Chapter XX (2)

This superstition still prevails in many parts of England, especially in Cornwall, where the peasants on certain days of the year assemble at the springs, or holy wells, and, in the manner stated in the text, proceed to settle such doubts and enquiries as will not let the idle and anxious rest. Here, therefore, they come, and, instead of allaying, deservedly feed their uneasiness; the supposed responses serving equally to increase the gloom of the low-spirited, the suspicions of the jealous, and the passion of the enamoured. The superstition, however, is sanctioned by the highest antiquity. The Castalian fountain, and many others among the Grecians, were supposed to be of a prophetic nature. By dipping a fair mirror into a well, the Patræans of Greece received, as they supposed, some notice of ensuing sickness or health from the various figures portrayed upon the surface. In Laconia they cast into a pool, sacred to Juno, cakes of bread-corn; if they sank, good was portended; if they swam, something dreadful was to ensue. Sometimes they threw three stones into the water, and formed their conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking. “From the several waves and eddies which the sea, river, or other water exhibited,” says Dr. Borlase, “when put into agitation after a ritual manner, the ancients pretended to foretell with great certainty the event of battles; a way of divining recorded by Plutarch in his life of Cæsar, and still usual among the vulgar in Cornwall; who go to some noted well, at particular times of the year, and there observe the bubbles that rise, and the aptness of the water to be troubled, or to remain pure, on their throwing in pins or pebbles, and thence conjecture what shall or shall not befall them. The Druids also, as we have great reason to think, pretended to predict future events, not only from holy wells and running streams, but from the rain and snow water, which, when settled, and afterwards stirred, either by oak-leaf or branch, or magic wand, might exhibit appearances of great information to the quick-sighted Druid, or seem so to do to the credulous enquirer, when the priest was at full liberty to represent the appearances as he thought most for his purpose.”--BORLASE’S _Antiquities of Cornwall_, p. 140.

In the islands of Scilly there is, or was some years since, a custom of propitiating fortune by certain ceremonies of this kind. An old islander regretted to a friend of the author the want of care with which such ceremonies had of late been conducted, and observed, as the consequence, that “_they had no luck at all in the islands; not a wreck had taken place for many months_.”

Note 6, p. 42.--COINS AND MEDALS.

The Latin word _moneta_, for money, is probably more modern than _pecunia_, and is said to be derived from _moneo_, to advise or mark, that is, to show by some mark the weight and fineness of the metal of which coins were composed. Thus, according to Isidorus, “Moneta ita appellatur, quia monet nè qua fraus in pondere vel metallo fiat.” The origin of money seems to have been coeval with the first regulations of civil society, or, at least, it is too remote to be traced by any authentic history. Barter, that is the exchange of one commodity for another, was the ordinary mode of traffic in the earlier periods of the world; a practice which must soon have been discovered extremely inconvenient, and inadequate to the purposes of commerce; and hence the invention of a common measure, or standard, according to which all other things should be estimated. Writers very generally agree in believing that the metals were first used for such a purpose, as being almost the only substances whose goodness, and as it were integrity, were not injured by partition; and which admitted of being melted, and returned again into a mass of any size or weight. At first, it is probable that each person cut his metal into pieces of different sizes and forms, according to the quantity to be given for any merchandize, or according to the demand of the seller, or the quantity stipulated between them; to this end they went to market, laden with metal, in proportion to the purchase to be made, and furnished with instruments for apportioning it, and with scales for dealing it out, according as occasion required. By degrees it must have been found commodious to have pieces ready weighed; and Mr. Pinkerton observes, that such were prepared without any stated form or impression, but merely regulated to a certain weight; for _weight_ was the grand standard of ancient coinage, so that all large sums were paid in weight, even down to the Saxon period of England. As in Greece the first estimation of money was merely by weight, so was it in Rome. Silver was the metal first used in Grecian coinage, but copper in the Roman; the former metal having been long known to the Romans. The first valuation of Roman money was by the _libra gravis æris_, or pound of heavy brass: and when by the progress of their conquests they obtained silver and gold, these were regulated in the same manner. Let us proceed one step farther in the history of coins; it is easy to imagine that the growing commerce of money being disturbed with frauds, both in the weight and the material, the interposition of public authority became necessary, and that hence arose the first stamps or impressions of money; to which succeeded the names of the moneyers, and at length the effigy of the prince, the date, legend, and other precautions to prevent the alteration of the species; and thus were coins completed. Gold and silver, in their pure or unmixed state, are too flexible to make coins sufficiently firm for general use; and hence the necessity of mixing with them a certain proportion of some harder metal, and this mixture is called the _alloy_. The quality of this alloy has been always considered of great importance with respect to the durability of coins. The most common metal used for this purpose is copper; and sometimes, for gold, a mixture of silver and copper. In all well-regulated governments, there has been a standard fixed by law; that is, a certain proportion between the quantity of pure metal and its alloy. In England the standard for gold is 11/12, that is eleven parts of pure metal, and one part of alloy. The standard for silver is 37/40, a proportion which is said to have been fixed in the reign of Richard I. by certain persons from the eastern parts of Germany, called _Easterlings_; and hence the word _Sterling_, which was afterwards the name given to the silver penny, and which is now applied to all lawful money of Great Britain.

_Penny_ is derived by Camden from _pecunia_, but others suppose that the word is formed from _pendo_ to weigh, and the word has been sometimes written, according to this origin, _pending_. The ancient English penny, or penig, or pening, was the first silver coin struck in England, and the only one current amongst our Saxon ancestors. Until the time of Edward I. the penny was struck with a cross so deeply indented in it that it might be easily broken, and parted into two pieces, thence called _half-pennies_, or into four, called _four-things_, or _farthings_; but that prince coined it without indenture; in lieu of which he first struck round half-pence and farthings.

By the term MEDAL, we understand a piece of metal, in the form of a coin, destined to preserve to posterity the portrait of some great man, or the memory of some illustrious action. They are distinguished by their different sizes; those of the larger size, or volume, are called _medallions_. _Medallets_ is a name given by Pinkerton to those small pieces, or _missilia_, scattered among the people on solemn occasions; those struck for the slaves in the Saturnalia, private counters for gaming, tickets for baths and feasts, tokens in copper and lead, and the like. Medallions were certainly never intended to become current coin, as some medals probably were; they were struck purely to serve as public monuments, or to be presented by the emperor to his friends, and by the mint-makers to the emperor, as specimens of fine workmanship. They were struck upon the commencement of the reign of a new emperor, and other solemn occasions; and frequently, especially the Greek medallions, as monuments of gratitude, or of flattery. Sometimes they were trial or pattern pieces, _testimonia probatæ monetæ_; and such abound after the reign of Maximilian, with the “Tres monetæ” on the reverse. It is observed, that all the Roman pieces in gold, exceeding the _denarius aureus_; all in silver, superior to the _denarius_; and all in brass, superior to the _sestertius_, or what the medallist terms large brass, are comprehended under the description of medallions. Mr. Pinkerton, however, thinks that the gold medallions, weighing two, three, or four aurei only, passed in currency according to their size. Medallions from the time of Julius to that of Adrian, are very uncommon, and of very high price; from Adrian to the close of the western empire they are, generally speaking, less rare. The types of the Roman medallions are often repeated upon common coin; hence they appear of less importance than the Greek; impressions of which are frequently most uncommon, and nowhere else to be found. Many Roman medallions have S.C., as being struck by order of the senate; those without these initials, were struck by order of the emperor. Of Augustus, a noble medallion was found in Herculaneum. There are medallions of Augustus and Tiberius, struck in Spain; and one of Livia, at Patræ in Achaia. One in brass, of Antony and Cleopatra; reverse, two figures in a car, drawn by sea-horses. Of Tiberius there are many; and also of Claudius, Agrippina, Nero, Galba, Vespasian, and Domitian, &c. The Greek medallions of Roman emperors are far more numerous than the Roman; with a few exceptions, however, all medallions are rare and of princely purchase. Even in the richest cabinet, twenty or thirty specimens are esteemed a respectable proportion.

The parts of a medal are the two sides, one whereof is called the _face_, _head_, or obverse; the other the _reverse_. On each side is the _area_, or _field_; the _rim_, or _border_; and the _exergum_, which is beneath the ground, whereon the figures represented are placed. On the two sides are distinguished the _type_, and the _inscription_, or _legend_. The type, or device, is the figure represented; the legend is the writing, especially that around the medal; though in the Greek medals the inscription is frequently on the area. What we find in the exergum is, generally, no more than some initial letters, whose meaning we are usually unacquainted with; though, sometimes, they contain words that may be accounted an inscription.

The exergum sometimes contains the date of the coin, expressing in what consulship of the emperor it was struck, as Cos. III. upon the reverse of an Antoninus. Sometimes it signifies the place where it was struck, and to which the coin properly belonged, as S. M. AL. for _Signata Moneta Alexandriœ_, upon the reverse of a Licinius. Sometimes the name of a province, the reduction of which the medal is designed to celebrate; as Judæa on the reverse of a Vespasian. Medals usually have their figures in higher relief than coins.

We have stated that medals are of great importance to the study of history. They, indeed, furnish the principal proof of historic truth, as their evidence reaches to the most remote ages, as well as to the most remote countries. Vaillant, in his learned history of the Syrian kings, printed at Paris, 1681, first fixed the dates, and arranged the order of events in ancient historians, by means of these infallible vouchers. Thus he was enabled to ascertain the chronology and progress of events of three of the most important kingdoms of the ancient world; viz. those of Egypt, of Syria, and of Parthia. The study of the Roman medals has, in this respect, an advantage over that of Greek coins, since they serve not only to illustrate the chronology of reigns, but to aid us in the interpretation of particular events. To this purpose, besides the portrait of the prince, and date of his consulship, or of his tribunitian power, we have a representation, or poetical symbol, of some grand event on the reverse. In a word, the series of Roman coins presents the very best suite of documents relating to the Roman History. In addition to its historical importance, the medal is frequently a useful guide to geography, natural history, architecture, ancient monuments, busts, statues, ceremonies, and the like. See Addison’s _Dialogues on the Usefulness of Ancient Medals_. On this subject, also, Pinkerton, in his valuable work on medals, has some interesting remarks; he says that, to a man of poetical imagination, the Roman coins must prove an ample source of intellectual delight, by means of the fine personifications and symbols which are to be found on their reverse. _Happiness_ has sometimes the caduceus, or wand of Mercury, which Cicero tells us was thought to procure the gratification of every wish. In a gold coin of Severus, she has heads of poppy to express that our prime bliss lies in oblivion of misfortune. _Hope_ is represented as a sprightly damsel, walking quickly and looking straightforward. With her left hand she holds up her garments, that they may not hinder the rapidity of her pace; while, in her right hand, she holds forth the bud of a flower, an emblem infinitely more beautiful than the trite one of an anchor, which is the symbol of Patience, not of Hope. _Abundance_ is imaged as a sedate matron, with a cornucopiæ in her hands, of which she scatters the fruits over the ground: but does not hold it up, and keep its contents to herself, as many poets and painters have represented her. _Security_ stands leaning on a pillar, indicative of her being free from all designs and pursuits; and the posture itself corresponds to her name.

Coins also present us with countries and rivers admirably personified. On the reverse of a colonial coin, rude in execution, of Augustus and Agrippa, inscribed IMP. and DIVI. F., the conquest of Egypt is represented by the apposite metaphor of the crocodile, an animal almost peculiar to that country, and at that period esteemed altogether so, which is chained to a palm tree, at once a native of the country, and symbolic of victory. Moreover, a cabinet of medals, of which Rubens is said to have possessed a very magnificent one, may be considered as forming the classic erudition of a painter. We may add, that almost all the uses which connect the science of medals with painting, render it also subservient to the art of the sculptor, who cannot less than profit by the study of the Greek coins in particular. The connexion of the study of ancient coins with architecture, consists in the views of many of the ancient edifices, which are found in perfect preservation on medals. Froelich observes, that the coins of Tarsus are very remarkable for a kind of perspective in the figures. On others are found triumphal arches, temples, fountains, aqueducts, amphitheatres, circuses, palaces, columns, obelisks, baths, sea-ports, pharoses, and the like.

The study of medals affords such a variety of amusement and of instruction, that we may naturally suppose it to be nearly as ancient as medals themselves; and yet ancient writers do not furnish us with a single hint of collections of this kind. In the days of Greece, a collection of such coins as then existed would not be regarded as an acquisition of any great value, because it must have consisted only of those that were struck by the innumerable little states which then used the Greek characters and language, and of course it would be considered as a kind of domestic coinage, precluded from extension by the narrow limits of the intercourse that subsisted between different provinces and countries. As soon as any communication was opened between the Romans and the Greeks, the Grecian coins were imitated by the Roman workmen, and preserved in the cabinets of their senators among the choicest treasures. In a more advanced period of the Roman empire, individuals must have formed collections of Roman coins; for we find that a complete series of silver was lately found in our island, containing inclusively all the emperors down to Carausius. From the decline of the Roman empire, most branches of science were enveloped in darkness, till the revival of letters towards the end of the fifteenth century. When literature began to be cultivated in Italy, the study of medals, connected with that of ancient erudition, began to engage attention. Accordingly Petrarch, who in modern times was amongst the first persons in Europe that aspired to the celebrity of learning and genius, was likewise the first to revive the study of medals. This eminent man, having been desired by the Emperor Charles V. to compose a book that should contain a history of the coins of illustrious men, and to place him in the list, is said to have returned for answer, that he would comply with his desire, whenever the Emperor’s future life and actions deserved it. Availing himself of this circumstance, he sent that monarch a collection of gold and silver coins of celebrated men. “Behold!” said he, “to what men you have succeeded! Behold whom you should imitate and admire! to whose very form and image you should compose your talents! The invaluable present I should have given to no one but yourself; it was due to you alone. I can only know or describe the deeds of these great men: your supreme office enables you to imitate them.” In the next age, Alphonso, king of Arragon, caused all the ancient coins that could be discovered throughout the provinces of Italy to be collected, which he placed in an ivory cabinet, and always carried about with him, that he might be excited to great actions by the presence, as it were, of so many illustrious men in their images.

To those who are desirous of gaining information upon this interesting branch of antiquarian research, we strongly recommend Mr. Pinkerton’s _Essay on Medals_.

Having been led to offer these observations on ancient medals, we may, perhaps, be allowed to make one other digression on a subject naturally suggested by a visit to the vicarage of our reverend antiquary. The reader has been told, that “around his house he had arranged several precious relics, amongst which was an ancient cross, raised upon a platform on three steps.”

There is much obscurity with regard to the origin and uses of these stone crosses. We are, however, not disposed to enter into a discussion of such difficulty; but the reader may be gratified in having presented to him, in one view, a collection of such crosses as still exist in various parts of Cornwall.

Note 7, p. 49.--BODIES REVOLVE ON THE SHORTER AXIS.

Upon this subject, the reader is requested to turn to page 138, where it is stated that a body will permanently rotate only on its shortest axis. The philosophy of the fact is simply this--while a body revolves on its axis, the component particles of its mass move in circles, the centres of which are placed in the axis; a centrifugal force therefore is generated, which is resisted by the cohesion of the parts of the mass, and this tendency of each particle to fly off is expended in exciting a pressure upon the axis; and it is this strain which produces the effect in question, the axis of no pressure being alone the permanent axis.

VIS INERTIÆ, p. 59.--The criticism of the vicar upon this subject is scientifically judicious; but the literary reader who has justly appreciated his character, may be inclined to ask how it could have happened that he should have overlooked the classical authority by which the expression is countenanced; we cannot answer the question, but we will supply the deficiency. The connecting two ideas, which at first sight appear opposed to each other, constituted a figure of speech much used both by the Greeks and Romans. Euripides delighted in it, which was a sufficient reason for Aristophanes to satirise it. Horace has given us several examples of it, as “_Insaniens sapientia_”--“_Strenua inertia_.”

Note 8, p. 62.--THE MECHANICAL POWERS.

Mechanical powers are simple arrangements by which we gain power at the expense of time; thus, if a certain weight can be raised to a certain height by unassisted strength, and the same thing is afterwards done with one tenth part of the exertion, through the use of a mechanic power, it will be found to occupy ten times as much time. In many cases, however, loss of time is not to be put in competition with the ability to do a thing; and since the advantages which the mechanical powers afford to man, by enabling him to perform feats which, without their assistance, would have been for ever beyond his reach, are incalculably great, the waste of time is overlooked, and is much more than balanced in the general result. It is true, that if there are several small weights, manageable by human strength, to be raised to a certain height, it may be full as convenient to elevate them one by one, as to take the advantage of the mechanical powers in raising them all at once; because the same time will be necessary in both cases: but suppose we should have an enormous block of stone, or a great tree, to raise; bodies of this description cannot be separated into parts proportionable to the human strength without immense labour, nor, perhaps, without rendering them unfit for those purposes to which they are to be applied; hence then the great importance of the mechanical powers, by the use of which a man is able to manage with ease a weight many times greater than himself.

To understand the principle of a mechanical power, we must revert to the doctrine of momentum. It will be remembered, that a small ball, weighing only two pounds, and moving at the rate of 500 feet in a second, will produce as much effect as a cannon ball of ten pounds in weight, provided it only moved at the rate of 100 feet in the same time; in like manner a ball weighing one pound may be made to balance another of five pounds, by placing it five times farther from the centre of motion; for in such a case, for every inch of space through which the large ball passes, the small one will traverse five inches, and will thus generate five times the momentum. This may be rendered still more evident by turning to page 161, and note thereon, where the _see-saw_ is described, which, in fact, is a true mechanical power. It will be at once evident, from an inspection of the figure, that the lesser boy will pass over a much greater space, in equal time, than the greater boy, and thus generate more momentum, which compensates for his defect in weight, and renders him a balance for his heavier companion.--_See note 23._

Note 9, p. 76.--CENTRE OF GRAVITY.

Those who have been in the habit of inspecting the works of the statuary, must frequently have detected the art which he has displayed in imparting stability to his figures, by lowering their centre of gravity. The bronze figure of Achilles, in Hyde Park, affords a very striking illustration of such ingenuity; it is evident, from the position and height of the figure, that, had not a mass of matter been added to its base, its stability would have been extremely precarious, since the slightest movement might have thrown its line of direction beyond the base; but the addition at the base renders such an accident impossible, by lowering its centre of gravity. Other examples of similar contrivance are presented in several celebrated statues, wherein stability is ensured by the judicious distribution of the draperies. In the celebrated statue of Peter at St. Petersburgh, the equilibrium of the mass is thus sustained by the introduction of a serpent twining upwards to his horse’s tail. The effect, however, is so unfortunate as to have given occasion for a wit to remark, “It is a very fine horse, but what a pity that he should have worms!” Nor have our celebrated painters overlooked a principle, the neglect of which would have withheld from the most symmetrical figures the charms of beautiful proportion.

Note 10, p. 93.--THE INDIAN BLOW-PIPE.

“When a native of Macoushi goes in quest of feathered game, or other birds, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the _blow-pipe_ he then uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest natural curiosities in Guiana. It is not found in the country of Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of them, in the wilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro. The reed must grow to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived in it, one end being as thick as the other. It is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly smooth both inside and out. It grows hollow; nor is there the least appearance of a knot or joint throughout the whole extent. The natives call it _ourah_. This, of itself, is too slender to answer the end of a blow-pipe; but there is a species of palma, larger and stronger, and common in Guiana, and this the Indians make use of as a case, in which they put the _ourah_. It is brown, susceptible of a fine polish, and appears as if it had joints five or six inches from each other. It is called _samourah_, and the pulp inside is easily extracted, by steeping it for a few days in water. Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the other, form the blow-pipe of Guiana. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied round with a small silk-grass cord, to prevent its splitting; and the other end, which is apt to strike against the ground, is secured by the seed of the acuero fruit, cut horizontally through the middle, with a hole made in the end, through which is put the extremity of the blow-pipe. It is fastened on with string on the outside, and the inside is filled up with wild bees-wax. The arrow is from nine to ten inches long. It is made out of the leaf of a species of palm-tree, called _coucourite_, hard and brittle, and pointed as sharp as a needle. About an inch of the pointed end is poisoned with the _wourali_. The other end is burnt, to make it still harder, and wild cotton is put round it for about an inch and a half. It requires considerable practice to put on this cotton well. It must just be large enough to fit the hollow of the tube, and taper off to nothing downwards. They tie it on with a thread of the silk-grass to prevent its slipping off the arrow.”

“The Indians have shown ingenuity in making a quiver to hold the arrows. It will contain from five to six hundred...

“...With a quiver of poisoned arrows slung over his shoulder, and with his blow-pipe in his hand, in the same position as a soldier carries his musket, see the Macoushi Indian advancing towards the forest in quest of powises, maroudis, waracabas, and other feathered game.

“These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian’s reach; for this blow-pipe, at its greatest elevation, will send an arrow 300 feet. Silent as midnight he steals under them, and so cautiously does he tread the ground, that the fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his tube. Then, taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff. About two feet from the end through which he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift the arrow flies, and seldom fails to pierce the object at which it is sent. Sometimes the wounded bird remains in the same tree where it was shot, and in three minutes falls down at the Indian’s feet. Should he take wing, his flight is of short duration; and the Indian, following the direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead. It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far otherwise; the wourali poison almost instantaneously mixes with blood or water, so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison. Though three minutes generally elapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness in the bird to move.” ...

“The Indian, on his return home, carefully suspends his blow-pipe from the top of his spiral roof; seldom placing it in an oblique position, lest it should receive a cast.”--WATERTON’S _Wanderings in South America_, p. 58.

Note 11, p. 96.--PENDULUM AND SPRING.

A clock is nothing more than a piece of machinery to maintain the action of the pendulum, and at the same time to count and register the number of its oscillations; and by that peculiar property, that one vibration commences exactly where the last terminates, no part of time is lost or gained in the juxtaposition of the units so counted.

If some extraneous force were not applied, in a clock or watch, to maintain or perpetuate the natural vibrations of a pendulum, or oscillations of a balance, they would soon come to rest, by reason of friction in the mechanism, and the resistance opposed by the air to the parts in motion. This force, in the larger clocks, is usually a suspended weight; but, in the portable clock and watch, it is a spring coiled in a metallic box, that actuates the wheel-work by gradually unbending itself.

In the former of these cases, the weight is suspended by a cord or chain that is coiled round a cylinder when wound up, which cylinder being of uniform diameter throughout its length, is acted on by the cord, when fast at the interior end, by a similar force in every situation; and, therefore, imparts through the train, connected with its great wheel, invariable impulses to the escapement-wheel, at every vibration of the pendulum; which pendulum receives therefrom such a slight push, as is just sufficient to restore the momentum which it loses from friction and the air’s resistance, and thus the uniform motion of the pendulum is perpetuated. But when a spring is substituted for a weight, it is clear that its agency cannot be uniform, since, as the reader will learn by turning to page 101, it is a general law that elastic bodies, in the recovery of their form, after the removal of the compressing force, exert a greater power at first than at last, so that the whole progress of restoration is a _retarded_ motion. It, therefore, became necessary to introduce some mechanical contrivance which might equalize such motion. This correction is effected by an apparatus termed a FUSEE, and is nothing more than the application of the wheel and axle; it is that conical barrel seen in most watches round which the chain coils in the act of winding up. When the fusee is full of chain, or the watch is wound up, the spring, through the medium of the chain, will act upon its upper part, which being very near the centre will give the spring but little power; but, as the spring uncoils and diminishes in strength, it will act upon a larger part of the fusee, until at last it gets to the bottom of it, and consequently, if the several increasing grooves upon it are made to increase in the same proportion as the power of the spring decreases, an equable force must be obtained.

Springs may be thus said to afford the means of _packing up_ force, to be used whenever it is required. Mr. Babbage observes that the half minute which we daily devote to the winding up our watches is an exertion by which we _pack_ a quantity of force, which is gradually expended during the ensuing twenty-four hours. Springs then will enable us to avail ourselves of inconstant and variable forces which must otherwise remain incapable of useful application, and the period may arrive when force will thus become an article of traffic, and machines be sent to the windmill to be wound up. The manner in which force is constantly allowed to run to waste is quite extraordinary in the present advanced state of science. We need only look at the working of the treadmill. The public are little aware of the enormous sums annually expended in towing vessels by steam from the Nore to the port of London; were floating treadmills established, the labour of those, upon whom punishment has been awarded, might be rendered available to the most important interests; whereas, with the present system, not only is this labour entirely lost, but is actually a source of expense, for machines, with all the accompaniments of engineers, are provided to counterbalance the force so uselessly generated.

Note 12, p. 97.--ELASTIC CHAIRS AND BEDS.

The elastic property of iron springs has been lately exemplified in a very striking manner, by the invention of Pratt’s elastic chairs and beds; which, instead of the usual stuffing of feathers, are filled with iron wire!!! which is twisted into spiral form. Down itself cannot be more gentle or springy; it yields to pressure, and yet never becomes lumpy: beds thus constructed have the advantage of not heating the body; and, above all, they never require to be shaken or “made.” Had Vulcan fortunately made such a discovery before his ejectment from Olympus, his wife, Venus, would surely never have treated him with that contempt which mythologists have recorded of her; while her priestesses, the housemaids, must, in gratitude, have been bound to extend their protection to a benefactor, who could save them so much daily labour. For particulars of this curious invention, the reader may consult the _Literary Gazette_ for March 17, 1827.

Note 13, p. 98.--DUCK AND DRAKE.

The phenomenon has been explained as depending upon the inertia of the parts of matter, which renders a certain time necessary in order to communicate to any body a sensible motion; so that when a body, moving with considerable velocity, meets with another of much greater size, it experiences almost as much resistance as if the latter were fixed. Nothing is easier to be divided than water; yet, if the palm of the hand be struck with some velocity against its surface, a considerable degree of resistance, and even of pain, is experienced from it, as if a solid body had been struck; nay, a musket ball, when fired against water, is repelled and even flattened by it. In like manner, if we load a musket with powder, and, instead of a ball, introduce a candle, and fire it against a board, the latter will be pierced by the candle end, as if by a ball. The cause of this phenomenon, no doubt, is, that the rapid motion with which the candle end is impelled, does not allow it time to be flattened, and therefore it acts as a hard body.

Note 14, p. 99.--VEGETABLE ELASTICITY.

_Impatiens_, or _Touch me not_, affords a good example. The seed-vessel consists of one cell with five divisions; each of these, when the seed is ripe, on being touched, suddenly folds itself into a spiral form, leaps from the stalk, and disperses the seeds to a great distance by its elasticity. The capsule of the geranium and the beard of wild oats are twisted for a similar purpose. (DARWIN’S _Botanic Garden_.) The seed-vessel of Euphorbia is extremely elastic, projecting the seeds with great force. An elastic pouch also serves to scatter the seeds of the Oxalis.

Note 15, p. 125.--A SIMPLE ORRERY.

A very instructive toy might be constructed by placing a taper in the centre of a japanned waiter, to represent the sun, and fixing in a watch glass an indian rubber ball, with the parallels of latitude and meridians painted thereon, with the other characters of the globe. During its revolution around the candle, in consequence of the tendency of its centre of gravity to its lowest position, the diurnal and annual motions, and also the parallelism of its axis, will be represented, together with the concomitant phenomena.

Note 16, p. 130.--CONIC SECTIONS.

If a cone, or sugar-loaf, be cut through in certain directions, we shall obtain figures which are termed _conic sections_; thus, if we cut through the sugar-loaf in a direction parallel to its base, or bottom, the outline or edge of the loaf where it is cut will be a _circle_. If the cut is made so as to slant, and not be parallel to the base of the loaf, the outline is an _ellipse_, provided the cut goes quite through the sides of the loaf all round; but if it goes slanting, and parallel to the line of the loaf’s side, the outline is a _parabola_, a conic section, or curve, to which this note more immediately relates. This curve is distinguished by characteristic properties, every point of it bearing a certain fixed relation to a certain point within it, as the circle does to its centre.

Note 17, p. 134.--EARTHQUAKE OF LISBON.

During the dreadful earthquake of Lisbon, bands of wretches took advantage of the general consternation to commit the most atrocious acts of robbery and murder. In fact, a considerable part of the city was destroyed by incendiaries, who, during the disaster, set fire to the houses, that they might pillage them with greater impunity.

Note 18, p. 134.--GEOLOGY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE.

Soils consist of a mixture of different finely divided earthy matter, with animal or vegetable substances in a state of decomposition. In order, therefore, to form a just idea of their nature, it is necessary to conceive different rocks decomposed, or ground into parts and powder of different degrees of fineness; some of their soluble parts dissolved by water, and that water adhering to the mass, and the whole mixed with larger or smaller quantities of the remains of vegetables and animals, in different stages of decay. Hence it will follow, that certain rocks will give origin to particular soils; thus poor and hungry soils, such as are produced from the decomposition of granite and sandstone, remain very often for ages with only a thin covering of vegetation; while soils from the decomposition of limestone, chalk, and basalt, are often clothed by nature with the perennial grasses; and afford, when ploughed up, a rich bed of vegetation for every species of cultivated plant. In adverting to this subject, Dr. Buckland, in his inaugural lecture, very justly observes, that it furnishes an instance of relation between the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, and of the adaptation of one to the other, which always implies design in the surest manner; for had not the surface of the earth been thus prepared for their reception, where would have been the use of all that admirable system of organization bestowed upon vegetables? And it is no small proof of design in the arrangement of the materials that compose the surface of our earth, that whereas the primitive and granitic rocks are least calculated to afford a fertile soil, they are for the most part made to constitute the mountain districts of the world, which, from their elevation and irregularities, would otherwise be but ill adapted for human habitation; whilst the lower and more temperate regions are usually composed of derivative or secondary strata, in which the compound nature of their ingredients qualifies them to be of the greatest utility to mankind by their subserviency to the purposes of luxuriant vegetation.

No doubt, then, can exist as to the important connexion between the geological structure of a country, and its degree of fertility; but the subject has not received the attention which it merits. And in the hope that this note may meet the eye of some zealous geologist, the author suggests the importance of commencing the enquiry in a primitive district; for, as we advance from a primitive to an alluvial district, the relations to which we have alluded become gradually less distinct and apparent, and are ultimately lost in the confused complication of the soil itself, and in that general obscurity which necessarily envelopes every object in a state of decomposition: we can, therefore, only hope to succeed in such an investigation, by a patient and laborious examination of a primitive country, after which we may be enabled to extend our enquiries with advantage through those districts which are more completely covered with soil, and obscured by luxuriant vegetation; as the eye, gazing upon a beautiful statue, traces the outline of the limbs, and the swelling contour of its form, through the flowing draperies which invest it.

Note 19, p. 135.--BUCKLAND’S RESEARCHES.

The geological researches of Dr. Buckland have been long directed by a desire to accumulate facts to prove that there must have been an universal inundation of the earth; and, in his inaugural lecture, he has presented us with a summary of such facts, which, to use his own expression, whether considered collectively or separately, present such a conformity of proofs, tending to establish the universality of a recent inundation of the earth, as no difficulties or objections that have hitherto arisen are in any way sufficient to overrule.

In the year 1822, Dr. Buckland read a memoir before the Royal Society, announcing the discovery of a singular cave at Kirkdale in Yorkshire, containing an assemblage of fossil teeth and bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, tiger, and hyæna, and sixteen other animals; with a comparative view of five similar caverns in various parts of England, and others on the continent. For this important paper the society awarded to its author their Copley medal; and it constitutes the basis of a later and much more extended work, entitled “RELIQUIÆ DILUVIANÆ; or Observations on the Organic Remains contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel; and on other Geological Phenomena, attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge. By the Rev. W. BUCKLAND, B.D. F.R.S. &c.”

Let us explore the interior of this cavern. It was not till the summer of 1821, that the existence of any animal remains, or of the cavern containing them, was suspected. At this time, in continuing the operations of a large quarry, the workmen accidentally intersected the mouth of a long hole, closed externally with rubbish, and overgrown with grass and bushes. As this rubbish was removed before any competent person had examined it, it is not certain whether it was composed of diluvial gravel and rolled pebbles, or was simply the debris that had fallen from the softer portions of the strata that lay above it: the workman, however, who removed it, and some gentlemen who saw it, assured Dr. Buckland that it was composed of gravel and sand. In the interior of the cavern, our indefatigable geologist could not find a single rolled pebble, nor has he ever seen one bone, or fragment of bone, that bore the slightest mark of having been rolled by the action of water.

The original entrance is said to have been very small, and, having been filled up as above described, there could not have been any admission of external air through it to the interior of the cavern. Nearly 30 feet of its outer extremity have now been removed, and the present entrance is a hole in the perpendicular face of the quarry, about three feet high and five feet broad, which it is only possible for a man to enter on his hands and knees, and which expands and contracts itself irregularly from two to seven feet in breadth, and two to fourteen feet in height. It is unnecessary to enter into farther details; the reader, if he wishes more minute information, may consult Dr. Buckland’s work.

On entering the cave, the first thing observed was a sediment of soft mud or loam, covering entirely its whole bottom to the average depth of about a foot, and concealing the subjacent rock, or actual floor of the cavern. Not a particle of mud was found attached either to the sides or roof; nor was there a trace of it adhering to the sides or upper portions of the transverse fissures, or any thing to suggest the idea that it had entered through them. The mud was covered by a _stalagmitic_ crust, which had been formed by the dripping of water impregnated with calcareous matter, as is common in all the cavities of limestone; but it is important to remark, that there was not any alternation of mud with any repeated beds of _stalagmite_, but simply a partial deposit of the latter on the floor beneath; so that the mud was encased, like meat in a pie, with an upper and under crust. It was chiefly in the lower part of the earthy sediment, and in the calcareous matter beneath it, that the animal remains were found.

In the whole extent of the cave, only a very few large bones have been discovered that are tolerably perfect; most of them are broken into small angular fragments and chips, the greater part of which lay separately in the mud, whilst others were wholly or partially invested with stalagmite, and others again mixed with masses of still smaller fragments. In some few places, where the mud was shallow, and the heaps of teeth and bones considerable, parts of the latter were elevated some inches above the surface of the mud and its calcareous crust; and the upper ends of the bones thus projecting, like the legs of pigeons through a pie crust, into the void space above, have become thinly covered with calcareous drippings, whilst their lower extremities have no such incrustation, and have simply adhering to them the mud in which they have been imbedded.

The effect of the loam and stalagmite in preserving the bones from decomposition, by protecting them from all access of atmospheric air, has been very remarkable.

The workmen, in first discovering the bones at Kirkdale, supposed them to have belonged to cattle that died by a murrain in this district a few years ago, and they were for some time neglected, and thrown on the roads with the common limestone; they were, at length, noticed by Mr. Harrison, a medical gentleman in the neighbourhood, and have since been collected and deposited in various private and public museums. The teeth and bones which have been discovered in this cave appear to have belonged to the _hyæna, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, deer, hare, rabbit, water-rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark, snipe_, and a small species of _duck_.

The bottom of the cave, on first removing the mud, was found to be strewed all over like a dog-kennel, from one end to the other, with hundreds of teeth and bones, or rather broken and splintered fragments of bones, of all the animals above enumerated; scarcely a single bone has escaped fracture, with the exception of some of the more solid and hard bones of the foot; on some of these bones marks may be traced, which, on applying one to the other, appear exactly to fit the form of the canine teeth of the hyæna that occur in the cave. The hyæna’s bones have been broken, and apparently gnawed equally with those of the other animals. Heaps of small splinters, and highly comminuted, yet angular fragments of bone, mixed with teeth of all the varieties of animals above enumerated, lay in the bottom of the den, occasionally adhering together by calcareous cement. Not one skull is to be found entire; and it is so rare to find a large bone of any kind that has not been more or less broken, that there is no hope of obtaining materials for the construction of a single limb, and still less of an entire skeleton. The jaw-bones, also, even of the hyænas, are broken to pieces like the rest.

It must already appear probable, from the facts above described, particularly from the comminuted and gnawed condition of the bones, that the cave at Kirkdale was, during a long succession of years, inhabited as a den by hyænas, and that they dragged into its recesses the other animals, whose remains are found indiscriminately mixed with their own: an hypothesis which is certainly strengthened by Dr. Buckland having found the excrement of the animal in the same cave. Should it be asked why we do not find, at least, the entire skeleton of the one or more hyænas that died last, and left no survivors to devour them; we find a sufficient reply to this question, in the circumstance of the probable destruction of the last individuals by the waters of the deluge. On the rise of these, had there been any hyænas in the den, they would have rushed out, and fled for safety to the hills; and if absent, they could not by any possibility have returned to it from the higher levels; that they were extirpated by the catastrophe is obvious, from the discovery of their bones in the diluvial gravel both of England and Germany.

The accumulation of these bones, then, appears to have been a process of years, whilst all the animals in question were natives of this country. The general dispersion of bones of the same animals through the diluvial gravel of high latitudes, over a great part of the northern hemisphere, shows that the period in which they inhabited these regions was that immediately preceding the formation of this gravel, and that they perished by the same waters which produced it. M. Cuvier has, moreover, ascertained that the fossil elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and hyæna, belong to species now unknown; and as there is no evidence that they have at any time, subsequent to the formation of the diluvium, existed in these regions, we may conclude that the period at which the bones of these extinct species were introduced into the cave at Kirkdale was before the deluge.

Thus the phenomena of this cave seem referable to a period immediately antecedent to the general deluge, and in which the world was inhabited by land animals, almost all bearing a generic, and many a specific resemblance to those which now exist; but so completely has the violence of that tremendous convulsion destroyed and remodelled the form of the antediluvian surface, that it is only in caverns that have been protected from its ravages, that we may hope to find undisturbed evidence of events in the period immediately preceding it. The bones already described, and the calcareous matter formed before the introduction of the diluvial mud, are what Dr. Buckland considers to be the products of the period in question. It was indeed probable, before the discovery of this cave, from the abundance in which the remains of similar species occur in superficial gravel beds, which cannot be referred to any other than a diluvial origin, that such animals were the antediluvian inhabitants not only of this country, but generally of all those northern latitudes in which their remains are found, (but the proof was imperfect, as it was possible they might have been drifted or floated hither by the waters from the warmer regions of the earth,) but the facts developed in this charnel-house of the antediluvian forests of Yorkshire demonstrate that there was a long succession of years, in which the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus had been the prey of the hyænas, which, like themselves, inhabited England in the period immediately preceding the formation of the diluvial gravel. Having thus far described the principal facts to be observed in the interior of this cave, Dr. Buckland proceeds to point out the chronological inferences that may be derived from the state of the bones, and of the mud and stalagmite that accompany them, and to extract the following detail of events that have been going on successively within this curious cave:--

First, There appears to have been a period (and, if we may form an estimate from the small quantity of stalagmite now found on the actual floor of the cave, a very short one,) during which this aperture in the rock existed in its present state, but was not tenanted by the hyænas.

The second period was that during which the cave was inhabited by the hyænas, and the stalactite and stalagmite were still forming.