PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS.
I. An Account of the Earthquake felt in New England, and the neighbouring Parts of America, on the 18th of November 1755. In a Letter to Tho. Birch, D.D. Secret. R.S. by Mr. Professor Winthrop, of Cambridge in New England.
Reverend Sir,
Read Jan. 13, 1757.
I Beg leave to lay before you the best account I am able to give of the great earthquake, which shook New England, and the neighbouring parts of America, on Tuesday the 18th day of November 1755, about a quarter after four in the morning. I deferred writing till this time, in order to obtain the most distinct information of the several particulars relating to it, both here and in the other places where it was felt; and especially the extent of it.
The night, in which this earthquake happened, was perfectly calm and serene. In the evening there was a fog over the marshes bordering on the river Charles, which runs through this town: but this I found intirely dissipated at the time of the earthquake, the air being then quite clear, and the moon, which wanted but 36h of the full, shining very bright. The earthquake began with a roaring noise in the N.W. like thunder at a distance; and this grew fiercer, as the earthquake drew nearer; which was almost a minute in coming to this place, as near as I can collect from one of my neighbours, who was then on the road in this town. He tells me, that, as soon as he heard the noise, he stopt, knowing, that it was an earthquake, and waiting for it; and he reckoned he had stood still about 2', when the noise seemed to overtake him, and the earth began to tremble under him: but, as I doubted, whether it were so long, I counted several numbers to him as slowly as a clock beats seconds; and then he said, he believed he could have counted half an hundred, at that rate, before the noise and shake came up to him. By his account, as well as that of others, the first motion of the earth was what may be called a pulse, or rather an undulation; and resembled (to use his own comparison) that of a long rolling, swelling sea; and the swell was so great, that he was obliged to run and catch hold of something, to prevent being thrown down. The tops of two trees close by him, one of which is 25, the other 30 feet high, he thinks waved at least ten feet (and I depend on his judgment in this particular, because he judged right of the height of the trees, as I found by actual mensuration); and there were two of these great wavings, succeeded by one, which was smaller. This sort of motion, after having continued, as has been conjectured, about a minute, abated a little; so that I, who was just then waked, and, I suppose, most others, imagined, that the height of the shock was past. But instantly, without a moment's intermission, the shock came on with redoubled noise and violence; though the species of it was altered to a tremor, or quick horizontal vibratory motion, with sudden jerks and wrenches. The bed, on which I lay, was now tossed from side to side; the whole house was prodigiously agitated; the windows rattled, the beams cracked, as if all would presently be shaken to pieces. When this had continued about 2', it began to abate, and gradually kept decreasing, as if it would be soon over: however, before it had quite ceased, there was a little revival of the trembling and noise, though no-ways comparable to what had been before: but this presently decreased, till all, by degrees, became still and quiet. Thus ended this great shock. It was followed by another about an hour and a quarter after, viz. at 5h 29'. This, though comparatively small, was very generally perceived, both as to its noise and trembling, by those who were awake. On the Saturday evening following, viz. the 22d of November, at 27' after eight, there was a third, more considerable than the second, but not to be compared with the first. And on Friday the 19th of December in the evening, exactly at ten o' clock, there was a fourth shock, much smaller than either of the former, though, like them, preceded by the peculiar noise of an earthquake. The whole lasted but a few seconds; but the jarring was great enough to cause the window-shutters and door of the room, in which I then was, to clatter. The sky was perfectly clear, and there was a very gentle and scarcely-perceptible gale at S.W. These four are the only shocks, that I have been sensible of from the 18th of November last to this date; tho' more are said to have been felt in other parts of the country to the northward of us.
As to the duration of the great shock, people have differed widely, viz. from 1' to 6 or 7. Our printed accounts have generally fixed it to about 2', or 3 at the most; but as these were only the uncertain guesses of persons, who had no rule to guess by, no dependence can be had on them. I am well satisfied, that with us it continued 4', or rather 4' 1-half; taking in the whole of the time, from the first agitation of the earth till it was become perfectly quiet; tho' the violence of the shock did not last above half so long. This I am assured of, partly from the observations of some gentlemen, who were up, and looked on their watches, when it began and ended; one of whom tells me it was 4', and another, that it was near 5; and partly from my own observations, which were as follow. The preceding noon I had adjusted both my clock and watch to the apparent time, by a meridian line; and the following noon I found, that the watch had kept time exactly. Being awaked by the earthquake, I lay till the violence of it seemed to be over for the second time, the first abatement happening just after I waked. Till then I forbore to rise, because the agitation was so vehement, that I concluded it would be difficult, if not impracticable, to go from the bed to the chimney, without being thrown down; and therefore thought it best not to attempt it. The space of time, in which I lay awake, I cannot think to be much, if any thing, less than 2'. This was the conjecture I formed at that time; though, it being but conjecture, I would not lay very great stress upon it, were it not supported by concurring observations. On the second abatement I rose, and lighting a candle, looked on my watch, and found it to be 15' after four. The shock then was not quite over, but the windows continued rattling for about a minute longer, as near as I can remember; for the shock went off very gradually. As soon as I had looked on the watch, I went directly to the clock, which was in another chamber, that I might see whether that agreed with the watch, and found that it was stopt at 4h 11' 35''. Its stopping, however, was not immediately owing to the violence of the shock, though several clocks, and watches too, at Boston, are said to have been stopped by it, but to the following accident: Having some time before used a pretty long glass tube, in a particular experiment, I had shut it up in the clock-case for security; and this tube, being overthrown by the earthquake, lodged against the pendulum, and stopt its motion. By this accident, the beginning of the earthquake, I conceive, is determined with all the exactness, that can be desired; for, so far as I can learn, the first shake was violent enough to overset so tall, slender a body, and standing in a position so near a perpendicular, as that tube; and it was impossible for the pendulum to make one oscillation, after the tube had struck against it. But I am not able to fix the end, nor consequently the duration, with the same exactness: however, from the time, when the clock stopt, to my looking on the watch, it was about 3' 1-half; and the jarring was not quite over till about a minute after this: so that I think I speak within bounds, if I say, that this shock with us lasted at least 4'. In other places, its duration might possibly be different. I was careful to note the time, when we had it, as exactly as I could, in hopes, that, by comparing it with the like accounts from distant places, we might be able to judge, with a good degree of exactness, of the course of this earthquake, the place of its origin, and the velocity of its progress. But all the accounts of the time, which I have yet seen, are so very lax, that no just conclusions can be drawn from them, with respect to either of these points. What I have been able to collect with relation to them, I shall set down presently.
Those, who suppose the duration much shorter, as 1' 1-half, or 2', urge, that a minute is a longer space of time than most people are aware of; which is very true: but it should also be considered, that if we judge the length of any space of time by the number of ideas, which pass through our minds in that time; a very great fright,—a fright so great, as to take intire possession of the mind for a time, and shut out every idea except that of the present danger, will make us judge the time to be much shorter than it really is. And this, I make no doubt, was the case with many; the surprise, into which they were thrown, being such, as to keep out every idea, except that, which happened to strike their minds with the greatest force at the beginning. Thus, several perceived no noise distinct from that, which was occasioned by the crackling of their houses, and the disturbance of the moveables in them; while others, who were waked by the noise, and ran from one room to another, have told me, that they felt nothing at all of the shake. For this reason, the conjectures, which persons in these circumstances made, as to the duration of the shock, ought not to be put into the balance with the actual observations made by watches.
The course of this earthquake seems to have been nearly from N.W. to S.E. My neighbour before-mentioned, who was then abroad, and informed me, that the noise began about the N.W. told me at the same time, that it passed off towards the S.E. and that he heard the noise in that quarter gradually abating, as it became more distant, for about the same space of time after the shock was over here, as he heard it in the N.W. before the shock began here. Other accounts, which I have since met with, agree with this. Those, who were in such clear open places, could make the best judgment in this matter; for such, as were within doors, or surrounded with buildings, might easily be misled by the various reflections of the sound. I am induced to give the greater credit to this information by what I observed myself: for a key, which was thrown from off a shelf in my house, was found at a place on the floor, which bore very near N.W. of the place, from which it fell; though the situation of it before its fall was such, that it might have been thrown in any direction, except towards the S.E.
An account, which we have lately received from the West-Indies, agrees very well with the supposition, that our earthquake proceeded south-eastward. The account is, that 'on the 18th of November, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the sea withdrew from the harbour of St. Martin's, leaving the vessels dry, and fish on the banks, where there used to be three or four fathom water; and continued out a considerable time; so that the people retired to the high land, fearing the consequence of its return; and when it came in, it arose six feet higher than usual, so as to overflow the low lands. There was no shock felt at the above time.' As this extraordinary motion of the sea happened about 9h after our great shock, it seems very likely to have been occasioned by the same convulsion of the earth. Now if this earthquake went off south-eastward into the Atlantic, it must have passed considerably to the eastward of St. Martin's; and, in fact, it did not reach that island, there being no shock felt there. The motion of the sea then was owing to a great agitation raised at a considerable distance in some part or other of the ocean, where the earthquake passed, and from thence propagated to that island. Nor is the length of time greater than what seems to be necessary for this effect. The earthquake itself, at the rate it moved with us, would be some hours in going from hence to the distance of St. Martin's: for sound would be about 2¼h in moving to such a distance; and the progress of the earthquake was slower than that of sound, as appears from hence, that the roar of this earthquake arrived here near a minute before the shake. The rest of the 9h might well be spent in conveying the motion excited in the water, from the place where it was excited, to St. Martin's; for the waves raised thereby could not move with near the velocity of sound.
It is worthy of remark, that, of the five great earthquakes, which this country has felt since its settlement by the English, two have gone nearly in the same track as this last did. The first, which was on June 2. 1638, 'came from the northward, and passed southward.' By the description given of it, it was very much like our late earthquake, only perhaps not quite so violent. 'The noise and shakes of the earthquake, October 29. 1727, seemed,' it is said, 'to come from the north-westward, and to go off south-easterly; and so the houses seemed to reel.' As to the great earthquakes of 1658 and 1662, we have no account of the courses, which they went in. But, from the other three, it may be reasonably conjectured, that the source of our earthquakes, or the place in which they originate, is in some part of Canada, or perhaps beyond it.
The extent of this earthquake seems to have been greater than that of any of our former earthquakes. This province of the Massachusetts-bay, or rather the province of New Hampshire, about the latitude of 43° north on the sea-coast, seems to have been the center of it, or the place of its greatest violence, and the shake to have been less considerable each way from hence towards the S.W. and N.E. By the accounts we have from the S.W. the shock was less at New York than it was with us; and still less at Philadelphia, which is farther towards the S.W. By the best information I can procure, the limit toward the S.W. was Chesopeak-bay in Maryland, the shock having been felt on the eastern side of that bay, and not on the western. For the other limit toward the N.E. we are informed, that the earthquake was felt at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia, though in a much less degree than with us. It shook off a few bricks from the tops of some chimnies, but was not perceived by vessels on the water. And a letter from Halifax says, 'The earthquake, which happened in the W. extended itself to this place, tho' scarcely perceivable here.' But it was not at all felt by our army, which lay encamped at Seganecto, about 100 miles N. from Halifax. Thus Halifax seems to have been very near the N.E. limit. I am not able to ascertain its eastern and western limits; but it extended to all our back inland settlements; and was perceived, though in a very small degree, by our army at Lake George, distant from hence about 130 miles N. W. by W. But it was not felt at all at the British fort of Oswego, situate on the south-eastern shore of Lake Ontario, and distant from hence about 230 miles W. by N. So great was the shock in the Atlantic, 70 leagues to the E. of Cape Anne, that the people on board a vessel there were suddenly surprised, just at the time of our earthquake, supposing they had run a-ground; till, on throwing over the lead, they found they had more than 50 fathom water. The extent of the earthquake E. and W. from Halifax to Lake George was about 550 miles; and its extent along the sea-coast, from N.E. to S.W. at least 800 miles. But if the agitation of the water at St. Martin's was occasioned by our earthquake continued into the Atlantic, as was conjectured above, its extent, in a direction toward the S. S. E. must have been at last 1900 miles.
I shall now proceed to mention the principal effects of this earthquake, for which I can find sufficient vouchers; for many strange things have been related, which, upon examination, appear to be without foundation. Besides the throwing down of glass, pewter, and other moveables in the houses, many chimnies were levelled with the roofs of the houses, and many more shattered, and thrown down in part. Some were broken off several feet below the top, and, by the suddenness and violence of the jerks, canted horizontally an inch or two over, so as to stand very dangerously. Some others were twisted, or turned round in part. The roofs of some houses were quite broken in by the fall of chimnies; and the gable ends of some brick buildings thrown down, and many more cracked. Throughout the whole country, the stone fences were more or less thrown down. The vane upon the public market-house in Boston was thrown down; the wooden spindle, which supported it, about five inches in diameter, and which had stood the most violent gusts of wind, being snapt off. A new vane, upon one of the churches in Boston, was bent at its spindle two or three points of the compass; and another at Springfield, distant about 80 miles westerly from Boston, was bent to a right angle. A distillers cistern, made of plank, almost new, and very strong put together, was burst to pieces by the agitation of the liquor in it; which was thrown out with such force, as to break down one whole side of the shed, that defended the cistern from the weather; as also to stave off a board or two from a fence at the distance of eight or ten feet from it. In some parts of the country, particularly at Pembroke and Scituate, about 25 miles S.E. from hence, there were several chasms or openings made in the earth, from some of which water has issued, and many cart-loads of a fine whitish sort of sand. These are the principal effects of this earthquake on the land, some of which argue a very quick and violent motion of the earth. Tho' the degree of violence was doubtless different in different places, yet, that I might make some estimate of it with us, I measured the greatest distance on the ground, to which any of the bricks, which were thrown off from the tops of my chimnies, had reached, and found it to be 30 feet, and the height from which they fell was 32 feet. Now since bodies fall thro' 16 feet nearly in 1" of time; and the times, in which they fall through other heights, are in the subduplicate ratio of those heights; it follows, that the velocity, wherewith those bricks were thrown off, was that of above 21 feet in 1" of time: for the subduplicate ratio of 32 to 16 is the same as the simple ratio of 30 to a little more than 21. But the velocity was less at less heights: for the key before spoken of, as thrown from off a shelf in a chamber in my house, was not thrown so far, in proportion to the height thro' which it fell, as the bricks were from the top of the chimnies; and in my lower rooms nothing was thrown down, but a small bell in the garret was made to ring by it. Hence it appears, that our buildings were rocked with a kind of angular motion, like that of a cradle; the upper parts of them moving swifter, or thro' greater spaces in the same time, than the lower; the natural consequence of an undulatory motion of the earth.
But the agitation occasioned by this earthquake was not confined to the land: it was very sensible on the water, and even at considerable distances in the ocean. The vessels in our harbours were so shaken, that it seemed to those, who were in them, as if they were beating on the bottom. Some, that were in the bay, coming in from sea, thought they had run upon rocks or sands. One very uncommon effect of this concussion is related by several of our seafaring men, that almost immediately after the earthquake, large numbers of fish of different sorts, both great and small, came up to the surface of the water, some dead, and others dying.
The center of our former earthquakes, as well as of this, seems to have been near the river Merrimac, about the latitude of 43° north, and 40 miles north from hence; many shocks having been felt in that neighbourhood, which did not extend to this place. The late Rev. Mr. Plant of Newbury, which is situated at the mouth of that river, has given a very particular journal, in Philos. Transact. Nº. 462. of the shocks felt there from 1727 to 1741, few of which were perceived here or at Boston. I remember none after the memorable 29th October 1727, beside that on 30th January 1728, about two in the afternoon; and that on 5th September 1732, which, by his account, did considerable damage at Montreal in Canada, but it was very small at Boston. That also on 6th February 1737, about a quarter past four in the afternoon, which he calls a considerable shock, was perceived at Boston; and so was that on 7th December following, a little before 11 in the night. From the conclusion of Mr. Plant's journal, till the earthquake which is the subject of this letter, I know of none, but that which happened on Sunday June 3, 1744, at a quarter after ten in the morning. The roar of this was as loud as any I ever heard, but the shake not so great. The day was very fair and hot, with a little wind in the morning at W.S.W. which in the afternoon came round to N.N.W. The season preceding was hot and dry, there having been no rain from 23d May. On the 1st June, at four in the afternoon, Hauksbee's thermometer stood at 5,2; on the 2d, at five in the afternoon, it was at 1, with high wind at S.W.; on the 3d, at eight in the morning, it was at 19,8; and at six 1-half in the afternoon at 3,8. From the 1st June to the 2d, at the hours just mentioned, the barometer had fallen from 29,92 to 29,82; from which time it continued rising till the 4th at eight in the morning, when it was got up to 30,12; being, at the time of the earthquake, at 29,94. The rest of the month the weather was in general very hot, with many thunder-showers.
As the late Hon. Judge Dudley, who has given a very just account of the great earthquake of 29 Oct. 1727, in Philos. Trans. Nº. 437, has inserted an account of the weather in the preceding part of that year; and as our last earthquake happened at the same time of the year as that did, within 8 or 9 days (regard being had to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles); I hope it will not be disagreeable, if I give an account of our weather the last year: in doing which, I shall follow, as near as may be, Mr. Dudley's method, setting down the particulars in corresponding columns, that so a comparison may more easily be made between these two years.
Weather in
| 1727, O. St. | 1755, N. St. |
|---|---|
| January and February very moderate. | January, but especially February, very moderate. |
| Beginning of March, a great deal of snow, and some cold weather: afterwards, pleasant, rain at times, and once thunder and lightning. | 4th of March the greatest storm of snow we had all winter. The whole month colder than February. |
| April, for the most part, fair, pleasant. Plentiful rain, beginning and end of the month. | April, nothing very remarkable. No hot weather. Each of these four months afforded more snow and rain, than the common quantity, taken at a medium for 7 years together. |
| May, beginning, pleasant; then a great deal of rain; afterwards, cold and very dry. | First 20 days of May, dry; 14 to 18 inclusive, uncommonly hot; latter part, frequent thunder-showers. The whole month drier than the medium. |
| June, abundance of thunder and lightning. | June, ten thunder showers; 15 to 20 inclusive, uncommonly cool. The driest June since 1749. |
| July, very dry; a great deal of thunder and lightning. | July, seven thunder-showers, and a little more rain than the medium. |
| August, exceeding hot and dry. One plentiful rain. | August, not very hot; much drier than the medium. |
| September, till the middle, very hot. More hot weather than in any summer. Middle, a violent north-east storm, with a great deal of rain. | September, variable; 10 to 14 inclusive, uncommonly hot; several other days uncommonly cool. Upon the whole, the summer rather cool than hot. The hottest weather was in the middle of May. No great rains; but rather more than the medium. |
| October, a pretty deal of cold weather. 23, a great deal of rain, with the S. wind. 25, at night a hard frost. 26, Winterish weather, and a little snow. 28, Cold. Wind N.W. 29, Cold. Little wind at N.W. Evening quite calm, and a clear sky. | October, a great deal of cold weather. Thunder-showers on the 13th and 17th. Snow on the 20th, 25th, 29th, & 30th. But the quantity of rain and snow in the whole month less than the medium. |
November began with cold and wet, there falling, in the eleven first days 3,404 inches of rain; and on the 11th in the morning there was thunder and lightning with the rain; and at a quarter past two in the afternoon, the barometer was at 29,46; which was lower than it had been since the 15th of October. From thence, till the day of the earthquake, my diary stands thus:
November 1755.
| D. H. | Barom. | Hauksb. Therm. | Wind. | Weather. | Rain, &c. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 7¾ M | 29,78 | 63,7 | W 1 | Very fair. Somewhat foggy. | ,003 |
| 2¾ E | 82 | 51,7 | W 1 | Fair. | |
| 13 9 M | 30,14 | 68 | NW 2 | Very fair. | |
| 6¼ E | 21 | 56,8 | NNW 1 | Clear. | |
| 14 8½ M | 42 | 69,4 | 0 | Fair. | |
| 1½ E | 45 | 59 | NE 2 | Very cloudy. | |
| 8¾ E | 5 | .. | NE 1 | Clear. | |
| 15 8½ M | 4 | 74,6 | 0 | Cloudy. Hazy. White frost. | |
| 4 E | 32 | 60,5 | E 1 | Very fair. | |
| 16 0¼ M | 27 | 70,8 | 0 | Foggy. | |
| 2 E | 28 | 59,9 | N 1 | Fair. | ,013 |
| 9¼ E | 32 | .. | N 1 | Fair with clouds. Foggy. | |
| 17 8 M | 3 | 70,1 | N 1 | Cover'd. Foggy. | |
| 1½ E | 27 | 59 | E 1 | Very fair. Evenᵍ somewhᵗ foggy. | ,001 |
| 18 4¼ M | 17 | 74,1 | 0 | Clear. A violent earthquake. | |
| 8 M | 16 | 78 | 0 | Very fair. Great white frost. | |
| 3¼ E | 11 | 58,3 | E 1 | Very fair and hazy. | ,017 |
| 10 E | 08 | 69,1 | 0 | Clear. Somewhat hazy. |
From this time the barometer rose till the 20th, when, at 8¼ M. it was up at 30,44, the sky covered, wind N 2. Then it fell till the 23d at 6½ E, when it was so low as 28,87; which was lower than it had been since the 6th of February last. The afternoon of the 22d, and night following, when we had another shock, it was calm, and rained 1,205 inches. This leads me to observe, that though the serenity, as well as calmness, of the air, is a circumstance taken notice of in many earthquakes, both in this and in other parts of the world; yet it does not always obtain, at least in the smaller shocks, and, so far as I have had opportunity to observe, the calmness of the air has more constantly attended upon earthquakes, than its clearness. The white frost on the morning of the earthquake, which, when melted, I found to be of the depth of 17/1000 of an inch, was almost double of any white frost we have had for seven years past, and about five or six times as great as we commonly have. The barometer and thermometer underwent no alteration at the time of the earthquake: only, my barometer, which has an open cistern of quicksilver, and stood in a chamber, was so agitated, that part of the quicksilver was dashed over the sides of the cistern, and scattered upon the floor. This cistern was a cylindric cup, whose sides were an inch higher than the surface of the quicksilver.
I shall not pretend to make a comparison between the weather of the two fore-mentioned years, nor inquire how far Mr. Dudley's conjecture (Phil. Trans. Nº. 437. p. 66.), as to the influence of the weather in producing the earthquake of 1727, might be affected by such a comparison. I choose to leave this to you, Sir, and to the other gentlemen of the Royal Society, who, I know, are much better able to make a proper judgment in this matter; and beg leave to subscribe, with the greatest respect to that illustrious Society and yourself,
Reverend Sir,
Your most obedient,
and most humble Servant,
John Winthrop.
Cambridge in New England, 10 Jan. 1756.
II. The strange Effects of some effervescent Mixtures; in a Letter from Dr. James Mounsey, Physician of the Russian Army, and F.R.S. to Mr. Henry Baker, F.R.S. Communicated by Mr. Baker.
Moscow, Sept. 20th, 1756.
Read Jan. 20, 1757.
MR. Butler, a paper-stainer, trying to make some discoveries for the better fixing of colours, was put in great danger of his life by the following experiments:
Having put into one gallipot a quarter of an ounce of verdegris, and into another pot two leaves of false-gold leaf, to each he poured about a spoonful of aqua-fortis. They began immediately to ferment, especially the gold-leaf. He was very assiduous in stirring them, to make the solution perfect. Having nothing else at hand, he did this with a pair of small scissars, at arm's length, carefully turning away his face, to prevent the fumes from entering his lungs. He was called away, about other business, before he had quite ended his process; and soon after washed and shifted himself: but had scarce finished before he felt a burning pain in the ring-finger of his right hand, which he imputed to his having inadvertently touched the aqua-fortis. This increased every moment, and affected the whole hand with burning pain and swelling, which very soon subsided; but then it flew into the left hand, and, a few minutes afterwards, into the insides of his legs, as if scalding water had been thrown on them. His stockings being immediately pulled off, there appeared a great many red spots, as large as six-pences, something raised above the skin, and all covered with very small blisters.
In about two hours after the accident, I first saw him: he was very uneasy, complaining of pain, and great anxiety, at the pit of the stomach, as if a burning hot iron was laid on it: so he expressed himself. His pulse was regular, but slower and weaker than natural: he had a nausea, and complained of a very coppery smell and taste. I ordered some alcaline volatile medicines, and to drink small sack-whey. He vomited once, and had four or five stools, and then his stomach grew easy. But the scene soon began again with lancing pain in the left eye. He continued the same medicines, drank plentifully of the whey, and was kept in a breathing sweat, by which he found some ease at night: but whenever the sweating lessened, the burning pains returned in broad flakes, changing from one part of the body to the other; sometimes with shootings in his eye, and sometimes along the penis, but he had no heat of urine. His pulse continued regular, but weak; and in several places of his body such kind of spots struck out as those on his legs.
Monday, the third day, in the morning, after sleeping well, his pulse was somewhat raised, and he continued easy till about eleven o' clock, when the burning pains returned, shooting from place to place; but always so superficial, that he could not distinguish whether it was in or under the skin. Rubbing the part affected with one's hand gave ease: but when the sweating went off, and the burnings and shootings became insufferable, I always put him into a bath of hot water, with some wood ashes, kept ready in the room; which gave him great relief. This afternoon he felt violent burning pain in his great toes, and sometimes in his left hand, with shootings up to the shoulder. Once he cried out, in great pain, that his shoulder was burst; for he felt something fly out with a sort of explosion: but, examining the part, I found nothing particular. He observed, when the flaky burnings began, they were as if they kindled from a point, and flashed like lightning, as he termed it. He was very often tormented with such pains on the pit of the stomach; and this evening had shootings thro' the back, with a pain in the belly. He complained of a strong sulphurous smell, which, he said, was like to suffocate him; tho' his breathing seemed easy, and his lungs no way affected. In the night he was seized with great pain about the heart, and cried out violently, that his heart was on fire: but after taking a dose of nervous medicines, and being put into the bath, he was soon freed from this, and passed the rest of the night tolerably well. At the time of such violent attacks the pulse continued regular, but still slower and softer than usual.
Tuesday. He complained most of his toes, and now and then burning pains in the forehead.
Wednesday. This whole day it continued most in the toes of the left foot; but in the evening the pain on the stomach returned, which lanced to the left side, with dartings inwardly. He became so uneasy and restless, that I was obliged to add some opium to the other medicines; which answered very well.
Thursday. The pains kept most in the toes of the left foot.
Friday. Nothing particular, except his feeling, with sharp pain, a spark (as he called it) fly out of his right cheek, in the same way, he said, as that, which burst on his shoulder, but much less. He perceived no pain in that part before this; nor any thing after, besides a soreness, which lasted for some days. Hitherto he had been kept in a continual sweat: his appetite was greater than his allowance, his digestion good; and his rest indifferent. From this time he was not attacked by any violent symptoms; and could be quiet, tho' he did not sweat.
On Sunday he began to get out of bed; but was often seized with glowing pains, suddenly affecting different parts of the body; which seldom continued an hour in one part, but shifted from place to place: these he was troubled with, in a less degree, even long after he went abroad.
By care and watchfulness the violence of the symptoms were kept under; and, by the use of antidotes for poisons of the nature of what he received this from, the disease was overcome, and the patient recovered his perfect health and strength.
III. Extract of a Letter of J. Wall, M. D. to the Rev. Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter, and F.R.S. concerning the good Effects of Malverne Waters in Worcestershire.
Worcester, Dec. 22. 1756.
SIR,
Read Jan. 20, 1757.
THE Malverne Water much deserves encouragement, several very extraordinary cures having been done by it lately. I propose to make a collection of the principal, and publish them, as an appendix to my little treatise. Amongst other remarkable instances of their great effects are the following, which have happened this year. A poor woman, formerly a patient in our infirmary for a fistulous ulcer in the hip, and another in the groin, which penetrated the abdomen, has received her cure there, tho' she was reduced to so great a degree, as to be thought incurable, and sent into the country on a milk-diet, &c. as the last resource. The discharge from the sores was prodigiously great, and so offensive, that she could hardly be borne in a room. The water took off the ill smell almost instantly; the discharge soon lessened, and grew thick and well-conditioned; her hectic symptoms went off in proportion; and, by continuing the use of the water for five or six months, she is cured.
A woman with a phagedenic ulcer in the cheek, throat, and nose, from an ozæna in the hollow of the cheek-bone, received great relief this year, in five or six weeks time; the external ulcer, which had almost destroyed the whole cheek, being healed in that time, and the other parts much amended. Her affairs would not permit her a longer continuance at the well; but she continues the use of the water at home, and finds great relief from it there. I hope another season will complete the cure.
Mr. Parry, of Clent, had his skin cleared, and perfectly healed, in five weeks; tho', when he came to the well, he was covered with an elephantiasis; for which he had tried most of the purging waters, and sea-water, under the direction of Dr. Russell, without effect. So bad was he, that he could not move a limb but the skin cracked, and ouzed out a filthy sanies; and he left the mark of his body every night in his bed. The waters have also had another very surprising effect on him: for they have been his Helicon, and converted him into a poet; he having written a poem on the occasion, which he shewed to Lord Foley and Dr. Dalton.
I know a Lady, who, we had great reason to fear, had an internal cancer, who has lately received great advantage from the use of these waters, after other things had been tried unsuccessfully.
I could send many more instances; but the compass of a letter will not admit of it: and I should be afraid of having tired you already, did I not know, that it must give you pleasure to hear of its extensive utility. I am, Sir,
Your most obliged
humble Servant,
J. Wall.
IV. An Account of the Carlsbad Mineral Waters in Bohemia: In a Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Macclesfield, President of the R. S. by the Rev. Jeremiah Milles, D.D. F.R.S.
My Lord,
Read Jan. 20, 1757.
MR. Watson having favoured the Society with an Account of Dr. Sprengsfeld's treatise on the Carlsbad waters, I have taken the liberty to submit to your Lordship some observations on the same subject, which I made during my stay in that place; together with some specimens of different sorts of incrustations, which are formed by those waters.
Carlsbad is a small town, situated on the confines of Bohemia, at the distance of 14 German, or 28 French, leagues west of Prague. It is remarkable for its warm mineral springs, which are said to have been accidentally discovered, in the year 1370, by the Emperor Charles the IVth, as he was hunting; from whom they received their present name of Carlsbad, or Charles's bath. These waters soon growing into repute, occasioned the building of a small neat town, consisting chiefly of houses calculated for the accommodation of the company, who frequent this place in the summer time. There are two warm springs, which rise in the middle of the town, very near each other: and tho' they are supposed to be of the same quality, yet, as one is much warmer, it is thought likewise to be more efficacious than the other. The former of these, called the Brudel, rises very near the bed of the small river Tepel which runs thro' the middle of the town, and is sometimes overflowed by it. The water issues with great force from the bottom of this spring, rising in a considerable body to the height of six feet perpendicular; and would force itself much higher, if it were confined within a narrower compass. The spring is inclosed with a square wall, within which are fixed three wooden pipes, which convey the water from the bottom of the spring into a reservoir; which distributes it into a number of small troughs, communicating with the several bathing-houses, which are built on both sides of the river for the use of the patients. This spring is so impetuous, that they are obliged to pave and ramm the bed of the river, lest it should force itself up in the channel: and I observed one place on the river side, where it had burst thro' the rock; and they had been obliged to confine it, by fastening down a large stone on the orifice.
The water of this spring is so hot, that you cannot bear your hand in it; and the inhabitants make use of it for scalding their pigs and their poultry.
The water, when put into a glass, has a bluish cast, not unlike that of an opal: and tho' I could not discover, that in 24 hours it had deposited the least sediment, yet there was a thin whitish scum collected on the surface; and I observed the same in the baths, where it was much thicker; and was of the colour, and almost of the consistence, of a wafer. It has a salt taste when first taken from the water, and is made use of by the inhabitants for cleaning of teeth and scouring silver: it is called Baden Flaum.
Tho' this water does not deposit any sediment, yet it is remarkable for the speedy and strong incrustation of all bodies, which are put into it. Little plaister figures are sold here, on purpose to verify the experiment; which, tho' perfectly white when put into the spring, are, in eight-and-forty hours, entirely covered with a yellow incrustation. The same effect is observed on the pipes and channels, thro' which the water is conveyed. If care were not taken to clean them four or five times a year, they would be intirely choaked up; and in some parts, where it has not been necessary to clean them so often, I have seen them covered with an incrustation two inches thick. In surrounding and covering these wooden pipes, they do not change the nature of the wood; but it is observable, that they add great hardness and solidity to it: so that it is affirmed a piece of deal will last a hundred years in this water. The head spring is cleared out once in 30 or 40 years, with a very great expence: at which time they are obliged to break off all the stony incrustation, which had been made by the water since the last cleaning; and if neglected would (as it has sometimes actually done) choak the passages, and oblige the spring to find vent in some other place. The incrustations formed by these waters are of different kinds: that, which is made in the troughs and pipes, thro' which the water is conveyed after it comes above ground, is of a light sandy nature, of a loose contexture, and a bright yellow. It is used by the inhabitants as a gentle corrosive for eating off proud flesh. There is another of a darker colour, and a much harder nature, which is found at the very mouth of the spring, where it bursts out of the rock. There are other sorts taken out of the subterraneous cavities of the spring at the time it was cleaned. In what manner they are formed, is not so easy to determine; unless there were an opportunity of observing in what manner and direction they lie within the spring. They seem to be an alabastrine spar, and are beautifully marked with strait veins of different colours, which may be supposed to have received their tinge from the different colour of the spring-water at the time when this sediment, or rather scum, was formed upon it. They find pieces of this kind most beautifully variegated; and some of them large enough, by fineering to make tables: these polish very well, and are not much inferior to jasper in appearance. It is a part of the manufacture of the place, to work this sort of stone into snuff-boxes, cane-heads, and sleeve-buttons.
There is likewise another sort of incrustation different from all these, which was found some years ago, in digging for the foundations of the new parish-church, which is about 300 yards distant from the Brudel spring. They found there the same kind of water; but it did not rise with so great force as in the other spring: and they discovered in the cavities large masses of a stony concretion, which were a sort of pisolithi, most of them in a globular, but some in an oval form, from the smallest size to the bigness of a nutmeg; the former sort lying in masses, the latter generally single and detached: they are perfectly white, hard, and smooth, and appear to consist of a great number of lamellæ formed round a small nucleus. This sort of incrustation has been found in no other place; but there are some of a browner sort, and more irregular shapes, which are taken out of the Brudel.
The medicinal virtues of these waters have been treated of by German authors. They are esteemed to be particularly efficacious in removing obstructions, and in cases of the stone and gravel; of which the treatise lately produced to the Society contains many remarkable proofs. They are much frequented in these and in other cases; so that they have generally 200 persons in a season drinking the waters. The season begins in May, and ends in August. They drink them in the following method. They begin with a purge; and assist its operation with ten or twelve chocolate-cups of the water, taken within five minutes of each other. The day following they take the waters in the same quantity, and at the same intervals, keeping themselves all the time in a warm room; which, with the warmth of the waters, occasions a most plentiful perspiration. This is repeated for seven or eight days, increasing daily two or three cups of the water, till they come to drink 25 or 30 cups a day. The operation continues from eight of the clock in the morning till noon. Some bleed once in the middle of the course, others not at all. After they have finished this course of drinking, they bathe two days successively, continuing in the bath half an hour, or longer, as their strength permits them, or their case requires. This is the whole course; which is repeated two or three times, or oftener, as they find necessary. The whole is concluded with a gentle purge, tho' the waters themselves are of a laxative nature.
There is another spring in the town of the same nature, but not so warm, as the Brudel: it is called the Mill-spring, and is only tepid. Those of a warm or weak constitution make use of this instead of the other, both for drinking and bathing.
There are likewise several chalybeat springs in the neighbourhood of Carlsbad; one at half a mile, and the other at two leagues distance from the town. Both of them seem to resemble the water of the Pohun spring at Spa; but are not near so strong. They do not use them medicinally on the spot; but they are brought to Carlsbad, and sold, in order to be drank with their wine. I am,
My Lord,
With the greatest respect,
Your Lordship's
Most obedient humble Servant,
Jeremiah Milles.
Grosvenor-street, Jan. 19th, 1757.
V. An Essay towards ascertaining the specific Gravity of living Men. By Mr. John Robertson, F.R.S.
Read Jan. 27, 1757.
SOME time last autumn I had occasion to draw up a few examples on the use of a table of the specific gravities and weights of some bodies. Among other things, that occurred then to me, I thought it might be useful to know the specific gravity of men. In order to make some experiments on this subject, I got a cistern made, of 78 inches in length, 30 inches wide, and 30 inches deep: it was constructed as near a parallelopiped as the workman could, to prevent tedious operations in computing the horizontal sections of the cistern by the surface of the water. I then endeavoured to find ten persons, such as I proposed to make the experiments withal; namely, two of six feet high, two of five feet ten inches, two of five feet eight inches, two of five feet six inches, and two of five feet four inches. One of each height I proposed should be a fat man, and the other a lean one; but I could not succeed in procuring such men; and, after waiting till near the middle of October, I was obliged to put up with such, as would submit themselves to the experiment at that season of the year. They were all labouring men, belonging to the ordinary of Portsmouth yard, and, except one or two of them, who were middling sized men, were for the most part very thin and slim made persons. I had also provided a sliding measure to take their heights, and scales to weigh them in. Every thing being prepared, each man stript himself in an adjoining room, and put on a pair of trowsers for decency's sake: his height was first taken, then his weight, and then he immersed (fortified with a large dram of brandy). A ruler, graduated to inches, and decimal parts of an inch, was fixed to one end of the cistern, and the height of the water noted before a man went in, and to what height it rose when he ducked himself under its surface; and of these several observations is the following table composed.
| Nº. | Heights. | Wt. | Ht. Water before immersed. | Ht. Water when immersed. | Water raised. | Solidity. | Weight Water. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ft. | In. | Pds. | Inches. | Inches. | Inches. | Pounds. | ||
| 1 | 6 | 02 | 161 | 19,30 | 21,20 | 1,90 | 2,573 | 160,8 |
| 2 | 5 | 10⅜ | 147 | 19,25 | 21,16 | 1,91 | 2,586 | 161,6 |
| 3 | 5 | 9½ | 156 | 19,21 | 21,06 | 1,85 | 2,505 | 156,6 |
| 4 | 5 | 6¾ | 140 | 19,17 | 21,21 | 2,04 | 2,763 | 172,6 |
| 5 | 5 | 5⅞ | 158 | 19,13 | 21,21 | 2,08 | 2,817 | 176,0 |
| 6 | 5 | 5½ | 158 | 19,09 | 21,26 | 2,17 | 2,939 | 183,7 |
| 7 | 5 | 4⅜ | 140 | 19,05 | 21,06 | 2,01 | 2,722 | 170,1 |
| 8 | 5 | 3⅛ | 132 | 19,01 | 20,86 | 1,85 | 2,505 | 156,6 |
| 9 | 5 | 4⅛ | 121 | 18,97 | 20,76 | 1,79 | 2,424 | 151,5 |
| 10 | 5 | 3¼ | 146 | 18,93 | 20,66 | 1,73 | 2,343 | 146,4 |
In making of these experiments, I remarked some inconveniencies, which I did not at first advert to, and which, at that time, I could not prevent. I intended, that each man should have got gently into the water, immersed himself all but his head, and so have staid until the motion of the water had ceased; then he was suddenly to have ducked his head under, and have continued to a few seconds of time, until I had noted the rise of the water; and, after his leaving the cistern, another was not to go in until the water was free from motion. Could these things have been done, as I projected, I could have recommended the foregoing table as sufficiently complete: but I must observe, that beside the men's being of different sizes from what I had desired, they were in too much haste to be dismissed (with another dram after dressing); so that the water was not quite still when they got into the cistern: neither could I persuade all of them to lay themselves down gently, much less to keep their heads under water so long a time as one second: so that, in most of the observations, the surface of the water was far from being quite so still, as to render the measures perfectly exact, I being obliged to catch them, as it were, by taking the mean height between the librations. Moreover, the great area of the cistern was no inconsiderable bar to the accuracy I expected. However, as I do not recollect experiments of this kind any-where recorded, these, perhaps, may give some satisfaction to such persons, who may have the curiosity to desire some knowlege on this subject. Were I to make any more observations of this kind, I would chuse an upright parallelopiped, not above 18 or 20 inches in the side of the square; into which the person should let himself down by steps nailed to the side: for in so small an area the motion of the water would sooner subside; neither would the librations be any thing near so large as on a smaller surface.
One of the reasons, that induced me to make these experiments, was a desire of knowing what quantity of fir or oak timber would be sufficient to keep a man afloat in river or sea water, thinking that most men were specifically heavier than river or common fresh water; but the contrary appears from these trials: for, excepting the first and last, every man was lighter than his equal bulk of fresh water, and much more so than his equal bulk of sea-water: consequently, could persons, who fall into water, have presence of mind enough to avoid the fright usual on such accidents, many might be preserved from drowning; and a piece of wood, not larger than an oar, would buoy a man partly above water so long as he had spirits to keep his hold. Some things herein advanced will perhaps more readily appear from the following relation.
The Lords of the Admiralty have appointed, for the exercise of the scholars belonging to the royal academy at Portsmouth, a small yacht; wherein, during the summer months, those young gentlemen are taught the practice of working a vessel at sea, under the directions of one of the master-attendants, assisted by eight or ten seamen. The last time this yacht was out, which was about the beginning of last October, one of the scholars was ordered to heave the lead. The youth was about thirteen years old, small of his age, and far from being fat; as he was stepping on the gunnel, he fell over-board: the sea was rough, and the yacht had great way; so that he was presently at a considerable distance from the vessel. The skiff was immediately let down; but the painter not being fast, the rope run an end, and the skiff went adrift. One of the seamen jumpt over-board, got into the boat, brought her along-side the vessel, took in another man, and then went after the youth, whom they recovered, after he had been in the water more than half an hour. The young gentleman, relating the affair, said, that as he could swim very little, and judging he should sink if he strove against the waves, he turned on his back, and committed himself to their mercy. He kept himself perfectly calm; and observed, when a wave was likely to break over him, to hold his breath, and to spurt out the water forced into his mouth. His hat, which happened to be tied by a piece of string to one of his coat button-holes, he often held up with his hand, as a signal where he was. Just before the boat came up to him he began to be faint, his eyes became dim, and he thought himself on the verge of sinking. This youth, who, by his prudence, saved himself from drowning, must, at that time, have been specifically lighter than water.
VI. An Instance of the Gut Ileum, cut thro' by a Knife, successfully treated by Mr. Peter Travers, Surgeon, at Lisbon. Communicated by John Huxham, M.D. F.R.S.
Lisbon, August 3d, 1756.
Read Jan. 27, 1757.
ANtonia Josée da Costa, one of the King's messengers, was attacked by two men, and, after receiving two blows on the head, was stabbed with a knife in the right hypogastric region, about three fingers breadth above the os pubis; the external wound being larger, as the knife was drawn obliquely towards the navel, and might be an inch and half in length, the perforation thro' the peritonæum about three quarters of an inch; the intestine ileum hanging out about ten or twelve inches, and quite pierced thro', the wound in the gut being large enough to admit my fore finger. After clearing the grumous blood with warm water and Hungary water, the uninterrupted suture was made on both perforations; then dilating the common integuments of the belly, the intestine was reduced, leaving the ends of the two threads at the superficies of the wound; and the external incision was sewed up by the interrupted suture, and common dressings of lint and bandage applied. A clyster was given him immediately after the above operation, of oil of olives, the yolk of an egg, and warm water.
4th. This day I found he had passed in the most excruciating pains, attended with continual vomitings: his fever very high, pulse full and irregular: he was bled ten ounces this morning, and the like quantity this evening. The clysters were continued thrice a day, with a decoction of wormwood and camomile instead of the warm water, and an anodyne mixture of mint-water, liquid laudanum, and sugar, to be taken occasionally; also three ounces of syrup of rhubarb, with an ounce of the fresh-drawn oil of sweet almonds, to be taken, a common spoonful every two hours.
5th. The bleedings were continued twice this day, three ounces each time, and the clysters were administered as yesterday. His pulse and fever very high; he vomited some excrements; and towards night complained of a singultus.
6th. His bleedings and clysters were continued as before. Finding his singultus and vomiting so very troublesome, I ordered him Dr. Huxham's tincture of the bark; which was taken, a tea-spoonful, six times a day, in a little mint-water; which indeed greatly relieved him: his singultus and vomiting became less frequent.
7th. I found his skin moist, and pulse softened. I remained with him about an hour, and found a plentiful perspiration throughout the body; on which I omitted his bleedings: the clysters were continued; and towards night he had a proper discharge by stool, very fœtid, and inspissated.
8th. I found, for the first time, he had slept last night, and seemed much in spirits: the symptomatic fever something lessened; and he had purged last night, and this day, eight times.
9th. He had five stools; his neausea much abated; and a gentle diaphoresis continued.
10th. The singultus ceased; his vomiting very little; his pulse low, accelerated, and thread-like in its stroke; his purging violent; and he greatly complained of a most acute pain of the wounded parts. A paper of the following absorbent powders was given him every three hours in rice-water. Crabs-eyes and red coral prepared, of each one drachm, crude opium two grains: these were made for three doses, and given as above.
11th. He slept well; less pain; pulse more equal; his diarrhæa much the same.
12th. The threads, with which I had made the suture of the intestine, came out of themselves: the wound well-conditioned; fever very little; his diarrhæa rather increased. He sent for me in the evening, being much alarmed, as he thought some liquids he had taken to have passed thro' the wounded parts.
13th. Yesterday he complained of great pains in his belly: the discharge from his wound was laudable matter, and in good quantity.
14th. He rested well, and was seemingly well beyond expectation. His diarrhæa still continuing troublesome, he took the hartshorn decoction, with an addition of diascordium.
15th. I cut off the threads of the external wound, and continued dressings of digestive in the common method.
16th. He grew visibly better each day after; and on Sept. 7th I discharged him from any further attendance, his wound being intirely healed over, and he is in all respects very well, free from pain, or any inconvenience from the wound. He was kept seven and twenty days on chicken-broth, and never admitted to use any solids during that time: afterwards he was indulged with young chickens, &c.
VII. An Account of a Visitation of the leprous Persons in the Isle of Guadaloupe: In a Letter to Mons. Damonville, Counsellor and Assistant-Judge at Martinico, and in the Office of King's Physician at Guadaloupe. By John Andrew Peyssonel, M.D. F.R.S. Translated from the French.
SIR,
Read Feb. 3, 1757.
I Received the letter, which you honoured me with, and the order for visiting the persons afflicted with the leprosy. I was sensible of the misfortune of being ordered upon that commission: I say misfortune; for such you will perhaps think it, when you have read this letter.
It is now about 25 or 30 years since a very particular disease shewed itself in many persons in this island Grande Terre. Its beginning is imperceptible: there appear but a few livid-red spots upon the skins of the white people, and of a yellowish red upon the blacks. These spots in the beginning are not accompanied with pain, or any other symptom; but nothing can take them away. The disease increases insensibly, and continues several years in shewing itself more and more. These spots increase, and extend indifferently over the skin of the whole body. Sometimes they are a little prominent, but flat. When the disease makes a progress, the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils are enlarged, the nose becomes softened; tuberosities appear upon the cheek-bones; the eyebrows are inflated; the ears grow thick; the ends of the fingers, and even the feet and toes, swell; the nails become scaly; the joints of the feet and hands separate and mortify: ulcers of a deep and of a dry nature are found in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, which grow well, and return again. In short, when the disease is in its last stage, the patient becomes frightful, and falls to pieces. All these symptoms come on by very slow degrees, one after another, and sometimes require many years to shew themselves: the patient is sensible of no sharp pain; but feels a kind of numbness in his hands and feet. These people perform their natural functions all the while, eating and drinking as usual: and even when the mortification has taken off the fingers and toes, the only ill consequence, that attends, is the loss of those parts, that drop off by the mortification; for the wound heals of itself, without any application: but when it comes to its last period, the poor sick persons are horribly deformed, and truly worthy of compassion.
This shocking disease is observed to have several other unhappy characters; as, 1st, that it is hereditary, and that some families are more apt to be seized with it than others: 2dly, that it is infectious, being communicated per coitum, and also caught by keeping company with those so diseased: 3dly, that it is incurable, or at least that no remedy has yet been found to cure it. They have in vain tried mercurials, sudorifics, and every other regimen used in venereal complaints, under a notion, that this leprosy was the consequence of some venereal taint: but, instead of being of service, these methods rather served to destroy the patients; for, far from lessening the disease, the antivenereal medicines unlocked the distemper, the most dreadful symptoms appeared, and all those so treated perished some years sooner than the others, who did not take these medicines.
A very just fear of being infected with this cruel distemper; the difficulty of examining infected persons before the disease came to its state; the length of time of its lying concealed, by the care of the patients to keep it secret; the uncertainty of the symptoms, which distinguish it in the beginning; produced an extraordinary dread in all the inhabitants of this island. They inspected one another, since virtue and merit had no shelter from this cruel scourge. They called this distemper the leprosy; and consequently presented several memoirs to the generals and intendants, laying before them all these facts above-mentioned; their just apprehensions; the public good; the trouble, that this distrust caused in this colony; the complaints and hatred, that these accusations occasioned among them; the laws made formerly against such leprous persons, and their expulsion from civil society. They required a general visitation of all persons suspected of this distemper, that such, as were found infected, might be removed into particular hospitals, or into some separate places.
These memorials were sent to court, which, giving due attention to these just representations, issued orders for the required visitations in the most convenient manner, for the good of the public and of the state.
In the mean time, the post of physician-botanist become vacant in the island of Cayenne. The minister was pleased to name me for it; and altho' this island was much more fertile in philosophical discoveries than all the others, he thought proper to change my destination, and sent me to this isle Guadaloupe; and did not forget the article of the leprosy in my instructions.
When I arrived at Martinico in 1727, Monsieur Blondel de Juvencourt, then intendant of the French isles, communicated to me both the orders of the court, and all the memoirs, that related to this affair. A tax was then laid upon the Negroes of the inhabitants of the Grande Terre, to raise a necessary fund for this visitation, thus made at the expence of the colony; and Mons. le Mercier Beausoleil was chosen treasurer of this fund.
Being arrived at Guadaloupe, the Count de Moyencourt, and Mons. Mesnier, ordinator and subdelegate to this intendance, communicated to me the order of the general and intendant. I began then to inform myself of the necessary instructions for acquiting myself of this dangerous commission, the disagreeable consequences of which I easily foresaw. I had so often heard of these leprous spots, that I judged it necessary to know, whether what was said was true: for I could not comprehend, that a disease, which has so dreadful an end, and the symptoms then so terrible, should continue ten or fifteen years without any other appearance than these simple spots; which, in themselves, had nothing very bad. I demanded an inquest to be made, in order to satisfy myself of this fact: several surgeons, as practitioners, and several honest inhabitants, as observers, were accordingly called together, who all proved the same fact in this inquest; which you, Sir, may, and must, have seen in the register of the subdelegation of this island. I am, most sincerely,
SIR,
Your most humble and obedient Servant,
Peyssonel.
August 10. 1748.
Result of the Visitation.
1st, NONE of the patients, whom we visited, had any fever; and they all declared, that they found no inconvenience nor pain; but, on the contrary, eat, drank, and slept well, performing every natural function; which was proved by their plumpness, which appeared even when the disease was most confirmed.
2. The disease began to shew itself in the Negroes by reddish spots, a little raised, upon the skin, being a dry kind of tetter, neither branny nor scabbed, and without any running, but of a livid-red, and very ill-conditioned. The Negroes sometimes bring these spots with them from their own country. The spots are constantly found upon every person troubled with this disease; and are in greater numbers, in proportion as the disease grows more inveterate.
3. Among the whites the disease shews itself at the beginning by spots of a livid violet colour, without pain; which are followed by little watery bladders, particularly upon the legs, which burst, and leave small ulcers with pale edges, and different in their natures from the common ulcers.
4. In proportion as the disease increased, the hands and feet grew larger, without any signs of inflammation; since neither redness, nor pain, nor any oedematous appearance accompanied it; but it was the very flesh, that increased in bulk. And this growth of the hands and feet was not attended with any sharp pain, but only a kind of numbness.
5. This bloated state of the hands and feet was succeeded by white deep ulcers under the skin, which became callous and insensible; and which emitted only a clear serous matter like water, and were but little painful. Afterwards the ends of the fingers became dry, the nails became scaly, and, I don't know how, they were eaten away; the ends of the fingers dropt off; then the joints separated without pain, and the wounds cicatrized of themselves, without the least need of medicines. In the increase of the distemper hardnesses and lumps were formed in the flesh, the colour became tarnished, the nose swelled, and the nostrils grew wide: at last the nose softened like paste, the voice became hoarse, the eyes round and brilliant, the forehead covered with tetters and lumps, as well as the face; the eye-brows became very large, the countenance was horrible, the breath fœtid, the lips swelled, large tubercles were formed under the tongue; the ears grew thick and red, and hung down; and, such was the insensibility of all the parts, that we run pins thro' the hands of several, without their feeling any thing of it. In short, we were assured, that these people perished by degrees, falling into a mortification; and the limbs dropt off of themselves, without any considerable pain, continuing still to perform well their natural functions.
6. These leprous people lived thus easy, if I may be allowed the expression, for several years, even fifteen or twenty; for the disease begins insensibly, and shews itself but very slowly.
7. Antivenereal remedies, which were ordered for almost every patient we saw, were of no service: if they sometimes palliated some symptoms, they very often hastened the progress of the disease: besides, we never found the parts of generation at all infected, nor any thing, that looked like the pox about them.
8. Some of these people had indeed particular symptoms. In some the hair fell off; which was replaced by a finer kind: in others, worms were found in their ulcers: want of sleep, or frightful dreams, afflicted some; while others quite lost their voice, or it became effeminate like that of eunuchs; and others, we found, stunk extremely.
9. Almost all of them, being desirous of concealing their disorders, endeavored to deceive us, by alleging false excuses for the causes of their sores and ulcers: the greater part of them pretended, that the rats had eaten off their toes, and that burns had caused their ulcers. These were the figures, that every where presented to us.
10. We were confirmed in our opinions by experience, supported by verbal process, that this was the state of the diseased; that the distemper could neither be the pox, nor the effect of an inveterate one: that it had no symptom of that disease; but that it had every character of what the ancients called leprosy, elephantiasis, or such other names, as they were pleased to give it. So that we do not hesitate to pronounce, that those infected with this disease, as we have described it, ought to be treated as leprous persons, and subject to the ordinances, which his majesty was pleased to issue against such persons.
11. Again, we are well assured, from our observations, that the distemper is contagious, and hereditary; and yet the contagion is not so active, nor poisonous, as that of the plague, small-pox, nor even as the ring-worm, itch, scald, and other cutaneous disorders: for, if that were the case, the American colonies would be utterly destroyed; and these persons so infected, mixed as they are in every habitation, would have already infected all the Negroes, whom they come near.
12. We believe, that this contagion does not take place but by long frequenting the company of the infected, or by carnal knowlege. Besides, we have observed, that even such long frequenting, or cohabiting with them, are not always sufficient to communicate the disease; because we have seen women cohabit with their husbands, and husbands with their wives, in the distemper, while one is sound, and the other infected. We see families communicate and live with leprous persons, and yet never be infected; and thus, altho' experience, and the information of the sick, prove the contagion, we are of opinion, that there must be a particular disposition in people to receive the poison of the leprosy.
13. As to what regards the distemper's being hereditary, it is assuredly so. We have seen intire families infected; and almost every child of a leprous father or mother fall insensibly into the leprosy; and yet, in several other families, we have seen some children sound, and others tainted; the father has died of the disease, and the children grew old without any infection: so that, tho' it is certainly hereditary, yet we believe it is of the same nature with those in families troubled with the consumption, gravel, and other hereditary distempers; which are transmitted from father to son, without being so very regular, as to affect every one of the family.
14. We could never find out any certain rule of judging, at what age the disease shews itself first in those, who were begotten by infected parents: but we have, as far as we could, observed, with regard to women or girls, that the symptoms begin with the menses, and continue slightly till they have lain in of one or two children: but that then more visible, and indeed more cruel, symptoms appeared. As to men, or infants, there is no rule to know it in them.
15. For the explanation of the causes, symptoms, and what we think the most likely means of cure, we refer to a particular dissertation. Let it suffice here to observe, that we do not imagine, that the air, water, or manner of living, can produce it; for we have found as many sick in the low marshy places, as in more airy saline places: and if many Negroes were infected in the Grand Terre, where they drink the foul waters of ponds and lakes, we see an equal number ill in places, where they have fresh rivers and running waters; but they may prove proper causes for unlocking, and disposing persons to receive, the disease.
16. We believe, and are persuaded, that the origin of this disease among the Negroes comes from Guinea: for almost all the Negroes from the country told us they came from thence with these reddish spots, the first and certain signs of the distemper begun.
17. As to the infected Whites and Mulattoes of this island, we were informed, that the disease was not known among the Whites till about 25 or 30 years ago; when, out of charity, they received a miserable object from the island of St. Christoper's, whose name was Clement; who, about the year 1694, fled hither. It was the family of the Josselins, called the Chaloupers, that protected him; which family, as also that of the Poulins, we found infected by communication with this sick man, as old Poulin declared to us.
It is thought, that others were infected by communication with the Negro women, especially in the beginning, when the disease is much concealed, at a time when they did not mistrust one another; which is very probable, since we saw many Mulatto children, born of female Negroes, infected and leprous.
18. However this be, this distemper has had its progress; and in this visitation, which we made, we examined 256 suspected persons; that is, 89 Whites, 47 free Mulattoes, and 120 Negroes: among whom we found 22 Whites, 6 Mulattoes, and 97 Negroes, infected with the leprosy, amounting to 125. There were six Whites and five Negroes more, whom we could not visit, for reasons set forth in the verbal process. The remaining persons, which were 131, appeared to us very sound: not that we can answer for the consequences, especially with respect to the children, who are the offspring of leprous persons; whether declared such by us, or dead before the visitation, suspected of infection.
This is the opinion, declaration, and result of the visitation made by us, the physicians and surgeon appointed for that purpose. At Basseterre, the day above-mentioned.
Peyssonel.
Lemoine.
Moulon.
A second visitation was made in October 1748.
VIII. An Account of the late Discoveries of Antiquities at Herculaneum; in an Extract of a Letter from Camillo Paderni, Keeper of the Herculanean Museum, and F.R.S. to Thomas Hollis, Esq; dated Naples, Dec. 16, 1756.
Read Feb. 10, 1757.
IT is probable, that the first volume of antique paintings will be published at Easter; in which there will be fifty copper-plates, with observations by the academy lately established here for illustrating the antiquities.
Two volumes of the ancient papyrus have been unrolled. One treats of rhetoric, and the other is upon music; and both are written by the same author, Philodemus. Il Signor Canonico Mazzocchi, a very learned gentleman of this city, is now translating them from the Greek. There are two persons constantly employed in unrolling other volumes.
In the month of April were found two fine busts of women, the subjects unknown. Also a young stag, of excellent workmanship, upon a base. The height of it, from the feet to the top of the head, is three palms and a half. Likewise its companion; but broken in many pieces; which however I hope to restore.
In May, a small young hog.
In October, a female statue, of middling workmanship. Also a Silenus, a palm and three inches high, standing upon a square base raised upon three rows of steps, which are supported at the angles by lions claws. He has a bald head, a long curled beard, a hairy body, and naked feet. The drapery about him is loose and flowing: the fore-finger of each hand is extended, and all the rest are closed. From his back arises a branch above the head, where it divides into two, which, twisting their foliage round it, fall and spread themselves below the shoulders, on each of which a stand is placed to fix a lamp. In the middle, betwixt the extremities of these two small branches, is a bird resembling a parroquet. The whole of this figure is in a very good taste. All these things above-mentioned are of bronze.
In November was discovered a beautiful marble Terminus, of Greek workmanship, as big as the life. It is drest in a chlamys; has a young countenance; and the head is covered with a Grecian helmet.
Many other things have also been found, as lamps, vases, and such-like, in bronze. And we have often met with paintings. If any farther discoveries are made, which are remarkable, you may depend on being informed of them.
At present my time is much taken up, in a work extremely difficult and tedious; which is this: When the theatre was first discovered, there were found in it, among other things, several horses in bronze, larger than the life; but all of them bruised, and broken into many pieces. From this sad condition they are not yet restored. But his majesty having expressed a particular desire to see that effected, if possible, with regard to one of them, I resolved to attempt it; and accordingly have set about it.
IX. An Account of some Trees discovered under-ground on the Shore at Mount's-Bay in Cornwall: In a Letter from the Rev. Mr. William Borlase, F.R.S. to the Rev. Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter.
Ludgvan, Jan 24. 1757.
Reverend Sir,
Read Feb. 10, 1757.
BEING an airing the other day with Mrs. Borlase, on the sands below my house, we perceived the sands betwixt the Mount and Penzance much washed into pits, and bare stony areas, like a broken causey. In one of the latter, Mrs. B. as we passed by, thought she saw the appearance of a tree; and, upon a review, I found it to be the roots of a tree, branching off from the trunk in all directions. We made as much haste down to the same place in the afternoon as we could, and with proper help to make a farther examination. I measured and drew the remains; and about 30 feet to the west found the roots of another tree, but without any trunk, tho' displayed in the same horizontal manner as the first. Fifty feet farther to the north we found the body of an oak, three feet in diameter, reclining to the east. We dug about it, and traced it six feet deep under the surface; but its roots were still deeper than we could pursue them. Within a few feet distance was the body of a willow, one foot and a half in diameter, with the bark on; and one piece of a large hazel-branch, with its bark on. What the two first trees were, it was not easy to distinguish, there being not a sufficiency remaining of the first, and nothing but roots of the second, both pierced with the teredo, or augur-worm. Round these trees was sand, about ten inches deep, and then the natural earth, in which these trees had formerly flourished. It was a black marsh-earth, in which the leaves of the juncus were intirely preserved from putrefaction. These trees were 300 yards below full-sea-mark; and, when the tide is in, have at least 12 feet of water above them: and doubtless there are the remains of other trees farther towards the south, which the sea perpetually covers, and have more than 30 feet water above them. But these are sufficient to confirm the ancient tradition of these parts, that St. Michael's mount, now half a mile inclosed with the sea, when the tide is in, stood formerly in a wood. That the wood consisted of oak, very large, hazel and willow trees, is beyond dispute. That there has been a subsidence of the sea-shores hereabouts, is hinted in my letter to you, p. 92; and the different levels and tendencies, which we observed in the positions of the trees we found, afford us some material inferences, as to the degree and inequalities of such subsidences in general; as the age, in which this subsidence happened (near 1000 years since at least) may convince us, that when earthquakes happen, it is well for the country, that they are attended with subsidences; for then the ground settles, and the inflammable matter, which occasioned the earthquake, has no longer room to spread, unite, and recruit its forces, so as to create frequent and subsequent earthquakes: whereas, where there are earthquakes without proportionable subsidences, there are caverns and ducts under-ground remaining open and unchoaked, the same cause, which occasioned the first, has room to revive and renew its struggles, and to repeat its desolations or terrors; which is most probably the case of Lisbon. I am, Sir,
Your most affectionate
and obliged humble Servant,
Wm. Borlase.
X. Experiments on applying the Rev. Dr. Hales's Method of distilling Salt-water to the Steam-Engine. By Keane Fitzgerald, Esq; F.R.S.
Read Feb. 17, 1757.
ON reading Dr. Hale's account of purifying salt-water, by blowing showers of air thro', it occurred to me, that something of the kind might be applied with advantage to the steam or fire-engine, by increasing the quantity of steam, and consequently diminishing the quantity of fuel otherwise necessary.
As the strength of steam raised from boiling water is always in a fluctuating state, and, by the best experiments hitherto made, has never been found above ⅒ stronger, or weaker, than air; I was in doubt, whether steam, produced by this method, would be sufficiently strong for the purpose of the steam-engine.
I made an experiment first on a small boiler, about 12 inches diameter, made in the shape of those commonly used in steam-engines, with a funnel at the top, of about 1 inch diameter, for the steam to pass thro'; the aperture of which was covered with a thin plate, fixt at one end with a hinge, and a small leaden weight to slide on the other, in the nature of a steel-yard, to mark the strength or quantity of the steam. A tin pipe made for this purpose, with several small holes towards the end, passed from a small pair of bellows, through the upper part of the boiler, to within about an inch of the bottom. The boiler was half filled with water, which covered the holes in the pipe about six inches. From the best observation I was capable of making with this machine, by blowing air thro' the boiling water, it produced about ⅙ more steam than was produced by the same fire without blowing air thro'.
I then applied a machine of this kind to the engine at the York-buildings water-works, the boiler of which is 15 feet diameter. This is a patent-boiler, a section and plan of which is annexed. It has a double concave, with a kind of door-way or passage from one to the other, in order to let the flame pass, as it were, thro' and round the water; by which means there is no-where above nine inches of water to be heated thro', tho' the boiler is so large; and which, by three years experience, has been found to require ¼ less fuel, than any other fire-engine of equal bigness.
Philos. Trans. Vol. L. Tab. I p. 54.
J. Mynde sc.
I fixt a pipe of an inch and a half diameter to a pair of double bellows three feet diameter; which pipe reached about one foot under the surface of the water in the boiler; to the end of which are fixed horizontally two branches, each about eight feet long, tapering from one inch diameter to about ¼ of an inch. These branches are bent in a circular manner, as in the plan, to answer the form of the concave, and are perforated with small holes about four inches distant at the thickest part, and decreasing gradually in distance, to within ¼ of an inch, towards the small end. The reason of these branches being made taper, and the distance between the holes decreasing to the small end, was in order to give the greater power to the air forced by the bellows to discharge the water lodged in such a length of pipe; and I observed by this method, that the water was gradually forced thro' the holes to the end of each branch, and seemed to throw an equal quantity of air thro' the water.
The length of the pipe, to which the branches are fixed horizontally, is about 18 feet to the nosle of the bellows: notwithstanding which length, the steam, that passed thro' the pipe into the bellows, was so hot before the water boiled, as to force thro' the leather: but this I easily remedied, by fixing a brass cock of one inch and a half diameter to the pipe, which hindered the steam from ascending, until the engine was ready to work; and being opened, the air continually keeps it cold until the engine has done working; then the cock must be shut again.
The bellows is worked by means of a small lever, and pullies applied to the great lever of the fire-engine, which keeps a continual blast whilst the engine works; the strength of which is increased or diminished, by adding or taking off the weights on the bellows.
The effect produced, according to the best observations I could make, was, first, a very visible alteration for the better in the working of the engine. When the fire was stirred, as it must be every time fuel is added, the steam generally became too fierce, which occasioned great irregularity, and sometimes, if not watched, great damage to the engine; and when the fire abated, the stroke became immediately much shorter, or stopped intirely, if fuel was not soon added: whereas, by blowing air thus thro' the water, it keeps, with any moderate care, an equal stroke to its full length, from the beginning to the end; and by that means discharges a considerably greater quantity of water. A proof of which was very evident, tho' I could not ascertain the exact quantity: for the engine, before this improvement, supplied but two main pipes at once, which conveyed the water to the houses served by them; but since could not take off the quantity of water thrown up, part of which was obliged to be discharged into a third main.
As to the quantity of fuel, that may be saved by this method, it is not easy to determine from any experiment on this engine, the boiler and fire-place of which is made very different from all others, and the quantity of fuel already thereby greatly lessened. The fire-place, which may be said to be within the boiler, and is but barely large enough to contain a quantity of the roundest and strongest burning coals sufficient to work the engine, cannot in this be made less; and consequently will not admit such a saving from this model, as from one properly constructed for the purpose: a proof of which I made, by trying some coals of a weaker kind, which were also cheaper; but on trial were not strong enough to work the engine, and had therefore been laid by. These coals answered extremely well; and, as it was a slower-burning coal, I found the consumption, whilst they lasted, was between two and three bushels less in every six hours, which is about the time the engine works each day: and I am satisfied, if the person, who attends the engine, would take the proper care, more coals could still be saved. For at several different times, when I had the coals exactly measured, and marked the time, I constantly found, that it required half a bushel in the hour less than he generally used, and the engine threw up as much water.
As this method of blowing air thro' boiling water, in order to increase the quantity of steam for a fire-engine, has, I believe, never before been attempted, and produces already a very good effect, I am in hopes it may be still further improved.
XI. Extract of a Letter of Mr. Abraham Trembley, F.R.S. to Tho. Birch, D.D. Secret. R.S. Translated from the French.
Hague, 1 Feb. 1757.
SIR,
Read Feb. 17, 1757.
I Wrote to you on the 26th of November last, concerning the earthquake felt some time before between the Rhine and the Meuse. I have been since informed by Professor Donati of Turin, that a slight shock had been perceived there on the 13th of August 1756, at a quarter after nine in the morning. It was likewise felt in other parts of Piedmont. He has also communicated to me an extract of a letter of a professor of Genoa, one of his friends, of which the following is a translation.
“On the 9th of November we felt here two shocks of an earthquake; one at 20¾ hours, according to the Italian way of reckoning; the other at about 4½ hours at night. I did not perceive the first, being then walking in the house; but I felt the second. I was then laid down, and going to sleep. The direction of the undulations was from north to south, as far as I could judge.”
Mons. Donati took last summer, according to his custom, a journey, in order to prosecute his researches into natural history. He was accompanied by Dr. Ascanius, Fellow of the Royal Society; who was still in doubt about coral's being a composition of animals. Mons. Donati carried him to the sea of Provence. He ordered coral to be fished up in his presence. He placed it in a large vessel full of water; and carried this vessel on shore; where he soon convinced Dr. Ascanius, by his own eyes, that coral is a mass of animals of the polype-kind.
Mons. Donati has written to me, that he has thoroughly satisfied himself by his last observations, that the polypes are fixed to their cells; of which he had before doubted. What he says afterwards of coral appears to me to express with more truth and precision what we ought to think of this kind of animals, than any of the descriptions, which have been given since the new discoveries have changed our sentiments on that subject. Polype-beds, and the cells, which they contain, are commonly spoken of as being the work of polypes. They are compared to the honeycomb made by bees. It is more exact to say, that coral, and other coralline bodies, have the same relation to the polypes united to them, that there is between the shell of a snail and the snail itself, or between the bones of an animal, and the animal itself. Mons. Donati's words are as follow. “I am now of opinion, that coral is nothing else than a real animal, which has a very great number of heads. I consider the polypes of coral only as the heads of the animal. This animal has a bone ramified in the shape of a shrub. This bone is covered with a kind of flesh, which is the flesh of the animal. My observations have discovered to me several analogies between the animals of kinds approaching to this. There are, for instance, keratophyta, which do not differ from coral, except in the bone or part, that forms the prop of the animal. In the coral it is testaceous, and in the keratophyta it is horny.”
The observations, which I have made upon some kind of polype-beds, lead me to think, that what are called polypes, in those bodies, which are observed to come out of and return into the cells, are more than the heads of the animal. I have seen some, which had a bag, into which pass'd their food, which I saw them swallow; and another bag, into which passed the grossest part of that food, after it was digested. This is the case, for instance, of the plumed polypes, which I described at the end of the third memoir, in the work published by me on one kind of fresh-water polypes.
Mons. Donati has observed divers very curious facts in the journey, which he made into the mountains. He has, in particular, traced out an immense bed of marine bodies. This bed crosses the highest mountains, which separate Provence from Piedmont, and loses itself in the plains of Piedmont.
He has likewise observed a mass of rock, which forms the extremity of a pretty high mountain, the foot of which is washed by the sea. This rock is at a considerable height, intirely pierced by pholades, that species of marine shell-fish so well known, which digs cells into the stones. It appears from hence, that this rock was some time covered by the sea. According to Mons. Donati, the sea has insensibly retired from the parts, which were washed by it; and he thinks, that there must have been a very considerable space of time between that and the time, when this mountain, pierced by pholades, was covered by the waters of the sea. He deduces his opinion from the following fact. There is in this rock, pretty near the surface of the sea, a natural cavern fill'd with earth. In this earth have been found ancient Roman sarcophagi and lamps. It follows from hence, that even in the time of the Romans this part of the rock, in which this cavern is situated, was not under water. As there is but a small distance between the cavern and the surface of the water, it follows, that the water has sunk but very little since the time of the Romans. If it has sunk in the same proportion since the time, when it covered the top of the rock, there is no doubt, but that the time, when it was intirely covered by the sea, must have been very distant. If the same manner of reasoning be used, with respect to the bed of marine bodies, mentioned above, which crosses the mountains, that separate Provence from Piedmont, we shall be obliged to presume, that the time, when those mountains were under the waters of the sea, was at a very great distance from the present.
Mons. Donati concludes from these facts, and the consequences deduced from them, that the Mediterranean sea is a very ancient, and not a modern one, as Mons. de Buffon imagines.
Those, who explain all phænomena of marine bodies found out of the sea, by an universal deluge, do not admit the consequences drawn by Mons. Donati from those marine bodies now under consideration. It is plain, that most of the naturalists, who have observed a great number of these marine bodies, are not of opinion, that all those phænomena can be explained by a universal deluge. Upon these subjects, before we undertake to judge, it is proper to be well informed of the nature of marine fossile bodies, which are found in divers parts, and of their situation and arrangement. It is necessary likewise to be acquainted with the state of those, which are found actually under the sea, and the revolutions, to which they are subject, while they are covered by it. It is still farther requisite to have an attention to the revolutions, which have been and are constantly observed, with respect to the sea-shores, which change their situation in several parts, some advancing upon the land, and others retiring. If all these different facts be compared together, it will not be doubted, but there are actually under the earth marine bodies which are found there only in consequence of these slow revolutions, and not of an universal deluge. Perhaps this notion might be extended to the greatest part of the marine fossile bodies, which are known to us.
Mons. Donati informs me, that he would be glad to present to the Royal Society an history of coral, if he thought, that it would be agreeable to them.
XII. A brief Botanical and Medical History of the Solanum Lethale, Bella-donna, or Deadly Nightshade, by Mr. Richard Pultney. Communicated by Mr. William Watson, F.R.S.
Read Feb. 17, 1757.
BELLA-DONNA is the name, which the Italians, and particularly the Venetians, apply to this plant; and Mr. Ray[1] observes, that is so called because the Italian ladies make a cosmetic from the juice, or distilled water, which they use to make their complexion fair and white. Others[2] suppose it derives its name from its intoxicating quality. With us it is generally known by the name of Deadly Nightshade, or Dwale, tho' this last term is seldom used for it; and the old French word Morelle, which Lobel applies to it, seems to be quite forgotten amongst us.
Classical Distribution.
The Deadly Nightshade was very soon discovered by the revivers of botany after the restoration of learning; and, agreeable to the fashion of those days, it was greatly debated among commentators, whether it was known, and by what name, to the fathers of botany Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Several of the writers of that time, as Dodenæus, Guilandinus, Fuchsius, and Cordus, were of opinion, that it was the Mandragora morion of Theophrastus; and their sentiments were espoused by his learned commentator Bodæus à Stapel[3], who moreover supposes it the plant, which Dioscorides describes, lib. iv. cap. 69. under the name of Στρύχνος μανικὸς. On the other hand, Matthiolus[4] has taken great pains to prove, that it is not the Mandragora of Theophrastus; and both he and Ruellius[5] are inclined to think, that the Bella-donna was not known to either of the Grecian Fathers; who are so short, vague, and immethodical, in their descriptions, that it is very difficult, not to say impossible, to apply them to particular species with justness and precision.
Be this as it will, our restorers of botany agreed in general to rank it with the Solana, or Nightshades; and as most of them took it to be the Στρύχνος μανικός of Dioscorides, so we find thereto the addition of some epithet, expressive of its deleterious quality, in most of their writings; such as lethale, somniferum, furiosum, &c. Its general agreement with the plants of that genus, and also the knowledge the world soon had of its poisonous quality, when it is considered, that systematic distributions, from the parts of fructification, had not been thought of at that time: these, I say, were sufficient reasons for referring it to the Nightshades. By such names therefore is it found in most of the old writers; till Clusius, who, observing perhaps, that it differed in its parts of fructification from the Solana, adopted the indigenous Italian name, as a generical one, and called it Bella-donna. Cæsalpinus, the first inventor of a botanic system, did not separate it from the Nightshades. Morison and Ray, the revivers of method almost an hundred years afterwards, were aware of the difference; the former having placed it in a chapter among the Solanis affines, and the latter constituted a distinct genus of it, tho' he retained the old name in his history of plants. Tournefort adopted Clusius's name Bella-donna, and was followed by all the systematic botanists, who have since wrote; as Boerhaave, Rivini, Ruppius, Knaut, Magnol, Ludwig, and Haller; until Linnæus, conformable to the 229th rule of the Fundamenta Botanica[6], rejected it, and very expressly calls it Atropa[7]; in which he is followed by all succeeding writers, who have chosen his method.
Cæsalpinus, Morison, Ray, Herman, and Boerhaave, who range these plants according to the fruit, place the Deadly Nightshade among the Herbæ Bacciferæ in their respective systems.
Rivinus, Ludwig, and Christian Knaut, who adopt the number and regularity of the petals in the corolla, for their classical character, refer it to such as have regular monopetalous flowers. Ruppius, whose method is upon the same plan, brings it among the irregular monopetalous ones.
Tournefort's method, which is established upon the figure of the flower, takes it into the first class among such plants as have campaniform or bell-shaped flowers.
Dr. Van Royen, whose system is undoubtedly a very elegant attempt towards the natural method in botany, arranges it among such as he calls Oligantheræ; namely, such plants as have the stamina equal to, or fewer in number than, the segments of the corolla.
Dr. Haller, whose method is upon the plan of a natural one also, includes the Bella-donna among the Isostemones, such plants as have the number of the stamina equal to the segments of the corolla.
In the sexual system of Linnæus, at this time so generally received, and so well established, it belongs to the Pentandria monogynia, or such plants as have five stamina and one style. The plants of this order are arranged into five subdivisions. The Atropa comes in among those, that have declinated stamina. According to this method, we shall give its generical characters from the last edition of Linnæus's Genera Plantarum.
The most obvious and essential character of the genus is the globose berry, and open calyx[8]. The general character is as follows.
Atropa Linn. Gen. Plant. Ed. 5. Nº. 222.
The calyx is a gibbous permanent perianthium, formed of a single leaf divided into five acute segments.
The corolla is formed of a single bell-shaped petal, the tube of which is very short; the limb ventricose, of an oval figure, and longer than the calyx. The mouth is small, expanded, and divided into five pretty equal segments.
The stamina are five subulated filaments proceeding from the base of the flower, and are of the same length: at the base they are connivent, and at the top bent outwardly. The antheræ are thick and assurgent.
The germen is of a semiovated figure: the style is filiform, of the length of the stamina, and inclinated. The stigma is capitated, transversely oblong, and assurgent.
The fruit is a globose berry, standing in a large cup, and containing three cells. The receptacle is convex on both sides, and kidney-shaped.
The seeds are numerous, and kidney-shaped also.
The Species.
- 1. Atropa caule herbaceo, foliis ovatis integris. Linn. Spec. Plant. p. 181.
- Atropa. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 57. Roy. Lugd. 423. Hort. Ups. 45. Dalib. Paris. 70.
- Bella-donna majoribus foliis et floribus. Tourn. Inst. 77. Boerh. Lugd. II. 69. Miller, plate 62.
- Bella-donna dicta Solanum lethale. Hill. Herb. Britan. p. 328. tab. 47.
- Bella-donna. Clus. Pan. p. 503. Bod à Stap. p. 586. Cat. Gissen. 142. Raii Syn. ed. 3. p. 265. Vaillant. Botan. Par. p. 20. Hall. Helv. 507. Dale Pharmacol. 4° ed. p. 72. Wilson. Synop. p. 122.
- Solanoc ongener flore campanulato vulgatius, latioribus foliis. Hist. Oxon. III. p. 532. sect. 13. tab. 3. fig. 4.
- Solanum somniferum. Fuchs. 689. Icon. opt.
- Solanum maniacum multis sive Bella-donna. J.B. III. p. 611.
- Solanum melanocerasos. C.B. pin. 166.
- Solanum lethale. Ger. 169. emac. 340. Park. 346. Raii. Hist. Plant. 679.
- Solanum majus sive Herba Bella-donna. Matthiol. Oper. Omn. p. 756.
- Solanum somniferum et lethale. Lobel. Adversar. p. 102.
- Deadly Nightshade, or Dwale.
- 2. Atropa caule fruticoso. Spec. Plant. 182.
- Bella-donna frutescens rotundifolia Hispanica. Tourn. Inst. 77.
- Solanum frutex rotundifolium Hispanicum. Barril. Obs. 2. Icon. 1173.
- Round-leaved shrubby Spanish Bella-donna.
- 3. Atropa foliis sinuato-angulatis, calycibus clausis acutangulis. Spec. Plant. 181.
- Bella-donna flore magno violaceo. Hill. Herb. Brit. 319.
- Alkekengi amplo fiore violaceo. Few. Per. 724. tab. 16.
- Large violet-flower'd Bella-donna, or Deadly Nightshade.
The first of the species here enumerated is the plant in question. The second has been found growing naturally in no other country than Spain. The third was first discovered by Father Feuillée in Peru, and is therefore only an inhabitant of the gardens in this part of the world.
The Description.
The root is perennial. It is pretty long, and divided into many branches of a brown colour, succulent, and of a disagreeable smell. The radical leaves are frequently a foot long, and five inches broad, of an oval acuminated figure, and not sinuated on the edges. The stalk rises to three or four feet: it is much divaricated and branched. The cauline leaves stand alternately upon it, in shape like the radical, of a dusky-green colour on the upper part, and a paler green underneath, being a little hairy on both sides. The flowers stand on single footstalks, in the alæ of the leaves: they are large, of a campanulated figure, and striated, of a dusky-purple colour within, with a yellow variegated base; the outer surface of the flower is of a greenish red. After the flower succeeds a fine beautiful large berry, which is black when ripe. For the rest, take in the generical character.
Most of the old authors give us figures of this plant, which, tho' they convey a general idea of it, are yet scarce any of them exact. This fault in general runs thro' all, that I have had an opportunity of examining; namely, that the flowers and fruit are represented by much too large in proportion to the leaves. Morison's is perhaps one of the best among the old figures: it is, upon the whole, tolerable, but not accurate on account of the before-mentioned objection. Petiver's does by no means represent the plant justly, in that the alæ of the leaves are not properly filled up. The most accurate figure of all, that I have seen, is Mr. Miller's, in his plates adapted to the Gardeners Dictionary, which is undoubtedly taken from nature itself.
Place of Growth.
The Deadly Nightshade is found in many parts of Europe, especially in England and in Austria; and yet in our own country it is happily not very plentiful, inasmuch as our botanical writers usually reckon it among the more rare plants, and specify particularly the places where they have observed it.
Here in England it is chiefly found in uncultivated places: in church-yards, about old walls, among rubbish in shady places, about dunghills, in lanes, and sometimes about woods and hedges. It begins to flower in June, and maintains a succession of flowers for two months. The berries are ripe in September and October.
It is of great importance, that the knowlege of poisonous plants should be extended as much as possible, that they may the better be avoided, and their fatal effects thro' mistake be guarded against: there can therefore be no impropriety in enumerating particularly some of those places, where our English botanists have observed it. Mr. Ray mentions its being found in the church-yard and lanes about Fulburn in Cambridgeshire, Sutton-Colefield in Warwickshire: in the Downs: at Cuckstone, near Rochester in Kent, all the yards and backsides are over-run with it. Ray. Syn. Upon Clifton-hill, near Nottingham; also in a quarry near the cold-bath at Mansfield. Catal. Notting. In Currenwood-kins, near Burton in Kendal, and other places in Westmorland. Wilson's Syn. Dr. Wilmer found it amoung the bogs going down to Dorking in Surrey, plentifully. In Preston church-yard, near Feversham in Kent. Mr. Watson found it by the wood-side, under the park-wall, between Temsford-mills and Welwyn, Hertfordshire; and near the road between Rochester and Maidstone. Mr. Blackstone found it in a shady gravel-pit near the old park-wood at Harefield, and in the gardens at More-park near Rickmansworth, plentifully. Specim. Botan. About Rochester and Chatham, where it grows in the joints of old walls, and in most of the unfrequented lanes: also in Woodstock-park in Oxforshire, and Up-park in Hampshire. I have observed it four or five years since on the edge of Charley-forest: about Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire. It grows about North Luffenham in Rutland.
Its Poisonous Quality.
There have been many fatal instances of the narcotic and deleterious effects of the berries of this plant. They are upon record in almost all botanical, and many medical authors. Children have unhappily been the principal sufferers this way, being tempted to eat by the enticing aspect of the berries, or by mistaking them for some other fruit. The berries, however, are not the only part of the plant, which partake of this intoxicating and poisonous property: the whole plant is endued with it, and that in no small degree.
If the Bella-donna is allowed to be the Στρύχνος μανικὸς of Dioscorides[9], this quality of it was not unknown to that writer. It was very soon known to the first writers in the medical and botanic way after the restoration of letters; and they have not failed to inform us of it.
Tragus and Fuchsius, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth century, both relate instances of the poisonous effects of these berries: the former, of a man, who went mad after having eaten of them; the latter, of two children, who perished by the same means[10].
Lobel[11] tells us, that the berries of this plant are present death; and informs us of some youths, who, after eating them, became stupified, and died as from an over-dose of opium.
Matthiolus[12] relates, from his own knowlege, of some children poisoned by the same means.
Among all the instances of the intoxicating nature of this plant, there is none more memorable than that mentioned by the Scotch historian Buchanan[13], of the destruction of the army of Sweno; which is quoted by almost all authors, who have wrote upon this plant. It is there said, that the Scots mixed a quantity of the juice of these berries with the drink, which, by their truce, they were to supply the Danes with; which so intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greatest part of them while they were asleep. How far this anecdote is to be depended upon, or whether other concurrent circumstances ought not to be taken into the account, I cannot determine.
Our own herbalist Gerard[14] mentions the case of three boys in the Isle of Ely, who, having eaten of these berries, two of them died in less than eight hours; but the third, by drinking plentifully of honey and water, and vomiting after it, recovered.
Bodæus à Stapel, in his comment upon Theophrastus[15], tells us of two youths, that eat two or three of these berries, which they got in the Leyden garden, mistaking them for black currants: one of them perished, and the other recovered with great difficulty.
Simon Pauli relates two or three examples to the same effect[16]. Wepfer gives us a circumstantial account of a child about ten years old, who was thrown into a great variety of convulsive symptoms after eating of this fruit: but proper care being taken by vomiting, and afterwards giving alexipharmics and anti-epileptic medicines, he recovered[17].
M. Boulduc[18] laid before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, the case of some children, who, upon eating these berries, were seized with a violent fever, palpitations of the heart, convulsions, and lost their senses. One of them, a little boy of four years old, died the next morning.
Boerhaave has instances to the same effect[19]: and it was the misfortune of Dr. Abraham Munting, a noted botanist and professor of physic in the university of Groningen, to have his own daughter poisoned with the berries of the Bella-donna.
It would be almost endless to recite all the instances to be met with upon this head. The German Ephemerides, the Commercium Literarium, and other periodical works, furnish us with farther proofs of the deadly quality of the Bella-donna; and they are unhappily corroborated by more recent instances in modern authors. The Gentleman's Magazine[20], Mr. Miller in his Gardeners Dictionary, and Dr. Hill in his British Herbal[21], exhibit to us several melancholy cases of this kind.
The effects of this plant have been so extraordinary, that several distinct treatises have been published professedly upon it. The most remarkable of these is that of J.M. Faber's, printed at Augsburg in 1677, under the following title; Strychnomania explicans Strychni manici antiquorum, vel Solani furiosi recentiorum historiam. In this tract the author has collected a number of cases from various hands, concerning the poisonous quality of the plant in question. In the year 1714. C. Sicelius published a treatise upon this plant, under the title of Diatribe de Bella-donna. Jenæ. 8vo.
Medical History.
Who it was, that was bold enough to venture first upon the internal use of this plant as a medicine, I cannot say; chance very probably led to it, as in many other cases. In the mean time, there is reason to believe, that it is not altogether a modern practice. One would be led to think, by the accounts given us in Matthiolus and Bodæus, that in their days its operation was very well known; and that they knew how to dose it very exactly, since they give us an account of tricks being played with it, by infusing the quantity of a scruple of the root in wine, and intoxicating people therewith. The former of these authors relates, that the distilled water from this plant, in a dose of about two or three spoonfuls, was exhibited by some people in inflammations of the viscera; and, he observes, with good success. Parkinson seems to have transcribed this account, respecting this use of it; but neither of them speak of it from their own knowlege. It may be questioned, however, whether this could act otherwise than as mere water; since the principles with which this plant is endued, do not seem capable (if one may judge from its sensible qualities and effects upon those who have taken it) of rising in a still.
Mr. Ray[22], from the German Ephemerides, an. 13. obs. 64. presents us with the relation of a shepherd in Denmark, who administered an infusion of the berries in wine in the dysentery, which was there very common, and very obstinate; adding, that it was attended with great success, not only restraining the flux, but carrying off the disorder by sweat. Mr. Ray observes further, that, correspondent with this practice, Conrade Gesner actually prepared a syrop from the berries, and gave it in dysenteric cases with great success. This account is found in Gesner's Epistles, and is quoted also by Dr. Haller[23], when treating of this plant. Possibly its efficacy in these cases may be accounted for, from considering it merely in the quality of an opiate; and therefore it cannot be adviseable to use it, when safer medicines are always at hand.
Its external use seems to be of as long a date as its internal; and it was on account of its cooling and repellent quality, that it came into credit as a fucus among the Italian ladies. Matthiolus recommends it in the erysipelas, the shingles, and other inflammatory disorders of the skin. The leaves, applied in the form of a cataplasm, are much celebrated by many writers, as of great use in resolving tumors, particularly of the breast, and even such as are of a schirrous and cancerous nature. Many of the old authors[24] mention this application of it, among other of the cooling and narcotic herbs; such as the common nightshade, henbane, hounds-tongue, &c. which it was usual to apply on such occasions. Mr. Ray informs us, that Mr. Percival Willughby experienced its efficacy repeatedly, in discussing hardnesses and cancerous tumors in the breast.
Its relaxing quality is very surprising, as appears by that memorable case related by the last-mentioned author, of a lady's applying a leaf of it to a little ulcer, suspected to be of the cancerous kind, a little below her eye, which rendered the pupil so paralytic, that it lost all its motion for some time afterwards: and that this event was really owing to that application, appears from the experiment's being repeated with the same effect three times.
The German physicians have gone much further: they have even ventured to give it inwardly in cancerous cases. Dr. Haller, when treating of the quality of this plant, refers to Junker, and others of the modern physicians, as recommending the decoction of it with caution, that it be not given in such quantity as to cause sleep. So long since as the year 1739. there was a thesis published at Hall, by Michael Albert, in which the Bella-donna is proposed as a specific in cancerous cases. What other physicians patronize this use of it, I cannot say, having but little opportunity of consulting those academic pieces, which are of such eminent use in compilations of this kind. Thus much is certain, that its use, in such cases, rather gains ground; and the case, published in the French Bibliotheque[25], printed at the Hague, of an ulcerated cancer being radically cured by an infusion of the leaves of this plant in water, deserves particular attention, on account of its being so well attested. The case is extracted from an inaugural thesis of Professor Lambergen's, who was the physician concerned[26]. The event was so singularly happy and successful in this instance, that we hope it will need no apology, if we give a particular detail of it.
The person afflicted with this miserable disease was a widow of 34 years of age, and mother of four children. She had but weak nerves, and had been subject to inflammatory disorders. She informed M. Lambergen, upon examining her, that she had had a quinzy six times, which had twice ended in suppuration: that eight years before her right breast had suppurated, and discharged much matter: that two years after it suppurated again; and that at the end of another year both breasts underwent the same fate; since when the right had remained schirrous, but was without pain, except when she handled it. She had suckled her youngest child about six months, when she was seized with a fever; and the left breast (with which only she could suckle since the other had suppurated) soon swelled, inflamed greatly, was very painful, and soon became almost as large as a child's head. Dr. Lambergen being called in, ordered copious bleeding, and that the child should suck as little as possible. She took some medicines, and soon recovered.
A year passed after this without any bad accident; when the lunar evacuations, which she had had from her 18th year, beginning to diminish, she felt a pricking pain in her left breast, and her right began to swell. Upon a fright, she had a fall, which accident increased both the pain and swelling; and she had recourse again to Dr. Lambergen.
He found the tumors in her right breast much enlarged, and so connected together, as to feel like one large one only. On the upper part of the breast, upon the pectoral muscle, it felt rugged, unequal, and almost as hard as a stone. The patient complained of a constant itching in the part, and at times a pungent pain, which seemed to shoot from the armpit, and end in the tumor. Under this armpit the glands were hard and schirrous; and the left breast was not exempt from the like indurations. A vein or two on the right breast was a little enlarged, otherwise no alteration. It was no hotter than common; nor had it undergone any change of colour. To mitigate the pain of the schirrous, Dr. Lambergen ordered the following plaister:
℞ Ung. Diapomphol. ℥ ij. Amalgam, merc. et Plumb. ȝ iij. Sperm. Cet. ȝ j. M.
With this external application he prescribed likewise the following powders, to be taken night and morning, and gave directions relating to the non-naturals.
℞ Coral. rub. Antimon. Diaphoret. illot. Sper. Ceti a ȝ ij. Laud. gr. vj. M. for 12 doses.
Under this method the pain remitted, but the tumor inlarged, and a little rising was observed on the upper part of it; and towards the nipple, where there was the least hardness, a small spot was perceived, which, at the next return of the catamenia, inflamed, and became the seat of the most excruciating pain. Dr. Lambergen, during this period, in the room of the powders, substituted emmenagogic pills, and ordered the pediluvium. She lost ten ounces of blood from the foot: and by these means the swelling of the breast diminished, and the patient suffered very little for some days. This truce, however, was but temporary: the rising on the upper part of the tumor began to inflame, itched intolerably, the pain returned, was almost perpetual, and insupportably pungent.
In this dreadful state was the patient, when Dr. Lambergen desired the late Dr. du Bois, Dr. Winter, physician to the house of Orange and professor at Leyden, together with Dr. Van Arum of Leewarden, physician in ordinary to the Princess dowager, to visit her. These gentlemen examined her many times, and unanimously agreed, that it was now no less than a confirmed cancer. It was Professor Winter, who acquainted Dr. Lambergen, that he had heard M. Degner, a celebrated physician at Nimeguen, speak of the Bella-donna, as a sovereign remedy against inveterate schirri; adding, nevertheless, that he had never tried it himself.
In such a case as this, where death seemed inevitable, a dangerous remedy is to be preferred to none at all. Dr. Lambergen therefore determined to try it upon his patient; but, knowing the character, which the plant bore, he resolved to try the effects of it upon himself first. To this end, he poured ten tea-cups of water upon a scruple of the leaves, which had been gathered and dried three years: he let it stand all night lukewarm. Of this infusion he took half a tea-cup full, being the twentieth part of the whole, in the morning fasting; but perceived no effect from it. This determined him the next morning to double the dose; which produced a slight vertigo, and for an hour or two an uncommon dryness in his mouth. Being thus prepared, as he knew his patient had but a weak nervous system, he determined to begin with caution.
It was the 14th day of January 1745, that she took the first dose, being one tea-cup full. It had the same effect upon her, as it had had on her physician; and moreover rendered her pulse weaker and quicker than usual. For seven mornings successively she took the same dose, which, in general, produced the same effect. At the same time the plaster was renewed, with the addition of a few grains of opium. Under this method her pain was mitigated; but, before the latter end of the week, returned again more frequently, and more acute; so that she was reduced to a most deplorable condition. The rising on the upper part of the breast became livid; the place near the nipple before-mentioned inflamed, and was very painful; and two little pointed risings were observed upon it, together with a slight fissure or opening. As the menstrual period was approaching, the infusion and the powders were omitted, and the pediluvium substituted. A mixture with crabs-eyes, spt. nitri. d. and syr. e mecon. relieved the patient from some spasmodic complaints she had at this time, and the menses returned more copiously than ever. The 27th she took something more than a tea-cup of the infusion, being the first dose of the second scruple: her body was soluble; her breast less swelled, but the pain returned very acute, and seemed to terminate in the little callous eminence on the upper part of the breast, which now likewise became more pointed. The 28th she took the same quantity of the infusion. The two little pointed places near the nipple were now become two little holes, but had not discharged any matter. The other sore on the upper part of the breast was more livid still, and more painful, and had risen into two little whitish points. The powders were omitted this night, as they had been now and then at other times. The 29th, very little sleep the foregoing night, great pain from the upper sore, the holes near the nipple were become larger, and had run a yellowish matter. The same dose of the infusion as before. At night she had most acute pain from the upper sore. The 30th both sores were nearly in the same state. All remedies were this day laid aside, except the infusion; of which she took a cup-full and an half; but her mouth soon became so dry, that she could scarcely swallow a little tea; and the vertigo was so violent, that she staggered: her sight was so weakened, that she could scarcely read. Notwithstanding this, she had no anxiety, nor nausea, nor pain; but her appetite was less, and her pulse quicker. The 31st all the last-mentioned symptoms continued the same: the two pointed eminences on the upper part of the breast were become two little holes likewise, and had discharged a few drops of good matter.
The 1st of February the upper sore had discharged but little matter, and that thinner than before. That near the nipple was become more livid, and the two holes were larger; but there had been no discharge for several days. The pulse and appetite were good, sleep natural, the body open. The pain, indeed, was continual, but less acute. The 2d, little alteration. The sores discharged but little. From this time they were dressed twice in a day with Nutritum, and over all the Emp. Saturnin. The pain was not so violent, but was felt in another place, which began to swell. From the 6th to the 18th better and worse: the pain more or less acute; and the catamenia passed without any bad effects. At the end of this month the schirrus all over the breast was much softened, and sensibly diminished. This was the opinion of Dr. du Bois and Dr. Winter, as well as of Dr. Lambergen.
The 1st of March an inflammation arose on the sole of the right foot, and extended up the leg about four fingers above the heel. It ended in two great blisters, as if from a burn, which were embrocated with wine and oil, and nothing bad followed. To the 22d, the patient was better and worse. The menstrual period did not pass without some disturbance. The 26th she began with the infusion of the tenth scruple, and every thing went on for the better to the end of the month.
From the 1st of April to the 6th the ulcers were firm and dry; but the pain in the breast increased. Several blisters arose on the foot, along the leg, and even upon the thigh, on the left side. One upon the sole of the left foot, for 24 hours discharged an incredible quantity of thick whitish lymph. The pain from these blisters was beyond all she had felt before. It continued the 7th, 8th, and 9th; and new blisters arose on the thigh. The excoriated parts were all dressed with spirit of wine. During the disturbances from these new complaints, the breast was likewise painful, and swelled, tho' the ulcer near the nipple was dry, and the other discharged little or nothing. The 10th she had less pain both in her foot and in her breast. The upper sore was closed; the foot discharged less. From the 11th to the 15th, notwithstanding the weather was very cold, her pain still lessened. The ulcer remained firm, and the whole breast was softened: her foot mended; and all went on for the better till the 18th, when the ulcer on the upper part of the breast opened again in three places, and discharged a thick yellowish matter. The nipple of the left breast also became inflamed, and surrounded with pimples, which discharged a little lymph. In the mean time the cancerous breast was more painful than on the preceding days. The 19th the pain less, tho' continual. Some discharge from the foot still; but the ulcers on the thigh were healed, and another blister arose. The 20th the upper sore on the breast closed again; but that near the nipple seemed to threaten another opening, and in fact it did, on the 24th, in three places. On the 20th the catamenia returned very copiously, and superseded the use of the pediluvium. The 25th she began with the infusion of the fourteenth scruple of the Bella-donna, which, it is to be observed, was scarcely ever omitted. The 26th a blister arose at the end of the fore-finger on the left hand, was very painful, and discharged a great quantity of serous matter. The next day both ulcers on the breast discharged a small quantity of lymph; otherwise the breast was less painful.
From the 28th of April to the 7th of May every thing went on for the better: the cancerous breast was almost without pain. The ulcers ran very little, but the excoriation and pain were much worse from the nipple of the left breast, which also discharged a great quantity of lymph. The 8th the upper ulcer on the right breast closed; but the other opened again. From the 8th to the 16th no change for the worse: on the contrary, the left breast was well; the right less painful, and discharged but very little. From the 18th to the 22d the menstrual period: all things on the mending hand; the ulcer healed, and the patient had little or no pain: but, from the 23d to the 27th, the pain returned something worse, and there was some discharge from the breast.
The Nutritum was now discontinued, as too emollient. The 27th the infusion from the eighteenth scruple of the Bella-donna was begun with.
From the 28th of May to the 12th of June the breast still painful: in the mean time, however, the ulcers remained firm and dry. The tumor and schirrosity of the breast diminished in such a manner, that, excepting its being a little bigger than the other, it had intirely resumed its natural form and colour. No indurations in the left breast, nor of the glands in the right armpit.
The 13th of June she took a journey, was absent some weeks, and returned in perfect health. Dr. Lambergen advised her, but in vain, to continue the infusion. Nevertheless, she was obliged now and then, when she felt pain, to have recourse to it, and was always relieved by it: and in the course of another year the remains of the schirrus were totally wasted.
It is now (1754) eight years since, and she has had no relapse, no pain, no hardness in her breast; has married a second husband, by whom she has had a child, which she suckled. What more can be requisite to ascertain a cure?
Thus we have given a detail of this memorable case; wherein we see, that six drachms of one of the most poisonous vegetables that the world produces actually cured a woman, whom the most able physicians had given up as incurable; and who must otherwise have finished her miserable days in the most deplorable sufferings.
It must not be omitted, that notwithstanding the daily use this woman made of the Bella-donna, she was not accustomed to it in the manner as people are who take opium. Dr. Lambergen always prepared the infusion himself, and never had occasion to make it stronger than at the first, as the patient always found the like effects from the same dose.
So singular and happy an event, as attended Dr. Lambergen's administration of this plant, certainly merits the attention of the medical profession; and surely, one may add, entitles the medicine to future trials. And as the authenticity of the case will not be disputed, it is therefore greatly to be wished, that those gentlemen, who belong to the public hospitals, and others that have frequent opportunities of attending patients labouring under this deplorable disease, would give it a further trial. A cancer, even in its latent, but much more in an ulcerated state, is allowedly one of the most terrible and formidable disorders to which human nature is liable; and hath long been ranged, very justly, among the opprobria medicorum, instances of a radical cure being rarely met with: indeed, one of the first physicians[27] of our age tells us, that it is not known to have been cured at all, but by a total extirpation of the part; and all, who are conversant in physic and surgery, know very well, that that operation is frequently no security against its return.
I have here endeavoured, in as concise a manner as might be, to exhibit the history of this extraordinary plant. The being able barely to know and distinguish one plant from another, however praise-worthy in itself, ought not to be the only view of our botanical researches: we should do more, and endeavour to investigate, in the most attentive manner, the properties of vegetable productions, in order to accomodate them to the various exigencies of human life.
Several classes of vegetables, from their merely herbaceous taste, and, as far as we can conjecture, from their other sensible qualities, seem to be formed by the great Author of nature principally for the nourishment of animals: but those plants, which are endued with principles so highly active, as, when taken in small quantities, to be able to put an end to animal life; such deserve to be more minutely inquired into, as under certain circumstances these principles, properly directed, may conduce to great and good ends. We should endeavour, therefore, diligently to inform ourselves, in what quantities, and under what circumstances, the poison ends, and where the medicine begins. In this respect we have certainly a notable instance in the history before us in Professor Lambergen; whose industry, more especially as it was attended with success, merits our greatest acknowlegements; inasmuch as he has informed us, with no small degree of accuracy and precision, that the plant under consideration, which is well known to be of a highly deleterious nature, and that even in a small quantity, may be so managed, as to be productive of good effects, not to be found possibly by any other means.
Some of the most efficacious medicines are such, as, being posssessed of highly active principles, do greatly disturb the animal œconomy in their operation: nevertheless, however rough the modus operandi of any medicine be, if its efficacy by repeated trials be approved and confirmed, this is so far from proving a discouragement to its use, that we ought to regard the discovery of such a one as a valuable acquisition to the province of physic, especially if it is applicable in desperate and obstinate cases. The Bella-donna, on the contrary, supposing future trials should prove it as happily successful as Professor Lambergen has experienced it, is a medicine of a different kind; inasmuch as its operation is mild, when compared with that, which attends the exhibition of many others: we should therefore have double reason to rejoice at the discovery.
XIII. An Account of some of the Antiquities discovered at Herculaneum, &c. In a Letter to Thomas Birch, D.D. Secret. R.S. By John Nixon, A.M. F.R.S.
Reverend Sir,
Read Feb. 24, 1757.
THE subject of this letter are some cursory observations made by me last spring, upon viewing the curiosities found at Herculaneum, and the places adjacent. I deferred putting them into any order, till I came to town, and had seen, by perusing the Transactions of the Royal Society, whether some abler hand had not already prevented me, and made any further communication needless: but as I now find, that no notice has been hitherto taken of several particulars, which, in my humble opinion, deserved it, as tending to throw new light upon antiquity; I beg leave to trouble you with my thoughts upon them.
I shall begin with the museum in the King of the Two Sicilies' palace at Portici; wherein, amongst a great number of other ancient and valuable remains, are these that follow, viz.