ease for some time before and during her pregnancy; but on the birth of this child she was freed from that disorder. The child, though born dropsical, proved otherwise healthy; and notwithstanding the disease continually increased as she grew up, she lived to be near 23 years of age. She was a tall well-proportioned woman, except with regard to the enormous size of her belly; and for one of so unwieldy a bulk, healthy, brisk, and active. Her appetite was always good, and she was never more than ordinarily thirsty; had no remarkable difficulty of breathing, not even when she lay supine, nor did her thighs or legs ever swell. Her menses, which appeared at the usual time of life, continued regular, till within 8 months of her death. The only complaint was now and then a pain in making water; and the quantity she made was commonly about 4 or 5 oz. On the suppression of her catamenia, there succeeded a dyspnoea, loss of appetite, emaciation of the superior parts, and a tumefaction of one of her legs with ulcerations. These symptoms gradually increased till her death. On taking the dimensions of her body before dissection, they found the cir cumference of her abdomen to be just 6 feet 4 inches, and from the xyphoid cartilage to the os pubis it measured 4 feet and an inch. The cutaneous vessels, distributed on the abdomen, were remarkably large, and distended with blood, and the spurious ribs were pressed greatly outwards and upwards. The thorax being laid open, they observed that the diaphragm was forcibly protruded into that cavity. The base of the heart lay under the right clavicle, and its apex on the most convex part of the diaphragm; which convexity advanced as high up as the 3d superior rib. The lungs were surprisingly small, scarcely exceeding in magnitude those of a new-born child. The right lobe slightly adhered to the pleura, the left was free, and both were in a sound state. Within the pericardium was found, as usual, a small quantity of liquor, but none in the cavity of the thorax. They next perforated the abdomen in the most convenient depending part, and evacuated from thence a surprising quantity of water, which was lightly tinged of a coffee-colour, limpid as urine, and not in the least fetid. This water was carefully measured, and found to be not above a pint less than 30 gallons wine measure, which must weigh, according to the common calculation, near 240lb. They afterwards made an incision into the abdomen along the linea alba. The integuments on the epigastric region were very thin; the abdominal muscles much extenuated; and above the umbilicus the tunica cellulosa contained no fat; but from the navel to the os pubis, the panniculus adiposus was an inch thick. On dilating the incision, the large membranous bag that contained the water pre sented itself to view, adhering transversely about 10 inches to the anterior part of the peritonæum. This adhesion being separated, they had a full view of this wonderful reservoir, which was of an enormous size, and had almost occupied the whole cavity of the abdomen. In figure, colour, thickness, number, magnitude, and distribution of blood-vessels, it very much resembled the uterus of a cow at the end of gestation. The whole inside was scabrous, and looked as if parboiled; and here and there was observed a small quantity of a coffee-coloured sediment. On the left interior part was discovered the orifice of a duct, which opened obliquely into the cavity of the saccus, and would easily admit of a large goose-quill. From this opening the tube advanced about 12 inches between the membranes of the bag obliquely upward, and toward the right, from whence it was inflected downwards, and passed between the duplicature of the ligamentum latum uteri, to be inserted into the bladder of the urine. The saccus was connected to the ligamentum suspensorium hepatis, to a considerable part of the mesocolon, to the peritonæum on the right side in 2 or 3 different places, to the same membrane the whole length of the spine, and to the ligamentum latum uteri on the right side of the body. The liver was sound, but less than in a natural state; and its convex part adhered closely to the diaphragm. The stomach, spleen, omentum, small intestines, and the upper part of the colon, were thrust very high up into the left hypochondrium. The convolutions of the lower part of the same intestine were entirely obliterated; and that, with the rectum, formed one continued straight tube, from the left hypochondrium down to the anus. The left kidney, with its emulgent vessels and ureter, were in their natural state and situation. The uterus, tuba Fallopiana, and ovarium, on the same side, had nothing preternatural; but on the right side, the Fallopian tube and ovary were disposed in a very extraordinary manner. The tube, by means of the adhesion of the ligamentum latum uteri to the saccus, was extended to 3 times its ordinary length. The ovary was likewise, by the same cause, rendered very preternatural, being no less than 5 inches long, 1 inch brcad, of an inch thick, and 2 inches and distant from the uterus. The bladder of urine was very small, but appeared to be sound. They then made an accurate search for the right kidney; but to their great surprise, found no such viscus, nor any thing analogous to it, unless the saccus that contained the water already described, may be esteemed such: and what seemed to favour this opinion, was the disposition of the emulgent vessels on the right side, which were propagated from the aorta and vena cava to this saccus, in the same manner as to the kidney on the opposite side; and after having run 12 or 14 inches between the membranes of the bag without any ramifications, were distributed all over it in the manner before mentioned. The following queries are added: Was not the saccus originally a mishapen kidney, and the duct a ureter? Was not the water contained in the saccus prevented from growing putrid, by being continually drained off through the duct into the bladder of urine, and by being afresh supplied by the emulgent artery; and more being secreted than was evacuated, the quantity thereby continually increased? Was not this the reason why the patient had never any anasarcous swellings of her thighs or legs, nor any thirst, or other signs of a confirmed dropsy? Were not the lungs prevented from growing by the great diminution of the cavity of the thorax, and the pressure they sustained from the distended abdomen? And might not their never having occupied a larger space than they did at birth, be the reason she never laboured under any difficulty of breathing? Was not the bladder of urine likewise by the superincumbent weight, prevented from dilating itself; and that the reason why the water was often made, and always in so small a quantity? An Explanation of an ancient Inscription discovered at Rutchester, the last Station in England, on the Roman Wall, 1744. By John Taylor, LL.D., Chancellor of Lincoln, and Register of the University of Cambridge. N° 482, p. 344. The inscription is, AV. IMP. CES. M. AVRELIO. PIO. FELICI. X. PARTHIC. › TRIB. POTEST. XVIII. IMP. II. FIDA. VARHVL. CREODANO NNANA. FECIT. SVB. CVRA. TCO LEG. XX. GR. according to the copy given him by Dr. Hunter of Durham, who copied the inscription. This inscription addressed to Caracalla has nothing in it very singular, except the title of the cohort that dedicated it, namely, FIDA. VARDVL. CRE @ANONNANA. concerning which Dr. T. offers these few conjectures. The Varduli were a people of Hispania citerior, mentioned by Pomponius Mela, and others; and are recorded now, in no less than 3 inscriptions, to have served in Britain as auxiliaries. The 2 others are printed in Horsley's Britannia Romana, Northumb. N° xciv. Durh. xxvi. We find troops of several nations to have been here on the same occasion, as Cohors prima, secunda, &c. Batavorum, Dacorum, Nerviorum, Tungrorum, Delmataruin, Thracum, &c. This cohort of the Vardul is entitled FIDA, a very common appellation; and moreover CREO ANONNANA; the last letters of which he separates, and reads without inserting a singe letter ANTONINIANA, thus, ANTONNANA. Nothing is so frequent in inscriptions, as this compendiary way of writing ANTONINVS, and its derivatives. On this, hint therefore he is persuaded, that when the stone is next inspected, these little apices will appear, which are easily overlooked, when this brief manner of writing is not expected or attended to. In regard to the appellation Antoniniana, it is observable of the ancient militia, that several of their cohorts and legions, as well: Roman as provincial, complimented themselves with the imperial surname, of which Dr. T. produces some instances. But the imperatorial addition ANTONINIANA is perhaps the most frequent of any, as the name of Antoninus was assumed by a long series of emperors; as in several instances here produced; What remains to be accounted for, is CREOO. Which letters if any one should compare with Horsley's Durham inscription, N° xxvi., where mention is made of the same Varduli, he will find a very strong resemblance; and be apt to conclude, that what explains the one, will bid very fair to explain the other. CR then he takes to be distinct marks, and expressive of Civium Romanorum. And of this he finds little room to doubt, when he observed the same marks applied to several corps, who were as strictly provincial as our Varduli, such as Afri, Asturienses, &c. The freedom of the city had been for some time before this a regular reward for the fidelity of the provinces, or any other military or civil merit. The famous oration of the emperor Claudius, or the act for incorporating the people of Vienne in Gaul (a large fragment of which is preserved in Gruter, p. DII.) is a remarkable instance of what is advanced. QVID. ERGO. NON. ITALICVS. SENATOR. PROVINCIALI. POTIOR? EST. IAM. VOBIS. CVM. HANC. PARTEM. CENSURE. MEÆ. APPROBARE. CŒPERO. QVID. DE. EA. RE. SENTIAM. REBVS. OSTENDAM. SED. NE. PROVINCIALES. QVIDEM. SI. MODO. ORNARE. CVRIAM. POTERINT. RE FICIENDOS. PVтo. For so the last words must be emended, as they have been restored by Reinesius and Grævius. Afterwards, probably a little before the date of our inscription, which is near the end of the reign of Caracalla, came the general constitution of that emperor; the memory of which being fresh, might probably occasion the insertion of the words Civium Romanorum in this monument. In orbe Romano qui sunt, ex Constitutione Imperatoris Antonini Cives Romani effecti sunt, are the words of Ulpian, in the first book of the Digest. Tit. de Statu Hominum, Law That the Antoninus there mentioned was our Caracalla, is abundantly made good by Baron Spanheim, in his comment on that text. To which may be added the words of Prudentius, produced by the same learned writer on the XVII. occasion. What remains, EO®, Dr. T. restores Eas, according to the model of the Durham inscription produced above: COH. VARDVL. C. R. EQ.∞ For the difference in stones is so minute in this particular, that he pronounces it may as well be one as the other. And he reads the whole title of the cohort thus: Co-Iors Ima FIDA VARD VLorum Civium Romanorum Equitate Milliaria ANTO NINIANA. concerning which he offers the following. The frequent mention of equestrian cohorts, or, to speak more adequately, of Cohortes Equitatæ, in old inscriptions, has been a great cheque on several antiquaries, who have been taught to consider the cohorts as appropriated to the foot service, as the alæ and turma were to the horse. Mr. Horsley in particular, p. 94, imagines the cohors prima Claudia equitata, which he met with in the Notitia, was intended to intimate that this cohort had been promoted from the foot to the horse service. But when that gentleman was led, by the mark or monagram in the Durham inscription referred to in these papers, to consider that corps as consisting of 1000 horse, his difficulty is increased to that degree, that he knows not what to affirm on it. Now of all this there is a very easy solution. The auxiliary or provincial cohorts were either entirely or purely foot, like the legionary and ordinary cohorts; or else they had a mixture of both kinds of militia, and consisted of horse and foot together. This latter sort, as they could not properly be ranked under either denomination of horse or foot, for they were made up of both, seem to have appropriated to themselves the distinguishing title of COHORTES EQUITATE, Corps of infantry with a mixture of horse. And of this term, so very significant, and so little understood, he finds frequent mention. Nor have we these testimonies only, but also a full and decisive proof of this denomination, and, what is yet behind, of their number also, in a writer very well versed in military affairs, Hyginus, who wrote a Treatise de Castrametatione, in the time of Trajan. From him we are informed, that these troops were called milliariæ, as consisting of 1000 private men, part horse and part foot. The proportion of the former of these to the latter, was nearly as 1 to 3, |