VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 711 



which gave, during its stay, immediate ease; he continued so about an hour, 

 when his disease returned again as severe as ever : and he soon after died. 

 Some time before he died, he voided some of his clyster by vomit. On dissect- 

 ing the body, I found the Uver only something larger than ordinary ; the ven- 

 tricle was considerably distended, and the excrements had made a breach through 

 the jejunum, and some quantity was evacuated ; a considerable part of the 

 ilium was very livid, but not in the least distended : the colon was much like 

 a contused wound about 3 or 4 days old ; in the centre it was something fresher, 

 and not so livid as the outside : about the origin of the rectum there was another 

 large rupture, where more faeces were voided. 



About 18 months ago I dissected a poor emaciated person, who had died of 

 a dropsy, out of whose body I took about 10 gallons of water. And about a 

 month ago a child, which had an involution of the intestines, commonly called 

 a twisting of the guts. 



Some Observations on Coral, large Oysters, Rubies, the growing of a Sort ofFicus 

 Indica, the Gods of the Ceylonese, i£c. made in Ceylon. By Mr, Strachan. 

 N° 282, p. 1248. 



There is great quantity of a kind of white coral on the shore, between Galle 

 and Matura, and many other coasts in the Indies, of which the Hollanders 

 cause lime to be burnt for building of houses, and the walls of the fortifications. 

 There are large banks of this coral ; it is porous, neither so firm or smooth as 

 the upright, which grows in small branches ; and when they are come to the 

 full growth, there grow others between them, and then upon these grow others, 

 till it is become like a rock for thickness ; these branches are not softer when 

 they are young, than when they are ripe, yet I have observed a slime upon 

 them always when they are under water, which I suppose is the substance 

 which petrifies. 



About three leagues from Batavia, I have seen oysters* of a foot diameter; 

 the shell of one of which grew till it was 3 feet broad and a foot thick : after 

 the fish was putrefied, upon these shells lying only 3 or 4 feet under water, 

 I always observed a slime. On the coast between Galle and Gindere lies always 

 OS sepiae ; and in the river at Catoene there are found rubies ; and if a person 

 search among the sand in the water, he will find above a drop weight of them 

 in an hour's time, but they are very small, for 20 of them will scarcely weigh 

 a grain. 



On the sea coast on the sand there lie a kind of small cockles, of the size of 



* Chama Gigas. Lin. 



