VOL. XX.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SOQ 



kinds of is, and where tliey are dug. He tells us, that the workers in it, in 

 some days time, are cured of the itch, either by means of its astringent quality 

 or sulphur. 



The whole treatise is illustrated with a variety of figures. 



On a Roman Coffin, and olher Antiquities lately found in Yorkshire. By Ralph 

 Tkortsby, Esq. F.R.S. N° '244, p. 310. 



I have procured another curiosity relating to the plastics of the Romans : it 

 is part of the bottom of an old Roman cofRn, lately dug up in their burying 

 place out of Boutham B ir at York. It is of the red clny, but not so fine as the 

 urns ; it is 14 ^ inches long, and about 1 1 broad at the narrower end, and near 

 124- at the broader ; this was the lowest part, for the rest was proportionably 

 broader, till it came to the shoulders : it is an inch thick, besides the ledges, 

 which are 1 broad and 2 thick, and extend from the bottom of either side to 

 within 3 inches of the top, where it is wholly flat, and somewhat thinner for 

 the next to lie upon it. The several parts were thus joined together by some 

 pin. I presume, for at the end of each tile is a hole that would receive a common 

 slate pin ; these edges are wrought a little hollow, probably to receive the sides, 

 and at the feet are 2 contrary notches, to fasten the end-piece. I procured 

 some scars of broken urns of the finest clay, dug up in a garden, together with 

 a Roman shuttle, abtnit 31 inches long, but not 1 inch broad in the very mid- 

 dle, the hollow for the licium being but \ of an inch in the broadest place, I 

 have also a Roman pottle from Aldbrough, which is of the red clay, but 

 coarser than the York urns : I was pleased to find it whole, that I might observe 

 the difl^erence between their congius, of which I take this to be exactly the 

 half, and our gallon ; and this comes the nearest to Mr. Graves's computation, 

 containing 3i pints, Winchester measure. 



Last week I received a valuable present of 22 old Roman coins, from Mr. 

 Townley of Townley, which were lately found in the parish of Burnley in 

 Lancashire. Many of them are consular or family coins: one of them, viz Q. 

 Cassiiis, was ]t>2 years A. C. That they were the ancient Roman Denarii, and 

 coined before the emperors' times, I think is evident, because there is mostly, 

 instead of the emperor's head, the antique form of the city's head, without an 

 inscription : besides, Tacitus calls these bigati and quadrigati, pecuniam veterem 

 ac diu notam, i. e. coins having the image of a chariot drawn by 2 and by 4 

 horses. Again, others have upon them ROMA, which I find not used by any 

 of the emperors, excf^pt those small pieces on the tiansl.ition of the em[)ire to 

 Constantinople again ; the letters in these are often inttraoven, as particularly 

 VL, in one I have of L. Valerius Flaccus A. V. C. CDXCII, which according 



