684 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1712. 



manifest from what was said before, of the likeness of the earth above them, in 

 all respects, to the sediment the river now lets fall, when dry : which may be 

 observed to consist of many distinct layers ; some -^ of an inch thick, some 

 less, and some scarcely -^ of an inch; all which several layers are doubtless the 

 several quantities which every tide left behind it. This sediment, when dried 

 by the sun and wind, becomes tough and hard, and looks like a grey lapis scissilis, 

 or slate, divisible into many plates or layers. And perhaps we may ascribe the 

 conformation of slate, Muscovy-glass, and other such laminated concretions, 

 to a like work of nature, by adding new layers of such petrifactions, and par- 

 ticles, as the fossil is formed of. 



I presume there will be no doubt, but that the subterraneous wood receives 

 its blackness from vitriolic juices in the earth. If any should doubt it, I have 

 tried the experiment, and find that alder-wood, whether green or old, becomes 

 blackish, much of the same colour as the wood above-mentioned, in a solution 

 of copperas. Which is not only an argument, that the blackness of the wood 

 is owing to vitriol, but also that the wood is alder, or some such like wood, 

 that will become black with vitriol : for I am informed that all subterraneous 

 wood is not black, particularly fir. I have also tried hornbeam since, after the 

 same manner, and find that also becomes black, as the alder does. 



Experiments and Observations on the Effects of several sorts of Poisons on 

 jinimah\ made at Montpellier in 1678 and 1679, by the late fVilliam Courten, 

 Esq. Communicated by Dr. Hans Sloane^ R. S, Sec. Translated from the 

 Latin MS. N° 335, p. 485. 



In the month of July, Anno 1678, we gave a dog a piece of bread steeped 

 in 1 oz. of the juice of solanum Batavicum, Dutch night-shade, expressed from 

 the green plant, and mixed with cheese. He did not seem to receive any in- 

 jury from it. The same dose of the juice of the leaves of cicuta, or hemlock, 

 had no more effect. We gave also the same dog a pretty large root of aconitum 

 pardalianches, wolfs-bane, with the leaves and flowers of the same plant, 

 bruised and mixed with flesh ; which did him no hurt. 



Two drachms of helleborus albus, white hellebore, very much disordered 

 him, and caused retchings, suffocations, vomiting, and voiding of excrements. 

 This dog, as we afterwards often observed in others that had taken the like 

 corrosive medicines, whether because he was not able to endure the pain, or by 

 reason of any other uneasiness, often scratched the ground with his feet : how- 

 ever he recovered, and got well again. He swallowed also five roots of colchi- 

 cum ephemerum, meadow-saffron, dug fresh out of the earth : with which he 



