200 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l/l/. 



order of any physician, gave him a violent vomit : which operated 8 or 9 

 times : this added fuel to the fire; and the patient having from that time been 

 in a desperate condition, two eminent physicians were called; who ordered that 

 the clysters should be repeated : but these not prevailing, I was sent for about 

 6 hours before the patient died: I found him complaining of a violent pain in 

 all the region of the abdomen; a frequent inclination to vomit; a great diffi- 

 culty of breathing, with a very slow pulse, and his belly very hard, though 

 not swelled. 



This last indication made me conclude, that the disease was a violent con- 

 traction of the abdominal muscles, which had overcome the diaphragm, and 

 that probably the intestines might' be forced into the thorax : and I was the 

 more confirmed in this opinion from other examples of the like case. 1 ordered 

 therefore a fomentation of hot milk, adding to every quart a drachm of liquid 

 laudanum, which in these maladies gives great relief: but before it could be 

 got ready, the patient expired in a violent convulsion. 



On opening the body, I found the abdominal muscles so much contracted, 

 that it was almost impossible to penetrate them with a very sharp scalpel. 

 The stomach was empty, and some parts of the duodenum; but the jejunum 

 and ilium so much distended with the fermented oat-ale, that the ilium was 

 4 inches in diameter, and the colon above 8. The ilium was also pretty much 

 inflamed in its inferior part; and all the valves of the colon were obliterated, 

 by the great distention of that intestine. But the greatest disaster, was the 

 dilatation made in the diaphragm, as I supposed, just on the chink which 

 remits the intercostal nerve to the viscera of the abdomen, through which a 

 portion of the colon was forced, and the greatest part of the omentum and 

 pancreas. These tender parts being choked, were soon inflamed, and a mor- 

 tification ensued. A rupture of the pancreatic vein caused an internal haemorr- 

 hage, which filled all the left cavity of the thorax, insomuch that the whole 

 left lobe of the lungs was compressed almost under the musculus scalenus. 



The quantity of extravasated blood was very great, and it was not in the 

 least coagulated. 



An Account of two late Northern Auroras, observed at Hone in Kent. By 

 the Rev. Edmund Barrell. N°351, p. 584. 



On Feb. 5, 1 716-7, at 8 at night, an aurora borealis appeared. It occupied 

 at least ^ or -l of the horizon ; it was low, and shot out bright rays, and I be- 

 lieve would have appeared very light, had not the moon shone at the same 

 time, being about 5 days old, and that the aurora disappeared before the 

 moon set. 



