VOL. XIX.] fHILOSOFHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 33 



and corrupted. Quaere, Why one with so bad lungs was so fat ? Why had she 

 not rather a consumption ? 



Tne evident cause of her death lay in the inflammation of the lower parts, 

 though the parts concerned in respiration were also disordered. Her face and 

 head were miserably coloured with redness of stagnant blood. The head was 

 not opened. 



Account ofTadmoT, or Palmyra, in Syria ; and a Journey from Aleppo to that 

 Place. By the Rev. Mr. JVilliam Halifax. N° 217, p. 83. 



We left Aleppo on Michaelmas-day, 1691, and in 6 easy days' travel over a 

 desert country, nearly in a south direction, but a little inclining to the east, 

 came to Tadmor. As we rode into the town we observed a castle, about half 

 an hour's distance from it, and so situated as to command both the pass into 

 the hills, by which the town is entered, and the city too. But we could easily 

 perceive it was no old building, showing no traces of the exquisite workman- 

 ship and ingenuity of the ancients. We were informed it was built by Man- 

 Ogle, a prince of the Druces, in the reign of Amurath tiie third, anno 1585. 

 But it does not appear that either Man-Ogle, or any Drucian prince, was ever 

 powerful in these parts, their strength lying on Mount Libanus, and along the 

 coast of Sidon, Berytus, &c. It is a work of more labour than art, and the 

 very situation alone is sufficient to render it almost impregnable ; standing on 

 the top of a very high hill, enclosed with a deep ditch, cut out of the very 

 rock, over which there is only one passage, by a draw-bridge, which however 

 is now broken down ; so that there is no entrance remaining, unless you will 

 be at the pains to clamber up the rock, wliich may be done in one place, but 

 so difficult and hazardous, that a small slip may endanger a man's life. Nor is 

 there any thing within to be seen sufficient to recompense the trouble of 

 getting up to it, the building being confused, and the rooms very ill con- 

 trived. Upon the top of the hill there is a well of a prodigious depth. 

 This castle stands on the north side of the town, and from hence you have 

 the best prospect of the country all about. You see Tadmor below, inclosed 

 on three sides with long ridges of mountains, which open gradually towards 

 the east to the distance of about an'hour's riding ; but to the south stretches a 

 vast plain beyond the reach of the eye; in which is a large valley of salt, 

 which is more probably the valley of salt mentioned 2 Sam. viii. 13, where David 

 smote the Syrians, and slew 18000 men, than another, which lies but 4 hours 

 from Aleppo, and has sometimes passed for it. The air is good, but the soil 

 exceedingly barren; nothing green is to be seen, save some few palm-trees in the 

 gardens, and here and there about the town ; and from them it probably had 



TOL. IV. F 



