55'4 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 T] A. 



wards his poles. Once I saw, with a 1 '2-inch reflector, a spot burst to pieces 

 while I was looking at it. I could not expect such an event; and therefore can- 

 not be certain of the exact particulars; but the appearance, as it struck me at 

 the time, was like that of a piece of ice when dashed on a frozen pond, which 

 breaks to pieces and slides on the surface in various directions. I was then a 

 very young astronomer; but think I may be sure of the fact. Perhaps I may 

 be thought a young astronomer still, for throwing out these rough observations 

 and crude thoughts: but whatever they be, if my errors shall lead others into 

 inquiries which may be productive of certainty, their end will be answered. 



XXXV. An Account of a Woman accidentally Burnt to Death at Coventry. 

 By B. Wilmer, Surgeon, Coventry, p. 340. 



Mary Clues, of Gosford-street in this city, aged 52 years, was of an indif- 

 ferent character, and nmch addicted to drinking. Since the death of her husband, 

 which happened about l-l-year before, her propensity to this vice increased to such 

 a degree, that, as Mr. W. was informed by several of her neighbours, she had 

 drunk the quantity of 4J- pints of rum, undiluted with any other liquor, in a day. 

 This practice was so familiar to her, that scarcely a day had passed for a year be- 

 fore her death, but she swallowed from 4- a pint to a quart of rum or aniseed- 

 water. Her health gradually declined; and, from being a jolly, well-looking 

 woman, she became thinner, her complexion" altered, and her skin became dry. 

 About the beginning of Feb. 1774, she was attacked with the jaundice, and 

 took to her bed. Though she was then so helpless, as hardly to be able to do 

 any thing for herself, she continued her old custom of dram-drinking, and gene- 

 rally smoked a pipe every night. No one lived with her in the house. Her 

 neighbours used, in the day, frequently to come in to see after her, and in the 

 night, commonly, though not always, a person sat up with her. 



Her bed-room was next the street, on the ground-floor, the walls of which 

 were plastered, and the floor made of bricks. The chimney was small, and 

 there was a grate in it, which, from its size, could contain but a very small 

 quantity of fire. Her bedstead stood parallel to, and at the distance of about 3 

 feet from, the chimney. The bed's head was close to the wall. On the other 

 side the bed, opposite the chimney, was a window opening to the street. One 

 curtain only belonged to the bed, which was hung on the side next the window, 

 to prevent the light being troublesome. She was accustomed to lie on her side, 

 close to the edge of the bedstead, next the fire; and on Sunday morning, March 

 the 1st, she tumbled on the floor, where her helpless state obliged her to lie 

 some time, till a neighbour came accidentally to see her, who with some diffi- 

 culty got her into bed. The same night, though she was advised to it, she 

 refused to have any one to sit up with her; and at -J- past 1 1, one Brooks, who 



