VOL. XLVII.T PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 233 



LIX. Extract of a Letter from Mr. fVillem Fan Hazen to Mr. Philip Miller, 

 F.R.S. concerning the Quantity of Rain, which fell at Leyden in the Year 

 1751. p. 360. 



During the course of the year 1751, it rained at Leyden no less than l63 days ; 

 and the quantity of rain which fell was 4 ] inches. 



LX. Of a Double Child. By Thomas Percival, Esq. p. 36o. 

 This uncommon child was born January 1732, at Hebus near Middleton, 5 

 miles from Manchester. The child, or children if they may be so called, are 

 both females. The one is a perfect healthy looking fine girl. The imperfect 

 one adheres to the perfect one by the cartilago ensiformis, by a cartilaginous 

 substance 4 inches in circumference. The body seems to be of a soft fleshy sub- 

 stance of very little regularity : it has no head nor neck, nor any respiration : 

 from the upper parts of its body come out two short arms. , On the right, which 

 is the longer, are 4 fingers, but no thumb ; on the left, which is very short, its hand 

 is very deficient, and on it are only 2 fingers. The thighs, legs, and feet, are the 

 most perfect, though the legs have only one bone in them. It has no vertebrae of 

 the back or loins. The os sacrum, as well as the os pubis, imperfectly ossified. All 

 its joints are very rigid and stiff. It has no anus, but passes off its water in the 

 natural way. Its sternum is very imperfect ; and it has no clavicula. It seems 

 insensible of pain, not removing its arms or legs, if laid in an uneasy posture. 



LXI. On the Phenomena of Electricity in Vacuo. By Mr. fVm. ffatson, 



F.R.S. p. 362. 



From a comparison of experiments in electricity made in vacuo, with those 

 already made in open air, it appears that our atmosphere, when dry, is the agent 

 by which, with the assistance of other electrics per se, we were enabled to accu- 

 mulate electricity in and upon non-electrics ; that is to communicate to them a 

 greater quantity of electricity than these bodies naturally have. That, on the 

 removal of the air, the electricity pervades the vacuum to a considerable distance, 

 and manifests its effects on any non-electric substances, which terminate that 

 vacuum ; and that by these means, originally-electric bodies, even in their most 

 perfect state, put on the appearance of non-electrics, by becoming themselves the 

 conductors of electricity. 



The experiments treated of in this paper must be considered to have been made 

 in a vacuum by Mr. Smeaton's air-pump, that rarefies lOOO times. The elec- 

 trical machine, with its prime conductor, need here no particular description ; 

 but that of the glass, in which the vacuum was made, should be more minutely 



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