132 Our RIGHT from prior OCCUPANCY, &c. March claim any right to it by prefcription, and, according to our modern French commiffaries, before they could claim any right by occupancy. B From all which it is evident, that in the year 1640, we had a right to the island of St. Lucia by prior occupancy, acknowledged by the French themfelves; A that from our manner of leaving it in that year no dereliction could be prefumed; that from no future fact or declaration of ours a dereliction could be prefumed; that confidering the circumitances this nation was in from the year 1640, to 1660, no dereliction could be prefumed from our filence, or our not returning to resettle in that island; and that from the year 1650, to the year 1664, was not a fuffi. cient time for giving the French a right to it by prefcription, even fuppofing that they had in the year 1650 really thought that we had derelinquifhed our property in that ifend, and that we had been during that whole time in a peaceable and fettled condition. To this I fhall add, that of all forts of feasible titles dereliction is the most precarious, because from the nature of mankind it is fo apt to be fuppofed by an intruder without any juft foundation; and therefore it was exprefsly declared by the civil law, that no fuch fuppofed dereliction fhall be a foundation for prefeription: Nemo potefi pro de relicto ufucapere, qui falfo exiftimaverit rem pro derelicto babitum efle *. I now come to examine whether we have lost our right to the island of St. Lucia, and the French have gained a right to it, fince the year 1664; and I diflinguish between the time before and after that year, because I thall thew, that to our former titles by prior discovery and prior occupancy, or fettlement, we then added a title by purchase from the natives, and foon after a title by treaty with the French, in terms as explicit as can be made use of by the words of any language. not to disturb us in the poffeffion of what they had fold to us; but experience has fince taught us, that no agreement we can make with any of the American natives can fignify any thing, if French miffionaries can get footing among them; for even during the most profound peace between the two nations, thefe pretended chriftian priefts never ceafe to inftigate fuch natives to rob and murder our people. In pursuance of this agreement with the natives, and of the right, which I have thewn, we had to repoffefs ourfelves of the inland of St. Lucia, we fent a colony thither in 1664, and drove the French intruders from thence; but as we were then engaged in a war with the Dutch, no fupplies could be fent from hence, and our people of Barbadoes neglecting, or not being able to fend proper fupplies, this infant colony was again forced by famine and other misfortunes to abandon that island, Jan. 6, 1666 † ; and war having been declared against us on the 26th of the fame month, by the French in fupport of our then enemies the Dutch, it was impoffible for us to repoffefs ourselves again of that island be fore the treaty of peace at Breda in 1667; but in that treaty care was taken to have the following article inferted. 12. The moft chriftian king hall alfo restore to the king of Great-Britain, Din the form already mentioned, the islands of Antegoa and Montferrat, if they are at this time in his poffeffion; and even all the islands, countries, fortreffes, and colonies, which may have been conquer. ed by the arms of the moft chriftian king, before or after-the figning of this treaty; and fuch as were in the poffeffion of the king of Great-Britain before he began the war (which has an end put to it by this treary) against the flates-general of the United Provinces of the Low Countries. And the king of Great-Britain fhall reciprocally reftore and give up to the most chriflian king, in the form already expreffed, all the inlands, countries, fortreffes, and colonies, in what part of the world foever they are fituated, which he was in potietion of before the first of January, 1665-6, and which might have been taken from him by the arms of the king of Great-Britain, before or after the figning of the prefent treaty." In this inquiry too, as well as the former, I thall found upon no fals but what are acknowledged by the French themfelves, or established by the documents which they themfelves have produced. They acknowledge then, that in 1663, we made a purchase of this island from the natives: This purchafe we did not make, nor had any occation to make, for Arengthening our title against the French; we made it with a view only to prevent the batives, if poffible, from difturbing the G infant colony we defigned to plant in that iland; and as they had made the fale to us, whether this was a breach of any treaty they had made with the French, or po, it was certainly obligatory upon them Juliniani Digsfa, Lib, xli. Lege 6, Now the only two particular times to which it is poffible to fuppofe that this article can refer, are the commencement of the war with the Dutch, which was in November, 1664, and the first of January, 1665-6; and at both these particular times we were, by the French French first memorial, §. 81. Own 1756. French PRETENCES refuted. 133 fortify themfelves in the island of St. Do minico than in that of St. Lucia; because the former was nearer to Martinico than the latter; because the favages were more numerous in the former than ever they were in the latter; and because the trade winds favoured an attack from the former, but were directly contrary to an attack from the latter: Therefore, what they pretend could not be the true and only reafon for their taking poffeflion of, and raising a small fort in St. Lucia; but if we confider, that there is an excellent natural harbour in the latter; that it had been attempted to be fettled by us, and that it lay more convenient for making an B attack upon us in Barbadoes, we may eafily guefs at the true reason. However, admitting that the reason they give was the true and only reafon, all they can from thence pretend is, that upon our return to that ifland they had an equitable claim to be reimbursed the expence they had been at, fo far as that expence might be of advantage to us ; for if a man builds a houfe upon my ground, this furely would not give him a right either to the houfe or the ground: He would not have fo much as an equitable claim to the expence he had been at, unless it was apparent that the house might be of advantage to me, and fo far only his claim could extend. own account, in poffeffion of the inland of St. Lucia. Nay, the first of January was certainly inferted with defign to relate to that island, because it was then known that we were in poffeffion of it on that day, but had been obliged to leave it on the 6th of the fame month. Therefore if the French were in poffef- A fion of it at the time of their figning this treaty, they were by this article obliged to reflore it as foon as we fhould please to demand it, and if we had never, to this very day, demanded it, they would now be obliged to reftore it as foon as we made the demand, as this treaty not only ftands upon record, but must be understood to have been revived and confirmed (where not altered) by every general treaty of peace between the two nations fince that time. And as the demanding or fettling of an island which belongs to us, is a fingle act which, like the redeeming of a pledge, we may do when we find it convenient, they cannot fo much as pretend to any dereliction on C our part, or any prefcription on theirs, fince the treaty of Breda, even tho' they had been all along in the actual poffeffion of that ifland; for Grotius fays, Jura vero quæ non habent quotidianum exercitium, fed femel ubi commodum erit, ut luitio pignorisnon amittuntur nifi ex quo tempore interceffit probibitio, cique paritum eft cum fufficienti confenfus fignificatione t. But the truth is, I believe, that they have never been in time of peace properly in poffeffion of that ifland: Some of their people may have been clandeftinely in it from time to time, and may fometimes have built themselves houses, and perhaps raifed plantations, but I queftion if they ever had any fort of government established E there, because the prefent French commiffaries have not given us the name of any one of their St. Lucia governors fince 7664, tho' they have given us a very ex. act lift of all their governors of that iland from 1650, to 1664. D The other pretence is that most extraordinary acknowledgment which they extorted from fix of our countrymen in great diftrefs at Martinico: This piece of management, I am furprised, the French commiffaries were not ashamed to mention; for from their own account it appears to have been as knavish a trick as ever was played even by a French minifter: They do not pretend that these fix men were officers or men of any rank in our colony of St. Lucia, or that they had a letter, or any other authority in writing from our governor of that island It is therefore evident, that they were fix rafcally fellows, who had deferted from our infant colony, and who finding F themselves in danger of ftarving at Martinico, begged of the French governor there to fend them to Barbadoes: This diftrefs he took advantage of, made them affume the character of being deputies from our governor of St. Lucia, and as fuch to fign the declaration or acknowledgement he had drawn up for that purpofe, before he would promile to give them any affiftance. I have now established our right to St. Lucia upon fo clear and folid a foundation, that I have no occafion to give particular answers to the multitude of arguments made ufe of by the French commiffaries in their reply, because every reader must now fee, that they are either falfe, or nothing to the purpose. However, I cannot conclude without taking notice of two pretences they have fet up, the firft of which is, that it was necef- G fary for them to take poffeffion of, and to fortify themfelves in St. Lucia, in or der to fecure their island of Martinico against an attack from the favages. For this purpofe it was furely more receffury for them to take poffeffion of, and to * Ditto, §. 76, and 21. Jure Belli Pacis, Lib. ii. Cap. iv. §. 15. This 134 HALLER of DROWNING. March there was any other cause of death in this cafe? Whether the water by its force and weight might not rush into the lungs, fill them, and exclude the air, and occafion death almoft in the fame manner as a collection of water in the lungs from a difeafe fometimes does? For this was an A older opinion, and more commonly received, in confequence of which it has been customary to fufpend perfons who have been drowned with their head downwards, in order to drain off the water, and thereby, if poffible, to recover them. But Becker refuted this opinion to the fatisfaction of most phyficians, and I could not help joining with them. This piece of management in the French governor of Martinico, gives fresh reason to fufpect, that his predeceffor, M. du Parquet, privately contrived and inftigated the maffacre of our people in St. Lucia in 1640, and that he afterwards falfely pretended to have given them timely notice of what was intended against them; and therefore if I have made use of fome expreffions that seem a little harsh, I fhall not meanly ask any excufe, because I have made use of none but what I think juft; for tho' I have a great regard for the French nation in general, I muft fay, I never had any great opinion of the honour of their minifters, either fupreme or fubordinate; and there- B fore, fo far as relates to them, I shall always be ready, in imitation of one of their own poets, D'appeller un Chat un Chat, et les François des Fripons. BOILEAU. Dr. HALLER'S Pathological Obfervations, chiefly from Dilections of morbid Bodies, having lately been tranflated, we shall, for this Month, oblige cur Readers with his fixty· Second Obfervation, rubich contains fome Remarks on Perfons who bave been drozoned. INCE Becker, in a book which he C Spublished upon that fubject, refuted But it was very july afked, whether F However, in the fummer, 1748, a woman who was drowned by accidentally falling into the river Leine, and had remained feveral hours under water, was brought to me to be diffected, and together with my ingenious collegue Dr. Chriftopher Hofmann, I had an opportunity of confirming what he had difcovered by experiments, viz. all the parts of the lungs and breaft remaining entire, upon preffing the lungs, the water, which had made its way into them, evidently regurgitated by the wind-pipe. So likewife, upon preffing the ftomach, the water which the woman had fwallowed, returned by the gullet. The lungs were entirely black, and the heart void of blood. But we ought not to conclude, from this inftance, that Becker's hypothefis is not founded on truth. For a very probable caufe may be alledged for it, and both obfervations, i. e. of the water being found, or not, in the lungs, may be reconciled thus. If, for example, the body should be opened immediately, or very foon after the perfon was drowned, there might perhaps be no water found in the bowels, the above-mentioned conftriction of the glottis excluding it. But if it is not opened till feveral hours, or perhaps days after death, the tone of the mufcles in that time being relaxed, the larynx and glottis will both be opened, and the water, efpecially if the perfon was drowned where it is deep, will by its proper weight gradually make its way thro' the relaxed paffages into the lungs and ftomach. I cannot help mentioning a phenomenon, not very common, that appeared in this body, viz. the lacteal veffels both in the intestines and mefentery were quite turgid with chyle, full of valvular knots, and seven or eight of the larger (ort' formed a kind of plexus in the centre of the mefentery. At the fame time the thoraick duct was filled with lymph, instead of chyle, as in the hun an body for the most 1756. EXPERIMENTS on drowned ANIMALS. part it is found full of a pellucid fluid. But the diftribution of the la&eal veffels both in this woman, and in moft animals which I have diffected, was by no means fuch as I have hitherto feen represented in figures of them. Nor indeed did they feem to follow any other courfe than that of the blood-yeffels, forming arches, as A thefe veffels do, with the neighbouring little trunks, parallel with the intestines, and convex towards them. But to return to my fuhject; as it ap pears that in perfons who have been drowned the water has made its way both into the lungs and stomach, I thought it worth while to try if I could difcover B by experiments, whether this is always the cafe, and what hopes there might be of recovering perfons drowned, fome of whom are faid to have been brought back to life after lying a very confiderable time under water. Wherefore in the beginning of the year 1753, I tried this experiment upon dogs and other animals. Two dogs died within twenty-five minutes, fo as C not to be recovered by all the arts that could be used. There was water found both in the ftomach and lungs, and by compreffion it run out by the wind-pipe, mixed with a great deal of froth. There was no difference found in the blood of the two great veins, viz. the cava and 135 riments which the ingenious Dr. Evers From these experiments may be drawn that ftreight direction, which follows upon the diftenfion of the vehicles, and is neceffary for tranfmitting the blood fent from the right ventricle to the lungs. Neither does it appear, that the veficles can (well to a true fpherical figure, with out expanfive and elaftick air. Secondly, Thefe experiments leave little hopes of recovering persons who have been drowned, feeing the obftructing froth cannot be expelled from the afpera arteria and lungs by any method hitherto difcovered; and the event of them all fhews us, that animals the moft tenacious of life die fuddenly and irrecoverably upon being drowned. But if you defire me to explain, or refute thofe ftories which have pulmonary; the lungs were red indeed, D len told of perfons who have remained but fwam in water. After this a cat was under water for hours, or even days, and afterwards have recovered, the only conjecture I can offer is this, that poffibly during thofe intervals when they were above water they drew in fome air; for our bodies being very little heavier than water, those unfortunate perfons comabove it before their final fubmerfion. Emonly raife their heads feveral times plunged fuddenly into water, and died irrecoverably in the fpace of two minutes. In the ftomach there was no water, but it had got into the lungs, and run out foaming, mixed with the air of the trachea. In another dog, which was ir recoverably drowned, there was a great quantity of water both in the ftomach and lungs; and in this cafe alfo (which I repeat on purpose) in the cava and pulmonary vein there was a deal of thick black blood, differing nothing in either as to colour or tenacity. In a fourth dog, who was taken out, after remaining feven minutes under water, and was quite dead, there was a quantity of water found p in the stomach, and likewife in the trachea and lungs, mixed with froth; the veffels belonging to the right auricle and ventricle were full of blood, and those belonging to the left empty. From other experiments it appeared, that the glottis in animais that have been drowned remains open; that the water found in them has been fwallowed voluntarily, nor does it G make its way into the lungs of the dead body by its gravity; for in those animals that are plunged into water after they are dead, there is no water found neither in she ftomach nor lungs. In all the expe To the AUTHOR of the LONDON Remarks and Obfervations upon CORALLINES SIR, T has lately been the endeavour of the ingenious Mr. Ellis, as well as of fome French authors to prove, that all the corallines, as well as madrepores, are entirely of the animal, and not of the veIn proof of this their getable nature. new hypothefis, they offer a number of curious experiments, and appeal to matter of fact, as to the cafe in question. Mr. Ellis in particular in his book, which he has lately published upon the subject, acquaints us, that in all the fea-plants, which he examined, he found a very large number of polypes of different kinds, an difcove See Mr. Ellis's Natural Hiftery of Ctrals, &c. 136 Obfervations on Corallines and Madrepores. difcovered numerous cells, in which those B have for this, I fhall now fubmit to the D confideration of the publick. That a plum leaf or a currant leaf are really vegetables; none but an inhabitant of Bedlam would ever call in queftion: And yet every body must know, that fuch leaves are frequently fo covered over, or incrusted with fuch an amazing number of infects, that the natural appearance of the leaves is quite altered, and that there is nothing almoft to be feen, except a vaft number of animalcules. In this cafe it is evident, we fhould allow the leaves to be fill of the vegetable clafs, and not entirely the production of animals. Now marine vegetables, like terrestrial ones, may in like manner be covered over, or March those reasons become inhabitants of those plants; but why the whole nature of the inhabited body should be altogether animal, there is no more reafon for fuppofing, than there is for afferting, that the duckweed, upon which the fresh water polypes are difcovered, fhould be accounted of the animal kind likewife. Another thing likewife which greatly tends to prove, that corallines, &c. belong to the vegetable tribe, and not the animal, is the furprifing regularity and exact symmetry obfervable in all the parts and different ramifications of thofe marine bodies. I have feen, and carefully examined a great number, as well as a great variety of fea-plants, and yet in all of them the fame proportion and regularity was found in the contexture of them: That exact correfpondence in all their fibrilla themfelves, and in all their twinings and turnings, is as remarkable, as it is in any land-plants.-The formation of the honey-comb by the bees has been indeed offered as an answer to this argument, and they might as well also have offered the furprifing architecture of the beavers : For both the one and the other instance are equally foreign to the purpose. In thefe two cafes the plaftick form is evident at first fight, and there are no little tubes and capillary veffels, by which the circulation of the fap is carried on, and the communication of the juices proper for its fupport and growth is preferved throughout: But in regard to moft fea-plants, as corallines, &c. this actually happens, and the fame formation is obfervable in marine plants, as there is in thofe upon land. Dr. Shaw, whofe phyfical, as well as geographical obEfervations, are extremely judicious, has some reflections fo pertinent to the prefent fubject, that I cannot omit quoting them. This ingenious author takes notice, "That tho' nature has not allowed the marine plants (viz. corallines, &c.) one large root, as it has done to those upon land, yet it hath wifely supplied that mechanifm by a number of little ones, which are diftributed all over the plant, in fo just a proportion, that they are lodged thicker upon the branches, where the vegetation is chiefly carried on, than in the trunk, where it is more at a stand, and which is therfore often found naked, and feldom increates in the fame proportion with the branches. The terreftrial plants could not fubfift without an apparatus of great and extensive roots, because they are hereby not only to be fupported against the violence of the wind, which would otherwife blow them down; but their food alfo is to be fetched at a great diftance; incrufted with polypes, and fill the fub- F ftance on which they are found, be en- Thefe animalcules therefore, which are found in corallines, &c. may probably find convenient niduffes and proper fubfiftence in those marine bodies, and for See alfo other curious poslogot in the jeme quther's travels, on this fubjekt, at p. 34, 35, 386, 387. |