number of the pieces, that were distributed at the last public meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine. I shall take care to forward them to different parts of America, as desired. Be pleased to present my thanks to the Society for the copy sent me of the curious and useful reports relating to the sepulture in the island of Malta. I should be glad of another copy, if it can be spared, being desirous of sending one to each of the philosophical societies in America.

With respect to the length of time during which the power of infection may be contained in dead bodies, which is considered in that report, I would mention to you three facts, which, though not all of equal importance or weight, yet methinks it may be well to preserve a memorandum of them, that such observations may be made when occasion offers, as are proper to confirm or invalidate them.

While I resided in England, I read in a newspaper, that in a country village at the funeral of a woman whose husband had died of the smallpox thirty years before, and whose grave was dug so as to place her by his side, the neighbours attending the funeral were offended with the smell arising out of the grave, occasioned by a breach in the husband's old coffin, and twenty-five of them were in a few days taken ill with that distemper, which before was not in that village or its neighbourhood, nor had been for the number of years above mentioned.

About the years 1763 or 1764, several physicians of London, who had been present from curiosity at the dissection of an Egyptian mummy, were after taken ill of a malignant fever, of which they died. Opinions were divided on this question. It was thought by some that the fever was caused by infection from the mummy; in which case the disease it

died of must have been embalmed as well as the body. Others who considered the length of time; at least two thousand years, since that body died, and also that the embalming must be rather supposed to destroy the power of infection, imagined the illness of these gentle men must have had another original.

About the year 1773, the captain of a ship, which had been at the island of Teneriffe, brought from thence the dried body of one of the ancient inhabitants of that island, which must have been at least three hundred years old, that custom of drying the dead there having been so long discontinued. Two members of the Royal Society went to see that body. They were half an hour in a small close room with it, examining it very particularly. The next day they were both affected with a singularly violent cold,* attended with uncommon circumstances, which continued a long time. On comparing together the particulars of their disorder, they agreed in suspecting that possibly some effluvia from the body might have been the occasion of that disorder in them both; perhaps they were mistaken. But, as we do not yet know with certainty how long the power of infection may in some bodies be retained, it seems well in such cases to be cautious till farther light shall be obtained.

I wish it were in my power to contribute more essentially in advancing the good work the Society are so laudably engaged in. Perhaps some useful hints may be extracted from the enclosed paper of Mr. Small's. It is submitted to your judgment; and, if you should find any thing in it worthy of being communicated to the Society, and of which extracts may

Cold is a general name given by the English to all sorts of rheums and catarrhs.

See the article on Ventilation, by Mr. Small, above, p 307.

be useful if printed in the Memoirs, it will be a pleas ure to me; who am, with great esteem and respect, Sir, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. July 24. Since writing the above, I have met with the following article in the Courier de l'Europe of the 13th instant, viz.

Extrait d'une Lettre d'Edimbourg, en date du 30 Juin.

"J'apprends par une personne qui vient de Montrose, que la fièvre épidémique qui s'est manifestée il y a quelque tems dans le Méarns, désole encore aujourd'hui ce voisinage avec tant de violence qu'un de ses amis a été invité à assister à quinze enterrements dans un seul jour. On dit que cette maladie doit son origine à la folle curiosité de quelques paysans, qui, à la Chandeleur dernière, exhumèrent quelques personnes mortes de la peste dans le siècle précédent, et qu'on avoit enterrées dans le Moss de Arnhall. Ce qui est arrivé à la famille de M. Robert Aikenhead est singulièrement malheureux; vers le milieu du mois dernier il a été attaqué de cette contagion, et elle s'est communiquée au reste de sa famille, consistant en neuf personnes, dont deux sont mortes ainsi que lui, et le reste n'est pas sans danger."

Translation.

Extract of a Letter from Edinburgh, dated June 30th.

"I understand by a person just returned from Montrose, that the epidemic fever which has made its appearance in the county of Mearns, ravages that neighbourhood with such violence, that one of his friends was invited to attend fifteen funerals on the same day.

It is said that this malady originated in the ill-judged curiosity of some country people, who, at Candlemas last, opened the graves of some persons, who had died of the plague in the preceding century, and who had been buried in the Moss of Arnhall. The cir

cumstances which have happened in the family of Mr. Robert Aikenhead are singularly unfortunate; about the middle of last month he took the infection, which was communicated to the rest of his family, consisting of nine persons; two of whom, together with himself, are dead, and the others not out of danger."

FROM FELIX VICQ D'AZYR TO B. FRANKLIN.

TRANSLATION.

Paris, 23 August, 1781.

SIR,

I have presented to the Royal Society of Medicine, conformably to your intentions, the memoir by Mr. Small translated from the English, upon the method of ventilating the interior of hospitals, together with your letter which accompanied it.

The Society has attended to the reading of both of these pieces. Your letter contains some very important observations, which are worth preserving, upon the time necessary for the decay of bodies buried in the ground. The Society is much flattered that you have approved its report upon the dangers of interment. You have requested some copies of it, which I have the honor to send you. The Society desired to hear the entire reading of the observations of Mr. Small, and was highly pleased with them. We have there found your great principles of physics. A detailed report will be made upon this subject, in

which the most ample justice will be done to the author. The Society begs you to accept their thanks, and to communicate them to Mr. Small, whose paper we have listened to with so much pleasure. I am, Sir, &c.,

VICQ D'AZYR.

TO JOHN INGENHOUSZ.

On Conductors of Heat.

Passy, 2 Octobe- 1781.

It is a long time, my dear friend, since I have haa the pleasure of writing to you. I have postponed it too often from a desire of writing a good deal on various subjects, which I could not find sufficient time to think of properly. Your experiments on the conducting of heat was one subject; the finishing my remarks on the stroke of lightning in Italy* was another. Then I was taken ill with a severe fit of the gout soon after you left us, which held me near three months, and put my business and correspondence so far behind-hand, that I was long in getting it up again. Add to this, that I find indolence increases with age, and that I have not near the activity I formerly had. But I cannot afford to lose your correspondence, in which I have always found so much pleasure and instruction. I now force myself to write, and I fancy this letter will be long.

I have now before me your several favors of December 5th, 1780, February 7th, April 7th, May 23d, and August 29th, 1781. I was glad to find by the first, that you enjoyed a good state of health, and

See An Attempt to explain the Effects of Lightning on the Steeple of a Church in Cremona; Vol. V. p. 467.