542 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO]742. 



there was an explosion as violent as the report of a inortar-piece, attended with 

 a rumbling echo, which ran eastward ; and he judges it came from about 40° 

 elevation. Several people saw a ball of fire, which ran nearly eastward, leaving 

 a train of light, which continued some time. The ball of fire was seen, and the 

 report heard very loud, at Sompting, beyond Shoreham. 



J Letter from Edward Milward, M.D. to Martin Folkes, Esq. F.R.S, con- 

 cerning an Antidote to the Indian Poison in the tVest-Indies. N° 462, p. 2. 



Dr. M. here gives an account of an antidote against the Indian or Negro 

 poison, which was first purchased from a famous Negro poisoner, at a great 

 expence, by one who styles himself, Isaiah Burgess, Doctor of Physic ; and 

 the secret devolved to Dr. M., by means of a MS. of the Doctor's, which, 

 among others, he had procured, for his History of the Physical and Chirurgical 

 Writers of this Kingdom. The author intended this little tract, which con- 

 tains observations on the most considerable distempers in America, should be 

 made public ; he wrote it at the request of his friends, when an expedition was 

 designed into America ; and particularly declares, that he purposed the divulg- 

 ing of this specific antidote, that such as should go to the West-Indies, among 

 the Spaniards, might meet with a remedy in case of necessity. What pre- 

 vented the Doctor from executing this laudable design, was not known ; but as 

 it was plainly his intention it should be made public, and as the knowledge of 

 such a remedy may be of the greatest benefit to mankind, it is here communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society. 



" The Negroes," says he, " use a poison of a strange and extraordinary na- 

 ture. The dose is very small, and it has no ill taste ; so that mixed with meat 

 or drink, it is not perceivable. It causes divers symptoms, and the effect is 

 various, according as the dose is large or small. It kills sometimes in a very 

 few hours, sometimes in some months, and at others in some years. The 

 symptoms are according to the quantity given : if great, it causes evacuations 

 upwards and downwards ; of excrements first, then of humours, and lastly of 

 blood, with fainting-fits, and sweatings. Death follows in 6 or 7 hours. The 

 Negroes turn white. 



" If the dose is but small, the sick loses his appetite, feels pains in his head, 

 arms and limbs, a weariness all over, soreness in his breast, and difficulty of 

 breathing, so that he appears as being in a consumption, and at last dies lan- 

 guishing. 



" All remedies yet publicly known, are of no force nor virtue against this 

 poison ; and the patient certainly dies. Nay, he questions whether the best cor- 



