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

Thefe bones were removed with great care and dexterity; for as their points went fo far into the brain, the micety confifted in removing them fo that the initrument might not pafs too far into the fubftance of the brain, and confequently deftroy the patient. In fine, the boy recovered beyond expectation, and is now entirely well, though it is three months fince he received the hurt. Therefore the faid Dr. Brachen publishes this for the information of thofe who are bigoted to an opinion, that if the brain was wounded till the lobe or particular part of the brain was rotted or confumed away, the cafe would be defperate. In this inftance the dura and pia mater were both much fhattered, and at length two drachms of the fubftance of the brain came away during the operation, befides what was afterwards caft out at the wound in times of dreffing (which was confiderable) and all this without any very bad fymptoms, Several credible perfons were eyewitneffes to the truth of this relation.

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

THE hon. Samuel Lynde, one

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

This fwine, the whole time, feemed to be as well as the 'reft of the litter, grew as faft, and at killing time was as fat as any of the other. This was very ftrange, when fo large a portion of the inteftines was cut away. I told the gentleman that if I had known of it at the feafon of flaughter, I would have travelled to his house (which was ten miles) to have feen how nature had provided, under fuch a mutilation, for the prefervation and fupport of that animal.

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

ment.

Grenoble, July 20, 1763.

judge of the court, told me, that

mention was made of a child in the

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

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

1753.

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

grounded, he made an experiment on a very large and fat caftrated cat he had at his difpofal. He began by retrenching by little and little his drink, and, at laft, debarred him of it intirely, yet fed, him as ufual with boiled meat. The cat had not drank for feven months, when this obfervation was communicated to the academy, and has fince paffed nineteen without drinking. The animal was not lefs well in health, nor lefs fat; is only feemed that it eat less than before, probably becaufe digestion was fomewhat flower. The excrements were more firm and dry which were not evacuated but every fecond day, though urine came forth fix or feven times during the fame time. The cat appeared to have an ardent defire to drink, and ufed his beft endeavours to teftify the fame to M. Fontenu, efpecially when he faw a pot of water in his hand. licked greedily the mug, the glafs, iron, in fhort, every thing that could procure for his tongue the fenfation of coolness; but it does not appear in the leaft, that his health fuffered any alteration by fo fevere and fo long a want of all forts of drink. It may be inferred from hence, that cats may fupport thirst for a confiderable time, without rifque of madness, or any other fatal accident. According to M. de Fontenu's remark, these perhaps are not the only animals that enjoy this faculty, and this obfervation might lead perhaps to more important objects.

He

The

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

A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr.

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

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

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

ΤΗ

an infant.

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

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

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

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