went through the Distemper in the natural way, and yet received it again by Inoculation.

Art. 81. An Account of an extraordinary Cafe of the Efficacy of the Bark in the Delirium of a Fever. By Dr. Munckley. Art. 75. On the remarkable Effects of Blifters, in leffening the Quickness of the Pulfe in Coughs, attended with Infarction of the Lungs and Fever. By Dr. Whytt.

Both these articles are interefting, and well deferve the notice of the Faculty.

Among the ASTRONOMICAL, and METEOROLOGICAL Papers, we find Obfervations on the Comet of 1757, and on two Lunar Eclipfes in the years 1757 and 1758. The first by Dr. Klinkenberg, at the Hague; the fecond by a Correspondent of Dr. Maty's. Also,

Remarks on the different Temperature of the Air, at Edyftone and at Plymouth, by Mr. Smeaton; and an Account of the extraordinary Heat of the Weather, and its Effects at Plymouth, in July and August 1757; when Fahrenheit's Thermometer afcended nearly to 86. By Dr. Huxham.

In Article 102, we have alfo an account of the extraordinary Heat of the Weather in Georgia; in a Letter from Governor Ellis, part of which we have here extracted.

Georgia, 17 July, 1758.

Tis now about three o'clock; the fun bears nearly S. W. and I am writing in a piazza, open at each end, on the north-east side of my house, perfectly in the fhade; a small breeze at S. E. blows freely thro' it; no buildings are nearer, to reflect the heat, than fixty yards; yet in a thermoter hanging by me, made by Mr. Bird, and compared by the late Mr. George Graham, with an approved one of his own, the Mercury ftands at 102. Twice it has rifen this fummer to the fame height; viz. on the 28th of June, and the 11th of July. Several times it has been at 100, and for many days fucceffively at 98; and did not in the nights fink below 89. I think it highly probable, that the • inhabitants of this town breathe a hotter air than any other people on the face of the earth. The greateft Heat we had last year was but 92, and that but once; from 84 to 90 were the usual variations; but this is reckoned an extraordinary hot fummer. The weather-wife of this country fay it forebodes á Hurricane; for it has always been remarked, that thefe tempefts have been preceded by conti• nual

nual and uncommon Heats. I must acquaint you, however, that the Heats we are subject to here, are more intense than in any other parts of the province, the town of Sa<vannah being fituated upon a fandy eminence, and fheltered all round with high woods. But it is very fufficient, that the people actually breathe fo hot an air as I describe; and no lefs remarkable, that this very fpot, from its height and dryness, is reckoned equally healthy with any other in the province.

I have frequently walked an hundred yards under an umbrella; with a thermometer fufpended from it, by a thread, to the height of my noftrils, when the mercury has rose to 105; which is prodigious. At the fame time I have confined this inftrument clofe to the hotteft part of my body, ' and have been astonished to observe, that it has fubfided fe⚫veral degrees. Indeed, I never could raise the mercury above 97 with the heat of my body.

< You know, dear Sir, that I have traverfed a great part of this globe, not without giving fome attention to the peculiarities of each climate; and I can fairly pronounce, that I never felt fuch Heats any-where as in Georgia. Í < know experiments on this fubject are extremely liable to 6 error; but I prefume I cannot now be mistaken, either in the goodness of the inftrument, or in the fairness of the trials, which I have repeatedly made with it. This fame thermometer I have had thrice in the equatorial parts of • Africa; as often at Jamaica, and the Weft-India islands; and, upon examination of my journals, I do not find, that the quickfilver ever rofe in thofe parts above the 87th degree, and to that but feldom: its general ftation was between the 79th and 86th degree; and yet I think I have ⚫ felt thofe degrees, with a moift air, more difagreeable than "what I now feel.

In my relation of the late expedition to the North-west, if I recollect right, I have obferved, that all the changes and variety of weather, that happen in the Temperate Zone throughout the year, may be experienced at the Hudfon's Bay fettlements in twenty-four hours. But I may now extend this obfervation; for in my cellar the thermometer stands at 81, in the next story at 102, and in the upper one at 105; and yet thefe Heats, violent as they are, would be tolerable, but for the fudden changes that fucceed them. On the 10th of December laft the mercury was at 86; on the 11th it was fo low as 38 of the fame • inftrument.

R 2

.

inftrument. What havock muft this make with an European conftitution? Neverthelefs, few people die here out of the ordinary courfe; tho' indeed one can fcarce call it living, merely to breathe, and trail about a vigorlefs body; yet fuch is generally our condition from the middle of June to the middle of September.'

We have only to obferve on this article, that however extraordinary the Heat of Georgia may appear to us, who can hardly conceive the poffibility of furviving it, we have yet read an account of a ftill greater Heat experienced at Tomfk, a large town in Siberia; where de l'Ifle's thermometer ftood at 85, which anfwers to 110 on Fahrenheit's; no lefs than fourteen degrees above the common Heat of the Blood, in healthful people refiding in England, and five de-` grees more than what Mr. Ellis obferved in Georgia.

The Articles 62, 64, 82, and 89, contain relations of earthquakes; the firft in the island of Sumatra, and the two following in England, attended with no very peculiar circumftances. The laft is of one that happened in the island of Guadaloupe; the whole of which article we fhall lay before the reader.

Art. 89. Obfervations on a flight Earthquake, tho' very particular, which may lead to the Knowlege of the Caufe of great and violent ones, that ravage whole Countries, and overturn Cities. By Dr. Andrew Peyffonel.

I went to make my obfervations upon the Natural History of the Sea; and when I arrived at a place called the Cauldrons of Lance Caraibe, near Lancebertrand, a part of the island of Grande Terre Guadaloupe, in which place the coaft runs north-east and fouth-weft, the fea being • much agitated that day flowed from the north-west. There the coaft is furnished with hollow rocks, and vaults underneath, with chinks and crevices: and the fea, pufhed into these deep caverns by the force and agitation of the waves, compreffes the air, which, recovering its spring, forces the water back in the form of the moft magnificent fountains; which ceafe, and begin again at every great preffure. This phenomenon is common to many places in this ifland. The explanation of it is eafy; but the following is what I particularly observed.

As I walked within about forty paces from the brink of the fea, where the waves broke, I perceived, in one place, the plants were much agitated by fome caufe, that was not

• yet

yet apparent. I drew near, and difcovered a hole about fix feet deep, and half a foot diameter; and stopping to confider it, I perceived the earth tremble under my feet. This increafed my attention; and I heard a dull kind of • noise under-ground, like that which precedes common earthquakes; which I have observed many a time. It was followed by a quivering of the earth; and after this a wind iffued out of the hole, which agitated the plants round about. I watched to fee whether the motion extended to 6 any distance; but was fenfible it did not reach above three or four paces from the hole, and that no motion was per<ceived farther off.

I further obferved, that this phoenomenon never happens < till after the feventh wave rolls in; for it is a common thing in this country, to find the fea appear calm for fome time, and then to produce feven waves, which break upon the coaft one after another: the first is not very confiderable; the fecond is fomewhat ftronger; and thus they go on increafing to the feventh, after which the fea grows calm again, and retires. This phoenomenon of the feven waves is obferved by Navigators with great attention, efpecially at low water, in order to be the better able to go in or come out at the very time that the fea grows quiet. Thefe feven waves fucceffively fill the caverns, which are all along the coaft; and when the feventh comes to open itself, the air at the bottom of the caverns being greatly compreffed, acted by its elafticity, and immediately made thofe fountains and gufhings I have mentioned; and the waters continuing in the caverns, up to the very place of the hole, began to produce that dull noife, caufed the emotion or Earthquake, and finished with the violent wind forced up thro' the hole; after which the water retired into the fea, and having no further impelling caufe, on account of the waves, rendered every thing quiet again.

.

I obferved, that this phoenomenon happened at no limited time, but according to the approach of the waves, being ftrongly put in motion after the feventh. I remained < near half an hour to obferve it; and nearly followed the • course of the cavern to its entrance, directed by the difpofition of the coaft. I made my Negroes go down where • the water broke; for they doubted the report of the great• nefs of these caverns; and when the fea was calm one of them ventured in, but returned very quickly, or he must have perished. Therefore I conclude, that these small Earthquakes round the hole, about forty paces from the

R 3

wave,

wave, were only caufed by the compreffed air in some great vault about this place, and that by its force was driven up the hole that appeared: that this air in the caverns, compreffed to a certain degree, firft caufed the dull noise, by the rolling of the waters, which refifted in the cavern; then acting more violently, caufed the fmall Earthquake, which ceased when the wind paffed out of the hole, and that the fea retired, and gave liberty to the air which was • contained and compreffed.

Such are the obfervations I have made; from which the learned, who are endeavouring to find the cause of Earthquakes, fince that dreadful one, which deftroyed the city of Lifbon, may make fuch conclufions as they fhall think • proper.'

Under the articles which relate to LETTERS, ANTIQUITIES, and mifcellaneous HISTORY, the two following are the most curious.

Art. 96. A Defcription of the Plan of Peking, the Capital of China. By Father Gaubil, a Jesuit.

This is a curious Paper; but without the engraved Plan, it would be hardly intelligible; and, confequently, any extract from it must afford little entertainment to our readers,

Art. 109. A Differtation on the Phoenician Numeral Characters, anciently ufed at Sidon. By the Rev. Mr. Swinton.

The defign of this Differtation is to ascertain the Phonician dates of feyeral ancient Sidonian Coins, one of which was ftruck above a century before the birth of Chrift, hitherto utterly unknown; and to evince the notation of the Phoenicians, at least those of Sidon, when they firft appeared, to have been extremely fimilar to, if not nearly the fame with that of the Palmyrenes. It is a learned and well-written Differtation, doing honour both to the Society and its Author.

We fhall take our leave of this volume with inferting the abftract of a Letter from Mr. Arderon of Norwich, on giving Magnetism and Polarity to Brass.

This' Gentleman fays, that he found his Brafs Compassbox to attract the Needle, when fufpended without, at half an inch diftance: and that if fuffered to touch, it drew it ninety degrees from the Pole. He communicated Magnetism to Brafs, by proper hammering, and giving the double Touch

after