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binson, in our Philosophical Transactions, volume 50, page 39, for the year 1757. He asserts, that fat persons with small bones float most easily upon water. The diving bell is accurately described in our Transactions.

When I was a boy, I made two oval pallets, each about ten inches long, and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resemble a painter's pallets. In swimming I pushed the edges of these forward, and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these pallets, but they fatigued my wrists--I also fitted to the soles of my feet a kinds of sandals; but I was not satisfied with them, because I observed that the stroke is partly given with the inside of the feet and the ancles, and not entirely with the soles of the feet,

We have here waistcoats for swimming, which are made of double sail cloth, with small pieces of cork quilted in between them.

I know nothing of the scaphandre of M. de la Chapelle. I know by experience that it is a great comfort to a swimmer, who has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring a progressive motion.

When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method of driving it away is to give the parts affected a sudden, vigorous, and violent shock; which he may do in the air as he swims on his back.

During the great heat of summer there is no danger in bathing, however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed by the sun. But to throw oneself into cold water, when the body has been heated by exercise in the sun, is an imprudence which may prove fatal. I once knew an instance of four young men, who, having worked at harvest in the heat of the day, with a view of refreshing themselves plunged into a spring of cold water: two died upon the spot, a shird the next morning, and the fourth recovered with

great difficulty. A copious draught of cold water, in similar circumstances, is frequently attended with the same effect in North America.

The exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable in the world. After having swam an hour or two in the evening, one sleeps coolly the whole night, even during the most arnent heat of sum mer. Perhaps the pores being cleansed, the insensible perspiration increases and occasions this coolness. It is certain that much swimming is the means of stopping a diarrhea, and even of producing a constipation. With respect to those who do not know how to swim or who are affected with a diarrhea at the season which does not permit them to use that exercise, a warm bath,by cleansing and purifying the skin, is found very salutary, and often effects a radical cure. I speak from my own experience, frequently repeated, and that of ethers to whom I have recommended this.

You will not be displeased if I conclude these hasty remarks by informing you, that as the ordinary method of swimming is reduced to the act of rowing with the arms and legs, and is consequently a laborious and fa❤ tiguing operation when the space of water to be crossed is considerable; there is a method in which a swimmer may pass a great distance with much facility, by means of a sail. This discovery I fortunately made by acci dent, and in the following manner.

When I was a boy I amused myself one day with flying a paper kite; and approaching the bank of a pond, which was near a mile broad, I tied the string to a stake, and the kite ascended to a very considerable height above the pond, while I was swimming. In a little time, being desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same time the pleasure of swimming, I returned; and loosing from the stake the string with the little stick which was fastened to it, went again ino the water, where I found, that, lying on my back and holding the stick in my hands, I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable

མ་ །སས་པ

st fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginaI was only obliged occasionally to halt a little in course, and resist its progress, when it appeared t, by following too quick, I lowered the kite too much; loing which occasionally I made it rise again. I e never since that time practised this singular mode wimming, though I think it not impossible to cross his manner from Dover to Calais. The packet t however, is still preferable.

NEW MODE OF BATHING.

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS TO M. DUBOURG..

LONDON, July 28, 1768.

GREATLY approve the epithet you give, in your er of the 8th of June, to the new method of treating small-pox, which you call the tonic or bracing me ; I will take occasion, from it, to mention a practo which I have accustomed myself. You know cold bath has long been in vogue here as a tonic; the shock of the cold water has always appeared to generally speaking, as too violent, and I have found uch more agreeable to my constitution to bathe in ther element, I mean cold air. With this view L early almost every morning, and sit in my chamwithout any clothes whatever half an hour or an r, according to the season, either reading or writ

This practice is not in the least painful, but, on contrary, agreeable; and if I return to bed afterwards, re I dress myself, as sometimes happens, I make a plement to my night's rest of one or two hours of most pleasing sleep that can be imagined. I find Il consequences whatever resulting from it, and that.

at least it does not injure my health, if it does not in fact contribute much to its perservation.—I shall there fore call it for the future a bracing or tonic bath.

March 10, 1773.

I shall not attempt to explain why damp clothes oceasion colds, rather than wet ones, because I doubt the fact. I imagine that neither the one nor the other contribute to this effect, and that the causes of colds are totally independent of wet and even cold. I pro pose writing a short paper on this subject, the first leisure moment I have at my disposal-In the mean time I can only say, that having suspicions that the common notion, which attributes to cold the property of stopping the pores and obstructing perspiration, was ill founded, I engaged a young physician, who is mak ing some experiments with Santorius's balance, to estimate the different proportions of his perspiration, when remaining one hour quite naked, and another warmly clothed. He pursued the experiment in this alternate manner for eight hours successively, and found his perspiration almost double during those hours in which he was naked.

Observations on the generally prevailing doe trines of Life and Death.

TO THE SAME..

YOUR observations on the causes of death, and the experiments which you propose for recalling to life those who appear to be killed by lightning, demonstrate equally your sagacity and humanity. It appears that the doctrines of life and death, in general, are but little understood.

A toad, buried in sand, will live, it is said, until the sand becomes petrified; and then, being inclosed in the stone, it may still live for we know not how many

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ages. The facts which are cited in support of this opinion are too numerous and too circumstantial not to deserve a certain degree of credit. As we are accustomed to see all the animals with which we are acquainted eat and drink, it appears to us difficult to conceive how a toad can be supported in such a dungeon. But if we reflect, that the necessity of nourishment, which animals experience in their ordinary state, proceeds from the continual waste of their substance by perspiration; it will appear less incredible that some animals in a torpid state, perspiring less because they use no exercise, should have less need of aliment; and that others, which are covered with scales or shells, which stop perspiration, such as land and sea turtles, serpents, and some species of fish, should be able to subsist a considerable time without any nourishment whatever. A plant, with its flowers, fades and dies immediately, if exposed to the air without having its roots immersed in a humid soil, from which it may draw a sufficient quantity of moisture, to supply that which exhales from its substance, and is carried off continually by the air. Perhaps, however, if it were buried in quicksilver, it might preserve, for a considerable space of time, its vegetable life, its smell and color. If this be the case, it might prove a commodious methor of transporting from distant countries those delicate plants which are unable to sustain the inclemency of the weather at sea, and which require particular care and attention.

I have seen an instance of common flies preserved in a manner somewhat similar. They had been drowned in Madeira wine, apparently about the time when it was bottled in Virginia, to be sent to London. At the opening of one of the bottles, at the house of a friend where I was, three drowned flies fell into the first glass which was filled. Having heard it remarked that drowned flies were capable of being revived by the rays of the sun, I proposed making the experiment upon these. They were therefore exposed to the sun, upon

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