Copy 1, Volume 1

The wonders of the little world: or, a general history of man, displaying the various faculties, capacities, powers and defects of the human body and mind / By Nathaniel Wanley.

Nathaniel Wanley

Date:: 1806

Credit: The wonders of the little world: or, a general history of man, displaying the various faculties, capacities, powers and defects of the human body and mind / By Nathaniel Wanley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

20/432 (page 4)

$kidnies. that equals it, for its circum- ference measures seven inches upon the round. 10. Colonel Townshend, a gentleman of honour and integrity, had for many years been afflicted with a nephritic com- -plaint. His illness increasing, and ‘his strength decaying, he came, from Bristol to Bath in a litter, in autumn, and lay at the Bell-Inn. Dr. Baynard and I [Dr. Cheyne]were called to him, and attended him twice a day, but his vomitings con- tinuing still incessant and obstinate against al] remedies, we despaired of his reco- very. While he was im this condition, he sent for us one morning ; .we waited on him, «with Mr. Skrine; his apothecary, We found his senses clear, and his mind calm : his nurse and several servants were about him. He told us, he had sent for us, to give him some account of an odd sensation he had for some time _observed and felt in himself; which was, that, composing /himself ; he could die or ex- pire when he pleased, and yet by an effort, or some’ how, he could come to _Aife again; which he had sometimes tried before he sent for us. We heard this with surprise ; but as it was not to be accounted for from common principles,, we could hardly believe the fact as he related it, much less give any account of it, unless he should please to make the experiment should do, lest, in his weak condition, he might, carry it too far. He continued to talk very distinctly and sensibly, above ‘a quarter of an hour, about this surpris- ing sensation, and insisted so much on our seeing the trial made, that we last forced to comply, We all three felt his pulse first; it was distinct, though small and-thready ;. aud his heart had its usual beating. He composed himself on his cy aud lay’ in a still posture some time; while I held’ his right hand, Dr. Dim eed Jaid his hand on his heart and Mr. Skrine held a clean looking-glass to his mouth. I foundhis pulse sink gradually, till at last I could not feel any by ithe most exact and nice touch. Dr. Baynard could not feel the Teast motion in his heart, nor Mr. Skrine the jeast soil of breath on the bright mirror he held to his niouth: then each of us, by turns, ex- ad could not, by the nicest scrutiny, discover We reasoned along time about this odd ap- pearance ‘as well as we could, and all of us judging it inexplicable and unaccountable, and finding he stil] continued in that con- dition, we began to conclude that he had indeed carrietlt the experiment too far, and at last were satisfied he was actually dead, and were just ready to leave him. This continued about half an hour, As we were going away, tion about the body, and, upon examina- his heart gradually returning ; he began to breathe gently, and speak softly: we were all astonished to the last degree, at this unexpected change, and after some further conversation with him, and among ourselves, went away fully satistied as to the particulats of this fact, but.confounded rational scheme that might account for its 20. Mr. Samuel Du Gard, Rector of Forton in Shropshire, ‘in a letter to Dr-R. Bathurst, then’ Vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, acquainted bim, that about Candlemas, 1673, a child, about a quarter of a year old, at Lilleshall the head, where was no appearance of any sore. It continued three days, at the end of which the nose and ears ceased bleed- Ing ; sweat from the Kenda. Dbhre days before the death of the child. (which was the sixth day after she bégan to bleed), the blood came more violently from her head, and streamed out to some distance from it ; nor did she bleed only there, but upon her shoulders and at the-waist, in such large quantity, that the linen next to her mizht be wrung, it was so wet... For three days she also bled at the toes, at the eid of her arms, at the joints of her fingers of each hand, of an hour the mother catched, from the as the hollow of her hand would hold. All cried vehemently, but only groaned : though about three weeks before,- it had \$