VOL. XLII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. QSg 



perties of this animal ; such as their love to their young, their manner of copu- 

 lation, inconstancies to their females, virtues in the skin of preserving persons 

 from thunder, who carry part of it, as Suetonius relates of Augustus Caesar, 

 who dreaded it very much ; and also of such consent between the skin of this 

 animal and the sea, that though it be dried and kept in the most secret place, 

 whenever the sea is much disturbed, the hairs rise up on the skin, and lie 

 smooth when it is calm; with many other particulars, which, if not fabulous, 

 are very curious; viz. Aristotle, Pliny, Aldrovandus. Rondeletius, Gesner, 

 Wolfgangius, Johnston. 



As to the particular figures of the animal, that of Aldrovandus seems to have 

 been taken from a stuffed skin, having the hinder feet like a fish-tail, and not 

 at all like the creature. Rondeletius's figure has as little truth as the former ; 

 and that given by Gesner, in his corollary on Rondeletius, is worse than any ; 

 having the fore-parts upright like a Sphinx. This last author has another figure 

 of the phoca, which is rather like a lump-fish, and almost triangular. These 

 could never convey a just idea of the creature to such as delight in natural 

 history. 



The animal is viviparous, and suckles its young by the mammillae, like qua- 

 drupeds, and its flesh is carnous and muscular. This was very young, though 74. 

 feet in length, having scarcely any teeth, and having 4 holes regularly placed 

 about the navel, as appears by the figure, which in time become papillae. 



Fig. 1. pi. 15, represents the phoca lying on the right side, that the belly, 

 and parts of generation may be the better observed, a the fore-feet and breast ; 

 B the umbilicus and holes of the mammas ; c the external orifice of the vagina 

 and the anus ; d the hinder feet, which are webbed ; e the tail- 

 Fig. 2 shows the uterus taken out and extended, a the body of the uterus 

 or vagina ; B the cornua uteri ; c the holes leading into the slender tubes that 

 end in the extremities of the cornua ; d the ovaria ; e the continuations of the 

 peritonaeum. 



The Ambe of Hippocrates, for reducing Luxations of the Arm with the Shoulder, 

 rectified. By M. le Cat, M. D. F. R. S. Abstracted from the French by P. H. Z. 

 F.R.S. N''469, p. 387. 



M. le Cat first describes the ambe of Hippocrates, which consists of a hori- 

 zontal lever a, and of a fixed point b, fig. 4. pi. 15, made of a piece of wood 

 standing vertically, to the extremity of which the lever is joined by a hinge. 

 The patient sitting, and his hurt arm being raised, the machine is pushed for- 

 ward under the arm-pit, so that the vertical piece of wood is applied along the 

 ribs, where the lever enters into the arm pit up to the end of the luxated bone, 

 or even farther. This circumstance is essential, and even recutninended by 



4p 2 



