'^S^ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I706. 



could contain but little or no urine, which obliged her to make it often, and 

 with pain. The pressure of this part backwards was so great upon the intes- 

 tinum rectum, that the evacuation of faeces had been obstructed for the space 

 of 5 weeks before she died. 



Indeed there was observed to come away per anum, for some considerable 

 time, a great deal of pus and slimy matter, but that proceeded from the uterus ; 

 for the acrimonious humour, which was wont to be discharged per vaginam, 

 having been pent up within its cavity by the close constriction of the collum 

 uteri, had corroded, and eaten its way through the substance of the womb into 

 the rectum, by which it had its vent ; which deplorable case I have more then 

 once observed in dissection. The thickness of the womb was near 2 inches, 

 and in its bottom there was a great deal of this humour, white and thick, which 

 upon touching made the ends of the fingers white and rough, by shrivelling 

 the cuticle, as if I had washed them with a strong solution of some acrid lixi- 

 via! salt. Thus the caustic salt lodged in soap affects the hands of those women 

 that wash linen. It was very hard to take the uterus out of the pelvis, by reason 

 of its so close adhesion to the neighbouring parts. 



Concerning a Glade of Light observed in the Heavens. By the Rev. Mr, fV. 

 Derham, F.R.S. N° 305, p. 2220. 

 As I was observing the immersions of the 3d and 4th satellites of Saturn on 

 the 20th of March, 1706, in the evening, I espied a very odd sort of light in 

 the constellation of Taurus, the lower end of which was below the bull's eye, 

 and the other a good way above it, and that star about the middle of its lower 

 extremity, as in fig. 7, pi. Q. This glade of light had the same motion that the 

 heavens had, and was much like the tail of a comet, but pointed at the upper 

 end, as in the figure. This light, I doubt not, is such as Dr. Childrey first ob- 

 served in England, and which Cassini and others afterwards observed in France, 

 as Dr. Hook says. 



Of an Experiment made before the Royal Society, concerning the Proportion of 

 the Weight of Air to the Weight of a like Bulk of Water, without knotving the 

 Quantity of either. By Mr. Fra. Hauksbee, F. R. S. N' 305, p. 2221. 



Having procured a bottle, somewhat of an oval form, that it might more 

 easily librate in water, that held upwards of 3 gallons, I put into it as much lead 

 as would sink it under the surface of the water, and was, when weighed in that 

 element, balanced by a small weight in the scale on the other end of the beam. 

 I chose to include my weight, to prevent the inconveniency of bubbles of air. 



