170 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 745. 



of his bed-room (which then happened to be unpainted) to appear almost quite 

 transparent. 



But at Horseford, a small village, about 4 miles north-west of this city, a re- 

 markable phenomenon appeared the next day. A sudden lapsus, or sinking 

 down of the earth, happened in the night abovementioned, and left a round hole 

 12 feet deep, and 124- in diameter. Its sides are nearly perpendicular; and no 

 ruffles, cracks, or chasms, are to be found near it, but the ground appears entirely 

 firm and solid ; and for miles around is a fine champaign country, of a dry sandy 

 soil, but not hilly ; neither is there any watercourse above ground near it. The 

 first yard from the surface downward, is corn-mould earth ; the other 3 are com- 

 posed of brown and yellow sand, disposed in several different strata. 



He does not pretend to account for this accident , but queries might it not be 

 occasioned by some subterraneous current, washing away the sandy matter by 

 little and little, till it had left only a crust, which the tremor of this terrible 

 thunder had thrown down from the very surface; though on this conjecture, one 

 would expect some overflow or appearance of water; whereas there was not per- 

 ceived here the remains of a single drop. 



Concerning the Bones of a Foetiis voided per ^num; and of some Fossils found in 

 Ireland. By Mr. James Simon. N" 477j p. 52g. 

 A clergyman of the county of Armagh, sent to Mr. S. a parcel of bones, with 

 the following account of them, viz. " A woman in the barony of Clare, in the 

 year 1741, about the latter end of May, or the beginning of June, being in the 

 37th year of her age, and mother of several children, conceived, as usual; but, 

 in 2 or 3 days after, felt an excessive unnatural kind of pain in the matrix, which 

 continued, with frequent faintings, a depraved appetite, and an exceedingly great 

 weakness, till her child quickened; after which she proceeded reasonably well in 

 her pregnancy to the end of 9 months; and then, her child alive, and every thing 

 right, as the midwife thought, she fell in labour, which lasted, with proper child 

 bearing pains, for 24 hours, but could not be delivered; and her labour leaving 

 her, the child was no more observed to stir. In a month after, her labour re 

 turned, and, with many regular throes, continued 24 hours more; but to no 

 purpose, save the discharging of some quantities of black corrupted clods of blood, 

 of which kind also she threw up much by vomit: then her labour left her entirely; 

 and soon after she felt the decaying of the flesh of her infant, and the discharge 

 of it both by the matrix and anus, with so putrid and deadly a smell as was extre- 

 mely nauseous both to herself and others about her. — Thus she lived for upwards 

 of 1 2 months, and at that period her pains increasing to excess, she began the 

 discharging of the bones, which, to the number of 80 and upwards, she voided 

 wholly by siege; ,14 the first day, and 2, 3, or 4, at a time afterwards for the 



