608 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7OI. 



yj Description of some Shells found on the Molucca Islands ; as also an Account 

 of Mr. Sam. Broivns Fourth Book of East India Plants, with their Names, 

 Virtues, ^c. By James Petiver, Apothecary, and F. R. S. N° 273, p. 927. 



These shells it seems were brought from the Molucca Islands, by Mr. 

 Sylvanus Landon and Mr. Rovvleston Jacobs. They are 24 in number. 



After the description of them follows an enumeration of 41 more East Indian 

 plants gathered at Perre-pollum, and Eremita-pollum in April 1696, by Mr. 

 Brown, with the synonyms of Bauhin, Ray, and others, added to the Malabar 

 names by Mr. Petiver. 



An Account of the strange Effects of the Indian Varnish. Written by Dr. 



Joseph del Papa, Physician to the Cardinal de Medicis, at the Desire of the 



Great Duke of Tuscany. Communicated hy Dr. ll'illium Sherard. N° 273, 



p. 947. 



The using and handling of the Indian varnish or lacker, so far as is necessary 

 to apply or lay it on subjects to be varnished, having produced such extraordi- 

 nary effects on Signior Ignatio, and more remarkably on his maid servant, viz. 

 great swellings of their heads and eyes, and in their arms, and indeed almost 

 their whole body, with an intolerable itching, inflammation, and pimples, is so 

 new anU extraordinary a phenomenon in nature, as exacts our wonder, and may 

 well excite our curiosity to search out the reason ; and the rather, that among 

 the numerous ingredients of the materia medica, and all other natural substances 

 known to us, there is not one that produces an alteration equal or similar to 

 what this does in human bodies. All our liquors and corrosive spirits affect only 

 the parts of the body where they immediately touch, and diffuse not their mis- 

 chievous qualities over the whole body, as this varnish does. Poisonous fumes 

 or steams from mercury, or antimony, manifest their malignancy on the brain 

 and nerves, by great and incurable evils : whereas the efHuvia and touch of this 

 varnish affect only the external skin of the body, and though in a very strange 

 manner, yet Jiot destructive of the part affected, which recovers again by itself. 

 There are indeed some juices of roots and herbs, and other parts of vegetables, 

 which by touching our flesh either inflame or ulcerate it, or produce swellings, 

 pustules, and itchings ; but all these cause the disorder only where they touch, 

 and do not spread their invisible venom over other parts of the body. In short, 

 I know not an instance of any one thing, which either touched with the hand, 

 or insinuating itself by its fumes into our body, is able to produce almost over 

 the whole skin, inflammations, swellings, itching, and pustules, as if the whole 



