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thing of the kind, which, however, does not afterwards happen. If one fhould chance to drink cold wine fo fuddenly as not to warm in his ftomach, then the pylorus

and upper orifice remain thut;

and, the wine afterwards contracting warmth, the ftomach fwells, the part is choaked, as it were, and has a kind of apoplexy: If then, with a bit of fpunge moiftened with oil or honey, and wrapped about the end of a knittingneedle, the fauces are tickled, the wine is vomited up, and the party is freed from all dangerous fymp

toms.

When Otto Tachenius, according to the prefeription of Johannes Agricola, had fo often endeavour. ed to fublime arfenic, that it was at length to remain fixed in the bottom of the veffel; and when, after many fublimations, he had opened the veffel, he breathed an air pleafant and grateful to his palate; but in lefs than half an hour he felt his ftomach aching and contracted, with a convulfion of all his limbs, difficult breathing, bloody urine, and a great heat; being af. terwards fuddenly feized with cho. lic pains, he remained contracted for a full half-hour: Being recruited with milk and oil, he found him. felf much better; yet a flow fever, like an hectic, remained on him the whole winter, which he extinguished by decoctions of vulnerary herbs, the eating of cabbage, the ufe of orange-juice, oil, and falt; and by thefe remedies he perfectly recovered. Here is an example of all the functions of the common fenfory hurt, from the olfactory nerves being only affect. ed.

Of the effect of rains, of marshes and bogs, fubterraneous wood, and subterraneous waters. From M. Buffan's Theory of the Earth.

RAINS, and the running waters produced by them, detach continually, from the tops and ridges of mountains, fand, earth, gravel, &c. and carry them into the plains, whence ftreams and rivers bear away a part into lower plains, and often to the fea. Plains are therefore filled up fucceffively, and rife by little and little, and mountains diminish conftantly and become low, which diminution is perceptible in feveral parts. Jofeph Blancanus relates facts in regard to this, which were well known in his time, and which prove that the mountains were become fo low as to difcover villages and caftles from feveral parts, whence they could not be formerly feen. In the thire of Derby in England, the fteeple of the village Craih was not visible in 1572, from a certain mountain, upon account of the height of another mountain interpofed, which extends into Hopton and Wirksworth; and 80 or 100 years afterwards this steeple was feen, and even a part of the church. Dr. Plot cites a like example of a mountain between Sibbertoft and Ashby in the county of Northampton. The waters carry not only along with them the lighteft parts of mountains, as earth, fand, gravel, and fmall ftones, but even roll away large rocks, which confiderably diminishes their height. In general, the higher mountains are, and their inclina. tion more fteep, the more the rocks feem to be cut off from them. The highest mountains of Wales have

[blocks in formation]

rocks extremely ftrait, and very naked; the fhivers of thofe rocks are feen lying in large heaps at their bottom. It is froft and water that feparate and bear them down: fo that it is not only the mountains of fand and earth which rains lower, but alfo, as it appears, they attack the hardest rocks, and drag along their fragments into the vallies: And, these rocks and large ftones, difperfed here and there, are much more common in countries where the mountains are of fand and freestone, than in thofe where they are of marble and clay, be. caufe the fand which ferves as bafe to the rock, is a lefs folid foundation than clay.

To give an idea of the quantity of earth which the rains feparate from the mountains, and bear down into the vallies, we may cite a fact related by Dr. Plot: He fays, in his Natural Hiftory of Staffordfhire, that a great number of pieces of money, ftruck in the time of Edward IV. were found at 18 feet depth in the earth; fo that this ground, which is marfhy, fwelled or was augmented about a foot in 11 years, or one inch and onetwelfth in a year. A like obfervation may be made on trees, which have been dug up at 17 feet depth, under which were found medals of Julius Cæfar; and thus earth, carried off from mountains into plains by running ftreams, increafes very confiderably the elevation of the ground of plains.

This gravel, fand, and earth, which the waters feparate from the mountains, and carry into the plains, form there beds which muft not be confounded with the ancient and original beds of the earth. We should rank in the clafs of thefe

new beds, thofe of fand-ftone, foft ftone, gravel, and fand, of which the grains are washed and rounded; and to it fhould be likewife referred the beds of ftone that are formed by a kind of fediment and incruftation, as we cannot deduce their origin from the motion and fediments of the waters of the fea. In thofe fandy, foft, and imper. fect ftones, are found an infinity of vegetables, leaves of trees, land or river fhells, fmall bones of land animals, but never fhells, nor o ther marine productions; which proves evidently, as well as their little folidity, that thofe beds are formed on the furface of the dry land, and that they are much newer than marble and other ftone which contain thells, anciently formed in the fea. Sand-stone, and all thofe new ftones, appear to have hardnefs and folidity when they are extracted; but, if ufed for any purpofe, the air and rains are found to diffolve them very foon; their fubftance is even fo different from true ftone, that, when they are reduced into fmall parts in order to make fand of them, they are foon converted into a fort of earth and mud the ftalactites likewife, and other ftony concretions, which M. Tournefort had taken for marbles that had vegetated, are not true ftones no more than thofe formed by incrustations, Sand.ftone is therefore an imperfect matter, different from ftone and earth, and having its origin from both by the means of the water of rains, as ftony incrustations have theirs from the fediment of the waters of certain fprings; and thus their beds are not ancient, and have not been formed, as others, by the fediment of the waters of the fea.

The beds of peat or turf muft likewife be confidered as new beds, produced by the facceffive accumu. lation of half-rotted trees and other vegetables, which were no other wife preferved than by happening to be in bituminous grounds, which have hindered their entirely corrupting. In all thofe new beds of fand or foft ftone, or offtone formed by fediments, or of peat, no marine production is found: but, on the contrary, many vegetables, the bones of land animals, river and land fhells, as may be feen in the meadows of Northamptonshire near Afhby, where a great number of fnail-fhells have been found with plants, herbs, and feveral river hells, well preferved at the depth of fome feet under ground, with out any fea-fhells. The waters that flow upon the furface of the earth, have formed all thofe new beds by often changing ther chan. nel, and fpreading on all fides; a part of those waters penetrates to the interior, and flows through the clefts of rocks and tones; and this is the reafon that no water is found on high lands, or on the tops of hills, because all the heights of the earth are generally compofed of ftone and rocks, efpecially towards the fummit. In order to find water, the ftone and the rock must be dug into till their bafe is reached; that is, till clay or firm earth appears, on which thofe rocks reft; and no water is found unless the thickness of the ftone is pierced through and through, as may be obferved in feveral wells dug in high grounds; and when the height of the rocks, that is, the thicknefs of the ftone that muft be pierced, is very confiderable, as in high mountains, where the rocks are

often 1000 feet high, it is impoffible to fink wells therein, and confequently to have water. There are likewife prodigious tracts of land, where water is abfolutely wanting, as in Arabia Petræa, a defert where it never rains, where burning fands cover the whole furface of the earth; where there is fcarce any vegetable earth, and where the few plants that grow, faint away by drought: Springs and wells are fo rare here, that five only are reckoned from Cairo to Mount Sinai, and their water is befides bitter and brackish.

When the waters on the furface of the earth cannot find channels to flow in, they form bogs and marshes; the most famous marshes of Europe are thofe of Muscovy, at the fource of the Tanais; thofe of Finland, where are the great marthes Savolax and Enafack: there are marfhes alfo in Holland, in Weftphalia, and in feveral other flat countries: In Afia, there are the marthes of the Euphrates, thofe of Tartary, the Palus Mœotis; yet in general there are fewer in Afia and Africa, than in Eu. rope: But America is, as it were, a continued bog in all its plains; and the great number of them is a much better proof of the newness of the country, and the fewness of the inhabitants, than of their little industry.

There are very large marshes in England, in the county of Lincoln, near the fea, which has loft a deal of ground on one fide, and gained it on the other. In the old ground are found a great number of trees buried beneath the new ground which has been formed by the wa ters. A great number of trees are in Hike manner found in Scotland,

at the mouth of the river Nefs. Near Bruges in Flanders, digging to 40 or 50 feet in depth, are found a very great number of trees as close to one another as in a foreft; the trunks, the branches, and the leaves are fo well preferved, that the different fpecies of trees are eafily distinguished. Five hundred years ago that land, where these trees are found, was a fea, and before that time there is no account or tradition that this land had ever exifted; but it must have been land, as thefe trees grew and vegetated; and thus the ground, which in far diftant times was firm land covered with wood, was afterwards covered with the waters of the fea, which brought there 40 or 50 feet depth of earth, and afterwards thofe waters retired. A great number of fubterraneous trees have likewife been found at Hull in the county of York, twelve miles below the city, on the river Humber; fome of them are fo large that they ferve for building; and it is affured, perhaps without good foundation, that this wood is as durable and serviceable as cak; and it is cut into fmall rods, and long fplinters, which are fold into the neighbouring towns, and the people ufe them for lighting their pipes. All thofe trees appear broken, and the trunks are feparated from their roots, as trees which the violence of a hurricane or inundation had broken and carried away; The wood nearly refembles that of the fir-tree, has the fame fmell when burnt, and makes coals of the fame fort. In the Ifle of Man, in a bog fix miles long and three broad, called the Curragh, are found fubterraneous fir-trees, and, though they lie 18 or zo feet deep,

they are notwithstanding firm on their roots. The like are found in all great bogs, in quagmires, and in moft marthy places in the counties of Somerset, Chefter, Lancafter, and Stafford. There are certain places where trees are found under ground, cut, fawed, fquared, and worked by men; Axes and bills have been likewife found between Birmingham in Warwickfhire and Bromley in Lincolnshire; and there are hills raised of fine and light fand, which rains and winds carry and tranfport away, by leaving dry and uncovered the roots of great firs, whereon the impreffion of the axe feems yet as fresh as if it had been juft made. Thofe hills might have been, no doubt, formed as downs, by heaps of fand borne along and accumulated by the fea, and on which thofe firs might have grown; and they might afterwards be covered with other fands, col lected as the former, by inundations or violent winds. A great number of thofe fubterraneous trees are found alfo in the marshy grounds of Holland, in Friezland, and near Groningen; and it is from thence that comes the peat that is burnt all over the country.

In the ground are found an infinity of large and fmall trees of aimoft every kind, as fir, oak, birch, beech, yew, white-thorn, willow, and afh; in the marches of Lincolnshire, along the river Ouse, and in the county of York in Hatfield. chace, the trees are ftraight, and planted as feen in a forelt. The oaks are very hard, and are ufed in buildings, where they laft for a long time; the afh is foft, and crumbles into duft, as does the willow; fome of these trees have been found fquared, others fawed, others bor

ed,

ed, together with broken axes, and hatchets whofe form resembles that of knives used in facrifices. Nuts, acorns, and cones of firs, have been there found alfo in great quantities. Several other marshy parts of England and Ireland abound with trunks of trees, as well as the marthes of France and Switzerland, of Savoy and Italy.

In the city of Modena, and within four miles of its environs, in whatever place they dig, when they come to the depth of 63 feet, and have pierced the earth 5 feet deeper with an augre, the water fprings up with fo great a force that the well is filled in a fhort time al moft to the top; and this water flows continually, neither diminifhing nor increafing by rain or drought: What is further remarkable in this ground, is, that, when they come to 14 feet deep, they find the ruins of an ancient town, paved streets, floors, houses, different pieces of mofaic work; after which they find a pretty folid earth, and which might be believed to have been never stirred; yet underneath they find a moift earth, and mixed with vegetables; and at 26 feet trees quite entire, as hazels with nuts on them, and a great quantity of branches and leaves of trees; at 28 feet deep they find a foft chalk mixed with a great many fhells, and this bed is 11 feet deep; after which are again found vegetables, leaves, and branches, and fo alternately chalk and earth mixed with vegetables to the depth of 63 feet, at which depth there is a bed of fand mixed with small gra. vel, and fuch fhells as are found on the coafts of the fea of Italy: Thofe fucceffive beds of marthy foil and, chalk are always found in the fame

order, in whatever part they dig into, and fometimes the augre meets with large trunks of trees which must be bored through; and this gives the workmen great trouble; here are alfo found bones, pit-coal, flints, and pieces of iron; Ramazzini, who relates thefe facts, believes that the gulph of Venice formerly extended as far as Modena, and beyond it; and that in fucceffion of time, rivers, and, perhaps, inundations of the fea, had gradually formed this ground.

I fhall not here enlarge farther on the varieties of thofe beds, of new formation; it is fufficient to have fhewn, that they have no other caufes than the running or ftagnant waters on the furface of the earth, and that they are never fo hard, or folid, a the old beds that have been formed under the waters of the fea.

Obfervations on the cicada, or locuft

of America, which appears perio dically once in 16 or 17 years. By Mofes Bartram, 1766. Communicated by the ingenious Peter Collinfon, Efq.

N

the 8th of June, 1766, I

ferent kinds of trees, on which I then faw cicada's or locufts, darteggs; of thofe twigs I put fome ing (as it is called) to lay their in empty phials; fome in phials, with a little water; and fome I ftuck in a pot of earth, which I kept moift, in order to preferve the twigs fresh.

in the phial with water hatched, July 21, the eggs in the twigs as did thofe in the twigs in the pot of earth, foon after them;

H 4

but

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