662 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNN0 1723. 



Other, came first to the birth, the 2 arms lying on the breast followed next; the 

 legs lay on the sides of the breast of the second ; the opposite leg, which is 

 single, was extricated afterwards; last of all, the arms of the 2d child, being 

 ranged on the side of its head, made it easy for the rest to come out. The 

 bodies of both these children made no more in bulk than that of one ordinary 

 child. 



It is observable that the mother could assign nothing that had had any rela* 

 tion to this event, during the time of her pregnancy. 



By another account, communicated to the Royal Society, these children lived 

 2 months after the birth. 



Observations and Experiments on the Sal Catharticum Amarum, commonly called 

 the Epsom Salt. By Mr. John Brown, Chemist, F. R. S. N° 377, P- 348. 



In this paper, and in the continuation inserted in the following number of the 

 Transactions, it is stated that the liquor which remains after the crystallization 

 of common salt from sea-water, and which liquor is called bittern^ is at Lym- 

 ington in Hampshire, conveyed by channels into pits made tight with clay, 

 where it stands for some months, and there will shoot again : ,the liquor which 

 remains is boiled down, till it is observed to be in a disposition to crystallize, and 

 then is conveyed into wooden coolers lined with lead ; the liquor, which will not 

 shoot there, is boiled down after the same manner, for another crystallization. 

 By this time the liquor seems to have altered its property, and becomes of a 

 very pungent biting tasle, and, if boiled down, will no longer shoot into 

 crystals as before, but precipitates, during the boiling, a small grained salt; and 

 if you for experiment sake should continue to boil down the liquor, separated 

 from this salt, each quantity of salt thus produced, will still be more pungent 

 than the other. If you boil down the whole quantity of this liquor, it will pro- 

 duce a salt, which, if exposed to the air, will run per deliquium. But as this 

 salt is not the business of our present inquiry, it may probably be the subject of 

 another paper. The liquor, that produces this salt, is always flung away, 

 wherever the sal catharticum is made. 



* This is what, at present, I can give no other name to, than a third salt pro- 

 duced from the sea-water, differing, in some respects, as much from the other 

 two, as they differ from each other. 



To return to the several crystallizations, such as mentioned to be shot from 

 the bittern ; these will be of different sizes, as to their figures, and hold some 

 share of the third salt but now taken notice of, which makes them apt to give 

 and dissolve ; nor is their taste come yet to that simple bitter of the pure salt. 

 These therefore are either separately, or altogether, to be flung into a copper, 



