182 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1746. 



Mr. Richard Lassels, in his Travels to Italy, printed at Paris in 1670, p. 180, 

 tells us, that in the lesser Casina, belonging to the Ludovisian villa, he saw, 

 " in a large square box lined with velvet, the body of a petrified man, that is, a 

 man turned into a stone ; one piece of the leg (broken off to assure an embassa- 

 dor doubting of the verity of the thing) showed plainly both the bone and the 

 stone crusted over it. The head and the other parts lie jumbled up together in 

 the box." 



Father Kircher says, in his Mundus Subterraneus, 1. viii. ch. 1. " Spectatur 

 et hie Eomse in horti Ludovisiani palatio, corpus humanum totum in saxum con- 

 versum, ossibus adhuc integris, et lapideo cortice obductis." And in the following 

 page he gives an imperfect vsketch of the same thing, under the title of " Sceleton 

 humani corporis in saxum conversum, ex palatio Pinciano principis Ludovisii." 

 But the truth is, there is nothing like the body of a man, but only a cluster of 

 disjointed bones, cemented together by the same matter that incrusts them over. 

 Mr. Misson in his Travels has more truly described them, when he says, that 

 " in the same room they show a small heap of bones, said to be the skeleton of 

 a petrified man; which is a mistake, for the bones themselves are not petrified, 

 but there has gathered about them a sort of candied crust, or stony incrustation, 

 which has made them pass for being of real stone." Mr. Wright also, in his late 

 observations made in travelling through Italy, &c. has taken notice, that in the 

 Villa Ludovisia " they showed some bones of a human body all crusted over with 

 a petrified substance." 



When Mr. F. was at Rome in the year 1734, he saw this curiosity, which is 

 still preserved in the same casina of the Ludovisian gardens ; and in the very 

 square box lined with velvet, mentioned by Mr. Lassels, and represented by father 

 Kircher. The stony substance that joins the bones together, is of a whitish co- 

 lour, and the same as that which incrusts the bones themselves : small fractures 

 in several places discover the natural bones ; and the size of the whole mass may 

 be judged of, by considering the skull, which is of the common dimensions, as a 

 scale to the other parts. 



END OF THE FORTY-THIRD VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL. 



Description of a fVnter-wheel for Mills, yind concerning the Bark preventing 

 catching Cold. By Mr. Wm. Arderon, F.R.S. N°478, p. 1. To/. XLIF. 

 /Inno 174(3. 



Mr. Philip Williams, chief engineer to our water-works at Norwich, a man 

 of great ingenuity, who, in his time, has been author of many curious inven- 

 tions, has contrived lately a machine for the raising of water to supply cities and 



