114 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1737. 



his having been bitten ig months before; for after the most strict inquiry, it 

 did not appear that he had been bitten by any animal since; and if he had, it 

 is very probable Mr. N. would have known it, his master living next door to 

 him, and the boy knowing how much danger he was thought to be in, when 

 he was bitten. Mr. N. acquainted his friends with his apprehensions, and de- 

 sired further advice; on which Dr. Monro was sent for, who ordered him to be 

 let blood, a repetition of the abovementioned medicine in a bolus every 4 

 hours, ai;d a clyster : he was blooded, and the clyster was injected; but he 

 could not be prevailed on to take more than 1 bolus. That night was spent 

 with great inquietude, and without any sleep : Thursday morning he was ge- 

 nerally convulsed, and had frequent retchings and yawnings alternately. About 

 noon his mind, which till then continued sound, left him, and he raved and 

 foamed at the mouth till 5 o'clock in the afternoon ; at which time nature 

 seemed quite spent, and he lay very quiet till 7, when he died. 



Thus' the poison was latent near IQ months; which Mr. N. finds mentioned 

 by others, but it never fell within his own observation before. 



j4n Explanation of the Runic Characters of Helsingland. By Mr. Andrew 

 CelsiiLS, R. S. Suec. Seer. F. R. S. and Professor of Astronomy at Upsal. 

 N" 445, p. 7. 



It is well known, that there are stones found in several parts of Sweden, 

 which were formerly set up as obelisks in memory of the dead. These monu- 

 ments are marked with the ancient northern letters, called Runor or Runic 

 characters. But there is one province of North Sweden, named Helsingland, 

 where 5 of those stones occur, which have characters cut into them, that seem 

 to differ from the common Runic. On the introduction of our modern letters, 

 these Runic characters became so little regarded, that their interpretation was 

 lost even to the Swedish antiquarians, till the year l674; when Magnus Cel- 

 sius, the author's grandfather, then professor of astronomy in the university 

 of Upsal, revived their reading, and drew up the following alphabet of them, 

 ranged after the manner of the ancients, fig. 1, pi. 5. 



There are but l6 letters, and the words are frequently distinguished either 

 by three points set perpendicularly over one another, or by two at some dis- 

 tance asunder. 



Among the several alphabets hitherto known, it would be diflicult to find one 

 like the foregoing ; if we may not perhaps except the characters of the Perse- 

 polis inscriptions, which have not yet been deciphered. For the letters gene- 

 rally used signify different sounds, according to their various shapes : whereas 



