144 
j 
Had this been attended to by fome of 
our Inth members, who are now obliged 
to pafs this ferry to attend their parlia- 
mentary duties, it would in all probability 
have prevented the dittrefling event fo 
Fately witneffed at this place, and be a 
moft excellent accommodation to the 
public in the more regular and fuperior 
facility of our communications. 
Nailfworth, Yow’s, &c. 
January, 1807. TN: 
= 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, 
HE farfical fecret of the “ Tnvifible 
Gil,” p. 70, and that of all the 
fpeaking figures that have ever been ex- 
hibited tur the purpote of deceiving the 
unwary with a belief of fupernatural 
_agency, or of exciting the wonder of per- 
fons. lefs incredulous, may be feen at 
Jarge in the fecond volume of that very 
curious work, the Mujurgia Univerfalis 
of Father Kircher, where, on that fimple 
principle of the effects of reverberated 
founds, many fimilar experiments are ex- 
hibited. itis probable that moit of the 
modern mechanicians of thefe figures have 
derived their knowledge, or at leaft have 
taken their principles from the above book. 
In your Literary and Philofophical 
Intelligence, p. 72, it is noticed that 
M. Defmarets « has determined, that 
mott of the proceffes of weaving, at pre- 
fent ufed, were known in the tenth cen- 
tury. If any one fhould have an oppor- 
tunity of examining the fragments of 
linen that are found in the mummies of 
the ibis, he will perceive that the art of 
weaving, fo far as relates to the above 
commodity, was precifely the fame as at 
prefent in the moft remote ages of which ° 
we have any monuments remaining. In 
fome of thefe there have been found {pe- 
cimens of darning the linen with thread, 
the inftrument for which procefs mutt 
have been fimilar to the common needle. 
This might fupply the commentators on 
the Manners of Homer’s Odyffey with 
the means of illuftraion. Your's, &e. 
Hebruary 5, 1807. D. 
=" 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. : 
“the whole vegetable and. mineral kings 
SIR, 
S lam induced to believe that any 
communication which has for its 
_ object the elucidation of a fubjeét, that 
has excited fuch general and painful in- 
tereft in the public mind, as the difeafe 
termed nydrophobia (arifing from the bite 
of rabid animals,) muft merit and receive 
that aticution which its importance ap- 
Secret of the Invisible Girl.—Refutation of 
[March .; 
pears to demand; I fhall, without further 
preface, proceed to attempt a refutation 
of the many exaggerated and erroneous 
accounts, which have been fo indaftrioufly 
circulated through the medium of refpect- 
able newfpapers, wherein it is {lated that 
perfons have been feized with hydropho- 
bia, and fmothered or bled to death, as . 
the: only means of refcuing them from the 
dreadful malady. 
Thefe accounts are fo extremely fabu- 
lous and abfurd, that I wonder the 
Editors of  thofe papers fhould for a 
moment have contidered them worthy of 
— and by infertion give them 
that degree of importance, which they 
could not otherwife have attained, there- 
by inereafing a {tate of terror and alarm, 
_ which has, in my opinion, been fo impro- 
perly and unneceflarily created; for I 
conceive there is not to be found a pro- 
feffional man, who would have the teme- 
rity to refort to fuch fanguinary means of 
getting rid of his patients, as he muft in 
confequence become amenable to the’ 
laws of his country. 
Admitting that there may have oc- 
curred two or three cafes of dogs really 
rabid, (for Iam inclined to believe that 
part of the late reports, may have arifen 
from fomething like faét,) fill I will main- 
tain that they have by no means in- 
creafed to that extent, which has been fo 
generally accredited; and further, that 
not a finele inftance of hydrophobia has 
recently ‘taken place in this metropolis ; . 
the report has originated in error, and ig 
continued through prejudice. “I have 
been at contiderable pains to afcertain 
this, by making inquines, not only among 
my ‘medical friends, but likewife-in moit 
of the public inititutions in this town ; in-_ 
deed, the very circumftances, under which 
it is faid to have taken place, is a direct 
negative to the faét, the difeafe having” 
never been known to commence imme- 
diately after the bite, generally not for 
weeks, or months. The Editors of the 
papers above alluded to, not fatisfied with 
eftablifhing the exilience of the difeafe, 
mutt delude the public s yet farther by the 
propagation of remedies’ equally falla~ 
cious, and for the produ¢a@sn of which, 
doms appear to have been exhautted ; 
thefe remedies, if attended to by petfehs 
really infected, are calculated to produce 
the wortt of confequences, as they would 
be betraying the patient into a falfe fe- 
curity, whilft the difeafe was working by 
flow, but infidious fieps, towards his de- 
firuction. The only certain remedy for 
1 the 
