Anguille de bœuf, i. e. Beef-eel: It is four feet in length, and nearly about the thickness of a man's arm; and it is found particularly in places where there are rocks.

M. Richer fpeaks, in the account of his voyage to Cayenne, of a fish that feems quite like this in bigness and its effects: He fays that when it is touched with the finger, or even with a tick, it fo benumbs the arm, and the part of the body nearest to it, that one remains for a quarter of an hour without being able to ftir it; that himself had felt this effect; and he adds, that the fifhermen fay, that by ftriking other fishes with its tail, it fets them afleep: This is not unlike what M. Mufchenbroek relates of the gymnotus, but it is much less extraordinary.

does not agree therewith is only attended to, far from finding a reafon to bring things to a clofer examination, and to return to the first impreffions received.

The feveral bones difcovered near Aix, and which at firft fight have been held to be human bones, confirm what we fay, and prove how much, in comparing one body with another, it is neceffary to know perfectly what is most proper to characterize them.

Springs of mineral waters are very near the place which thefe bones were taken out of; feveral chains of mountains feparate it from the fea, which is five leagues diftant from it. A rock, which is there level with the furface of the ground, was fapped by gunpowder; it formed a very hard mafs, and no ftrata were observable in it; the part of this rock which lay buried in the earth to a certain depth, was covered with a bed of clay, over which was vegetable earth; the interior of the rock was of the nature of the hardest marble, and mingled with jafpered and tranfpa-.. rent veins. It was after penetrating into it five feet in depth, that a great quantity of bones were difcovered to be lodged in it: They were held as having belonged to different parts of the human body; jaw-bones, teeth, arm and thigh bones, all were confidered as fuch: They had not, in appearance, changed their nature; their cavity was filled with a cryftalline fubftance, or a ftony matter like to that which inclofed them.

At the depth of four feet and a half, were discovered bodies of a pretty regular figure, and refembling human heads; the occiputs

of

1

of fome of them have been preferved they were incruftated in the ftone, and their internal part was full of it: the face of one of thofe heads was preferved without alteration; it is in the natural proportions; the eyes, the nofe well formed, though flatted, the cheeks, the mouth, the chin, are therein diftinguished, and the muf cles of the whole very well articulated this head is of the fame fubftance with the ftone it was taken out of.

In the fame place was found a great number of pointed teeth, whofe analogies are unknown; one in particular was remarked which was round, much bent, and fharp as that of fishes; it was not intire, but it was judged from its remains that its length might have been three inches; its enamel was of the finest polish: fome other teeth were also discovered, which were of a greater or fmaller dimenfion than that here mentioned, and whofe interior fubftance bore a great likeness to that of the teeth of fishes.

There was likewife obferved, on the furface of a fragment of the ftone, a kind of fquare horn, fomewhat bent, and laid horizontally; it was covered with a substance refembling that of harts horns; the remains of it is three inches in length; and three longitudinal canals make it fufpected that it be longed to fome fish.

The quarry, out of which thefe bones were taken, is fituated on a rifing ground, where neither fprings, nor rivulets, nor waters, are feen to filtrate into it though, in digging into the earth about, feveral broken bricks and the remains of houfes are found,

and

yet none of thofe veftiges are perceived in the quarry itself; which gives room to prefume that it was never opened by the firft Romans who established themselves in the environs of Aix; and those bones are of a date greatly anterior to them.

M. Guettard, among fome other of our academicians, is not dif pofed to believe that the greater part of those bones have the origin that is attributed to them; and that the heads, efpecially, have belonged to human bodies. How, indeed, can it be conceived, that the flesh and muscles of thofe heads have been preferved in fuch perfection that a mask of fione fhould mould itself over them with regularity, and catch exactly the delicate features of the face? A ftony juice fhould, in confequence of this idea, have bedewed those wellformed maks, and, after being indurated thereon, fhould have given in relief the figure of the heads on which the masks had been at firft moulded. Befides, it is feen, by the account, that the quarry is formed of ruins; that all things are there heaped upon one another without order; and that the fediments of ftony matter being performed by fucceffion, it fhould be likewife fuppofed, that thofe heads were preferved without alteration during a confiderable time, to ferve as a nucleus to the matter which had inclosed them. M. Guettard's opinion, in refufing to hold as human bones thofe of the quarry of Aix, feems aifo the better grounded, from the difcovering of feveral teeth of feafishes; it being very probable, that whatever has been taken for human heads is only the produce of

a ftony

to the common method, the pain of which ceafed in a few hours. But the great fit that was expected did not come; even the ordinary head-ach difappeared almoft that moment without the help of any other remedy than burning; and now, these four years fince this happy accident fell out, the lady has enjoyed perfect health.

Another good effect of accidental burning appears from the following cafe: A woman, who for feveral years paft had her legs and thighs fwelled, in an extraordinary manner and very painful, found relief in rubbing them before the fire with brandy every morning and evening. One evening the fire chanced to catch the brandy fhe had rubbed herself with, and flightly burnt her. She applied fome unguent to her burn, and in the night all the water her legs and thighs were fwelled with was intirely discharged by urine, and the fwelling did not return. It is a pity that chance does not oftener act the phyfician.

It has undoubtedly taught feveral barbarous people this fort of remedy, who fuccefsfully practife it, and perhaps the more voluntary from being more cruel, as it gives them an opportunity of fhewing their courage. M. Homberg, the French academician, who was born in the island of Java, relates, that, when the Javans have a certain colic, or a loosenefs attended with pain, which is generally mortal, they sure themselves of it by burn

ing the foles of their feet with a hot iron. If they have a whitlow on the finger, they dip it feveral times into boiling water, an instanc each time; and M. Homberg himfelf, to follow in fome measure the cuftoms of his country, cured himfelf of a whitlow in this manner. We find, in the relations of travellers, feveral other diftempers, which the favages cure by burning; and, without going fo far ourselves, on feveral occafions we apply this remedy to horfes, hounds, birds of prey, &c. but it is true our delicacy does not permit us to make use of it for ourselves, and it perhaps makes us prefer longer pains to fhorter. It has not likewise fuffered our long use in Europe of the Chinese moxa, or down, brought alfo by the Spaniards from America, and which cured the gout when burnt on the afflicted pars. A recent inftance has appeared in a burgher of Hamburgh, who by this remedy in feven or eight days was freed from his fits of the gout, which before lafted two or three months, and at the fame time it made them more unfrequent.

In fhort, it may be fuppofed with good reason, that burning may cure three different ways; by putting the noxious humours in a great motion, which makes them turn into new channels; or by making them fluid from a state of vifcidity, which comes to the fame; or by destroying a part of the ducts that conveyed them in too great abundance.

Letter from Edward Wortley Montagu, Efq; F. R. S. to William Watjen, M. D. F. R. S. containing an account of his journey from Cairo, in Egypt, to the written mountains in the defert of Sinai. Received January the 3d; and read before the Royal Society, March 13, 1766.

IT

T is with a good deal of diffi. culty that I have prevailed upon myfelf to write to you, for, as coming now to Italy was quite unforeseen, and I am immediately going back to the eaft, I have not my journal with me, but luckily have the famous infcriptions. I am fenfible every paper I send to the royal fociety exposes more and more my incapacity. However,

as

thefe infcriptions are much wanted, I cannot avoid fending them. I fhall only fpeak to fome of the points the bishop of Clogher mentions; but cannot avoid being now and then a little prolix.

I fet out from Cairo by the road known by the name of Tauriche Beni Ifrael, road of the children of Ifrael. After twenty hours travelling, at about three miles an hour, we paffed, by an opening in the mountains on our right hand, the mountains Maxattee. 'There are two more roads; one to the northward of this, which the Mecca pilgrims go; and one to the fouth, between the mountains, but

never travelled (as it does not lead to Suez, to which it is thirty hours march from Cairo.) Through this breach the children of Ifrael are faid to have entered the moun'tains, and not to have taken the most fouthern road, which I think most probable: for thofe valleys, to judge by what one now fees, could not be passable for Pharaoh's chariots. This breach, the inhabitants told me, leads directly to a plain called Badeah, which in Arabic fignifies fomething new and extraordinary, and alfo the beginning, as the beginning of every thing is new, i. e. was not before known.

At Suez I found an opportunity of going to Tor by fea, which I gladly embraced, that, by going nearer the place, at which the Ifraelites are fuppofed to have entered the gulf, and having a view from the fea, as well of that as of the oppofite fhore, I might be a little better able to form a judgment about it. Befides, I was willing to have the views, bearings, and foundings, which I took, and they will appear fome time or other; but this paper would fcarce be their place, if I had them with me.

When we were oppofite to Badeah, it feemed to me (for I was not on fhore) a plain, capable of containing the Ifraelites, with a fmall elevation in the middle of it. I faw fomething too like ruins,

The