not eat before any body, but often complained of pains all over her body he was obliged to be taken out of bed, like a child, when it was thought neceffary to make it, and replaced in the fame manner, not fuffering any body to look at her, and fill hiding her face with her hands. About ten years ago her husband died; this gave her no uneafinefs; her effects were carried off, and the was taken to her husband's brother without uttering a fingle word : the priests attending her often, without being able to get any thing out of her but continued fighs: her brother died about four years ago; but fhe remained infentible: in fhort a thousand furpriz ng circumftances attend this little affair. On the 6th of lat September, juft feventeen years on that day fince this unaccountable malady feized her, fhe came down from her chamber, embraced her fifter. in-law and her nephews as if the had been ill but one night, and recollected all that had paffed during the feventeen years: fhe went to mafs, and at her return fell to her ufual occupation; the perfectly remembered every thing that he had learnt, even her prayers, which the had not once faid during her illnefs; the fudden air had no effect upon her, though he had been fo long confined; fhe fays fhe never flept one hour together during the whole time, and never was in any other attitude than fitting with her head leaning upon her breaft. Now he eats, drinks, and works, and is as well as ever fhe was; he appears to be about fifty-five---This extraordinary cafe, fays the letter-writer, I had ocular proof of; and it can be attefted by almost every inhabitant of this place A remarkable ftory of a gentleman walking in his fleep, as related by a foreigner. P AYING a vifit to a friend in the country, I met there an Italian gentleman, called Agoftine Fofari, who was, it feems, a nightwalker, or a perfon, who, whilst afleep, does all the actions of one awake. He did not feem to exceed the age of thirty, was lean, .black, and of an extreme melancholy complexion; had a fedate underflanding, a great penetration, and a capacity for the most abftracted fciences; his extraordinary fits ufed generally to feize him in the wane of the moon, but with the greater violence in the autumn and winter, than in fpring and fummer. I had a ftrange curiofity, to be an eye-witness of what was told me, and had prevailed with his valet de chambre to give me notice, when his mafter was likely to renew his vagary. One night, about the end of September, after fupper, the company amufed themfelves with little plays, and fignior Agofline made one among the reft. He afterwards retired, and went to bed about eleven; his valet came foon after, and told us, that his mafter would that night have a walking fit, and defired us, if we pleased, to come and obferve him. I came to his bed-fide with a light in my hand, and faw him lying upon his back, with his eyes open, but fixed, which was a fure fign, it seems, of his approaching diforder. I took him by the hands, and found them very cold; I felt his pulfe, and found found it fo flow, that his blood seemed to have no circulation. At or about midnight fignior Agofline drew the curtains brifkly, rofe, and dreffed himself well enough. I approached him with the candle at his very nofe, found him infenfible, with his eyes til! wide open and immoveable. Before he put on his hat, he took his belt, out of which the word had been removed for fear of accidents, for fome of these night-walkers will deal their blows like madmen without any reserve. In this equipage did fignior Agoftine walk backwards and forwards in his chamber feveral times; he came to the fire fide, fat down in an elbow chair, and went fome little time after into a closet, where was his portmanteau ; he fumbled in it a long time, turned every thing topsy-turvey, and after putting every thing in order, he fhut again the portmanteau, and put the key in his pocket, whence he drew a letter, and put it over the chimney. He went to the chamber door and opened it, and proceeded down ftairs. When he came to the bottom, one of the company getting a great fall, fignior Agottine feemed frightened at the noife, and mended his pace. The valet bid us walk foftly, and not to speak, because when any noife was made near him, and intermixed with his dreams, he became furious, and ran with the greatest precipitancy, as if pursued. He traverfed the whole court, which was very fpacious, and proceeded directly to the ftable; he went in, ftroaked and careffed his horfe, bridled him, and was going to faddle him, but not finding the faddle in its ufual place, he seemed very uneafy, like a man disappointed; he mounted however his horfe, and galloped to the house door, which was fhut. He difmounted, and taking up a cabbage-ftalk, he knocked furioufly against the door. after a great deal of labour loft, he remounted his horse, guided him to the pond, which was at the other end of the court, let him drink, went afterwards and tied him to his manger, and then returned to the houfe with great agility. At the noise fome fervants made in the kitchen, he was very attentive, came near to the door, and clapped his ear to the key-hole; but paffing all on a fudden to the other fide, he entered a low parlour, where was a billiard-table; he walked backwards and forwards, and ufed the fame poftures as if he had been playing effectually. He proceeded thence to a pair of virginals, upon which he could play pretty well, and made fome jangling. At laft, after two hours exercife, he returned up ftairs to his chamber, and threw himself in his cloaths upon the bed, where we found found him next morning at nine in the fame posture we had left him. For upon these occafions he ever flept eight or ten hours together. His valet told us, there were but two ways to recover him out of these fits, one was to tickle him ftrongly upon the foles of his, feet; the other, to found a horn or trumpet at his ears. vulfive fits from his infancy; which were common and tolerable, till he was about seven years of age. About that time they began to attack him in all the varieties that can be conceived. Sometimes he was thrown upon the ground; fometimes he was twirled round like a top by them; at others he would fpring upwards to a confiderable height, &c. and once he leaped over an iron bar, that was placed purposely before the fire, to prevent his falling into it. He was much barned; but was rendered fo habitually ftupid by his fits, that he never expreffed the leaft fenfe of pain after this accident. His intellect was fo much impaired, and almost destroyed, by the frequency and violence of his fits, that he fcarce feemed to be confcious of any thing. He did not acknowledge his father or mother, by any expreffions or figns; nor feemed to diftinguish them from other people. If, at any time, he escaped out of the houfe, without the observation of the family, he had not underftanding to find and return to it; but would pursue the direction or road he firit took, and fometimes lofe himself. Once he was miffing for à whole night, and found the next morning, in the middle of a fen, ftuck faft in mud, as deep as his breast. He was very voracious, and would frequently call for fomething to eat; which was the only indication he gave of his knowing any thing, No kind of filth or naftiness can be conceived, which he did not eat or drink without diftinction. He appeared to be as ill as he really was; for he was become a most shocking fpectacle. He was fo much emaciated, that he feemed to have no flesh upon his bones; and his body fo diftorted, that he was rendered quite a cripple. His pa rents confulted a phyfician at Norwich, who very judiciously (as it will appear) confidered his diforder as a worm cafe, and prescribed for it accordingly; but (being afraid, I prefume, to give too violent medicines to the boy) without fuccefs in fhort, he was fo fingularly afflicted, that his parents told me, they could not help thinking him under fome evil influence. It was observed, that his diforder varied, and grew worse at certain periods of the moon. In thefe miferable circumftances the poor boy continued to languish, till he was about eleven years of age (July 1757) when he accidentally found a mixture of white lead and oil, which had fome time before been prepared for fome purpose of painting, fet by on a shelf, and placed as it was thought, out of his each. There was near half a pint of this mixture when he found it; and, as he did not leave much, it is thought, he swallowed about ā quarter of a pint of it. There was alfo fome lamp-black in the compofition, which was added to give it a proper colour, for the particular ufe it was intended for in painting, It was, as I fuppofe it ufually is, linfeed oil, which had been mixed with the lead and lamp-black. The draught began to operate very foon, by vomiting and purging him for near twenty-four hours, in the most violent manner. A large quantity of black inky matter was difcharged; and an infinite number of worms, almost as small as threads, were voided. These operations were fo intenfe, that his life was defpaired of. But he has not only furvived them, but experienced amost wonderful change and improvement after them for his parents affured me, in November 1757, when I ; faw him, that he had daily grown better, from the time of his drinking the mixture, both in body and mind. 'Inftead of a fkeleton, as he almoft was before, he is become fat, and rather corpulent; and his appetite is no longer ravenous, but moderate and common. His body too is become ftraight and erect. His understanding is, at least, as much benefited by this peculiar remedy. It cannot be expected, that he should already have attained much knowledge, as he feemed, before he was fo wonderfully relieved, to be almost deftitute of ideas; but he appeared, when I faw him, to have acquired nearly as much knowledge, in four months, as children ufually do in four years, and to reafon pretty well on those things, which he knew. He is now capable of being employed upon many occafions; is of ten fent a mile or two on errands, which he difcharges as carefully, and then returns as fafely, as any other perfon. An account of the remarkable alteration of colour in a negro woman: in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Alex ander Williamson of Maryland, from Mr. James Bate, furgeon in that province. Communicated to the Royal Society by Alexander Ruffel, M. D. F. R. S. robuft conftitution, had her fkin originally as dark as that of the moft fwarthy Africans, but, about fifteen years ago,obferved that membrane, in the parts next adjoining to the finger-nails, to become white: her mouth foon underwent the fame change, and the phænomenon hath fince continued, gradually, to extend itself over the whole body; fo that every part of its furface is become, more or less, the subject of this furprizing alteration. In her prefent ftate, four parts in five, of the skin, are white, fmooth, and tranfparent, as in a fair European, elegantly fhewing the ramifications of the fubjacent blood-veffels; the parts remaining footy daily lofe their blacknefs, and in fome measure partake of the prevailing colour; fo that a very few years will, in all probability, induce a total change. The neck and back along the course of the vertebræ, maintain their priftine hue the moft, and in some fpots proclaim their original state: the head, face, and breaft, with belly, legs, arms, and thighs, are almoft wholly white; the pudenda and axillæ, party-coloured; the fkin of these parts, as far as white, being covered with white hair; where dark, with black. Her face and breaft, as often as the paflions anger, fhame, &c. have been excited in her, have been immediately obferved to glow with blushes; as alfo, when, in purfuance of her bufinefs, fhe has been exposed to the action of the fire upon these parts, fome freckles have made their appearance. After having described her prefent appearance as well as I am able, I fhall not pretend to offer any conjectures of my own upon the fubject, left, being led away by a train of rea foning, foning, I fhall lofe myself in endeavouring to establish a favourite hypothefis; but on the contrary, fhall confine myself to a fimple narration of fuch facts as may prevent mistakes, or obviate difficulties, arifing in the investigation of this difficult piece of phyfical history. And, in the first place, left the change fhould be thought the confequence of a previous morbid ftate, the declares, that excepting about seventeen years ago, when he was delivered of a child, fhe hath never been afflicted by any complaint of twenty-four hours continuance; and that she never remembers the catamenia to have been either irregular or obftructed, only during this pregnancy fhe has never been fubject to any cutaneous diforders, or made ufe of any external applications, by which this phænomenon might be produced. The effects of the bile upon the fkin are well known to physicians, and have given rife to an opinion, that its colour was determined thereby. For my own part, I cannot believe it has any thing to do here, fince, from all the circumstances I have been able to collect, I cannot find the leaft reafon to fufpect, that this fluid, whether cyftic or hepatic, has undergone any alteration. As uftion is known to make the skin of negroes become white, and as she is daily employed in the bufineffes of cookery, it may perhaps be fuppofed the effect of heat: but this can never be the cafe, as fhe has ever been well clad, and the change is as obvious in the parts protected from the action of that element, as in thofe the most exposed thereto. As an emunctory, the fkin feems to perform its office as well as poffible, the fweat with the greatest freedom indifferently pervading the black and white parts. The effects of a blister I mentioned to you I am yet a ftranger to, as that which I applied upon the outfide of the arm did not anfwer the intended purpose: whether this was owing to its being laid upon a part too much exposed, or that, the corpus reticulare being deftroyed, there may be fuch an adhefion of the cuticle to the cutis, as may render them infeparable, a fecond experiment mult determine. If, upon your fending this to Dr. Ruffel, he, or any of his learned acquaintance, to whom he may communicate it, fhall think any future experiments neceffary, I fhall be glad to execute them under their directions, not only for my private fatisfaction, but in order to convince you how much pleafure I take in doing every thing that may oblige Mr. Williamfon or his friends. HAVING come hither with the Earl of Shelburne, on a vifit to Sir James Caldwell and his lady, we met with a young man, whofe cafe is of fo exrraordinary a nature, that we thought it might be of public utility to examine into it ftrictly, and tranfmit it to your lordfhip. A great part of his body is, within the space of two years, offified ; and |