VOL. LV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IQQ 



lights should, at any time hereafter, be removed nearer to the point, the fore- 

 going principle might be very conveniently and advantageously applied, so as to 

 enable entire strangers to enter the Humber, with the greatest security, even in 

 the darkest nights, provided only they could see the lights; and this is the more 

 material, as in dangerous weather it is often the best and most secure retreat be- 

 tween the Thames and the Tyne; but the difficulty of entering it, for want of 

 proper helps, often obliges ships to keep the sea, not without great difficulty and 

 hazard, when they might lie here in perfect safety. 



J[I. An Uncommon Anatomical Observation, addressed to the R. S. By John 

 Baptist Paitoni, Physician at Fenice. Translated from the Italian, p. 79, 



The subject of this observation was a woman of about 25, of a swarthy com- 

 plexion, who had from her infancy been subject to a troublesome convulsive 

 cough, and shortness of breath on any extraordinary exercise; yet she was to all 

 outward appearances of a hale and strong constitution, having a regular and 

 plentiful discharge of her menstrua, which used to relieve her a few days from 

 her disorder. At the above age, after having been singing and dancing with her 

 friends in the carnival time, being taken suddenly with a cough more violent than 

 usual, and a shortness of breath, she dropped into the arms of one of her ac- 

 quaintance, and vomiting at the same time a little serous and frothy liquor, died 

 immediately. 



The body being opened the next morning in the presence of some of the col- 

 lege of physicians, the viscera of the lower cavity were first examined, and found 

 quite sound; the stomach only was a little distended, owing to what the deceased 

 had eaten a few moments before her death; but the cause of her death was found 

 in the thorax, the right lobe of her lungs being wanting. The external mem- 

 brane, which ought to cover the right lobe of the lungs, was of a livid colour, 

 and adhered to the pleura. This membrane being cut through, instead of the 

 true lobe, there was found in its place a membranous bag of a milky colour, 

 without any visible outlet, and much of the same size as that part of the lungs 

 which was wanting. This bag being opened, there came out into the thorax a 

 serous fluid, void of smell, which being spread on the table, was found, as to 

 figure, colour, and substance, much to resemble a cuttle fish. 



It being evident from this, that there was in the thorax a receptacle of serosity 

 contiguous to the sound lobe, it will not appear strange that, from the violent 

 agitation caused by the singing and dancing, the bag burst, and that the sound 

 lobe, which alone used to perform the office of breathing, being hindered, by the 

 serous matter which came out, from exerting its influence, a suffocation ensued. 

 The causes of her habitual disorder are equally obvious. In a perfect state of 

 health there should be two lobes, which together receive the blood from the right 



