VOL. XXXin.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 41 



gh; and the bottom kl of the first tantalus may be above the top of the last, 

 whose level is the line ww. 



ABCDYOQEPVH is the section of the surface of the earth. 



An Account of a Human Body found 2 Years before in a Copper Mine at Fah- 

 lun; by Adam Leyel, Coll. Reg. Metall. Assessor. From the Acta Literaria 

 of Sweden, for \T11. N° 384, p. 136. An Abstract from, the Latin. 



In this account it is stated that in the month of Dec. 1719, there was found 

 in one of the copper mines at Fahlun, in an uncorrupted state, and converted into 

 a horny consistence, the body of a man, who had been killed by the falling in 

 of a part of the mine, in the autumn of 1670, i. e. upwards of 49 years before. 

 Both his legs, with his right arm and head, were fractured ; but his face and 

 the rest of his body were unhurt. His flesh and skin felt rough and hard; 

 they were not, however, in a petrified state, but only of the hardness of horn 

 or hoof, for they could be cut with a knife. 



When the body was exposed to view it was recognised (for the features still 

 remained perfect) not only by several of the miners, but also by an old woman 

 to whom the unfortunate man had been married, to be the body of Matthew 

 Israel, called, on account of his height, Big or Tall Matthew, who it was well 

 remembered had gone down into the mine at the date beforementioned, and had 

 been missing ever since. 



The preservation of this dead body from putrefaction for so many years, and 

 the conversion of the skin and fiesh into a substance as hard as horn, is attri- 

 buted by the author of this account to the vitriol dissolved in the water of the 

 mine, in which vitriolic water the body was found. 



The Description and Use of a New Areometer. By M. G. Fahrenheit, F. R. S. 

 N° 384, p. 140. Translated from the Latin. 



The two tubes cd and ef, fig. 6, pi. 1, are joined to the ball a, which is 

 pretty large, the larger the better, with a receptacle g to the smaller tube ef ; 

 and the middle of the tube is distinguished by a very small point a, yet suf- 

 ficiently discernible. The other extremity of the tube cd is furnished with a 

 ball B, which serves instead of a receptacle to the inferior weight, with which 

 the instrument is charged. Let the distance of the ball a from the centre of 

 the ball a be 3 times the distance of the receptacle g from the same centre. 

 The instrument being thus prepared, let the ball b be filled with so much mer- 

 cury, that if the areometer be iinmerged into the lightest liquor, as for instance, 

 spirits of wine, well dephlegmated, or spirits of turpentine, it may descend 



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