Part 5

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.

[Read Feb. 10, 1757.]

Ludgvan, Jan 24. 1757.

Reverend Sir,

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.

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.

[Read Feb. 17, 1757.]

Hague, 1 Feb. 1757.

SIR,

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.