12 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1744. 



introduce it, prejudice support it, and engage men of parts and authority to re- 

 commend it to their inattentive successors. 



Dr. F. finishes this abstract with remarking, that were some of the leisure mo- 

 ments of men of great abilities and experience, devoted to inform the world of 

 the inefRcacy of such methods and medicines as they have proved to be so, physic 

 would be reduced into narrower bounds ; they would merit the thanks of every one 

 in the profession; and posterity at least would commend their endeavours. 



Remarks on Stones of a regular Figure found near Bagneres in Gascony : with 

 other Observations. By Mons. Secondat de Montesquieu,* of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Bourdeaux. N°472, p. 26. 



Though the spring called La Fontaine du SalCit is at a good distance from the 

 town of Bagneres, it is as much frequented as any in that country; and besides 

 its admirable effects in curing a great number of distempers, it likewise offers to 

 the eyes of the lovers of natural history a very remarkable singularity. 



In the first bath, through which the largest of the two branches of the spring 

 flows, there are found small stones, of the colour of iron rust, and of a regular 

 figure; being either parallelopipedes with oblique angles, of which the sides are 

 unequal ; or small solid bodies with 6 sides, only differing from cubes or dice in 

 this, that the surfaces are not perfectly perpendicular to each other, but a little 

 inclined; as also commonly longer than they are broad, and broader than they 

 are high. 



The largest yet seen were but 1 1 lines in length, 94 in breadth, and 6 in 

 height : they are mostly a great deal smaller. Mr. S. had a very odd one, being 

 a parcel, of a hundred in one lump. There are some on which are observed 

 shining striae, that seem to be of a metallic substance. 



Mr. S. happening to walk in the road newly made between Bagneres and the 

 Fontaine de Salut, he perceived that, in digging the ditch on the side of the 

 road, the workmen had laid open a rock of a sort of imperfect slate, but softer, 

 and of a lighter colour, than slate commonly is. The rock itself is composed of 

 layers or beds lying almost parallel one over the other : the substance of the slate 

 seems to be a composition of fibres or strings, placed on the sides of each other, 

 and equally inclined to their beds or layers; hence, on breaking them with a 

 hammer, the pieces sometimes are pretty like the figure of a regular parallelepiped 

 with oblique angles. 



On a narrower examination of this sort of slate, he found a great number of 



* Jean Baptiste de Secondat de Montesquieu, counsellor of the parliament of Bourdeaux, &c. was 

 the son of President Montesquieu, the celebrated author of the Esprit des Loix. He died 1796. in 

 his 79th year. The following works were published by him : Observations sur les Eaux Minerales des 

 Pyrenees, 1750; Considerations sur la Marine de France, 1756; Considerations sur le Commerce djs 

 la Grande Bretagne, 1760. 



