VOL. LVIir.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 551 



specimens of a blue earth sent him from different pArts of England: what Sir 

 Hans Sloane gave him from Ireland seems also to have been the same, and from 

 what he had quoted from Kentman and Cronstedt, it would appear, that it is 

 obtained on several parts of the continent. From all this, he thinks we may 

 conclude, that it might be procured in sufficient quantity to be a cheap paint; 

 particularly as it is in a manner levigated and prepared by nature. It iis to be 

 lamented, that its colour is so easily affected by alkalies, especially the volatile 

 alkali, which abounds so much in the atmosphere in towns, and by any consider- 

 able degree of heat. He had, however, never found any change produced on it 

 from being exposed for a considerable time to the air, or to the heat of a room 

 where a fire was kept constantly burning. 



XXFIII. Two Medical Observations by Dr. Joseph Benevuti, Physician at 



Lucca, p. 189. 



1 . Of a sick man surprizingly recovered from a fever. — A man 40 years of 

 age, of a plethoric constitution, and of a low size, having a malignant fever, 

 became on the 9th day delirious, and continued so during the 10th night: when, 

 several bad symptoms appearing, it was thought he must die soon. Early on the 

 11th day in the morning, he bid the by-standers quit his room, and expressed a 

 desire of going to sleep; his friends were unwilling to withdraw, unless they 

 first stripped him of his shirt- and dried him of the sweat he was in. But the 

 patient refusing, and at last being angry, they were obliged to yield to his will. 

 About an hour after, a woman went into the bed-room, and not finding the 

 man, she called the servants, who searched the house, and the well, into which 

 they feared he had thrown himself; but to no purpose. The keeper of the 

 baths at Lucca gave orders for every body to make a diliget)t search ; and on the 

 3d day the sick man was at last found in a vineyard, about 2 miles from his 

 house, hidden in a hut, where, he said, that the day before, he with great 

 astonishment found himself, without at all knowijjg how he came there. It 

 seemed to Dr. B. that he must have got down by the window of the bed- 

 chamber, which was not far from the ground. What seems most extraordinary 

 is, that, in order to quench his thirst, this man swallowed a large quantity of 

 snow, with which the earth was covered, it being in the winter; and that neither 

 this sort of drink, nor the cold air, did in the least affect him; for though he 

 had gone away from home all in a sweat, and with no other covering than his 

 shirt, yet he was freed from his fever, and was restored to his former health. 



1. Of an extraordinary great head. — Not long before. Dr. B. went toBenabii, 

 a town situated in the territory of Lucca, to see a man, whose head, he had 

 heard, was much larger than usual. Dr. B. saw the man, 30 years of age, and 

 yet of the size of a boy 7 years old, who was sitting on a couch seat, with his 



