l6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1744. 



In September last, having bought some soal-fish before they were skinned, he 

 observed their bellies were prominent and hard, as if they were full of large rows , 

 but, instead of that, their guts were filled with shell-fish, a species of pectun- 

 culae. Before these shells were taken out of the transparent guts of the fish, the 

 whole had very much the appearance of strings of beads, or necklaces ; the inter- 

 stices between the shells occasioning this resemblance. On taking the shells out, 

 some of them were almost entirely dissolved, others partly so, but many were 

 whole and entire. 



It is well known, that shell-fish are the food of several species of fish. The 

 sea-porcupine, and a kind of ray, subsist chiefly on them; but these are won- 

 derfully provided with an apparatus for reducing them into a state more fit for 

 digestion; their upper and under jaws are hard enough to break or grind almgst 

 the strongest shells to the condition of pulp. 



But the soal-fish has nothing of this kind: it feeds on shell-fish, but digests 

 them not by attrition ; for neither its mouth, nor any of the viscera, are fi-amed 

 for this purpose; but as it would appear from the preceding account, by a proper 

 menstruum, which is prepared in the body of this animal. 



Thus we see, that shells which can resist the teeth of time, the inclemency of 

 seasons, and lie, without apparent decay, for unknown ages, in the bowels of the 

 earth, are reduced, in all probability, in a little while, almost into a state of fluidity, 

 by the juices of a small tender animal. 



Is it the juices of the whole animal, or is it the consequence of such a kind 

 of nourishment, that renders this fish so delicious? 



An Account of the Disorder of which Father Jos. Bolognini, Abbot of SS Boni- 

 face, &c. &c. died. Extracted by C. M. Secretary to the Royal Society, from 

 a Letter received from John Francis de Camillis, M. D. &c. N" 472, p. 40. 

 From the Latin. 



Father Bolognini, who was 50 years old, of a corpulent and sanguineous 

 habit, and addicted to free living, had frequently been attacked with an intermittent 

 fever during the autumnal season. These attacks were removed by the use of 

 the Peruvian bark. He was afterwards troubled with the heart-burn, which he 

 was wont to relieve by taking morning and evening after his chocolate, a draught 

 of water, sometimes cold, sometimes warm, according to the season of the year. 

 Every spring he was accustomed to take some opening medicines, and to be 

 blooded. 



In the spring of 1 742 a lowness of spirits came upon him, with want of sleep, 

 &c. And in July following he had a red miliary rash, and petichiae accompanied 

 with itching, (miliari rubra, et prurienti purpura aspersus est) but without fever ; 

 for the cure of which he drank freely of cooling emulsions and lemonade. On 



