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Curiosities of Medical Experience

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Title: Curiosities of Medical Experience

Author: J. G. Millingen


        
Release date: March 7, 2012 [eBook #39074]

Language: English

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CURIOSITIES OF
MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.

by

J. G. MILLINGEN, M.D., M.A.

SURGEON TO THE FORCES; RESIDENT PHYSICIAN
OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM AT HANWELL;
MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE ANCIENT FACULTY OF PARIS;
OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF BORDEAUX; AND AUTHOR OF
"THE ARMY MEDICAL OFFICER'S MANUAL," &c.

SECOND EDITION.

REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY AUGMENTED.

IN ONE VOLUME.







London:
Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1839.

Whiting, Beaufort House, Strand.




  TO SIR JAMES M'GRIGOR, BART.
  M.D., F.R.S., K.T.S., &c. &c.
  DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT,
  TO WHOSE ZEAL AND EXAMPLE THE MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HER MAJESTY'S
  FORCES ARE SO MUCH INDEBTED FOR THAT DISTINGUISHED
  CHARACTER AND CONSIDERATION THEY COLLECTIVELY
  AND INDIVIDUALLY HOLD IN THE ESTIMATION
  OF THE EUROPEAN ARMIES,
  THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED,
  AS A TESTIMONIAL OF PUBLIC RESPECT AND
  SINCERE PRIVATE ESTEEM,
  BY THE AUTHOR.




PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.


The rapid sale of the first edition of this work has induced the publisher
to reprint it with considerable additions in a less expensive, and more
concise form--and the author embraces this opportunity, gratefully to
acknowledge the liberality with which it has been received, and the
indulgence shown to its many imperfections. At the same time he cannot but
regret, that in some quarters it has been surmised that he yielded
credence to the many strange relations which he has recorded from various
medical works, but which he merely narrated, to show the fallacy even of
experience, and the many dangers that may arise from the most ingenious
theories and doctrines, in the very ratio of their apparent plausibility.

Although these sketches were not intended for the profession, yet they may
prove of some utility to the pupil who commences the arduous study of
medicine. They may convince him, that great names, however justly
respected and renowned, do not constitute a sufficient basis, on which to
rest a satisfactory and conclusive judgment; and, as Locke has justly
observed, that "_reverence or prejudice must not be suffered to give
beauty or deformity to any of their opinions_." He will find that of which
further experience will subsequently convince him, that medical
investigation is too often founded upon analogy and hypothesis--but let
not this painful and disheartening impression arrest his progress, or
deter him from seeking to assist his judgment by collecting "the scattered
parts of truth," for in speaking of hypothesis, Dr. Crichton has thus
expressed himself: "There is a period in knowledge, when it must be
indulged in if we mean to make any progress; it is that period when the
facts are too numerous to be recollected without general principles, and
yet, where the facts are too few to constitute a valid theory. If the
exterior form of an edifice is often the principal motive with men for
examining its internal structure; so it is in science, that the splendour
of an hypothesis, and the desire of proving its solidity, are more
frequent motives for research than a mere love of knowledge."

Notwithstanding our boasted progress in scientific pursuits, and our
supposed approach to perfection, there never perhaps was a period, since
the fanciful days of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Van Helmont, when more
deceitful and fascinating reveries were indulged in than at the present
_enlightened_ moment, nor more ingenuity and disingenuousness displayed in
seeking to give substance to a vision or overthrowing its baseless fabric.
It is painful to be obliged to admonish the would be legislators of our
belief, in the words of the sceptical Bolingbroke:

"Folly and knavery have prevailed most where they should be tolerated the
least, and presumption has been excused most where diffidence and candour
are on many accounts the most necessary.

  "Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
  Est iter in Silvis."

  _Hanwell Lunatic Asylum,
  Dec. 1838._




INTRODUCTION.


The great success and correspondent utility of D'Israeli's "Curiosities of
Literature," have induced me to add to the ample harvest of that ingenious
writer a few gleanings from another field. They may not afford the same
amusing variety to the general reader, but they may tend to draw some
attention to many important points that affect the chequered lot of
mankind. The progress that every science has rapidly made during the last
half-century has been astounding, and seems to have kept pace with those
struggles of the intellectual faculties to burst from the shackles of
prejudice and error that had ignobly bound them for so many ages. Groping
in darkness, man sought the light, but unfortunately the sudden refulgence
at times dazzled instead of guiding his steps in the pursuit of truth, and
led him into errors as perilous as those that had surrounded him in his
former mental obscurity. His gigantic powers were aroused, but, too
frequently misapplied, they shook the social edifice to its very
foundation. The daring hand of innovation destroyed without contemplating
what better fabric could be raised on the ruin: and while the nobler
faculties with which Providence had gifted us were exerted for the public
weal, the baser parts of our passions sought liberty in licentiousness.
Ambition degenerated into ferocity, scepticism led to impiety, and even
apparent virtue sought to propagate the doctrines of good, by assuming the
"goodly outside" of vice. Religion was overthrown because priestcraft had
deceived, and high rank was held up to detestation because princes and
nobles had been corrupt; and to use Shakespeare's words,

                      Thus we debase
  The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
  Call our cares, fears; which will in time break ope
  The lock o' the senate, and bring in the crows
  To peck the eagles.

In ten short years this mighty revolution in the intellect of man took
place,--in a country too that may be considered the cradle of the future
weal and woe, perhaps of the universe;--in ten short years we beheld
Montesquieu, Raynal, Rousseau, Voltaire, Condillac, Helvetius, beaming
like rising meteors in the dark firmament, and shedding a fearful gleam on
the past, the present, and the future; boldly tracking a path once trodden
with groping steps by Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, and Gassendi![1] No longer
trusting in blind confidence to the scholastic rules of those dignitaries
of science whose conclusions were considered sufficient to command our
faith, man became sceptical and positive; doubt and disbelief were carried
into every investigation; the reign of _prestiges_ was over; the former
monopolists of power and of science, the two great levers of society (the
more effective since their fulcra rested on timidity and ignorance), were
thrown from their antiquated stand, and found themselves brought face to
face in explanatory contact with their once all-believing and obedient
pupils, but now become a neoteric generation;--the crown and the sceptre,
the cap and the gown, were baubles in their eyes. When the faculty of
reasoning was not able to prevail, the shafts of ridicule were drawn from
the quiver of philosophic wit, and inflicted rankling wounds where they
could not destroy. Ancient systems were exploded with ancient prejudices,
theories were overthrown with dynasties, and doctrines with
governments;--one might have imagined that the formidable power of steam
had been communicated to the mind, illustrating the words of Milton,

  The mind is its own place, and in itself
  Can make a heaven of hell, and hell of heaven.

Science, now aimed at generalization-the physiologist, the chemist, became
legislators, stepping from the academic chair to the senatorial seat, and
from teaching how to benefit mankind they hurried to destroy, forgetful,
in their ambitious dream, of the noble encomium of Cicero, "_Homines ad
deos nulla se proprius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando_."

Philosophy and the study of medicine were now inseparable; this generous
science was not to be attained in books only, but in the study of mankind.
Rousseau thus spoke of physicians when writing to Bernardin de Saint
Pierre:--"_Il n'y a pas d'etat qui exige plus d'etude que le leur; par
tous les pays, ce sont des hommes les plus veritablement savans et
utiles_." Voltaire was of a similar opinion when he thus expressed
himself:--"_Il n'est rien de plus estimable au monde, qu'un medecin qui,
ayant dans sa jeunesse etudie la nature, connu les ressorts du corps
humain, les maux qui le tourmentent, les remedes qui peuvent le soulager,
exerce son etat en s'en defiant, et soigne egalement les pauvres et les
riches_."

How came it then that these great observers did not partake of the
prejudices of Montaigne, Moliere, and other writers, who invariably
stigmatized the practice of physic? simply because it was no longer a
dogmatic profession exercised with scholastic pedantry, but a science
founded on the study of nature, and the immutable laws of sound
philosophy. Although a classic education forms an indispensable part of a
physician's education, yet it is in more important pursuits that his
experience should be obtained: the knowledge of ancient languages is
principally useful in discovering the errors of the olden writers, and in
detecting the barefaced plagiarisms of the moderns.

Much valuable time, however, may be lost in the pursuit of ancient lore;
and Montaigne has justly observed, "There are books which should only be
read, but others that must be learnt." This discrimination is of the
utmost importance; for it may be said of the bookworm's library,
"_Multitudo librorum saepe est nubes testium ignorantiae possessoris_."
Aristippus very properly replied to a man who boasted of his reading, "It
is not those who eat the most that are hale and healthy, but those who can
best digest." Hence the distinction that arose between the philosophical
physician and the dogmatizer. The one was guided by the observation of
facts, the other by glossarial records. Men of erudition are seldom men of
genius. The exploring mind is ever anxious to take flight from the
prison-house of scholastic restraints. Scepticism, moreover, is frequently
the result of deep study, which leads the neophyte into such a labyrinth
of conflicting opinions, that decision and conviction are not easily
attained. Laugier, a most learned German physician, had no faith in his
profession: being reproached with his incredulity, he replied, "_Credo,
Domine, adjuva incredulitatem meam_."

The preceding observations lead to an important, and at the same time a
painful reflection. Will this rapid intellectual progress tend ultimately
to meliorate the condition of mankind? Nations have been compared to Man:
having once reached the acme of prosperity and strength, their vigour like
his gradually declines. History offers nothing more than a chronicle of
such facts. Whatever may be the causes of this degeneracy, is a matter
foreign to my present subject; although I may be permitted to observe by
the way, that it may have arisen from the great disparity and inequality
in the condition of society that tends to lull the wealthy into apathetic
indifference and blind security in their power, while it urges the poor
and the bold to rapine and destructive deeds. This perilous state can only
cease to exist when general education is improved: if this most important
source of real prosperity is attended to, we perhaps need not seek in
particular events, gloomy anticipations of the future.

Whatever may be the destinies of nations in the wreck of empires and the
destruction of men, the philosopher calmly seated on ruins that often
"speak that sometime they were a worthy building," reflects with pride
that science has withstood the withering hand of time. It is true, that in
every study errors have been heaped upon errors; but truth will often
result from falsehood, and doubt that brings on investigation, leads to
comparative certainty. Locke has justly observed, that the faculty of
reasoning seldom or never deceives those who trust to it: its
consequences, from what it builds on, are evident and certain; but that
which it oftenest, if not only, misleads us in, is, that the principles
from which we conclude, the grounds upon which we bottom our reasoning,
are but a part--_something_ is left out which should go into the reckoning
to make it just and exact. This _something_ is the constant pursuit of the
philosopher. The name of a country may be obliterated from a map, the
deeds of heroes be effaced from the annals of the world; the pursuit of
truth can only cease when man is no more;--its light may be veiled by
ignorance, craft, or cupidity,--but it cannot be extinguished. The cities
that gave birth to the illustrious philosophers of old have long ceased to
exist, yet the immortal works of those sages that have escaped the
ravages of time, are still as fresh and luxuriant as when their glorious
oratory enchanted and captivated their disciples' ears.

No science has been cultivated with more difficulty than that of Medicine.
The following papers will show how fearfully it has had to contend in turn
with the power of priestcraft, that sought to monopolize its practice, as
a privilege from the gods, and with the furious opposition of contemporary
members of the profession, whose cupidity and vanity were alarmed by the
introduction of novel doctrines, which they were too old, too busy, or too
obstinate to learn. The extracts from Medical Literature that I have given
will show that most of our modern notions were known to the earliest
writers, and were only improved in succeeding ages, as in like manner our
present doctrines will in all probability be advanced by future
generations. The destruction of kingdoms and of chronicles, the inroads of
barbarism,--the more destructive inroads of ignorance and bigotry, have
not been able to produce a void in the world of science; the catenation of
philosophic inquiry has never been broken in its connexions. Oppression
only riveted the chain more firmly, as if to resist the united power of
man and time. Adversity, which

  Like the toad, ugly and venomous,
  Wears yet a precious jewel in its head,

has always been considered the best school of practical wisdom: and it is
thus that, amidst the portentous events which have shaken every
institution, and which perhaps still menace further dissolution, the fane
of science has oftentimes been more vividly illumined by the surrounding
conflagration.

The evils that desolate society too frequently arise from the hasty acts
of intemperate men, who deem it necessary to meet the tumultuous demands
of the multitude with decided and energetic, but, at the same time,
perilous measures: the progress of science, on the contrary, is gradual,
and of course more likely to be eventually permanent. While political
speculations are daily becoming more uncertain in their operations, the
triumph of intellectual superiority over prejudice is every where
apparent;--unjust disabilities are being abolished, and the gates of
learning thrown open to every candidate, whatever may be his religious or
his political tenets.

In our country, more than in any other, industry and perseverance have
ever had a fairer chance of attaining social pre-eminence, despite the
shackles imposed upon the candidate for fame by institutions framed in the
darker ages. What then may we not expect, when we behold the bright era
that opens before us,--when exclusive institutions will be considered the
obsolete remnants of expiring bigotry and intolerance! May we not indulge
in the most sanguine hope, that our former glories are only the historic
earnest of still more glorious days? If the spirit of the immortal Locke
could hover over our earth, he would feel, with some degree of pride, that
his admonitions have not been unheeded; and that "those who live mewed up
within their own contracted territories, and will not look abroad beyond
the boundaries that _chance_, _conceit_, or _laziness_ have set to their
inquiries, but live separate from the notions, discourses, and attainments
of the rest of mankind," have at last felt the necessity of yielding to
the voice of reason, or rather of their own welfare.

In the following work I merely rank myself as a compiler. I have only
sketched--sometimes perhaps with too fanciful a pencil, subjects of great
importance, which, by being thus rendered popular, may induce abler pens
to imbody them in a more permanent form. The variety of matter introduced
has obliged me to be discursive, and to have recourse to some repetitions
that were necessary to illustrate subjects not easily abridged. Whenever I
have held up errors and evil passions to exposure, I have not, in one
single instance, I trust, been influenced by any hostility towards men or
parties--ranks or creeds. If I have unwillingly and unwittingly given
offence, I shall most sincerely lament it. My materials have been gleaned
from the works of many contemporaries, whose well-known and
justly-appreciated names will in general appear: but I should be wanting
in candour, did I not avow that I have derived much valuable information
from _Le Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales_, an elaborate compilation,
containing more "CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE" than any existing
work.

  _48, Eaton Square,
  January, 1837._




CONTENTS.


                                                            Page

  Obesity                                                      1

  Dwarfs                                                       9

  Gigantic Races                                              12

  Unlawful Cures                                              19

  Voice and Speech                                            32

  Ecstatic Exaltation                                         37

  Varieties of Mankind                                        44

  On the Inhumation of the Dead in Cities                     54

  Buried Alive                                                63

  Spontaneous Combustion                                      66

  Brassica Eruca                                              70

  Cagliostro                                                  71

  Lunar Influence on Human Life and Diseases                  73

  Spectacles                                                  76

  Leeches                                                     77

  Somnambulism                                                79

  Medical Powers of Music                                     88

  The Food of Mankind                                         96

  Influence of Imagination                                   125

  Ancient Ideas of Phrenology                                135

  Perfumes                                                   136

  Love Philters and Potions                                  141

  Ventriloquism                                              148

  Chaucer's Description of a Physician                       151

  Daemonomania                                                152

  The Plague                                                 164

  Abstinence                                                 185

  Poison of the Upas, or Ipo                                 190

  Homophagous and polyphagous                                196

  Causes of Insanity                                         202

  Leprosy                                                    221

  The Aspic                                                  227

  Selden's Comparison between a Divine, a Statesman, and
    a Physician                                              229

  The Lettuce                                                230

  Medical Fees                                               231

  Enthusiasm                                                 237

  Medical effects of Water                                   252

  Proverbs and Sayings regarding Health and Disease          259

  The Night-mare                                             262

  Incubation of Diseases                                     266

  Quackery and Charlatanism                                  269

  On the use of Tea                                          277

  Mandragore                                                 281

  Barber-Surgeons, and the Progress of Chirurgical Art       285

  On Dreams                                                  295

  On Flagellation                                            312

  On Life and the Blood                                      317

  Of the Homoeopathic Doctrines                              337

  Doctrine of Signatures                                     365

  Coffee                                                     370

  Aqua Tophania                                              374

  Plica Polonica & Human Hair                                377

  Animal Magnetism                                           384

  Poisonous Fishes                                           397

  Memory & the Mental Faculties                              404

  Affections of the Sight                                    420

  Hellebore                                                  426

  Sympathies and Antipathies                                 428

  The Archeus of Van Helmont                                 439

  Monsters                                                   443

  Longevity                                                  453

  Cretinism                                                  472

  Temperaments                                               476

  Solar Influence                                            482

  Sweating Fever                                             485

  Smallpox                                                   491

  Drunkenness                                                507

  Decapitation                                               516

  Mummies                                                    518

  Hydrophobia                                                527

  Rise and Progress of Medicine                              534

  Medicine of the Chinese                                    552

  Experiments on Living Animals                              559




CURIOSITIES OF MEDICAL EXPERIENCE.




OBESITY.


Various are the opinions concerning the cause of excessive corpulence. By
some it is attributed to too great an activity in the digestive functions,
producing a rapid assimilation of our food; by others, to the predominance
of the liver: while indolence and apathy, such as is commonly observed in
the wealthy monastic orders, are considered as occasioning a laxity of
fibre favourable to this _embonpoint_. Boileau has thus described one of
these fat lazy prelates, who

            Muni d'un dejeuner,
  Dormant d'un leger somme, attendait le diner.
  La jeunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage;
  Son menton sur son sein descend a triple etage;
  Et son corps ramasse, dans sa courte grosseur,
  Fait gemir les coussins sous sa molle epaisseur.

It is certain that exercise, anxiety of mind, want of sleep, and spare
food, are circumstances opposed to fatness. This fact is illustrated by
Shakspeare, when Caesar says to Antony,

  Let me have men about me that are fat,--
  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;
  Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
  He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

Antony and Dolabella were both men of some corpulence. The Roman ladies
dreaded above all things too voluminous a development of the bosom: to
prevent it they were in the habit of applying to their breasts the raw
flesh of a fish called Angel. Hippocrates has maintained that obesity was
an obstacle to conception. This assertion which was partaken by other
medical writers, may, in some measure account for the dread of
corpulence. Strange indeed have been the fancies on this subject amongst
various nations.

Fat is a fluid similar to vegetable oils, inodorous, and lighter than
water; besides the elements common to water, to oils, and wax, it contains
carbon, hydrogen, and sebacic acid, which is pretty similar to the acetic.
Human fat, like that of other animals, has been frequently employed for
various purposes. A story is told of an Irish tallowchandler, who, during
the invasion of Cromwell's army, made candles with the fat of Englishmen,
which were remarkable for their good quality; but when the times became
more tranquil, his goods were of an inferior kind, and when one of his
customers complained of his candles falling off, he apologised by saying,
"I am sorry to inform you that the times are so bad that I have been short
of Englishmen for a long time."

Obesity may be considered a serious evil, and has exposed corpulent
persons to many _desagremens_. The ancients held fat people in sovereign
contempt. Some of the Gentoos enter their dwellings by a hole in the roof;
and any fat person who cannot get through it, they consider as an
excommunicated offender who has not been able to rid himself of his sins.
An Eastern prince had an officer to regulate the size of his subjects, and
who dieted the unwieldy ones to reduce them to a proper volume. In China
this calamity is considered a blessing, a man's intellectual qualities are
esteemed in the ratio of corporeal bulk.

There are cases on record among ourselves where unwieldiness led to
estimation. The corpulent antiquarian Grose was requested by his butcher
to tell all his friends that he bought his meat from him; and the paviers
of Cambridge used to say, "God bless you, sir!" to a huge professor when
he walked over their work. Fatness has often been the butt of jocularity.
Dr. Stafford, who was enormously fat, was honoured with this epitaph:

  Take heed, O good traveller, and do not tread hard,
  For here lies Dr. Stafford, _in all this church-yard_.

And the following lines were inscribed on the tomb of a corpulent
chandler:

  Here lies in earth an honest fellow,
  Who died by fat and lived by tallow.

Dr. Beddoes was so uncomfortably stout that a lady of Clifton used to
call him "the walking feather-bed." At the court of Louis XV. there were
two lusty noblemen, related to each other: the king, having rallied one of
them on his corpulency, added, "I suppose you take little or no exercise?"
"Your majesty will pardon me," replied the bulky duke, "for I generally
walk two or three times round my cousin every morning."

Various ludicrous anecdotes are related of fat people. A scene between
Mrs. Clive and Mrs. Pritchard, two corpulent actresses, must have been
very amusing. They were playing in the parts of Lady Easy and Edging, in
the Careless Husband, when the former desires Edging to pick up a letter
she had dropped; and Mrs. Clive, who might as well have attempted to raise
a hundred pound weight, exclaimed, "Not I indeed, take it up yourself if
you like it." This answer threw the audience into roars of laughter, when
Mrs. Pritchard replied, "Well, if you won't take up the letter, I must
find some one who will;" and so saying, she beckoned to a servant in the
wing, who came forward and terminated the dispute.

In some countries, especially in the East, moderate obesity is considered
a beauty, and Tunisene young ladies are regularly fattened for marriage; a
different practice from that of the Roman matrons, who starved their
daughters, to make them as lean as possible on such occasions. Thus
Terence,

    Nostrae virgines--si bono habitu sunt, matres pugiles esse aiunt, et
    cibum deducunt.

Erasmus states that the Gordii carried their admiration for corpulence to
such an extent, that they raised the fattest amongst them to the throne.
It is well known that the preposterous size of some of the Hottentots is
deemed a perfection, and one of their Venuses was not long since exhibited
in London.

There is no doubt that food materially influences this condition of
mankind, although we frequently see enormous eaters who are miserably
lean, and fat persons whose diet is most scanty. During the late war, a
ravenous French prisoner was known to eat four pounds of raw cow-udder,
ten pounds of raw beef, and two pounds of candles, per diem, diluting his
meals with five quarts of porter; yet this carnivorous brute was a perfect
skeleton.

Amongst the many predisposing causes of obesity we may rank emasculation.
An epicurean fishmonger of the name of Samuel Tull performed this
operation on fishes, to render them more delicate. His curious experiments
were submitted to the Royal Society. The same practice has been
subsequently illustrated by Professor Dumeril. Father Charleroix informs
us that Caraib cannibals had recourse to this process to fatten their
prisoners before they were devoured.

Anatomical pursuits are also known to occasion _embonpoint_. This has been
frequently observed amongst medical pupils. Professor Mascagni attributed
his corpulence to his constant attendance on dissections; he also excused
his amorous propensities on similar grounds.

For the cure of corpulency, diminution of food of a nutritious nature has
been generally recommended; added to this, little sleep and much exercise
are advised. Acids to reduce fatness are frequently administered, but have
done considerable mischief. Amongst other wonderful accounts of their
efficacy in such cases, it is related of a Spanish general who was of an
enormous size, that he drank vinegar until his bulk was so reduced that he
could fold his skin round his body.

For a similar purpose soap has been frequently recommended, particularly
by Dr. Flemyng. He began this experiment with one of his patients who
weighed twenty stone and eleven pounds (jockey weight): in July 1754, he
took every night a quarter of an ounce of common Castile soap. In August
1756 his bulk was reduced two stone, and in 1760 he was brought down to a
proper condition.

Darwin is of opinion that salt and salted meat are still more efficacious
than soap. All these experiments, however, are in general not only useless
but pernicious, and frequently prove fatal. Mr. Wadd, from whose curious
work on corpulence much is extracted in this article, properly observes
that, "certain and permanent relief is only to be sought in rigid
abstemiousness, and a strict and constant attention to diet and exercise."
Dr. Cheyne, who weighed thirty-two stone, reduced himself one-third, and
enjoyed good health till the age of seventy-two. Numerous instances of the
kind are mentioned, where journals of gradual reduction were kept: the
following is an abstract of one of them, in the case of a person who, on
the 17th June 1820, weighed twenty-three stone two pounds:--

  June 17           23 stone 2 pounds.
  July 27           21   "  10   "
  September 10      20   "   7   "
  October 10        19   "   3   "
  November 10       18   "  11   "
  December 10       18   "   4   "
  December 25       18   "   1   "

In another case, attended by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, the patient weighed
twenty-three stone, and by a regular system of diet was brought down to
fifteen stone. In this instance brown bread, with a certain quantity of
bran in it, was employed; and it is well known that the alimentary
secretions are materially altered by the quality of bread. The article of
drink also requires much attention. Corpulent persons generally indulge to
excess, and in this case, every endeavour to reduce them will be vain. We
frequently see our jockeys reducing themselves to the extent of a stone
and a half in the week. A lower scale of diet is by no means as injurious
as it is generally supposed; the English prisoners made by Tippoo Saib,
though kept upon a scanty pittance of bread and water, found themselves in
better health than before, and some of them were cured during their
captivity of liver complaints of long and severe duration.

One of the most corpulent persons known was Mr. Lambert, of
Leicestershire, who weighed fifty-two stone eleven pounds (14 lbs. to the
stone).

At Hainton, there died in 1816, Samuel Sugars, aged fifty-two; and his
body, with a single coffin weighed fifty stone.

In 1754 died Mr. Jacob Powell, of Stebbing in Essex: his body was above
five yards in circumference, and weighed five hundred and sixty pounds;
requiring sixteen men to bear him to his grave.

In 1775 Mr. Spooner, of Skillington near Tamworth, weighed, a short time
before his death, forty stone and nine pounds, and measured four feet
three inches across the shoulders.

Keysler mentions a young man in Lincoln who ate eighteen pounds of beef
daily, and died in 1724, in the twenty-eighth of his age, weighing five
hundred and thirty pounds.

A baker, in Pye Corner, weighed thirty-four stone, and would frequently
eat a small shoulder of mutton, baked in his oven, and weighing five
pounds; he, however, persisted for one year to live upon water-gruel and
brown bread, by which he lost two hundred pounds of his bulk.

Mr. Collet, master of the Evesham Academy, weighed upwards of twenty-six
stone; when twelve years old, he was nearly as large as at the time of his
death. At two years of age he required two nurses to lift him in and out
of bed, one of whom in a fit of anger he felled to the floor with a blow
of his hand.

At Trenaw in Cornwall, there was a man, known by the name of Grant
Chillcot, who weighed four hundred and sixty pounds; one of his stockings
could contain six gallons of wheat.

Our poet Butler must have met with some such enormous creatures in the
type of his Saxon Duke, who, in Hudibras,

  ------did grow so fat,
  That mice (as histories relate)
  Ate grots and labyrinths to dwell in
  His postique parts, without his feeling.

If obesity has been the subject of ungenerous jokes, leanness has not
passed unnoticed. An anecdote is related of a reverend doctor of a very
ghostly appearance, who was one day accosted by a fellow with the
following salutation: "Well, doctor, I hope you have taken care of your
_soul_?" "Why, my friend?" said the divine. "Because," replied the
impertinent interlocutor, "your _body_ is not worth caring for."

A poor diminutive Frenchman being ordered by his Sangrado to drink a quart
of ptisan a day, replied, with a heavy sigh, "Alas! doctor, that I cannot
do, since I only hold a pint."

When the Duke de Choiseuil, a remarkably meager man, came to London to
negotiate a peace, Charles Townshend being asked whether the French
government had sent the preliminaries of a treaty, answered, "He did not
know, but they had sent the _outline of an ambassador_."

That change of spare diet to a more nutritious food may bring on some
corpulence, is evidenced in an anecdote of Colly Cibber, who relates that
a poor half-starved actor, who used to play the Apothecary in Romeo and
Juliet, to the life, and with great applause, received an augmentation of
salary in consequence of his popularity. Unfortunately, increase of
wealth led him to increase his fare, until he gradually assumed a
plumpness which unfitted him for the worn-out pharmacopolist; and not
being able to perform in any other line, the poor man was discharged.
However, poverty once more brought him down to his original condition,
when he reappeared upon the boards as triumphantly as ever.

If _embonpoint_ is generally a sign of good-humour and a cheerful
disposition, leanness frequently betokens a sour, crabbed, and ill-natured
character. Solomon has said, "A merry heart doeth good like medicine; but
a broken spirit drieth the bones." This observation, however, cannot be
considered a rule in forming a judgment of various tempers. This is by no
means an easy attempt in our intercourse with the world, when physiognomy
is not always a sure guide in the selection of our companions. Dr.
Franklin tells a singular story on this subject:

"An old philosophical gentleman had grown, from experience, very cautious
in avoiding ill-natured people. To endeavour to ascertain their
disposition he made use of his legs, one of which was remarkably handsome,
the other, by some accident, crooked and deformed. If a stranger at the
first interview regarded his ugly leg more than his handsome one, he
doubted him; but if he spoke of it, and took no notice of his handsome
leg, that was sufficient to determine the philosopher to have no further
acquaintance with him. Every body has not this two-legged instrument; but
every one, with a little attention, may observe signs of this carping,
fault-finding disposition, and take the same resolution of avoiding the
acquaintance of those infected by it. I therefore advise those querulous,
discontented, unhappy people, if they wish to be respected and beloved by
others, and happy in themselves, _to leave off looking at the ugly leg_."

Various expedients, in addition to a better diet, have been resorted to,
to restore lean persons to a better case; but amongst the most singular
that we have on record is that of flagellation. Galen says, that
horse-dealers having been observed to fatten horses for sale by flogging
them, an analogous method might be useful with spare persons who wish to
become stouter. He also mentions slave-dealers who employed similar means.
Suetonius informs us that Musa, the favourite physician of Augustus, used
to fustigate him, not only to cure him of a sciatica, but to keep him
plump. Meibomius pretends that nurses whip little children to fatten them,
that they may appear healthy and chubby to their mothers. No doubt but
flagellation determines a greater influx of blood to the surface, and may
thus tend to increase the circulation, and give tone to parts which would
otherwise be languid. With this intention, _urticatio_, or whipping with
nettles, has been frequently used in medical practice with great
advantage. Xenophon thawed his frozen soldiers by flagellation. In amorous
despondency and grief, Coelius Aurelianus recommended this process, and
Elidoeus Paduanus advises it to bring out tardy eruptions. The most
singular effect of this castigation is recorded by Meibomius, in his work
_De flagrorum usu_, &c., dedicated to a councillor of the Bishop of
Lubeck, with the following epigraph:

  Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra.
    Dum nocet, illa juvat; dum juvat, ecce nocet.

Menghus Faventinus had long before extolled this practice, mentioned also
by Coelius Rhodiginus, and various ancient writers, and more recently
recognised as effectual by Rousseau, in his Confessions.

A remarkable case of leanness is mentioned by Lorry in a priest, who
became so thin and dry in all his articulations, that at last he was
unable to go through the celebration of mass, as his joints and spine
would crack in so loud and strange a manner at every genuflexion, that the
faithful were terrified, and the faithless laughed. One of these miserable
laths once undertook a long journey to consult a learned physician on his
sad condition, and having begged to know, in a most piteous tone, the
cause of his desiccation, was favoured with the following luminous answer:
"Sir, there is a predisposition in your constitution to make you lean, and
a disposition in your constitution to keep you so." Another meager patient
being told that the celebrated Hunter had fattened a dog by removing his
spleen, exclaimed, with a deep sigh, "O, sir! I wish Mr. Hunter had
mine."




DWARFS.


We can scarcely believe that the ancients gave any credence to the
fabulous accounts of dwarfish nations, or could be persuaded of the
existence of those pigmies spoken of by Aristotle and other writers, who,
in all probability, described as such a species of diminutive monkeys.

Athenaeus mentions a race of dwarfs who were in perpetual war with cranes,
who harnessed partridges to their chariots, and were obliged to cut down
corn with felling-axes, like forest trees. Pliny asserts that their
constant enemy, the crane, drove them out of Thracia, but that they still
were to be met with in Ethiopia, near the source of the Nile, and above
the rise of the Ganges, where they were named _Spithania_, their stature
not exceeding three palms. Nicephorus Calixtus, in his Ecclesiastical
History, mentions an Egyptian who was not longer than a partridge, and
who, at the age of twenty-five, displayed considerable mental endowment.
Strabo, however, judiciously observed that these stories arose from the
circumstance of the small size of every animal in intemperate regions.
Various modern travellers have recorded the most absurd stories of
diminutive men, as well as of gigantic nations; but to most of them we may
apply the words of Congreve--

  Fernandez Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee,
  Thou liar of the first magnitude.

It is nevertheless true, that man exhibits differences of stature in
various climes. The Laplanders and Samoides in Europe, the Ostiacks and
Tungooses in Asia, the Greenlanders and Esquimaux in America--all the
natives indeed of high northern latitudes are remarkably short, measuring
little more than four feet; and Niels Sara, the Laplander mentioned by Von
Buch in his Travels, and who measured five feet eight inches, may be
considered as a gigantic exception. It had been reported by travellers,
that a nation of white dwarfs, called _Quimos_ or _Kimos_, existed in the
interior of Madagascar; but Flacourt has positively denied the fact,
although Commerson, the naturalist of Bougainville, and De Modave, confirm
the former statement. It has also been remarked by various travellers,
that dwarfs are not uncommon amongst robust and manly races, instanced in
Poland and Lithuania. Sigismund de Herbestein made the same observation in
Samogitia, the population of which was of a high stature.

It is by no means evident that climate or any external agency invariably
produces this effect; for, in the very regions inhabited by the stunted
Hottentot, the shortest race in Africa, since the Bosjernan tribe scarcely
ever exceed four feet, we find the strong and tall Kaffer. Amongst these
it is also to be remarked, that there exists a singular difference between
the sexes. Langsdorf thus expresses himself on the subject: "The Kaffer
women were mostly of low stature, very strong-limbed, and particularly
muscular in the leg: the men, on the contrary, were the finest figures I
ever beheld; they were tall, robust, and muscular. A young man of about
twenty, of six feet ten inches high, was one of the finest figures that
perhaps was ever created. He was a perfect Hercules; and a cast from his
body would not have disgraced the pedestal of the deity in the Farnese
Palace." He further adds, "There is, perhaps, no nation on earth, taken
collectively, that can produce so fine a race of men as the Kaffers: they
are tall, stout, muscular, well-made, elegant figures. They are exempt,
indeed, from many of those causes that in more civilized societies
contribute to impede the growth of the body. Their diet is simple, their
exercise of a salutary nature; their body is neither cramped nor
encumbered by clothing; the air they breathe is pure; their rest is not
disturbed by violent love, nor their minds ruffled by jealousy; they are
free from those licentious appetites which proceed frequently more from a
depraved imagination than a real natural want. Their frame is neither
shaken nor enervated by the use of intoxicating liquor; they eat when
hungry, and sleep when nature demands it. With such a kind of life,
languor and melancholy have nothing to do. The countenance of a Kaffer is
always cheerful, and the whole of his demeanour bespeaks content and peace
of mind."

Are diminutive races more productive than those of stronger formation? The
brute creation has been taken as an example in support of this opinion;
large animals producing one or two young ones, while the smaller species
are singularly prolific. The lioness seldom brings forth more than two or
four whelps, the cat will have a litter of eight or ten kittens; the
pullulation of insects is incredible. But is not this circumstance an
illustration of the wisdom of Providence? If the larger species were as
abundant as the lesser races, where could they find sustenance in regions
where the produce is, under the influence of the seasons, occasionally
abundant or scarce? In the ocean, this is not the case; the myriads of its
creatures suffice to support each other, and we therefore meet in the
deep, the largest of animals in numerous shoals, while the small fry are
generated in marvellous abundance.

That the facility of obtaining food and the nature of the nutritious
substances that animals may find, influence their stature, is evident. In
sandy and arid plains poor in pasture, we find horses and cattle of a
stunted breed: the herds of Flanders widely differ from those of Wales and
of the Ukraine, and the Scotch and Welsh cattle cannot be compared to
those of Holstein. At the same time, it must be observed, that in regard
to dwarfs, although it frequently does occur that they are labouring under
a hereditary lowness of stature, this is not invariably the case. In these
instances dwarfs may be considered as morbid phenomena. Thus Bebe, the
dwarf of Stanislaus of Poland, who was thirty-three French inches high,
was weak, of delicate health, became deformed as he grew up, and died at
the age of twenty-three; his parents were of the usual stature: whereas
the Polish nobleman Borwlaski was well-made, active, intelligent: he
measured twenty-eight inches; he had a brother of thirty-four inches, and
a sister of twenty-one. Stoeberin, of Nuerenberg, was nearly three feet high
at twenty, well-proportioned, and possessing a cultivated mind: his
parents, brothers, and sisters, were all dwarfs. Such natural dwarfs have
been known to evince brilliant qualities. Uladislas, king of Poland,
surnamed _Cubitalis_ from his only measuring a cubit in height, was
renowned for his warlike exploits; and we find a dwarf of the name of
Kasan, a khan of Tartary, boldly leading their enterprising bands. These
individuals sprung from dwarfish parents; whereas the dwarfs we generally
meet with are deformities of nature; their head is voluminous, their
intellectual faculties obtuse, they are mostly childish in their ideas and
pursuits, and are rarely able to propagate their race.

Held in contempt by the people, dwarfs naturally become peevish and
irritable; and the diminutive names given to them to match their apparent
natural imperfection tend constantly to increase their irritability. Thus
the Latins called them _Homunciones_, the Italians _Piccoluomini_, the
Flemings _Mennekin_,--whence, no doubt, our term _Mannikin_ given to
little men, and _Minikin_ applied to small pins. A very curious case of a
dwarf born from parents of the usual stature was exhibited in Paris in
1819: her name was Anne Souvray; she was born in the Vosges, and was only
thirty-three inches in height. She was at that period seventy-three years
of age; was gay, animated, good-humoured, and danced with tolerable grace
with her sister Barbe, seventy-five years of age, and taller than her by
two inches. In 1762, King Stanislaus wanted to marry her to his Bebe; the
bridegroom, however, did not live to contract so desirable a match; but,
faithful to her lover, she ever afterwards called herself _Madame Bebe_.

Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of King Charles, must also have been of a very
diminutive stature, since we find that he was served up in a pie to the
royal table, and jumped out when the crust was raised. It appears that
introducing live pies in those days were not an uncommon frolic; hence
there may be some truth in the old song of

  Four-and-twenty black-birds bak'd in a pye,
  When the pye was open'd the birds began to sing,
  Was not that a dainty dish to lay before a king?




GIGANTIC RACES.


While we dismiss as fabulous all ancient and modern accounts of dwarfish
races, we must also treat with the same scepticism the relations of
gigantic nations. Although individuals of incredible stature have been
occasionally seen, the word giant must be considered not only comparative
as regarding primary races, but in many instances allegorical. Thus the
Hebrew word, _Nophel_ and _Giboor_ (_Nephilim_ and _Gibborim_ in the
plural), did not signify giants, as commonly translated, but cruel and
violent men. Athletic power and uncommon energies were naturally
associated with the idea of supernatural stature, though intellectual
accomplishments were not always included in the association: on the
contrary, we find the ancient axiom _Homo longus rare sapiens_ frequently
adduced.

In temperate climates the height of the human race averages from four feet
and a half to six feet, but occasional instances have been met with of men
reaching eight and nine feet--nay, some authors go so far as ten and
eighteen; but the latter assertions seem to refer to fossil bones
attributed to man, but which evidently belonged to other animals. Buffon
mentions gigantic human bones discovered at Lucerne, but which upon
examination Blumenbach pronounced to be the remains of an elephant.
Halicot, in his work called _Gigantosteologia_, describes bones found in a
sepulchre in Dauphiny over which was a stone inscribed TEUTOBOCCHUS REX:
this skeleton was twenty-five feet and a half high, and ten feet broad at
the shoulder. Riolan, the celebrated anatomist, disputes the fact; and in
his book entitled _Gigantomachia_ positively affirms that they also
belonged to an elephant. It is worthy of remark, that in this controversy
each party considered his opinion and decision of sufficient weight to
need no illustration, and therefore neither of them thought it necessary
to confirm his _dixit_ by drawings and engravings of the questionable
remains. Such is the vanity of the learned! An infallible philosopher
informs us that Adam's stature was one hundred and twenty-three feet nine
inches; Eve's, one hundred and eighteen feet nine inches and three
quarters; Noah's, twenty feet short of Adam's; Abraham's, twenty-eight
feet; Moses', thirteen; and Hercules', ten.

That the first races of man were of larger dimensions than those of our
contemporaries, has ever been a general opinion. Thus Virgil in his
Georgics:

  Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.

Lucretius ascribes the same superiority to animals.

  Jamque adeo fracta est aetas, effoetaque tellus
  Vix animalia parva creat, quae cuncta creavit
  Saecla, deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu.

And again the Mantuan poet,

                Sic Omnia fatis
  In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri.

Not only have our forefathers been considered more gigantic in stature,
but of more vigorous power. Hence Juvenal says,

  Nam genus hoc, vivo jam decrescebat Homero.
  Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos.

It is however obvious, that former races, although they might have
excelled the present generation in vigour from the nature of their
education and pursuits, could not claim any pre-eminence in stature. The
remains of human bones, found in tombs and Egyptian mummies, demonstrate
this fact most clearly; and the armour, helmets, and breastplates of the
ancients confirm it. Their swords were as light, nay, much lighter in many
instances, than those of the present day; and those enormous ones of the
times of chivalry were only wielded to inflict one overwhelming blow with
both hands, and could scarcely be recovered for protection.

Ancient writers corroborate this opinion. Homer, when speaking of a fine
man, gives him four cubits in height and one in breadth. Vitruvius fixes
the usual standard of man at six Roman feet: the giant Gabbarus mentioned
by Pliny did not exceed nine feet. Aristotle's admeasurement of beds was
six feet; and certainly the doorways of ancient edifices by no means
indicated taller inmates than our present generation. It is therefore
pretty clear that the supposed fossil remains of gigantic human bones
belonged to the _Megatherium_, the _Palaeotherium_, and other individuals,
which certainly prove that in remote ages there existed animals of much
larger dimensions than any now in being, though we have no reason to
suppose that this variety extended to our species.[2]

The origin of the fabled giants has led to marvellous disquisitions. Many
fathers of the church, amongst whom we may quote St. Cyprian, St.
Ambrosius, St. Chrosostom, St. Cyrillius, Tactantius, Tertullian, and
several others, gravely maintain that giants were the favoured offsprings
of holy maidens and angels. This may seem an impious conclusion, since the
gigantic monsters of sacred history were any thing but angelic; for the
Canaaneans, the Moabites, and the sons of Anak, descended from giants,
(compared with whom the Israelites seemed as grasshoppers,) were most
ferocious, and their land devoured its inhabitants; (though Neuman gives a
different signification to the scriptural passage, which according to his
paraphrase merely meant "that the number of inhabitants was so great, that
they eat up all the land;") Og, king of Bashan, whose country was
delivered into the hands of Israel, had an iron bedstead nine cubits in
length and four cubits in breadth; and Goliath, the reproach of Israel,
was six cubits and a span (which according to Cumberland makes eleven feet
English) in stature. It is therefore difficult to imagine why so many
saints considered giants as an angelic progeny.

To the present day, however, we find various races distinguished by their
elevated stature. Humboldt says, that the Guayaquilists measure six feet
and a half, and the Payaguas are equally tall, while the Caribbees of
Cumana are distinguished by their almost gigantic size from all the other
nations he had met with in the New World. Hearne saw in the cold regions
north of Canada individuals of six feet four inches. The Patagonians, or
Tehuels, were stated by Pigafitta and the Spanish early navigators as
measuring seven feet four inches; and although it appears that this
account is exaggerated, more recent travellers, amongst whom we may name
Bougainville, Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Carteret, and Falkner,
affirm that their height ranges from six to seven feet.

From the best authenticated observations, it appears that the tallest
persons on respectable record, did not, according to Haller, exceed nine
feet. A young man from Huntingdonshire was exhibited in London, and
measured about eight feet at the age of seventeen; he was, as usual, born
of the ordinary size, but began to grow most rapidly; his sister was of
great height, and all his family were remarkably tall.

Dwarfs generally die from premature old age, and giants from exhaustion. A
curious instance of marvellous growth is recorded in a tract called
"_Prodigium Willinghamense_," or an account of a surprising boy who was
born at Willingham, near Cambridge, and upon whom the following epitaph
was written:--"Stop, traveller, and wondering, know, here buried lie the
remains of Thomas, son of Thomas and Margaret Hall; who, not one year old,
had the signs of manhood; at three, was almost four feet high, endued
with uncommon strength, a just proportion of parts, and a stupendous
voice; before six, he died as it were at an advanced age." Mr. Dawker, a
surgeon of St. Ives, Huntingdon, who published this account, viewed him
after death, and the corpse exhibited all the appearances of decrepit old
age. This is a confirmation of the case of the boy of Salamis, mentioned
by Pliny as being four feet high, and having reached puberty at the age of
three; and may also confirm the account of the man seen by Craterus, the
brother of Antigonus, who in seven years was an infant, a youth, an adult,
a father, an old man, and a corpse.

The experiment of Dr. Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, to ascertain the
influence of food in promoting extraordinary growth, is curious. He
selected for this purpose an orphan child of the name of Macgrath; and, by
dint of feeding, at the age of sixteen he had grown to the height of seven
feet; but his organization had been so exhausted by this forced process,
that he died in a state of moral and physical decay at the age of twenty.

In the development of organized bodies, the effects of light contribute
materially. Dr. Edwards, an English physician in Paris, and one of our
most distinguished physiologists, has shown that by excluding tadpoles
from the light, they will grow to double and triple their ordinary size,
but are not metamorphosed into frogs. He thinks that the _Proteus
Anguinis_ is the first stage of an animal prevented from growing to
perfection by inhabiting the subterraneous waters of Carniola.

The influence of food on the changes of animals is further shown in the
aphidivorous flies, that are larvae for eight or ten days, pupae for about a
fortnight, and perfect insects in about the same time, in the whole living
about six weeks; whereas a pupa deprived of food underwent no change, and
lived for twelve months. Rapid development of the organism invariably
brings on premature dissolution. A case is recorded of a girl who cut four
teeth at the end of the first fortnight; walked about, and had hair
reaching to the middle of her back after the seventh month; exhibited
signs of puberty at the ninth month, but perished in a state of exhaustion
in her twelfth year. Dr. Comarmond, of Lyons, relates the case of a female
infant, who was perfectly developed at the age of twenty-seven months,
but she sank under rachitis when she had attained her twelfth year.

Precocious mental attainments are frequently as destructive of life as a
rapid growth. The wonderful Baratier, at the age of four, spoke and read
Latin, French, and German; was an excellent Greek scholar at six; and when
ten years of age, translated the Scriptures from the Hebrew; at nineteen
he died of exhaustion. The vulgar saying, "The child is too clever to
live," is founded upon observation. These early specimens of superior
intellect are sometimes followed by a state of imbecility. Antiochus tells
us that Hermogenes, who was a celebrated rhetorician at fourteen years,
was ignorant in the extreme at twenty-four; and of him it was said,

  In pueritia senex, in senectute puer.

Tall men generally produce children of high stature. The celebrated
grenadier guards of Frederick William, in the words of Dr. Johnson,
"_propagated procerity_;" and the inhabitants of Potsdam are remarkable
for their height. Haller states that his own family were distinguished by
their tallness, without excepting one single grandchild, although they
were very numerous.

In the hereditary transmission of physical and moral qualities, many
curious observations have been made. Women of high mental attainments have
been known to produce children of genius, more frequently than men of a
superior intellect; although Haller relates the singular case of two noble
females who married wealthy idiots on account of their fortunes, and from
whom this melancholy defect had extended for a century into several
families, so that some of all their descendants still continued idiots in
the fourth and fifth generation. Horace had observed this tendency to
produce offsprings resembling their parents,

  Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis:
  Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum
  Virtus: nec imbellem feroces
  Progenerant aquilae columbam.

This remark, however, is more applicable to physical transmissions, and
certain peculiarities characterize whole families. Pliny mentioned
examples of six-fingered families, who bore the name _Sedigita_. C.
Horatius had two daughters with a similar deformity. Mr. Carlisle knew a
family in which supernumerary toes and fingers were observed for four
generations: they were introduced by a female who had six fingers on each
hand, and as many toes on each foot. From her marriage with a man
naturally formed, were produced ten children, with a supernumerary member
on each limb; and an eleventh, in which the peculiarity existed in both
feet and one hand, the other hand being naturally formed. The latter
marrying a man of ordinary formation, they had four children, of which
three had one or two limbs natural, and the rest with the supernumerary
parts; while the fourth had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on
each foot. The latter married a woman naturally formed, and had issue by
her eight children; four with the usual structure, and the same number
with the additional fingers and toes: two of them were twins, of which one
was naturally formed, and the other six-fingered and six-toed.--The
well-known porcupine family, that were exhibited in London and elsewhere,
is a remarkable example of hereditary transmission of organic
peculiarities. They were all covered with dark-coloured horny
excrescences, which they shed annually in the autumn or winter. Their
names were Lambert. Two brothers, John and Richard, grandsons of the
original porcupine men, were shown in Germany.--One of these unsightly
individuals, who was exhibited some time ago in Bond-street, stated that
he was descended from the fourth generation of a savage found in the woods
of America; and he further asserted that the females of the family were
exempted from this lucrative but uncomfortable peculiarity: all the males
had them, and shed them regularly until the thirty-sixth year, when these
species of quills grew to a considerable length. We have examples of
bristly hair being shed in a whole family every autumn.

Amongst animals, gigantic races no longer inhabit the regions which bore
them in ancient times. An extensive whale-fishery was once carried on at
Biariz, in the Gulf of Gascony; and the hippopotamus is no longer to be
seen on the banks of the Nile.

Gigantic bones having been occasionally discovered with the remains of men
and horses and fragments of armour, it has been imagined that in ancient
times armies were attended by terrific giants; but it is more than
probable that these large fragments of departed warriors belonged to
their war-elephants, which with their horses were not unfrequently
immolated on their master's tomb.

Skeletons of giants were considered by the ancients as curious as in the
present day; and those of Secondilla and Pusio were carefully preserved in
the gardens of Sallust.

Some naturalists have maintained that giants had more numerous vertebrae
than ordinary men; but this has not been confirmed by observation, nor has
it been found that the spinal bones of dwarfs are in smaller number.

Schreber, who has collected the description of the principal modern
giants, found few above seven feet and a half; although he mentions a
Swedish peasant of eight feet Swedish measure, and one of the guards of
the Duke of Brunswick eight feet six inches Dutch. Not so Hakewell, who
informs us, from the testimony of Nannez, that the Emperor of China had
archers and porters fifteen feet high. Howbeit, Ol. Magnus's account
surpasses his; for he tells us of a "_puella--in capite vulnerata, mortua
induta chlamyde purpurea, longitudinis cubitorum 50, latitudinis inter
humeros quatuor_!"




UNLAWFUL CURES.


One can scarcely credit that at any period there could have existed men of
science and genius who believed that there were supernatural means of
curing disease, did we not even to the present day find imbeciles who
verily dread the malpractices of the devil and his vicarious agents.
Ancient writers divided their cures into _lawful_ and _unlawful_. The
former were obtained from divine aid; the latter from sorcerers, witches,
magicians, wizards, and cunning men, who treated all maladies by spells,
cabalistic words, charms, characters, images, amulets, ligatures,
philters, incantations, &c.; by which means, according to Cardan,
Artesius, Picatrix, and sundry wise men, the aforesaid sorcerers and
witches could prevent fire from burning, find out thieves and stolen
goods, show absent faces in a glass, make serpents lie still, stanch
blood, _salve_ gout, biting of mad dogs, toothache, _et omnia mundi
mala_. "Many doubt," says Nicholas Taurellus, "whether the devil can cure
such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly deny it; however, common
experience confirms, to our astonishment, that magicians can work such
feats, and that the devil, without impediment, can penetrate through all
the parts of our body, and cure such maladies by means to us unknown."
Some of these means were rather singular; for St. Austin mentions as one
of these processes, "_Agentes cum patientibus conjungunt, colligere semina
rerum eaque materiae applicare_;" and learned divines, moreover inform us,
that to resist exorcisms these witches and magicians had St. Catherine's
wheel imprinted on the roof of their mouths, or on some other part.
Taurellus asserts, that to doubt it is to run into a sceptical extreme of
incredulity. Godelman affirms that Satan is an excellent physician;
Langius maintains that Jupiter Menecrates was a magician; and Marcellus
Donatus pays the same compliment to Solomon, who, he says, "cured all the
diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and drove away devils, and that
Eleazar did the same before Vespasian." Galen, in his book "_de
Medicamentis facile purandis_," observes after a preparation, "_haec enim
suffita, daemonus abigunt_."

This fact being clearly ascertained, the next question was whether it was
lawful in a desperate case to crave the help of the evil one on the
principle

  Flectere si nequeunt Superos, Acheronta movebunt.

Paracelsus rather impiously argues that we might, as it matters not, he
says, "whether it be God or the devil, angels or unclean spirits,
(_immundi spiritus_,) that cure him, so that he be eased. If a man fall in
a ditch, what matter is it whether a friend or an enemy help him out? If I
be troubled with such a malady, what care I whether the devil himself, or
any of his ministers, by God's permission, redeem me?"--and he therefore
concludes, that diseases brought on by _malefices_ can only be cured by
_incantations_. However, this doctrine was denounced as abominable by
Remigius, Bodinus, Godelmannus, Erastus, and various divines and
schoolmen; and Delrio plainly declares, "_mori praestat quam superstitiose
canari_." Therefore pontificial writers and sages recommend adjuration and
exorcism by "fire, suffumigations, lights, cutting the air with swords
(_gladiorum ictus_), sacred herbs, odours," &c., though some hungry devils
can only be cast out by fasting.

Witches and impostors, says Lord Bacon, have always held a competition
with physicians. Galen complains of this superstition, and observes that
patients placed more confidence in the oracles of Esculapius and their own
idle dreams than in the prescriptions of doctors. The introduction of
precious stones into medical practice owed its origin to a superstitious
belief that, from their beauty, splendour, and high value, they were the
natural receptacles for _good_ spirits. Mystery, in the dark ages, and,
alas! even now, increases the confidence in remedial means; reveal their
true nature, the charm is dissolved: "_Minus credunt quae ad suam salutem
pertinent si intelligunt_," said Pliny. One cannot but wonder when we
behold men pre-eminent in deep learning and acute observation becoming
converts to such superstitious practices. Lord Bacon believed in spells
and amulets; and Sir Theodore Mayence, who was physician to three English
sovereigns, and supposed to have been Shakspeare's Dr. Caius, believed in
supernatural agency, and frequently prescribed the most disgusting and
absurd medicines, such as the heart of a mule ripped up alive, a portion
of the lungs of a man who had died a violent death, or the hand of a thief
who had been gibbeted on some particular day. Nauseous medicines have ever
been deemed the most efficacious, on the reasoning that as every thing
medicinal is nauseous, every thing that is nauseous must be medicinal. The
ancients firmly believed that blood can be stanched by charms; the
bleeding of Ulysses was stopped by this means; and Cato the Censor has
given us an incantation for setting dislocated bones. To this day charms
are supposed to arrest the flow of blood:

  Tom Pots was but a serving-man,
    But yet he was a doctor good,
  He bound his kerchief on the wound,
    And with some kind words he stanch'd the blood.

Sir Walter Scott says, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel,"--

  She drew the splinter from the wound,
  And with a charm she stanch'd the blood.

The strength of imagination in effecting wonderful cures has been observed
in all ages; and Avicenna declares, "that he prefers confidence before
art, precepts, and all remedies whatsoever." Our learned Burton says,
"that this strong imagination or conceit is _Astrum Hominis_, and the
rudder of this our ship, which reason should steer, but overborne by
phantasie, cannot manage, and so suffers itself and the whole vessel of
ours to be overruled and often overturned."

Nothing could be more absurd than the notions regarding some of these
supposed cures: a ring made of the hinge of a coffin had the power of
relieving cramps; which were also mitigated by having a rusty old sword
hung up by the bedside. Nails driven in an oak-tree prevented the
toothache. A halter that had served in hanging a criminal was an
infallible remedy for a headache, when tied round the head; this affection
was equally cured by the moss growing on a human skull, dried and
pulverized, and taken as a cephalic snuff. A dead man's hand could dispel
tumours of the glands by stroking the parts nine times, but the hand of a
man who had been cut down from the gallows was the most efficacious. To
cure warts, one had nothing to do but to steal a piece of beef from the
butcher, with which the warts were to be rubbed; then inter it in any
filth, and as it rotted, the warts would wither and fall.

The chips of a gallows on which several persons had been hanged, when worn
in a bag round the neck, would cure the ague. A stone with a hole in it,
suspended at the head of the bed, would effectually stop the nightmare;
hence it was called a _hag-stone_, as it prevents the troublesome witches
from sitting upon the sleeper's stomach. The same amulet tied to the key
of a stable-door, deterred witches from riding horses over the country.

Rickety children were cured by being drawn through a cleft tree, which was
afterwards bound up, and as the split wood united, the child acquired
strength. Creeping through a perforated stone to cure various disorders
was a Druidical rite, still practised in the East. In the parish of Marden
there is a stone with a hole in it, fourteen inches in diameter, through
which children are drawn for the rickets; and, in the North, infants are
made to pass through a hole cut in a _groaning_ cheese the day of their
christening.

Second sight, which, as an hereditary faculty, was deemed a malady, was
cured in the Isle of Man, according to Mr. Aubrey's account, by baptizing
a child upon the first sight of its head. This ceremony exempts the
succeeding generation from the troublesome gift.

It is a melancholy reflection that, at various periods, impostors have
impiously called in Scriptural aid to promote their sordid or ambitious
views. Chiromancers have quoted the Bible in support of their doctrines
and adduced the following lines of Job,--"He sealeth up the hand of every
man, that all men may know his works:" while, in the like manner, the Holy
Inquisition of Spain and Portugal justified their atrocities on the score
of the parable of the marriage of the king's son, in the 22nd of St.
Matthew.

Unlawful cures, as they were called, being thus anathematized, lawful
remedies were resorted to, and the patient was first ordered to pray with
due devotion before he took his physic; or, as Burton observes, not one
without the other, but both together; for, as he adds, to pray alone, and
reject ordinary means, is to do like him in Aesop, that, when his cart was
stalled, lay flat on his back, and cried out "Help, Hercules!" However,
Hyperius maintains that no physicians can hope for success unless "with a
true faith they call upon God and teach their patients to do the like."
Comineus, when he addressed the Christian princes after the overthrow of
Charles of Burgundy, bade them "first pray with all submission and
penitency, confess their sins, and then take physic."

Another question of importance that led to much controversy was, whether
it were lawful to seek the aid of the saints; the learned Burton's remarks
on this controverted point are so curious that they are worth relating.
"They (the papists) have a proper saint for almost every peculiar
infirmity: for poisons, gout, agues, Petronella; St. Romanus, for such as
are possessed; St. Vitus for madmen, &c.; and as, of old, Pliny reckons up
gods for all diseases. All affections of the mind were heretofore
accounted gods: Love and Sorrow, Virtue, Honour, Liberty, Contumely,
Impudency, had their temples; Tempests, Seasons, _Crepitus Ventris_, _Dea
Vacuna_, _Dea Cloacina_. Varro reckons up thirty thousand gods; Lucian
makes Podagra, the gout, a goddess, and assigns her priests and ministers.
'Tis the same devil still, called heretofore, Apollo, Mars, Venus, &c.;
the same Jupiter, and those bad angels, are now worshipped and adored by
the name of St. Sebastian, St. Barbara, &c.; and our Lady succeeds Venus
in many offices; and God often winks at these impostures, because they
forsake his word, and betake themselves to the devil, as they do, that
seek after holy water, crosses," &c.

Amidst this violent denunciation against popery and devilment, evil
spirits and saints, it is somewhat singular to find a spirit of anomalous
perversity which justifies suicide to rid ourselves of disease and
suffering; and these very sanctimonious censors quote ancient and modern
authorities to sanction a practice which every Christian must condemn. Let
us pursue the disquisition of our learned bookworm Burton:--"Another doubt
is made by philosophers, whether it be lawful for a man in such extremity
of pain and grief to make away himself, and how those men that do so are
to be censured. The Platonists approve of it, that it is lawful in such
cases upon a necessity. Plotinus (_L. de Beatitud._) and Socrates himself
defend it (_in Plato's Phaedon_): _If any man labour of an incurable
disease, he may despatch himself, if it be to his good_. Epictetus and
Seneca say, _Quamcunque veram esse viam ad libertatem_;--any way is
allowable that leads to liberty. _Let us give God thanks no man is
compelled to live against his will. Quid ad hominem claustra, carcer,
custodia? liberum ostium habet._ Death is always ready at hand: _Vides
illum precipitem locum, illud flumen?_ There is liberty at hand. _Effugia
cervitutis et doloris sunt_, as that Laconian lad cast himself headlong,
_Non serviam, aiebat puer_; to be freed of misery. Wherefore hath our
mother earth brought out poisons (saith Pliny) in so great a quantity, but
that men in distress might make away themselves? which kings of old had
ever in readiness, _ad incerta fortunae venenum sub custode promptum_. Many
worthy men and women, _quorum memoria celebratur in ecclesia_, sayeth
Leminctius, killed themselves to save their chastity and honour, when Rome
was taken. Jerome vindicates the same, and Ambrose commendeth Pelagia for
so doing. Eusebius admired a Roman matron for the same fact, to save
herself from the lust of Maxentius the tyrant. Adelhelmus, the Abbot of
Malmesbury, calls them, _beatas virgines quae sic, &c._ Sir Thomas More, in
his Utopia, commends voluntary death if one be _sibi aut aliis molestus;
especially if to live be a torment to him_, let him free himself with his
own hand from this tedious life, or from a prison, or suffer himself to be
freed by others." However, be it said in justice to our worthy Burton, he
condemns this practice as "a false and pagan position, founded in prophane
stoical paradoxes and wicked examples;" and although he denounces most
fulminating anathemas on papists, he concludes by saying, "we ought not to
be rash and rigorous in our censures, as some are; Charity will judge and
hope best; God be merciful unto us all!"

But why should we marvel at the credulity and superstition of our
forefathers, when we daily observe equal absurdities? Fanaticism and
bigotry will ever strive to speculate on human weakness, and endeavour to
surround with impenetrable mists every rebel to their power who gropes for
the shrine of reason and of truth. Johanna Southcote had her votaries, and
Prince Hohenlohe is still considered by many a pious person, as a
vicarious instrument of divine mercy. No miraculous recovery recorded in
the dark ages can surpass the tenebral absurdity of the following relation
of one of his cures:

Miss O'Connor was a nun in a convent near Chelmsford, and in December
1820, being about thirty years old, was suddenly attacked by a violent
pain in the right hand, which extended with much swelling and inflammation
up the arm. The whole limb became red, swollen, extremely painful, and
entirely useless. Every remedy, both topical and directed to the system,
was tried in vain for a year and a half. There was no suppuration, nor any
formation of pus; but the malady continued obdurate, and yielded to no
application. The resources of the flesh having manifestly failed, Mrs.
Gerard, the worthy superior, very properly betook herself to those of the
spirit. She made a request through a friend to Prince Hohenlohe to assist
the patient in this her extreme case; when the following precious
document, which it would be impious to translate into heretical English,
was received:

    "_Pour la Religeuse Novice d'Angleterre._

    "Le trois du mois de Mai, a huit heures, je dirai, conformement a
    votre demande, pour votre guerison, mes prieres. Joignez-y a la meme
    heure, apres avoir confesse et communie, les votres, avec cette
    ferveur angelique et cette confiance pleniere que nous devons a notre
    Redempteur J. C.: excitez au fond de votre coeur les vertus divines
    d'un vrai repentir, d'un amour Chretien, d'une croyance sans bornes
    d'etre exauce, et d'une resolution inebranlable de mener une vie
    exemplaire, afin de vous maintenir en etat de grace. Agreez
    l'assurance de ma consideration.

        "PRINCE ALEXANDRE HOHENLOHE.

    "Bamberg, Mars 16, 1822."

It is to be regretted that this letter, which was no doubt a circular to
his proselytes, with necessary blanks to be filled up _pro re nata_, as
the doctors have it, was not drawn out in better French. Howbeit, on the
appointed day, asserts Dr. Baddely (the lady's unsuccessful medical
attendant), Miss O'Connor went through the religious process prescribed by
her princely physician. Mass being said, Miss O. not finding the immediate
relief she expected from her faith, or faithfully expected, exclaimed
somewhat impatiently, not having the fear of Job before her eyes, "Thy
will be done, O Lord, since thou hast not thought me worthy of this cure;"
when behold! _immediately_ after she felt an extraordinary sensation
throughout the whole arm to the end of the fingers. The pain _instantly_
left her, the swelling gradually subsided, and Dr. B., who no doubt was
the pet physician of the nuns, declares that the hand shortly resumed its
natural size and shape.

Now, Miss O'Connor was most likely a young lady from Ireland, where this
miraculous cure was re-echoed in every chapel. The protestants were
naturally offended by a report which seemed to impugn the sanctity of the
reformed religion, and they thought it incumbent on them, for the welfare
of church and state, to get up a miracle of their own which would cast
Prince H., Nun O., and Dr. B. in the shade. The following statement was
therefore published and certified upon oath by sundry most respectable and
most worthy Orangemen:

"I pledge you the word and honour of an Orangeman that the following
facts, sworn to by all present, occurred yesterday evening. A party of
gentlemen dined with me, and after dinner a vase, containing some orange
lilies, was placed upon the table by my directions. We drank several
toasts; but on the glorious and immortal memory being given, an _unblown
lily_, which the party had remarked, _expanded its leaves and bloomed
before us_ in all its splendour!" How appropriate are the lines of Otway
when applied to the propagators of such absurdities, who dare to call upon
our faith to give credence to their impostures.

                  You want to lead
  My reason blindfold like a hamper'd lion
  Check'd of its noble vigour; then, when baited
  Down to obedient tameness, make it crouch
  And show strange tricks, which you call signs of faith:
  So silly souls are gull'd, and you get money.

A curious anecdote is related of Lord Chief Justice Holt. When a young
man, he happened, with some of his merry companions, to run up a score at
a country inn, which they were not able to pay. In this dilemma they
appealed to Holt, to get them out of the scrape. Our young lawyer had
observed that the inn-keeper's daughter looked very ill, and, passing
himself for a medical student, asked her father what ailed her, when he
was informed that she suffered from an ague. Holt immediately gathered
various plants, mixed them up with great ceremony, and after rolling them
up in parchment, scrawled upon the ball some cabalistic characters. The
amulet, thus prepared, he suspended round the neck of the young woman,
and, strange to say, the ague did not return. After this cure the doctor
offered to pay the bill, to which the grateful landlord would not consent,
allowing Holt and his party to leave the house.

Many years after, when on the bench, a woman was brought before him,
accused of witchcraft--the very last person tried upon such a charge. Her
only defence was, that she possessed a ball invariably efficacious in the
cure of agues. The charm was produced, handed to the judge, who recognised
the identical ball which he had prepared in his youthful frolics.

Not only did these victims of superstition firmly believe that evil
spirits had the power of inflicting disease, and afterwards salve the
mischief, but they were also invested with the privilege of killing and
subsequently restoring to life. The story related of the truly learned
Agrippa, who was falsely represented as a necromancer, is curious.

Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent for a few days from his
residence in Louvain. During his absence he intrusted his wife with the
key of his museum, but with an earnest injunction that no one on any
account should be allowed to enter it; Agrippa happened at that time to
have a boarder in his house, a young fellow of insatiable curiosity, who
constantly importuned his hostess, till at length he obtained from her the
forbidden key. The first thing that attracted his attention was a book of
spells and incantations. He spread the volume before him, and, thinking no
harm, began to read aloud. He had not long continued this occupation, when
a knock was heard at the door of the chamber. The youth took no notice,
but continued reading. Presently there followed a second and a louder
knock, which somewhat alarmed the reader. The space of a minute having
elapsed, and no answer been made, the door opened and a demon entered.
"For what purpose am I called?" said the unwelcome visitor in a stern
voice: "What is it you demand to have done?" The youth was seized with the
greatest alarm and struck speechless. The demon then rushed upon him,
seized him by the throat, and strangled him, indignant no doubt in having
been interrupted in some more interesting pursuit to no purpose.

At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great surprise found a
number of devils capering about, and playing strange antics on the roof of
his house. By his art he caused them to desist from their gambols, of
which he demanded the cause. The chief of them then related to him what he
had done, how he had been disturbed and insulted, and how he had thought
proper to revenge himself. Agrippa became much alarmed at the probable
consequences of this unfortunate adventure, and he ordered the demon,
without loss of time, to reanimate his victim, and walk about the streets
with him, that the public might behold him alive. The infernal spirit
reluctantly obeyed, and went forth with the student in the marketplace and
promenades. This excursion over, however, he maliciously allowed his
companion to fall down, when life once more flitted from his body. For a
time it was thought that the student had been killed by a sudden attack of
illness; but, presently, the marks of strangulation became evident, and
the truth came out. Agrippa was thus suddenly obliged to quit the town,
and seek refuge in a distant state.

It was further related of this supposed wizard, that he was always
accompanied by a familiar spirit in the shape of a black dog; and that
when he lay on his deathbed he was earnestly exhorted to repent of his
sins. Struck with remorse, he took hold of the dog, and removed from his
neck a collar studded with cabalistic nails, exclaiming, "Begone, wretched
animal, that has been the cause of my perdition!" and lo! the dog
immediately ran away, and, plunging into the river Soane, disappeared. It
is to be regretted that historians do not relate whether the water hissed
or not when the canine devil took his last leap.

It merits notice, that the mystic and medicinal celebrity of various
substances have to this hour survived the traditions of their
superstitious origin; coral, for instance, which was considered as
possessed of the power of keeping off evil spirits, and rendering effete
the malefices of the evil eye, was constantly worn as an amulet; and
Paracelsus informs us that it should be worn round the necks of infants,
as an admirable preservative against fits, sorcery, charms, and poisons.
We still find necklaces of this substance suspended by fond mothers and
nurses round the necks of infants. In the West Indies these chaplets are
worn by the negroes as a magic protection against Obiism, and they even
affirm that the colour of the coral is affected by the state of health of
the wearer, and becomes paler when he is ill.

The irrational belief in the mysterious powers of certain remedies went so
far in former days, that when they were applied to the weapon that had
inflicted an injury, their indirect sympathetic action was considered as
effectual as if they had been used to heal the wound. The sympathetic
powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, which was nothing else but pulverized green
vitriol, was eulogized in a discourse pronounced by its inventor, at
Montpellier, in 1658. Our James I. purchased this wonderful discovery from
Sir Kenelm, who pretended that he had obtained it from a Carmelite friar,
who had learned it in America and Persia. This superstitious practice is
alluded to by Walter Scott, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel:"

  But she has ta'en the broken lance,
  And wash'd it from the clotted gore,
  And salved the splinter o'er and o'er.

Dryden has also illustrated this absurdity in his "Enchanted Island,"
where Ariel says,

  Anoint the sword which pierced him, with this
  Weapon-salve, and wrap it close from air
  Till I have time to visit it again.

Sir Kenelm's sympathetic powder was applied in the same manner; the weapon
being covered with ointment and dressed three times a day. But it was not
mentioned that at the same time the wound was to be brought together, and
bound up with clean linen bandages for seven days. This wonderful cure was
then simply the process of what surgeons call healing by first intention,
which means uniting the lips of the wound without suppuration. Dr. Paris
apprehends that this secret was suggested to the worthy knight by the
cures operated by the rust of the spear of Telephus, which, according to
Homer, healed the injuries it had occasioned; and this rust was most
probably verdigris.

To this day the Irish peasantry, and even many of the superior classes,
firmly believe in the malevolent and destructive effect of the evil eye,
when cast upon man or beast. Hence the absurd custom that prevails,
especially in the western provinces, of adding "God bless it," to any
expression of admiration; and if perchance a Sassenagh traveller exclaimed
"What a sweet child!" or, "What a fine cow!" without the adjunctive
benediction, he would be suspected of malefice, and the priest forthwith
summoned to save the devoted victim of sorcery. In Scotland dairy-maids
drive cattle with a switch of the mountain ash, or roan-tree, considered
as held sacred since the days of Druidism; and in some districts the sheep
and lambs are made to pass through a hoop of its wood on the first day of
May.

The toad was also considered to be possessed of marvellous qualities for
the cure of various maladies, more especially the stone that was supposed
to be occasionally found in the reptile's head, and which was called
_Crapaudina_. Lupton, in his seventh book of "Notable Things," thus
instructs us how to obtain it. "You shall knowe whether the tode stone be
the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a tode, so that
he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the tode will leape
towarde it and make as though he would snatch it, he envies so much that
man should have this stone." This famous toadstone is simply one of the
fossil teeth of various fishes, and is chiefly formed of phosphate of
lime. Its high polish and convexity has often induced lapidaries to have
it set in rings and other jewels, to which marvellous powers were
attached.

Pulverized toads were not only employed in medicine with supposed
advantage, but were also considered a slow but certain poison. Solander
relates, that a Roman woman, desirous of poisoning her husband gave him
this substance; but instead of attaining her criminal desire, it cured him
of a dropsy that had long perplexed him. Boccaccio relates the story of
Pasquino and Simona, two young lovers, who, wandering in a garden,
plucked some sage-leaves, with which Pasquino rubbed his teeth and gums.
In a few minutes he fell ill and expired. Simona accused of being his
assassin, was brought before a magistrate, who ordered an immediate
investigation of the matter, when, on proceeding to the garden, Simona,
after relating the particulars of the case, took some leaves from the same
plant and used them in a similar manner. In a few minutes the lovers were
reunited in death; when it was discovered that a large toad was under the
root of the plant to which it had communicated its deadly venom.

Regarding unlawful cures, have we not seen vaccination, when first
introduced, condemned from the very pulpit as an impious interference in a
disease which seemed to have been assigned to mankind by the Creator as an
inevitable doom? Did not these desperate bigots even pronounce that we
were not warranted to seek in the brute creation a human remedy or
preservative? What is still more worthy of remark, is the coincidence of a
similar idea in India, where the greatest obstacle vaccination encountered
arose from a belief that the natural smallpox was a dispensation of a
malicious deity, called _Mah-ry-Umma_, or rather that the disease was an
incarnation of the goddess herself into the person who was affected by it:
the fear of irritating her, and of exposing themselves to her resentment,
necessarily rendered the natives averse to vaccination, until it was
impressed upon their easy belief, that _Mah-ry-Umma_ had altered her mind,
and chosen this new and milder mode of manifesting her visits to her
votaries.

Could there ever have existed a more superstitious belief than that which
vested in the regal touch a healing power? Yet from Edward the Confessor
to the accession of the House of Hanover, it was generally thought in
these realms that our kings could cure scrofula with their anointed
fingers!

Dr. Paris's truly philosophic remarks on this subject, in his valuable
work, entitled Pharmacologia, are worthy of quotation:--"Credulity,
although it is nearly allied to superstition, yet differs from it widely.
Credulity is an unbounded belief in what is possible, although destitute
of proof, and perhaps of probability; but superstition is a belief in what
is wholly repugnant to the laws of the physical and moral world. Credulity
is a far greater source of error than superstition; for the latter must be
always more limited in its influence, and can exist only, to any
considerable extent, in the most ignorant portions of society; whereas
the former diffuses itself through the minds of all classes, by which the
rank and dignity of science are degraded, its valuable labours confounded
with the vain pretensions of empiricism, and ignorance is enabled to claim
for itself the prescriptive right of delivering oracles, amidst all the
triumph of truth and the progress of philosophy. Credulity has been justly
defined _belief without reason_, while scepticism, its opposite, is
_reason without belief_, and the natural and invariable consequence of
credulity; for it may be observed that men who believe without reason are
succeeded by others whom no reasoning can convince."




VOICE AND SPEECH.


Blumenbach has given us a most ingenious definition of this wonderful
function. The voice, properly speaking, is a sound formed by means of
expiration in the _larynx_, which is a most beautifully constructed organ,
fixed upon the top of the windpipe, like a capital upon a column. It is
composed of various cartilages, united in the form of a little box, and
supplied with numerous muscles, that, moving altogether or separately,
produce the variations of sound.

The part of the _larynx_ most concerned in producing the voice is the
_glottis_, or narrow opening of the windpipe, having the _epiglottis_
suspended over it like a valve. The air expired from the lungs strikes
upon the glottis, and thus becomes sonorous. The change that the glottis
undergoes in the modulation of the voice has been matter of much
controversy. Aristotle and Galen compared the glottis to a wind
instrument; Ferrein assimilated it to a chorded one. This latter
hypothesis was objected to, on the principle that a chord, to vibrate,
should not only be in a state of tension, but dryness; characters which
this organ does not possess, being constantly lubrified with mucus, and in
a state of greater or lesser relaxation. Fulgentius considers the human
voice to be composed of ten parts: the four first are the front teeth, so
useful for the appulse of the tongue in forming sounds, without which a
whistle would be produced instead of a voice; the fifth and sixth are the
lips, which he compares to cymbals striking against each other; the
seventh the tongue, which serves as a plectrum to articulate sounds; the
eighth is the palate, the concavity of which forms the belly of the
instrument; the ninth the throat, which performs the part of a flute; and
the tenth the lungs, which supply the place of bellows.

That every degree of action in the _glottis_ is due to the muscles of the
_larynx_ is proved by the experiment of tying or dividing the recurrent
nerves, when the voice is destroyed or weakened.

Speech is a peculiar modification of the voice adjusted to the formation
of the sounds of letters, by the expiration of the air through the
nostrils and mouth, and in a great measure by the assistance of the tongue
applied and struck against the neighbouring parts, the palate and front
teeth in particular, and by the diversified action of the lips. This is
Payne Knight's doctrine, in his analytical essay on the Greek alphabet,
and an illustration of the notions of Fulgentius.

Singing is compounded of speech and a musical modulation of the voice, a
prerogative peculiar to man even in his most savage state; for, despite
the assertions of the visionary Rousseau, who maintained that it is not
natural to our species, we find that even in the uncivilized regions of
Ethiopia, Greenland, and Kamtschatka, singing is a solace and a comfort.

The mechanism of speech and articulation is so intricate, that even the
division of letters and their distribution are attended with difficulties.
The following is the division of Amman in his work _Surdus Loquens_,
published at Amsterdam in 1629, and enlarged under the title of _Dissert.
de Loquela_, 1700, and is, perhaps, the most natural and intelligible.

He divides into, I. Vowels; II. Semi-vowels; III. Consonants.

I. The vowels are _simple_, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_; and _mixed_ _ae_, _oe_,
_ue_: these are formed by the _voice_ only. The semi-vowels and consonants
are articulated by the mechanism of _speech_.

II. The semi-vowels are _nasal_, _m_, _n_, _ng_ (_n_ before _g_, which is
nearly related to it), that is, the labio-nasal _m_, the dente-nasal _n_,
and the gutture-nasal _ng_; or _oral_ (lingual), _r_, _l_, that is, _r_
with a vibration of the tongue, or _l_ with the tongue less moved.

III. The consonants he distinguishes into _sibilant_ (pronounced in
succession), _h_, _g_, _ch_, _s_, _sh_, _f_, _v_, _ph_, that is _h_,
formed in the throat, as it were a mere aspiration; _g_ and _ch_, true
consonants; _s_, _sh_, produced between the teeth; and _f_, _v_,
_ph_--formed by the application of the lower lip to the upper front
teeth--and _explosive_ (which are as it were suddenly exploded by an
expiration for a time suppressed, or interrupted), namely _k_, _q_, formed
in the throat; _d_, _t_, about the teeth; _p_, _b_, near the lips; and
_double_ (compound), _x_, _z_.[3]

It has been thought that the tongue was indispensable for the purposes of
speech, yet there are instances on record in which this has not been found
an invariable rule. Dr. Conyers Middleton mentions two cases of distinct
articulation with at least little or no tongue. In his exposure of the
_pious_ deceptions of weak and wicked Christians during the first
centuries of the Christian era, he notices a pretty tale of an Arian
prince cutting out the tongues of some of the orthodox party, and these
being as able to talk as before; nay, one of them, who had been dumb from
his birth, gained the faculty of speech by losing his tongue! We find
various accounts of persons who spoke more or less fluently without this
organ. Jussieu has inserted in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences_,
1718, the case of a Portuguese girl, who instead of a tongue had merely a
little protuberance of about four lines in diameter in the middle of her
mouth, and endowed with the power of contraction and dilatation; she spoke
distinctly, but experienced difficulty in pronouncing _c_, _f_, _g_, _l_,
_n_, _r_, _s_, _t_, _x_, and _z_, when she was obliged to bend her neck
forward to upraise as it were the larynx. In this case, deglutition could
not be well performed, and she was obliged to use her finger to propel the
masticated food downwards.

Dr. Eliotson observes, that it is by no means improbable that the progress
of modern art may present us at some future period with mechanical
substitutes for orators and preachers; for, putting aside the magic heads
of Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, Kratzenstein actually constructed an
instrument to produce the vowels. De Kempelin has published a full account
of his celebrated speaking machine, which perfectly imitated the human
voice. The French celebrated mechanician, the Abbe Mical, also made two
heads of brass, which pronounced very distinctly entire phrases; these
heads were colossal, and their voices powerful and sonorous. The French
government refusing, it is said, in 1782, to purchase these automata, the
unfortunate and too sensitive inventor, in a paroxysm of despair,
destroyed these masterpieces of scientific ingenuity.

It has been observed, that in various races the pronunciation seemed to
depend upon some peculiar and characteristic conformation; and Adelung
informs us that in the Hottentots, the bony palate is smaller, shorter,
and less arched than in the other races, and that the tongue, especially
in the Bosjesman tribe, is rounder, thicker, and shorter. Hence their
pronunciation is singular, and has been compared to the clucking of the
Turkey, or the harsh and broken noises produced by some other birds. They
combine their aspirated gutturals with hard consonants, without any
intervening vowels, in a manner that Europeans cannot imitate.

No doubt the differences of language are as numerous as the other
distinctions which characterize the several races of men. The various
degrees of natural capacity and of intellectual progress; the prevalence
of particular faculties; the nature of surrounding circumstances; the ease
or difficulty with which our different wants and desires are gratified,
will produce not only peculiar characters in the nature and construction
of language, but in its copiousness and development.

One of the most curious points in the subject of language, is the
continued existence in a large portion of Asia, very anciently civilized,
and considerably advanced, at least in the useful arts, of simple
monosyllabic languages, which are not in the slightest degree connected
with the peculiar organization of the Mongolian variety, to which these
people belong, and whose language is distinctly polysyllabic.

The attempts that have been made to trace the origin of languages to the
varieties of our species, or to the influence of climate, have hitherto
been fruitless, and the doctrines broached on the obscure subject refuted
by observation. Mr. Jefferson states that there are twenty radical
languages in America for one in Asia; more than twenty languages, he adds,
are still spoken in the kingdom of Mexico, most of which are at least as
different from one another as the Greek and the German, the French and the
Polish. The variety of idioms spoken by the people of the new continent,
and which without the least exaggeration may be stated at some hundreds,
offers a very striking phenomenon, particularly when we compare it to the
few languages spoken in Asia and in Europe. Vater also informs us, that in
Mexico, where the causes producing insulation of the several tribes
have been for a long time in a course of diminution, Clavigero
recognised thirty-five different languages. Some of these words are
rather of difficult pronunciation, and Humboldt tells us that
_Notlazomahuiztespixcatatzin_ is the term of respect with which they
addressed their priests. During the French revolution, a learned Jacobin
discovered that the early Peruvians adored a divinity who patronized the
_Sans-culottes_, of their day, and who was named _Cawaltze-quos_, i. e.
without breeches. Such barbarous words do not constitute that engaging
tongue that Shakspeare calls "_speaking holiday_," but rather confirms
Byron's ideas of the Russians' difficult expressions, which no man has
leisure to pronounce except on high-days and holidays.

Although brutes pronounce no articulate sounds, there is, no doubt but
they have a language perfectly intelligible to one another. Their manner
of expressing their different emotions is in some instances perfectly
distinct; and birds have most decidedly a peculiar language. The following
may be said to be the words of a nightingale's strain observed by
Bechstein, an ingenious ornithologist, and committed to paper several
times while he listened with deep attention to that sweet bird's
"complaining notes," that "tune our distresses and record our woes."

                Tiouou, tiouou, tiouou tiouou
                Shpe, tiou, tokoua
                Tio, tio, tio, tio.
                Kououtio, kououtio kououtio,
                Tskouo, tskouo, tskouo,
            Tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii, tsii tsii tsii,
                Kouoror tiou. Tskoua pipitskousisi
  Tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tso tso, tso, tso, tso, tso, tsirrhading!
                Tsisi si tosi si, si, si, si, si, si, si.
                Tsorre tsorre tsorre tsorrehi
            Tsatn, tsatn, tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsatn tsi,
            Dlo, dlo, dlo dla, dlo dlo dlo dlo dlo
                Kouioo trrrrrrrrtzt
                Lu, lu, lu, ly ly ly li li li li
                Kouio didl li loulyli
                Ha guour, guour, koui kouio!
            Kouio, kououi kououi kououi koui, koui, koui, koui,
                Ghi ghi ghi
                Gholl, gholl, gholl gooll ghia hududoi
                Koui koui koui ha hia dia dillhi!
  Hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets, hets hets, hets, hets
                Hets, hets, hets, hets, hets
                Tourrho hostehoi
  Kouia, kooia, kouia, kouia, kouia kouia kouia kouiati!

A story is related of an irascible Irish piper of the name of _Molroy_,
who declared a war implacable against the feline race, as he swore that
they invariably pronounced his name in their nocturnal concerts. Gall and
various observers of animals have fully ascertained that the attention of
dogs is awakened by our conversation. He brought one of these intelligent
creatures with him from Vienna to Paris, which perfectly understood French
and German, of which he satisfied himself by repeating before it whole
sentences in both languages. A recent anecdote has been related of an old
ship-dog, that leaped overboard and swam to the shore on hearing the
captain exclaim, "Poor old Neptune! I fear we shall have to drown him!"
and such was the horror which that threat inspired, that he never
afterwards would approach the captain or any of the ship's company, to
whom he had previously been fondly attached. It must, however, be observed
that in the brute creation, as in ours (sometimes more brutal species),
peculiar attributes, that do not belong to the race, distinguish
individuals gifted with what in man we might call a superior intellect,
but which in these animals shows a superiority of what we term instinct.
Spurzheim relates an instance of a cow belonging to Mr. Dupont de Nemours,
which, amongst the whole kindred herd, was the only one that could open
the gate leading to their pastures; and her anxious comrades, when
arriving at the wished-for spot, invariably lowed for their conductor. It
is also related of a hound, who, unable to obtain a seat near the fire
without the risk of quarrelling with the dozing occupants that crowded the
hearth, was wont to run out into the court-yard barking an alarum that
brought away his rivals in comfort, when he quietly reentered the parlour,
and selected an eligible stretching-place. This animal displayed as much
ingenuity as the traveller who, according to the well-known story, ordered
oysters for his horse for the purpose of clearing the fireside.




ECSTATIC EXALTATION.


This rapturous excitement is not unfrequently the province of the
physician. Fortunately perhaps for the patient, it is an incurable malady,
illustrating the lines of Dryden,

  There is a pleasure, sure, in being mad,
  Which none but madmen know.

If we admit this state of ecstasy to be a mental aberration, it is surely
of an enviable nature, since it elevates the soul to a beatitude which is
rarely the lot of man.

No definition of this state can equal that given by St. Theresa of her own
feelings. By prayer she had attained what she calls a "celestial
quietude,--a state of union, rapture, and ecstasy." "I experienced," she
continues, "a sort of sleep of all the faculties of the soul--intellect,
memory, and volition; during which, though they were but slumbering, they
had no conception of their mode of operation. It was a voluptuous
sensation, such as one might experience when expiring in raptures in the
bosom of our God. The soul is unconscious of its actions; she (the soul)
knows not if she speaks or if she remains silent, if she laughs or if she
cries. It is, in short, a blessed extravagance, a celestial madness, in
which she attains in the knowledge of true wisdom, an inconceivable
consolation. She is on the point of merging into a state of languor;
breathless, exhausted, the slightest motion, even of the hands, is
unutterably difficult. The eyes are closed by a spontaneous movement; or,
if they remain open, the power of vision has fled. In vain they endeavour
to read: they can distinguish letters, but are unable to class them into
words. Speak to a person in this absorbed condition, no answer will be
obtained; although endeavouring to speak, utterance is impossible.
Deprived of all external faculties, those of the soul are increased, to
enjoy glorious raptures when conversing with the Deity and surrounding
angels." These conversations the blessed St. Theresa relates; and she
further states, that after having remained about an hour in this joyous
trance, she recovered her usual senses, and found her eyes streaming in
tears, as though they were weeping for the loss she had experienced in
being restored to earthly relations.

Now, with all due deference to St. Theresa, this state was most probably a
hysteric condition. Zimmerman relates two cases somewhat of a similar
kind. Madame M. experienced effusions of divine love of a peculiar
nature. She first fell into a state of ecstasy, motionless and insensible,
during which, she affirms, she felt this love penetrating her whole being,
while a new life seemed to thrill through every fibre. Suddenly she
started up, and seizing one of her companions, exclaimed, "Come, haste
with me to follow and call Love, for I cannot sufficiently call upon his
name!"--A French young lady was the second instance of this affection. She
also frequently lost the power of speech and all external senses, animated
with a love divine, spending whole nights in ecstatic bliss, and
rapturously embraced by her mystic lover. It is difficult, perhaps, to
separate this amorous feeling from physical temperament; and the following
remarks of Virey on the subject of St. Theresa are most judicious:--"She
possessed an ardent and sensitive disposition, transported, no doubt, by
terrestrial affection, which she strove to exchange for a more exalted
ardour for the Deity; for devotion and love are more or less of a similar
character. Theresa was not fired by that adoration which is exclusively
due to the infinite and invisible Intelligence which rules the universe;
but she fancied a sensible, an anthropomorphous divinity; so much so, that
she not unfrequently reproached herself with bitterness that these
raptures were not sufficiently unconnected with corporeal pleasures and
voluptuous feelings."

St. Theresa was not the only beatified enthusiast who suspected that the
evil spirit occasionally interfered in those ecstatic visions. St. Thomas
Aquinas divides ecstasies into three classes;--the first arising from
divine power, and enjoyed by the prophets, St. Paul, and various other
saints. The second was the work of the devil, who bound down all external
senses, suspended their action, and reduced the body to the condition of a
corpse: such were the raptures in which magicians and sorcerers were
frequently entranced, during which, according to Tertullian and other
writers, the soul quitted the body to wander about the world, inquire into
all its occurrences, and then returned with the intelligence it had
obtained to its former abode. The third rapturous category of St. Thomas
he simply attributes to physical causes, constituting mental alienation.

May not all these ecstatic raptures be considered as belonging to this
third class? It has been observed that women, hysteric ones in particular,
were the most subject to this supposed inspired affection; and amongst men
it has also been remarked, that the enraptured individual was in general
nervous, debilitated, and bald; and it is well known that the fall of the
hair is frequently the result of moral and physical weakness, brought on
by long studies, contemplation, grief, and illness, all of which may
occasion mental aberration; for what other denomination can be given to
the ecstatic state of the Monks of Mount Athos, who pretended or fancied
that they experienced celestial joys when gazing on their umbilical
region, in converse with the Deity? Hence were they called
_Omphalopsychians_, whose notions in the matter are thus described by
Allatius: "Elevate thy spirit above earthly concerns, press thy beard upon
thy breast, turn thine eyes and all thy thoughts upon the middle of thine
abdomen, hold thy breath, seek in thy bowels the abode of thy heart--then
wilt thou find it unalloyed with dense and tenebral mists; persevere in
this contemplation for days and nights, and thou shalt know uninterrupted
joys, when thy spirit shall have found out thy heart and has illumined
itself."[4]

Bernier relates an act of supposed devotion amongst the Fakirs nearly as
absurd, when, to seek the blessings of a new light, they rivet their eyes
in silent contemplation upon the ceiling; then gradually looking down,
they fix both eyes gazing, or rather squinting, at the tip of their nose,
until the aforesaid light beameth on them.

St. Augustin mentions a priest who could at will fall into one of these
ecstasies, during which his external senses were so totally suppressed
that he did not experience the pangs of the torture. Cardanus affirms that
he was possessed of the same faculty. "_Quoties volo_," he says, "_extra
sensum quasi in exstasim transeo--sentio dum eam ineo, ac (ut verius
dicam) facio, juxta cor quandam separationem, quasi anima abscederet,
totique corpori res haec communicatur, quasi ostiolum quoddam aperiretur.
Et initium hujus est a capite, maxime cerebello, diffunditurque per totam
dorsi spinam, vi magna continetur; hocque solum sentio, quad sum extra
meipsum magnaque quadam vi paululum me contineo._"

This state of mind is usually succeeded by contemplation, which has justly
been considered one of the attributes of Genius. This contemplation,
however, may be applied to positive relation, or to the workings of
fiction. In the latter case it becomes to a certain degree mental, and
beyond the control or the influence of our reason, although we cannot
regulate the rationality of our mental pursuits by any given or
acknowledged standard. The pseudo-philosopher, who searches for the
_elixir vitae_ or the power of transmuting metals, and the judicial
astrologer, are in the eyes of society madmen: yet, do they reason on
certain rational principles, and in many respects may be considered wise;
one might figuratively say, that here the mind must have taken flight
beyond its natural limits, if we can limit thought. In the wild wanderings
of Theosophy man has fancied that by abstracting himself from the world,
he might place himself in relation with the Divinity, and has so forcibly
indulged the flattering illusion, that he actually believes that he is in
converse with his Creator or his angels. Unquestionably this is a state of
mania, yet is it founded upon a systematic train of ideas, that, strictly
speaking, does not partake of mental aberration, but rather of enthusiasm.
Although an indulgence in this may terminate in mania, still there is
something delightful in these fond aberrations. A new world--a new
condition is evoked--we are freed from the trammels of society and its
prejudices--and perhaps encompassed by misery we burst from its shackles
into another orb of our own creation, when the eyes closed in a vision of
bliss--a meridian sunbeam, through the darkness of night. If the slumber
of the visionary ushered in death, his destiny might be enviable--he had
already quitted the world, seeking the presence of his God--his soul had
already soared from its earthly tenement.

There is no doubt that such contemplation may lead us to a better
knowledge of the Supreme Being, whose image and attributes have been
distorted by ignorance and superstition. It has been truly said, that
until the light of Christianity shone upon mankind, God was unknown. He
had been represented as wrathful and revengeful--implacable in his
anger--insatiable in his thirst for blood--when he was revealed to us
upon the earth, gentle, forgiving, loving, humble, and charitable. The
type of all excellence--and delivering doctrines so pure, so convincing,
as to entitle him to the name of _Saviour_, even were his godhead
doubted--for who could question the salvation of those who followed his
laws. Until ambition swayed the church and polluted the altar with blood
and rapine--how happy, how blessed were these followers--even in the midst
of persecution and in agonies--pardoning their barbarous murderers and
praying for their conversion.

Unfortunately according to the temperament of individuals their ecstasy
has frequently led to an enthusiasm which knew no bounds, and induced the
illuminated visionary to consider all men who did not coincide in his
opinions the enemies of Divinity--hence arose fanaticism and
persecution--yet did these murderous madmen conceive that they were
wielding their hateful sword in the cause of an offended God; and,
although we read of their excesses and cruelty with horror, they were not
bad men, and many of them imagined that they were fulfilling a heavenly
mission. I have known many worthy and amiable ecclesiastics in Spain and
in Portugal who advocated the inquisition as a useful institution,
although they readily admitted that it had too frequently been rendered
instrumental to ambition and political intrigues.

This state of mental exaltation is not unfrequently within the province of
a physician's care. The treatment like that of all moral affections is a
task of great difficulty. Perhaps the best curative means to be adopted is
occupation of the body in active pursuits. St. Augustine was so convinced
of this necessity of occupation to prevent ecstatic habits, that the monks
of the Thebaid cultivated their ground with such industry, that they
freighted several vessels with their produce. Priest has observed in his
extensive practice in insanity that he never met with an insane
naturalist. Travelling is also to be enjoined. Marriage has also been
advised, although it is to be feared that the little charms men of this
description may have to suit a woman's fancy, might lead to contemplation
of a nature widely different from beatitude. The Jewish Rabbi tell us,
that as soon as Moses became contemplative and prophetic, his wife
Marjarin left him. It is certain that enthusiasm produces a concentration
of mind prejudicial to all other functions.[5]

There is no doubt that melancholy or intense cogitation may bring on this
morbid condition. Zimmerman relates that the mathematician Viote was
sometimes so wrapped up in calculation, that he was known to remain three
days and three nights without sleep or food: and Mendelsohn the
philosopher, who was called the Plato of Germany, fell into a swoon the
moment philosophy was talked of; and he was therefore ordered by his
doctor not to think. Being asked one day what he contrived to do when not
allowed thought, he replied, "Why, I go to the window and count the tiles
on the roof of the opposite house."

This morbid condition of our intellectual faculties has been admirably
described by Johnson, in his Rasselas. "To indulge the power of fiction,
and send imagination out upon the wing, is often the sport of those who
delight too much in silent speculation. He who has nothing external that
can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive
himself what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is? He then
expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginary conditions
that which for the present moment he would most desire; amuses his desires
with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable
dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures, in
all combinations, and riots in delights which nature and fortune, with all
their bounty cannot bestow. In time, some particular train of ideas fixes
the attention: all other intellectual gratifications are rejected; the
mind, in weariness or leisure, returns constantly to the favourite
conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended
with the bitterness of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed;
she grows first imperious, and in time despotic. Then fictions begin to
operate as realities, false opinions fasten upon the mind, and life passes
in dreams of raptures or of anguish."

The celebrated physician Boerhaave was once engaged in so profound a
meditation that he did not close his eyes for six weeks. Any fixity of
idea may be considered as a monomania. Pascal, being thrown down on a
bridge, fancied ever after that he was standing on the brink of a terrific
precipice, which appeared to him an abyss ever ready to ingulf him. So
immutable was this dread, that when his friends conversed with him they
were obliged to conceal this ideal peril with a chair, on which they
seated themselves, to tranquillize his perturbed mind. This is an
instance of a painful fixity of thought, the result of which is
melancholic mania; whereas ecstatic exultation is the enjoyment of a
delicious sensation unknown in our habitual earthly enjoyments, and
beautifully expressed by Shakspeare, when Pericles thus addresses
Helicamus--

  O Helicanus! strike me, honoured sir;
  Give me a gash,--put me to present pain,
  Lest this great sea of joy, rushing upon me,
  O'erbear the shores of my mortality,
  And drown me with their sweetness.

Archimides was heedless of the slaughter around him. Father Castel, the
inventor of the ocular harpsichord, spent an entire night in one position,
ruminating on a thought that struck him as he was retiring to rest. And it
is related of an arduous student, that he was reflecting so deeply on some
interesting and puzzling subject, that he did not perceive that his feet
were burnt by the fire near which he was seated.




VARIETIES OF MANKIND.


The most approved classification of mankind is that of Blumenbach. He
divides them into five varieties: 1. The Caucasian; 2. Mongolian; 3.
Ethiopian; 4. American; and 5. Malay: and the following are the
characteristics of each.


I. THE CAUCASIAN.

The skin white; the cheeks rosy--almost a peculiarity of this variety; the
hair of a nut-brown, running on the one hand to yellow, on the other into
black, soft, long, and undulating; the head symmetrical, rather globular;
the forehead moderately expanded; the cheek-bones narrow, not prominent;
the alveolar edge round, the front teeth of each jaw placed
perpendicularly. The face oval and pretty straight; its features
moderately distinct; the nose narrow and slightly aquiline, the bridge of
it rather prominent; the mouth small; the lips, especially the lower,
gently turned out; the chin full and round. This variety comprehends all
Europeans, except the Laplander and the rest of the Finnish race; the
Western Asiatics as far as the Obi, the Caspian, and the Ganges; and the
people of the North of Africa.


II. THE MONGOLIAN.

Skin of an olive colour; the hair black, stiff, straight, and sparing. The
head almost square, the cheek-bones prominent outwards; the superciliary
arches scarcely perceptible; the osseous nostrils narrow; the alveolar
edge arched obtusely forward; the chin somewhat projecting. The face broad
and flattened, and its parts consequently less distinct; the space between
the eyebrows very broad as well as flat, the cheeks not only projecting
outward, but nearly globular; the aperture of the eyelids narrow and
linear; the nose small and flat.

This comprehends the remaining Asiatics, except the Malays of the
extremity of the Transgangetic Peninsula, the Finnish races of the North
of Europe, Laplanders, &c., and the Esquimaux, diffused over the most
northern parts of America, from Behring's Strait to the farthest habitable
point of Greenland.


III. THE ETHIOPIAN.

Skin black; the hair black and crisp. Head narrow, compressed laterally;
forehead arched; the cheek-bones projecting; the osseous nostrils large,
the jaws lengthened forward; the alveolar edge narrow, elongated, more
elliptical; the upper front teeth obliquely prominent, the lower jaw large
and strong; the skull thick and heavy; the face narrow, and projecting at
its lower part; the eyes prominent; the nose thick and confused with the
projecting cheeks; the lips, especially the upper, thick; the chin
somewhat receding; the legs in many instances bowed.

This comprehends the inhabitants of Africa, with the exception of the
Caucasian variety which inhabits the northern parts.


IV. THE AMERICAN.

Skin of a copper colour; hair black, stiff, straight, and sparing.
Forehead short; cheek-bones broad, but more arched and rounded than in the
Mongolian variety; the orbits generally deep; the forehead and vertex
frequently deformed by art; cranium usually light. The face broad, with
prominent cheeks, not flattened, but with every part distinctly marked if
viewed in profile; the eyes deep; the nose rather flat, but still
prominent.

This comprehends all the American, excepting the Esquimaux.


V. THE MALAY.

Skin tawny; hair black, soft, curled, thick, and abundant; head rather
narrow; forehead slightly arched; cheek-bones not prominent, upper jaw
rather projecting. Face prominent at its lower part; the features viewed
in profile more distinct; the nose full, broad, bottled at its point;
mouth large.

This comprehends the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, of the Marian,
Philippine, Molucca, and Sunda isles, and of the Peninsula of Malacca.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Caucasian variety derives its name from _Mount Caucasus_, where we
meet with a beautiful race--the Georgians; and because, so far as the
imperfect light of history and tradition can guide us, the original abode
of the species appears to have been in that quarter. In this class are
included all the ancient and modern Europeans; the Assyrians, Medes,
Chaldeans, Sarmatians, Scythians, and Parthians; the Philistines,
Phoenicians, Jews; the Turks, Persians, Arabians, and Hindoos of high
caste. Blumenbach is inclined to believe that the primitive human race
belonged to this variety. In support of this opinion it may be stated,
that the part of Asia which seems to have been the cradle of the race has
always been, and still is, inhabited by tribes of this formation; and the
inhabitants of Europe in great part may be traced back for their origin to
the West of Asia.

Are all these various tribes, brethren descended from one stock? or must
we trace them to more than one? The physiologists who have ventured to
express the latter opinion have been stigmatized by intolerance and blind
bigotry as atheists and unbelievers; yet this question belongs to the
domain of the naturalist, and the philosopher has an unqualified right to
moot it without incurring the heinous charge of infidelity. To form an
opinion on this difficult subject, it will be necessary, as Lawrence
justly observes, to ascertain carefully all the differences that exist
between the various races of men; to compare them with the diversities
observed among animals; to apply to them all the light which human and
comparative physiology can supply, and to draw our inferences concerning
their nature and causes from all the direct information and all the
analogies which these considerations may unfold. "It is quite clear,"
continues the same ingenious writer, "that the Mosaic account makes all
the inhabitants of the world descended from _Adam_ and _Eve_. The entire,
or even the partial inspiration of the various writings comprehended in
the Old Testament, has been and is doubted by many persons, including
learned divines and distinguished Oriental and Biblical scholars. The
account of the creation, and subsequent events, has the allegorical
figurative character common to Eastern compositions, and it is
distinguished amongst the cosmogonies by a simple grandeur and natural
sublimity, as the rest of these writings are by appropriate beauties in
their respective parts. The representation of all the animals being
brought before Adam in the first instance, and subsequently of their all
being collected in the ark, if we are to understand them as applied to the
living inhabitants of the whole world, is zoologically impossible. How
could the polar bear have traversed the torrid zone? If we are to believe
that the original creation comprehended only a male and female of each
species, or that one pair only was saved from an universal deluge, the
difficulties are increased; the carnivorous animals must have perished
with hunger, or destroyed most of the other species." On this obscure
subject Adelung has expressed himself with much ingenuity: "Asia has been
at all times regarded as the country where the human race had its
beginning, and from which its increase was spread over the rest of the
globe. Tracing the people up to tribes, and the tribes to families, we are
conducted at last, if not by history, at least by the tradition of all old
people, to a single pair, from which tribes and nations have been
successively produced. What was the first family, and the first people
descended from it?--where was it settled?--and how was it extended so as
to fill the four large divisions of the globe? It is a question of fact,
and must be answered by History. But History is silent: her first books
have been destroyed by time; and the few lines preserved by _Moses_ are
rather calculated to excite than to satisfy our curiosity.

"We must fancy to ourselves this first tribe endowed with all human
faculties, but not possessing all knowledge and experience, the subsequent
acquisition of which is left to the natural operation of time and
circumstances. As Nature would not unnecessarily expose her first-born and
inexperienced son to conflicts and dangers, the place of his early abode
would be so selected that all his wants could be easily satisfied, and
every thing essential to his existence be readily procured. He would be
placed, in short, in a garden of paradise. Such a country is found in
central Asia, between the 30th and 50th degrees of north latitude, and the
90th and 110th of east longitude (from Ferro); a spot which in respect to
its height, can only be compared to the lofty plains of Quito in South
America. Here, too, all the animals are found wild, which man has tamed
for his use, and carried with him over the whole earth."

This ingenious historical investigation points out the east as the
earliest and original seat of our species, the source of our domesticated
animals and our principal vegetable food; but it by no means decides
whether the globe was peopled by one or several original stocks.

The startling nature of this question on the first view of the subject
must induce us to consider the circumstance of these five distinct
varieties arising from one stock as miraculous; but when we compare them
with the corresponding difference in animals, we can easily come to the
conclusion that the various races of human beings are only to be regarded
as varieties of a single species, without supposing the intervention of
any supernatural agency.

The sceptic Voltaire, who evinced more wit than learning in his endeavours
to invalidate Scriptural tradition by ridicule, thus expresses himself:
"Il n'est permis qu'a un aveugle de douter que les blancs, les negres, les
albinos, les Hottentots, les Lapons, les Chinois, les Americains, soient
des races entierement differentes;" but had this philosopher been better
versed in zoology and physiology, he would not have made so groundless an
assertion. "Analogical and direct facts," says Dr. Elliotson, "lead to the
conclusion that none of the differences among mankind are so great as to
require the belief of their originality." A contrary opinion, however,
should not be stigmatized by bigotry, for Locke has justly observed that
only matters above human reason are the proper subjects of revelation; and
Bacon has also maintained that religious and philosophical inquiries
should be kept separate, and not pompously united. Dr. Bostock, than whom
no man could be less sceptical, plainly admits that we do not find that
the writer of the book of Genesis lays claim to any supernatural source of
information with respect to natural phenomena, while the whole tenour of
his work seems to show that on such topics he adopted the opinions which
were current among his contemporaries.

The causes of the difference of our species have been the subject of as
great a discrepance in opinion. Most of the Greek and Roman Historians
have attributed it to the influence of climate; and amongst the moderns,
Montaigne, Montesquieu, Buffon, and Zimmerman, have considered the
modification of the individual and the degeneration of the offspring as
the result of this external agency. Lord Kaimes, Hume, and many other
philosophers, have entertained a contrary opinion. No doubt, the influence
of climate may materially affect colour, stature, hair, features, and even
the moral and intellectual character; but it must be considered as
inadequate to act upon conformation. The prevalence of light colours in
the animals of polar regions is well known: the arctic fox, the white
bear, the snow-bunting, are striking instances of this peculiarity; but
these circumstances are purely superficial. The skulls of these
individuals are similar to those of the Europeans; nay, it is well known
that light races are found among dark nations, and many protected parts of
the body are blacker than those which are exposed. Buchanan tells us, that
the Jews in Cochin are divided into white and black classes, though born
under the same parallel; the white Jews having been known there for
upwards of one thousand seven hundred years. Dr. Shaw and Bruce describe a
race of fair people, near Mount Aurasius in Africa, with red hair and blue
eyes, and who are, according to tradition, descended from the Vandals. We
find the red Peruvian, the brown Malay, and the white Abyssinian in the
very zones peopled by jet black races. This influence of temperature upon
colour frequently varies according to the seasons. Pallas observed that
even in domestic animals, such as the horse and cow, the coat is of a
lighter colour in winter. The Siberian roe, red in summer, is white in the
winter; the fur of the sable and the martin is much deeper in the warm
months; and the squirrel and mustela nivalis, which become white in
Siberia and Russia, do not change their hue in Germany. The winter coat,
it has been observed by naturalists, is found far advanced in the
preparatory autumn. This bounteous provision of nature seems to have been
extended to the vegetable kingdom and it has been observed that the
pellicle of onions is much thicker on the approach of a severe winter than
on that of a more temperate season. But if further proof were necessary to
impugn this doctrine respecting climate, we may adduce the fact of a woman
having borne twins of different complexions, a white and a black. With all
due respect to the much-lamented Bishop Heber, we must receive with some
degree of hesitation his assertion that the Persian, Greek, Tartar, and
Arabian inhabitants of India, assume, in a few generations, without any
intercourse with the Hindoos, a deep blue tint, little lighter than that
of a negro; and that the Portuguese, during three hundred years' residence
in that climate, have assumed the blackness of a Kaffer. The same learned
prelate is of opinion that our European complexion was not primitive, but
rather that of an Indian; an intermediate tint is perhaps the most
agreeable to the eye and instinct of the majority of the human race. Dr.
Heber, perhaps, had not seen, in various Roman catholic treasures,
portraits of the Virgin Mary, painted, according to tradition, by St.
Luke, and in which she is represented as a negress.

That solar heat produces blackness of the integuments is an ancient
opinion, and is illustrated by Pliny, who tells us, "Aethiopes vicini
sideris vapore torreri, adustisque similes gigni, barba et capillo
vibrato, non est dubium." Buffon asserts that "climate may be regarded as
the chief cause of the different colours of man;" and Smith is of opinion
"that from the pole to the equator we observe a gradation in the
complexion nearly in proportion to the latitude of the country."

Blumenbach, under the same impression, endeavours to account for this
black tinge by a chemical illustration somewhat curious. He states that
the proximate cause of the dark colour is an abundance of carbon secreted
by the skin with hydrogen, precipitated and fixed by the contact of the
atmospheric oxygen. Our creoles, and the British inhabitants of India, may
esteem themselves particularly fortunate in not being subject to this
chemical operation!

On the other hand, it is well known that a black state of the skin has
been produced in white races under peculiar circumstances; and Le Cat and
Camper mention cases of women who turned dark during their pregnancy. It
would be idle to dwell further on the hypothetic illustrations regarding
this supposed operation of climate, which the observation of every
unprejudiced traveller can impugn. Yet the following remarks on the
subject by an American divine, the Rev. J. S. Smith are worthy of notice:

"In tracing the globe from the pole to the equator we observe a gradation
in the complexion nearly in proportion to the latitude of the country,
immediately below the arctic circle a high and sanguine colour prevails.
From this you descend to the mixture of red and white. Afterwards comes
the brown, the blue, the tawny, and at length the black as you proceed to
the line. The same distance from the sun, however, does not in any degree
indicate the same temperature of climate. Some secondary causes must be
taken into consideration, in connecting and limiting its influence. The
elevation of the land, its vicinity to the sea, the nature of the soil,
the state of cultivation, the course of the winds, and many other
circumstances enter into this view. Elevated and mountainous countries are
cool in proportion to their altitude above the level of the sea,
increasing to the ocean, just in opposite effects, in northern and
southern latitudes; for the ocean being of a more equal temperature than
the land, in one case corrects the cold, and in the other moderates the
heat. Ranges of mountains, such as the Apennines in Italy, and Taurus,
Caucasen, and Iman, in Asia, by interrupting the course of cold winds,
render the quite dry country below them warmer, and the countries above
them colder, than is equivalent to the proportionate difference of
latitude. The frigid zone, in Asia, is much wider than it is in Europe;
and that continent hardly knows a temperate zone."

Climate also receives some difference from the nature of the soil, and
some from the degree of cultivation; sand is susceptible of greater heat
than clay, and an uncultivated region shaded with forests and covered with
undrained marshes, is more frigid in northern and more temperate in
southern latitudes, than a country laid open to the direct and constant
action of the sun. History informs us that when Germany and Scythia were
bound in forests, the Romans often transported their armies across the
frozen Danube; but since the civilization of those barbarous regions, the
Danube rarely freezes.

Migration to other countries has also been adduced as one of the causes of
variety in mankind; but the permanency of the characteristic distinctions
of any race militates against this supposition. The physical character of
the Celts, who peopled the west of Europe at an early period, is still
observable in the Spaniard, most of the French, the native Welsh, the
Manks, and the Scotch Highlander; whereas the German race, who occupied
the more northern and eastern settlements, are still distinguished by
their transparent skin, rosy complexion, flaxen hair, and blue eyes; and
in Ireland, the race of the Danes and the Milesians can to this day be
recognised in their respective characters. Shaw and Bruce traced the
descendants of the Vandals who passed from Spain into Africa in the fifth
century; and, after a lapse of thirteen centuries, Bruce says that they
are "fair like the English, their hair red, and their eyes blue." Negroes
have been introduced into the New World for upwards of three centuries,
where, despite of a new clime and different habits, they still retain the
character of their race; and the Jews who have not intermarried out of
their nation, have preserved their features for nineteen centuries.

Not only do we observe the peculiarities of physical conformation
resisting the destructive or degenerating hand of time, but certain
imperfections in their faculties have been equally permanent in certain
tribes. It is a curious fact that the Mamelukes, who have resided in Egypt
for upwards of five hundred and fifty years, have never perpetuated their
subsisting issue. Volney observed, that there does not exist one single
family of them in the second generation; all their children perishing in
the first or second descent. The same observation applies to the Turks,
who can only secure the continuance of their families by marrying native
women, an union which the Mamelukes disdained. This singularity, remarked
by Volney, has been since confirmed by late travellers.

It will be found that the progress of domestication, the natural result of
civilized improvement, tends more materially to operate a wonderful change
in the animal conformation, than any other supposed agency. The head of
the domestic pig differs as much from that of the wild one as the Negro's
from the Caucasian's. At Padua, it has been observed that fowls have a
cranium perforated by numerous holes, and hollowed out like a shell. In
some countries, nay districts, cattle and sheep have or have not horns;
and in other instances sheep have so many of them as to have acquired the
epithet of _polycerateous_. Wild animals continuing to inhabit the place
that bore them, undergo little or no change, and their fossil remains and
skeletons are similar to the present species; but nothing can form a
stronger contrast to this specific uniformity than the numerous varieties
to be found in those races that have been crossed in breed and
domesticated by man. We could scarcely imagine that our sheep owe their
origin to the mouflon or argali, (_ovis ammon_,) an animal large in size,
fleet, and fierce. The sheep of Senegal and India are those that have
undergone the least degradation; while those of Barbary, Egypt, Arabia,
and Persia, have experienced greater degeneration. We daily see dogs
degenerate before our eyes, and it has not yet been satisfactorily
ascertained whether they arise from one or several species. Cuvier, in his
diligent researches, has concluded that our oxen do not originate in the
urus or bison of the ancients formerly found in various parts of Europe,
and still met with in the forests of Lithuania, and on the Carpathian and
Caucasian chains; but he is of opinion, from the examination of fossil
remains, that, like the camel and the dromedary, the species has been
destroyed by civilization: the causes of these changes do not appear to
operate by altering the parents but disposing them to produce offsprings
more or less dissimilar in colour, form, and disposition.

Dr. Prichard observes, that the negro slaves of the third and fourth
generation differ materially from the natives of Africa.

In opposition to this doctrine, which admits this wonderful degeneration
under the plastic influence of domestication, it has been shown that, as
far as we know, the lapse of ages has not produced any change in the
generality of animals. The zoological descriptions given by Aristotle
twenty-two centuries ago apply distinctly to the same species of the
present day, and every work of art in which these animals are represented
corroborates the fact. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire brought numerous mummies of
animals from the sepulchres of Egypt, and found no more difference between
their skeletons and the osseous conformation of the present races, than in
the relics of the human mummy and the bones of our contemporaries.

The following luminous conclusion of Lawrence illustrates the observation
of the foregoing fact: "If new characters are produced in the domestic
animals because they have been taken from their primitive condition, and
exposed to the operation of many, to them, unnatural causes,--if the pig
is remarkable among these for the number and degrees of his varieties,
because it has been the most exposed to causes of degeneration,--we shall
be at no loss to account for the diversities in man, who is, in the true,
though not in the ordinary sense of the word, more of a domesticated
animal than any other. We know the wild state of most of them, but we are
ignorant of the natural wild condition to which man was destined. Probably
there is no such state; because Nature having limited him in no
respect,--having fitted him for every kind of life, every climate, and
every variety of food,--has given him the whole earth for his abode, and
both the organized kingdoms for his nourishment. Yet, in the wide range
through which the scale of human cultivation extends, we may observe a
contrast between the two extremities, analogous to that which is seen in
the wild and tamed races of animals. The savage may be compared to the
former, which range the earth uncontrolled by man; civilized people to the
domesticated breeds of the same species, whose diversities of form and
colour are endless."

It is therefore obvious that the various causes which operate upon animals
in producing these alterations from the primitive race, although the
manner in which they act is unknown, are sufficiently evident to convince
us, by analogy, that they may account for similar phenomena in the human
race, without the gratuitous assumption of different original species,
tending to invalidate the Mosaic account of the creation. Despite the
witticisms of Voltaire and other philosophers on this subject, sound
philosophy teaches us to assign the same causes to the same effects
without calling in the adventitious aid of other possible influences; and
no difficulties prevent us from recognising the unity of the human
species, which are not applicable to all other animals.




ON THE INHUMATION OF THE DEAD IN CITIES.


From time immemorial, medical men have strongly pointed out to municipal
authorities the dangers that arise from burying the dead within the
precincts of cities or populous towns. Impressed with the same conviction,
ancient legislators only allowed to the most illustrious citizens a
sepulchre in the temple of the gods. Euclides was interred in the temple
of Diana Euclis, as a reward for his pious journey to Delphi in search of
the sacred fire; the Magnesians erected a monument to Themistocles in
their forum; Euphron received the same honour in Corinth; and Medea buried
her two sons, Mermerus and Pheres, under the protection of Juno Acraea's
altars, to guard their ashes from their persecutors. Lycurgus was perhaps
the only Grecian legislator who recommended inhumation in temples and in
cities, to accustom youth to the daily spectacle of death.

The primitive Grecians, it appears, buried their dead in or about their
dwellings; and we find a law amongst the Thebans, ordaining that every
person who built a house should provide a repository for the dead upon his
premises. In latter days, both Grecians and Romans erected their tombs
outside of their cities, and chiefly by the road-side. It appears also,
that, among the Romans, the bodies of the lower orders were promiscuously
cast into wells, called _fruticuli_. Horace seems to allude to this
practice. _Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulchrum._ The funerals of
the wealthy patricians appear to have been most sumptuous and costly, the
pall formed of valuable materials and decorated with splendid ornaments.
Thus Statius:

_Ditantur flammae: non unquam opulentioan ille ante cinis: crepitant gemmae:
atque immane litescit argentum, et pietis exsudat vestibus aurum._ The
laws of the twelve tables prohibited the practice of this waste of gold.

Both religious and civil motives might have dictated the propriety of this
regulation. The traveller, setting out upon a journey, and passing by the
sepulchres of his sires, could in the presence of their manes invoke their
protection; and on his return to his penates, safe from danger, he could
put up thanks to the gods for his preservation. As a prudential measure,
the interment of the dead beyond the walls of their towns prevented the
fatal consequences that might have arisen from extensive putrefaction and
infection, and moreover the burning of bodies would have exposed the
adjoining buildings to the danger of frequent fires. It is also possible
that policy dictated these sanatory enactments. The ancients held the
remains of the departed as a sacred trust, in the defence of which they
were ever prepared to fall; and it is not improbable that their warriors
would have rushed forth to meet the invader, before he would have defiled,
by his approach to their cities, the ashes of their ancestors. So
scrupulously religious were the Athenians in performing the funeral rites
of the dead, that they put to death ten of their commanders, after the
battle of Arginusae, for not having committed to the earth the dead bodies
that floated on the waters. Such was the dread of being deprived of
sepulchral rites, that it is related of several citizens of Cappadocia,
that during the pestilence that devastated their town in the reign of
Gallus and Valerian, they actually shut themselves up to perish in their
tombs.

There is no doubt but that their dead were buried in such a manner as not
to prove injurious to the survivors; and Seneca plainly says, "Non
defunctorum causa, sed vivorum, inventa est sepultura." The ancients both
burned and buried their dead, but inhumation appears to have been the
most early and the most approved rite. "Let the dead be buried," says a
law of Cecrops. Solon justifies the claims of the Athenians to the island
of Salamis, from the circumstance of the dead bodies interred on its
shores having been inhumed according to the Athenian custom, with their
feet turned to the west, whereas the Megarensians turned theirs to the
east.

In various instances the burial or the burning appear to have been adopted
upon philosophical doctrines. Democritus, with a view to facilitate
resurrection, recommended interment, and Pliny thus ridicules the
intention: "Similis et de asservandis corporibus hominum, et reviviscendis
promissa a Democrito vanitas, qui non revivixit ipse." Heraclitus, who
considered fire as the first principle, advocated the funeral pile; while
Thales, who deemed water the chief element, urged the propriety of
committing the departed to the damp bosom of the earth. Although burning
the dead was customary, there were curious exceptions to the rule. Infants
who died before cutting their teeth, persons struck dead with lightning,
were buried. The place of interment of infants was called the
_suggrundarium_.

The early Christians inhumed the bodies of their martyrs in their temples.
This honour was afterwards conferred on the remains of distinguished
citizens, illustrious prelates, and princes. The infectious diseases which
at various periods arose from this custom, induced Theodosius, in his
celebrated code, strictly to prohibit it; and he even ordered that the
remains of the dead thus inhumed should be removed out of Rome. The vanity
of man, and the cupidity of the priesthood, soon overruled these wise
regulations. Every family possessing sufficient means, claimed a vault
within the churches, and thereby the revenues of the clergy were
materially increased. At all times, even the dead appeared to have shared
with the living the obligation of supporting the ministers of the altar.
By a law of Hippias, the priestesses of Minerva received a choenix[6] of
wheat, and one of barley, with an obolus, for every individual who
departed this life. The _libitinarii_ of the Romans fulfilled the duties
of our undertakers, or rather of the directors of funeral pomp of the
French; yet they were attached to the temple of the goddess Libitina,
whose priests received a fee in silver for every one who died, under the
name of _Libitinae ratio_. Suetonius informs us, that in Nero's time the
mortality was so great during one autumn, that thirty thousand of these
silver pieces were deposited in the fatal treasury. To increase the
emoluments of this sacerdotal body, these _libitinarii_ sold at high
prices every thing that was requisite for the funeral ceremonies, received
a toll at the city gate through which the bodies were carried out, as well
as at the entrance of the amphitheatre through which the dead gladiators
were borne away. Phaedrus alludes to this speculation in one of his fables,
when speaking of a miser,

  Qui circumcidis omnem impensam funeris,
  Libitina ne quid de tuo faciat lucrum.

It is supposed that this avaricious divinity owed her name to the
displeasure which it must have occasioned to all who heard it,--_quod
nemini libeat_; but it is also possible that it was derived from her
bearing poor mortals away, whenever she fancied it, and _ad libitum_.

In more modern times, Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, complained to
Charlemagne that lucre and vanity had converted churches into
charnel-houses, disgraceful to the clergy and perilous to the community.
It was upon this representation that this prince, in his capitularies,
prohibited burials in churches under heavy penalties. But the laws of the
wisest could not prevent priesthood from considering this source of
emolument, although endangering public salubrity, an indisputable property
that could not be meddled with without endangering the church.

In England the custom of burying the dead in churches was first sanctioned
by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 758, it having been previously
forbidden by Augustine, who had decreed that no corpse either of prince or
prelate should be buried within the walls of a city.

In France, Maret in 1773, and Vicq d'Azyr in 1778, pointed out the danger
of this practice in such glaring colours, that government by an edict,
only allowed church interment to certain dignitaries; but in 1804, by a
wise law that should be enforced in every civilized country, inhumation in
cities was entirely abolished. Amongst the numerous well authenticated
evil results of burying in churches that led to this wise prohibition, the
following were the most striking and circumstantial:

In 1773, in Saulieu, Burgundy, an epidemic disease arising from the
inhumation of a corpse in the church of St. Saturnin created considerable
alarm. The body of a corpulent person had been interred on the 3d of
March, and a woman was buried near it on the 20th of April following: both
had died of a reigning fever. During the last burial a fetid effluvia
arose from the vault, which pervaded the whole church; and, out of one
hundred and seventy persons who were present, one hundred and forty-nine
were attacked with the prevailing malady, although its progress had been
arrested amongst the other inhabitants of the town.

In 1774, a similar accident occurred in a village near Nantes, where
several coffins were removed in a vault, to make room for the lord of the
manor: fifteen of the bystanders died from the emanation.

In 1744, one-third of the inhabitants of Lectouse perished from a fever of
a malignant character that manifested itself after some works that
required the removal of a burial-ground. Two destructive epidemics swept
away large proportions of the population of Riom and Ambert, two towns in
Auvergne.

Taking this matter under consideration in a moral, or even a religious
light, it may be questioned whether any advantage can accrue from the
continuance of this pernicious custom, which during the prevalence of
epidemic diseases endangers the life of every person who resides near a
church. Does it add to the respect which the remains of the dead are
entitled to? Certainly not: the constant tolling of "the sullen bell"--the
daily cortege of death that passes before us--the graves that we hourly
contemplate, perusing monumental records which more frequently excite
unseasonable laughter than serious reflection--every thing, in short,
tends to make death of little or no moment, except to those who have heard
the mutes gossiping at their door. So accustomed, indeed, are we from our
childhood to sepulchral scenes, that, were it not for the parish-officers,
our churchyards would become the playground of every truant urchin; and
how often do we behold human bones become sportive baubles in the wanton
pranks of the idlers, who group around the gravedigger's preparations! So
callous are we to all feelings of religious awe when surrounded with the
dead, that our cemeteries are not unfrequently made the rendezvous of
licentiousness and the assembly-ground of crime, where thieves cast lots
upon a tomb for the division of their spoil.

With what different feelings does the traveller wander over the cemetery
of _Pere la Chaise_? I am well aware that many of the gewgaw attributes
that there decorate the grave, have been called the "_frippery_," "_the
foppery_" of grief; but does there exist a generous, a noble sentiment,
that may not be perverted by interested motives and hypocrisy into
contemptible professions? How often is the sublime rendered ridiculous by
bad taste and hyperbolic affectation! When we behold the fond lover
pressing to his lips a lock of hair, or the portrait of all that he holds
dear, the cold calculating egotist may call this the _frippery of love_;
but the stoic who thinks thus, has never known the "sweet pangs" of
requited affection, when, in bitter absence, the recollection of bliss
gone by, imbodies in our imagination the form we once pressed to our
respondent heart. The creation of our busy fancy stands before us, gazing
on us with that tender look that in happier days greeted the hour of
meeting; or trembles in our tears as when we last parted--to meet,
perhaps, no more! With what fervour of religious love do we not behold the
simple girl kneeling with uplift eye and hand on the green sod that covers
all that endeared her to existence, till, overwhelmed with burning,
choking regrets--as idle as they are uncontrollable--she sinks prostrate
on the cold earth that now shrouds that bosom which once nestled her young
hopes and fears! There have I seen the pale, the haggard youth,--to all
appearances a student,--seated mournfully by the side of a tomb, absorbed
in deep thought, heedless of the idlers who passed by him, looking at him
perhaps with contempt!--heedless of the swift flight of time, which
shrouded him imperceptibly in darkness, until he was warned by the
guardian of the dead that it was time to depart--and to depart _alone_! No
inscription recorded the "one loved name;" he would not expose it to the
unfeeling gaze of the heartless tourist: all he would willingly have
traced upon her tomb, would have been "Here lies _my own_!"

The mouldering earth, the fleshless skeleton over which he mourns, cannot
obliterate the remembrance of what she was: though her eyes, perhaps, no
longer exist, still their former languid, liquid look of bliss, beams
freshly in his recollection. The lips which once pronounced the long
wished-for avowal of mutual love are still moist and open to memory's
embrace--still seem to lisp the delicious _tu_! Our language is rich,
without comparison richer far than the French; but we have nothing so
endearing, so bewitching, as their _tu-toiement_: our _thee's_ and
_thou's_ are frigid, chilly, when compared to the _first toi_ that escapes
inadvertently from beloved lips! A French writer has beautifully expressed
this exquisite moment: "Le _premier tu_ est tout-puissant; c'est le _fiat
lux_ de l'ame; il est sublime, il debrouille le chaos!"

Sublime are the words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!" Would
it be irreligious to say, "Happy are the dead who die beloved?" Their fond
and ardent heart had never been chilled by the withering hand of
infidelity and ingratitude. They died in an ecstatic dream of perfect
bliss on earth, and never were awakened to the world's mocking
realities!--they died when they felt and believed in their heart of hearts
that they were dearly beloved--could not be loved more dearly: with that
conviction, death, in a worldly acceptation, can never be untimely.
Probably, they died still sufficiently animated by a latent, lingering
spark of life, to press the hand that was so often linked in mutual
pressure in happy days--to feel the burning tear of anguish drop on the
pale cheek--to hear the sad, the awful, last word, _a Dieu!_--an
expression that habit has rendered trivial, but which bears with it, in
the tenderest solicitude, the most hallowed meaning; since, in pronouncing
it, we leave all that we cherish under the protection and the safeguard of
OUR GOD.

Affection deprives death of all horrors. We shrink not from the remains of
what we cherished. Despite its impiety, there was something refined in
that conviction of the ancients, who imagined that in bestowing their
farewell kiss they inhaled the souls of those they loved. How sweet are
those lines of Macrobius, originally attributed to Plato!

  Dum semihulco suavio
  Meum pullum suavior,
  Dulcemque florem spiritus
  Duco ex aperto tramite,
  Animo tunc aegra et saucia
  Cucurrit ad labia mihi!

Our Shakspeare has quaintly, yet beautifully, described this parting
embrace:

            And lips, O you
  The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
  A dateless bargain to engrossing death.

Nor was it only on the dying that the ancients bestowed this mark of
fondness: Tibullus and Propertius tell us, that, as their bodies were laid
on the funeral pile, they clasped them in a fond and last embrace.

In regard to the painted crosses, the chaplets, the garlands of flowers,
which mark the hallowed resting-place of the departed, it may be said that
they are but romantic and poetical expressions of grief. If it were only
real grief that expressed itself by outward testimonials, how soon would
mourning be banished as an idle expense!--the "inky cloak," and customary
"suits of solemn black--the trappings and the suit of woes," be laid
aside! What a different feeling does the splendid catafalcum, covered with
black velvet, studded with silver tears, and illumined by thousands of
glaring tapers, excite, when compared with the simple and verdant graves
which point out the spot "where souls do couch in flowers," blessed by
affection's tears instead of lustral waters. At all periods, amongst every
nation, flowers and certain trees seem to have been consecrated to the
dead. The Romans planted the wild vine and the box around their tombs.
Thus Martial to Alcimenes:

  Accipe, non Phario nutantia pondera saxo,
    Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor,
  Sed fragiles buxos, et opacas palmitis umbras,
    Quaeque virent lacrymis humida prata meis.

The wealthy assigned a beauteous garden to their departed favourites, as
in the instance of Augustus and Maecenas. Not only did they suspend
garlands over their tombs, but scattered flowers around them. Again in
Virgil,

  Purpureosque jacit flores, ac talia fatur.

The same custom prevailed amongst the Grecians, who considered all purple
and white flowers acceptable to the dead. The Thessalian's strewed
Achilles' grave with the immortal amaranth and lilies. Electra complains
that the tomb of Agamemnon received no myrtle boughs; in short, instances
of this practice are every where to be found. In addition to flowers and
perfumes, ribands and hair were also deposited on their sepulchres.
Electra adorns Agamemnon's tomb with her locks, and Canace laments that
she had not been able to perform the same rite on her beloved Macareus.
Poets tell us that precious ointments and wines were poured upon their
monuments; and we find, in Euripides, Helen bidding Hermione to take locks
of her hair, honey mixed with milk, and wine, to the sepulchre of her
aunt.

Amongst the Chinese, to the present day, the cypress and the fir, shade
their cemeteries: the former tree, an attribute of Pluto was ever
considered funereal, hence called _feralis_; and the _feralia_ were
festivals in honour of the dead, observed by the Romans. Varro pretends
that the cypress was called funereal from _funus_, as it emitted an
antiseptic aroma. Pliny and others pretend that it typified the dead,
from its never shooting out fresh sprouts when the trunk was hewn down. At
any rate, to this hour, it is planted in burying-grounds in every
civilized country.

The yew-tree has also been considered an emblem of mourning from the
earliest times. The custom of planting it singly appears also to be very
ancient. Statius, in his Thebaid, calls it the _solitary yew_. In England,
the trees planted in churchyards were protected by legal enactments, as
appears by a statute of 35 Edward I. From the scarcity of bow staves, they
had been frequently despoiled by our numerous archers; and, to meet this
service, by an enactment of Edward IV. every foreign trader was obliged to
bring in four bow staves for every ton of imported merchandise; Elizabeth,
from the scarcity of this important article, put the statute in full
force.

Let us then hope, both for the living and the dead, that this custom,
which obtains in France and other countries, will be adopted by us,
instead of becoming the subject of ridicule. It is far more desirable to
see families repairing to the tomb of the departed on the anniversary of
their death, than to behold them daily passing by their remains with cold
indifference.

It would scarcely be believed upon the continent of Europe, that to this
very hour bodies are buried in confined churchyards in the most crowded
and dirty parts of the British metropolis, such as Russel-court,
Drury-lane, and various other similar holes and corners; the rudest
nations were never guilty of such a glaring impropriety. In the kingdom of
Siam, the remains of the opulent are burnt with great ceremony, while the
bodies of the poor are carried out and exposed on mountains: in Ceylon,
the remains of the indigent are interred in the neighbouring woods; the
rich consumed on gorgeous funeral piles.

The Chinese inhume their dead at some distance from their cities and
towns; it is only the bodies of the rich and noble that are allowed to
remain on the premises of the family. Navarette mentions a curious custom
prevalent in one of their provinces, Chan Si, where, in the event of two
betrothed persons dying at the same period, they are married while their
coffins are still in their former dwelling, and afterwards burnt together.
By the accounts of various travellers, the wealthy Chinese are burnt with
great pomp, and their monuments are most curious and expensive. Their
mausoleums are actually halls or grottos, decorated with splendour: and
they inter with the deceased many articles to which he might have been
attached during life, and that may add to his comforts after death. A
custom that was more prevalent before the invasion of the Tartars--a comb,
a pair of scissars to pare his nails; four little purses, containing the
nail-parings of the defunct, were placed in the coffin, and, amongst the
wealthy, gold coin and jewels were inserted in the mouth. The Hottentots
bury their dead in the wild clefts of rocks and caverns; the Peruvians
bear theirs to the neighbouring hills and mountains. The Greenlanders wrap
their dead in furs and skins, and carry them to a considerable distance
from their huts. In Kamtschatka and Siberia bodies are covered with snow
in caverns and caves; and the African savages perform the same funeral
rites as the Irish: their dead are carried to the burying-ground, followed
by crowds of relatives and other people, who join the procession,
bellowing and howling most piteously, "Oh! why did you die? did you want
any thing that was ever denied you?" and after the funeral the survivors
invariably get drunk on palm-wine, or any strong liquor they can procure;
a custom similar to the _circumpotatio_ of the Romans.




BURIED ALIVE.


Every nation, however uncivilized, holds the idea of being buried alive in
constant dread; the horrors of such a situation cannot be described.
Bodies have been found where the miserable victims of precipitation had
actually devoured the flesh of their arms in the agonies of hunger and
despair. Such was the fate of John Scott and the Emperor Zeno. It is to be
feared that this melancholy occurrence is more frequent than is supposed,
more especially in countries where inhumation is speedily resorted to. The
ancients were remarkably cautious in this respect, especially when we take
into consideration the climate of Greece and Rome during the summer
months. A law of Greece on this subject directs that "the corpse should be
laid out at the relations' pleasure, but that the following morning before
daylight the funeral procession should take place." From various
authorities, however, it appears that the bodies were kept three, and
sometimes six days. Servius was of opinion that the time for burning
bodies was the eighth day, and the time for burying the tenth; it appears,
however, that this was a privilege granted to the wealthy, as the poor
were consumed the day after their death, a custom alluded to in an epigram
of Callimachus. Among the Romans several days were also allowed to elapse
before interment--sometimes seven days; during which, loud cries, in which
the deceased was called by his name, and the noise of various instruments
resounded near the body; this was called the _conclamatio_, alluded to by
Terence:

  Desine, jam conclamatum est.

Lucan also alludes to this custom:

        ----------Sic funere primo
  Attonitae tacuere domus, quam corpora nondum
  Conclamata jacent, noc mater crine soluto
  Exigit ad saevos famularum brachia planctus.

The ancients held hasty inhumation in great dread, and grounded their
apprehension on various current traditions. Thus Plato remarks the case of
a warrior who was left for ten days on the field of battle amongst the
dead, and who came to life when he was being borne to the sepulchre.
Asclepiades restored life to a man who was also consigned to the funeral
pile, and Pliny relates the case of Lucius Aviola and Lucius Lamia, who
showed signs of life upon the pile, but were too much injured to be saved.

Amongst the many absurd fancies regarding the dead, was the superstitious
belief of their being able to masticate in their coffin any substance
buried with them. Women more especially were believed to be gifted with
this _post mortem_ faculty of moving their jaw-bones very loudly. _Claro
sonitu_, says the learned Michael Ranfft, in his curious and elaborate
work, _de masticatione mortuorum_. In this apprehension, that the deceased
in their hunger might devour their own limbs, articles of food were
interred with them.

According to the law of the Jews, who appear to have been in constant
dread of pestilential disease, the inhumation of the dead were most hasty.
Yet in this instance many Rabbi maintain that the Talmud has been
erroneously interpreted, for although it decreed that a night should not
be allowed to pass before inhumation, it clearly meant that actual death
must have been ascertained.

While such fears are entertained of suspended animation being taken for
dissolution, it is strange that in some savage tribes the aged are allowed
to perish without any care being taken to prolong their lives. Such is the
custom of some of the Esquimaux, where old and decrepit creatures are
abandoned in their huts and left to their fate. An ancient tradition
stated that the inhabitants of the Isle of Syria never died of any
distemper, but dropped into their graves at a certain old age.

It would be desirable that in cases where interment is speedily resorted
to, a physician should attend, in order to ascertain that death had
actually taken place. This is seldom practised, from the common saying
"that it is uncivil on the part of a doctor to visit a dead patient."
Various means are employed to ascertain death: the looking-glass applied
to the mouth of the corpse, to find out whether breath had departed; the
coldness of the extremities, the falling of the lower jaw, the rigidity of
the limbs, and various other appearances, are universally known; but in
the villages of Italy and Portugal, pins and needles are frequently driven
under the nails, in what is vulgarly called _the quick_, to excite an
excruciating pain if life should not have fled. The most certain evidence,
when bodies are long kept, is most decidedly the commencement of
decomposition; but, in other cases, the action of the voltaic pile on a
bared muscle is an infallible test.

It is much to be feared that on the field of battle and naval actions many
individuals apparently dead are buried or thrown overboard. The history of
Francois de Civille, a French captain, who was missing at the siege of
Rouen, is rather curious: at the storming of the town he was supposed to
have been killed, and was thrown, with other bodies, in the ditch, where
he remained from eleven in the morning to half-past six in the evening;
when his servant, observing some latent heat, carried the body into the
house. For five days and five nights his master did not exhibit the
slightest sign of life, although the body gradually recovered its warmth.
At the expiration of this time, the town was carried by assault, and the
servants of an officer belonging to the besiegers, having found the
supposed corpse of Civille, threw it out of window, with no other covering
than his shirt. Fortunately for the captain, he had fallen upon a
dunghill, where he remained senseless for three days longer, when his body
was taken up by his relations for sepulture, and ultimately brought to
life. What was still more strange, Civille, like Macduff, had been "from
his mother's womb untimely ripp'd," having been brought into the world by
a Caesarean operation, which his mother did not survive; and after his last
wonderful escape he used to sign his name with the addition of "three
times born, three times buried, and three times risen from the dead by the
grace of God."

The fate of the unfortunate Abbe Prevost, author of "Manon Lescaut," and
other esteemed novels, was lamentable beyond expression. In passing
through the forest of Chantilly, he was seized with an apoplectic fit: the
body, cold and motionless, was found the following morning, and carried by
some woodcutters to the village surgeon, who proceeded to open it; it was
during this terrific operation that the wretched man was roused to a sense
of his miserable condition by the agonies he endured, to expire soon after
in all the complicated horrors of his situation. Various cases are
recorded where persons remained in a state of apparent death for a
considerable time. Cullen mentions an hysterical woman who was deprived of
movement and sensibility for six days. Licelus knew a nun of Bresia, who,
after an hysteric attack, continued in an inanimate state for ten days and
nights.




SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.


The singular fact of persons, more especially individuals who were in the
habit of indulging in the use of spirituous liquors, having taken fire and
been consumed, is authenticated beyond the slightest doubt. Little
confidence, it is true, can be placed in the reports on this subject which
occasionally appear in the newspapers of different countries; but many
celebrated practitioners have witnessed and recorded the event, and
physiologists have endeavoured to account for its causes. The celebrated
Le Cat mentions a woman of Rheims, of the name of Millet, who was found
consumed at the distance of two feet from her chimney; the room exhibited
no appearance of fire, but of the unfortunate sufferer nothing was found
except her skull, the bones of the lower extremities, and some vertebrae. A
servant-girl was accused of the murder, and condemned to death; but on
her appeal, and a subsequent investigation, her innocence was fully
ascertained.

Joseph Battaglia, a surgeon of Ponte Bosio, relates the following
case:--Don G. Maria Bertholi, a priest of Mount Valerius, went to the fair
of Filetto, and afterwards visited a relation in Fenilo, where he intended
to pass the night. Before retiring to rest, he was left reading his
breviary; when, shortly afterwards, the family were alarmed by his loud
cries and a strange noise in his chamber. On opening the door, he was
lying prostrate on the floor, and surrounded by flickering flames.
Battaglia was immediately sent for, and on his arrival the unfortunate man
was found in a most deplorable state. The integuments of the arms and the
back were either consumed or detached in hanging flaps. The sufferer was
sufficiently sensible to give an account of himself. He said that he felt
all of a sudden as if his arm had received a violent blow from a club, and
at the same time he saw scintillations of fire rising from his
shirt-sleeves, which were consumed without having burned the wrists; a
handkerchief, which he had tied round his shoulders, between the shirt and
the skin, was intact. His drawers were also sound; but, strange to say,
his silk skull-cap was burnt, while his hair bore no marks of combustion.
The unfortunate man only survived the event four days, when mortification
of the burnt parts was most extensive, and the body emitted intolerable
putrid effluvia. The circumstances which attended this case would seem to
warrant the conclusion that the electric fluid was the chief agent in the
combustion.

Bianchini relates the death of the Countess of Cornelia Bandi, of Cesena,
who was in the habit of using frictions of camphorated spirits. She was
found consumed close to her bedside. No traces of fire could be observed
in the room--the very lights had been burnt down to their sockets; but the
furniture, closets, and linen were covered with a grayish soot, damp and
clammy.

The Annual Register mentions two facts of a similar nature which occurred
in England, one at Southampton, the other at Coventry. In the transactions
of the Royal Society of London, an extraordinary instance of combustion is
also recorded. The fact is thus related. Grace Pitt, the wife of a
fishmonger of Ipswich, aged about sixty, had contracted a habit, which she
continued for several years, of coming down every night from her bedroom,
half dressed, to smoke a pipe. On the night of the 9th of April, 1744,
she got up from her bed as usual; her daughter who slept with her, did not
perceive she was absent till next morning when she awoke; soon after which
she put on her clothes, and going down into the kitchen, found her mother
stretched out on her right side, with her head near the grate; the body
extended on the hearth, with the legs on the floor, which were of deal,
having the appearance of a log of wood consumed by a fire without any
apparent flames. On beholding this spectacle, the girl run in great haste
and poured over her mother's body some water contained in two large
vessels, in order to extinguish the fire, while the fetid odour and smoke
that exhaled from the body almost suffocated some of the neighbours who
had hastened to the girl's assistance.

The trunk was in some measure incinerated, and resembled a heap of wood
covered with white ashes. The head, the arms, the legs, and the thighs,
had also participated in the burning. This woman, it is said, had drank a
large quantity of spirituous liquor, in consequence of being overjoyed at
hearing of the return of one of her daughters from Gibraltar. There was no
fire in the grate, and the candle had burnt down to the socket of the
candlestick, which was close to her. Besides, there were found close to
the consumed body, the clothes of a child and a paper screen, which had
sustained no injury from the fire. The dress of the woman consisted of a
cotton gown.

It is possible that this accident may be attributed to the escape of
hydrogen gas; the presence of this inflammable body in animals is evident,
and it is also proved that it is liable to ignite. Morton saw flames
coming from the body of a pig. Bonami and Ruysh, with a lighted candle,
set fire to the vapour arising from the stomach of a woman whom they were
opening. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Science of Paris, of 1751, we
find the case of a butcher, who, on opening the body of an ox that had
died after a malady which had swollen him considerably, was severely burnt
by an explosion and a flame which rose to the height of about five feet.
Sturm, Bartholini, and Gaubius record fiery eructations in which, no
doubt, phosphurated hydrogen had been generated in the stomach, from some
combination of alcohol and animal substances, and inflamed upon coming
into contact with atmospheric air; the fetid odour which invariably
accompanies these combustions appears to warrant the conclusion. Fodere
remarks that hydrogen gas is developed in certain cases of disease even
in the living body, and he agrees with Mere in attributing spontaneous
combustion to the united action of hydrogen and electricity. The case of a
Bohemian peasant is narrated, who lost his life in consequence of ignited
inflammable air issuing from his mouth which could not be extinguished. It
seems evident that this accident only occurs under certain conditions of
the body; generally in aged persons upwards of sixty years old; more
frequently in women than in men, and chiefly when of indolent habits, a
debilitated frame, and intemperate in their mode of living. That the body
has been usually consumed long before the head and the extremities is
evident, since these parts have been more commonly found than the trunk.
It also has been ascertained by observation that this strange accident
seldom occurs in summer, but principally during severe cold and frosty
weather. It appears that some experiments have been recently made in the
United States, when the blood flowing from the arm of a man addicted to
spirituous liquors actually took fire, being placed in contact with a
lighted taper!

Medical observers differ in opinion on this singular yet
well-authenticated phenomenon. Lair, Vicy d'Argou, and Dupuytren maintain
that to produce it, the contact of fire is necessary. Le Cat and Kopp, on
the contrary, affirm that this combustion may be spontaneous without the
intervention of any external agent, and resulting from some peculiar
predisposition. According to Le Cat animals contain inflammable substances
which ignite of themselves. De Castro relates the cases of several
individuals from whom friction could draw sparks. Daniel Horstius mentions
a gouty patient, from whose limbs, on being rubbed, vivid sparks arose.
These physicians consider that these electric sparks are sufficient to
ignite the spirituous liquor which may have saturated any organic tissue
of the body, the combustion being afterwards fed by animal oil.

This theory is, however, subject to many objections. It is difficult to
imagine that any substance introduced into the organ of digestion should
retain its former principles of inflammability. Although Cuvier and
Dumeril relate, that in opening the body of a man who died from excess of
drinking, the effluvia of the liquor arose from every cavity.

On this subject, fraught with much interest, nothing positive has been
ascertained, despite the late progress of chemical investigation. This
combustion indeed differs widely from all other burning; sometimes a
flickering and bluish flame arises; at other times a smothered heat or
fire, without visible flames, is the consuming agent. Water increases the
combustion instead of allaying it. It is moreover a well-known fact, that
a considerable quantity of fuel is required to consume a dead body,
whereas in this combustion, incineration is most rapid. The human body,
indeed, is not easily consumed; a case is related of a baker-boy, named
Renaud, who was sentenced to be burnt at Caen; two large cart-loads of
fagots were required to consume the body, and at the end of more than ten
hours, some remains were still visible.

The extreme incombustibility of the body was singularly exemplified in the
case of Mrs. King, whose murderer was engaged for several weeks in
endeavouring to burn her remains without effecting his purpose.

It has also been affirmed by various medical observers, that the human
body will occasionally secrete an inflammable matter emitted by
perspiration. Thus, it is stated, that the perspiration of the wife of a
physician of the Archbishop of Toledo was of such a combustible nature,
that a ribbon which she had worn, being exposed to the air, took fire.
Borelli relates the case of a peasant, whose linen would ignite in a
similar manner, whether it was laid up in a chest or hung up to dry.
Amongst the many curious stories of the kind, we quote De Castro, who
affirms that he knew a physician, from whose back-bone fire issued so
vividly as to dazzle the eyes of the beholders. Krautius informs us, that
certain people of the territory of Nivers (?) were burning with an
invisible fire, and that some of them lopped off a foot or a hand to cut
off the conflagration!




BRASSICA ERUCA, OR THE ROCKET PLANT.


This plant, now in total disuse, was considered by the ancients as a most
powerful aphrodisiac, and consecrated to Venus. Hence Martial and Ovid--

  Et Venerem revocans eruca morantem.
    *       *       *       *       *
  Nec minus erucas jubeo vitare salaces.

But the most curious document regarding this obnoxious weed is found in
Lobel, who states that it was carefully cultivated in the gardens of
monasteries and nunneries, to preserve their chastity.

"Haec eruca, major Hispanica, vel quia in condimentis lautior, vel ad
venerem vegetior erat, gentilis vulgo vocata fuit; quo vocabulo Hispanica
et Itala gens designat quamlibet rem aptam reddere hominem laetum et
experrectum ad munia vulgo pausibilia, ut joca ludicra et venerem; quae
commoda ut ex ea perciperet monachorum saginata caterva, in perquam
amoena Magalonae, insula maris Narbonensis, hujus gentilis erucae semine a
fratre quodam Hispano ambulone donato, quotannis hocce serebat, et in
mensis cuilibet, vel maximo gulae irritamento, vel blandimento, praeferebat;
nimirum usu gnara quantum frequens esus conferret ad calorem venereum in
illis otio et frequenti crapula obrutum, ad vigorem animi excitandum, et
praesertim corpus obesum extenuandum, somnumque excutiendum, quo illi
veluti ursi gliresve tota hyeme saginati, ferme adipe suffocabantur. Verum
isto Hispanico remedio adeo hilarescebant et gentiles fiebant, ut
plerumque recinctis lumbis castitate, coacti essent vota et coenobii
moenia transilire, et aliquid solatii venerei ab vicinis plebanis
efflagitare. Nobis haec visa et risa. Eruca vero inibi superstes est
copiosissima, monumentum futura monasticae castitatis et rei
veritatis."--_Adv. p. 68._




CAGLIOSTRO.


The first appellation the Grecians gave to those who exercised the art of
healing was _iatros_. Originally it merely signified a man possessed of
the power of relieving accidents, either by manual exertions, or the
hidden virtues of some amulet or charm. Sextus tells us that in ancient
times it applied to an extractor of arrows, _sagittarum extractor_. No
doubt, this operation constituted the chief business of the surgeon in the
infancy of the art; and warriors and heroes themselves performed it on the
field of battle, as fully exemplified in Homer.

The primitive title of _iatros_ gradually descended to surgical
practitioners. We find that Nebrus and Heraclides were the chief _iaters_
of Cos, the birthplace of Hippocrates. To this day the same name is given
to medical men in Greece, where, until lately, they were in the habit of
perambulating the streets, and seeking occupation by crying out at certain
distances, _Callos iatros!_ (The good doctor!) Balsamo, a celebrated
mountebank, being at Cairo, where he died, one of his disciples repaired
to Europe, and, anxious to bear a singular name, assumed this cry, and
called himself _Calloiatro_, or, according to the corrupt pronunciation,
_Cagliostro_: his history is well known, and he certainly excelled in
impudence and industry all his predecessors. These Greek _iaters_, when
going over to Italy to practise, called themselves _medici_, which Cato
wanted to change into _mendici_, for, said he, "These creatures, (_Illi
Graeculi_,) quit their native country, where they were starving, to seek
their fortune in Rome (_ut fortunam sibi mendicent_)." Under this austere
censor few of these emigrants dared to settle in the Roman territories,
but after his demise they inundated the country to such an extent, that it
was said that Rome had more physicians than patients who needed their
attendance. This influx of practitioners occasioned constant competition,
and each _iater_ endeavoured to obtain fame and emolument by underrating
his opponents, and endeavouring to introduce novel doctrines, seeking a
livelihood, as Pliny observed, _inter mortes et mendacia_. It was on these
adventurers that the following epigram was written:

  Fingunt se cuncti medicos,--idiota, sacerdos,
  Judaeus, monachus, histrio, rasor, anus.

The quackery of these candidates for popularity became the subject of
bitter satire; and Martial thus speaks of the _Iatre_ Symmachus:

  Languebam, sed tu comitatus protinus ad me
  Venisti centum, Symmache, discipulis;
  Centum me tetigere manus, aquilone gelatae,
  Non habui febrem, Symmache; nunc habeo.[7]

This Symmachus, it appears, invariably moved abroad surrounded by hundreds
of his disciples, whose cold investigating hands produced upon their
patients the effects to which Martial alludes.




LUNAR INFLUENCE ON HUMAN LIFE AND DISEASES.


The ancients, who were chiefly guided in their medical notions by the
simple operations of nature, attached great importance to the influence of
the moon. As the stars directed their navigators, so did the planets in
some degree regulate their other calculations. Finding that the state of
the weather materially acted on our organism whether in health or in
sickness, they attributed this influence to the appearance of the moon,
which generally foretold the vicissitudes in the atmospheric constitution.
Thus Hippocrates advises his son Thessalus to study numbers and geometry,
as the knowledge of astronomy was indispensable to a physician, the
phenomena of diseases being dependent on the rising or the setting of the
stars. Aristotle informs his disciples that the bodies of animals are cold
in the decrease of the moon, that blood and humours are then put into
motion, and to these revolutions he ascribes various derangements of
women. To enter into these medical opinions would be foreign to the
present purpose, but the notions of the ancients regarding lunar influence
in other matters are curious.

Lucilius, the Roman satirist, says that oysters and echini fatten during
lunar augmentation; which also, according to Gellius, enlarges the eyes of
cats: but that onions throw out their buds in the decrease of the moon,
and wither in her increase, an unnatural vegetation, which induced the
people of Pelusium to avoid their use. Horace also notices the superiority
of shell-fish in the increase.

Pliny not only recognises this influence on shell-fish, but observes, that
the streaks on the livers of rats answer to the days of the moon's age;
and that ants never work at the time of any change: he also informs us
that the fourth day of the moon determines the prevalent wind of the
month, and confirms the opinion of Aristotle that earthquakes generally
happen about the new moon. The same philosopher maintains that the moon
corrupts all slain carcasses she shines upon; occasions drowsiness and
stupor when one sleeps under her beams, which thaw ice and enlarge all
things; he further contends, that the moon is nourished by rivers, as the
sun is fed by the sea. Galen asserts that all animals that are born when
the moon is falciform, or at the half-quarter, are weak, feeble, and
shortlived; whereas those that are dropped in the full moon are healthy
and vigorous.

In more modern times the same wonderful phenomena have been attributed to
this planet. The celebrated Ambroise Pare observed, that people were more
subject to the plague at the full. Lord Bacon partook of the notions of
the ancients, and he tells us that the moon draws forth heat, induces
putrefaction, increases moisture, and excites the motion of the spirits;
and, what was singular, this great man invariably fell into a syncope
during a lunar eclipse.

Van Helmont affirms, that a wound inflicted by moonlight is most difficult
to heal; and he further says, that if a frog be washed clean, and tied to
a stake under the rays of the moon in a cold winter night, on the
following morning the body will be found dissolved into a gelatinous
substance bearing the shape of the reptile, and that coldness alone
without the lunar action will never produce the same effect. Ballonius,
Diemerbroeck, Ramazzini, and numerous celebrated physicians, bear ample
testimony to its baneful influence in pestilential diseases. The change
observed in the disease of the horse called moon-blindness is universally
known and admitted.

Many modern physicians have stated the opinions of the ancients as regards
lunar influence in diseases, but none have pushed their inquiries with
such indefatigable zeal as the late Dr. Mosely; he affirms that almost
all people in extreme age die at the new or at the full moon, and this he
endeavours to prove by the following records:

  Thomas Parr died at the age of 152, two days after the full moon.
  Henry Jenkins died at the age of 169, the day of the new moon.
  Elizabeth Steward, 124, the day of the new moon.
  William Leland, 140, the day after the new moon.
  John Effingham, 144, two days after full moon.
  Elizabeth Hilton, 121, two days after the full moon.
  John Constant, 113, two days after the new moon.

The doctor then proceeds to show, by the deaths of various illustrious
persons, that a similar rule holds good with the generality of mankind:

  Chaucer, 25th October 1400, the day of the first quarter.
  Copernicus, 24th May 1543, day of the last quarter.
  Luther, 18th February 1546, three days after the full.
  Henry VIII, 28th January 1547, the day of the first quarter.
  Calvin, 27th May 1564, two days after the full.
  Cornaro, 26th April 1566, day of the first quarter.
  Queen Elizabeth, 24th March 1603, day of the last quarter.
  Shakspeare, 23rd April 1616, day after the full.
  Camden, 9th November 1623, day before the new moon.
  Bacon, 9th April 1626, one day after last quarter.
  Vandyke, 9th April 1641, two days after full moon.
  Cardinal Richelieu, 4th December 1642, three days before full moon.
  Doctor Harvey, 30th June 1657, a few hours before the new moon.
  Oliver Cromwell, 3rd September 1658, two days after full moon.
  Milton, 15th November 1674, two days before the new moon.
  Sydenham, 29th December 1689, two days before the full moon.
  Locke, 28th November 1704, two days before the full moon.
  Queen Anne, 1st August 1714, two days after the full moon.
  Louis XIV, 1st September 1715, a few hours before the full moon.
  Marlborough, 16th June 1722, two days before the full moon.
  Newton, 20th March 1726, two days before the new moon.
  George I, 11th June 1727, three days after new moon.
  George II, 25th October 1760, one day after full moon.
  Sterne, 13th September 1768, two days after new moon.
  Whitfield, 18th September 1770, a few hours before the new moon.
  Swedenburg, 19th March 1772, the day of the full moon.
  Linnaeus, 10th January 1778, two days before the full moon.
  The Earl of Chatham, 11th May 1778, the day of the full moon.
  Rousseau, 2nd July 1778, the day after the first quarter.
  Garrick, 20th January 1779, three days after the new moon.
  Dr. Johnson, 14th December 1784, two days after the new moon.
  Dr. Franklin, 17th April 1790, three days after the new moon.
  Sir Joshua Reynolds, 23rd February 1792, the day after the new moon.
  Lord Guildford, 5th August 1722, three days after the full moon.
  Dr. Warren, 23rd June 1797, a day before the new moon.
  Burke, 9th July 1797, at the instant of the full moon.
  Macklin, 11th July 1797, two days after full moon.
  Wilkes, 26th December 1797, the day of the first quarter.
  Washington, 15th December 1799, three days after full moon.
  Sir W. Hamilton, 6th April 1803, a few hours before the full moon.

The doctor winds up this extract from the bills of mortality by the
following appropriate remark: "Here we see the moon, as she shines on all
alike, so she makes no distinction of persons in her influence:

  "------aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
  Regumque turres."
                                HOR. Lib. i. Od. 4.

Not only did the ancients consider the animal creation as constantly under
planetary influence, but all vegetable productions and medicinal
substances were subject to its laws. The Druids of Gaul and Britain
gathered the famed misletoe with a golden knife when the moon was six days
old. The vervain, held in such high repute by the Romans, was gathered,
after libations of honey and wine, at the rising of the dog-star, and with
the left hand, and thus collected served, for various sacerdotal and
medical purposes: its branches were employed to sweep the temples of
Jupiter; it was used in exorcisms for sprinkling lustral water; and
moreover it cured fevers, the bite of venomous reptiles, and appeased
discord; hence it was borne by those heralds who were sent to sue for
peace, and called _verbenarii_; and when its benign powers were shed over
the festive board, mirth and good temper were sure to prevail. So
generally and so highly appreciated was this all-powerful plant, that
Pliny tells us,

  Nulla herba Romanae nobilitatis plus habet quam hierabotane.

However, it is somewha

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