VOL. XXII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 471 



tions, by way of palliation, he recommends the belladonna or solanum lethale. 

 To the juice of this plant he adds saccharum saturni. Another application which 

 he mentions is made of a porous stone found in la Beausse, calcined, and seve- 

 ral times extinguished in vinegar. This, it is stated, he has much improved by 

 mixing with it the sulphurs of iron, copper, and lead. 



Beds of Oyster-shells found near Reading in Berkshire. Bij Dr. James Brewer. 



N° 261, p. 484. 



These shells have the entire figure and matter of oyster-shells, and doubtless 

 are such. The compass of the ground where they are dug up is near 6 acres. 

 Just above the layer of these oysters there is a greenish earth, or rather sand, 

 and under them chalk. I have often seen in several chalk-pits a few scattered 

 oyster-shells. But in this place they are as it were one continued body, and in 

 an even line, through the whole extent of the ground. 



This stratum of green sand and oyster-shells is about 2 feet thick. Imme- 

 diately above this layer of green sand and shells, is a bed of a bluish sort of 

 clay, very hard, brittle, and rugged, called a pinny clay, and is near 3 feet 

 thick; and immediately above it is a stratum of fuller's earth, which is near 2-|. 

 feet deep, often used by the clothiers ; and above this earth again is a bed of a 

 clear, fine, white sand, without the least mixture of any earth, clay, &c. which 

 is near 7 feet deep ; then immediately above this is a stifi' red clay, being the 

 uppermost stratum, of which tiles are made. The depth of this cannot be con- 

 veniently taken, it being so high a hill, on the top of which is dug a little com- 

 mon earth, about 2 feet deep, and immediately under appears this red clay. 

 I dug out several whole oysters, with both their valves or shells lying together, 

 as oysters opened before. These shells are so very brittle, that in digging, one 

 of the valves will frequently drop from its fellow, but it is plainly to be seen 

 that they were united together, by placing the shell that drops off to its fellow 

 valve, which exactly corresponds. I dug out several that were entire, nay, some 

 double oysters with all their valves united. 



An Account of Giants. Occasioned by some further Remarks on the large Human 

 Os Frontis, or Forehead-bone, mentioned in the Phil. Trans, of Feb. 1 684-5, 

 N"" l68.* By Dr. Thomas Molyneux. N° 261, p. 48?. 



The OS frontis in the anatomical school at Leyden, though it be so vastly 

 large, cannot in the least be suspected to have appertained to any other animal 

 than a man, being complete every way, and answering in all particulars to the 

 common forehead bone of other men, excepting its magnitude; especially if we 



* Abridgment Vol. III. page l2l. 



