'2B6 philosophical TUA.NSACTIONS. [anNO I698. 



had added 4 grs. of the vegetable alkaH (salt of wormwood). A similar effect 

 (he remarks) is produced by mixing with the bile the acid phlegm distilled from 

 bread.* 



Account of a Booh, viz. La Meridiana del Tempio de S. Petronio, &c. i. e. The 

 Meridian Line of the Church of St. Petronio, draivn and fitted for Astronomi- 

 cal Observations in the Year l655, revised and restored in the Year l6g5. 

 By Sigiiior John Dominico Cassini, F. R. S. &c. Bononia, 1695, fol. 

 N° 241, p, 240. 



In this book (written in part by Signior Cassini, whilst in Italy, but aug- 

 mented and published by .Signior Dominico Guglielmini after his departure 

 thence) there is an account of the occasion of the making of this meridian 

 line by S. Cassini, in the year l655, of the method of doing it, and of the 

 exactness with which it was performed by him : then of the uses that have 

 been made of it, and of the alterations that have happened to this church 

 since, and of the restoration and verification of it in the year 1G95, by the 

 said Signior Cassini himself; and lastly, of the uses that may be made of 

 it for the future. 



To this discourse, which was written by Signior Cassini himself, is adjoined 

 a discourse of Signior Dominico Guglielmini, mathematician and public lec- 

 turer of Bononia, giving an account of the operations made, and of the in- 

 struments employed in this last restoration of the said meridian line. 



Of two Boys bit by a Mad Dog. Communicated by Dr. Martin Lister, Fellow 

 of the Coll. of Phys. and R. S. N° 242, p. 246. 

 In October, 1679, 2 boys, of 9 and 10 years old, of a sanguine and cho- 

 leric complexion, touched and handled the head of a dog which had been 

 wounded by a mad dog, but by the handling and washing of his wound 

 by the children, the wounded dog was healed, and did not become mad. But 

 about May, 168O, the children became very unwell, and were seized with a 

 pain towards the bottom of their bellies, which tormented them grievously, 

 and ascended gradually towards their navel. About the 1st of July, they were 

 also taken with a slow flux, and with fainting fits by times, when the pains 



* The milky appearance would be owing to the precipitation of the albuminous part of the bile, 

 coagulated by the acid liquors here mentioned. 



By these experiments Mr. V. ascertaincil a fact doubted of until then, viz. the existence of an 

 acid in the blood. Nevertheless the knowledge which philosophers had at this period of time, re- 

 specting the composition ot the blood and other animal tiuids, was (as remarked at p. 6S5, ^'ol. U. 

 of this Abridgment) extremely imperfect and obscure ; as will appear by comparing these exptri- 

 ineHts with the accurate and luminous analyses of the chemists of these days. 



