Part 78

THE END.

WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE STRAND.

FOOTNOTES:

During these ten years the following works appeared:

Montesquieu--Esprit des Lois, 1748. ---- Defense de l'Esprit des Lois, 1750. Rousseau--Discours sur l'Influence des Sciences et des Lettres, 1750. ---- Discours sur l'Inegalite des Conditions, 1754. Voltaire--Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des nations, 1757. Condillac--Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, 1746. ---- Traite des Sensations, 1754. Helvetius--De l'Esprit, 1758.

The Homo diluvii testis, the skeleton of which was described by Scheuchzer, was considered by Cuvier to have belonged to a species of Salamander.

For the further illustration of this curious subject, Dr. Eliotson's valuable notes on Blumenbach may be consulted to advantage.

The dream of Ertucules seems to have been connected with similar phantasies. "I dreamed, venerable sir," said he to Edebales, "that the brightness of the moon did proceed from your bosom, and thence afterwards did pass into mine: when it was thither come, there sprung up a tree from my umbilic, which overshadowed at once many nations, mountains, and valleys. From the root of this tree there issued waters sufficient to irrigate vines and gardens; and then both my dream and my sleep forsook me." Edebales after some pause thus answered: "There will be born unto you, my good friend, a son whose name shall be Osman; he shall wage many wars, and shall acquire victory and glory; and my daughter must be married to your son Osman, and she is the brightness which you saw come from my bosom into yours, and from both sprung up the tree."--Lips. Marsil.

Vide the article "Enthusiasm."

The choenix contained a pint.

These lines afford a convincing proof of the minute attention the ancients paid to the phenomena of nature. Our poet had no doubt observed the frequent effect of the application of cold to the surface of the body producing a reaction in the circulation tending to overcome the noxious agent by a glow of heat, which in many instances of predisposition may assume a febrile character.

A Treatise on Insanity.

Pallido il Sol and Per quanto dolce amplasso of Hasse.

Much curious matter will be found in Mr. Nathan's valuable work upon music, entitled, "Musurgia vocalis."

That animals are more frequently guided by the sense of smelling than by sight, is evident in those plants that shed a cadaverous effluvia, especially the arum dracunculus and the stapelia variegata of the Cape, which attract various insects that usually deposit their eggs in a stercoraceous or corrupt nidus. Here these insects have been deceived by vision, and imagined in their illusion that they had safely lodged their progeny in carrion.

According to Aelian, the presence of this fish indicated the approaching overflow of the Nile.

The Irish, in their metaphorical language, give a corporeal form to foul effluvia, and one of them assured me that he had a terrier who would always cock up his tail and bark whenever he saw a stink.

Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient writers, state that the beer of the Egyptians called Zythus was scarcely inferior to wine. This beer was made with barley, to which was added the lupin, the skirret, and the root of an Assyrian plant. We find the following in Columella:

"Jam siser, Assyriaque venit quae semine radix Sectaque praebetur madido satiata lupino, Ut Pelusiaci proviset pocula zythi."

The vicinity of Pelusium was famed for this beverage and its lentils.

Diemerbrook states that, in the Plague of Nimeguen all those who were taken ill about new and full moon rarely escaped.

Dr. Desgenettes, physician to the French army, in order to inspire confidence among the troops, inoculated himself twice without experiencing any other consequence than a slight inflammation of the inoculated parts. Sonnini mentions a Russian surgeon, who was a prisoner in Constantinople with a number of his countrymen, and who took it into his head to inoculate his comrades, with a view of protecting them from the contagion; but, unfortunately, two hundred of them died, and, fortunately perhaps for the survivors, the operator himself died of his own treatment.

On this subject see what has been already said in the preceding article of Food, its use and abuse, in Dr. Beaumont's experiments.

Otway.

Shaftesbury.

Oil is, however, a useful application to wounds in warm climates. During the retreat of our troops after the battle of Talavera, I found the wounds of many of our men, that had not been dressed for three or four days, pullulating with maggots. This was not the case with the Spanish soldiers, who, to prevent this annoyance (which was more terrific than dangerous), had poured olive oil upon their dressings. I invariably resorted to the same practice when I subsequently had to remove the wounded in hot weather.

A Hebrew proverb originating from a tradition that Abraham wore a precious stone round his neck, which preserved him from disease, and which cured sickness when looked upon. When Abraham died, God placed this stone in the sun.

The ancients considered the spleen the seat of mirth, and the liver the organ of love; hence their old proverb.