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And in refpect to the lature of the animalcule that pro- fire was, however, attended with a report as loud as that of 

 duces thefe effects, it is remarked, that it can be preferved a pidol : a wire, which brought the electricity to his metal 

 alive in a quiefcent dried ilate, for twenty-eight years at rod, was broken in pieces, and its fragments thrown upon 

 lead, as has been (hewn by experiment, after the lapfe of M. Solokow's clothes. Upon examining the effects of the 

 which period it was found to revive as readily as if its vital lightning in the room, it was found that the door-cafe was 

 functions had been thus fufpended only for one day. It is half fplit through, and the door torn off and thrown into 

 further Hated as worthy of remark, that the eggs of this the room. An attempt was made to bleed the breathlefe 

 creature cannot be preferved for a length of time in a dry body, but no blood followed. The (hoe belonging to the 

 Rate, and dill retain their prolificacy, neither can thofe left foot was bind open, and uncovering the foot at that 

 among them which are very young, or thofe which have at- place, they found a blue mark, from which it was inferred 

 tained their full fize, be revived after they have been dried that the electrical fluid, having entered the head, made its 

 up. It is only thofe individuals that are in the full vigour way out again at the foot. 



of life, and iH a ilate foon to produce young, that are en- Upon the body were feveral red and blue fpots, but the 

 dowed with this fingular faculty. In this cafe, the obvious hair of the head was not linged. The flocking was entire 

 intention of nature is to preferve the fpecies, by keeping though the fhoe was ripped up ; the coat was uninjured 

 them in life until the grain (hall be fown, and thus to have though the waiftcoat was much finged ; and there appeared 

 a proper food provided for their progeny, however long that on the back of M. Solokow's coat long narrow ftreaks, as 

 may be. if red-hot wires had burnt off the nap. On opening the 



RICKMAN, George William, in Biography, a mem- body the cranium was entire, and the brain perfect, but the 

 ber of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Peterlburgh, tranfparent pellicles of the windpipe were exceffively tender 

 was born at Pernau in 17 1 1, after the deceafe of his father, gave way, and were eafily rent. There was fome cxtrava- 

 who was treafurer to the king of Sweden. Having ac- fated blood in it, as likevvife in the cavities below the lungs • 

 quired the rudiments of a good education in the gymna- thofe of the bread being quite found, but thofe towards 

 fium at Revel, he profecuted his ftudies at the univerlities the back were of a brownifn colour, and filled with more 

 of Halle and Jena, but applied chiefly to mathematics and of the above-mentioned blood : otherwife none of the en- 

 natural philofophy, to which he (hewed a particular attach- trails were touched, but the throat, the glands, and the 

 ment. In the year 1735 he was made a member of the Im- thin inteftines, were all inflamed. After two days the body 

 perial Academy of Sciences ; in 1 741 he became extraordi- was in fuch a ftate of putrefaction that it was with difficulty 

 nary profeffor, and in 1745 he was elected ordinary profeffor got into a coffin. Phil. Tranf. vol. xlix. pt. 1. Prieflley on 

 of experimental philofophy. He was from this period par- Electricity. 



ticularly attached to the new fcience of electricity, and ap- RICKMANSWORTH, or Ric kmereswokth, in Geo- 

 plied himfelf particularly to atmofpherical electricity. On graphy, a fmall market-town in the hundred of Cafhio and 

 the difcoveries made in this branch ol knowledge he had county of Hertford, England, occupies a low, moorifh fitua- 

 compofed a treatife, which he intended to read on the 6th tion near the confluence of the rivers Gade and Colne, at 

 of September 1753, sX a public meeting of the Academy ; the diftance of 19 miles N.W. from London. The manor 

 and in order to demonftrate what he might advance in the was an ancient demefne of the Saxon kings, and was given 

 difcourfc, he made a great number of experiments on divers by king Offa to the abbey of St. Alban's, to which it was 

 thunder clouds. In one of thefe the profeffor was (truck confirmed by fucceeding monarchs, and had the charter of 

 dead by a flafh of lightning, drawn by his apparatus into a weekly market and two annual fairs granted by Henry III. 

 his room. Of this fatal accident there are two accounts in The church is a fpacious edifice, confiding of a nave, aides, 

 the Tranfactions of the Royal Society. and chancel: it was repaired in the year 1677, and again in 



The profeffor had provided himfelf with a gnomon, an 1802: the large gallery at the wed end was probably erected 

 indrument to meafure the ftrength of the electricity of the about the former period. Previous to the late repairs, a 

 palling clouds. He was, on the 6th of Augult, N.S. 1 753, large altar-tomb, in memory of Henry Cary, baron of Le- 

 a little before noon, at the Academy, when it thundered at pington and earl of Monmouth, dood againit the fouth wall 

 a confiderable didrr.ee, the (ky being then clear and the fun of the chancel ; but being fuppofed to disfigure the place, 

 (hining bright. In the hope of confirming his former ob- it was removed ; and a memorial (lab of black marble, which 

 fervations, or of making (ome new ones, he hurried home, was affixed to the tomb, was let into the fouth wall, with 

 accompanied by Solokow an engraver, that the latter might feulptures in white marble of the family arms. AgainA tin- 

 make himlelt m after of the leading circmnflaiices of the north wall is a mural monument, to commemorate fir 

 electrical expenm nts, in order to be the better enabled to Thomas Fothorly (gentleman of the privy chamber to 

 reprefent it on a copper plate, winch was to be annexed to Charles I.), and his ion and grandfon. Several others of the 

 his diflertation. The philofopher led the engraver to his family are recorded on a flab on the floor. In the eafl part 

 apparatus, but while examining for his own ufe, or perhaps of the fouth aid' are three large altar-tombs, in which are 

 defcribing the effect of the < k-ttricity on the gnomon to his depofited the remains of the families of Colte, Salter, and 

 friend, with his head inclined towards it, I - »ed a vio- Whitfield, inhabitants of this town. In the north aiile .1 

 lent fhock, which indantly deprived him ol exiitence. M. neat mural monument records the memory of Timothy 

 Solokow bbferved, he faid, a globe ol blue lire, as big as Earle, cfq. of Moor-houfe, who died in May 1787, at 

 his fift, jump from the rod of the gnomon tow 1 bead 80; and alfo of Dorothy his wife* A marble tablet againft 

 of the profeffor, which was .it the inlt'ant about a foot from the north wall commemorates admiral William Bladwell, 



formerly of Money-hill in this paridi, who died in March 

 1783, at the age of So. 



Rickmanfworth, by the vicinity of feveral dream 9, . ren- 

 dered very convenient lor trades that require the affiit,: nc< ol 



. feveral nulls have confequently been erected for va- 



the rod. This flafh killed M. Rickman, but M. Solokow 

 could give no account of the particular manner in which he 

 was immediately affected by it ; for, at the fame time that 

 the profeffor was (truck, there arofe a fort of (fa an, or va- 

 pour, which entirely benumbed him* and made him link to 



the ground, to' that he did not even remember to have heard nous purposes in its neighbourhood: a large cotton and 

 the clip <.'i thunder, which was very loud. The globe of flour-mill at the fouth entrance to the town ; one lor flock 



and 



