Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/90

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The Philoſophy of

not accuſtomed to. So the earthquake affects all thoſe of weak nerves, or that have nervous complaints; obnoxious to hyſterics, colics, rheumatick pains in their joints; ſeveral women were ſeized with violent head-achs, before both the ſhocks we felt in London. It was this that gave the people a ſhortneſs of breath, Mr. Smith from Peterborough ſpeaks of a perſon that found himſelf very ſick upon it. This made the dog run whining about the room, ſeeking to get out: this made the fiſhes leap up in the pond at Southwark; like as the experiment of electrifying the fiſhes: it makes them ſick. And this cauſes the birds in cages to hide their heads under their wings, becauſe they cannot fly away. Which is commonly obſerv’d of them in Italy, and countriea, where earthquakes are more frequent.

11ly, I obſerve, the ſhepherd at Kenſington thought the motion of the earthquake, and the ſound, was from the north-weſt to ſouth-eaſt; the like Mr. W. Smith from Peterborough. On the contrary, Mr. Byfield the ſcarlet dyer in Southwark, thought the noiſe came from the river below bridge, and went toward Weſtminſter; where it rattled ſo, that he did not doubt, but that the abbey-church was beaten down.

Dr. Parſons took pains to find out the way of the motion of the earthquake, from the different poſition of people’s beds; but from the contra-

dictory