VOL. XXXVI.] I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 385 



the black arches were converted into luminous tracts, only one remained till 

 eleven o'clock. Then follow several observations of eclipses, with conjunc- 

 tions and various positions of the planets. 



The author next gives 14 astronomical observations,* 10 of which are of the 

 eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at different times. 



His observation on the declination of the magnetical needle in this and the 

 former year, shows the variation to be J 2° O' 53" west at Wittemberg. 



These observations are followed by the author's account of the last hard 

 winter. This set in sooner than usual, and the spirit of wine in the English 

 thermometer, on Sept. 21, fell to the 66th degree. After this the frost con- 

 tinually increased; so that on Jan. 20 following the cold was intolerable, and 

 the spirit descended to the 126th degree, very little remaining above the ball 

 of the tube. And very little abatement of the cold was perceived till the last 

 day of March, when it relaxed gradually. 



From these observations the author compares this winter with the memorable 

 one of 1709, and proves, both from thermoscopical observations, from its effects 

 on the earth and animals, from its longer continuance, and from the greater 

 extent of the cold into the more southern parts, that this last much exceeded 

 the former, at least in Germany. 



An Occultation of Fenus by the Moon, observed at Berlin, Sept. ig, p.jn. 

 N. S. By M. Kirch. N° 412, p. 256. From the Latin. 



The first contact of Venus with the moon was at 2"^ 2"" l6% and the total 

 occultation at 2*' 3" T. With an 18-foot telescope M. Kirch observed, that as 

 soon as Venus, being nearly in quadrature, approached the moon's disc, she 

 changed her figure, and lost her horns, and assumed an oval figure: which 

 appearance Mr. Kirch thinks may be an argument for an atmosphere about 

 the moon. 



An Account of 1 very extraordinary Cases ; in a Letter from Dr. J. Hnxham 

 to JV. Rutty, M. D. R.S.Secr. From the Latin. N°413, p. 257. 



1. In the first of these 2 cases an account is given of a very large stone in 

 the urethra, accompanied with strangury and excruciating pain, and giving 

 rise to a tumor in the middle and upper part of the scrotum, and to the 

 formation of 2 or 3 fistulous ulcers in that part (the scrotum); through which 

 the greater part of the urine was voided, sometimes accompanied with pus. 

 After suffering the greatest tortures for several years, the patient was at length 

 admitted into the Plymouth hospital; where, while he was one day straining to 

 make water more violently than usual, he voided through the before mentioned 



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