fmall part only must be uncovered, cleanfed, and expofed to the action of the air to harden; and then the part fo managed muft be again carefully covered with boards to prevent the rain or moisture coming to it, which will effectually defeat all endeavours to preferve it; and this method of uncovering, cleanfing, and covering again, must be repeated till the whole is cleared and dried; which in variable seasons will take up feveral months.

Authors differ in claffing the ofteocolla among the vegetable or mineral fubftances. Moft of the ancients, as has been already observed, have miftaken it for bones that have undergone fome accidental change; which others again deny, as no traces of animal parts have ever been discovered in it by chemical proceffes; nor any fragments of bones been found near where it grows. Erafmus has written the best upon it.

Those who will not admit the ofteocolla among the animal, have ranged it among the mineral fubftances; in which they are certainly right. Profeffor Teichmeyer indeed calls it a marle; but M. Henckel of the board of mines, claffes it among the minerals, yet fays nothing of its production. Profeffor Junoker fays, it is generated in the fand, but he likewife leaves the manner undecided. My opinion is, that it is a root, to which the fand adheres, and by degrees produces the ofteocolla; and I am the more confirmed in this opinion, as upon enquiry I found near Terne, in the marquifate of Brandenburg, a withered twig, and a green shoot from a rotten ftump, the uppermost part

of which was wood fill, but the root or lowermoft part was wholly transformed into pure ofteocolla ; and this ftump I had reason to believe was the remains of a tree which the people of the country call a fpecies of poplar.

Its origin, therefore, is to be fought for in the remains of the black poplar, the timber of which being first cut down, and the ftem or ftump rotted, the ofteocolla grows by degrees from the remaining root; for in all the parts of the ofteocolla, fomething of woodinefs is discoverable, which, when thoroughly rotted, crumbles away and leaves thofe innumerable perforations which give it the appearance of bone; and that it is peculiar to this tree may be prefumed from this, that though ofteocolla has been diligently fought for in the roots of other trees growing on the fame ground with the poplar, in which it is found, yet nothing like it has ever been difcovered. From all which, these conclufions, I think, may be fairly deduced.

I. That the foil in which it is found is not the efficient cause of its growth.

II. That wherever ofteocolla is found, there is or has been poplar.

III. That whoever finds ofteocolla will plainly perceive it has been a root. And,

IV. That wherever ofteocolla abounds, there will be feen a bony-like fubftance projecting from the ground, which has given rise to the vulgar notion, that it grows and bloffoms.

Be this however as it may, wherever these bony-like excrefcences appear, by digging a span I 4 deeper,

moral reflections, as naturally arofe from her ftory; thofe prefent did every thing to affure her she would gain her caufe; fhe was asked whether he had any notion of what happened unto her; fhe faid fhe had feen nothing, but could distinguish the voice of fome about her; yet she never felt the chafingdish of coals under her feet, nor the bleeding in the foot; though fhe had been tormented all manner of ways, yet she never complained of any pain or laffitude; while fhe thus entertained the company, The was obferved to interrupt her difcourfe, to draw a deep figh, and then her eyes became fixed; every thing was done to prevent thofe little fits by reminding her where the left off; but he could never recover the thread of her difcourfe, but would begin fome other ftory; in about an hour after fhe fell into another cataleptic fic, which was as ftrong as the firit; after it was over, fhe, fitting in her chair, talked of her affairs as before, for an hour and a half good, and after this, fhe began to fpeak wildly, the likewife fcreamed frightfully, and was foon after feized with a violent fever.

She

plexion, and ever complaining of cold in her extremities, of a timorous though fretful difpofition, after fome grief fhe took in March, was feized with a cataleptic fit; whatever attitude fhe was in at the time of feizure, fhe retained it till the fit was over. These fits increating obliged her to be carried into the hofpital, where she was attended by Meffrs. Sauvage and Lazerme: thefe fits were various as to their duration, being from half a quarter to three quarters of an hour; in the months of April and May, 1757, this catalepfy was accompanied with very extraordinary appearances, diftinguishable into three visible periods, the beginning and ending cataleptic, and middle, lafted a whole day, or from morning till night; when her cataleptic fit, which often used to hold her five or fix minutes, was over, as was always known by her beginning to yawn, fhe then fat up in her bed, began to talk very faft, and more fenfibly than fhe was known to do in her full health; fhe would now often change her difcourse, and that pertinently enough, and appear as if the directed her difcourfe to fome friends prefent; this was always observed to have fome connexion with that fhe held in a fit the day before, or it turned on fome moral reflection, which the fhrewdly would apply to fome of the attendants of the hofpital. All this time her eyes were fully open, and yet the was in a moft profound fleep, without either motion or feeling, as M. Sauvage confirmed by many experiments he made. ift, By approaching the flame of a bougie fo near her eye as to burn her eye

brows;

brows; the however did not even wink at this. zdly, He got one to bawl loud into her ear, thump hard at the head of the bed, which at any other time would terrify her greatly; he befides had fome brandy and even spirit of fal-ammoniac put into her eyes, he also thruft his finger into them, had Havanna fnuff blown into her nofe, pins thrust into her flesh, and her fingers twifted, yet all to no purpofe, The never gave the leaft fign of feeling.

While thefe experiments were making, her difcourfe (for the ail the time continued talking) all of a fudden became more lively; this was a prelude to a new fcene; fhe now began to fing and jump, and burst out after into a fit of laughter, endeavouring at the fame time to get out of bed, which she at laft effected with feemingly great joy; fhe now ranged the whole ward, carefully avoiding the beds, chairs, &c. and returned without any difficulty to her own bed, lay down after, and covered herself, where in a fhort time fhe was feized with a cataleptic fit, which in less than one quarter of an hour left her; the then awoke as out of, a profound fleep; upon feeing fo many about her, the appeared confufed, and cried for the remainder of the day, though she had no knowledge of what the did in her fit.

About the end of May all the foregoing fymptoms left her, tho' it could not be attributed to any effect from medicines. She was blooded once in the arm, often in the foot, and feven times in the jugulars; he was' purged five or fix times after fome aperitive apozems fhe took; fhe took a to

4

machic electuary made of the bark, cinnabar, pulvis ad guttetam, and, when the weather was mild, the was bathed twenty times in a bath rather cold than warm; fhe had after fome preparations of Mars ordered for her, was feemingly reftored to her health, but the was far from being fo, having returns of her diforder every winter, to 1759, with this difference, that it was not now preceded by a cataleptic fit, nor was her want of feeling fa great. She was one day feized with a fit on the bridge. where fhe was observed to speak as to her own thadow or image the faw in the water. At a fit fhe had laft Christmas holy-days, fhe had fome notion of thofe about her.

This young woman is now fo accustomed to her disorder, that all the concern it gives her is fome little confufion; however, fhe is not of fo pale a complexion; but fhe ftill feels the fame heat and weight on her head, and on the decline of the fit complains of a cardialgia, which awakes her.

as the fhock or commotion of Leyden, when you put your hands into the water near the place where it is. If, for inftance, fishermen or feamen come near in a boat, within the distance of eight or ten feet, and dip their hands in the water, they immediately feel themfelves ftruck, fays M. Mufchenbroek, as in my experiment (it is the fame as the commotion of Leyden) by the electricity of the fish; if they push it with a ftick, they feel a smarter stroke; and if with an iron rod, they are ftruck as with a mighty force; in fhort, no one dares to lay hold of it with the hand, and with an electrical fhock it kills the fishes that in swimming pas near it; yet, the moft remarkable thing is, that if the seamen, instead of an iron rod, dip down by the fide of the fish a ftick of fealing-wax, or even touch it with that tick, they feel no Aroke; whence M. Mufchenbroek concludes, that, in the different circumstances here related, the men are ftruck by the electricity only of the fish.

Here are very fingular effects, and there are others which are more extraordinary, fince M. Mufchenbroek finishes his recital, by faying that fome others are not lefs certain than the foregoing, but which he dares not give an account

of.

None can be better difpofed than we are to adopt the opinions of fo learned a gentleman; yet, in admitting all thofe marvellous effects, we cannot believe, with him, that they ought to be attributed to electricity. It feems he was induced to think so after the experiment of the fealing-wax;

but it appears incompatible with the facts we know of. It is indeed well known that every real electrical body, being made wet, tranfmits electricity as metals and other non - electrical substances. Thus the tick of fealing - wax wetted ought to produce the fame effect as the iron bar, &c. unless it be fuppofed that the fmall part of this ftick out of the water is enough to prevent it, which is not very probable. Befides, a ftick of wood, or iron rod, might tranfmit certain concuffions, or certain motions, communicated by the fish to the parts of the water, which the fealing-wax might not. Many things may be still faid to fhew that electricity has no fhare in the fingular effects attributed to this fifh, and perhaps none of the facts do really exilt. Let us not forget all the wonders that have been related of the torpedo. Though this fish is an inhabitant of our feas, and it was eafy for every one to ascertain what is faid of it, yet none before M. Reaumur, in our days, had fhewn what all thofe ftories amounted to. There are two thoufand leagues from hence to Surinam; and what an alteration may arife in facts through the course of fuch a paffage!. Yet all the aboverelated circumftances give us reafon to regret that one of thofe fingular fishes, which, was bringing from that country to M. Mufchenbroek, died in the paffage. If it had lived, this wife naturalift would have foon difcovered, and made known all the certainty in the facts related of it.

The fish here fpoken of is called by naturalifts gymnotus, and by

the