VOL. XLII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 607 



Concernin" a IValer-insect ; * which, being cut into several Pieces, becomes so 

 many perfect Animals. By J. F. Gronovius, M.D. at Ley den. N° 466, p. 218. 



Some Conjectures concerning the Position of the Colure in the Ancient Sphere. 



By the Rev. Ebenezer Latham, M.D. and F.D.M. N° 466, p. 221. 



This paper is on a draught of the constellation Aries, as it was exactly copied 

 by Dr. White, from a book in the library of Samuel Sanders, Esq. Possibly it 

 may be of some use for determining the famous controversy with respect to Sir 

 Isaac Newton's chronology. Dr. Halley observes, (Philos. Trans. N° 3g7) 

 " that the dispute is chiefly, over what part of the back of Aries the colure 

 passed. Sir Isaac Newton takes it to be over the middle of the constellation; 

 P. Souciet will have it, that it passed over the middle of the Dodecatemorion 

 of Aries, which by consequence would make it pass about mid-way between 

 the rump and first of the tail ;" which situation could never be said to be over 

 the back : whereas, if the ring in this cut was designed, as I apprehend, to 

 image the colure in the ancient sphere, it exactly answers Hipparchus's descrip- 

 tion — iv S\ TM sTs'pa xoAspa (pncri xtiVQai ra xjia ra jcara ■vKci.Toq, and justifies the con- 

 struction Sir Isaac put on those words beyond exception. The sculptures from 

 whence this was taken, have the title of Arataea, sive Signa Coelestia, in quibus 

 Astronomicae Speculationes Veterum ad Archetypa vetustissimi Arataeorum Cae- 

 saris Germanici Codicis (44) ob oculos ponuntur a Jacobo de Geyn ex Biblioth. 

 Acad. Lugd. Bat, Amstel. ]652.-f- 



Of an Extraordinary Dropsy. By Tho. Short, M. D. of Sheffield. 



N° 466, p. 223. 



Jan. 1742, Dr. S. was called to visit a woman 30 years of age, who about 7 

 years before, had a complaint like a severe fit of the stone in her left kidney, with 

 all the common symptoms of a stone, but she recovered again. Three years 

 afterwards she had another fit, but got better in a few days ; though she mostly 

 complained of a dull pain in that place ever after. Her menses had been very 

 irregular, and small, since her last paroxysm, and totally obstructed since Sep- 

 tember ; her pulse was very small and quick, her countenance pale and languid ; 

 a pain at the pit of her stomach, towards the spleen, besides that in the kid- 

 ney ; her whole stomach and belly full, and somewhat swelled, but harder on 



* This is the Polype, (at that time commonly called an Insect) of which a sufficient description is 

 given in a paper by M. Trembley, in the following number of the Philos. Trans. ; on which account 

 it is not deemed necessary to preserve this article. 



+ Hug. Grotii Batavi Syntagma Arataeorum : ex offic. Plantin. Mo, See Germanicus's Interpreta- 

 tion, p. 25, the figure of the constellation Aries. — Orig. 



