VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, 63 



By the same observation a much greater error is detected in the latitude of 

 Aleppo, in the Rudolphine tables of Kepler, who supposes Aleppo to have been 

 the ancient Antiochia ad Taurum, and accordingly places it in lat. 37° 20', in 

 which he is followed by Bulliald and others ; and several maps have copied the 

 mistake. But a much greater use of it is, that thereby we are assured, that the 

 city of A.racta, where Albatani made the observations we have published in 

 N° 204, was doubtless the same which is now called Racca on the Euphrates; 

 of which town an account may be seen in Rauwolf's Voyages, and which was 

 not many miles below the place where our travellers first touched on the river : 

 andif Arecca, in the language of this country, relates to victory, it was doubt- 

 less anciently the city Nicephorion, built by Alexander the Great ; with which 

 the situation exactly agrees. Its latitude was observed by Albatani with great 

 accurateness, about 800 years since ; and therefore I recommend it to all that 

 are curious in such matters, to endeavour to get some good observation made 

 at this place, to determine the height of the pole there, to decide the contro- 

 versy, whether there has really been any change in the axis of the earth, in so 

 long an interval ; which some great authors of late have been willing to suppose. 

 And if any curious traveller, or merchant residing there, would please to ob- 

 serve, with due care, the phases of the moon's eclipses at Bagdat, Aleppo, and 

 Alexandria, thereby to determine their longitudes, they could not do the sc ence 

 of astronomy a greater service : for in and near these places were made all the 

 observations by which the mean motions of the sun and moon are limited : and 

 I could then pronounce in what proportion the moon's motion does accelerate ; 

 which that it does, I think I can demonstrate. 



On I fie Cure of a Horse that was staked into his Stomach ; communicated by 

 Dr. IVallis, D.D. R. S. Soc. N"" 219, p. 178. 



A horse, leaping over a hedge, staked himself very dangerously. The farrier 

 searched the wound with his finger, as far as he could reach, and brought out 

 with it some grass, newly chewed ; by which he found that the stake had pierced 

 the coats of the ventricle, into the cavity of the maw: and was about giving it 

 over as desperate, thinking it was useless to proceed. But afterwards he re 

 solved to try what could be done. Throwing the horse on his back, he first 

 enlarged the wound in the outer skin and rim of the belly, by cutting it wider, 

 that he might come at the maw ; where he found the wound to be at least 

 3 inches long ; he then removed the maw outward, and while preparing his 

 needle and thread, he ordered his servant to cleanse the maw from what was in 

 it, as being less likely to gangrene when empty. The servant thrusting in three 

 fingers and his thumb, he pulled out the chewed grass, and what he found 



VOL. IV. K 



