314 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1753. 



lower limbs were turned upvvards. All the bones were affected, especially the 

 thorax, which had lost its natural form and capacity, and she was altogether mi- 

 serably distorted. 



This miserable state was attended with exquisite pains ; and, according to the 

 seat of them, the patient used to say, ' Now such a part works.' Sometimes 

 they abated, and then she felt so sore, as not to bear being touched : and during 

 this ease from her pains, a quantity of the aforesaid sediment passed by urine, 

 though little or none in her sufferings. It was quite cretaceous, and, reduced 

 into a fine powder, fermented gently with acids. She could bear no covering, 

 but a few napkins, both from inward heat, and to avoid loading her breast. Not- 

 withstanding her preternatural posture, the evacuations by stool and urine vvere 

 regularly and easily performed. Her flesh seemed dead and oedematous, the 

 skin rough and scaly ; so that a mortification was often apprehended. She had a 

 cough, a laborious respiration, and sometimes a spitting of blood, from the coarc- 

 tation of her breast, all its bones plying inwardly. She was capable of no other 

 motion than turning her head on both sides, stirring her left arm in the shoulder- 

 joint only, and separating her fingers, but not bending them. She had her 

 menses regularly, till about 3 months before her death. She generally had a 

 low fever, inward heat, sweats, and restlessness. Her fever ran very high in 

 August, attended with delirium, headach, raving, and subsultus tendinum. A 

 little before her death, came on a deafness, a dimness of sight, a scalding of her 

 eyes, and a constant dropping ; violent pains in her head ; in short, a great 

 weakness m all the organs, which showed how much the head was then affected. 



The distortion of her limbs went on so fast in August and September, that 

 almost every 3d day something new was observed ; especially the left foot, during 

 that time, came down gradually near 18 inches from under her ear, where it lay 

 before. It was also observed in August, that her neck grew visibly smaller, the 

 thorax much narrower. And then the napkins, on which she spit, grew black 

 in the washing, and stained as from the mercurial ointment, though Dr. Hosty 

 could not suspect it, as he could not learn she had ever used any mercury. In a 

 month after, he observed the same thing on all the linen, that touched her skin. 

 He got a napkin rubbed with soap, then dried, and afterwards washed. This 

 method had almost taken off the stains, as it does those from the mercurial oint- 

 ment. Her linen stained all the washing, like linen impregnated with it. Those 

 spots appeared on the linen a mixture of a cretaceous matter and grease. 



Since this remark was made, none of the white sediment was seen. This, and 

 the apparent nature of the stains, made him believe that it was then dis- 

 charged by spittle, and the pores of the skin, and mixed with oily particles of 

 her fluids, which had acquired a quality analogous to that of mercury, of staining 

 all linen. He was also apt to think, that this sediment was the earthy matter. 



