6l8 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. - [aNNO 1701. 



Concerning an unusual Colic. Bij Dr. Davies. N° 275, p. 965. 



A person, aged between 50 and 60, had been for 3 or 4 years troubled with 

 gripes, which generally returned about once a month ; his body being for the 

 most part costive, he was obliged to spur nature with Daffy's Elixir or aloes, 

 and sometimes a pipe of tobacco supplied the use of these medicines. Having 

 overheated himself in a walk, he had a return of his colic pains, which continued 

 upon him for 18 days, notwithstanding the methods commonly used in such 

 cases, during which time he had no stool, except what the first and second 

 clysters brought away. He complained upon his seizure of a pain in his right 

 side, in the iliac region. Some time before he died, his belly swelled much, 

 and was as tense as a drum. At first he vomited for 2 or 3 days ; which left 

 him, and did not return till just before he died, which was at the expiration of 

 the 18th day, at which time he brought up 2 or 3 mouthfuls of black choler ; 

 but never during his whole illness vomited any of the faeces. On opening the 

 abdomen, some black choler was found in the stomach ; the duodenum, and 

 the rest of the inlestina tenuia were void of faeces, but greatly inflated with 

 wind ; and tracing the guts as far as the caecum, found this was of a blackish 

 colour ; and from thence, for about a yard in length, the colon was so morti- 

 fied, that the faeces had made their way through it at several places, into the 

 cavity of the abdomen ; about 2 inches of the mortified gut was fastened to the 

 peritonaeum on the right side. This part of the colon was much distended 

 with faeces of a soft consistence : at the extremity of the mortification, towards 

 the rectum, the obstruction which caused all these disorders, ofl^ered itself to 

 view very plainly ; for about 10 inches of the colon was doubled, as if you had 

 taken a piece of tape, and folded it ; the two contiguous surfaces of the dupli- 

 cature adhered so firmly together, that they could not be separated, without 

 tearing the external coat of the intestine. On separating this coalescence, 

 there fell from that part a whitish mucus. The adhesion was about 3 inches 

 broad ; the middle of the duplicature, which made an acute angle, and where 

 the faeces stopped, was smaller, and the membranes thinner, than in any other 

 part of the gut ; from whence towards the rectum, the colon was sound, and 

 void of faeces, occasioned by the frequent use of clysters. 



On the Isthmus, or Neck of Land, ivhich is supposed to have joined England and 

 France informer Times, rvhere nozv is the Passage between Dover and Calais. 

 By Dr. John IVallis. IS° 275, p. 967. 

 Mr. Somner, No. 272, is of opinion with Mr. Camden, and other anti- 



