VOL. XLI.] 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



337 



Of a Girl, three Tears old, who remained a quarter of an Hour under Water 

 without drowning. By John Green, M. D. Secretary of the Gentleman s 

 Society at Spalding in Lincolnshire. N° 454, p. 1 66. 



On the following case Dr. G. observes, that the reason of the child's being 

 able to abide so long under water was pretty evident: the child, most likely, 

 was infirm, weak, and sickly, from the time of her birth, so that the foramen 

 ovale was not grown up. He remembered about 3 years before to have seen a 

 subject, a woman, 80 years old, who had the foramen ovale so large, that one 

 might easily thrust the middle finger through it ; but she was attended with the 

 above-mentioned circumstance, that is, she never enjoyed a moment's health 

 in her life. 



May l6, 1737, Rebecca Yates, of Billson near Market-Bosworth in Leices- 

 tershire, had a daughter about 3 years of age, that fell into the milldam at the 

 head, near the mill-wheel; and, by the force of the stream, was drawn under 

 the water to the wheel, with her legs forwards ; one of her legs went under 

 the mill-wheel, and by reason of the nearness of the wheel to the floor of its 

 water-way, the bulk of the child's leg stopped the wheel from moving at 

 all. The sudden stopping of the mill so much surprised the miller, that he 

 went immediately, and let down the shuttle; but finding it would not go quite 

 down, he came up again into the mill, and looked both above and below, to see 

 if he could find out the cause; then went and drew up the shuttle, and let 

 it down again ; but as the gate would not shut quite down, he could not as yet 

 find out the cause of his mill standing still; for which reason he went backwards 

 and forwards between the shuttle and mill-room, for 8 or 10 times, before he 

 found out the cause; but at last he drew the shuttle quite up, by which means 

 the force of the water drove the child from under the shuttle; then he put the 

 shuttle quite down, and thereby discovered the child with her leg under the 

 wheel, and lying on her face. The first word she spoke was, help me, which 

 she repeated 3 times; the miller left her arm for some other person to hold her, 

 while he endeavoured to remove the wheel, so as to get out her leg; and then 

 she said again, for God's sake help me out, if you can: she spoke very briskly, 

 after she was put to bed. But the mill-wheel had torn away all the shin, mus- 

 cles, sinews, and tendons, of her leg, quite to the bone, and stripped them 

 down to her heel ; besides, the shuttle was drawn up and let down on the small 

 of her back several times. The child lived from Monday till Friday, and then 

 died of her wounds and bruises. The whole time of her being under water, 

 which was at the depth of 4i feet, was near 15 minutes. 



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