54 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1750. 



and the liquor becomes manna. They formerly let it dry on the tree; but the 

 present way keeps it cleaner. The manna begins to run (they say in the scrip- 

 ture style to rain) the beginning of August ; and if the season proves dry, they 

 gather it 5 or 6 weeks. The king of Naples has so large a revenue from it, that 

 he is extremely jealous of it, and during the season he guards the woods by Sbirri, 

 who even fire on people that come into them, and he makes the stealing of the 

 liquor death. Mr. M. believes it to be what our gardeners call the flowering ash ; 

 the complexion of the bark and bud agrees with one of them he had in his garden 

 at Lindley. The man who shewed the wood said it bore a pretty flower in the 



spring. At Pisa, in the physic garden, they shewed that tree in bloom as the 



manna-ash. The tree is indeed common enough in that neighbourhood : the 

 Italians call it Orno. A botanist at Rome said it was the ornus ofiicinarum.* A 

 physician at Benevento to the same purpose, that it was the ornus used in me- 

 dicine. 



Observations on the Northern Lights, seen Feb. 15 and \Q, 1749-50. By -John 

 Huxham, M. D., F. R. S. N° 495, p. 472. 



Feb. 15, 1749-50, in the evening there was a very vivid northern light, which 

 darted forth several beautiful, crimson, and fiery-coloured rays ; wind n w b n 1, 

 barometer 30. 2 ; 50 minutes past 8 a surprizingly bright and exceedingly white 

 arch, about the breadth of a common rainbow, appeared in the heavens, ex- 

 tending nearly from east to west ; it reached within 5 or 6 degrees of the western 

 horizon, and ended about 8 or 10 above the eastern. It passed exactly between 

 Castor and Pollux, and directly over Aldebaran, which appeared plainly through 

 it. Near the top of the arch several very lucid, white, short, vibrating columns 

 were attached to it ; none of them seemed above 6 or 7 degrees long, and did 

 not appear to communicate in the least with the aurora borealis. About 9*^ 12™ 

 the arch vanished ; but several white, bright, corruscating nubeculae remained 

 here and there in the zodiac for 1 2 or 15 minutes longer. The aurora borealis 

 continued more or less till midnight. 



Feb. 16, about 7 p- m. was another aurora borealis, though not quite so fiery 

 and luminous as that of the night before : it continued till near 11. At S'' 56"^ 

 p. m. exactly, such another arch appeared, very nearly of the same extent and 

 direction, but not altogether so broad or lucid. This at first also passed be- 

 tween the 2 bright stars of Gemini, but declined more and more to the south- 

 ward, till it was 2 or 3 degrees to the south of Pollux. Its western limb, about 

 9, passed through the north shoulder of Orion : it quite disappeared about 10 or 

 12 minutes after. 

 Of a Horse bitten by a Mad Dog. By John Starr, M. D. N" 495, p. 474. 



Dec. 1, 1745, a neighbour's large mastift'dog, mad, broke out in the night 

 • Fraxinus Ornus, Lin. a more particular account of which is given in the 6oth vol. of these Trans. 



