Chapter D: A. M (10)

Now, gentle reader, as I have told you what is _not_ the origin of my story, it is but incumbent on me to tell you what _is_.--In the thirteenth book of the “Various History” of Ælian is the real genuine narrative from which Cinderella is derived--it is the twenty-third anecdote: and the similarity of the two stories is so great, that, I trust, a simple repetition of it will prove beyond a doubt the antiquity, as well as the rank, of my favourite Cinderella. Of all the Egyptians, says the historian, Rhodope was reckoned the most beautiful;--to her, when she was bathing, Fortune, ever fond of sudden and unexpected catastrophes, did a kindness more merited by her beauty than her prudence. One day, when she was bathing, she judiciously left her shoes on the bank of the stream, and an eagle (naturally mistaking it for a sheep or a little child) pounced down upon one of them, and flew off with it. Flying with it directly over Memphis, where king Psammeticus[501] was dispensing justice, the eagle dropped the shoe in the king’s lap. Of course the king was struck with it, and admiring the beauty of the shoe and the skill and proportion of the fabrication, he sent through all the kingdom in search of a foot that would fit it; and having found it attached to the person of Rhodope, he immediately married her.

P.S.--I have given my authority, chapter and verse, for my story; but still farther to substantiate it, I am willing to lay both my name and address before the reader.

MR. SMITH,

_London_.

_November, 1827._

[501] Psammeticus was one of the twelve kings of Egypt, and reigned
about the year 670 B. C., just 2400 years before the poor Frenchman’s
time!--(See his history in Herodotus, book 2. cap. 2 and 3.)

* * * * *

HORÆ CRAVENÆ.

_For the Table Book._

HITCHINGSTONE FEAST.--COWLING MOONS.

On the highest part of Sutton Common, in Craven, is a huge block of solid granite, of about fifty yards in circumference, and about ten yards high. It is regarded as a great natural curiosity, and has for generations been a prominent feature in the legends and old wife’s tales of the neighbourhood. On the west side is an artificial excavation, called “The Chair,” capable of containing six persons comfortably, though I remember it once, at a pinch, in a tremendous thunder shower, containing eight. On the north side is a similar excavation, called “The Churn,” from its resemblance to that domestic utensil; on the top is a natural basin, fourteen yards in circumference. This stone is the boundary-mark for three townships and two parishes, viz. the townships of Sutton, Cowling, and Laycock, and the parishes of Kildwick and Keighley. From time immemorial it has been customary to hold a feast round Hitchingstone on the 1st of August, the amusements at which are of a similar nature with those of the village feasts and tides (as they are called in some places) in the vicinity, as dancing, racing, &c. At a short distance from Hitchingstone are two smaller stones, one on the east, called Kidstone, the other on the north-east, called Navaxstone; whence the three names are derived I am ignorant.

The inhabitants of Cowling, or Cowling-head, the village from which the township takes its name, are known in Craven as “Moons;” an epithet of derision, which is said to have had its origin from the following circumstance:--Cowling-head is a wild mountain village, and the inhabitants are not famed for travelling much; but it is told, that once upon a time, a Cowling shepherd got so far from home as Skipton, (six miles;) on entering Skipton it was a fine moonlight night, and the shepherd is said to have made this sagacious remark: “How like your Skipton moon is to our Cowling-head moon.” Be the story true or not, the inhabitants are called “Moons;” and in the vulgar vocabulary of Craven a silly fellow is called a “Cowling moon.” Not knowing a single inhabitant of Cowling I cannot speak of their civilization; but it does not say much for their advancement in knowledge, that the Joannites have a chapel amongst them, and remain true to their _prophetess_; who, as they suppose,

------is but vanish’d from the earth awhile,
To come again with bright unclouded smile.

While residing a few days at a gentleman’s house in the neighbourhood, I frequently observed the Cowling Joannites, with their long beards, rambling up and down the fells. A friend likened them to the ancient Druid priests, but I thought they more resembled goats, and formed no bad substitute for that animal, which is almost wholly banished from the fells of the district.

HE’S GOT T’OIL-BOTTLE IN HIS POCKET.

This is a Craven saying, and is applied to a person, who, like the heathen Janus, has two faces; in other words, one who acts with duplicity, who will flatter you to your face, and malign you behind your back. Alas! how many are there amongst all ranks, and in all places, who have “got t’oil bottles in their pockets.”

SWINE HARRY.

This is the name of a field on the side of Pinnow, a hill in Lothersdale, in Craven; and is said to have derived its name from the following singular circumstance. A native of the valley was once, at the dead of night, crossing the field with a pig which he had stolen from a neighbouring farmyard; he led the obstinate animal by a rope tied to its leg, which was noosed at the end where the thief held it. On coming to a ladder-style in the field, being a very corpulent man, and wishing to have both hands at liberty, but not liking to release the pig, he transferred the rope from his hands to his neck; but when he reached the topmost step his feet slipped, the pig pulled hard on the other side, the noose tightened, and on the following morning he was found dead. I believe this story to be a fact; it was told me by an aged man, who said it happened in his father’s time.

T. Q. M.

_Sept. 2, 1827._

* * * * *

THOMAS SMITH,

A QUACK EXTRAORDINARY.

_For the Table Book._

The following advertisement, somewhat abridged from the original, which must have been put forth upwards of a century ago, abundantly proves, that quackery and puffing had made some progress even at that period:--

“In King-street, Westminster, at the Queen’s-arms and Corn-cutter, liveth Thomas Smith; who, by experience and ingenuity, has learnt the art of taking out and curing all manner of corns, without pain, or drawing blood. He likewise takes out all manner of nails, which cause any disaster, trouble, or pain, which no man in England can do the like. He cures the tooth-ache in half an hour, let the pain be never so great, and cleanses and preserves the teeth. He can, with God’s assistance, perform the same in a little time.

“I wear a silver badge, with three verses; the first in English, the second in Dutch, the third in French, with the States of Holland’s crownet on the top, which was gave me as a present by the States-general of Holland, for the many cures, &c. My name on the badge underwritten, THOMAS SMITH, who will not fail, God willing, to make out every particular in this bill, &c.

“The famousest ware in England, which never fails to cure the tooth-ache in half an hour, price one shilling the bottle. Likewise a powder for cleansing the teeth, which makes them as ivory without wearing them, and without prejudice to the gums, one shilling the box. Also two sorts of water for curing the scurry in the gums; though they are eaten away to the bottom, it will heal them, and cause them to grow as firm as ever, very safe, without mercury, or any unwholesome spirit. To avoid counterfeits, they are only sold at his own house, &c., price of each bottle half a crown, or more, according to the bigness, with directions.”--_Harl. MSS._

Smith is mentioned in the Tatler. He used to go out daily in quest of customers, and made a periodical call at all the coffee-houses then in London.

H. M. L.

* * * * *

DUNCHURCH, COW, AND CALF.

_To the Editor._

Sir,--I am confidently assured, that the following coincidences really occur. You may not perhaps deem them unworthy of the very small space they will occupy in your amusing columns, of which I have ever been a constant reader.

T. R.

At _Dunchurch_, near Coventry, is an inn, or public-house, called the _Dun Cow_, which supplies its landlord with the milk of existence. He is actually named _Duncalf_; the product of his barrels may be, therefore, not unaptly termed,--_mother’s milk_.

* * * * *

~Discoveries~

OF THE

ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.

No. XIV.

THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD, &c.

Two thousand years have elapsed since the time of Hippocrates, and there has scarcely been added a new aphorism to those of that great man, notwithstanding all the care and application of so many ingenious men as have since studied medicine.

There exist evident proofs that Hippocrates was acquainted with the circulation of the blood. Almelooven, in vindication of this father of medicine not having more amply treated of this subject in his works, assigns this reason, that Hippocrates having many other important matters to discuss, judged that to enlarge upon what was so well known, and had been so well explained by others, was as needless as it would have been to have written an Iliad after Homer. It is less requisite here to cite passages as proofs of Hippocrates’s knowledge on this vital principle in the animal economy, than to state the fact of his acquaintance with it. Briefly it may suffice to mention, that Hippocrates compares the course of rivers, which return to their sources in an unaccountable and extraordinary manner, _to the circulation of the blood_. He says, that “when the bile enters into the blood it breaks its consistence, and disorders its regular course.” He compares the admirable mechanism of the blood “to clues of thread, whose filaments overlap each other;” and he says, that “_in the body it performs just such a circuit, always terminating where it began_.”

Mr. Dutens is of opinion that Plato, Aristotle, Julius Pollux, Apuleius, and other ancients, treat the circulation of the blood as well known in their time. To that end he cites passages from their writings, and proceeds to affirm, that what reduces to a very small degree the honour of Harvey’s claim to the discovery is, that Servetus had treated of it very distinctly before him, in the fifth part of his book _De Christianismi Restitutione_; a work so very scarce, that there are but few who can boast of having seen it in print. Mr. Wotton, in his _Reflections upon the Ancients and Moderns_, cites this passage of Servetus entire. In this passage Servetus distinguishes three sorts of spirits in the human body, and says that blood, “which he calls a vital spirit, is dispersed through the body by the _anastomosis_, or mutual insertion of two vessels, at their extremities, into one another.” Here it deserves observation, that Servetus is the first who employed that term to express the communication between the veins and arteries. He makes “the expanded air in the lungs contribute to the formation of blood, which comes to them from the right ventricle of the heart, by the canal of the pulmonary artery.” He says, that “the blood is there refined and perfected by the action of the air, which subtilises it and blends itself with that vital spirit, which the expanded heart then receives as a fluid proper to carry life every where.” He maintains that “this conveyance and manner of preparing the blood in the lungs is evident from the junction of the veins with the arteries in this viscera.” And he concludes with saying, that “the heart having received the blood thus prepared by the lungs sends it forth again by the artery of its left ventricle, called the aorta, which distributes it into all parts of the body.” Andreas Cesalpinus, who lived likewise in the sixteenth century, has two passages which completely contain all that we know about the circulation of the blood. He explains at length “how the blood, gushing from the right ventricle of the heart through the pulmonary artery to pass into the lungs, enters anastomosically into the pulmonary veins, to be conveyed to the left ventricle of the heart, and afterwards distributed by the aorta into all parts of the body.” Let it be remarked, that, according to Boerhaave, the first edition of Cesalpin’s book was at Venice in 1571; that is, almost sixty years before Harvey’s work appeared, who studied at Padua, which is not far from Venice; and spent a considerable part of his time there.

Johannes Leonicenus says, that the famous Paul Sarpi, otherwise known by the name of Father Paul, was he who discovered the circulation of the blood, and first discerned “the valves of the veins, which, like the suckers of a pump, open to let the blood pass, but shut to prevent its return;” and that he communicated this secret to Fabricius ab Aquapendente, professor of medicine at Padoua in the sixteenth century, and successor to Fallopius, who discovered it to Harvey, at that time studying physic under him in the university of Padoua.

SERVETUS.

HIS BOOKS--CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO--DE TRINITATE ERRORIBUS--DE
TRINITATE DIALOGORUM.

Mr. Dutens, in the course of his remarks on Servetus’s discourse concerning the circulation of the blood, observes as follows:--

“Servetus published on this subject two different books. That for which he was burnt at Geneva, in 1553, is entitled _Christianismi Restitutio_, and had been printed but a month before his death. The care they took to burn all the copies of it at Vienne in Dauphiny, at Geneva, and at Frankfort, rendered it a book of the greatest scarcity. Mention is made of one copy of it in the catalogue of Mr. de Boze’s books, p. 40, which has been regarded as the only one extant. I have had in my hands a surreptitious copy of it, published at London, which formerly belonged to Dr. Friend; in the 143d, 144th, and 145th pages of which occurs the passage (on the circulation.) The book is in quarto, but without the name of the place where it was printed, or the time when, and is incomplete, the bishop of London having put a stop to the impression, which, if I mistake not, was about the year 1730. Care should be taken not to confound this with another work of his, printed in 12mo. in 1531, without mention of the place where, but supposed to be at Lyons. It is entitled _De Trinitatis Erroribus Libri Septem, per Michaelem Serveto, alias Reves, ab Aragonia Hispanum_; and there is along with it another treatise, printed in 1532, entitled _Dialogorum de Trinitate, Lib. 2. de Justitia Regni Christi, Capitula 4. per Michaelem Serveto, alias Reves, ab Aragonià Hispanum_. This last, which is very scarce, and sold once for one hundred pistoles, (that is 40_l._ sterl.) is in the library of the duke of Roxburgh at London, where I have seen it, but it contains not the passage referred to, which is only to be met with in the corrected and enlarged edition of that work, published in 1553, and entitled _Christianismi Restitutio_.”

Dr. Sigmond, in a recent work, entitled “The Unnoticed Theories of Servetus,” speaks of a Life of Servetus in the Historical Dictionary;[502] another, ascribed to M. de la Roche, in the “Bibliothèque Angloise,” with extracts relating to Servetus’s Theory of the Circulation of the Blood; and a third, by M. D’Artigny, in the “Mémoires des Hommes Illustres,” who extracted the history of the trial from the archives of the archbishop of Vienne in Dauphine. “And I have lately read with considerable pleasure,” says Dr. Sigmond, “an Apology for the Life of Servetus, by Richard Wright; not because he adds any thing to our previous knowledge of his life and conduct, but that a spirit of candour and liberality entitles the volume to much consideration. He has evidently not met with the _Christianismi Restitutio_.”

In relation to this latter work by Servetus, Dr. Sigmond says, “The late Dr. Sims, for many years president of the Medical Society of London, bequeathed to me his copy of Servetus, to which he has prefixed the following note:--‘The fate of this work has been not a little singular; all the copies, except one, were burned along with the author by the implacable Calvin. This copy was secreted by D. Colladon, one of the judges. After passing through the library of the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, it came into the hands of Dr. Mead, who endeavoured to give a quarto edition of it; but before it was nearly completed, it was seized by John Kent, messenger of the press, and William Squire, messenger in ordinary, on the 29th of May, 1723, at the instance of Dr. Gibson, bishop of London, and burnt, a very few copies excepted. The late duke de Valliere gave near 400 guineas for this copy, and at his sale it brought 3810 livres. It contains the first account of the circulation of the blood, above 70 years before the immortal Harvey published his discovery.’”

“In justice to the memory of my late valued friend,” says Dr. Sigmond, “I must state my conviction that this copy is not the original one; at the same time, I firmly believe he imagined it to be that which he has described. Yet he was well known as an accurate man, as a judicious collector of books: and, indeed, to him is the Medical Society of London indebted for its valuable and admirable library.” Dr. Sigmond’s correction of Dr. Sims’s note is substantial; but it may be corrected still further. Dr. Sims mistook as to the book having brought 3810 livres at the duke de Valliere’s sale. The duke gave that sum for the book at the sale of M. Gaignat in 1769, and when the duke’s library was sold in 1784, it produced 4120 livres. There is a particular account of it in the catalogue of that collection, by De Bure, tom. i. p. 289. That copy has hitherto been deemed _unique_. Is Dr. Sigmond’s _another_ copy of Servetus’s own edition?

Dr. Sigmond’s own work, printed last year, is itself scarce, in consequence of having been suppressed or withdrawn from publication.[503] This circumstance, and the curiosity of its purpose, may render an exemplifying extract from it agreeable:--

“I have quoted,” says Dr. S., “the whole of _Servetus’s_ theories verbatim. Those that relate to the phenomena of mind, as produced by the brain, will at this time have an additional interest, when Gall and Spurzheim have attracted the attention of philosophers to the subject. With some degree of boldness he has fixed upon the ventricles of the brain, and the choroid plexus, as the seat of that ray divine which an immortal Creator has shed upon man, and man alone. The awe and veneration with which such a subject must be approached, are increased by the conviction that though we may flatter our fond hopes with the idea that some knowledge has been gained, we are still lost in the same labyrinth of doubt and uncertainty that we ever were.

“After giving his description of the passage of the blood from the right ventricle of the heart through the lungs, to the left ventricle of the heart, he gives his reasons for his belief in his doctrine of the circulation, and observes that Galen was unacquainted with the truth. He then commences that most extraordinary passage upon the seat of the mind. The blood, he supposes, having received in its passage through the lungs the breath of life, is sent by the left ventricle into the arteries; the purest part ascends to the base of the brain, where it is more refined, especially in the retiform plexus. It is still more perfected in the small vessels, the capillary arteries, and the choroid plexus, which penetrate every part of the brain, enter into the ventricles, and closely surround the origin of the nerves. From the vital spirit it is now changed into the animal spirit, and acts upon the mass of brain, which is incapable of reasoning without this stimulus. In the two ventricles of the brain is placed the power of receiving impressions from external objects; in the third is that of reasoning upon them; in the fourth is that of remembering them. From the communication through the foramina of the ethmoid bone, the two ventricles receive a portion of external air to refresh the spirit, and to give new animation to the soul. If these ventricles are oppressed by the introduction of noxious vapour, epilepsy is produced, if a fluid presses on the choroid plexus, apoplexy; and whatever affects this part of the brain causes loss of mental power.

“I have transcribed his notions on vegetable and animal life: they are more curious than correct. They are contained in the second Dialogue on the Trinity, which is remarkable from its being the best proof that the doctrines of Servetus were completely at variance with the Unitarianism of which he was accused. It is a dialogue between Peter and Michael, ‘modum generationis Christi docens, quod ipse non sit creatura, nec finitæ potentiæ, sed vere adorandus, verusque Deus.’

“He here enters very minutely into the soul, as the breath of life; and the whole of the theories he has advanced are in support of the passages in the Bible, relative to the Almighty pouring into the nostrils of man the breath of life. A long metaphysical and theological discussion, difficult to be understood, follows; but not one syllable can be found contrary to the precepts of Christianity, or to the pure faith he wished to instil into the mind. In another part of the work there is a dissertation upon the heart as the origin of faith, which he believes, on the authorities he cites from the Bible, to be the seat of some degree of mental power. The heart, he supposes, deliberates upon the will, but the will obeys the brain.”

Persons disposed to inquiries of the nature last adverted to, may peruse a remarkable paper on the functions of the heart, as connected with volition, by sir James Mackintosh; it was drawn up in consequence of a table conversation with Mr. Benjamin Travers, and is inserted by that gentleman in an appendix to his work on Constitutional Irritation.[504]

It remains further to be observed respecting Servetus, that, according to Dr. Sigmond, another of his theories was, that “in the blood is the life.” His notions “on vegetable and animal life,” are in his work “De Trinitatis Erroribus, Libri VII.” 12mo. 1531. This book appears in the “Bibliotheca Parriana,” by Mr. Bohn, with the following MS. remarks on it by Dr. Parr.

“_Liber rarissimus._ I gave two guineas for this book.” S. P.

“Servetus was burnt for this book. He might be a heretic, but he was
not an infidel. I have his life, in Latin, written by Allwoerden,
which should be read by all scholars and true Christians.” S. P.

Dr. Sigmond’s opinion of Servetus evidently concurs with Dr. Parr’s. Towards the close of Dr. Sigmond’s Introduction to his “Dissertatio, quædam de Serveto complectens,” he says, “Of his religious opinions I have but little to say: the bitter prejudices, the violent hatred, the unmanly persecutions that disgraced the early introduction of a reformed religion, have fortunately given place to the milder charities of true Christianity. The penalty of death, by the most cruel torture, would not now be inflicted on a man who offered to the world crude and undigested dreams, or the visionary fancies of a disturbed imagination; and these, to say the very worst, are the sins for which Servetus expired at the stake, surrounded by the books his ardent and unconquerable spirit had dared to compose.

A sincere love of Christianity beams forth in every page of the work I have before me. His great anxiety was to restore religion to that purity, which he believed it to have lost. The doctrine he opposed was not that of Christ; it was that of the churchmen who had established, in his name, their own vain and fleeting opinions. The best proof that Calvin and Melancthon had deserted the mild, the charitable, the peaceful religion of truth, and that they followed not the divine precepts of their gentle Master, was, and is, that they pursued, even unto death, a helpless, poor, and learned man.”

It is well known that Servetus was denounced by Calvin to the government of Geneva, and that the civil authorities referred the case back to Calvin. “At the instance of Mr. Calvin and his associates he was condemned to be burnt alive; which sentence was executed October 27, 1553. He was upwards of two hours in the fire; the wood being green, little in quantity, and the wind unfavourable.”[505] It is not now the fashion to burn a man for heresy: the modern mode is to exaggerate and distort his declared opinions; drive him from society by forging upon him those which he disclaims; wound his spirit, and break his heart by continued aspersions; and, when he is in his grave, award him the reputation of having been an amiable and mistaken man.

*

[502] Of which there is an English translation in 8vo.

[503] It is entitled “The Unnoticed Theories of Servetus, a
Dissertation addressed to the Medical Society of Stockholm. By George
Sigmond, M.D. late of Jesus College, Cambridge, and formerly President
of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. London, 1826.” 8vo. pp.
80.

[504] “An Inquiry concerning that disturbed State of the Vital
Functions, usually denominated Constitutional Irritation. By Benjamin
Travers, F.R.S. Senior Surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and President
of the Medico-Chirurgical and Hunterian Societies of London, &c.
second edition. London, 1827.” 8vo.

[505] Dr. Adam Clarke; Bibliographical Dict. vol. vi.

* * * * *

LINES,

_On seeing in the Table Book the Signature of a brother, W. W. K._

Where’er those well-known characters I see,
They are, and ever will be, dear to me!
How oft in that green field, beneath the shade
Of beechen-boughs, whilst other youngsters play’d,
Have I, a happy schoolboy, o’er and o’er,
Conn’d those dear signs, which now I read once more!
How oft, as on the daisied grass I laid,
Full pleas’d, the W. W. K. I’ve read!--
When once espied, how tedious ’twas to wait
The crippled postman’s well-known shuffling gait,
As, slowly creeping down the winding lane,
With such a sluggish pace he onward came;
Or if in school,--his ring no sooner heard,
Than home, with all its sweets, to mind recurr’d;
And whilst the letter’s page its news reveal’d,
The gath’ring drop my boyish sight conceal’d!

Something then whisper’d, Bill, that life begun
So well, the same still happily would run;
That tho’ for years the briny sea divide,
Or be it good, or ill, that each betide,
The same fond heart would throb in either’s breast,
Fondness by years and stealing time increas’d!
So, as in early days it first became,
Shall it in riper life, be still the same,
That by and by, when we’re together laid
’Neath the green moss-grown pile--it may be said,
As lonely footsteps tow’rds our hillock turn,
“They were in life and death together one!”

* * * * *

DOVER PIG.

_To the Editor._

Sir,--To the fact of the underwritten narrative there are many living witnesses of high respectability. Anatomists and philosophers may not think it unworthy their notice, and the lovers of the marvellous will doubtless be interested by a subject which assimilates with the taste of all.

On the 14th of December, 1810, several considerable falls of the cliffs, both east and westward of Dover, took place; and one of these was attended by a fatal domestic catastrophe. A house, situated at the base of that part of the cliffs between Moat’s Bulwark and where the Dover Gas Company’s works are built, was buried, with its inmates, consisting of the father, mother, and five of their children, and a sister’s child. The father only was dug from the ruins alive. All his family perished with the ruin of his household property.

Behind the house, which stood just clear of the cliffs’ base, in an excavation, was a pig-sty; which, when the cliff fell, was inhabited by a solitary and very fat hog, supposed to weigh about eight score. In the midst of his distress, the unfortunate owner of the quadruped forgot this animal; and when it occurred to his recollection, so much time had passed since the accident, that the pig was numbered with the dead. In the ensuing summer, on the evening of the 23d of May, some workmen of the Ordnance department, going home from labour, stopped, as they had sometimes done before, to contemplate the yet remaining ruin. While thus engaged, a sound broke the silence of the moment. It seemed like the feeble grunting of a hog. The men listened, and the sound was repeated, till it ceased to be matter of doubt. One of them immediately went to the commanding officer of the Ordnance, and returned with a party of the miners, who set to work; and as soon as they had cleared away the chalk from before the chasm, the incarcerated animal came staggering forth, more like the anatomy of a pig than a living one. Its skin was covered with a long shaggy coat: the iris had disappeared from its eyes; and the pupils were pale, and had almost lost their colour. Nothing beyond these particulars was apparent externally. With great attention to its feeding, the creature recovered from its debility, and its coat fell off, and was renewed as before. When I saw this hog in the following November, the eyes were of a yellowish tint, and the iris only discoverable by a faint line round the pupil; no defect showed itself in the vision of the organ: and, but for being told that the pig before me was the one buried alive for six months, there was nothing about it to excite curiosity. To the owner it had been a source of great profit, by its exhibition, during the summer season, at the neighbouring towns and watering-places; and, finally, it ended its existence in the way usual to its race, through the hands of the butcher.

I have stated the supposed weight of this long-buried quadruped at the time of its incarceration, to be about eight score, or twenty stone; when liberated, it was weighed, and had lost half of its former quantity, being then four score. A peculiar character of the pig is--its indiscriminate gluttony and rapid digestion. The means by which the life of this particular animal was sustained during the long period of its imprisonment, may be worth the consideration of the zootomist.

I am, &c.

_September_, 1827.

K. B.

* * * * *

ANECDOTES.

JURIES.

Levinz reports a case in the King’s Bench, “Foster _v._ Hawden,” “wherein the jury, not agreeing, _cast lots_ for their verdict, and gave it according to lot; for which, upon the motion of Levinz, the verdict was set aside, and the jury were ordered to attend next term to be fined.”

On an appeal of murder, reported in Coke, the killing was not denied by the murderer, but he rested his defence upon a point of law, viz. that the deceased had provoked him, by mocking him; and he therefore contended that it was not murder. The judges severally delivered their opinions, that it was murder; but the jury could not agree. They however came to the following understanding--“That they should bring in, and offer their verdict not guilty; and if the court disliked thereof, that then they should all change their verdict, and find him guilty.” They brought in a verdict of _Not Guilty_. The court demurred, and sent them back; when, according to the above understanding, they returned again in a few minutes with a verdict of _Guilty_.

In 1752, Owen, a bookseller, was prosecuted by the attorney-general, on information, for a libel. The direction of the lord chief justice Lee to the jury does not appear at full length in the State Trials, but it seems that he “declared it as his opinion, that the jury ought to find the defendant guilty.” The jury brought in their verdict “Not Guilty.” The report proceeds to state, “that the jury went away; but at the desire of the attorney-general, they were called into court again, and asked this leading question: viz. “Gentlemen of the Jury, do you think the evidence laid before you, of Owen’s publishing the book by selling it, is not sufficient to convince you that the said Owen did sell this book.” Upon which the foreman, without answering the question, said, “Not guilty, not guilty;” and several of the jury said, “That is our verdict, my lord, and we abide by it.” Upon which the court broke up, and there was a prodigious shout in the hall.”

A QUESTION--MAL-APROPOS.

When Dr. Beadon was rector of Eltham, in Kent, the text he one day took to preach from was, “Who art thou?” After reading it he made a pause, for the congregation to reflect on the words; when a gentleman, in a military dress, who at the instant was proceeding up the middle aisle of the church, supposing it a question addressed to him, replied, “I, sir, am an officer of the sixteenth regiment of foot, on a recruiting party here; and have come to church, because I wish to be acquainted with the neighbouring clergy and gentry.” This so deranged the divine and astonished the congregation, that the sermon was concluded with considerable difficulty.

* * * * *

GLASS.

Pliny informs us, the art of making glass was accidentally discovered by some merchants who were travelling with nitre, and stopped near a river issuing from Mount Carmel. Not readily finding stones to rest their kettles on, they employed some pieces of their nitre for that purpose. The nitre, gradually dissolving by the heat of the fire, mixed with the sand, and a transparent matter flowed, which was, in fact, glass. It is certain that we are more indebted to chance than genius for many of the most valuable discoveries.

* * * * *

VARIA.

_For the Table Book._

TOMB OF KING ALFRED.

Many Englishmen, who venerate the name of Alfred, will learn, with surprise and indignation, that the ashes of this patriot king, after having been scattered by the rude hands of convicts, are probably covered by a building at Winchester, erected in 1788 for the confinement of criminals. No one in the neighbourhood was sufficiently interested towards his remains to attempt their discovery or preservation.

OLD LAW BOOKS.

It is remarkable, that the oldest book in the German law is entitled “Spiegel,” or the Looking-glass which answers to our “Mirror of Justices:” it was compiled by Eckius de Reckaw, and is inserted in Goldastus’s Collectanea. One of the ancient Icelandish books is likewise styled “Speculum Regale.” There is also in Schrevelius’s Teutonic Antiquities a collection of the ancient laws of Pomerania and Prussia, under the title of “Speculum.” Surely all this cannot be the effect of pure accident.

CURIOUS WILL OF AN ATTORNEY.

Mr. Lambe, an attorney, who died at Cambridge in the year 1800, left about eleven hundred pounds; and directed his executors (three gentlemen of the university) to appropriate the sum of eight hundred pounds as they might think proper. For this arduous task he bequeathed them one hundred pounds each.

S. S. S.

* * * * *

~Epitaphs.~

_For the Table Book._

‘_These_ tell in homely phrase who lie below.’

BLAIR.

_In Bois Church-yard, near Chesham, Bucks._

In Memory of
Mrs. Elizabeth, Wife of
Mr. Edward Pinchbeck,
of Chesham, who departed this
Life 1st Oct. 1781, aged 60 years.

Here a painful head is at rest,
Its violent throbbings are o’er;
Her dangerous mortified breast,
Neither throbs nor aches any more.
Her eyes, which she seldom could close
Without opiates to give her some rest,
Are now most sweetly composed,
With her whom her soul did love best.

_On a Rail in Chesham Church-yard._

In memory of Sarah Bachelor, wife of Benjamin Bachelor, daughter of
Joseph and Sarah Barnes, who departed this life May 23d, 1813, aged 25
years.

These three lines are on the reverse of the rail in question:--

My time was short not long in this world to stay God
Summon’d me and I was snatch’d away pray God to bless
And friends be kind to my husband and children left behind.

* * * * *

A plain white marble slab, placed over the remains of the illustrious Boerhaven, in St. Peter’s, Leyden, bears only these four words in black letters.

Salutifero Boerhavii Genio Sacrum.

J. J. K.

* * * * *

A FILL UP.

_For the Table Book._

There is nothing I find so difficult to fill up as my spare time. Talk as they will about liberty, it is after all nothing but a sort of independent _ennui_--a freedom we are better without, if we do not know how to use it. To instance myself:--the first thing I do on the cessation of my daily avocations, which terminate rather early, is to throw my two legs upon one chair, and recline my back against another--when, after a provoking yawn of most ambiguous import, I propound to myself with great gravity--what the deuce shall I do? A series of questions instantly occur, which are as instantly answered--generally in the negative. Shall I read Blackstone?--no: Coke upon Littleton?--worse still: Fearne on Contingent Remainders?--horrid idea!--it was recommended the other day to a young friend of mine, who before he got to the end of the first page was taken with a shivering fit, from which he has not yet recovered--no, no; confound the law! I had enough of that this morning--What’s to be done then? The _Table Book_ does not come out till to-morrow--Scott’s novels (unfashionable wretch) I don’t like,--have read the Epicurean already twenty times--and know Byron by heart. Take up my flute, mouthpiece mislaid, and can’t play without--determined to try, notwithstanding it should be my three thousandth failure; accordingly, blow like a bellows for about half an hour--can make nothing of it, suddenly stop, and throw the instrument to the other end of the room--forgetting the glass in the bookcase, the largest pane of which it goes through with a loud crash. Still musical, persist in humming a favourite air I have just thought of--hit the tune to a T, and immediately strike up a most delightful strain, beginning “Sounds delicious,” &c., when a cry comes from the parlour, “We really must leave the house if that horrid noise is to be continued!”--Rather galled by this rub--begin to get angry--start up from my two chairs and walk briskly to the fireplace--arrange my hair pettishly--then stick my hands in my pockets, and begin to muse--glass catches my eye--neckcloth abominably out of order, instinctively untie and tie it again--tired of standing--sit down to my desk--commence a Sonnet to the Moon, get on swimmingly to the fifth line, and then--a dead stop--no rhyme to be got, and the finest idea I ever had in my life in danger of being lost--this will never do--determined to bring it in somewhere, and after a little alteration introduce it most satisfactorily into a poem I had begun yesterday on Patience, till, upon reading the whole over, I find it has nothing whatever to do with the subject; and disgusted with the failure tear up both poem and sonnet in a tremendous rage. Still at a loss what to do--at length I have it--got a communication for the _Table Book_--I’ll take a walk and leave it--

GULIELMUS.

Vol. II.--51.

~Note.~

Under severe affliction I cannot make up this sheet as I wish. This day week my second son was brought home with his scull fractured. To-day intelligence has arrived to me of the death of my eldest son.

The necessity I have been under of submitting recently to a surgical operation on myself, with a long summer of sickness to every member of my family, and accumulated troubles of earlier origin, and of another nature, have prevented me too often from satisfying the wishes of readers, and the claims of Correspondents. I crave that they will be pleased to receive this, as a general apology, in lieu of particular notices, and in the stead of promises to effect what I can no longer hope to accomplish, and forbear to attempt.

W. HONE.

_December 12, 1827._

* * * * *

WINTER FLOWERS.

CHRYSANTHEMUM INDICUM.

_To the Editor._

Sir,--While the praises of our wild, native, simple flowers, the primrose, the violet, the blue bell, and daisy, as well as the blossoms of the hawthorn, wild rose, and honey-suckle, have been said and sung in many a pleasant bit of prose and verse in the pages of your extra-ordinary _Every-Day Book_, as connected with the lively descriptions given therein of many a rural sport and joyous pastime, enjoyed by our forefathers and foremothers of the “olden time,” particularly in that enlivening and mirth-inspiring month, sweet May; when both young and old feel a renovation of their health and spirits, and hail the return of sunshine, verdure, and flowers; permit me to call the attention of such of your readers as are fond of flowers (and there is no one, who has “music in his soul” and a taste for poetry, that is not) to that highly interesting plant, the Indian Chrysanthemum, which serves, by its gay blossoms, to cheer the gloom, and enliven the sadness of those dreary months, November and December.

Since the introduction of the Camellia and the Dahlia, I know of no plant that produces so striking an effect upon the sight as the Chrysanthemum. We have now about forty distinct varieties of it in the country, for the greater part of which we are indebted to the London Horticultural Society. Many of the flowers are much larger than the largest full-blown Provence rose, highly aromatic, and of extremely bright, vivid, and varied colours; as white, yellow, copper, red, and purple, of all the different gradations of tint, and several of those colours mixed and blended. Some very fine specimens of this flower have been exhibited at the society’s rooms and greenhouse. Nothing, in my opinion, could equal their beauty and splendour; not even the well-known collection of carnations and foreign picotées of my neighbour, Mr. Hogg, the florist.

This flower gives a very gay appearance to the conservatory and the greenhouse at this season of the year, when there is hardly another in blossom; and it may also be introduced into the parlour and drawing-room; for it flowers freely in small sized pots of forty-eight and thirty-two to the cast, requires no particular care, is not impatient of cold, and is easily propagated by dividing the roots, or by cuttings placed under a hand-glass in the months of May or June, which will bloom the following autumn, for it is prodigal of its flowers; the best method is to leave only one flowering stem in a pot.

The facility with which it is propagated will always make the price moderate, and render it attainable by any one; there is much dissimilarity in the form of the flowers, as well as in the formation of the petals--some flowers are only half spread, and have the appearance of tassels, while others are expanded fully, like the Chinese aster; some petals are quilled, some half quilled, some are flat and lanceolated, some crisped and curled, and others are in an imbricated form, decreasing in length towards the centre. There is also some variation in their time of flowering, some come much earlier than others.

This plant is not a stranger to the country, for it was introduced about thirty-five years ago; but the splendid varieties, of which I am speaking, are new, having been brought hither, mostly from China, by the Horticultural Society within these four or five years; and as the society has made a liberal distribution of plants and cuttings to the different nurserymen and florists round London, who are members thereof, they can now be easily obtained. There is little chance of its ever ripening its seed, from its coming into flower at the commencement of winter, so that we can only look for fresh varieties from India or China.

In conclusion, I will just note down a few that particularly engaged my attention, namely:--

The pure or large paper white.

The large white, with yellow tinged flowerets, or petals round the disk or centre.

The early blush.

The golden lotus.

The superb clustered yellow.

The starry purple.

The bright red, approaching to scarlet.

And the brown, red, and purple blended.

I remain, sir, &c.

JERRY BLOSSOM.

_Paddington,_

_December._

* * * * *

~Garrick Plays.~

No. XLIV.

[From “Blurt, Master Constable:” a Comedy by T. Middleton, 1602.]

_Lover kept awake by Love._

Ah! how can I sleep? he, who truly loves,
Burns out the day in idle fantasies;
And when the lamb bleating doth bid good night
Unto the closing day, then tears begin
To keep quick time unto the owl, whose voice
Shrieks like the bellman in the lover’s ears:
Love’s eye the jewel of sleep oh! seldom wears.
The early lark is waken’d from her bed,
Being only by Love’s plaints disquieted;
And singing in the morning’s ear she weeps,
Being deep in love, at Lovers’ broken sleeps.
But say a golden slumber chance to tie
With silken strings the cover of Love’s eye;
Then dreams, magician-like, mocking present
Pleasures, whose fading leaves more discontent.

_Violetta comes to seek her Husband at the house of a Curtizan._

_Violetta.--Imperia, the Curtizan._

_Vio._ By your leave, sweet Beauty, pardon my excuse, which sought
entrance into this house: good Sweetness, have you not a Property
here, improper to your house; my husband?

_Imp._ Hah! your husband here?

_Vio._ Nay, be as you seem to be, White Dove, without gall. Do not
mock me, fairest Venetian. Come, I know he is here. I do not blame
him, for your beauty gilds over his error. ’Troth, I am right glad
that you, my Countrywoman, have received the pawn of his affections.
You cannot be hardhearted, loving him; nor hate me, for I love him
too. Since we both love him, let us not leave him, till we have called
home the ill husbandry of a sweet Straggler. Prithee, good wench, use
him well.

_Imp._ So, so, so--

_Vio._ If he deserve not to be used well (as I’d be loth he should
deserve it), I’ll engage myself, dear Beauty, to thine honest heart:
give me leave to love him, and I’ll give him a kind of leave to love
thee. I know he hears me. I prithee try my eyes, if they know him;
that have almost drowned themselves in their own saltwater, because
they cannot see him. In troth, I’ll not chide him. If I speak words
rougher than soft kisses, my penance shall be to see him kiss thee,
yet to hold my peace.

Good Partner, lodge me in thy private bed;
Where, in supposed folly, he may end
Determin’d Sin. Thou smilest. I know thou wilt.
What looseness may term dotage,--truly read,
Is Love ripe-gather’d, not soon withered.

_Imp._ Good troth, pretty Wedlock, thou makest my little eyes smart with washing themselves in brine. I mar such a sweet face!--and wipe off that dainty red! and make Cupid toll the bell for your love-sick heart!--no, no, no--if he were Jove’s own ingle Ganymede--fie, fie, fie--I’ll none. Your Chamber-fellow is within. Thou shalt enjoy him.

_Vio_. Star of Venetian Beauty, thanks!

* * * * *

[From “Hoffman’s Tragedy, or Revenge for a Father,” 1631. Author
Unknown.]

_The Sons of the Duke of Saxony run away with Lucibel, the Duke of Austria’s Daughter.--The two Dukes, in separate pursuit of their children, meet at the Cell of a Hermit: in which Hermit, Saxony recognises a banished Brother; at which surprised, all three are reconciled._

_Austria._ That should be Saxon’s tongue.
_Saxony._ Indeed I am the Duke of Saxony.
_Austria._ Then thou art father to lascivious sons,
That have made Austria childless.
_Saxony._ Oh subtle Duke,
Thy craft appears in framing the excuse.
Thou dost accuse my young sons’ innocence.
I sent them to get knowledge, learn the tongues,
Not to be metamorphosed with the view
Of flattering Beauty--peradventure painted.
_Austria._ No, I defy thee, John of Saxony.
My Lucibel for beauty needs no art;
Nor, do I think, the beauties of her mind
Ever inclin’d to this ignoble course,
But by the charms and forcings of thy sons.
_Saxony._ O would thou would’st maintain thy words, proud Duke!
_Hermit._ I hope, great princes, neither of you dare
Commit a deed so sacrilegious.
This holy Cell
Is dedicated to the Prince of Peace.
The foot of man never profan’d this floor;
Nor doth wrath here with his consuming voice
Affright these buildings. Charity with Prayer,
Humility with Abstinence combined,
Are here the guardians of a grieved mind.
_Austria._ Father, we obey thy holy voice.
Duke John of Saxony, receive my faith;
Till our ears hear the true course, which thy sons
Have taken with me fond and misled child,
I proclaim truce. Why dost thou sullen stand?
If thou mean peace, give me thy princely hand.
_Saxony._ Thus do I plight thee truth, and promise peace.
_Austria._ Nay, but thy eyes agree not with thy heart.
In vows of combination there’s a grace,
That shews th’ intention in the outward face.
Look chearfully, or I expect no league.
_Saxony._ First give me leave to view awhile the person
Of this Hermit.--Austria, view him well.
Is he not like my brother Roderic?
_Austria._ He’s like him. But I heard, he lost his life
Long since in Persia by the Sophy’s wars.
_Hermit._ I heard so much, my Lord. But that report
Was purely feign’d; spread by my erring tongue,
As double as my heart, when I was young.
I am that Roderic, that aspired thy throne;
That vile false brother, that with rebel breath,
Drawn sword, and treach’rous heart, threaten’d your death.
_Saxony._ My brother!--nay then i’ faith, old John lay by
Thy sorrowing thoughts; turn to thy wonted vein,
And be mad John of Saxony again.
Mad Roderic, art alive?--my mother’s son,
Her joy, and her last birth!--oh, she conjured me
To use thee thus; [_embracing him_] and yet I banish’d thee.--
Body o’ me! I was unkind, I know;
But thou deservd’st it then: but let it go.
Say thou wilt leave this life, thus truly idle,
And live a Statesman; thou shalt share in reign,
Commanding all but me thy Sovereign.
_Hermit._ I thank your Highness; I will think on it
But for my sins this sufferance is more fit.
_Saxony._ Tut, tittle tattle, tell not me of sin.--
Now, Austria, once again thy princely hand:
I’ll look thee in the face, and smile; and swear.
If any of my sons have wrong’d thy child,
I’ll help thee in revenging it myself.
But if, as I believe, they mean but honour,
(As it appeareth by these Jousts proclaim’d),
Then thou shalt be content to name[506] him thine,
And thy fair daughter I’ll account as mine.
_Austria._ Agreed.
_Saxony._ Ah, Austria! ’twas a world, when you and I
Ran these careers; but now we are stiff and dry.
_Austria._ I’m glad you are so pleasant, good my Lord.
_Saxony._ ’Twas my old mood: but I was soon turn’d sad,
With over-grieving for this long lost Lad,--
And now the Boy is grown as old as I;
His very face as full of gravity.

C. L.

[506] By one of the Duke’s sons (her Lover) in honour of Lucibel.

* * * * *

~Discoveries~

OF THE

ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.

No. XV.

ANCIENT SURGERY.

Mr. Bernard, principal surgeon to king William, affirms respecting ancient surgical skill as follows:--

There is no doubt but the perfection to which surgery has been carried in these last ages, is principally owing to the discoveries which have been made in anatomy. But the art of curing wounds, to which all the other parts ought to give way, remains almost in the same state in which the ancients transmitted it to us.