VOL. Lll.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS 663 



though the wire has been melted, it has never failed of first answering the pur- 

 pose of a conductor, and preventing the mischiefs threatened by the lightning. 



Though the mischiefs arising from lightning are not very frequent in Great 

 Britain, yet at times they are severe enough to be very alarming. The damage 

 occasioned by a thunder storm in July 1759 in London, and in various other 

 places at no great distance from it, are very fresh in our memories. Dr. W. sub- 

 mits it therefore how far it would be attention misapplied to think of an apparatus 

 of this sort in his Majesty's powder magazine, erecting at Purfleet. The expence 

 would be trifling ; and every argument which is produced of their expediency in 

 preventing mischiefs arising from lightning on board of ships, will have more 

 force in this instance ; where frequently an immense quantity of gunpowder must 

 be collected within a comparatively very small space. 



Cll. On the Case of the late Rev. James Bradley^ D.D. Astronomer Royal. By 



Daniel hysons, M.D. p. 635. 



Dr. Bradley had laboured under a great oppression of spirits for a long time ; 

 and for several years before his death frequently complained of a pain in his back, 

 sometimes attended with difficulty in the discharge of his urine, which he appre- 

 hended to proceed from the gravel. On Wednesday June 30, 17^2, he rode 

 out for the air, and on coming home complained of pain in his back, and made a 

 large quantity of water. At 3 o'clock the next morning he found himself labour- 

 ing under a total suppression of urine, from which time he never voided any 

 without the assistance of the catheter. With its assistance however about a 

 quart was drawn off^" every 1 2 hours, excepting one intermission ; when on ac- 

 count of the difficulty of introducing the catheter, none was drawn ofl^from 

 Friday morning July the Qth, till 8 o'clock on the Saturday evening. But both 

 before and after that time the urine was regularly drawn off every morning and 

 evening to the time of his death, on the 13th of July. - 



During his illness he often complained of pains in the abdomen. And his head 

 was frequently disordered, especially when a stool was coming away ; but after 

 that had passed off, he was always more cool and reasonable. It was the opinion 

 of Dr. Jones, who attended him constantly in the country, as well as of Dr. 

 Lewis, and Dr. Lysons who visited him occasionally from Oxford, that his pains 

 were inflammatory, though not violently so. But where the inflammation was 

 exactly seated, they could not precisely determine; as it seemed often to shift its situa- 

 tion, and the patient was himself incapable of giving them the necessary description, 

 his weak state obliging him to signify his meaning more by signs than words, and 

 those not always intelligible. As nothing positive could therefore be said with 

 regard to the seat of the disorder, the friends of the deceased desired that his 

 body might be opened ; and Dr. Jones and Dr. L. being present at the operation, 



