VOL. XXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 403 



the said fibres. It is impossible to judge whether these vessels are arteries, 

 veins, lacteal or lymphatic vessels ; for though there are divers arteries and 

 veins in such a thin membrane, and though there were blood in them, yet can- 

 not that blood be discovered, because in such fine vessels it loses its colour : 

 besides, the globules of blood in such exceedingly small veins and arteries, if 

 they are not dissolved of themselves, yet by the expansion of the gut, to bring 

 it into a flat position, they must necessarily be dispersed and dissolved. 



The gut, as far as we have been able to examine it, consists in substance or 

 thickness of eight skins or membranes, lying upon one another. Between two 

 of these membranes I observed that there lay some fibres without any branches 

 or sprigs proceeding from them, and pursuing my observations, there occurred 

 to my sight some other small fibres lying close to the rest, which seemed to be 

 torn from other parts. 



When we consider the great protrusion of blood without the vessels, as it 

 appeared to our eyes by the help of a microscope, we may suppose that such 

 protrusion or expulsion of the blood was occasioned by a great and sudden 

 fright, or some other affection ; whence we may conclude, that in any such 

 accidents, bleeding is highly necessary, in order to give the blood room enough 

 in the vessels for a free circulation. Now if the all-wise Creator had not covered 

 those blood-vessels that lie upon our bowels with a very thin, but strong mem- 

 brane, that blood, which is forced through the veins, would run into the cavity 

 of the belly ; and there stagnating in great quantities would rot and putrefy, and 

 consequently death must follow ; whereas now, as it is found to lie in small 

 parcels on the bowels and other places, it may be easily dissolved again, and 

 the person may recover. 



On the Manner of manuring Land with Sea-shells, in the Counties of London- 

 derry and Donegal in Ireland. By the Archbishop of Dublin. N° 314, p. 59. 

 Both these counties are very mountainous, and the mountains so covered with 

 bogs and heath, that there is little arable ground in them, except what has 

 lately been made so. There are three ways of reducing heath and bog to arable 

 land : the first is by cutting off the scurf of the ground, making up the turf so 

 cut in heaps, and when the sun has dried them setting them on fire ; when 

 burnt as much as they can be, the heaps are scattered on the ground, and after 

 ploughing, it produces barley, rye, or oats, for about three years. The incon- 

 veniences of this method are, first, that the burning defiles the air, causes rain 

 and wind, and is not practicable in a wet summer ; also by destroying the sap 

 of the earth and the roots of the grass, and all other vegetables, renders it 

 useless for several years after the third, in which it is ploughed. 



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