Chapter XXIII: Introduction (5)

There frequently exists an illusion as to particular things, to which,
says Dr. Male, men of genius are sometimes subject, which leads them
to indulge eccentric whimsies and extravagant fancies, whilst on every
other subject their perception is clear, and their conclusions
correct; instances of this kind abound in every treatise on insanity,
and may be traced from the earliest period of history. Pythagoras
believed that he had lived in prior ages, and inhabited different
bodies, and that in the shape of Euphorbus he had assisted in the
siege of Troy. Tasso fancied himself to be visited by a familiar
spirit, with whom he conversed aloud (_Hoole’s Life of Tasso_). The
hero of the celebrated romance of Cervantes, exhibits a well-drawn
picture of this species of insanity; and although in a less attractive
costume, how frequently do we recognise Don Quixote in every rank and
description of society? If, says a celebrated writer, the circle in
which this absurdity revolves is so very small as to touch nobody, a
man is only what is then called _singular_ in that respect; but if its
orbit is extended so as to run foul of other people, he is then called
a madman, and is confined.—ARMATA, Part II.

Footnote 510:

The admirers of modern Tragedy might be reasonably alarmed if their
approvals should be too strictly construed into symptoms of madness.

Footnote 511:

The case of Miss _Butterfield_, which we shall have other occasion to
refer to, is somewhat similar in effect to this. Mr. _Scawen_ had left
Miss B. a considerable legacy; but being impressed by his surgeon with
the idea that she had poisoned him with corrosive sublimate, he turned
her out of his house and altered his will. Mr. S. died, and so
evidently by mercurial poison, that Miss B. was tried for the murder,
but was acquitted, there being no evidence that she was the person by
whom the poison had been administered, and a considerable probability
that it had been contained in some quack medicines which Mr. S. had
taken. Under such circumstances a restoration of her legacy might have
been expected either from the liberality of the next of kin, or from
the interposition of a Court of Equity.

Footnote 512:

Continued by 19, and made perpetual by 26 _Geo._ 3, _c._ 91.

Footnote 513:

The Commissioners appointed by the College act within London and seven
miles compass, and within the county of Middlesex:—Query, why not in
the adjacent counties of Kent, Essex, and Surry, in which they have
but a limited jurisdiction?

Footnote 514:

If any alteration be necessary on this subject, we should suggest the
joining in Commission the legal Commissioners of Lunatics, named by
the Lord Chancellor, with the Medical Commissioners, elected by the
College; the former might acquire experience in judging of the ever
varying forms of lunacy, and the latter would gain legal assistance in
the execution of their duty.

Footnote 515:

The case of Mary Mills in 1806, (1 _Collinson_, 530, and Annual
Register, 1806) shews that some additional strictness is necessary in
comparing the number of registered lunatics with the number actually
confined.

Footnote 516:

Public Lunatic Asylums may be considered as divisible into three
classes, viz. 1. Those which are entirely eleemosynary, or are
supported partly by an income, funded or landed, but arising from
benevolence, and partly by voluntary contributions,

2. Those which are supported, partly by voluntary contributions, and
partly by pensionary patients, paying according to a certain gradation
of rank,

3. Pauper Lunatic Asylums founded under _Mr. Wynne’s_ act, at the
expense of the county, and where the patients are supported by their
parishes.

Most Eleemosynary Lunatic Asylums, either for want of sufficient
funds, or of room to accommodate all the lunatics who apply, exclude
epilepsy and idiotsy, making occasional exceptions, where the friends
of the patient can afford to pay the expense of maintenance. County
Pauper-lunatic Asylums are compelled to receive both these classes of
patients, if considered dangerous, but not otherwise.

Footnote 517:

In Scotland by 55 _Geo._ 3, _c._ 69. In Ireland by 57 _Geo._ 3, _c._
106; 1 _Geo._ 4, _c._ 98; 1 and 2 _Geo._ 4, _c._ 33.

Footnote 518:

See an Essay on Madness, by _Dr. Johnstone_.

Footnote 519:

_Reeve_ on Critinism; Phil. Trans. 1808, III; and Edinb. Med. Journ.
v. 31.

Footnote 520:

It has been calculated that the thirtieth part of the Epileptic
degenerate into a state of fatuity.

Footnote 521:

Medical Jurisprudence, as it relates to Insanity, by _John Haslam, M.
D._ London, 1817.

Footnote 522:

See _Burrows’s_ Inquiry into certain errors relative to Insanity, page
164.

Footnote 523:

μανία from μαίνομαι _I rage_.

Footnote 524:

μελαγχολία, from μελας, _black_, and χολὴ _bile_; black bile being
considered as the cause of the malady.

Footnote 525:

A Reply to _Dr. Battie’s_ Treatise on Madness, 8 Lond. 1785.

Footnote 526:

Religious fanaticism is so frequently attendant upon mania, that a
question has arisen respecting their relative dependance upon each
other, as to whether the former be the cause or the effect of the
latter? It seems probable that both these opinions are correct, for,
as _Dr. Burrows_ very justly observes that, as religion influences the
internal man more than all the passions collectively, so it may be a
_cause_ of insanity; while, on the other hand, there is no doubt, that
a lunatic may imbibe a religious as well as any other hallucination,
and yet be insane from a cause very contrary to religious.

Footnote 527:

_Haslam_—Op. citat.

Footnote 528:

_Dr. Haslam_ ventures an opinion upon this subject, which appears to
us so plausible that we shall introduce it to the notice of our
readers. “The ordinary class of persons, who are usually summoned to
act as jurymen, have in common with the mass of mankind, who have
wanted the means of direct information, adopted the popular and
floating opinions on the subject of insanity. That dramatic
representations have forcibly operated for this purpose there is
little reason to doubt: and some of the plays of _Shakspeare_ exhibit
many of the forms which this malady is supposed to assume. Among such
characters none have more strongly fastened on the general mind than
the outrageous _Lear_, and the distracted _Ophelia_; the subtile
crasiness of _Hamlet_ leaves it doubtful whether his alienation of
mind be real or conventionally assumed, and to the ordinary observer
conveys more of fiction than the avowed counterfeit of _Edgar_.
Romances, the literary food of the idle and thoughtless, abound in
descriptions of intellectual calamity; but these artificers of fancy,
like many unskilful performers, are too prone to strain the loftier
impressions of feeling, and distort the energies of passion into
mental derangement. Something of affecting interest may be excited by
the weaknesses and wanderings of _Maria_, but _Cervantes_ has
exhibited the happiest and most correct picture of systematic
insanity; although the vehicle of chivalry in which it is conveyed,
has, to our own countrymen, blunted its interest as a physiological
portrait of madness; his sallies have provoked mirth, and so keen is
the relish for the ridiculous, that in the luxury of laughter, the
reader has forgotten the tribute of commiseration.”

Footnote 529:

See _Erskine’s_ Speeches, vol. iv.

Footnote 530:

_Male’s_ Juridical Medicine, edit. 2, p. 208.

Footnote 531:

Dict. des Sciences Med. Art. _Folie._

Footnote 532:

Op. citat. p. 208.

Footnote 533:

This is well illustrated by the remarkable case of Nicolai of Berlin,
as cited by _Dr. Ferriar_ on Apparitions, p. 41, and also by _Dr.
Haslam_ in his “_Medical Jurisprudence, as it relates to Insanity_,”
p. 25.

Footnote 534:

_Haslam_ on Insanity.

Footnote 535:

See _Male’s_ Juridical Medicine, p. 220.

Footnote 536:

_Dr. Burrows_, in his “Inquiry into certain errors relative to
Insanity,” has taken a comprehensive view of this important question,
in which he attempts to prove that _a very large proportion of the
insane recover the perfect use of their understanding_, and in
elucidation he has submitted a comparative table of cures, comprising
returns from all the public lunatic asylums in England, and likewise
all the returns from Scotland that are accessible. To this work we
must refer the reader. The statistical branch of this subject has been
greatly elucidated by _Dr. Powell_, the Secretary to the Commissioners
for licensing mad-houses; and we are happy in being authorised to
state that the public may shortly expect an important publication from
the same author, in which the views of Dr. Burrows will probably be
duly examined.

Footnote 537:

_Dr. J. Johnstone_ on Madness.

Footnote 538:

An Inquiry, &c. p. 64.

Footnote 539:

A Treatise on experience in Physic, vol. 2, p. 292; see also _Dr.
Crichton’s_ valuable work on Mental Derangement.

Footnote 540:

During ten years 80 patients of this description were admitted into
Bethlem hospital, 50 of whom perfectly recovered.

Footnote 541:

De Sedibus et Causis, Epist. 1, 8, 6.

Footnote 542:

See a review of a work entitled “_A Treatise on the Diseases of the
Nervous System, Part I; comprising Convulsive and Maniacal
Affections,” by_ J. C. PRICHARD, M.D. &c. London, 1821, p. 426,
Medical Repository, Feb. 1, 1822.

Footnote 543:

On the manufactures and occupations above alluded to, we have make the
following observations.—

(1) As the vegetable matter undergoes the putrefactive process in
stagnant pools, the effluvia which arise are necessarily highly
pernicious; while the waters become so poisonous as to destroy the
fish contained in them, as well as to prove injurious to cattle that
drink of them. In Italy the process of steeping flax or hemp is only
permitted at the distance of some leagues from a town. ZIMMERMAN tells
us that the effluvia from this source have been known to occasion a
malignant fever, which proved fatal to the family in which it first
began, and afterwards spread its contagion through a whole country.
LANCISI observes, that dangerous fevers are often prevalent at
Constantinople, which owe their source to the hemp brought from Cairo,
and which is put wet into the public granaries, and suffered to
ferment during the summer. At Helmstedt there is annually in the
autumn, when the flax is steeped in the Aller, an epidemic dysentery
that prevails for several weeks.

(2) The manufacture of starch can scarcely be considered, in itself, a
nuisance, for although it be necessary to produce the acetous
fermentation, in order to remove from the fecula any colouring matter,
yet if sufficient attention be paid to the operation, and the water be
properly let off from the settling-vessels, no inconvenience can
arise. A nuisance, however, of considerable magnitude may incidentally
attend these manufactories, from the number of swine which are
constantly kept by the starch maker, and the profit of which forms a
part of his speculation, and which is so considerable that he can
generally afford to sell the starch at prime cost, relying wholly upon
the former trade for his profits.

(3) The process of tanning involves several operations of a very
nauseous description; the hides, for example, undergo incipient
putrefaction in order to loosen the epidermis, and to render the hair
and other extraneous matter easy of separation from the true skin.

(4) The peregrinations and vicissitudes of fate to which the horse is
doomed during life has repeatedly furnished subjects of reflection;
but few are aware to how many economical purposes his carcase is
converted after death, and to how many noisome processes it gives
rise. The dealers in dead horses, or _nackers_, as they are termed,
begin their mercantile anatomy by taking off the shoes and disposing
of them to the farrier; the skins are next stripped off, and sold to
the tanner; the carcase is then cut into pieces, and boiled in large
cauldrons of water, in order to extract the fatty matter, which, being
skimmed off from the surface of the liquor, is “_rendered down_” and
packed in cases for the soap-boiler, or the manufacturer of
cart-grease. Whatever remains after this operation supplies the
venders of dog’s and cat’s meat with a dainty article of sale; at
length the views of the greedy trader are directed to the bones of
this noble animal; a number of persons find employment in chopping
them into small fragments, from which the marrow is then extracted by
a boiling for several hours, and added to the fat already obtained
from the carcase; the dry remains are employed in the production of
hartshorn by distillation; and after this process is finished, they
are removed from the still, and calcined to whiteness, in order to be
mixed with clay for the manufacture of porcelaine; or they are
consumed for the formation of ivory-black.

(5) The intolerable nuisance of a public brewery arises from the
volumes of carbonaceous matter with which it overwhelms the
neighbourhood. We shall therefore take this occasion to offer the
remarks which we are prepared to make respecting the effects of smoke
on the inhabitants of the metropolis, and on the methods which have
been suggested for the mitigation of the evil. And upon this subject
we entirely agree with an intelligent reviewer, that, after all, it is
not a few chimneys attached to steam engines that infect the air of
London with smoke; every house is busy in the work of contamination,
although less observed, because administered by separate vents, and in
divided doses.

In the year 1661, a work was published by the celebrated JOHN EVELYN
on the subject of this grievance, entitled, “FUMIFUGIUM; _or the
Inconveniences of the Air and Smoake of London dissipated; together
with some remedies humbly proposed to his sacred Majestie, and to the
Parliament now assembled_.” The above “short discourse” has become
exceedingly scarce, but the reader will find an interesting account of
its contents in the Journal of Science and the Arts. It is certainly a
curious coincidence that the attention of John Evelyn should have been
first excited on this subject by “a presumptuous smoake issuing from
one or two tunnels near Northumberland house, and not far from
Scotland yard,”—the very seat of the plots of our modern fumifugists!
After adverting to the situation of the metropolis “built upon a sweet
and most agreeable eminency of ground at the north side of a goodly
and well conditioned river, toward which it has an aspect by a gentle
and easie declivity,” he proceeds to animadvert upon that “hellish and
dismall cloud of sea coale, which is not only perpetually imminent
over her head, but so universally mixed with the otherwise wholesome
and excellent air, that her inhabitants breathe nothing but an impure
thick mist, accompanied with a fuliginous and filthy vapour, which
renders them obnoxious to a thousand inconveniences, corrupting their
lungs, and disordering the entire habit of their bodies.” It appears
that in Evelyn’s time, brewers, dyers, lime-burners, and salt and
soap-boilers, were the principal nuisances; and “since then,” says the
editor of the new edition of the FUMIFUGIUM in 1772, “we have a great
increase of glass-houses, founderies, and sugar-bakers, to add to the
black catalogue, at the head of which must be placed the fire engines
of the water-works at London bridge and York-buildings, which leave
the astonished spectator at a loss to determine whether they do not
tend to poison and destroy more of the inhabitants by their smoke and
stench than they supply with water;” to which sooty list, says the
reviewer, in the Journal of Science and the Arts, above cited, “what
astonishing additions have been made, within the last thirty years, in
and about London? How many new water-companies, and smoke-producing
manufactories have been added to the catalogue? A newspaper cannot now
be printed, nor a pound of meat minced for sausages without a
steam-engine; to the same smoky servant the druggist resorts to grind
his rhubarb and to sift his magnesia,[544] and upon all possible
occasions the services of the other elements is superseded by that of
fire.” With respect to the deleterious effects of smoke upon the
health of the inhabitants of our mighty city, much difference of
opinion has existed; amongst Foreigners the air of London has the
reputation of being extremely unhealthy, on account of the exhalation
which arises from the use of coal; it excites in strangers, says
_Zimmerman_, a considerable heat in the stomach, and sometimes a
spitting of blood, and even nervous fevers which terminate in palsy.
(_Experience in Physic, vol._ 2, _p._ 137). It is hardly necessary for
us to make any observation upon a prejudice so absurd and unfounded;
_Evelyn_ also seems, in our opinion, to attribute more evils to the
smoke than can be well substantiated; “I report myself,” says he, “to
all those who have been compelled to breathe the air of other
countries for some years, if they do not now perceive a manifest
alteration in their appetite, and clearness of their spirits,
especially such as have lived long in France and the city of Paris.”
Although we are not disposed to consider the smoky atmosphere of
London as so destructive to health as some have imagined, we are not
prepared to state that it is entirely harmless. Children are certainly
less healthy in this city than in the country; and the superior
rapidity with which iron becomes oxidized, indicates the existence of
atmospheric impurities. The phenomena of vegetation also offers
another demonstration of the same fact; Evelyn has the following
curious remarks upon this circumstance: “That the smoake destroys our
vegetation is shewn by that which was by many observed in the year
1644, when Newcastle was besieged, and blocked up in our late wars, so
as through the great dearth and scarcity of coals, these fumous works
were either left off, or diminished, divers gardens and orchards
planted even in the very heart of London, (as in particular, my Lord
Marquis of Hertford in the Strand; my Lord Bridgewater’s, and some
others about Barbican) were observed to bear such plentiful and
infinite quantities of fruits, as they never produced the like before,
or since, to their great astonishment; but it was by the owners
rightly imputed to the penury of coales, and the little smoake which
they took notice to infest them that yeare.”

Although some difference of opinion may exist, as to the extent of the
evil, in a medical point of view, we must all concur in agreeing upon
the necessity of some plan by which it may be diminished; we shall,
therefore, proceed to offer some remarks upon the proposals which have
been made, at different times, for obtaining so desirable an object.

_Mr. Evelyn’s_ plan consisted in the removal of all smoking
manufactories from London, “five or six miles down the river Thames,
or at least, so far as to stand behind that promontory jutting out and
securing Greenwich from the pestilential air of Plumstead marshes.” He
then proposes gardens and plantations in and about the metropolis, and
enumerates a variety of fragrant plants, suited to our climate, and
calculated to sweeten and improve the air.[545]

In the year 1682, Mr. _Justell_ communicated to the Royal Society,
“_An account of an Engine that consumes smoke, shewn lately at St.
Germains Fair in Paris._” _Dr. Leutmann_, of Wirtemburgh, described in
his “Vulcanus Famulans,” a stove which draws downwards, so that the
contrivances of the _Marquis de Chabannes_, and others who have burnt
their smoke by a downward draught of air were not original. _Dr.
Franklin_ in 1785 (_Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin
Franklin, vol._ iv. _p._ 408) suggested a mode of burning smoke; but
to the illustrious _Mr. Watt_, we are more particularly indebted for
the first important hints upon this subject; his patent may be seen in
the _fourth volume of the Repertory of Arts_ for 1796, p. 226; and the
great engines at the Soho manufactory have all along been worked
without smoke; it is therefore not a little extraordinary, as a late
reviewer has justly observed, that in the Report from the Committee of
the House of Commons “to enquire how far it may be practicable to
compel persons using steam engines and furnaces in their different
works to erect them in a manner less prejudicial to public health and
public comfort,” and upon which report the bill of last session is
founded, no notice is taken of _Mr. Watt’s_ suggestions and inquiries.
In the Parliamentary Report, to which we have just alluded, there are
two inventions for the destruction of smoke, which appear to have
principally occupied the attention of the Committee, and which profess
to accomplish the object, with a very considerable saving of fuel,
viz:

_Mr. Brunton’s Fire Regulator._ In this patent a newly constructed
fire-place is applied to the engine boiler, containing a circular
grate, which is made to revolve slowly upon its axis; the fire upon
this grate is fed in front by a kind of hopper continually delivering
small coal, which, from the rotatory motion of the grate itself,
becomes equally spread upon its surface, so as to maintain a thin
fire, and a sharp draught; the coal is thus rapidly decomposed and
burned; the smoke at first produced having to pass across the grate,
and over the red hot, and already coaked fuel.

_Patent of Messrs. Parkes of Warwick._—The principal agent in this
improvement is a current of air, admitted just beyond the end of the
fire-place, by means of an aperture which may be increased, or closed
at pleasure, and which the patentee term an “_air valve_.” A small
fire is first made to burn brightly at the back of the grate; coals
are then filled in towards the front, in which direction the fire
gradually spreads; their smoke necessarily passes over the clear fire,
where it becomes sufficiently heated to constitute flame, as soon as
it meets with the current of air entering at the valve; and a striking
experiment with this apparatus consists in alternately shutting and
opening the air-valve, which is accompanied by the alternate
appearance and disappearance of the smoke.

Instead, however, of insisting upon any form of fire-place, greater
benefit would arise from an enactment respecting the height of
chimneys; our intelligent reviewer, of whose remarks we have so
frequently availed ourselves, observes, that by conveying black smoke,
and other pernicious fumes into a capacious and very lofty chimney,
much of the noxious matters that otherwise escape into the atmosphere
are decomposed and precipitated or condensed within; of the truth of
which, the chimney of the grand-junction engine, at Paddington, and
that of the West Middlesex water-works, at Hammersmith, offer striking
illustrations; when these machines are at work, the former produces
little smoke, while the latter inundates the neighbouring gardens with
perpetual showers of solid soot; and yet the only difference is in the
relative altitude of the two chimneys; the boilers being, in all
respects, set and constructed alike. A chimney from 150 to 200 feet
would in most cases prove effectual, and the expense might be
considerably lessened by making one shaft receive all the tributary
fumes of many flues. But to return to the nuisance of breweries, from
which we have made so long a digression; it is probable, that the
smoke from these chimneys could not be remedied either by Brunton’s or
Parkes’s patent, but the increasing the altitude of the chimney would
seem to promise a mode of relief; we are also to look to the
employment of steam as a substitute for fires; high pressure steam has
been very extensively employed for this purpose in Whitbread’s
brewery, and the smoke has in consequence sustained a very perceptible
diminution.

(6) Sulphuric acid makers are continually indicted; and it would
appear that by a scientific improvement in the process, the escape of
the sulphurous acid, which constitutes the grievance, might to a great
degree be obviated. How does it happen that, notwithstanding the cost
of the materials necessary for the production of sulphuric acid, is in
France at least double what it is in England, the French can afford to
sell the article 25 per cent. cheaper than the English? the answer is
obvious,—the great part of the materials are sent off into the air, in
the form of _sulphurous acid_, and _nitrous gas_, to the annoyance of
the neighbouring animals and vegetables, and the ruin, too often, of
the proprietor. See _Journal of Science and the Arts_. In a report
drawn up in the year 1806 by Guyton Morveau, and Chaptal, upon the
subject of injurious manufactories, by command of the minister of the
interior, it is declared that the distillation of acids can only prove
dangerous from want of due precaution.

(7) The manufacture of Prussian blue is necessarily attended with
highly offensive vapours. The first part of the process consists in
mixing hoofs and tup’s horns with Russian or American potass, in large
iron stills, to which heat is gradually applied, until the vessel
become red hot; the animal matter and alkali being thus fused into a
mass is laded out into iron pans, where it concretes into solid
blocks, technically called _metals_.

(8) The operation of unfolding the cow’s horns by the application of
heat is attended with a terrible stench; the trade in lanthorn leaves
was formerly very considerable with Russia; but it was nearly
annihilated by an edict of Catherine; the less flexible parts are made
into combs; and the tips of the horns are sent to Birmingham for the
manufacture of buttons.

(9) Owing to the viscid nature of the materials, it is impossible to
make varnish without burning the animal matter, which occasions a
stench of the most insufferable kind; and is so suffocating, that very
lately two workmen lost their lives in a manufactory of this article
in Gray’s-inn-lane.

(10) The animal matters employed in this process give rise to a stench
which has repeatedly formed the ground of indictment. The most
nauseous part of the trade, however, consists in concentrating the
waste lees, for the purpose of obtaining by fusion in a reverberatory
furnace, an article which is called BLACK ASH, and which contains,
amongst other salts, the _sulphuret of soda_.

(11) “Renderers of tallow” are persons who convert the butcher’s fat,
&c. into tallow.

(12) The process of smelting different ores is the most injurious of
all the operations of art, although to the senses it may be less
nauseous than those in which animal matter undergoes decomposition by
heat, or putrefaction. These evils, however, by the ingenious
application of various mechanical and chemical expedients, have in
many instances been very materially diminished, and in others,
entirely obviated; this is strikingly illustrated in several large
works for smelting lead ores; and the proprietors of the Hafod copper
works, at Swansea, are at present engaged in an experimental inquiry
into various plans which have been proposed for diminishing, or
preventing the ill effects which arise from the metallic fumes.
Acquainted as we are with the liberality and science of these
gentlemen, we have little doubt of the result; and we mention the
circumstance in this place in order to recommend similar efforts on
the part of persons engaged in other works; and at the same time for
the purpose of preparing the reader for some observations which we
shall take occasion to offer, on the subject of the law of nuisance,
in relation to its operation in stopping works of such national
importance. It would be premature to enter into any detailed account
of the chemical means which promise a successful resource on this
occasion; we shall only observe that the great mischief seems to arise
from the quantity of arsenic, so universally present in the ores of
copper; and there is reason to hope, from the experiments already made
by Mr. J. H. _Vivian_, that _Lime_ may be usefully employed in
preventing its volatilization. The author of the present note has had
ample opportunities of investigating the effects of arsenical fumes,
which arise from the burning-houses in Cornwall, and from the great
copper works carried on at Hayle in that county, and they appear to be
especially pernicious to graminivorous quadrupeds; horses and cows
lose their hoofs; and the latter animals are not unfrequently seen, in
the vicinity of the works, crawling along on their knees; they are
also subject to a cancerous affection in their tails; and milch cows
loose their milk. The herbage also suffers materially from the
poisonous smoke, especially in wet seasons; corn is blighted in the
ear, and never perfects its seed, unless care be taken to select at
that period such ore as will yield but little sublimate. Cabbages do
not appear to suffer in the least; nor are potatoes materially
injured; and it is not the least curious circumstance in the history
of these works, that the apple-trees in their vicinity grow and bear
fruit without sustaining any of those ill effects which we should have
anticipated, but, on the contrary, the arsenical fumes appear to
destroy all the insects which usually infest such trees, and their
trunks exhibit a cleanness which would delight the horticulturist. The
men employed in these works are occasionally affected with a cancerous
disease in the scrotum, similar to that which infests
chimney-sweepers; it is however probable that this arises from the
immediate application of the excoriating material made by the hand in
the act of rubbing the part. A similar affection was a short time
since observed in a manufactory, in which the workmen were engaged in
making an arsenical solution for a green dye, used in calico printing.

(13) Gas Works. We have lately learnt, that a method has been adopted
to get rid of the nuisance which has arisen from the residual liquor
from these works, by evaporating it in pans, placed in the ash-pit of
the furnace, and by which the iron bars of the fire-place are at the
same time kept cool, and are therefore much longer preserved. The
contrivance may be seen at the gas works in Worship-street.

Footnote 544:

By a visit to Apothecaries’ Hall, or to any of the great manufacturing
chemists, the stranger will be astonished at the number and utility of
the applications of steam to the processes of Pharmacy.

_M. Dupin_, when speaking of the immense mechanical force set in
action by the steam-engines of England, gives the following
illustration of its amount:—The great pyramid of Egypt required for
its erection the labour of above 100,000 men for twenty years; the
action of the steam-engines in England, which are, at most, all
managed by 36,000 men, would be sufficient to produce the same
quantity of work, in 18 hours!!!

Footnote 545:

It is supposed that the lime-trees in St. James’s Park owe their
existence to the suggestion of Evelyn.

Footnote 546:

There are certain districts so devoted to manufactories that, in the
general assemblage, it would be extremely difficult to identify the
noisome effects of any particular one. A curious illustration of this
fact lately occurred in two indictments; the one preferred against
Apple, the proprietor of a prussian blue manufactory; the other
against Moore, black-ash manufacturer; both of whose works were
situated in Seward-street, Goswell-street. The counsel for the
defendant, in his cross-examination of the witnesses for the former
prosecution, artfully drew from them an account of the noisome vapours
of the black-ash maker; while in the latter trial, the same barrister
made the witnesses declare the extreme stench of the prussian blue
manufactory; so that in both cases the defendants obtained a
verdict—because in neither case could the evidence for the crown
unequivocally prove from which of the manufactories the nuisance
complained of arose.

Footnote 547:

But query, whether the ancient existence of an inconsiderable brewery,
which from the small quantity of fuel consumed, was not a nuisance,
should have warranted the augmentation of those immense factories
which now obscure and suffocate some of the most populous districts in
London.

Footnote 548:

It is impossible to question the justice and policy of this maxim as a
general principle of legislation; “Salus Populi Suprema Lex,”—but
there are circumstances which ought to exempt certain establishments
from the operation of the common law of nuisances; we allude to those
grand national works for smelting ores, which could not be closed
without fatally affecting our national prosperity, and compromising
the fate of the Arts themselves. No consideration, however, ought to
admit them within the range of a great city, or a populous district;
but where they have acquired a kind of right to toleration by time and
necessity, in a remote place, they ought to continue in the enjoyment
of their advantages without disturbance; but in return for such an
immunity, the public has a right to expect every exertion on the part
of the proprietors, in order to obviate, as far as in them lies, the
diffusion of the fumes, throughout the neighbourhood, by improving the
construction of the furnaces, and by the adoption of such chemical and
mechanical expedients as may be capable of diminishing the evil. We
are led to these observations in consequence of learning with regret
that attempts have been frequently made to compel the proprietors of
the Hafod copper works, before alluded to, to abandon them; and while
the present sheet was in the press, we learnt that the Grand Jury had
found a true bill against one of these establishments. We shall in
consequence offer a few remarks, with a view of shewing the necessity
that exists of introducing a protecting clause into the law of
nuisances, in favour of certain established mining and smelting
districts; and we must here observe, that the inhabitants which
congregate in the vicinity of great manufactories of this description,
are always, in the first instance, allured to the spot, by the
prospect of gain; and it was not to be expected that persons who have
been thus aggrandised, should, as soon as their riches confer
independence and fastidiousness upon them, turn round and revile as
insufferable and dangerous, that very power to which alone they owe
any personal consequence to which they may now be entitled. But the
strongest arguments will be found in the great importance of these
works in a national and commercial point of view; and on this account
we shall present the reader with some statistical arguments of
considerable weight, viz: The quantity of coals consumed in the copper
works in South Wales, and exported in the vessels which convey the ore
from Cornwall to them, is calculated at 200,000 chaldrons annually;
and the amount paid for it to the collieries at from £100,000 to
£110,000. The number of persons employed in raising and delivering it
is not less than 1,500. The number of persons employed in the smelting
works is about 1,500, and the yearly amount of wages paid to them is
not less than £50,000. The value of the materials consumed annually in
these works may be taken at £20,000. The amount paid for the freight
of ore and materials may be stated at £25,000. The number of vessels
employed in the conveyance of the same may be about 150, and supposing
them to be manned by five seamen on the average, they give occupation
to 750 mariners. Thus a sum of not less than two hundred thousand
pounds sterling is annually circulated in Glamorganshire and the
adjoining county, and employment given to 3750 individuals.

If the families and dependants of these persons are taken into the
amount, a population of 12,000 souls at least derive their support
from the smelting establishments. The consequences which would result
from depriving so great a number of persons of the means of
subsistence may be more easily conceived than described. These
estimates refer only to the mere direct expenditure of the smelting
works and their immediate dependants—the consequences of the stoppage
of these works to the immense number of persons employed in the mines
in Cornwall—between 50 and 60,000 souls—would be completely ruinous.

These considerations it might be supposed are sufficiently apalling to
deter those who are engaged in the present measures carrying on
against one of the principal smelting companies by prosecution: an
object which is likely to be productive of consequences so destructive
of the welfare of thousands, in the annihilation of a trade of the
utmost general importance to the country, whether as relating to its
internal or external affairs, to its manufactories, its colonies, or
its ships: a trade in which upwards of two millions of pounds sterling
are embarked. That it ever should enter into the mind of any human
being to prosecute measures which could by any possibility lead to
consequences so disastrous, is almost inconceivable, and the only
excuse that can possibly be offered for them (if excuse it can be
called) is, that they are so entirely occupied by the consideration of
their personal convenience and fancied interest, as to be incapable of
forming a just conception of the momentous business they have
undertaken.

Footnote 549:

Si homme fait _Candells_ deins un vill, per que il cause un noysom
sent al inhabitants, uncore ceo nest ascun nusans, car le
_needfulness_ de eux dispensera ove le noisomness del _smell_. 2
_Rolle Abr._ 139.

Footnote 550:

A fine for every beast slaughtered within the walls of Exeter was held
good under a bye-law. _Cowp. R._ 269.

Footnote 551:

By this act, 57 _Geo._ 3, _c._ 22, §. 64, it is enacted that if any
person shall throw, or suffer to be thrown or remain, any ashes, dust,
dirt, rubbish, offal, dung, soil, blood, or other filth, or shall
kill, slaughter, scald, dress, or cut up any beast, &c. in or near any
street, (within the act) as that any blood or filth shall run or flow
over the pavements, such person, on conviction before any justice of
the peace, shall forfeit and pay not less than forty shillings, or
more than five pounds for each offence.

Footnote 552:

We are very sorry to instance the state of Covent Garden Market as an
exception to the rule of neatness and cleanliness, for which the
English have been celebrated; the quantity of putrescent vegetables
allowed to accumulate there is as disgraceful to the persons who have
the control of the market as it is disgusting to those who have
occasion to resort to, or even pass by it. _Dr. Rogers_ relates that a
very malignant fever having appeared at Wadham college in Oxford, and
carried off a considerable number of people, and that the physicians
ascribed it to the putrefaction of a considerable heap of cabbages,
which had been thrown from the neighbouring gardens, on a spot of
ground contiguous to the college.

Footnote 553:

Dr. Garthshore has observed that women, during the period of
utero-gestation, on account of the increased irritability of the
system at that period, are frequently affected by odours, that at any
other time would not have produced the slightest impression; and this
experienced practitioner was of opinion that the dangerous convulsions
which sometimes seize the patient towards the end of a tedious and
difficult labour, may arise from the long continued inspiration of the
air of a close and unventilated chamber crowded with attendants and
friends.

This observation suggests to us another circumstance which, though it
has never, we believe, been legally treated as a nuisance, well
deserves to be so considered; we allude to the public exposure of
disgusting objects for the purpose of exciting charity. The vagrant
laws are evidently ineffective for the purpose of removing them, nor
has the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity been much more
successful; those who have observed the pertinacity with which some
sturdy vagrants persecute pregnant females, obtruding on their view
some ulcerous sore, stump, or deformity, will agree in the necessity
of some more vigorous measures than have been yet employed for the
abatement of this species of nuisance.

Footnote 554:

The Author well remembers being sent for on a professional visit to
the great copper works at Hayle, in Cornwall, and being told by a man,
who had been a smelter for more than half a century, that the
occupation was remarkably healthy, and that those who were engaged in
it escaped the ordinary maladies of the season and country; “The
smoke,” said he, “kills all disorders, especially Fevers.” This
anecdote is at least sufficient to shew the force of their prejudice.

Footnote 555:

The increase of the metropolis may be deemed a medical, though it
cannot be restrained as a legal nuisance; this has been long felt but
is still without remedy. In 1580 Queen _Elizabeth_, by proclamation,
prohibited new buildings within three miles of the city of London, and
commanded the Lord Mayor and officers to regulate the number of
inmates in each house, which had become excessive. 2 _Stowe’s_ London,
436. About this time it was made matter of complaint that “Moorfields,
which formerly the citizens used for their health and pleasure to walk
in and take the air, began now to be enclosed, to the hinderance of
these healthful and useful walkings.” The limits of a Sabbath-days
journey will not afford the modern citizen a breathing place; what
effect this privation may have on the moral as well as physical state
of the poorer inhabitants of this overgrown capital we will not
attempt to discuss, and as the existing evil is without remedy, we
will content ourselves with a hope that some means may be found to
prevent its increase. An act of parliament limits the distance from
the new road within which no buildings may be erected; an extension of
this principle to all other roads five miles round London (_exceptis
excipiendis_) and the imposition of double taxes on all houses to be
erected after a certain date, within a limited circuit, (with a
decreasing ratio as the radius increases) might possibly obviate the
evil without very materially interfering with the value of property.
The capital is metaphorically called the heart of the empire; we wish
to provide it with sufficient lungs that it may circulate more florid
and healthy blood to the extremities.

Since this note was written we have seen, in a collection of the
statutes passed in the time of the commonwealth, an act for the
preventing of the multiplicity of buildings in and about the suburbs
of London and within ten miles thereof, _An. Dom._ 1656, the preamble
of which says, “Whereas the great and excessive number of houses,
edifices, outhouses, and cottages, erected and new built in and about
the suburbs of the city of _London_ and the part thereunto adjoining,
is found to be very mischievous and inconvenient, and a great
annoyance and nuisance to the commonwealth; and whereas,
notwithstanding divers prohibitions heretofore had and made to the
contrary, yet the said growing evil is of late so much multiplied and
increased that there is a necessity of taking some further and speedy
course for the redress thereof;” certain fines and penalties are
therefore directed to be levied on all new houses which have not _four
acres_ of land continually used with them, and commissioners are
appointed to carry the act into execution. The exceptions in this
statute may serve to elucidate the subject, Clare market, Lincoln’s
Inn Fields, Covent Garden, Shoe lane, and other places now in the
centre of the town are exempted from the penalties, on account of the
charges or covenants to which the owners had been or might be liable.

Footnote 556:

The Severn lately having overflown its banks into a lime-pit, a very
considerable number of salmon and other fish were killed by it.

Footnote 557:

Old Book of Entries, fol. 406, edit. 1595, action upon the case
brought for annoying a piscary with a gutter that came from a
dye-house. _Hutt._ 136.

Footnote 558:

The smelts and flounders have been thus destroyed in the immediate
vicinity of London.

Footnote 559:

By stat. 12, _Gec._ 3, _c._ 61, not more than 50lbs. may be kept in
any one place within London and Westminster, or three miles circuit,
nor within one mile of any city, borough, or market town, or within
two miles of any of the King’s palaces or magazines, or one half mile
of any parish church.

Footnote 560:

Principles of Military Surgery, by _J. Hennen, M. D._ edit. 2d,
Edinburgh, 1820. See also Transactions of the College of Physicians in
Dublin, vol. ii, p. 337.

Footnote 561:

Med. Leg. 1, 360.

Footnote 562:

Op. citat. p. 458.

Footnote 563:

See _Parry’s_ Elements of Physiology.

Footnote 564:

See the evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, on the
subject of Mendicity.

Footnote 565:

_Male’s_ Elements of Juridical Medicine, edit. 2, p. 237.

Footnote 566:

Principles of Forensic Medicine, p. 470.

Footnote 567:

See a paper in the 3d vol. of the Medical Trans. of the Coll. of Phy.
p. 112, by _Sir George Baker_, entitled “_An account of a singular
disease, which prevailed among some poor children maintained by the
parish of St. James, in Westminster. A. D. 1784._”

Footnote 568:

_Haygarth_ on the Imagination.

Footnote 569:

The influence of sympathy in propagating a spasmodic paroxysm was
illustrated, in a very extraordinary manner, some years ago in the
county of Cornwall, when the methodists assembled in great numbers in
their meeting-houses, and continued for many hours, and even days, in
the agony of supplication, waiting for an assurance of divine mercy;
during which period many persons who attended as visitors became
convulsed. The author was at that time resident in the county, and
lost no opportunity of investigating a phenomenon so anomalous and
extraordinary. The visitation was called the REVIVAL, and the meetings
appear to have been very similar to the “CAMP MEETINGS” in America. It
was the author’s intention to have selected from the notes which he
had taken upon the occasion, some account of this REVIVAL, but he has
declined the task from the same feeling that induced the painter to
throw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, because he despaired of
giving it the expression which it required.

Footnote 570:

That CUMMIN possesses this property is a very ancient opinion; thus
_Pers. Sat._ v.

“Rugosum Piper, et _pallentis_ grana Cumini.”

_Dioscorides_ maintained that it had made those persons pale who drank
it, or washed themselves with it; and _Pliny_ says that it was
reported, that the disciples of Porcius Latro, a famous master of the
art of speaking, used it to imitate that paleness which he had
contracted by his studies; thus too _Horace_

“——Proh! si
Pallerem casu, biberent exsangue Cuminum,”

_Epist._ 19, _Lib._ 1, _c._ 12.

Footnote 571:

Lectures on the Structure and Physiology of the Urinary and Genital
Organs, p. 184.

Footnote 572:

The details and progress of the imposture may be seen in successive
volumes of the Medical and Physical Journal, viz. vol. xx, p. 402,
527; xxi, p. 60; xxiv, p. 309; xxix, p. 109, 409, 469; xxx, p. 21 103,
187.

Footnote 573:

She also swore that during the whole period she had no evacuations
except by urine.

Footnote 574:

JUSSIEU has given an account of a Portuguese girl, of fifteen years of
age, who had been born without a tongue, and he refers to a similar
case recorded eight years before by a surgeon of Saumur, where the
subject was a boy, who had lost his tongue by gangrene, and yet to a
certain degree, was able to perform the functions of it. A case of a
similar nature, together with a reference to several other instances,
stands recorded in the annals of our own country, and may be found in
the Philosophical Transactions.

Footnote 575:

OP. CITAT. See also a paper by Dr. VETCH, in the _Edinburgh Med. &
Surg. Journ._ Vol. iv. p. 157.

Footnote 576:

“A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons, by
_Frederick Accum_.” A work which is perhaps better known by the title
of DEATH IN THE POT.

Footnote 577:

In this country, bread is chiefly divided into _white_, _wheaten_, and
_household_, differing only in degree of purity; in the first, all the
bran is separated; in the second, only the coarser; in the third, none
at all; so that _fine bread_ is made only of flour; _wheaten bread_ of
flour with a mixture of the finer bran; and _household_, of the whole
substance of the grain, without taking out either the coarse bran, or
fine flour. _Stat._ 8 _Ann, c._ 18. In the statute of assize of bread
and ale, to be hereafter noticed, (51 _Hen._ 3,) mention is made of
_wastel-bread_, _cocket-bread_, and _bread of treet_; which answer to
the three sorts of bread above mentioned, viz. _white_, _wheaten_, and
_household-bread_.

The bread of the London bakers maybe certainly considered as forming a
very distinct species, although by no means a definite one; there are
no less than six different kinds of flour brought into the London
market, which are designated by the following terms, viz. 1, _fine
flour_; 2, _seconds_; 3, _middlings_; 4, _fine middlings_; 5, _coarse
middlings_; 6, _twenty-penny flour_; besides which the London
bread-flour is not unfrequently deteriorated by having beans and peas
ground up with it: now it is a fact generally admitted that the very
best wheaten flour can alone produce beautifully white bread, unless
some bleaching substance be employed, in which case however inferior
flour may be made into bread equally specious to the eye; for such a
purpose _alum_ is universally employed by the London bakers, and it
has become a medical question whether the health of the community is
likely to be affected by the practice. We should say that, generally,
so small a proportion as ten or fifteen grains of alum in a quartern
loaf could hardly produce any mischief, although we are inclined to
think that certain constitutions may be sensible to its influence, and
that infants may occasionally suffer from it; these effects are of
course more likely to occur to persons who only visit London
occasionally, although upon this subject some important fallacies may
exist; and it is by no means satisfactorily established that the
costiveness, which is sometimes experienced by country residents on
their first coming to London, arises from the alum present in the
bread; for admitting even that it depends upon the bread, it may be
connected with the change in the relative coarseness of the flour
alone, for we have shewn in another work (PHARMACOLOGIA, edit. 5, page
160) that bran renders wheaten flour laxative from its mechanical
action upon the inner coats of the intestines. But a much more
iniquitous practice than that of adding alum to bread has been
detected: bakers have been convicted of using _gypsum_, _pipe-clay_,
and _chalk_, and not long since a very extensive fraud was carried on
in Cornwall, where a very considerable portion of the _Porcelain clay_
(decomposed felspar) from Saint Annes, was introduced into the bread;
and the author of this note was lately informed by Mr. Hume, of Long
Acre, that on examining some biscuits prepared for the use of the
navy, he found as much as eight per cent of _gypsum_. _Dr. Reines_
observes that this adulteration is very common in Germany, where the
same mills are employed to grind corn for the inhabitants, and gypsum
for the purpose of a mineral manure to the lands. It may be necessary
to remark, before quitting the subject of the adulteration of bread,
that we possess no summary and unexceptionable chemical test for the
detection of _alum_, since common salt, which necessarily enters into
the composition of the loaf, often contains saline impurities which
may occasion precipitates like those we might attribute to _alum_.

Footnote 578:

This act of the 51st _Hen._ 3, stat. 6, (entitled a Statute of the
Pillory and Tumbril) is worthy of notice, as it is we believe the
first in which the adulteration of human food is specially noticed and
prohibited. It is thereby enacted that six lawful men shall collect
the measures and weights of the town, as well of taverns as other
places, and one loaf of every sort of bread. Afterwards twelve lawful
men shall swear to make true answer of the price of wheat, first,
second, and third, of barley, and oats; and of the price of bread, and
for what default a baker ought to be amerced or to be judged unto the
pillory; also if any steward or bailiff for any bribe doth release
punishment of the pillory and tumbril. Also if they have in the town a
pillory of convenient strength; next of the price of wine, and if any
corrupted wine be in the town, or such as is not wholesome for man’s
body; also of the assize of ale, and what brewers have sold contrary
to the assize, and ought to be judged to the tumbril; also if there be
any that sell by one measure, and buy by another. Also if any butcher
do sell contagious flesh, or that died of the murrain. Also of cooks
that seethe flesh or fish with bread or water, or any otherwise that
is not wholesome for man’s body, or after that they have kept it so
long that it loseth its natural wholesomeness, and then seethe it
again and sell it. Also of forestallers and regrators. The statute
concludes by enacting that when a quarter of barley is sold for two
shillings, four quarts of ale shall be sold for a penny; when for two
and sixpence, the seven quarts for twopence; when for three shillings,
three quarts for a penny; when for three shillings and sixpence, five
quarts for twopence; when for four shillings, two quarts for one
penny, and so onward the prices shall increase and decrease after the
rate of sixpence.

Footnote 579:

For subsequent statutes see Jac. L. Dict., and Burn’s Justice by
Chetwynd: tit. bread.

Footnote 580: