An Account of an Extraordinary Case of a Child. By Mr. Richard Guy, Surgeon

luxuriant imaginary systems, which rather force than elucidate, and very little agree with the laws of nature. Who hitherto has ever rightly explained the origin of mountains? We perhaps know some particular causes, but how can we draw from them general conclusions? The bones of animals, which are found in the interior fissures of the mountain, demonstrate it to be formed by a ruinous cause. This suffices not to explain, but only to illustrate, the subject. In the annexed Plate I. A is the mountain Taberg. B, B, B, the heaps of broken ore. C, C, C, the sand brought forth from the fissures. D, D, the neighbouring stony rock; and E, the miners houses. I am, SIR, &c. Peter Ascanius. IX. An Account of an extraordinary Case of a Child. By Mr. Richard Guy, Surgeon. Read Feb. 13. 1755. A Child near seven years of age, the daughter of an eminent tradesman in Bishopsgate-street, having languished, for near twelve months past, of a supposed dropsy, and undergone the most skilful treatment of several eminent physicians unsuccessfully, died in an emaciated state. By desire of the parent, I opened the body, expecting to find water, but, to my great surprize, there appeared as follows: A large round solid substance, shaped in the form of an egg, weighing fourteen fourteen pounds two ounces and an half, of the adipose cellular consistence; some parts of it being more brawny than others. On dividing it through the center, were found several little cists, containing a meliceratous fluid; the whole seemed invelop'd in a membrane, which I apprehend to be the omentum, but the extension, from so large a body contained in it, had made it almost loose its reticular appearance. It was surrounded with many small blood-vessels, but no considerable ones. It adhered to the peritoneum, the back-bone, and almost all the internal cavity of the abdomen, resting the large end in the pelvis, and thereby greatly compressing the bladder and ureters. The intestines were all crowded together on the right side, in as small a compass as could possibly contain them. The intestine colon passed round the lower part, in the form of an S, which adhered likewise: it also invelop'd the right kidney, which appeared something bigger than the other; and, upon dividing it, I found small stones, not exceeding the size of a large pin's head. The other kidney did not adhere to this substance. The small end pressed upwards against the diaphragm, so hard, as to force the heart close under the left clavícula: the lungs were so confined, as to render only one lobe capable of respiration; the others appeared as in a still-born child. The liver, gall-bladder, and spleen, were as in health; the intestines the same; the mesentery was much extended with blood; the matrix and ovaria as in their natural state; and no other parts, that I could discover, affected. I could not discover, on dissection, any nuclei, that might particularly supply, or give rise to, this enormous substance. The child died the 5th instant. I have preserved the substance at my house in Mark-lane. Feb. 6, 1755. Richard Guy, Surgeon. X. Extracts of Two Letters from Mr. James Latterman, Student in Physic and Surgery, to Dr. Schloffer, now residing in London, concerning the Effects of the Agaric of the Oak, after some of the most capital Operations in Surgery. To which are added, Some remarkable Experiments made upon the Arteries of Horses, with the Powder of the Lycoperdon, or Lupi Crepitus; by Monsieur La Fosse, Farrier to the King of France. Communicated by Mr. Joseph Warner, F. R. S. Surgeon of Guy's Hospital. Extract of the First Letter, dated at Paris, January 15, 1755. Read Feb. 13, 1755. Dr. Latterman informs Dr. Schloffer of his having made application to Monsieur Andouillet, Monsieur Moreau, and to many other surgeons of note, to know upon what subjects, and how often, they have made use of the agaric of the oak. Monsieur Andouillet informs Dr. Latterman,