in a spiral, and it appeared that it left a hollow space in the centre; fo that we concluded the water only formed a hollow tube, inftead of a folid column. We were ftrongly confirmed in this belief by the colour, which was exactly like any hollow glafs-tube. After fome time the laft water-fpout was in. curvated and broke like the others, with this difference, that its difjunction was attended with a flash of lightning, but no explosion was heard. Our fituation during all this time was very dangerous and alarming; a phænomenon which carried fo much terrific majefty in it, and connected as it were the fea with the clouds, made our oldest mariners uneafy and at a lofs how to behave; for most of them, though they had viewed waterfpouts at a distance, yet had never been so befet with them as we were; and all without exception had heard dreadful accounts of their pernicious effects, when they happened to break over a fhip. We prepared indeed for the worst, by cluing up our topfails; but it was the general opinion that our mafts and yards must have gone to wreck if we had been drawn into the vortex. It was hinted that firing a gun had commonly fucceeded in breaking water-fpouts, by the ftrong vibration it caufes in the air; and accordingly a four pounder was ordered to be got ready, but our people being, as ufual, very dilatory about it, the danger was paft before we could try this experiment. How far electricity may be confidered as the caufe of this phænomenon, we could not determine with any precifion; fo much however feems certain, that it has fome connection with it, from the flash

of lightning, which was plainly obferved at the barfting of the last column. The whole time, from their firft appearance to the diffolution of the last, was about three quarters of an hour. It was five o'clock when the latter happened, and the thermometer then flood at 54° or 21 degrees lower, than when they began to make their appearance. The depth of water we had under us was thirty-fix fathom. The place we were in was analogous to moft places where waterfpouts have been obferved, inafmuch as it was in a narrow fea or ftrait. Dr. Shaw and Thevenot faw them in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulph; and they are common in the West Indies, the Straits of Malacca, and the Chinese sea. Upon the whole, we were not fortunate enough to make any remarkable discoveries in regard to this phænomenon; all our obfervations only tend to confirm the facts already noticed by others, and which are fo largely commented upon by the learned Dr. Benjamin Franklin, F. R. S. His ingenious hypothefis, that whirlwinds and water-fpouts have a common origin, has not been invalidated by our obfervations. We refer our philofophical readers to his papers, as containing the most complete and fatisfactory account of waterfpouts.

to an engraver, aged fourteen years, born at Fontainebleau, lived in the freet d'Enfer in Paris, near the Pont Rouge, with his mafter the

Sieur Montabon, who occupied an apartment, two chambers of which look towards the Grêve.

This youth was in one of thofe chambers, with one Leroux, his companion, May, 6, the day of the execution of des Rues: his mafter, mistress, and fome of their friends, were in the other chamber.

At the moment of the criminal's leaving the Town houfe, Dereau, apprized by his companions, felt an extraordinary emotion; this agitation was prodigiously increased when this unfortunate wretch was thrown into the fire. Dereau was inftantly feized with a violent headach, and a great fuffocation and uneafinefs. In the night he was difturbed by frightful dreams; the object that had truck him remained ftrongly impreffed on his brain. Next day his disorder and uneafinefs incrcafed; on the 9th he was brought to the Hofpital of Charity: he continued in the fame fityation for above a month. He had alfo a fever, all his motions were convulfive, his looks were expreffive of fright; the leaft noife, the approach of thofe who took care of him, feemed to infpire him with horror. He uttered incefiantly, by day and night, deep and bitter cries; he forcibly kept his eyes fhut; he refufed all food and medicines; he was extremely weak and emaciated: at length he had a cramp, which lafted forty-eight hours. This alarming attack yielded to the application of blifters; but at the fame time his belly fwelled. This new fymprom was fuccefsfully combated by bark glifters, and from that time the violence of the diforder abated. The boy began to open his eyes, and ventured to look at the objects

No

round him; his cries were less frequent; his difpofition, naturally gentie and weak, made him tractable. He had two abfceffes formed near the loins; they were opened, and foon healed. He left the hofpital Aug. 1, having recovered his flesh and all his fenfes. thing remains but a little oppreflion and difficulty of expreffing himfelf, and a voice almoft loft; instead of which he afferts that his pronǝaciation was clear, and his voice fonorous. This remarkable diforder is not the only one occasioned by the wretched des Rugs: a woman, ill before, it is true, was fo affected by the particulars of his villainy, that he thought herfelf fufpected cf being his accomplice; and this impreffion deprived this poor creature of her fenfes, fo that the threw herself out at window from a third ftory, but did not lofe her life by the fall,

Account of the Mildew, confidered as the principal Caufe of Epidemic Difcafes among the Cattle; with Directions concerning the Manner of treating thefe Difeafes.

M.

J. S. Segar, the author of a treatife upon this fubject, obferves that the mildew, which he confiders as a kind of ruft, is of fuch a fharp and corrofive nature that it raifes blifters on the feet of the fhepherds, who go bare-foot, and even confumes the hoofs of the cattle. He fufpects that it has more or lefs the quality of arfenic, though he does not pretend to affirm this pofitively. Its pernicious infu ence, according to him, is rendered ftill more powerful by a variety of circumstances, fuch as fending the

cattle

cattle into the fields too early in the fpring, their drinking water mixed with ice, or but lately thawed, their being kept in ftables that are too clofe and filthy, and are not fufficiently aired. The mildew, producing the disease, is that which dries and burns the grafs and leaves. It falls ufually in the morning, particularly after a thunder-form. Its poisonous quality, (which does not continue above twenty-four hours, never operates, but when it has been fwallowed immediately after its falling. The diforder it occafions attacks the flomach, is accompanied with pimples on the tongue, with lofs of appetite, with the deficcation of the aliments in the ftomach, with a cough and a difficulty of refpiration. As a prefervative, the author prefcribes purging in fpring and in winter. The medicine he advifes is compofed of thirty grains of fulphur of antimony and fixty grains of refin of jalap. He is againft vomiting, and every thing that is of a heating

fo much time, that the liver and roe only were ferved up that evening, and the remainder preserved for the next day. As the liver was large and oily, though without any particular bad tafte, the captain and the two Mr. Forflers only tafted it. About three o'clock in the morning, Mr. Forfter awaking found himfelt extremely giddy, and his hands and feet entirely, as it were, benumbed. He got up, and was fcarcely able to ftand; and Captain Cook and the younger Mr. Forfler, upon being awakened, found themfelves in the fame fituation. The fymptoms were fomewhat alarming. Their limbs were benumbed, and without fenfation, fo that they could not diflinguish between light and heavy bodies; the blood had left their cheeks, their lips became livid, and a great degree of langour and oppreffion had taken place. Emetics were adminiftered to them by the furgeon, Mr. Patton, and afterwards fudorifics. Thefe medicines gave them great relief, and in a few days they were all restored to health without any bad confequences rcmaining. Some dogs which had feized upon the remains of the liver were taken extremely ill, and a pig which had eaten the entrails of the fih died foon after, being fwelled to an unusual fize. The day after the fish was purchafed, fome of the natives came on board. At fight of the fish, which was hung under the half-deck, they made figns that it occafioned pains in the ftomach, drowlinefs, and death; and when it was offered them they refufed it with the ftrongest marks of averfion.-The fish was preferved by Mr. Forfter in fpirits of wine, and brought over to England.

On

On the Food or Nutriment of Plants, extracted from the Notes of Doctor Hunter's Edition of Evelyn's Sylva.

I

T is of the utmost confequence to determine what is the food of plants. Upon that question philofophers have widely differed. From a number of experiments, accurately conducted, I am led to believe that all vegetables, from the hyffop upon the wall to the cedar of Lebannn, receive their principal nourishment from oily particles incorporated with water, by means of an alkaline falt or abforbent earth. Till oil is made miscible, it is unable to enter the radical vessels of vegetables; and, on that account, providence has bountifully fupplied all natural foils with chalky or other abforbent particles. I fay natural foils, for those which have been affifted by art are full of materials for that purpofe; fuch as lime, marl, foap-afhes, and the volatile alkaline falt of putrid dunghills. It may be afked, whence do natural foils receive their oily particles? I anfwer, the air fupplies them. During the fummer months, the atmosphere is full of putrid exhalations arifing from the team of dunghills, the perfpiration of animals, and fmoke. Every fhowers bring down thefe oleaginous particles for the nourish ment of plants.

The ingenious Mr. Tull, and others, have contended for earth's being the food of plants. If fo, all foils equally tilled would prove equally prolific. The increafed fertility of a well pulverifed foil induced him to imagine that the plow could fo minutely divide the particles of earth, as to fit them

for entering into the roots of plants. An open foil, if not too light in its own nature, will always produce plentiful crops. It readily receives the air, rains, and dews into its bofom, and at the fame time gives the roots of plants a free paffage in queft of food. This is the true reafon why land well tilled is fa remarkably fruitful.Water is thought, by fome, to be the food of vegetables, when in reality it is only the vehicle of nourishment. Water is an heterogenous fluid, and is no where to be found pure. It always contains a folution of animal or vegetable fubftances. These constitute the nourishment of plants, and the element in which they are minutely fufpended, a&s only as a vehicle, in guiding them through the fine veffels of the vegetable body. The hyacinth, and other bulbous roots, are known to perfect their flowers in pure water. Hence fuperficial obfervers have drawn an argument in favour of water being the food of vegetables. But the truth is, the roots, ftem, and flowers of fuch plants are nourished by the mucilaginous juices of the bulb, diluted by the furrounding water. This mucilage is juft fufficient to perfect the flowerand no more. Such a bulb neither forms feeds, nor fends forth offfets. At the end of the feafon, it appears weak, fhrivelled, and exhaufted, and is rendered unfit to produce flowers the fucceeding year. A root of the fame kind, that has been fed by the oily and mucilaginous juices of the earth, effentially differs in every particular. It has a plump appearance, is full of mucilage-with off-fets upon its fides. All rich foils, in a ftate of nature, contain oil; and

in those lands which have been under the plow for fome years, it is found in proportion to the quantity of putrid dung that had been laid upon them, making an allowance for the crops they have fuftained. To fet this matter in a clearer light, let us attend to the effects of manures of an oily nature, and we fhall foon be fatisfied that oil, however modified, is one of the chief things concerned in vegetation. Rape-duft, when laid upon land, is a speedy and certain manure, though an expenfive one, and will generally answer beft on a limeftone land, or where the foil has been moderately limed. This fpecies of manure is much efteemed by the farmer. It contains the food of plants ready prepared; but as it is not capable of loofening the foil by any fermentation, the lands apon which it is laid ought to be in excellent tilth. At prefent, that useful article of husbandry is much diminished in goodness, owing to the improved methods of extracting the oil from the rape. Heat and preffure are employed in a double degree.-Farmers that live in the neighbourhood of large towns ufe abundance of foot. It is an oily manure, but different from the former, containing alkaline falt in its own nature, calculated as well for opening the foil, as for rendering the oily parts mifcible with water. It is obferved that pigeons dung is a rich and hafty manure. These animals feed chiefly upon grains and oily feeds; it must therefore be expected that their dung fhould contain a large proportion of oil. The dung of stablekept horfes is alfo a ftrong manure, and should not be fed until it has undergone the putrid ferment, in

order to mix and affimilate its oily, watery, and faline parts. Beans, oats, and hay, contain much oil. The dung of horses, that are kept upon green herbage, is of a weaker kind, containing much less oil. Swines dung is of a faponacious and oily nature, and perhaps is the richeft of the animal manures, When made into a compoft, and applied with judgment, it is excellent for arable lands. The dung of ruminant animals, as cows and fheep, is preferable to that of horfes at grafs, owing to the quantity of animal juices mixed with their food in chewing. And here I beg leave to remark in general, that the fatter the animal, cæteris paribus, the richer the dung. Human ordure is full of oil and a volatile alkaline falt. By itself, it is too ftrong a manure for any land; it fhould therefore be made into a compoft before it is ufed. The dung of carnivorous animals is plentifully ftored with oil. Animals that feed upon feeds and grains come next, and after them follow thofe which fubft upon grafs only. To fuit thefe different manures to their proper foils, requires the greatelt judgment of the farmer, as what may be proper for one foil, may be highly detrimental to another.

In order to irengthen my argument in favour, of oil being the principal food of plants, I must beg leave to oblerve, that all vegetables, whofe feeds are of an oily nature, are found to be remarkable impoverishers of the foil, as hemp, rape, and flax; for which reaton, the beft manures for lands worn out by thefe crops, are fuch as have a good deal of oil in their compoftion; but then they must be laid on with lime, chalk, mari.