VOL. III.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 283 



Extract of a Letter written by M. Louis de Bils,* to D. Tobias 

 Andrem of Duisburg; concernmg the true Use of the Lymphatic 

 Vessels, &c. iVMO, p. 791- 



In this extract we have an account of this author*s eccentric ideas concern- 

 ing the structure and uses of the lymphatic system. As these ideas are for the 

 most part mere reveries, they are now justly exploded. It will not be ne- 

 cessary therefore to occupy the reader's attention with an analysis of them. 



Of the Tides at Bermudas, also Whales, Spermaceti, strange Spiders 

 JFebSy some rare Vegetables, and the Longevity of the Inhabitants. 

 By Mr. Rd. Stafford. N" 40, p. 792. 



The water about our island (Bermudas) does not rise above five feet ; and 

 that but at one season of the year, viz. between Michaelmas and Christmas ; 

 at other times not above three feet. It is high-water when the moon is about 

 an hour high ; and the like after her setting. It flows in from the north- 

 west, and runs to the south-east nearest ; and in that part of the land which 

 lies most to the north-west, it is high-water soonest. But the tide does not 

 always ebb and flow directly that course quite round about the coast ; which 

 may be owing to some points of land or shoals that may divert its north-west 

 and south-east course. 



We have hereabout many sorts of fishes ; and among them great numbers 

 of whales, which in March, April, and May frequent our coast. Their females 

 have abundance of milk, which their young ones suck out of the teats, that 

 grow by their navel. They have no teeth, but feed on moss, growing on the 

 rocks at the bottom during these three months, and at no other season of the 

 year. When that is consumed, the whales retire. These we kill for their oil. 

 Spermaceti whales have been driven on the shore here : which sperma, as they 

 call it, lies all over the body of those whales. These have divers teeth, which 

 may be about as large as a man's wrist. They are very fierce and swift, also 



•* Louis de Bils or Bilsius was a Flemish nobleman, who had an enthusiatic passion for anatomical 

 pursuits, on which he devoted much time and lavished considerable sums of money. He wrote 

 several anatomical treatises in the Dutch language ; (they were afterwards translated into Latin) of 

 which the most celebrated is that which bears the quaint title of Bloodless Anatomy j wherein he 

 pretends to have invented a new method (which he kept a secret) of preserving or embalming dead 

 bodies, and of performing dissections without effusion of blood. Of bodies or mummies thus prepared 

 he once possessed a large collection, on which he set a very high price ; but in process of time they 

 became putrid, and he died of a consumption, occasioned (it is said) by the fetor emitted from his 

 decaying mummies. Thus ended the boasted mystery of the anatomia incruenta. After the author'f 

 death it ceased to hold a place in the number of useful or even curious inventions. 



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