Part of a Letter from Mrs.--to Sir John Shadwell, Knt. M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, concerning the Extraordinary Skeleton Mentioned in the Two Preceding Papers

XVIII. Part of a Letter from Mrs.—— to Sir John Shadwell, Knt. M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, concerning the extraordinary Skeleton men- tioned in the Two preceding Papers. THE Man died in the County of Corke, 20 Miles from that City: When I was there, he was Steward to Mr. Allworth, his Name Clark; the Account I am going to give, I had from the Lady he lived with. Twenty Years before he died, he got a violent Fever, by being very warm, and sleeping on the Grass, most Part of a Night. After he recovered from that Disorder, he was never free from great Pains in his Bones, and in Four Years lost the Use of all his Limbs, even the moving his Jaws, that they were obliged to take out many of his Teeth, in the Front of his Mouth, to give him Sustenance, Spoon- meats, and Ale, on which he lived 16 Years: In those Years he could neither sit or lie down, but slept in a Sentry-box, with a small Board which ran in a Groove, and against that he leaned his Stomach: He could never move his Head, by a Bone that grew from his Skull to his Back-bone. I wrote you before, that he slept in the Box, but should have let you know, he did not live in it; for whenever the Weather would permit, he got into the Air: He could move him- self on even Ground, with a little kind of Jump, and stand many Hours in the Garden, leaning his Back against a Tree, or Wall: They think his moving with that that Motion, and being so much in the Air, kept him alive so long. The Picture * [see Tab. V. Fig. 1. 2.] is within Four Inches in Length and Breadth of the Bones. It is done by a very good Hand, and very exact; and every thing I have wrote to be depended on; and taken from the Bones; it is not a Copy. I was in Haste: Mr. Vandenhagen, who drew it, finished mine, and died suddenly, before he had quite done. XIX. A Narrative of a new Invention of expanding Fluids, by their being conveyed into certain ignifed Vessels, where they are immediately rarefied into an elastic impelling Force, sufficient to give Motion to Hydraulopneumatical and other Engines, for raising Water, and other Uses, &c. by John Payne. To produce a great Power at a small Expence, is what every body desires in moving Machinery; and is what, by this new Invention, we have proved by Experiments and Practice to be a great Improvement, when applied to that noble Invention the Fire-engine: Therefore I shall proceed to give a short Description of the Vessels and Machinery contrived for that Purpose; viz. A Pot or Vessel made of wrought or cast Iron, nearly the Figure of a Cone, whose Diameter at the * Now in the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane.