fhewed the greatest reluctance, and recovering and ate and drank, vifited her, and found her condition to be as follows: about a year preceding this laft date, her parents one day returning from their country labours, (having left their daughter as for fome years before fixed to her bed) were greatly furprized to find her fitting on her hams, on the fide of the house oppofite to her bed-place, fpinning with her mother's diftaff. I asked, whether the ever ate or drank? whether he had any of the natural evacuations? whether the ever fpoke or attempted to speak? And was answered, that the fometimes crumbled a bit of oat or barley cake in the palm of her hand, as if to feed a chicken; that the put little crumbs of this into the gap of her teeth, rolled them about for fome time in her mouth, and then fucked out of the palm of her hand a little water, whey, or milk; and this once or twice a day, and even that by compulfion: that the egefta were in proportion to the ingefta; that he never attempted to speak; that her jaws were ftill faft-locked, her ham-ftrings tight as before, and her eyes fhut. On my opening her eye-lids I found the eye-balls turned up under the edge of the os frontis, her countenance ghaftly, her complexion pale, her fkin farivelled and dry, and her whole perfon rather emaciated; her pulfe with the utmost difficulty to be felt. She feemed fenfible and tractable in every thing, except in taking food; for, at my request, fhe went through her different exercifes, fpinning on the diftaff, and crawling about on her hams, by the wall of the houfe, with the help of her hand: but when he was defired to eat, he any New Tarbat, ALEX. MACKENZIE, At Croick, the fifteenth Day of TO authenticate the history fet forth in the preceding pages, Donald Mac Leod, efq. of Granics, fheriff depute of Rofs-fhire, George Munro, elq. of Cuteain, Simon Rofs, efq. of Gladfield, Captain George Sutherland of Elphin, all justices of the peace; Meffieurs William Smith, preacher of the gofpel, John Barclay, writer in Tain, Hugh Rof, ftudent of divinity, and Alexander Mac Leod, ni、d did come to this place, accompa F4 nied by the above Dr. Alexander Mackenzie, phyfician at New Tarbat, and after explaining the purport and meaning of the above history to Donald Mac Leod, father to Janet Mac Leod above-mentioned, and to David Rofs, elder, in the parish of Kincardine, who lives in the clofe neighbourhood of this place, and was one of the doctor's original interpreters; they, to our fall fatisfaction, after a minute examination, authenticate all the facts fet forth in the above account: and, for our further fatisfaction, we had Janet Mac Leod brought out before us to the open air, when the doctor difcovered a very great improvement in her looks and health fince the period of his having feen her laft, as now the walked tolerably upright, with a little hold by the wall. And notwithstanding her age, which, upon inquiry, we found to be exactly as fet forth in the above account, her countenance and looks would have denoted her not to be above twenty years of age at moft. At prefent the quantity of food he uses is not above what would be neceflary for the fuftenance of an infant of two years of age. And we do report, from our knowledge of the above men, and the circumftances of the cafe, that full faith and credit is to be given to every article of the above history. WILLIAM SMITH, ALEXANDER MAC LEOD, GEORGE SUTHERLAND, J. P. Account of persons who could nat diftinguish colours. From the Philofophical Transactions. SIR, 1777. Lendon, Jan 15, 1777: Read Feb. 13, WHEN I had the pleasure of waiting on you laft winter, I had hopes before now of giving you a more perfect account of the peculiarity of vifion which I then mentioned to you, in a perfon of my acquaintance in the North: however, if I give you now the best I am able, I perfuade myfelf you will pardon the delay. I promifed to procure you a written account from the perfon himself, but this I was unfortunately difappointed in, by his dying fuddenly of a pleurify a fhort time after my return to the country. You will recollect I told you that this perfon lived at Maryport in Cumberland, near which place, viz. at Allonby, I myself live, and having known him about ten years, have had frequent opportunities of converfing with him, His name was Harris, by trade a Shoe-maker. I had often heard from others that he could difcern the form and magnitude of all objects very diftinctly, but could not diftinguish colours. This report having excited my curiofity, I converfed with him frequently on the fubject. The account he gave was this: That he had reafon to believe other perfons faw fomething in objects which he could not fee; that their language feemed to mark qualities with confidence and precision, which he could only guess at with hesitation, and frequently with error. His firft fufpicion of this arose when he was about four years old. Having by accident found in the street a child's ftocking, he carried it to a neighbouring houfe to inquire for the owner: he obferved the people called it a red stocking, though he did not understand why they gave it that denomination, as he himself thought it completely defcribed by being called a flocking. The circumstance, however, remained in his memory, and together with fubfequent obfervations led him to the knowledge of his defect. As the idea of colours is among the first that enters the mind, it may perhaps feem extraordinary that he did not obferve his want of it flill earlier. This, however, may in fome measure be accounted for from the circumftance of his family being Quakers, among whom a general uniformity of colours is known to prevail. He obferved alfo that, when young, other children could difcern cherries on a tree by fome pretended difference of colour, though he could only diftinguish them from the leaves by their difference of fize and shape. He obferved alfo, that by means of this différence of colour they could fee the cherries at a greater diftance than he could, though he could tee other objects at as great a distance as they; that is, where the fight was not affifted by the colour. Large objects he could fee as well as other perfons; and even the smaller ones if they were not enveloped in other things, as in the cafe of cherries among the leaves. I believe he could never do more than guess the name of any colour; yet he could diftinguith white from black, or black from any light or bright colour. Dove or ftraw-colour he called white, and different colours he frequently call, ed by the fame name; yet he could difcern a difference between them when placed together. In general, colours of an equal degree of brightneis, however they might otherwife differ, he frequently confounded together. Yet a triped ribbon he could diftinguish from a plain one; bu he could not tell what the colours were with any tolerable exactness. Dark colours in general he often mistook for black, but never imagined white to be a dark colour, nor a dark to be a white colour. He was an intelligent man, and very defirous of understanding the nature of light and colours, for which end he had attended a course of lectures in natural philofophy. He had two brothers in the fame circumftances as to fight; and two other brothers and filters who, as well as their parents, had nothing of this defect. One of the first mentioned brothers, who is now living, is mafter of a trading veffel belonging to Mary-port. I met with him in December 1776, at Dublin, and took the opportunity of converfing with him. I wished to try his capacity to diftinguish the colours in a prifm, but not having one by me, I asked him, whether he had ever seen a rain-bow? He replied, he had often, and could diftinguish the different colours; meaning only, that it was compofed of different colours, for he could not tell what they were. I then procured and fhewed him a piece of ribbon: he immediately, without any difficulty, pronounced it a ftriped and not a plain ribbon. He He then attempted to name the different ftripes: the feveral ftripes of white he uniformly, and without hefitation, called white: the four black ftripes he was deceived in, for three of them he thought brown, though they were exactly of the fame fhade with the other, which he properly called black. He fpoke, however, with diffidence as to all thofe ftripes; and it must be owned, the black was not very diflinct the light green he called yellow; but he was not very pofitive: he faid, "I think this is what you call yellow." The middle ftripe, which had a flight tinge of red, he called a fort of blue. But he was meft of all deceived by the orange colour; of this he fpoke very confidently, faying, "This is the colour of grais; this is green." I alfo fhewed him a great variety of ribbons, the colour of which he fometimes named rightly, and fometimes as differently as poflible from the true colours. I asked him, whether he imagined it poffible for all the various colours he faw, to be mere difference of light and fhade; whether he thought they could be various degrees between white and black; and that all colours could be compofed of thefe two mixtures only? With fome hesitation he replied, no, he did imagine there was fome other difference. I could not conveniently procure from this perfon an account in writing; but I have given his Own words, having fet them down in writing immediately. Befides, as this converfation happened only the 10th of laft month, it is till fresh in my memory. I have endeavoured to give a faithful account of this matter, and not to render it more wonderful than it really is. It is proper to add, that the experiment of the striped ribbon was made in the day-time, and in a good light. I am SIR, &c. An Account of a Journey into Africa from the Cape of Good-Hope, and a Defcription of a new Species of Cuckow. By Dr. Andreas Sariman, of the Royal Academy of Stockholm, in a Letter to Dr. Joha Reinhold Forfer, F. R. S. From the Philofophical Tranfactions. 'B' DEAR SIR, Sept. 16, 1776. Gottenburgh. Read Dec. 19, EING returned to 1776. my native country after an abfence of five years from it, I will endeavour to give you a fhort account of my expedition into Africa, which I undertook foon af. ter parting with you at the Cape of Good-Hope. The voyage round the world, of which I fhared the perils and pleafures with you, had only made me more eager to continue my rambles in queft of new difcoveries. I fet out therefore from the neighbourhood of the Cape-town in the beginning of August 1775, with no other company than the fon of the Dutch Lieutenant Emelman, who had formerly accompanied my learned friend Dr. Thunberg on a fimilar journey, and fome Hottentots who took care of my oxen. The first misfortune I met with was the lofs of the thermometer which you had left me, and which broke before I had reached the hot bath. bath. This was only a prelude to greater diftreffes. The drought was fo violent this year, that the like had not been experienced in the colony within the memory of man, and it obliged the inhabitants to leave their country-feats. A great part of their cattle perished for want of grafs and water, and I have frequently fuffered the most raging thirft in the hot defarts which I traverfed; but I was too well feasoned during the voyage to dread the hardships of a fcanty fubfiftence, the fatigues of travelling, or the power of the climate. The most fenfible misfortune which the dry feafon brought along with it, was the defolation of the vegetable kingdom. Far from being fo fortunate as Dr. Thunberg, who has added above a thousand species to the Flora Capenfis, I found every thing burnt up, and only in the thickest forests met with fome perennial plants which were new to me, and which, upon a revifal of that gentleman's herbal, I believe are likewife unknown to him. Of thefe I propofe to fend you fpecimens as foon as I can find time to bring my collection into fome kind of order. On the other hand, I have been fortunate with animals, and especially in the clafs of quadrupeds. I shall not speak of lions and other beasts of prey, which I have frequently feen in broad daylight, and heard roaring about me at night, though they never ventured to attack our eattle. But it was chiefly among the antelopes and animals of that fort that I hunted. Mr. Emelman and myfelf, with nine hottentots, a waggon drawn by feveral pairs of oxen, and feveral hunting horfes, happily traversed a defart of fifty miles, where we had greater sport than any German prince could ever boast of. On that route I penetrated farther into the country than any of my predeceffors, having gone one hundred miles beyond the laft Chriftian's or Dutchman's hut, into the diftrict of the Yellow or (as they are vulgarly called) Chinese Hottentots. The great buffaloes which inhabit the wilds of Africa, do not appear to me to differ in any refpect from the North American Bion, although I have feen great numbers of them. I have likewise found a fpecies of pole-cat on that continent, which Linnæus calls Viverra Putorius, contrary to M. De Buffon's opinion, who feems to confine this animal and its species to America. By the fea-fide I was fortunate enough to catch a Manatee alive, notwithstanding the difficulty which must attend the capture of fuch an unwieldy animal. There I likewife faw fome islands, on which I was told an English hip had been loft. Thefe I fufpected at fift to be the Doddingtons; but afterwards had reafon to doubt it, thofe islands being fuppofed to lie in a more foutherly latitude. I have had opportunities of making many curious and valuable obfervations relative to the different tribes of Hottentots, their œconomy, hunting-matches, and other cuftoms; an account of which, together with fome remarks on the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and other animals, I intend to prepare for the prefs. I am poffeffed of an accurate map of that part of Africa which I have vifited, containing all the hills, together with the fmallest rivulets, as far as the Bay de la Goa, which, I think, |