1769. earth's center at I, all that time. In this example then the half sum of their two durations, and angles to be as be; fore 22636", and the fun's diameter 1897 for angular meature; and let us fuppofe their difference 2CO = 40' 2400" of time. Now fay, as the time of the tranfit in feconds, is to the fum of the fuppofed differences of the fpectators obferved; fo is the fun's apparent diameter, to double the difference of the two obfervers, viz. as 32636":2400":: 1897": 291"-2CIO, whole half is 100" CIO PID; which with the angle CAO, bearing the fame proportion to this, that CA, the dif. tance of Venus from the fun 72627, bears to CI, the dittance of Venus from the earth 28890 = < ECI. As (à) 72627: 100" :: (Ÿ à 9) 28890: 39.8" which is the angle of the parallax of Venus; for fo much doth the diameter of the earth appear to an eye placed in Venus, or as being fubtended by 6555,004 miles. But Of the Worms in the human Body. this must now be increased as the arth's femidiameter 3984,58 is to 6555,0, and then we thall have Venus's true parallax at that time; viz. as 3984158 (miles): 6555,0 (miles) :: 19,8" 65", Q's true parallax. Now the fun's horizontal parallax is in a reciprocal proportion to the distance of the Sun and Venus from the earth. Vide Keill's Aftro. Lect. p. 265. As 28890 (à): 65" :: 101517 fo à8): 18"Here comes out 18", for the fun's horizontal parallax; which is 8" more than is fuppofed it really is, when greateft; the reafon is, that in this work above, the angle CIO PID, is fuppofed to be 40', and was not actually obferved; which angle we want to be accurately determined, which, I hope, it will be from the ensuing transit. HENRY ANDREWS, Writing-mafer and teacher of the Mathematics at Royton, Hertfordshire. To the AUTHOR of the LONDON 185 four feet, with two heads, with three, and fome with four forked tails, &c. But befides the worms of the intef tines, there are others lodged in almost all the parts of the body: as worms of the teeth, the gums, the noftrils, heart worms, those in the blood; urinary, cutaneous, umbilical, afophagus, worms in the liver; an hiftory, and a cut of a very large and remarkable one may be feen in Vol. II. of Obfervations and Enquiries of fome London Phyficians; nay, and even worms in the fpittle. But all these laft fort are never found, except in a. diftempered state. are three forts of THERE worins which generally infeft the human body. The round ones, the broad ones, and alcarides. Sometimes, but feltom, anomalous ones are dilcharged, viz. horned, hairy, with April, 1769. Round worms are most common and well known, like earth worms, only a little whiter, and they are male and female, and engender the common way, by univocal generation, and fome think them earth worms only. transferred. The broad worm, called Tænia by Pliny, Platerus, &c. is like a girdle, or ribbon, two or three ells long, and fometimes longer, divided all the length with crofs joints, or knots, which grow wider, the nearer the tail or extremity. Nicolaus Andry affirms, that there is only one in the body, whence it is termed folius. But Mr. Haguenot found a Tania in the ftomach of a cat, and another in the duoferved a Tania in a tench two feet long denum, or first gut. Mr. Geoffroy oband upwards; and one has been (een in a dog about three feet long. Whence we fee they are bred in other creatures befides men, and fome think they came originally out of the waters. Thofe, that have the broad worns, are troubled with too much appetite to their victuals; and, except they get fome, they feel a pain and gnawing in their belly, that fometimes becomes infupportable, and requires frong narcoticks to procure a little remittion of pain. But the most certain fign is, that along with the excrements of the bel ly, fome fubftances,like cucumber feeds, are discharged, which are but pieces of the main and long worm, moit of which still remains behind, and is hard to extricate from its fait hold at the upper and fmaller extremity to the membranes of the intelline it clings fo clole too. They are not easily kil Jed. Two drams of powder of fein root is reckoned a specific by faine, as A a * The central duran in feconds, allo 186 To bring away the broad worm, a vomit of oil ought to be given, and falt water fhould be freely drank. But I fhall fay no more of this fort of vermin, as I purpofely wrote a piece thereon, to be seen in your useful Magazine for September last. Afcarides are thin worms like fhort pieces of thread, or white cat-gut clipped. They ufually refide in the lower part of the great guts, and near the sphincter mufcle. The pathognomick, or diftinguish. ing figns of fuch fmall worms are, an itching in the anus, fcarce tolerable, and most frequently with a tenefmus, or ftraining motion to tool; nay, it has been attended even with a fyncope, or fainting. Etius's experiment is good against afcarides, viz. a fuppofitory made of old falt fifh, the fat being fcraped away. Thefe worms are truly, as Dr. Fuller obferves, a fmall generation, but hard to be conquered: for though they fhould be all deftroyed to one female by the force of glyfters, yet a new and numerous offspring will be bred again very foon from the eggs laid in the rectum. And therefore it is not enough to deftroy the old ones, unless the young ones and their feeds are rooted out, and difcharged allo. And this is done beft, if after the afcarides quite difappear, you do not directly leave off the ufe of medicines, but continue them every three or four days at repeated turns, and then renew the ufe of coloquintida glyfters to difturb them once a week; which no author hath hitherto minded. Snake root bruifed, a dram; pulp of coloquintida tied up in a knot, a fcruple; tanfey fhred, half a handful; boil them in half a pint of water to fix ounces, for a glyfter to be given every new moon, and repeated for fome months, to kill, difcharge, and quite root out the af carides, which lodge in the mucus of the inteftine. In general almost all bitters are good against worms; efpecially powder of orange peel; æthiops mineral; tinctura facra, weet mercury, and worm feed, with red wine, in powder. And decoction of quicksilver, both April drank of freely, and ufed by way of J. Cook. As To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, Leigh, Feb. 13, 1769. which vifibie objects feem to turn round, and the difordered perfons perceive a disturbance of the animal (pirits in the brain, so as they cannot flow regularly into the nerves as ufual, whereby the faculties of feeing and moving, in fome measure, fail, fo that the perfons affected ftagger, and often lofe their eye-fight. vertigo is a frightful diftemper, in The feat of this difeafe is fometimes forwards, when the person scarce falls at all, and admits of a cure; but when backwards it is more dangerous, and often degenerates into an apoplexy, palfy, or convulfive diftemper. After all things tried in vain, Dr. Willis prefcribed the following: Take of powder of male piony root two ounces; of its flowers one of the white part of peaOunce i cock's dung half an ounce; loaf fugar two ounces. The dofe is about a spoonful twice a day, drinking after it a draught of a decoction of fage and rofemary, impregnated with tincture of coffee. It is Icarce credible, he writes, how much advantage was found by this remedy, In a month's time the patient was cured, It is ordered of the white part of pea cock's THE VERTIGO. 1769 cock's dung half an ounce, but I fancy that was a mistake. For where can fo much be got? But as I greatly fufpect ancient 187 ounce; of Jefuit's bark two ounces: mix them. Your's, From Dr. Anderson. J. Cook. and compound prefcriptions, I cannot Origin of the States General of France. help thinking oft, if not all, the virtue of this remedy lay in the piony root, for the leaves are futile, and on N ly augment the medicine. The fugar" the introductory part of this hif was only to make it palatable, and as for the white part of the peacock's dung, I doubt its efficacy, if fo much as half an ounce could be collected. Though a vertigo is fo called from turning round, yet it is not always attended with that fymptom: for a trembling and undulatory motion is fufficient. There are three degrees of it, one more violent than the other. This confufion of fight lies in the retina of the eye, for the brain itlelf neither fees nor feels. A fevere and long continued vertigo in old men forebodes an apoplexy, in young men an epilepfy. It fometimes, I fay, afflicts the fore part of the head, and fometimes the hinder part that is more curable, this more dangerous, as being at the very origin of the nerves. A vertigo often happens by confent from the fault of the ftomach, or of the prima vie, when vomits, ftomachick and nervous medicines fhould be ufed. Eight or ten grains of calomel, otherwife called fweet mercury, by way of a bolus, at bed time, in any conferve, and purged off next day with any gentle phyfic, as rhubarb, is proper. If the perion be plethoric, bleed, not elfe. Sneezing fhould be avoided. Mustard feed, eat every morning, is good, as are all fpices, falt of amber, volatile falts, cinnabar, and antimony. Calamus aromaticus, or sweet smelling reed, in powder or decoction, is esteemed a fecret. Dr. Gliflon, phyfic profeffor at Cambridge last century, told Dr. Bate, that after trying all other medicines in vain, he cured himself of a vertigo he had had for three weeks with only a plaifter of flour of brimstone beat up with whites of eggs, applied to the crown of his head thaved. A cauftic, or a feton, on the back part of the neck, or a cautery to the bregma, would be of fervice. And let the patient take a teafpoonful of the following powder for a month, or more. Pony root one tory we have obferved, that the rendezvous of the Franks in their camp, or field of march, formed the original parliaments, or general af femblies of the nation. From the more regular and ftated conventions of them by Charlemagne, they attained the form and constitution of a fupreme legislative body. In the reigns of feveral of his immediate fucceffurs, they ftill continued to be called, and interpofed their decifions or capitularies, to adjust the diffentions, and establish the civil and political order of the kingdom, until the principles of the feudal government, which had only a beginning in the time of Charlemagne, extended their influence, and brought the dignity of the crown and the monarchy to the brink of annihilation. Then the parliament ceafed altogether to be national affemblies. The independent rights of the fiefs created a difunion, and, in many respects, an oppofition of the different members of the monarchy to each other, which was inconfiftent with them. From Hugh Capet's acceffion, and for a courfe of various reigns after that period, what are named parliaments, were in reality no more than congreffes held among parties of the feudal lords, who had differences to accommodate, or fome propofals for their common fafety and intereft to make, which required a parley or difcuffion. Such were many parliaments held about the Croisades, which the bishops and monks convened; and others, where the lords in different provinces met by confent, to defend their jurifdictions against the invafions of the clergy. When the kings interpofed the authority of their name for lummoning general affemblies of the grandees and barons of the kingdom, it made no alteration in the nature of thofe conventions. Not even the immediate vaffals of the crown, who owed fealty and homage to the king, counted themfelves obliged to give attendance in those parlis А а 2 183 Origin of the States-General of France. April ders of the kingdom; which afterwards obtained the name of the ftatesgeneral. This remarkable convocation of the firft ftates general of France was held in the cathedral church of Paris, in March 1301. Philip's Tetters patent, addreffed to the three orders, which would have been a curiofity, are not preferyed. The Chronicle of St. Denis, and the Continuator of Nangis, are the chief authorities for the form and import of their deliberations. To make the transition from the parliaments of the feudal lords, to a general convention of the nobility, clergy, and commons, was a novelty, of which, perhaps, the idea had not occurred to any of the predeceffors of Philiple-bel. If it had not proceeded from St. Lewis, the great defign, worthy of his character, might have been afcribed to nobler and more generous views of public and national policy, than hif tory allows to be attributed to Philiple-bel. That prince's perplexed fituation, into which his reftlefs ambition, his avidity of wealth, and his artificial genius had thrown him, appears to have prompted him to form this new and extraordinary project. He had more fuccefs in it than there was ground to expect, from the firft expe. ments, which were only voluntary af ociations, and no part of the feudal policy. The agreements or determinations formed in them, were to far from being the acts or laws of a public body, that they bound only fuch a number of thofe prefent, as concurred in them, and affixed their fignatures to the fcrolls of the tranfactions, We find Philip the Auguft, in the tithe to what is called the Ordinance of Villeneuve le Roy, mentioned by Boulainvilliers, aflociating to his royal authority the lords, who paffed it in conjunction with him. The style is, Philip, by the grace of God, king of France, Eudes duke of Burgundy, Hervé count of Nevers, and leveral others, who have unanimoufly agreed, &c." The fame prince, instead of an arret in the parliament of Melun, delivers to the countess of Champagne feveral written inftruments copied from each other, and fealed by himself and the other lords. Such were the parliaments of the times when the feudal fyftem preferved its ftubborn power. In none of them was a general or public authority owned, and from them hardly could any idea of their antient national affemblies be revived among the French. In the reign of St. Lewis, we begin to find fome light intimations given in the decrees publifhment of fuch an affembly. Even the ed of his fovereign power, to compel the refractory lords to accept or obey them. By the frequency of appeals to the courts of his domains, and other relaxations of the feudal principles and maxims, which then took place, fome impreffions of a legiflative authority would gradually be communicated. The regular and fixed allizes of the king's feudal court, or that of the peers, which were occafionally turned into general parliaments, for the fake of levying pecuniary aids and other purposes, alfo contributed to recover the nation out of its disjointed ftate, and accustom the jarring members of the monarchy to combine in the fame public councils and measures. At length, when under Philip le bel, the royalty had acquired feveral fupports, a bolder effort was made by that moarch, to reconcile or rather fubject the feudal to the political fyftem, by convening, as from his fovereign authority, an affembly of the three or introduction of the deputies of the principal cities into it, and the associ ation of the commons with the clergy and nobles, in the deliberations, passed without oppofition or disguft. Since before this period there was no example or precedent of the commons appearing in the general parliaments, it might have created a quarrel. Some historians have alledged, indeed, that St. Lewis, towards the end of his reign, had brought up to them fome of the bailiffs or popular officers from the towns, that they might confent to bear a thare of the fubfidies that were wanted. In the fpeech made by Philip's chancellor, this confideration is affigned as the reafon for fummoning the third eftate. The commons now holding their goods and effects in pro perty, it was hot fuppofed they could be taxed in an arbitrary manner, or without their voluntary concurrence. By this honourable ufage of them, the king, without doubt, conceived that Error of Reaumur corrected. 17698 that they would be more readily engaged to contribute to the exigencies of the ftate, and the lords and the clergy would be contented to find the common people required to relieve them of a part of the public burdens, In this manner the admiffion of the reprefentatives of the citizens into the fates-general, was coeval with the crigin of thofe affemblies in France." THE following extract from Dr. Hawkefworth's Telemachus, will fot be improper at this period. "As the prince is corrupted by an excels of power, the people are corrupted by luxury. It has been faid, indeed, that luxury feeds the poor at the expence of the rich: but, certainly, the poor may be fubfifted by ufeful employments; if they apply themselves to multiply the products of the earth, they will be under no neceffity to corrupt the rich by the refinements of luxury. A déviation from the fimplicity of nature, is fometimes fo general, that a whole nation confiders the moft trifling fuperfluities as the neceffaries of life: thefe factitious neceffaries multiply every day; and people can no longer fubfift without things, which, thirty years before, had never been in being. This luxury is called tafte, improvement, and politenefs; and though a vice, whichi fuperinduces almoft every other, it is cultivated and commended as a virtue. Its contagion fpreads from the prince to the meanest of the people: the royal family imitates the magnificence of the king; the nobles that of the royal family; the middle clafs that of the nobles; for who makes a juft eftimation of himself? and the poor would intrude upon the clafs above them. Every one lives above his condition; fome from oftentation, and to glory in their wealth; fome from a falfe fhame, and to conceal their poverty. Even thofe, who difcover the mifchief of this general folly, want fortitude to let the first examples of reformation: all conditions are confounded, and the nation is undone. A defire of gain to fupport this idle expence, taints, by degrees, the pureft minds; wealth is the only object of defire, and poverty the only mark of difgrace. You may have learning, talents, and virtue; you may diffufe knowledge, you may 189 win battles, fave your country, and facrifice your intereft, and, after all, if your merit is not fet off by the glitter of fashionable expence, you will fink into obfcurity and contempt. Even thofe who are without money, will not appear to want it; they live at the fame expence, as if they had it; they borrow, they cheat, and practife a thousand fcandalous expedients, to procure it and who fhall apply a remedy to thefe evils? New laws muft be inftituted, and the taste and habit of the whole nation must be changed: and who is equal to fuch an undertaking, but he who is at once a philofopher and a prince; who, by the example of his own decency and moderation, can fhame the fools that are fond of oftentation and parade, and keep the wife in courtenance, who would rejoice to be encouraged in an honeft frugality ?" Of the Torporific Eel in Guiana. From Bancroft's Natural History of that Country. "S O ME years fince the celebrated Monf. de Reaumur communicatto the royal academy of fciences at Paris, a paper, in which he undertook to demonftrate, that the fhock of the torpedo was the effect of a stroke given with great quickness to the limb that touched it, by mufcles of a peculiar ftructure. To this hypothefis all Europe have yielded an implicit affent, and M. de Reaumur has hitherto en joyed the honour of having developed the latent caufe of this mysterious effect. But if we may be allowed to fuppofe, what is undoubtedly true, that the fhock of the torpedo, and that of the torporific eel, are both communicated in a fimilar manner, and by fimilar means, it will be no ways difficult to demonftrate, that the whole of M. de Reaumur's pretended discovery is a perfect non-entity. You may, perhaps, think it an act of prefumption in me, to difpute the authority of a man, whofe literary merit is fo univerfally acknowledged; but I am convinced, that an implicit faith in whatever is honoured with the fanc tion of a great name, has proved a fruitful fource of error in philofophical refearches; and whilft I have fenfe and faculties of my own, am refolved to ufe them with that freedom for which they |