VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 505 



Mr, Alexander Ornie's Pectoral Syrup, sent in a Letter to Sir Hans Sloane, 

 Bart. i£c. from Calcutta, dated Jan. 25, 1733. N°46l, p. 769. 



R Nantsjera Patsja Horti Malabarici cum toto q. v. incis. et contus. coq. ex aqme 



font. q. s. colaturce forliter express, adde sacchari par pondus, et coque ad sy- 



rupi consistentiam absque clarificatione. 



Some uses of the pectoral syrup. — A drop or two, with a little honey, given 

 to new-born infants, greatly helps the necessary cleansing of the bowels. Three 

 or four drops are a safe puke for them, and cleanse the stomach and bowels from 

 that phlegm that causes their gripes. — It is of great service in most asthmas, 

 and has relieved, when the best remedies have failed. When the fit is violent, 

 give a large spoonful of it, which will soon procure a vomit or two. When 

 the fit is moderate, 2 tea-spoonfuls 3 times a-day will be sufficient. — In fevers 

 that are attended with a laborious breathing, it has been found serviceable. — 

 It is excellent in the small-pox, as well to vomit in the beginning, as to help on 

 the necessary salivation in the confluent sort. — It helps coughs, and promotes 

 expectoration. 



From these few hints, a physician will be able to adjust its use in other dis- 

 tempers. Mr. O. would not have recommended it, had not repeated experience 

 convinced him of its usefulness: and that it might be of benefit to posterity, 

 he meant to physicians that were really such, he gave the receipt of it to be 

 sent to the president and censors of the College of Physicians, London. 



Concerning the Seed of Fern. By the Rev. Mr. Henry Miles, of Tooting. 



N°46l, p. 770. 



In Boerhaave and Gaubius's edition of Swammerdam's Biblia Naturae, sive 

 Historia Insectorum, in Dutch and Latin, 2 vols. fol. at Leyden 1737 and 1738, 

 is a dissertation on the seed of the male fern, with a very curious cut, repre- 

 senting the seed-vessels, their mechanism, and the seed, as viewed by a good 

 microscope. 



The author claims to himself the first discovery of fern-seed, in his disserta- 

 tion, at the beginning: " You rightly judge," says he to his friend, " me to 

 have been the first," &c. Boerhaave says, that he showed them to the botanic 

 professor at Leyden Anno 1673, and that he had drawn the figures of them. 

 But Dr. William Cole sent an account of the seeds of divers of the plants 

 called dorsiferous, to * Dr. Robert Hook, in a letter dated September 30, l66g, 



* Who was the first Englishman that discovered the seed of the fern by the help of a micro- 

 scope. — Grig. -'.^ '•- 

 VOL. VIII. 3 T 



