VOL. XXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS 56l 



the afternoon, on the I'Zth of November, 16q7 , and was delivered of a dead 

 child about midnight, the after-birth coming away easily and entire. Never- 

 theless the flooding continued, and she died about 6 o'clock the next morning. 



The abdomen being opened, there appeared in the right ligament of the 

 uterus, and in the lower part of the neck, of the womb, where it lies upon the 

 rectum, a large ecchymosis. Being taken out of the pelvis for the better exa- 

 mination of it, the internal orifice of the uterus was found wide enough to allow 

 half of the hand to be introduced. On dividing it longitudinally, some clots 

 of blood were seen collected in its fundus, which in other respects appeared 

 sound and perfect ; indeed, where the placenta had adhered, there was an ine- 

 quality on its internal surface, and its substance in that place was thicker and 

 more fleshy. In the lower part of the neck of the uterus there was discovered 

 a laceration, wide enough to admit 2 fingers. Hence, the larger blood vessels 

 being ruptured, the profuse haemorrhage ensued which proved the cause of this 

 woman's death. 



Account of Dr. Robert Hook's Invention of the Marine Barometer, with its De- 

 scription and Uses. By E. Halley, R.S.S. N°269, p. 791. 



Since it was first found that the Torricellian tube, commonly called the mer- 

 curial barometer, by the rising and falling of the quicksilver in it, presages the 

 changes of the air, as to fair and foul weather ; from several years' observation 

 it has been proved and adjusted for that purpose by Dr. Robert Hook, who 

 made many attempts to improve the instrument, and render the minute divisions 

 on its scale more sensible. Judging also that it might be of great use at sea, 

 he contrived several ways to make it serviceable on board ship. 



The mercurial barometer requiring a perpendicular position, and the quick- 

 silver in it vibrating with great violence on any agitation, it is therefore unfit 

 for being used at sea. 



It is about 40 years since the thermometer of Robt. de Fluctibus, depending 

 on the dilatation and contraction of included air by heat and cold, has been 

 disused, on discovering that the pressure of the air is unequal ; that inequality 

 mixing itself with the effects of the warmth of the air in that instrument. 

 And instead of it was substituted the sealed thermometer, including spirits of 

 wine (first brought from Italy by Sir Robert Southwell) as a proper standard of 

 the temper of the air, in respect to heat and cold ; that ethereal spirit being, of 

 all the known liquors, the most susceptible of dilatation and contraction, espe- 

 cially with a moderate degree of either heat or cold. Now this being allowed 

 as a standard, and the other thermometer that includes air being graduated with 

 the same divisions, so as at the time when the air was included, to agree with 



VOL. IV. 4 C 



