Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/334

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bf any, and the matter which fupplied the place of the inell remains fattened to the bed of the (tone ; others feparate them- felves very perfect after frofty nights.

Some of the cockles and other bivalves are found clofed, others are found half open, as fhell-fifh naturally open their fhells when deferted by the water. In thefe the cavity is always fill- ed with the matter of the ftratum, and both petrified together. In fome places they lie in heaps together in the ftone, and there they ufually enter into and injure one another. Some are found fhut fo clofely, that the matter of the flone-bed could not get into their cavity ; and of thefe, fome are at this time wholly empty, others are filled, or partly filled, with cry- ftals and fpars : thefe bodies muft have been found in them only from the cryftaline and fparry matter rifmg through the earth in vapour, and penetrating the very fubftance of the fhells after their being lodged in the ftone. In this quarry there is alfo found a very remarkable fhell, re- fcmbling a ram's horn, bent in the fame manner, and with the fame lineations. This is wholly different from the com- mon cornu ammonis clafs, and has an operculum to clofe its mouth with, in the manner of the wilks and other fuch fhells This operculum is often found entire with the fhell, or near it, in the fame bed of ftone.

This fpecies of foffile fhell is found in prodigious numbers to- gether, and ufually lies near the furface of the bed of ftone, a part being buried in the ftone, and a part Handing out of it. many of them ftand more than half way out, and the fhell of thefe is fo much more durable than that of the common kinds, that it is ufuidly very firm and ftrong, even in fuch pla Where the other kinds moulder all away. Thefe are ufually found entire, but in fome places they are cruihed flat, and otherwife bruifed and injured.

From thefe and the like obfervations made on the whole fur- face of the earth, and to great depths in its bowels, where ever men have dug on any occafion, arife plain proofs of theuni- Verfality of the deluge ; and from many of thefe obfervations it feems very plain, that in the time of the deluge the earth fullered great violence in many parts, that the bottoms of feas were in fome places raifed into mountains, and in others the tops of mountains funk into feas, and the beds of fhells ftill preferved in the foffile world were very often crufhed and bruifed by large maffes of earth and pieces of rock thrown upon them.

Some think that it appears from the confideration of the quarries and ftrata of earth, lie. in the prefent world, that the antediluvian earth had feas and fhores, mountains and plains, rivers and vallies, as ours has ; and that waters from within the earth were let out upon its furface, and the whole cruft of the then world fubfided under thefe ; that the con- tents of the feas, fuch as fhells, corals, and the like, were after this toffed varioufly about over the furface of this drowned world, and left in different parts of it; and that this prefent earth afterwards partly arofe out of the common flood, iflands are now formed in fome feas, and partly was deferted by the waters, when called off again by the fame almighty hand that brought it on : and as the ftrata of the earth were at that time foft, it is no wonder that matter then foft enough to let in the fhells, lie. afterwards hardened, together with the fhells it had received, into ftone ; and that in procefs of time, the ftony particles eternally floating in the air and waters that pervade all the ftrata, depofited their fmall parts in the inter- ftices of thefe fhells, and finally the whole became ftone. It is no wonder that all forts of marine produdions, fhells, parts of fea-fifhes, corals, and the like, are found at this time in beds and quarries, in hills and mountains, and alfo in the bowels of the earth ; for it is certain that they were produced in -the antediluvian lea, and were either elevated with the hills and mountains in the time of the deluge, or they fell into holes, clifts, and chafms in the earth, which muft be formed in vaft numbers during the time of that terrible cataftrophe, and in thefe they remain buried to this time ; while others lodged on what was then the furface, became afterwards Co vered with more ftrata, depofited from what was ftill fufpend- ed in the waters, and fo were buried at great depths from the prefent fuiface; when others rolling about among the laft fe diments of the fame waters, while yet fo unfixed as to be car- ried away with their violence, were finally left on or near the furface.

Tlie quarries about Broughton feem to have been but little difturbed; and to have been originally the mud which formed the bottom of fome large frclh water lake ; for the fhells found in greateft plenty of all there, are frefh water fhells. Thefe feem to have remained in their original mud while turned to ftone ; and the other fhells, natives of the fea, which are buried there among them, feem to have been fome of that immenfe number and variety that muft have rolled along the bottom of that bed of waters ; and the vifcid nature of the clay detained many of thefe among its own proper in habitants, and preferved them together in its ftrong ftate. Befide the parts of animals, thefe quarries have vegetable mat- ters alfo in them : the leaves and branches of whortles are not uncommon, and pieces of wood turned black and re- fembhng charcoal are alfo found there. Thefe have been pre- ferved in the fame manner with the leaves of fern on the dates)

of our coal-pits, and the plants and fifties found in hard ftone in many of the German mines. Many of thefe vegetable re- mains are alfo found in loofe nodules of ftone refemblimr pebbles : thefe are not Iefs eafily accounted for than the reft ; for it is not ftrange to conceive, that leaves and pieces of plants might be, in that general confufion, received into lumps of clay, which might afterwards be rolled into roundnefs by the motion of the water, and finally received into chafms of the earth, and there petrified. Phil. Tranf. N°. 266, p. 685:

QUARTAN, {Cyel ) in medicine, the name of a fpecies of in- termitting fever, which returns upon the patient every fourth day, including the days of both the paroxyfms, with a cold fit fucceeded by a hot one. In this nature is endeavouring to relieve herfelf from fome noxious matter adhering to fome of the hypocondriac vifcera, and to prevent the injury that might thence happen to the part, the quartan is, by authors, diftin- guifhed into the fimple and the continual. The fimple quartan is the mod regular of all the fpecies of in- termitting fevers : it almoft conftantly feizes the patient about four or five in the afternoon with a cold fit ; but this is not fo violent as in the quotidian or tertian, nor does if occafion any of the making of the limbs : it is, however, very fenfible, and ufually lafts about two hours. This is pre- ceded and accompanied by a general languor or faintnefs ; bu; is not fo frequently attended with vomitings as the other inter- mittents in the time of their cold fit, nor is there any ten- dency to a diarrhoea; but, on the contrary, the bowels are ufually coftive, not only on the day of the fit, but on the in- termediate ones. The hot fit (lowly fucceeds the cold one, and is not fo violent as in the tertian; but rather is trouble- fome from the fenfation of drinefs it brings on, and is feldom fucceeded by any fweating. The hot fit ufually continues about four hours, fometimes fix, and fometimes much longer than that in the firft fits. During the heat the head is verti- ginous, and afflidfed with a heavy pain, not a very acute one. When the fit is over, the patient returns to tolerable good health again, and remains in that ftate for the two fucceeding days, faving that he has a forenefs in the limbs, and a wearl- nefs and general laflitude. The fit afterwards returns at the very hour it firft came on at, and rarely varies at all from this : when it is obferved to anticipate its ufual time, there is juft reafon to fear its becoming continual. The perfons moft fubjeel to quartans are thofe of a middle or advanced ao-e; it rarely happens to young people unlefs epidemic, and of °all other perfons, thofe are moft fubjefl to it who live a fedentary life, and are of a melancholy difpofition.

Caufes of it. The general caufe of a quartan is a morbid vif- cous matter, lodged in the hypocondriac vifcera, and having communication by that means with the vena porta;. The li- ver, fpleen, and glands of the mefentery are frequently the feats of this, rarely the prima: via;. That thefe vifcera are affefled in quartans, is evident from the conneflion thefe dif- eafes have with their other affeaions, fuch as dropfies, jaun- dice, and the like. The occafional caufes are very frequently a quotidian or tertian fever improperly treated, obftruaions or omiffions of habitual difcharges of blood, whether by bleed- ing, or by the menfes, or hemorrhoids ; a heavy diet, without fufficient drink; a fudden chilling of the abdomen in a humid air, after the body has been violently heated. The principal time for thefe fevers is the autumn, whence they have been called by fome autumnal fevers ; and nothing more endangers their frequent return, than the abufe of ftrong liquors or of acids, which coagulate the blood.

Pregnojtics. The tenacity of the morbific matter in thefe fevers tho in but a very fmall quantiy, yet renders them verv diffi- cult of cure. They often laft many weeks or months, in ipiteof all medicines, and in fome ages have been accounted the greateft fcandal to phyficians. When it feizes a perfon in the fpring feafon, it is naturally of fhorter duration; but when it comes on in its more ufual feafon, the autumn it ge- nerally holds the patient till the fpring. Quartans are very apt to return upon people at the fame feafon of the year at which they firft feized them, efpecially when they have been but in- judicially treated in the cure. It is often, indeed, rather fup- prefied than cured, and then returns ufually at fhorter periods and often almoft immediately on feeding heartily which is commonly the cafe with thofe who have been freed from it by the bark injudicioufly given.

It has been already obferved, that this difeafe docs not natu- rally tend to any fort of evacuation, and when fuch difcbarzei are unnaturally provoked by medicines, as by vomits purees and violent fudorifics, it is eafily changed into a heclic or fome other dangerous chronic malady. A quartan, when pro- perly cured, ufually carries off with it all tendency to hypo- condr.ac complaints, to which the patient may before nave been fubjefl ; but, on the contrary, when improperly fup. preffed, it too often brings on fchirrofities of the liver and ipleen, and of the mefariac glands, with cedematous fwellinp-.., netfics, afthmas, and other complaints. J

A violent appetite after the fit of a quartan, or a tertian fever is a lign that the difeafe will be very difficult of cure Eru p- t.ons on the (km in the time of quartans, ufually prefage the going off of the difeafe ; and fometimes hard tumors, and bad ulcers in the legs and feet, come on during the time of the

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