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in a place near the ftable, and endeavoured to get at them, but were not able for the fnow. They called often for help, but were heard by none. The fifter gave two chefnuts to the wife, and eat two herself, and they drank some snow water. The afs was reftlefs, and the goats kept bleating for fome days; after which they heard no more of them. Two of the goats, however, being left alive, and near the manger, they felt them, and found that one of them was big, and would kid, as they recollected, about the middle of April; the other gave milk, wherewith they preferved their lives. During all the time they faw not one ray of light; yet for about twenty days they had fome notice of night and day from the crow ing of the fowls, till they died.

The fecond day, being very hungry, they eat all the chefnuts, and drank what milk the goat yielded, being near two pounds a-day at first, but it foon decreased. The third day they attempt ed again, but in vain, to get at the cakes: fo refolved to take all poffible care to feed the goats; for just above the manger was a hay-loft, whence through a hole the fifter pulled down hay into the rack, and gave it to the goats as long as she could reach it, and then, when it was beyond her reach, the goats climbed upon her fhoulders, and reached it themselves.

On the fixth day the boy fickened, and his illness continued fix days; on the last of which he desired his mother, who all this time had held him in her lap, to lay him at his length in the manger. She did fo; and taking him by the hand, felt it was very cold: fhe then put her hand to his mouth, and finding that cold likewife, fhe gave him a little milk. The boy then cried, “Oh my father in the fnow! Oh father, father!" and then expired.

In the mean while the goats milk diminished daily, and the fowls foon after dying, they could no more diftinguish night and day; but, according to their reckoning, the time was near when the other goat should kid; which at length they knew was come by its cries. The

fifter helped it, and they killed the kid, to fave the milk for their own subsist ence. So they found that the middle of April was come. Whenever they called this goat, it would come and lick their faces and hands, and gave them every day two pounds of milk, on which account they still bear the poor creature a great affection.

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They faid, that, during all this time, hunger gave them but little uneasiness, except for the first five or fix days; that their greatest pain was from the extreme coldness of the melted fnow. water which fell on them, from the ftench of the dead afs, goats, fowls, &c. and from lice; but more than all from the very uneafy pofture they were confined to, the manger in which they fat fquatting against the wall, being no more than three feet four inches broad.

After the first two or three days they had no evacuation by ftool. The melted fnow-water and milk were discharged by urine. The mother faid she had never flept, but the fifter and daughter declared they flept as ufual. The mother and fifter faid, that on the day they were buried their monthly evacuations were upon them, but that they had not the leaft fign of them afterwards.

Attefted before the intendant by the faid

women the 16th of May 1755.

From the Philof. Tranf. vol. 49. part 2. An account of a Latin treatise, prefented and dedicated to the royal fociety, intitled, Gottlob Caroli Springsfeld, M. D. commentatio de prærogativa thermarum Carolinarum in diffolvendo calculo veficæ præ aqua calcis vivæ, by William Watfon, F.R. S.

Taken from the London Magazine, to which we have added the note, p. 414.

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thefe waters have that property in a much higher degree than even lime-water. The Carlibad waters have been long celebrated for their excellent effects in removing, or at least relieving, many of the disorders to which mankind is fubject. How high they stood in the opi nion of the great Hoffman, almoft every part of his writings bears teftimony; and if, to their other before-known properties, they fhould prove a fafe, eafy, and effectual folvent for the ftone in the kidneys and bladder, it certainly would greatly enhance their value.

Our author has very attentively confidered the writings of Drs Jurin, Hales, Hartley, Whytt, and others, concerning folvents for the ftone. He has adminiftered to several patients, with little or no fuccefs, the late Mrs Stephens's me. dicine [i. 268.], with the ftrictest obfervance of all the cautions faid to be neceffary in courfes of that medicine. And though he allows every thing to be true that has been laid down by Dr Whytt and others, in relation to oyfter fhell lime-water, he does not fcruple to affert, that the Carlsbad waters, which have great analogy to calcarious waters, are a far more excellent folvent for the stone in the kidneys and bladder than any lime-water. Of this truth he is fatisfied by various experiments, feveral of which were made by himself alone, and others in conjunction with our learned and ingenious brother Dr Lieberkuhn, whole exactnefs as well as fidelity in making experiments of this kind no one will queftion.

Dr Springsfeld, in a treatife upon the Carlsbad waters publifhed by him in the year 1749, has fhewn, by undoubted experiments, that thefe waters partake always of an alcaline principle: for every pint of them, befides the neutral purging falt, contains three grains of alcaline falt, and ten grains of calcarious earth; for which reafon they ferment with every species of acids. I before mentioned, that these waters have great analogy with lime-water; and if they continue In the baths for any confiderable time, they not only turn milky, like lime-water, but have a pellicle upon them as

that water is obferved to have. They have likewife a gently-conftringing taste; that was it not for their faline tafte, they could not eafily be diftinguished from lime-water.

It must here be premised, that all hard bodies, viz. pieces of wood, bone, stones, earthen veffels, bits of straw, and fuch like, are incrusted over by lying in the Carlsbad waters, and that in a very little time. These bodies, in the space of a night, will be covered with a topha ceous cruft, which continually increases. But human calculi, though hard in themfelves, are not incrusted thereby, but are rather diffolved; which is the more remarkable. The fame effects are obfer ved upon pieces of the hardest cheese, which fwell in thefe waters, and are changed into a kind of pultice.

In the treatise before us, our author has given the detail of many experi ments, which prove the folvent power of these waters. Ifhall lay a few of them only before you, from which an opinion both of our author's exactness in making them, as well as how far he is juftified in his conclufions, may be form ed. And here I must observe, which fhould be a very comfortable confideration for the inhabitants in thofe parts, that our author has been obliged fre quently to fufpend his refearches for want of human calculi, which is a disease exceedingly rare in Bohemia.

June 20. 1749. A ftone of a brown colour, which weighed near two ounees and a half, was placed in a china bason near that fource which is called Brudel, in fuch a manner as to be continually covered with the warm water. Upon the next day the external crust began to grow foft; upon the third, you night make an impreffion thereupon with your nail, as upon cheese; upon the fourth and fifth, it was diffolved to the nucleus; upon the fixth, the nucleus itself was diffolved, and in the bottom of the bason there was left a white vifcid mass, like pultice, or newly-steeped cheese: this was impalpable between the fingers. In this time the bafon was incrusted with a very hard tophaceous mafs, of the thicknefs of a quill. Certain calculi, not

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bigger than peafe, were diffolved thoroughly, fome in one day, and the reft in two.

June 12. 1750. A ftone weighing more than half an ounce, was placed in the fame manner as the former, and not a grain of it remained on the fourth day. At this time a clergyman who was in a course of these waters for gouty com plaints, voided fix ftones, which all were diffolved in the fame manner.

A nobleman who was afflicted with bloody urine, from calculi in the kidneys, came to Carlsbad for the relief of his complaints; and brought with him fome small calculi, which he had voided a few years before. By Dr Lieberkuhn's advice, Dr Springsfeld divided thefe caleuli into four equal parts, each of which weighed fix grains. One part of thefe was infufed in the water of the fource called Brudel; the second, in the new spring; the third, in that near the mill. In twelve hours the first part had loft five grains; the fecond, four; and the third only one grain. The fourth portion was put upon a linen rag, which was stretched over the bottom of a funnel. Into this funnel the nobleman was directed to make water every day before dinner, after his having drank his quantity of Carlsbad water. Upon this, thefe calculi, after eight days, had loft two thirds of their weight, viz. four grains. It must be here remarked, that this nobleman, during the regimen, did void several fmall calculi, which he had not done for fome years. A larger quantity of bloody urine than ufual attended the parting with these stones; but this continued only two or three days, and afterwards went quite off; and this nobleman from that time was relieved from his former complaints, has enjoyed, and does yet enjoy, the most perfect health.

In the year 1754, our author became poffeffed of a calculus, which was of a flinty hardness, and bore a bright polih. It weighed a quarter of an ounce. He conjectured, that a much longer time would be neceffary to diffolve this ftone; but what was very remarkable, it diffolved fooner than the reft; for after ha VOL. XIX.

ving been immerfed twenty-four hours, two grains of it only remained undiffolved. This tone was not placed in the china bafon, as the others were, but fufpended in a little loose woven net, that it might more freely be washed by the water. Dr Lieberkuhn was at this time at Carlsbad; he was prefent at this experiment, and was witness of its truth, The net ufed in this experiment was covered with a tophaceous cruft, from being fteeped in the water.

The next year, when Dr Lieberkuhn returned to Carlsbad, he brought with him, for experiment-fake, feveral cal culi, fome of which were large ones, He made there many experiments, in which our author affifted. A large ftone was fawed into four pieces nearly equal. One of thefe, weighing ninety-nine grains, was put into a little linen bag, and immersed in the fource called Brudel; the fecond, in like manner, which weighed ninety-fix grains, into that called the new spring; the third, weighing ninety-three grains, into that near the mill; the fourth was fet apart for other trials. After four days immersion they were feverally examined. The first had loft eighty-five grains; the fecond, thirty-three grains; the third, only fixteen grains. That it might be estimated in what degree the folvent power of the Carlsbad water did exceed that of limewater, the following experiment was tried. Three pieces of calculi, each exactly thirty grains in weight, were put into feparate phials. Upon one was poured fome fresh egg-fhell lime-water; upon the fecond, fome Carlsbad water; upon the third, fome of the urine of a perfon daily drinking these waters for the recovery of his health. Thefe phials were all placed in one of the canals which carries off the waste water from the baths. The degree of heat in this place was, by Fahrenheit's thermome ter, 95, much the fame as the heat of human blood. The lime-water, the Carlíbad water, and the urine, were changed every day, and the process continued for fourteen days. Upon the fifteenth, the remaining fragments of ftone were taken out of the phials, and 30 weighed

weighed when dried. The piece ma'cerated in lime-water had loft one grain; that in the Carlsbad water, fix grains; that in the urine, five grains. According therefore to this experiment, the folvent power of the Carlsbad water was fix times, that of the urine five times greater than that of the lime

water.

The folvent power of medicated urine is of very great importance, and requires more particular attention, as our greateft expectations in diffolving the ftone in the bladder must arife from that. It was therefore very fit that our author fhould inveftigate, as far as was in his power, the folvent property of the urine of thofe who drank thefe waters. He therefore fufpended to the end of a funnel a fufficiently hard and compact calculus, weighing about an ounce. This was contained in a linen rag, fo that the urine might readily pafs over it; and a perfon who used the Carlsbad waters every morning, after having taken them, conftantly made water into that funnel; from whence it came to pafs, that on the fixteenth day the ftone was half diffolved, and the remaining part was become fo porous and friable, that it almoft fell to pieces. No one can fuppofe, that the urine of a man perfectly in health, would have the fame folvent property; left however that should happen, our author fufpended a piece of a calculus, weighing two drachms, in the fame manner with the preceding, and made water upon it himself many times a-day; but this piece of calculus, after twelve days, was fo far from being leffened, that it had increafed two grains in weight.

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Our author, left he should be thought to have depended too much upon one fet of experiments, made others. Among feveral calculi which Dr Lieberkuhn had communicated to him, there was one exceedingly hard. This he cut into four parts, each weighing exactly eighty grains. Each of thefe was put into a feparate phial. Upon the firft was poured fresh oyfter-fhell lime-water; upon the fecond, Carlsbad water; upon the third, the urine of one who drank thefe

waters; upon the fourth, the urine of one perfectly in health, and who only drank for his breakfast some cups of tea. Thefe phials were placed in the fame manner with those before mentioned, and their heat kept constantly the fame. Every day thefe calculi had fresh liquid poured upon them after the old was feparated. At the end of twenty days thefe ftones were dried and weighed. The fragment infufed in oyster-fhell lime-water was found to have loft almoft three grains; that in Carlsbad water eighteen grains; that in medicated urine fourteen grains; but that infused in the urine of the man in health had increafed three grains *. These experiments therefore leave no room to doubt

*

[The lime-water ufed by Dr Springsfeld in his experiments has certainly been extremely weak, otherwife it must have had a much greater effect upon the ftones which were infused in it. The experiments of Drs Hales, Whytt, and others, fhew, that lime-water diffolves urinary tones much more quickly than happened in Dr Springsfeld's trials; and very lately a piece of a pretty hard calculus, weighing eighty grains, had twenty-three grains of its fubftance diffolved or rotten, by being infufed twenty days in oysterfhell lime-water. In this experiment the limewater was renewed every day, and kept in a heat At the fame time a folution of half an ounce of of about 100 deg. of Fahrenheit's thermometer.the internal part of Spanish foap in nine ounces of water, reduced, in fourteen days, a piece of the fame calculus weighing thirty grains to twenty-fix grains. In this experiment the folution of foap was only renewed once in three days, and kept in a heat between 50 and 60 deg.

From thefe experiments, compared with Dr Springsfeld's, it appears, that oyfter-fhell lime-water diflolves the calculus fafter than the Carlsbad water; and that the lithontriptic power of a folution of foap in a heat under 60 deg. is to that of the

Carlsbad water in a heat of 96 deg. as 2 to 3.Indeed the diffolving power of the Carlsbad waters in Dr Springsfeld's first experiments, when the calculi were fo placed, as that the water from the fpring might conftantly run over them, appears to be vaftly greater than in his latter experiments, in which the water was only renewed once a-day; for in the former a calculus of two ounces and a half was quite diffolved in fix days. What may have been the reafon of this prodigious difference, we shall not pretend to explain. the gentle motion of the water along the surface We think it can fcarcely be accounted for from of the calculi. Was it then owing to fome very volatile active part which the water quickly lofes after being taken from the fountain?]

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of, either the folvent power of the Carlsbad water itself, or that of the urine of those who drink these waters. Our author has a very curious remark in relation to a perfon who laboured under the ftone, and who drank thefe waters for two months. He daily voided, with his urine, a large quantity of white vifcid mucus; which, after filtration of the aqueous parts from it, was found to be a white earthy powder, rubbed off, as it were, from a ftone. The quantity of this powder faved during the space of a month amounted to more than three ounces. If fome of this powder was put into the urine of one who drank Carlfbad water, it was immediately converted into a pultaceous fubftance; but if into that of one who did not drink this water, it fell quite undiffolved to the bottom of the veffel.

Dr Springsfeld obferves, that the Carlsbad water has great power in diffolving the tophaceous cruft which frequently covers the teeth. During the courfe of thefe waters, this cruft most generally feparates from the teeth, and falls off.

The author afterwards tells us, that the customary dofe of Carlsbad water is not less than fix, feven, or eight pints, taken every morning; and he adds an experiment, from whence he concludes, with great probability, that this water, by means of its alcaline lixivium, diffolves the gluten by which the terreftrial parts of the human calculus are held together, after which diffolution, thefe terreftrial parts fall afunder, and pafs off by urine.. Quare. If fome fort of alcaline lixivium may not be made by art, that would have the fame effect?

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liance among the three great powers of Europe, as to the views of which they had very early intelligence. According to later advices, 184 janifaries, in the night between the 21ft and 2zd of June, wanted to begin a rebellion; but notice of it being inftantly given to the Kiflar Aga, and by him to the Grand Vizir, that prime minifter caufed the ringleaders be immediately seized and executed, and fent the reft to work on the fortifications, after which all was quiet; and the foreign ministers, it is faid, received fresh affurances from the Sultan, that he would not imbroil himfelf, without just reafon, with the courts of either Vienna or Petersburg. The regulations formerly made, by which the Jews and Armenian Greeks, living under the government of the Porte, were injoined to wear only ordinary and dark-coloured ftuffs, have juft been renewed; and great care is taken to fee them literally executed, in order to give the people a high opinion of the wildom of the government, and so keep them the more in awe.

The following letter from Warfaw, dated Auguft 8. gives confiderable light into the prefent ftate of affairs in PoLAND.

"It is difficult to conceive the anxiety the greater part of our nobility are under, on account of the approach of the Ruffians; the natural antipathy they bear to the Saxons making them look on the prefent fituation of that unhappy electorate, as circumftances only due to its luxury and pride. For this reafon no ftone is left unturned, or chicanery unpractifed, to excite the whole body of nobility to oppofe the march of foreign troops into the dominions of the republic. Perhaps alfo a more fufficient reafon for fuch an oppofition is, the little profpect that ruined Saxony has of reimburfing the Czarina her expences in affording it affiftance, and the little fecurity they have of her Imperial Majefty's being difinterested in the affair. In which case it is obvious who must bear the burden, as former experience hath wofully teftified. These fentiments have gained allo fo much ground among the public, that the populace have grown fo

infolent

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