VOL. XXVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 55 



What it is, is not certain ; but when we draw up water in passing over these 

 places, it is always viscous and glutinous. Our mariners also say, that there 

 are a great many heaps or banks of this spawn in the north: and that sometimes 

 in the night they appear all over of a bright light, without being put in motion 

 by any vessel or fish passing by them. 



14. But to confirm further what I say, viz. that the water, the more gluti- 

 nous it is, the more it is disposed to become luminous, I shall add one particular 

 which I saw myself. One day we took in our ship a fish, which some thought 

 was a boneta. The inside of the mouth of the fish appeared in the night like 

 a burning coal; so that without any other light I could read by it the same 

 characters that I read by the light in the wake of the ship. Its mouth being 

 full of a viscous humour, we rubbed a piece of wood with it, which immediately 

 became all over luminous; but as soon as the moisture was dried up, the light 

 was extinguished. 



As to the marine rainbows, I observed one after a great tempest off the Cape 

 of Good Hope. The sea was then very much agitated, and the wind, carrying 

 off the tops of the waves, made a kind of rain, in which the rays of the sun 

 painted the colours of a rainbow. It is true the common iris has this advantage 

 over ours, that its colours are more lively, distinct, and of longer extent. In 

 the marine iris we could distinguish only two colours, viz. a dark yellow on that 

 side next the sun, and a pale green on the opposite side; the other colours were 

 too faint to be distinguished. But, in recompence for this, these irises are in 

 greater numbers, one may see 20 or 30 of them together, they appear at noon 

 day, and in a position opposite to that of the common rainbow, that is to say, 

 their curve is turned as it were towards the bottom of the sea. 



As to exhalations in the night that form in the air a long tract of light, 

 these make a much larger tract of light in the Indies than they do in Europe. 

 I have seen two or three that I should have taken for real rockets: they appeared 

 near the earth, and cast a light like that of the moon some days after her 

 change. They fall slowly, and in falling make a curve line. 



The Case of a IVoman who had her Menses regularly to 70 Years of Age. By 

 Mr, James Yonge, of Plymouth, F, R. S. W 337, art. 24, p. 236. 



At Lamerton, 1 5 miles from Plymouth, there died lately a woman of 86 

 years of age, who to the age of 70 had her menses plentiful and regular. At 

 that time they ceased, and soon after followed the like efflux from the haemor- 

 rhoids, which continued till she was past 80. She was till then healthful and 

 strong, of a vigorous aspect, smooth, plump, and florid in countenance, like 

 one not half so old; her appetite was very good; her intellects clear and sound; 



