exaggerated, fo that their adverfaries eafily find reafons to oppole them; but after fome time things come to their proper level, established on a more complete knowledge of the agent; and those well acquainted with the properties of electricity are able to diftinguish the cafes in which it may be administered with advantage, from thofe in which it would be only prejudicial. Of ten patients affected with the fame difeafe, which undergo the fame clectric treatment, five may be entirely cured, and the other five be exceedingly ill. "Thofe who are cured extol electricity as the beft of remedies; thofe who have fuffered, fay that it only aggravates the evil. Both fpeak from correct experience, and at the fame time right and wrong, for attempting too much to generalize; that is to fay, because they do not diftinguish the cause of the disease which requires or oppofes the application of electricity. Thus the fame pain, the sciatica * for example, may be occafioned either by a stagnation of the fluids, by their too great abundance, or by the want of reaction in the folids: it may arife alfo from organic defects; an alteration of the fluids; ; a poisonous, or, as it is called, acrid principle; or from a peculiar virus in the fluids. "The five patients who labour under a ftagnation of the fluids, receive the greatest relief from electricity, which puts them in motion; the other five, tormented by fciatica occafioned by vitiated humours, will grow worfe under electric treatment, which will increafe the acridity of the humours, carrying off a part of the water which kept the poifon diluted. This theory of the effects of electricity in the human body is founded on the nature of this fluid, and on its properties established by numerous experiments. The electric fluid tends always to put itself into a state of equilibrium, and this tendency is fo ftrong, that it penetrates to a certain diftance in the air, and extends along idio-electric bodies. It is this tendency which caufes water when electrified to flow from capillary fyphons, whereas a very few drops only flow without this electrization. It is by the fame tendency that the electric fpark, when it paffes from one conducting body to another by non-conducting fubftances, carries with it in its paffage conducting particles which ferve it as a vehicle, if the folidity of the bodies does not oppofe a very strong refiftance. This property, proved by the common effects of thunder, and by feveral experiments, ferves to account for the * Dr. Balbis obferved to me, that fciatica of every kind may be accounted for without recurring to the hypothetic alteration of the fluids. I replied, that I wished only to compare my theory with the principal theories of fciatica, without concerning myself with their probability." great great evaporation of electrified liquids, and for the greater perfpiration of animals and vegetables which have been electrified. It is then evident, that whenever a ftagnation of the fluids takes place, if other fymptoms do not oppofe it, electricity will be a good remedy: on the other hand, if the difeafe arifes from vitiated fluids, or a virus diluted in them, electricity in this cafe, either by the evaporation of the diluting fluid, or by the greater alteration it may produce, will be hurtful. From what has been faid, it is evident that electricity and Galvanifm ought to be employed with the greatest circumfpection, and that the nature of the difeafe ought to be compared with the nature and properties of these fluids, to afcertain whether the application of them is proper or not. It is to be obferved alfo, that this remedy, in confequence of its activity, may be dangerous, like all other remedies, however good, if abufed. "I could adduce feveral inftances of misfortunes occafioned by the abufe of electrization, even in cafes in which a little time before it had been indicated; but I fhall mention only one fact in regard to Galvanifm :-A young woman was cured by Galvanifm of pains which the experienced in the muscles of the face. After the cure, having continued to Galvanize herfelf, fhe did hurt, which increafed with the application of the Galvanism, and did not ceafe till fhe abandoned herself entirely to the powers of nature, affitted by good nourishment. The patient then, who is incapable of forming a proper opinion refpecting the state of his health, fhould confult a good phyfician, one of thofe who do not defpife natural philofophy and the new difcoveries, in order that he may never fuffer by the application of electricity or of Galvanifm, which, as Boerhaave fays of another very active remedy, Mira præftat in multis incurabilibus; at prudenter à prudenti medico abfline fi methodum nefcis *. LVIII. Account of fome Remains of a Species of gigantic Oxen found in America and other Parts of the World. By Mr. REMBRANDT PEALE t. AMONG the remains of gigantic and unknown animals found in America, we have lately difcovered one of the ox or buffalo kind, which was taken from the bed of a creek falling into the Ohio, 12 or 14 miles north of Bigbone-lick, and prefented by Samuel Brown, of Kentucky, to the Philofo * Elem. Chemiæ, pars iii. proceffus 198. + Communicated by the Author. Y 3 phical phical Society at Philadelphia. By permiffion of the fociety I made a plafter caft of this extraordinary bone, which I have now with me in London, and of which I fend you an accurate drawing, reprefenting the back part of the head, with the condyles of the neck, and the pith or internal part of the left horn at the bafe. (See Plate VI.) The right horn is broken off, and all the fore part of the head; but from the fragment remaining it is a reafonable conjecture that the buffalo to which it belonged was about 10 or 1 feet high. The horn at the bafe measures 21 inches in circumference, and tapers very gently towards the extremity, where it is broken off; fo that the horn could not have been less than fix feet in length. From the middle future on the head to the base of the horn meafures 7 inches; confequently the two horns were 15 inches diftant; which must have been increased when they were partly covered with flesh, skin, and hair. It is very extraordinary that bones of this kind have been occafionally found in Siberia, in Italy, Germany, and other parts of Europe, though not quite fo large as this American bone; which circumftance, ftrengthened with others of a fimilar nature, muft prove, either that these great animals have inhabited thofe various countries, or that their remains have been forcibly scattered by the action of water. Buffon informs us, that in the parish of Haux, a mile and a half from Langoiran, in the fplitting of a great rock, fome large bones, motily petrified, were difcovered; probably of the ox kind, but of a very great magnitude. He likewife mentions †, that in 1772 there was found near Rome an ox's head in a state of petrifaction. The length of the forehead between the two horns was 2 feet 3 inches; the distance between the orbits of the eyes 14 inches; that from the upper portion of the forehead to the orbit of the eyes, 1 foot 6 inches; the circumference of one horn, 18 inches; the length of the fame following the curve, 4 feet. "This inftance is fufficient to prove," fays Buffon, "that there have been prodigious giants among this fpecies of animals; but it is further confirmed by other facts." He then enumerates feveral bones of the fame kind in the museum at Paris fimilar to fome which I have remarked in the British mufeum. In the Philofophical Tranfactions and an account of a bone of this kind, * Quarto Supplement, vol. v. p. 486. there is an engraving found near the city of + Page 543. Dirschaw, Dirfchaw, of very large dimenfions, and having the fame characters which diftinguifh the one found on the Ohio. Until the difcovery of this bone in America, the tradition of the Indians concerning the great buffalo has been confidered as entitled to very little attention. Many interpreted it as having entire reference to the mammoth, whofe preeminent fize was obvious, and whofe carnivorous teeth were well calculated to excite terror; but I have now no hesitation in believing that the tradition, which, with fuch little variation, prevails through all North America, mentioning the antient exiftence of a great buffalo, is a tradition really handed down to them from their forefathers, but, like all other traditions, clouded with fable: yet it is not improbable, fince we find the remains of the mammoth and the great buffalo in the fame country, that the diftinct ideas of each have been in time confounded, the terrible power of the one with the name of the other. It has been too much the custom, whenever any large bones have been found in Europe, to call them all elephants' bones; and in America, to think them all belonging to the mammoth: but from the progrefs now made in this inquiry there is reafon to hope for additional light on this interefting fubject, whether it be confidered as a foundation to theological faith, or regarded as a conspicuous monument in the hiftory of the world. LIX. Defeription of the Nymphaea Cærulea. By JULIUS CESAR SAVIGNY, of the Inftitute of Egypt *. It is well known that the lotus of the antient Egyptians was one of the most celebrated plants of antiquity. Rifing every year with the waters of a river which overflowed its banks only to fecundate the earth; fpringing up amidit plains formerly defert, which it embellifhed with its beautiful flowers; and cultivated to ferve as food to the leaft fenfual, but the most numerous clafs of the inhabitants; it was judged worthy of homage by one of the firft people in the world, who confidered it as the happy fign of abundance, and as a facred pledge of the favour of the gods. It is to the genus of the nympha that the modern botanifts have referred the lotus, which has been deferibed by moft of the antient hiftorians, and which is engraven on all the antique monuments of Egypt. Two fpecies of this genus, * From Annales du Museum National, No. 5. Y 4 one in the eastern parts of our hemifphere to fupply the conftant north-east wind that prevails in the low latitudes of the weftern fide? The reason is, that on the western fide the northeaft winds of low latitudes are eafily fupplied by the contiguous Atlantic, which is open up to the North Pole; and, as here, the upper current fets and ceafes, there can be no deficiency of air. Of oppofite concomitant Winds. It has often been obferved, but of late, fince the invention of balloons, evidently proved, that currents of air from different and even oppofite points of the horizon, prevail at different heights in the atmosphere over the fame tracts of land or water. This was originally inferred from the different courses of the higher and lower clouds; but as fuch observations were often liable to optical deceptions, better proofs were wanting. Mont Louis is within thirty miles of Perpignan, but about 5000 feet higher. Now in March 1780, north and northeaft winds prevailed at Perpignan and a wefterly wind at St. Louis. In Auguft a north wind prevailed at Perpignan and an eat at Mont Louis. Mém. de la Société de Medecine de Paris 1780. Derham fufpected †, and Gentil has fince fhown, that changes of feafons conftantly begin in the upper atmosphere; while a ftrong wind blows from one point below, a wind from an oppofite point reigns above, but more gentle, until at laft (in about three weeks) it is propagated downwards. (Voy. ii. p. 23, 24, in 8vo.) The lower atmosphere, he fays, extends to the height of 2880 feet. (Vol. iv. p. 48.) At the commencement of winter, when the fun approaches the fouth tropic, and the north air begins to flow in and follow it, it must meet with more refiftance from the lower denfer air, as its impetuous courfe in an oppofite direction is more flowly altered (this refpects the monfoons) than in the rarer fuperior strata; and the fame effect, but in a different direction, takes place when the fun approaches to the northern tropic. It has been faid by many, that winds in the fuperior regions of the atmosphere are much more violent and impetuous than in the lower. (Sauffure Hygrom. p. 300: Ulloa's Voy. ii. p. 81: Mufchenbr. § 2612: Bergm. Erde kugel. ii. p. 99: De Luc, &c.) But the contrary has also been obferved by Gentil, above quoted, and Morveau. (Aëroft, de Dijon.) Ulloa's Voy. ii. p. 62. English. Of |