An extraordinary Case of the Bones of a Foetus coming away by the Anus. By John Still Winthorp, Esq. N° 475, p. 304. There are several instances of the bones of foetuses, which have died in their mothers' bellies, making their way out by preternatural ways; some by the navel, some by the groin, and some by the anus. Of this last sort is the following instance, which happened in New London in New England, in the year 1737. A negro wench was thought to have conceived with child; and about 3 months after, she had some appearances of a miscarriage, but no fœtus was observed to come away. This therefore made the good women now alter their opinion; thinking that she was not with child, but only had not been regular from having taken cold: therefore remedies, proper in such a case, were given her; but she found no relief from exceedingly great pains she complained of, in the bottom of her belly, and in the small of her back, more particularly when she went to stool. Her flesh wasting extremely, a skilful woman was sent for, who found milk in her breasts, and other certain tokens of her being with child. She continued wasting in a miscrable condition, growing less in her belly, and her breasts falling, and was at last given over: but at length, at the end of about 8 months, she brought away much blood by stool, on which her pain in those parts abated; and then she voided with her stools these bones with flesh and rotten skin about them. After this she soon grew well, and quite recovered. All the parts of the fœtus were found in her stools, except the head; which is supposed to have come away by the vagina, when she had the symptoms of miscarrying abovementioned; for it was now recollected, that she then said, something came away with her water as large as a great nut, but it was not then attended to. An extraordinary Cystis in the Liver, full of Water. By Charles Jernegan, M.D. N° 475, p. 305. Mrs. A. B. deceased, aged near 40, had been affected with a constant acute pain on the region of the liver, with a swelling, or more than ordinary fullness. on that side; by pressing of which was perceived a fluctuation of some fluid lying deeper than just under the first teguments. The body was opened by Mr. Sherwood, junior, when the liver was found of a prodigious size, and there was a small adhesion to the peritoneum without inflammation: it spread over the stomach quite to the spleen on the left side, and contracted much the cavity of the thorax, by pressing and thrusting up the diaphragma. On opening the great lobe of the liver, there issued out above 4 quarts of a limpid water, from a cavity formed by the proper containing coat of the liver; though the water itself had been contained in a single conglobated gland, and there formed a cystis, which had burst, and was found loose at the bottom of this large cavity. This skin or cystis was not so thin but still capable of further expansion. The liver still did its function of separating the gall: the gall-bladder and its ducts were in a good state: the lobulus spigelii was much enlarged, and crumbled easily like a mass of congealed blood. The patient had no particular thirst; nor was there any alteration in the urine, as to quantity more or less. But she had this symptom, common in the hydrops pectoris, of not bearing any other posture than that of leaning forwards on her breast. The left kidney, being longer than usual, was examined and found to have two ureters; and each had its separate pelvis. New Observations on Electricity. By Jo. Henry Winkler, Gr. et Lat. Literarum Prof. Publ. Ordin. et Academiæ Lipsiensis h. t. Rector. N° 475, p. 307. From the Latin. Hollow glass balls, &c. by the friction of the hand, excite such an electricity in metals and persons near them, that the electrical fire, emitted on the approach of a body void of electricity, bursts out in a continued stream. But when glass tubes are rubbed up and down, the sparks are emitted by intervals. M. Winkler describes several machines for conveniently rubbing of tubes, globes, and cylinders of glass, for exciting electricity. And by various ways of increasing electricity, he set fire to several substances, as spirit of wine, &c. Description of a Machine to blow Fire by the Fall of Water. By James Stirling, F. R. S. N° 475, p. 315. ABCD, fig. 9, pl. 2, is a pit dug in the ground, its surface higher at D than on the other side at A. The bottom BC is strongly rammed with clay, on which are laid thin deals. In this pit is fixed a tub GHKI without a bottom, having a hole I at the lower part of the side, and all round the tub is rammed with clay, except at the hole 1. In the middle of the upper end of the tub is fixed a pipe PQRS ; at the higher end of which are 4 holes pointing downwards, two of which are represented by s and R. SRTU is a funnel, fixed on the top of the pipe, with a throat xz narrower than the bore of the pipe. In the upper end of the tub towards one side is fixed a crooked pipe at LM, tapering to the end at N. It is made of wood so far as o, but from o to N of iron, the fire being supposed at N. EF is the surface of a plain stone, raised up in the middle of the tub, directly under the pipe pars.. The running water, being let in at the top of the funnel, falls through the pipe on EF, the stone in the tub; it runs out at the hole 1, but cannot get off till it rises as high as A. This raises in the tub almost up to the surface of the stone, and it must not rise higher. So much water must run in at the top of the funnel, as will keep it always full, or nearly so. This height of water forces it into the pipe with a great velocity; but, since it passes through the throat of the funnel, which is of a smaller bore than the pipe, room is left all round the vein of water for the air to enter at the air-holes. It no sooner enters than it mixes with the water, on account of the rapidity of the motion; and both together make a white froth, and entirely fill the bore of the pipe. When this froth falls on the stone in the tub, it is dashed into small particles, which disengages the air from the water. The air cannot get out at pa, the end of the pipe, because it is filled with the froth, which falls with a great force; neither can it get out at the hole 1, because the surface of the water is kept so high above it; for which reason it rushes out at N; and if the hole N be stopped, the air will soon force all the water in the tub out at 1, and then follow it. The most convenient way of regulating the blast, is to bore a small hole in the blast-pipe; and, by the help of a pin in it, to let out what air there may be more than is wanted. The dimensions of such an engine sufficiently large to smelt harder ore than any in lead-hills, are as follow: Height of the funnel 5 feet; length of the pipe 14, 15, or 16; height of the tub 6; diameter of the tub 54; height of the stone in the tub 2. Diameter of the throat of the funnel 34 inches; diameter of the bore of the pipe 54; diameter of the blast-hole at N 1; hole at 1 about 5 inches square; diameter of the air-holes 14. This engine is also of great use to convey fresh air into the works; which saves the double drifts and shafts, and cutting communications between them. A small one will do very well for a blacksmith. Some Additions to the Statical Experiments printed in No 470. By Dr. John Concerning an extraordinarily large Fossil Tooth of an Elephant. The fossil tooth Mr. B. received from Norwich. It seems to be a grinder belonging to the left under-jaw of a very large elephant, as its own size and weight may show for the circumference, measured by a string drawn round the edge, is 3 feet, wanting 1 inch; in length it measures 15 inches; in breadth, where widest, 7 inches, in thickness about 3; and its weight is upwards of 11 pounds. On one side it is convex, and on the otr concave, with 16 ridges and furrows running on each side transversely, and corresponding with the same number of eminencies on the grinding edge, which appears furrowed like a millstone. On the bottom of the part that lay within the gum are several cavities for the insertion of the nerves. The whole tooth is almost entire, and seems very little, if at all, petrified; but, since its being exposed to the air, several little cracks appear. Other monstrous bones were found with it; and particularly thigh bones, 6 feet long, and as thick as the thigh of a man; all which belonged probably to the same animal, and may be considered as farther proofs of the creature's enormous size. The place where, and the manner how, these bones were discovered, are curious particulars. A little town, called Munsley, is situated close to the sea-shore, on the north-east coast of the county of Norfolk, where the sea is bounded by exceedingly high rocky cliffs: some of these being gradually undermined by the continual dashing of the waves when the tide comes in, great pieces frequently tumble down on the shore: and by the tumbling down of one of these the abovementioned bones and grinder were discovered. This discovery seems a convincing demonstration, that the earth has undergone some very extraordinary alterations: for the remains of animals, of quite different climates and regions, and of kinds which, in the present situation of the world, could never possibly come over hither, must either imply their having been placed here by Providence originally, or that this island must heretofore have been contiguous to the continent: but since we find these creatures in very hot countries only, it is highly probable they were never placed here by Providence. What changes have happened to our earth, and how they have been produced, no human wisdom can possibly find out with any certainty. But suppose only the polar points, or the axis, to have been shifted at any time but a few degrees, and its centre of gravity to have been altered, which some great men have imagined not improbable, what convulsions in nature, what a universal change in the face of things, must thus have been occasioned! what inundations, or deluges of water, bearing every thing before them! what breaches in the earth, what hurricanes and tempests, must have attended such an event! for the waters must have been rolled along, till, by them, an equipoise was produced. In short, all parts of the world would thereby acquire degrees of heat and cold different from what they had before. Seas would be formed where continents had been: continents would be torn in sunder, or perhaps split into islands. The ancient bed of the sea would be changed into dry land, and appear covered at first with shells, and other marine bodies; of which the action and nitrous salts of the air would in a few years moulder away, and turn to dust those on the surface; but such as were buried deep would be preserved and remain for many ages. Such would probably have been the fate of inanimate things: and as to living creatures, they must have been almost universally destroyed and buried in the ruins of the world, as perhaps this elephant may have been, Some few however would probably escape, either by swimming to, or being left on, rising lands; where, if they met with proper food, and an agreeable climate, they would continue and increase, or otherwise would wander till they found such a country, unless prevented by interposing seas, or impassable rivers. All this indeed is barely conjecture: but the bones and teeth of fishes, the multitudes of sea-shells, some of which are petrified, and others not, and the many sea productions found buried in the earth in almost every country, at vast distances from the sea, and even in the midland parts, are demonstrations of the surprising alterations that must have happened as to the disposition of sea and land. The present grinder and bones, however they came thither, must have lain in this cliff for many ages; and that the grinder in particular is much larger and heavier than any our late worthy president Sir Hans Sloane has mentioned in No 403 and 404, of the Philos. Trans. where he gives an account of all the fossil teeth of elephants that had come to his knowledge. None of those mentioned by Mr. Molineux, in his History of Ireland, come near it in weight or size. Our thigh-bones of 6 feet long exceed also, by 2 feet, any ever yet heard of: and, according to Mr. Blair's osteology of an elephant 9 feet high, which died at Dundee in Scotland, in the year 1706, and whose thigh-bones were 3 feet in length (Vide Phil. Trans. N° 326,* we may suppose, by the rules of proportion, that the elephant, to which our bones and tooth belonged, was 18 feet in height. Of an extra-uterine Conception. By Starkey Myddelton, M. D. N° 475, p. 336. On the 28th of October last, Dr. M. was sent for to a woman of about 42 years of age. She had been taken with a flooding the day before; which a little surprised her, having been very irregular in her menstrual discharges for near a year before. At the same time she complained of a great pain in her belly and loins, with a continual forcing both forward and backward; which still continued, though her flooding was then in a manner stopped. He ordered her a gentle paregoric for that night, and the next day he found her in great pain; at which time she said, she had some reason to believe she had conceived with child. He then examined her, and found the os tincæ entirely close. He was not very curious in examination at this time; taking it for granted, that nature would soon dispose the uterus to discharge its contents, though at present there was not the least appearance of it. He ordered her an anodyne clyster, and a paregoric to be * Vol. v, page 557 of these Abridgments. |