VOL. XXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Qj I 



De Structura Diaphragviatis. Epistola j^ntonii van Leuwenhoech, R.S.S, 

 Delphis, 31 Mali, 1723. N" 379, P- 400. 



The diaphragm like other muscular parts, is composed of fleshy, and ten- 

 dinous fibres, with interposed cellular membranes, besides blood-vessels, &c. 

 The appearance of these fibres and interposed membranes, as exhibited by the 

 microscope in other muscular parts, having been described and figured in some 

 of Mr. L.'s former communications inserted in the present collection, it is 

 deemed unnecessary, as it would only lead to repetition, to give a translation of 

 this letter, concerning the structure of the diaphragm. 



Partium Genitalium in Muliere Structura prceternaturalis. Ex Epistola Johannis 

 Haxharriy* M. D. ad Jacobum Jurin, R. S. Seer. Plimutho. v° Kalend, 

 Octob. 1723. N"" 379, P- 408. 



A. B. de parochia Lanteglass in comit. Cornubiae, prope Fowye oppidum, 

 annos nata xxiii nupta fuit cuidam nautae robusto, tandemque praegnans, sibi 



• Dr. John Huxham holds a distinguished rank among the medical writers of Great Britain. He 

 practised at Plymouth, where he kept a register of the weather and of the prevailing diseases, for a 

 series of years. The result of these labours he published under the title of Observationes de Aere 

 et Morbis Epidemicis, forming 2 Vols. 8vo. ; the first of which appeared in 1739, and the other in 

 1752. They contain some good descriptions of diseases, with practical remarks on the method of 

 treatment. He afterwards published an Essay on Fevers, subjoined to which is a dissertation on the 

 malignant ulcerous sore throat, of which Dr. Fothergill had given an account some years before. 

 He concurs with the last-mentioned physician, in asserting that bleeding and purging are extremely 

 prejudicial in this disorder. In this Essay on Fevers, he has described with much accuracy the symp- 

 toms of that insidious form of typhus, which he denominates the slow nervous fever. He admo- 

 nishes strongly against the evacuating mode of treatment, recommending in its stead, the employ- 

 ment of " temperate, cordial, diaphoretic medicines, and a well-regulated supporting, diluting diet.' 

 Thus he opened the way to a grand improvement in the curative treatment of fevers of this descrip- 

 tion. His tincture of bark, in which the medicinal virtues of the Peruvian drug are heightened by 

 combination with bitters and aromatics, has long since become a standard preparation j and few 

 persons, we imagine, will contend that, as a cordial medicine adapted to certain states of typhoid 

 fever, the character given of it by its author, has been much over rated. In pneumonia, and other 

 inflammatory disorders, he was in the habit of prescribing small and frequently repeated doses of 

 antimonial wine, prepared by dissolving vitrified antimony in white wine. This he thought superior 

 to every other preparation of antimony ; but at the present time the preference is given to the vinous 

 solution of tartarized antimony, termed in the London Pharmacopoeia, vinum antimonii tartarisatum, 

 and in the Edinburgh, vinum tartritis antimonii. 



Besides the works above-mentioned. Dr. H. sent various communications to the Royal Society, 

 which are inserted in the Philos. Trans, from Vol. 32d to Vol. 42d inclusively. These communica- 

 tions relate to anatomy, medicine, astronomy, meteorology, natural history, &c. They prove that 

 he possessed a cultivated and enlarged understanding, joined with a philosophic turn of mind, and a 

 talent for observation, which could occasionally be exercised on a great variety of subjects. 



