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L. XI-I THILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ^6f 



Of the Lake of Mexico ; and a strange Sort of Rye, growing in some Parts oj 



France. N° 130, p. 758. 



The lake of Mexico has this of extraordinary and perhaps pecuhar to itself, 

 that part of its water is fresh, and the other part salt; whence it is believed to 

 be derived from two sources, the one of sweet water, and the other from som6 

 mineral and saline-earth, found in the hills through which this water passes, 

 being impregnated with the salt which is dissolved in its course: or if it have no 

 peculiar source, the bottom or the earth under the water must be full of salt: 

 which is confirmed by experience, much salt being made of it every day, of 

 which that city drives a great trade with remote parts, even the Philippines 

 themselves, whither it is transported in considerable quantities. That part of 

 the lake which is sweet is still and quiet ; the salt part is agitated and moved 

 according as the winds blow. The sweet water is very good and wholesome, 

 breeding plenty of little fish. That which is agitated is bitter salt, breeding no 

 fish at all. The sweet water is higher than the other, and falls into it. The 

 water of the salt part is seven leagues long, and as many broad, and above 22 in 

 compass. That of the fresh water is near as large, and the whole lake about 50 

 leagues in compass. 



M. Perrault related to the Royal Academy of Paris, that travelling through 

 Sologne, he had been informed by some physicians and surgeons of that coun- 

 try, that the rye was there sometimes so corrupted, that those who did eat of 

 the bread which had much of this corrupted grain in it, were seized with a gan- 

 grene ; some in one part, some in another, some losing a finger, others a hand, 

 others a nose, &c. and that this gangrene was not preceded by any fever, nor in- 

 flammation, nor considerable pain; as also that the gangrened parts fell off of 

 themselves, without any need of separating them by any remedies or instru- 

 ments. That these grains of rye are black without, and pretty white within, afid 

 when they are dry, they are harder and closer than the natural good grain. 

 They have no ill taste. Some of them had hanging at their basis a substance of 

 a honey-taste and consistence. They become much longer in the ear than the 

 other, some of them being 13 or 14 lines long, and 2 lines broad, and at 

 times seven or eight of them are found in one ear. 



Rye in this manner degenerates in Sologne, Berry, the country of Blaise and 

 Gastinois, and almost every where, especially in light and sandy land. It grows 

 plenteously in wet years, and most of all when after a rainy spring there follow 

 excessive heats. The bread made of the rye which contains some of this cor- 

 rupted grain, tastes like other bread. The rye thus corrupted produces its ef- 

 fects chiefly when new, yet not till it has been used a considerable time. These 



