202 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1751. 



point being distant about 24 inches from the point of his foot ; and where ever 

 he moved on the lawn, it seemed to move at that distance before him. The 

 lawn on which he observed this appearance, is a hanging level, which drops 

 about 6 feet in 100. It extended itself to the end of the lawn, the grass of 

 which was short, and it was not visible on the surface of the adjoining water, 

 or grass fields. It was about 1 feet wide, and the colours were vivid and 

 distinct. 



Oct. 3, 1751, at 30"" after 9 in the forenoon, he observed about the same spot 

 a like iris. It was a very fair morning : there had fallen much dew in the night, 

 and the lawn was then, and the night before, webbed over as it was the 23d of 

 September. 



XXXVII. Extract of several Letters from John Huxham, M. D. of Plymouth, 

 F. R. S. and Mr. Tripe, Surgeon, at Ashburton in Devonshire, concerning a 

 Body found in a Fault in the Church of Staverton in that County : Communi- 

 cated by Thomas Stack, M. D. F. R. S. 



Mr. Tripe to Dr. Huxham, dated Ashburton, June 18, J 750. 



According to the register of burials, no person had been deposited in this 

 vault since October 15, 1 669, so that a body had lain there upwards of 80 

 years : yet, when the vault was opened about 4 months before the above date, 

 it was found as perfect in all its parts, as if but just interred. The whole 

 body was plump and full ; the skin white, soft, smooth, and elastic ; the hair 

 strong, and the limbs nearly as flexible as when living. A winding sheet, which 

 was as firm as if but just applied, inclosed it from head to foot ; and 2 coarse 

 linen cloths, dipped in a blackish substance like pitch, infolded the winding 

 sheet. The body thus protected was placed in an oaken coffin, on which, as it 

 was always covered with water, was found a large stone and a log of wood, pro- 

 bably to keep it at the bottom. 



Various have been the conjectures as to the cause of its preservation ; but the 

 pitch-cloths and water seem to account for it ; the former, by defending the 

 body from the external air, and the latter, by preserving the tenacity of the 

 pitch. The left side, from the middle of the forehead to the scrotum, having 

 been for some time exposed to the air, was become black, and mouldered 

 away ; but where the pitch-cloths remained, the parts underneath were perfectly 

 fresh and firm. As the coffin was pretty much injured, though entirely 

 sound when the vault was first opened, the body was ordered by Mr. Worth, of 

 Worth near Tiverton, whose ancestor he was, to be speedily removed to another, 



and then nailed up. 



Dr. Huxham to Dr. Stack, May 21, 1751. 

 Mr. Tripe, on dissecting the corpse found the heart and lungs as sound as il 



