662 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 17Q0, 



It had a high character among the ancients as a remedy both external and in- 

 ternal. It is one in the list of ingredients in all the antidotes, from those of 

 Hippocrates, as given on the authority of Myrepsus and Nicolaus Alexandrinus, 

 to the officinals which have kept their ground till modern times under the names 

 of Mithridate and Venice Treacle. It is recommended by Galen and Alexander 

 Trallian in the dropsy and gravel. Celsus and Galen recommended it both ex- 

 ternally and internally in pains of the stomach and bowels. The first occasion 

 on which the latter was called to attend Marcus Aurelius was when that Emperor 

 was severely afflicted with an acute complaint in the bowels, answering by the 

 description to what we now call cholera morbus; and the first remedy he applied 

 was warm Oleum nardinum on wool to the stomach. He was so successful in 

 the treatment of this illness, that he ever afterwards enjoyed the highest favour 

 and confidence of the Emperor. It would appear, that the natives of India 

 consider it as an efficacious remedy in fevers, and its sensible qualities promise 

 virtues similar to those of other simples now in use among us in such cases. 

 Besides a strong aromatic flavour, it possesses a pungency to the taste little in- 

 ferior to the serpentaria, and much more considerable than the contrayerva. It 

 is mentioned in a work attributed to Galen, that a medicine, composed of this 

 and some other aromatics, was found useful in long protracted fevers, which are 

 the cases in which medicines of this class are employed in modern practice. PI. 

 8, fig. 1, is a representation of the plant. 



J[F. On some Extraordinary Effects of Lightning. By Wm. Withering, M. D. 



F. R. S. p. 293. 



This thunder cloud formed in the south, in the afternoon of Sept. 3, 1 789, 

 and took its course nearly due north. In its passage it set fire to a field of 

 standing corn ; but the rain presently extinguished the fire. Soon afterwards the 

 lightning struck an oak tree, in the Earl of Aylesford's park at Packington. 

 The height of this tree is 39 feet, including its trunk, which is 13 feet. It did 

 not strike the highest bough, but that which projected farthest southward. A 

 man, who had taken shelter against the north side of the tree, was struck dead 

 instantaneously, his clothes set on fire, and the moss (lichen) on the trunk of 

 the tree, where the back of his head had rested, was likev/ise burnt. Two 

 men, spectators of the accident, ran immediately towards him on seeing him 

 fall ; and as it rained hard, and a small lake had collected almost close to the spot, 

 the fire was very soon extinguished ; but the effects of the fire on one-half of 

 his body, and on his clothes, were such as to show that the whole burning was 

 instantaneous, not progressive. 



Part of the electric matter passed down a walking stick, which the man held 

 in his hand, sloping from him; and where the stick rested on the ground, it 

 made a perforation about 2^ inches in diameter, and 5 inches deep. All obser- 



