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favour of the inventor. The land
grave hath made Orfyreus a very
handfome prefent, to be let into
the fecret of the machine, under
an engagement nevertheless not to
difcover, or make any use of it,
before the inventor may procure
fufficient reward for making his
difcovery public.

I am very fenfible, Sir, that it
is in England only the arts and
fciences are fo generoully cal-
vated as to afford any rodipet, of
the inventor's acquiring a mem
adequate to this dilmey. Ee
requires nothing more
affurance of having it
cafe his machine is found
really a perpetual motion
he defires nothing m
affurance till the
the machine be dif
examined, it can le
he fhould fabmicr
tion before fic dime
him. Now, &
conduce t
as to the a
to difcor
of this
rela

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and fciences, as to the happinefs of mankind.

Fresh inftances of the recovery of perfons who had lain a confiderable time under water, by the exterior application of falt. (See a former inftance of the fame kind, page 440. vol. II.

To the PRINTER, Sr.

SIR,

S

As many lives are daily loft by bathing, and other cafualties on the water, a method to recover perfons fo affected, if fuch a method can be found, must be acknowledged to be of the higheft importance. I fhall not here enter into a phyfical enquiry, whether drowning be not rather a fuppreffion than an annihilation of life, from the confideration that the organs are all performing their natural functons when thefe accidents happen, and fuffer, perhaps, not a deprivation, but a fufpenfion of their vital power; in like manner as a piece of clock-work, when oppreffed by an exterior force, may have its motion fufpended, though not deftroyed. The difcuffion of this question I leave to the confideration of thofe, who maintain, that man is little more than a machine. What I fhall relate is a plain matter of fact, as follows:

Some time fince, an English veffel being in the river Douro, at Oporto, a failor accidently fell over-board. He continued under water full half an hour, when being found he was immediately ftripped, and rubbed all over with falt, but more particularly about the temples, waift, breaft, and

joints. This operation continued for fome time, during which the patient began to fhew fome fymptoms of life, not the leaft appearance of which were to be feen before; and in lefs than four hours, to the great furprife of every body, he came fo entirely to himself, that

he was able to walk.

The experiment was afterwards tried on dogs and cats which were kept under water for two hours, and then covered all over with falt, excepting the noftrils. In a fhort

time they began to breathe, and difcharge the oppreffing fluid from the mouth, ears, &c. The ftrugglings foon grew ftronger, and in the space of about three or four hours they all got up and run away.

The above is a real truth, and as fuch is fubmitted, out of a due feeling for these calamities of mankind, to the confideration of the public.

I know that fome inftances of the like nature, but much more marvellous, have been mentioned in the acts of Copenhagen. The veracity of them I leave to depend on the credit of their relators. If any gentleman doubts this fact, the means of verifying it too often prefent themfelves. On fuch occafions, it is requefted it may not be condemned till tried; efpecially as, whether effectual or not, it is certain it can be attended with no ill confequence. I am, Sir, your's, &c.

NAUTICUS.

Bofton in America, Nov. 25, 1762. On the 21ft inftant, Gerfhop Spear, a boy of about eight years of age, fon of Jofeph Spear, fell from a wharf in this town, near the fouth battery. His father having ocea

fion to remove a lighter, or boat, at high water, difcovered the boy under water; he immediately got up the body, and carried it into the house, a lifeless corpfe; but having heard the method of recovering drowned perfons with falt, he directly ftripped the cloaths off the boy, and applied a quantity of fine falt, which he kept conftantly rubbing the boy with, and applying warm blankets. Help alfo being obtained, a clyfter was infufed into the body, when in about fifteen minutes there were faint figns of life difcovered by a moving of the belly, and a fmall noife in the bowels, which foon after was followed by a froth iffuing from his mouth. The method was continued till the water difcharged itself freely, and in about two hours the boy recovered his fenfes fo as to fpeak; and, in an hour or two after, was able to give an account of the manner of his falling in, which, to the time of his father's taking him up, according to the beft computation, was above a quarter of an hour: however that be, the boy, when carried into the houfe, had no pulfe, his neck stiff, and to all appearance he was dead. -He is now recovered, excepting his feet, in which, the blood, fet. tling there, has caufed a forenefs, that prevents his walking.

Account of a young man recovered from a ftupefaction, caused by the Smoke of fea-coal. By Dr. Frewen of Suflex. From the Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1762.

William Colebrook, a lad of feventeen years of years of age, was left alone to take care

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of his master's veffel in Rye harbour, the 4th of June 1761; and fhutting up all close, at nine o'clock in the evening, he laid himself down to fleep in a small cabbin, where there had been a fea-coal fire, which was not properly extinguished, and, the chimney place being ftopped, it foon grew full of fmoke; the effect of which, when the people came on board next morning, proved to have been fo powerful, as to render him totally deprived of all the fenfible motions of the body, excepting thofe of the heart and lungs. The caufe of this ftupor being prefently fufpected, he was brought out upon the deck, in hopes the fresh air would prove of fervice; but neither that, nor bleeding, bliftering, or any other applications they made ufe of, affifted him in the leaft under this torpid fituation. Being brought home to his master's houfe about noon, I vifited him, and found him in the fame foporous, apoplectic ftate, with a feeble pulfe, refpiration laboured and difficult, a rattling in his throat, and utterly void of all fenfation. He appeared much like one I had feen, who had taken an over-dofe of opium, and died of it."

I ftrongly recommended the plunging this patient into a cold bath; which being complied with, and done as expeditiously as it could be, was attended with a fuccefs even beyond my expectations. Immediately upon the immerfion, (for I ordered but only one plunge, fuppofing that a fecond would prove lefs efficacious, by weakening the power of the firft) he opened his eyes and mouth, and hut them again. He

was then inftantly put to bed naked, between the blankets; and in a very few minutes time, a very great and univerfal fweat came on him, which continued for many hours. In the evening, he was first perceived to move a little, feemingly as if difturbed by the roughnefs of the blankets ftimulating his fkin; a while after, he opened his eyes, and looked a little about him, in a confufed manner. Some time after that, he grew more fenfible, and fpoke; but could only give the fhort anfwers, yes and no. His refpiration was ill difficult, and very laborious; but his pulfe was ftronger and fuller; on which account, I ordered a little blood to be taken away; and he took frequently, a very little at a time, of fome fweet oil. For his ordinary drink I directed boil ing water poured upon bread, with a little white wine, lemon juice, and fugar; of which, at firft, he took but very little at a time, and afterwards more in quantity as he could get it down.

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he grew perfectly well, and wem to fea in twelve days

Method to prevent potatoes and other vegetables from being deftroyed by

froft.

IT

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elemiz o Dublin, Jan. 22, 1763. has been difcovered by fome naturalifts, that fruits penetrat ed by froft, fuch as pears, apples, &c. receive no injury thereby, provided the nitre or frosty particles are extracted, by putting the fruit into cold water when a thaw apa proaches, and letting it remain there a convenient time, until it is purged, as it were, by degrees, of all the nitrous, spicule, which the air by its activity would agitate with fuch violence in a thaw, as would lacerate the fubftance of the fruit, and reduce it to a foft pulp or liquid. The water feems in this inftance as a lixivium to fuck away thofe minute thorns, by flow degrees, and without offending the folids of the fruit This experiment may be extended to roots, and particularly to potatoes. And as we are threatened with a fevere froft this winter, the knowledge of this experiment may be the means of preferving the root, and confequently the lives of thousands in this kingdom, where the lofs of that root by frost, in the year 1740, caufed the greatest famine and ficknefs known in the memory of man; but it would be highly imprudent for thofe who have aftore of po

The next day, I found him much better, when he fat up; he talked, and drank fome tea. His breathing was eafier, but he complained of a fhort troublefome cough, and hoarfenefs; for which I ordered him a smooth pectoral Hinctus and a lenient purging draught was alfo given him, which had the defired effect. He continued growing better for a day or two, when I called upon him again, and finding his cough and hoarfenefs ftill remain, with a little fhort-tatoes, nor to guard them with the nefs of breath, I directed him pills utmost care from froft; as it is of millepedes, and gum ammoniac better to keep off an enemy, than made up with bal. fulph. to be be at the trouble of driving him taken twice a day, drinking warm-Vout.29 Veraoh ti ai qe nuo 9th milk after them; by which means seung 9 kg Farby

Extract from a a letter in the Mufeum Rufticum et Commerciale, on a cheap method of making good abolejome bread, when wheat-meal is dear, by mixing turneps, &c,

s with it.

A T the time I tried this method bread was very dear, infomuch that the poor people in the country where I live could hardly afford themfelves half a meal a day: this put me upon confidering whether fome cheaper method might not be found, than making it of wheat-meal.

Turneps were at that time very plentiful. I had a number of them pulled, washed clean, pared, and boiled: when they were become foft enough to mah, I had the greatest part of the water preffed out of them, and afterwards had them mixed with an equal quantity, in weight, of coarfe wheat-meal; the dongh was then made in the ufual manner, with yeaft or barm, falt, water, c. it rofe very well in the trongh, and after being well kneaded, was formed into loaves, and put into the oven to be baked.

1

I had, at the fame time, fome other bread made with common meal in the ordinary way. I baked my turnep-bread rather longer than

the other.

1

On examining it when it had been baked twenty-four hours, had I not known there were turneps in its compofition, I fhould not have imagined it: it had, it is true, a peculiar fweetish tafte, but by no means difagreeable on the contrary, I rather preferred it to the bread made of wheat-meal alone.

After it had been, baked fortyeight hours, it underwent another examination, when it appeared to me to be rather fuperior to the other; it eat fresher and moifter, and had not at all abated in its good qualities to be short, it was ftill very good after a week, and, as far as I could fee, kept as well as the bread made of common wheatmeal.

In my trials of this bread by the tafte, I was not fatished with eating it by itself; I had fome of it fpread with butter; I tafled it with cheefe; I eat of it toafted and buttered, and finally in boiled milk, and in foap: in all thefe forms it was very palatable and good.

When I had thus far fucceeded, I had fome more of it made in the fame manner, and after it was baked and cold, I fent for fome of my poor neighbours, giving them of it to eat: they faid there was fomething particular in the taste of it, but could not tell what to refemble it to: they allowed it was not difagreeable; yet, when I told them in what maaner it was made, they declined eating any more of it, alledging it was not what they were used to; and no perfuafions were powerful enough to induce them, though wheat was then at a very high price, to make fome of it for their family ufe..

When they were drawn from the oven, I caused a loaf of each fort to be cut, and found, on examination, the turnép-bread was fweeter than the other, to the full as light, and as white, but had a little tafte, though no ways disagreeable, of the turnep. Twelve hours after wards I tasted my turnep-bread again, when I found the taste of the turnep in it fcarcely perceiv-am very much inclined to able, and the smell quite gone off. think, that very good bread might,

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