VOL. XVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 633 



from what has been laid down, we may draw some conclusions, that will much 

 illustrate the prodigious size of it. As, 



That the diameter of the earth's annual orbit, which contains at least l6o 

 millions* of miles, is but as a point in comparison of it ; at least it must be 

 above 6000 times the distance of the sun : for if a star should appear through 

 the telescope half a minute broad, which is a pretty sensible magnitude, the 

 true apparent diameter would not exceed ] 8'", which is less than the 6000th 

 part of the apparent diameter of the sun, and consequently the sun's distance 

 not the 6000th part of the distance of the star. 2. That could we advance to- 

 wards the stars 99 parts of the whole distance, and have only -j-^^ part remain- 

 ing, the stars would appear little larger to us than they do here : for they would 

 show no otherwise than they do through a telescope, which magnifies a hun- 

 dred fold. 3. That at least 9 parts in 10, of the space between us and the fixed 

 stars, can receive no greater light from the sun, or any of the stars, than what 

 we have from the stars in a clear night. 4. That light takes up more time in 

 travelling from the stars to us, than we in making a West-India voyage, which 

 is commonly performed in six weeks. That sound would not reach us from 

 thence in 50,000 years, nor a cannon-bullet in a much longer time.-f- This is 

 easily computed, by allowing, according to Mr. Newton, 10 minutes for the 

 passage of light from the sun hither, and that sound moves about 1300 feet in 

 a second. 



On a Stone of a prodigious Size cut out of a Woman's Bladder, now livin "■, 

 Nw. 1693. By Mr. Basil fVood, Surgeon. N° 209, p. 103. 



This stone was taken from Mrs. Henchman, a widow lady of 5 1 years of age. 

 Its shape is not very unlike to a sort of spring-purse which many people use ; 

 and its surface is indifferently smooth, excepting only that there are four pro- 

 tuberances, each about the size of a hazel-nut; these seem to have been at 

 first lesser stones, which falling into the bladder after the great stone was almost 

 grown to its full size, were joined to it, first by adhesion, and at last became 

 one body with it. The length of the stone is 34 inches ; its breadth, where 

 largest, is very near 3\ inches ; its thickness is 1^ inch : its weight is g ounces 

 and a half avoirdupois. 



Dr Molineux, in his account of a large stone spontaneously voided by a' 



* It is now known to contain nearly 200 millions of miles. 



+ Or rather much the same time, as usually a cannon-ball flies as swiftly as sound, and sometimes 

 much more so. Also 7 J or 8 minutes is the time of light flying from the sun^ and 1142 feet per 

 second the velocity of sound. 



VOL. HI. 4 M 



