A Case Communicated by Mr. J. Mackarness, Apothecary, in Chipping-Norton, in Oxfordshire, of an Extraordinary Stone Voided by the Anus

C... Is Part of the inferior and Basis of the Os Frontis and Bregma, with some of the lower Part of the Sutura Coronalis; being very thin in the Middle where the Suture is, it shews its proper Bigness and Figure. 1. The Diploe. D.D.D. Three other Splinters in their proper Bignesses and Figures. I.I.I. The Diploe and both Tables. E... The Splinter that lapt over the Depression, which was sawed off. F. The Stone mentioned in the next Paper. VIII. A Case communicated by Mr. J. Mac-karness, Apothecary, in Chipping-Norton, in Oxfordshire, of an extraordinary Stone voided by the Anus. Mrs. Mary Smith, Wife of John Smith, of Chadlington in the County of Oxon, aged about 31, a tall well-shaped strong-made Woman, was seized with a violent Fever, accompanied with great Heat, Restlessness, Pain in the Head, Twitchings of the Tendons, pale Urine, unequal Pulse, Difficulty of breathing, great Costiveness, and without Thirst. She had a hard Labour about Three Weeks before. This Fever seized her the 2d of January 1727, and lasted till the 17th, during which Time she was very costive, and continued so till she had another Child, which was the latter End of February 1728, and was frequently subject to Attacks of of a Fever, notwithstanding she observed a most regular Temperance: Her Labour was always difficult, and she bred her Children very fast: She lay in again in December 1728. and in May 1731. and the Child she lay in with at this Time had a hollow Dent above the Temples, on the Left Side of the Head, and is now living. She lay in again in September 1732. and in October 1733. These Two last Labours were the most violent, and the Children had both Dents in the same Place of the Head, the last the biggest, the Hollow being big enough to contain half a small Orange; and the Two Children were still-born, but alive till the Moment they came to the Birth. In December 1733. she was seized with a Fever, and violent Pains cross her Loyns and Back, great Costiveness, Pain at the Neck of the Bladder, and a Pain and Heaviness about the Region of the Os Pubis. I took some Blood from her, gave her soft gentle Purges, with the intermediate Use of balsamic and diuretic oleaginous Mixtures and Apozems; but it was difficult to get any common Dose of purgative Medicines to work with her: I then had recourse to Clysters, but all without any Effect, except that her Fever remitted; but she had no Relief from her Pains, and her Costiveness increased, having no Stool but what was from Purges or Clysters, or both; and the Excrements that came from her were formed in a very odd Figure, like the Leavcs of the great House-leek, in Strata, one on the other; and thus she was for several Months, and then her Urine began to grow fetid, and a slimy Substance fell to the Bottom of the Por: Her Pains still continued; she found no Relief from any Medicines, except Opiates; Opiates; and these I was obliged to use but seldom, because of her Costiveness. The Stench of her Urine increased, and now a purulent Matter discharged itself in great Quantity: I concluded she had an Ulcer in the Bladder: Mr. Wisdom, a neighbouring Surgeon, passed a Catheter into the Bladder, and he perceived a Swelling just above the Groin, in the Left Hypochondre, which was very hard: We advised her to Patience and Resignation, in hopes Nature might point out some Method for her Relief; and gave her no more Medicines, but a soluble Electuary to procure her Stools, which she took every Night. After some Time, the fetid purulent Matter ceased from discharging itself in the Urine, but came away through the Vagina, after the manner of the Whites. She was quite emaciated, and grown to a Skeleton, by continual Pain, and those Discharges. In April 1735, another Turn happened: That purulent fetid Matter, which discharged itself at the Vagina, now came through the Anus; she complained of a prodigious Weight there, and about the Middle of June 1735, she had frequently very bloody Stools, and once a Discharge of more than half a Pint of fresh Blood. On the 2d of July, having Occasion to go to the Close-stool, as she sat there hard straining, but to no Purpose, she thought she felt a hard Substance ready for Expulsion, and sent for her Neighbours, who found a large Substance hard and rugged, (so much, that it tore one of the Womens Fingers, and made it bleed) in the lower Part of the Gut Rectum, close to the Sphincter Ani. Mr. Wisdom, the Surgeon, was immediately called, who endeavoured to ex- extract this Substance, and broke some Part of it off, but was forced to dilate the Rectum, and so extract it that Way. It was a hard unequal ragged flinty Stone, [see the Figure of it in Tab. IV. at F.] was Ten Inches and an half round, and weighed Eight Ounces and an half, after it was extracted. The Woman has been easy from that Moment; the Wounds, by the Care and Skill of her Chirurgions, are healed; she goes about her Business, has got a good deal of Flesh, and is recovered perfectly, except a Numbness and Contraction she has in some of her Fingers of both Hands, and both Feet and Toes. J. Mackarness. IX. An Account of Mr. Leeuwenhoek's Microscopes; by Mr. Henry Baker, F. R. S. Having been favoured by this Illustrious Society with an Opportunity of examining the much-talked-of Microscopes of the famous Mr. Leeuwenhoek, who, by his Glasses, made such wonderful Discoveries in the Minutiae of Nature, as have laid the Foundation of a Philosophy unknown to preceding Ages; I think it incumbent on me to shew the Use I have been making of them. Upon opening the Cabinet that contains these Microscopes, I laid before me an Account of them, drawn up, and presented to this Society, some Years ago, by its present worthy Vice-President Martin.