Mr. Ellis affirms, after a careful fcrutiny with the beft glaffes, to be nothing more than the roots and ftalks of that class of fungi, called Mucor, or mouldinefs, vegetating in the infufion, and the growth of which is fo amazingly quick, that the plants may be perceived, in the microfcope, even to grow and feed under the eye of the obferver. Their ftems, he obferves, terminate each in an oblong feed veffel; from a hole in the top of which he has plainly feen their numerous and minute globular feeds projected, and afterwards turning about in the water, as if they were animated: but this last motion, he affirms, is owing to myriads of the minuteft animalcula, contained in the putrid water, and attacking the feeds of the mucor for food. From hence we think it should follow, that the infufed vegetable fubftance is not the parent, but the pabulum or nidus, both of the mucor, and of the fmall microfcopic fry, whom Mr. Needham's theory would deprive of the honour of animal parentage and the pre-exiftent germs, or the feminal fyftem, may yet ftand their ground, against the active forces of Mr. Needham, and the organical molecules of M. Buffon, notwithstanding the experiment of the wheat infufion.

Mr. Ellis next relates fome experiments made on boiled potatoes contained in a glafs veffel, on which boiling water was poured, and the mouth of the veffel inftantly covered with a glafs cover;' and expreffes his furprize that, in twenty-four hours, the liquor appeared full of animacula: in the fame manner as that of another infufion of raw potatoes, in cold water, covered in the fame manner. We have formerly feen animalcula, lefs than even the tails of the fpermatic animals, produced, in the space of four hours, in an infufion of cantharides in boiling water, poured upon them in a vial, the mouth of which was immediately well ftopped with a cork; and have often wondered that Mr. Needham, or those who adopt his fyftem, have not endeavoured to put the truth of it out of all reasonable doubt, by experiments made in a ftill more unexceptionable manner than those, of a fimilar kind to the preceding, which occur in his writings on this fubject. His hot mutton gravy, for inftance, inclofed in a vial fecured with a well mafticated cork, and afterwards placed for fome minutes in hot afhes, in order to deftroy any infects or their ova, which might be contained in the empty part of the vial, was, after a fuficient time, found fwarming with animalcules: but nothing lefs, we apprehend, than the feal of Hermes itself, applied to fhut up all pri le communication from without, can reconcile many to a doctrine fo difficult of digeftion as this; that beings endued with fpontaneous motion, many of them moft curioufly organifed, can be produced by the mere energy and activity of the minute partiREV. Mar. 1771. Р

cles

cles of vegetable and animal matter, in a ftate of decompofition. Should an infufion thus hermetically fealed, and, in all human probability, effectually fecured from the inroads of any of thefe animated points, be yet, upon opening it, found teeming with animal life, we own we can scarce fee any resource left to the moft obftinate adherent to the doctrine of preexiftent germs; unless he should make his laft retreat into this fuppofition, that as thefe expeditious breeders have been known, he would fay, to produce a progeny in the space of four hours, why not in as many minutes?-in a matter ready prepared for their reception, and during the very time while the operator is unfealing his glaffes, and preparing for obfervation.

We have dwelt fo long on this curious fubject, that we shall only add a general account of fome fingular tranfactions, which pafs in the animalcular world, relative to the multiplication of individuals, which are related in the remaining part of this article; the hint of which was lately given to the Author by M. de Sauffure of Geneva. When a female of our own species is in a condition to increase her kind, her taper waist enlarges, and the daily fpreads more and more about the hips: but, it feems, the Volvex of Linnæus (produced in infufions of hempfeed, pine branches, tea-feed, &c.) occafionally multiplies her fpecies by a directly contrary courfe. She begins the work by gradually contracting her virgin figure (which is oval) about the middle; and at laft fairly halves her perfon with her offfpring, by dividing it into two equal portions, one of which becomes a new individual. If we had room or inclination, it would be a curious fubject of difcuffion, which of the two is the mother, and which the daughter: but as fettling the right of primogeniture between them would lead us too far, we fhall only add, that a representation of this procefs, as observed in five different kinds of this genus of microfcopal animals, is given in a plate; accompanied with figures of the chryftals of what the Author, we think fomewhat improperly, terms an indiffoluble falt, which he has difcovered in aqueous infufions of hempfeed, after they became putrid. He recommends the confideration of this heteroclite production to the faculty, on a fuppofition that it may be poffeffed of fome medical virtues. The grains of this falt are faid to be about the size of those of the finest basket falt, and of a pale yellowish colour when dry. It does not appear from this paper, in what quantity it can be procured; nor is any thing faid of its tafte, or other fenfible qualities; but if thefe chryftals be really indiffoluble, they are not falts, nor can have any taste.

MEDICINE and ANATOMY. Article 3. An extraordinary Cafe of three Pins fwallowed by a Girl,

and discharged at her Shoulder. In a Letter to Frank Nicholls, M. D. F. R. S. from Dr. Lyfons of Gloucefler.

Thefe pins, after flicking eight weeks in the cefophagus, and after having produced great pain and inflammation in the throat, attended with difficulty both of fwallowing and breathing, were at laft, after various fruitless attempts, difplaced by the whalebone inftrument ufed by furgeons for that purpofe. The removal of them, however, produced only a change of fymptoms. A pain was inftantly felt on the right fide, below the falle ribs, which was greatly aggravated on the patient's moving her body in a particular direction, or on lifting up her right arm. By the violence of this pain, convulfion fits were fometimes produced, and particularly a fpafm, by which the mufculus rectus fuperior of the right eye was fo violently affected, that notwithftanding the eye was open, yet the pupil was entirely covered by the eye-lid, and once continued in that fituation for a fortnight. The other eye was fimilarly affected for a fhorter time. the patient had been haraffed with thefe and other symptoms about eleven months, a fmall painful tumour appeared on her right fhoulder; but difappeared within a week. In a fortnight, a fimilar tumour arose on the upper part of the left fhoulder-blade, which was brought to fuppuration and opened, and from which one of the pins iffued the next day, and was followed on the fucceeding day by the two others. The Author inquires into the probable courfe which the pins may be fupposed to have followed; and though, from the cough and fpitting of blood, and from the conftant pain under the falfe ribs, it might be supposed that they had injured the lungs and the diaphragm; yet, from anatomical and phyfiological confiderations, he accounts very fatisfactorily for thefe, and most of the other symptoms, by fuppofing that they had been forced through the fubftance of the cefophagus, directly into the ferrati and other mufcles of the neck and fhoulders, from whence they paffed to the part where they were difcharged. He afcribes the general as well as particular fpafmodic affections to the irritation. of the intercostal nerve, and the confent, as it is called, of those communicating with if; but does not diffemble the difficulty of discovering the caufe why the pain was conftantly felt on the right fide, till the very inftant that the laft of the three pins had been difcharged, though that difcharge was made at the left. Article 6. An Account of a Cafe, in which the upper Head of the Os Humeri was fawed off, a large Portion of the Bone afterwards exfoliated, and yet the entire Motion of the Limb was preferved. By Mr. White, Surgeon at Manchester, &c.

In this remarkable cafe, when no other refource feemed to be left, to fave the life of the patient, than the formidable operation of taking off the arm at its articulation with the featula, the Au

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thor happily proposed, and easily and fuccefsfully executed that mentioned in the title; in which, after a proper incifion made down to the middle of the humerus, the diseased head of that bone was with ease firft turned out of its focket, through the wound, and then fawn off; without any inconveniencies attending or following the operation. The event of it exceeded the Author's moft fanguine expectations: for although above four inches in length of the bone had been loft, partly by the operation, and partly by a large fubfequent exfoliation, or rather separation, of its intire fubftance below; yet, after the cure, the diseased arm was found to be not quite an inch shorter than the other, its figure in no refpect altered, nor its ufe impaired: the patient performing even the rotatory motion at the joint as well as ever. From these circumftances, and from the evident hardness of the parts to the touch, Mr. White appears fully justified in venturing to conclude, that not only part of the body, but that the head and neck of the os humeri have been actually regenerated.

We refer those of the profeffion to the paper itself, for the rational and fimple method in which this extraordinary cafe was conducted, and which, no doubt, greatly contributed to the maintaining nearly the due length, and to the preferving the natural motion, of the limb. We believe, with the Author, that this is the first operation of the kind that has been performed, or at leaft made public:' although that excellent practical writer Mr. Gooch has, as he obferves, mentioned three cafes of bad compound luxations, in which a fimilar operation had been fuccefsfully performed. The art of furgery has undoubtedly great obligations to thofe Efprits forts, who thus fuccefsfully explore the fecret refources of Nature, and venture, in defperate cafes, to put her fufficiency to the teft, by thus properly, but boldly interrogating her, and making trial of the extent of her powers.

Article 28. An Account of the Lymphatic System in amphibious animals. By Mr. William Hewson, Lecturer in Anatomy, &c. Article 29. An Account of the Lymphatic System in Fish. By the

fame.

In conformity to his promife in the preceding volume, the Author, in the firft of thefe papers, traces the lymphatic fyftem, and the diftribution of the lacteals, in a turtle. In the fecond, he gives an account of his discovery of these veffels in skate, cod, haddocks, and a variety of other fifh. His defcription of these fyftems is terminated by a catalogue of feveral curious preparations, which were laid before the Society, and in which those veffels are completely demonstrated by injections.

* See his Cafes and Remarks in Surgery, Vol. II. p. 323. 2d Edit.

Article

Article 54. A Defcription of the Lymphatics of the Urethra and Neck of the Bladder. By Henry Watfon, Surgeon to the Westminster Hofpital, and F. Ŕ. S.

The Author introduces this defcription by obferving, that the lymphatic veffels are of much greater importance in the animal economy, than fome have imagined; that if an obftruction of the aorta will produce a very quick or fudden death, an obftructed thoracic duct (which in fact is only a large lymphatic) will as certainly lead to a tedious and lingering diffolution; and that the laft-mentioned disorder is fometimes the cause of a marafmus, though unfufpected or not attended to. The extreme exility, and colourless tranfparency of thefe veffels, have hitherto prevented our discovering their origin; though it has been generally fuppofed, from arguments, drawn from experiments, a pofteriori, that they arife from all the internal furfaces and cavities of the body. There are many parts likewise, in which the most eminent anatomists have not been able to discover them.

In this paper, the Author afcertains the existence, and gives an account of the diftribution of thefe veffels in the human bladder and urethra, where they had eluded the fearch of Haller. He has likewise ocularly demonftrated their actual origination from cavities, at least in this vifcus, by having frequently, without ufing the knife or lancet, or the leaft violence of any kind, thrown air into them through their mouths, as well as introduced fine briftles into their orifices; through which, he obferves, mercury may likewife be made to pass.

Article 38. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Benjamin Gooch, Surgeon of Shottisham, near Norwich, to Mr. Jofeph Warner, F. R. S. and Surgeon to Guy's Hofpital, &c.

This letter contains a fhort account of the symptoms and circumftances preceding and attending a very remarkable feparation of the scarf skin, in the cafe of a gentleman at Saham Tony, in the county of Norfolk. During the last ten years, he has been frequently attacked with anomalous feverish diforders, in confequence of which the cuticle has feparated from the true fkin, in every part of his body; and he has, particularly, often turned it off from his wrift to his fingers ends, in one entire piece, completely resembling a glove. Of thefe fingular exuvia, he has unfortunately been enabled to prefent the curious among his friends with feveral fpecimens. An accurate drawing of one of these cuticular gloves, fent by the Author to Mr. Warner, accompanies this article.

[To be concluded in the next Number. ]