244 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1738. 



other body, suspended by the fluid, brought nearer by cold, and at length 

 conning within the sphere of each other's attraction, united together into an 

 immediate contact. This being one of the heaviest oils, and even heavier 

 than water, is the more likely thus to unite, as its parts are nearer together. 

 This may be a hint to the curious, to discover in what the difference between 

 solidity and fluidity consists; and also shows how much the colour of bodies 

 depends on the mechanical situation of their parts.* 



Of an extraordinary Damp in a fVell in the Isle of Wight. By Mr. Benj. 

 Cooke, F.R.S. N°450, p. 379, 



In June 1733, a farmer, in hopes of finding a perpetual spring of good 

 water, sunk a well of 7 feet diameter, to the depth of 45 feet, through a 

 soil which at the surface was a kind of brick earth mixed with sand, but in 

 descending became almost wholly hard coarse yellow sand. The work em- 

 ployed the labourers about 20 days, without finding the least appearance 

 of water. 



At the distance of about ] 8 feet from the top, a stratum of a mineral mix- 

 ture, about 9 inches thick, was dug through, without any inconvenience; nor 

 were the workmen in the least incommoded in carrying on the work, till about 

 the 12th day after, when towards the evening they were much annoyed with 

 a faint suflbcating heat, which they compared to that coming from the mouth 

 of an oven, and which, as they were drawn up, was most remarkably per- 

 ceived, when they came opposite to the mineral stratum abovementioned, to 

 come out in the form of a warm sulphureous halitus. 



The next morning, a lusty young man attempted to go down, hand over 

 hand, as the workmen call it, by means of a single rope, which was used to 

 draw up the earth dug out ; but as soon as he came opposite to the above- 

 mentioned stratum, he became incapable of sustaining his own weight, but 

 fell down to the bottom, and died immediately. 



Another young man, not suspecting the cause, had the rope nimbly drawn 

 up ; and having seated himself astride a cross-stick fixed to the rope for that 

 purpose, was hastily let down to his friend's assistance ; but when he came to 

 the same distance from the top, he was observed to give the rope a very great 

 shock, and when he came to the bottom, fell down, as the other had done 

 before him, was seized with violent convulsions, which held him more than a 

 quarter of an hour, and then he expired. 



■ • See a like crystallization from Thyme, by Dr. Neumann, which he calls Camphora Thvmi, 

 N" 38,9 and 431, of the Phil. Trans. — Orig. 



