Haller, in his Opuscula Pathologica, gives the history of a young lady of quality who had 2 wombs, each of an oval shape, and furnished with its own peculiar vagina. One of these vagina was anterior, and communicated with the right womb; the other was posterior, and led to the left. And it is worth observing, that in these two cases, and in most others of the same kind, which have been hitherto observed, each uterus had only 1 ovarium, and 1 tube.

A double uterus is described by O. Acrel, in a treatise printed at Stockholm, in 1762; and in the 7th vol. of Haller's Elementa Physiologiæ, various authors are referred to, who deserve to be consulted on this subject. In some of these we find examples of 2 wombs, or 1 uterus divided into two cornua. In other instances the uterus retained its proper external appearance, though it was really double, its cavity being divided by a septum.

Since therefore it is certain that, in the structure of the parts of generation, Nature frequently deviates from her ordinary course, practitioners in midwifery ought to consider how many difficulties they may perhaps be exposed to, by not attending to the possibility of sometimes meeting with those organs formed in the same manner as in the subject of this essay. An attention of this kind would probably have been of the utmost consequence in the present case; for the orifice of the unimpregnated uterus was so far dilated, as easily to admit 2. fingers, which might have arisen from the attempts of the midwife to bring on delivery: nor can we conceive any thing more vexatious than such a case would prove, were it to fall into the hands of an inexperienced person; as the orifices of the different wombs presenting themselves alternately to his touch, he might entertain doubts of the pregnancy of his patient, even when her labour was approaching; and, by endeavouring to dilate the left vagina, all his efforts to promote delivery, would only serve to render it more difficult, or perhaps impracticable.

XLVIII. On some Specimens of Native Salts, collected by Dr. Brownrigg, and shewn at a Meeting of the R. S., June 23, 1774. p. 481.

This

paper contains a description of some specimens of native salts, mentioning at the same time the places where they were found.

END OF THE SIXTY-Fourth volUME OF THE ORIGINAL..

I. Experiments on the Torpedo, made at Leghorn, January 1, 1773. By Dr.. John Ingenhousz, F. R. S. Anno 1775. Vol. LXV. på 1...

As I could get no torpedos alive to my lodgings at Leghorn, I hired a fishing * Dr. Ingenhousz, was a native of Breda, and for some time practised physic in his native coun try. About the year 1767 he came to England, to learn the Suttonian method of inoculating the

vessel, called a tartana, with 18 men, and went out 20 miles to sea, where the bottom is muddy, and where those fish are chiefly to be found. We caught 5; of which 4 were about a foot in length, and the other of a smaller size. Before the nets were taken up, I charged a coated jar by a glass tube, and gave a shock to some of the sailors, who all said they felt the same sensation as when they touched the torpedo. They also said, that this animal has but very little force in winter, and cannot live a long time out of the water. I put the torpedos immediately into a tub, filled with sea water, together with 2 or 3 other fishes, which I found not at all hurt by their company. I took one of the torpedos in my hand, so that my thumbs pressed gently the upper side of those two soft bodies at the side of the head, called (perhaps very improperly) musculi falcati by Redi and Lorenzini, while my forefingers pressed the opposite side. About a minute or 2 after, I felt a sudden trembling in my thumbs, which extended no farther than my hands: this lasted about 2 or 3 seconds. After some seconds more, the same trembling was felt again. Sometimes it did not return in several minutes, and then came again, at very different intervals. Sometimes I felt the trembling both in my fingers and thumb. These tremors gave me the same sensation as if a great number of very small electrical bottles were discharged through my hand very quickly one after the other. The fish occasioned the shock, or trembling, as well cut of the water as in it. The shock lasted sometimes scarcely a second; sometimes 2 or 3 seconds. Sometimes it was very weak; at other times so strong, that I was very near being obliged to quit my hold of the animal. The torpedo having given one shock, did not seem to lose the power of giving another of the same force soon after; for I observed several times, that the shocks, when they followed one another very fast, were stronger at last than in the beginning; and this was the same when the fish was under water as when kept out of it. The pressure of my fingers, more or less strong,

small-pox; and in 1768, on the recommendation of Sir John Pringle, he was engaged to go to Vienna to inoculate the Archduchess Teresa-Elizabeth, daughter of the emperor Joseph II., and his majesty's two brothers, the archdukes Ferdinand and Maximilian; and the next year he went to Italy and inoculated the grand duke of Tuscany. The rewards of these services were the rank of body physician and counsellor of state to their Imperial Majesties, with a pension for life of about 6001. sterling per annum. For many years afterwards he resided chiefly in England, almost unceasingly employed in scientific pursuits, till the time of his death, which happened at Bowood Park, the seat of the marquis of Lansdowne, Sept. 7, 1799, at a very advanced age. Dr. I. was a man of great simplicity of manners, and benevolence of disposition; to whom the public are indebted for several curious and useful discoveries; particularly in the application of pneumatic chemistry and natural philosophy, to the purposes of medical and agricultural improvements. Besides several ingenious papers in the Philos. Trans. from vol. 65 to vol. 70, Dr. I. published in 1779, "Experiments on Vegetables, discovering their great power of purifying the common air in sunshine, and of injuring it in the shade and at night;" which have since been extended and improved, and republished on the Continent, in collections of his works in French and German editions, which include also his papers in the Phil. Trans, and others which were published in the Journal de Physique.

did not seem to make any alteration in the powers of the torpedo. Applying a brass chain to the back of the fish, where I had put my thumb before, I found no sensation at all in my hand, though I repeated the experiment often, and applied the chain for a space of time in which I always perceived a stroke.* This was probably owing to the weakness of the fish in winter; or perhaps because I neglected to put my finger to its opposite side. Having insulated myself on an electrical stand, and keeping the torpedo in my hand, in the manner abovementioned, I gave not the least sign of being electrified, whether I received a stroke from the fish or not. The torpedo being suspended by a clean and dry silk ribband, it attracted no light bodies, such as pith-balls, or others, put near it. A coated bottle applied to the fish, thus suspended, did not at all become charged. When the fish gave the shock in the dark, I heard no crackling noise, nor perceived any spark. When pinched with my nails, it did not give more or fewer strokes than when not pinched. But by folding his body, or bending his right side to his left side, I felt more frequent shocks. Dr. Drummond made these experiments with me.

We dissected some of the torpedos, and found, if I remember well, 4 very large bundles of nerves, passing sidewards from the head into the 2 soft bodies, called musculi falcati, and distributed by dense ramifications through their whole substance. These nerves seem to terminate in round threads, which surround certain cylinders of a transparent gelatinous substance, which seems to constitute the material part of these singular bodies that appear to be the reservoirs of the electric power: these cylinders are parallel to each other, and have their direction from the under to the upper side of the fish. I did not observe whether these soft bodies changed in size when the torpedo gives a shock, but I suspect they do.

II. Of Two Giants Causeways, or Groups of Prismatic Basaltine Columns, and other curious Vulcanic Concretions, in the Venetian State in Italy; with some Remarks on the Characters of these and other Similar Bodies, and on the Physical Geography of the Countries in which they are found. By John Strange, Esq. F. R. S. p. 5.

Mr. S. first gives a topographical view of a part of the south-east side of a hill, called Monte Rosso, about 7 miles nearly south of Padua, in the Venetian State in Italy, and a mile to the west of Abano, a village well known, from the celebrated hot baths of that name, and which are situated at half a mile distance

* Dr. Ingenhousz means, that he felt no shock, though he saw the animal, by the contortion of its body, give one to the chain. At that time he did not seem to know, that though the shock would be communicated by a rod of any metal, it could not be so by a chain, or where there was the least interruption of continuity.-Orig.

to the south of it. This view particularly represents a natural range of prismatic columns, of different shapes and sizes, placed in a direction nearly perpendicular to the horizon, and parallel to each other, much resembling that part of the famous Giant's Causeway in Ireland, called The Organs. The next is a similar representation of the west side of another basaltine hill, called Il Monte Del Diavolo, or the Devil's Hill, near San Giovanni Illarione, also in the Venetian State, and Veronese district, about 10 miles nearly north west of Vicenza. The prismatic columns appear to be ranged in an oblique position, along the side of the hill. This drawing however represents only a part of the Causeway of San Giovanni, which continues along the side of a valley, nearly in the same manner, to a considerable distance. Though the columns of both these hills are of the simple, or unjointed species, yet they differ very remarkably from each other in many respects, but principally in their forms, and the texture and quality of their parts. Those of San Giovanni commonly approach a circular form, as nearly as. their angles will permit; which is also observable in the columns of the Giants Causeway, and of most other basaltine groups. On the contrary, those of Monte Rosso rather affect an oblong or oval figure. The columns of San Giovanni measure, one with the other, near a foot in diameter; nor do they vary much in their size; though this is often the case in similar groups, and is particularly observable in that of Monte Rosso, whose columns sometimes equal nearly a foot in diameter, while others scarcely exceed 3 inches : their common width is about 6 or 8 inches. They differ therefore very con-siderably, in size, from those of the Giants Causeway; some of which, it is well known, measure 2 feet in width. Nothing certain can be said concerning the length of the columns of San Giovanni, as they present only their tops to view; the remaining parts of them being deeply buried in the hill, and in someplaces entirely covered. The columns of Monte Rosso, as far as they are visible, measure only from 6 to 8 or 10 feet in height; which is also a small size, when compared with the height of those of the Giants Causeway, some of which measure near 40 feet. The columns of the Venetian groups manifest however all the varieties of prismatic forms, that are observable in those of the Giants Causeway, and other similar groups. But they are commonly either of 5, 6, or 7 sides; but the hexagonal form seems mostly to prevail, which is also remarkable in the Giants Causeway, and probably in most others. Nor is there less difference in the texture and qualities of these columns, than in their forms. Those of San Giovanni present a smooth surface, and, when broken, appear within of a dark iron grey colour, manifesting also a very solid and uniform texture; in which characters they correspond with the columns of the Giants. Causeway, and those of most other basaltine groups. But the columns of Monte Rosso are very different in all these respects. For they have not only a

very rough, and sometimes knotty surface, but, when broken, show a variegated colour and unequal texture of parts. They are commonly speckled, as it were, more or less distinctly, and resemble an inferior sort of granite, of which Monte Rosso itself is formed, and which serves as a base to the range of columns in question. It is, in general, not quite so hard as the Alpine and Oriental this

granites, and is sometimes even friable. Linnæus justly observes, the

species of granite abounds in France; for I have lately seen large tracts of it in the neighbouring provinces of Auvergne, Velay, and Lionnois; and apprehend, that it likewise abounds in the Vivarey, Gevaudan, and Sevennes mountains; from the affinity observable in the physical geography of those countries. But it is equally common in Italy; for besides Monte Rosso, the bulk of the Euganean hills in general, of which that is a part, principally consists of it; and these hills occupy a considerable tract in the plains of Lombardy. It is also common in the Tuscan and Roman States: the mountain close to Viterbo, on the road to Rome, is entirely composed of it. The columns of Monte Rosso' appear therefore of a different character from any hitherto described by mineralogists, who only mention those of a uniform colour and texture. But the great singularity here is, that such a range of prismatic columns should be found bedded, as it were, in a mass of granite, and composed nearly of the same substance; of which I never yet saw or heard any other instance. This circumstance seems therefore to render the causeway of Monte Rosso more curious and singular than the famous one in Ireland is known to be, from the regular articulation of its columns; the same phenomenon having lately been discovered at Staffa, one of the western islands of Scotland. Different groups of articulated basaltine columns have likewise been observed in the province of Auvergne in France; particularly by M. Beost de Varennes, at Blaud near Langeac; and' by M. Desmarests, near le Mont d'Or. M. Sage also mentions another near St. Alcon, in the same province. The Monte Rosso group is, however, not only curious in itself, but very interesting, on account of the great light it seems to throw on the origin of granites in general.

It is remarkable, that the columns in the two different groups of Monte Rosso and San Giovanni, preserve respectively the same position, nearly parallel to each other; which is not commonly the case in other basaltine groups. For though the principal aggregate, which forms the Giants Causeway, stands in a direction perpendicular to the horizon; yet other small detached groups of columns also appear in the hill above, that affect by their position, different degrees of obliquity. Among the numerous basaltine hills of Auvergne and Velay, in France, which seem to abound in those provinces more than in any other part of Europe, and perhaps of the known globe, nothing is more common than to see the columns of the same group lying in all possible directions, as

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