40 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1763. 



agreed on. But on the Tuesday morning following he died, without any previous 

 alarm or alteration. 



The origin of his complaint was a blow, which he had received 6 months be- 

 fore, from the master whom he served as waiter in a public-house. The master 

 had owned that he had pushed him slightly on the left side with his hand. The 

 boy informed them that he himself was then carr)'ing a i)late under his arm; and 

 that the blow or push from his master drove the edge of" the plate forcibly between 

 2 of his ribs. He was immediately very ill of the hurt, sick, and in great pain. 

 His mother also informed them, that she thought the palpitation was more vio- 

 lent about a fortnight after the accident than when they examined him. The day 

 after the blow, they took 8 oz. of blood from his arm ; about 3 weeks after that» 

 they again opened a vein, but got not much from it: and 3 weeks after, they let 

 him blood the last time, to the amount of 8 oz. He began to have a cough 

 soon after the hurt, with frequent spittings of blood in very large quantities; 

 and had nocturnal sweats almost the whole 6 months, during which he survived 

 the blow. About 4 months after it, there came over the umbilical region of the 

 abdomen a livid appearance, like a mortification: but it went oft" gradually, and- 

 at length vanished. He had nothing particular in his habit of body, or state of 

 health; save that, about a year before this accident, he had been crippled with 

 the rheumatism. He was, when they saw him, a good deal reduced, but had 

 not a hectic nor consumptive look. 



On the day of his death, Mr. Cowell opAied him ; when to their great surprize, 

 they found no aneurysm, nor the least extravasation of blood, either from the 

 cavities of the heart or the large vessels. But on the left ventricle of the heart, 

 near its apex, there was a livid spot, almost as large as a half-crown piece, bruised 

 and jelly like; the part underneath being mortified quite to the cavity of the 

 ventricle. Thence upward, towards the auricle, there went several livid specks 

 and traces of inflammation, tending in like manner to gangrene. The heart 

 also, throughout its whole surface, adhered very closely to the pericardium; and 

 the whole outer surface of the pericardium, as closely to the lungs. The other 

 viscera were quite sound. So that the mischief here was properly a contusion 

 of the heart; the edge of the plate having struck it, probably at the instant of 

 its greatest diastole. This produced an inflammation on its surface, followed by 

 a gangrene, and terminating in that double adhesion, by w hich the whole heart 

 was fast tied up, till on this account, as well as by reason of the mortification, 

 it was no longer able to circulate the blood. 

 LI. The Method of Making Nitre in Podolia. By ff^olf, M. D. p. 356, 



In the present improved state of chemical knowledge, it would be of little use 

 to give a translation or abstract of this paper on the artificial preparation of nitre, 

 or to notice the author's conjectures concerning the origin of this salt. '^" 



