do for a very long time without drinking. To fee whether his notions were well

grounded, he made an experiment on a very large and fat caftrated cat he had at his difpofal. He began by retrenching by little and little his drink, and, at laft, debarred him of it intirely, yet fed him as ufual with boiled meat. The cat had not drank for feven months, when this obfervation was communicated to the academy, and has fince paffed nineteen without drinking. The animal was not lefs well in health, nor lefs fat; it only feemed that it eat less than before, probably becaufe digeftion was fomewhat flower. The excrements were more firm and dry which were not evacuated but every fecond day, though urine came forth fix or feven times during the fame time. The cat appeared to have an ardent defire to drink, and used his best endeayours to testify the fame to M. Fontenu, efpecially when he faw a pot of water in his hand. He licked greedily the mug, the glafs, iron, in fhort, every thing that could procure for his tongue the fenfation of coolnefs; but it does not appear in the leaft, that his health fuffered any alteration by fo fevere and fo long a want of all

forts of drink. It may be inferred from hence, that cats may fupport thirst for a confiderable time, without rifque of madness, or any other fatal accident. According to M. de Fontenu's remark, thefe perhaps are not the only animals that enjoy this faculty, and this obfervation might lead perhaps to more important objects,

The

The larger share of the tibia taken out, and afterwards fupplied by a callus. By Mr. David Laing, furgeon at Jedburgh.

A

Girl in the parish of Maxton, about feven years old, who never had any difcafe except the fmall-pox, accidentally hurt her right leg, and foon after the teguments on the fore-part of the tibia fwelled a little, but were not difcoloured till two months after, when a rednefs about the breadth of a fixpence appeared on the skin, and an ulcer foon followed, which made the patient's parents afk my advice.

The child was at this time much decayed, her flesh and ftrength being wafted, and her frequent pulse, great thirst, and want of appetite, with other appearances of hectic difpofition, made the prognofis very indifferent.

a

I caused the part to be well fomented with emollients, and applied cataplafms of the fame kind; but finding no advantage by the use of these, and difcovering by the nature of the matter that came out of the fore, and by the colour, foftnefs, &c. of the flesh, figns of the bone's being affected, though it was not yet in fight, I made a fmall incifion in the tegument to lay the bone bare, by which my fufpicions were fully confirmed.

I foon now faw that the disease in the bone extended farther than the opening of the teguments; and and therefore from time to time I enlarged the incifion, till it came to the extremities of the affected piece of bone; which method I rather chofe to follow than to hazard making at once, in this feeble,

hectic patient, fuch a large opening as would otherwife have been neceffary.

I dreffed the fore with tincture of myrrh, caufed the patient to take a decoction of the woods, with a small quantity of aq. calcis, twice a day, and gave her an antifcorbutic and aperient medicated ale for ordinary drink.

After continuing thefe dreffings and medicines about fix months, I took out the whole body of the tibia, the length of the fuperior part of what remained towards the knee being three fingers breadth, and the inferior extremity towards the ancle being only one and a half long. In fix weeks the fore was cicatrized, and in a month after the child began to walk, before the callus was fufficiently hardened, which made it turn a little crooked, as it ftill remains, but it is otherwise smooth and as hard and firm as any other bone in her body; fo that he walks, dances, leaps, &c. without the affiftance of a crutch or ftaff, and without the leaft obfervable halt.

Towards the end of her cure I gave her tincture of antimony to remove a dry itch that was over her whole body; a confiderable time after her leg was found, a new ulcer appeared on the fuperior part of the arm, and now there are two fharp points of the os hu meri ftanding out at the orifice in the teguments. This attack on a part that never received any injury, makes me of opinion that the ulcer of her leg was not occafioned by a hurt at fchool, which the parents affign as the cause of the difeafe, but that it was rather owing to her bad habit of body.

Mr.

Mr. William Carlyle, apothecary in Carlisle, favoured us lately with an hiftory of a cafe very like to this: the part of the tibia which was taken out is feven inches long; the boy to whom it belonged was twelve years old; the cure, which was almoft performed by nature, was two years in being completed, and there is not any inconveniency remaining, except that the patient cannot ftretch the heel of the leg out of which the bone was taken, fo well to the gronnd as he does the other.

In our last we gave an account of a poor family at Wattisham, in Suffolk, who were afflicted with the loss of their limbs. Vid. vol. 5. p. 67. The reader, probably, will be curious of further information concerning the fuppofed caufes and iffue of a difeafe, which has not been more fevere than fingular.

Further account of the poor family at Wattilham afflicted last year with the lofs of their limbs ;--from Some letters in vol. lii. of The Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1762.

an infant.

Brookefield, N. America, Apr. 6. THE HE following is as remarkable an inftance of finging as ever happened, the truth whereof may be relied upon; for numbers of credible perfons can teftify thereto, viz. That one Thomas Bannifter of this town has a fon not yet four years old, who would at three years and an half old fing twenty different tunes in pfalmody, by rules commonly used in the books; exactly conforming himself thereto without any affiftance, only name the particular tune to him. And when the child was but 22 months old, he would fing the tune of Dr. Watts's ode with another perfon, who only fung bafs to the fame, and carry it through without mifling one note. (We are informed that a clergyman in London bas a fon, who, though but five years old, plays readily on the harp fichord, any tune, however difficult, on barely hearing it played by another, or fung by a good voice.)

to have been all thin, weakly people, but in general healthy; to have lived juft as other poor people in the neighbourhood did, and neither to have eaten or drank any thing that difagreed with them, except fome pork and peafe, on which they dined the day the two first were feized, and which made three of the children fick at the ftomach. The part moft worthy of attention in these articles, contains anfwers by the reverend Mr. Bones, the minifter of the parish, to fome queries put by Dr. Baker, tending to difcover the cause of this uncommon and deplorable difeafe. They are as follows:

Water.] This they have taken out of a ditch, or pool of ftanding water, at their own door (as is common in this clay country.) We have no fpring or well in the parifh.

Beer.] They have generally bought their beer at a public-house. But, in Auguft laft, the poor man brewed two bufhels of malt, in a large brafs kettle, which is very commonly let out to the poor.

It

is

is an old one, but belongs to a cleanly housewife.

Bread.] We have no rye. This family have been used to buy two bushels of clog-wheat, or rivets, or bearded wheat, (as it is varioufly called in this county) every fortnight. Of this they have made their houfhold bread. This wheat they have bought of the farmer, whom I lodge with, who tells me, that last year he had fome wheat laid, which he gathered, and threshed separately, left it fhould fpoil his famples. Not that it was mildewed, or grown, but only difcoloured, and smaller than the other. This damaged wheat he threshed last Christmas; and then this poor family ufed no bread, but what was made of it, as likewife did the farmer's own family, and fome others in the neighbourhood. We obferved, that it made bad bread, and worfe puddings; but I do not find, that it difagreed with any body. A labouring man of the parish, who had ufed this bread, was affected with a numbnefs in both his hands, for about four weeks from the ninth of January. His hands were continually cold, and his fingers ends peeled. One thumb, he fays, ftill remains without any fenfation. Kitchen utenfils.] They have two fmall iron pots, which have long been in ufe. In these they boiled their pork, peafe, &c. They have likewife two brafs fkillets, rather old, in which they boiled milk, &c. The man tells me, they are in conftant use, and never were cankered,

Peafe.] They have now and then eaten peafe and pease-broth. These they have always bought, as others

do, at the fhop; and they have never difagreed with any of the family, except only on Sunday, January 10. Three of the children were then fick after eating them; but became eafy after they had vomited.

Pork.] This, I find, they generally bought pickled, of the farmer whom I lodge with. The farmer's family, and several others, have conftantly eaten it.

In this part of the country, there is a deal of old ewe-mutton, killed between the firft of November and January, fome of which is very poor, and rotten, and is ufually fold at three halfpence, or perhaps one penny, a pound. In December laft, this family lived for three weeks, at least, upon this mutton, of which they bought a quarter at a time, weighing seven or eight pounds, for one fhilling.

The man is fo prepoffeffed with notions of witchcraft, and is fo obftinate in his opinion, that I cannot excite in him even a defire of attributing this disease to any other caufe.

Since my last letter to you, Mary, (aged fixteen years) who fat for fourteen weeks in a great chair, and for seven days without any feet, or flesh on her leg bones, has confented to have the bones taken off. She is now in bed: the abfcefs is healing, and fhe feems likely to do well.

The father's fingers are almoft healed. But he every day feels fevere darting pains in many parts of his body.

The mother lies in bed, with her leg-bones bare, which she will not fuffer to be taken off. Her hands are still benumbed, but not

black.