VOL. XVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 551 



the earth of cubes, consisting of six squares, and each square of four triangles; 

 the air of octaedrons, each side divided into six scalenes ; then the water of 

 icosaedrons, consisting of twenty triangles, each made up of scalenes. To these 

 he adds a soul, consisting of numbers and proportions. 



In the second book the author designs to make use of such testimonies as he 

 can find among the fragments of the most ancient philosophy, to confirm the 

 doctrines of his theory of the earth. And as, in the former book of this pre- 

 sent treatise, he has inquired after the ancient doctrines concerning the whole, 

 or the universe, in this he restrains his search after such doctrines as more par- 

 ticularly concern the formation and fabric of the earth only. 



On the Food of the Humming Bird. By Dr. N. Gretv. N° 202, p. 815. 



It is believed the humming bird feeds on some juice he sucks from flowers.* 

 It was supposed for a long while, that the bird of paradise had no legs. Whe- 

 ther may not this bird rather feed on small insects, whereon many birds feed, 

 some whereof lie in the bottom of most flowers, and for which this bird has a 

 bill ? whereas a bee that sucks has a siphon or hollow probe. In short, the 

 bird should be opened, and so it will appear either that he has entrails fitted 

 only for liquids, or the same sort of stomachs and guts as other birds, con- 

 taining the same sort of solid food. 



Some Observations made by Mr. Paschal, on the Motions of Diseases, and on 

 the Births and Deaths of Men, and other Animals, in different Parts of the 

 Day and Night. N°202, p. 815. 



Having suspected that the causes of tides at sea exert their power also in 

 other places, though the effects may not be so sensibly perceived on the solid 

 as the fluid parts of this terraqueous globe ; for trial hereof I divided the natural 

 day into four senaries of hours; the first consisted of 3 hours before the moon's 

 southing, and 3 after the second of the 6 hours following, and so the third and 

 fourth contained the two remaining quarters of the natural day. I next ob- 

 served the times of the births and deaths in human creatures, and also in other 

 animals, whether they fell out indifferently in any of these four senaries ; and 

 I found none that were born or died a natural death in the first and third senaries, 

 which I shall call first and second tides, but every one either in the second or 

 fourth senaries, which I call the first and second ebbs. I then made observa- 



• The tongue of the humming bird consists of a double tube, and appears to be calculated for the 

 conveyance of fluids or juices only; yet in some instances the remains of small insects are said to 

 have been found in the throat. See Journal de Physique, 1777. 



