VOL. XLIII.^ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ]45 



smoke a pipe ; but said she was not addicted to drink gin. The jury brought it 

 in accidental death." 



Nov. 15. — Dr. Lobb communicated two letters concerning the same woman; 

 one from the Rev. Mr. Notcutt at Ipswich, to the Rev. Mr. Gibbons ; dated July 

 25, 1744; and the other from the said Mr. Gibbons to a friend, dated Sept. 2 

 following. 



They both agree in all the material circumstances relating to the fact; both 

 giving their relations fiom the mouths of the eye-witnesses, who viewed the body 

 when it was first found burning; particularly Mr. Gibbons from the woman's own 

 daughter, and from 2 other persons living in the same house, whose names are 

 Boyden. The case was this; one Grace Pett, a fisherman's wife, of the parish of 

 St. Clement's in Ipswich, aged about 60, had a custom, for several years past, of 

 going down stairs every night, after she was half undressed, to smoke a pipe, or 

 on some other private occasion. The daughter, who lay with her, fell asleep, and 

 did not miss her mother, till she awaked early in the morning, April 10, 1744; 

 when dressing herself, and going down stairs, she found her mother's body lying 

 on the right side, with her head against the grate, and extended over the hearth, 

 with her legs on the deal-floor, and appearing like a block of wood burning with 

 a glowing fire without flame; on which quenching it with two bowls of water, the 

 smother and stench almost stifled the neighbours, whom her cries had brought in ; 

 the trunk of the body was in a manner burnt to ashes, and appeared like a heap 

 of charcoal covered with white ashes; the liead, arms, legs and thighs were also 

 very much burnt. 



It was said, that the woman had drank very plentifully of gin over night, on 

 the occasion of a merry-making, on account of a daughter who was lately come 

 home from Gibraltar. But the difiiculty is to account for the fire by which she 

 was burnt ; since there was none in the grate, and the candle was burnt out in the 

 socket of the candlestick, which stood by her; and a child's clothes on one side of 

 her, and a paper screen on the other, were both untouched . and though the 

 melting of the grease had so penetrated into the hearth, as not to be scoured out, 

 yet they observed that the deal-floor was neither singed nor discoloured; and the 

 manner of the fire burning in her body is described as the working of some inward 

 cause, and not from the burning of her clothes, which were only a cotton gown 

 and petticoat. 



Of a Quadruped* brought from Bengal, and shown in London. Presented 

 by James Parsons, M. D., F. R. S. N° 476, p. 465. 



This creature is not mentioned by any natural historian, nor any figure ex- 



• This animal is the antilope tragocamclus. Lin. Gmel. the Indostan antelope of Pennant. 

 VOL. IX. U 



