Remarks upon fome obfervations made by Henry More, Efq; on the tides in the ftraits of Gibral tar. the Spanish coaft, flood over to the Barbary coaft, where he found the tide for him, and carried him clear off the capes; in which cafe a little reflection would have afcer [We do not infert Mr. More's obtained the true courfe of the tides bfervations, because they are fufficiently implied in theje remarks upon them.] THERE appears in the Philof. Tranf. Mr. More's obfervations on the tides in the ftraits of Gibraltar, which has fo long puzzled the ingenious: the which, if they were new to him, are really ingenious, and the more fo as being generally true; and if they are likewife new to the royal fo ciety, fome further remarks may not be amifs. I can fay of my own knowledge, that, forty years paft, there was nothing new in this to feamen. The notion of vapour, and undercurrent, we always efteemed unphilofophical, and were certain it was mere whim; and the experiment of letting down a bucket, mentioned by Mr. More, was really no experiment, nor any way proves an under-current. That there are tides on both the Barbary and Spanish coafts is certainly true; and by knowing the courfe of those tides, a fhip may at any time, when the winds are contrary and moderate, beat up into the Mediterranean againft a a Levant, or the ocean from Gibraltar, when the wind is wefterly; but it seems ftrange that the fame perfon, who informs us of this, could not inform us what is the courfe of those tides, though by his own account he went through the experiment; having, as he fays, at the finishing of the tide on on both fhores, and need not any conjectures about tides, half tides, &c. it being notoriously true, that the tides are as regular on both the Spanish and Barbary fhores, as in the Thames or Medway, and which, until the appearance of Mr. More's obfervations, I never conceived to be a mystery; and if it has been fo to the royal fociety, I fhall here, from fome years experience, give an ample explanation. The tide on the Spanish fhore, at full and change of the moon, makes high water at Gibraltar at three o'clock. The tide on the Barbary fhore, at the fame time of the moon, makes high water in Tangier bay likewife at three o'clock. is The flood on the Spanish fhore into the Mediterranean; the flood on the Barbary fhore is into the Atlantic; fo that when with a wefterly wind a fhip leaves Gibraltar, fhe takes the advantage of the ebb on the Spanish coaft, and when he has beat up within a certain diftance of Tariffa, and the tide near ended, the ftands over for the coast of Barbary, and then by the aid of the flood tide, may, if a tolerable failing fhip, attain Tangier bay, and the next tide get clear of the capes. I do not fpeak this from conjecture, but experience; and had I dreamed that it had been a myftery now, which forty years past was known to many, I fhould have thought it my duty to have men, tioned it before. 4 The The return of the waters into the ocean is here explained, by the ebb on the Spanish, and by the flood on the Barbary fhore, and the cause of the influx obvious enough, as the indraught from the ocean is very great, between two bold fhores from cape Trefalgar to Europa point, and the oppofite capes, and which the feeming intervention of the Tariffa fheals, in no infignificant manner interrupts. June 6, 1763. W. HORSELEY. An account of the death of the countejs Cornelia Baudi of Cefena; who was confumed by a fire kindled in her own body. With an inquiry into the cause, Supported by inftances of a like nature. By J. Bianchini, prebendary of Verona. ΤΗ HIS lady was in her 62d year, and well all day till night, when she began to be heavy; after fupper fhe was put to bed, and talked three hours with her maid; at laft falling asleep the door was fhut. In the morning, the maid going to call her, faw her corpfe in this deplorable condition. Four feet diftant from the bed was a heap of afhes, two legs untouched, ftockings on, between which lay the head, the brains, half of the backpart of the skull, and the whole chin burnt to afhes, among which were found three fingers blackened. All the reft was afhes, which had this quality, that they left in the hand a greafy and ftinking moifture. The air in the room had foot floating in it: a small oil lamp on the floor was covered with ashes, but no oil in it. Of two candles on the table, the tallow was gone, but the cotton left, fome moisture about the feet of the candlesticks; the bed undamaged, the blankets and fheets only raifed on one fide, as when one gets out of bed: the whole furniture fpread over with moift afh-coloured foot, which penetrated the drawers, and fouled the linen. This foot even got into a neighbouring kitchen, hung on its walls and utenfils, and a bit of bread covered with this foot, was refufed by feveral dogs. In the room above, the faid foot flew about, and from the windows trickled down a greafy, loathfome, yellowish liquor, with an unusual ftink. The floor of the chamber was thick fmeared with a gluish moisture, not eafily got off, and the flink spread into other chambers. The narration is followed by an enquiry into the caufe of this conflagration; the refult of which is, that it was not from the lamp, nor fupernatural, nor from a flash of lightening, but from her own body; though fome concluded that it must be the effect of a fulmen. The dogs refufed the bread, be caufe of the fulphureous stink, and nothing but a fulmen could reduce a body to impalpable afhes. But it feems there was no fulphureous or nitrous fmell of fulmen, and the effects of it would not reduce a hody to impalpable afhes.-Our author thus maintains his opinion; "The fire was caused in her entrails by inflamed effluvia of her blood, by juices and fermentations in the ftomach, and many combuftible matters abundant in living bodies, for the ufes of life; and laftly by the fiery evaporations which exhale from the fettlings of fpirit of wine, brandies, &c. in the tunica villofa of the ftomach, and other fat membranes, engendering there (as chymists obferve). a kind of camphor; which, in fleep, by a full breathing and refpiration, are put in a ftronger motion, and, confequently, more *apt to be fet on fire. That fat is an oily liquid feparated from the blood by the glands of the membrana adipofa, and of an eafy combuftible nature, common experience fhews. Alfo our blood, lymph, and bile, when dryed by art, flame like fpirit of wine at the approach of the least fire, and burn away into afhes. [Obferv. 171, in the Ephemeris of Germany, anno x.] Such a drying up may be caufed in our body by drinking rectified brandy, and ftrong wines, if mixed with camphor; as monfieur Litre obferved in the diffection of a woman 45 years old, in the hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1706, p. 23. Befides, although the falts in living and vegetable creatures are not naturally inclined to kindle, they often contribute to it, when joined by a strong fermentation. Thus the mixture of two liquors, although cold to the touch, produces a flaming fire. Becher was the firft difcoverer of this marvellous phænomenon, by mixing oil of vitriol with that of turpentine. Borrichius afterwards did the fame, by mixing oil of turpentine with aqua fortis; and at last monfieur Tournefort, by joining fpirit of nitre with oil of faffafras; and monfieur Homberg with this acid fpirit, together with the oil and quinteffences of all the aromatic Indian herbs: nay, Mr. Homberg afferts, that with a certain cold water cannons were fired anno 1710, in the abovefaid hiftory of the Academy of Sciences, p. 66. By fermentation, magazines of gunpowder, fea coal, woollen cloths, oil cloths, barns, paper-mills, and hay-cocks, have been fet on fire. There is further to be confidered the vast quantity of effluvia that emanate from our bodies. Sanctorius obferved, that of eight pounds of food and drink in a day, there is an infenfible perspiration of about five; computing with them thofe effluvia which go out of the mouth by breathing, and which might be gathered in drops on a looking-glafs. [Sect. 1. Aphor. 6.] As alfo, that, in the space of one night, it is cuftomáry to dif charge about fixteen ounces of urine, four of concocted excrements by ftool, and forty and more by perfpiration. [Aphor. 59.] He teaches alfo, that numbness is an effect of too much internal heat, by which is prevented fuch an infenfible tranfpiration, as in this very cafe. The friction of the palms of of our hands, or of any other parts of our body, may produce thofe fires commonly called ignes lambentes. "We learn of Eufebius Nierembergius, that fuch was the property of all the limbs of the father of Theodoricus: fuch were thofe of Charles Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, as the celebrated Bartolin took notice of. By the teftimony of John Fabri, M. D. a noted philofopher, who faw it, fparkles of light flafhed out of the head of a woman, while she combed her hair. Scaliger relates the fame of another. Cardanus, of a Carmelite monk, whose head continued 13 years to flash out fparkles every time he toffed his cowl on his fhoulders. Ezekiel a Caftro, M. D. wrote a treatife, intituled, Ignis lambens; lambens; on the occafion that the countefs Caffandra Buri, of Verona, when the rubbed her arms with a cambrick handkerchief, all the skin fhined with a very bright light. Eufebius relates the fame of Maximus Aquilanus. Licetus of Francis Guido, a civilian; and that he knew Antoni Cianfio, a bookfeller in Pifa, who, when he fhifted, fhined all over with great brightnefs. Libavius relates the fame of a youth; and Cardanus of a friend of his; faying, that when he fhifted, clear fparkles of fire fhot forth of his body. Father Kircher, a Jefuit, relates, how he, going in company into a fubterranean grotto at Rome, faw fparkles of fire evaporate from the heads of his companions, grown warm by walking. Father Alphonfo d'Ovale was eye-witness on the highest mountains of Peru and Chili, how both men and beafts there feem fhining with the brighteft light from top to toe. Thefe flames feem harmless, but it is only for want of proper fuel. Peter Bovifteau afferts, that fuch sparkles reduced to afhes the hair of a young man. John de Viano, in his treatife intitled, De pefte Malagenfi, p. 46. relates how the wife of Dr. Freilas, phyfician to cardinal de Royas, archbishop of Toledo, fent forth naturally, by perfpiration, a fiery matter, of fuch a nature, that if the roller that fhe wore over her shift was taken from her, and expofed to the cold air, it immediately was kindled, and hot forth like grains of gunpowder *. After all this, I faw, that a feverish fermentation, or a very strong motion of combuftible matter, may rife in the womb of a woman, with fuch an igneous ftrength that can reduce to afhes the bones, and burn the flesh. Two fuch cafes are known, one in the Acta Medica Hafnienf. An. 1673, and the other in M. Marcell. Donat. de Medic. Hift. Mirab. lib. iv. The bile, which is a neceffary juice for our digeftion, was obferved by P. Borelli, when vomited up by a man, to boil like aqua fortis. [Centur. ii. Obf. 1. p. 109. Befides, very strong fires may be kindled in our bodies, as well as in other animals of an hot temperament, not only by nature, but alfo by art; which, being able to kill, will ferve for a better proof of my argument. Obfer. 77. in the German Ephemerides, 167c. Tie the upper orifice of the ftomach of an animal with a string; tie alfo its lower orifice; then cut it out above and below the ligatures, and prefs it with both hands, fo that it fwell up in one fide; which done, let the lefthand keep it fo that the fwelled part may not fubfide; and, with' the right, having first, at an inch diftance, placed a candle, open it quick with an anatomical knife, and you will fee a flame there conceived, coming out in a few feconds of time: and fuch a flame may, by the curious, be perceived not only in the ftomach, but also in the inteftines. The first difcoverer of this was Andrew Vulparius, anatomy profefior at Bologna * Pet. Borelli, Obf. Cent. ii. Obf. 75. fays, there was a certain peafant, whofe linen, hempen thread, &c. if laid up in boxes, though wet, or hung upon fticks in the air, did foon take fire. in Italy 1669. Thus a quick and violent agitation of fpirits, or a fermentation of juices in the ftomach, produces a vifible flame. The German Ephemerides, anno x. p. 53. by Sturmius, fays, That in the northmoft countries, flames evaporate from the ftomachs of those who drink ftrong liquors plentifully. Of three noblemen of Courland, who drank, by emulation, ftrong liquors, two of them died fcorched and fuffocated by a flame forcing itself from the fto mach. My lord Bacon, in his Nat. Univ. Hift. affures, he had feen a woman's belly fparkling like fire; and fuch flames would often rife in us, if the natural moisture did not quench them; as Lucretius obferves, v. 868. 1. IV. and v. 1065. 1. VI. Marcellus Donatus, in his Mirab. Hift. Medic. fays, That in the time of Godfrey of Bologne's Chriftian war, in the territory of Niverva, people were burning of invifible fire in their entrails, and fome had cut off a foot or an hand where the burning began, that it fhould not go further. After thefe and other inftances, what wonder is there, fays our author, in the cafe of our old lady? Her dulnefs before going to bed was an effect of too much heat concentrated in her breast, that hindered the perspiration through the pores of her body, which is calculated to about 40 ounces per night. Her afhes, found at four feet diftance from her bed, are a plain argument, that he, by natural inftinct, rofe up to cool her heat, and It is faid the old lady was ufed, when fhe felt herself indifpofed, to bathe all her body with camphorated fpirit of wine; and fhe did it perhaps that very night. This is not a circumftance of any moment; for the beft opinion is that of the internal heat and fire; which, by having been kindled in the entrails, naturally tended upwards; finding the way eafier, and the matter more unctuous and combuftible, left the legs untouched; the thighs were too near the origin of the fire, and therefore were also burnt by it; which was certainly increased by the urine and excrements, a very combuftible matter, as one may fee by its phofphorus. Galenus (Claff. 1. lib. iii. de Temperam.) fays, That the dung of a dove was fufficient to fet fire to a whole houfe: and the learned father Cafati, a Jesuit, in his Phyf. Differt. part 2. p. 48. relates to have heard a worthy gentleman fay, That, from the great quantities of the dung of doves, flights of which used, for many years, nay ages, to build under the roof of the great church of Pifa, fprung originally the fire which confumed the faid church. The author concludes, that certainly the lady was burnt to ashes standing, as her skull was fallen perpendicular between her legs; and that the back-part of her head had been damaged more than the fore-part was, because of her hair, and of the nerves, whofe principal feat lies there: and befides, because in the face there were many places open, out of which the flames might pass." [Two Galen de Morb. Diff. Pigeons dung takes fire, when it is become rotten. |