Perhaps they may fometimes eat the leaves and roots of this plant: however, it is probable, the manure they leave about the roots, contributes not a little to its increase; and their cafting up the earth, makes it fhoot out young buds, and multiply. This plant does not run, and fpread itfelf, like docks, and others of the fame fpecies; but grows in tufts at uncertain diftances, as if the feeds had been dropped with defign. It appears that the Mongalls never accounted it worth cultivating; but that the world is obliged to the marmots for the quantities fcattered, at random, in many parts of this country; for whatever part of the ripe feed happens to be blown among the thick grafs, can very feldom reach the ground, but muft there wither and die; whereas, fhould it fall among the loofe earth, thrown up by the marmots, it immediately takes root, and produces a new plant.

expence, that much diminish the profits on this commodity. At prefent, the dealers in this article think thefe improvements not worthy of their attention, as their gains are more confiderable on this than on any other branch of trade. Perhaps the government may hereafter think it proper to make fome regulations with regard to this matter.

After digging and gathering the rhubarb, the Mongalls cut the large roots into fmall pieces, in order to make them dry more readily. In the middle of every piece they scoop a hole, through which a cord is drawn, in order to fufpend them in any convenient place. They hang them for moft part about their tents, and fome. times on the horns of their fheep. This is a moft pernicious cuftom, is it deftroys fome of the beft part f the root; for all about the hole rotten and ufelefs; whereas, ere people rightly informed how dig and dry this plant, there ould not be one pound of refe in an hundred; which would ve a great deal of trouble and

IN the banks of the Oby, about

this place, are found great quantities of that kind of ivory called, in this country, mammon's horn. Some of it alfo is found on the banks of the Volga. Mammon's horn, resembles, in fhape and fize, the teeth of a large elephant. The vulgar really imagine mammon to be a creature living in marshes and under ground; and entertain many ftrange notions concerning it. The Tartars tell many fabies of its having been feen alive. But to me it appears that this horn is the tooth of a large elephant.

G 3

When,

When, indeed, or how, thefe teeth came fo far to the northward, where no elephants can, at prefent, fubfift, during the winter feafon, is what I am unable to determine. They are commonly found in the banks of rivers which have been washed by floods. The commandant of this place had his entry or namented with feveral very large ones, and made me a prefent of one of them.

I have been told by Tartars in the Baraba, that they have feen this creature called mammon, at the dawn of day, near lakes and rivers; but, that on difcovering them, the mammon immediately tumbles into the water, and never appears in the day-time; they fay it is about the fize of a large elephant, with a monftrous large head and horns, with which he makes his way in marthy places, and under ground, where he conceals himself till night. I only mention these things as the reports of a fuperftitious and ignorant people.

I have obferved, in moft of the towns we paffed, between Tobolfky and Yenefiefky, many of thefe mammon's horns, fo called by the natives; fome of them very entire and fresh, like the best ivory, in every circumftance, excepting only the colour, which was of a yel lowish hue; others of them moul dered away at the ends, and, when fawn afunder, prettily clouded. The people make fnuff-boxes, combs, and divers forts of turnery ware of them.

They are found in the banks of all the great rivers in Siberia, weftward of Iencoufby, when the floods have washed down the banks, by the melting of the fnow,

Extract from the Theatro Critico Univerfal. Para Defenganno De Errores Communes, the voluminous work of the famous Spani Benedictine Monk, Father Feyjoo.

FATHER Feyjoo begins with

faying, that the fact treated of in this chapter is fo extraordinary, and fo contrary to the regu lar courfe of things, that he would not have given it a place in this work, if he had not found that the truth of it was attefted by almoft all the inhabitants of a whole province, many of whom, who were eye-witneffes, and perfons of great credit, are ftill living.

The following are the principal circumftances of the fact. Francifco, the fon of Francifco de la Vega, and of Maria del Cafar, his wife, was born at a village called Lierganes, two leagues to the fouth west of the city of Santandergin, in the archbishopric of Burgos. At the age of fifteen he was fent to learn the trade of a carpenter at Bilboa, in which station he remained two years, till on the eve of St. John's day, in 1674, having, in company with others, gone to bathe himself in the river,

his companion loft fight of him, and, after waiting for him a long while, they fuppofed him to be drowned, and informed his mafter of it, who acquainted the young man's mother, who mourned for him as dead. In the year 1679, fome fishermen in the bay of Cadiz faw fomething fwimming on the water and diving at pleasure, that refembled a man. They endea voured to catch it, but could not the first day. The next day they faw it again, and, by means of fome pieces of bread which they threw into the fea, and which it laid hold of and eat, they enclosed it in their nets, and drew it to the fhore. Upon examination, the fishermen found their prize was a perfect man, as to appearance, and they carried him to the convent of Francifcans in Cadiz, where the good fathers, fuppofing him to be poffeffed by fome evil fpirit, as he would return no answer to any of their queftions, exorcifed him, but they could not get him to pronounce any one word, except Lierganes, the meaning of which word they could not guefs, till hearing from a native of Afturia that in his country there was a village of that name, and that Don Domingo de la Cantolla, fecretary of the inquifition at Madrid, was born there, Don Domingo was writ to, informing him of this affair, and defiring him to write to Lierganes, to know whether a young man, whom they defcribed as to his age and marks, had been miffing from that place; and he had an answer, that a fon of Francifco de la Vega had disappeared in the river of Bilboa five years before, but that his mother looked upon him as drowned. Don Do.

mingo gave this information to the convent of Cadiz, and one of the fathers, whofe name was John Rofcende, and who a little before came from Jerufalem, had a great defire to enquire into this extraordinary affair. Accordingly he fet out from Cadiz in the fame year 1679, with the man who had been caught in the net, with intention of going to Lierganes. When the father got within a quarter of a league of the village, he defired his companion to go before to fhew him the way; which he did very exactly, going directly to his mother's house. The moment the faw him he knew him, and embraced him-crying out, This is my fon Francifco whom I loft at Bilboa! Two of his brothers alfo (Thomas, a prieft, and Jchn, who was ftill alive when Feyjoo wrote)` embraced him; but he expreffed no emotion, nor did he utter a word. Father Rofcende left him with his mother, and he remained with her nine years in this ftate of idiotifm, (having been rather remarkable for his capacity before he difappeared at Bilboa,) and the only words he ever spoke were, tabaco, pan, vino (tobacco, bread, wine). Sometimes he eat moft voraciously, on other days he touched no food. He ufed frequently to be employed in carrying letters round the neighbourhood, which he did very punctually. Once it happened, that Don Pedro del Guero fent him to Saint Andero with a letter for Don John de Olivarez; and because the ferry-boat was not ready, he threw himself into the river, and fwam cross it about a league broad, many seeing him land at Saint Andero. He delivered his letter as directed; G 4

but

but Don John, who asked him how the letter came to be wet, could get nothing from him. He carried the anfwer to Lierganes, with his ufual punctuality. He lived in this manner about nine years, and then dif. appeared, no body having ever found out what became of him.

Father Feyjoo gives us two letters to the above effect; one from the marquis of Valbuina, of St. Andero, to Don Jofeph de la Torre, minifter of the royal council of Oviedo, and another from Don Gafper Melchor de la Riba Auguera, to Don Diego de la Gandara Valade. Don Gafpar fays, that he had feen Francifco de la Vega frequently. Feyjoo fays, that he had a third account, agreeing with the other two, from Don Pedro Dionyfio de Rubel Cava, a gentleman of confequence of SoTares, a place clofe to Lierganes. And in the fupplement to this difcourfe, which we find in his ninth volume, from p. 280 to p. 283, he inferts a letter which he had received (after he had publifhed the above account) from the arch. bshop of Sarragoffa, Don Thomas de Aguero, who affures him, that when he was a young man, he had frequently feen this man-fifh (hombre pez is the archbishop's expreffion) at his uncle Don Garcia de Aguero's houfe near Lierganes. But befides this, Feyjoo alfo gives us, in the fupplement, a letter from Don Jofeph Dias Guitran, an inhabitant of Cadiz, dated Dec. 22, 1738, in which he fays, that Don Eftavan Fanales, intendant of the marine, had told him, he had feen the man-fifh frequently, and that a Francifcan friar was ftill alive, who affured him that he had been frequently in his cell,

Of Jpirits prepared by the force of fire,

with fome obfervations for guarding against and remedying the noxious vapours of charcoal, &c. From Boerhaave's academical lectures on the Difeafes of the Nerves, lately published, in Latin, by his pupil Kan Lems, phyfician of Leyden.

THE bodies, which in the

open air are fo agitated by fire, as to pafs into crackling flames, fmoke, foot, and ashes, emit corpufcules from the folid mafs, which may properly be denomi. nated fpirits. Three things here occur; fmoke, fometimes coloured' in a wonderful manner, as may be feen in fulphureous bodies; foot, and the remaining flame. Hence arifes a stench, feparable from the fmoke, confifting of the volatile falt of the plant wafted into the air, and fpirits paffing forth by the action of the fire; and the fmoke is collected into a black and floc culent matter, which is foot.

called

Those fumes, whilft fo agitated, produce wonderful effects in our bodies; for they cause erofions in the eyes, make the lungs hoarfe, and the voice harth; and hypochondriac and hysteric perfons, or thofe labouring under convulfive afthmas, are are almoft ftrangled by the fmall quantity of fmoke that may be in a room. The fmell only of a vegetable thing excites convulfion in epileptic people; and abortions, palpitations of the heart, and almost all other affections have had their origin from the fumes of a candle or lamp extinguished in a clofe place. When certain bodies are thrown upon the fire that smoke may proceed from them, it may then become poifonous: this is evi

dent

dent from throwing fome twigs or leaves of the toxicodendron on the burning fire; for all the perfons that may be about the fire at the fame time will grow pale as if they were dead, and if the place be clofe, they may fall into almoft all forts of diseases; yet these leaves, while they remain on the tree, though expofed to the fun, are quite harmlefs. Mercurialis relates, that in his time a military officer had occafioned the death of all prefent, by throwing a certain body on the fire, which body carried about one did no harm, but only became active by fire. Hence we learn, and this is fufficient for us, that, by the ftrong force of fire in the open air, particles may be extricated, which have a power fo to affect the nerves, as to produce all kinds of difeafes, and death itself. In other refpects we fee that the most falubrious vapours proceed from other plants, as from guaiacum-wood, and that of the juniper-tree. The dough of bread yields no fenfible finell, but, baked in an oven, if a quantity of it is cut fresh in a clofe place, it may caufe death. Coffee-berries, whilft roafting in a place not blown through by the air, brought upon a man, who had too greedily fnuffed up their smell, a cardiaglia and vomiting.

But there are likewife fpirits from the fuffocation of fire. A live flame, urging a vegetable with the greatest force, and then fuffocated and extinguished, fo changes this body as to acquire a quality which may bring our body to death itfelf. If a piece of any kind of wood, or of the common turf, alled alfo peat, is put into a bymical veffel, and the fire under

it is gradually brought to its moft intenfe degree, water, fpirit, and oil, are fucceffively produced: if all thefe have paffed out, and the refiduum is ftill urged by a vehement fire, it will eternally breathe forth fomething, never fhewing a deficiency. Hence it is called, by Van Helmont, the eternal coal, becaufe that fimple oil, which adheres to the earth, is never fepa rated in a clofe veffel; if pounded fine, it is an infipid inert duft; if you expofe this coal to the open air, it will light by the applica tion of fire; the furface only, contiguous to the air, becomes white; if the coal is broken, it gliftens every where within; if you go on burning it, it at length begins to be buried under afhes. It is impoffible to confume this coal otherwife than in the external furface, contiguous to the air, which being confumed, the fubfequent furface is alfo confumed, and, after fuch a confumption of furfaces from fixty pounds of wood, one only of afhes remains; nor can all thofe pounds, that are confumed, be gathered by any art; for the coal, in clofe veffels, cannot poffi bly be confumed by any degree of fire.

If one fhould write on paper, which is impregnated with a folu. tion of orpiment, and dry this pa per, no colour appears; but, if the paper is held over lighted coals, the letters will immediately be come black, and hence that which flies up is thus manifefted. If you place a burning coal between the fun and your eye, corpufcles will be feen carried upwards by a tre. mulous motion; but it is doubted whether thefe are produced from the coal or fun. Van Helmont

called