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SUPPLEMENT TO THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE
FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH EDITIONS
OF THE
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA WITH PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS ON THE
HISTORY OF THE SCIENCES.
Sllugtrattli bg ©narabinas*
VOLUME SECOND.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH; AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND COMPANY, LONDON.
DISSERTATION SECOND: EXHIBITING A GENERAL VIEW OF THE
PROGRESS OF MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE, SINCE THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS IN EUROPE.
BY
JOHN PLAYFAIR,
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.
DISSERTATION
SECOND.
PART I.
IN
conformity to the plan which has been traced and executed with so much ability in
the First Dissertation, I am now to present the/reader with an historical sketch of the principal discoveries made in Natural Philosophy, from the revival of letters down to the present time.
In entering on this task, and on looking at the instructive but formidable
model already set before me, I should experience no small solicitude, did I not trust that the subject of which I am to speak, in order to be interesting, needs only to be treated with clearness and precision.
These two requisites I will endeavour to keep steadily in
view. In the order which I am to follow, I shall be guided solely by a regard to the subserviency of one science to the progress of another, and to the consequent priority of the former in the order of regular study.
For this reason, the history of the pure Mathe-
matics will be first considered, as that science has been one of the two principal instruments applied by the moderns to the advancement of natural knowledge.
The other
instrument is Experience ; and, therefore, the principles of the inductive method, or of the branch of Logic which teaches the application of experiment and observation to the interpretation of nature, must be the second object of inquiry j and in this article I shall give an account of Bacon’s Philosophy, as applied to Physical investigation. After these two sections, which may in some measure be considered as introductory, I am to treat of Namss.
II. PART
i.
A
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SECOND
DISSERTATION.
tural Philosophy, under the divisions of Mechanics, Astronomy, and Optics.
Under the
general denomination of Mechanics I include the Theory of Motion, as applied not only to solids, but to fluids, both incompressible and elastic.
Optics I have placed after Astro-
nomy, because the discoveries in Mechanics have much less affected the progress of the former of these sciences than of the latter. To these will succeed a sixth division, containing the laws of the three unknown substances, if, indeed, they may be called substances, —Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism. These, though very different, agree in some general characters.
They permeate all substances, though not with the same facility j and, if
other bodies had been formed in the same manner with them, the idea of impenetrability would never have been suggested to the mind. They seem to receive motion, without taking any away from the body which communicates it; so that they can hardly be considered as inert. Two of them, Heat and Electricity, are perceived by the sense of touch ; but the impression which they make does not convey an idea of resistance.
The
third is not perceived by touch ; and, therefore, all the three might be denominated impalpable substances.
If they have any gravity, it cannot be appreciated ; and, for these
reasons, had it not too paradoxical an appearance, we might class them together as material, but incorporeal substances. We know, indeed, nothing of them but as powers, transferable from one body to another; and it is in consequence of this last circumstance alone that they are entitled to the name of substances. Though the general design of this historical sketch extends from the revival of letters to the beginning of the nineteenth century, I shall, in the present Part, confine myself entirely, as has been done in the first Discourse, to the period preceding the end of the seventeenth century, or, more precisely, to that preceding the invention of the fluxionary calculus, and the discovery of the principle of gravitation ;—one of the most remarkable epochas, without doubt, in the history of human knowledge.
SECTION
I.
MATHEMATICS. 1.
THE
GEOMETRY.
great inheritance of mathematical knowledge which the ancients bequeathed to po-
sterity could not, on the revival of learning, be immediately taken possession of, nor could even its existence be discovered, but by degrees.
Though the study of the Mathematics
SECOND
3
DISSERTATION.
had never been entirely abandoned, it had been reduced to matters of very simple and easy comprehension, such as were merely subservient to practice.
There had been men who
could compute the area of a triangle, draw a meridian line, or even construct a sun-dial, in the worst of times; but between such skill, and the capacity to understand or the taste to relish, the demonstrations of Euclid, Apollonius, or Archimedes, there was a great interval, and many difficulties were to be overcome, lor which much time, and much subsidiary knowledge, were necessary. The repositories of the ancient treasures were to be opened, and made accessible ; the knowledge of the languages was to be acquired; the manuscripts were to be decyphered; and the skill of the grammarian and the critic were to precede, in a certain degree, that of the geometrician or the astronomer.
The obligations
which we h ave to those who undertook this laborious and irksome task, and who rescued the ancient books from the prisons to which ignorance and barbarism had condemned them, and from the final destruction by which they must soon have been overtaken, are such as we can never sufficiently acknowledge; and, indeed, we shall never know even the names of many of the benefactors to whom our thanks are due.
In the midst of the wars,
the confusion, and bloodshed, which overwhelmed Europe during the middle ages, the religious houses and monasteries afforded to the remains of ancient learning an asylum, which a salutary prejudice forced even the most lawless to respect; and the authors who have given the best account of the revival of letters, agree that it is in a great measure to those establishments that we owe the safety of the books which have kept alive the scientific and literary attainments of Greece and Rome. The study of the remains of antiquity gradually produced men of taste and intelligence, who were able to correct the faults of the manuscripts they copied, and to explain the difficulties of the authors they translated. dine, Maurolycus, and many others.
Such were Purbach, Regiomontanus, CommanBy their means, the writings of Euclid, Archi-
medes, Apollonius, Ptolemy, and Pappus, became known and accessible to men of science. Arabia contributed its share towards this great renovation, and from the language of that country was derived the knowledge of many Greek books, of the originals of which, some were not found till long afterwards, and others have never yet been discovered. In nothing, perhaps, is the inventive and elegant genius of the Greeks better exemplified than in their geometry.
The elementary truths of that science were connected by
Euclid into one great chain, beginning from the axioms, and extending to the properties of the five regular solids; the whole digested into such admirable order, and explained with such clearness and precision, that no similar work of superior excellence has appeared*, even in the present advanced state of mathematical science.
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Archimedes had assailed the more difficult problems of geometry, and by means of the method of Exhaustions, had demonstrated many curious and important theorems, with regard to the lengths and areas of curves, and the contents of solids.
The same great geo-
meter had given a beginning to physico-mathematical science, by investigating several propositions, and resolving several problems in Mechanics and Hydrostatics. Apollonius had treated of the Conic Sections,—the Curves which, after the circle, are the most simple and important in geometry; and, by his elaborate and profound researches, had laid the foundation of discoveries which were to illustrate very distant ages. Another great invention, the Geometrical Analysis, ascribed very generally to the Platonic school, but most successfully cultivated by the geometer just named, is one of the most ingenious and beautiful contrivances in the mathematics.
It is a method of discover-
ing truth by reasoning concerning things unknown, or propositions merely supposed, as if the one were given, or the other were really true.
A quantity that is unknown, is only to
be found from the relations which it bears to quantities that are known. By reasoning on these relations, we come at last to some one so simple, that the thing sought is thereby determined.
By this analytical process, therefore, the thing required is discovered, and we
are at the same time put in possession of an instrument by which new truths may be found out, and which, when skill in using it has been acquired by practice, may be applied to an unlimited extent. A similar process enables us to discover the demonstrations of propositions, supposed to be true, or, if not true, to discover that they are false. This method, to the consideration of which we shall again have an opportunity of returning, was perhaps the most valuable part of the ancient mathematics, inasmuch as a method of discovering truth is more valuable than the truths it has already discovered. Unfortunately, however, the fragments containing this precious remnant had suffered more from the injuries of time than almost any other. In the fifteenth century, Regiomontanus, already mentioned, is the mathematician who holds the highest rank.
To him we owe many translations and commentaries, together
with several original and valuable works of his own. Trigonometry, which had never been known to the Greeks as a separate science, and which took that form in Arabia, advanced, in the hands of Regiomontanus, to a great degree of perfection, and approached very near to the condition which it has attained at the present day.
He also introduced the use of
decimal fractions into arithmetic, and thereby gave to that scale its full extent, and to numerical computation the utmost degree of simplicity and enlargement which it seems capable of attaining.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
This eminent man was cut off in the prime of life ; and his untimely death, says Mr Smith, amidst innumerable projects for the advancement of science, is even at this day a matter of regret.1
2
He was buried in the
him at his death prove that science had now become a distinction which the great were disposed to recognise. Werner, who lived in the end of this century, is the first among the moderns who appears to have been acquainted with the geometrical analysis.
His writings are very
rare, and I have never had an opportunity of examining them.
What I here assert is
on the authority of Montucla, whose judgment in this matter may be safely relied on, as he has shown, by many instances, that he was well acquainted with the nature of the analysis referred to.
It is not a little remarkable that Werner should have understood this
subject, when we find many eminent mathematicians, long after his time, entirely unacquainted with it, and continually expressing their astonishment how the ancient geometers found out those simple and elegant constructions and demonstrations, of which they have given so many examples.
In the days of Werner, there was no ancient book known ex-
cept the Data of Euclid, from which any information concerning the geometrical analysis could be collected ; and it is highly to his credit, that, without any other help, he should have come to the knowledge of a method not a little recondite in its principles, and among the finest inventions either of ancient or of modern science.
Werner resolved, by means
of it, Archimedes’s problem of cutting a sphere into two segments, having a given ratio to one another.
He proposed also to translate, from the Arabic, the work of Apollonius,
entitled Sectio Rationis, rightly judging it to be an elementary work in that analysis, and to come next after the Data of Euclid. * Benedetto, an Italian mathematician, appears also to have been very early acquainted with the principles of the same ingenious method, as he published a book on the geometrical analysis at Turin in 1.585. Maurolycus of Messina flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century, and is justly regarded as the first geometer of that age.
Beside furnishing many valuable translations
and commentaries, he wrote a treatise on the coiiic sections, which is highly esteemed. He endeavoured also to restore the fifth book of the conics of Apollonius, in which that geometer treated of the maxima and minima of the conic sections.
1 2
His writings all indicate
History of Astronomy, p. 90. Regiomontanus was born in 1456, and died in 1496, See Montucla, Vol. I. p. 581.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
0
a man of clear conceptions, and of a strong understanding; though he is taxed with having dealt in astrological prediction. In the early part of the seventeenth century, Cavalleri was particularly distinguished, and made an advance in the higher geometry, which occupies the middle place between the discoveries of Archimedes and those of Newton. For the purpose of determining the lengths and areas of curves, and the contents of solids contained within curve superficies, the ancients had invented a method, to which the name of Exhaustions has been given ; and in nothing, perhaps, have they more displayed their powers of mathematical invention. Whenever it is required to measure the space bounded by curve lines, the length of a curve, or the solid contained within a curve superficies, the investigation does not fall within the range of elementary geometry.
Rectilineal figures are compared, on the principle
of superposition, by help of the notion of equality which is derived from the coincidence of magnitudes both similar and equal.
Two rectangles of equal bases and equal altitudes
are held to be equal, because they can perfectly coincide.
A rectangle and an oblique
angled parallelogram, having equal bases and altitudes, are shown to be equal, because the same triangle, taken from the rectangle on one side, and added to it on the other, converts it into the parallelogram $ and thus two magnitudes which are not similar, are shown to have equal areas.
In like manner, if a triangle and a parallelogram have the same base
and altitude, the triangle is shown to be half the parallelogram ; because, if to the triangle there be added another, similar and equal to itself, but in the reverse position, the two together will compose a parallelogram, having the same base and altitude with the given triangle.
The same is true of the comparison of all other rectilineal figures j and if the
reasoning be carefully analyzed, it will always be found to be reducible to the primitive and original idea of equality, derived from things that coincide or occupy the same space 5 that is to say, the areas which are proved equal are always such as, by the addition or subtraction of equal and similar parts, may be rendered capable of coinciding with one another. This principle, which is quite general with respect to rectilineal figures, must fail, when we would compare curvilineal and rectilineal spaces with one another, and make the latter serve as measures of the former, because no addition or subtraction of rectilineal figures can ever produce a figure which is curvilineal.
It is possible, indeed, to combine curvilineal
figures, so as to produce one that is rectilineal; but this principle is of very limited extent; it led to the quadrature of the lunulce of Hippocrates, but has hardly furnished any other result which can be considered as valuable in science.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
7
In the difficulty to which geometers were thus reduced, it might occur, that, by inscribing a rectilineal figure within a curve, and circumscribing another round it, two limits could be obtained, one greater and the other less than the area required.
It was also evi-
dent, that, by increasing the number, and diminishing the sides of those figures, the two limits might be brought continually nearer to one another, and of course nearer to the curvilinear area, which was always intermediate between them.
In prosecuting this sort of
approximation, a result was at length found out, which must have occasioned no less surprise than delight to the mathematician who first encountered it.
The result I mean
is, that, when the series of inscribed figures was continually increased, by multiplying the number of the sides, and diminishing their size, there was an assignable rectilineal area, to which they continually approached, so as to come nearer it than any difference that could be supposed.
The same limit would also be observed to belong to the circumscribed
figures, and therefore it could be no other than the curvilineal area required. It appears to have been to Archimedes that a truth of this sort first occurred, when he found that two-thirds of the rectangle, under the ordinate and abscissa of a parabola, was a limit always greater than the inscribed rectilineal figure, and less than the circumscribed. In some other curves, a similar conclusion was found, and Archimedes contrived to show that it was impossible to suppose that the area of the curve could differ from the said limit, without admitting that the circumscribed figure might become less, or the inscribed figure greater than the curve itself.
The method of Exhaustions was the name given to the in-
direct demonstrations thus formed.
Though few things more ingenious than this method
have been devised, and though nothing could be more conclusive than the demonstrations resulting from it, yet it laboured under two very considerable defects. In the first place, the process by which the demonstration was obtained was long and difficult; and, in the second place, it was indirect, giving no insight into the principle on which the investigation was founded.
Of consequence, it did not enable one to find out similar demonstra-
tions, nor increase one’s power of making more discoveries of the same kind.
It was a de-
monstration purely synthetical, and required, as all indirect reasoning must do, that the conclusion should be known before the reasoning is begun.
A more compendious, and a
more analytical method, was therefore much to be wished for, and was an improvement, which, at a moment when the field of mathematical science was enlarging so fast, seemed particularly to be required. Cavalleri, born at Milan in the year 1598, is the person by whom this great improvement was made.
The principle on which he proceeded was, that areas may be considered as
made up of an infinite number of parallel lines; solids of an infinite number of parallel
SECOND DISSERTATION.
8
planes ; and even lines themselves, whether curve or straight, of an infinite number of points. The cubature of a solid being thus reduced to the summation of a series of planes, and the quadrature of a curve to the summation of a series of ordinates, each of the investigations was reduced to something more simple.
It added to this simplicity not a little,
that the sums of series are often more easily found, when the number of terms is infinitely great, than when it is finite, and actually assigned. It appears that a tract on stereometry, written by Kepler, whose name will hereafter be often mentioned, first led Cavalleri to take this view of geometrical magnitudes.
In that
tract, which was published in 1615, the measurement of many solids was proposed, which had not before fallen under the consideration of mathematicians.
Such, for example, was
that of the solids generated by the revolution of a curve, not about its axis, but about any line whatsoever.
Solids of that kind, on account of their affinity with the figure of casks,
and vessels actually employed for containing liquids, appeared to Kepler to offer both curious and useful subjects of investigation.
There were no less than eighty-four such
solids, which he proposed for the consideration of mathematicians. He was, however, himself unequal to the task of resolving any but a small number of the simplest of these problems. In these solutions, he was bold enough to introduce into geometry, for the first time, the idea of infinitely great and infinitely small quantities, and by this apparent departure from the rigour of the science, he rendered it in fact a most essential service. Kepler conceived a circle to be composed of an infinite number of triangles, having their common vertex in the centre of the circle, and their infinitely small bases in the circumference. It is to be remarked, that Galileo had also introduced the notion of infinitely small quantities, in his first dialogue, De Mechanica, where he treats of a cylinder cut out of a hemisphere ; and he has done the same in treating of the acceleration of falling bodies.
Cavalleri was
the friend and disciple of Galileo, but much more profound in the mathematics.
In his
T
hands the idea took a more regular and systematic form, and w as explained in his work on indivisibles, published in 1635. The rule for summing an infinite series of terms in arithmetical progression had been long known, and the application of it to find the area of a triangle, according to the method of indivisibles, was a matter of no difficulty. The next step was, supposing a series of lines in arithmetical progression, and squares to be described on each of them, to find what ratio the sum of all these squares bears to the greatest square, taken as often as there are terms in the progression.
Cavalleri showed, that when the number of terms is infinitely great,
the first of these sums is just one-third of the second. of many solids. i
This evidently led to the cubature
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SECOND DISSERTATION".
Proceeding one step farther, he sought for the sum of the cubes of the same lines, and found it to be one-fourth of the greatest, taken as often as there are terms; and, continuing this investigation, he was able to assign the sum of the nth. powers of a series in arithmetical progression, supposing always the difference of the terms to be infinitely small, and their number to be infinitely great. gations may be easily conceived.
The number of curious results obtained from these investiIt gave, over geometrical problems of the higher class,
the same power which the integral calculus, or the inverse method of fluxions does, in the case when the exponent of the variable quantity is an integer.
The method of indivisibles,
however, was not without difficulties, and could not but be liable to objection, with those accustomed to the rigorous -exactness of the ancient geometry.
In strictness, lines; how-
ever multiplied, can never make an area, or any thing but a line ; nor can areas, however they may be added together, compose a solid, or any thing but an area.
This is certainly
true, and yet the conclusions of Cavalleri, deduced on a contrary supposition, are true also. This happened, because, though the suppositions that a certain series of lines, infinite m number, and contiguous to one another, may compose a certain area, and that another series may compose another area, are neither of them true ; yet is it strictly true, that the one of these areas must have to the other the same ratio which the sum of the one series of lines has to the sum of the other series.
Thus, it is the ratios of the areas, and not the
areas absolutely considered, which are determined by the reasonings of Cavalleri; and that this determination of their ratios is quite accurate, can very readily be demonstrated by the method of exhaustions. The method of indivisibles, from the great facility with which it could be managed, furnished a most ready method of ascertaining the ratios of areas and solids to one another, and, therefore, scarcely seems to deserve the epithet which Newton himself bestows upon it, of involving in its conceptions something harsh, (durum,') and not easy to be admitted.
It was the doctrine of infinitely small quantities carried to the extreme,
and gave at once the result of an infinite series of successive approximations.
Nothing,
perhaps, more ingenious, and certainly nothing more happy, ever was contrived, than to arrive at the conclusion of all these approximations, without going through the approximations themselves.
This is the purpose served by introducing into mathematics the con-
sideration of quantities infinitely small in size, and infinitely great in * number ; ideas which, however inaccurate they may seem, yet, when carefully and analogically reasoned upon, have never led into error. Geometry owes to Cavalleri, not only the general method just described, but many particular theorems, which that method was the instrument of discovering. DISS. II. PART i.
B
Among these is
SECOND DISSERTATION.
le)
the very remarkable proposition, that as four right angles, to the excess of the three ayigles of any spherical triangle, above two right angles, so is the superficies of the hemisphere to the area of the triangle.
At that time, however, science was advancing so fast, and the
human mind was everywhere expanding itself with so much energy, that the same discovery was likely to be made by more individuals than one at the same time.
It was
not known in Italy in 1632, when this determination of the area of a spherical triangle was given by Cavalleri, that it had been published three years before by Albert Girard, a mathematician of the Low Countries, of whose inventive powers we shall soon have more occasion to speak. The Cycloid afforded a number of problems, well calculated to exercise the proficients in the geometry of indivisibles, or of infinites.
It is the curve described by a point in the
circumference of a circle, while the circle itself rolls in a straight line along a plane.
It
is not quite certain when this curve, so remarkable for its curious properties, and for the place which it occupies in the history of geometry, first drew the attention of mathematicians.
In the year 1639, Galileo informed his friend Torricelli, that, forty years before
that time, he had thought of this curve, on account of its shape, and the graceful form it would give to arches in architecture.
The same philosopher had endeavoured to find the
area of the cycloid ; but though he was one of those who first introduced the consideration of infinites into geometry, he was not expert enough in the use of that doctrine, to be able to resolve this problem.
It is still more extraordinary, that the same problem proved
too difficult for Cavalleri, though he certainly was in complete possession of the principles by which it was to be resolved.
It is, however, not easy to determine whether it be to
Torricelli, the scholar of Cavalleri, and his successor in genius and talents, or to Roberval, a French mathematician of the same period, and a man also of great originality and invention, that science is indebted for the first quadrature of the cycloid, or the proof that its area is three times that of its generating circle. it.
Both these mathematicians laid claim to
The French and Italians each took the part of their own countryman ; and in their
zeal have so perplexed the question, that it is hard to say on which side the truth is to be found.
Torricelli, however, was a man of a mild, amiable, and candid disposition ; Ro-
berval of a temper irritable, violent, and envious ; so that, in as far as the testimony of the individuals themselves is concerned, there is no doubt which ought to preponderate.
They had both the skill and talent which fitted them for this, or even for more
difficult researches. The other properties of this curve, those that respect its tangents, its length, its curvature, &c. exercised the ingenuity, not only of the geometers just mentioned, but of Wren,
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SECOND DISSERTATION.
Wallis, Huygens, and, even after the invention of the integral calculus, oi Newton, Leibnitz, and Bernoulli. Roberval also improved the method of quadratures invented by Cavalleri, and extended his solutions to the case, when the powers of the terms in the arithmetical progression ol which the sum was to be found were fractional; and Wallis added the case when they were negative. Fermat, who, in his inventive resources, as well as in the correctness of his mathematical taste,1 yielded to none of his contemporaries, applied the consideration of infinitely small quantities to determine the maxima and minima of the ordinates of curves, as also their tangents. Barrow, somewhat later, did the same in England. Afterwards the geometry of infinites fell into the hands of Leibnitz and Newton, and acquired that new character which marks so distinguished an era in the mathematical sciences.
2. ALGEBRA.
It was not from Greece alone that the light proceeded which dispelled the darkness of the middle ages; for, with the first dawn of that light, a mathematical science, of a name and character unknown to the geometers of antiquity, was received in Europe from Arabia. As early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, Leonardo, a merchant of Pisa, having made frequent visits to the East, in the course of commercial adventure, returned to Italy enriched by the traffic, and instructed by the science of those countries. He brought with him the knowledge of Algebra; and a late writer quotes a manuscript of his, bearing the date of 1202, and another that of 1228. *
The importation of Algebra
into Europe is thus carried back nearly 200 years farther than has generally been supposed, for Leonardo has been represented as flourishing in the end of the fourteenth century, instead of the very beginning of the thirteenth.
It appears by an extract from his manu-
script, published by the above author, that his knowledge of Algebra extended as far as quadratic equations.
The language was very imperfect, corresponding to the infancy of
the science; the quantities and the operations being expressed in words, with the help only of a few abbreviations.
The rule for resolving quadratics by completing the square, is
demonstrated geometrically. Though Algebra was brought into Europe from Arabia, it is by no means certain that
1
He also was very skilful in the geometric anal3rsis, and seems to have more thoroughly imbibed the spirit of that ingenious invention than any of the moderns before Halley. 5 M. Cossali of Pisa, in a Tract on the Origin of Algebra, 1797>
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12
this last is its native country.
There is, indeed, reason to think that its invention must
be sought for much farther to the East, and probably not nearer than Indostan.
We are
assured by the Arabian writers, that Mahomet Ben Musa of Chorasan, distinguished for his mathematical knowledge, travelled, about the year 959, into India, for the purpose of receiving farther instruction in the science which he cultivated.
It is likewise certain,
that some books, which have lately been brought from India into this country, treat of algebra in a manner that has every appearance of originality, or at least of being derived from no source with which we are at all acquainted. Before the time of Leonardo of Pisa, an important acquisition, also from the East, had greatly improved the science of arithmetic.
This was the use of the Arabic notation, and
the contrivance of making the same character change its signification, according to a fixed rule, when it changed its position, being increased tenfold for every place that it advanced towards the left.
The knowledge of this simple but refined artifice was learned from the
Moors by Gerbert, a monk of the Low Countries, in the tenth century, and by him made known in Europe.
Gerbert was afterwards Pope, by the name of Silvester the Second j
but from that high dignity derived much less glory than from having instructed his countrymen in the decimal notation. The writings of Leonardo, above mentioned, have remained in manuscript; and the first printed book in Algebra is that of Lucas de Burgo, a Franciscan, who, towards the end of the fifteenth century, travelled, like Leonardo, into the East, and was there instructed in the principles of algebra. The characters employed in his work, as in those of Leonardo, are mere abbreviations of words. The letters p and m denote plus and minus ; and the rule is laid down, that, in multiplication, plus into minus gives minus, but minus into minus gives plus.
Thus the first appearance of Algebra is merely that of a
system of short-hand writing, or an abbreviation of common language, applied to the solution of arithmetical problems.
It was a contrivance merely to save trouble ; and yet to
this contrivance we are indebted for the most philosophical and refined art which men have yet employed for the expression of their thoughts.
This scientific language, there-
fore, like those in common use, has grown up slowly, from a very weak and imperfect state, till it has reached the condition in which it is now found. Though in all this the moderns received none of their information from the Greeks, yet a work in the Greek language, treating of arithmetical questions, in a manner that may be accounted algebraic, was discovered in the course of the next century, and given to the world, in a Latin translation, by Xylander, in 1575. This is the work of Diophantus of Alexandria, who had composed thirteen books of Arithmetical Questions, and is sup-
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posed to have flourished about 150 years after the Christian era.
The questions he re-
solves are often of considerable difficulty; and a great deal of address is displayed in stating them, so as to bring out equations of such a form, as to involve only one power of the unknown quantity.
The expression is that of common language, abbreviated and
assisted by a few symbols.
The investigations do not extend beyond quadratic equations ;
they are, however, extremely ingenious, and prove the author to have been a man of talent, though the instrument he worked with was weak and imperfect. The name of Cardan is famous in the history of Algebra.
He was born at Milan in
1501, and was a man in whose character good and ill, strength and weakness, were mixed up in singular profusion. and vain-glorious to excess.
With great talents and industry, he was capricious, insincere, Though a man of real science, he professed divination, and
was such a believer in the influence of the stars, that he died to accomplish an astrological prediction.
He remains, accordingly, a melancholy proof, that there is no folly or weak-
ness too great to be united to high intellectual attainments. Before his time very little advance had been made in the solution of any equations higher than the second degree; except that, as wre are told, about the year 1508, Scipio Ferrei, professor of mathematics at Bologna, had found out a rule for resolving one of the cases of cubic equations, which, however, he concealed, or communicated only to a fewr of his scholars.
One of these, Florido, on the strength of the secret he possessed, agreeably
to a practice then common among mathematicians, challenged Tartalea of Brescia, to contend with him in the solution of algebraic problems.
Florido had at first the advantage;
but Tartalea, being a man of ingenuity, soon discovered his rule, and also another much more general, in consequence of which, he came off at last victorious. By the report of this victory, the curiosity of Cardan was strongly excited; for, though he wras himself much versed in the mathematics, he had not been able to discover a method of resolving equations higher than the second degree.
By the most earnest and importunate solicitation,
he wrung from Tartalea the secret of his rules, but not till he had bound himself, by promises and oaths, never to divulge them.
Tartalea did not communicate the demonstra-
tions, which, however, Cardan soon found out, and extended, in a very ingenious and systematic manner, to all cubic equations whatsoever.
Thus possessed of an important
discovery, which was at least in a great part his own, he soon forgot his promises to Tartalea, and published the whole in 1545, not concealing, however, what he owed to the latter.
Though a proceeding, so directly contrary to an express stipulation, cannot be
defended, one does not much regret the disappointment of any man who would make a mystery of knowledge, or keep his discoveries a secret, for purposes merely selfish.
14
SECOND DISSERTATION.
Thus was first published the rule which still bears the name of Cardan, and which, at this day, marks a point in the progress of algebraic investigation, which all the efforts of succeeding analysts have hardly been able to go beyond.
As to the general doctrine of
equations, it appears that Cardan was acquainted both with the negative and positive roots, the former of which he called by the name of false roots.
He also knew that the num-
ber of positive, or, as he called them, true roots, is equal to the number of the changes of the signs of the terms ; and that the coefficient of the second term is the difference between the sum of the true and the false roots.
He also had perceived the difficulty of
that case of cubic equations, which cannot be reduced to his own rule.
He was not able
to overcome the difficulty, but showed how, in all cases, an approximation to the roots might be obtained. There is the more merit in these discoveries, that the language of Algebra still remained very impel feet, and consisted merely of abbreviations of words. then in the practice of putting their rules into verse.
IVf athematicians were
Cardan has given his a poetical
dress, in which, as may be supposed, they are very awkward and obscure $ for whatever assistance in this way is given to the memory, must be entirely at the expence of the understanding. perfect.
It is, at the same time, a proof that the language of Algebra was very im-
Nobody now thinks of translating an algebraic formula into verse ; because, if
one has acquired any familiarity with the language of the science, the formula will be more easily remembered than any thing that can be substituted in its room. Italy was not the only country into which the algebraic analysis had by this time found its way j in Germany it had also made considerable progress, and Stiphelius, in a book of Algebra, published at Nuremberg in 1544, employed the same numeral exponents of powers, both positive and negative, which we now use, as far as integer numbers are concerned ; but he did not carry the solution of equations farther than the second degree. He introduced the same characters for plus and minus which are at present employed. Robert Recorde, an English mathematician, published about this time, or a few years later, the first English treatise on Algebra, and he there introduced the same sign of equality which is now in use. The properties of algebraic equations were discovered, however, very slowly. Pelitarius, a French mathematician, in a treatise which bears the date of 1558, is the first who observed that the root of an equation is a divisor of the last term ; and he remarked also this curious property of numbers, that the sum of the cubes of the natural numbers is the square of the sum of the numbers themselves. The knowledge of the solution of cubic equations was still confined to Italy. Bombelli,
1.5
SECOND DISSERTATION.
a mathematician of that country, gave a regular treatise on Algebra, and considered, with very particular attention, the irreducible case of Cardan’s rule.
He was the first who
made the remark, that the problems belonging to that case can always be resolved by the trisection of an arch.1 Vieta was a very learned man, and an excellent mathematician, remarkable both for industry and invention.
He was the first who employed letters to denote the known as well
as the unknown quantities, so that it was with him that the language of algebra first became capable of expressing general truths, and attained to that extension which has since rendered it such a powerful instrument of investigation.
He has also given new
demonstrations of the rule for resolving cubic, and even biquadratic equations.
He also
discovered the relation between the roots of an equation of any degree, and the coefficients of its terms, though only in the case where none of the terms are wanting, and where all the roots are real or positive.
It is, indeed, extremely curious to remark, how gradually
the truths of this sort came in sight.
This proposition belonged to a general truth, the
greater part of which remained yet to be discovered.
Vieta’s treatises were originally pub-
lished about the year 1600, and were afterwards collected into one volume by Schooten, in 1646. In speaking of this illustrious man, Vieta, we must not omit his improvements in trigonometry, and still less his treatise on angular sections, which was a most important application of Algebra to investigate the theorems, and resolve the problems of geometry.
He
also restored some of the books of Apollonius, in a manner highly creditable to his own ingenuity, but not perfectly in the taste of the Greek geometry ; because, though the constructions are elegant, the demonstrations are all synthetical. About the same period, Algebra became greatly indebted to Albert Girard, a Flemish mathematician, whose principal
1
work, Invention Nouvelle en Algebrc, was printed
A passage in Bombelli’s book, relative to the Algebra of India, has become more interesting, from the information concerning the science of that country, which has reached Europe within the last twenty years. He tells us, that he had seen in the Vatican library, a manuscript of a certain Diophantus, a Greek author, which he admired so much, that he had formed the design of translating it. He adds, that in this manuscript he had found the Indian authors often quoted; from which it appeared, that Algebra was known to the Indians before it was known to the Arabians. Nothing, however, of all this is to be found in the work of Diophantus, which was published about three years after the time when Bombelli wrote. As it is, at the same time, impossible that he could be so much mistaken about a manuscript which he had particularly examined, this passage remains a mystery, which those who are curious about the ancient history, of science would be very glad to have unravelled. See Hutton’s History of Algebra.
16
SECOND DISSERTATION.
in 1669.
This ingenious author perceived a greater extent, but not yet the whole of the
truth, partially discovered by Vieta, viz. the successive formation of the coefficients of an equation from the sum of the roots ; the sum of their products taken two and two ; the same taken three and three, See. whether the roots be positive or negative.
He appears
also to have been the first who understood the use of negative roots in the solution of geometrical problems, and is the author of the figurative expression, which gives to negative quantities the name of quantities less than nothing ; a phrase that has been severely censured by those who forget that there are correct ideas, which correct language can hardly be made to express.
The same mathematician conceived the notion of imagi-
nary roots, and showed that the number of the roots of an equation could not exceed the exponent of the highest power of the unknown quantity.
He was also in possession of
the very refined and difficult rule, which forms the sums of the powers of the roots of an equation from the coefficients of its terms.
This is the greatest list of discoveries which
the history of any algebraist could yet furnish. The person next in order, as an inventor in Algebra, is Thomas Harriot, an English mathematician, whose book, Artis Analytical Praxis, was published after his death, in 1631.
This book contains the genesis of all equations, by the continued multiplication of
simple equations ; that is to say, it explains the truth in its full extent, to which Vieta and Girard had been approximating.
By Harriot also, the method of extracting the roots of
equations was greatly improved; the smaller letters of the alphabet, instead of the capital letters employed by Vieta, were introduced ; and by this improvement, trifling, indeed, compared with the rest, the form and exterior of algebraic expression were brought nearer to those which are now in use. I have been the more careful to note very particularly the degrees by which the properties of equations were thus unfolded, because I think it forms an instance hardly paralleled in science, where a succession of able men, without going wrong, advanced, nevertheless, so slowly in the discovery of a truth which, when known, does not seem to be of a very hidden and abstruse nature.
Their slow progress arose from this, that they worked with
an instrument, the use of which they did not fully comprehend, and employed a language which expressed more than they were prepared to understand ;—a language which, under the notion, first of negative and then of imaginary quantities, seemed to involve such mysteries as the accuracy of mathematical science must necessarily refuse to admit. The distinguished author of whom I have just been speaking was born at Oxford in 1560.
He was employed in the second expedition sent out by Sir Walter Ralegh to Vir-
SECOND DISSERTATION.
ginia, and on his return published an account of that country.
17
He afterwards devoted
himself entirely to the study of the mathematics ; and it appears from some of his manuscripts, lately discovered, that he observed the spots of the sun as early as December 1610, not more than a month later than Galileo.
He also made observations on Jupiter’s 1
satellites, and on the comets of 1607, and of 1618.
The succession of discoveries, above related, brought the algebraic analysis, abstractly considered, into a state of perfection, little short of that which it has attained at the present moment.
It was thus prepared for the step which was about to be taken by Descartes, and
which forms one of the most important epochas in the history of the mathematical sciences. This was the application of the algebraic analysis, to define the nature, and investigate the properties, of curve lines, and, consequently, to represent the notion of variable quantity. It is often said, that Descartes was the first who applied algebra to geometry; but this is inaccurate ; for such applications had been made before, particularly by Vieta, in his treatise on angular sections.
The invention just mentioned is the undisputed property of
Descartes, and opened up vast fields of discovery for those who were to come after him. The work in which this was contained is a tract of no more than 106 quarto pages ; and there is probably no book of the same size which has conferred so much and so just celebrity on its author.
It was first published in 1637.
In the first of the three books into which the tract just mentioned is divided, the author begins with the consideration of such geometrical problems as may be resolved by circles and straight lines ; and explains the method of constructing algebraic formulas, or of translating a truth from the language of algebra into that of geometry.
He then proceeds
to the consideration of the problem, known among the ancients by the name of the locus ad quatuor rectas, and treated of by Apollonius and Pappus.
The algebraic analysis
afforded a method of resolving this problem in its full extent; and the consideration of it is again resumed in the second book.
The thing required is, to find the locus of a
point, from which, if perpendiculars be drawn to four lines given in position, a given function of these perpendiculars, in which the variable quantities are only of two dimen-
The manuscripts which contain these observations, and probably many other things of great interest, are preserved in the collection of the Earl of Egremont, having come into the possession of his family from Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, a most liberal patron of science, with whom Harriot appears to have chiefly lived after his return from Virginia DISS. 11. PART 1.
c
SECOND DISSERTATION.
18
sions, shall be always of the same magnitude.1 thesis, to be always a conic section ; and he distinguishes the cases in which it is a circle, an ellipsis, a parabola, or a hyperbola.
It was an instance of the most extensive investiga-
tion which had yet been undertaken in geometry, though, to render it a complete solution of the problem, much more detail was doubtless necessary.
The investigation is ex-
tended to the cases where the function, which remains the same, is of three, four, or five dimensions, and where the locus is a line of a higher order, though it may, in certain circumstances, become a conic section.
The lines given in position may be more than
four, or than any given number ; and the lines drawn to them may either be perpendiculars, or lines making given angles with them.
The same analysis applies to all the
cases ; and this problem, therefore, afforded an excellent example of the use of algebra in the investigation of geometrical propositions.
The author takes notice of the unwilling-
ness of the ancients to transfer the language of arithmetic into geometiy, so that they were forced to have recourse to very circuitous methods of expressing those relations of quantity in which powers beyond the third are introduced.
Indeed, to deliver investigation
from those modes of expression which involve the composition of ratios, and to substitute in their room the multiplication of the numerical measures, is of itself a very great advantage, arising from the introduction of algebra into geometry. In this book also, an ingenious method of drawing tangents to curves is proposed by Descartes, as following from his general principles, and it is an invention with which he appears to have been particularly pleased.
He says, “ Nec verebor dicere problema hoe
non modo eorum, quae scio, utilissimum et generalissimum esse, sed etiam eorum quae in geometria scire unquam desideraverim.,, * This passage is not a little characteristic of Descartes, who was very much disposed to think well of what he had done himself, and even to suppose that it could not easily be rendered more perfect.
The truth, however,
is, that his method of drawing tangents is extremely operose, and is one of those hasty views which, though ingenious and even profound, require to be vastly simplified, before they can be reduced to practice.
Fermat, the rival and sometimes the superior of Des-
cartes, was far more fortunate with regard to this problem, and his method of drawing tangents to curves, is the same in effect that has been followed by all the geometers since
1
It will easily be perceived, that the word function is not contained in the original enunciation of the problem. It is a term but lately introduced into mathematical language, and affords here, as on many other occasions, a more general and more concise expression than could be otherwise obtained. 2 Cartesii Geometria, p. 40.
19
SECOND DISSERTATION. his time,
while that of Descartes, which could only be valued when the other was un-
known, has been long since entirely abandoned.
The remainder of the second book is
occupied with the consideration of the curves, which have been called the ovals of Descartes, and with some investigations concerning the centres of lenses ; the whole indicating the hand of a great master, and deserving the most diligent study of those who would become acquainted with this great enlargement of mathematical science. The third book of the geometry treats of the construction of equations by geometric curves, and it also contains a new method of resolving biquadratic equations. The leading principles of algebra were now unfolded, and the notation was brought, from a mere contrivance for abridging common language, to a system of symbolical writing, admirably fitted to assist the mind in the exercise of thought. The happy idea, indeed, of expressing quantity, and the operations on quantity, by conventional symbols, instead of representing the first by real magnitudes, and enunciating the second in words, could not but make a great change on the nature of mathematical investigation. The language of mathematics, whatever may be its form, must always consist of two parts; the one denoting quantities simply, and the other denoting the manner in which the quantities are combined, or the operations understood to be performed on them.
Geometry
expresses the first of these by real magnitudes, or by what may be called natural signs; a line by a line, an angle by an angle, an area by an area, &c. ; and it describes the latter by words.
Algebra, on the other hand, denotes both quantity, and the operations on
quantity, by the same system of conventional symbols. %
Thus, in the expression
3
a?—a x -f- 6 = o, the letters a> b, x, denote quantities, but the terms x3, a x*, &c. denote certain operations performed on those quantities, as well as the quantities themselves; x3 is the quantity x raised to the cube; and ax* the same quantity x raised to the square, and then multiplied into a, &e.; the combination, by addition or subtraction, being also expressed by the signs -f and —. Now, it is when applied to this latter purpose that the algebraic language possesses such exclusive excellence.
The mere magnitudes themselves might be represented by
figures, as in geometry, as well as in any way whatever; but the operations they are to be subjected to, if described in words, must be set before the mind slowly, and in succession, so that the impression is weakened, and the clear apprehension rendered difficult. In the algebraic expression, on the other hand, so much meaning is concentrated into a narrow space, and the impression made by all the parts is so simultaneous, that nothing can be more favourable to the exertion of the reasoning powers, to the continuance of their action, and their security against error.
Another advantage resulting from the use of the
50
SECOND DISSERTATION.
same notation, consists in the reduction of all the different relations among quantities to the simplest of those relations, that of equality, and the expression of it by equations. This gives a great facility of generalization, and of comparing quantities with one another. A third arises from the substitution of the arithmetical operations of multiplication and division, for the geometrical method of the composition and resolution of ratios.
Of the
first of these, the idea is so clear, and the work so simple; of the second, the idea is comparatively so obscure, and the process so complex, that the substitution of the former for the latter could not but be accompanied with great advantage.
This is, indeed, what
constitutes the great difference in practice between the algebraic and the geometric method of treating quantity.
When the quantities are of a complex nature, so as to go be-
yond what in algebra is called the third power, the geometrical expression is so circuitous and involved, .that it renders the reasoning most laborious and intricate.
The great faci-
lity of generalization in algebra, of deducing one thing from another, and of adapting the analysis to every kind of research, whether the quantities be constant or variable, finite or infinite, depends on this principle more than any other.
Few of the early algebraists
seem to have been aware of these advantages. d he use of the signs plus and innius has given rise to some dispute.
These signs were
at hist used the one to denote addition, the other subtraction, and for a long time were applied to no othei purpose.
But as, in the multiplication of a quantity, consisting of parts
connected b^ those signs, into anothei quantity similarly composed, it was always found, and could be universally demonstrated, that, in uniting the particular products of which the total was made up, those of which both the factors had the sign minus before them, must be added into one sum with those of which all the factors had the sign plus ; while those of which one of the factors had the sign plus, and the other the sign minus, must be subtracted from the same,—this general rule came to be more simply expressed by saying, that in multiplication like signs gave plus, and that unlike signs gave minus. Hence the signs plus and minus were considered, not as merely denoting the relation of one quantity to another placed before it, but, by a kind of fiction, they were considered as denoting qualities inherent in the quantities to the names of which they were prefixed. This fiction was found extremely useful, and it was evident that no error could arise from it.
It was necessary to have a rule for determining the sign belonging to a product, from
the signs ol the factors composing that product, independently of every other consideration ; and this was precisely the purpose for which the above fiction was introduced.
So
necessary is this rule in the generalizations of algebra, that we meet with it in Diophantus, notwithstanding the imperfection of the language he employed; for he states, that
21.
SECOND DISSERTATION. Asi^ic into Au-^ig gives "Yra^jg, &C.
The reduction, therefore, of the operations on quanti-
ty to an arithmetical form, necessarily involves this use of the signs plus or minus ; that is, their application to denote something like absolute qualities in the objects they collect together. The attempts to free algebra from this use of the signs have of course failed, and must ever do so, if we would preserve to that science the extent and facility of its operations. Even the most scrupulous purist in mathematical language must admit, that no real error is ever introduced by employing the signs in this most abstract sense.
If the equation
x* -{-px* -i- qx-\-r-o, be said to have one positive and two negative roots, this is certainly as exceptionable an application of the term negative, as any that can be proposed ; yet, in reality, it means nothing but this intelligible and simple truth, that ^ +pa-1 + qx + r= (gc-—ft) (a1 + b) (.r + c); or that the former of these quantities is produced by the multiplication of the three binomial factors, x-—ft, a1 + b, x -f c.
We might say the same nearly as
to imaginary roots; they show that the simple factors cannot be found, but that the quadratic factors may be found; and they also point out the means of discovering them. The aptitude of these same signs to denote contrariety of position among geometric magnitudes, makes the foregoing application of them infinitely more extensive and more indispensable. From the same source arises the great simplicity introduced into many of the theorems and rules of the mathematical sciences.
Thus, the rule for finding the latitude of a place
from the sun’s meridian altitude, if we enqdoy the signs plus and minus for indicating the position of the sun and of the place relatively to the equator, is enunciated in one simple proposition, which includes every case, without any thing either complex or ambiguous. But if this is not done,—if the signs plus and minus are not employed, there must be at least two rules, one when the sun and place are on the same side of the equator, and another when they are on different sides.
In the more complicated calculations of spheri-
cal trigonometry, this holds still .more remarkably.
When one would accommodate such
rules to those who are unacquainted with the use of the algebraic signs, they are perhaps not to be expressed in less than four, or even six different propositions ; whereas, if the use of these signs is supposed, the whole is comprehended in a single sentence. In such cases, it is obvious that both the memory and understanding derive great advantage from the use of the signs, and profit by a simplification, which is the work entirely of the algebraic language, and cannot be imitated by any other. That I might not interrupt the view of improvements so closely connected with one another, I have passed over one of the discoveries, which does the greatest honour to the seventeenth century, and which took place near the beginning of it.
SECOND DISSERTATION. As the accuracy of astronomical observation had been continually advancing, it was necessary that the correctness of trigonometrical calculation, and of course its difficulty, should advance in the same proportion. The signs and tangents of angles could not be expressed with sufficient correctness without decimal fractions, extending to five or six places below unity, and when to three such numbers a fourth proportional was to be found, the work of multiplication and division became extremely laborious.
Accordingly, in the end
of the sixteenth century, the time and labour consumed in such calculations had become excessive, and were felt as extremely burdensome by the mathematicians and astronomers all over Europe.
Napier of Merchiston, whose mind seems to have been peculiarly turn-
ed to arithmetical researches, and who was also devoted to the study of astronomy, had early sought for the means of relieving himself and others from this difficulty.
He had
viewed the subject in a variety of lights, and a number of ingenious devices had occurred to him, by which the tediousness of arithmetical operations might, more or less completely, be avoided.
In the course of these attempts, he did not fail to observe, that whenever the
numbers to be multiplied or divided were terms of a geometrical progression, the product or the quotient must also be a term of that progression, and must occupy a place in it pointed out by the places of the given numbers, so that it might be found from mere inspection, if the progression were far enough continued.
If, for instance, the third term
of the progression were to be multiplied by the seventh, the product must be the tenth, and if the twelfth were to be divided by the fourth, the quotient must be the eighth; so that the multiplication and division of such terms was reduced to the addition and subtraction of the numbers which indicated their places in the progression. This observation, or one very similar to it, was made by Archimedes, and was employed by that great geometer to convey an idea of a number too vast to be correctly expressed by the arithmetical notation of the Greeks.
Thus far, however, there was no difficulty,
and the discovery might certainly have been made by men much inferior either to Napier or Archimedes.
What remained to be done, what Archimedes did not attempt, and what
Napier completely performed, involved two great difficulties. It is plain, that the resource of the geometrical progression was sufficient, when the given numbers were terms of that progression ; but if they were not, it did not seem that any advantage could be derived from it.
Napier, however, perceived, and it was by no means obvious, that all numbers
whatsoever might be inserted in the progression, and have their places assigned in it. After conceiving the possibility of this, the next difficulty was, to discover the principle, and to execute the arithmetical process, by which these places were to be ascertained.
It
is in these two points that the peculiar merit of his invention consists $ and at a period
23
SECOND DISSERTATION.
when the nature of series, and when every other resource of which he could avail himself were so little known, his success argues a depth and originality of thought which, I am persuaded, have rarely been surpassed. The way in which he satisfied himself that all numbers might be intercalated between the terms of the given progression, and by which he found the places they must occupy, was founded on a most ingenious supposition,—that of two points describing two different lines, the one with a constant velocity, and the other with a velocity always increasing in the ratio of the space the point had already gone over : the first of these would generate magnitudes in arithmetical, and the second magnitudes in geometrical progression. It is plain, that all numbers whatsoever would find their places among the magnitudes so generated ; and, indeed, this view of the subject is as simple and profound as any which, after twro hundred years, has yet presented itself to mathematicians. The mode of deducing the results has been simplified; but it can hardly be said that the principle has been more clearly developed. I need not observe, that the numbers which indicate the places of the terms of the geometrical progression are called by Napier the logarithms of those terms. Various systems of logarithms, it is evident, may be constructed according to the geometrical progression assumed ; and of these, that which wras first contrived by Napier, though the simplest, and the foundation of the rest, was not so convenient for the purposes of calculation, as one which soon afterwards occurred, both to himself and his friend Briggs, by whom the actual calculation was performed.
The new system of logarithms was an im-
provement, practically considered ; but in as far as it was connected with the principle of the invention, it is only of secondary consideration. The original tables had been also somewhat embarrassed by too close a connection between them and trigonometry.
The new
tables were free from this inconvenience. It is probable, however, that the greatest inventor in science was never able to do more than to accelerate the progress of discovery, and to anticipate what time, “ the author of authors,” would have gradually brought to light.
Though logarithms had not been in-
vented by Napier, they would have been discovered in the progress of the algebraic analysis, when the arithmetic of powers and exponents, both integral and fractional, came to be fully understood.
The idea of considering all numbers, as powers of one given number, would
then have readily occurred, and the doctrine of series would have greatly facilitated the calculations which it was necessary to undertake.
Napier had none of these advantages,
and they were all supplied by the resources of his own mind.
Indeed, as there never was
any invention for which the state of knowledge had less prepared the way, there never was any where more merit fell to the share of the inventor.
SECOND DISSERTATION. His good fortune, also, not less than his great sagacity, may be remarked.
Had the
invention of logarithms been delayed to the end of the seventeenth century, it would have come about without effort, and would not have conferred on the author the high celebrity which Napier so justly derives from it.
In another respect he has also been fortunate.
Many inventions have been eclipsed or obscured by new discoveries; or they have been so altered by subsequent improvements, that their original form can hardly be recognised, and, in some instances, has been entirely forgotten.
This has almost always happened to
the discoveries made at an early period in the progress of science, and before their principles were fully unfolded.
It has been quite otherwise with the invention of logarithms,
which came out of the hands of the author so perfect, that it has never received but one material improvement, that which it derived, as has just been said, from the ingenuity of his friend in conjunction with his own.
Subsequent improvements in science, instead of
offering any thing that could supplant this invention, have only enlarged the circle to which its utility extended. Logarithms have been applied to numberless purposes, which were not thought of at the time of their first construction.
Even the sagacity of their author did
not see the immense fertility of the principle he had discovered ; he calculated his tables merely to facilitate arithmetical, and chiefly trigonometrical computation, and little imagined that he was at the same time constructing a scale whereon to measure the density of the strata of the atmosphere, and the heights of mountains ; that he was actually computing the areas and the lengths of innumerable curves, and was preparing for a calculus which was yet to be discovered, many of the most refined and most valuable of its resources.
Of Na-
pier, therefore, if of any man, it may safely be pronounced, that his name will never be eclipsed by any one more conspicuous, or his invention superseded by any thing more valuable. As a geometrician, Napier has left behind him a noble monument in the two trio-onometrical theorems, which are known by his name, and which appear first to have been communicated in writing to Cavalleri, who has mentioned them with great eulogy.
1
They are theorems not a little difficult, and of much use, as being particularly adapted to logarithmic calculation.
They were published in the Canon Mirificus Logarithmorum,
at Edinburgh, in 1614. *
1
Wallis, Opera Math. Tom. II. p. 875. A reprint of the Canon Mirijicus, from the original edition, is given in the 6th Volume of the great Thesaurus, in which Baron Maseres, with his usual zeal and intelligence, has collected and illustrated everything of importance that has been written on the subject of logarithms. See Scriptores Logarithmici, 4to. A 475. Vol. VI. p. £ 2
25
SECOND DISSERTATION»
Section II* EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION. In this section I shall begin with a short view of the state of Physical Knowledge before the introduction of the Inductive Method; I shall next endeavour to explain that method by an analysis of the Novum Organum ; and shall then inquire how far the principles established in that work have actually contributed to the advancement of Natural Philosophy. 1. Ancient Physics. Though the phenomena of the material world could not but early excite the curiosity of a being who, like man, receives his strongest impressions from without, yet an accurate knowledge of those phenomena, and their laws, was not to be speedily acquired.
The
meie extent and variety of the objects were, indeed, such obstacles to that acquisition, as could not be surmounted but in the course of many ages.
Man could not at first perceive
from what point he must begin his inquiries, in what direction he must carry them on, or by what rules he must be guided.
He was like a traveller going forth to explore a vast
and unknown wilderness, in which a multitude of great and interesting objects presented themselves on every side, while there was no path for him to follow, no rule to direct his survey, and where the art of observing, and the instruments of observation, must equally be the work of his own invention.
In these circumstances, the selection of the objects to be
studied was the effect of instinct rather than of reason, or of the passions and emotions, more than of the understanding.
When things new and unlike those which occur-
red in the course of every day’s experience presented themselves, they excited wonder or surprise, and created an anxiety to discover some principle which might connect them with the appearances commonly observed.
About these last, men felt no desire to be far-
ther informed ; but when the common order of things was violated, and something new or singular was produced, they began to examine into the fact, and attempted to inquire into the cause.
Nobody sought to know why a stone fell to the ground, why smoke ascended,
oi why the stars revolved round the earth.
But if a fiery meteor shot across the heavens,
—if the flames of a volcano burst forth,—or if an earthquake shook the foundations of the DISS. II. PART I.
D
SECOND DISSERTATION.
26
world, terror and curiosity were both awakened ; and when the former emotion had subsided, the latter was sure to become active.
Thus, to trace a resemblance between the
events with which the observer was most familiar, and those to which he was less accustomed, and which had excited his wonder, was the first object of inquiry, and produced the first advances towards generalization and philosophy.1 This principle, which it were easy to trace, from tribes the most rude and barbarous, to nations the most highly refined, was what yielded the first attempts toward classification and arrangement, and enabled man, out of individuals, subject to perpetual change, to form certain fixed and permanent objects of knowledge,—the species, genera, orders, and classes, into which he has distributed these individuals.
By this effort of mental abstraction, he
has created to himself a new and intellectual world, free from those changes and vicissitudes to which all material things are destined.
This, too, is a work not peculiar to the
philosopher, but, in a certain degree, is performed by every man wrho compares one thing with another, and who employs the terms of ordinary language. Another great branch of knowledge is occupied, not about the mere arrangement and classification of objects, but about events or changes, the laws which those changes observe, and the causes by which they are produced.
In a science, which treated of events and of
change, the nature and properties of motion came of course to be studied, and the ancient philosophers naturally enough began their inquiries with the definition of motion, or the determination of that in which it consists. Aristotle’s definition is highly characteristical of the vagueness and obscurity of his physical speculations.
He calls motion
the act of a
being in power, as far as in power,”—words to which it is impossible that any distinct idea can ever have been annexed. The truth is, however, that the best definition of motion can be of very little service in physics.
Epicurus defined it to be the “ change of place,” which is, no doubt, the sim-
plest and best definition that can be given ; but it must, at the same time, be confessed, that neither he nor the moderns who have retained his definition, have derived the least advantage from it in their subsequent researches. The properties, or, as they are called, the laws of motion, cannot be derived from mere definition j they must be sought for in ex-
1
La maraviglia Dell ’ignoranza e la figlia, E del sapere La madre.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
2/
perience and observation, and are not to be found without a diligent comparison, and scrupulous examination of facts.
Of such an examination, neither Aristotle, nor any other of
the ancients, ever conceived the necessity, and hence those laws remained quite unknown throughout all antiquity. When the laws of motion were unknown, the other parts of natural philosophy could make no great advances.
Instead of conceiving that there resides in body a natural and
universal tendency to persevere in the same state, whether of rest, or of motion, they believed that terrestrial bodies tended naturally either to fall to the ground, or to ascend from it, till they attained their own place ; but that, if they were impelled by an oblique force, then their motion became unnatural or violent, and tended continually to decay.
With the
heavenly bodies, again, the natural motion was circular and uniform, eternal in its course, but perpetually varying in its direction.
Thus, by the distinction between natural and
violent motion among the bodies of the earth, and the distinction between what we may call the laws of motion in terrestrial and celestial bodies, the ancients threw into all their reasonings upon this fundamental subject a confusion and perplexity, from which their philosophy never was delivered. There was, however, one part of physical knowledge in which their endeavours were attended with much better success, and in which they made important discoveries.
This
was in the branch of Mechanics, which treats of the action of forces in equilibrio, and producing not motion but rest;—a subject which may be understood, though the laws of motion are unknown. The first writer on this subject is Archimedes. He treated of the lever, and of the centre of gravity, and has shown that there will be an equilibrium between two heavy bodies connected by an inflexible rod or lever, when the point in which the lever is supported is so placed between the bodies, that their distances from it are inversely as their weights.
Great in-
genuity is displayed in this demonstration ; and it is remarkable, that the author borrows no principle from experiment, but establishes his conclusion entirely by reasoning a priori. He assumes, indeed, that equal bodies, at the ends of the equal arms of a lever, will balance one another; and also, that a cylinder, or parallelepiped of homogeneous matter, will be balanced about its centre of magnitude.
These, however, are not inferences from
experience; they are, properly speaking, conclusions deduced from the principle of the sufficient reason. The same great geometer gave a beginning to the science of Hydrostatics, and discovered the law which determines the loss of weight sustained by a body on being immersed in
SECOND DISSERTATION.
28 water, or in any otlier fluid.
His demonstration rests on a principle, which he lays down
as a postulatum, that, in water, the parts which are less pressed are always ready to yield in any direction to those that are more pressed, and from this, by the application of mathematical reasoning, the whole theory of floating bodies is derived.
The above is the same
principle on which the modern writers on hydrostatics proceed ; they give it not as a postulatum, but as constituting the definition of a fluid. Archimedes, therefore, is the person who first made the application of mathematics to natural philosophy.
No individual, perhaps, ever laid the foundation of more great disco-
veries than that geometer, of whom Wallis has said with so much truth, “ Vir stupendse sagacitatis, qui prima fundamenta posuit inventionum fere omnium in quibus promovendis a?tas nostra gloriatur.” The mechanical inquiries, begun by the geometer of Syracuse, were extended by Ctesibius and Hero ; by Anthemius of Tralles ; and, lastly, by Pappus Alexandrinus.
Ctesi-
bius and Hero were the first who analyzed mechanical engines, reducing them all to combinations of five simple mechanical contrivances, to which they gave the name of aws/?, or Powers, the same which they retain at the present moment. Even in mechanics, however, the success of these investigations was limited ; and failed in those cases where the resolution of forces is necessary, that principle being then entirely unknown.
Hence the force necessary to sustain a body on an inclined plane, is incor-
rectly determined by Pappus, and serves to mark a point to which the mechanical theories of antiquity did not extend. In another department of physical knowledge, Astronomy, the endeavours of the ancients were also accompanied with success.
I do not here speak of their astronomical the-
ories, which were, indeed, very defective, but of their discovery of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, from the observations begun by Hipparchus, and continued by Ptolemy.
In this their success was great; and while the earth was supposed to be at rest, and
while the instruments of observation had but a very limited degree of accuracy, a nearer approach to the truth was probably not within the power of human ingenuity.
Mathema-
1
tical reasonin'’ was very skilfully applied, and no men whatever, in the same circumstances, are likely to have performed more than the ancient astronomers.
They succeeded, be-
cause they were observers, and examined carefully the motions which they treated of. The philosophers, again, who studied the motion of terrestrial bodies, either did not observe at all, or observed so slightly, that they could obtain no accurate knowledge, and in general they knew just enough of the facts to be misled by them.
29
SECOND DISSERTATION.
The opposite ways which the ancients thus took to study the Heavens and the Earth, observing the one, and dreaming, as one may say, over the other, though a striking inconsistency, is not difficult to be explained. No information at all could be obtained in astronomy, without regular and assiduous observation, and without instruments capable of measuring angles, and of measuring time, either directly or indirectly.
The steadiness and regularity of the celestial motions seem-
ed to invite the most scrupulous attention.
On the other hand, as terrestrial objects were
always at hand, and spontaneously falling under men’s view, it seemed unnecessary to take much trouble to become acquainted with them, and as for applying measures, their irregularity appeared to render every idea of such proceeding nugatory.
The Aristotelian phi-
losophy particularly favoured this prejudice, by representing the earth, and all things on its surface, as full of irregularity and confusion, while the principles of heat and cold, dryness and moisture, were in a state of perpetual warfare.
The unfortunate division of mo-
tion into natural and violent, and the distinction, still moie unfoitunate, between the pioperties of motion and of body, in the heavens and on the earth, prevented all intercourse between the astronomer and the naturalist, and all transfeience of the maxims of the one to the speculations of the other. Though, on account of this inattention to experiment, nothing like the true system of natural philosophy was known to the ancients, there are, nevertheless, to be found in theii writings many brilliant conceptions, several fortunate conjectures, and gleams of the light which was afterwards to be so generally diffused. Anaxagoras and Empedocles, for example, taught that the moon shines by light borrowed from the sun, and were led to that opinion, not only from the phases of the moon, but from its light being weak, and unaccompanied by heat.
That it was a habitable body,
like the earth, appears to be a doctrine as old as Orpheus ; some lines, ascribed to that poet, representing the moon as an earth, with mountains and cities on its surface. Democritus supposed the spots on the face of the moon to arise from the inequalities of the surface, and from the shadows of the more elevated parts projected on the plains.
Every
one knows how conformable this is to the discoveries made by the telescope. Plutarch considers the velocity of the moon’s motion as the cause which prevents that body from falling to the earth, just as the motion of a stone in a sling prevents it from falling to the ground.
The comparison is, in a certain degree, just, and clearly implies
the notion of centrifugal force ; and gravity may also be considered as pointed at for the cause which gives the moon a tendency to the earth.
Here, therefore, a foundation was
30
SECOND DISSERTATION.
laid for the true philosophy of the celestial motions ; but it was laid without effect.
It was
merely the conjecture of an ingenious mind, wandering through the regions of possibility, guided by no evidence, and having no principle which could give stability to its opinions. Democritus, and the authors of that physical system which Lucretius has so beautifully illustrated, were still more fortunate in some of their conjectures.
They taught that the
Milky Way is the light of a great number of small stars, very close to one another ; a magnificent conception, which the latest improvements of the telescope have fully verified. Yet, as if to convince us that they derived this knowledge from no pure or certain source, the same philosophers maintained, that the sun and the moon are bodies no larger than they appear to us to be. Very just notions concerning comets were entertained by some of the ancients.
The
Chaldeans considered those bodies as belonging to the same order with the planets; and this was also the opinion of Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, and Democritus. The remark of Seneca on this subject is truly philosophical, and contains a prediction which has been fully accomplished : “ Why do we wonder that comets, which are so rare a spectacle in the world, observe laws which to us are yet unknown, and that the beginning and end of motions, so seldom observed, are not yet fully understood ?”—Veniet tempus, quo ista qua? nunc latent, in luceni dies extrahat, etlongioris cevi diligentia: ad inquisitionem tantoruni cetas una non sufficit.
Ve?iiet tempus, quo posteri nostri tam aperta nos nescisse miren-
1
tur.
It was, however, often the fate of such truths to give way to error.
The comets,
which these ancient philosophers had ranked so justly with the stars, were degraded by Aristotle into meteors floating in the earth’s atmosphere ; and this was the opinion concerning them which ultimately prevailed. But, notwithstanding the above, and a few other splendid conceptions which shine through the obscurity of the ancient physics, the system, taken on the whole, was full of error and inconsistency.
Truth and falsehood met almost on terms of equality ; the for-
mer separated from its root, experience, found no preference above the latter ; to the latter, in fact, it was generally forced to give way, and the dominion of error was finally established. One ought to listen, therefore, with caution to the encomiums sometimes bestowed on the philosophy of those early ages.
1
If these encomiums respected only the talents, the
Nat. Quaest. Lib. vii. c. 25. IQ
SI
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o-enius, tlie taste of the great masters of antiquity, we would subscribe to them without any apprehension of going beyond the truth.
But if they extend to the methods of phi-
losophizing, and the discoveries actually made, we must be excused for entering our dissent, and exchanging the language of panegyric for that of apology.
The infancy of science
could not be the time when its attainments were the highest; and, before we suffer ourselves to be guided by the veneration of antiquity, we ought to consider in what real antiquity consists.
With regard to the progress of knowledge and improvement, “ we are
more ancient than those who went before us.”1
The human race has now more experi-
ence than in the generations that are past, and of course may be expected to have made higher attainments in science and philosophy.
Compared with natural philosophy, as it
now exists, the ancient physics are rude and imperfect.
The speculations contained in
them are vague and unsatisfactory, and of little value, but as they elucidate the history of the errors and illusions to which the human mind is subject.
Science was not merely sta-
tionary, but often retrograde; the earliest opinions were frequently the best; and the reasonings of Democritus and Anaxagoras were in many instances more solid than those of Plato and Aristotle.
Extreme credulity disgraced the speculations of men who, however
ingenious, were little acquainted with the laws of nature, and unprovided with the great criterion by which the evidence of testimony can alone be examined. Though observations were sometimes made, experiments were never instituted; and philosophers, who were little attentive to the facts which spontaneously offered, did not seek to increase their number by artificial combinations.
Experience, in those ages, was a light which darted a few
tremulous and uncertain rays on some small portions of the field of science, but men had not acquired the power over that light which now enables them to concentrate its beams, and to fix them steadily on whatever object they wish to examine.
This power is what dis-
tinguishes the modern physics, and is the cause why later philosophers, without being more ingenious than their predecessors, have been infinitely more successful in the study of nature.
2. Novum Organum. The defects which have been ascribed to the ancient physics were not likely to be corrected in the course of the middle ages.
It is true, that, during those ages, a science of pure
Bacon.
52
SECOND DISSERTATION.
experiment had made its appearance in the world, and might have been expected to remedy the greatest of these defects, by turning the attention of philosophers to experience and observation.
This effect, however, was far from being immediately produced ; and none
who professed to be in search of truth ever wandered over the regions of fancy, in paths more devious and eccentric, than the first experimenters in chemistry.
They had become
acquainted with a series of facts so unlike to any thing already known, that the ordinary principles of belief were shaken or subverted, and the mind laid open to a degree of credulity far beyond any with which the philosophers of antiquity could be reproached.
An un-
looked-for extension of human power had taken place ; its limits were yet unknown ; and the boundary between the possible and the impossible was no longer to be distinguished.
The
adventurers in an unexplored country, given up to the guidance of imagination, pursued objects which the kindness, no less than the wisdom of nature, have rendered unattainable by man ; and in their speculations peopled the air, the earth, and all the elements, with spirits and genii, the invisible agents destined to connect together all the facts which they knew, and all those which they hoped to discover.
Chemistry, in this state, might be said
to have an elective attraction for all that was most absurd and extravagant in the other parts of knowledge; alchemy was its immediate offspring, and it allied itself in succession with the dreams of the Cabbalists, the Rosicrucians, and the Theosophers. Thus a science, founded in experiment, and destined one day to afford such noble examples of its use, exhibited for several ages little else than a series of illusory pursuits, or visionary speculations, while now and then a fact was accidentally discovered. Under the influence of these circumstances arose Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludde, Cardan, and several others, conspicuous no less for the weakness than the force of their understandings : men who united extreme credulity, the most extravagant pretensions, and the most excessive vanity, with considerable powers of invention, a complete contempt for authority, and a desire to consult experience ; but destitute of the judgment, patience, and comprehensive views, without which the responses of that oracle are never to be understood. Though they appealed to experience, and disclaimed subjection to the old legislators of science, they were in too great haste to become legislators themselves, and to deduce an explanation of the whole phenomena of nature from a few facts, observed without accuracy. arranged without skill, and never compared or confronted with one another.
For-
tunately, however, from the turn which their inquiries had taken, the ill done by them has passed away, and the good has become permanent.
The reveries of Paracelsus have disap-
peared, but his application of chemistry to pharmacy has conferred a lasting benefit on the
SECOND DISSERTATION. world.
33
The Archceus of Van Helrnont, and the army of spiritual agents with which
the discovery of elastic fluids had filled the imagination of that celebrated empiric, are laughed at, or forgotten ; but the fluids which he had the sagacity to distinguish, form, at the present moment, the connecting principles of the new chemistry. Earlier than any of the authors just named, but in a great measure under the influence of the same delusions, Roger Bacon appears to have been more fully aware than any of them of the use of experiment, and of mathematical reasoning, in physical and mechanical inquiries.
But, in the thirteenth century, an appeal from the authority of the schools,
even to nature herself, could not be made with impunity.
Bacon, accordingly, incurred
the displeasure both of the University and of the Church, and this forms one of his claims to the respect of posterity, as it is but fair to consider persecution inflicted by the ignoraiit and bigoted as equivalent to praise bestowed by the liberal and enlightened. Much more recently, Gilbert, in his treatise on the Magnet, had given an example of an experimental inquiry, carried on with more correctness, and more enlarged views, than had been done by any of his predecessors.
Nevertheless, in the end of the sixteenth century,
it might still be affirmed, that the situation of the great avenue to knowledge was fully understood by none, and that its existence, to the bulk of philosophers, was utterly unknown. It was about this time that Irancis Bacon (Uord Verulam) began to turn his powerful and creative mind to contemplate the state of human knowledge, to mark its imperfections, and to plan its improvement.
One of the considerations which appears to have
impressed his mind most forcibly, was the vagueness and uncertainty of all the physical speculations then existing, and the entire want of connection between the sciences and the arts. Though these two things are in their nature so closely united, that the same truth which is a principle in science, becomes a rule in art, yet there was at that time hardly any practical improvement which had arisen from a theoretical discovery.
The natural alliance be-
tween the knowledge and the power of man seemed entirely interrupted; nothing was to be seen of the mutual support which they ought to afford to one another; the improvement of art was left to the slow and precarious operation of chance, and that of science to the collision of opposite opinions. “ ®ut whence,” said Bacon, “ can arise such vagueness and sterility in all the physical systems which have hitherto existed in the world ? It is not certainly from any thing in nature itself j for the steadiness and regularity of the laws by which it is governed clearly DISS. II. PART I.
E
SECOND DISSERTATION.
54
mark them out as objects of certain and precise knowledge.
Neither can it arise from any
want of ability in those who have pursued such inquiries, many of whom have been men of the highest talent and genius of the ages in which they lived ; and it can, therefore, arise from nothing else but the perverseness and insufficiency of the methods that have been pursued.
Men have sought to make a world from their own conceptions, and to draw
from their own minds all the materials which they employed ; but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have had facts, and not opinions, to reason about, and might have ultimately arrived at the knowledge of the laws which govern the material world.” “ As things are at present conducted,” he adds, “ a sudden transition is made from sensible objects and particular facts to general propositions, which are accounted principles, and round which, as round so many fixed poles, disputation and argument continually revolve.
From the propositions thus hastily assumed, all things are derived, by a pro-
cess compendious and precipitate, ill suited to discovery, but wonderfully accommodated to debate.
The way that promises success is the reverse of this.
It requires that we should
generalize slowly, going from particular things to those that are but one step more general; from those to others of still greater extent, and so on to such as are universal.
By such
means, we may hope to arrive at principles, not vague and obscure, but luminous and welldefined, such as nature herself will not refuse to acknowledge.” Before laying down the rules to be observed in this inductive process, Bacon proceeds to enumerate the causes of error,—the Idols^ as he terms them, in his figurative language, or false divinities to which the mind had so long been accustomed to bow.
He considered
this enumeration as the more necessary, that the same idols were likely to return, even after the reformation of science, and to avail themselves of the real discoveries that might have been made, for giving a colour to their deceptions. These idols he divides into four classes, to which he gives names, fantastical, no doubt, but, at the same time, abundantly significant. Idola Tribus,
Idols of the Tribe,
—— Specus,
of the Den,
Fori,
of the Forum,
Theatri,
of the Theatre.
1. The idols of the tribe, or of the race, are the causes of error founded on human nature in general, or on principles common to all mankind.
“ The mind,” he observes, “ is
not like a plain mirror, which reflects the images of things exactly as they are j it is like 10
SECOND DISSERTATION.
35
a mirror of an uneven surface, which combines its own figure with the figures of the objects it represents.”
1
Among the idols of this class, we may reckon the propensity which there is in all men to find in nature a greater degree of order, simplicity, and regularity, than is actually indicated by observation.
Thus, as soon as men perceived the orbits of the planets to re-
turn into themselves, they immediately supposed them to be perfect circles, and the motion in those circles to be uniform ; and to these hypotheses, so rashly and gratuitously assumed, the astronomers and mathematicians of all antiquity laboured incessantly to reconcile their observations. The propensity which Bacon has here characterized so well, is the same that has been, since his time, known by the name of the spirit of system.
The prediction, that the
sources of error would return, and were likely to infest science in its most flourishing condition, has been fully verified with respect to this illusion, and in the case of sciences which had no existence at the time when Bacon wrote.
When it was ascertained, by ob-
servation, that a considerable part of the earth’s surface consists of minerals, disposed in horizontal strata, it was immediately concluded, that the whole exterior crust of the earth is composed, or has been composed, of such strata, continued all round without interruption ; and on this, as on a certain and general fact, entire theories of the earth have been constructed. There is no greater enemy which science has to struggle with than this propensity of the mind ; and it is a struggle from which science is never likely to be entirely relieved ; because, unfortunately, the illusion is founded on the same principle from which our love of knowledge takes its rise. 2. The idols of the den are those that spring from the peculiar character of the individual.
Besides the causes of error which are common to all mankind, each individual,
according to Bacon, has his own dark cavern or den, into which the light is imperfectly admitted, and in the obscurity of which a tutelary idol lurks, at whose shrine the truth is often sacrificed. One great and radical distinction in the capacities of men is derived from this, that some minds are best adapted to mark the differences, others to catch the resemblances, of things.
Steady and profound understandings are disposed to attend carefully, to pro-
ceed slowly, and to examine the most minute differences; while those that are sublime
1
Novum Organum, Lib. i. Aph. 41.
36
SECOND DISSERTATION.
and active are ready to lay hold of the slightest resemblances.
Each of these easily runs
into excess; the one by catching continually at distinctions, the other at affinities. The studies, also, to which a man is addicted, have a great effect in influencing his opinions.
Bacon complains, that the chemists of his time, from a few experiments with
the furnace and the crucible, thought that they were furnished with principles sufficient to explain the structure of the universe ; and he censures Aristotle for having depraved his physics so much with his dialectics, as to render the former entirely a science of words and controversy.
In like manner, he blames a philosopher of his own age, Gilbert, who
had studied magnetism to good purpose, for having proceeded to form out of it a general system of philosophy.
Such things have occurred in every period of science.
Thus elec-
tricity has been applied to explain the motion of the heavenly bodies j and, of late, galvanism and electricity together have been held out as explaining, not only the affinities of chemistry, but the phenomena of gravitation, and the laws of vegetable and animal life. It were a good caution for a man who studies nature, to distrust those things with which he is particularly conversant, and which he is accustomed to contemplate with pleasure. 3. The idols of the forum are those that arise out of the commerce or intercourse of society, and especially from language, or the means by which men communicate their thoughts to one another. Men believe that their thoughts govern their words $ but it also happens, by a certain kind of reaction, that their words frequently govern their thoughts.
This is the more
pernicious, that words, being generally the work of the multitude, divide things according to the lines most conspicuous to vulgar apprehensions.
Hence, when words are examined,
few instances are found in which, if at all abstract, they convey ideas tolerably precise and well defined.
For such imperfections there seems to be no remedy, but by having recourse
to particular instances, and diligently comparing the meanings of words with the external archetypes from which they are derived. 4. The idols of the theatre are the last, and are the deceptions which have taken their rise from the systems or dogmas of the different schools of philosophy.
In the opinion of
Bacon, as many of these systems as had been invented, so many representations of imaginary worlds had been brought upon the stage.
Hence the name of idola theatri.
They do not enter the mind imperceptibly like the other three ; a man must labour to acquire them, and they are often the result of great learning and study. “ Philosophy,’* said he, “ as hitherto pursued, has taken much from a few things, or a little from a great many ; and, in both cases, has too narrow a basis to be of much dura-
SECOND DISSERTATION. tion or
57
The Aristotelian philosophy is of the latter kind ; it has taken its prin-
ciples from common experience, but without due attention to the evidence or the precise nature of the facts ; the philosopher is left to work out the rest from his own invention. Of this kind, called by Bacon the sophistical, were almost all the physical systems of antiquity. When philosophy takes all its principles from a few facts, he calls it empirical,—such as was that of Gilbert, and of the chemists. It should be observed, that Bacon does not charge the physics of antiquity with being absolutely regardless of experiment.
No system, indeed, however fantastical, has ever
existed, to which that reproach could be applied in its full extent; because, without some regard to fact, no theory can ever become in the least degree plausible.
The fault lies
not, therefore, in the absolute rejection of experience, but in the unskilful use of it; in taking up principles lightly from an inaccurate and careless observation of many things ; or, if the observations have been more accurate, from those made on a few facts, unwarrantably generalized. Bacon proceeds to point out the circumstances, in the history of the world, which had hitherto favoured these perverse modes of philosophizing.
He observes, that the periods
during which science had been cultivated were not many, nor of long duration.
They
might be reduced to three % the first with the Greeks ; the second with the Romans ; and the third with the western nations, after the revival of letters.
In none of all these
periods had much attention been paid to natural philosophy, the great parent of the sciences. With the Greeks, the time was very short during which physical science flourished in any degree.
The seven Sages, with the exception of Thales, applied themselves entirely to
morals and politics ; and in lat^r times, after Socrates had brought down philosophy from the heavens to the earth, the study of nature was generally abandoned.
In the Roman
republic, the knowledge most cultivated, as might be expected among a martial and ambitious people, was such as had a direct reference to war and politics.
During the empire,
the introduction and establishment of the Christian religion drew the attention of men to theological studies, and the important interests which were then at stake left but a small share of talent and ability to be occupied in inferior pursuits.
The corruptions which followv ed, and the vast hierarchy which assumed the command both of the sword and the sceptre, while it occupied and enslaved the minds of men, looked with suspicion on sciences which could not easily be subjected to its control. At the time, therefore, when Bacon wrote, it might truly be said, that a small portion
i
SECOND DISSERTATION.
as
even of the learned ages, and of the abilities of learned men, had been dedicated to the study of Natural Philosophy.
This served, in his opinion, to account for the imperfect
state in which he found human knowledge in general; for he thought it certain, that no part of knowledge could attain much excellence without having its foundation laid in physical science. He goes on to observe, that the end and object of knowledge had been very generally mistaken ; that many, instead of seeking through it to improve the condition of human life, by new inventions and new resources, had aimed only at popular applause, and had satisfied themselves with the knowledge of words more than of things: while others, who were exceptions to this rule, had gone still farther wrong, by directing their pursuits to objects imaginary and unattainable.
The alchemists, for example, alternately the dupes of
their own credulity and of their own imposture, had amazed and tormented the world with hopes which were never to be realized.
Others, if possible more visionary, had promised
to prolong life, to extinguish disease and infirmity, and to give man a command over the world of spirits, by means of mystic incantations. “ All this,” says he, “ is the mere boasting of ignorance ; for, when the knowledge of nature shall be rightly pursued, it will lead to discoveries that will as far excel the pretended powers of magic, as the real exploits of Caesar and Alexander exceed the fabulous adventures of Arthur of Britain, or Amadis of Gaul.”
1
Again, the reverence for antiquity, and the authority of great names, have contributed much to retard the progress of science.
Indeed, the notion of antiquity which men have
taken up seems to be erroneous and inconsistent.
It is the duration of the world, or of
the human race, as reckoned from the extremity that is past, and not from the point of time which is present, that constitutes the true antiquity to which the advancement of science may be conceived to bear some proportion; and just as we expect more wisdom and experience in an old than in a young man, we may expect more knowledge of nature from the present than from any of the ages that are past. “ It is not to be esteemed a small matter in this estimate, that, by the voyages and travels of these later times, so much more of nature has been discovered than was known at any former period.
It would, indeed, be disgraceful to mankind, if, after such tracts of the
material world have been laid open, which were unknown in former times,—so many seas trav, rstd,—so many countries explored,—so many stars discovered,—that philosophy, or the intelligible world, should be circumscribed by the same boundaries as before.”
1
Nov. Org. Lib. i. Aph. 87.
3
measures employed, it has conveyed no information to posterity.
1
Edinburgh Review, Vo). V. p. 391*
T,
b
“,f;r
SECOND DISSERTATION.
107
The first arch of the meridian measured in modern times with an accuracy any way corresponding to the difficulty of the problem, was by Snellius, a Dutch mathematician, who has given an account of it in a volume which he calls Eratosthenes Batavus, published in 1617.
The arch was between Bergen-op-zoom and Alkmaar; its amplitude was
1° 11' 80", and the distance was determined by a series of triangles, depending on a base line carefully measured.
The length of the degree that resulted was 55,021 toises,
which, as was afterwards found, is considerably too small. Certain errors were discovered, and when they were corrected, the degree came out 57,033 toises, which is not far from the truth.
The corrections were made by Snellius himself, who measured his base over
again, and also the angles of the triangles. the result.
He died, however, before he could publish
Muschenbroek, who calculated the whole anew from his papers, came to the
conclusion just mentioned, which, of course, was not known till long after the time when the measure was executed.
No advantage, accordingly, was derived to the world from
this measurement till its value was lost in that of other measurements still more accurately conducted. A computation which, for the time, deserves considerable praise, is that of Norwood, in 1635, who measured the distance between London and York, taking the bearings as he proceeded along the road, and reducing all to the direction of the meridian, and to the horizontal plane.
The difference of latitude he found, by observation of the solstices, to
be 2° 28', and from that and his measured distance, he concluded the degree to be 567,176 feet English, or 57,800 toises.
This has been found to be a near approxima-
tion ; yet his method was not capable of great accuracy, nor did he always execute it in the best manner.
“ Sometimes,^ says he, “ I measured, sometimes I paced, and I be-
lieve I am within a scantling of the truth.M Fernel, a French physician, measured with a wheel from Paris to Amiens, which are nearly in the same meridian, and he determined the degree from thence to be 56,746 French toises; a result which falls short of the truth, though not very considerably. These investigations, it is plain, could not but leave considerable uncertainty with respect to the magnitude of the earth.
The Academy of Sciences became interested in the
question, and the measurement of an arch in the meridian was undertaken under its auspices, .and executed by the Abbe Picard, already known for his skill in the operations of practical geometry.
He followed a method similar to that of Snellius, according to which,
the distance between Amiens and Malvoisine was found from a series of triangles, and a base of 5663^ toises.
He determined the difference of latitude by means of a zenith sector of
ten feet radius, and found it to be 1° 22' 55",
The whole distance was 78,850 toises.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
108
whence the degree came out 57,060 toises.
This was the first measurement of a degree
of the meridian, on which perfect reliance could be placed. Hitherto no doubt had been entertained of the spherical figure of the earth, and, of consequence, of the equality of all the degrees of the meridian, so that if one was known, the whole circumference was determined.
Men, with the precipitation which they so of-
ten manifest, of assuming, without sufficient evidence, the conclusion which appears most simple, were no sooner satisfied that the earth was round, than they supposed it to be truly spherical.
An observation soon occurred, which gave reason to suspect, that much
more must be done before its figure or its magnitude were completely ascertained. With a view of observing the sun’s altitude in the vicinity of the equator, where the distance from the zenith being inconsiderable, the effects of refraction must be of small account, it was agreed, by the same academy, to send an astronomer, M. Richer, to make observations at the island of Cayenne, in South America. Richer observed the solstitial altitude of the sun at that place in 16/2, and found the distance of the tropics to be 46° 57' 4" ; and, therefore, the obliquity of the ecliptic 23* 28' 32", agreeing almost precisely with the determination of Cassini. The most remarkable circumstance, however, which occurred in the course of this voyage, was, that the clock, though furnished with a pendulum of the same length which vibrated seconds at Paris, was found, at Cayenne, to lose two minutes and a half a-day nearly.
This created great astonishment in France, especially after the accuracy of it was
confirmed by the observations of Varin and Deshayes, who, some years afterwards, visited different places on the coast of Africa and America, near the line, and found the necessity of shortening the pendulum, to make it vibrate seconds in those latitudes.
The fiist ex-
planation of this remarkable phenomenon was given by Newton, in the third book of his Principia, published in 1687, where it is deduced as a necessary consequence of the earth’s rotation on its axis, and of the centrifugal force thence arising.
That force changes both
the direction and the intensity of gravity, giving to the earth an oblate spheroidal figure, more elevated at the equator than the poles, and making bodies fall, and pendulums vibrate, more slowly in low than in high latitudes. This solution, however, did not, any more than the book in which it was contained, make its way very readily into France.
The first explanation of the retardation of the
pendulum, which was received there, was given by Huygens in 1690.
Huygens deduced
it also from the centrifugal force, arising from the earth’s rotation, and the view which he took was simpler, though much less accurate than that of Newton.
It had, indeed, the
simplicity which often arises from neglecting one of the essential conditions of a problem ;
SECOND DISSERTATION.
109
but it was nevertheless ingenious, and involved a very accurate knowledge of the nature of centrifugal force.
I am thus brought to touch on a subject which belongs properly
to the second part of this Dissertation, for which the fuller discussion of it must of course be reserved.
Section V. . OPTICS. 1. Optical Knowledge of the Ancients. On account of the rectilineal propagation of light, the phenomena of optics are easily expressed in the form of mathematical propositions, and seem, as it were, spontaneously to offer themselves to the study of geometers.
Euclid perceiving this affinity, began to ap-
ply the science which he had already cultivated with so much success, to explain the laws of vision, before a similar attempt had been made with respect to any other branch of terrestrial physics, and at least fifty years before the researches of Archimedes had placed mechanics among the number of the mathematical sciences. In the treatise ascribed to Euclid, there are, however, only two physical principles which have completely stood the test of subsequent improvement.
The first of these is
the proposition just referred to, that a point in any object is seen in the direction of a straight line drawn from the eye to that point; and the second is, that when a point in an object is seen by reflection from a polished surface, the lines drawn from the eye and from the object to the point whence the reflection is made, are equally inclined to the reflecting surface.
These propositions are assumed as true ; they were, no doubt, known before
the time of Euclid, and it is supposed that the discovery of them was the work of the Platonic school.
The first of them is the foundation of Optics 'proper, or the theory of vi-
sion by direct light; the second is the foundation of Catoptrics, or the theory of vision by reflected light.
Dioptrics, or vision by refracted light, had not yet become an object
of attention. Two other principles which Euclid adopted as postulates in his demonstrations, have not met with the same entire confirmation from experiment, and are, indeed, true only in certain cases, and not universally, as he supposed.
The first of these is, that we
judge of the magnitude of an object altogether by the magnitude of the optical angle, or the angle wnich it subtends at the eye.
It is true that this an-le is an important ele-
SECOND DISSERTATION.
110
ment in that judgment, and Euclid, by discovering this, came into the possession of a valuable truth ; but by a species of sophistry, very congenial to the human mind, he extended the principle too far, and supposed it to be the only circumstance which determines our judgment of visible magnitude.
It is, indeed, the only measure which we are fur-
nished with directly by the eye itself; but there are few cases in which we form our estimate without first appealing to the commentary afforded by the sensations of touch, or the corrections derived from our own motion. Another principle, laid down by the same geometer, is in circumstances nearly similar to the preceding.
According to it, the place of any point of an object seen by reflection,
is always the intersection of the reflected ray, with the perpendicular drawn from that point to the reflecting surface.
The proof offered is obscure and defective ; the proposi-
tion, however, is true, of plain speculums always, and of spherical as far as Euclid’s investigations extended, that is, while the rays fall on the speculum with no great obliquity. His assumption, therefore, did not affect the truth of his conclusions, though it would have been a very unsafe guide in more general investigations.
The book is in many other
respects imperfect, the reasoning often unsound, and the whole hardly worthy of the great geometer whose name it bears.
There is, however, no doubt that Euclid wrote on the
subject of optics, and many have supposed that this treatise is a careless extract, or an unskilful abridgment of the original work. Antiquity furnished another mathematical treatise on optics, that of the astronomer Ptolemy.
This treatise, though kiiowm in the middle ages, and quoted by Roger Bacon,
had disappeared, and was supposed to be entirely lost, till within these few years, when a manuscript on optics, professing to be the work of Ptolemy, and to be translated from the Arabic, was found in the King’s Library at Paris.
The most valuable part of this work
is that which relates to refraction, from whence it appears that many experiments had been made on that subject, and the angles of incidence and refraction, for different transparent substances, observed with so much accuracy, that the same ratio very nearly of the sines of these angles, from air into water, or into glass, is obtained from Ptolemy’s numbers, which the repeated experiments of later times have shown to be true.
The work,
however, in the state in which it now appears, is very obscure, the reasoning often deficient in accuracy, and the mathematical part much less perfect than might have been expected.
Modern writers, presuming partly on the reputation of Ptolemy, and partly
guided by the authority of Roger Bacon, had ascribed to this treatise more merit than it appears to possess; and, of consequence, had allowed less to the Arabian author Alhazen, who comes next in the order of time, than of right belongs to him. 10
Montucla, on the
SECOND DISSERTATION.
Ill
authority of Bacon, says, that Ptolemy ascribed the increase of the apparent magnitude of the heavenly bodies near the horizon, to the greater distance at which they are supposed to be, on account of the number of intervening objects across which they are seen. 1
lemy’s explanation, however, as stated by Delambre,
Pto-
from the manuscript just mention-
ed, is quite different from this, and amounts to no more than the vague and unsatisfactory remark, that an observer looks at the bodies near the zenith in a constrained posture, and in a situation to which the eye is not accustomed.
The former explanation, therefore,
given by Alhazen, but supposed to have been borrowed from Ptolemy, must now be returned to its right owner.
It is the best explanation yet known.
These are the only mathematical treatises on optics of any consideration which the ancients have transmitted to us j
a
but many metaphysical speculations on light and vision are
to be found in the writings of the philosophers.
Aristotle defined light much as he had
defined motion; the act or energy of a transparent body, in as much as it is transparent. The reason for calling light an act of a transparent body is, that, though a body may be transparent in power or capacity, it does not become actually transparent but by means of light.
Light brings the transparency into action ; it is, therefore, the act of a transpa-
rent body.
In such miserable puerilities did the genius of this great man exhaust itself,
owing to the unfortunate direction in which his researches were carried on. In his farther speculations concerning light, he denied it to be a substance ; and his argument contains a singular mixture of the ingenious and the absurd.
The time, he
says, in which light spreads from one place to another is infinitely small, so that light has a velocity which is infinitely great.
Now, bodies move with a velocity inversely as the
quantities of matter which they contain;
1
light, therefore, cannot contain any mat-
Connaissance des Terns, 1816, p. 245, &c. The glimpses of truth, not destined to be fully discovered till many ages afterwards, which are found in the writings of the ancients, are always interesting. Ptolemy distinguishes what has since been called the virtual focus, which takes place in certain cases of reflection from spherical specula. He remarks, that colours are confounded by the rapidity of motion, and gives the instance of a wheel painted with different colours, and turned quickly round. Another Greek treatise on optics, that of Heliodorus of Larissa, has been preserved, and was first published by Erasmus Bartholinus at Paris, in 1657* It is a superficial work, which, to a good deal of obscure and unsound metaphysics, adds the demonstration of a few very obvious truths. The author holds the opinion, that vision is performed by the emission of something from the eyes ; and the reason which he assigns is, that the eyes are convex, and more adapted to emit than to receive. His metaphysics may be judged of from this specimen. He has not been made mention of by any ancient author, and the time when he wrote is unknown. As he quotes, however, the writings of Ptolemy and Hero, he must have been later than the first century.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
n2
ter, that is, it cannot be material.'
That the velocity of light was infinitely great,
seemed to him to follow from this, that its progress, estimated either in the direction o^ north and south, or of east and west, appeared to be instantaneous.
In the opinion of
the Platonists, and of the greater part of the ancients, vision was performed by means o certain rays which proceeded from the eye to the object, though they did not become the instruments of conveying sensations to the mind, but in consequence of the presence ot light.
In this theory, we can now see nothing but a rude and hasty attempt to assimi-
late the sense of sight to that of touch, without inquiring sufficiently into the particular characters of either. Epicurus, and the philosophers of his school, as we learn from Lucretius, entertained more correct notions of vision, though they were still far from the truth.
They conceiv-
ed vision to be performed in consequence of certain simulacra, or images contumacy thrown off from the surfaces of bodies, and entering the eye.
This was the substitute m
their philosophy for rays of light, and had at least the merit of representing that which is the medium of vision, or which forms the communication between the eye and external objects, as something proceeding from the latter. The idea of simulacra, or spectra, flving off continually from the surfaces of bodies, and entering the eye, was perhaps as near an approach to the true theory of vision as could be made before the structure of the eye was understood. ’ In the arts connected with optics, the ancients had made some progress.
They were
sufficiently acquainted with the laws of reflection to construct mirrors both plane and spherical.
They made them also conical; and it appears from Plutarch, that the file o
Vesta, when extinguished, was not pennitted to be rekindled but by the rays of the sun, which were condensed by a conical speculum of copper.
The mirrors with which
Archimedes set fire to the Roman gallics have been subjects of much discussion, and the fact was long disbelieved, on the ground of being physically impossible.
The experiments
of Kircher and Buffon showed that this impossibility was entirely imaginary, and that the effect ascribed to the specula of the Greek geometer might be produced without much difficulty.
There remains now no doubt of their reality.
A passag-e from Aristophanes
gives reason to believe that, in his time, lenses of glass were used for burning, by col-
1 The truth of the mathematical proposition, that ^ = °> is- always visible in the midst of his greatest errors. 2 In Nubibus, Act. 2. sc. 1. v. 20.
6
was
perceived by Aristotle. A stron„ intellect
Second dissertation.
113
lecting the rays of the sun ; but in a matter that concerns the history of science, the authority of a comic poet and a satirist would not deserve much attention, if it were not confirmed by more sober testimony.
Pliny, speaking of rock crystal,1 says that a globe or
ball of that substance was sometimes used by the physicians for collecting the rays of the sun, in order to perform the operation of cautery.
In another passage, he mentions the
power of a glass globe filled with water, to produce a strong heat when exposed to the rays of the sun, and expresses his surprise that the water itself should all the while remain quite cold. With respect to the power of glasses to magnify objects seen through them, or to render such objects more distinct, the ancients appear to have observed ill, and to have reasoned worse.
“ Literae quamvis minutae et obscurae per vitream pilam aqua plenum
majores clarioresque cernuntur.
Sidera amphora per nubem adspicienti videntur : quia
acies nostra in humido labitur, nec apprehendere quod vult Jideliter potest” *
This
passage, and the speculations concerning the rainbow in the same place, when they are considered as containing the opinions of some of the most able and best informed men of antiquity, must be admitted to mark, in a very striking manner, the infancy of the physical sciences. 2. From Alhazen to Kepler. An interval of nearly a thousand years divided Ptolemy from Alhazen, who, in the history of optical discovery, appears as his immediate successor.
This ingenious Ara-
bian lived in the eleventh century, and his merit can be more fairly, and will be more highly appreciated, now that the work of his predecessor has become known. The merit of his book on Optics was always admitted, but he was supposed to have borrowed much from Ptolemy, without acknowledging it; and the prejudices entertained in favour of a Greek author, especially of one who had been for so many years a legislator in science, gave a false impression, both of the genius and the integrity of his modern rival.
The work of Alhazen is, nevertheless, in many respects,
superior to that of Ptolemy, and in nothing more than in the geometry which it employs.
The problem known by his name, to find the point in a spherical speculum, at
which a ray coming from one given point shall be reflected to another given point, is very well resolved in his book, though a problem of so much difficulty, that Montucla hazards
1
Hist. Nat. Lib. 37. cap. 10.
DISS. II. PART I.,
2
P
Seneca, Nat. Quest. Lib. i. cap. 6,
second DISSERTATION.
1 14-
the opinion, that no Arabian geometer was ever equal to the solution of it.1
It is now
certain, however, that the solution, from whatever quarter it came, was not borrowed from Ptolemy, in whose work no mention is made of any such question ; and it may very well be doubted, whether, had this problem been proposed to him, the Greek geometer would have appeared to as much advantage as the Arabian. The account which the latter gives of the augmentation of the diameters of the heavenly bodies near the horizon has been already mentioned.
He treated also of the re-
fraction of light by transparent bodies, and particularly of the atmospheric refraction, but not with the precision of Ptolemy, whose optical treatise Delambre seems to think it probable that he had never seen.
The anatomical structure of the eye was known to him j
concerning the uses of the different parts he had only conjectuies to offei j but on seeing single with two eyes, he made this very important remark, that, when corresponding parts of the retina are affected, we perceive but one image. Prolixity and want of method are the faults of Alhazen.
\itelio,
a learned Pole,
commented on his works, and has very much improved their method and ariangement in a treatise published in 1270.
He has also treated more fully of the subject of re-
fraction, and reduced the results of his experiments into the form of a table exhibiting the angles of refraction corresponding to the angles of incidence, which he had tiied in water and glass.
It was not, however, till long after this penod that the law which con-
nects these angles was discovered.
The cause of refraction appeared to him to be the re-
sistance which the rays suffer in passing into the denser medium of water or glass, and one can see in his reasoning an obscure idea of the resolution of forces.
He also treats of the
rainbow, and remarks, that the altitudes of the sun and bow together always amount to 42 degrees.
He next considers the structure of the eye, of which .he has given a toler-
ably accurate description, and proves, as Alhazen had before done,
3
that vision is not
performed by the emission of rays from the eye. Roger Bacon, distinguished for pursuing the path of true philosophy in the midst of an
1 Barrow, in his 9th lecture, says of this Problem, that it may truly be called as hardly any one more difficult had then been attempted by geometers. He adds, that, after trying the analysis in many different ways, he had found nothing preferable to the solution of Alhaz n, which he therefore gives only freed from the prolixness and obscurity with which the original is chargeable. Lectiones Opticee, Sect. 9. p. 65. A very elegant solution of the same problem is given by Simson, at the end of his Conic Sections. 2 The name of this author is commonly written Vitellio. He may be supposed to have known best the orthography of his own name. 3 4 Alhazen, Opt. lib. 1.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
115
age of ignorance and error, belongs to the same period ; and applied to the study of optics with peculiar diligence.
It does not appear, however, that he added much to the
discoveries of Alhazen and Ptolemy, with whose writings, particularly those of the former, he seems to have been well acquainted.
In some things he was much behind the Ara-
bian optician, as he supposed with the ancients that vision is performed by rays emitted from the eye.
It must, however, be allowed, that the arguments employed on both sides
of this question are so weak and inconclusive, as very much to diminish the merit of beinoright, and the demerit of being wrong.
What is most to the credit of Bacon, is the near
approach he appears to have made to the knowledge of lenses, and their use in assisting vision.
Alhazen had remarked, that small objects, letters, for instance, viewed through a
segment of a glass sphere, were seen magnified, and that it is the larger segment which magnifies the most.
The spherical segment was supposed to be laid with its base on the
letters, or other minute objects which were to be viewed.
Bacon recommends the smaller
segment, and observes, that the greater, though it magnify more, places the object farther off than its natural position, while the other brings it nearer.
This shows sufficiently, that
he knew how to trace the progress of the rays of light through a spherical transparent body, and understood, what was the thing least obvious, how to determine the place of the image.
Smith, in his Optics, endeavours to show, that these conclusions were purely
theoretical, and that Roger Bacon had never made any experiments with such glasses, notwithstanding that he speaks as if he had done so.
1
This severe remark proceeds
on some slight inaccuracy in Bacon’s description, which, however, does not seem sufficient to authorize so harsh a conclusion.
The probability appears rather to be, as
Molineux supposed, that Bacon had made experiments with such glasses, and was both practically and theoretically acquainted with their properties.
At the same time it
must be acknowledged, that his credulity on many points, and his fondness for the marvellous, which, with every respect for his talents, it is impossible to deny, take something away from the force of his testimony, except when it is very expressly given. However that may be in the present case, it is probable, that the knowledge of the true properties of these glasses, whether it was theoretical or practical, may have had a share in introducing the use of lenses, and in the invention of spectacles, which took place not long after. It would be desirable to ascertain the exact period of an invention of such singular uti-
1
Smith’s Optics, Vol. II. Remarks, § 76.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
1X6
lity as this last; one that diffuses its advantages so widely, and that contributes so much to the solace and comfort of old age, by protecting the most intellectual of the senses against the general progress of decay.
In the obscurity of a dark age, careless about re-
cording discoveries of which it knew not the principle or the value, a few taint traces and imperfect indications serve only to point out certain limits within which the thing sought for is contained.
Seeking for the origin of a discovery, is like seeking for the source of a
river where innumerable streams have claims to the honour, between which it is impos sible to decide, and where the only thing that can be known with certainty is the boundary by which they are all circumscribed.
The reader will find the evidence concerning
the invention of spectacles very fully discussed in Smith’s Optics, from which the most probable conclusion is, that the date goes back to the year 13X3, and cannot with any certainty be traced farther.1 The lapse of more than two hundred years brings us down to Maurolycus, and to an age when men of science ceased to be so thinly scattered over the wastes of time.
Mau-
rolycus, whose knowledge of the pure mathematics has been already mentioned, was distinguished for his skill in optics.
He was acquainted with the crystalline lens, and
conceived that its office is to transmit to the optic nerve the species of external objects ; and in this process he does not consider the retina as any way concerned.
This
theory, though so imperfect, led him nevertheless to form a right judgment of the defects of short-sighted and long-sighted eyes.
In one of bis first works, Theoremata de
Lumine et Umbra, he also gives an accurate solution of a question proposed by Aristotle, viz. why the light of the sun, admitted through a small hole, and received on a plane at a certain distance from it, always illuminates a round space, whatever be the figure of the hole itself, whereas, through a large aperture, the illuminated space has the figure of the aperture.
To conceive the reason of this, suppose that the figure of the hole is a
triangle ; it is plain that at each angle the illuminated space will be terminated by a circular arch of which the centre corresponds to the angular point, and the radius to the angle subtended by the sun’s semidiameter.
Thus the illuminated space is rounded off at
the angles; and when the hole is so small that the size of those roundings bears a large proportion to the distance of their, centres, the figure comes near to a circle, and may be to appearance quite round.
This is the true solution, and the same with that of Mauio-
1
Smith’s Optics, Vol. II.
Remarks, $ 75.
SECOND DISSERTATION. lyciis.
117
The same author appears also to have observed the caustic curve formed by reflec-
tion from a concave speculum. A considerable step in optical discovery was made at this time by Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan, who invented the Camera Obscura, about the year 1560, and described it in a work, entitled Magia Naturalis.
The light was admitted through a small hole in the
window-shutter of a dark room, and gave an inverted picture of the objects from which it proceeded, on the opposite wall.
A lens was not employed in the first construction of
this apparatus, but was afterwards used ; and Porta went so far as to consider how the effect might be produced without inversion.
He appears to have been a man of great in-
genuity ; and though much of the Magia Naturalis is directed to frivolous objects, it indicates a great familiarity with experiment and observation.
It is remarkable, that we
find mention made in it of the reflection of cold by a speculum,1 an experiment which, of late, has drawn so much attention, and has been supposed to be so entirely new.
The
cold was perceived by making the focus fall on the eye, which, in the absence of the thermometer, was perhaps the best measure of small variations of temperature.
Porta’s book was
extremely popular ; and when we find it quickly translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and Arabic, we see how much the love of science was now excited, and what effects the art of printing was now beginning to produce.
Baptista Porta was a man of fortune, and
his house was so much the resort of the curious and learned at Naples, that it awakened the jealousy with which the court of Rome watched the progress of improvement.
How
grievous it is to observe the head of the Christian church in that and the succeeding' age, like the Anarch old in Milton, reigning in the midst of darkness, and complaining of the encroachments which the realm of light was continually making on his ancient empire! The constitution of the eye, and the functions of the different parts of which it consists, were not yet fully understood. Maurolycus had nearly discovered the secret, and it was but a thin, though, to him, an impenetrable veil, which still concealed one important part of the truth.
This veil was drawn aside by the Neapolitan philosopher j but the complete dis-
covery of the truth was left to Kepler, who, to the glory of finding out the true laws of the planetary system, added that of first analyzing the whole scheme of nature in the structure of the eye.
He perceived the exact resemblance of this organ to the dark cham-
ber, the rays entering the pupil being collected by the crystalline lens, and the other hu-
1
Magia Naturalis, Lib. 17. cap. 4. p, 583. Amsterdam edit. 1(364.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
118
mours of the eye, into foci, which paint on the retina the inverted images of external objects.
By another step of the process, to which our analysis can never be expected to
extend, the mind perceives the images thus formed, and refers them at the same time to things without. It seemed a great difficulty, that, though the images be inverted, the objects are seen erect; but when it is, considered that each point in the object is seen in the direction of the line in which the light passes from it to the retina, through the centre of the eye, it will appear that the upright position of the object is a necessary consequence of this arrangement. Kepler’s discovery is explained in his Paralipomena in Vitellionem1 (Remarks on the Optics of Vitello), a work of great genius, abounding with new and enlarged views, though mixed occasionally with some unsound and visionary speculations. 1604.
This book appeared in
In the next article we shall have occasion to return to the consideration of other
parts of Kepler’s optical discoveries. 3. From Kepler to the commencement of Newton’s Optical Discoveries. The rainbow had, from the earliest times, been an object of interest with those who bestowed attention on optical appearances, but it is much too complicated a phenomenon to be easily explained.
In general, however, it was understood to arise from light reflected by
the drops of rain falling from a cloud opposite to the sun.
The difficulty seemed to be
how to account for the colour, which is never produced in white light, such as that of the sun, by mere reflection.
Maurolycus advanced a considerable step when he supposed that
the light enters the drop, and acquires colour by refraction ; but in tracing the course of the ray he was quite bewildered.
Others supposed the refraction and the colour to be
the effect of one drop, and the reflection of another ; so that two refractions and one reflection were employed, but in such a manner as to be still very remote from the truth. Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, had the good fortune to fall upon the true explanation.
Having placed a bottle of water opposite to the sun, and a little above his
eye, he saw a beam of light issue from the under side of the bottle, which acquired different colours, in the same order, and with the same brilliancy as in the rainbow, when the bottle was a little raised or depressed.
From comparing all the circumstances, he perceived that
the rays had entered the bottle, and that, after two refractions from the convex part, and
1
Caput 5. de Mode Visionis.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
119
a reflection from the concave, they were returned to the eye tinged with different colours, according to the angle at which the ray had entered.
The rays that gave the same colour
made the same angle with the surface, and hence all the drops that gave the same colour fnust be arranged in a circle, the centre of which was the point in the cloud opposite to the sun.
This, though not a complete theory of the rainbow, and though it left a great
deal to occupy the attention, first of Descartes, and afterwards of Newton, was perfectly just, and carried the explanation as far as the principles then understood allowed it to o-o. The discovery itself may be considered as an anomaly in science, as it is one of a very refined and subtle nature, made by a man who has given no other indication of much scientific sagacity or acuteness.
In many things his writings show great ignorance of prin-
ciples of optics well known in his own time, so that Boscovich, an excellent judge in such matters, has said of him, “ homo opticarum rerum, supra id quod patiatur ea a3tas imperitissimus.,,
The book containing this discovery was published in 1611.
1
A discovery of the same period, but somewhat earlier, will always be considered as among the most remarkable in the whole circle of human knowledge.
It is the invention
of the telescope, the work in which (by following unconsciously the plan of nature in the formation of the eye) man has come the nearest to the construction of a new organ of sense.
For this great invention, in its original form, we are indebted to accident, or
to the trials of men who had little knowledge of the principles of the science on which they were conferring so great a favour.
A series of scientific improvements, con-
tinued for more than two hundred years, has continually added to the perfection of this noble instrument, and has almost entitled science to consider the telescope as its own production. It will readily be believed, that the origin of such an invention has been abundantly inquired into.
The result, however, as is usual in such cases, has not been quite satisfac-
tory; and all that is known with certainty is, that the honour belongs to the town of Middleburgh in Zealand, and that the date is between the last ten years of the sixteenth century, and the first ten of the seventeenth.
Two different workmen belonging to that
town, Zachariah Jans, and John Lapprey, have testimonies in their favour between which it is difficult to decide; the former goes back to 1590, the latter comes down to about 1610.
It is not of much consequence to settle the priority in a matter which is purely
accidental; yet one would not wish to forget or mistake the names of men whom even
1
De Radiis Lucis in Vitris perspectivis et Iride.—Venstiis, in 4to.
SECOND DISSERTATION.
120
chance had rendered so great benefactors to science.
What we know with certainty as,
that the account of the effect produced by this new combination of glasses being carried to Galileo in 1610, led that great philosopher to the construction of the telescope, and to the interesting discoveries already enumerated.
By what principle he was guided to
the combination, which consists of one convex and one concave lens, he has not explain, ed, and we cannot now exactly ascertain.
He had no doubt observed, that a convex lens,
such as was common in spectacles, formed images of objects, which were distinctly seen when thrown on a wall or on a screen.
He might observe also, that if the image, instead
of falling on the screen, were made to fall on the eye, the vision was confused and indistinct.
In the trials to remedy this indistinctness, by means of another glass, it would be
found that a concave lens succeeded when placed before the eye, the eye itself being also a little more advanced than the screen had been. This instrument, though very imperfect, compared with those which have been since constructed, gave so much satisfaction, that it remained long without any material improvement. Descartes, whose treatise on Optics was written near thirty years after the invention of the telescope, makes no mention of any but such as is composed of a convex object-glass, and a concave eye-glass.
The theory of it, indeed, was given by Kepler in his Dioptrics
(1611) when he also pointed out the astronomical telescope, or that which is composed of two convex lenses, and inverts the objects.
He did not, however, construct a telescope
of that kind, which appears to have been first done by Scheiner, who has given an account of it in the Rosa Ursina (in 1650), quoted by Montucla.' After the invention of the telescope, that of the microscope was easy; and it is also to Galileo that we are indebted for this instrument, which discovers an immensity on the one side of man, scarcely less wonderful than that which the telescope discovers on the other. The extension and divisibility of matter are thus rendered to the natural philosopher almost as unlimited as the extension and the divisibility of space are to the geometer. The theory of the telescope, now become the main object in optical science, required that the law of refraction should, if possible, be accurately ascertained.
This had not yet
been effected, and Kepler, whose Dioptrics was the most perfect treatise on refraction which had yet appeared, had been unable to detennine the general principle which connects the angles of incidence and refraction.
In the case of glass, he had found by ex-
periment, that those angles, when small, are nearly in the ratio of three to two, and on
1
Vol. II. p. 234, 2d edit. 5
SECOND DISSERTATION.
121
this hypothesis he had found the focus of a double convex lens, when the curvature of both sides is equal, to be the centre of curvature of the side turned toward the object, a proposition which is known to coincide with experiment.
From the same approxima-
tion, he derived other conclusions, which were found useful in practice, in the cases where the angles just mentioned were very small. The discovery of the true law of refraction was the work of Snellius, the same mathematician whose labours concerning the figure of the earth were before mentioned.
In order to ex-
press this law, he supposed a perpendicular to the refracting surface, at the point where the refraction is made, and also another line parallel to this perpendicular at any given distance from it.
The refracted ray, as it proceeds, will meet this parallel, and the inci-
dent ray is supposed to be produced, till it do so likewise.
Now, the general truth which
Snellius found to hold, whatever was the position of the incident ray, is, that the segments of the refracted ray and of the incident ray, intercepted by these parallels, had always the same ratio to one another.
If either of the media were changed, that through
which the incident ray, or that through which the refracted ray passed, this ratio would be changed, but while the media remained the same, the ratio continued unalterable.
It
is seldom that a general truth is seen at first under the most simple aspect: this law admits of being more simply expressed, for, in the triangle formed by the two segments of the rays, and by the parallel which they intersect, the said segments have the same ratio with the sines of the opposite angles, that is, with the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction.
The law, therefore, comes to this, that, in the refraction of light, by the
same medium, the sine of the angle of incidence has to the sine of the angle of refraction always the same ratio.
This last simplification did not occur to Snellius; it is the work
of Descartes, and was first given in his Dioptrics, in 1637, where no mention is made of Snelhus, and the law of refraction appears as the discovery of the author.
This na-
turally gave rise to heavy charges against the candour and integrity of the French philosopher.
The work of Snellius had never been published, and the author himself was
dead; but the proposition just referred to had been communicated to his friends, and had been taught by his countryman, Professor Hortensius, in his lectures.
There is no
doubt, therefore, that the discovery was first made by Snellius, but whether Descartes deiived it fiom him, or was himself the second discoverer, remains undecided.
The
question is one of those, where a man’s conduct in a particular situation can only be rightly interpreted from his general character and behaviour.
If Descartes had been
uniformly fair and candid in his intercourse with others, one would have rejected with disdain a suspicion of the kind just mentioned. DISS. II. PART I.
But the truth is, that he appears throughn
SECOND DISSERTATION. out a jealous and suspicious man, always inclined to depress and conceal the merit of others
In speaking of the inventor of the telescope, he has told minutely all that is
due to accident, hut has passed carefully over all that proceeded from design, and has incurred the reproach of relating the origin of that instrument, without mentioning the name of Galileo.
In the same manner, he omits to speak of the discoveries of Kepler, so
nearly connected with his own; and in treating of the rainbow, he has made no mention of Antonio de Dominis.
It is impossible that all this should not produce an unfavour-
able impression, and hence it is, that even the warmest admirers of Descartes do not pretend that his conduct toward Snellius can be completely justified. Descartes would have conceived his philosophy to be disgraced if it had borrowed any general principle from experience, and he therefore derived, or affected to derive, the law of refraction from reasoning or from theory. In this reasoning, there were so many arbitrary suppositions concerning the nature of light, and the act on of transparent bodies, that no confidence can be placed in the conclusions deduced from it
It is
indeed quite evident, that, independently of experiment, Descartes hiniseh could hav put no trust in it, and it is impossible not to feel how much more it would have been for the credit of that philosopher to have fairly confessed that the knowledge of the law was from experiment, and that the business of theory was to deduce from thence some inferences with respect to the constitution of light and of transparent bodies.
Ibis
con-
ceive to be the true method of philosophizing, but it is the reverse of that which Descartes •nursued on nil occasions.
.
' The weakness of his reasoning was perceived and attacked by Fermat, who
at the
same time, was not very fortunate in the theory which he proposed to substitute for that If!is rival.
The latter had laid it down as certain, that light, of which he supposed
the velocity infinite, or the propagation instantaneous, meets with less obstruction in dense than in rare Bodies, for which reason, it is refracted toward the peipendicu ai, in passing from the latter into the former. This seemed to Fermat a very improbable 1 V .„ul he conceived the contrary to be true, viz. that light m laie bodies ^ ^ ve^ ^ - dense ^ supposition, and appealing, not to physical, but to final causes, Fermat imagined t himself that he could deduce the true law of refraction. He conceived it to be a fact that lioht moves always between two points, so as to go from the one to the other ,n the least time possible.
Hence, in order to pass from a given point m a raiei men *
where it moves faster, to a given point in a denser medium where it moves “ . • v 4. longer in the former medium than Fi of the time may be a minimum, it must continue ion that > &th f . n enterin2: the latter, will if it held a rectilineal course, and the bending of its path, on
ns
SECOND DISSERTATION. therefore be toward the perpendicular.
On instituting the calculus, according to his
own doctrine of maxima and minima, Fermat found, to his surprise, that the path of the ray must be such, that the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction have a constant ratio to one another.
Thus did these philosophers, setting cut from suppositions en-
tirely contrary, and following routes which only agreed in being quite unphilosophical and arbitrary, arrive, by a very unexpected coincidence, at the same conclusion.
Fermat
could no longer deny the law of refraction, as laid down by Descartes, but he was less than ever disposed to admit the justness of his reasoning. Descartes proceeded from this to a problem which, though suggested by optical considerations, was purely geometrical, and in which his researches were completely successful.
It was well known, that, in the ordinary cases of refraction by spherical and other
surfaces, the rays are not collected into one point, but have their foci spread over a certain surface, the sections of which are the curves called caustic curves, and that the focus of opticians is only a point in this surface, where the rays are more condensed, and, of course, the illumination more intense than in other parts of it.
It is plain, however, that
if refraction is to be employed, either for the purpose of producing light or heat, it would be a great advantage to have all the rays which come from the same point of an object united accurately, after refraction, in the same point of the image.
Ihis gave rise to an
inquiry into the figure which the superficies, separating two transparent media of different refracting powers, must have, in order that all the rays diverging from a given point might, by refraction at the said superficies, be made to converge to another given point.1 The problem was resolved by Descartes in its full extent; and he proved, that the curves, proper for generating such superficies by their revolution, are all comprehended under one general character, viz. that there are always two given points, from which, if straight lines be drawn to any point in the curve, the one of these, plus or minus, that which has a given ratio to the other, is equal to a given line. It is evident, when the given ratio here mentioned'is a ratio of equality, that the curve is a conic section, and the two given points its two foci.
The curves, in general, are of
the fourth or the second order, and have been distinguished by the name of the ovals of Descartes. From this very ingenious investigation no practical result of advantage in the construction of lenses has been derived.
The mechanical difficulties of working a super-
ficies into any figure but a spherical one are so great, that, notwithstanding all the ef-
1
Cartesii Dioptrices, cap. 8vum ; GeometrJa, lib. 2dus.
SECOND DISSERTATION*
l&k
forts of Descartes himself, and of many of his followers, they have never been overcome, so that the great improvements in optical instruments have arisen in a quarter entirely different. Descartes gave also a full explanation of the rainbow,1 as far as colour was not concern*ed, a part of the problem which remained for Newton to resolve.
The path of the ray
was traced, and the angles of the incident ray, with that which emerges after two refractions and one reflection, was accurately determined.
Descartes paid little attention to
those who had gone before him, and, as already remarked, never once mentioned the Archbishop of Spalatro.
Like Aristotle, he seems to have formed the design of cutting
off the memory of all his predecessors, but the invention of printing had made this a far more hopeless undertaking than it was in the days of the Greek philosopher. After the publication of the Dioptrics of Descartes, in 1637, a considerable interval took place, during which optics, and indeed science in general, made but little progress, till the Optica Promota of James Gregory, in 1663, seemed to put them again in motion. The author of this work, a profound and inventive geometer, had applied diligently to the study of optics and the improvement of optical instruments.
The Optica Promota
embraced several new inquiries concerning the illumination and distinctness of the images formed in the foci of lenses, and contained an account of the Reflecting Telescope still known by the name of its author. The consideration which suggested this instrument was the imperfection of the images formed by spherical lenses, in consequence of which, they are not in plane, but in curved surfaces.
The desire of removing this imperfection
led Gregory to substitute reflection for refraction in the construction of telescopes ; and by this means, while he was seeking to remedy a small evil, he provided the means of avoiding a much greater one, with which he was not yet acquainted, viz. that which arises from the unequal refrangibility of light.
The attention of Newton was about the same
time drawn to the same object, but with a perfect knowledge of the defect which he wanted to remove.
Gregory thought it necessary that the specula should be of a parabolic
figure 'f and the execution proved so difficult, that the instrument, during his own life, was never brought to any perfection.
The specula were afterwards constructed of the
ordinary spherical form, and the Gregorian telescope, till the time of Dr Herschel, was more in use than the Newtonian. Gregory was professor of mathematics at St Andrews, and afterwards for a short time at Edinburgh,
His writings strongly mark the imperfect intercourse which subsisted at
1
Meteorum, cap. Svum. i /
SECOND DISSERTATION. that time between this country and the Continent.
125
Though the Optics of Descartes had
been published twenty-five years, Gregory had not heard of the discovery of the law of refraction, and had found it out only by his own efforts ;—happy in being able, by the fertility of his genius, to supply the defects of an insulated and remote situation. A course of lectures on optics, delivered at Cambridge in 1668, by Dr Barrow, and published in the year following, treated of all the more difficult questions which had occurred in that state of the science, with the acuteness and depth which are found in all the writings of that geometer.
This work contains some new views in optics, and a great
deal of profound mathematical discussion. About this time Grimaldi, a learned Jesuit, the companion of Riccioli, in his astronomical labours, made known some optical phenomena which had hitherto escaped observation. They respected the action of bodies on light, and when compared with reflection and refraction, might be called, in the language of Bacon’s philosophy, crepuscular instances, indicating an action of the same kind, but much weaker and less perceptible.
Having
stretched a hair across a sun-beam, admitted through a hole in the window-shutter of a dark chamber, he was surprised to find the shadow much larger than the natural divergence of the rays could have led him to expect.
Other facts of the same kind made
known the general law of the diffraction or inflexion of light, and showed that the rays are acted on by bodies, and turned out of their rectilineal course, even when not in contact, but at a measurable distance from the surfaces or edges of such bodies.
Grimaldi
1
gave an account of those facts in a treatise printed at Bologna in 1665.
Optics, as indeed all the blanches of natural philosophy, have great obligations to Huygens.
The former was among the first scientific objects which occupied his mind ; and
his Dioptrics, though a posthumous work, is most of it the composition of his early youth. It is written with great perspicuity and precision, and is said to have been a favourite book with Newton himself.
Though beginning from the first elements, it contains a full de-
velopement of the matters of greatest difficulty in the construction of telescopes, particularly in what concerns the indistinctness arising from the imperfect foci into which rays are united by spherical lenses ; and rules are deduced for constructing telescopes, which, though of different sizes, shall have the same degree of distinctness, illumination, &c! Huygens was besides a practical optician j he polished lenses, and constructed telescopes with his own hands, and some of his object-glasses were of the enormous focal distance of 130 feet.
To his Dioptrics is added a valuable treatise De Formandis Vitris.
1
Physico-Mathesis de Lumine, Coloribus, &c. in 4to.
SECOND DISSERTATION. In the history of optics, particular attention is due to his theory of light, which was tim communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in I678, and afterwards published, with enlargements, in 1690.1 Light, according to this ingenious system, consists in certain undulations communicated by luminous bodies to the etherial fluid which fills all space. This fluid is composed of the most subtle matter, is highly elastic, and the undulations are propagated through it with great velocity in spherical superficies proceeding from a centre.
Light, in this view
of it, differs from that of the Cartesian system, which is supposed to be without elasticity, and to convey impressions instantaneously, as a staff does from the object it touches to the hand which holds it. It is not, however, in this general view, that the ingenuity of the theory appears, but in its application to explain the equality of the angles of incidence and reflection ; and, most of all, the constant ratio which subsists between the sines of the angles of incidence and of refraction.
Few things are to be met with more simple and beautiful than this last appli-
cation of the theory ; but that which is most remarkable of all is, the use made of it to explain the double refraction of Iceland crystal.
This crystal, which is no other than the
calcareous spar of mineralogists, has not only the property of refracting light in the usual manner of glass, water, and other transparent bodies, but it has also another power of refraction, by which even the rays falling perpendicularly on the surface of the crystal are turned out of their course, so that a double image is formed of all objects seen through these crystals.
This property belongs not only to calcareous spar, but, in a greater or less
degree, to all substances which are both crystallized and transparent. The common refraction is explained by Huygens, on the supposition, that the undulations in the luminous fluid are propagated in the form of spherical waves.
The double re-
fraction is explained on the supposition,.that the undulations of light, in passing through the calcareous spar, assume a spheroidal form ; and this hypothesis, though it does not apply with the same simplicity as the former, yet admits of such precision, that a proportion of the axes of the spheroids may be assigned, which will account for the precise quantity of the extraordinary refraction, and for all the phenomena dependent on it, which Huygens had studied with great care, and had reduced to the smallest number of general facts. That these spheroidal undulations actually exist, he would, after all, be a bold theorist who should affirm ; but that the supposition of their existence is an accurate expression
1
Traite de la Lumierc. Leyd. 1690.
SECOND DISSERTATION. of the phenomena of double refraction, cannot be doubted.
127 When one enunciates the hy-
pothesis of the spheroidal undulations, he, in fact, expresses in a single sentence all the phenomena of double refraction.
The hypothesis is therefore the means of representing
these phenomena, and the laws which they obey, to the imagination or the understanding, and there is, perhaps, no theory in optics, and but very few in natural philosophy, of which more can be said.
Theory, therefore, in this instance, is merely to be regarded as the ex-
pression of a general law, and in that light, I think, it is considered by La Place. To carry the theory of Huygens farther, and to render it quite satisfactory, a reason ought to be assigned w'hy the undulations of the luminous fluid are spheroidal in the case of crystals, and spherical in all other cases.
This would be to render the generalization
more complete ; and till that is done, and a connection clearly established between the structure of crystallized bodies, and the property of double refraction, the theory will remain imperfect.
The attention which at present is given to this most singular and inter-
esting branch of optics, and the great number of new phenomena observed and classed under the head of the Polarisation of Light, make it almost certain that this object will be either speedily accomplished, or that science has here reached one of the immoveable barriers by which tne circle of human knowledge is to be for ever circumscribed.
Supplement TO THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.
AUSTRALASIA, Australasia. TN Modern Geography, the fifth great division of 6 6Ven Withi th A systematic .J. the barth s. surface. — systematic classificatu classification 3 ot of™, ? 'aSt ^ ^’Australasia, its imperfection previous"to that period, when * m geography is as necessary to enable us to form and clear and comprehensive views of its objects, as it is it is stated, that, in the year 1770, the enlightened Introducand industrious hydrographer, the late Alexander Daltory Ob- m botany, mineralogy, geology, or any other depart- rymple, asserted that the great southern continent was servations . ment of physical science, though incapable of being not then a matter of discovery, for that it had been brought to the same degree of perfection. The rapid progress made, during the last fifty years of the past seen on the west by Tasman in 1642, and on the century, m the discovery of those almost innumer- east by Juan Fernandez, above half a century before; able Islands that are scattered over the three great adding, without any doubt or hesitation, that “ the oceans, the Indian, the Southern, and the Pacific, countries intermediate, equal in extent to all the peopled by various races of human beings, differ- civilized part of Asia, from Turkey to China incluNay, more, “ that it ing in their features, manners, dispositions, and lan- sive, still remain unexplored.” 0 guage, forcibly demanded some such systematic ar- extended from SO south to the pole, and that the rangement ; otherwise, as the President De Brosses number of its inhabitants was probably more than has observed, “ The sight would be dazzled and fifty millions.’ All these facts he discovers in the confounded, if care were not exerted to relieve it, Spanish and Portuguese voyages in the South Pacific and fix its attention by divisions marked from dis- Ocean. [Historical Collections.) The two divisions of Australasia and Polynesia will tance to distance.” be found to comprehend, with sufficient convenience It was this learned and very intelligent writer all those Islands, that cannot with propriety be rees e tb °Austral .ls^suSSworld ^ d5should that all Landsinto and three Islands in ferred to any of the four continents of the Globe. the bethe divided portions, corresponding with the three great Oceans, the Nor is there any difficulty in drawing the line of seIndian or Ethiopic, the Atlantic, and the Pacific; paration between those two divisions; though it is those in the Indian Ocean, and to the south of Asia, not quite so easy to mark the distinct boundary between the Australasian and the Asiatic Islands, where thamedi Aus!ralasia ; those in the two Pacifies, they melt into each other, about the Equator, at the used wtmh r 6 u ^UndS’ Pol2/nesia (a "ame first north-west extremity of Papua or New Guinea. In Atla^ t r6’ *7 ^ Barr0S)’ and those in the a geographical view, the small Islands of WavGood Rn e t^/^th of Cape Horn, and the Cape of giou, Salwatty, Batanta, Mysol, and Timorlaut, ought rim ^ ’ 4ageas llan ica. as The however, that be- strictly to belong to Australasia; but peopled, as they came umeccssary, soon it waslast, ascertained, are, by Asiatics of the Malay tribe, and under the idea ''^Ufra,s!nm.S”l“^no existence. Some in uence of the Dutch Islands, it may, perhaps, be e rapid progress madl! vo" n pak™ “ more proper, in a moral and political point of view, A
Ifoey are. tt'/u >Ut/ uninhabited
AUSTRALASIA. 2 crations aux Terres Australes, are not very happy in Anst Australasia, to consider them as belonging to the Asiatic Islands, advancing a claim in favour of Paulovier de Gonnev—' more particularly, as we shall then have all the Aus- ville, a French Captain, to the discovery of this Terra tralasian population, with very few exceptions, ma Australis in 1504. It was the coast of Madagascar ed with the African or Negro character. But m upon which Gonneville, as is evident by their own fact, all geographical divisions are and must be to accounts, was driven. . , „ i The best and most authentic abstract of the Du c i Bo^artes.^tr^Se^e equator as the northern discoveries, on the coasts of New Holland, is conboundary from the 132° to the 175° of east longitude; tained in the instructions given by the Governorcontinue a line on the latter men ui 7 , General of Batavia to Commodore Abel Janzen narallel (bendine: a little to take in New Zealand Tasman, and published by Mr Dalrymple m his for the eastern ; another line along the same para^ Collection concerning Papua. From this document, to the 65° of east longitude for the souther, ^ it appears, that the Dutch government of Bantam m slanting line to the point on the equator troi 1605, dispatched the Duyfhen yacht to explore the we set-out, so as to inelude Kerguelen s land and Islands of New Guinea. Returning to the southward, pass on the eastern sides of 1 imorlaut, > , along the Islands on the northern side of Torres and Salwatty, for the western boundary ;-thosehnfS Strait, she came to that part of the Gre“t S°uth will circumscribe the whole o islands Land, which is now called Cape Tork; but all tl e Islands. We have included the uninhabited Istods lands were then thought to be connected, and to of Kerguelen, and St Paul and Amsterdam because form the southern coast of New Guinea. Inus, they cannot properly be cons.deredas African Islands, says Captain Flinders, “ without being conscious though arranged, we believe, undei . of it, the commander of the Duyfhen made the first Pinkerton : they are of less importance to geogra authenticated discovery of any part of the Great^ South Land, about the month of March 1606. ^Australasia^ tlmrq*may be subdivided into the fol- About the same place, and in the sameyeai, loires, lowing Groups and Islands : a Spanish navigator, being second m command to Fernandez de Quiros, saw the Terra Australis, but 1. Notasia, or New Holland. had as little knowledge of the nature of his discove2. Van Dieman’s land. ry as the commander of the Duyf hen. He passed 1: ^ew&Britain,WNew^reland, and neighbouring the strait, however, which divides this Terra Australis from New Guinea, whose existence was not geIslands. nerally known till 1770, when it was again discover5. Solomon’s Islands. ed and passed by our great circumnavigator Captain 6. New Hebrides. Cook. Of this, and his other discoveries, lories 7. New Caledonia. , addressed an account to the King of Spam; and, as ^-S^l^^on. it afterwards appeared, had taken the precaution to lodge a copy of it in the archives of Manilla; for, 11*. Numerous re^an^Islets of Coral scattered over when that city was surrendered to the British forces in 1762 Mr Dalrymple snatched from oblivion this the Australasian Sea. interesting document of early discovery ; and as a I The first attempt to explore this Island, which, just tribute to the enterprising Spanish navigator, he New Hoi land. gave to this passage the name of Torres Strait, by which it is now universally known. In 1617 the Dutch sent a second expedition, but a 0 U 0 e P a ha;e bee n feen by th e e4 -igmomol Spain and « with little successthe journals of which were lost. In 1623, the yachts Pera and Arnheim were disth r patched from Amboyna, under the command of Jan Carstens, who, with eight of the Arnheim s crew, was treacherously murdered by the natives of New Guinea; but the vessels prosecuted the voyage, and latmr is dedicated ttoithenKi1ng, of ^En^land, ^n^ear® discovered the great Islands Arnheim and the Spult. date 1542 ; in both of these charts is maiked don The Arnheim returned to Amboyna ; the Pei a perin extensbe tract of country to *0 >ou sisted, and ran along the west coast of New Gurney Progress of the Moluccas under the name of as they thought, but it was New Holland, to Cape Discovery. ^ more nearly withAe p^^ The f given t Keer veer or Turn-again, and from thence explored S“oast farther southward, as far as 17», to Staten the north-west part of the coast approaches “eamt River. “ In this discovery were found everywhere to the truth, a part, indeed, which may have been shallow water and barren coasts, Islands altogether L t W parlv navigators in their return from the tliinlv peopled by divers cruel, poor, and brutal naMoluccas Ion" before the date of the English chart, ££□74 little use .0 the (Dutch East Innt a Singulai coincidence in geographical nomendi8 C ih e°nePxtnexpedition sent by the Dutch was from ciature, ^ ,east coast Bai/ should designated clature that on the of the be I-reiich chart, Z^hegname ofSlVieiges The Abb. Banda in the year 1636, when Gernt Tomaz I ool proceeded with the yachts Klein Amsterdam, and Prevost in the Histoire Generals des Voyages, and Wesel, and nearly at the same place, on the coast of Le President De Crosses, in bis Histoire des .\avi-
AUSTRALASI A. ^ Australasia. Kew Guinea, met tire same fate which had befallen The first English navigator who appears to have Australasia. Carstens; but the supercargo, Pieterson, continued seen any part of New Holland, is the celebratthe voyage, and discovered the coast of Arnheim, or ed William Dampier, who, in his buccaneering Van Dieman’s land, in 11° south, and sailed along voyage round the world, in January 1668, touched the shore 120 miles, without seeing any inhabitants. at the north-west coast, for the purposes of careening Abel Jansen Tasman sailed on a second voyage his vessel and procuring refreshments. He made of discovery from Batavia in 1644, but no account the land in latitude 16° 15', and ran along the shore of this voyage was ever made public, nor is it known to the north-east, till he came to a bay or opening to exist. No chart bearing his name is now known, fit for the purpose. In 1699, Dampier, a second but there is little doubt that the north-west coast time, visited the north-western coast of this Terra of New Holland was first explored by him; and it Australis, being now legitimately employed in makis singular enough, that Dampier should say he ing discovery, in his Majesty’s ship the Roebuck, had Tasman’s chart of it. Tasman is also supposed Of this part of the coast little more is yet known to have sailed round the Gulf of Carpentaria, an than what has been described by Dampier. opinion which Captain Flinders considers to be It was left for our celebrated navigator, Captain strengthened, from the names of Tasman, of the go- Cook, to complete the grand outline of the fifth vernor-general, and of two of the council, who sign- continent of the world. The reign of George III. ed his instructions, being applied to places at the will ever be distinguished for the liberal principles head of the gulf, as well as that of Maria, the go- on which voyages of discovery were undertaken, and vernor’s daughter, to whom Tasman is said to have their results communicated to the world. The Enbeen attached. Tasman had sailed, on a former deavour was fitted out to observe, at Taheite, the voyage, from Batavia in 1642, for the Mauritius; transit of Venus over the sun’s disk; on her return, from hence steering south and eastward upon dis- in 1770, Captain, then Lieutenant Cook, explored covery, he fell in with land, to which he gave the the whole east coast of the Terra Australis incognita, name of Anthony Van Diemans Land, in honour of from Cape Howe to Cape York, not minutely enterthe governor-general, “ our master,” he adds, “ who ing into the details of every part, which would have sent us out to make discoveries.” been impossible, but laying down a correct general The last voyage undertaken by the Dutch, for the outline. “ He reaped,” says Captain Flinders, “ the discovery of Terra Australis, was in 1705, when harvest of discovery, but the gleanings of the field three Dutch vessels were sent from Timor, “ with remained to be gathered.” In his passage through orders to explore the north coast of New Holland Endeavour’s Strait, between Cape York and the better than it had been done before.” The account, Prince of Wales’ Islands, he not only cleared up however, given by the President De Brosses is so the doubt which till then existed, of the actual sevague and imperfect, that very little satisfactory in- paration of Terra Australis from A'eto Guinea, but, by formation is to be obtained from it. It is on the west his accurate observations, enabled geographers to coast that the Dutch appear to have been most sue- assign something like a true place to the former discessful. In Tasmans instructions it is stated, that coveries of the Dutch in these parts. “ in the years J616, 1618, 1619, and 1622, the west In 1777 Captain Cook, in the Resolution and Dis~ coast of this great unknown southland, from 35° to covery, visited Van Dieman’s Land ; but as Captain 22° south latitude, was discovered by outward bound Furneaux, in his Majesty’s ship Adventure, had preships, and among them, by the ship EndragtS Dirk ceded him four years, and Tasman and Marion had Hartog commanded this ship, and seems to have examined the coast, little w’as here supposed to remade the coast in latitude about 26^° south, and to main for discovery, except in detail. It wTas lone have sailed northward, along it, to about 23° ; giving subsequent to Furneaux’s visit, that Van Dieman’s the name of Landt van Endragt to the coast so dis- Land was ascertained to be an Island ; a discovery covered ; and that of Dirk Hartog s road (called af- which may have been retarded by that officer having terwards Sharks Bay by Dampier) to an Inlet on given an opinion, “that there is no strait between the coast, a little to the southward of 25°. A plate New Holland and Van Dieman’s Land, but a very of tin was found in 1697? and again seen by Baudin in deep bay.” The existence of such a strait was how1801, on one of the Islands which forms the road- ever still suspected, but the various attempts to ascerstead, bearing an inscription that the ship Endragt of tain it, without success, by different navigators from Amsterdam arrived there on the 25th October 1616. both sides of the coast, seemed to have decided the After this several outward bound ships fell in, by ac- question in the negative, when Mr Bass, surgeon of cident, with different parts of this coast. the Reliance, having observed, as he ran down the east ine Dutch made little progress in any other part coast in an open whale boat, that a heavy swell rolled 0 t ie extensive coasts of New Floiland. The in- in from the westward, was satisfied in his own mind structions to Tasman say, “ In the year 1627, the that such a swell could proceed only from the great south coast of the Great South Land was accidentally Southern Ocean. To ascertain whether this was the aiscovered by the ship the Guldee Zeepard, outward fact, was a point of great importance to the new cobound from fatherland, for the space of 1000 miles.” lony on the eastern coast; and for this purpose Mr from the circumstance of this ship having on board Flinders, together with Mr Bass, were sent on this .rieter iNuyts, who was sent from Batavia as ambas- service in a small decked boat;—at the end of sacioi to Japan, and afterwards appointed governor three months, they returned to Port Jackson, with 083 th fna, ’ eo name 1 s I™ ong range coast.of Nuyts’ Land was given to
an of thethey survey the coastscirof yaninteresting Dieman’s account Land, which had of completely
AUSTRALASIA. 4 ed by Captain Flinders; who, after losing his ship, Australasia, Australasia. curanavigated, and thus confirmed the conjecture of and proceeding homewards, was scandalously detainMr Bass, whose name the strait deservedly bears. ed as a prisoner in the Isle of France, “ to give The French are entitled to the honour of some par- time for the previous publication of the voyage of tial discoveries on Terra Australis. Captain Marion M. Baudin, to prepossess the world, that it was to was dispatched in the year 1772 from the Isle of the French nation only the complete discovery and France with two ships, the Mascarin and Marquis examination of the south coast of Australia was de Castriesy on a voyage of discovery, one of the due.” . obiects of which was that of the supposed southern Captain Flinders, however, ultimately triumphed. continent. He touched at Van piemans Land, After an unjust and cruel captivity of seven years, he quarrelled with the natives, and finding no fresh wa- arrived in England in 1810, and in 1814- published his ter, and the weather being stormy, he set sail for discoveries in two volumes, accompanied with an atlas New Zealand, having added very little to the prior of charts, which may be held forth as models in maridiscoveries of Tasman. time surveying. At this time, not a single chart of In the year 1792, Rear-Admiral D’Entrecasteaux, coast, bay, or island, of Captain Baudin s discoveries havino- been sent out with two ships, La Recherche had appeared, though shortly afterwards, an atlas and L'Esperance, in search of the unfortunate La was published by Freycinet, the first lieutenant, difPerouse, made the south coast of New Holland, fering in their form and structure very little from which he explored as far as the Termination Island those of Captain Flinders, but bearing the names reof Vancouver, the deficiencies of whose chart he corded in M. Peron’s first volume. The frontispiece was able to supply, by the state of the weather per- to this atlas affords an instance of that almost impious mitting him to keep the coast closer on board than adulation which Buonaparte was in the habit of rethe English navigator had been able to do. Ter- ceiving from his slaves. An eye, having an N within mination Island was found to be the first of a large it, darts its rays through a dark cloud overshadowing a group laid down by Nuyts, whose accuracy is Globe with the southern pole uppermost, on which is praised by the Admiral, he having found the lati- drawn the outline of New Holland, with this inscriptude of Point Leuwen and of the coast of Nuyts tion, “ Fulget et ipso." Land laid down with an exactness surprising for the It is to Captain Flinders that we owe the compleremote period in which they had been discovered. tion in detail of the survey of the coasts of New HolThis liberal acknowledgment did not, however, pre- land, with the exception of the west and north-west vent him from giving to the group of Islands, which coasts, which he was prevented from accomplishing he only saw, but did not survey, the name of Archi- by the loss of his ship. Dampier had said, in anchorpel de la Recherche. But the most important dis- ing near the south end of De Witt s Land, behind covery of D’Entrecasteaux was an inlet on the Rosemary Island, which was one of an extensive south coast of Van Dieman’s Land, which was found cluster, “ by the tides I met with a while afterto be the entrance into a fine navigable channel, wards, I had a strong suspicion that there might running more than thirty miles to the northward, be a kind of archipelago of Islands, and a passage and there communicating with Storm Bay; contain- possibly to the south of New Holland and ^New ing a series of excellent harbours, or rather one con- Guinea, into the Great South Sea eastwardbut tinued harbour the whole way, from beginning to whether it might be a channel or strait, or the mouth end. “ The charts,” says Captain Flinders, of the of a large river, he seems not to have made up his bays, ports, and arms of the sea, at the south-east mind. Vlaming saw an opening 12 miles wide near end of Van Dieman’s Land, constructed, in this ex- the same place, and could find no anchorage. It pedition, by Monsieurs Beautemps, Beaupre, and as- has now been ascertained, that there is no outsistants, appear to combine scientific accuracy and let into the great Ocean eastward, nor into the gulf minuteness of detail, with an uncommon degree of of Carpentaria, nor into Bass Strait; but the geograneatness in the execution. They contain some of phical problem yet remains to be solved, whether the the finest specimens of marine surveying, perhaps, opening in the coast behind Rosemary Island be not ever made in a new country. the mouth of a large river. Le Geographe and Le In 1800, Captain Baudin was sent out with two Naturaliste, under Baudin, stood along this coast, exarmed vessels, Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste, amined in a very slovenly manner some particular on a voyage of discovery nominally round the world, points, but assisted geography less than they perplexbut actually, as appears from his instructions, to ed it, by unwarrantably changing every old name for examine every part of the coasts of ‘New Hoi- that of some of the upstarts created by the trench land and Van Dieman’s Land. The first volume of revolution. Never, indeed, were two naval officers the account of this voyage was published by M. so ill selected for the purpose of discovery as CapPeron, one of the naturalists, in 1807 5 the second tains Baudin and Hamelin; not so those m the never appeared. All the old names of the capes, scientific department, who, under every unfavourable bays, inlets, and islands, were unblushingly changed and discouraging circumstance, effected more for to those of Napoleon, his family, his marshals, and physical science than could be expected. The whole members of the Institute ; and to 900 leagues of the of this coast then may still be considered as terra msouthern coast, comprehending all the discoveries comita; and it is somewhat remarkable, that the local of Nuyts, Vancouver, D’Entrecasteaux, Hinders, government of New South Wales, which, we believe, Bass, and Grant, was given the general name of has under its command several colonial vessels, should Terre Napoleon, while not 50 leagues of real dis- not before this have taken occasion to ascertain this covery were effected, which had not been anticipat-
I AUSTRALASIA. 5 Uistralasi*. point, on which so many curious and unexplained lost the right eye. Evans makes Bathurst’s Plains Australasia, phenomena in the geography and geology of the fifth near 150 miles from Emu Island ; but Governor continent depend. It is no less remarkable, that in a Macquarrie, who subsequently visited this place, period not far short of thirty years since the settle- states the measured distance from Sydney town to ment of Port Jackson was first made, all beyond as be only 140 miles. It is represented as an eligible many leagues was a complete terra incognita to the situation foi* establishing a settlement, as the land is settlers, till about two years ago, when Mr Evans, the excellent; plenty of stone and timber for building, land-surveyor, penetrated behind the hitherto irnpass- but no limestone; abundance of water, though the able barrier, the Blue Mountains, to the distance of river, at the time of the Governor’s visit, just at about 300 miles in two separate journeys. the close of an unusually dry season, was reduced oumeys in Of these journeys we are enabled to give a brief to a chain of pools, the intermediate channels being iie Interior, abstract. On the Ipth November 1813, Mr Evans dried up. left Emu Island in the Nepean, and returned on the From hence Mr Evans was a second time dis8th January 1814, having performed a journey of patched, in May 1815, to follow the course of Mac154 miles nearly west. At the end of 48 miles, he had quarrie’s River. He proceeded about 115 miles, cleared the ranges of mountains, which he says are from whence he could see across an extensive plain, granite, with loose flints and quartz pebbles strewed 40 or 50 miles, at the extremity of which was a range on the surface; and here, for the first time, he of blue mountains, separated by an opening in the fell in with a small stream running to the west- north-west, through which, he had no doubt, the ri- * ward. The farther he advanced the more beautiful ver flowed ; and he appears to have as little doubt, the country became ; both hill and dale were clothed that it crosses the continent, and falls into the sea, with fine grass, the whole appearing at a little dis- somewhere in De Witt’s Land, probably through tance as if laid out into fields divided by hedge- Dampier’s Opening, behind Rosemary Island, rows; through every valley meandered trickling From these journeys, it appears clear that the counstreams of fine water, all falling down towards the try is but thinly peopled. The natives that were seen TwA so called by him from the vast abundance resembled, in their persons and features, those of of fine fish resembling trout, which his party caught Sydney, but spoke a different language ; and they with ease whenever they had occasion for them, were better clothed, being well covered with kangaMany of the hills were capped with forest trees, roo skins, sewed neatly together with the sinews of chiefly of the Eucalyptus, and clumps of these mix- emus. They wore the fur side next the skin, and ed with Mimosas and the Casuarina, were inter- the outer or flesh side was very ingeniously marked spersed along the feet of the hills and in the val- with regular ornamental devices, among which the leys, so as to wear the appearance of a succession of cross appeared to predominate. They were exceedgentlemen s parks. The river, which at first consist- ingly terrified at the sight of Mr Evans on his horse, ed of a chain of pools, connected by small stream- as they took the rider and horse to be one animal, lets, had assumed in the neighbourhood of Alacquar- and did not recover from their fright or surprise on rie’s Plains, the character of a considerable stream, seeing him dismount. When a little tranquillized, and had become unfordable, which made it neces- and more familiar, they were found to be a goodsaiy to construct a bridge of large trees to transport humoured laughing people, exhibiting none of that the people, the horses, and baggage. Evans says, savage and furious spirit of the natives of Sydney, the country was now more beautiful than he had They were attended with dogs nrft unlike the jackever seen. A fine river, running in a deep channel all, with which they catch kangaroos. The spears over a gravelly bottom, and its banks skirted with they carried were heavy, and clumsily made, and they trees, excepting at the sloping points of hills round could only throw them to a short distance, somewlnch it winded, and which were covered with a thing like the New Zealanders, fine green sod down to the margin, intermixed with The country beyond Bathurst was even superior t ie white daisy ;—all this, added to the temperate cli- to that first explored. The vast herds of emus and mate, put him in mind of England, farther on, and kangaroos were truly astonishing. These animals, before they reached Bathurst s Plains, the river was and the fish of the river, appeared to be the princimcreased considerably in size by the junction of an- pal articles of subsistence for the natives. In one ot er stream, which he called Campbell s River; and to large plain, covered with kangaroos and emus, Evans the united streams, he gave the name of Macquarrie's discovered an immense quantity of a white substance, , the general direction of which appeared to be to resembling comfits or sugar-plums, which he took to c northward of west, fish continued tu abound of be manna, but which appears to be a pure saccharine the same kind as those first caught, but of a size from substance,—an exudation probably from some parti0Unc s eiic +L ese s i Presemble ^ perch, h. Governor Macquarrie says, are not unlike that usually called rock-cod, and have been caught from 17 to 25 pounds weight each. Large herds of emus were seen crossing the plains, and kangaroos in great aoundance; but not a native human being appeared n i on ns return, when, near Bathurst s Plains, two women and four children were come upon by surp is.., an were so terrified, that they fell down with ng i. t was observed, that both the women had
*
k
cularlimestone, plant. He mountains of and fine blue andpassed picked whole up topazes, crystals, other pebbles, such as are met with on the coast of Bass’s Strait. He also mentions forests of pines, the trees 40 feet high without a branch. Governor Macquarrie, however, observed, that as the soil and grass-lands improved, the timber trees decreased in size. (See the different works of Dalrymple, Burney, Cook, D’Entrecasteaux, and Flinders.) If, however, but little is yet knowrn of the interior
A U S T R A L A S I A. 6 Australasia. of New Holland, and the detail of the western coast more than one person to manage, consumes much vAustralasia still requires to be filled up, the grand outline of this time in making, cannot easily be dragged about, and, ' General large Island, or, more properly, Continent, has been in short, must occasion a sense ot the advantage to View of completed, and its limits correctly ascertained. It be derived from mutual assistance, and suggest the New Holextends in latitude from Cape York in 10° 45' south necessity of a permanent residence. The native of land. to Wilson’s promontory in 39° 9' south, and in lon- the colony of Sydney we know pretty w^ell to be a gitude from Dirk Hartog’s Island in Shark’s Bay in gloomy, solitary, unsettled being ; seldom appearing, 113° east, to point Look-out in Glasshouse Bay in even in the town, without his spear, his throwing153° 35' east; the mean breadth, from north to south, stick, or his club. “ His spear,” says Colonel Colbeing about 1200, and length, from east to west, lins, “ is his defence against enemies. It is the wea2100 geographical miles, making an area equal to pon he uses to punish aggression, and revenge insult. about three-fourths of the Continent of Europe. A It is even the instrument with which he corrects his remarkable sameness in all the productions ot the wife in the last extreme ; for, in their passion, or three kingdoms of nature prevails in every part of perhaps oftener in a fit of jealousy, they scruple not its extensive coasts, and as remarkable a difference to inflict death. It is the plaything of children, and in two of them (the animal and vegetable) from those in the hands of persons of all ages.” Turnbull says, the natives of this part of New Holland are, beyond of the rest of the world. The natives, wherever they have been met with, comparison, the most barbarous on the surface of the Natives. are of the very lowest description of human be- Globe, and that the influence of European settlers ings. In the journal of the Duyfhen, the north has had no effect in rendering them more sensible of coast is described as thinly “ inhabited by wild, the benefits of civilization ; that every day men and cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew women are to be seen in the streets of Sydney and were murderedand the ship Vianen, touching on Paramatta naked as in the moment of their birth; the western coast about 21° south, observed “ a foul yet he contends that they are far from being stupid; and barren shore, green fields, and very wild, black, that they are the greatest mimics alive ; and that the barbarous inhabitants.” In 24° south, Polsert, who oddities, dress, walk, gait, and looks of all the Eucommanded the Batavia, saw four natives, whom he ropeans of any rank, from the time of Governor describes as “ wild, black, and altogether naked, not Phillip downwards, are so exactly imitated, as to covering even those parts which almost all savages form among them a kind of historic register of their conceal.” Tasman “ found in Hollandia Nova, several actions and characters ; and they are great in lat. 17° 12' south, a naked black people, with proficients in the slang language of the convicts. curly hair, malicious, and cruel, using for arms bows But this seems to be the sum total of all their acquiand arrows, hazagaeys and kalawaeys.” Dampier sitions from European intercourse. In all other redescribes them as being “ a naked Black people, with spects they remain the same untutored, unprotected, curly hair, having a piece of the rind of a tree tied improvident, and comfortless savages we first found like a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long them. By all who have seen them they are described grass, or three or four green boughs full of leaves as hideously ugly, with flat noses, wide nostrils, eyes sunk in the head, overshadowed with thick black thrust under their girdle to cover their nakedness that “ the two fore-teeth of the upper jaw are want- eyebrow's ; the mouth extravagantly wide, lips thick ing in all of them, men and women, old and young; and prominent, hair black and clotted, but not woolly, neither have they any beards.” And he remarks, the colour of the skin varying from dark bronze to “ they have no boats, canoes, or bark-logs.” The jet black. Their stature is below the middle size. south coast is so barren, and the naked hillocks of They are remarkably thin and ill made, their limbs sand so continuous, that there appears to be nothing small, and almost without any appearance of muscle. for human inhabitants to subsist upon. “ It is not They live chiefly on fish, w hich they sometimes spear surprising,” says D’Entrecasteaux, “ that Nuyts has and sometimes net, the w'omen on parts of the coast given no details of this barren coast; for its aspect aiding to catch them with the hook and line. If a is so uniform, that the most fruitful imagination could dead whale happens to be cast on shore, numbers find nothing to say of it.” Even where the coun- flock to it from every part of the coast, just as the try begins to improve towards the eastward, in the vultures smell out a dead carcase, and they feast neighbourhood of Kangaroo Island, Captain H ai- sumptuously while any part of it remains. Those in ders found not the least vestige of inhabitants ; the interior are stated to live on grubs, ants and and, from the stupidity of the kangaroos on that their eggs, kangaroos, when they can catch them, fern Island, “ which,” he observes, “ not unfrequently ap- roots, various kinds of berries, and honey. These pealed to consider us as seals,’’ he concludes sylvan satyrs are described as having long and lean there either are no natives, or that they are igno- legs and arms, owing, as is supposed, to their climbrant of every kind of embarkation. Towards the ing of trees, which they ascend by notches cut into northern part of the eastern coast, the same na- them by stone hatchets, in which the great toe is vigator thinks they are somewhat supei'ior to those placed, and by these means they ascend trees that near Sydney, having belts round the waist, and fil- are 70 or 80 feet high. To add to their natural deformity, they thrust a lets about tlae head and upper part of the arm, associating in greater numbers, and dwelling in huts of a bone through the cartilage of the nose, and stick superior construction. They also catch fish with with gum to their hair, matted with moss, the teeth nets, which he thinks is alone a feature of distinction of men, sharks, or kangaroos, the tails of dogs, jawfrom those who only spear the fish, as a net requires bones of fish, &c. and daub their faces and bodies $
A U S T R A L A S I A. i! | Australasia, vvitb red and white clay, and scarify the skin in every there is at least a very extraordinary, and a distinct Australasia, . ''^V^'part with sharp shells. The women and female chil- characteristic difference in both the animal and vedren are generally found to want the first two joints getable part of the creation, which makes a consiof the little finger of the left hand ; and the reason derable class of subjects in both these kingdoms pethey assign is, that they would otherwise be in the culiar to New Holland. The quadrupeds hitherto discovered, with very few exceptions, are of the kangaway of winding the fishing-lines over the hand. They have no fixed habitations, the climate gene- roo or opossum tribe; having their hinder legs long rally allowing of their sleeping in the open air, in the out of all proportion, when compared with the length crevices of rocks, or under the shelter of the bushes. of the fore legs, and a sack under the belly of the Their temporary hovels consist of the bark of a female for the reception of the youngs of which fatree, each hovel just large enough to receive a mily, though divided into different genera, there are single person ; to the northward, on the east coast, at least fifty distinct species. They have rats, and some were discovered a little larger, so that a family dogs of the jackall kind, all exactly alike, and a little might, on an emergency, squeeze under one of animal of the bear tribe named uoomat, and these them ; but they are without furniture or convenien- pretty nearly complete the catalogue of four-footed ces of any description. They seem to have no idea animals yet known on this fifth Continent. There of the benefits arising from social life ; their largest appears, indeed, such an apparent affinity of the clans extend not beyond the family circle, of each of natural objects in New South Wales, that Dr which the eldest is called by a name synonymous White observes, all the quadrupeds are like oposwith that of father. They are totally without reli- sums, all the fish like sharks, and that every part of gion, neither paying the least respect or adoration the land, all the trees, and all the grasses, resemble to any object or being, real or imaginary. Hence one another. There is, however, an animal which they have nothing to prompt them to a good action, resembles nothing in the creation but itself,—which, nothing to deter them from a bad one ; hence mur- being rejected by naturalists from the classes mamder is not considered as any heinous crime, and wo- malia, aves, and pisces, must, we suppose, be consimen think nothing of destroying, b}r compression, dered as belonging to the amphibia,—we mean theOrthe infant in the womb, to avoid the trouble, if nithoryncus paradoxus, “ a quadruped with the beak brought alive into the wmrld, of carrying it about and of a bird, which is contrary to known facts and refinding it subsistence. Should a woman die with an ceived opinions.” When the head of one of these infant at the breast, the living child is inhumanly beasts was brought to the late Dr Shaw, of the thrown into the same hole with the mother, and British Museum, he suspected it as an idle attempt covered with stones, of which the brutal father to impose on his judgment, and did not hastily bethrows the first. They are savage even in love, the lieve that nature had set the bill of a duck on the very first act of courtship, on the part of the hus- head of a quadruped; but so it has since proved to band, being that of knocking down his intended be the case. bride with a club, and dragging her away from her The birds are no less singular than the beasts, there friends, bleeding and senseless, to the woods ; the being black swans and white eagles; the former everyconsequence is, that scarcely a female of the age of where in such multitudes as to spoil a proverb that maturity is to be seen without her head full of scars, had held good for two thousand years ; and their the unequivocal marks of her husband’s affection. song, if w e may credit Mr Bass, “ exactly resembles The nearest relations are also perpetually destroying the creaking of a rusty sign on a windy day.” The each other, either by stratagem or open combat; for, Mcenura superba, with its scalloped tail feathers, is savage as they are, they have a singular custom of perhaps the most singular and beautiful of that very expiating an offence, even murder, by the criminal elegant race of birds known by the name of birds of exposing himself to as many of the injured family as paradise ; cockatoos, parrots, and parroquets, are inmay choose to stand forth and hurl their spears at numerable, and of great variety. The mountain him. From the moment that he is so dreadfully eagle is a magnificent creature, but the emu is permangled that he can stand no longer, or has the haps the tallest and loftiest bird that exists, many good fortune to parry all their shafts, a reconcilement of them standing full seven feet high. takes place, and friendship is restored ; if the crimiThe plants are no less singular than the animals. Plants. nal refuses to stand this trial, he and all his family Of these Mr Brown has given a very curious and inare considered as fair game to attack and murder structive account in his Geographical and Systemawherever they are met with. The English used to tical Remarks, in the Appendix to Flinders's Voyage. attend these unequal combats, and thus gave coun- He collected nearly 3900 species of Australasian tenance to a savage practice, which not unfrequent- plants, which, with those brought to England by Sir ly ended in the death of the person who was put .Joseph Banks and others, supplied him with the maon his defence. (See Collins, Flinders, Turnbull, terials for a Flora Terrce Australis, consisting of &c.) 4200 species, referable to 120 natural orders : but inimals. If no very essential difference be perceptible in he remarks, that more than half the number of spethe moral and physical qualities of the man of New cies belong to eleven only of those orders. Of the Holland, and the rest of the species, except that Eucalyptus, or gum-tree, the largest yet discovered, which arises from the different circumstances under there are not fewer than 100 different species. “ The which they are placed;—if the rocks and mountains, Eucalyptus globulus of Labillardiere,” says Mr and the earths, resemble nearly the inorganic sub- Brown, “ and another species, peculiar to the south stances that are met with in other parts of the world, of Van Dieman’s Land, not unfrequently attain the
II
A U S T R i’ JL A S I A. Australasia, height of 150 feet, with a girth near the base of less subject to violent changes. In May, correspond- Anstralask to our November, Labillardiere observed the from 25 to 40 feet.” Of this magnificent genus ing mountains the interior covered with snow. The there are 50 different species within the limits of the western andinsouthern coasts are bold, steep, and rocky, colony of Port Jackson. Of the beautiful and elegant the latter terminating so abruptly, as to appear as if it Melaleuca Mr Brown collected upwards of 30 species; all of which, with the exception of the two species had been broken off: and the group of Islands, named Witt’s Isles, to the southward, twelve in number, the Leucodendron and Cajaputi, appear to be confined De out of the fragments. Cook found the cliffs to Terra Australis. The tribe of Stackhouses is en- formed tirely peculiar to that country. Of the natural order on the eastern side composed of sandstone; but the of proteacece, consisting of about 400 known species, vast buttresses that look towards the southern seas more than 200 are natives of New Holland, of which of ice, are stated by Flinders to be composed of bathey form one of its characteristic botanical features ; saltic columns, appearing like so many stacks of the Banksia, in particular, being one of the most chimneys. Labillardiere found, near this southern striking peculiarities of the vegetable kingdom. The extremity, a stratum of coal 3^ feet thick, and 200 Casuarina, of which 13 species have been disco- fathoms long, resting on sandstone. The soil in general is represented as more producvered, is another characteristic feature of the woods tive than that of the east side of New Holland; and and thickets of New Holland. The most extensive genus, however, is the leafless Acacia, of which there the Island has the advantage of being intersected by are more than 100 species ; and this, with the Eucalyp- two fine rivers, rising near the centre: the one named tus, “ if taken together,’’ says Mr Brown, “ and consi- the Tamar, falling into Bass’s Strait on the north, dered with respect to the mass of vegetable matter and forming Port Dalrymple ; the other, the Derw ent, they contain, calculated from the size as well which discharges itself into the sea on the south-east as from the number of individuals, are perhaps extremity ; spreading its waters, in the first instance, over the Great Storm Bay, which communicates with nearly equal to all the other plants of that countiy. The Casuarina and the Eucalyptus are represented as North Bay, Norfolk Bay, and Double Bay, on the furnishing excellent timber for ship-building, and east; and with D’Entrecasteaux’s Channel on the for all the purposes of domestic funltture, and agri- w'est. The Tamar, in its course, receives three cultural implements ; and the gum of the Eucalyptus streams,—the North Esk, the South Esk, and the is medicinal; of one species it might be employed as Lake river ; and the tide flows about 30 miles up the pitch, Freycinet says, they procured a resinous sub- river, to the point where it is joined by the two Esks. stance from the Xanthorrhea, which served them to At the head of the western arm of Port Dalrymple, caulk their vessels. The bark of a tree on the Hawkes- is situated York town, on the skirt of a beautiful, bury is said to be as efficacious in tanning leather rich, and well wooded country. There is also a town, as the oak-bark ; and a creeping plant f smilaxj is named Hobart town, on the right bank of the Derused as a substitute for tea. Nutmegs were found by went, about five miles inland. The country between Flinders on the northern coast, but they were small, these tw'o towns was traversed by Mr Grimes in 1807> and had so little of an aromatic flavour, that Mr Brown who describes it to be everywhere rich and beautiful, gave the plant the specific name of insipida. Among abounding in grassy plains, marshes, and lakes, boundthe curious productions of the vegetable world is the ed on each side by hills, well clothed with wood, risCephalotus follicularis, or pitcher plant, of which a ing into high and rocky mountains. The description given by D’Entrecasteaux of the very correct and detailed drawing is given in the channel that bears his name, and the surrounding Atlas to Flinders’s Voyage. (For an account of the history of the British Colony in New Holland, see shores, is grand and imposing, and corresponds geNew Holland in the Encyclopcedia ; and Botany nerally with the following animated account of it from Bay, in this Supplement, for an account of its pre- M. Peron, ten years afterwards. “ Crowded on the surface of the soil are seen on every side those beausent state.) tiful Mimosas, those superb Metrosideros, those CorTan DieII. Having marked the progressive discovery of this reas, unknown till of late to our country, but now man’s Land. fair and fertile Island, until it was ascertained to be become the pride of our shrubberies. From the such, by Tasman, Marion, Furneaux, Cook, D En- shores of the ocean to the summits of the highest trecasteaux, Bass, and Flinders; we shall not think it mountains, may be observed the mighty Eucalyptus, necessary to notice the minor discoveries of Bligh, those giant trees of Australasian forests, many of which Hunter, Cox, &c. but proceed to give a general out- measure from 162 to 180 feet in height, and from 25 line of its dimensions, surface, and natural produc- to 30, and even 36 feet in circumference. Banksia, tions. It is situated between the parallels of 41° and of different species, the Protea, the Embothria, the General 43o 33' south latitude, and 144° 32' and 148° 25' east Lcpiosperma, form an enchanting belt round the skirts of the forests. Here the Casuarina exhibits its beau>f tlliS on tuc e Counti ^ gi ^ 5 its wedial length, from north to south, °Un 1^’ being about 160, and breadth, from east to west, tiful form : there the elegant Exocarpus throws into 145 geographical miles. Its surface possesses every a hundred different places its negligent branches. variety of mountain, hill, and dale; of forests Everywhere spring up the most delightful thickets of and open meadows ; of inland lakes, rivers, and in- Melaleuca, Thesium, Conchyum, Evodia, all equally lets of the sea, forming safe and commodious har- interesting, either from their graceful shape, 7the lovebours, that can render a country valuable or agree- ly verdure of their foliage, the singularit} of their able ; and it enjoys a temperate climate, which is, per- corollas, or the form of their seed-vessels.” ( Voy. aux haps, not very different from that of England, though Terres Aust.J 1
5
A U S T R A L A S I A. 9 Australasia. All the navigators who have visited the southern ever, to Gilolo, and reported that Saavedra had been Austral.isia. S P -' V"W' mild, Part °f Van Dieman’s Land, describe the natives as a wrecked; but on his subsequent arrival they were Natives. affable, good-humoured, and inoffensive people, tiied, condemned, and executed. He is supposed to with the exception of Marion, the effect of whose have added about 50 leagues of discovery to that of fire-arms, Labillardiere thinks, had made them afraid Meneses. In 1529, Saavedra sailed a second time of Europeans. Flinders and Bass conceived, that the for New Spain, and, according to Galvaom (or Galnatives of this Island were sunk still lower in the scale vano), followed the coast of Papua eastwards above of human existence than those in the neighbourhood 500 leagues. of Port Jackson, though they saw but one man, and In 1537. Gonzalva and Alvarado were dispatched he is described as having “ a countenance more ex- on discovery by the Viceroy of Peru; but the forpressive of benignity and intelligence than of that fe- mer being killed in a mutiny, the crew chose another rocity or stupidity which generally characterized the commander ; and the first land they made was Papua. other natives.” They are obviously the same people The ship was in so crazy a state, that she was abanas those of New Holland, and go entirely naked, both doned; the crew, only seven in number (the rest men and women ; but their language is altogether having died of hunger and fatigue), were made capdifferent; they have the art, too, of striking fire with tives, and carried to an Island called Crespos (curly two flints, which is not known to the other Austra- haired men), from whence they were sent to the Molasian islanders ; and it is also singular, that they set luccas and ransomed. no value on iron. The women refused from Cook’s In 1545, Ynigo Ortiz de Retz, in his voyage from people all presents, and rejected all their addresses, Tidore to New Spain, came to an Archipelago of not so much from a sense of virtue, it was supposed, Islands near the land of Papua ; sailed 230 leagues as from the fear of the men, of whom they stood in along the north coast; and not knowing it had been great awe. In some places were found miserable huts before visited by Europeans, he called it Nueva Guiof twigs, and rude baskets, made of a juncus, or nea, from the resemblance of the natives to those rush ; but these were all the signs that appeared of of the coast of Guinea. civilization. Cook, D’Entrecasteaux, and Baudin, In 1606, Torres made the east coast of New all observed many of the largest trees, with trunks Guinea, in his way to the Moluccas, sailed westward hollowed out, apparently by means of fire ; and, as 300 leagues, doubled the south-east point, sailed the hollow side invariably faced the east and south- along the southern coast, saw the northern coast of east, the lee-side to the prevailing winds, it was con- New Holland, and passed the Strait which now bears cluded they were intended as habitations. In D’En- his name. He describes the coast of New Guinea to trecasteaux s Channel only were indications of huts be inhabited by a dark people, naked, except a covermade of the bark of the Eucalyptus, consisting of ing round the middle of painted cloth made of the wj r°^S stFlinders, ^c^e some of them have long hair, and that they live in trees, Sonnerat published “ A Voyage to New Guinea, which they ascend by cutting notches in them. Ihe though he evidently never was there, but describes people of New Guinea, in many parts of the coast. Native* the natives and productions front what he saw and live* in huts,or cabins placed on stages that are erected what he could collect at the island of Gibby, to the on poles, commonly in the water; probably as a proteceastward of Gillolo. . „„ tion against snakes and other venomous creatures ; Forrest, in 1775, anchored in the Bay of Dory, on though Forrest seems to think against the Haraforas. the northern extremity of New Guinea, and co ec - On these stages they haul up their proas or canoes. ed some information respecting the inhabitants fiom These people are invariably described as being a Mahomedan Hadji, who accompanied him hideously ugly ; their large eyes, flat noses, thick bps, Captain Cook, also, in his first voyage in 1770, made woolly hair, and black shining skin, denote almost to the coast in about 6^° south latitude, a little to the a certainty their African origin, and their affinity northward of Cape Valscher, but did not bring his with the natives of New Holland ; but the difference ship to anchor, on account of the hostility of the of language, and the want of all the useful producnatives. A party landed near a grove of cocoa-nut tions on the latter, which abound on New Guinea, trees, and not far from it found plantain, and ie induced Captain Cook to conclude, that there is no bread-fruit tree. The breeze from the trees and intercourse between the two people. The Papuans shrubs is said to have been charged with a fragrance increase their natural deformity by passing bones or not unlike that of gum benjamin. Three Indians pieces of stick through the cartilage of the nose, and rushed out of the wood with a hideous shout, i an frizzing out their curly locks like a mop sometvmes towards the party, the foremost throwing something to the enormous circumference of three feet. 1 hey out of his hand which burnt like gunpowder, the appear, however, to be one degree farther removed other two hurling their lances at the same time. from savage life than the New Hollanders, having Before they reached the pinnace, from sixty to a permanent houses, and both men and women wearhundred had collected, all stark naked ; their ap- ing wrappers round the waist, which are among the pearance as to stature, colour, and crisped han, ie- articles brought to them by the Chinese and Malays. sembling that of the New Hollanders, fhey let off The only quadrupeds that are known to exist on Animals* fires by four or five at a time, but for what purpose this large Island are dogs, rats, and wild hogs; but could not be imagined. These fires appeared to be the feathered race are of great beauty and infinite discharged from a piece of stick, probably a hollow variety New Guinea is the native country of those cane; and the fire and smoke exactly resembled singular and matchless beauties, the birds of parathose of a musket, but without any report. Those dise which were once thought to have no legs, but who were on. board ship, at a distance, concluded always on the wing, and known by the name of pasthey had fire-arms, and even those in the boat mig it saros da sol, birds of the sun. They are said to have supposed them firing volleys, had they not been migrate in large flocks, in the dry Monsoon, to the so near as to ascertain that there was no report, Islands of Arroo, and other Islands to the west and Torres had observed something of the same kind, north-west of New Guinea. The great crown pigeon, in about 4° south latitude on the same coast, where, parrots, loories, and minas, are natives ot Papua, he says, the inhabitants were black, but better cloth/
11 AUSTRALASIA. Australasia. The whole of this great country is indented with thick cocoa-nut groves skirted all the low parts of Australasia deep bays on every side, some of which nearly in- the coast. Labillardiere says that New Ireland tersect the island ; and the coast is surrounded on produces nutmegs, and he also mentions a new speevery side with a multitude of small Islands, all cies of the Areca palm, 108 feet high, the stem conpeopled with the same description of Blacks, except sisting of hard solid timber. The natives of the Admiralty Islands, lying to thq ing those already mentioned on the north-west, near the equator, most of which are under the govern- north-west, were found by Carteret to be less black ment of Mahometan Malays, with whom both the than those of New Britain and Ireland, with agreeDutch and Chinese have long kept up a considerable able countenances, not unlike Europeans; their hair was curly, smeared with oil and red ochre, and their intercourse. bodies and faces painted with the same material; New Britain, New IV. There can belittle doubt that this extensive range the glans penis was covered with the shell called the Ireland, of Islands was partially seen by Le Maire and Schou- Bulla ovum, serving the same purpose as the woodami n- igli- ten in 1616, who, after discovering the Groene Island en sheath of the Caffres in South Africa, whom, inliouring and the Marquen Islands, steered along the northern deed, they seem to resemble as closely as the natives Islands. coast of New Ireland, as did Tasman also in 1642. of Newr Guinea do those of the western coast of Dampier, however, first ascertained New Britain to Africa. The women wear a bandage round the be an Island distinct from New Guinea, by passing waist. The central Island is tolerably large, and off the strait which since has borne his name. He visit- a beautiful appearance, clothed with the most luxued Port Montague on this Island, and speaks of the riant verdure, and cultivated to the very summit. black natives resembling the Papuans, their dex- Among the groves of cocoa-nut trees are numerous terity in managing their canoes, their woody hills, habitations, and the natives have evidently attained Discovery, fertile vales, and delightful rivulets. He also anchor- to a higher degree of civilization than their southern ed in Slinger’s Bay on New Ireland, which he con- neighbours; they use earthen vessels, and chew the ceived to be the same land with New Britain ; but betel leaf with chunam or lime. This central Island Carteret, in 1727, discovered and passed through a is surrounded by nearly thirty small flat Islets of costrait which separates them, and to which he gave ral, and reefs in the various stages of their progress the name of St George’s Channel. The Admiralty towards Islets. Islands of Carteret, to the north-westward of New Proceeding to the westward, and to the northBritain, had previously been discovered by Schou- west, we meet with other little clusters of Islands,—as ten, and named the Twenty-Jive Islatids. New Bri- the Hermites, the Portland, the Echequier (chesstain was seen by Roggewein in 1722, and by Bou- board), vulgarly called Exchequer Islands, all of gainville in 1768. which consist, like the Admiralty Archipelago, of a D’Entrecasteaux, we believe, was the last navi- larger central Island surrounded by a chain of Islets gator who passed along the north coast of New Bri- and reefs, most of them covered with beautiful vertain, and through St George’s Channel, which dure. The natives of these groups, as they approach divides it from New Ireland, and from thence to the the equator, gradually assume a lighter colour and Admiralty Islands ; and from his voyage, published by longer hair, till they lose entirely the negro challossel, together with Labillardiere and Carteret's, racter, and melt into that of Malays, and other Asiwe shall extract a few gleanings. atic Islanders. (See Schonten, Dampier, Carteret, General The extent of New Britain and Ireland is not ex- Labillardiere, &c.) [lescrip- actly known, nor have they been sufficiently explored to enable geographers to lay them down with V. This archipelago of Islands w'as one of the first Solomon's accuracy, or even to state what number of Islands discoveries of the Spaniards in Australasia, though Islands, the group consists of: one of considerable extent the credit of it is given to Alonso de Mendana, who lies off the north-west end of New Ireland, which was sent on an expedition of discovery in 1567 from has been named New Hanover, and is itself sur- Callao by the Viceroy of Peru. He anchored in a Discovery, rounded by low woody Islands. The whole group port on the Island of Santa Ysabel, to which he gave occupies a space between 2^° and 6° of south lati- the name of Porta de la Estrella, and he also built a tude, and 149° and 153° of east longitude, and may brigantine to make farther discoveries, in which she probably contain an area not less than 10,000 geo- was particularly successful, having fallen in with thirgraphical miles. ty-three Islands in number, “ of very fine prospect.” Salive$. Carteret saw but few natives on the south coast Many of them were of considerable size, to which of New Ireland, in passing through the strait, who they gave particular names, as Galera, Buonavista, showed marked signs of hostility, and were armed Florida, San German, Guadalcanar, San Christoval, with lances headed with flint; they had also slings, Santa Catarina, and Santa Ana. Guadalcanar, and good fishing-tackle. They were black, and had however, was the most attractive, having a port woolly hair, but their lips, he says, were not thick, which they named De la Cruz, and a river which nor their noses flat; their cheeks were streaked they called Galego.' Of this Island Mendana took with white, and their hair and beards were covered possession for the King of Spain. When the voyage with a white powrder; their canoes were long and was published, the name of Solomon’s Islands was narrow, and had generally outriggers; one of them given to the group, “ to the end that the Spameasured 90 feet in length, and was formed out of niards, supposing them to be those Isles from whence a single tree. The two large Islands, and the whole Solomon fetched gold to adorn the temple at Jerugroup, in fact, were nearly covered with wood, and salem, might be the more desirous to go and inhabit
AUSTRA L A S I A. Australasia, the same;” but it lias been said that Mendanas ad- and fertile. It has a good port on the east side, Australasia, £< w-v, that the where the Spaniards were attacked by the natives, vjce waSj that they should not be colonized, English, or others, who pass the Strait of Magel- who wounded three of the invaders, and one dart through the target and arm of the Spanish hanes to go to the Moluccas, might have no suc- pierced commanding officer; the blacks had boughs on their cour there, but such as they get from the Indians.” and bands round their waists. The Spaniards The truth, however, is, that Mendana, on a second heads, voyage for the discovery of the Solomon Islands, re- observed here hogs and fowls. turned without being able to find them, which gave VI. To the south-east of Solomon’s Islands, and be- New Beoccasion to the remark, that, “ what Mendana dis- tween the parallels of 14f° and 20° south latitude, brides, covered in his first voyage, he lost in his second. are found a number of Islands, some of very consiHe discovered, however, in this second voyage, the derable magnitude, called the Netv Hebrides, or great Island of Santa Cruz, which is situated at the Hebudes. They were first discovered in 1606, by Discovery. south-east extremity of Solomon’s Islands, and may very fairly be considered as one of the group. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who, with Luis Vaez This Island, which has an excellent harbour, La Gra- de Torres, was sent by the King of Spain from Lima, ciosa, was first revisited by Carteret, in ITbT* alter with two ships and a zabra (launch) to establish Mendana’s discovery, who changedits name to thafe of a settlement at the Island Santa Cruz, and from Egniont, and made it the principal Island of a group thence to go in quest of the Tierra Austral, or which he called Queen Charlotte’s Islands. Here southern continent. This voyage has been consiMendana died, and Quiros succeeded to the com- dered, and justly so, among the most celebrated unmand ; but the search for Solomon’s Islands was a- dertaken by the" Spaniards since the time of Magelbandoned when they were not more than 40 leagues hanes. In April 1606, they discovered an Island, to from Christoval. It is a singular fact, that Solo- which they gave the name of Santa Maria, from mon’s Islands, whose name was sufficient to tempt whence they saw another Island to the southward, “so adventurers, were lost to Europeans for two cen- large,” says Torres, “ that we sailed for it.” On the turies after their discovery, and that we know at 2d May,"they anchored in a bay, large enough present little, if any, more than Mendana gave to the to hold a thousand ships, to which they gave the apworld after his first voyage. They were revisited by propriate name of San Felipe y Santiago. Quiros at determined that he had now discovered the Bougainville in 1768 ; by M. Surville in 17f>9> °n a once long-sought-for southern continent, and in this convoyage from Pondicherry of mercantile speculation, viction named it the Australia del Espiritu Santo. and who, from a ridiculous mistake, called them the Archipelago of the Arsacides, to mark the natives as Two rivers fell into the bay, one the Jordan, the other the Salvador. The surrounding country was assassins ; and by Lieutenant Shortland, of the L>ii- beautiful, and is thus described by the historian of tish navy, in 1788, who chose to call them New the voyage: “ The banks of the rivers were coverGeorgia; and frequently since that time by various British and French navigators;—still the little we ed with odoriferous flowers and plants, particularly orange flowers and sweet basil, the perfumes of know of them is from Mendana. were wafted to the ships by the morning and Natives. Santa Ysabel, he says, was inhabited by people which evening ; and, at the early dawn was heard, who had the complexion of mulattos, with curly from thebreezes neighbouring woods, the mixed melody of hair, with little covering to their bodies, who worshipped serpents, toads, and such like creatures; many different kinds of birds, some in appearance their food cocoa-nuts and roots ; and it was believed like nightingales, blackbirds, larks, and goldfinches. All the parts of the country in front of the sea were that they eat human flesh, “ for the chief sent to the beautifully varied with fertile valleys, plains, windgeneral a present of a quarter of a boy with the rivers, and groves, which extend to the sides of hand and arm.” Buonavista is twelve leagues in ex- ing mountains.” [Torquemada, as quoted in tent, very fertile, well peopled, the natives living in green Burney’s Account of Discoveries in the South Sea.) regular villages or towns. On Florida, twenty-five Of this terrestrial paradise, which the Spaniards leagues in circuit, the natives dyed their hair red, regarded as their own, it was intended to take imcollected together at the sound of conch-shells, and eat human flesh. Sesarga was well inhabited, pro- mediate possession ; they landed in great numbers ; duced plenty of yams and bread-fruit, and here the the Islanders were also numerous, became alarmed, Spaniards saw hogs. In the midst of the Island made them presents, and signified a wish for them was a volcano, continually emitting smoke. They to return to their ships. They, however, landed from saw bats which measured five feet between the tips their boats, on which the chief drew a line on the of the wings. At Guadalcanar they received in ground with the end of his bow, and made signs that barter two hens and a cock, the first fowls that had the Spaniards must not pass that boundary. It is said been seen. At San Christoval, the natives were that Torres, to show his contempt of the idea of very numerous, and drew up to give battle to the being restrained by barbarians, immediately passed Spaniards, their arms being darts, clubs, bows and the line. A battle ensued, in which the chief was arrows ; but they were dispersed by the fire of the killed, and all the rest fled into the woods. This muskets, which killed one Indian, and wounded rash act, however, was fatal to the views of the Spaothers. In the neighbouring village was found a niards, who never afterwards could prevail on the quantity of cocoa-nuts and almonds, sufficient to Islanders to have any friendly communication with have loaded a ship. Santa Ana was well peopled them ; and they left this country, after some ridicu-
n
13 AUSTRALASIA. Australasia, lous formalities of taking possession in the name of tains, bread-fruit, &c. The yams remarkably fine, Australasia, Philip III. and founding a city, dignified with the one of which weighed fifty-six pounds, every ounce of which was good; and they had pigs and poultry. name of the New Jerusalem. So anxious was Quiros of “ adding the Australia The juice of the cocoa-nut, and water, appeared to del Espiritu Santo to the other possessions of the be their only beverage. Their arms were clubs, Spanish monarchy,” that, after his return to Spain, darts, lances, and bows and arrows. Their canoes, he is said to have presented no less than fifty memo- clumsily sewed together, had outriggers, and were rials to the King. One of these, which was printed worked by paddles and by sails. The men wore a at Seville, begins thus : “ I, Captain Pedro Fer- wrapper round the loins, and the women a sort of nandez de Quiros, say, that, with this I have pre- petticoat reaching to the knee. The natives of Mallicolo are called by Captain sented to your Majesty eight memorials relative to the settlement which ought to be made in Australia Cook “ an ape-like nation the most ugly, ill-proIncognita." In these memorials, he enumerates the portioned people he ever met with, and different many valuable productions of this supposed southern from all others; diminutive in their persons, darkcontinent: cocoa-nuts, plantains, sugar-canes, yams, coloured, with black hair, short and curly, but not batatas, oranges, limes, papas, pumpkins, almonds, so^ woolly as a negro’s: they had long heads, flat nutmegs, mace, ginger, and pepper, in great quanti- faces, and monkey countenances, and a belt round ties ; woods for “ building any number of ships.” the waist, pulled tight across the belly, made them The animals are hogs, goats, and dogs ; fowls, and look not unlike overgrown pismires. The women were a variety of useful and beautiful birds ; various good equally ugly; the dress of both, in other respects, fish ; and pearl oysters. The climate is described as the same as that of Tanna, as were also the producso fine, and such a freshness in the air, that neither tions of the Island. Their houses were low, and by labour, exposure to the sun, or rain, or dews, covered with palm thatch. ( See Dalrymple, Burney, nor by intemperance, did any of the Spaniards fall Cook, &c.) sick ; and among the natives many aged people were VII. This large Island, surrounded with coral islets New Cale* seen. They w^ear a covering round the middle: Torres says they are all black and naked. They and reefs, was wholly unknown till Captain Cook, indonia. are described by Quiros as corpulent and strong, 1774, fell in with the north-western extremity in cleanly, cheerful, sensible, and grateful; their houses steering south-west from Mallicolo, from which it is stood on the ground, and not on poles, built of wood, distant not more than about 80 leagues. He anchorand thatched. They weave nets, and make earthen ed within a small Island called Balabea, and oppovessels, have plantations inclosed with palisades, site to the district Belade. The great Island extends construct vessels which navigate to distant countries, between latitude 20° 5' and 22° 30' in the direction Descrip'and have places appropriated for burying the dead ; of north-west and south-east; about 250 miles long tion. and, he adds, as the last and decisive test of their by 60 broad. The land bears a great resemblance progress in civilization, “ they cut their hogs and to that of New South Wales, and many of its natural productions appeared to be the same, but the namake capons.’’ tives were different. They are represented as a This archipelago of Islands, like that of Solomon, v Descrip was lost to the world fer a century and a half, when strong, robust, active, well-made people, courteous tion. Bougainville revisited them in 1768 ; but, except and friendly, and not in the least addicted to pilferlanding on the Isle of Lepers, did nothing more than ing, in which respect they differ from every other discover that the land was not connected, but com- tribe of Australasia. They are nearly of the same Natives, posed of Islands, which he called the Great Cyclades ; colour as the natives of Tanna, and appeared to be a which, on being more accurately and extensively ex- mixed race between that people and those of the plored by Cook, in 1774, underwent another change Friendly Isles, or of Tanna and New Zealand ; their to that of New Hebrides, which they now bear in language being a mixture of them all. Of the same all our charts. According to the survey of our great disposition as the natives of the Friendly Islands, navigator, they consist of Tierra del Espiritu Santo, they were found to excel them in affability and hothe largest of the whole, St Bartholomew;, Mallicola, nesty; and the women, like those of Tanna, were more the Isle of Lepers, Aurora, Whitsuntide, Ambrym, chaste than the females of the more eastern Islands, Apee, Paoom, Three-hills, Sandwich, Montagu, not one of the ship’s company having been able to Hinchinhrook, Shepherd's Isles, Errornango, Tanna, obtain the least favour from any one of them. They Natives. and Immer, Annatom, and Erronan. The two which wear a petticoat of the filaments of the plantain are more particularly described, are Mallicolo and tree, “ at least six or eight inches thick, but not one Tanna, the natives of which differ remarkably in inch longer than necessary for the use designed.” their persons and language; those of the latter hav- They paint and puncture their bodies, and wear earing curly but long hair, dark but not black, and rings, and necklaces, and bracelets, of tortoise and without anything of the negro character in their fea- other shells. Both men and women have good features, which are regular and agreeable; their per- tures and agreeable countenances, and some of the sons slender, active, and nimble. They found them men measured in height six feet four inches. Their hospitable, civil, and good-natured ; but displayed a hair is frizzled out like a mop, is very black, coarse, jealousy of their visitors seeing the interior of the and strong, different from that of a negro. The Island, which could only be equalled in Japan or ruff mop-heads make use of “ scratchers,” composed China. All the plantations were fenced, and laid out of a number of sticks of hard wood, about the thickin a line: they consisted of sugar-canes, yams, plan- ness of knitting-needles, fastened together at one
AUSTRALASIA. M Australasia, end like a sort of comb ; the women have their hair dozen of cocks and hens were sees by the French. Australasia. w cropped short. The men wear a wrapper round the (See Cook, Labillardiere, &c.) loins, made of the bark of a tree. I heir houses reVIII. Though these Islands geographically belong to New Zeasemble bee-hives, with peaked roofs, entered by a Iau(^ • hole just big enough to admit a man bent double. Australasia, the natives are, in their physical character and language, Polynesians. They were first discoThe sides are of spars and reeds, and both these and the roof well thatched with dry grass. They bod vered on the 13th December 1642, by Abel Jansen Uiscov^ry,their roots and fish in earthen jars. They have nets Tasman, on his voyage of discovery from the Maurimade of plantain fibres, and the sails of their canoes tius ; and, on the 18th, the Heemskirk yacht, and are of the same material. These vessels consist of the fly-boat Zeehaan, came to anchor in a bay to two trees fixed together by a platform. They have which they afterwards gave the name of Moordeplantations of sugar-canes, plantains, bread-fruit, and naar’s or Murderer’s Bay, and to the Island that of cocoa-nut, but none of them very productive. The Staalen Land, in honour of the States General, and whole appearance of the country, indeed, is described in the possibility that it might join the Staaten Land as unable to support many inhabitants. The greater to the east of the Tierra del Fuego. “ It is a fine part of the visible surface consists of barren rocky country,” says Tasman “ and we hope it is part of mountains ; and though the plains and valleys appear- the unknown South Continent." The expedition of ed to be fertile, Captain Cook was of opinion that Hendrik Brower to Chili the following year, cut off « nature has been less bountiful to it than to any the latter Staaten Land from any continental connection, and the name of the former was then chanother tropical Island we know in this sea. D’Entrecasteaux passed the opposite extremity of ged to that of New Zealand. On the Iftth, a boat with 13 natives came within a New Caledonia in 1792, when on his search after the unfortunate La Perouse, but was prevented by a bar- stone’s throw of the Heemskirk. The language in rier reef of coral from approaching the coast; and, which they hailed was unlike that of the Solomon’s in the following year, he visited Balade on the north- Islands, of which Tasman had a vocabulary. Their west. The account of the inhabitants, as given by vessel consisted of two narrow canoes, joined togeRossel and Labillardiere, differs altogether from that ther by boards, on which the people sat; their padof Cook. Instead of finding them friendly, honest, and dles, about a fathom long, pointed at the end ; their inoffensive, they are described as the worst of canni- clothing appeared of matts or cotton, but their breasts bals ; not only eating the flesh of their enemies, but were naked. They invited them to come on board, feeding on little children; ferocious in their dis- but in vain. The ships, however, were moved nearer positions, the most audacious thieves, and the wo- in shore, upon which seven double vessels came off. men the most shameless prostitutes. But their own A boat, being dispatched from one ship to the other, account of their transactions there, the confidence was previously attacked. Three men belonging to with which they straggled over the country, and the the Zeehaan were killed, and one mortally wounded ; readiness of the savages to serve them, by no means one of the killed was dragged into the canoes. After warrant the bad character they have thought fit to this, despairing of getting water or provisions, they give them ; and they had no more proof of their be- weighed and set sail, twenty-two of the native boats ing cannibals, than they had for accusing tne people following them, eleven of which were full of people. of Van Dieman’s Land of the same practices, be- The ships fired, and the canoes returned to the shore. The next visitor, at the distant period of 127 years, cause the Surgeon Major mistook the bone of a kangaroo for that of a young girl. They appear to have was Captain Surville, who, in 1769, put into a bay endeavoured, by signs, to extort a confession to tnis on the north-eastern extremity, and gave it the name effect from the poor savages, who, on their part, were of Lauriston Bay. In the same year, Lieutenant also persuaded that the French were the real cannibals. (afterwards Captain) Cook, of the Endeavour, made The charge brought against the women is grounded the land on the 6th October 1769, the enormous solely on two young girls having been prevailed on height of which became the subject of much converby some of the crew to expose what decency requires sation ; and the general opinion was, that they had to be concealed, in return for some pieces of cloth or now discovered the Terra Australis incognita. This iron. Labillardiere thinks the inhabitants, as well voyage, however, and the circumnavigation of the as the vegetable productions, resemble those of Van Islands of New Zealand, entirely subverted the theoDieman’s Land. There was no want of different ry of a great southern continent. In 1772, Capkinds of esculent plants, though a great scarcity tains Marion du Fresne and Crozet put into the Bay prevailed from drought, or other cause, when they of Isles, where the former, and some of the crew, arrived. The young shoots of the Hybisous tiliaceus, were murdered by the natives. In March 1773, Capthe fruit of the Cordia sebestina, the Dolichos tube- tain Cook in the Resolution, with Captain Furneaux rosus, Helianthus Utberosus, Arum esadentmn, and in the Adventure, revisited New Zealand, where the Macrorrhizon, Hyporis, Aleurites, figs, oranges, plan- latter had a whole boat’s crew, with a midshipman, tains, sugar-canes, cocoa-nuts, and the bread-fruit,— murdered by the inhabitants. In 1776 and 17773 a all afforded them articles of food. Yet Labillar- third visit was made to these Islands by Captain diere says they eat steatite, and that he saw one Cook. In these several visits, accompanied as he was man devour a piece of this stone as large as his two with men well versed in every branch of natural fists. They also eat a species of spider. They had knowledge, there will be found in the Voyages of iost the hogs which Cook left them, but some half Cook and Forster every species of information that
AUSTRALASIA. 15 Australasia, the ferocious disposition of the inhabitants made it showed no signs of decrepitude, and were full of Australasia, J practicable to collect. cheerfulness and vivacity. They are mild, gentle, '**m\0**~ DescripThe two great Islands of New Zealand extend and affectionate towards each other, but ferocious tion. between latitude 34° and 48° south, longitude 181° and implacable towards their enemies; and it unforand 194° east ; that to the northward called Eahei- tunately happens, that the little societies into which nomawe, is about 400 G. miles long by 90 me- they appear to be divided, are in an almost perpedial breadth ; the name of the southern Island is tual state of hostility, which makes it necessary for Tavaipoenammoo, is about 450 G. miles long by 95 them to dwell in happahs or villages, fortified with broad ; the former has a rich and fertile soil, well embankments, ditches, and pallisadoes. They give clothed with trees, some of them more than 20 feet no quarter, and feast with apparent relish on the in girt, and 90 feet high, without a branch. Some bodies of their enemies, which they cut up and broil of them resembled spruce, and wrere “ large enough in holes dug in the earth ; they suck out the brains, for the mainmast of a 50 gun ship.” The highest and preserve the skulls as trophies. They made no hills were covered with forests, the valleys with grass hesitation in devouring human flesh iu presence of and shrubbery,.and the plains were well irrigated with the English officers, and their provision baskets had rills of clear water. The southern Island is very generally the head or a limb of a human subject. mountainous ; one peak, resembling that of TeneThe only quadrupeds on the Islands are dogs, riff'e, was estimated by Forster, but without sufficient small and ugly, and rats, the former of which they’ data, at 14,000 feet of height; it was covered with eat, and with their skins, cut into strips, they adorn snow in the middle of January. Both as to appear- their clothing; but their principal food consists of ance and temperature, they may be considered as fish, and the bruised roots of fern. They cultivate, the British Isles of Australasia. Fahrenheit’s ther- however, and with great neatness, sweet potatoes, mometer in February was never higher than 66°, and eddas, and gourds, all planted in regular rows ; and wras not lower in June than 48°. Cook observed, near the villages, both privies and A great part of . the western side of those Islands dunghills. Their houses have a ridge-pole to the roof, had, however, a desolate and inhospitable appear- which, with the sides, are built of sticks and grass, ance ; exhibiting ranges of yellow sandstone, or and lined with bark ; they sleep on the floors coverwhite sand hills, with scarcely a blade of verdure. It ed with straw; and the furniture consists of a chest is worthy of remark, that this extraordinary differ- to hold their tools, clothes, arms, and feathers, proence prevails between the two coasts of South vision baskets, and gourds to hold water, which is Africa, the two coasts of New Holland, and the two their only beverage; the New Zealanders being coasts of Van Dieman’s Land. among the very few people, civilized or savage, who The natives are stout, well limbed, and muscular, are ignorant of the means of intoxication. Natives. vigorous and active, excelling in manual dexterity ; Their double canoes, or whale boats, are admiratheir countenances intelligent and expressive, of an bly constructed with planks from 60 to 70 feet in olive complexion, but not darker than a Spaniard. length, and their prows and sterns are tastefully and In the appearance of the women, there is not much curiously carved and ornamented, all of which is feminine delicacy; but on Cook’s first visit, they performed by adzes and axes of a hard black stone, found them more modest and decent in their beha- or green talc or jade, and with chisels of human viour, than in any of the islanders they had met with; bone or jasper. Of these materials also are their offenthey were covered from the shoulders to the ankles sive weapons made: these are lances fourteen feet with a sort of netted cloth, made of the split leaves long, sharp at both ends, of hard wood, neatly carvof the flax plant (Phormium tenax), the ends hang- ed ; and a battle axe of jade or bone about a foot ing down like fringe. A party once came upon some long. Their war canoes carry from 60 to 70 men women by surprise, as they were fishing, naked, for each ; they keep exact time with their paddles, singlobsters, and “ the chaste Diana, with her nymphs, ing, with great vociferation and distorted features, could not have discovered more confusion and dis- their savage war song, when bound on any hostile tress at the sight of Actaeon, than these women ex- expedition. Their war dances are conducted in the pressed upon our approach.” On the third visit, same furious and extravagant style; the only musical however, they had got rid of all their modesty, and instrument, if it can be called one, is a triton shell, .a rusty nail was sufficient to purchase the last fa- which sounds like a cowr’s horn. vour. They have, however, a taste for music, and the The black hair of the men is bound in a knot on women are said to sing in a soft, slow, and mournful the top of the head ; that of the women is cropped ; cadence, making use of semitones. When their both sexes anoint their hair with rancid oil, and husbands are slain in battle, they cut their legs, arms, smear their bodies with grease and red ochre. The and faces, with bone or sharp shells, and few of them faces of the old men are covered with large furrow- that do not wear scars on their bodies as testimonials ed black marks, generally spiral lines, and have a of their affection and sorrow for their deceased horrible appearance. Jhe women wear in their friends. ears pieces of cloth, feathers, sticks, bones, &c. and The natives of New Zealand exhibit a strange bracelets and anklets of bone, teeth, shells, &c. mixture of civilized and savage life. It was hoped Captain Cook did not observe any appearance of from the state of their cultivated grounds, of which disease, or bodily complaint, or eruption on the skin, several hundred acres were seen, that presents of Oi marks of any ; and the most severe wounds healed hogs, kids, and poultry, would have been most acceptmost rapidly. Very old men, without hair or teeth, able, and considerable numbers were left with them
A ustralasia. 16 of a group of Islands directly south ot the south Australasia^ Australasia, on the first and second visits of Captain Cook ; but, cape of Tavai Poenammoo, one of the New Zealands, ’ excepting the cocks and hens, which had bred plen- named Lord Auckland’s Group, by the discoverer, land,s ^ tifully, and flew about wild in the woods, the others Mr Bristow, master ot a South Sea Whaler, in grati- 0f had been wantonly destroyed. In 1791, Va^ouver tude to the nobleman whose name they bear, for havtouched at Dusky Bay, and remained there for some ing, when a boy, procured him admission into the time, examining the bays and creeks m e ” school of Greenwich Hospital. This group, seven bourhood; but they did not see one, human being. in number, were first seen on the 10th August 1806; And in 17Q3, D’Entrecasteaux passed between the and, on the 20th October 1807, Captain Bristow' Three King’s Island, and Cape Maria Van Dieman, came to anchor with his ship, the Sarah, in a fine but had no other communication with the natives harbour on the largest Island, which he called Lnbut in their canoes. Unlike in every respect to the derby, and to the harbour he gave the quaint one of Otaheitans, they have evidently a common origin; their Sarah’s Bosom. They are situated in lat. 50° 40' language not differing more than the language of the south, and long. l66°35' east. Wood and water being two New Zealand Islands from each other. I he few plentiful, and easily procured, they are represented notions they have of superior beings also accord with as holding out, in this desolate and remote region, those of Otaheite. (See Cooks Voyages.) considerable advantages to the southern wrhale fishA missionary of the name of Marsden, from ™ercly ery. The climate, however, is unusually severe, and seeing some New Zealanders in New South Wales, the weather tempestuous. In the middle of sumhad the hardihood to accuse Captain Cook of having mer (December), every day was attended with drawn “ a false picture of the New Zealanders. He snow, sleet, or rain. Yet this severity of climate undoubtedly thought so, and went to the Islands with appeared to make no unfavourable impression on the a view of converting the natives to Christianity. He vegetable productions, as the woods were covered soon, however, abandoned this “ noble race ot men, with verdure so early in the spring as October. He as he calls them, being unable, by his own account, observed four kinds of timber trees, the principal ol “ to lay the first stone consoling himself tor his which was mangrove (quaery ?) growing to the height disappointment by the reflection that “ the pious Is- of 30 or 40 feet; but the trunks were so twisted and raelites could not build the walls of Jerusalem with- turned by the violent winds, that it was difficult to out holding the sword in one hand and the trowel in find a straight piece of ten feet in length. There the other.” Captain Cook’s accuracy is too well was no want of shrubby and herbaceous plants; there established to be shaken by such authority, the were neither men nor quadrupeds of any kind, following horrible transaction proves how well he but seals, sea-elephants, and sea-fowl, in great described the character of these cannibals. In De- plenty. The woods abounded with a great variety cember 1809, the ship Boyd, from Port Jackson, was of singing birds, wTith sweet melodious notes, and at Wang-arrooa, in the Bay of Islands, and admitted, among them was a species of lark ; wild-ducks, seals, without due caution, too large a number of natives on and snipes were plentiful, and he caught a kind of board, when the crew were suddenly attacked, over- rock-cod with the hook and line. powered, and slaughtered. Captain Alexander Bei ry To the southward of the group, another small Island of the ship Edinburgh Castle, being on the coast, was discovered in 1811, to which was given the name was soon after apprised of this horrible event; and, of Campbell’s Island; and to the south-west of them, proceeding to the bay, found the remains ot the Macquarrie’s Islands, in latitude 55° south, and longiBoyd, which had been burned by the savages. Cm tude l60° east. Several other Islands are scattered landing, he discovered that the massacre had been about those of New Zealand; Chatham Island to directed by Tippahee, the old chief, who had been so the eastward of it, and a group of small ones near it, much caressed at Sydney. The bones ol the un- seen by the Cornwallis in 1807; Bounty Island to the fortunate men lay scattered on the ground, where south-east; and to the southward of the latter, a little their bodies had been devoured by the savages. Island, which, from its position with regard to EngSixteen were murdered and cut up on the deck ol land, has been named Antipodes Island. (Bristow s the vessel; five others, who had fled for safety upon MS. Letter.) the yards, were told by the old cannibal, that n they would come down their lives should be spared, which, IX. Between the parallels of 48^° and 50° southland Kerguelen’s after some hesitation, they consented to do. They longitude 69° east, lies the barren and uninhabited Land. were sent on shore ; and in five minutes after, then dead bodies lay on the beach. The only survivors Land of Kerguelen; so named from the French officer which Captain Berry contrived to save, were a who first discovered it in 1772, and who, on a second woman, two children, and a boy. Well might Cap- visit in 1773> discovered some small Islands near it, tain Berry conclude the narrative of his horrid mur- but on neither occasion was able once to bring his der by an admonition, “ Let no man trust a New ships to an anchor upon any part of the coast. CapZealander.” . * , i e tain Cook was more fortunate. He had heard of To the eastward of New Zealand is an Island ot Kerguelen’s discovery at the Cape of Good Hope, considerable extent and well peopled, discovered by and wondered he should not have seen this land when Mr Broughton in 179L whemon a voyage round the he passed it so closely in 1770. In 1776, however, world with Vancouver. He called it Chatham befell in with these Islands; and, as no account of KerIsland; the people and its productions the same as guelen’s voyage had been made public, he gave new names to each Island. Speaking of the main Island-those of New Zealand. (See Vancouver s Voy.) « i should,” says Cook, “ from its sterility, with It may be proper here to notice a recent discovery
VUSTRALA8I A. 17 Australasia, great propriety call it * the Island of Desolation,' but mateiial is by no means an infallible criterion of a Australasia, that I would not rob M. de Kerguelen of the honour proximate eruption. of its bearing his name.” He changed, however, the Of the recent creation of Amsterdam there can “ Bale de L'Oiseau" of the French, where they had be little doubt; indeed, it is scarcely yet cooled, and landed in a boat, and lodged a piece of parchment in is altered considerably since its first discovery by a bottle, into Christmas Harbour ; and called a round Vlaming in 16.96. From every part of the sloping high rock “ Bligh’s Cap,” which had been named by sides of the crater, which is nearly 1000 yards in M. de Kerguelen the “ Isle of Rendezvous;”—al- diameter, and into which the sea has forced its way, though, says Cook, “ I know nothing that can ren- either smoke, or hot water, or hot mud, are seen to dezvous about it but fowls of the air ; for it is cer- issue ; and everywhere is felt a tremulous motion, tainly inaccessible to any other animal.” Kerguelen and a noise heard like that of boiling water. In thought he had discovered the Terra Australis In- many parts of the crater, in the centre of which cognita, but Cook soon determined that it was of no the water is 174 feet deep, the sea-water is tepid great extent. from the hot springs below; and numbers of these The hills were but of a moderate height, and yet, springs are found on the margin, below the high water in the middle of summer, were covered with snow ; mark, of various temperatures, from 100° to the boiling not a shrub was found on this Island, and not more than point. One very copious spring, slightly chalybeate, 17 or 18 different plants, one half of which were either issues, in a copious stream, into the crater, nearly on mosses or grasses ; the chief verdure was occasioned a level with the lowest state of the tide. These by one plant not unlike a saxifrage, spreading in tufts, springs cannot possibly descend from the summit of and forming a surface of a pretty extensive texture, the Island, the highest parts of which are the edges over a kind of bog or rotten turf; the highest plant of the crater, about 600 feet, and the whole area of resembled a small cabbage, when shot into seed, and the Island is not more than eight square miles ; a surwas about two feet high. No land animals were met face totally inadequate to collect and condense the with, but great plenty of the ursine seal {Phocaursina). clouds, so as to produce these permanent springs. Penguins were very abundant, as were also shags, Why some modern geologists, and among them cormorants, albatrosses, gulls, ducks, petterels, and M. de Humboldt, should doubt of sea-water being sea swallows. A few fish of the size of a haddock converted into steam, and undergoing the process of were r taken w ith the line, and the only shell-fish were distillation by subterranean fire, we are at a loss to a few limpets and muscles. know, or in what other manner they would account The steep cliffs towards the sea are rent from the for such large and permanent streams of fresh water, top downwards, but whether by rains, frost, or earth- so situated as those are of Amsterdam Island. quakes, could not be determined ; the productions of Another singularity which this Island presents, is the hills were composed chiefly of a dark blue and in its mosses and grasses, which are all European; pretty hard stone, intermixed with small particles of to these may be added the Sonchus oleracea, or sow glimmer or quartz; lumps of coloured sandstone, and thistle; and the Ajnum petrosilenum, or parsley; and of semitransparent quartz, are also common ; nothing the common Lycopodium, or club-moss, which grows appeared like an ore, or metal of any kind. (Cook’s luxuriantly on the bleak heaths of North Britain, Third Voyage, Vol. I.) seems to thrive equally well on the boggy soil of Amsterdam, heated, at the depth of a foot below the St Paul X. These small uninhabited Islands are interesting surface, to the temperature of 186° of Fahrenheit’s only in a eolo ic sterdaici . g g al point of view. Situated in the scale. midst of the great Indian Ocean, at the distance of The crater abounds with an excellent perch, of a 2000 miles from the nearest land, and removed but reddish colour, which is easily caught with the hook, 18 or 20 miles from each other, they have no com- and may be dropped at once into one of the hot mon point of resemblance : the one being the pro- springs on the margin, and boiled alive ; and so caught duct of a volcanic eruption, scarcely yet cooled, with and dressed, we are told, it affords an excellent rea few mosses and grasses on its surface; the other past. The bar across the mouth of the crater is recomposed of horizontal and parallel strata of rock, co- presented as one mass of cray-fish ; and in the sea, vered with frutescent plants ; an appearance which outside the bar, are vast multitudes of whales, gramled the scientific gentlemen in D’Entrecasteaux’s ex- pusses, porpoises, seals, and sea lions, so as to be pedition to conclude, that an organization so regular dangerous for boats to pass. It was the same in could not proceed from a volcanic origin. A French Vlaming’s time, who “ found the sea so full of seals seal-catcher, from the neighbouring island, had set fire and sea lions, that they were obliged to kill them to to the shrubbery, which continued to burn when the get a passage through ; when they steered from the navigators passed the Island; and imagining that shore, there was also an astonishing number offish.” they saw pits of smoke issuing from the crevices between the strata, some of them were disposed to conXI. From the volcanic Island of Amsterdam, we Numerous sider this circumstance as infallible indications of must now take a glance of those innumerable low Reefs and subteiranean fire. Perron, the seal-catcher above Islands and reefs of rocks which are scattered over the Islets of mentioned, with the gentlemen of Lord Macartney’s gi eater part of the Australasian Sea, to the eastward embassy, who explored the southernmost Island, Am- and northward of New Holland, and which are pro- the Austrasterdam, says that the shores of St Paul’s abounded duced by a different operation of nature to that tosian Sea., with pumice stone, but the presence of this light which lifted up Amsterdam—less violent, indeed, and vol. 11. part 1.
AUSTRALASIA. IS sailed more than 500 miles, before a passage could A^ia Australasia with less eclat than the latter, but equally, if not be found through them out to sea. Captain I in Austria. Dlisneu on uu the me solid caw**- foundations — II more firmly, established o ders paid some attention to the structure of t iese Austria the deep ' Tclnnrt nnt, unfreouently abyss. A* volcanic Island not infrequently reefs, on one of which he suffered shipwreck. breaks down its supporters, and sinks back into t ic Having landed on one of these new creations lie cavity out of which it was hurled, as was recently savs ‘‘ We had wheat sheaves, mushrooms, stag s the case with the Sabrina Island, near St Michae , horns, cabbage leaves, and a variety of other forms but the Island of coral, created by slow and imper- glowing under water, with vivid tints of every shade It ceptible degrees, hardens with tune, and becomes betwixt green, purple, brown, and white. one solid mass from the summit to the base. seems to me,” he adds, “that when the animalcules, We know very little, as yet, of the nature of the which form the coral at the bottom of the ocean, marine polypi that construct these wonderful fabrics, cease to live, their structures adhere to each other, but we cannot be blind to the effects of their opera- by virtue either of the glutinous remains within, or tions Throughout the whole range of the Poly- of some property in salt-water; and the interstices nesian and Australasian Islands, there is scarcely a being gradually filled up with sand and broken pieces league of sea unoccupied by a coral reef or a coral of coral washed by the sea, which also adhere, a Island - the former springing up to the surface of the mass of rock is at length formed future races of wSperpendiculaSy from the fathom esu bottom these animalcules erect their habitations upon the « deeper than did ever plummet sound, and the rising bank, and die in their turn, to increase, but latter in various stages, from the low and naked principally to elevate this monument of their wonderrock, with the water rippling over it, to an mim e ful labours.” He says, that they not only work perrupted forest of tall trees. “ I have seen says pendicularly, but that this barrier wall is the highest Dalrymple, in his Inquiry into the Formation )f part, and generally exposed to the open sea and that /ST “ the coral banks in all their stages ; some the infant colonies find shelter within it. A bank is hi deep water ; others with a few rocks appearing thus gradually formed, which is not long in being above die surface; some just formed into Islands, visited by sea-birds; salt-plants take root upon it, without the least appearance of vegetation ; others and a soil begins to be formed ; a cocoa-nut, or the with a few weeds on the highest pait; and lastly, drupe of a pandanus, is thrown onshore; land-birds such as are covered with large timber, with a bottom- visit it, and deposit the seeds of shrubs and trees less sea, at a pistol-shot distance. In fact, as soon every high tide and gale of wind add something to as the edge ofthe reef is high enough to lay hold of the bank; the form of an Island is gradually assumed , the floating sea-wreck, or for a bird to Pe™i "P01h and last of all comes man to take possession. the Island may be said to commence. The dung ot If we should imagine one of these immense cora birds, feathers! wreck of all kinds, cocoa-nuts floatmg reefs to be lifted up by a submarine volcano, and with the young plant out of the shell, are the fust converted into an insular or continental ridge ot hills, nidiments of the new Island. With Islands thus form- such a ridge would exhibit most of the phenomena ed and others in the several stages of their pi ogre that are met with in hills of limestone. .... give creation, Torres’ Strait is nearly choked up ; It is worthy of remark, that, in this great division and Captain Flinders mentions one Island mit cover- of the globe, fully equal in extent to that of Europe, there ed with the Casuarina, and a variety of other trees is no quadruped larger than the kangaroo ; that there and shrubs which give food to paroquets, p is none of a ferocious character, and in many of the teons and other birds, to whose ancestors, it is pro- Islands, none of any description. Man only- in Ausbable,’ the Island was originally indebted for this ve- tralasia is an animal of prey; and more ferocious getation. The time will come,—it may be ten thou- than the lynx, the leopard, or the hyena, he devours sand orten millions of years but come it "usV-when his own species, in countries too where nature has done New Holland, and New Guinea, and all the little every thing for his comfort and subsistence ; the congroups of islets and reefs to the north and north- sequence is, that population is so much checked and west of them, will either be united into one great con- thwarted, that the number °J all the natives that tinent, or be separated only with deep tlde channels,0 in have been seen on the coasts of all the Islands, from which the strength and velocity of the ' the first discovery to the present time, would not in struct the silent and unobserved agency of these in the aggregate amount to 20,000 souls. The only significant but most efficacious labourers. hope of improvement must depend on the future A barrier reef of coral runs along the whole of the colonization of these healthful and fertile regions of eastern coast of New Holland, “ among which, says the globe by some European power. (M Captain Flinders, “ we sought fourteen days, and
AUSTRIA.
In strict geographical language, Austria is the name of only a large province in the south-east ot Germany but it is commonly used to denote the great empire, composed of the province in question, the
ingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, along with the rovinces of Moravia, Carinthia, Styria, Tyro, ransylvania, Galicia, Lombardy, Venice, and Dalmtia. This state has, of late years, undergone ire10
A U S T III A. if) Austria. quent changes in point of territory and population. have confirmed Austria in the possession of the fol Austria. At the beginning of the French Revolution, the lowing territories : Austrian dominions were computed to contain a population of nearly 25,000,000. This number would Bohemia, containing a population of 3,150,000 have been materially increased in 1796’, by the ac1,320,000 Moravia quisition of Galicia and other parts of Roland, had 300,000 Austrian Silesia not the cession of the Netherlands and Lombardy Lower Austria 1,050,000 made a deductiop, which kept it at nearly its 650,000 Upper Austria original amount. The diminution, in fact, would Salzburg and Berchtolsgaden 200,000 have been considerable, had not the French tempt800,000 Styria ed Austria to a separate peace in 1797, by seiz280,000 Carinthia ing and transferring to her the territory of one of Carniola 420,000 the oldest states in Europe,—the Republic of VeFriuli and Trieste 106,000 nice. In the next war, the splendid successes of the 4,850,000 Galicia campaign of 1799 at first promised to give back to Bukowine 250,000 Austria a portion of her lost territory ; but the withHungary 7,400,000 drawing of Russia from the coalition, and the fatal Transylvania 1,600,000 days of Marengo and Hohenlinden, led, in 1801, to 500,000 Sclavonia a treaty which occasioned a further reduction of the Croatia 350,000 imperial frontier. The third war, that of 1805, was 1,650,000 Venetian States equally short and disastrous, leading, after the overIstria 100.000 throws at Ulm and Austerlitz, to the purchase of 300,000 Dalmatia peace by the surrender of the Venetian territory, Tyro! 650,000 Tyrol, and other provinces, containing in all a popuLombardy, and other acquisitions ) lation of nearly 3,000,000. in Italy J 2,000,000 In 1809, the resistance of Spain prompted Austria once more to try her fortune in the field. Her army Total 27,926,000 was numerous, and a large proportion of the French force was in the Peninsula; but Prussia remained Yet this empire, so populous and fertile, wants, in neutral, and Russia took part, to a certain extent, a high degree, that consonance of national manners, against Austria. These circumstances enabled Bo- and that congeniality of national feeling, which are naparte, at the head of a mixed force of French and so essential to ease in governing, and have so long Germans (of the Confederation of the Rhine), to ac- formed the strength of France and Britain. Hunquire a superiority in the field, and to enter Vienna gary and Bohemia, which form so large a portion of a second time as a conqueror. This sqccess was the imperial dominions, have little connection or chequered, indeed, by a sanguinary defeat at Aspern; conformity with each other, and still less with the but the victory of Wagram reinstated him in his su- remote provinces of Galicia or Lombardy, Add to periority, and the advance of a Russian force left the this, that the Austrian cabinet, while inferior to none Emperor Francis no other alternative than peace. A in diplomatic finesse, has frequently acted with a blind treaty was concluded on terms less humiliating than adherence to old prejudices, which we should little was anticipated, the cause of which was unknown expect in a European state in the eighteenth or nineat the time, but was soon found to be a conse- teenth century. Frederick II. who had such bitter quence of Francis consenting to give his daughter in contests with the Austrians, both in the field and camarriage to his conqueror. binet, declares that, in the former, they were unconBy the peace of 1809, the Austrian empire was scious of the value of good generals, while in negoreduced to a population of 20,000,000. The dimi- ciation they were perfectly untractable, so long as nution of her power was still greater from the ces- the aspect of affairs justified, in any degree, their sion of her frontier line ; and France might, for a con- exorbitant demands. What better opinion were we siderable time, have overawed and controlled her, at liberty to form in the present age, when we saw had not the extravagant march to Moscow deprived their army entrusted to a Mack, and preparations of Bonaparte, in a few weeks, of that mighty army defence delayed until the French were marching on which appeared to ensure the subjection of the Vienna ? The grand source of future aggrandizeContinent. rI he subsequent successes of the allies ment to Austria is to be sought, not in the acquisiled, as is well known, to the restoration of Austria tion of additional territory, but in the improvement in more than her former splendour. and consolidation of her present dominions. This doctrine, applicable to all countries to an extent selWe shall now proceed to give some account of the dom apprehended by their rulers, is of the most ux-piesent state of this empire under the following heads : gent importance to a state, whose deficient instrucPopulation—Climate and physical aspect—Educa- tion, languid intercourse, difference of language, and tion, Arts and Sciences—National Character—Reli- blind attachment to hereditary usages, all concur to gion Government and Laws—Army—Finances— keep so many fellow-subjects in a state of alienation ^§r^ci)^ure—Mines and Manufactures, each other. i opulation. 1. The treaty, or act of Congress at Vienna, in 1815, from It has become customary, particularly of late, to and the subsequent treaty of Paris in the same.year, consider Russia as superior in resources to Austria;
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AUSTRIA. 20 lead a pastoral life, and follow the habits of Austria, Austria, an opinion sanctioned, among other authorities, by an tribes plunder natural to wanderers ; while others are sta— expression of Lord Grey, in one of the debates which tionary, and have made some progress in the ruder regarded the conduct of our ministry of 1806-7, m in- kinds of manufactures. Jews are scattered in various spect to foreign aftairs. On considering, however, the directions throughout the Austrian dominions, partirigour of the Russian climate, the barrenness of a great cularly in Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia. \Yithout proportion of the soil, the inconvenience of vast dis- being numerous, they find means, especially in Galitances, and the general barbarism of the people, we cia, to transact most of the mercantile affairs of the are disposed to withhold our assent from this opi- country. . -i r r nion, and to look with more confidence to the proHungary, the most extensive and most fertile of bable augmentation of the population and power of the great divisions of the Austrian Empire, is perAustria. The following table will convey an idea haps the most backward in point of civilization and of the relative density of the population of her dif- knowledge. IMany a rich tract, capable of suppoitferent provinces: ing a crowded population, is here allowed to remain Inhabitants per square League. in pasture, in consequence, partly of the ignoiance of the cultivators, and partly of that most absurd 867 Bohemia law which deprives the peasant of the right of hold847 Austrian Silesia ing landed property. The extent of the evil is most 766 Lower Austria sensibly felt throughout Lower Hungary, the inha748 Moravia bitants of the northern part of the kingdom being 732 Galicia accustomed to greater exertion, and being even 657 Croatia known to possess occasionally little properties of 554 Upper Austria their own. Another cause of the ignorance and 504 Styria backward state of Hungary, is the difference in 495 Hungary point of language, manners, and religion, of various 470 Military frontiers of Sclavonia portions of its population. These have settled in it 453 Carinthia at different times, and from different causes, without 440 Sclavonia becoming blended with each other in the manner Transylvania, and its military frontiers 437 that takes place in an industrious and populous comMilitary frontiers of Croatia 390 munity. The majority of the Hungarian tribes are Bukowine " of Sclavonian descent, but they are mixed with a Military frontiers of Hungary 295 variety of other nations, such as Armenians, Jews, Macedonians, and followers of the Greek church. It is remarkable, that Lower Austria, though highly fertile, is not so well peopled as the manufac- The few Germans settled in Hungary are originally turing countries of Bohemia and Silesia. It is still from the south of the empire, particularly Suabia more remarkable, that the mountainous tracts of the and Bavaria. Bohemia reckons above three millions of inhabitlatter are found to contain a denser population than ants, the chief part differing, both in language and the rich plains of Hungary. The average of the whole empire is 579 inhabitants to the square league, in national feeling, from their German neighbours. a proportion hardly more than the half of that of They have even a decided aversion to the latter, France and England. Can there be a more sti iking and confine their national predilection to the Hunproof of the improveable powers of the empire, when garians, who are said, in return, to esteem them more we consider that, of the countries just mentioned, highly than their other fellow'-subjects. The pow'er Sovereign is much greater in Bohemia than in the latter is, in point of soil and climate, inferior, ofthe Hungary, for it comprises the legislative as well as and the former by no means superior to Austria ? No country, with the exception of Russia, com- the executive department. Notwithstanding this prises such a diversity of distinct tribes or races as strange anomaly, Bohemia is the least backwaid of the Austrian empire. The German part of the po- the Austrian provinces, whether we look to educapulation does not extend in considerable numbers tion or the labours of productive industry. The effibeyond the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria, cacy of regular habits, and of a compact population, a portion of Moravia, and particular parts of Styria in bringing aid to the executive power, is strikingly in the number of soldiers raised in Boand Carinthia. Bohemia, although surrounded by a. exemplified hemia,—-a number almost equal to that which is supGerman population, contains many districts inhabited only by its aboriginal tribes; while, in Hungary plied by the far more extensive territory of Hungary. 2. The difference of elevation of soil causes as great Climate and and Austrian Poland, individuals of German extracAltion are very thinly scattered. The most numerous a difference of temperature in the Austrian empire Phydcal cc as in any country in Europe. At Vienna, situate P ’ of the varied races of this empire is the Sclavonian, a generic name now in a great measure lost in the less than 400 feet above the level of the sea, the subdivisions of Croats, Rascians, Carniolians, Bos- medium of annual heat is about 51° of Fahrenheit; nians, &c. The Rascians, or Illyrians, are descend- at Gratz, a degree farther to the south, the medium ants of the ancient inhabitants of the vast tract is only 49°, the elevation being nearly 700 feet. known to the ancients by the name of Scythia. The Again, on the eastern frontier, Saltzburg, situate fate of war has placed them alternately under the Turk- in the vicinity of an Alpine range, has an average ish and Austrian dominion ; their language is a dialect temperature of only 47°, while at Prague, two deof Sclavonian mixed with the Illyrian. Some of their grees farther north, it is 48°.
AUSTRIA. 21 Austria. Lakes are frequent in certain parts of the AusAustria. Vienna, situate in a plain, intersected in a variedly of directions by the Danube, the waters of which trian dominions. In Upper Styria, they owe, as in are here slow in their course, would be by no means the Highlands of Scotland, their formation to the healthy, were it not for the frequent breezes, which natural collection of water in valleys pent up in all directions ; a description, however, which does not apclear the air of unwholesome exhalations. The Austrian dominions may be divided, in point ply to the lakes in the level part of Hungary. Those of climate, into three regions, of which the southern are more properly marshes, and form, as in modern comprises the provinces adjoining to Italy, with a Greece, a striking indication of neglected agriculpart of Croatia, and extends from N. lat. 42° to 46’°. ture. Large tracts are in this manner lost to every We here find the olive, the myrtle, the vine, the fig- useful purpose along the banks of the Danube, the tree, and even the pomegranate. The depth of win- Drave, the Save, and other rivers of less magniter may be compared to the month of March in a tude, Hungary may be called a vast plain of sandy soil, northern climate. The middle range extends from the 46th to the 49th of north latitude, comprising marked in certain districts by the highest fertility, in Austria, properly so called, a great part of Hungary, others by absolute barrenness. Galicia is less level and a portion of Moravia and Bohemia. The olive than Hungary, but may likewise be called, in geis no longer found to grow in this latitude, but vines neral language, a sandy plain of great extent. and maize thrive in favourable situations. Winter Moravia is marked by more prominent features; lasts between three and four months; the spring is and while its soil presents, on the southern slope mild, though rainy ; the summer warm but variable ; of its hills, the fertility of Lower Austria,—the the air is in general healthy, except in the neigh- northern side is found too cold for the cultivabourhood of the marshes of Hungary, which are tion of the grape. The inhabitants are active, and proverbially fatal to German settlers. The northern at a farther distance from primitive simplicity than region comprises Galicia, a part of Hungary, a the majority of their fellow-subjects. But the gargreat proportion of Bohemia and Moravia, with the den of Austria, and indeed of Germany, is the great whole of Austrian Silesia. Winter is here severe, valley, extending on either side of the Danube, to a and lasts fully five months ; vines and maize are no considerable way above Vienna. Unfortunately, the, longer to be met with, and even wheat requires a riches of nature have not as yet been adequately imchoice of situation ; but the summer heats, particu- proved in this region ; the peasantry, though posseslarly in the valleys, are greater than we are accus- sed of the greatest honesty and sincerity, being devoid of intelligence or activity. These good and bad tomed to in Britain. If we cast our eyes on a map of the imperial do- qualities are not confined to the country ; they form minions, as, with the exception of the Polish part, the groundwork of the character of the inhabitants of they stood before the late annexations, we see them the capital, although necessarily modified by the hasurrounded by a chain of mountains in almost bits produced by permanent assemblages in one spot. The Austrian territory is traversed by a number every direction. Hungary is covered by the Carpathian range, which extends all the way to Silesia, of rivers, of which by far the most interesting is the and is even connected with the great circular bar- Danube. It receives about 40 rivers from north and rier of Bohemia. To the eastward lies an elevated south, before entering the imperial dominions, and territory, in the direction of Bavaria, while, in the about 100 more flow into it before it falls into the south, the line of discrimination from Italy and Illy- Euxine, after a course of nearly 1500 miles Its bed rium is drawn with still more marked features. The becomes perceptibly widened by the influx of the highest mountains belong to the southern range ; Ens, at some distance above Vienna ; and its subsethose of the north seldom exceeding two or three quent breadth, though very various, may be said, in a thousand feet, while those of the south frequently general way, to be of one, two, or three miles. It is approach to four thousand. In the interior of the bordered throughout almost its whole course in the empire, and particularly in Hungary, there are Austrian territory by ridges of mountains, tlie distance levels of great extent, and the average height of of which from the water is generally greater on the many of the hills' may be put down at only six or right than on the left bank. It is of sufficient depth eight hundred feet. Strictly speaking, the whole of the to bear shipping throughout the whole Austrian domountains along the southern part of the Austrian minions, and to admit, in Hungary, of vessels of condominions, and even those on the north, belong to siderable size. But, unfortunately, this noble stream one great range, extending, under a variety of modi- is not fitted for easy navigation ; its banks are offications and names, all the way from the Alps to ten steep and rocky, its current rapid, and its bed enRussia. The latitude being temperate, or rather cumbered with shoals. The height of the banks and warm, these varieties of elevation present a striking the frequent windings prevent the use of sails to the difference in vegetable produce; the lower part extent practised on the Rhine and the Vistula. It is being covered with vines, or rich crops of corn, necessary, therefore, to tow almost all the way, and while the adjacent elevation exhibits a picture of the boats, as well as the track along the banks, are Norwegian sterility. Some provinces abound with as yet in a very rude state. A similar negligence picturesque views, and remind the traveller of the prevails in regard to Canals, in which the Austrians magnificent scenery of Switzerland. Styria, in par- have hitherto made very little progress. ticular, has its glaciers and perpetual snows, its The Austrian rivers, and in particular the Danube, rumbling cascades, its tremendous avalanches, and teem with myriads of fish. The same is true of the its green pasturages, in the region of mist. various lakes scattered in different parts of the coun-
1 2-2 A U S 'J it 1 A. Austria, try. Some kinds of salmon in the Danube are of so hitherto been little •ultivated at Vienna; natural his- Austria, rich a flavour as to enter regularly into the list ot tory more. Vienna has likewise an Oriental Society, a Veteripresents made by the princes residing in the neighbourhood of its banks to their respective superiors. nary School, and some institutions for teaching the An attempt was lately made to convey some of this Fine Arts. These, however, are all, except the mechoice breed to the llhine, by putting them into dical, inferior to correspondent establishments in the boats of such a construction as to admit the in- north of Germany. Another subject of regret is, gress of the water. The plan was to tow these boats that a youth, after making a certain progress at up the Danube, as far as Ulm, and afterwards to school or college, finds little means of farther adreach the Neckar by means of some of the lesser vancement from instructive society at Vienna. A rivers. It failed, however, and the undertakers had thirst for information is little felt among a people octhe mortification to see most of the fish perish by the cupied only with the tranquil enjoyment of the good way, in consequence, perhaps, of the smallness or things of this life ; a people unambitious, uninquisitive, and disposed to go over the same tract as their improper construction of the boats. Education, 3. There exists, in point of education, a remarkable fathers and forefathers. It is in scenes of agitation Arts and difference between the North and South of Ger- that the faculties are called forth ; they become dorciencts ' many. This difference is owing to the operation of mant in a state of general and continued acquiespolitical and moral causes—such as the difference of cence. The only feeling likely to stimulate minds the form of government; the greater number of free of this heavy texture is the desire of acquiring protowns in the north, and of public establishments ; and, perty ; and, in fact, trade of one kind or other forms above all, to the predominance of Protestantism. the ’chief sphere of individual activity throughout It has long been a point of fashion and competition the south of Germany. Such is the true cause of among the petty princes in the central and northern that literary apathy ascribed by some foreigners to parts of Germany, to patronizfe literature. Un homme the restraints imposed by government on the press ;■— de lettres is there, as in France, a personage of consi- restraints of no great severity, and certainly not inderable importance. Attempts have indeed been tended to check the progress of useful inquiry. Still Austria is not wholly devoid of names of emimade, during the last and present age, by Joseph II. and the late Sovereign of Bavaria, to improve the uni- nence in literature. Frederick Schlegel is well versities, and to found academies, in their respective known by his publications on the language and phiterritories. The Academy of Munich, in consequence losophy of India, and his brother W illiam, by his of the patronage of the latter, now occupies a promi- translation of Shakespeare, and by his admirable nent rank among literary bodies ; and in Vienna, con- works on dramatic criticism. To these are to be siderable progress has been made in the method of added the names of a few poets, and of a greater teaching Medicine, Surgery, and Botany. But in other number of geographical and statistical writers. Hamrespects, whether we look to schools or universities, mer, the founder'of the Oriental Society at Vienna,^ the state of instruction in Austria is very imperfect. has published a translation of a Persian poem of The innovations of Joseph were too abrupt to last; some extent, and, like Wieland, has laboured to they have all disappeared except his primary schools. transpose into the German language the ornaments The hereditary states alone possess the means of to- of the figurative style of the East. Etymology is a lerable education, the great provinces of Galicia study suited to the laborious habits of the Germans, and Hungary being in a manner deprived of them. and on this, as on many other subjects, they have Still there exists throughout this empire a patient given us, if not finished works, the materials at least and pains-taking industry, which will eventually prove of valuable compositions. With the application of a highly favourable to the dissemination of useful better method, and with rigid compression, a variety knowledge. A stranger, on entering a German of useful treatises might be extracted from the laschool, is struck wdth the arrangement, the gravity bours of the German literati. Prague has a university of high antiquity, but of and the silence that prevail throughout. Several towns in Austria have Gymnasia or Academies some- little reputation at the present day. I he Catholic what similar to the Lyc6es in France,—calculated clergy are generally educated in humbler seminaries for teaching, not so much the classics as the intro- than universities. Without much pretension to literature, they bear the character of conscientious ductory part of Mathematics, Medicine, or Law. In the Academy of Medicine and Surgery at attention to their pastoral charge, in particular the Vienna, the buildings are spacious, the professors country curates. Oratory forms no part of their numerous, and well qualified. The access to great studies ; a German congregation meets, not for the Hospitals, to collections of Natural History, and to purpose of being gratified by a pathetic address, an extensive Botanical Garden, are all important fa- but of fulfilling, soberly and tranquilly, a religious cilities appended to this seminary. In fact, Vienna duty. Sermons in this country consist, accordingly, has held a distinguished rank in medicine since the of little else than plain moral lessons, deduced jiays of Van Swieten, the opportunity of practical from the Sacred Writings ; and the reputation of a observation afforded by a large city, and the liberality pastor rests chiefly on his attention to the sick, and of the public establishments, rendering this capital the performance of private and unostentatious duties. Several establishments have been formed of late the resort of medical students from distant provinces; exactly as Gottingen is the point of attraction for moral years in Austria for the education of officers. The and natural philosophy. Chemistry, however, has principal is the Military Academy of Wienerisch,
23 A U S T R I A. Austria. Neustadt, in the neighbourhood of Vienna, where er degree of freedom before marriage, than it is Austria, the teachers are generally Engineer officers, dis- thought expedient to allow them in France. In do-^^V^^ abled by wounds or otherwise from service. The mestic life, they act a modest and attentive part; pupils consist of young officers, or of youths of gen- fixing the predilection of their husbands, not, indeed, teel families, preparing for the service. There are by the attractions of conversation, but by a mild and two other military seminaries in the capital, and steady fulfilment of the duties of a wife and mother. some smaller establishments in the provincial towns. They are thus probably more happy than the fair As to travelling for the purpose of information, sex in France, although possessed of much less inthe Austrians have in general much less inclination fluence, and occupying a less conspicuous part in than the English, or their German brethren in the society. The lower orders are distinguished by sinorth. Some examples, however, there are of men milar virtues. In some districts we may visit village of science repairing to distant regions, such as M. after village, without hearing of a single instance of Jacquin and Mohs who went to America in quest of domestic disquietude. The care of children, the plants unknown in Europe. Schultes, Gebhast, habit of labour, and attendance on Divine worship, Mebzer, and Bremer, have also found means to ren- occupy all their thoughts. In Vienna, females form der their travels instrumental to the diffusion of the chief attraction of society to a foreigner. Most of them speak French with fluency, and prefer it to knowledge. In mechanical inventions the Austrians have made the Austrian dialect of German, which is particularthat progress which may naturally be expected from ly unpleasant, having a slowness of accent and a hissa people, who, with a deal of patience and perseve- ing tone, extremely ungracious, particularly in the rance, are not in possession of the advantages of im- mouths of the common people. proved machinery. The result of their discoveries The habitual assiduity of the Austrians leads them is, therefore, rather the gratification of a fancy, than to cultivate, by preference, those occupations in which that practical application to a productive purpose, straight forward industry affords the means of sucwhich tends so greatly to cheapen labour in Britain. cess. Hence their progress in mechanics, and the One German artist frames a machine to perform the flourishing state of many of their manufactures. functions of a chess player; another makes a head Another feature in the German character, and one capable of an imitation of the human voice, while a at first somewhat difficult of explanation, is their third combines in a pauharmonicon the most varied predilection for music; a passion found to exist in the sounds of music. That instrument may, in fact, be humblest ranks, and under the least favourable circalled a concert in itself, a number of instruments cumstances. We meet here, in villages, with wanderbeing made to play simultaneously with the greatest ing musicians performing on trumpets made of the precision. cherry-tree wood, or on the most grotesque vioThe fine arts, with the exception of music, lins. If in vocal music they yield to the Italians, have hitherto made little progress in Austria. To they fully maintain the competition in point of infind an eminent painter or sculptor there would be a strumental performances—a taste which prevails as matter of no small difficulty. But when we come to well in the fertile parts of the empire, as in the sethink of music, who can forget that Haydn and cluded spots of Tyrol and Carniola; forming a cuMozart were formed at Vienna ? If they are inferior rious example of the results attendant on the contiin grace and melody to Italian composers, they are not nued prosecution of an elegant study by a slow and to be surpassed in the grander powers of music. A apparently inanimate people. foreigner cannot receive a higher gratification at No country presents fewer examples of crimiVienna, than by being present at the Oratorio in nal offences than Austria. Year passes after year, commemoration of Haydn. Architecture is still in without any necessity for the infliction of a capital )its infancy in Austria. An Architectural Society has punishment. Averse as the inhabitants are to Frenchbeen lately instituted at Vienna, but most of the pub- men, particularly in the shape of military invaders, lic buildings have been planned by foreign artists. we know of no example, during any of the late inEngraving, demanding rather patience than exertion, vasions, of those secret assassinations which occurred has been cultivated there with considerable success. so frequently in Spain. National 4. The Austrian national character is marked by the Of the manners of the inhabitants of the mounCharacter, same features as that of the German nation at large. tainous provinces of the empire, we may form an Sincerity, fidelity, industry, and a love of order, are idea by fixing our attention on the Styrians and Caall conspicuous in them, and would long since have rinthians. I he middle range of these mountains entitled them to fill a distinguished rank in the scale presents a scanty pasturage ; their upper parts are of European civilization, had not their beneficial covered with tracts of snow, while the yew and fir operation been counteracted by a prejudiced go- are the only trees which are seen to raise their heads vernment, a deficient system of education, and an il- amidst the tempest. The inhabitants of these eleliterate priesthood. The consequence of these un* vated districts are simple, hospitable, and religious; fortunate drawbacks is the transmission of similar content with the produce of their land and cattle; habits from father to son, a blind adherence to old cheerful and frank as simplicity and moderate deusages, and an extravagant deference to hereditary sires can make them, they have no wishes beyond rank, in the promotion of civil and military officers, the limits of their own territory. The only feeling which proved one of the great causes of the con- which prevails among them with any keenness, is retmued defeats in the late wars with the French. ligious zeal. They are ardent Catholics, and open In Austria, as in Britain, females enjoy a great- to ail the idle suggestions of an illiterate priesthood.
AUSTRIA. 24 particularly numerous in Transylvania. The follow- Austria, Austria. They are in the habit of undertaking distant piigi i- ers of the Greek church, in one part or other of the ’v-*' mages, which they are taught to consider as the best Austrian dominions, are said to exceed the number means of obtaining the forgiveness of trespasses. of 2,000,000a number in a state of gradual inAlong their roads are scattered mystic chapels, crease from the occasional influx of their brethren crosses, and other indications of the exercises ot de- from Turkey. These new settlers are generally envotion. The traveller is often fortunate enough to gaged in trade, and pass for possessing no slight find beside these religious erections a spring whose share of the address and artifice attributed to the waters afford him a delightful refreshment, when Greek merchants of the present day. Galicia compursuing his way along a confined valley. He finds prises a body of Armenian Catholics; a sect not himself here among a primitive race, who are unac- wholly unknown in Hungary. The Protestants, inquainted with the arts of men in a more civilized cluding both Calvinists and Lutherans, amount, prostate, and are easily guided by an appeal to the bably, to nearly 3,000,000 throughout the w hole emheart. Their language is sonorous, and the echo pire, of which Bohemia and Moravia contain a very which repeats the call from the mountain side, olten insignificant proportion. The well known associaproves a useful warning to the stranger when wan- tion of Herrnhutters or Moravians, owes its origin dering from the path, or when approaching to the to an Austrian province, and takes date from the brink of a precipice. Often, in the course of his middle of the fifteenth century. The number of iourney, does he meet with inscriptions, in which the Jews under the Austrian dominion may amount to hand of a friend or a brother has recorded the name 300,000. Joseph II. took the lead of Bonaparte in of one who has fallen a victim to the storm or the an attempt to incorporate them with the mass of his torrent. _ subjects, by extending to them the enjoyment 5. Austria has long contained a considerable diver- of similar privileges. He found, however, that Religion. sity of religious sects, without having suffered from their habits, if they yield at all, give way but their contests in any part of her dominions except very slowly, and that ages will be required to idenBohemia, the country of the well known John Huss, tify them with their Christian fellow-subjects. In and Jerome of Prague. In the other provinces such tolerating Mahometanism, Joseph had in view the excesses have been avoided, partly from the mode- promotion of commercial intercourse with Turkey, a rate character of the inhabitants, and partly fiom number of traders of that country being in the habit the tolerant spirit of the Imperial Family. There of travelling, and even of settling in Austria. can be no doubt, however, that, had the Reformation 6. There exists a great diversity in the constitution Governhappily made progress in the Austrian dominions, of the component parts of this extensive empire. It nient and the result, as in the north of Germany, would have may be safely assumed, that the disadvantage from m'* been a very material advancement in all departments want of unity, already noticed, will infallibly continue of productive industry. Trade, manufactures, litea considerable extent, until there be established a rature, are all cultivated with superiority in the north; to greater similarity in point of legislation. At present, and if the agricultural produce of the south be larger, each of the great divisions constitutes an unconnected the cause is to be sought merely in superiority of body, and the wdiole resembles rather a federative assoil and climate. Toleration, however, existed vir- sociation than one compact consolidated state. In the tually for a considerable time back in Austria, and Austrian provinces, the constitution is understood to it received a formal sanction from a law of Joseph be founded on a great charter, passed so long ago as II., which extended indulgence even to Jews and 1156’. In Bohemia, the principal law's are of more Mahometans. The Archbishop of Vienna is the recent date, and hardly go back two centuries. In head of the Catholic clergy in a civil capacity; Austrian Silesia, there exists a great complexity of but the Bishop of St Palten appoints the iegi- public regulations, w'hile Galicia, differing still more mental chaplains, and is accounted the supenor essentially from the other provinces, traces back of all clergymen doing duty with the army. Church the basis of its constitutional dependence on Auspatronage rests with the Sovereign, to the exclusion tria no farther than 1773. of the influence of the Pope. Convents, formerly Hungary is w'holly distinct from the other dinumerous in Austria, have been considerably reduvisions of the monarchy, and claims to be governed ced during the last thirty years; but the church by laws altogether different. Hie first of these is property is still very considerable. In computing the relative number of diffeient traced back so far as the end of the ninth century ; sects, it is common to estimate the Catholics at two- others date from the thirteenth, and confirmations of thirds of the whole. Protestants are not numerous ; the privileges of the nobility, w'ith limitations of the power, were successively passed during the the Austrian people at large being too little enlight- imperial ened to exchange a worship which dazzles the ima- seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here the gination by its pomp and ceremonies, for one whose emperor exercises the supreme power, only through chief appeal is to the understanding. The Greek the medium of the States or Parliament. He may church has no inconsiderable number of votaries dispose of the great offices of the kingdom, but scattered throughout Galicia, Hungary, Croatia, and under the restriction of giving them not only to naTransylvania. These are superintended by a number tives of Hungary, but to men of a certain rank. In of Bishops, some of whom recognise for their head this land of aristocracy, no plebeian, of whatever tathe Archbishop of Leopold, while others, who differ lents, is entitled to rise in a public office above the in point of creed, are under the jurisdiction of the humble station of a clerk. The Emperor is accountArchbishop of Gran in Hungary. The latter are ed the constitutional President of the Diet, but he
A U S T R I A. 25 Austria, may delegate a representation to one of his great penny, the contributions for soldiers, all pass over Austria, officers. A general levy, or “ insurrection,” as it is his head, unless he become pledged to them, along termed, must, like other measures, proceed from the with his brethren, by a specific act of the Diet. In legislative assembly. return for all these exemptions, they are bound to The States, or parliamentary meetings, differ in rise en masse, and to serve personally under their Sodifferent provinces of the empire, but are generally vereign, whenever a war receives the approbation of divided into four classes ; the prelates, the higher a General Diet. It will not escape the observation of nobility, the knights, or gentry, and the deputies of our readers, that these fiscal privileges,always the subthe boroughs. It is a general meeting of these ject of boast among the Hungarian noblesse, and, in classes that constitutes the Hungarian Diet. The former years, not unfrequently a ground of quarrel with prelates have the right of voting first. The nobility their Austrian Sovereign, do not amount, in fact, to possess not only an exclusive title to public ap- anything like an entire exemption. Public burdens, pointments, but the daughters of the less affluent fa- however disguised, fall eventually, with a considermilies among them are admitted to an establishment able share of equality, on all classes. In Hungary, in convents, on proving their rank, or, as it is called, the inhabitants of the towns are obliged to seek, in the number of their quarters, in the manner pointed the enhanced price of the commodities, sold to the out by law. The Diet of Hungary is generally con- landholders, an indemnity for their greater share of vened once in three years, and meets at Presburg taxation. The late Emperor Joseph II. was disposed or Buda. The Prince Palatine, or, in his absence, to abrogate many of these pernicious usages, but the noble of highest rank, presides at the Tabula his character was not well fitted, nor did he reign procerum, having on his right the primate, along with long enough to accomplish the task. the archbishops, bishops, and other dignitaries of the In the hereditary provinces, or Austria Proper, church. The second board, or Tabula inclytorum, the power of the Emperor is much greater. In the has for its president the imperial representative, eye of the law, he is the supreme judge, the founwhile the third division of the Diet comprises the tain of dignity, the centre of legislative as well as of deputies of towns, the secretaries, and other inferior executive power. He has a right to impose taxes, officers. The deliberations proceed either on the to regulate the affairs of the church, and even to propositions of the sovereign, or on the bill of griev- modify religious worship, in whatever is not accountances of the subjects. The Diet is generally divided ed a fundamental article of faith. He may tolerate into chambers, who discuss business separately, and any religion, oppose the papal bulls, and prohibit communicate with each other by the medium of the publication of the pastoral letters of bishops. members. In case of non-agreement, the whole are This power, delicate as it is in a Catholic country, made to constitute one assembly, in which a decision has been sometimes exercised by the emperors, is made by plurality of votes. An act of the Diet when they had occasion to urge political points of receives the force of law when sanctioned by the importance with the sovereign pontiff. At such times Emperor, or King, as he is invariably termed in they have not scrupled to forbid their subjects to Hungary, and it seldom happens that any serious remit money to Rome, and have been known to indivision takes place between the Diet and the execu- terdict all correspond'mce between the Austrian tive power. and foreign convents. A more important prerogaSuch was formerly the extravagance of aristocra- tive is that which they possess to impose taxes on tic notions in Hungary, that no plebeian, or person church property throughout Austria and Galicia. engaged in trade, could carry on, in his own name, The executive government of the Austrian ema law-suit against one of the gentry. It was neces- pire at large consists of four great departments, and sary that the town where the plaintiff resided, should owed its present organization to the counsels of come forward and assume the cause of its citizen. Maria Theresa. One of these establishments reguThis absurd usage was abolished in 1802. Still, lates all home affairs ; foreign affairs are managed by however, a peasant or farmer can seldom bring, in another. Military matters are subjected to the his own name, an action against one of the gentry; third great department, while the fourth and last rehe must generally do it through the medium of his gulates the interior administration of Hungary. superior or landlord. The right of possessing land The name of Aulic is not confined, as is vulgarly in Hungary being confined to the privileged classes, imagined, to the Military Board ; it is common to it follows that a donation of land by the Sovereign is several councils, and is given, among others, to the tantamount to conferring a tide of nobility. The Board of Finance. Another department, sufficientland cultivated by the vassal is, of course, altogether ly indicative of the backward state of the science of the property of his superior ; but arrangements ore government in Austria, is that which superintends made for allowing the former to reap, as far as that the working of mines for public account. is practicable, in so ignorant a country, the fruit of In this country, as in France, the attention of his labour. The corvees and taxes on the tiers etat, has been lately given to a more easy so much complained -of in France before the Revo- government exposition of the fundamental rules of jurisprudence. lution, prevail here in all their extent. ITence the A first attempt was made so long as forty years ago, importance to the boroughs of acquiring the privi- and a code waspublished in 1767 m eight folio volumes. leges of free towns, and enabling their inhabitants to This performance had two great defects, its size and possess land without a title to nobility. its want of classification by general rules. While of , ^ie Hungarian landholder is exempt from all httle use to lawyers, it was wholly unprofitable to imposts. Tithes, toll-dues, a tax called the thirtieth the public at large. Instructions were accordingly VOL. II. part i. D
AUSTRIA. 26 would appear to have made little progress in the Austria. given to an eminent civilian, Von Horten, to^recast Austrian dominions, they stand on a footing equal to ’ it in a condensed and improved form. joseph that of their continental neighbours, and supply goprogress was made in this before the death ot Joseph vernment with most of the materials of war. ClothII • and in 1794, under the auspices of the piesent ing, arms, ammunition, harness are all furnished at “•verdgn, thJLt part of the civil code came for* different stations in Bohemia, Moravia, and the Hein a new form. A few years after, the whole ap reditary States. The horses for the light cavalry peared in an amended shape, and g«y™“ent are drawn from Hungary and Galicia; those for the pointed several local comnnss.ons with heavy cavalry, chiefly from Bohemia and Moravia. to make reports on its applicability to the ditte The disposition of the inhabitants of most of the imP provinces. Printed copies of the code were distn- perial territories, is well adapted to a military life. buted in all directions, and the un,versrt.es enjomed They are generally accustomed to pass their time to take it into mature consideration. The definitive out of doors, to indulge in active exercise, to follow correction and promulgation of the node were c- the chace, and to occupy themselves with the care tarded by various causes, and particulailybythe of horses. To such men marching and encamping unfortunate wars with France, so that its actual is but a slight variation from established habits. The adoption did not take place until the beginning fire of the nightly watch is not more uncomfortable 1812. The criminal code bad not been so ong than that of their smoky cottages; while a loaf of withheld; it was promulgated in 1803, and in re- bread, a slice of coarse pork, and a glass of spirits, duced into practice in 1804. _ . supnly them with all the nourishment they desire Military 7. In a country where the executive power is not Establish- subjected to animadversion, or to the exh.bdton of In point of resources, therefore, Austria is one of the greatest of military powers,—her deficiency has went. official statements, it is a matter of no small difficulty hitherto been in their application, loo much attento compute the extent of the m.btary force. ^ tion is «-iven to the minutus of individual exeicise, supposed that, in the campaign of 180a, the A * without considering how seldom these niceties can ans had on foot above 250,000 “ V be made applicable to collective numbers. Hence whom nearly a fifth were cavalry. In that ot 1809, an endless list of military instructions, and a comthis force of regulars was backed by a considera o plexity of evolution, such as to be ha^’y inacticab e body of reserve, and by above lOO battahons ol rni- in a review, still less in a day of battle. At the upa known by the name of landwehr ; but the state same time, there exist very material omissions m reof disc^ne o? the latter was not snch as to otter gard to the method of moving large bodies of men. any effectual resistance to the progiess ot the Will it be believed, that the Austrian regulations French. The war establishment, in regular troops, ca contain no explicit directions for a change from line scarcely be estimated, we apprehend, above 2u0 ( into column, whether for attack or defence ! Hence men • and half this number may perhaps be taken a in a great measure, the loss sustained at Esshng and near the amount of her effective peace establishment. Wagrambylong exposure to the trench aiti y. The irregulars in the Austrian service arc drawn, Official instructions are given for the manceuvi e in a greTmeasure, from Croatia and other pvovm battalions and regiments, but nothing is said of those ces along the Turkish frontier. About sixty yea of brigades, or larger divisions. Hie coi.sequei c Zo the greater proportion of the Hungarian troops is, that the Austrians form their line very ^owly, fell under this description ; but the wars with 1 > us* and find, when it is once formed, a deal of difficult) sia having taught, by dear bought experience, e in executing any other movements than those to front value of discipline, the Austrian commanders, m and rear. They have very little dexterity in separatnm-ticular Marshal Lascy, gradually accomplish, ing, reuniting, or supporting each other at short notice. rchange? and converted horL of flying squadrons The military schools at Vienna having been found into compact and regular regiments. p highly useful, the government has adopted the plan In the Hereditary States, and we believe m all of establishing them elsewhere. The consequence, the empire except Hungary the levies are made it is to be hoped, will be a gradual correction of the in the first instance, for militia duty, fiom which defects hitherto attendant on deficient education and it is no difficult matter, in an absolute govern- blind patronage. Few services are more discouragment, to accomplish a transition to tie ming than the Austrian to an officer who has not the adHungary, recruits are levied in virtue of an act o Se Sovereign and the States, after the promulgation VTfn lusut a country possessed of very little fo-^ of which, the different Magnates find means to enlist reign trade, the taxes are chiefly levied on the land, the requisite number on their estates. The chief and on obiects of interior consumption. Joseph 11., cit of a legislative sanction disadvantage is of«^i the necessity y.busgmen foment desirous of new modelling this as wed as other departments, proposed the adoption of a land and polltax on a uniform plan. As a necessary preliminary, the^ustrian^ army has undergone alterations during arrangements were made for a general survey of the the present age, and it now admits, as m Bnfam, of landed property of the empire, and several years delimitation by periods. In time of>“eJ ^ voted to that important operation. It was, however, have no ‘h^ulty m obtain^ a^fuilo^h tot^e too unskilfully conducted to afford anything like a satisfactory ground to estimate the value of the different meTare entitled to admission at the military hospital properties!’ No adequate allowance was made for the of fertile or barre® ®fThough,0* “an "Enghsh mvellcr, manufactures difference of plain and mountain, 5
AUSTRIA.
27
Austria, tracts. The consequence is, that the collection of milar to that adopted in France after the death of Austria. ~ ~ ' this department of the revenue is still in a very im- Louis XIV., under the direction of the brothers Paperfect state, although the tax on land and houses ris, when a regular scale of estimates was formed on {impot fonder) forms necessarily the chief part of the a retrospect to the value of government paper at the Austrian revenue. In Bohemia, Galicia, and the different periods of its issue. Hereditary States, this important tax falls equally 9- Agriculture is still in a very backward state Agriculture, on all classes ; in Hungary and Transylvania, it is throughout the Austrian dominions. The large proborne, as we have already observed, by the farmers portion of church and other public lands, with the and inhabitants of towns, to the apparent total exemp- general want of education, have hitherto prevented tion of the noblesse. the people from extracting an adequate return from The imperial demesnes form also a considerable their fertile territory. In casting the eye over these branch of the Austrian revenue, particularly in Ga- rich provinces, an observer is at a loss on which to licia. This source of income, which would be very fix as most favourable to the exertions ol the husgreat in a country like Holland or Britain, where bandman. The uneven surface of the Hereditary landholders and farmers of capital would take the States rivals, in point of fertility, the extensive plains land at a rent, and relieve government of all farther of Hungary and Transylvania. Again, the portion superintendence, is comparatively inconsiderable in of Poland, acquired by Austria, was perhaps the a country where the administration either has not richest division of that ill-fated country. The folthe means or the judgment to throw off its hands, a lowing rough estimate has been made of the approtask which must always be unprofitably managed by priation of respective proportions of the empire. servants little interested in the produce of their la- Taking 70 as the integral, representing the whole bour. These crown demesnes are to be carefully surface, we shall have for distinguished from the personal property of the - 26 reigning family, the annual rental of which may Mountains, heaths, marshes, lakes, roads, Land under tillage, 12 amount to L. 100,000 Sterling a-year. Another branch of revenue is derived in Austria, Meadows and pasturage in an inclosed or improved state, 7 as in France, from the exclusive manufacture and 4 sale of tobacco. This monopoly extends over the Pasturage in a rude state, German dominions, but Hungary and Transylvania Woods and forests, comprising all uncleared tracts, ----18 are not subject to it. Austria has likewise a duty 3 on stamps, hair powder, starch, and various objects Vineyards and orchards, of luxury, among others, on the rouge used by the 70 fair sex. Wine, beer, brandy, carriages, pleasure horses, are all subjected to taxation. A consideraThe produce of the land along the Danube, from ble income is levied from legacy duties, fees on titles Vienna to the Bavarian frontier, has been greatly of nobility, china, glass, and even from a toleration increased within the last half century, by the use tax on the Jews. The financial embarrassments of of marl. The traveller, in pursuing this tract, sees the country, necessitated, in 1802, an increase of a in all directions a quantity of marl pits, wrought with full third on these duties, along with the imposition great activity. Bohemia is naturally fertile, but its of two taxes of a difterent kind—a poll and an in- agriculture is in a very backward statej from the concome tax. This rapid augmentation of public bur- tinued prevalence of feudal usages. Moravia has dens made it be calculated, that throughout the em- made greater progress, and furnishes an annual suppire no less than a fourth of the income of indivi- ply of corn for export. Hungary is in many parts duals found its way into the public treasury. To so fertile as to produce an abundant crop, with very compute the total of the revenue is a point of no little exertion from the labourer. Plere may still be small difficulty in a country where taxes are compli- seen the primitive practice of treading out the corn cated, and official accounts either withheld or irre- by horses and oxen. Galicia, under a better system, gularly published; but we are disposed to think, might be rendered productive in the highest degree. that L. 18,000,000 Sterling may form a probable ap- The same holds in regard to the adjacent Polish proproximation to the gross revenue of this empire. vince of Bukowine. Maize is cultivated in Hungary The Austrian, like other governments, has had and Transylvania; millet in Hungary, Sclavonia, and recourse, in its distress, to the circulation of paper Carinthia ; and even rice is found to answer in the money,—a measure attended with all the bad conse- marshy districts of Temeswar. quences incidental to immoderate issues on the part The product of the Vine, though far short of of an authority not responsible to its subjects. The what it might be rendered, is a source of considerpublic debt exceeds 150 millions Sterling; two-thirds able wealth to Austria. The well known tokay is of which, however, being created by the issue of pa- raised on the last chain of the Carpathian range, in per, are by no means deemed repayable at their no- the neighbourhood of the country of Zemplin. The minal amount. In fact, the repayment of a fifth part district where it is cultivated is of the extent of 60 or of that amount, will be accounted a fair retribution 70 square miles; its qualities are various, the richest of the debt contracted in this paper at an advanced kind proceeding from the grape, with little or no presstage of its depreciation. The rule at the treasury sure, while the inferior sorts are said to be made of was to raise prices as paper fell, and the eventual ad- the dried grape, reduced into a sort of pap, and justment of accounts between government and the mixed up with other Hungai'iun wines. We must stockholder will probably take place in a manner si- not take for granted, that all the wine sold under the
AUSTRIA. Austria. 28 in which the saline substance is frequently observed Austria, name of tokay is the product of the district just to have made its way. — ^ tioned. The dealers find this fashionable name a very Manufactures have of late years been considerconvenient passport for the produce of the adjacent ably on the increase throughout Austria. Tew districts so that even in Vienna there is not a tenth oi countries are more abundant in the supply of raw real tokay among the wines sold underthat des.^ngion. materials, and this substantial advantage received Tobacco is cultivated to a great extent m Hun- a powerful, though ill-judged, co-operation on the rrary and other parts ot the empire. Hops are part of Joseph II., who thought it expedient to raised in Moravia and Hungary, bat™ore particu- resort to a prohibition of several kinds of foreign larly in Bohemia, where in some districts they manufactures. Linen and hemp may be called the said to approach in quality to those ol Eng a • staples of the Hereditary States and of Bohemia. The stock of horned cattle is said to have de- Different qualities are fabricated in different places, creased of late years in the Austrian empire, in Moravia having generally the coarse stuffs, while consequence of the introduction of large ™be^s certain parts of Bohemia carry the fabric to a point of sheep. It has been computed, on a rough cal- of great nicety. The ruder provinces of Galicia, culation, that the Austrian dominions comprise about Hungary, and Transylvania, have made little progress two and a half millions head of cattle, above five in these branches of industry, or in the manufacture millions of sheep, and about one million of horses. of cotton cloths, which is considerably diffused through The Hungarian horses are small, but active, and ca- Bohemia and the Austrian states. Spinning mapable of great fatigue. Many of them are accus chines have been introduced from England, but the tomed, in their early years, to wander m a wild state price of the raw material is necessarily enhanced by along their vast pastures, and are caught only when of the distance of land carriage. Woollen cloths are an age to become fit for service in the field. Gahcia made throughout the empire, particularly in Moravia, and Moravia contain a large proportion of the above but the quality in the remote provinces is very inferior. mentioned number of horses. The remainder are No country is better adapted to excel in hardchiefly in Lower Austria; for neither Bohemia, nor ware manufactures than Austria. The mines in Bothe mountainous tracts on the south of the Heredi- hemia, Styria, Carinthia, and Upper Austria, supply tary States, contain any considerable number. 1 here an abundant store of excellent materials. The steel are four public establishments for the purpose of of Carinthia and Styria is known and highly prized training horses in Austria, the principal of which is in England. Vienna, Prague, and Karlsbad, conat Mezaehegyes in Hungary. In this, unquestion- tain manufactures of this metal, and arms are made ably the greatest institution of the kind in tuiope, in great abundance in more than a dozen of different there are no less than 800 mares, of German, Bessa- towns. Glass has long been made in great quantities rabian, Moldavian, Spanish, or Hungarian extraction in Bohemia and the neighbouring provinces; but 10. Hungary and Transylvania possess mines both the long continuance of the late wars was unfavourMines and Manufac- of gold and silver. They have also what is much able to the ornamental species of this manufacture. tures. more favourable to the increase of their productive industry, excellent mines of copper. The tm The course of recent events has thus unexpectedly Concluding of Bohemia is compared to that of Coin wall, as restored, and, in fact, more than restored, Austria 5° tions. the iron of Styria is to that of Sweden. Ihese me- her high station among European potentates. The tallic treasures are not confined to a single province, long continued exertions of Britain, the unsparing but sufficiently scattered to diffuse the means of em- sacrifices of Russia, and, more than all, the extravaployment throughout various parts of the empire. gant attempts of Bonaparte, have redeemed t ic Another mineral product of the highest importance past errors of the cabinet of Vienna, and enabled k 1 is coal, which is found in various spots ot Bohemia, to reap the richest harvest of any of the allies from Moravia, and Hungary. Thirty mines are already the spoils of the French empire. Her influence ascertained to exist in the latter country, although over the south of Germany is strengthened, and rer so backward is the application ot capital to useful ascendancy over Italy, formerly one of her weakest purposes, that only two of them are as yet wrought. sides, is materially increased. The Low Countries, In Bohemia, Styria, and Lower Austria, this important however rich and fertile, were at too great a disbranch of industry has been somewhat more cultivated, tance from her other dominions, and too little conin consequence of the vicinity of the coal to iron ore. nected with her by manners or national feeling, to Mines of rock salt are found in various parts of form a first rate object of her policy. It is not too the Empire. Those of Bochnia and Wieliecka much to say, that the loss of them is fully compensatin Galicia are known to be the greatest in Eu- ed by the consolidation given to her Italian acquirope. A number of others are found along each side sitions by the incorporation of the Venetian States. of the great Carpathian chain; nay, they extend, In the present state of France, there seems no likewith greater or less intervals, all the way from Mol- lihood of a renewal of a military contest with Austria, davia to Suabia, along a tract which, including a va- for many years. Italy is now doubly fortified against riety of windings, is not short of 2000 miles. Lius invasion; and the present generation of Frenchmen will tract comprehends the salt mines of Wallachia, Iran- listen to no enterprises of ambition beyond the Rhine. sylvania, Galicia, Upper Hungary, Moldavia, Upper Austria may thus enjoy profound peace, if she be not Austria, Styria, Salzburg, and finally of Tyrol. Ihey deluded into projects of aggrandizement on the side are found either at the base or on the ascent ot gieat of Turkey, or alarmed into a struggle with Russia on mountains; the salt extending in horizontal or un- account of her possessions in Poland. dulating strata, and alternating with strata ot clay,
A
U
S
The wx-iters upon Austrian Statistics ai'e very numerous ; but we shall content ourselves with referring in this place to the lately published and instruc-
Situation.
AYRSHIRE, a county in the west of Scotland, considerable for its population and industry, is bounded by Wigtonshire and the stewartry of Kirkcudbright on the south, by the counties of Dumfries and Lanark on the north-east and east, by Renfrewshire on the north, and by the Irish Sea and the Frith of Extent. Clyde for about 70 miles on the west. It contains about 1039 square miles, or 664,960 English acres, of which nearly the half is under cultivation ; besides several small lakes, Loch Doon being the largest, extending to about six square miles more. The three bailiaries of Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick, into which this county is divided, have been described in the article in the body of the work, to which the reader is referred. The rock of Ailsa, and the Meikle and Little Cumbrae, situate from l£ to 3 miles from the coast of Ayrshh-e, and neai'ly the same distance from the Isle of Bute, are attached to this Valued and county. (See Hebrides.) The valued rent is real Rent. 191,605, ?d. Scots, and the real rent in 1811, of the lands, was L. 336,471, 10s. and of the houses, L. 22,823 Sterling. The division of property is considered not unfavourable to the prosperity of the different classes of the population, though it appears that more than a third part of the whole county is held under settlements of entail. The advantages possessed by Ayrshire, besides its, seacoast and several excellent harbours, may be traced to the coal and limestone found in great abundance in almost every part of it,—the one so necessary to its manufactures, and the other to its agriculture ; i{ “ and the chief natural disadvantage under which it I ‘ laboui’s is the humidity of its climate, aggravated by the quality of the greater part of the soil, which is a tenacious clay. Bl Agriculture. Agriculture, according to the more approved courses of management, has nevertheless made considerable progress of late in this county. The old rotation of three consecutive crops of corn, followed by six years hay and pasture, has been very generally abandoned in the new leases ; and, on the better soils, an alternation of white and green crops, and an interchange of tillage and pasturage, as in the eastern counties of Scotland, begin to prevail. The dairy is, however, the chief object of attention to the Ayrshire husbandmen, and their valuable breed of cows, and rich, yet mild cheese, known by the name of Dunlop cheese, are in great x-epute in most parts of Britain. Their horses, under the general name of Clydesdale or Lanarkshire horses, are equal, if not superior, to those of any other race in the Island; almost every small farmer, and the farms are too generally small, eh her rearing one or more himself, or purchasing them when young, and reselling them to the eastern counties after a year or two of vei’y moderate labour. After all, it must be admitted that the agriculture of Ayrshire is much behind that of the counties on the east coast. No regular system of cleansing and manuring the soil, nor of fallowing and draining the wet lands, is to be seen throughout
AYR 29 tive Work of M. Marcel de Serres, entitled Voyage Austria II en Aid riche, ou Essai statistique et geographiquesur cet Ayrshire. Empire. Paris, 1814. 4 vols. 8vo. (d. d.)
the greater part of the district. The size of the farms is commonly from 50 to 150 acres, affording little room for the employment of capital, or the division of labour ; and yet the rents are surprisingly high—of some favoured spots not less than eight pounds or guineas the acre. Ayrshire, as a manufacturing district, seems to Mannfacstand next in importance, among the Scottish coun- ll,,es* ties, to the contiguous shires of Lanark and Renfrew. Various branches of the woollen manufacture are carried on to a considerable extent in different parts of it, in Kilmarnock alone, to the value of L. 30,000 yearly. Carpets, and the coarser fabrics, give employment to a considerable proportion of the inhabitants of that thriving town ; and besides several public establishments there, and in other parts of the county, many private families in almost every parish take a share in the manufacture of blankets and coarse cloths; a part of which, after supplying their own wants, is carried to the fairs and markets of the county. Beith has long been noted for its thread manufacture. The cotton-works at Catrine are by far the most extensive of all its manufactories; employing, in 1811, 900 hands, who are said to have spun into yarn 10,000 lbs. of cotton wool, and made 35,000 yards of cloth every week. At Muir kirk and Glenbuck, pig and bar iron are wrought to a great extent, and founderies have been erected there and in other places. Leather, saddlery, earthen-ware, kelp, salt, are the only other kinds of manufacture worthy of notice in this county. Ayr, Irvine, and Saltcoats, were, till very lately, Commerce, the only harbours much frequented, and at these places there has long been a little trade with Ireland, America, and the Baltic, and a considerable trade coastwise. In 1807, the port of Ayr had 54 vessels, of which the burden was from 4000 to 5000 tons, and 82 vessels belonged to Irvine and Saltcoats, which carried 6795 tons. Coal is the staple article of export, and corn the most considerable of its imports ; the ports on the Clyde having hitherto been the grand emporium of the west of Scotland. This county exhibits instances of public spirit in its great land proprietors beyond any other in Scotland, or probably in the British empire. The harbour, and other works carrying on at Ardrossan, under the auspices of the Earl of Eglinton, and the harbour of Troon, and the railway from thence to Kilmarnock, formed almost entirely at the expence ol the Duke of Portland, are worthy monuments, no less of the enlightened judgment and energy, than of the wealth of these two patriotic noblemen; and the distant prospect of remuneration, which it is much to be wished should be realized, can detract but little from the merit of such grand and princely undertakings. I he harbour of Ardrossan will, when completed, Ardrossan be one of the safest, most capacious, and most ac- Harbour, cessible on the west coast of Britain ; possessing many advantages over the harbours in the Frith
A Y It 30 Ayrshire, of Clyde, situate in a narrow channel, which can be navigated only when the wind blows trom particular points, and which, for upwards ot 20 miles below Glasgow, is both shallow and dangerous. A circular pier of 900 yards was finished m 1811, and everything was then ready to begin the wet-dock, which, according to Mr Telford’s plan, was to contain from 70 to 100 vessels in water 10 teet deep. The works have rather languished of late, and are not likely to be completed soon without public aid. It was part of the Earl of Eglinton’s plan to raise a neat regular built town at Ardrossan, in which some progress has been made ; and he has constructed excelfent baths, which draw to it a number of visitors at the proper season. „ , The harbour at Ardrossan was only a part oi the general plan, and that from which, viewed by itself, the smallest advantages perhaps were to be expected. The leading idea was to open up a direct communication between Glasgow, Paisley, and other large towns in the vicinity, and the wrest coast, instead ot the present circuitous passage by the Frith of Clyde. A canal was therefore to be cut from Glasgow to Canal. Ardrossan, about 31^ miles, at the estimated expence of L. 125,000. Of this only a third has been yet executed, that is, from Glasgow to Johnstone, and this part has cost about L. 90,000. Troon Har- The harbour at Troon, connected as it now is with Kilmarnock, by means of an excellent railbour. way, seems to possess almost all the advantages of that of Ardrossan, and promises to become, in a much shorter period, of vast utility both to the populous country around it, and to the noble under-
Car rick Cunninghame Kyle
Garrick Cunninghame Kyle
PERSONS.
Persons other chiefly em- All Persons Persons no! chiefly em- ployed in comprised Total of ployed in ( rude, Ma- in the two Males. Females. Persons. Agricul- nufactures, preceding or Handi- classes. ture. craft.
By how many Families occupied. 2900 8050 7193
69 85 118
7588 12,220 13,377
4023 22,440 15,582
2141 2532 4087
6640 7112 13,752 17,165 20,027 37,192 15,861 17,501 33,362
13,603 18,143
272
33,185
42,045
8760
39,666 44,640 84,306
2603 5618 5382
1811. OCCUPA ITONS.
HOUSES.
DISTRICTS.
taker. The pier is now carried into the sea more Ayrshire, than 200 yards, and it is proposed to extend it 100 yards farther. At the present extremity, there is a depth of 17 feet at low water. One graving dock was finished about three years ago, which is much resorted to for the repair of coasting vessels; and another, 37 feet wide at the gate, is nearly completed, which will admit vessels of almost any burthen. Extensive warehouses have been erected ; and a yard has been opened for building vessels, which is likely to be well employed. The railway from Troon to Kilmarnock, a dis- Railway. Stance of 10 miles, is now completed, and answers all the purposes for which it was originally intended. There are upwards of 3000 acres of coal fields in its course, which must in time indemnify the Duke of Portland for his outlay both on this and the harbour. Coals have been hitherto the principal article of conveyance towards the JToon, at the rate of 100 tons daily ; and from thence timber, iron, grain, &c. are transported to Kilmarnock and the country adjacent. One horse draws with ease five tons downwards to the Troon, and three tons upwards to Kilmarnock. But locomotive engines, upon the principle of Mr Stephenson of Newcastle, promise soon to render horses unnecessary. The machine weighs 3j tons, and can carry along with it 25 tons, at the rate of four miles an hour upon an average. Tins railway has cost the Duke upwards of L. 50,000, and the harbour is estimated at about the same sum. The comparative population of Ayrshire, as taken Population, under the acts 1800 and 1811, will be seen from the following abstract:
1800. OCCUPATIONS.
HOUSES.
DISTRICTS.
AYR
By how many Families occupied.
Families chiefly employed in Agriculture. pc 2
Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.
PERSONS.
Ail other Families noi comprised Males. Females. Total of Pei sons. n the two preceding classes.
2997 3450 6206 10,167 6204 7877
132 138 192
1474 1725 2186
1335 6133 3886
641 2309 1805
7665 8557 16,222 21,390 24,737 46,127 19,451 22,154 41,605
15,407 21,494
462
5385
11,354 I
4755
48,506 55,448 103,954 (A.)
31 AZORES. AZORES, or Westeri* Islands. These form to Captain Whiddon. Having taken two or three Azores, Azores. a range situate in the Atlantic Ocean, extend- prizes, they fell in, off St Michael’s, with the ing in an oblique line from north-west to south-east, great fleet of Spanish galleons, consisting of twenbetween the 37th and 40th degrees of north latitude, ty-four sail, two of them caraks of 1000 or 1200 and the 25th and 32d degrees of west longitude. It tons. They attacked them, however, without hehas been a subject of some controversy among geo- sitation, hoping to cut off some straggling memgraphers, to what quarter of the wrorld they ought to ber of this great body. It will not surprise our be referred. Originally attached to Africa, they were readers, that they were unable to make any imafterwards, with evident impropriety, transferred to pression upon it; but they retired without loss. America, and are now more generally viewed as part In 1587, Sir Francis Drake, after having swept of Europe; though their connection and gene- the harbour of Cadiz, sailed for the Azores, where ral resemblance to the other African groups, rather he took an East India carak, richly laden, and the first that had ever fallen into the hands of the incline us to adhere to the first arrangement. It does not appear that the ancients had any English. In 1589, the Earl of Cumberland fitted knowledge of the Azores, or of any group in this out a squadron, sailed for the Azores, and made nusea, except the Canaries, to which they finally applied merous prizes. the celebrated appellation of the Fortunate Islands. Under the active administration of Pombal, conRut the Arabian geographers, Edrisi and Ibn al Var- siderable exertions were made for the improvement di, describe, after the Canaries, nine other Islands, of the Azores; but the stupid and bigoted governsituate in the Western Ocean. That these were the ment which followed, rather tended to destroy these Azores is rendered highly probable, by considering, benefits, and to make the Islands take a retrograde that their number is exactly nine ; and that mention course. is made by these writers of the abundance of a In giving a description of these Islands, we shall St MichacL species of eagle or hawk, a circumstance which af- begin with St Michael, the largest and most poterwards appeared to the Portuguese so remark- pulous, and the one in which the peculiar physiable, that they derived the name of the Islands cal structure of the Azores is exhibited on the from it. The climate in which they are placed al- greatest scale. St Michael consists generally of so makes them north of the Canaries. Some other a fertile plain, but diversified by an infinite vacoincidences might be pointed out, did our limits riety of hills and mountains, all bearing evident permit; and, upon the whole, wre see no reason to marks of volcanic action. The centre of the doubt, that the Azores are really the nine Islands Island contains chiefly small conic hills ; but the east enumerated by the Arabians; though two of the and west quarters rise into lofty mountains, with deep number might probably be Madeira and Porto valleys and lakes intervening. The face of the counSanto, while the small Islands of Corvo and Flores try is almost everywhere smiling; the plains are comight remain unnoticed. The Arabian writers re- vered with luxuriant crops ; vines and oranges grow present them to have been populous, and to have on the hills ; and even the mountains are adorned contained cities of some magnitude ; but state, that with myrtles, laurels, and other evergreen shrubs. the inhabitants had been greatly reduced by intestine All appears a paradise; nor could the observer, at warfare. first, suspect that this was a spot chosen, as it were, The first European discovery of this group is by nature for the display of all her most terrible pheclaimed by the Flemings. The Portuguese, eagerly nomena. The form of the mountains, however, soon bent upon pursuing their career of navigation along indicates their history. There are few, which, after the coast of Africa, did not readily turn into any being moulded by the volcano, have not been rent other direction. A Flemish merchant, called Van by the earthquake. In some cases, the chasm is so der Berg, is reported, in sailing from Lisbon, to have complete, that a level path has been formed between been driven upon these shores. The intelligence the severed members. One of the most remarkable soon reached the court of Lisbon, where it excited appearance of this kind occurs in the Porto do considerable interest. It is even said that Prince Ilheo, a small Island about a quarter of a mile from Henry went in person to examine the value of this the harbour of Villa Franca. Here a volcanic rock, new discovery. The Islands began, in 1459, to be 2000 feet high, has been completely split, exhibiting planted and colonized ; and in so fertile a soil, the a chasm 39 feet wide, from the top to seven feet beinhabitants rapidly multiplied. In 1466, Alphonzo V. low the surface of the water. It forms thus, for a is said to have granted them to his sister the Duchess few small vessels, a harbour, perfectly safe from every of Burgundy; though, in that case, they must have vicissitude of the weather. soon revetted to the Portuguese crown. In 1580, In the year 159L there appears to have been a they fell, with the other Portuguese territories, un- most tremendous earthquake felt all over the Azores, der the dominion of Spain. The Azores were at but which shook St Michael for twelve days without this time the grand rendezvous, in the voyage intermission. Since that period, there is no record of homewards, of the fleets, which came laden with any such great convulsion, except one in 1757, of the wealth of both the Indies. Hence they be- which we have no particulars, and it was probably came a theatre of that maritime warfare, which was much less formidable ; nor are any of its volcanoes at carried on with such spirit by the English under present in a state of action. Hot springs abound in Queen Elizabeth against the peninsular powers. In every part of the Island ; and from almost every cre1586, Sir Walter Ralegh equipped two pinnaces vice, vapour is seen issuing. But the most remarkable «f 35 and 40 tons, the command of which he gave phenomena are the Caldeiras, or boiling fountains,
,
AZORES. 32 Azores. Azores. which rise chiefly from a valley called the rurnas, near are several warm springs situate in its neighbourhood. Villa Franca, also, though nearly destroyed r— 1 the western extremity of the Island. The water ascends the earthquake of 159L is now a considerable in columns, to the height of about twelve feet, after by which it dissolves in vapour, forming clouds of va- city. Alagoa, Agoa de Pao, Porto Fermoza, and a others, are also of some magnitude. The whole rious shapes and colours. The heat is such as to few number of inhabitants in the Island is estimated at boil an egg in two minutes ; though the sulphureous 80 000 or 90,000. The character of the people apimpregnation unfits it for being employed in such purposes. The ground in the immediate vicinity is pears to be hospitable, butindolent and luxurious, and are entirely under the dominion of the priesthood. entirely covered with native sulphur, like hoar fiost. they Mary is a small Island immediately adjacent to St Mary. At a small distance is a remarkable phenomenon, St St Michael’s, through the medium of which its trade called the Muddy Crater, whose vertex, of forty-five feet diameter, is on a level with the plain. Its con- is conducted, as it has no good harbours of its own. produces wheat in abundance, and exports a contents are in a state of violent and continual ebul i- It siderable quantity. The soil is composed of clay, tion, accompanied with a sound resembling the which is partly manufactured into pottery. waves of a tempestuous ocean. Yet it never uses Tercei a, though smaller than St Michael, being Tercera. above its level, unless occasionally to throw to a placed in a more central position with respect to the small distance a spray of the consistence of melted lead. The Furnas abound also in hot springs; other Islands, has been chosen as the seat of Governsome of which it is impossible to touch without ment. The port of Angra is also superior to any being scalded. There is almost always, however, of those in St Michael. This Island does not exnearly the same extensive traces of volcanic aca cold spring near to the hot one, so that they hibit tion : the summits of its mountains are generally lecan be brought to any temperature that may be c esired. These springs, after being long neglected, vel. It is represented by Adanson, however, as enhave, within the last half century, been greatly re- tirely composed of volcanic products. Its lava, he is of a thicker grain than that of lenenffe. It sorted to, and the cures performed in cases of palsy, says, rheumatism, and similar maladies, are said to be very abounds in grain and cattle ; but its wines are inferior and its fruits raised merely for internal conwonderful. sumption. The residence of the Government renSt Michael is about 50 miles in length, and varies in breadth from 5 to 12 miles. The plains are fer- ders the society somewhat superior to that which is tile in wheat, barley, and Indian corn; while vines found in the other Islands. The number of inhabit„ , T, j r. i and oranges grow luxuriantly on the sides of the ants is estimated at 50,000. Fayal is the most frequented of all the Islands, as Fayal. mountains. They are made to spring even from the interstices of the volcanic rocks, which are some- its harbour is the best in the Azores, and it lies ditimes blasted in order that they may receive the rectly in the track of vessels that are crossing the plants. Raised in this manner, they are said to be Atlantic in any direction. The principal town is of superior quality; but the great expence originally called Villa de Horta. Captain Cook observes, that required in such a mode of cultivation, confines it to all sorts of fresh provisions may be got here; t ic and hogs good, but the sheep small and persons of some capital. The western part of the bullocks wretchedly poor. The town is defended by two casIsland yields hemp, which might be raised to a contles and a wall, both in decay, and serving rather for siderable extent. There is also a mountain called Pico defer, which appears to be rich in iron, though show than strength. The city contains two convents no means are at present employed for extracting the for monks, and three for nuns, with eight churches. other ore from it. The exports consist of wine, fruit, and These are the only good buildings in it; no mlle m having glass windows. The bay is two s provisions. Foreign intercourse used to be confined rigorously to Lisbon; but since the emigration of length, and three quarters of a mile in breadth, the court, the inhabitants have assumed the privilege the depth of water from six to twenty fathoms. of trafficking directly with England, America, and Though a good road, it is not altogether free from jr »v other countries. After defraying the expence of danger in SSW. and SE. winds. A considerable quantity of wine is exported from Pica, its local government, it yields L. 28,000 of revenue this place, under the appellation of Fayal wine; but to the mother country. The principal town in the Island is Ponta del Cxada, it is really the produce of Pico, one of the most remarkwhich contains about 12,000 inhabitants. It is built able of the Azores. This Island is composed of an with tolerable regularity, the streets being straight immense conical mountain, rising to the heigntof 7000 and broad: the religious edifices are numerous and feet, and bearing every trace of volcanic formation. elegant. They consist of two large convents of the The soil consists entirely of pulverized lava, and the orders of St Francis and St Augustin, four convents oround has even been said to sound hollow when for professed nuns, and three recolhimentos for such struck All the lower parts of the mountain are m as are not professed. The harbour receives only the highest state of cultivation, and covered with small vessels. Those of any magnitude must anchor vine and orange plantations. The wine annua y in an open road, which, though not dangerous, can- exported amounts to about 5000 pipes. It foims not be kept during the prevalence of southerly gales. a sort of inferior Madeira, which, selling 50 per cent, It is, however, the best roadstead in the Island. cheaper, is in considerable demand. Pico produces Ribeira Grande is also a large town on the south also a valuable species of wood, resembling, and0rac;osa ami St coast, containing nearly as many inhabitants as Pon- equal in quality to, mahogany. Graciosa and St George are two small Islands, si-Geor0e ta del Gada. It has two large convents, and there
AZORES. 53 Azores tuated between Fayal and Tercera. Graciosa is group of rocks burst forth, which gradually increas* Azoies II chiefly noted for the extreme beauty of its aspect ed till they covered several miles in circumference, „ t il|on Babylou^ and scenery> st George has recently been exposed and, after being shattered by a new earthquake, ' to one of those awful visitations to which the Azores settled at length into a solid consistence. A narrative of a similar phenomenon is given in are subject. In 1808 a caldeira, situate in the centre of the Island, was observed to be in a state of the 32d Volume of the Philosophical Transactions. violent fermentation. It continued, during several John Robison, master of a small vessel, is stated to days, to emit subterraneous noises, and to cause have arrived on the 10th December 1720, at Terceviolent convulsions through every part of the Island. ra, “ near which Island he saw a fire break out of At length the great crisis came; vast streams of the sea.” On his arrival at Angra, the governor fire issued forth in every direction, with clouds of hired his vessel, for the purpose of going to view it. smoke, which, but for the volcanic light, would have “ On the iqth,” says he, “ at two afternoon, we involved every thing in midnight dai'kness. The made an Island all fire and smoke. The ashes fell principal stream took its direction towards the beau- on our deck like hail and snow. The fire and smoke tiful town of Ursula, which it seemed on the point roared like thunder or great guns.” He adds, that of swallowing up; but suddenly changing its direc- quantities of pumice stone (probably common lava), tion, rushed into the sea by a different channel,—a and of half-broiled fish, were found floating on the happy event, which superstition ascribed to the sea in its vicinity. A similar phenomenon took place in February prayers of the Ursuline nuns. Many hundred acres of fertile land, however, were covered with scoriae 1811, about half a league from the western exand ashes; some lives were lost, and a general gloom tremity of the Island of St Michael. It seems and consternation diffused throughout the Island. to have been attended with nearly the usual sympThe inhabitants, however, showed no disposition to toms ; fire bursting from the sea, and ascending into emigrate, and soon applied themselves to repair the the air like a host of sky-rockets, accompanied with vast volumes of smoke, and showers of scoriae and damages which their Island had sustained. Corvo and The two small and most westerly Islands of Corvo lava. The rocks, however, did not rise above the Flores. an(j Flores, seem but imperfectly to belong to the surface of the water, but appeared immediately group. They lie also out of the usual tract of naviga- under it, with the waves dashing furiously round tors ; but to those who, missing their course, are led them. The previous soundings are said to have thither, Flores affords good shelter in its numerous been eighty fathoms. On taking a general view of these phenomena, bays. Its poultry is said to be the finest in the world; the cattle are numerous, but small. The and of the other peculiarities of the Azores, it is imsurplus produce of these Islands is not of much im- possible not to lament that they should not yet have been surveyed by any scientific observer; and wc portance. It would be improper to close this notice without would fain entertain the hope, that some traveller, mentioning one of the most striking occurrences in properly qualified, may at length be induced to turn nature, sometimes exhibited in this quarter—the his attention to a group of Islands, which, more than sudden emersion of new Islands from the bosom of any other, seems to offer a rich field of observation the ocean. The first relation of such an event is and discovery to geologists and naturalists in general. given by Kircher in his Mundus Subterraneus. He See Hartmann s Edrisi.— Voyages dcs Hollandois, describes it as announced by violent earthquakes, which lasted for eight days; then a fire broke from T. I—Astley s Collection, Vol. I.—Masson’s Account the surface of the sea, and rose to the clouds; while of St Miguel (in Phil. Trans. 1778) Cook’s Sevast quantities of stones, earth, sand, and minerals, cond Voyage.—Adansons Voyage to Senegal.— were at the same time vomited out. At length a History of the Azores, London, 1813. (b.)
BAB BABYLON.—Under this head, in the body of the work, will be found a full account of the extent of ancient Babylon, and of the stupendous edifices, which rendered it the wonder of mankind. Our present object will be, to collect, from recent information, the vestiges which, after so long a succession of ages, still remain, of this celebrated capital of the East. Among all the remains of ancient grandeur, there
are none perhaps which possess equal interest with the ruins of Babylon: none which present so many strikingimages to the imagination, or carry back the mind into such a depth of antiquity. It happens fortunately that their site, through the learned investigations of Major Rennell, may be considered as completely fixed to the small district, situate immediately to the north of the village called Hellah. * Its po-
* Hellah is nine miles from Mohawil, and nearly forty-eight from Bagdad. Rich’s Memoir on Babylon. VOL. II. PAST I. p
BAB BAB S4 A mile to the north of the Kasr, and about half a Baliv’on. Babjlon. sition on the Euphrates, the fountains of bitumen at mile from the river, is a mass equally remarkable. Hit or Heet, the distance from tho asceitamed po It is an irregular oblong, the sides being respectivesition of Seleucia and Ctesphion and the character of ly 200, 219, 182, and 136 yards in length; the the surrounding country, combine in establish e greatest elevation 14d feet. Near the summit of the tins T>oint beyond a doubt. The appellation ruins, ™ western side appears a low wall, built of unburnt ks moper sense, cannot, however, be applied to the bricks, cemented with reeds and straw. The sumpresent remains of Babylon, w|jlch hC~^0fs mit is covered with heaps of rubbish, and with inwholly of bricks, fragments, and rubbish, piled, as numerable fragments of pnttery, brick, bitumen, it were, in masses, and serving as quarries tor the pebbles, vitrified brick, and even shells, bits of construction of new cities. In this condition, never- glass, and mother of pearl. There are many denstheless, they have deservedly attracted the attention of wild beasts in this part of the ruins, and most of of modern travellers ; and interesting notices have the cavities are filled with bats and owls. As theie been given by Della Valle, Niebuhr, Ives, Otter and apoeared a niche or recess near the summit of the Beauchamp. But the recent observations of Mr northern face, Mr Rich caused it to be dug into. i - mqume, * Kiel,11,1, eiliUintcncu enlightened by the pcevmu, col. MaThe workmen successively extracted two wooden ior Bennell, have been so much more careful am coffins, containing skeletons in high preservation. complete, that they nearly supersede all prior in- He was of opinion that the whole passage, whatever formation. We shall first give a view of the objects might be its extent, would have proved to be occuthat presented themselves to Mr Rich, in traversing pied in the same manner. this celebrated ground, and shall then offer some reThis mass, denominated the Mujehbe, being the marks as to those ancient edifices, of winch these most elevated part of these remains, has been considerobjects are to be considered the remains. ed by most travellers as the Tower of Bel us, which Mr Rich commenced his observations at He! an, formed one of the two grand features in the wonders and proceeded to the north, along the eastern bank of of ancient Babylon. The other was the Palace, with theEuphrates. After passing some smaller mounds he its hanging gardens ; and this was clearly pointed came to a vast mass, 1100 yards in length, and 800 m out, by ancient authorities, to be on the side its greatest breadth; while its most elevated part opposite to the tower of Belus. The tower then rose 50 or 60 feet above the level of the plain. It con- being on the eastern, the palace was to be sought sists almost wholly of earth formed from decomposed on the western bank of the river. M ith the excepbrick, and strewed with various species of fragments. tion, however, of a slight notice collected by D AnThe name of Amran is given to it from a tradition, ville, modern travellers had given no information of seemingly unfounded, of a son of Ah having been any ruins situate in that quarter. Major Rennell buried in it—Then, after traversing a valley 650 very properly pointed out this as a grand obyards long, and crossed by some smaller imns, he ject of investigation for future inquirers. Mr came to "the second grand mass, forming nearly a Rich, on reaching the summit of the Mujelibe, square of 700 yards in length and breadth. Hus whence he commanded an extensive view across the part of the ruins is extremely interesting, containing river, was much surprised at discovering no trace of several walls, in a pretty entire state; they are any ruins whatever. Not satisfied with this distant eight feet thick, in some places ornamented with view, he crossed and carefully surveyed the giound, niches, in others strengthened bv pilasters and but- but could discern only some mounds of small ditresses. Some remains of painting and sculp- mensions, which conveyed no idea of the immense ture are to be seen on them. The bricks are ol the structures of which he was in search. Before leavfinest kind, and cemented with lime. We may here ing this neighbourhood, however, he went to visit a observe that the city, as Major Rennell suspected, tower, which had been imperfectly observed by appears to have been built, partly of burnt and partly Niebuhr, about six miles south-west of Heiiah, and of unburnt bricks. Three kinds of cement have al- beyond the site assigned to ancient Babylon. Our so been used. The unburnt bricks are in general traveller, who had formed no high expectations from merely bound together with reeds or chopped straw, this object, was struck with the utmost amazement which are still found in great quantities, i he burnt at its magnitude and grandeur, which decidedly surbricks are cemented, partly with bitumen, but more passed any thing he had yet witnessed among these frequently w ith lime; a material, the use of whici interesting remains. It consists of a mound of an had escaped the notice of observers previous to Mr oblong figure, 762 yards in circumference. It rises Rich, He states it to be much the most efficacious in a conical form to the height of 198 feet, and has of any. Bricks cemented w’ith bitumen could be on its summit a solid pile of brick 37 feet high, dieasily separated; but where good mortar had been minishing in thickness to the top. Ihe bricks are used, no power or art could detach them from the of the finest description, with inscriptions on them, wall, without breaking them in pieces. Some parts and so well cemented with lime, that it is nearly imof the edifice in question have been deeply excavated, possible to extract one of them entire. This ruin with a view to the removal of the bricks ; but the is called by the Arabs the Bits Nimrod. Every workmen have been intimidated, in consequence of thing remarkable is by them ascribed to Nimrod; the rubbish having fallen in, and buried some of their but the meaning of the term Birs seems unknown number ; and they have given up the walls, on ac- even to themselves. By the Jews it is called Necount of the extreme tenacity with which they are buchadnezzar’s Prison. At a trifling distance to the cemented. This edifice is called by the natives the east is a mound equal in elevation to the Kasr; and Kasr or palace. t
BAB Babylon, all around are traces of ruins to a considerable extent. Mr Rich having thus described these ruins, begins very cautiously to form conjectures respecting their origin and nature. At the first sight of the Birs Nimrod, he had involuntarily exclaimed that, if the situation rendered it possible, this certainly must be the tower of Belus. Besides its extraordinary magnitude, there is some appearance of its being built in stages, as described by ancient authors ; and the mound on the east may correspond to the temple, which occupied part of the quadrangular inclosure that surrounded the tower. After considering these circumstances, Mr Rich is led on to inquire, whether it be so certain as is generally supposed, that the ! tower of Belus must be found on the eastern side of the river, and the palace and hanging gardens on the western. But after some acute remarks, his path becomes entangled, and he is obliged to stop, without arriving at any satisfactory appropriation of the objects which had fallen under his observation. The subject is certainly involved in much darkness and uncertainty ; but as it is of considerable interest, we shall present our readers with such observations as its consideration has suggested to us. It is stated by ancient writers, in the most positive and circumstantial manner, that the palace, with its grand appendage of hanging gardens, was situate upon, or very near to the river; whence, indeed, the gardens were artificially watered. Now, modern Babylon presents, near to the river, no ruins of any magnitude, except those on its eastern bank; the Amran, Kasr, and Mujelibe. It seems unquestionable, therefore, that these, if any, must be the remnant of those immense structures. Then, following Herodotus, we must look for the tower of Belus on the western side of the river. But here we are crossed by the statement of Diodorus, to which MiRich does not seem to have fully adverted. That author reports, that there were ivoo palaces built on opposite sides of the Euphrates; of which by far the most extensive and magnificent was that on the western bank. This Major Rennell naturally infers to be the one which other writers call the palace. But it deserves notice, that Diodorus is the only authority for there being two palaces. Herodotus and Curtius, the former an eye witness, mention only one, and evidently entertain no idea that any more existed. It seems also quite unaccountable, that, while inferior structures exhibit vast piles of ruins, this western palace, which must have been the grandest and most extensive of all, should not have left the slightest trace of its existence. It may therefore deserve consideration, whether Diodorus, who wrote only from hearsay, might not have been deceived by varying accounts of one palace, into the idea that there were two. The striking similarity in his two descriptions, as to situation, plan, and ornament, somewhat favours the conjecture. We are sensible that it is a bold one; but can only say, that, without it, the aspect of modern Babylon is wholly inexplicable ; for it seems quite ascertained, that there are no ruins of any magnitude, close to the river, unless on one side, which is the eastern.
BAB It may not be amiss, therefore, to follow out the Babyli supposition, and to inquire how far, by its aid, theVs*^'*V' ancient and the recent descriptions can be brought to accord. Ancient Babylon consisted of an immense square, divided by the Euphrates into two nearly equal parts. It is distinctly stated by Herodotus, that the palace and tower were in opposite divisions to each other. If, then, the ruins on the eastern side be the palace, we must look to the western for the tower. There we find the Birs Nimrod, a stupendous pile, the dimensions and character of which are precisely such as the tower, in a state of total dilapidation, might have been expected to exhibit. Yet, to its really being the remains of that edifice, the objections are formidable. First, its distance of nearly ten miles from the Mujelibe would, to include' it within the city, require an extension even of the vast limits assigned by Major Rennell. But it is certain, that the extent of Babylon was immense ; that it rather resembled an inclosed district than a city. A great part of its area was under cultivation; and it has even been asserted, that the produce raised within the walls could, in case of siege, support its immense population. Without resting on the authority of Herodotus, though it be confirmed by Pliny, even the dimensions of Strabo, reckoned according to his own estimate of the stadium, would give upwards of eleven miles to each side of the square. But it is supposed that the palace and tower must each be in the centre of their respective divisions ; an arrangement certainly incompatible with the actual situation of the ruins. The expression of Herodotus, no doubt, is sv (jjsecjj, in the middle; which Major Rennell has translated centre. We doubt much, however, if this expression can be understood in so precise and mathematical a sense. It is familiarly said, that a building is in the middle or heart of a city, when it is completely inclosed within it, and surrounded by its buildings, even though it may approach to one of its extremities. Such, it appears to us, might be the present meaning, especially since the palace, being upon the river, could not, geometrically speaking, be in the middle of its division. The Kasr above described seems pretty exactly what we should expect in the ornamented and inhabited part of the palace. The Mujelibe, Mr Rich conceives, might be the hanging gardens. We would suggest the mound of Amran as a more probable situation, from its vicinity both to the river and to the palace, w-hile the Mujelibe is at an inconvenient distance from both. This last structure, from Mr Rich’s observations, seems decidedly to suggest the idea of a royal sepulchre. Of such structures, several are mentioned in Babylonish history, particularly that of Ninus, said to have been built within the palace, and of extraordinary elevation. (Diod. 1. ii. 7.) Mr Rich mentions his intention of making repeated visits to this spot, and of examining the different objects with greater care and minuteness. Additional light may thus certainly be thrown upon the subject, though it seems improbable, after the surveys already made, that any grand feature should remain to be
B A C B /V B 36 Bacon. of his principal works the figures w^ere represented in Babylon discovered. See Memoir on the Ruins of Bahjlon,by the costume of modern times; of which his statue of ^ Claudius James Rich, Esq. 8vo. Lond. tl Justice Blaekstone at All Souls College, Oxford, and Bacon. BACON (John), Academician, born 24th Novem- that of Howard in St Paul’s Cathedral, are remarkber 1740, who may be considered as the founder o able examples. But his genius was not subjected to the British School of Sculpture and whose works the trammels of this or any one style exclusively. are still its greatest boast, was the son ol Thomas Many of his emblematical figures are designed after Bacon, cloth worker in Southwark, whose forefathers the purest models, and in a taste altogether classical. possessed a considerable estate in Somersetshire. _ Among others of this character, the monument to P At the age of 14, he was bound apprentice m Mrs Draper, in the Cathedral of Bristol, is exquiMr Crispe’s-manufactory of porcelain at Lambeth ; sitely simple. In his later productions, likewise, parwhere he was at first employed m painting the ticularly those of a monumental kind, he introduced small ornamental pieces of china but soon attain- frequent examples of the ancient style : as in the ed the distinction of being modeller to the work. well known monument to the Earl of Chatham in The produce of his labour was devoted by him, Westminster Abbey, that to Lord Robert Manners, from his earliest years, towards the support of his and others which might be mentioned. “ Another parents. While thus engaged, he had an oppor- marble, scarcely finished at the time of his death, tunity of seeing the models executed by different says Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts in Engsculptors of eminence, which were sent to be burned land, “ will secure him a lasting fame for originality at an adjoining pottery. An observation of these and classical taste. It is the Coenotaph lately erectproductions appears to have immediately determined ed at Westminster Abbey to the poet Mason. A the direction of his genius; and his progress in the muse, holding his profile on a medallion, reclines on imitation of them was no less rapid than his pro- an antique altar, on which are sculptured, in relief, a pensity to the pursuit was strong. His ardour and lyre, the tragic masque, and laurel wreath ; all of the unremitting diligence are best proved by the fact, most correct form, as seen on ancient sarcophagi of that the highest premiums given by the Society tor the pure ages.” _ , the Encouragement of Arts, in those particular classes On the 4th of August 1779, Mr Bacon was sudin which he was a competitor, were adjudged to denly attacked with an inflammation of the bowels, him nine times between the years 1763 and 177u* which occasioned his death in little more than two During his apprenticeship, he likewise formed the days. He died in his 59th year, leaving a widow, design of working statues in artificial stone, which his second wife, and a family of six sons and thiee lie afterwards carried to perfection. . daughters. . , Mr Bacon first attempted working m marble about Of his merit as a statuary, the universal and estathe year 1763 ; and, during the course of his early blished reputation of his works has afforded the deefforts in this art, was led, by the resources of his cisive proof. “ The works of Bacon, Bankes, Nolle^enius, to improve the method of transferring t le kins, Wilton, and Flaxman,” says Dallaway (and to form of the model to the marble (technically called these might now perhaps be added other names of vetting out the points), by the invention of a more nearly equal promise), te will rescue the piesent age perfect instrument for this purpose, and which has from being totally indebted to foreigners for peifecbeen since adopted by many sculptors, both m this tion in statuary. His present Majesty, at Christ and other countries. * The advantages which this Church, a bust by the first mentioned, has the instrument possesses above those formerly employed, strength of Bernini.” The various productions of are, its greater certainty and exactness, that it takes this artist which adorn St Paul’s Cathedral, Christ a correct measurement in every direction, is contain- Church, and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford, the Abbey ed in so small a compass as not to encumber the Church at Bath, and Bristol Cathedral, give ample workman, and is transferable either to the model or testimony to his powers ; above all, those great and the marble, as may be required, without the necessity prominent works among the monuments in Westof a separate instrument for each. minster Abbey. ,,r r, In the year 1769, the first gold medal given by the But it was not as an artist only that Mr Bacon Royal Academy was adjudged to Bacon ; and in was esteemed. He was no less distinguished by the 1770, he was associated by that body. His first firmness of his mind, and the uprightness of his priwork in sculpture was a bust of his present Majesty, George the Third, intended for Christ Church Col- vate character. His principles were deeply founded, the virtues which he strove to attain were mealege, Oxford. It is said, that of sixteen different and sured by a standard more unbending than the mere competitions in which he engaged with other artists, dictates of feeling or of a cultivated taste. He was he was unsuccessful in one case only. His knowledge of the antique style was for a time called in an avowed believer in the truths of the Christian requestion; and on occasion of the doubts which were ligion ; and in him this belief exhibited its correraised on this point, he is reported to have modelled sponding effects, by producing a consistent influence his head of Jupiter Tonans, as the most satisfactory upon his whole character and conduct. In this manmethod of repelling the charge. The objection pro- ner, the strength of his principles, and the reality bably originated from the circumstance, that in some of his conviction, were daily manifested throughout * The Invention has sometimes been erroneously ascribed to Mons. Hudon, a French Sculptor. 3
BAG his life; than which, no test of sincerity is more unequivocal, no instruction more useful, and no recommendation more persuasive. Mr Bacon was remarkable for the simplicity of his manners, and was, in all things, devoid of ostentation. Of the general powers of his mind, and particularly of his acute and just perception in matters
B A K of taste connected with his art, a very favourable opinion will be formed by those who peruse the article Sculpture, which he contributed to Dr Rees’s edition of Chambers’s Dictionary. See Memoir of the late John Bacon, R. A. By the Reverend Richard Cecil. London, 1811.— (ee.)
3?
BAKING Js the art of making bread, by which term is meant loaf-bread, which is white, soft, full of cavities, has an agreeable taste, and is easily digested. History of 1. Like most of the arts of primary importance, its the Art. origin precedes the period of history, and is involved in the obscurity of the early ages of the world. There is no evidence from Scripture that Abraham was acquainted with the method of making loaf-bread. Cakes and unleavened bread are repeatedly mentioned as made by him, but no notice is taken of loafbread. We are certain that it was known in the time of Moses, as in the Jewish law there is a prohibition to make use of it during the celebration of the passover (Exodus, chap. xii. verse 15). Egypt, both from the nature of the country and the early period of its civilization, seems very likely to have been the place where this art was first practised. The Chaldeans, however, put in a claim. They were civilized nearly as early as the Egyptians, and they were celebrated among the ancients for the goodness of their bread. The Greeks assure us that they were taught tUe art of making bread by the God Pan. This lively and superstitious people ascribed almost all the important arts of common life to their gods ; or rather, perhaps, their gratitude induced them to deify the authors of these most useful inventions. Bakers were unknown in Rome till the year of the city 580, or about 200 years before the commencement of the Christian era. They settled in that city during the war with Perseus, king of Macedon (Plinii Hist. Nat. xviii. 11). It was then that the Romans became acquainted with the refinements of the Greeks, and that their capital became crowded with adventurers of all kinds, with artists and philosophers, from the prolific soil of Achaia. Before this period, the Romans were often distinguished or reproached by the appellation of thepidse-eating nation. Since the introduction of bakers into Rome, the art of making bread has always been practised in the south of Europe. But it made its way into the north very slowly; and even at present in the northern countries of Europe and Asia, loaf-bread is seldom used except by the higher classes of inhabitants. In Sweden, for example, you see rolls frequently in the towns, but never loaves. Gbttenburgh is a town containing about 23,000 inhabitants. In the year 1812 it was crowded with merchants from all parts of Europe, being the great comeeting link between Britain and the Continent. Towards the end of that year, the captain of an English packet ordered a Gdttenburgh baker to bake for him a quantity of bread, amounting to L. 1 Sterling in value. The baker was confounded at so great an order, and re-
fused to comply, till the captain gave him security that he would carry off and pay for the loaves; declaring that he could never dispose of so great a quantity of bread in Gdttenburgh if it were left upon his hand. In the country part of Sweden, you meet with nothing but rye-cakes, as hard nearly as flint, and which are only baked twice a-year. About thirty years ago, loaf-bread was almost as rare in the country places and villages of Scotland, barley bannocks and oaten cakes constituting the universal substitutes almost among all ranks. But the case is wonderfully altered at present. At that time no wheat was raised in the fertile valley of Strathearn ; and the village of Crieff, the largest village in that valley, with a population of nearly 3000 persons, contained only two bakers, who could scarcely find employment. At present it contains five or six, and each has a brisk trade. In many parts of England, it is the custom for private families to bake their own bread. This is particularly the case in Kent, and in some parts of Lancashire. In the year 1804 the town of Manchester, with a population of about 90,000 persons, did not contain a single public baker. We do not know whether or not it contains any at present. 2. The only substance adapted for making loaf- Different bread is the flour of wheat, a grassy plant, distin- kinds of guished among botanists by the name of triticum. This plant is cultivated, perhaps, over a greater ex- °"r* tent of the globe than any other, and, like man, it seems to adapt itself to almost every climate. We have seen excellent crops of it raised in north latitude 60°. It is cultivated in the East Indies, considerably within the limits of the torrid zone; and, in the north of Indostan, it constitutes a chief article in the food of the inhabitants. The original habitat of this plant is unknown. We know, however, that it improves considerably in its quality as we advance south. The wheat of Essex and Kent brings a much higher price than the wheat raised in East-Lothian and Berwickshire. French wheat is superior to that of England. The Italians have the superiority over the French in their wheaten crops, and perhaps the best wheat of all is raised in Barbary and Egypt. Mr Bruce found wheat growing wild in Abyssinia, and, in his opinion, that kingdom is the native country of the plant. It would seem to be originally an African plant, since it thrives best in Barbary and Egypt ; and perhaps the mountains of Abyssinia, though within the torrid zone, may not differ much in point of climate from the more northern plains of Egypt. In India the plant seems to have deteriorated. It is always dwarfish, and the crop, we have been
baking. eight hours of the time of baking, must be as fol- Baking. Bakin". told, is less abundant than in more northern cli- lows : mates. dr. Avoirdupois. lbs. oz. 3. The culture of the different varieties of wheat, 0 Peck loaf IT 6 as practised in this country, and the method of grind0 Half peck 8 11 inf and fitting the flour for the baker, being foreign 8 Quartern 4 5 to°the present subject, we cannot, with propriety, touch upon them. It may be sufficient to say, that Before these loaves are put into the oven, they originally, in England, the baker was his own manufacturer. He purchased his own wheat, and got it weigh, lbs. ground as he wanted it. At that period, the miller Peck loaf 19 12 separated the wheat into three portions ; namely, Half peck 9 14 flour, pollard, and bran. The bran was the outside Quartern 4 15 of the grain. It was not used as food at all, or only given to horses. The pollard was the portion of the From this it appears, that the average loss of the orain next the husk; it was coarser and darker co- quartern loaf in weight by baking is 9£ ounce, or loured than the four, which constituted the interior not quite so much as one-seventh of the whole. or central portion of the grain. This flour, at an From the experiments of d illet, and the other French average, amounted to three-fourths of the wheat commissioners who were appointed to examine the ground. But, by insensible degrees, the manufac- subject in 1783 (in consequence of an opinion prevailture of bread became separated into two distinct em- ing in Paris that the bakers did not give the full ployments, that of the mealman, who ground the weight, while these tradesmen declared that they put \ wheat and sold the flour, and that of the baker, who the proper quantity of flour in the loaves), it appears converted it into bread. The mealman made differ- that the French loaf loses a considerably greater ent kinds of flour, some extremely fine and white, weight in the oven. A loaf which, when put into while others were very coarse and unpalatable. This the oven, weighed 4.625 lbs. when taken out of the white flour, when made into bread, was so pleasing oven, weighed at an average only d.813 lbs. oi 0.812 to the eye and the taste, that it gradually got into lb. less than at first. This amounts to somewhat general use, and the people refused to purchase the more than one-sixth, or very nearly to £§ths of the bread made of the whole of the floui. At piesent, whole. This greater loss is chiefly owing to the difin the mills in the neighbourhood of London, wheat ference between the shape of the English and French is divided into no fewer than seven distinct kinds of loaf. The English has nearly a cubic form, while flour. The following are the average proportions of the French loaf is very long and slender. For it is these obtained from a quarter of wheat: obvious, that the loaf which presents the greatest surface must lose most weight in the oven. 5 bushels, 3 pecks. Fine flour The French commissioners, however, found that 2 0 Seconds this loss of weight was by no means uniform, even 1 0 Fine middlings with respect to those loaves which were in the oven at 0.5 0 Coarse middlings the same time, of the same shape, in the same place, 0 3 Bran and which were put in and taken out at the same in0 3 Twentypenny stant. The greatest difference in these circumstances 0 2 Pollard amounted to 0.2889 or 7-5 parts in the hundred, which is about j jth part of the whole. According to this rate, 14 2.5 we may suppose that an English quartern loaf, when taken out of the oven, may vary in weight -/jth part, Thus we see that wheat almost doubles in bulk by which amounts to rather more than 4| ounces. So being ground into flour. that the law which subjects the baker to a penalty it During the bolting of the wheat, there is a fine his bread weighs one ounce less than it ought to do, white gritty substance, called sharps, obtained. It seems too severe, and must have a tendency to injure constitutes the centre and finest part of the grain of the goodness of the bread, by making the baker more wheat. This is partly sold to the biscuit-makers, solicitous about the weight than the quality of his and is employed in baking the finest kind of sea- loaf. To this we ascribe in part the badness of the biscuit. It is partly ground again, and constitutes London bread in general, compared with the bread the finest and most valuable kind of flour. in other places, particularly in Edinburgh, where it 4. The bakers in Great Britain, at present, are re- is remarkably good. But there are other causes for Different kinds of stricted by act of Parliament to bake only three this deterioration of the London bread, which we be-^ kinds of bread, namely, wheaten, standard xuheaten, lieve to be of recent date. These we shall notice Bread. and household. The first must be marked with a W, hereafter. ^ the second with S W, and the third with H; find 5. A sack of flour weighing 280 lbs. and contain-N^ber* the baker who neglects to mark them in this manner ing five bushels, is supposed capable of being baked is liable to a penalty. The wheaten loaf is made of into 80 loaves in the acts of Parliament regulating gack> the finest flour, the standard wheaten of the whole the assize upon bread. According to this estimate, flour mixed together, and the household of the 1-th of the loaf consists of water and salt, the remaincoarser flour. 'Ihe loaves baked aie usually peck ing iths of flour. But the fact is, that the number loaves, half peck, and quartern loaves ; the weights of quartern loaves that can be made from a sack of of which, provided they be weighed within forty-
BAKING. 39 with the requisite portion of it to the consistence of Baking, Bakinir. flour, depends entirely on the goodness of that article. Good flour requires more water than bad a thick batter. Some dry flour is then sprinkled flour, and old flour than new flour. Sometimes 82, over the top, and it is covered up with cloths. This 83, or even 86 loaves may be made out ot a sack, operation is called in London setting quarter -sponge. In this situation it is left about three hours. It sometimes scarcely 80. Process of 6. Let us now proceed to give a short description gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour Baking. of the mode of baking as practised in Great Britain. scattered on its surface. An additional pailful of The bakehouse ought to be a large room. On warm water is now added, and the dough is made up one side should be erected a dresser with suitable into a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. shelves above it; on another side a kneading-trough, This is called setting half-sponge. In this situation < about seven feet long, three feet high, two feet and a it is left about five hours. Three pailfuls of warm water are now added; the half broad at top, and nineteen inches at bottom, with a sluice-board to pen the dough up at one end, whole is intimately blended and kneaded u .wards of and a lid to shut down like that of a box. On a an hour. The dough is then cut in pieces with a third side should be a copper, capable of holding knife, thrown over the sluice-board, and penned to three or four pailful of water, with a fire-place to one side of the trough. Some dry flour is sprinkled warm the liquid. The oven of course occupies the over it, and it is left in this state for four hours. It is fourth side. It is a square apartment about three or then kneaded again for half-an-hour. The dough is four feet high, with an arched circular roof, and a now cut into pieces, and weighed in order to furbrick or stone floor, and furnished with a door which nish the requisite quantity for each loaf, four pounds may be shut close. It is the general custom to heat the fifteen ounces being allowed for every quartern loaf. oven with wood, either faggots or brushwood; but The method of moulding the dough into a loaf it would be much more economical and cleanly to can scarcely be described, and can only be learned employ pit-coal for that purpose The requisite fire- by ocular inspection. The loaves are left in the place should be erected gt one side of the oven, and oven about two hours and a half. When taken out, the heat may be easily communicated by making the they are carefully covered up, to prevent as much as flue wind round the oven. This fire may also be possible the loss of weight. The above description applies only to the mode of employed to heat the copper and the water in it, which would save an additional fire, or spare the baking as practised in London. No doubt, slight baker the disagreeable necessity of heating the cop- ditterences exist in different countries. The French per in the oven itself, which is pretty generally prac- loaf, which is baked in a pan, requires obviously a tised in London. We are persuaded that an oven, difterent process from the English loaf, and it is kept constructed upon this principle, would save the baker a longer time in the oven. Alum is not added by all bakers. The writer of a considerable annual expence, which, for many years past, has been continually increasing. Indeed, it is this article has been assured by several bakers of reobvious that the price of wood must keep pace with spectability, both in Edinburgh and Glasgow, on the augmentation of the population and wealth of the whose testimony he relies, and who made excellent bread, that they never employed any alum. The reacountry. The temperature to which the oven must be son for adding it, given by the London bakers, is, that raised to fit it for baking bread is 450°. {£n- it renders the bread whiter, and enables them to sepacyclop. Method. Arts et Metiers, I. CZ15.) The bakers rate readily the loaves from each other. This addition do not employ a thermometer; but they reckon the has been alleged by medical men, and is considered by oven sufficiently heated, when flour thrown on the the community at large, as injurious to the health by floor of it becomes black very soon without taking occasioning constipation. But if we consider the fire. small quantity of this salt added by the baker, not Let us suppose that a baker is going to convert a quite 5,j- grains to a quartern loaf, we will not readisack of flour into loaves. He pours the flour into ly admit these allegations. Suppose an individual to the kneading-trough, and then sifts it through a fine eat the seventh part of a quartern loaf a-day, he wire sieve, which makes it lie very light, and serves would only swallow eight-tenths of a grain of alum, to separate any impurities with which the flour may or, m reality, not quite so much as half a grain; for be mixed. An ounce of alum* is then dissolved one-half of this salt consists of water. It seems abover the fire in a tin pot, and the solution poured surd to suppose that half a grain of alum, swallowed into a large tub, called by bakers the seasoning-tub. at different times .during the course of a day, should Four pounds and a half of salt are likewise put into occasion constipation. the tub, and a pailful of hot-water. When this mix7- The addition of the yeast of beer to make the Use of ture has cooled down to the temperature of 84°, dough swell is an improvement of the original prac- Yeast in three English pints of yeast are added; the whole is tice. Leaven was used by the ancients for this purwell mixed together, strained through the seasoning pose. Hence we read in the Old Testament of unsieve, emptied into a hole in the flour, and mixed up leavened bread, as distinguished from loaf bread. * In London, where the goodness of bread is estimated entirely by its whiteness, it is usual with those bakers who employ flour of an inferior quality, to add a@ much alum as common salt to the dough. Or, in other words, the quantity of salt added is diminished one-hall, and the deficiency supplied by an equal weight of alum. I his improves the look ot the bread very much, rendering it much whiter and firmer.
BAKING. 40 forgotten, and the prohibition laws were allowed Baking, Baking. The method of baking by means of leaven was this: were tacitly to sink into oblivion. The new mode of A quantity of flour is made up into dough with wa- baking by degrees extended itself to other countries, ter ; this dough being set in a warm place, is left tor and is now, we believe, practised everywhere. In about thirty-six hours. During that period it swells warm climates, where the yeast of beer cannot be considerably, and becomes of a thinner consistency. had, other substitutes are employed, which answer In short, it undergoes a species of fermentation, it the same purpose. In the East Indies, bread is has now acquired a peculiar smell, and a disagree- raised by means of the liquor called toddy, which able sour taste, and is the substance known by the flows out of the cocoa-nut tree when its branches name of leaven. If this substance be mixed with a are cut, and which ferments so rapidly, that in two quantity of fresh dough, it occasions the whole to or three hours it becomes an intoxicating liquor. In undergo a speedy fermentation, and to swell precisethe West Indies dander is employed for the same ly in the same manner as dough mixed with yeast. purpose. This is the liquid which remains in the Bread skilfully baked in this manner is not inferior still after the rum is distilled off, and is therefore to yeast bread; but when unskilfully managed, it analogous to what our distillers call spent tvash. It has a sour taste, and contains a quantity of acetic no doubt consists of a solution of unaltered sugar, acid. According to the experiments of Mr Edhn, prevented from fermenting by the alcohol which the a pound of flour, when converted into leaven, con- liquid contained before distillation, and mixed doubttains as much acetic acid as requires 40 grains of less with a quantity of yeast. In that warm climate carbonate of potash to neutralize it. If by carboit undergoes a very speedy fermentation, and on that nate he means (as is probable) bicarbonate of pot- account answers all the purposes of yeast in the ash, 40 grains of it contain 21 grains of potash, which baking of bread. In this country it is no uncommon requires for saturation 22^ grains of acetic acid. to convert the spent wash into small beer, Pliny informs us that yeast in his time was em- thing which the workmen drink with avidity. But it only ployed in Spain and Gaul as a ferment of bread. undergoes this change when fermented in the usual Gallice et Hispanice frumento in potum resoluto, quiway with yeast. . . ... bus diximus generibus, spuma ita concreta piofui8. The appearance of wheat flour is too tamiliar mento utuntur. Qua de causa levior illis quam ccete- to every person to require any description here. 1 he constituent! of Wheat ris panis est. (Natur. Hist. lib. xviii. c. 7-) From this ancients knew' that it consisted chiefly of a substance 0UI* passage we see that the Romans employed leaven to called starch ; which, as Pliny informs us, was first raise their bread, but that they were sensible of the separated from wheat by the inhabitants of the Island superiority of yeast. Leaven, however, made its Chio, and in his time the starch of Chio was conway both into France and Spain, and was univei sally of employed in the manufacture of bread till towards the sidered the best and lightest, because it was made from wheat which was not ground. (Phnn Natur. end of the seventeenth century, when the bakers of PaHist. 18. 7.) This is the mode still followed by the ris began to import yeast from Flanders, and to em- manufacturers of starch, and is no doubt the reason ploy it pretty generally as a substitute for leaven. We why the other constituents of wheat were so long in have here a striking instance of the blindness and ob- being discovered. About the year 1728 Beccaria, stinacy of the learned and the powerful, and the readiItalian philosopher, discovered another constituness with which they are disposed to arm themselves an ent of wheat, to which the name of gluten has been against all alterations and improvements. The bread given. His method of obtaining it was this: He by this substitution was manifestly improved both in took a quantity of flour, and formed it into dough appearance and in flavour. This variation excited attention ; the cause was discovered; the faculty of with water; this dough he kneaded continually bemedicine in Paris declared it prejudicial to the health; tween his fingers, while a small stream of water dropt it. He continued the kneading as long as the the French government interfered, and the bakers upon water ran off milky. By this process, the whole of were prohibited, under a severe penalty, from emthe starch wras washed away, and there remained in ploying yeast in the manufacture of bread. But it his hand a grey-coloured, elastic, and very adhesive is in vain for governments, colleges, and universities, substance, which was the gluten. (Collect. Academ. to oppose themselves to those improvements which take place in the arts and manufactures essential to partie Etrang. 10. 1.) No other grain, besides wheat, civilized society. The ingenuity and perseverance contains gluten in any considerable quantity. Traces of self-interest is proof against prohibitions, and con- of it may be discovered in barley. But the gluten of trives to elude the vigilance of the most active go- barley cannot be separated by washing. It is obtainvernment. The laws of Queen Elizabeth, however ed by solution in water. For gluten is soluble in a tyrannical and absurd, did not prevent the introduc- small proportion in cold water. But when that liquid tion of indigo as a dye-stuff into England. Neither is heated to 120° or 130° the gluten coagulates, and did the authority of Louis the Fourteenth, nor the falls down in grey-coloured flocks. By this method decision of the physicians, deter the Parisian bakers gluten may likewise be discovered in the leaves of from persisting in their improved mode of making many trees. The water employed to wash out the starch soon bread. The yeast in Flanders was put into sacks, deposites that substance in the form of a white powthe moisture was allowed to drop out, and in this comparatively dry state it was carried to the capital der. If this water be now filtered, evaporated to a small quantity, filtered again to separate the coaguof France. The superiority of yeast bread became gradually lated gluten, clarified with white of egg, and then evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, it deposites, visible to all, the decisions of the medical faculty
B iking,
BAKING. according to MrEdlin, crystals of sugar in four-sided as we add to them a sufficient quantity of gluten, or prisms, with dihedral summits. (Edlin on Bread mix them with wheat flour. In this way barley, Making, page 49.) If this experiment be correct, potatoes, and even turnips, may be made into very wheat contains a portion of common sugar. But we good bread. have great doubts respecting it. We scarcely believe 11. The sugar is by far the smallest, in proportion, it possible to obtain in regular crystals the very small of all the constituents of wheat flour. If it be quantity of sugar that must be contained in a pound starch sugar, as we believe it to be, it possesses the of wheat by the process described by Mr Edlin, for following properties : It does not crystallize in prisn\s he merely set the syrup aside to crystallize in a cool like common sugar, but assumes the form of spheres place. Common sugar thus treatedwould concrete into like honey. It is not so hard as common sugar, neia hard mass, but would not crystallize. We believe ther is it so soluble in water. Its sweetening power, that wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine mat- according to Kirchhoff, is to that of common sugar ter, but it is a species different from common sugar, as 1 to 2^. But the most distinguishing property is We have never, indeed, made any experiments on the that, when dissolved in water, it ferments of itself, sugar of v heat, but we have made a great many on without the addition of any yeast; whereas common the saccharine matter of barley, which we found si- sugar does not undergo that process unless yeast be milar in its properties to the sugar into which starch mixed with its aqueous solution. Hence the reason is converted by being long boiled in very dilute sul- why the dough of wheat flour ferments, and is conphuric acid. There is every reason to believe that verted into leaven. This fermentation does not take the sugar in wheat is similar to that in barley. Now, place if the saccharine matter be washed out of it by the sugar in barley crystallizes in spheres similar to water, as Mr Edlin ascertained by direct experiment, candied honey. The fermentation of wheat flour is at first confined 9- Starch, the first, the most important, and by far to the saccharine matter. It first undergoes the vithe most abundant constituent of wheat flour, is a nous fermentation ; here the process, if possible, white, crisp, crystalline-like substance, insoluble in ought to be stopped. But as this is usually not poscold water, but forming with hot water a thick paste, sible, tire acetous fermentation commences, and vine^ inch has the property of gluing bodies together. If gar is formed. Probably at last the starch itself is it be roasted on the fire till it assumes a brown colour, acted on, and occasions the bad taste of ill baked leait becomes soluble in water, and acquires the proper- vened bread, though this is doubtful, ties of gum. If it be boiled for forty-eight hours in 12. As to the proportions of these three constituwater, holding one-hundredth part of its weight of ents, they differ so much in different kinds of wheat sulphuric acid in solution, it is dissolved and convert- flour, that not.hino nrprisf* on flip snhippf oor»
portion of the wheat flour that renders bread so nutritive.
of the gluten. The writer of this article has repeatedlv annliod this tpsf- tn T.nnUnr, fl. u,.* 1
E \
41 Baking,
B A K I N G. Baking. water, and the juice of grapes also ferments of its ©2. dr. own accord, because it contains a quantity ot sugar 0 3 Bran similar to the sugar of starch. . n . 0 10 Starch But as far as baking is concerned, the knowledge 6 0 Gluten of the peculiar substance which occasions fermenta2 0 Sugar tion is not material. The only useful purpose which 0 2 Loss fermentation in dough serves, is to generate a quantity of carbonic acid gas. If the dough be impreg16 0 Total nated with this gas by any other method, fermentation is not necessary. Mr Henry of Manches er In this case, it appears that the gluten amounted to found, that if flour be kneaded into dough with water of the whole flour, the sugar was g^th part, the bran saturated with carbonic acid gas, the dough rises ith, and the starch almost fds of the whole flour. J as well, and the bread is as light and well tasted as 2 3. The yeast which is employed to ferment or when Modes of it is baked with yeast. Hence, those bakers prepaiiiig raise the dough is obtained in London Irom the brew- who live near Seltzer water, or any water impregYeast. ers of ale. In Edinburgh, the greatest part ot the nated with carbonic acid gas, may substitute that yeast used by the bakers is either prepared by these liquid for yeast, without injuring the quality of their tradesmen themselves, or procured from those who bread. The quantity of salt contained in a quartern manufacture yeast on purpose to supply the bakers. loaf, may be reckoned about an ounce avoirdupois, Various methods and various ingredients are used or 437 grains. If, instead of the ounce of salt, you for this purpose ; but the following method is, we be- dissolve in water 2 oz. 5 dr. 45 gr. of the common lieve, as good as any : crystallized carbonate of soda, and mix the Add ten pounds of flour to two gallons of boiling well with your dough ; if you now add 7 oz. 2 dr. water: stir it very well into a paste. Let this mix- 22 gr. of muriatic acid, of the specific gravity of ture stand for seven hours, and then add about a 1.121, and knead it as rapidly as possible with the quart of yeast. In about six or eight hours, this dough, it will rise immediately, fully as much, it not mixture, if kept in a warm place, will have fermented, more, than dough mixed with yeast, and when baked, and produced as much yeast as will bake an bundled will constitute a very light and excellent bread. and twenty quartern loaves. 14 These examples are sufficient to explain what Panary Yeast made in this way answers the purposes ot is called the „ fermentation. There is, in fact, Ferment, the baker much better than brewers’ yeast; because no such thing as a fermentation pecubai to bread. it is clearer, and free from the hop mixture, which But wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine matsometimes injures the yeast of the brewer. Some ter, which readily undergoes the vinous fermentayears ago, the bakers of London, sensible of the su- tion. During this fermentation, carbonic acid gas periority of this artificial yeast, invited a company of is evolved in every part of the dough. This gas is manufacturers from Glasgow to establish a manufac- prevented from escaping by the gluten, which forms tory of it in London, and promised to use no other. every where through the dough an adhesive web, About L. 5000 accordingly were laid out on build- through which gaseous substances cannot make their ings and materials, and the manufactory was begun way. ^ Hence, the dough swells in every direction, on a considerable scale. The ale brewers, finding the particles of starch are separated from each other, their yeast, for which they had drawn a good price, and by the heat of the oven, they are arrested in that lie heavy on their hands, invited all the journeymen position. So that the loaf, when cut, appears full of bakers to their cellars, gave them their full of ale, round and oblong cavities, each of which in the and promised to regale them in that manner every dough had been filled with a globule of carbonic acid day, provided they would force their masters to take gas It is to the presence of these cavities that the all their yeast from the ale brewers. The journey- bread owes its lightness, its agreeable taste, and its men accordingly declared in a body, that they would easy digestion. Even its colour is owing, m a great work no more for their masters unless they gave up measure, to the same cause. For when loaves of taking any more yeast from the new manufactory. wheat flour are baked without the addition of yeast, The masters were obliged to comply ; the new manuthe presence of carbonic acid, they constitute factory was stopped, and the inhabitants of London or one solid, dark-coloured, disagreeable tasted mass, were obliged to continue to eat worse bread ; be- which has been found not only nauseous to the palate, cause it was the interest of the ale breweis to sell their yeast. Such is the influence of journeymen but likewise of difficult digestion. These disagreeable qualities are, in a great measure, obviated by bakers in the metropolis of England 1 converting the dough into thin cakes, and baking What the substance in yeast is which induces ferrapidly on a hot iron plate over the fire. Acmentation has not yet been determined. Beer yeast them cordingly, this is the method followed, when wheat may be dried, and kept in that state for a considerable flour is converted into bread without fermentation. length of time, and if moistened again with water, it Thus then the theoryof bread making is completely Nutritive becomes capable of acting as a ferment. If it be wash- developed. Nothing can be simpler or more inge- « ^ ed in alcohol, its fermenting power is destroyed. If it nious than the process followed by the baker. Nor be kept in a moist place, it undergoes a change very ought the wonderful composition of wheat flour, similar to the caseous fermentation of gluten. But yeast and gluten are distinct substances ; for gluten winch adapts it so well for the manufacture of bread, is incapable of producing the vinous fermentation. to be passed over in silence. Without the presence Sugar of starch ferments of itself when diluted with of the saccharine matter, the fermentation could not
BAKING. 43 Bakin?, be produced in it, carbonic acid gas would not be made into bread, they are always mixed with wheat Bakin?, evolved, and the bread would be hard, heavy, black, flour. A mixture of two parts flour, and one potaand difficultly digestible. Without the presence of toes, makes an agreeable bread, which cannot be disthe gluten, the carbonic acid would make its escape tinguished from wheaten bread. The starch of poas soon as formed, and the advantages of the fermen- tatoes is remarkably beautiful, and goes farther than tation would be lost. And, finally, without the pre- wheat starch. We have been assured, that what is sence of the starch in such a notable proportion, the sold in the shops under the name of Indian arrow bread would neither be a palatable nor a nourishing root, is nothing else than potatoe starch mixed with article of food. It has been supposed, indeed, that a little gum tragacanth. It is U'ell known what an the gluten is the substance which renders bread so agreeable food this preparation is capable of furnishing. nourishing. But we conceive this to be a mistake. Rye is very much used as an article of food in Rye Bread, In the first place, its quantity, when compared with northern countries. In Sweden it constitutes almost that of the starch, is trifling. And, in the second the only bread of the common people not baked in place, we know from other circumstances, that starch loaves; but made up into cakes, which are usually is peculiarly fitted for being the food of animals. as hard as wood. When baked into loaves, it has a Nearly one-half of the human race live almost brown colour and a sweetish taste, which gives it a wholly on rice, a grain which consists almost entirely considerable resemblance to gingerbread. Rye, acof starch ; and the small quantity of that grain which cording to the analysis of Einhof, is composed of the constitutes the daily food of an inhabitant of Indos- following constituents: tan, and which supports his life, is truly astonishing, Albumen 3.27 latoe 15. As no other grain except wheat flour contains Moist gluten 9.43 these three constituents, in the requisite proportions, Mucilage 11.09 it would be in vain to attempt to convert them into Starch 61.09 bread, by the same process as is followed by the Saccharine matter 3.27 baker in making wheaten bread. Potatoes, for exHusk 6.38 ample, contain no sensible quantity of saccharine Moisture 5.42 matter. It would be in vain, therefore, to expect them to ferment, like wheat dough, when mixed with 100.00 yeast. But we have little doubt, that mashed potatoes might be made into very good bread, if they The saccharine matter present in this grain is prowere kneaded with water impregnated with carbonic bably sufficient to cause it to undergo fermentation. acid gas, or still better, if, instead of common salt, But the proportion of gluten is very small; probably the constituents of that substance were added in the not amounting to 3 per cent. Accordingly, when proper proportions, as they have been already given in rye flour is washed in water, the whole of the gluten this article. Potatoes contain a very great proportion is dissolved in that liquid. Hence it is obvious, that, of water, and when boiled in water, they communicate in order to make good rye bread, it ought to be mixa brown colour, and give the liquid a disagreeable ed with a quantity of wheat flour. This kind of taste and smell. bread is very much used in the counties of NorthIt is proper that this substance, which some have umberland and Durham, and we have no doubt that considered as of a poisonous nature, should be pre- it is both palatable and nourishing. Certainly it is viously removed. Einhof has given us the following very far superior to the rye cakes, used by the substances as the constituents which he found in po- peasants in Sweden. tatoes ; We have been told that rice flour may be made Water 70,5 into loaf-bread. But we have never had an opStarch 15.0 portunity of seeing these loaves, and do not know Fibrous matter 7.0 how far they resemble those of wheat flour. Rice Albumen 1.4 has never been subjected to chemical analysis. We Mucilage 4.0 do not know, therefore, what its constituents are ; though there is every reason, from its properties, 100.0 to consider it as almost entirely composed of starch/ IG. Having now given a description of the method Assize of Dr Pearson’s analysis is somewhat similar; only of baking bread, and explained the nature of the pro- B,ead, and he obtained a greater proportion of water. Einhof cess, we might here conclude this article. But it «ate of *he found both tartaric and phosphoric acid in potatoes. may be of some utility, if we give a short statement in Ldmkln* The fibrous matter in potatoes seems to be a pecu- of the principal laws which have been enacted in liar modification of starch. It supplies the place of Great Britain respecting bread, and if we endeathe gluten in wheat flour, and gives to the paste of vour to lay before the public the present state of the potatoes considerable stiffness and adhesiveness. It bread trade in London, and explain the abuses and is upon these properties that we found our opinion, frauds that are practised by those concerned in it in that if the paste of potatoes were properly impreg- that capital.^ We despair of seeing these abuses recnated with carbonic acid gas, it would make a good- tified ; but it is a great point at least to make them looking and well tasted loaf. There is, however, known. the less occasion for this attempt, as potatoes, when In the period of English history, between the Norproperly boiled, constitute an agreeable substitute man conquest and the reign of Edward the First, the tor bread, without any farther preparation. When price of wheat fluctuated enormously. Thus, in the
baking. amount of the penalty for each offence, vary ing from Baking. 43d year of Henry the Third, it was sold for 20s., or L.50 to Is., according to the supposed enormity of the 60s. of our money, a quarter. Multitudes ot pool transgression. It is the business of the magistrates in people were forced to live upon the bark of trees, towns, and of justices of the peace in the country, to and upon horse-flesh, and above twenty thousand regulate the assize, and the price of bread is deterdied in London of famine. In the same reign, as ap- mined by the price of wheat, according to a table pears from the statutes, the price of wheat was as given in one of the acts. When that price varies 6s. low as Is. a quarter. These prodigious fluctua- the quarter, then the price of the loaf is varied one tions show the little communication at that time ex- assize, or a halfpenny the quartern loaf. Magistrates isting between the different countries ot Europe. likewise may alter the price of the loaf half an assize, Farming must have been in a very low state in Enga farthing in the quartern loaf. land. When wheat was very cheap, the farmer or Whoever considers the indecent way in which could not dispose of his crop, which lay rotting on oaths are administered in English courts (for it is his hands. When it was dear-, there was such a upon the oaths ot the bakers and corn-factors that the scarcity, that he could hardly procure seed for sow- acts depend for the accuracy of the returns), and the ing his fields, or was unable 10 afford money to pur- little regard paid to them by merchants and manuchase it. . facturers, partly in consequence of this indecency, It was conceived, that these evils would be, in a partly in consequence of their multiplicity, and partgreat measure, remedied by fixing the price ot hi cat, ly on account of the many absurd impediments that which was accordingly done by a proclamation ot King John. This absurd innovation being found in- the Legislature has thrown in the way of merchants effectual, it was repealed by the statute of assize, and manufacturers—whoever considers these things, enacted in the 51st year of Henry the Third, anno will be at no loss to conclude, that all these cheeks, Domini 1267- By this law, the price of bread was and penalties, and oaths, have entirely failed in proregulated by the price of wheat, and the baker was ducing the intended effects. In London, where the of bakers is great, and the competition in allowed 7^d, for baking a quarter of wheat, and fur- number consequence ought to ensure the best biead. at the nishing salt and the other ingredients which are addlowest possible price, the bread laws, by making the ed to bread ; besides the profit which accrued iioin prices of all bakers the same, have destio^ed this the additional loaves made from a quarter of wheat competition, have formed the bakers into a regular beyond what the statute allows. This money allowcompany, having occasional meetings to consult their ance was gradually augmented to the baker in differ- peculiar interests, and have raised in them a spirit of ent reigns, according to the following statement: honour, which makes them to consider it as unhandsome to undersell their neighbours. I he pi ice of s. d. flour is easily regulated between the bakeis and the 1 1 to Edward I. corn-factors, the consequence of which regulation is, 2 7 Henry VII. that the quartern loaf is always 2d. dearer than in 10 6 Elizabeth any other part of Great Britain. Ihe icason assign6 0 Elizabeth ed is, that the finest flour only is employed in Lon0 12 Anne don, and that the London bread is better than any 15 6 George II. other. The writer of this article is well aware of the n 0 George HI. contrary. The London bread is, in his opinion, nearly the worst bread in Great Britain; and the flour This last regulation took place in the year 1798. is greatly inferior to what is used by the bakei s in By this act, the magistrates were enjoined to set the Edinburgh. He has frequently examined flour purassize from a sack ot flour, instead of a quartei ot chased from bakers in both cities, and the Edinburgh wheat, and to allow the baker 11s. and 8d. for his expences. The new duty on salt, during the french flour, except in bad years, when the ciop nad been revolutionary war, raised this sum to 12s. at which it injured, was uniformly superior in quality to the continued. By the act of Parliament, the bakei was London flour. The magistrates of London have at last become supposed to make 80 quartern loaves from the sack ot flour; whatever greater number the sack produced sensible of the truth of these facts; and that the Government, by their officious interference, and their was so much more profit to the baker. .minute enactments, have injured instead of improved Very particular laws were enacted, obliging the corn-factors to give in the quantities and prices of the the quality of the bread. They have, in conseflour sold, and the bakers the quantities and puces quence, applied to Parliament, and by their influat which they bought it. Penalties were enacted to ence, the assize on bread, as far as it affects London prevent false returns, to prevent adulterations and and its environs, has been taken oft. But the good improper combinations betweenr the bakers, oi the effects expected have not yet resulted from this judicorn-factors and bakers. The w eight ot the loaf was cious measure. The spirit of monopoly has been determined, and all loaves deficient in weight one sunk so deep into the minds of the bakers by the asounce, or not marked with the letters W, S W\ H, size laws, that some time must elapse before it be eraaccording to the quality of the bread, may be seized; dicated. It is said that they have a weekly meeting, and the baker, besides the loss of his bread, is sub- and settle the assize privately in the same manner as jected to a penalty. These laws are so numerous, it was before publicly done by the Lord Mayor and and so minute, that it would be tedious to copy them. Aldermen of London. But this esprit de corps canNothing more would be learned from them but the not continue very long. W here there are 1600 ba-
BAKING. kers, as in London and Westminster, it is not consistent with the nature of things to suppose that they can long continue united, so as to act only together, and by concert. Self-interest will induce first one individual, and then another, to consult his own private advantage, and to endeavour to secure an increase of business by underselling his neighbours. The bond will thus be broken asunder, and every one will be obliged to serve the community at the lowest possible rate. It is a pity that the Legislature would not see that the same liberty which has been given to the baker, ought to be extended to the corn trade in general. The depreciation of money, which was the consequence of the unnatural state into which Europe was brought by the French revolution, our almost total seclusion from the Continent, and a series of bad crops for several years, raised the price of corn in this country to an enormous height. The landlords took advantage of this increase to raise the rents, while Government loaded the farmer with heavy taxes. But in a state of peace, and supposing the seasons to be tolerably favourable, the prices cannot be kept up. The landed proprietors, indeed, conceived, that corn could be continued in this country at its unnatural height, simply by prohibiting the importation of foreign corn. Lt was with this view that the corn-bill was brought into Parliament, and carried last year (1815) b J a great majority, notwithstanding the almost universal expression of the inhabitants of Great Britain against the measure. These legislators did not consider that the average deficiency of corn in Great Britain does not amount to a week’s consumption: that though they may prevent corn from being imported into Great Britain, they cannot prevent such of the inhabitants as choose it from going to those places where corn is cheap. The corn-bill will not have the effect of keeping up the price of corn ; but it will act as an encourager of emigration. Suppose the population of Great Britain to be 12,000,000, the emigration of 100,000 inhabitants would probably be sufficient to prevent the necessity of importing corn. Perhaps a smaller number would be sufficient, as those who will be obliged to emigrate are chiefly families with small fortunes, who m^y be supposed to consume more wheaten bread than the very lowest of the people. The hardships of the farmer cannot be alleviated in any other manner than by lowering his rent, and easing him of his oppressive taxes. 17- About sixty years ago, the dealers in corn in London carried on their business at Bear Quay ; but, this situation being very inconvenient, the Corn Exchange in Mark Lane was erected by a company of proprietors for the accommodation of the factors and dealers. Seventy-two stands were allotted on which the samples of corn are exposed to sale. Sixty-four of these stands are let out on lease to factors or dealers, and the remaining eight are appropriated to the use of the Kentish hoymen. Although the Corn Exchange is considered as open to all who come to buy and sell, yet no person can carry on the business of a corn-factor, to any considerable extent, unless he is in possession of one of these stands. Here the factors are at liberty, either to expose all their samples at the same time, or as few
45
of them as they think fit: so that a buyer has no Baking, means whatever of judging, from the appearance of the samples exposed on the stands, during any period of the market, what the supply is, or what quantities of corn are imported, coastwise, or from abroad.” f Report of the Committee of the House of Commons respecting Corn.) Here the millers, mealmen, and corn-chandlers, transact their business with the corn-factor, and not with the seller. These men purchase the wheat, carry it dowm to Essex and other counties, convert it into flour, and bring it back to London to supply the bakers. The profits of the baker are but small, supposing him to carry on his trade without any fraud. Let us suppose him to bake 12 sacks a-week, which, from the evidence of the bakers examined before the Committee of the House of Commons, seems to be a fair'average. They are allowed 12s. for each sack, which amounts in the week to L. 7. Let us suppose farther, that every sack yields 82 loaves instead of 80, so that they have a profit of two loaves on each sack. 'Ibis, when the quartern loaf is at 10d., will amount to L. 1 more. Let us suppose farther, that the puddings, pyes, and meat, which they bake, will defray the expence of their fuel. By this statement, their weekly income will be L. 8. Out of this they have to pay for salt and yeast, and likewise their journeymen’s wages. Now, L. 4 seems as little as can wrell be allowed for these purposes. According to this statement, L. 208 a-year seems to be the amount of an ordinary baker’s income in London, supposing him not to practise any fraud. The consequence of this small profit is, that men of capital seldom embark in the trade. The bakers in London are mostly poor men, who begin the world w ithout any capital; and in consequence of the great competition, are never able to deal so extensively as to acquire one. It is scarcely necessary to observe what must be the consequence of this. They are at the mercy of the mealmen, who supply them with flour as they think proper, of what quality they think proper, and at what price they think proper. Hence the high price and the badness of the London bread. The profits go -all into the pockets of the mealmen, who keep the bakers in a state of comparative slavery, and oblige the inhabitants of London to eat the worst and the dearest bread in Great Britain. Some ingenious bakers in London, in order to make up for the smallness of their profits, have hit upon the plan of mixing potatoes with their flour, and we are credibly informed, that not less than 800 tun of potatoes are consumed for this purpose every week. Perhaps the quality of the bread is not much injured by this practice; for some of the bakers most in repute employ potatoes to a considerable extent, and the consumption of wheat is very materially diminished by it. But the grievance is, that the same price is taken for a potatoe loaf as for a loaf of the finest wheaten flour, though it must cost the baker much less. (J.) The x-eader will find some account of the substitutes which have been proposed for wheat flour, in seasons of scarcity, under the article Bread in the Encyclo.nn0CenCe? however spotless,—can render man wholly independent of the praise or blame of * See, for example, the terms in which Count Hertzberg speaks of the partition in his essay Sur la Ba0em T m u ^his r 7?', ^ ° T >la The of M'. l“ object, . .. abtewoTr . 1'LEtat de ^T"'l Europe„ < a cantn et aupres Revolution Francoise, is extremely excepT?’ ^^"/^rred to in this article, he condemns the partition as wholly inbalandng system^ ^ °f U balance of power’ and as having in led to the subversion of the 1 6 M Rullll( e d les archives tA/Z ™!™™ ' ' ? ’ T tame, etjusqu a present ignoree. I om. I. p. 9.
des
c affaires etrangeres de France,’ cette anecdote import r
balance of power. •• r strength and influence. The foundations of the BaW of Balance of raised her voice against the partition, Europe ancient structure were first sapped by a shamePower, might have been saved from the fatal effects of that less disregard of the sacred principles of pub'new system of robbery and oppression, which the lic justice; and if the balance of power, m the full spoilers of Poland were suftered, without any soit o and sound acceptation of the term, is again to beinterruption, to exemplify. “ To my certain know- come an object of the foreign policy of nations, those P ledge,” says Mr Burke, “if Great Britain had at guardian principles must hereafter constitute the that time been willing to concur m preventing the rules of their conduct, in all the public transactions of execution of a project so dangerous in the example, Europe. Let us here again quote the words of M. even exhausted as France then was by the preceding Gentz, written in 1806, in a too early hope of the apwar, and under a lazy and unenterprising prince, proaching deliverance of the Continent. He is speakshe would have at every risk taken an active pai t m ing of the transition which m that event ought to folthis business.” {Thoughts on French Affairsm 1791.) low “ to a state of things founded upon a balance ol It would lead us much beyond our limits to power.” In order to this, says he, “ every just and condetail that long series of violences, and transfers scientious government must set it down as an unof dominion, too faithfully copied from the ex- changeable maxim, never henceforth to lend an ear to ample of the first and succeeding partitions of r plans which are not founded in the strictest equity. land, by which all remains of the ancient sys- In the next place, though, in the proper sense of the tem were for a season swept from the earth. * We term a general code of laws cannot be framed for the more gladly proceed to observe, that the time has regulation of a confederacy of states, at least no means again arrivedPwh6n the nations of Europe may and should be left untried, to procure for this maxim a comought to unite, not, indeed, to rebuild the ancient mon sanction, and the solemn ratification of treaties. edifice in its former proportions, that being rendered In every considerable alliance, in every treaty of peace, impossible from the many melancholy changes which particularly in every congress composed of several have taken place; but carefully to recal, and steal i- considerable powers, the parties must mutually engage ly to adhere to those great pnncip es which const! themselves not to extend their territory by unjust tuted its foundation, and to which it owed all means ; and not to enter into any scheme or associabeauty and strength. It is not enough to have over- tion directed against the rights or possessions of an thrown a power which domineered over all, and to independent state, by whatever name it may be have reinstated some other powers m their pristine
52
. The following passage, though rather declanratory confuns^tn^triking as ^o^tteway in which the infamous Par“on® ^ ^‘“eompwabVmore destructive to the higher interests of Europe project of a partition ol Poland so mcomp y a„aravated character, was the decisive circumthan any former acts of T‘ole™e which “L expected to flow nothing but benefits and S stance of its originating in that vei> P periods of danger. An union between several regents blessings, security m time f ^mst lawless power, and the passions of an individual barrier a had been always considered ^ benehc 1l w*rld , that su*h an uni0n could be formed for the purto ter oppressor ; it now appeared, . ^ Ihe n which it seemed destined as a bulwark of defence. pose of bringing about piecee y ‘e ... _t and more painful, when we reflect that impression made by this detestable discovery mu ,, , • undertaking adopted the principle of the pothe framers of the wicked project, in the w o e cour acted conformably to this principle as far as litical balance as a star to conduct touglwG tli while they inflicted upon circumstances would admit, in the adjustme P ^ even its language. Corruptio th its spirit the most frightful wounds, ey bom ^ which the European commonwealth posoptimi pessima. To witness such an abuse o the .noblest mean v ^ ^ the malignant character sessed for assuring its safety and welfare , consequences.1 The cause of public justice was on of the deed was first completely ^rougi & , . \ists who, at that time in France, were strivall hands abandoned and betrayed. A ion jc undermine’every existing constitution, now that the mg to shake the foundations of all principle lit no^ under the impulse of incendiary mighty of the earth had broken into the san^uaryd ^ respectable political ideas into ridicule, without. passions, but deliberately and systemaUcany, turned the mo^ ^ dreadful con. & ^ fear or reserve. Even among the enhghtene { g be pVOfaued and what is most wholesome tagion. Notwithstanding that what is purest in its nature ^ y P constitution of Europe had receivmfy be poisoned-notwithstanding that the fatal b1^. b he building on a firmer basis, ed, called upon them the more loudly to unite, ;v p/t^™StheraseiVes up to a comfortless inand more vigorously to exert themselves m i or s e “cey’ indifference. The multitude, misled by the credulity in the efficacy of political maxims " , day deeper in the bottomless void, and beformer, or not sufficiently warned agams e > vinbmce and their salvation from chance. How rch^^ Fragments upon the Political Balance of Europe, p. 76.
53 BALANCE OF P 0 W E R. JSalanco of called, whether of dividing, of rounding, of concen- a great national object, the line of conduct which Balance of Power. trating, of uniting, or of indemnifying themselves that object imposes upon us may, no doubt, be ^ other losses. A sort of anathema must also be affected by our insular situation. W e may on pronounced by anticipation against all such as shall some occasions allow other nations who are more project such violations of right, or call upon others exposed to danger, and who ought, on that account, r to assist them ; so that a lively conviction may be to be more on the alert to prevent encroachments, to again established in the public mind, that when take the first measures, and bear the first expence of princes and states enter into combinations with one resistance. We may watch and warn, and use the another, their objects are protection and defence influence of our remonstrances and our counsels, against common danger, never the attack and inva- without having recourse, except in urgent cases, to sion of the innocent.” [Fragments, cap. 3.) Whether the extremity of arms. It is only, in a word, as to these precepts of this great enemy of the late am- the application of the general principle, and not as bitious ruler of France, and advocate of those by to its being necessary and worthy to be entertained, whom he was overthrown, were taken as the guides that there seems any fair room for difference of opiof that “ Congress of Powers,” which lately met for nion among British statesmen. In point of fact, all the purposes of general pacification, we shall leave our later statesmen, however differing in other reto others to determine; but thus much our pre- spects, have distinctly assented to the general docsent subject requires us to state, that, without trine, that the maintaining a balance of power wras a return in good earnest to those sound and salutary an interest of the highest importance to England. maxims, no durable peace is to be hoped for Europe, The last time, we believe, that this general question and no restoration of that system of balance by which can be said to have been fairly brought into debate, Europe was so long distinguished and protected. and fully discussed in Parliament, was on occasion of the famous armament against Russia for refusing to ret0 a u GreaTsd^ are ^ave ^ de, and we can here but store Ocazakow to the Porte ; and on that occasion, tairUu the k ty allude, to the great question, whether Britain, though Mr Fox and his followers reprobated the armaBalancing protected as she is on ail sides by nature, ought ment in the strongest terms, they did so, not because System. to consider it as a necessary part of her policy to they denied the great principle to which the minister attend to the European balance of power ? This has appealed, as the sole justification of the measure, been considered as constituting a separate question, that the balance of power was a British concern, by some who make no doubt that the other states of and gave Britain an undoubted interest to interfere Europe could not long preserve their independence se- in the affairs of the Continent,—not because they cure through any other course. Taking the question thought that Britain ought never to guard against generally, we do not think there is any great difficulty in any distant danger,—but because there was no such regard to it. With the multitude, to be sure, it always degree of danger from the retention of that city and will be popular to argue, that Britain stands in need of its district, as called upon this country to interfere no other defence than what the seas and her invincible at the risk of a war. * navy afford her, and that all continental connexions If there be any certain medium between the poare useless or pernicious. But the argument from licy which Britain and other countries ought to the advantages of our insular situation would not in observe with a view to the balance of power, we fact bear out this conclusion, even were the seas and do not know that it can be pointed out in more the navy a stronger defence than it is possible they specific terms than in the following passage of always can be.^ Our commerce and our colonies, one of Lord Bolingbroke’s political pieces, with the supports of that navy, render it indispensably which we shall conclude this article. “ Other necessary that we should more particularly observe nations must watch over every motion of their some nations, and ally ourselves with others. These neighbours ; penetrate, if they can, every design; great concerns make it, indeed, nothing less than foresee every minute event; and take part, by some absurd to taik of our being insulated as an empire engagement or other, in almost every conjuncture or state because Britain is an island. And, with re- that arises. But as we cannot be easily nor suddengard to invasion, it is clear, that we could not al- ly attacked, it may be our interest to watch the secret ways be as secure, and as free from uneasy apprehen- workings of the several councils abroad; to advise sions, in a state of total insulation from foreign con- and warn ; to abet and oppose ; but it never can be nexions, as with friends and confederates to employ our true interest easily and officiously to enter inor oppose a formidable enemy on his own confines. to action, much less into engagements that imply But supposing the balance of power to constitute action and expence.” [Idea of a Patriot King.)
* ^ Grey.’ ihe °f]y survivor of that illustrious group of orators and statesmen who opposed the armament, lepeatedly and forcibly declared his adherence to the general doctrine ; affirming, that though the epithets, •11 and -it —to it, mUL UlOUgll CpiltietS, Q 1 roman vv 11(1 tip. com-oFi m--- lbeen applied if heuptime ^ ^ l i.._ considered . ,• iaim ujuig, i the .1 poorest ^ UlC / wild romantic, had sometimes nevertheless peasant in England m 116 r servatlon of th e tW Pf . balance of power; and that this country ought to interfere whenever eare thp nnl*Y s a aPP ^ to be really in danger. Of all those who joined in this opposition, Mr Burke was nan who dld s ^ « upon a ground, as it appears to us, equally erroneous in fact and principle, na °Z had nor U ht to be taken into Jlnnn/p ’ ° S consideration, in any question as to the maine b C wer m Anril 17m f o ' f T P° Europe.—See Debates in the House of Commons, 29th March, and 12th Apul 1791, and 29th February, and 1st March 1792.
B A L B A L 54 their respective countries; and hence we find, Balm of Baldinger BALDINGEIl (Ernest Gopfrey), a German in that most savages are acquainted with vulneraries pre- Gilead. 1 T,, ' of. physician of considerable eminence, and the author pared by the hand of nature, or that they seek to imlialm Gilead. of a great number of medical publications. He was prove them from decoctions and infusions of roots, born near Erfurth, May 13, 1738, and was originally flowers, and leaves. Among the more precious subdestined for the church; but having acquired a stances obtained from plants, applied as a curative of strong predilection for medicine, his lather yielded wounds by the ruder inhabitants of the eastern clito his wishes, and allowed him to embrace that pro- mates, the balm of Gilead, or balsam of Mecca, fession, and he prosecuted his studies with this view has been eminently distinguished during many ages. both at Erfurth and at Jena. In 1761, he was en- But although the balm of Gilead is better known trusted with the superintendence of the military several scriptural allusions, and most esteemhospitals connected with the Prussian encampment from ed, it is only of secondary quality to the balsam near Torgau; and he there gave public lectures with of Mecca, for which it is frequently substituted, great applause. Having acquired considerable ex- and illustrations of its nature and properties must perience in army practice, by his assiduous atten- chiefly be derived from the latter. I his balsam is a tion to the duties of his office, he published, in 1762, resinous matter, exuding, like ordinary resin, from a dissertation on the diseases of soldiers, which met incisions in the bark of two different vegetables, at with so favourable a reception from the public, that least there are apparently two, though the distinction he enlarged the plan of his work, and republished is not well characterized or described by naturalit under the title of Treatise on the Diseases that ists, which has excited conjectures that there is onprevail in Armies, Langensalz, 8vo, 1774- It has ly one, and that it is subject to certain external since gone through another edition. In 1/63, ie modifications from soil and climate. The plant prowas appointed professor of medicine at Gottingen, ducing the balsam of Mecca, was first ascertained where he enjoyed considerable reputation. Jbe Forskal to belong to the genus Amyris. He Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, Frederic II. invited him by transmitted one or two specimens to Linnaeus, who to take up his abode at Cassel, conferring upon him has characterized it as the “ Aniyris Opo b a Is ainum, the title of first physician to his court, and director- leaves pinnate, with sessile leaflets, a native of Arageneral of all his medical establishments. He was bia while he characterizes the other “ Amyris Giafterwards professor of the theory of medicine at leadensis, leaves ternate, very entire peduncles, one Jena ; and in 1785, was promoted to a professorship flowered lateral, a native of Abyssinia.” But, to conat Marpurg, where he died of apoplexy on the 2d sider it more in detail: This plant grow-s to the height of January 1804. _ t fourteen feet, flourishing in a hot climate, and in a His writings are exceedingly numerous ; many ot of stony barren soil. In general it is lower, and Mr them are scattered in various collections and jour- Bruce describes a specimen five feet and a half in nals ; but besides these, no less than eighty-four dis- height, and five inches across the stem where thicktinct treatises are mentioned as having proceeded from est. The wood is white, light, and of open texhis pen. He had collected an extensive library, con- ture, covered with a smooth bark, reddish or of blusisting of 16,000 volumes, of which a catalogue was ish white, resembling that of a healthy standard published after his death. His funeral oration was cherry-tree, green within, and emitting a very frapronounced by Professor Creutzer. He was well grant odour. That of the branches, which are very versed in botany, and has published several works on flexible and resinous, is equally agreeable. The that branch of natural history, of which the prin- leaves, which are evergreen and scanty, bear some cipal are the following : Catalogus Dissertationum resemblance to those of rue; and the flowers, which ■qua: medicamentorum historiam, facta, et vires expo- are leguminous, and of a purplish colour, resemble nunU Altemburgi, 1768. 4to. On the Study of those of the acacia. The fruit consists of small Botany, and the method of learning it, in German. pointed ovoidal berries, containing a yellowish fluid Jena, 1770. 4to. He was for many years the editor similar to honey, of a bitterish taste, and exhaling a of a periodical work, entitled Magazine for Physipleasing perfume, approaching the odour of balm. cians, 12mo, Cleves; and afterwards changed its name This plant is called Balessan in the east; but it to to the New Magazine, in 8vo, from 1779 1799* But the principal work of this kind which he con- would require new botanical researches to ascertain ducted, was his Sylloge Opusculorum Selectorum definitely, and beyond dispute, whether it is of Argumenti Medico-Practici, being a collection of different species, as is most probable, and what is its detached essays and dissertations, which extended to real character,—points which we must consider as remaining to be established. 6 vols. 8vo. Gottingen, 1766—1782. It has been maintained, that the plants producing His Litteratura universce Materia: Medico:, &c. the balsam of Mecca are restricted to a plantation, Marpurg, 1793, 8vo, is a work of great labour, but little discrimination. He edited Barner s Lives of extending little more than 30 acres, at Beder HuPhysicians, in German. I he only other vvoik of his nein, a station for pilgrims in Arabu\, half way bedeserving notice, is the Historia mercurii et mer- tween Mecca and Medina. Yet it cannot be posicurialium medica. Getting. 2 tom. 8vo. 1783 and tively affirmed if this be one distinct species ; that Abyssinia, the country ascribed to the other, is de1785. W BALM OF GILEAD. The earliest specifics prived of it; or that the balm of Gilead grows in against personal injuries resorted to by mankind, were Abyssinia exclusively. These are facts which also probably the different parts of vegetables produced require elucidation in future botanical research. The 3
B A L Balm of plantation belongs to a noble family of Arabs, of the Gilead. trike ]3eni K’oreish, from which Mahomet origi''*t**\'~**0/ nated, unless the incursions oi'the Wuhabee, who interrupted the wonted pilgrimages, may have dispossessed them. The balsam flows from incisions in the tree, which are made with an axe, in July, August, and the beginning of September, when the circulation of the sap is in the greatest activity; and it is received into a small earthen bottle. Each day’s produce is collected, and poured into one of larger dimensions; but the quantity obtained is very small, and its collection tedious and troublesome ; for the total exudation is usually but three or four drops in a day ; nor does the most productive tree afford above sixty. Its scarcity, therefore, and the difficulty of procuring it, have no inconsiderable effect in enhancing its value. The odour is at first strong and pungent, occasioning a sensation like that of volatile salts rashly inhaled. Its intensity is proportioned to its freshness and the care it receives, for if neglected, and exposed to the influence of the air, the fragrance entirely decays. It is also of a rough, acrid, pungent taste. Originally the balsam is of a light yellow colour, a little turbid, and of a whitish cast, which is supposed to arise from the globules of air absorbed along with it; and it dissolves readily in water. It next acquires greater consistence, resembling honey, and becomes pellucid; and after the lapse of some years, grows of deeper yellow, or gold colour, when it is very tenacious, and may be drawn out in threads. It is difficult, however, to obtain the balsam in a state of purity, for several different substances are employed in its adulteration ; to detect which various experiments are resorted to. If dropped into a glass of clean water, it falls to the bottom without rising again to the surface, or if remaining still on the surface, like oil in a drop, it is certainly adulterated. If, on the contrary, it spreads on the surface of the water, diffusing itself in a thin pellicle, scarcely visible to the eye, and may be collected with a thread or a feather, it is the pure and natural product. In this state it will coagulate in milk, but not if otherwise. If pure it collects in a globule, when dropped on hot iron; if adulterated it runs and spreads itself all around. The different substances used in the adulteration of this balsam are honey, wax, oil of sesamum, turpentine, and ostrich fat. Sweetness of taste betrays the honey, and its turbid appearance the presence of wax. Adulteration with oil is detected by its yielding a darker and grosser flame than what issues from the genuine balsam, when dropped on burning coals. When the consistency becomes too great, which seems a consequence of age and long preservation, fluidity is restored by the simple application of heat. Besides the balsam now described, which is the purest and most valuable kind, and is called Opobalsamum, other two of inferior quality are obtained from the balessan ; first, Carpobalsamum, which is prepared by expression from the fruit when it has attained maturity, and, if good, should be ponderous, of a pungent taste, and balsamic odour- Secondly? Xylobalsamum, which is elaborated from a decoc-
£^ B A L OJ tion of the twigs. These are collected in small fag- Balm of gots, and sent to Venice, and the quality determining Gilead. them to be the shoots of the year, is said to consist in their being knotty, the bark red, the wood white, resinous, and also exhaling balsamic odour. Various impostures are likew ise practised here, in substituting spurious compounds for the real drug ; and the ingenuity of mankind in this species of deception has been carried to such an extent, that detection proves extremely difficult. Numerous virtues are ascribed to the balm of Gilead, so numerous, that modern empirics, availing themselves of that credulity which characterizes our nature in such matters, do not hesitate to offer specifics of their own invention, under the same name, with bold asseverations, that the human race will there find a palliative for most of the evils with which they are afflicted. Prosper Alpinus, one of the older naturalists, ascribes many properties to the balsam of Mecca, esteemed the most precious of all that bear the appellation of balsam, and which, in ordinary description, we must consider synonymous with the balm of Gilead ; and the modern Arabs, Turks, and Egyptians, entertain great confidence in its efficacy. It is a powerful vulnerary; a quality of which Mahomet took advantage, for he affirmed, that a grove of the trees sprung up from the blood of his own tribe killed in battle, the juice of which cured the wounds of the faithful, however deadly, nay, that it recovered some of them from death itself. Hasselquist says, it is useful as a stomachic in doses of three grains. It is also taken for complaints in the breast, in fevers, and is applied for rheumatism. Its repute as an antiseptic is very great; and it is esteemed so effectual an antidote against the plague, that when this distemper makes its appearance, the Egyptians take a certain quantity daily. The balsam of Mecca, however, is principally used as a cosmetic by the eastern females of rank : after being kept in a very warm bath, the face and breast are anointed with it, and the same process is continued every third day during a month. Oil of almonds, and other cosmetics, are then rubbed over the same parts, whereby the skin and complexion are beautifully renovated. Lady Maryr Wortley Montague relates, that she was induced to try the experiment; and that, in consequence, her face became swelled and red for three days, during which time, she suffered so much pain as to restrain her from repeating the application. But her complexion was greatly improved, and she adds, that the ladies of Constantinople, by whom it is used, have the finest bloom imaginable. The balm of Gilead has been celebrated from very remote antiquity. We have the testimony of Moses, that it was an article of commerce in the earlier periods of Jewish history; for at the time Joseph was confined by his brethren in a pit, and during their deliberations on his fate, it is said, “ And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.'' Jeremiah particularly alludes to the virtues of the balm in Gilead. Josephus, however, does not
B A L 56' lial n of carry the knowledge of it so high, for he observes, Gilead. t]ie qUeCn of Sheba or Saba, “ who was inquisitive philosophy, and on that and other accounts was also to be admired,” brought the balm of Gilead as a present to Solomon, on her visit to Jerusalem, about 1000 years before the Christian era. “ They say also, that we possess the root of this balsam, which our country still bears, from that woman’s gift.” This is not inconsistent with the words of Jeremiah, who probably flourished about 400 years later; and to reconcile those of Moses with this account, some critics have supposed that Judea did not possess the real balm of Gilead earlier than the queen of Sheba’s gift, but an inferior kind of balsam,—a fact not improbable. Further, that, what was in highest esteem as the balm of Gilead, was in truth the balsam of Mecca. The best testimony of its value, is its having been the subject of royal donation among other rarities brought for the acceptance of so illustrious a prince as Solomon. It appears from the writings of the ancients, not far from contemporary with Josephus, that Judea was generally believed to be possessed of it exclusively. Pliny remarks, “ but to all other odours whatsoever, is to be preferred that balsam which is produced in no other part of the world than the land of Judea, and there in two gardens only, both belonging to the king, one not exceeding twenty acres in size, and the second still smaller.” Strabo, however, in the opinion of Mr Bruce, ascertained the real place of the origin of the balsam, in ascribing it to that country over or near to which the queen of Sheba reigned. “ Near to this,” he says, “ is the most favoured land of the Sabeans, and they are a very great people. Frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon, grow among them, and in the coast that is about Saba, the balsam also.” Whence Mr Bruce observes, that • portion . ’ of 70.which Its northern forms themean Gulfbreadth of Bothnia, is ISO and the ocean are at present generally the same, and VOL. II. PART I. H Bailie-
B A L T I C. those of the ocean ; and when the wind blows strong that the trifling differences which may be occasionally from the north, they become so fresh as to be fit foi observed, are owing to accidental and temporary causes. drinking or cooking meat. The degree of then saltHence we may infer, that the constant current setting ness varies in different parts, and in the same parts out of the Baltic, owing abundance o according to the season, or wind. According the waters which isit solely receives fromtoitsthe rivers. Bergman, in his Physical Geography, near the south It is Jenlraliy believed that there are no tides m coast of Norway, at the entrance of the Scagerac, the Baltic Thk however, is not strictly correct. the waters contain from ^th to |th part of to Thefe arc sensible tides in the Scagerac ; they weight of salt: in the Cattegat to; m the Ba begin to diminish in the Cattegat; are very tr.fl.ng JLth- and in the Gulf of Bothnia from ^th to h, the Sound and Belts; and in the Baltic, properly Lth The south-west and west winds augment the so called, are scarcely, if at all, perceptible. Ihe.e saltness, by introducing the waters of the ocean ;m Irregular arc, however, irregular variations ... the level^of the the summer, it requires 300 tons of the rvatei of ti c Variations. waters of the Baltic, which bear so . Gulf of Bothnia to produce one ton of salt, but in to tides. These elevations generally occur in au- the winter, only 50 tons; this difference is caused by tumn, when the weather threatens rain; they las rnnp-elation and by less fresh water flowing into it. sometimes a few days, sometimes several «teh ; Jhe CThe anafysis o/three pounds of water taken u A„a.y» maximum rise is three feet and a and the tow from the British Sea, on the coast of East iiizclanU. ^ shores are occasionally inundated. They and the same quantity from near Rostock m the dor the fresh-water lakes, which communicate with Baltic, gave Brititb Sl„. Bailie. the sea b ackish. In the Gulf of Botbn.a the fall 263 522 Muriat of soda of the Waters is usually succeeded by north wmds^ 111 198£ Muriat of magnesia whereas, near Stockholm, these winds usually follow 12 23 Sulphat of lime the elevation. M. Kraft, who was ^ 1 f 7 Sulphat of soda perimental Philosophy in the Imperial Academy ot 1 Residue Sciences at Petersburgh, in his treatise on the m undations of the Neva at the autumnal et umox 388 746’ observes that three or four days before or atte the full * or new moon, a violent north-west win The following are the results of some experiments drives the waters of the Northern Ocean, during the influx of the tide, into the Baltic, and is accompa- made by Dr Thomson on the specific gravity of the water in the Firth of Forth, the Baltic off funanied, or immediately succeeded, by » ^ that sea and the Gulf of Finland. By Schultens, a bergh, the Sound, and off the Scaw Point; and a.so learned Swede, who paid particular attention to the on the comparative weight of salt, obtained from 1000 trains of each of the waters evaporated. ohvsical geography of the Baltic, the meg Specific Weigh! of vations of this seaare attributed to the state of the Salt. gravity. atmosphere. He observed, that when the waters are 36.6 Water of the Firth of Forth 1.02900 about to rise, the barometer fails, and when t eyaie 7.4 Baltic off Tunabergh 1.004,6 about to fall, it rises. Hence he mferred, that the u 11.2 Sound ■ 1.00701 equal pressure of the atmosphere on ddferent por 32.0 Scaw " 1.02037 tions of the water, deranged the level of the wat • The difference between the greatest Fur one In the salt obtained from the water off the Scaw, rise in the barometer in the northern parts of Lurope he found Muriat of soda 00./ is two and a half inches, which answers to three and a half feet of water, or the difference of the elevation Sulphat of magnesia 25.^ Muriat of magnesia 19-3 of the waters at their extremes. rvrSuperior In the Sound there are superior and mfe™”ur 100 and infeiior rentg. These were first observed by some Enghs Currents, being in a boat in the middle of the chanWilcke ascertained that the specific gravity of the nel found that they drifted towards the Cattegat, water of the Baltic was much influenced by the wind. Sut having let down a loaded bucket to the depth at East, it was 1-0039 of four orfive fathoms, the boat became stationary ; When the wind was — West 1.0007 and when the bucket was sunk deeper, the boat dntt_ N. W. 1.0098 ed against the superficial current. The general curStorm at West 1.0118 rents of the Baltic are strong, and are evidently occasioned by the vast number of rivers anu streams There is great difference in the temperature ^ Temperathat pour their waters into it, many of which, e^pe- different parts of the Baltic. The general tempera- * cialfe towards the north, rise thrice in the course of ture of the Gulf of Bothnia m July is from 48 to the vear. At the north extremity of the island of 56 but it is sometimes heated to 70; the medium 0 Bornholm, a violent agitation of the waters, or kind the thermometer throughout the year at Gleoborgh, of whirlpool, called by the Swedes Malt-quern, or is 29* at Stockholm, the medium is 42f. Near the the grinding-mill, is occasioned by the current rush- land in the Gulf of Bothnia, in the month of July, in^ over a circular cluster of sunken rocks. The the temperature of the atmosphere was observed to waves of the Baltic are short and broken in conse- be 68, while the temperature of the surface o quence of sudden changes of wind, irregular depths, water was 65 ; and in October, the temperatures and strong currents. were respectively 39 and 46. In the k.ount, Saltness. The waters of this sea are not nearly so salt as
58 THtic-
B A L month of August, the temperature of the atmosphere was 70 ; on the surface of the water 68 ; and at three fathoms 66. On the 10th of October 1813, Dr Thomson found the temperature of the Sound to When be 54. The Scagerac and Gulf of Norway are Frozen. open to navigation all the winter, whereas several portions of the Baltic are covered with ice in a very moderate degree of cold; generally the bays and channels are encumbered with ice at the latter end of December. The waters towards the heads of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland are first frozen, and the ice being conveyed by the currents to the south, the masses of it are by the increasing cold united into vast fields, which become stationary on the west towards Stockholm, and in the east towards the Islands of Dagoe and Gisel. In the southern parts of the sea, the ice begins to break up in April, but the Gulf of Bothnia and Finland often continue closed till May. The rigour of the climate in the Baltic is supposed to be considerably diminished by the clearing of the forests and the progress of cultivation ; at least more intense and longer continued colds, as well as greater extent and solidity of ice, are recorded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, than what have happened latterly. Winds. The winds are extremely variable in the Baltic, but they blow most commonly from the east in the spring, and from the west in autumn ; calms are seldom experienced, except in the middle of summer.
T I C. 59 tants on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia. As soon Baltic, as the icc breaks up, upwards of 200 families, with their children and servants, transport themselves to the rocks and islets that line the coast, where they remain fishing to the end of autumn. The annual produce of all the pilchard fisheries is estimated at 300,000 tons at least, which are entirely consumed in the Baltic. Salmon ascend the rivers from April to June, ac- Salnjoa cording as they are free from ice. On the south, they Fishery, abound most in the Oder, Vistula, Duna, and Narrovva; on the north, in the Motala, Dalecarlia, Uleo, Kemi, Torneo, and Keyraen. Salmon trout is taken in some bays of the Baltic. In the middle of the river Kemi is a small Island, where an annual salmon fair is held. The salmon fisheries of Sweden are very considerable both in the Cattegat and the Gulf of Bothnia; from 20,000 to 25,000 tons are salted annually. Whales very rarely enter the Baltic. The com- Whales ami mon porpoise is the only one of the lesser species Seals, of cetaceous animals that lives habitually in this sea; and at Middlefart, in Funen, is a company, which enjoy the exclusive privilege of taking it. There are two varieties of the common seal, both of which are hunted, in March and April, for their oil, by the peasants of the isle of Gothland, and of the islands in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.
Fisheries of II. There is historical evidence, that the herring fishthe Baltic. ery was a branch of national industry in the Sound. as early as the year 1168; * and in 1389, Philip de Mezieres says, that such vast shoals of herrings crowded into the Sound, that 40,000 boats, with six to ten men each, were employed in the fishery, besides 900 large vessels, in which the herrings were salted. In the Gulfs of Flensborgh and Slie, besides what are consumed fresh, 1000 tons salted are at present annually exported to Copenhagen and Germany; and, according to the registers of the custom-house at Dalborgh, on the south shore of the Gulf of Limfiord, this city exported yearly, from 1720 to 1730, above 23,000 tons, but from 1754 to 1765, the exportation had fallen to about 8000 tons. In the year 1748, the herring first appeared in shoals in the Gulf of Gottenburgh ; at first they arrived in August and September, but gradually later, and at present not till November or December. In 1752, there were 1000 tons taken ; in 1753, 2000 tons ; in 1761, 100,000 tons; from 1790 to 1796, nearly 2,000,000 tons were salted, and it was estimated that from 50,000 to 100,000 tons were consumed fresh. Pilchard Pilchards abound in the Gulfs of Bothnia and FinFisUeiy. land, into the bays of which they arrive in shoals in spring and autumn. The pilchard fishery is one of the most important branches of industry to the inliabi-
III. The coast of the Baltic, including under that Coasts, &c. appellation the Scagerac, the Cattegat, the Sound, of the Baland the Belts, as well as Baltic Proper, may be re-1*0, garded as commencing on the north side at the Naze of Norway. This is the extremity of a rocky peninsula joined to the main by a narrow isthmus; it is surrounded by rocks, of which those named the Bishop and Clerks, five miles to the south of the Naze, are most dangerous to navigators. From the Naze to the East, the shore is Norwegian formed of elevated barren and dreary rocks. The Shores, principal rivers of Norway, which fall into the Scagerac and Cattegat, are the Glommen, the Laugen, the Louen, the Drammen, the Mandal, and the Nid. At the distance of five miles from the Naze is the town of Mandal, situate on the river of that name ; from this place is exported a considerable quantity of smoked and salted salmon, esteemed the best in Norway. About 15 miles to the east of this is Christiansand, which has a good roadstead, besides the advantage of the little river Torvedal, to the east of the town ; it exports timber, salt, fish, and iron. Arendal, the most secure and capacious harbour in Norway, formed by the Sound between the Island of Fleckerce and the Main, succeeds. On the river Louen, is the town of Laurwig, which exports a great deal of iron from the founderies in its neighbourhood. The Gulf of Christiana lies
Baltic,
1 rplartars,^lefrom )rearsending, 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia and on Frise theirasfear of tie as usual, their ships to the (Sweden) herring fishing thewere coast prevented, of Englandby ; and there was no exportation, 40 or 50 of these fish were sold for a shilling. (Matthew Paris, page 396.) It is \\ musical enough, that the orders of a Mogul Khan, who reigned on the borders of China, should have lowered the price of herrings in the English market.”—Gibbon’s Homan Empire, Vol. XI. p. 422. Note.
BALTIC. Before the entrance of the Gotha is the island of some leagues to the east of it. This Gulf runs up v into the land 20 leagues, and divides into several Wingce, with a very high light-house. The south point of the bay of Skelder is formed of a mass of branches; the entrance to it is pointed out by the lying at the entrance of the Sound, named island of Fmrdar, on which there is a light. The town rocks, Kullen ; this mass projects far into the sea, and on of Christiana stands at the top of the Gulf; its port highest point, 200 feet above the sea, is a fire will admit the largest vessels, there being from 30 to the tower. On the Swedish shore of the Sound are se40 feet water close to the quay ; its expoits are lii veral villages of little consequence. Helsingburgh, Helsirigplanks and rafters, pitch, tar, soap, iron, coppei, and alum ; they generally amount to L. 100,000 annual' which is the usual crossing-place to Elsineur, is the kurgh. ly; the timber constituting four-fifths. There are only one deserving of notice. Four leagues to the several little villages on the Gulf, where vessels load southward is Landscrona, a small and ill-sheltered with timber. To the east of it is a deep inlet, call- port, with 20 feet water ; it is a staple town. The port is Mnlmoe, which has a considerable trade, ed Sv/inesund, which separates Norway and Sweden; next it consists of two basins, the outer of which commu- though its harbour is not capable of receiving vesnicates with the inner by a very narrow strait. On sels of any considerable burden. To the south are the inner basin, and at the mouth of a small river,, is Skanor and Falsterbo, on the peninsular point, which Fredericshall, the commerce of which consists prin- forms the entrance of the Sound from the Baltic. cipally in the export of planks, sawed by 36 mills Close to the latter is afire tower, to direct vessels clear of a large reef, which runs off from the point. The first on the river. Swedish ports on the Baltic of any consequence are Swedish The Swedish shores of the Scagerac and Catte- Christianstad and Carlshamn ; the first is situated Shores. gat are high, with a most rugged and dreary appearance, particularly near Marstrand, where the shore on the Helge, wh ich empties itself into a gulf that is lined with steep rocks projecting into the sea. separates the provinces of Schonen and Blekingen ; The coast of Schonen forms a striking contrast to the latter has 40 trading vessels engaged in foreign the shores of the Scagerac and Cattegat, being voyages ; its principal export is potash, which is esnearly level and free from rocks. The Swedish coast teemed of superior quality. They are both staple from Bleshinghar to the Gulf of Bothnia is lined towns. The principal part of the town of Carlscrona Carlscrona. with Islands and rocks, and broken into a great is built on the Island of Trosce ; the rest of it on senumber of gulfs and bays. Both shores of the veral rocky islets joined to the main by bridges. It Gulf of Bothnia are rugged and broken ; that of is a staple town, and has about 40 vessels employed Sweden, in particular, forms an alpine ridge. The in foreign trade ; the port is capable of holding 100 first river in Sweden, towards its western limit, is sail of the line; on one of the islands is a dock for the Gotha, which empties itself into the Cattegat by four sail of the line. Carlscrona is the principal statwo branches surrounding the island of Hysingen. tion of the Swedish navy. I he Strait ot Calmar, This river, and the Motala, which falls into the which is from two to three leagues broad, separates Bay of Browick at Nordkceping, are the only rivers of the mainland from the Island ot QLland. Near the consequence in the southern provinces of Sweden. middle of the strait stands the town of Calmar, which, Between the provinces of Scedermanland and Upland though not a staple, has a considerable trade, and is the lake Maelar, which communicates with the vessels from 100 to 300 tons belonging to it. North Baltic at Stockholm by two currents called the north of Calmar are several small towns on the coast, one and south; its elevation is six feet above the Baltic. of which, Westerwic, has some shipbuilding. In The river Dahl, or great river of Dalecarlia, the East Gothland, the province which lies to the north XJmeo, Torneo, and several others, which rise in the of Smaland on the Baltic are two considerable gulfs, mountains of Lapland and Norway, fall into the Gulf Slcetbacken and Browick. On the river Motala,^ of Bothnia; the northernmost are subject to three which falls into the latter, stands the staple town of inundations annually, the first in March or April, Nordkceping, from which are exported considerable when the snow on the low ground melts; the second quantities of iron, iron-cannon, and copper, though towards the end of May, when the snow melts on its port can receive vessels only ot light burden. the more elevated grounds ; and the last towards the From 300 to 400 enter it annually; SO or 40 trading end of summer, when the thaw has reached the high vessels belong to it. North of the entrance of a lands, and dissolved the glaciers. The first com- Sound, which communicates with lake Maelar by a mercial port of Sweden of any note is Uddevalla, a canal, is Landsort Island, where is a light, and from staple town ; its exports are iron, planks, and her- whence ships take pilots for Stockholm. Stockholm is built on seven or eight islands and Stockholm, rings. The town of Marstrand, on an island of the peninsulas, at the entrance of Lake Maelar; the same name, succeeds ; it is also a staple, and its inhabitants are engaged in the herring-fishery, and in channel is 12 leagues long, very winding, and tersupplying provisions to the vessels that run in for minates in a basin capable ot holding 1000 ships. shelter; these exceed 300 annually. The Paternosters The largest island, on which the city stands, forms are dangerous rocks, some miles north of Marstrand. two channels, through which the waters of the lake On the southern branch of the Gotha, some leagues rush out with great impetuosity. GolteuThe only ports of any consequence in the proburgh. from the sea, is the city of Gottenburgh ; the port is seldom closed by the ice, and is capable of receiving vince of Upland, are Grislehamn, opposite tlje islands the largest ships; the harbour is about one-fourth of of Aland, where travellers embark or take sledge for a mile in breadth, and is formed by two chains of Abo, and CEregrund, on an island in the channel of Aland, from which the iron from the founderies of rocks.
60 Baltic.
Baltic.
Danemora is exported : formerly it went chiefly to England, where it was converted into steel. From Gefle, a staple town on both sides of a river of the same name, are exported considerable quantities of iron, planks, tar, and potash; its imports are corn Swedish and salt. The smaller islands in the Baltic, belongIslands. ing to Sweden, have already been noticed ; besides them there are Huen, Gtland, and Gottland. Huen lies in the Sound, four miles from Landscrona, three from the nearest point of Sweden, and four from the nearest point of Zealand; it is about six miles in circumference. Giland is separated from the coast of East Gothland by the Strait of Calmar; the east coast of the island is bold and clear, but the west is dangerous for mariners. Between CEland and a group of rocks, is the southern channel into the Strait of Calmar. Nearly in the middle of the strait is a rock, almost perpendicular, 240 feet high, surrounded by reefs. Gottland, which is 18 leagues from the nearest point of Sweden, and about the same distance from Courland, is 20 leagues long, and seven at its greatest breadth. The shore of it, in some places, is nearly perpendicular, in other places, it ascends gradually. Wisby, the capital, is built on the west coast; at present its port can receive only a few small vessels. Slitehamn, on the east of the island, is one of the best ports in the Baltic, and is defended by the fort of Carlsbelt. Coast of The coasts, rivers, gulfs, and principal commerthe Danish cial ports of the south and east of the Baltic, are Peninsula. next to be described ; and, beginning at the entrance from the German Ocean, those of Denmark first present themselves. The north point of Jutland, in the Scaw, is surrounded by a reef several leagues in extent, and on its extremity is a light-house, 64 feet above the level of the sea. The north and east coasts of this peninsula are generally low; the northern extremity is composed of sands, which are often conveyed by whirlwinds to a great distance, and do considerable damage. In order to fix them, a variety of plants, particularly the Elymus arenarius, sea limegrass, are sown. The east coasts of Sleswick and HolGulfs and stein descend gently to the sea. On all these coasts Bays there are numerous gulfs and bays; the first towards the north, is theLimfiord, which nearly divides the peninsula of Jutland, being separated from the German Ocean only by a sandy isthmus, three or four miles broad; another arm of it advances southward to the town of Wybourgh, a length of about 80 or 90 miles; its entrance is two miles wide, but afterwards it becomes greatly wider; sands that very sensibly increase, and masses of granite, obstruct its entrance. In Jutland, there are also the Gulfs of Manager, and Randers, and several bays. In Sleswick, on the Baltic side, are the Gulfs of Golding, Flensborgh, and Slie, which resembles a great river, and Ekernefiord; in Holstein are the Gulfs of Kiel, which separates this province from Sleswick, and of Lubec, and the bay of Colbergh. The Guden is the chief river in Jutland, which falls into the Baltic, at the Gulf of Randers, after a course of 40 miles; its navigation has been recently improved. ’oris. From the Scaw to the entrance of the Gulf of Limfioi d, there are only small towns, chiefly inhabited by fishermen and pilots. On the north shore
of the entrance of Limfiord is the fort of Hals, Baltic, where vessels, of too great depth to ascend higher, discharge their cargoes; on the south shore/ four leagues and a half from the sea, is Aalborg, the chief town of Jutland. It possesses considerable commerce, its exports being corn, cattle, and fish, and 60 or 70 trading vessels belonging to it. Frederica, which stands on a promontory at the entrance of the Little Belt, has an inconvenient and badly sheltered port; the merchant-vessels passing through the Little Belt pay toll here. Golding, at the head of the gulf of the same name, which separates Jutland and Sleswick, is a commercial town, and has a port of two miles in circuit, and of depth for the largest vessels. The trade of Sleswick, which stands at the head of the gulf of Slie, has much declined : the entrance to its port being filled up with sand, a canal has been cut into it. Of the Danish islands, Zealand is the principal; Danish its length is 24 leagues, its breadth varies from 20 Islands, to 14 ; the Gulf of Isefiord, divided into two branches, ^ea*ail(^ penetrates the north side of it; at the entrance to which there is nine feet water, but it deepens within to seven fathoms. The most remarkable river in Zealand is the Nesaa, which nearly traverses it, and enters the Baltic. Elsineur, on the narrowest part of the Sound, has only a roadstead; here the Duties of duties of the Sound are paid. The origin of these the Sound, duties may be traced to the middle-ages, when they were established by the sovereigns of Denmark for the support of light-houses, and the protection of the navigation of the Baltic from pirates. These duties vary from 450,000 to 600,000 rix-dollars annually. The mails and passage-boats cross the Sound from Elsineur to Helsinbur^h. Copenhagen is built partly on the mainland, and Copenpartly on the island of Amak, which is separated from it by a narrow channel, crossed by two bridges. The port between Amak and the main, is one of the best in the Baltic, both by nature and art. Within are basins capable of holding 500 sail, but the entrance admits but one ship at a time. There are two royal dock-yards constructed on islands, where every ship has her particular magazine ; the dry-dock is constructed of wood, and requires 20 hours to pump it out, which is done by horses. Copenhagen is a free port, and for a long time was the only one in Denmark which enjoyed the privilege of importing the produce of Iceland, Greenland, India, China, and America; and, even yet, the principal returns from these countries are made to it. Maeen island is separated from the south-east end of The Islands Zealand by Ulfsund, a narrow strait; it is about five of Maeen, leagues long, and from one to three broad. It ex- &c’ ports 15,000 tons of corn. Samsce, midway between Zealand and Jutland, is near five leagues long, and is formed of two peninsulas, the largest of which is five miles broad. T he other islands belonging to the governmen'. of Zealand are of little consequence. Saltholm, in the Sound, may, however, be particularized ; it is four miles long, and two broad ; almost covered by the sea in winter, but in summer affords good pasturage ; from it are exported to the capital, marble, freestone, and lime. Funen, the second of the Danish islands in extent, Fttnen.
is \Q leagues long, and 11 broad. The Gull o ter are corn, hemp, flax, hops, wax, butter, honey, VJ^* Qdenzee runs considerably into it on the north-east. cattle, apples, and feathers. The coast of Pomerania exhibits the effects of the Coast of At the head of it stands the town ol Odenzee, the ca- constant action of the waters of the Baltic. On the Pomerania, pital. From twenty to thirty trading vessels belong to west, the peninsula of Dars, and the Island of Zingst, it. At Nyborg, on the Great Belt, a duty is paid form the basin called des Dars, which has six feet by all merchant vessels passing through; it is also depth. The Strait of Gellen, farther east, separates the usual crossing-place to Zealand, and has a good the Island of Rugen from the main. This strait varies port, and about, as many vessels belonging to it as in breadth from fourteen miles to one and a quarter ; Odenzee. The island of Funen exports corn, and, eastern entrance, called the Bodden, is navigable in the year 1799, there belonged to it fifty-seven the vessels above 20 tons ; containing 2522 tons, with for the largest vessels ; but in the narrows there is but three or four fathoms ; and the sand accumulates 109 men. From Rudkaebing, the only town on Langland, an island between Funen and Zealand, so fast here, as to require a toll on all vessels passing corn, salted meat, hides, honey, and wax are ex- through it, to defray the expence of clearing it. The Gulf of Dantzic lies beyond the eastern limits Prussian ported. ., ., , • Laalaud. Laaland, the third of the Danish islands in size, of Pomerania, the western extremity of which, called Coasts, the Gulf of Putzic, is formed by a curved tongue of is 11 leagues long, and from six to eight broad. land. On the coast of Prussia are the two remarkConsiderable portions of its coast are .so low as to be able basins called the Fresch-Haff and Curish-Haff. inundated during the irregular elevations of the sea. The waters of both are fresh, being supplied from The feathers of aquatic birds and corn are its princithe rivers of Poland, each communicates with pal exports. From this island Falster is separated the Baltic by a singleandstrait. The Fresch Half, by Guldborg Sound, and from Maeen by Grensund. It which, besides three branches of the Vistula, receives is emht leagues long, and from one to four broad. It the rivers of Elbing, the Passarge, and the Pregel, is exports corn and fruit. In the year 1799, there were in the bailiwick of Laaland and Falster four- 16 or 17 leagues long, and from one to five broad. communication of this basin with the Baltic has teen vessels, of 4()0 tons and 40 men. In the go- The changed several times, and the present passage, near vernment of Jutland, are the Islands of Lessee and Pillau, was formed by a great storm in 1500; its Anholt, in the Cattegat; the latter is surrounded by depth is from 13 to 16 feet. The tongue of land calldangerous banks. Bornholm. Bornholm is an island about seven leagues and a ed the Fresch-Nehrung, which separates it from the Baltic, commences near Dantzic, and runs east about 19 half from the coast of Sweden, and upwards of 17 leagues ; its breadth varies from one to three leagues. from the island of Rugen ; it is eight leagues long, The Curish-Haff, or Sea of the Cures, a peopleof Courand five and a half broad. Its shores are composed land, is 19 leagues long, and from one to three broad. of steep rocks, surrounded by dangerous reefs. Its depth is very irregular, and there are many sandThe principal imports are coffee, sugar, and tobacco ; the principal exports are salted cod, corn, banks in it. Near the upper end there is no current, poultry, and clay for the porcelain manufactory but in the other parts the currents are very rapid. communicates with the Baltic by a channel near of Copenhagen, and freestone for its public budd- It Memel feet wide, and from 11 to 13 feet deep. ings. The centre of commerce is at Ronne, near the The spit3200 of land which separates it from the Baltic, middle of the west side of the Island. In 1800. this place employed 60 vessels and 130 boats, chiefly in called the Curish-Nehrung, is about 80 miles long, in some places three miles broad, but in other places the fisheries. Coasts, &c. The first shore on the south of the Baltic is is so very narrow, that the waves of the Baltic wash of Holstein t]iat of Holstein, the principal port-town of which over it into the basin. Its surface, which is princiindLubec. .& Kie^ a place of considerable commerce. The pally sand, continually changes, by the fury ot the territory of Lubec succeeds. The city of Lubec is winds. From its ancient name Mendoniemi, or prosituate on the Trave, five leagues from its mouth. montory of Pines, it was probaby covered with those It is inhabited only by fishermen and pilots, whose Its commerce is chiefly transit, and on commission, trees. dwellings are not unfrequently overwhelmed by the drawing from Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, their raw commodities, and supplying them with wines, sand. It is frequented by immense numbers of crows hawks, the former of which supply food to the silks, cloth, hardware, and colonial goods.. It admits and vessels of from 150 to 200 tons. In 1802 it had from inhabitants, and the tithe of them forms part of the 70 to 80 merchant vessels, and the same year 1368 revenue of the pastor. The whole coast of Prussia and Courland is low', entered, and 1234 cleared out. Travemunde, on the mouth of the Trave, about nine miles from Lubec, is sandy, and covered with pebbles; the latter, howthe port where vessels destined to and from Lubec ever, has calcareous cliffs, which seem to run under take their station. The 1 rave, near Lubec, is join- water to the Island of Gottland. The Gulf ot Livo- QUif0fLi ed by the Wakenitz, which, issuing from the Lake nia or Riga, has Domes-ness for its southern limit; Vonia. of Ratzeburgh, thus facilitates the water commu- between which and the Swaverort is the entrance, eight leagues wide; but from Domes-ness a sandnication between Lubec and the interior. MecklenOn passing the Trave, the duchy of Mecklenburgh bank runs off, and a reef from Swaverort. The coast knrgh. is entered. Wismar, a bay within the isle of Poel, of Livonia, and the islands off it, are in general and Rostock, on the left bank of the Warn aw, three higher than those of Courland, and are composed of leagues from its mouth, are the principal commercial sand, gravel, and calcareous strata. Entering the places in Mecklenburgh. Fhe exports from the lat- Gulf of Finland, on the south side, is the bay oi Baltic,
BALTIC. 63 Itoggersvvic, inclosed by islands. The whole of rope. Its annual exports of corn average about Baltic. J the coast of Finland is naked, stony, lined with rocks 700,000 tons. Its other exports are timber, beer, and islets, and nearly bare of vegetation. brandy, horse-hair, hogs -bristles, feathers, wool, The principal rivers of Prussia that flow into the amber, honey, wax, linens, masts of ships, corkRivers of E’russia. Baltic are the Oder and the Vistula. The Oder, wood, hemp and flax, potash, salt, tar, skins, fruits, after dividing into four principal branches, near the &c. Its imports are English manufactures, and Lonfrontiers of Pomerania, again flows in one stream don porter, herrings, fruits, lead, coffee, tea, sugar, near Stettin, and falls into the Gros-Haff. Between indigo, wines, &c. the Oder and the Vistula several lesser rivers empty Pillau, whence there is a considerable export ofPillavi. themselves ; they are generally navigable, and form timber, stands on a peninsula washed by the Freschports at their mouths. Three of the branches of the Haff on one side, and the Baltic on the other. From Vistula empty themselves into the Fresch Half, and Koningsbergh, on an island at the mouth of the Pregel, Koningsthe fourth, which alone retains its original name, falls are exported nearly the same articles as from Dant- bergli.* into the Gulf of Dantzic at Weixelmunde. The zic, in between 600 and 700 vessels annually. From Fregel, which is deeper than the Fresch Half, into Elbing, at the mouth of the river of the same name, Elbing. which it falls, is navigated by vessels of considerable corn, starch, linseed-oil, soap, cordage, sail-cloth, burden. The Elbing issues from Lake Dramsen, saltpetre, potash, and timber, are exported in beand, as has been already noticed, falls into the Fresch tween 300 and 400 vessels annually. ,The port of Haft. The Niemen, below Tilsit, separates into two Memel,r formerly the mouth of the river Dange, is cniel branches, one running to the south-west, and the liable to be encumbered with mud ; its chief exports M other to the north-west; thus both subdivide, and are, ship-timber, masts, linseed of a superior quality, fall into the Curish-Haff near Memel; the Dange, hemp, flax, hides and tallow. which gives a port to Memel, has a short course, but . ^le ^rst Russian river of consequence that falls Russian is wide and deep. into the Baltic is the Western Dwina. It is navigable Rivers in orts on Stralsund is the first commercial port on the PoCouiiand e Pomera meranian shore of the Baltic. Its harbour is inclosed from its source to within a few miles of Riga, where and Livi> ridges of rocks form fourteen falls. These, however, * in Shore, by jetties, but its access is dangerous and difficult, do n nid . °l prevent the floating down of immense quan’ on account of sand-banks. It has a considerable ex- tities of timber. It is frozen from the end of Novemport trade in brandy, starch, and linens. Stettin, ber to the beginning of April. It separates Courland on the Oder, succeeds. Vessels of moderate burden from Livonia, and, after a course of 180 leagues, falls go up to it, but large ones discharge at Swinemund, into the gull of Livonia before Riga. The Narrowa, on the channel into the Gros-Haff, which separates which is the only outlet of Lakes Peipus and Plaskoff, the Islands of Usedom and Wollin. Between the years falls into the Gulf of Finland at Narva, but its navi1 "87 and 179fi> the annual or whole exports were gation is obstructed half a-league above that town by ft? 14 tons. The imports are manufactured goods from a fall. The Neva, which issues from Lake Ladoga, England, salt, wines, and fruits from France, &c. and empties itself by several branches at Petersburgh, linseed from Russia. About 160 vessels, manned by above which it is from 150 to 200 fathoms broad. It 1000 seamen, belong to it. From Politz, near the is shallow, and is frozen from the end of October to mouth of the Oder, are exported several thousand the end .of April. The principal rivers in Finland in Finland, bushels of hops, chiefly to Sweden. are the Wuoxen, which falls into Lake LadogaIhe principal islands off the coast of Pomerania the Kymene, into the Gulf of Finland ; and die antis. aie Rugen, Usedom, Ruden, and Wollin. Rugen is Kumo, Uleo, Kemi, and lorneo, which fall into the separated from the mainland by the Strait of Gellen. Gulf of Bothnia, at the towns of their respective It is of a very irregular shape, and consists of the names. In Courland, Russia has only two ports of Ports in Island Proper, and three peninsulas. It is supposed any commercial consequence, Liebau and Windau. Courland, to contain 142,000 acres. Two of the peninsulas riom the former, on a river of the same name, in the terminate in promontories, composed of chalky cliffs, year 1800, 111 vessels cleared out, and 113 entered one of which is 430 feet high. There is no port on it; and the value of its export was 1,065,700 rubles, the island, but from the roads are exported herrings, and of its imports 620,000. Riga and Pernau are cattle, corn, and salted geese. The coasts are very the principal ports in Livonia. Riga is one of the Riga, dangerous, scarcely a year passing in which several most commercial cities of the Baltic, and the second in Livonia, vessels are not stranded, and several ancient regula- ot Russia m this respect. Its port can only receive tions are still in force respecting the assistance which small vessels, large ones being obliged to lie in the the inhabitants are bound to give in case of ship- roads. The exports consist of corn, hemp, flax, shipwrecks. The islands of Usedom, Ruden, and Wol- timber, pitch, potash, hides, tallow, iron, &c. The lm, are formed by the alluvium of the Peene and the imports are woollen and cotton goods, hardware, Oder ; they are very low, and in general sandy. wines, oils, and spirits, and colonial produce. Dantzic is the principal commercial place in Prus^ rts in Though the entrance to Ravel is through danger- Revel, i issian sian^Poland. It is situate on the western branch of ous shoals, and it stands on a river which affords litlanruss *an Pof > including Dantzic, export alwhole the commercial productions of Poland, consisting of corn, fir planks and rafters, masts, hemp, tar, pitch, potash, hides and tallow, leather, honey and wax; besides Pomeranian oak, brandy, woollens, linens, caviar, and amber. The imports are wines, coffee, sugar, tobacco, spices, salt, iron, copper, Spanish wool, herrings, and flax seed from Livonia and Courland. Towards the close of the last century, the merchant marine of the Prussian ports on the Baltic, consisted of between 900 and 1000 ships. Salted and smoked meat, hides, wool, butter, cheese, corn and fruits, are the exports of that part of Pomerania which belonged to Sweden and Mecklenburgh ; the corn of the latter is principally taken off by England; that of Pomerania, as well as the fruits, used to go to Sweden, ipHussian The following table exhibits the exports and imomrueice. p0rts 0f R,ussia) so far as iier commerce in the Baltic is concerned, in the beginning of this century: Exp Iniporls. R(,bi< s. 1802 33,000,000 47,000.000 180427,000,000 45,000,000 1805 29,000,000 52,000,000 The commercial marine of Bussia is very small; the total number of her merchant-vessels that navigate the Baltic and the Ocean, not exceeding 50;
B A m 100 smaller vessels carry on the coasting-trade of the Baltic ; and about 100 craft of 20 or 30 tons are employed in loading and discharging the vessels at Cronstadt, that cannot enter the Neva. At the close of the year 1807, the Russian Baltic fleet consisted of 20 sail of the line, 14 frigates, six brims and cutters, and 19 small craft; and the Baltic flotilla, of 20 gallies, 25 floating-batteries, 81 gunboats, and 16 yauls. During the year 1815, there passed the Sound, inwards and outwards, in January, 45 ships; in February, 17; in March, 147 ; in April, 692 ; in May, 1243; in June, 1104; in July, 1476; in August, 1171 ; in September, 1251 ; in October, 783; in November, 542 ; and in December, 274 ; making a total, in the course of the year 1815, of 8745—In the height of the season, not fewer than 100 vessels pass every fourand-twenty hours, for many weeks in succession. See Thomson’s Travels in Sweden ; Tableau de la Mer Baltique, par Catteau; Tableau des Etats Danoh, par Catteau; Macpherson’s edition of Anderson s History of Commerce; Oddy’s European Commerce ; Maritime Geography and Statistics, by Tuckey, Vol. I. (c.) BAMBOO. Privation of some ordinary substances, which attract little attention from common observers, would materially affect the convenience of entire nations. Few are wont to appreciate the incalculable value ot limestone in the quarry, or iron in the pit, or even to form any conjecture of how the arts and manufactures of this country could be carried on without them. In the same manner, the bamboo, a plant ot universal use in other regions, scarcely receives the slightest notice, unless when its properties, for which there is no substitute in the use of any other vegetable, are considered in detail. It is to millions in the east what the most useful raw material is to the western world. This plant is generally ranked by botanists in the Description t,,e number of reeds; but some, less sensible of its analogies of Bam)00, with them, incline to institute a separate genus for it. * In the Systema Natures, Linnaeus describes two species, under the genus Bambusa, which is characterized by “ scales three, covering the spikelets, which are about five flowered ; calyx none ; corolla, a two valved glume ; style bifid ; seed one.” Loureiro, who had an opportunity of studying the nature of the bamboo in its own climate, characterizes it as having “ flowers with six stamina; panicle diffused, with imbricate spikelets; branches of the culm spiny ; calyx one flowered.” We snail abstain from discussing the more minute botanical characters, as it is to the real utility of the plant that our attention is to be specifically directed. The bamboo is a native of the warmer climates only, though growing luxuriously without the limits of the torrid zone. It rises to the height of 40, 60, or even 80 feet, with a slender hollow stem, shining as if varnished. Many, however, and probably according to the particular species, are oniy 12 or 15 feet high ; and those which attain the greatest height here mentioned, are rather to be viewed in the same light as the overgrown vegetable productions of our own country. The stem is extremely slender, not exceeding the thickness of five inches in some which are 50 feet high, and in
BAM 68 BAM as to make very good fans. Ninthly, The roots, ^ bamboo, Bamboo. others reaching 15 or 18 inches in diameter. The though knotty and irregular, are found in one species whole is divided into joints or articulations, sepaiatei to penetrate like a large tuft of filaments into the by a short interval, called a knot or internode, am earth. Tenthly, There are certain singularities in some there is the distance of several feet between which distinguish the species of this plant, in excreseach. Small alternate branches spring from the base cences from the knots, which may be ate ; a sacchato the top, which, together with the narrow pointed rine pith; and wood of a red colour and agreeable leaves issuing from the knots, give the tree an elegant odour. feathered appearance as it waves in the wind. It will easily be observed, that these remarks are Varieties. The rapidity of growth is surprising m the bam- too general to warrant the establishment of species boo. It sometimes vegetates three or tour inches m from all the bamboos enumerated; but it is not ima single day. Accurate observers have seen it rise probable that a plant, so widely diffused, may consist, 20 feet, and as thick as a man’s wrist, in five or six as before observed, of a greater number than are weeks; and it has been known to reach 30 teet in yet recognised. six months. This enables us to credit the assertions The bamboo grows wild in most places of the east, of those naturalists who maintain, that its full dimen- and the warmer parts of the west, and is resorted to sions are attained in a year ; and that the only sub- as occasion, requires. Where the country is princisequent change is greater thickness and induration o pally dependent on its use, it is cultivated in regular the wood. It is always more solid and compact to- plantations; and, in more ungenial climates, preservwards the root, and the hollow cells of the stem be- ed by the curious in greenhouses. Its culture is difcome wider in proportion as they ascend. In Mala- ferent, according to soil and climate ; but apparently bar it is said to bear fruit when 15 years old, and tha it succeeds best in low sheltered grounds, with rich, it then dies. Slenderness is a distinguishing charac- soft, spongy earth. Contact of the root with water teristic of the whole plant, and it seems probable that is reputed to be immediately destructive, and too there are several different species which have not yet much humidity occasions gradual decay. This plant been recognised by systematic botanists. Soil and is propagated by shoots deposited in pits at the close climate may have also produced effects which would of autumn or commencement of winter, eighteen disappear on uniformity of circumstances. An ob- inches or two feet deep; and if it be designed to observer of the bamboos of China, in general, considers tain bamboos of considerable size, the scyons are cut that there are ten species or varieties, and an observer over as they spring up. Some scrupulous cultivators of those in Cochin-China admits of eight. _ 1 ie for- among the easterns take care to preserve the plant mer judges the difference to consist, first, in the si/e exactly in the same position, writh respect to the carand height, for there is here the greatest disparity in dinal points, as that in which it originated. The those that are full grown ; and it has been supposed greater the number in a plantation, the more the that some, if not all species, originally spring of chance of success, as they shelter each other m their their ultimate diameter, which receives no accession. progress. Their subsequent treatment depends enSecondly, The distance of the knots, or length of joint, tirely on the uses to which they are to be converted, which, in certain species of full-grown bamboo, is whether to profit or pleasure ; much care being beonly four inches, while, in others young and slender, stowed on those designed for beauty or ornament they are nine or ten feet asunder. Thirdly, In the only. They are propped up w'ith rods of a proper colour of the wood, which is whitish, yellow, brown, height, by which they are trained and supported ; pale blue, or speckled. Fourthly, In the size and and, if complete plants, cut oyer in order to obtain form of the knots, some swelling out from the stem suitable shoots, which are chiefly sought after ; beabove and below; some encircling it like a cord; sides, this operation makes the root strike out and and those of the most singular kind, which do not take a secure hold of the ground. In a rainy season, penetrate within to interrupt the tubular part of the it is always necessary to surround the plantation with bamboo. Fifthly, By the surface and figure of the a ditch, in order to drain off the superabundant huinternodes being channelled or covered with tuber- midity which would otherwise be prejudicial. Varicles ; and a kind is said to exist, called the square ous expedients are followed to obtain good bamboos, bamboo. The varnished surface is also of different of which one of the most usual is to take a vigorous quality. Sixthly, The substance and thickness of the root, with firm wood, and transplant it, leaving onlywood, which, varying without any relation to the di - four or five inches above the joint next the ground. mensions of the plant, afford sufficient characteristics The cavity is then filled with a mixture of horse-htfor constituting a species. The wood is either soft ter and sulphur. According to the vigour of the and tender, or very hard and of great strength ; and root the shoots will be more numerous ; but they are the stem is either very thin and hollow, or almost destroyed at an early stage during three successive totally filled up and solid, like other trees. But else- years; and those springing in the fourth will resemwhere, in Bangalore for example, this solidity is not ble the parent tree. It is affirmed that no culture ascribed to the difference of species, but to the tar- can obtain any thing of larger size. ' . diness of its growth in stony places. Seventhly, It Scarcely has this plant been put in the ground be- Vanoi is said that there are bamboos entirely devoid of fore its utility becomes conspicuous. Ihe soft and ^ branches, however old they may be; while others succulent shoots, when just beginning to spring, or protrude as they spring from the earth. Fighthly, only some inches long, are cut over and served up to There is a great difference both in the hue and figure tabic, like asparagus. Like this vegetable also, they of the leaves, as also in their size ; they are bluish, are earthed over to keep them longer fit for conash-colour, reddish, or mottled. Some are so large
B A M Bamboo, sumpt; and they afford a supply in succession during the whole year, though more abundantly in autumn. They are also salted and ate with rice, or prepared after different other fashions. As the plant grows older, a kind of fluid of grateful taste and odour is secreted in the hollow joints, affording an agreeable beverage, and in sufficient quantity to satisfy several persons. If allowed to remain in the tree, a concrete substance, highly valued for its medicinal properties, called Tabaxir or Tabas cheer, is produced from it. The presence of the fluid is ascertained by agitating the bamboo ; after some time its quantity gradually diminishes, and then the stem is opened to reach the Tabascheer. This substance, participating in nothing of a vegetable nature, has been supposed to be nearly allied to siliceous earths; it resists the impression of all acids, is indestructible by fire, and with alkalies forms a transparent glass. Notwithstanding its repute iff the east, we are not aware that it has yet been received into the European materia medica. Besides the Tabascheer, many parts of the bamboo are said to be endowed with medicinal properties; a decoction of the leaves is recommended for coughs and sore-throat; the bark for fever and vomiting; the buds as a diuretic; and a compound of the root with tobacco-leaves, betelnut, and oil, is believed to form an efficacious ointment. But setting aside its medical properties, it is highly valuable as an article of food, for many of the poorer classes in the most populous countries subsist on it in times of scarcity. The seed which it produces is recorded, in Chinese history, to have preserved the lives of thousands; the Hindoos eat it mixed with honey as a delicacy, equal quantities of each being put into a hollow joint, coated externally with clay, and thus roasted over a fire. From the copious draught which a joint of the bamboo naturally yields, mankind are taught its use as a vessel for carrying water, and in some places no other bucket is employed. The Eastern nations build their houses solely of the wood without any auxiliary substance ; if entire, it forms posts or columns; split up, it serves for floors or rafters; or interwoven in lattice-work, it is employed for the sides of rooms, admitting light and air. The roof is sometimes of bamboo solely, for which two species growing in Laos, an Asiatic country, are described to be specially adapted ; and when split, which is accomplished with the greatest ease, it can be formed into lath or planks. It is employed in shipping of all kinds, and as houses are constructed entirely of it, so are complete vessels framed out of it likewise, and fitted for sea. The hull is obtained from the stem ; and some,of the strongest plants are selected for masts of boats of moderate size. In Bengal, a boat of four or five tons may be furnished with both mast and yard from the same bamboo, at the cost of threepence; and the masts of larger vessels are sometimes formed by the union of several bamboos built up and joined together. Those of considerable dimensions are used in the higher yards of ships of four or five hundred tons, for which service they are well adapted by their great strength and lightness. The bamboo is employed in the construction of
( B A M 69 all agricultural and domestic implements; and in Bamboo all materials and implements required in fishery, hooks and nets excepted. In Tibet the strongest isiallds. bows are made of it, by the union of two pieces with many bands; and in the same country also, it is employed, as we use leaden pipes, in transmitting water, for the distance of several miles, to reservoirs or gardens. The species from which these pipes are constructed is said to grow in the mountains ; and from other light and slender stalks, the inhabitants obtain shafts for their arrows. In the south-west of Asia, there is a certain species of equally slender growth, from which writing-pens or reeds are made. From the extreme flexibility of this substance, and also its divisibility, for it splits like whalebone from top to bottom, it can be reduced to the smallest dimensions, and bent into every shape. It is woven into baskets, cages, hats, or various ornamental articles. By a particular process in bruising and steeping the wood or bark, a paste is procured that is made into paper. In short, from its very origin until its decay, it never ceases to produce something beneficial. It has justly been observed, “ All that composes a bamboo is profitable, of whatever species it may be. The artists of China have each made their choice, and in the works they produce, show the advantage they have derived from it. Its uses are so numerous, so various, and so beneficial, that it is impossible to conceive how China could now dispense with this precious reed. It is no exaggeration to affirm, that the mines of this vast empire are of less importance to it than possession of the bamboo.” It has been proposed to naturalize the bamboo in France. Perhaps were the naturalization of plants and animals attempted by slow and regular gradation, instead of great and sudden transition, experiments might be more successful than former practice would authorize us to conclude. Probably it would require the renewal of several successive generations, each advanced into a different climate not remote from the abode of the one which preceded it, before naturalization could be completely effected. Some European climates might not prove noxious to the bamboo; but the same rapidity of vegetation, the same natural qualities, could not be expected, or only in an inferior degree, even in the most favourable situation, and consequently its utility would be infinitely diminished. (s.) BANDA ISLANDS. These Islands, situate 130 General miles to the south-east of Amboyna, are ten in num- Description His!o ber, viz. Banda Neira, Gonong Apee, Banda Lantoir, D' Pulo Ay, or Way, Pulo Rondo, or Pulo Roon, Islands? Rosyngen, Pulo Pisang, Craka, Capella, and Sonangy. Of these, Banda Neira is the seat of the supreme government, and it is secured by one principal fortification, situate on the south side of the Island, consisting of a small square fort, having a wet ditch, with a horn-work towards the sea. This fortification, which is called Fort Napau, forms the chief defence of the Banda Islands. The troops are quartered, and the public granaries are kept in this fort; but the storehouses for the nutmegs and mace are on the outside, as well as the government-house.
70 Banda Islands.
BANDA
ISLANDS. Above Fort Napau, on a neighbouring eminence, merly kept on this Island, and were compelled to Banda stands the castle of Belgica, an old pentagon, with cultivate the land for the use of the supreme governround towers at the angles. It is surrounded with a ment. Pulo Pisang is about two miles north-east wall, secured by small bastions, but has no ditch, from Banda Neira, and yields some fine fruits, as well as nutmegs and mace. I he other three Islands and is said to have been built by the Portuguese. Banda Lantoir, or Great Banda, is to the north- are uninhabited, being little more than barren rocks. The Banda Islands were discovered in the year ward of Banda Neira. It is defended by a consider1511 by the Portuguese, w ho immediately took posable fort, which commands the harbour ot Lantore, and is called Fort Plollandia. At first view, the si- session of them in the name of their sovereign. tuation of this fort appears preferable to Banda Nei- About the year 1603, they were expelled by the ra for the residence of government, not only on ac- Dutch. In 1608, the English, with the permission count of its strong and commanding situation, but of the king, built a factory-house on Pulo Way, because the Island is the largest, as well as the rich- which the Dutch demolished as soon as the ship est, in the produce ol spices. Its unhealthiness has which brought out the factors returned to England. been found, however, to be a sufficient objection. The natives of Banda, notwithstanding the opposition The water is said to be bad, and the vapour which of the Dutch, assisted the English in forming a new sometimes descends from the volcanic mountain of colony, and shortly afterwards they, along with tlm the neighbouring Island Gonong Api, is represented natives of Lantore, made a formal resignation ot as particularly noxious. Such fatal effects were pro- their respective Islands to the new settlers. In 1620 duced by these causes, that when the VVirtemberg Pulo Roon and Pulo Way were added to the EngCompany formerly garrisoned the Island, out of a lish dominions, and those cessions were confirmed hundred men, eight died, and forty fell sick, in the by a treaty concluded between the English and the course of two months. I he numbers of decayed Dutch. But, in defiance of this treaty, the latter houses, also, which are seen in different parts of the determined on the expulsion of their rivals from Island, show that the experiment of a settlement has those Islands, in the possession of which they apbeen already tried, and has not been found to an- peared to be gradually establishing themselves. They swer. This Island appears very high from the sea ; accordingly attacked them with a strong force, seiztheir factories, magazines, and shipping, and after its sides are steep, and from the top of them there is ed stripping the factors naked, first whipped and then a sort of table land, which extends nearly from loaded them with irons. Some notion may be formone end of the Island to the other. Gonong Apee is to the northward of Banda Neira, ed of the trade, then in its infancy, by the quantity and derives its name from a large volcano, about of spices seized here, which amounted to 23,000 lbs. 2000 feet above the level of the sea, which constant- of mace, and 150,000 lbs, of nutmegs. In 1654, the ly emits smoke, and sometimes cinders and ashes, Dutch were compelled, by the firmness of Cromwell, accompanied with a crackling noise. On the south to restore the Island of Pulo Roon, and to make side of this Island are two forts, originally intended satisfaction for the massacre of Amboyna. But the to defend the west channel of Lantore harbour ; but English settlers not being adequately supported owing to an eruption of the volcano in 1778, at the from home, were unable to resist the power of their same time that a dreadful hurricane laid waste the rivals, and the Island was retaken by the Dutch in 1664. They retained undisturbed possession of their Island, the lava flowed down in such quantities as conquests in this quarter of the globe until the year to form a considerable promontory between these 1796, when the Banda Islands, along with all the batteries and the channel they were intended to defend, so that they are now in a great measure use- other Dutch colonies, were conquered by the Briless. This Island is generally unproductive, its sur- tish. They were restored by the treaty of Amiens, the year 1800, but were again captured, and have face being covered with a quantity of sulphur and in chalk. There is no vegetation whatever on upwards been again restored, by the treaty of Paris, concludof one-third of the eminence on which the volcano is ed in the year 1814. In the* space between Banda Lantoir and the situate. Towards the sea, the descent is exceedIslands of Banda Neira and Gonong Apee, there is a ingly steep ; but towards the harbour, the declivity slopes gradually to the water, on the side of which very good harbour formed w ith entrances both from the east and west, which enable vessels to enter it are some plantations, and a few straggling houses. Pulo Way is about nine miles to the westward of from either of the monsoons. These channels are Gonong Apee, and is defended by a strong foit. It well defended with several batteries, particularly the is esteemed the most healthy of the whole gioup, western one, which is very narrow. Between Gonong and produces abundance of nutmegs, of a kind supe- Apee and Banda Neira, there is a third channel into rior in quality to those ot the other Islands. 1 ulo this harbour from the north; but it is navigable only Hondo, or Pulo Boon, is about four miles fuither in for small vessels. The great articles of commerce in these Islands Culture, rather a more northerly direction. On this Island are nutmegs and mace, which are engrossed at a fixthe English had a factory, from which they were exof pelled by the Dutch, about the period of the mas- ed price, for the benefit ot the Dutch East India Company, and the laws and regulations generally esi jsutt ie sacre of Amboyna ; and the Island having been since abandoned, has become a wilderness. Rosyngen is tablished, are calculated to support and promote this meg. about seven miles to the south-east of Lantore. It monopoly, rather than the happiness of the people, produces nutmegs, mace, yams, and subsistence for or the improvement of the country. With this view, * fevv cattle. The convicts of Amboyna were for- the cultivation of the nutmeg is only allowed in the
BANDA ISLANDS. 71 Binds Islands of Banda Neira, Gonong Ap, Banda Lantoir, to practise the same oppression as before, though Banda Islands.^and Pula A_y. In all the other Islands the tree has the mode of it was somewhat different. The plant- Elands. been carefully extirpated, because, being at a distance ers in general, if they had been once freed from the from the seat of government, they were supposed enormous debt claimed by government, would, from to afford better opportunities for smuggling. In the the produce of their plantations, have speedily disIslands which are appropriated to the cultivation of charged all other claims, and they considered it hard, the nutmeg, they neither feed cattle nor produce therefore, that, under colour of remitting this debt, grain sufficient for the maintenance of the inhabi- they should be deprived of their respective propertants, and they are on this account dependent on ties, to which prescription gave them an undoubted Batavia for annual supplies of rice, and other articles right. of provision. In consequence of the low state of The nutmeg-tree is a native of several of the agriculture occasioned by this policy, the inhabitants Islands to the eastward; but it has been in a great, are few, and the number of hands that would be ne- measure extirpated from them all except Banda? It cessary to bring the nutmeg plantations into the begins to bear fruit at ten years growth, the fruit imhighest state of cultivation, cannot be procured. proving m quality, and increasing -'n quantity, until the Phis scarcity of hands renders it necessary to recruit tiee has attained the age of an hundred years. In its the declining population by the importation of slaves. appearance it is handsome and spreading, the bark is It would appear, also, that the inhabitants suffer se- smooth and of a brownish grey colour. The leaves verely when the supplies of provisions on which they de- 1 esemble those of the laurel, and afford, when bruised, pend from abroad happen to be interrupted, and that, a grateful aromatic scent. When the tree first begins in these circumstances, their wants subject them to to pioduce fruit, little yellowish buds make their apthe greatest oppressions. About fifteen months before pearance, out of which small white flowers are these Islands were last conquered by the British, blown, two or three hanging upon slender peduncles. some reforms in the system of administration were In the centre of the flower is an oblong reddish knob, carried into effect by a new governor who had been fiom which the fruit is produced, though no more appointed for that purpose. But before this period than one blossom out of three commonly ripens to most of the planters were in great distress, having a nutmeg. It is eight or nine months before the been charged with very heavy debts, incurred on ac- fruit arrives at maturity ; but blossoms and ripe fruit count of loans in rice and money, made at different are found together on the same tree, and the nutperiods by the former governors, and this circum- megs are generally gathered three times in a year, stance, joined to the great loss which they sustained The nutmeg, when ripe on the tree, has both a very by the dreadful hurricane of 1778, entirely ruined curious and beautiful appearance. It is almost the their private fortunes as well as their plantations. size of an apricot, and nearly of the same colour, While they were in these distressed circumstances, with the same kind of hollow mark all round it. In the Dutch government, with an unfeeling avarice, shape it is somewhat like a pear. When perfectly aggravated their misery by compelling them to de- npe, the rind over the mark, which is nearly half an liver their nutmegs, at the reduced price of three inch thick, and of a whitish colour, opens, and distarthings per pound, and the mace at a still lower rate. plays the nutmeg in its black and shining shell, enUnder this accumulated distress, the spirit which had circled by a net-work of scarlet mace. The shell in animated their fathers in the days of their independence which the nutmeg is inclosed is about as thick as seemed once again to revive, and they remonstrated in t lat of a filbert, and very hard. In preparing the bold and determined language. They claimed the fruit for use, the mace is first stript off and kept in lands as their own prescriptive inheritance, which they baskets to dry in the sun, and the nutmeg in its shell undoubtedly were, and actually proceeded to portion is placed before a slow fire to dry in five different out their respective properties to each other. The houses made of split bamboos, fitted up for the purDutch, though they were touched by no feeling for pose. . In each of these houses it remains a week, the deplorable situation to which they had reduced till it is heard to shake within the shell, which is then the country, were nevertheless alarmed when they easily broken. The nutmegs thus prepared are sortsaw their discontented subjects determined to resist, ed into separate parcels. Each sort is put up by itand it was thought advisable to adopt a more just self into baskets, and soaked three times in tubs of and conciliatory conduct. With this view, the ac- sea water and lime ; after which they are put into cumulated arrear of debt claimed by the company distinct closets, where they are left for six weeks to from the planters, and which most of them were un- sweat, that the lime, by closing the pores of the nutable to pay, was cancelled. Several judicious regumeg, may prevent its strength from evaporating. The lations were also adopted regarding the management lime is necessary to preserve the fruit from worms of slaves, and the price at which the government re- and other insects, and it requires much experience, ceived the spices of the planters, were at the same as well as a considerable degree of judgment, to astime increased from the low rate to which it had certain the precise time that the fruit should be suffereen reduced to seven and a half stivers per lib. ed to remain in the lime ; for, if it be taken out too or mace, and to two and a half stivers for nutmegs, soon, it is worm-eaten, and if it is left to remain too with a deduction of 17 per cent, in favour of the com- long in the lime, it is burnt up and rendered useless. pany and their servants. The nutmeg is distinguished into three sorts, In return for these concessions, it would appear, the male or barren nutmeg, the royal nutthat the company, after having pacified their subjects, namely, meg, and the queen nutmeg. The two last species seized then lands, and in this manner they continued are distinguished by the different sorts of fruit which
72
BAN
BAN
Banda decreased since the establishment of the East India Banda they produce, that of the royal nutmeg being thick- Company. In the year l6l5, the consumption Islands ^ Islands. er, longer, and more pointed. The green shell is amounted to 15,000 libs. In 1803, when the Islands ria,ltjeij0i also thicker. It does not ripen so fast; and after were in possession of Britain, the whole quantity onopening, it preserves its freshness eight or nine days. ly amounted to 24,234 libs., and the sole value was The mace is more substantial, and three times as L. 53 356. The quantity retained for home conlong as that of the queen nutmeg, and its stripes or sumption was, on an average, from 1804 to 1809 inhongs, of which there are from 15 to 17 pnncipal clusive, 5400 libs, per annum. The duty on mace onesf are of a livelier red; they are also broader imported is 7s. 8d. per lib. Mace should be chosen longer, and thicker, and not only embrace the nut fresh, rough, oleaginous, of a fragrant smell, a bright through its whole length, but pass it and cross under reddish yellow, and the smaller pieces are esteemed it as if to prevent it from falling. The royal nutmeg the best. See Milburn’s Oriental Commerce, and is generally from 15 to 17 lines long and thick in the Asiatic Annual Register, (°-) proportion. It remains on the tree a long time afte BANDELLO, a celebrated Italian novelist, was the opening of the green shell, and gives birth to an born at Castelnuovo, in the neighbourhood of rPorinsect'in the shell, which feeds upon it, and destroys tona, about the year 1480. In his youth, he studied it. The queen nutmeg produces much smaller nuts, both at Rome and at Paris ; and his education being only nine or ten lines long, not so thick by a third, completed, he went to reside at Mantua. There he and well marked by a longitudinal groove on one remained for several years much esteemed by Pirro side. They are round, and the green shell is not so Gonzaga, who entrusted him with the education of thick. The mace, which is composed of nine or ten his daughter, the celebrated Luerezia Gonzaga. Ihe principal stripes, grows only half down the nut, thus incidents in the lives of literary men, who flourished leaving it at liberty to detach itself, and to escape fiom in Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuthe insect formed in the shell. In two or three day , ries, have a strong similarity to each other. Like also the green shell, losing its freshness, soon falls most of his litenjry contemporaries, Bandello passed away from the nut. . from one petty court to another, and was frequently Nutmegs should be chosen large, round, heavy, employed in political missions by the patron whom and firm, of a lightish grey colour on the outside, he served at the time. At this period, the small and the inside finely marbled, of a ^ong fragrant states of Italy were divided between the French and smell, warm aromatic taste, and a fat J . J' Spanish interests. Bandello had chiefly attached The oblong kind, and smaller ones, should be reje himself to those princes of Lombardy who favoured ed. The real quantity of nutmegs produced a the French party ; and, in consequence, when the never been exactly ascertained. _ 1 he largest quan- decisive battle of Pavia put the Spaniards in possestity sold by the Dutch East India Company at one sion of Milan, where Bandello at that time resided, time was 280,694 libs, in the year 1737. I“1/ J ’ his paternal mansion was burned, and the property there were sold 241,427 hbs. and m 1778, 264,189 of his family confiscated. He fled m disguise fiom libs. The average quantity annually sold in Em p Milan, and after wandering from town to town, he has been stated at 250,000 libs, exclusive of about placed himself under the protection of Cesar Fregoso, 100,000 libs, disposed of in the East Indies. P a celebrated captain of that age, who had recently dace, however, has since greatly declined, wine i m< y quitted the Venetian for the French service. Math be imputed to various causes. In the yeai 1 /1 , this general Bandello resided in Piedmont till a nutmeg plantations were laid waste by a tremendou truce was concluded, when he accompanied Ins pahurricane, and this calamity was succeeded by op- tron to France. After the death of Cesar he contipressions on the part of the government, and by dis- nued to live with his widow and family at Agen, to turbances among the people ; agriculture ami the Bishoprick of which he was raised by Francis J. try were in consequence neglected, and the annua in 1550, and continued to reside m the vicinity o produce of spices of all sorts which amounted to that town till his death, which happened about 1562600,000 libs, was suddenly reduced to u0,000 1 o . During his residence at Agen, Bandello revised For seven years previous to the commencement of and added to his Novels, which he had written m the war with France in 1793, the average quantity of Italy during his youth, and which some of Ins friend* nutmegs sold in Holland amounted only to 22,459 had^recovered' from the hands of the Spanish soldiers, libs, and that of mace to 7504 libs. When Banda was who burned his house at Milan. His ia/es were firs taken by the English in 1796, the quantity of spices published at Lucca in 1554, 4to. In the comp e in the warehouses amounted to 84,777 hbs. of nu - editions of Bandello, the work is divided into four megs, and to 19,587 libs, of mace. In the several parts—the 1st, 2d, and 3d parts, containing 59 stoyears of 1803, 1804, and 1805, when the Banda res, and the 4th comprehending 28. The whole Islands were in possession of Britain, there were imported of nutmegs 104,094, 117,936, and 35,851 are dedicated to Ippolita Sforza, though she died before their publication, because it was at her des Fibs., which were sold for L. 46,233, L. 54,733, and that the work was originally undertaken. Besid L. 23,742. The quantity retained for home con- this general dedication, each novel is addressed to sumption amounted on an average to 39,071 hbs. per some Valoroso Signore, or Chiarissiona Sonora, and annum, and the revenue which they yielded to in these introductions, the novelist generally explains L 7879- The permanent duty levied on nutmegs in how he came to a knowledge of the event he i this country is 3s. 6d. per lib.; and the war duty about to relate. He usually declares that he heard Is. 2d., making together 4s. 8d. per lib. it told in company,—details the conversa i y Of mace, the quantity consumed in Britain has
B A N BAN 73 Baudello. which it was introduced,—and pretends to report which relates to Don John, Claudio, and Hero, is Bandello it, as far as his memory serves, in the exact words of taken, with little variation in the incidents, from the his authority. twenty-second tale of the first part of Bandello; and , Banditti. Bandello is chiefly indebted for his celebrity to Twelfth Night is borrowed from the thirty-sixth of these Novels, which belong to a class of composition the second part. Massinger has been indebted for that enjoyed for many centuries the utmost populari- his Picture, which is, perhaps, the most agreeable ty in Italy. The tales of the French Trouveurs, hav- and fanciful of his dramas, to the twenty-first of the ing passed into Italy towards the close of the thir- first part; while Beaumont and Fletcher have deteenth century, were first imitated in the Cento No- rived from the same source their comedy of the velle Antiche; which also contains stories formed from Maid in the Mill, and the Triumph of Death, which episodes in the romances of chivalry, the ancient is the third of their “ Four Plays in One.” The chronicles of Italy, and jests or repartees current by thirty-fifth of the second part of Bandello is the oral tradition. Boccaccio, whose Decameron appear- same story as the plot of Horace Walpole’s Mysteried shortly after, identified this species of composition ous Mother, and the thirtieth tale of the Queen of with the history of Italian literature, and the pro- Navarre. As the works of Bandello and the Queen gress of the Italian language. That celebrated of Navarre were printed nearly at the same period, writer was followed by Sacchetti, Ser Giovanni, Cen- it is not probable that they copied from each other, thio, and a numerous tribe of imitators, of whom and it may be presumed, that some current tradiBandello is by much the best known, and most cele- tion furnished both with the horrible incident they brated, at least in this country. His popularity, report. Mr Walpole, however, disclaims having had however, has not been so great in Italy, which any knowledge of the tale of the Queen of Navarre, may probably be attributed to the negligence or Bandello, at the time he wrote this drama. Its and impurity of his style; a defect of which the plot, he says, was suggested by a story he heard author himself appears to have been conscious, as when very young, of a lady, who, under uncommon he repeatedly apologizes for his defects in elegance agonies of mind, had waited on Archbishop Tillotof diction. Io non son Toscano, ne bene intendo la son, and besought his counsel in what manner she proprieta di quella lingua ; anzi mi confesso Lom- should act under the fatal circumstances that had ocbardo. Napioni, in his eulogy of Bandello, con- curred. fesses that he is not remarkable for that harmony Besides his Tales, Bandello is author of a poem of periods, and delightful naivete of expression, for in eleven cantos, which was his first work, and is now which Boccaccio and others of his predecessors very scarce, entitled, Delle Lodi, della Signora were so distinguished ; but he adds, that none Lucrezia Gonzaga, printed at Agen, 1545, in 8vo. of the Italian novelists are so interesting for the He also wrote a complimentary poem, in three cantos, developement and illustration of minute historical on the birth of a son of his patron, Cesar Fregoso. facts, which would in vain be sought for in the his- Both these productions are written without taste or tories of the revolutions of the Italian States. Some spirit; but it is said, that some good verses, composed of the novels of Bandello, however, it must be ad- by Bandello, on different subjects, are still preservmitted, are little edifying; and it is curious, that one ed in manuscript in the library of the Academy of of his stories, which is perhaps the most obscene in Turin. (M.) the whole series of Italian novels, should be declared, BANDINI (Angelo Maria), a learned Italian, in the introduction, to have been related by the cele- was born at Florence on the 25th September 1726. brated Navagero, to the Princess of Mantua and Having been left an orphan in his infancy, he was Duchess of Urbino. Besides, notwithstanding the supported by his uncle, Joseph Bandini, a lawyer of repeated assertions of Bandello, that all his stories some note. He was educated among the Jesuits, have some foundation in fact, and the light which his and discovered an early passion for the study of aneulogists suppose that they throw on the history of tiquities. A desire which he also manifested to disthe Italian Republics, it cannot be denied, that the tinguish himself as a poet, was fortunately checked greater proportion of them are derived from the by the ill success of his first attempt; and, from that Fablieux of the French Trouveurs, and the works < period, he devoted himself principally to literary of preceding Italian novelists, with an alteration of history and archaiological science. The celebrated the names, and some slight variations in the incidents. Dr Lami, with whom he had the good fortune to But while Bandello has thus copied largely from contract a friendship, assisted him with his counsels, preceding fablers, none of their works have suggested and encouraged him to persevere in that path, to more to others, or are more curious for illustrating which his genius seems to have directed him. the genealogy of fiction, and the transmission of fabuIn the year 1747, Bandini undertook a journey to lous incident, from the novelist to the dramatic poet. Vienna, in company with the Bishop of Volterra, to Many of the tales of Bandello were translated by whom he acted in the capacity of secretary. He Belleforest in his Histoires Tragiques, whence they was introduced to the Emperor, and took the opfound their way into Paynter’s Palace of Pleasure, portunity of dedicating to that monarch his Specimen and other works of a similar description which ap- Litteraturcc Florentince, which was then printing at peared in England, during the reign of Queen Eliza- Florence. The following year he returned by the beth. In this manner they furnished the plots of way of Venice, Padua, Ferrara, and Bologna, and many tragedies and comedies, to the most numerous united himself in friendship with the learned men in and nob.e race of the English dramatic poets. That all these cities. Having resided sometime at Flopart of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, rence, he repaired to Rome, and entered into orders, VOL. II. PART I. ^ K
ban
BAN
1791, 2 parts, 8vo. See Biographic Universelle, Banffshire^ passing the whole of his time in the library of the Vatican and in those of the Card.na s Pa?.onet and T°BANFFSHIRE, a county in the north of Scot-Situation Corsini. At that time, the famous obelisk of A“huland, having the Murray firth on the noith, Aberwas clue out of the rums of the Campus Martins. deenshire on the east and south, and the county of Banding by the order of Benedict XIV., undertook Moray on the west, is situate in the 58th degree of to describe and explain this curious monument ; but north latitude, and contains 647 square miles, or, finding that the air of Rome was injurious to his without including a small space covered by water, health] he returned to Florence. In 1750, he was 412,800 English acres. Along the coast, for about Surface. selected by Alexander Marucelh to take charge o 30 miles, the soil consists chiefly of sand and loam, the valuable library, which Ins uncle, the Abbe and is in many instances well cultivated ; but, with Francis Marucelli, had left, and which, according to the exception of this tract, Banffshire is a hilly, and, the will of the founder, was to be open to the pubhc. towards the south, a mountainous district, though -But he had scarcely entered upon the duties of this many fertile valleys are interspersed ; and there is charge when the proprietor died, after bequeathing much valuable grazing land, well sheltered with naall hfs effects to the library, and appointing the Abbe tural wood, on the banks of its streams, and in its Bandini perpetual librarian and his testamentary exe- romantic glens. The Spey, one of the most consi- Rivers, cutor It required two years to liquidate the suc- derable rivers in Scotland, which flows on its western cession, and to form the complete catalogue of this boundary, and the Deveron on its eastern, to both of vast library, which was at length opened to the pub- which a number of rivulets are tributary, yield a conUc in the7 year 1752. In 1756, he was prefer- siderable revenue from their salmon-fishings, the red by the Emperor to a prebend at Horence, and former, according to the agricultural survey in 1812, appointed principal librarian to the Laurentian li- upwards of L. 6000, and the latter about L. 2000 brary. During forty-four years he continued to dis- yearly. In the lower part of the country, towards^ Seats, charge the duties of this situation, and died in 1800, the coast, there are several magnificent buildings, of o-enerally esteemed and regretted. On his deathbed which Duff House, the principal seat of the family he founded a public school, and bequeathed the re- of Fife, Cullen House, the seat of the Earl of f mdmainder of his fortune to other charitable purposes. later and Seafield, and Gordon Castle, the most The first work by which Bandini became known princely mansion in the north of Scotland, are the as a man of letters was his DissertaUoe de veterum most conspicuous. Around these, and a great num- Plantations, Saltationibus, which he wrote at ber of gentlemen’s seats in the interior, the plantatwo and which was inserted by his learned friend tions are extensive and ornamental; but the extent Lami in the fifth volume of the works of Meursius, and the value of the natural woods is inconsiderable. nublished in 1745. The most remarkable of his other Calcareous substances in the form of marble, lime-Minerals. ( works are, 1. Specimen litteralura Florentines secuh stone, and marl, abound, yet, owing to the want of XV &c. 2 vols. 8vo. 2. De Obehsco Augusti Lee- coals, the greater part of the hme used on the lands sank e Campi Martii nuderibus nuper eruto, 1750, near the coast is brought from Sunderland. I he fol 3. Collectio veterum aliquot Monument or urn ad other minerals most worthy of notice are freestone, historian, prcecipue Utterariam pertinentmm. 17o~, granite* slate, brick-clay, to which must be added 8vo. 4. Elogio dell' ab. Francisco Marucelh fonda- the rock-crystals and topazes, found on the mountore della publica Ubreria Marucelhana. 1754, 4 o. tain of Cairngorum, and other parts of that elevated 5. Vita e letere di Amerigo Vespucci. 174o, 4to. range which forms the southern and western boun6. De vita et scriptis Joan. BapU Donii Painen daries of Banffshire. In summer 1811, L. 2000 worth Florentine libri V. adnotatiombus illustrati; accidit of these stones were found; and in some instances to eiusdem Donii litterarium commercium nunc pnmum the value of L. 200 in one day. Cudbear or cup- Cudbear. TlZm editum. 1755, fol. 7. Vita di Hippo moss, though certainly a vegetable substance, may be Stroszi. 1756, 4to. 8. Vita del card^' NlCC°6^ mentioned along with minerals, from its growing only da Prato. Eod. an. 4to. 9*763 to 1766, in rocky mountainous situations. Its use in dyeing he employed himself in publishing successively the purple, after undergoing a simple preparation, is said P works of some of the minor Greek poets, which le to have been discovered by Mr Gordon, a gentleman enriched with notes and various readings. These of the parish of Kirkmichael in this county, before wer& Callimachus ; the two poems of Xicander on the year 1755. In 1808 and 1809 about L. 500 worth poisons and antidotes ; the Phenomena of Aratus ; of it gathered on the mountains of Banftshire, and the poems of Musaeus ; those of Colluthus on the those adjoining in Aberdeenshire, was purchased for rape of Helen, and Tryphiodorus on the taking o the manufactures of Glasgow'. , w o Trov • Theognis, Phocylides, and the golden verses Neither the climate nor the soil of this county, Agriculture of Pythagoras. The Greek text of these poems was except along the coast, is favourable to extensive carefully collated with the best manuscripts ; and aration ; the subsoil of the higher grounds being m there were added translations, in Italian verse, by general retentive of moisture, and grain very late m \nt. Mar. Salvini. 10. Catalogus codicum manu- rioening. Only about a fourth part of its contents scriptorum Grcecorum, Latmorum, et ltalorum, biblw- isPconsidered to be at all fit for tillage. Almost all thecce Laurentiance. 1764-78, 8 vols foi 11. Bi- the crops usually cultivated in Scotland have, howbliotheca Leopoldina Laurentiana, sive Catalogus Ma- ever, gained a firm footing here, though oats occupy nuscriptorum, qui jussu Petri Leopoldi ™ Lau™ntl“- bv far the greatest proportion of the arable surface. lum translati sunt. 1791-93, 3 vols. fol. 12. De In this, as in the other northern counties, the erne, 4 Florentini Juntarum Typography ejus qui cemonbus.
BAN Banffshire, dependence of the husbandman is on his live stock ; and there being comparatively few sheep, the tenantry look to their cattle as the great fund for paying rents and all other charges. Farms are generally so small as scarcely to deserve the name, most of the land being parcelled out into holdings of less than 30 acres; and the management is but too often incorrect and unproductive. For what improvements have been made in its agriculture, this district is much indebted to one of the Earls of Findlater, who, so early as 1754, not only introduced and exhibited on some of his own farms the most approved practices then' known in England, but held out liberal encouragement to his teValued and nants to follow his example. The valued rent is Heal Rent. L.79>200 Scots; and in 1811, according to the assessment to the Property Tax, the real gross rent of the lands was L. 79,396, 3s. 4d., and of the houses L. 5514, 2s. Sterling. The valuation of estates held under entail is more than a half of the whole. Anchenlial- The mud buildings, common in some of the northrig Work. ern counties, called Auchenhalrig tvork, from a place of that name in Banffshire, have been found a cheap, and by no means a bad substitute for stone and lime walls in farm offices. About 30 carts of stones, round, or rather small, 10 carts of clay or mud, to which a certain proportion of sand is added, and 24 stone of straw, make a rood of 36 square yards. Several houses built of these materials have stood upwards of a hundred years. There is scarcely any thing deserving the name of Manufactures. manufactures in this county. The linen, and more
1800. OCCUPATIONS.
HOUSES.
PERSONS. Persons All other Persons chiefly em Persons not chiefly em ployed in comprised ployed in Trade, Ma- in the two Male . Females. Total of Persons. Agricul- nufactures, preceding ture. or Handi- classes. craft.
By how many Families occupied. 7789
8677
BAN 75 lately the cotton branches, employed a number of Banffshire, hands, but both have declined of late. Coarse woollen stuffs are made in private families for home consumption ; and tan-works, breweries, rope-works, &c. have been established on a small scale. Its commerce by Commerce, sea is equally inconsiderable. At the ports of Banff, Macduff, 1 ortsoy, and (xardenstown, a few vessels carry on a little trade, chiefly coastwise, importing coals, iron, timber, and other necessary articles ; and exporting salmon and other fish, butter, and a little grain. But the cattle driven to the southern markets make the principal returns. The salmon- Fishin" Vilfishings have been already noticed, and there are 10 lages. fishing villages, which, besides yawls, employ from 50 to 60 boats in the white fishery. Herrings have lately appeared on this coast. Severai remains of antiquity are pointed out in Antiauitie*. different parts of Banffshire, of which the churches ' q of Mortlach in the mountains, and Gamray on the shoie, aie perhaps the most remarkable ; exhibiting the savage triumphs of our ancestors over the invading Danes 700 years ago, in their sculls built into the solid walls. Ruins of castles and traces of encampments are frequent; but scarcely any of those circles of stone are to be seen, which are supposed to belong to a much more remote age. The population, as taken under the acts 1800 and p0palatio« 1811, is given m the table below; but it appears that, in some instances, the population of parishes, part of which lie in other counties, is included in the returns for these counties.
166
4890
11,177
18,288
16,067 19,740 35,807
1811. HOUSES.
OCCUPATIONS.
By how many Families occupied. 8043
8612
63
223
Families chiefly employed in Agiiculture.
Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.
3815
2195
PERSONS.
All other Families no\ comprised Males. Females. Total of in the two Persons. preceding classes. 2602
16,465 20,203 36,668 (a.)
76 banking. will require a separate remittance. To obviate these In the Encyclopedia will be found some explana- useless payments in detail, the business is naturally tion of the nature and origin of banking; and it n transferred to a separate class of dealers, by whom remahis to describe the improvements which have the whole debts and credits of the community, m been subsequently introduced into this important art of money-dealing, and to give some « also of place of being settled individually, are brought to a general balance, and it is only for the discharge o the principal banks, which, in the Pl wafe to provide, for the convenience of com- certain individuals begin to acquire, from their inS creased wealth and their extended trade, the general merce a currency of a determinate and invariable confidence of the community, it will naturally occur thoS standard. Before this period, the ^ ® to inferior traders, who have remittances to make to places was lost amid an inundation of the light and other places, that the great merchant, by means of debased coins of every adjacent state ; and the busi- his credit and connections, may assist him in his ness of commercial exchange was in this manner transactions with those distant parts. If the one has structed by the want of some certain measure of money to remit, the other may have money to receive, value. By the establishment of banks of deposit, as and in this manner, by means of credit and conthey are generally called, which paid all demands on fidence, the engagements of the different parties may them in money of a known weight and fl«en^ mid be duly discharged by a mere transfer of debt from bv ordaining, at the same time, that all pajmcn one person to another. Thus, we may suppose A, above a ceiSin sum should be made in bank money the great merchant, has money to receive from the the greatest possible degree of certainty was given same place to which B, the inferior merchant, has to the value Sf the currency, while, by ^optmg^tl e money to remit. He receives the money fiom B, method of paying large sums, by means of £ giving him, of course, an order on the debtor which transfer from one name to another in the books S bank great facility and dispatch w^re obvi- he has in the same place in which Bs creditor resides. To this place the order being sent, the debt ously given to all cash transactions. Nor were belonging to A is transferred to the creditor of B. those advantages confined to the particular places And thus, by the mutual transfer of claims, without in which banks were established. It was soon found, the intervention of specie, this account of debt and that the same improvement which was so use u credit is finally settled. The credit and connections the domestic transactions of a community could of the wealthy merchant, inducing others to deposit employed with even greater advantages in simp iy- money with him for the purpose of being remitted to ing the cash transactions of distant places, conveniences to which merchants residing in the their respective creditors, the cash transactions of the town and neighbourhood gradually centre in his same place must have been exposed ™^mg pay- hands. All those who have money to remit, or ments to each other, previous to the estabhshme money to receive, entrust the transaction to his of banks, would necessarily consist in the want of management; he receives their money, for which he some fixed and invariable measure of value; in tlie gives them his drafts, or their bills, for which he counting, weighing, and useless transportation of either gives them money, or undertakes to procure large sums from one hand to another; and in the payment, and, in this manner, the debts and credits frauds and mistakes which would frequent y occur in of the different commercial towns, in place of being me these cumbersome transactions. settled as formerly in detail, are, by the agency of mercial intercourse of distant places, all those disa - the money-dealers, brought into one general acvantages would be greatly aggravated; there wou d count, and reduced at once to a common balance. be more scope for frauds and mistakes ; they would The establishment of such public banks as those of be less easily corrected ; and, without some system Venice, Genoa, Amsterdam, Hamburgh, &c., on the of money-dealing, the commerce of distant places solid security of large deposits of treasure, by inmust be limited to mere barter, or to the instant ex- spiring general confidence, would tend to give life change of specie for goods. The progress o activity to this improved system of money-dealand industry is, however, necessarily accompanied by and ing The credit of an individual, however respectthe growth of confidence and credit. Upon this new able for wealth, integrity, and prudence, could hardprinciple, commercial dealing is gradually extended; ly be supposed in any case to be equal to that of and in these circumstances, without the intervention those public establishments which were the general of the money-dealer, there must be a continual and depositaries of all the floating capital of the comuseless transportation of specie between all commer- munity, of which the management was committed to and bound down in their cial towns. No debt can be discharged without a t rpmittanee in cash, and each separate transaction
BANKING. 77 Banking, conduct to certain general rules, from which they have By the general circulation of the bills of those Banking. no discretionary power to depart. In the two great public banks, the use of specie was in a great measources of mercantile confidence, therefore, namely, sure superseded as a medium of exchange between the reputation of wealth and prudent management, distant parts ; and it was obvious, that, by following those institutions could not be exceeded. They out the same principle in the domestic circulation of were evidently beyond the reach of all the ordinary- a country, paper might, in like manner, be substicasualties of commerce, and it could only be by tuted for specie in its internal commerce. When a foreign invasion, or by some great internal convul- debt against persons of undoubted ability to pay is sion, which would tend to the dissolution of all civil once constituted by a written document, the debt order, that their ruin could be accomplished. Their may, by means of this document, be made over to libills and drafts possessing a proportionably extensive quidate the claims of a third party, and in this way, circulation, formed a species of currency in universal a cumbersome species of paper currency may be emcredit, throughout the great mercantile community ployed in the great transactions of trade. By imof Europe, and furnished a most convenient instru- proving the form of this instrument, however, by cirment for settling, in the most easy and expeditious culating bills for small sums, and by making them manner, the cash transactions between distant parts. payable on demand, a public bank, in good credit, It has been suggested, that those bills of exchange will supply the community with a paper currency so and drafts were the invention of the Jews, and such convenient as to answer all the purposes of specie. may very possibly have been the case. But the In the course of the last century, public banks for Establishjust and philosophical remark of Mr Dugald Stewart, the circulation of paper in lieu of specie have been Ult‘nt of the in regard to the invention of printing, may be gene- established in most of the great cities of Europe. Of I?ank of rally applied to the progress of mankind in all other these, the most important, whether we consider its En°lan',, ai ts and sciences. On this subject, he observes, great wealth, or the vast extent of its transactions, is that to whomsoever the credit of this important dis- the Bank of England. Of the nature and origin of covery may be due, it is evident, from the state of tins establishment, an account will be found in the society at that time in Europe, and from the ra- Encyclopedia; and, in this supplementary work, we pid progress of all moral improvement, that some shall proceed, briefly, to notice some of its more resuch process, for the speedy dissemination of know- cent transactions, and also to describe generally the ledge, must have been discovered about this period. effects produced by so powerful an engine on the The general condition of the world, created, if we circulation and commerce of the country. may so express ourselves, an effectual demand for I he Bank of England, when it was first incorporat- Tranons on grounds sufficiently certain, and his car00m t0 qUeSti n his aCCUrac LcuLwed hgriHre« T leaV6S 1IttIeCh ° ^ The of the surplus capital from the accomit of w 18 thf. foundation of all the subsequent conclusions, is ascertafned 1 ans aid bc re 1797 p ! for a f°Secure Parliament, at the Currency, time of the suspension payments in y ' See Ricardn’ lii car do s Proposals and Economical Appendix, No. of V. cash p. 103.
banking. Banking. 80 distant places, and in issuing their notes, for the acBanking, the community, paper, after it is once introduced, commodation of trade, by discounting mercantile ^^'is gradually found to limit, and at last entirely to bills ; and the arrangements which they adopt for supersede, the use of specie in the circulation of a this purpose are eminently calculated to promote e country. Such has been the progress of paper m dispatch of business, and the economy of cash the currency of Britain. Specie is now entirely exWe have already, in part, explained in what man-System cluded from circulation; ail that portion of our ner the establishment of accredited banks tends to Britain, currency which formerly consisted of the precious simplify the cash transactions of distant parts, and it metals has either been exported, or is stoied up by is obvious that a community abounding in bankers the bankers, by whom it is kept in reserve to an- of established character and credit, whose promisswer occasional demands. The establishment of one sory-notes and bills of exchange circulate, to the exgreat bank in the capital of the country would faci- clusion of specie, must possess ample means for carlitate the introduction into other parts of similar rying into effect all the refinements of monej-dcalestablishments, on a smaller scale. Such a bank i ino- ” In Great Britain, accordingly, the genera naturally a general reservoir of specie for die whole progress of trade and manufactures-the known kingdom. Its transactions are of so much greater wealth of banking establishments—the security dean extent than those of any other establishment o rived from the long continuance of domestm peace the same kind, that all the specie which it could the high state of commercial confidence—the facilicollect at home would be insufficient to supply its ties of communication, joined to other advantages wants. When its coffers are exhausted, therefore, peculiar to such an advanced state of soc.ety have they must be replenished from abroad. Bullion must brought the system to perfection. By means of bills be purchased in the great market of the civihzed of exchange, circulated among the different banker , world, and the supply thus imported is gradually remittances are made to the most distant par s with distributed, in the general course of cnculatio . the most perfect security, and at an inccn^ldera commerce, among the lesser banks. The wan s of expence. The respective debts and credits of the those smaller establishments can always be supplied, great commercial towns, in place of being setded in to any extent, from the store of specie collected in detail, or by remittances in specie, are, by the agenthe great bank; for they have only to convert a cy of the money-dealers, collected into one geneia certain portion of their property into its promis- account, which‘is brought to a common balance, and sory-notes, in order to procure the supply nece.sa ) in this way the most extensive transactions may be to replenish their exhausted coffers. settled with a comparatively small quantity of specie. Country Since the establishment of the Bank of Englan , If we suppose, for example, one of the two trading Banks in banks on a smaller scale have according y ee towns of Glasgow and Manchester to export, to the Biilain. in aimost all the provincial towns of Great Briother, goods to the amount of L.2,000 000 ^nuolly. tain. They seem to have increased with great rapi- and to receive a return to the value of L. 1,900,000, dity in the course of that short interval of prosperity those transactions being, through the raedlu™^the and peace which followed the American war. Du- bankers, brought into one general account ther ring this period, all the great branches of national mains only an undischarged balance of * ie industry were extremely flourishing But the tendency of the system being to make the the country was daily augmenting--the pnncip ^ whole complicated transactions of an extensive counmercantile confidence, the natmal effec try centre in one common account, it may no state of things, was in full vigour,—and spirited indi- necessary, even for this balance of L. 100,000, to viduals, in every quarter, taking advantage of these send a remittance of specie, seeing that it may be favourable circumstances, proceeded to establish transferred, by a draft on some third place, to a more banks ; and having thus created a currency on the general fund of debt and credit, where it may be fifoundation of credit, the precious meta s were no nally met and liquidated by opposite balances to the longer required to carry on the circulation of the same amount. Thus, we may suppose the balance of country. According to an estimate made ry L 100,000, due from Manchester to Glasgow, _ Thornton,* which is rather moderate than otherwise, discharged by a draft on London. In this case, Lonthe number of country banks in Great Britain a- don comes in the place of Glasgow, as the cj-editor mounted, in the year 1797> to 353\ of Manchester, the transaction being substantially to had increased to 366, and, in 1800, to .>86. Abou transfer the debt to the general cash account of this period, they appear to have increased rapidly, those two places. But Manchester, inconsequence for we find the number of licences granted in 1809, of a favourable balance of trade, may be the creditor for the issue of promissory-notes in Great Britain of other towns, as well as the debtor; and Londo? to have amounted to 735. In 1812, they amounted being credited with the money to be received, as it to 878; and,in 1814 and 1815, to about 1000. Of these, was formerly charged with the money to be paid, there are in London, besides the Bank of England, all these insulated transactions are brought into one about 70 private banking-houses, and the remaining general account, on which the balance is struck, and Q30 are dispersed throughout the kingdom. 1 o the I is only for this last and final balance that cash management of these various money-d, aiers, the must be provided. In this highly artificial and cuwhole circulation of the country is committed. Iheir ius system, the wealthy and populous towns natubusiness consists in settling the cash transactions of * See Inquiry into the Nature and Ejects of the Paper Credit of Great Brdam, p. 154.
B A N K I N G, rally draw, as to a common centre, all the cash transor from the passing and imperfect re. actions of the neighbourhood; the insulated balan- oral 8tradition scant j;^ ot from *he dasome y> the of domestic ces, arising on the commerce of the surrounding history, inquiriesyonmaterials this subject, made bv country, are formed into new accounts by the moneys a Committee of the House of Commons in 1780, we dealers of these towns, who, by a simple transfer of find, according to the evidence of several of the coldebt and credit in their books, bring them to a ge- lectors, that, before this period, the mode of remitting neral balance. This balance they afterwards carry to the public revenue to the treasury was both irregua still more general account; and thus, at length, all lar, cumbersome, and expensive. In Scotland there the scattered debts of the country are collected into was no certain or regular channel of remitting to the one common account by the bankers of the metro- metropolis, and the remittances were not only verv polis, which is then brought to a final balance. The uncertain as to the time, but the collectors, not being metropolis, the centre of intercourse and trade, is always able to procure bills, were frequently under the centre, also, of this vast system of money-deal- tlie necessity of remitting to the Receiver-General the ing. Here, as to a point, all the cash transactions actual money which they had collected. In differof the country naturally converge, and here the ac- ent parts ot England the same difficulties had, at a count is finally closed by payments in cash. period, been experienced in the remitting of In this manner, all the money-dealing of this coun- former the public revenue. From about the year 1740 it try, which cannot be transacted without remitting appears, that a premium had been paid to those who specie, is transferred to London. The payments of undertook the charge of remitting the money, of London, originating in its own extended commerce, and in its great wealth and population, are of them- from 20s. to 2s. 6d. per cent. This premium, as the selves immense. These are still further increased by countiy advanced 111 wealth and industry, was gradually diminished, and about the year 1778, it was the payment of the interest on the national debt, entirely done away, the dates of the bills drawn on which is issued every quarter from the Bank of Eng- London being also at the same time shortened. In land ; and London having also, in the course of the 1764, the collector of the Wales district paid 7s. mr late wars, grown up to be in some degree the com- cent, tor bills on London, and in 1774, a premiunfof mercial metropolis, both of America and of Europe, \S! Per cent, was paid by the collector of Dorsetit has been found convenient to transfer the payment stnre, bills payable on London at 40 days date of foreign bills to it from all parts. In consequence Even sotorlate as the year ]780, though the collectors of these extended transactions, London has its debtors found no difficulty in the remitting of the public reand creditors in every quarter of the kingdom. venue, it was chiefly from merchants and manufacIt is the general centre of all money-dealing, and that they procured bills on the metropolis. there being, on this account, a greater demand in the turers Only a small part ot their remittances were made country for money in London, than there is in Lonthrough the medium of the country banks, and in don for money in the country, bills on London are all cases security was required for the whole sum reinvariably sold in the money market of the country mitted. Since the general establishment of banks for a premium. The currency of every other bank is and the consequent increase of commercial confilimited in its circulation within particular districts, dence, the largest sums are now remitted from the and cannot, therefore, be employed in transacting the payments of distant places. But money in London remotest parts with the most perfect regularity, and is a commodity in universal request, and bills for its without either premium or security; the only advantage derived by the banker from the transaction, bepayment constitute a medium of exchange common ing the use of the money for a certain number of to the whole country. All the various money-dealers who are dispersed 8 1118 m prop0rt,on to tIle distance from throughout the kingdom, require to be provided with London ^ All those complicated payments pf the country, Mode of a stock of this common currency in order to carry the on their business, and, for this purpose, they find it which are transferred to London, are finally settled settling dai, Trans by the London bankers, with specie or with notes of y necessary to establish a credit on the metropolis, on 8 of which, for a suitable premium, drafts may be obtained the Bank of England, it being the practice to use if'o from them at all times. By thus transferring the pay- no other currency in the payments of the metropolis ; in’London and in managing those extensive money-dealings, they ments ot the country, to be settled in one general ac- still act upon the principle of collecting the insulated count in the metropolis, both the expence and trouble transactions of individuals into one common account, of making remittances between distant places has been greatly diminished. It would be interesting if we and tins account is brought to a general balance. For could collect any exact account of the progressive this purpose a clerk, it appears, is dispatched from diminution which took place, in consequence of this each banker, at an appointed hour in the afternoon improved system of banking, in the expence of ma- and a meeting of the whole having taken place in a nagmg the cash transactions of the country. But room provided for the purpose, each clerk exchanges unfortunately those instructive facts which illustrate the drafts on other bankers, received at Ins own the progress and internal structure of society, though house, for the drafts on his own house, received at the houses ot other bankers. The balances of the sererea im r af bankers being then transferred from one to ano^ P°attract tance than the accounts of wars ann d battles, seldom the same attention. On her, in a manner which it is unnecessary to explain ns account, all traces of them are frequently lost m detail, the several accounts are finally wound up by h ei n 18 dlscovered ft 7 himself v°rtJ£Cereduced andglean the future .nquirer finds either> to from each clerk into one balance, and it is only for this smgfe balance that each banker has to provide specie von. II. PART I, b
banking. Banking. 82 due increase in the circulation of bank-notes, as the Banking, or notes. By this contrivance, so great a saving of excess would have been immediately returned in excashes effected, that though the daily transact,ons of change for specie. But the Bank, being now released those bankers are calculated to amount to neatly from its obligation to pay m specie, and being thus L r) 000 000, about L. 220,000 of bank no g closed against any return of its superfluous notes its nerally found sufficient for the discharge of the seve- circulation may be increased at the discretion of its ral balances due at the settlement of directors ; and, in these very peculiar circumstances, Other devices are also put in practice by these active it is the opinion of Mr Thornton, f that the true and ingenious money-dealers, for economising policy of the Bank is generally to al ow its circuuse of cash. Many bankers are allowed to have a General cash-account with the Bank of England, m lation to vibrate within certain limits; to resort, when the temptation to borrow in the way of diswhich, if they are careful to keep a supply of good counts is too strong, to some effectual principle of bills they may always procure whatever cash t ey c- restriction, but in no casjie materially to reduce the nuire on a da^s notice! For the same purpose also sum in circulation; to afford a slow and cautious exof preventing any waste of the circulating medium, tension of it, as the general trade of the kingdom accredited brokers are in the habit of hourly walking enlarged ; and to allow of a temporary increase, even Lombard Street, and of borrowing the superfluous beyond its usual limits, in a season of extraordinary cash of one broker and lending it to another, foi a flnv a week or any longer period, to be repaid w hen tTs'uisd y1^)served by Dr Smith, after he has ex- Disadyaj called for • and so nicely is the scale adjusted by plained all the advantages of banking, thatthe C0™‘dStoa" those various devices, that the most opulent huu^s merce and industry of a country cannot be so secme Currencyof are freauently accommodated with a supply of casii when managed with paper money, as when managed Paper. befonTthree^o'clock, to be repaid by a dr»ft « * with a currency of gold and silver. Ihe gold and general balance of accounts, which takes place silver money which circulates in any country, he observes, “ may very properly be compared to a the ft Th e“*Policy of the Bank of England has highway, which, while it circulates and carries to also tended greatly to favour those economical con- market all the grass and corn of the country, protrivances of the inferior bankers. The dail> aemanu duces itself not a single pile of either, ihe judimarie upon them by the Bank for the amount of bills cious operations of banking, by providing, if i accepted and payable at their several houses, is of may be allowed so violent a metaphor, a sort ot course considerable, and was formerly made at an waggon-way through the air, enable the country early- . hour, werewithout issued any for bills dis to convert, as it were, a great part of its highi „ before .iie cathe me notes day, and previous ways into good pastures and corn-fields, and therenotice to the bankers of the demands for which they by5^ increase very considerably the annual promilt be liable, and of which they had no means of duce of its land and labour. The commerce and industry of the country, however, it must be acknowjU P e dinSe'„t p"lSng notifle dTc amount olthe ledged, though they may be somewhat augmented, demand*at atTearUer1 hour, and cannot be altogether so secure, when they are thus, drafts orMs'S’theSIrs may happen to hold in as it were, suspended on the Dmdahan wings of paper money, as when they travel about upon the solid ground of gold and silver. Over and above the accidents to a-*--— which they are exposed from the unskilfulness of the culation oi L“'don ' JrTency wldd. is consistent conductors of this paper money, they are liable to several others, from which no prudence or ^1 of whh the Regularity of its payments; and any sudden these conductors can guard them. (W ealth of Nav^urtion therefore, in the amount ot its circulating tions. Buchanan’s edit. Vol. I. p. 508.) cash, orcSncf. ^ The necessary effect of every system of paper currency is, to encourage the principle of commercial credit. This is, indeed, the foundation on which it is raised and the more widely the circulation ot paper is extended, the more closely will the mercanti e community be knit together by the artificial ties of SSSsSSSirp: confidence and credit. Wherever there is trade, there must no doubt be credit. But where banks dom TheCnctuality of the London payments is are generally established for the purpose of circulatP necessary to sustain and regulate the whole paper ing paper money, credit must be augmented tenfold, rSnt nf the country; and these payments being seeing^that, in such circumstances, no one can remade exclusively in Bank of England notes the cir- ceive a payment without becoming a creditor, it is culation of those notes cannot, in any case, be mate- an evil, therefore, inseparable from any system under rially reduced with safety to the commumty I nor which a currency of the precious metals is supersedto the restriction act, there was no risk of any un-
P
‘ "95,
BANKING. 83 Banking. ^ ed by one purely conventional, that while a useless cie gradually centre in the metropolis, the bankers Bankin' expence is thereby saved to the community, and generally disposing of the property which they hold in while its capital also acquires an increased degree of the public funds and other Government securities, and activity, the trading part of society are brought into demanding from the Bank of England specie for such a state of general dependence, that every man whatever quantity of its notes they can collect. The may be said, in some degree, to rest upon his neigh- Directors of the Bank, astonished by this alarming bour, and the whole to rest upon the principle of confi- drain of their cash, naturally contract the circulation dence in each other. The banker’s notes obtain a gene- of their paper. But the transactions of the metroral circulation; no demand is made upon him for their polis having been hitherto managed with the most payment in cash, because the public believe that he exact frugality, both of notes and specie, this sudden has property to pay them, The banker, in like manner, diminution of its circulating cash must leave the moneydiscounts the merchant’s bills, from an opinion of his dealers unprovided with funds necessary for their imsolvency, and the merchant, in giving credit, is guid- mense payments,and must thusderange the wholeecoed by the same rule. Confidence, in short, is the nomyof that complicated system which has been raised charm which holds the whole together, and while this upon the frail foundations of confidence and credit. principle prevails, no evil will result from this com- The disorder arising in the metropolis, from a want of plicated system of credit. Bank-notes wall circulate cash, will soon extend itself to the remotest extrefreely—there will be no great demand for specie mities of the kingdom. In the mutual dependence and the merchant will always be enabled to convert created by credit and confidence, the failure of one his bills into cash. In these circumstances, every merchant involves others in the same fate, bankruptexpedient will be adopted to spare the use both of cies multiply in every quarter, and the alarm innotes and of specie. The merchant will naturally creases with such rapidity, as to threaten a general be anxious to reduce as low as possible the stock of subversion of credit and confidence throughout the cash which he reserves for occasional demands; in country. * many cases he will trust to accident for providing In such a disordered state of the circulation, all Policy to be funds, such as to the sale of his goods, or to his cre- the inferior banks are naturally induced, from a pru- a,ioPlefl hy dit with his banker ; wdiile the banker, who provides dent regard to their own safety, to limit the issue ofp'JS''' a cheap instrument of exchange in place of a more their notes, by which means the scarcity of cash is adSordered expensive one, and whose profit consists in lending it increased, and the evil greatly aggravated. But thestate tffthe pn the same terms, has, in like manner, a strong Bank of England cannot safely act on such a con- Circulations inducement to increase the circulation of his paper, tracted policy; for it is evident, that the general disand, trusting to his credit, to diminish the specie re- credit of bank-notes is occasioned by the alarm preservecl for its payment. While the system is in this vailing in the country, and that, while this alarm conmanner strained to its utmost pitch, the merchants ma- tinues, the Bank may be drained of its specie by the naging the commerce of the country with the smallest most limited circulation of its notes, which will be possible quantity of paper, and the bankers circulating returned upon it as fast as they are issued. In all the paper with the smallest possible quantity of specie, such cases, therefore, the only safe course for the let us suppose, that from whatever cause, either from Bank to pursue, is rather to enlarge the circulation the alarms of war, or from a succession of bank- of its notes, that the alarm may be quieted, and that ruptcies, the principle of mercantile confidence be- the supply of currency may be perfectly adequate to gins to fail. In this case, the former ties by which effect the daily payments of London, of which the merchants were connected with each other are now punctual discharge is necessary to the solvency of broken » the usual channels of circulation, by which a the country at large. It is not to be wondered at small quantity of cash rapidly passing from one however, it the Bank, while the nature of paper cirhand to another, served for transacting the payments culation, and of the evils to which it is exposed, were of the community, are interrupted, and the money in but imperfectly known, should not always have uncirculation is, in consequence, found insufficient for the derstood its true interest, and should therefore have punctuality of mercantile payments. The supply of hesitated to embrace a policy so unusual, and appacurrency, however, in place of being increased, is rently so hazardous. In the course of the year 1793, rmemipstill further diminished ; the bankers, from the fears tne country was agitated by a sudden and general t'on Crenatural to their situation, limiting the circulation of alarm. The scarcity of money was extreme and (lit in im* their notes, and refusing to accommodate the mer- paper was discredited. Numerous bankruptcies took chant, as before, by discounting his bills ; and the place, and there was a great demand among the public, in their turn, discrediting the paper of the country banks for specie, which the Bank of Engbanks. This general failure of confidence immediate- land was as usual ultimately called upon to supply ly produces alarming bankruptcies, many merchants by the drain of its specie, the Directors stopping payments, not from a want of property, Embarrassed of the Bank refused to accommodate several great and but from a want of cash ; a run commences on the opulent country banks who applied for assistance, banks for specie, many of whom are, in consequence, and they were also unwilling to augment the issue of obliged to suspend their cash payments. The Bank their paper. Immediate and important failures enot England being the great repository of gold in this and the increasing alarm and distress for money country, the demands of the country banks for spe- sued, in London, plainly showed that the relief of the *
Bu hanan 6 edi
®
’
tion of Smith’s Wealth a/Nations, additional volume, p. 99,
BANKING. 84 cumstances, therefore, namely, the alarm in the coun- Banking, Banking. country was necessary to the solvency of the try—the discredit of country bank-notes—the pressing metropolis. It did not appear, that, at this peiiod, demands of those banks for specie, all centering in the the notes issued by the Bank of England were fewer metropolis,—and, lastly, the undue restriction of its than usual, but, owing to the failure of confidence issues by the Bank, such a scarcity ot cash was proamong mercantile men, they circulated more slow y, duced in London, and such an alarm followed, that and they became in this manner inadequate to transrun upon the Bank of England for specie, so far act the immense payments of London, with the same the from abating, continued to increase with an alarmregularity as before. , rapidity. In these circumstances, the Directors The Bank of England, not deeming it expedient to ing communicated to the Chancellor of the Exchequer enlarge the issue of its paper, a remedy of exactly account of the precise reduction which had taken the same nature was administered by Parliament. A an place in the amount of their cash, the consequence loan of Exchequer bills, to the amount, if required, of which that an Order in Council was at length of L. 5,000,000, w'as directed to be made to as many issued, onwas, Sunday the 26th February, restraining merchants, giving proper security, as should apply. Such w’ere the salutary effects of this measure, that the Bank from all further payments in specie. An the very expectation of a seasonable supply of what act of Parliament was soon atter passed, confirming ; could be immediately converted into cash, diffused a^ the restriction on the cash payments of the Bank suc " general feeling of confidence ; the punctuality of and this principle has been since continued, by acts of Parliament. By the last act, passed the London payments was restored, and the credit cessive April 1816, it is continued for two years from of the country began to recover. Of the sum pro- in date. posed to be granted by Parliament, applications were that An event so unlooked-for and unprecedented as a made for L.3,855,624, some of which being eithei re- stoppage payments by the Bank of England, projected or withdrawn, the actual sum issued from the duced, at of first, a general feeling of astonishment and Exchequer amounted to L. 2,202,000, which was ; and as the executive government had interpunctually repaid without either apparent difficulty oi alarm distress. The effect of this measure was to supply the fered, on its own discretion, to suspend the obligacommunity with a temporary currency, in place of tions of the Bank to its creditors, it was necessary that the sanction of the Legislature should be obtainthat which had fallen into discredit, or which had ed for this extraordinary exercise of power. The been withdrawn from circulation by the caution of whole matter being therefore referred to the consithe banks ; and its advantages were evinced by the deration of Parliament, long hnd anxious discussions speedy restoration of mercantile confidence, and by took place, on the causes which had given rise to the increased facility of raising money, which was this great convulsion in the mercantile world, and previously felt both in the metropolis and in the on the policy to be pursued, in a state of things so country at large. * . wholly unexpected. Parliamentary committees w ere 'Phis state of confidence continued, with little in- appointed, with power to examine the officers of the lion of Cre. terruption, until the year 1795. At this period, the Bank, both as to the general state of its affairs, and dit in 1797, Bank, in consequence of the large advances which it and Suspen- jia(j ma(je to Government, was under the necessity as to the circumstances which led to its present emSion of Cash of retrenching the sum usually allotted for the dis- barrassments ; and by the labour of these committees, joined to the able publications of individuals on the hy the Bank count of mercantile bills. A scarcity of cash was subject, such a precise and accurate account has of England, soon felt among the merchants and money-dea or so been collected respecting all the facts of this extrathe metropolis, and the threatened invasion of the ordinary case, that it has not only been made clear country, during the year 1796, concurred to spread in itself, but a new and steady light has been thrown, a general alarm, which naturally gave rise to the dis- by the information disclosed, on the general princicredit of bank-notes, and to a demand for specie. ples of paper currency. We shall briefly consider, About this period, several banks in the north of Engthese general principles, to what causes this meland were under the necessity of suspending their cash on morable of cash payments by the Bank of payments, and the alarm of these failures soon reach- England suspension was chiefly owing. ing the metropolis, the Bank of England was subIt is obvious, from the very nature of banking, Dangers lo jected, about the beginning of the year 1797, to an that the stock of specie reserved by a bank for the which ^ alarming drain of specie, partly to supply the demand of the country banks, and partly from the re- payment of such demands as may be made upon it, turn of its own discredited notes. In order to check cannot bear any proportion to the amount ol its are exposin circulation ; and that, if a certain proportioned, this increasing pressure, the Bank diminished the notes circulation of its notes, which having, for several of these notes should at any time be suddenly returnyears before, amounted to nearly L.11,000,000, and ed for payment, a suspension of its cash payments having been reduced, tor some time, to between must be the inevitable consequence. 1 his is an evil L.9,000,000 and L. 10,000,000, w ere, at this particular inherent in the very nature of paper currency, period, brought down to between L.8,000,000 and against which no caution can duly provide, since the L.9,000,000. From a combination of all these cir- profit of the banker is exactly in proportion to the * Report of the Commissioners to the House of Commons. ^hoi^°n yS, IX. Buchanan’s edition of Smith’s Wealth of Nations, additional volume, p. 102. Edinburgh Review, p. 193.
BANKING. 83 Banking, excess of his circulating paper over the specie reser- ture abroad, may undoubtedly be exposed to an inBankinr. ved for its payment. convenient drain of its specie, it seems scarcely posA bank, and more especially a national bank, may sible that this drain can be so rapid as to endanger be subjected to demands for specie from either of its credit. It is not in the nature of trade to prothe two following causes : 1st, From an unfavourable duce any such sudden and unexpected crisis. The balance of trade ; or, 2dly, From domestic alarm. operations of trade always leave time for some pre1. When the imports of a nation exceed its ex- vious arrangement, and they have generally some ports, a balance of debt will remain due to foreign respect also to the convenience of all the parties countries ; and in the country which owes the ba- concerned. It is well known, for example, that in lance there will be a greater demand for money the case of a heavy accumulation of foreign debt, from abroad than for money at home. If the unfa- whatever cause, the balance is more frequently disvourable balance of trade continues, the demand charged by an exportation of goods than of specie. for money abroad, with which the balance may be The effect of foreign debt is to depress the exchange; discharged, will increase, and foreign money, or bills an unfavourable exchange, or, in other wmrds, the on foreign bankers, will be sold for a premiurti. In high price of money abroad, operates as an inducethis case, there arises a temptation to export the ment to export goods; the exporter, besides his coin of the country, which, from the state of trade, usual profit, gaining an additional profit equal to the has become more valuable abroad than at home ; and difference of the exchange. It will always be obwhere a national bank is established, whose notes seived, therefore, that a great foreign expenditure is are convertible into cash at the will of the holder, it very soon followed by a large exportation of goods, may undoubtedly be exposed, by an unfavourable and though specie may be partly remitted for its disbalance of trade, to demands for specie to a consi- charge, the produce of the country is found to anderable amount. But, in the nature of things, the swer the purpose equally well. From the year 1793 drain of specie from this cause must be slow and to 1797> the foieign exportation of this country on gradual, and where a bank has ample funds where- the Continent of Europe and to the West Indies with to purchase specie, it can hardly ever, in this amounted to L. 33,510,779 ;* and in consequence case, be driven to the exceptionable measure of sus- of these heavy expences abroad, the Bank was subpending its cash payments. The Bank of England jected to demands for specie to a considerable has frequently been exposed, from this or from simi- amount. But though the Directors of the Bank, in lar causes, to a regular drain of its specie; but its their correspondence with the Government, comcredit was in no danger from those demands, because plain heavily of the loss of specie which the Bank its coffers could always be replenished as fast as they had experienced, and though, in February 1796, were exhausted. Prior to the great recoinage, in they even go the length of formally recording it as 1774, the gold currency of this country wras in a their opinion, that any farther advance to the Emvery debased state; the market price of gold rose, peror of Germany, or any foreign state, would be in consequence, above its mint price; and the value fatal to the Bank, j- this opinion seems evidently of bank-notes was lowered to the standard of the to have been the result of undue apprehension, and debased coin, for which they wrere currently inter- to have been expressed strongly for the purpose of changed. In these circumstances, it was a profit- deferring the Chancellor of the Exchequer from perable transaction to procure bank-notes for their no- severing in his system of lavish advances to foreign minal price in light and worn guineas, and to return powers, the effect of which, they justly conceived, them upon the Bank for the same nominal price in would be injurious to the Bank, by subjecting it to a guineas of their standard weight, which last were farther and very inconvenient drain of its specie. But melted down and sold for bank-notes at the market since, in the course of the three several years of 1794, price of bullion ; and these notes were immediately 1795, and 1796, the foreign expenditure of the counreturned upon the Bank in exchange for a new sup- try amounted to something more than L. 8,000,000, ply of standard guineas, to be again melted and sold. L.11,000,000, and L. 10,000,000, without injuring In consequence of this state of the currency, the the credit of the Bank, it can hardly be believed Bank of England was subjected to a constant and that an additional expenditure of L. 3,000,000, or regular drain of its specie, and to a very great an- even L. 4,000,000, could have given such a sudden nual expence in replacing the guineas of which it shock to its credit, as to have occasioned the suswas drained. But there was no risk that this drain, pension of its cash payments. Nor do the Directors, however expensive and troublesome, would ever lead although they express generally their uneasiness at to a suspension of its cash payments, because it was the drain of their specie, ever seem to have contemregular and gradual, and subject to calculation ; so plated such a catastrophe. On the contrary, the that, as long as the Bank had wherewithal to pur- Governor and Deputy-governor, when examined bechase guineas, they could always be provided in suf- fore the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, ficient quantity to answer the demand. state that they did not apprehend imminent danger In like manner, though a public bank, from an un- previous to the 2lst February 1797. J From all avouiable balance of trade, or from a great expendi* these circumstances, therefore, it appears that the * Report of the Lords’ Committee of Secrecy, Appendix, p. 107. “of the Bank of EngI“d-11111 .J: Report of the Lords' Committee of Secrecy, Minutes of Evidence, p. n.
Febr
^ ^
‘BANKING. 86 it was exposed for more than two years to the diain Banking, drain of specie to which the Bank was subjected in of specie occasioned by foreign expenditure, with / COnsequence of the great foreign expenditure of the out any injury to its credit, while one single w'eek country previous to the year 1797. or in consequence or little more of domestic alarm, terminated in a of any' unfavourable balance of trade, though con- suspension of its cash payments. On Tuesday the stant,' was confined within certain limits; that provi- 21st February, the Directors of the Bank were so sion could have been made for it; and that, though alarmed by the increasing demand for specie, that imposed on the Bank a certain annual expence, yet, they communicated to the Chancellor of the Exwith due exertion to procure the necessary supplies chequer the precise reduction which had taken place of specie, it could never have been fatal to the cre- in the amount of their cash. In the course of the dit of so great an establishment. . preceding week, the drain of guineas had been con2 The drain of specie to which a great national siderable; but after Tuesday the 21st, it continued bank may be subjected from the prevalence of a ge- increasing with the most alarming rapidity, insomuc i neral alarm, is in all respects different from that that, according to the evidence of the Directors, the which may be produced by a great foreign expendi- demand for specie, on the two last days of the week, ture, or by the fluctuations of trade. The impulse exceeded that of the four preceding days. This is given by panic is, in its very nature, sudden and in- the great and conclusive fact, which points at once stantaneous. It generally terminates also, and that to the cause of the ruin which was impending over speedily, in some violent crisis. If we suppose, there- the Bank. It was not so much the actual loss ol fore, that a bank, which circulates its notes exten- specie which excited apprehension, its cash having sively, suddenly falls into discredit, that from some un- been lower both during the American war and m the known cause, a sudden suspicion of its solvency seizes year 1782; but the unparalleled rapidity with which all the holders of its notes, it is obvious that all these the drain increased, was the alarming circumstance persons, under the violent impulse of their fears, will which defied all precautions, and which finally renderrush at once to the bank with notes in exchange for ed the suspension of cash payments by the Bans an specie ; and it is equally certain, that whatever funds act of overruling necessity. Its stock of specie had a1 bank may ultimately possess, its stock of specie no doubt been previously reduced by the demand must be speedily exhausted by such a sudden inun- arising from an unfavourable balance of trade, anc dation of its discredited notes. In this case its cash this would naturally tend to bring matters more payments must be suspended for a tune, until the speedily to a crisis. But however well replenished alarm of its creditors be dissipated by a full disci - the Bank might have been with specie, the deitlan sure of its affairs. Such being the fatal operation was increasing at such an accelerated rate, that, in of domestic alarm on the credit of a bank, it can the course of a few days more, it would have been scarcely be doubted that this was the immediate quite sufficient, without the help of any other cause, cause o^ the catastrophe which befel the Bank of to have drained it of its last guinea. # England in 1797; m°re especially, as we find that
an ,n
* Th„ the embarrassments of the Bank were occasioned by the demand at home is plain, from the following evidence of Mr Giles and Mr Raikes, before the Lords’ Committee ol Secrecy. ^^'iL'VB;Saof l^iy rsperienccd an for cash .< Are you able to ascertain how far thts dratn was wholly, or in part, occasione^ ; inllirectly
considerabl^below the anmunt°at whiehTt'has usually been mmntainedi—TheMsi^of the Bank h^^" ^atth been considerably reduced. I last week, parti1 been unparalleledly rapid ; they hav , ’ 1 .7 demands would continue, and even increase.^ cularly so ; and we had every reason to appiehend that t e^ nmnortion to the balance remaining in “ Whether such deduction had been continuing in an mcr s p jiave generally answered this your hands up to the date of the minute of Council ^sm y^ Jemands havegbeen progressively inSlug j; the coursif of'tluTlast week,' aTd i^theS two days exceeded the demands of the four precedrnade* b}1 the “deTTlouncil of the ,6th of February was necessary Certainly. ^ ? +u0 Bank ? The rapid drains we had upon the greater part of mankind, so long as they continue to 8 18 roduc Jpg.is, ed than isthere is food condition to support. it Pis understood, the habitual of produce numbers greater than can be fed. The question then is, what are the effects which, in this human nature. The disposition of mankind to mar- situation of mankind, the institution of banks for ry, and the prolific power with which nature has endowed them, cause a greater number of human be- the savings of the poor are calculated to produce i Every thing, as we have already seen, is to be deings to be born than it is possible to feed; because e earth cannot be made to increase her produce rived through the medium of the, disposition to accumulate.
Banks for ^ '
14 Banks for Savings.
BANKSFOR
SAVINGS.
But the disposition to accumulate, as far as men children, their powers of accumulation cease. But Banks for deprived of the means of accumulation, there is a previous hoard: What becomes of it ? It is either wholly expended, at the time of js out of the question; for either it is wholly incamarriage, upon the furnishing of a house ; or it is pable of existing, or exists to no manner of purpose. Of the labouring people, however, who have faIf it is wholly expended upon the furnishing of milies, all but those of whom the families are uncoma house, it contributes to present enjoyment, like monly small, or who possess uncommon advantages, are, according to the principle of population, either any other expence whatsoever; like that, for example, a fine coat; and forms no longer a provision in a state of starvation, or upon the very brink of it, of against a day of adversity and the evils of want. and have nothing to accumulate. Let us suppose that it is not wholly expended The unmarried part of the population, therefore, those who have no families, or those who have very upon the furnishing of a house, but that a portion, at small ones, are those alone to whom the institution least, of it remains. This, it will bo said, is reserved as of savings banks can present any motives whatsoever. a provision against want; and of this the beneficial may be reckoned sure. But abstracting from The question is, what are the effects which will be effects extraordinary cases of bad health, least common in produced upon society by the motives which it prethe earliest stage of the married life, and other exsents to this reduced part of the population ? That it will increase to a certain extent the dis- traordinary accidents, the first pressure will arise position to accumulate, may naturally be expected. from the increase of the family. After that number To how great an extent, general principles afford us of children is born, which exhausts the earnings of no means of very accurately foreseeing. We must the father, the birth of another child produces the wait for experience to determine. In the meantime, miseries of want. If there is no fund remaining from we know that single persons are for the most part former accumulations, hardship introduces death, and young; and that youth is not the season when the the amount ofthe population is thus, upon the whole, pleasures of the present moment are most easily kept down to the level of the food. If there is a vanquished by those of the future. The training of fund remaining from former accumulations, it will now of necessity be consumed ; and by its consumpthe human mind must be more skilful, and more tion will enable the family to go on a little longer ; moral to a vast degree, before this salutary power rear a child or two more. But the number ot will belong to any considerable portion of the youth to children reared was before as great as there was food in any class of the population, especially in the least to maintain. If a greater number is raised, there is instructed of all. Let us next inquire the tendency which it will an excess of population, who bid against one another possess, whatever the degree in which it may be ex- for employment, and lower the wages of labour. Already, the great mass of the population were in a pected to exist. state of unavoidable misery from the lowness of wages. In the first place, it will produce an abstinence from such hurtful pleasures as are attended with ex- An increase of poverty is now brought upon them; their situation is rendered more deplorable than it pence. Under this description is included the plea- and was before. It is impossible not to consider this as sure of intoxicating liquors, and no other possibly one of the effects, which a fund accumulated before whatsoever. There is hardly any other indulgence marriage, by the laborious part of the community, on which any portion, worth regarding, of the earn- has a tendency to produce. And this is a tendency ings of the poor is bestowed, which can at all deserve altogether noxious. the name of hurtful, or from which there would be The greater part of those who have talked and any virtue in abstaining, if the means of obtaining it written about savings banks have left the principle of were enjoyed in sufficient abundance. To this, then, population altogether out of their view. They have, the moral effect of savings banks may be supposed to therefore, left out of their view that circumstance on be very nearly confined. But assuredly this, if it can which the condition of the most numerous class of be produced in any considerable degree, must be mankind radically, and irremediably, and almost regarded as an effect of no ordinary importance. Passing from the moral effects, we come to the wholly depends. Of course, their observations and accumulation which it may be in the power of the conclusions are of little importance. Others, whose minds are philosophical enough to unmanned part of the population to make. To this, and what may spring out of it, all the remaining ef- perceive the influence of the principle of population upon the condition of the great bulk of mankind, are fects of savings banks are evidently confined. A part of the unmarried population will make ac- of opinion, that savings banks will have a salutary cumulations, and undoubtedly they ought, if pos- effect upon the principle of population, and ameliosible, to be provided with the means of doing so. rate the condition of mankind, by lessening the raLet us suppose that the greatest part of them pro- pidity with which they multiply. This is a specufit by those means. What consequences are we able lation of the deepest interest. If this be an effect of savings banks, they will, indeed, deserve the attention to foresee? Of unmarried persons there are few who are not and patronage of the philanthropist and the sage. The following is the mode in which the authors ot looking forward to the married state, and few by this opinion believe that the happy effects which whom, sooner or later, it is not entered. As soon as persons of the lower class are married, or, at any they anticipate will take place. The means of pro- . rate, as soon as they have a certain number of fiting by the reserve of a portion of their earnings,
are wholly
BANKS FOR SAVINGS. 9j Banks for which savings banks will provide for the unmarried state of the poor. In conjunction with other causes, Banks for Savin s part; 0f (.jjg ]abouving people, will give them, it is sup- savings banks are not only desirable, but necessary. S3''*11"*posed, a taste for accumulation : Aware of the im- The noxious consequence will be, if those who have '' m 1 possibility of accumulating after marriage, their de- it in their power to do more, shall suppose that savsire of accumulation will make them defer the period ings banks are sufficient to do all, and there should of marriage : Of deferred marriages, the result will limit their exertions. Taken by themselves, it is at be a less numerous offspring : A smaller number of least a doubt whether savings banks may not propeople in proportion to the food will be reared : The duce as great a quantity of evil as good. competition for food will be reduced ; the competition for hands will be increased ; wages will rise ; and the It now remains that we should give an account of History of cruel poverty of the mass of the population will be the measures which have been taken for the establish- Savings abated. ment of savings banks, and endeavour, if we can, to Banks, In this deduction, nothing is doubtful, unless the ascertain the most useful form which they are capacommencing step. If the desire created in young ble of receiving. persons for accumulation is sufficiently strong to proWe are not aware that the idea of an institution, duce any considerable postponement of the period of answering in any degree the description of a savings marriage, all the other effects will necessarily follow; bank, was in this country expressed in public before a reduced number of children ; an increased reward the year 1797, when a peculiar scheme for the maof labour; and a correspondent amelioration in the nagement of paupers, or persons deprived of the condition of the greatest portion of the race. Sav- means of maintaining themselves, was published by ings banks will prove one of the most important in- Mr Bentham in \ oung s Annals of Agriculture, It ventions, to which the ingenuity of man has yet given would require too long a digression to give an account existence. of this plan of Mr Bentham, which embraces a great It would be rash, however, to claim as an ascer- number of points, and would require an exposition tained fact, that savings banks will have the effect of considerable complexity. Of that plan, one part of retarding the period of marriage. There are per- consisted in the institution of what he distinguished sons who hold the very opposite belief. They say, by the name of afrugality bank. that what chiefly retards marriage at present among The series of wants to which it was by him desthe better part of the labouring population, among tined to operate as a remedy, were as follows: those urho have a regard to appearance, and a value 1. Want of physical means of safe custody, such for respectability, is the want of means to provide as lock-up places ; thence, danger of depredation, the furniture of a house; that savings banks will en- and accidental loss. able them to provide that furniture at an earlier period 2. Difficulty of opposing and never-yielding rethan at present; and that the institution will there- sistance to the temptations afforded by the instrufoi’e accelerate the period of marriage, increase the ments of sensual enjoyment, where the means of purnumber of those who cannot be fed, and tuus add to chasing them are constantly at hand. the calamities of mankind. They ridicule the idea, 3. Want of the means of obtaining a profit by the that the love of saving will become, in the breast savings of the poor, or the use of them in portions of young persons, a match for the passions which adapted to their peculiar exigencies. prompt them to marriage. 4. Want of a set of instructions and mementos If we consider accurately what takes place among constantly at hand, presenting to view the several mankind, we shall probably conclude that both ef- exigencies, or sources of demand for money in store, fects will be produced; that the love of saving will, and the use of providing it. no doubt, induce some persons to defer the period of He next proceeded to sketch the properties which marriage; but that the means of furnishing a house, appeared to him to be desirable in a system of fruplaced at an earlier period within their reach, will gality banks, commensurate to the whole population produce the very opposite effect in regard to others. of the self-maintaining poor. These were, The question is, which class is likely to be the 1. Fund, solid and secure. most numerous ? and this is plainly one of those 2. Plan of provision all-comprehensive. questions to which no very certain answer can be 3. Scale of dealing commensurate to the pecuniagiven. But if we consider the strength of the pas- ry faculties of each customer. sions which urge to marriage, we shall probably sus4. Terms of dealing sufficiently advantageous ta pect that it will not be easy for the love of saving to the customer. acquire an equal force in the breast of any consider5. Places of transacting business suitable ; viz. in able portion of persons who are young, whose educa- point of vicinity, and other conveniences. r tion has been very bad, and w ho hence have little 6. Mode of transacting business accommodating. power either of foresight or of self-command. 7. Mode of operation prompt. Such are the different views which may be taken 8. Mode of book-keeping clear and satisfactory. of the effects which banks for the savings of the poor In the plan, however, of the bank which Mr Benwill produce. The exposition is useful to check the tham contemplated for answering the purposes which intemperate conclusions of enthusiastic patrons, and he thus described, he did not direct his view to that to show that much more than the mere institution simplest of all the forms of banking, the mere reof savings banks is necessary to produce any consi- ceipt of money, to be paid again with interest when derable amelioration, either in the physical or moral demanded; the form to which the patrons of savings
BANKS FOR SAVINGS. 96 Banks for Banks for banks at present appear judiciously to confine their “ Extract from an Account of a Charitable Panic at havings. Tottenham for the Savings of the Poor, by Mrs Savings, attention. Mr Bentham’s proposal was to receive into Wakefield. the frugality banks the deposits of the poor, not for the mere purpose of yielding an interest, and being with“ For the purpose of providing a safe and condrawn when wanted, but to form or purchase an anplace of deposit for the savings of labourers, nuity for old age, when the power of earning would venient servants, and other poor persons, a charitable estabe either destroyed or impaired. That the accumulation of the poor might not, how- blishment has been lately formed at Tottenham, in county of Middlesex. It is guaranteed by six ever, be confined to one exigency, though that the the trustees, who are gentlemen of fortune and responsigreatest, he proposed that this superannuation annuimost of them possessing considerable landed ty should be convertible, in the whole or in any part, bility, This renders it as safe and certain as ininto any other species of benefit, adapted to the exi- property. gencies of the owner. It might, for example, be stitutions of this kind can be, and insures it from converted into an annuity for an existing wife, in the that fluctuation of value to which the public funds event of widowhood. It might be converted into an are liable. The books are kept by a lady, and never annuity during the nonage of a certain number of opened but on the first Monday in every month, children. It might serve as a pledge on which to either for receipts or payments. Any sum is received borrow money. Part of it might be sold to laise a above one shilling; and five per cent, is given for every 20s. that lies 12 kalendar months ; every permarriage fund, or it might be simply withdrawn. Mr Bentham then proceeded to compare the ef- son so depositing money being at liberty to lecal it, day the books are opened; but no business is fects of a system of frugality banks with those of any transacted at any other time. friendly or benefit societies. To this comparison, “ The money so collected is divided equally behowever, we cannot with any advantage proceed, till tween the six trustees. For every additional L.100, that other species of institution is first desciibed. r We are, therefore, inclined to reserve it wholly to the a new trustee is to be chosen; so that a tiustee can only risk his proportion of L.100. None but the laarticle Benefit Societies, to which the reader is bouring classes are admitted to this benefit; and referred. . there is no restriction as to place of residence. It is somewhat remarkable, that no allusion which “ OBSERVATIONS. we can perceive in any of the numerous pamphlets These few simple rules are all that have hitherto to which the subject of savings banks has lately been found necessary for the establishment of this o-iven birth, is made to this early scheme of Mr Bentham; though the w'ork in which it is contained charity, the design of which is both original and useTo those who have applied themselves to that not only appeared in a periodical and popular publi- ful. cation so long ago, but was laid upon the table of branch of political economy which relates to increasthe comforts, and improving the morals of the the committee of the House of Commons, appointed ing inferior classes of society, it must be obvious that to inquire into the subject of Penitentiary Houses in every endeavour to encourage and enable them to 1811, and referred to in the appendix to their report; and was published separately in one 8vo volume, in provide for their own wants, rather than to rely upon gratuitous gifts of the rich, are of great advan1812, under the title of Pauper Management im- the tage to the whole community. proved. , “ It is not sufficient to stimulate the poor to indusAs no attempt was made to carry Mr Bentham s plan of pauper management into practice, his scheme try, unless they can be persuaded to adopt habits of frugality. This is evinced amongst many different of a frugality bank, as a part of it, remained withkinds of artisans and labourers, who earn large wages, out effect. The first attempt, as far as our researches, have but do not in general possess any better resoui ces in been able to discover, to give actual existence to the the day of calamity than those who do not gain above idea of a bank adapted to the exigencies of the poor, half as much money. The season of plenty should was owing wholly to a lady, to whom the public are then provide for the season of want, and the gains of indebted for several excellent productions of the pen, summer be laid by for the rigours of winter. But and who never took up her abode in any place, it must be obvious how difficult it is for even the sowhile health and strength remained, without endea- ber labourer to save up his money, when it is at hand to supply the wants that occur in his family. For vouring to perform something of importance for ameliorating the condition of those by whom she vras those of intemperate habits, ready money is a very surrounded. Mrs Priscilla Wakefield, the lady to strong temptation to the indulgence of those pernipropensities. ,c . . whom we allude, residing, in the year 1803, at Tot- cious « Many would try to make a little hoard tor sicktenham, in Middlesex, a populous village, wuthin a few miles of London, not only projected, but was the ness or old age, but they know not where to place it means of instituting, and the principal instrument in without danger or inconvenience. They do not uncarrying on, a bank at that place for the savings of derstand how to put money in, or to take it out ot the poor. An account of this institution, drawn up the bank ; nor will it answer for small sums, either in point m of trouble or of loss of time. The same causes by Mrs Wakefield, and dated the me 24tn 24th oi of May may 1804, point r -- --- his own institution, and explains Savings money, the poor have lost their hard earned savings, the object which the system has in view, and the by lending it to some artful or distressed person, who' principles upon which it is founded, informs us, that has persuaded them it will be safe in his hands. his idea of an economical bank for the savings of the “ The success of the little bank for childrenj con- industrious, was accidentally suggested to him by a nected with the Tottenham Female Benefit Club, perusal of the pamphlet, entitled, Tranquillity, of mentioned in a former part of the reports, encouraged the present design ; and it may be worth remarking, Mr Bone, at a time when his mind was peculiarly that the bank was opened by an orphan girl of four- excited to the consideration of the subject, by the teen, who placed L.2 in it, which she had earned in circumstances of the poor in the town and vicinity of Dumfries, and by the threatened approach of what very small sums, and saved in the Benefit Club.” In 1805 and 1806, two pamphlets were published lie deemed a national misfortune, the introduction of by Mr Bone, in the first of which he seems to have poor-rates. course pursued by Mr Duncan is in the highhad it chiefly in view to point out the objects to which estThe degree instructive. It is founded upon an dea scheme for preventing among the poor the miseries curate knowledge of human nature, in which the of want ought principally to be directed; in the second, to sketch the form of an institution by which men who step forth from elevated situations to ameliorate the condition of their fellow-creatures are those objects might be obtained. The scheme of x\Ir in general singularly deficient, and therefore most Bone is, however, nearly as comprehensive as that of Mr Bentham, and, therefore, extending far beyond commonly reap nothing but the natural fruit of injudicious measures—disappointment. As a great effect the subject to which the present article is confined. was intended to be produced upon the minds of the The following are its principal objects: peopie, Mr Duncan saw ihe necessity of carrying the 1. ^ To provide comfortable dwellings for allalong who with him, and of adopting minds of the people require them. the most powerful means for making them feel and 2. Sums for their maintenance. an interest in the concern. Unless the interest 3. A provision for widows and children, education istake felt, and powerfully felt, the operation of the for the latter included. machinery will be feeble, and its effects trifling. 4. Endowments to children at 21 years of age. Novelty may give it some appearance of strength for 5. Temporary dwellings to destitute strangers.' 3. time, but this will gradually decay. 6. To afford small loans. In the first place, it was necessary that every cause 7. Provision for persons who have belonged to the of obstruction should be removed. “ The prejudices army or navy. 8. To grant annuities to persons to whom that of the people should be carefully consulted; they should be treated even with delicacy; and the most mode of assistance is the best adapted. um easonable scruples of the ignorant and suspicious 9. To afford a provision for persons lame, or other- should, as far as possible, be obviated.” It is not wise disabled. duly considered by the upper ranks of the popula10. To procure situations and employment for tion, now inseparable from human nature are the susthose deprived of them. picions of those who are weak, toward those who are 11. To nurse and educate children, as many as stfong; the suspicions of those who are liable to be possible of the children of those w^ho are themselves hurt, toward those who are capable of hurting them. the least qualified for the task. And it is only the blindness of self-love, and our in12. To provide baths and lavatories for the poor. To the accomplishment of this scheme, banking attention to evils in which we are not called to partihowever, contributes a diminutive part. It is not cipate, that leave us ignorant of the actual grounds pioposed that all this should be accomplished by the in practice, whence, even in this country, the instifunds of the poor themselves. The receipt, however, tutions of which are so much more favourable than of the contributions of the poor, forms an essential those of most other countries to the poor, the weak reason to dread the interference of the strong. article of the plan, and so far it involves in it the prin- have So much for removing the causes of dislike. More ciple of a savings bank. It was proposed to receive is necessary to create a positive, and still more to the contributions of single persons, and return them with premiums at the period of marriage ; to receive, raise an ardent attachment. The springs of human fartner, the contributions both of the single and* nature must be skilfully touched. Mr Duncan knew the married, with a view to the future and ultimate where to find them, and he looked to the means winch the circumstances of the case afforded for provision; for though all persons would, according placing Biem in action. “ It may be observed in to this scheme, receive a provision, it would be a provision with more or less of excellence, according general, he says, “ that in all those situations, where d is practicable to assimilate the mode qf manageto the contributions of the individual. ment to the scheme of Friendly Societies, the ad1 07 th nnstr^lr.tlne■ constructing the L» t supe . . ■ r. retard ncr thea nroaress nrosressand of most pernicious influence in retardmg the p.og.ess oi lie had the mortification"®'" Jn.r that, in spite of But all the pains he could take, t0 “nt&pSceived, that the syphon barometer Cistern Bathe water, after it was relieved from the pressure of rometer. of Torricelli has a disadvantageous form. Both the atmosphere by the sealing up of the tube, conbranches of the tube being supposed of the same stantly discharged a portion of air, which collected width, the mercury must evidently sink as much at the^top, and by its elasticity depressed the comthe one as it will rise in the other; so that the jaua- pound column below its due altitude. Convince tions in the height of the column are thence reduced that this source of imperfection is irremediable, he to half the true quantity. A small bason, or semi- sought to rectify the construction of the instrument, circular wooden box, to hold the surpius^neremy, gnd produced his Double Barometer ; ^iorva of combiwas therefore attached to the frame of the nstru nation frequently used, especially when the object i Tent; and this construction, with very little change, rather to make the variations very sensible than to ob- ^ was adopted, during the course of a century, by the tain delicate results. [SeeJig. 5.) He joined a baiomakers of the ordinary barometer. But the syphon metric tube of the usual length by the flame of a blowbarometer itself was afterwards materially impioved pipe, to two wide cylinders, the one sealed at the byTving its lower branch blown into a wide bulb top and the other annexed likewise hermetically to for holding the charge of mercury. {SeeJig. 2. I a e a tall and narrow tube, open at its extremity , ie XXXII ) This form of the barometer is not quite ac- then bent the thicker tube a little above the lower curate, owing to the smallness and unequal shape of cylinder, and brought the two branches to be parallel. the round bulb; but being very convenient for car- The instrument being thus formed, he filled the first riage, it has grown into general use, at least for the branch with mercury, and introduced above, in tlie cheaper and more common sort of instruments. second branch, some liquid of comparative lightness. Barometer As soon as the barometer came to be regarded as Alcohol would, in this respect, answer extremely of Descar- aweather-glass, ingenuity was set at work to devise the well if it were not so liable to waste by evaporation. tes. means of enlarging its scale of variations. Descai tes
123 B A R 0 M E T E R. Barometer. An alkaline lye, or the deliquiate salt of tartar, alteration of one-tenth in the altitude of the com-Barometer* which also readily admits of being coloured, was, mon mercurial column, would be marked by a motherefore, on the whole, preferred. tion through 12 X 1.36 inches, or 16.3 inches. But The principle of this construction is evidently the such a vast enlargement of the scale is far greater same as in that of Descartes; but the vacuum ly- than would ever be desirable in practice. It were ing contiguous to the mercury itself, can have no better, therefore, to introduce next the mercury admixture of disengaged air or of aqueous vapour. some fluid which is denser than water. If oil of Since the cylinders are made very much wider than sassafras w'ere combined with oil of oranges, the divithe bore of the annexed tube, the variation of pres- sions of the scale would be augmented only sixtysure will be produced almost entirely by the change eight times, and consequently the whole range might of altitude which the alkaline liquor undergoes, the not exceed ten or twelve feet. Those oils, however, mercury suffering only a very minute alteration of would move rather sluggishly, especially in cold ascent or descent. The divisions of the ordinary weather, and might, from their incessant shiftscale will be about tenfold enlarged, if a section of ings, during a lengthened period, become insensibly each cylinder should exceed twenty times that of mixed. On the other hand, fluids of distinct chathe tube in which the liquor plays. racters are seldom free from chemical action ; they is advdiiA barometer of this construction has decided ad- expand differently with heat, and by coating with vanta es vvith res ect t0 Hects'.^ still P from theconsiderable extent of itsdefects. changes,The but other traces the inside of the tube, they are the more itS is not exempt apt to retard the motion of the column. In general, moisture on the inner surface of the cylindrical re- the advantage of any very great augmentation of the servoir increases the adhesion of the mercury, and scale is counterbalanced, as the fluids then work by retards its movements. But a much greater source irregular starts; and the instrument loses in delicacy of error proceeds from the influence of heat in ex- whatever it has gained in extent of action. tending the volume of liquor contained in that reAnother method of augmenting the variations of servoir, and rising into the narrow stem. This in- the barometer was invented by the same fertile genius, strument, therefore, to a certain extent, blends the which has the advantage of uniting great simplicity indications of the barometer with those of the ther- with tolerable accuracy. (Seefg. 7.) Resuming the mometer, which are essentially different, and can sel- syphon barometer, he made a small float of iron or dom accord. glass to rest on the exterior surface of the mercury, look’s About the same period, Dr Hook likewise pro- and suspended by a slender thread passed round a oubk Ba- posed a double barometer, of a similar construction. small wheel or cylindrical axis that carried an index. 1116 ei" He afterwards resumed the subject, and with a view Though the varieties of the height of the mercurial Wheel Bato correct the defect of the former arrangement he column are in a tube of this form, reduced to halfroiuttc|. produced, in l()8o, an instrument of a more complex the ordinary measure; yet, from the great length of form, but very ingeniously conceived. (See fig. (5.) the index compared with the diameter of its axis, the To the upper end of the open stem, he joined a third divisions on the circumference of the circle in which cylinder of the same dimensions as the tw^o former, it travels are much amplified. The little machinery but tapering aw^ay to a fine orifice at the top. The being concealed within the frame of the instrument, principal tuoe being filled as usual with mercury, the index only is brought into view, protected by a extending to occupy the bottoms of both the con- circular plate of glass. Thus fitted up, the whole nected cylinders, he introduced a liquor immedi- forms rather a handsome piece of furniture. The ately over the mercury in the second cylinder, Wheel Barometer, as it is called, has long maintained rising partly into the stem; above this, again, he its reputation among ordinary observers. poured another liquor specifically lighter and differA very simple mode of enlarging the divisions of the Inclined ently coloured, filling up the rest of the stem, and barometer is commonly ascribed to Sir Samuel More- Barometer, mounting into the third cylinder. By this artificial land, the same person w ho had invented, or perhaps and delicate combination, the mercury is left per- only revived, the Speaking Trumpet. (Secfg. 8.) It fectly stationary, and all the movements correspond- consisted in merely bending the upper part of the ing to the changes of atmospheric pressure, are per- tube into a very oblique position. By this plan, formed by the counterpoising liquors, and marked however, the scale, which depends on the perpenby their line of mutual separation. Since the stem dicular altitude, cannot be augmented beyond three or narrow tube remains constantly full, the variation or four times, without incurring evident risk of inof its pressure must depend on the different propor- accuracy. This instrument is called the Inclined tions of its length occupied by the two fluids. If or Diagonal Barometer. The form has been somethe weight of external atmosphere should, for in- times varied by the fancy of artists, who, repeating stance, increase, the denser liquor will rise, and con- the inclination of the tube, have occasionally given sequently cause the lighter liquor to contract its the upper part a zig-zag appearance. column. The action of this compound barometer, The most ingenious barometer, filled with mercury Square Babeing thus produced merely by the difference of only, and yet admitting a scale of any extent, w as in- ronieter. the gravity of the two fluids, might, therefore, be vented by Cassini and by John Bernoulli, who first gave augmented indefinitely. Suppose the liquid resting the description of it in 1710. (See fg. 9.) A wide on the mercury to be pure water, and the superin- cylinder is annexed to the top of the main tube, at the cumbent liquid to be olive oil, which is about one- bottom of which there is joined at the right angles twelfth part lighter ; the scale would be enlarged no another long and narrow tube. The mercury, in asless than one hundred and sixty-three times, or an cending or descending within the wide cylinder
124 B A R O M E T E It. Barometer, must, therefore, run along this horizontal tube. It that minution, the three mercurial columns which pro- Baronuter. cylinder have a diameter only four times greater duce the counterpoise, will each descend and push than the bore of the tube, the scale of variation will up the last fluid of the series by their combined be augmented sixteen times. This instrument is, effects. It is evident, that, by multiplying those from its shape, called the Square Barometer. It is branches, the barometer will have its altitude pronot found in practice to answer so well as the theory portionally reduced. But this construction, though might lead us to suppose. The mercury creeps specious in theory, is found to have no practical adalong the horizontal tube with difficulty, and by de- vantages. The instrument is, from its complication, sultory advances ; and these irregularities increase, very difficult to construct; its motions are sluggish, as it becomes, from its motion and exposure, cover- owing to the multiplicity of tubes, and the conjunction of fluids, and they are subject to derangements ed with dust and partial oxidation. Conical Ba- The simplest of all the barometers, with an enlarg- from the variable influence of temperature. It has, romeler. e(j scale, and, at the same time, one of the most inge- therefore, been generally abandoned. These different forms of the instrument have Sectoral nious, is the Conical or Pendant Barometer, invented and described in by Amontons, a French philo- been variously modified, and often brought for- Barometer, sopher, who being afflicted with total deafness, in con- ward with claims of novelty. We may notice, howsequence of a fever in his infancy, had devoted him- ever, the Sectoral Barometer proposed by Magelself to mechanical contrivances. {See Jig. 3, Plate lan, in which the mercury is always made to rise to XXXII.) This instrument consists merely of a the same high point of the tube, by drawing this tube, four feet or more in length, with a bore less or more aside from the vertical position. The narrower than ordinary, and tapering regularly to arc they described will indicate the deviation from the top. The width at the bottom must hardly the perpendicular, and consequently the actual deexceed three-twentieth parts of an inch, while scent of the mercury. But the ditterence between near the top it may be contracted to about one- the vertical and the oblique line is not measured by tenth. A column of thirty-one inches of mercury the inclination merely ; it is proportioned to the being introduced, the tube is gently inverted and versed sine of this angle, or nearly to the square of held perpendicular; the cohesion of such a narrow the arc. The advantage of this mode of observing column is sufficient to prevent it from dividing and is, therefore, best perceived in small variations of admitting the air, unless it be shaken; but over- the mercurial column. In the hands ot a skilful powering the atmospheric pressure, it descends till observer, the best and most accurate barometer, it has contracted into the equiponderant altitude, by after all, is that of the original construction, with passing into a wide part of the tube. To obtain a tube rather wide, and a broad cistern. To apply equal divisions on the scale, it is necessary that the minute divisions, is decidedly preferable to any entube should have an uniform taper. The most ac- largement of the scale. The measuring of such divicurate construction of a barometer of this kind sions has been since rendered extremely easy, by is, therefore, attained by forming together two tubes the adaptation of the differential scale—a most vathat have even but unequal bores, the longer and luable contrivance proposed by Vernier, early in narrower one being uppermost. If the width of the the seventeenth century, but strangely neglected upper tube were supposed to be to that of the under long afterwards. This delicate appendage being one as two to three, the scale would be enlarged once adopted, it became the more desirable to imthree times, since, by descending three inches from prove the sensibility, and regulate the correctness the top, and consequently two at the bottom, the of the indications of the barometer. The first object was carefully to cleanse the mer- Effect of column would suffer a contraction ot one inch in cury, and to expel any portions of air or moisture ad- Moisture height. This species of barometer is thus recommended hering to the inside of the tube. The influence of aqueby its simplicity and its ample range. But the bore ous vapour in depressing the mercurial column had Tu,)fi of the tube being indispensably narrow, the mercury been observed by Huygens ; but other more evapormoves with difficulty, and resists the impression of able fluids were afterwards found to occasion, by their minute changes of external action. When the co- presence, a still greater derangement. Homberg nical shaped tube is retained, the instrument is lia- having, about the year 1705, washed a tube with ble to some inaccuracy from the influence of the alcohol, to remove the impurities from its internal cohesion of the mercury, which varies with the surface, remarked that the mercury introduced into diameter of the column in different parts of the it stood an inch and half lower than usual; a depression which this ingenious chemist was disposed to attube. Amontons likewise proposed another form of ba- tribute to the elasticity of the spiritous exhalations rometer, in which the mercurial column is subdivided collected above the mercurial column ; though other among several short connected branches. {SeeJig. 10.) academicians, and Amontons among the rest, misled Suppose the instrument were to have only the third part by their Cartesian prejudices, sought to ascribe the efof the usual height; the first, third, and fifth branches fect to the different sized pores of the glass These anoenlarged above and below into very short cylinders, malies were removed, by heating or rather boiling the are filled with mercury; and the second, fourth, and mercury in the tube, till it was completely purged of sixth branches, which may have their bores narrower, air and moisture, and brought into close contact with are occupied with some light fluid, or simply with the inside of the tube. But a new fact occurred which air. If the external pressure should suffer any di- long puzzled the mechanical philosophers. The tube
N
BAROMETE R. 125 Barometer, of a barometer, which had been filled with more than duplicate ratio of the diameter. But on the subject Barometer. usual care, was observed to exhibit a luminous ap- of capillary action, we expect, with no small degree LuniinouSp pearance, when moved or slightly agitated in the of impatience, to see a paper which was very latemomc er. This curious phenomenon gave occasion to ly communicated to the Royal Society of London, multiplied and prolonged controversies ; it was attri- by Mr Ivory, of the Military College at Sandbuted to the subtile matter of Descartes, or ascribed hurst, one of the most original and profound mato a native phosphorescence, or a latent fire inherent thematicians that our island has had the honour to in the mercury. Our countryman, Hauksbee, in the produce. year 1708, gave the first rational explanation of the The influence of the predominating attraction of p„re Merfact, by referring it to electricity, which he had just the particles of mercury to themselves, above their cury has al* begun to cultivate as a distinct science. It resembles adhesion to the sides of a glass tube, has not been ways a con* exactly, indeed, the experiment of the exhausted considered with so much attention as it demands. vex snrface* flask, in which an electrical current flashes with a Nothing is more common than to remark that the diffuse lambent flame, like the aurora borealis, or the mercury in the barometer is in the act of rising, if northern streamers. The friction of the mercury it show a convex surface, but about to fall, if it against the inside of the tube excites electricity, should appear concave. Now, the top of the merwhile the vacuity, or rather the very attenuated va- curial column must always remain convex, if the pour, in which the supposed fluid plays, facilitates barometer be properly constructed, the tube perits expansion. When the vacuum is rendered very fectly clean, and the mercury purged of all impuperfect, by the careful and accurate boiling of the rities. But if the inside of the tube be any how mercury, the lambent flashing ceases, for want of soiled, whether covered with humidity or stained with a fine medium to conduct and disperse the electri- mercurial oxyd, the metallic fluid will adhere so obcal influence. stinately to the glass, as to lose its convexity, and to The next point to which experimenters wrere led to subside into a flat surface, or even sink into a concadirect their attention, was the effect of the width of vity, like water and other liquids. Hence the danger the tube on the altitude of the mercurial column. of boiling the mercury too long in the tube, as it beEffect of Plantade, a lawyer at Montpellier, appears to have comes partially oxydated, and the thin crust so formed not only suspends the column higher, but obstructs sfUie Tube stands been one ^rst w remarked that This the mercury always lower in^°narrow tubes. fact he the freedom of its motion. The same effect is produced communicated about the year 1730 to Cassini, who by greasing the inside of the tube. Some respectable was then occupied in the south of France, with car- authors, from not attending to these facts, ha\ e hastily rying on the great trigonometrical survey. But the inferred that the convex appearance which mercury discrepancies observed by Plantade being unfortu- assumes in the barometer was merely accidental, and nately confounded with other collateral circumstan- consequently removed by a more complete boiling ces, were for a time overlooked. In tubes having a and purification. narrow bore, the depression of the mercury, howIn the case of tubes having wide bores, the de- Quantity of ever, is very considerable, as may be readily per- pression of the mercurial column may, without any depression ceived in a small glass syphon, of which the one sensible error, be disregarded. According to the ac- j.1? ^ereat branch is about half an inch in diameter, and that of curate experiments made by Lord Charles Caven- A'ibeSj the other branch less than the tenth of an inch. dish, and published by his son, the celebrated Mr CaThus, if the narrow tube had a width of only the vendish, the quantity of depression is only the 200th thirteenth part of an inch, the depression of the mer- part of an inch in a tube of 6-10ths of an inch in cury would amount to half an inch, which is about diameter, the 28th part of an inch in a tube of 3-10ths the third part of the elevation to which water in si- diameter, and the 15th part of an inch in a tube of milar circumstances would be raised by capillary ac- 2-10ths diameter. Wide tubes ought, therefore, tion. This effect has not been sufficiently examined, to be preferred in the construction of barometers, but it appears to result from the attraction of the both on account of the facility with which the merparticles of the mercury to each other exceeding cury moves in them, and the smallness of its depression. their attraction to the surface of the glass. Mercu- The only circumstance to overbalance these advanry, in contact with glass, therefore, tends to a sphe- tages, would be the necessity and inconvenience of rical form, and always assumes a convex surface having a very large cistern. A quarter of an inch within a clean tube. Water and other liquids again may be reckoned a good width of tube, and the cormanifest an opposite character, the mutual attrac- responding depression is only the twentieth part of tion of their particles being7 less than their adhesion an inch. to glass. Accordingly, they spread along a vitreous In the syphon barometer, if both branches have the surface, instead of collecting into drops; and in nar- same diameter, the action is exerted on opposite sides, row tubes they mount above the level, and invariably and, therefore, the effect of depression becomes enhave a concave termination. If the bore be so small tirely lost. For accurate purposes, this original form as to be reckoned capillary, the depression of mer- of the instrument has been again resumed, and the cury is, like the elevation of water, inversely as the inconvenience arising from the large variation of the diameter; but when the bore has a considerable lower level entirely obviated by an ingenious contrivwidth, the quantity of depression, depending on the ance introduced about forty years since. This con- Application curvature of the surface of the mercury, diminishes sists in the application of a leathern bag, instead of "fa proportionally faster, and follows nearly the inverse a wooden or ivory cistern, to hold the surplus mer-era Ba^‘
barometer. 126 The same country, however, which had given Barometer Barometor. cury. Besides the barometric tube, there is placed Dirtn lo r _ Florence to uie the thermometer, began its improvement. adjacent to it another short one of the same width, birth 4 rv „ the principle : *1^ of the barometer Karnmpfpr WHS PStabllSuAfter was establishGlas& communicating with the mercury contained m the ed, the members of the Academy del Cimento, bag, which being pressed by turning a screw below, founded at Florence in 1657, and supplied with libeis, at each observation, brought exactly to the same ral funds by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, had, among mark. The external atmosphere readily acts through other interesting physical researches, resumed the the substance of the leather, but the mercury, application of the thermometer; and instead of air, from the powerful cohesion of its own particles, can- they substituted alcohol or spirit of wine, anot er not be squeezed through the pores of that casing very expansible fluid not affected by pressure, while without violent compression. 'I he addition or a bag attached to the tube a scale graduated on a rewithin a cylindrical box, omitting the lower tube, they plan, though directed by no very precise mealikewise renders the barometer easily portable; since, gular sures. The instrument so constructed, but somefor safe carriage, the mercury can be screwed up what varied in its form, being copied by Italian arttight, to fill the whole cavity of its tube, but, on ists, was dispersed over Europe under the name o turning the screw again, the column will subside the Florence Glass. From its careless execution, and rest on a broad base. however, in the hands of itinerant venders, this thervffprt nf The last object which required nice observation, mometer, or rather thermomoscope, appears never to Heat on the was to estimate the effect of heat in dilating te Barometer, mercury, and consequently increasing the altitude have obtained an established reputation. The great object was to bring thermometers to an Attempts to of the" equiponderant column. This correction exact correspondence. It was expedient, therefore, obtain^ could not be made with any sort of accuracy pre- not only to select a proper fluid, but to adopt an univious to the application of the thermometer, which, form and consistent scale. Alcohol, linseed oil, and though invented half a century earlier than the ba- mercury, had been successively tried. The graduarometer, was yet more than another hall century m tion was at first drawn from the temperature ot celarriving at perfection. Hero, a mechanical philoso- lars and deep caves, which, indicating the natural pher, who flourished at Alexandria about 130 years heat of the globe, had long been considered ^varibefore Christ, has described in his Spiritaha a sort able ; but more enlarged experience discovered the of huge weather-glass, in which water was made to inaccuracy of that supposition, and showed the mean rise and fall by the vicissitudes of day and night, or temperature to be materially modified by the latitude rather the changes of heat and cold. This machine of the place, and its elevation above _ the level ot had for ages been overlooked, or merely con- the sea. Congelation, or rather the inverted proInvention sidered in the light of a curious contrivance. But cess, the thawing of ice, or the melting of snow, of the Tlier-Sanctorio, the inventor of the famous statical ba- was then found to remain fixed; a most important mometer. lance, a very learned and ingenious Italian physifact, which had been first noticed by Guncke, but cian, who was long professor ot medicine in the overlooked till a considerable time afterwards. A university of Padua, and had laboured to improve his stationary point was hence obtained, from which to art by the application of experimental science, redu- commence the thermometer scale. But different ced the hydraulic machine of Hero into a more modes were pursued for determining the divisions. compendious form, and thus constructed, about the Amontons, reverting to the air-thermometer in spite Amonlons: close of the sixteenth century, the instrument since of its acknowledged defects, found that the elasticity known by the name of the air-thermometer, which of air compressed in the bulb, and able at the temhe employed with obvious advantage to examine the perature of melting ’snow to support a column ol heat of the human body in fevers. Some years af- mercury fifty-four inches high, was capable of raisterwards, a similar instrument was contrived, per- ing this to seventy-eight inches, at the heat of boi haps without any communication, by Drebbel, a very ing water; and he seemed contented m framing a clever and scheming Dutch artist, who visited London rude standard, with merely dividing the intermediate in the reign of James L, and introduced the know- space into inches and half-inches. . . KT .nT, ledge of that instrument into England. But about the same, or nearly at the beginning Newton, But this air-thermometer was evidently of the same of the eighteenth century, Newton himself cast a nature with what has been since called the manometer; keen though rapid glance on the subject of heat, it could measure only the dilatation or augmented elas- and proposed a thermometer of a much simpler ticity of the air confined within its bulb, whether occa- and more elegant construction. Having adopted sioned by heat or the diminution of external pressure. linseed oil as a fixed and uniform substance, capable It was, therefore, considered merely as a weather- of great dilatation, he discovered by experiment, glass, indicating the state of the atmosphere ; nor that distinguishing the capacity of the bulb into could its blended impressions, which might separate- ten thousand equal parts, the liquid expanded 25b ly affect both the thermometer and barometer, be parts, from melting snow to blood heat, and then distinguished. Had it been more closely parts to that of boiling water. These numbers, studied, it must have led, by another path, to the however, being inconveniently large, he reduced discovery of the latter. But those irregularities to them somewhat more than twenty times, adopting which the air-thermometer was hence subject appear 12 and 34 as the proportional divisions on his scale. ' to have created such doubts respecting the accuracy But oil being so viscid a substance, was found to of the instrument, as occasioned its being neglected S and collect on the inside of the tube; and thts longo afterwards. 6
BAROMETER. Barometer, thermometer, though constructed on a right prin- scale, or the 9r0 ei repre^ntoUnV/ fa.Tn' , ';. ! construction is MouMmn a )olt,on tair, in a learned paper, printed in the first volume of in fi on i ^ ’ . I oi the tube is shown Barometer the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, mhg. 2°; and a section of its cistern in fig. 21 examined all the circumstances which can affect ba- By help ol a screw pressing against the bottom of , rometrical measurements, and discussed each ques- a leather bag, inclosed within a cylindrical ivory box the mercury is always brought up through a tion with the correctness and perspicuity that we might expect from his distinguished abilities. At tubular aperture to the same precise level; or till j nearly an equal interval of time, the celebrated La- its convex surface appears to touch a very thin line c uila of place resumed the subject in his Mecanique Celeste, ol light, which is admitted through a slip of ivory • and brought all the conditions together in a very applied against the side of the chink or separation of complicated formula. Such an appearance of ex- this tube from a wider one immediately over it. Ihe reme accuracy, however, is perhaps to be regarded lovver end of the mercurial column being thus admerely as a theoretical illusion, unsuited and inappli- justed the length is easily measured bv drawing cable to any real state of practice. Biot has since gradually down a hollow brass tube, divided at inempted to arrive at a similar conclusion, by setting tervals by wide slits, covered on one side by thin bits . out * ^on from some careful experiments on the ot ivory, till by that softened light a contact is oblelative density of air and mercury, performed by served with the edge of a slit and the convex top of ie column. The fine Vernier which the moveable tha n the lat,t Th AraS°- He thence infers, tube carries gives the altitude of the mercury in ‘;! ude of Pans, and at the point of con- thousandth parts of an inch. A thermometer is likeor QQQWV nrur a ,mercurial pressure of 76 metres, wise constantly attached to the instrument, lor the 1Sh mCheS 18 10 463 times merrnfrv ’ ’ water athghter than purpose ot indicating the temperature of the mermercury at the temperature of. its lowest cury, which, from the heat ot the hand in carrying,
1B A RO METRICAL MEASUREMENTS. 134 Barometri- or the influence of the solar beams, is commonly mented an open and wider tube, 16 inches or more Barometriin length, and having its diameter above the eighth cal Meacal Mea- warmer than the external air. me surements. This mountain barometer is suspended for observa^- part of an inch. This compound tube is lodged in a ^ ", tion by jimbols from a tripod, as exhibited in fig. 18 ; walking-stick, divided into inches and tenths through but its several parts can be folded up together into its whole extent, or only at the upper part, if uniform a convenient compass, tolerably well fitted for car- tubes be selected. In making an observation, the riage, as represented in fig. 19. The whole apparatus cock is turned, and the instrument inverted. The upmay not exceed the weight of ten pounds, yet even per column then descends partly into the lower tube, this, moderate as it might seem, would be felt a seri- till it becomes shortened to the proper altitude. We have already stated the principles on which the ous encumbrance by a traveller who is engaged, day calculation of barometrical measurements proceeds. after day, in the labour of climbing mountains. The risk which the instrument incurs, besides, in trans- But there still we some points, either assumed or porting it perhaps over rough precipices, imposes a overlooked, which may considerably modify the reperpetual constraint, while, to make correct obser- sults. It is presumed, that, at equal successive heights, vations with it, must always require time and pa- the temperature of the atmosphere decreases uniformtient attention. A lighter and more compact, though ly. This property, however, does not hold strictly, less accurate, barometer will generally be preferred and it may be shown from a comparison of the best by the geological traveller, whose object is rather to observations, that the decrements of heat follow a extend our acquaintance with the altitudes of moun- quicker progression in the higher regions. But we tains, than to aim at a superfluous and often illusory shall soon have another opportunity to examine this Portable precision. The portable instrument, invented by Sir subject, and trace out its various consequences. Barometer Henry Englefield, and represented in fig. 14, will, on The humidity of the air also materially affects its of Sir H. the whole, answer those views. Its cistern is formed elasticity, and the hygrometer should, therefore, be Engietield; of box-wood, sufficiently tight to hold the mercury, conjoined with the thermometer in correcting barowithout preventing the access and impression of the metrical observations. But nothing satisfactory has external air. When this barometer is inverted, the yet been done with regard to that subject. The ormercury, therefore, subsides very slowly in the tube, dinary hygrometers, or rather hygroscopes, are mere which must be firmly suspended in a vertical posi- toys, and their application to science is altogether tion. For greater security, the mercury is now put hypothetical. A most philosophical course has lately been pursued, by multiplying calculations groundinto a leathern bag introduced within the cistern. ed on very loose data, instead of instituting a nice and of Gay- A very simple and convenient sort of portable baro- and elaborate train of original experiments. meter was lately invented in France by that celebratLussac. In the actual state of physical science, it is preed chemical philosopher M Gay-Lussac. (See fig. 15 and 16.) It consists of rather a wide syphon tube, filled posterous, therefore, to affect any high refinement in the formula for computing barometrical measurewith mercury, and sealed hermetically at the inverted end, having a very fine capillary hole formed about ments. The whole operation may be reduced to a an inch under this, by nicely directing the flame of a vexy short and easy process. But the simplicity of blow-pipe against the side of the glass, and drawing a the calculation would be still greater, if the centesimelted spot of it out to a point. The lower portion of mal thermometer were generally adopted. It will the principal branch has its bore contracted to less be sufficiently accurate, till better data are obtained, than the tenth part of an inch, to prevent the mercurial to assume the expansion of mercury by heat as equal column from dividing in the act of inverting it. The to the 5000th part of its bulk for every centesimercury is boiled as usual, and the tube may be con- mal degree, while that of air is tvrenty times greatcealed in a walking stick, or lodged, like the complete er, being an expansion for each degree of the 1. Cor-Rule for ^ mountain barometer, in a cylinder of brass, with move- 250th part of the bulk of this fluid. able sliders bearing the divisions of a Vernier at both red the length of the mercurial column at the upper ends. (Sec fig. 17.) For greater simplicity,however,the station, adding to it the product of its multiplication ^ Mea. larger divisions might be engraved on the tube itself. into twice the difference between the degrees on the su,emenfi; This kind of barometer is of ready use, and very lit- attached thermometers, the decimal point being shifted tle exposed to hazard in carriage. It is commonly four places to the left. 2. Subtract the logarithm of held in a reclined or inverted position ; but, in mak- this corrected length from that of the lower column, ing an observation, it must be gently turned back, midtiply by six, and move the decimal point four places and kept perpendicular till the mercury descends to the right; the result is the approximate elevation through the contracted bore, and slowly rises again expressed in English feet. 3. Correct this approxiin the opposite short branch; the scale is noticed at mate elevation, by shifting the decimal point three both ends of the incurved column, and the difference places back to the right, and multiplying by twice the sum of the degrees on the detached thermometers ; this of those indications gives its correct altitude, j.fi , A modification of the conical barometer, which, product being now added, will give the true elevation. If it were judged worth while to make any allowConical Ba- in travelling, we have ourselves employed with great rometer. ease and advantage, should likewise be mentioned. ance for the effect of centrifugal force, this will be The principal part of it consists of a small stop-cock easily done, before the last multiplication takes made of steel, and represented in fig. 13. A glass place, by adding to twice the degrees on the detube of 31 or 32 inches long, with a bore of the tached thermometers, the fifth part of the mean tenth part of an inch hermetically sealed at the top, temperature corresponding to the latitude. The and filled with quicksilver, is cemented into the one mean temperature itself is formed by multiplying end of the stop-cock; and into the other end is ce- the square of the cosine of the latitude by 20.
BAROMETRICAL MEASUREMENTS. J35 Flarometri In illustration of these rules, we shall subjoin some rection to be applied to the upper column is = .0015 Barometri;al Mea- real examples. General Roy, in the month of August cal Meaurements. ; 1775, observed the barometer on Caernarvon Quay, X 30.6. = .045. Wherefore, surements. Log. 30,000= 1.4771213 Examples, at 30,091 inches, the attached centesimal thermoLog. 14.895 = 1.1730405 meter indicating 15-7, and the detached 15.6; while, on the peak of Snowdon, the barometer fell to 26.409 Difference = .3040808 inches, and the attached and detached thermometers Constant multiplier = 60000 marked respectively 10°,0 and 8°,8. Here twice the Approximate elevation = 18244.848 difference of the attached thermometers is 11°.4, and Now, the difference of the detached thermometers twice the sum of the detached thermometer is 48°.8, oi 26.9° being doubled and farther increased by which becomes 50.8, when augmented by the fifth part of the mean temperature on that parallel. Now, 5.8°, the fifth part of the mean temperature at the omitting the lower decimals, the first correction equator, makes 59°-6; the final correction to be applied is therefore = 18.24 x 59°.6 = 1087, which is .onofia. ^ .00264 v X 12.4 ~ .030, *•«. to i.~ be added to 26.409. gives 19,332 feet for the true elevation observed, or Wherefore, 2140 feet below the summit of Chimborago. Log. 30.091 = 1.4784366 These calculations are performed by the help of Calculation Log. 26.439 = 1.4222450 logarithms. It is desirable, however, to approxi- without LoDifference = .0561416 mate at least to barometrical measurements withConstant multiplier z= 60000 out such aid. A very simple rule for this object has been given by Professor Leslie in his E/eApproxitnate height — 3368.496 And, for the true height, the correction is 3.37 X men/s of Geometry. Since Log. ^ = 2 M 50.8 = 171.2, which gives 3340 for the final result. We shall take another example from the observa- 1 /c—5\s i /a—b\5 &C \ where M den ) ')’ otes tions made by Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn, at 3 V^M / + 5 the same period, among the mountains of Savoy. the modulus of the logarithmic system. When a apThis accurate philosopher found the barometer, placed in a cabin near the base of the Mole, and proaches to b, the lower terms may be rejected without only 672 feet above the surface of the lake of Ge- sensible error, or Log. |=2 M Y very nearneva, to stand at 28,152 inches, while the attached and detached thermometers indicated 16°.3 and 17°.4; ly. Wherefore, in reference to our atmosphere, the but, another barometer carried to the summit of that modulus is expressed by the equiponderant column lofty insulated mountain, the mercury sunk to 24,176 ot homogeneous fluid, or 60,000 x .4342945 — inches, the attached and detached thermometers mark- 26,058 feet, or only 26,000 in round numbers; ing !4°.4 and 13°.4. Wherefore, twice the difference whence, as the sum of the mercurial columns is to of the degrees on the attached was 3°.8, and twice the their difference, so is the constant number 52,000 feet sum of the degrees on the detached thermometer was to the approximate height. Let General Roy’s obser61°.6 Consequently, the correction to be applied vation on Snowdon be resumed as an example: The to the higher column was .0024 x 3.8 = .009, which analogy is 30.091 + 26.439 : 30.091 —26.439, or makes it 4.185. Now, o6.530 . 3.652 .. 52000 ! 3,359, the approximate elevation, differing very little from the logarithmic result. Log. 28,152 = 1.4495092 ihis mode of calculation may be deemed suffiLog. 24,185 = 1.3835461 ciently accurate for determining any altitude that Difference = T065963I exceeds not 5000 feet. But it will extend to greatConstant multiplier — 60000 er elevations, if the second term of the series be likeApproximate elevation = 3957.786 wise taken; which is done by striking off three fieures To correct this approximate elevation, remove the and cubing the half of this number. Thus, resumdeamal point three places back, and multiply it by ing the mensuration of Chimborago; 44.895! 15.105 01 .6, increased by 2°.9, the fifth part of the mean i “'17’496’and (8-75)3 = 670, making together for a nearer approximation. temperature, corresponding to the latitude; but i8,ioo The calculation of barometrical measurements, in- Barometric £96 X 64.5 = 255.4, and 3957.8 -f 255.4 = 4213. Hence the summit of the Mole is 4885 feet above eluding the corrections required, is rendered most Scale at ant expedltl0us by means of a T l3*6 of Geneva, or 6083 feet above the level of Kby ^/r Mr ^ Cary, optician in London.sliding This rule smallmade inthe Mediterranean Sea. strument should always go along with mountain baThe last example we shall give is drawn from the observation which Baron Humboldt made among the rometers, and it will be found a very agreeable comAndes, near the summit of Chimborago, the highest panion to every geological traveller. But portable barometers, in spite of every precauspot ever approached by man. This celebrated traveller found there, that the barometer fell to 14,850 tion, are yet so liable to be broken or deranged, that nghsh inches; the attached thermometer in the other auxiliary methods are desirable for ascertaining ent being at 10°, and the detached in open air be- distant elevations. In this view, the variation of the ngi.O under zero. But the same barometer, carried boiling point of water was proposed by Fahrenheit, as down to the shore of the Pacific Ocean, rose exactly far back as the year 1724, the idea having occurred to to 30 inches, while both the attached and detached him,as it had done before to Amontons, while engaged thermometers stood at 25°.3. Consequently the cor- wit experiments to perfect his thermometer. Little regard, however, seems to have been paid to the sugges-
BAROMETRICAL MEASURE M E N T S. 13(5 temperature of 5±°. The correction for the actual Baroniein. Kai omctvi- tion, till De Luc and Saussure made a series of observa- mean temperature can easily be applied. If a more surernents cal Mea- tions on the heat of ebullition at different elevations surement above the surface. About thirty years since, Caval- correct coefficient be afterwards determined, the ■ Jt- . same thousand, retained as a multiplier, may easily lo attempted to revive the scheme of Fahrenheit, be adapted to another temperature. but experienced much difficulty in preventing the This method of measuring elevations on the sur- Mode of irregular starts of the thermometer plunged in boilof the globe is, therefore, capable of great im- f!^1'jYer' ing‘water. The best and surest way of examining face provement, and might be employed with advantage the heat of ebullition, is to suspend the bulb of the in a variety of cases where observations with the bathermometer in the confined steam, as it rises from rometer are not easily obtained. Its application would the water ; and this mode, we understand, has very be most important to physical geography, in ascerlately been resumed, with great prospect of success, taining the capital points for tracing the outline ot by the Reverend Mr Wollaston. the profile or vertical section of any country. I he The heat at which water boils, or passes into the common maps, which exhibit mere superficial exTemperature of form of steam, depends on the weight of the super- tension, are quite insufficient to represent the great Boilinu incumbent atmosphere. By diminishing this pres- features of nature, since the climate and productions nfeHoUie sure, the point of ebullition is aalways lowered. It of any place depend as much on its elevation above Emra appears that, —» while the — boiling heat sinks by equal cpn •!« its latitude. Scientific travellers have actiou of differences, the corresponding atmospheric pressure ^e ^iv t^ned their attention of late years to the Heights. decreases exactly, or at ieast extremely neai y, framil ” vertical sections. As a specimen, we give a geometrical progression; it being found ^ ^ |2) from Humboldt’s Geography of Plants, a every time such pressure is ledmced to one , .j’ across the American Continent, one of the temperature of boiling water suffers a regu ar c imn i - ^ and most interesting that has yet appeared. tion of about eighteen centesimal deg • It consists in fact, of four combined sections, trabeautiful relation assimilates with the law which con- 11 c? ‘ , ’ extent of 4,35 miies. The line nects the density and elevation of the successive stra a g AcapUicC0 on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, of the atmosphere. The interval noticed between the beg>ns at Acapulco & of the compass boiling points at two distinct stations must be pro- and ru J North> toPthe city of Mexico; portional to their difference of altitude above t ^ ^ miles a point to the South of East, to La level of the sea. We have, therefore, only to dete ^ ^ Angeles ; again it holds a North-East mine the coefficient or constant multip ler ; w direction 0f 70 miles, to the Cruz Blanca ; and finally may be discovered either from an experiment u . g() mijeg Eagt b South> t0 Vera Cruz, on the the rarefied receiver of an air-pump, 01 trom an a Atlantic. A scale of altitudes is annexed, tual observation performed at the bottom and on the Xch1hoL the vast elevation of the table-land of r top of some lofty mountain We shall prefe at p “ ^ex.co An attempt is likewise made in this profile sent the observation made by Saussure on the s ^ „eoiogicai structure of the mit of Mont Blanc. This diligent philosopher fount, ^ S Limestone is represented by straight st by means of a very debcatethermotneterconstruc^d ^ [nclined fr0m the horizontal position: on purpose, that water which boiled at 101 *6 rtn^nh hv straight lines slightly reclined from the plain below when the barometer stood at 30 S34 wived lines somewhat English inches, boiled at S6“.24 on the top o ^ | Q,.anite by contused hatches : Amygdaloid, mountain, while the barometer had sunk to 17.136. itcnneu ^ y Wherefore the distance between the points ot ebulli- by P levelling, a very interest-The Cas tion, or 1.1.38 centesimal ^g-M-»»™sp»nd to ; ^“y^rquarter^ our "globe, hasP-,^ an approximate elevation ot 15,050 feet, which g S 7 d by Engelhardt and Parrot, two tl 0ce„ !,78i feet of ascent for each degree, supposing the been recenuy ^ S ded) on the 13th mean temperature of the atmospheric column to mouth of the Kuban, at the e that of congelation. But it will be more convenient “ Black Sea . and, examinto assume 1000 for the constant multiplier, wuc ^ e ’ day the state of the barometer, corresponds to the temperature of Ojj • , ° advanced with fifty-one observations, the disTo reduce this very simple result into practice, J wersts or 711 English miles, to the would be requisite to have a thermometer with a fine c rr< on the margin of the Caspian capillary bor‘e, and nicely constructed, the stem six ^ ^Jlrwere Repeated and Llor eight inches long, and bearing ten or a few more Sea. bimilai onserva ^ ^ comparison degrees from the boiling point; these degrees to be tip i .t )bjlows ,hat the Caspian is 334 Engdivided into twenty or perhaps fifty equal parts en- o > ^ levei0f the Black Sea. That the graved on the tube, which should be rather thick, veaiiv occupies a lower level than the Ocean, a P and terminating in a bulb of about half an inch dia^ b en suspected before, from a comparison of meter. This thermometer, being fitted with a brass hat - . 1 f barometers kept at St Petersburg, ring two inches above the bulb, should screw into but the laft the narrow neck of a small copper flask, whichjiolds ^bgervatiou laces the question beyond all doubt. some water, but has a hole perforated near the top It farther appears, that within 250 wersts, or 189 for allowing the steam to escape. The water may miles, of the Caspian, the country is already depressbe made to boil by the application of a lamp. The to the level of the Ocean, leaving, therefore, an difference between the indications of the thermome- ed immense bason, from which the waters are supposea ters at the two stations being multiplied by a thousand feet, will give the elevation corresponding to a to have retired by a subterranean percolation. fD-l
BAROMETER
VT ATT,'
bar BARRACKS. Till the middle of the year 1792, when there was a prospect of a war with revoluHistorical tionary France, and the British ministry were apNotices. prehensive of disturbances in this country, barracks were neither very numerous, nor were they under the control and management of a separate and peculiar Board. I ill that time, they were built under the authority and directions of the Board of Ordnance, by whom they were supplied with bedding and the necessary utensils. Anv extra articles that were requisite were supplied by the secretary at war. In 1792, orders were given by the ministry to build cavalry barracks with the utmost despatch, and the Barracks
< eP t)
general was dir i ubudding -i^JUtant to superintend the and' fitting them up.ected In January 1793 he was appointed superintendant-general of barracks ; and, on the 1st of May that year, the King’s wan ant was issued for their regulation. Greater powers were given to the superintendant-general in the year 1794; but as these seemed to interfere with the duties and powers of the Board of Ordnance a new warrant was issued in the year 1795, defining and limiting the respective duties and powers of the Board of Ordnance, and the superintendant-general, or barrack-master-general, as he was now called. In the year 1796, the barrack-office establishment consisted ot a barrack-master-general, with two clerks ; a deputy-barrack-master-general; an assistant-barrack-master-general, with three clerks- an accountant, with five clerks; an assistant-barrackmaster-general for the general inspection of barracks, and six other assistant-barrack-masters-general lor the particular inspection of barracks in different districts; five clerks for general business; one assistant-barrack-master-general for the buildine branch ; one checking clerk, and seven other clerks” two architects and surveyors; one assistant-barrackmaster-general m North Britain ; with two assistants and clerks ; one treasurer ; and three other assistantbarracK-masters-general for general duties, and visiting barracks. The salaries and extra pay of these officers amounted, in 1796, to L. 9524, l7s. 2d. The establishment was afterwards considerably increased in proportion as the number of barracks throughout the kingdom increased, and by the creation of some ew officers, among whom was a law clerk. In 180tf the salaries amounted to L. 19,329, 4s. 10d. Official Re • Dunng this year, the commissioners of military inports re- quiry began their duties ; and their first reports were specting on the subject of the barrack establishment: In the arbarracks. rangement of this establishment, and in the mode in
resnect tn HUtieS PpheS "7* ot P?rformed ’ particularly with Coals t0 the barracks° d1 ®uhe ntracts > different for no ’ r u? building them, they able and C CUd ^ that were highly objectioninsrthattf ffi rdt their rePorts byrecommend0ffiCeS f barrack ma putv ban nck ° g neral -shouIdbetotall «ter-general, and deed yamnw'fB ’ yabolishtablishLnt cBhei?,U,Penntendence of the barrack essutt Z T d bG VeSted in commissi°ners. This ^ ds °?le others to the and modepreof transacting the business of therelative department, Arfollowed8 expenditure, ifave getnent. been under the dir ^ 116 barrack establishment is now 0f f0 r VOL. ,7 fZT " commissioners, one of
an
BAR i37 whom is generally a military man. The mode of Barrack*, writing letters in this public department is deservinoof notice and imitation, as securing despatch and accuracy. A sheet of paper being folded in the middie, officers of the department, who address the barrack-office, w rite their letters on the left side; and. along with the original letter, send a duplicate in the same form, and signed also. On the blank side of the duplicate is written the official answer from the ba.lack-office which is sent; and, on the original letter, which is preserved in the office, is copied the answer: each party has thus an exact copy of the whole correspondence. As it frequently happened, that it w-as absolutely Clan-c ia necessary to build barracks on an emergency, when ihe Dethere was no time to summon a jury to value the ,i?Dce Act land before the commencement of the building, and Bar rack-" as most persons were averse to have barracks near their dwelling-houses, or even on their property. Government was often obliged to pay an extravagant price for the land which they needed for their erection ; in order to remedy this evil, it was provided by the act, usually called the defence act, 43d Geo. HI. cap. 55, that Justices of the Peace might put any general officer into the possession of such ground as he might deem fit for the erection of barracks ;—the value of it to be settled afterwards by a jury;—provided, however, the necessity for such ground was certified by the Lord-Lieutenant, or two Deputy-Lieutenants of the county. Barracks throughout the country are more immediately under the management and care of the assistant-barrack-masters-general, and the resident barrack-masters ; the former are attached to districts; the latter to particular barracks. The following are the districts in Great Britain ;
1. Northern, containing Northumberland, Cumber- Baira(k land, Westmoreland, and Durham. Distiicb. 2. York, containing Yorkshire. 3. Eastern, containing Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdonshire, and all Essex, except Tilburyfort. 4. Southern, containing Kent, Tilbury-fort, and Sussex. 5. South-western, containing Hampshire and Dorsetshire. 6. Isle of Wight. 7. Western, containing Devonshire, Cornwall, and Somerset. 8. Severn, containing Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. 9- North-western, containing Cheshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, North Wales, and the Isle of Man. 10. London. 11. Home, containing Middlesex, Surrey, Hertfordshire, and part of Kent. 12. North-inland, containing Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicester shire, and Rutlandshire. IS. South-inland,containing Bedfordshire,Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire. 1 14. Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney.^
B
A R SCOTLAND.
BAR
Lodging-money to officers, .39,582 16 0 Barr* Engines, ; 11,800 o o Barry Northern, containing Caithness, Sutherland, Ro^s- Bedding, furniture, &c. issued by the Barrack-office, and in store, 1,357,215 7 3 ^ shire, Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Morayshire, and Miscellaneous, " 35,498 4 8 Westerrn^containing Aberdeenshire, Argyllshire, L. 9,024,005 8 9 Total, Ayrshire, Bute, Kincardineshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and Wigtonshire. The annual expence, during the last war, varied Present Centre, containing Angus-shire, Clackmannanshire, Dunbartonshire, Fifeshire, Kinross-shire, Peit from L. 350,000 to L. 500,000 ; in the year 1814, it Spence, shire, and Stirlingshire. . . ,. was L. 309,826. The peace estimate lor 1816 is Southern, containing the Loth.ans Berwickshire L. 173,500. In Ireland, where barracks are more Peebles-shire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire, and numerous, the expence, in 1814, was L. 360,515, Dumfries-shire. and the peace estimate for 1816 is L. 213,000. See first, second, third, and fourth Reports of the Number of On the 14th of July 1805, there were in Great Commissioners of Military Inquiry, 1806 ; and the Barracks in Britain and Jersey, &c. Finance Reports and Estimates laid before 1 arliament 1305. 84 for the years 1814 and 1816. (C-) Established barracks of brick and stone 12 BARRY (James), an eminent painter, was born of wood 75 at Cork, in Ireland, October 11, 1741. His father Temporary barracks 41 had been a builder, and at one time ot his life, a - rented coasting trader between the two countries of Eng212 land and Ireland, To this business of a trader was James destined, and he actually made, when a boy, The annual rents at this time amounted to several voyages; but these voyages being forced up1 40 231. The whole of these barracks were cal- on him, he on one occasion ran away from the ship, culated to accommodate nearly 100,000 foot and and on others discovered such an aversion to the file Accommo- 15,000 cavalry. In the cavalry barracks, «eld-oft- and habits of a sailor, as to induce his lather to quit dations and cers have two rooms each ; captains one ; subalter , all hopes of him in this line, and to sutler him o Supplies. gtatf and quarter-masters, one; Serjeants of each troop pursue his inclinations, which led him to drawing of dragoons, and corporals of each troop ol horse, one; and study. When on board his father s vessel, ineight rank and fde one among them ; and two rooms stead of “handling sails and ropes, and climbing the arc allowed for the officers’ mess. In infantry bai racks, mast, he was generally occupied with a piece of field-officers are allowed two each ; captains one ; one black chalk, sketching the coast, or drawing figuies, is allotted to two subalterns; the stall has one ; twe ve as his fancy directed him. When his father found non- commissioned officers and pr.vate men, one a- that the idea of making a sailor of him must be mongthem; the serjeant-major and quarter-master- o-iven up, he permitted him to acquire as much inserjeant, one; and two are allotted for the officeis struction as the schools of Cork afforded; hut ong mess. The barracks are supplied by the ban ack-office retained his aversion to the chalx drawings, with with beds, bedding, sheets, blankets, towels, house which the floors and walls of the house were coverand stable utensils, coals and candles: beei was fm- ed • the boy being always engaged in some attempt merly supplied, but now an allowance is made in- at large figures, and early catching at the means of representing action, attitude, and passion. It was stead of it. Forage is supplied by the commissano The expence of erecting barracks must of cou -e at a very early period of his life that some bookseller greatly depend on the price of materials at the time, in Ireland, undertaking to reprint a set of fables o emblems, young Barry offered to furnish the drawand, in some measure, on the part ol tne kingc where they are erected. In the year 1805, perma- ings, and, as it is believed, helped to etch the ennent barracks for a battalion of 800 men, m the south gravings, such as they were. At the schools m of England, cost L. 37,000; and barracks lor 1,00 Cork which he was sent to, he was distinguished by his’parts and industry above his school-fellows; h,s infantry and 400 cavalry L. 60,000. Expence The following statement exhibits the several pa - habits differed from those of ordinary boys, as he from 1792 ticuiars 0f the total expence incurred by the nation seldom mixed in their games or amusements, but at t° 1804. for barracks> and the barrack-office, in Great Britain, those times stole off to his own room, where he between the 25th of December 1792, and the 10th worked at his pencil, or was studying some book that he had borrowed or bought. He would spend of November 1804 : whole nights in this manner at his studies, to the Buildings and purchases of land, L. 3,930,223 alarm of his mother, who dreaded his injuring 1^ 846,246 Forage, health or setting fire to the house, and who often 643,030 Beer, kept up his sister or the servant to watch him. Coals, candles, furniture, rents, His allowance of money he spent in buying books repairs, supplied by barrackor candles to read by; he sometimes locked him1,685,487 3 masters, and salaries, U self up in his room for days, and seldom P* 256,129 10 Office-establishment, nn Ids bed or else made it so hard as to take 80,346 3 Fees at War-office, Tway tl,e Iptation or luxury of lying long .m.1,519 2 Insurance, Perhaps the unsocial and ascetic turn ot hi p » 36,860 13 Additional rents.
Barry.
BAR B A R which thus early manifested itself, might be re- during his lifetime. He was said at one time to marked as the source both of the misfortunes of his have been destined for the priesthood, but for this life, and of the defects of his genius. Common hu- i eport there is no authority. He, howrever, always manity, a sense of pleasure, and a sympathy with the continued a Catholic, and in the decline of life manifeelings of those around us, is not more necessary to fested rather a bigoted attachment to the religion of success in life, than it probably is to success in the his early choice. For a short interval he had a little fine arts. Few things can be more fatal to the artist wavering in his belief of revealed religion in general; than this sort ot indifference to the common plea- but a conversation with Mr Edmund Burke put an sures and pursuits of life. If affected, it is bad; if end to this levity. A book which Mr Burke lent real and constitutional, it is even vrorse. It stuck nm, and which settled his mind on this subject, was to poor Barry to the last. It is not to be understood Bishop Butler’s Analogy; and as a suitable reward, that, at this period of his life, he led the life of an ie has placed this Prelate in the group of divines, in absolute recluse, for he could and did occasionally his picture of Elysium. join in any feats going on in the neighbourhood, and About the age ot seventeen he first attempted was not behind other boys in such pastimes and mis- oil paintings; and between that and the age of chief as boys are usually fond of An adventure when he first went to Dublin, he which happened to him about this time, and which twenty-two, produced several large ones, which decorated his left a strong impression on his mind, is worth men- father'* house, and represented subjects not often tioning here. In one of his rambles in the neighhandled by young men ; such as iEneas escaping with bourhood, he entered, one winter’s evening, an old, his family from the flames of Troy; Susanna and and, as he thought, an uninhabited house, situate in the Fleers; Daniel in the Lion’s Den, &c. At this a narrow bye-lane in the city of Cork. The house he also produced the picture which first drew was without doors or windows ; but curiosity impelled period, mm into public notice, launched him on an ampler him to enter, and, after mounting a rotten staircase, theatre than his native town of Cork afforded, and, which conducted to empty rooms on different floors, and patronhe arrived at the garret, where he could just discern, above ali, gained him the acquaintance r age of Mr Burke. This picture w as founded an by the glimmering light of a few embers, two old old tradition of the landing of St Patrick on theonseaand emaciated figures, broken by age, disease, and of Cashel, and of the conversion and baptism want, sitting beside each other, in the act as far as coast o t ic king of that district by the patron saint of their palsied efforts would permit, of tearing each other s faces ; not a word being uttered by either, but Ireland. The priest, in the act of baptizing his new convert, inadvertently strikes the spear ofthecrozier with the most horrible grimaces that malice could in- in the foot of the monarch. The holy father, abvent. They took no notice of his entrance, but went sorbed in the duties of his office, does not perceive on with their deeds of mutual hate, which made what he has done, and the king, without interruptsuch an impression on the boy that he ran down stairs, making his own reflections, which he after- ing t ie ceremony, bears the pain with immoveable wards found verified through life, that man and all fortitude. This incident, together with the gestures animals are malicious and cruel in proportion as they and expressions of the attendants, certainly formed are impotent; ahd that age and poverty, tw o of the a good subject for an historical picture; and Mr manner of treating it was such as to ensure worst evils in human life, almost always add to the ca- Barry’s the applause and admiration of the connoisseurs lamities inherent in them by arts of their own creating, him n general, his great desire to improve his mind led of the metropolis of the sister kingdom, w here it w as him to seek the society of educated men ; who were exhibited in 1762 or 1763. Mr Barry took this not averse to receive him, seeing his active and in- picture with him to Dublin ; and afterwards going to the exhibition room, being delighted wfith the enquisitive disposition, and his seriousness of manner, it received from the spectators, he could couched under a garb the plainest and coarsest; for comiums cot refrain from making himself known as the painthe adopted this kind of attire from his childhood, not 10m affectation, but from an indifference to all dress. er. His pretensions were treated with great conHaving a retentive memory, he profited by his owm tempt by the company, and Barry burst into tears of anger and vexation. But the incredulity of his reading, and by the conversation of others, who di- hearers was a compliment paid to the real or suprected him also in the choice of books. As his finances were too low to make many purchases, he posed excellence of his painting. It appears that a Dr bleigh, a physician of Cork, and a sensible and borrowed books from his friends, and was in the amiable man, was first instrumental in introducing practice of making large extracts from such as he particularly hked, and sometimes even of copying young Barry to the notice of Mr Burke. During u t e wiole book, of which several specimens were t leir early acquaintance, having fallen into a dispute ound among his papers, written in a stiff school- on the subject of taste, Barry quoted a passage in support of his opinion from the Essay on the Sublime vnnr._ ' A® hjs industry w.’as excessive, his ad- and Beautiful, which had been just then published m 16 mrl of knowledge were rapid, anonymously, and which Barry, in his youthful adre £ 1 e i S J ^ d as a prodigy by his school-fel- miration of it, had, it seems, transcribed entire. m a couhl ^i zealous Catholic, the son Bui ke affected to treat this work as a theoretical ronripsts 0 ^01 Irilxing at times in the company of mance, of no authority whatever, which threw Barry book o»e ,ent 1 C°rk’ wh0 pointed out to him into such a rage in its defence, that Mr Burke emi Ca div,nit wh greit i whichy’heofretained ich he became reader, anda for a strong biasa thought it necessary to appease him by owning hima tat re!f£° self to be the author. The scene ended in Barry’s
139 Barry,
B A R BAR 140 expression of them must'be instantaneous, such as JBarry. Barry, running to embrace him, and showing him the copy gave the results of them with a stroke of the pen, as of the work, which he had been at the pains to tran- they were received by a glance ot the eye, and e scribe. He passed his time in Dublin m reading, could not wait for the slow process oi the pencil lor drawing, and society. While he resided here, an embodying his conceptions in the necessary details o anecdote is preserved of him, which marks the cha- his own art. It was his desire to make the ideas and racter of the man. He had been enticed by his language of painting coinstantaneous,—-to express companions several times to carousmgs at a tavern, abstract results by abstract mechanical means (a and one night, as he wandered home by himself, a thing impossible),—to stamp the idea m his mind at thought struck him of the frivolity and viciousness once upon the canvass, without knowledge ot its of thus mis-spending his time : the fault, he imagined, parts, without labour, without patience, without a lay in his money, and, therefore, without more ado, moment’s time or thought intervening between what in order to avoid the morrow’s temptation, he threw he wished to do and its being done, that was perthe whole of his wealth, which perhaps amounted to haps the principal obstacle to his ever attaining a no great sum, into the Liffey, and locked himself up degree of excellence in his profession at all proporat his favourite pursuits. After a residence or seven tioned either to his ambition or his genius. It is or eight months in Dublin, an opportunity oftered ot probable, that, as his hand had not the patience to accompanying some part of Mr Burkes family o give the details of objects, his eye, from the same London, which he eagerly embraced. Hus took habit of mind, had not the power to analyze them. place sometime in the year 1764, when he was twenty- It is possible, however, to see the results without the three years of age, and with one of those advantages same laborious process that is necessaiy to comey which do not always fall to the lot of young artists them ; for the eye sees faster than the hand can on their arrival in the British capital, that of being recommended to the acquaintance of the most emi- m°\Ve suspect Mr Barry did not succeed very nent men in the profession by the persuasive elo- well in copying the pictures he so well describes; quence of a man who, to genius in himself, added because he appears to have copied but few, only one the rare and noble quality of encouraging it in of Raphael, as far as we can find, and three frona others ; this was Mr Burke, who lost no time, not Titian, whom he justly considered as the model of merely in making Barry known, but m procuring for colouring, and as more perfect m that department of him the first of all objects to an inexperienced and the art than either Raphael or Michael Angelo were destitute young artist, employment. This employ- in theirs, expression and form, the highest excelment was chiefly that of copying in oil drawings by lence in which he conceives to have been possessed Mr Stewart, better known by the name of Athenian only by the ancients. In copying from the antique, Stewart; and whether it suited the ambition of Bar- however, he manifested the same aversion to labour, ry or not, to be at this kind of labour, yet there can or to that kind of labour which, by showing us our be no doubt that he profited by his connection with defects, compels us to make exertions to remedy such a man as Stewart, and had full leisure to cast them. Me made all his drawings from the antique, his eye about, and to improve by the general aspect by means of a delineator, that is, a mechanical inof art and artists that occupied the period. strument, to save the trouble of acquiring a knowMr Burke and his other friends thinking it important ledge both of form and proportion. In this manner, that he should be introduced to a wider and nobler equally gratifying to his indolence and his self-love, school of art than this country afforded, now came he is stated to have made numberless sketches of t ic forward with the means necessary to accomplish this antique statues, of all sizes, and m ail directions, object; and in the latter end of 1765 Mr Barry pro- carefully noting down on his sketch-paper their seceeded to the Continent, where he remained till the veral measurements and proportions. beginning of 1771, studying his art with an enthuThe consequences are before us in his pictures; siasm which seemed to augur the highest success, namely, that all those of his figures which he took and making observations on the different c/ic/W oeuvres from these memorandums are deficient in everything of Italy with equal independence of judgment and but form, and that all the others are equally deficient nicety of discrimination. He was supported during in form and everything else. If he did not employ this period by the friendly liberality of the Burke his pencil properly, or enough, in copying from the family (Edmund, William, and Richard), who allow- models he saw, he employed his thoughts and his ed him forty pounds a-year for his necessary expen- pen about them with indefatigable zeal and spirit. diture, besides occasional remittances tor particular He talked well about them; he wrote well about purposes. He proceeded first to Paris, then to Rome, them he made researches into all the collateral where he remained upwards of three years, from branches of art and knowledge, sculpture, architecthence to Florence and Bologna, and home through ture, cameos, seals, and intaglios. There is a long Venice. His letters to the Burkes, giving an ac- letter of his, addressed to Mr Burke, on the origin count of Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and Leothe Gothic style of architecture, written, as it nardo da Vinci, show a complete insight into the of seem, to convince his friend and patron o is characteristic merits ot their works, and would make should industry in neglecting his proper business. Soon us wonder (if the case were at all singular) how he after his arrival at Rome, he became embroiled with could enter with such force, delicacy, and feeling, whole tribe of connoisseurs, painters, anu patrons into excellencies of which he never transplanted an the there, whether native or foreign, on subjects atom into his own works. He saw, felt, and wrote ; and he continued in this state ot hostility witn io his impressions were profound and refined, but the
BAR B A R around him while he staid there, and, indeed, to the his great style of art, which consisted in painting en d of his life. One might be tempted to suppose, Greek subjects, and it accordingly is said to “ have that Barry chiefly studied his art as a subject to em- obtained no praise.” His fondness for Greek costume ploy his dialectics upon. On this unfortunate disposi- was assigned by his admirers as the cause of his retion of his to wrangling and controversy, as it was luctance to paint portraits; as if the coat was of likely to affect his progress in his art and his progress more importance than the face. His fastidiousness, in life, he received some most judicious advice from m this respect, and his frequent excuses, or blunt Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr Burke, his answers to refusals, to go on with a portrait of Mr Burke, which show an admirable self-ignorance. On his ir- which he had begun, caused a misunderstanding ritable denunciations of the practices and tricks of with that gentleman, which does not appear to the Italian picture-dealers, Mr Burke makes a re- have been ever entirely made up. The difference flection well deserving of attention. “ In particular, between them is said to have been widened by you may be assured that the traffic in antiquity, and Burke’s growing intimacy with Sir Joshua, and by all the enthusiasm, folly, and fraud, which may be in Barry s feeling some little jealousy of the fame and it, never did, nor never can hurt the merit of living- fortune of his rival in an humbler walk of the art. artists. Quite the contrary, in my opinion; for I He, about the same time, painted a pair of clashave ever observed, that, whatever it be that turns sical subjects, Mercury inventing the lyre, and the minds of men to anything relative to the arts, Narcissus looking at himself in the water, the last even the most remotely so, brings artists more aiM suggested to him by Mr Burke. He also paintmore into credit and repute ; and though, now and ed an historical picture of Chiron and Achilles, then, the mere broker and dealer in such things runs and another of the story of Stratonice, for which away with a great deal of profit, yet, in the end, in- last the Duke of Richmond gave him a hundred genious men will find themselves gainers by the dis- guineas. In 1773, there was a plan in contempositions which are nourished and diffused in the plation for our artists to decorate the inside of St world by such pursuits.” Mr Barry painted two pic- Paul’s with historical and sacred subjects; but this tures while abroad, his Adam and Eve and his Phi- plan fell to the ground, from its not meeting with the loctetes. The first of these he sent home as a speci- concurrence of the Bishop of London and the Archmen of his progress in the art. It does not appear bishop of Canterbury, to the no small mortification to have given much satisfaction. His Philoctetes he of Barry, who had fixed upon the subject he was brought home with him. It is a most wretched, to paint,—the rejection of Christ by the Jews when coarse, unclassical performance, the directly opposite to all that he thought it to be. During his stay Pilate proposes his release. In 1775, he published An Inquiry into the real and imaginary Obstructions at Rome, he made an excursion to Naples, and was to the Acquisition of the Arts in England, vindicating highly delighted with the collections of art there. the capacity of the English for the fine arts, and All the time he was abroad, Mr Burke and his brotracing their slow progress hitherto to the Reformathers not only were punctual in their remittances to tion ; to political and civil dissensions ; and, lastly him, but kept up a most friendly and cordial cor- to the general turn of the public mind to mechanics, respondence. On one occasion, owing to the delay manufactures, and commerce. In the year 1774of a letter, a bill which Barry had presented to a the failure of the scheme for decorating banker was dishonoured. This detained Barry for shortly after s some time at the place where he was in very awk- . i fful > a proposal was made, through Mr Valenward circumstances, and he had thoughts of getting tme Green, to the same artists, Reynolds, West, Cipriani, Barry, &c. for ornamenting the great room rid of his chagrin and of his prospects in life at once of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Maby running away and turning friar. For some time nufactures, and Commerce, in the Adelphi, with histoprevious to his return to England, Mr Hamilton (af- rical and allegorical paintings. This proposal was, at terwards Sir William) appears to have been almost the time, rejected by the artists themselves; but, in the only person with whom he kept up any intimacy. It was on his return home through Milan that he 1777, Mr Barry made an offer to paint the whole himself, on condition of being allowed the choice of witnessed, and has recorded with due reprobation, his subjects, and being paid the expence of canvass the destruction of Leonardo’s Last Supper, which two bungling artists were employed to paint over by paints, and models, by the Society. This offer was order ot one Count de Firmian, the secretary of accepted, and he finished the series of pictures at the end of seven years, instead of two, which he had In the spring of 1771, Mr Barry arrived in Eng- proposed to himself, but with entire satisfaction to and, after an absence of five years. He soon after the members of the Society, for whom it was intended, and who conducted themselves to him with libeproduced his picture of Venus, which has been rality throughout. They granted him two exhibicompared to the Galatea of Raphael, the Venus of tions, and at (efferent periods voted him 50 guineas, 1 1 an ti't j. ’ ^,flattered ^le ^enus of that Medicis, without reason. . ir Barry himself he had surpassed the their gold medal, and again 200 guineas, and a seat famous statue of that name, by avoiding the ap lear- among them. Dr Johnson remarked, when he saw the pictures, that, “whatever the hand had done, the ll - There is engraving of it head htul done its part” There was an excellent Junhlr^A Jun I106 Green * In 1778> he exhibited his anonymous criticism, su posed to be by Mr Burke, 0n Mount Ida nrm , 1 b ° > which was much published on them, in answer to some remarks put CntlCS 01 tnat His oi General ^ eneral Wolfe was considered as a falling off from ' lorth by Barry, in his descriptive catalogue, on the 1 ea style of art, and the necessity of size to gran-
Barry,
341 Barry.
142 Barry.
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Bam. Soon after Mr Barry’s return from the Continent, ( deur. His notions on both these subjects are very he was chosen a member ot the Royal Academy , ' ably controverted, and, indeed, they are the rock on and in 1782, was appointed professor ot painting, in which Barry’s genius split. It would be curious it the room of Mr Penny, with a salary of L. 30 aMr Burke were the author of these strictures , to year. The lectures which he delivered from the it is not improbable that Barry was led into the last chair were full of strong sense, and strong advice, error, here deprecated, by that authors on the to the students and academicians. Among Sublime and Beautiful. The series consists of six both other things, he insisted much on the necessity ot pictures, showing the progress of human culture purchasing a collection of pictures by the best masThe first represents Orpheus taming the savages by ters as models for the students, and proposed sevehis lyre. The figure of Orpheus himself is more ral of those in the Orleans collection. This recomlike a drunken bacchanal than an inspired poet or menaauon mendation was wuo .1not relished , ,hpsf.; i . it.-.:.. by —...the. academicians, lawgiver. The only part of this picture which is va- who, perhaps, thought their own pictures the best luable is the background, m one part of which a lion models for their several pupils. Bickerings, jeais seen ready to dart upon a family group milking lousies, and quarrels arose, and at length reached near a cave, and, in another, a tyger is pursuing a such a height, that, in 1799, Mr Barry was expelled horse. There is certainly a scope of thought and from the academy, soon after the appearance ot his picturesque invention, in thus showing indirectly the Letter to the Dilettanti Society ; a very amusing, but protection which civilization extends, as it were, over eccentric publication, full of the highest enthusiasm both man and animals. The second picture is a Gre- for his art, and the lowest contempt tor the living cian harvest, which has nothing Grecian in it. But professors of it. In 1800, he undertook a design or we cannot apply this censure to the third pictu.e of drawing to celebrate the union of the two kingdoms the Olympic games, some ot the figures m wine , of Great Britain and Ireland. The profits of the and the principal group, are exceedingly graceful, two exhibitions of the Adelphi pictures are said to classical, and finely conceived. This P-t-e ^s the have amounted to above L. 500. Lord Romney only proof Mr Barry has left upon canvass that he presented him with 100 guineas for his portrait, of the was not utterly insensible to the , which had been copied into one ot the pictures, and The figure of the young man on horseback really he had 20 guineas for a head of Mr Hooper. He reminds the spectator of some of the Elgin marbles; probably received other sums for portraits introand the outlines of the two youthful victors at the duced into the work. By extreme frugality he games, supporting their father on their shoulders, are contrived, not only to live, but to save money. excellent. The colouring is, however, as bald an His house was twice robbed of sums which be wretched in this picture as the rest, and there is a kept by him ; one of the times (in 1794) of upgreat want of expression. The fourth picture is t e wards of L. 100 ; a loss which was made up by the triumph of commerce, with Dr Burney swimming m munificence of Lord Radnor, and bj t at o us hl3 sa the Thames, with his hair powdered, among naked friends, the Hollis’s. After the loss sea-nymphs. The filth, the Society of Arts, distn lary, a subscription was set on foot by the Lai buting their annual prizes. And the sixth represen s of Buchan to relieve him from his difficulties, and Elysium. This last picture is a collection ot carica- to settle him in a larger lions*; to finish Ms Picture tured portraits of celebrated individuals of all ages of Pandora. The subscription amounted to L. 1000, and nations, strangely jumbled together, with a^uge with which an annuity was bought; but of this he allegorical figure of Retribution driving Heresy, Vice, was prevented from enjoying the benefit; lor, on the andAtheism, into the infernal regions. The mora 6th of February 1806, he was seized with a pleuritic design of all these pictures is much better explained fever, and as he neglected medical assistance at first, in the catalogue than on the canvass; and the artist it was afterwards of no use. After lingering on for has added none of the graces ol the pencil to it , a fortnight in considerable pain, but without losing any of them, with the exception above made. Mr his fortitude of mind, he died on the22doi the same Barry appears, however, to have rested his preten- month. On the 13th of March, the body was taken sions to feme as an artist on this work, for be fed lit- to the great room of the Society of Arts, and was tle afterwards but paltry engravings from himself, thence attended, the following day, by a numerous and the enormous and totally worthless picture of and respectable train of his friends to the cathedral Pandora in the assembly ot the gods. His sc of St Paul’s, where it was deposited. nial, frugality, and fortitude, in the prosecution of Ins Mr Barry, as an artist, a writer, and a man, was diswork at the Adelphi, cannot be too much applauded. tinguished by great inequality of powers and extreme He has been heard to say, that at the time of his contradictions in character. He was gross and refined undertaking it, he had only l6s. in his pocket, and at the same time ; violent and urbane ; sociable and that he had often been obliged, after painting all sullen; inflammable and inert; ardent and phlegmatic, day, to sit up at night to sketch or engrave some relapsing from enthusiasm into indolence ; irritable, de&m for the printsellers, which was to supply him headstrong, impatient of restraint; captious m Ms with5his next day’s subsistence. In this manner he intercourse with his friends, wavering and desultory lid his printe of/ob, dedicated to Mr Burke, of the in his profession. In his personal habits he was Birth of Venus, Polcraon, Head ot Chatham, King careless of appearances or decency, penurious, sloLear from the picture painted for the Shakespear venly, and squalid. He regarded nothing but hi irallerv &c. His prints are caricatures even ot his immediate impulses, confirmed into incorrigible hapictures: they seem engraved on rotten wood.
BAR bits. His pencil was under no control.
BAR 143 derived from other sources, and train himself in those Barthez. anC habits of nice discrimination of symptoms, and of Barthez to * ^an( ^ seeme d toup,receive a first rude impulse, which it gave itself and paid no regard to any prompt decision in practice, without which learning thing else. The strength of the original impetus is of little avail in the actual exercise of the art. He only drove him farther from his object. His genius spent his whole time at the hospital, and often passconstantly flew off in tangents, and came in contact ed the night by the bed-side of his patients. Though with nature only at salient points. There are two naturally of a good constitution, his strength was not drawings of his from statues of a lion and a lioness commensurate with the ardour of his mind, and the at Rome ; the nose of the lioness is two strait lines ; tasks in which he engaged were frequently underthe ears of the lion two curves, which might be mis- taken without duly appreciating the physical powers taken for horns; as if, after it had taken its first direc- necessary for accomplishing them. His health tion, be lost the use of his hand, and his tools work- suffered much from the intensity of his application, ed mechanically and monotonously without his will. and he was often very near falling a sacrifice to His enthusiasm and vigour were exhausted in the fevers and other disorders, which he caught from the conception; the execution was crude and abortive. patients in the hospital, whom he was attending too His writings are a greater acquisition to the art than closely ; and he thence became liable ever after to his paintings. The powers of conversation were what attacks of dysentery and bilious fever. he most excelled in; and the influence which he exMany of the observations and inquiries, which he ercised in this way over all companies where he came, made during this period, were published in the Mein spile of the coarseness of his dress, and the fre- moirs oj the Academy of' Sciences; and two of his quent rudeness of his manner, was great. Take him first productions were crowned by the Academy for all in all, he was a man of wdiose memory it is of Inscriptions. In 1757, his services were required impossible to think without admiration as well as re- in the medical staff of the army of Westphalia, where he had the rank of consulting physician. On his re8ret(z.) BARTHEZ (Paul Joseph), one of the most ce- turn to Paris, he contributed several articles to the lebrated physicians of the University of Montpellier, Journal des Savants, and to the Encyclopedia; and equally remarkable for the variety and extent of his was, indeed, considered for a time as one of the edierudition, as for the vigour of mind displayed in bis tors of the former of those works. In 176l, he beabstruse speculations. Pie was born on the 11th of came candidate for a medical professorship at MontDecember 1734, at Montpellier, and received his pellier, which he fortunately succeeded in obtaining, early education at Narbonne, where his family re- and in which his abilities as a teacher soon shone sided, and afterwards at Poulouse. He soon gave forth with unrivalled lustre. His success was the decisive indications of those talents with which na- more honourable, inasmuch as his colleagues, Lature had endowed him, and which destined him to mure, Leroy, and Venel, were men of distinguished occupy a distinguished station among the learned reputation, and had raised the school to a high pitch men of the age. Ardent in his pursuit of knowledge, of celebrity. But the singular perspicuity, and preand uniting great quickness of apprehension, with a cision of method, and the peculiar grace and facility tenacious memory, his progress in every study which of elocution, with which Barthez conveyed to his he attempted was more than ordinarily rapid; he hearers the ample stores of knowledge of which he had a remarkable facility in acquiring languages, and was in possession, soon attracted a crowd of auditors, at an early age, had made himself master of the an- who spread his fame in all directions. He taught in cient and of several modern ones. He seems to succession all the branches of the medical art; and have been for some time uncertain what profession pronounced, at the opening of the session in 1772, a he should follow; but having at length, at the insti- Latin oration on the Vital Principle in man ; which gation of his father, commenced the study of medi- was published in the following year. About the cine at Montpellier, in 1750, he pursued it with same time appeared his work, entitled, Nova Doceagerness, and his success was proportionate to his tnna de Functionibus Corporis Humani. These two exertions; for, in 1753, when he had only attained works contain a sketch of his peculiar doctrines in his 19th year, he received his doctor’s degree. He physiology ; doctrines which he more fully explained afterwards occasionally visited Paris, where he con- in a subsequent book, under the title of Nouveaux tinued to pursue his studies with indefatigable in- Elemens de la Science de VHomme, 8vo, Montpellier, dustry ; and attracting the notice, not only of those 1778; and of which we shall presently give an acwho were following the same objects, but of those count. who could better appreciate the full extent of his atIn 1774, he was created joint chancellor of the tamments, was admitted to the society, and acquired university, with the certainty of succeeding singly to the friendship of the most distinguished literati of the office on the death of his colleague, which haptnat period. In 1756', he obtained the appointment of pened in 1786. He afterwards took the degree of physician to the military hospital in Normandy, attach- doctor in civil law, and was appointed counsellor to ed to the army of observation commanded by Marshal the Supreme Court of Aids at Montpellier. In estrees. I he zeal and assiduity with which he dis- 1780, he was induced to fix his residence in Paris, c varged the duties of his new office were most exem- having been nominated consulting physician to the ^ Ur* u y t 1ie seernet \ determined to profit which to the was ut- King, with a brevet of counsellor of state, and a penmost extensive field of observation sion of a hundred louis. Honours now crowded upthus opened to him, and in which he could put to on him ; he was admitted free associate of the Acathe test of experience the knowledge which he had demies ot Sciences and of Inscriptions, and appointBarry
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144 Baithe*.
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change the scene altogether, and seek relief amidst Baithez. ed first physician to the Duke ol Orleans, in the the society and amusements of the capital, where he room of Tronchin. His reputation increased in pro- was generally honoured and esteemed. Soon after portion as his merits could be displayed on a wider his removal to Paris, symptoms ot the stone manitheatre. He practised as physician at Pans tor fested themselves, and increased so much in severity, nearly ten years, and received the most flattering that he was advised to submit to the operation of lithotestimonials of public approbation. tomy, as affording the only means of arresting a lingerThis brilliant career was suddenly interrupted by ing and painful death. But he constantly refused to the great political revolution which broke out at this undergo the pain and risk to which it would have neperiod, and by which the interests of every indivi- cessarily exposed him, till, after long protracted sufdual in France, however tranquil his pursuits, or ob- fering, during which he had in vain exhausted all scure his station, were more or less immediately at- the resources of medicine, he was suddenly relieved fected. , . . „ . i by a symptomatic spitting of blood ; this haemorrhage, It was the occasion of Barthez quitting Paris, and however, was pregnant with new dangers, and, by seeking in his native province that tranquillity and its continual recurrence, was the immediate occasion repose? which the stormy aspect of the times for- of his death, on the 15th of October 1806, in the bade him to hope for in a more conspicuous station, 72d year of his age. As we have already stated, he holding, as he did, opinions so much at variance with had published in the same year a second^ edition oi the new order of things. Though he had lost the his Nouveaux Eltmens de la Science de l Homme. He o-reater part of his fortune, acquired by so much .a- bequeathed his books and manuscripts to M. Lordat, bour, and was deprived of the honours to which he who, in consequence, published two volumes of Conpossessed so just a claim, he determined, upon his re- sultations de Medecine, 8vo, Paris, 1810, to which he tiring to Carcassone, that he would practise his pro- prefixed a preface of his own. Previous to the apfession gratuitously, and devote all his leisure pearance of this work, however, a collection ot conto the speculative studies connected with it, which sultations of Barthez, and of some other physicians had been the ruling passion of his life. It was m of Paris, was given to the world by Saint-Ursin; but this retreat that he gave to the world his ISouvdle it appears to have been unauthorized by those to Meckanique des Mouvemens de VHomme et des Ant- whom he had confided his papers, and contains but maux, which appeared in 1798, in quarto; and it was few of the consultations which were afterwards pubat this period, also, that he composed his work on lished by M. Lordat. Another posthumous work ot Gout, a disease to which his attention had been natu- Barthez, the Trade du Beau, preceded by some acrally directed, in consequence of his having frequent- count of his life, was edited in 1807 by his brother, ly suffered under its attacks. , ,,• M. Barthez de Marmorieres, who is known as the An occasion soon occurred which demanded his author of agricultural essays, and projects lor imservices, and he once more emerged from his retire- proving the maritime coast ot Languedoc, together ment, and repaired to the head-quarters ot the army w ith some translations from the oriental languages, of the Eastern Pyrenees, where a contagious fever, and who has been mistaken, in a recent biographical originating from the accumulation of sick in the mi- work, for the subject of the present article. litary hospitals of Perpignan, was committing great Barthez has enjoyed a much higher reputation on ravages. The progress of this contagion was ettec- the Continent than in this country, where, indeed, tually arrested by the adoption of the measures which his writings are but little known. The work which he advised. -,T .. has chiefly contributed to establish his tame, and On the re-establishment of the Co.lege ot Medi- which contains the developement of his peculiar opicine at Montpellier, Barthez was naturally looked up nions on physiology, is the Nouveaux Ele'mens de la to as the person best calculated to revive its former Science de f Homme. It is not written, however, with fame. But age and infirmity operated to dissuade the simplicity and clearness which might have been him from resuming the laborious office ot a teacher , expected from one who had been in the constant and he was accordingly nominated honorary pro- habit of instructing others, and whose lectures were fessor. It was in this capacity that he pronounced, generally admired as possessing those qualities m an in 1801, his Discours sur le genie d'Hippocrate, on eminent degree. He appears to have been early imthe solemn inauguration of the bust ot the fathei o pressed with the futility of all the theories thathadbeen medicine in that school. In the following year, he hitherto advanced in explanation of the phenomena received several marks of tavour from the new go- presented by living beings, and to have been incited vernment under Bonaparte ; he was nominated tituto the bold attempt of raising a new system upon lar physician to the government, and afterwards con- more rational and solid foundations. In the prelimisulting physician to the Emperor, and member ot nary discourse to the work we have alluded to, he the Legion of Honour. lays down, with great, correctness, the fundamental His Trade des Maladies Goutteuses, in two volumes, principles of the method of philosophizing m the naoctavo, appeared in 1802 ; and he afterwards occu- tural sciences. The common object of these sciences pied himself in preparing for the press a new edition he states to be the research into the causes of natuof bis Elemens de la Science de VHomme, ot which he ral phenomena, in as far as they can be learned by but just lived to see the publication. His health experience; and shows that we have no direct knowhad been declining for some years betore his deatn ; ledge of these causes, except as manifested by such he was subject to attacks of melancholy, which ob0 of their effects as we perceive. In the liged him to desist from pursuits that required in- philosophy, numerous causes are assigned to tnese tense application, and at length induced him to
BAR B A R 145 *1^7, apparently diversified effects; during its advance- of philosophers is noticed, at the head of which he Uartlu*. ment, and in proportion as the similarity of effects, places Bacon, and with which he associates Leibnitz, ^1 c***' which had been referred to different causes, is esta- Cudworth, Van Helmont, and Hoflinan, who have reblished, the number of these assigned causes becomes cognised the existence of a vital power different from more and more circumscribed. Although the real the ordinary physical properties of matter, and at. nature of the agents producing those general facts, the same time totally distinct from the soul. After to which we ultimately arrive by following this me- expending much useless argument in refutation of thod of induction, be absolutely unknown, yet, in the Stahlian doctrine of the identity of the vital with reasoning concerning them, we find it convenient to the thinking principles, and devoting a long chapter express them by a name, as if they were really known to the consideration of doubts as to our means of deto us; in the same way as in prosecuting an alge- ciding the question, he shows himself strongly inbraical calculus, we must employ characters to ex- clined to the belief that the principle of life is somepress the unknown, as well as the given quantities. thing which has a separate existence, distinct from But the distinction should ever be kept in view ; and any modification, either of matter or of mind. There we should err greatly were we to imagine that we is little doubt, indeed, that this was his firm percould derive any ultimate advantage by the substi- suasion, as he reasons from it in many parts of his tution of other symbols, which differed from them work, though he seems averse, to declare it, without only in appearance, or which involved the admission qualification, while he is discussing these questions. of some hypothetical principle. Having thus person fed, as he very aptly expresses Such, are the rules by which he professes to be it, this new’ principle of life, he appeals to it for the guided in his own investigations ; and such the tests solution of every difficulty. It is the master key by which he examines and passes judgment upon the which unlocks every secret, and renders all the opedoctrines of the different sects of Animists, Mecha- rations of the living animal body perfectly intelligible. nicians, and Chemists, which had successively pre- Irritability and sensibility are at once the direct efvailed before him in the schools of medicine, and also fects ot this universal agent. All the modifications upon the more recent doctrine of the Solidists, which of these properties, and, in a word, every phenowas then becoming fashionable. In the review which menon of life, which is not obviously the result of he gives of the opinions of the several leaders of physical law’s, are but so many immediate operations these sects, he displays an accurate acquaintance of the vital principle. To this fertile source he rewith the wide circle of medical literature. But, in fers not only the ordinary muscular contractions, but the prosecution of his plan, he shows, what the ex- also the slower and less sensible motions which take ample of others has so often proved, that it is easier place in the iris, in the vascular system, and, in geto overthrow than to build a system ; and he evi- neral, in those parts in which no muscular structure dently violates the strict principles of induction, and can be discerned : effects which he attributes to the of cautious limitation to the province of philosophi- tonic power of the vital principle. He contends for cal inquiry, which he had prescribed, when he en- the existence of another power in the fibres, still degages in the task himself. He sets out with endea- rived from the same source ; namely, the power of vouiing to establish a gradation among the causes elongation, after they have been contracted; a power which operate in producing motion. The simplest which he thinks quite distinct from the other meof these is the force of impulsion ; that of gravitation chanical properties of the fibre, and of which the appears to him less simple ; and still less so those operation is exemplified in the dilatation of the pupil, of electricity and magnetism. The principles which the extension of the corpora cavernosa, and of the regulate chemical affinities are more complicated, as nipples, and in the diastole of the heart itself. He well as those which are concerned in the crj'stalliza- plumes himself more particularly upon his supposed tion of bodies. But the forces which produce the discovery’ of a new species of force, distinct from the phenomena of living vegetables and animals are of a muscular power, which he terms the force offxed simore refined order, and are all referable, according tuation, and of which he infers the existence from the to Barthez, to a single cause, which he denominates circumstance of the tendo Achilles being ruptured, the vital principle, or principle of life. Having es- and of the patella, and head of the os calcis being tablished this dogma, he proceeds to discuss a va- fractured, on some occasions, by an apparently slight riety of abstruse questions that have been agitated exertion. He avails himself of this principle, also, to on the subject, such as whether the vital principle explain the phenomena of tetanus, and other spashas an independent existence, distinct from the or- modic affections. ganized body which it animates ; and whether it be In a subsequent part of the wmrk, he labours to a. modification of the soul or rational mind. He establish the identity of sensibility and irritability, gives an elaborate historical sketch of the opinions or, at least, the intimate connection which subsists ot philosophers from the earliest times respecting the between them, and the dependence of both upon the nature of life, tracing the different sentiments entertained by the followers of Aristotle and Descartes, immediate and direct operations of the vital prinoge er with the Stahlians and Boerhaavians, on the ciple. He endeavours to prove, that both the sensitive and moving powers are exercised in the circuone hand; and those of Pythagoras, of Plato, and lating fluids of the body; and adduces, in support of sec o Stoics, on the other: the former not acnou e gmg any principle of life distinct from either this opinion, many of the arguments brought forward matter or mind; and the latter admitting such a by Mr Hunter in proof of the vitality of the blood. pi maple attached to the living body. A third class On the subject of secretion, implying processes which lave been hitherto enveloped in so much darkness, VOL. II. PART I.
BAR BAR 146 of different seasons and climates ; and concludes, Barthez. and of which the explanation has in vain been sought lity from several facts and arguments, that the actual ^^for on mechanical and chemical principles, he is cessation of life is, in general, not accompanied by very brief; as it is the peculiar advantage ot his any painful sensation. theory, like the sword of Alexander, to cut through The merit of Barthez, as _a physiologist, is more every knot that bids defiance to ordinary powers conspicuous on subjects which admitted less of his of unravelling. Secretion, being inexplicable by being led astray by his proneness to indulge in abany of the hitherto known laws of nature, is, ot stract speculation, and his predilection for metacourse, simply the effect of the vital principle. ^The physical refinement. The most favourable speciphenomena of animal heat were in danger ot being men of his talents is afforded by his Nouvelle Meat once consigned to the same Proteus-like power, chanique des Mouvemens de VHomme et des Animaux ; which could operate every possible diversity ot et- in which, avoiding all discussion as to the cause of fects. But chemistry had, in this instance, inter- muscular motion, he traces the mode in which this posed some plausible theories, which must first be force has been applied by nature, according to the set aside; and Barthez is at great pains to state the, principles of mechanism, in effecting the ditterent reasons of his dissent from the received doctrines on movements of the animal machine. He examines this subject, and of his disbelief in the existence of the relative disposition of the bones and muscles, the caloric. He prefers the hypothesis which supposes structure of the articulations, and the general play heat to be a mere quality, excited by motion ; and and particular motions of the limbs. Borelh {De generated accordingly, in living animals, by ^ Motu Animalium) had given the first model of such testine motions of their fluids, and the friction of the a work ; but Barthez has investigated the subject solids against each other; and the cause of these with greater care, and has extended his views to a motions and frictions being unknown, it tollowed, as much wider range of phenomena. He enters mia necessary consequence, that they must arise irom nutely into the consideration of a great variety of the operation of the vital principle. Respiration he modes of locomotion, both in man and the inienoi considers as a cooling or moderating process, and as animals; for which he has amassed an immense useful, also, in exciting throughout the system the number of facts; forming, altogether, a work which tonic actions; but all these actions and agitations ot will ever remain a monument of his industry and suthe fibres, and these intestine motions of the fluids, perior abilities. . , are still regulated by the vital principle, which adapts In consulting his writings on the practical branches them to variations of climate, and other external cn- of his profession, we again find ourselves bewildered cumstances of temperature. . a labyrinth of speculations on the proximate causes Amidst these vague and unprofitable speculations, in of disease, and the modus operandi of remedies. his work contains a great store of facts, which are In his Treatise on Gout, he adopts the principles of often instructive, though sometimes they expose the the humeral pathology, in addition to his own p ycredulity of the author. He has collected, for ex- siological doctrines concerning the force of fixed ample, a number of curious particulars relative to situation, or principle which retains muscular parts the operation of different poisons on different animals; in their appropriate places independently of irritabibut intermingles with these well attested lacts, many lity. He states the proximate cause of this disease idle tales respecting the bites of rabid or enrage to be a specific gouty state of the habit; which he animals, in which the peculiar manners of the ani- infers from the supposed influence he has observed mal were communicated to the human species, thus, from specific remedies, and especially aconite, in he quotes instances of men barking or attempting curing it. He defines the gouty state of the blood to bite in hydrophobia ; of some mewing like cats to consist in “ an improper mixture of its component after having been bitten by these animals; and ot parts, which prevents, in different degrees, the others, again, who flapped their arms, and crowed natural formation of its excrementitious humours; like cocks, after receiving the bite of one of these so that these humours, being more or less altered, undergo a spontaneous decomposition, which causes A large portion of the work is dedicated to the the earthy substance to predominate in them. consideration of Sympathies, which he distinguishes This earthy substance, or, in other words, gouty from what he terms Synergies; defining the latter to matter, is deposited upon the extremities, and thus be the connection, whether simultaneous or suc- occasions the paroxysm. His practice, on the whole, cessive, of the vital forces of different organs, so as notwithstanding his adoption of theories now geneto constitute a function or a disease. He divides rally exploded, is tolerably judicious; though he sympathies into three classes, according as they shows but little discrimination in the analysis which occur between organs having no visible relation to he gives of the works of practical authors on this diseach other, those which have similar structures and ease ; and he seems to be strangely deficient in infunctions, and those which are united by an inter- formation as to the practice of English physicians. mediate texture, or by receiving the same set ot other respects, his knowledge is accurate and covessels or nerves. His chapter on Temperaments is In pious ; and the history he gives of several of the irably drawn up ; and he discusses well the compara.- regular forms of gout, and also that ot sciatica, in tive influence of physical and moral causes in modi- which, however, he chiefly follows Cotanmus, are fying the human temperament, and the changes pro- deserving of praise. . . duced by age, and the approach of death. He exIn the preface to his Nova Doctrina de Functions plains the operation of the more usual causes of bus Naturce Humana, he has given an excellent ardeath ; and enters into a comparison of the mutabi10
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BAR B A S 147 Barthez rangement of the general principles of the objects to ty t>y which his health and reputation often suffered. Basedow. II Basedow, be kept in view in the medical treatment of diseases. In 1744, Basedow went to Leipsic to study theology. ^ He treats of this subject more at large in his treatise He gave himself up entirely to the instructions of De Methodo Medendi, published at Montpellier, in the professor, Crusius, and the study of philosophy. 1777, and also in the preface to his Traite des Mala- Hus, at first, made him sceptical in theology; a more dies Goutteuses. He considers all the different piolound examination of the sacred writings, and of methods and indications of cure as capable of being a 1 that relates to them, brought him back to the comprehended under three heads, the natural, the Christian faith ; but, in his retirement, he formed his analytic, and the empiric. The natural methods belief after Ins own ideas, and it was far from orthohave for their object to promote the spontaneous dox. Having returned to Hamburgh, he lived there operations of nature tending to restore health, or, as without any employment till 1749, when M. de they have been usually termed, the vires medicatrices Cluaalen, privy-counsellor of Holstein, appointed naturce. The analytic methods are those which pro- him preceptor to his son. Basedow now began to ceed upon a previous analysis of the disease into the apply himself to the subject of education. At first, several simpler diseases of which it consists, or into e would not teach his pupil Latin otherwise than by their ultimate component symptoms, which are isoa mg with him in Latin ; and he wrote a dissertation lately and successively combated by means respec- on this subject, published at Kiel in 1751, Inusitata tively suited to each. These are the more indicated, et optima honestions Juventutis erudiendce Methodus. in proportion as the disease is more complex, and In 1 753, he was chosen professor of moral philosophy admits of being resolved into a greater number of and belles-lettres in the academy of Soroe, in Denelements. The empiric plan of treatment is directed mark. Here he published, in 1758, his Practical to change the whole nature of the disease, by means 1/iilosophy for all Conditions, in two volumes (Coof which experience has taught us the efficacy in penhagen and Leipsic, second edition, in 1777), analogous cases. These means are of three kinds ; which contained many good observations on educahaving either a perturbing, an imitative, or a specific tion in general, and on that of girls in particular: operation : the first being such as, by producing ef- but he advanced in it opinions by no means consistfects of a different kind from those of the disease, tend to diminish or entirely suppress the latter (as* ent with Lutheran orthodoxy; so that the Count Danneskiold, supenntendant of the academy, took when the paroxysm of an ague is prevented by the his place from him, and removed him to the school excitement of a strong sudorific or cathartic opera- of exercises at Altona. Basedow still continued to tion) ; the second, such as produce effects analogous to those which nature herself employs for the cure devote himself to theological studies. In 1764 he his Philalethes, or New Considerations on of the disease ; and the third, those whose salutary published the 1 ruths of Religion and Reason, within the Limits operation is known in no other way than as the direct oj Revelation two volumes in Svo. The magistrates result of experience. of A ona orbade the reading of this work. He was The writings of Barthez appear to have had connot allowed any longer permission to print his writings siderable influence in overthrowing many of the a Hamburgh or Lubeck; the communion was procrude and preposterous theories which had prevailed hibited to him and all his family; and the common in the schools of medicine; and, however he may have been seduced from the path of genuine philo- people were on the point of stoning him. Basedow sophy by an excessive disposition to generalize, and however who was convinced of the truth of his opinions, displayed prodigious activity in defending an overweening fondness for abstruse speculation, he them. He wrote his Methodical Instruction in Relistill deserves the praise of being an original thinker, gion, and the Morality of Reason, Altona, 1764; his and of standing pre-eminent among his contemporaries for the courage with which he shook off the 1 heoretical System of sound Reason, 1765; his Essay trammels of authority, in a university where it had 0,L .Z TZtmn: Berii"’ 176fi = •>» Extractsfrmt ruled with despotic sway, and where the dogmas of and Nm, Testament, m&Us Essay infmour Y tie Truth of Christianity, in the same year. The antiquity were held in peculiar reverence. (w.) last of these works he particularly valued himself BASEDOW (John Bernard), a celebrated upon, because he there founds the evidence of Christtrerman writer, born at Hamburgh, September ianity chiefly on its moral purity. In these, and 11, 1723, was the son of a hair-dresser. Ill works, he, however, maintained several heterotreatment made him abandon his father’s house. other dox opinions; as the non-eternity of future punishA physician, in a neighbouring village, took him mto his service, and shortly afler persuaded him ments,—the inequality of the three Persons of the to return home to his father. Being placed in one i runty,—-the insufficiency of the atonement for our ot the lower classes of the college of St John, the sms by the death of Jesus Christ, &c. Constantly severity of his masters rendered him harsh and vio- persecuted in his theological career, he would have ' lent himself. Forced to submit to a slow and ri- lajJen the victim of his incautious zeal, if the Count gorous method of study, he contracted a dislike to de Bernstoff, minister of state, and J. A. Cramer patience and regularity, which exercised a marked another officer of the court of Copenhagen, had not influence over the whole course of his life. Poor taken him under their protection. He left off giving lessons, without losing his salary; and, towards gent h often ei formt d snhnn ’ ? P ' * their tasks for his school-fellows, who could afford to pay for it; and the end of 1767, he abandoned theology to devote h-y, in return, invited him to their parties of plea- himself with the same ardour to education, of which sure, which contributed to those habits of irregulari- he conceived the project of a general reform in Germany, He began by publishing An Address to the
BAS BAS Basedow. 148 under his direction. The assistance of the celebrat ^ Basedow. Friends of Humanity, and to Persons in ^er, on ed Campe, a journal which they both composed toSchools, on Education, and its Influence on j. gether under the title of School Dialogues, tiom Happiness, with the Plan of an Elementary Treatise^ 1777 to 1779, and a public examination which went on human Knowledge, Hamburgh, ^GS- He pro off with eclat, gave a transient splendour to the nosed the reform of schools, of the common method, Philanthropinon ; but in a short time Basedow quarof instruction, the establishment of an institute for relled with Campe, made complaints against his Qualifying teachers ; and solicited subscriptions for Prince, quitted and returned to the care of the insti?he printing of his FJementary work, where his pnn- tution ; and exemplifying in his conduct the effectscipl^ were*to be explained at length, and accompa- of coarse manners, and bad temper, was at length nied with plates. For this object, he required oOjO drawn into the most scandalous scenes in his discrowns. The subscriptions presently mounted up to putes with Professor Wolke, his former coadjutor. 15 000 crowns : the Empress of Russia, Cathenne II- This institution was finally shut up in 1793. Base. LTa thousand crowns! .ha King Denmark nme dow for some time had given up all thoughts of eduhundred. In 1770 appeared at Aitona Rm fust cation ; he returned to his old theological inquiries, volume of his Method for Fathers and ^hers f and residing sometimes at Magdeburgh, sometimes Families, and for the Chiefs of the People ; and six _ at Halle, sometimes at Leipsic, he took part m the months after, the three first parts of his Elementary famous controversy excited in Germany by the Treatise in 8vo, with 54 plates. This work, which Fragments of Wolfenbutel, an anonymous posthuwas praised in all the journals, was translated mous work of Reimarus, published by Lessing. into French by Huber, and into Latin by Man- Doctor Semler having written a pretended regelsdorf; but * Schlozer, in the ^rman trans a- futation of the Fragments, Basedow, without diftion of the Essay on National Education, by M. de ficulty, exposed the ill intentions of the author, la Chalotais, accused Basedow of having omitted in who secretly attacked the cause he affected to dehis plan various branches of science, and of haung fend ; and, with his usual vehemence and frankness, had in view only a pecuniary speculation. Basedo^ called upon Semler to declare himself openly, offerin despair, offered to return the price of his book to ing to indemnify him with his fortune, if this public those who w ere not satisfied with it. Only one man, declaration should prove prejudicial to him. Sema Swiss, demanded his subscription. Encouraged by ler made no reply, and Basedow wrote on. He the success of the Treatise, our authorcontinuedto published his work entitled, Jesus Christ, thewrite other works on the same subject, and Christian World, and the small Number of the Elect, the same principles ; among others, his Treatise on in 1784; and the year following, returning to the 0 ure Arithmetic, 1773, and Elements f V study, which had divided his time and his powers with 1772. His Agathocrator, or the Education of leach- theology, he gave the public his New Method of Tl cone, 1771, procured him a medal from the Learning to Read, which he employed with success Emperor Joseph II.; and the visits which he made in two schools of little girls at Magdeburgh ; and in to Brunswick, to Leipsic, Dessau, Berlin, and Halle, this occupation he passed four hours every day for to inquire inti the stke of public instruction, having some time previous to his death, which took place enabled him to enlarge and correct his ideas, and in this city, July 25, 1790. He died with Christian convinced him that his Elementary work contained firmness and resignation, and desired that his body many erroneous and hasty assertions, he PU^1S e mio-ht be opened, wishing (to use his own words) to new and improved edition of thisLework mor 1774. be^till useful to his fellow-citizens after his death. ac The same year, he published his S d f Con- In 1797, a monument of marble was erected on the sciences, or Manual of natural and revealed Religion, spot where he was buried. . . a work which he composed in order to make known To manners unpolished and abrupt, he join^ the real state of his religious opinions, and to clear ed gross habits; he was fond of wine, of which himself from the imputation of wishing to found a he drank to excess; in short, with a, character new sect. In his travels, he had been well received in itself unamiable, he seemed, by his conduct, by the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, who promised him sometimes to take pains to render his services his protection. From that time, he had resolved to of no use, and his virtues of no account. Noestablish an institute for education at Dessau, and to thino- can give a better idea of him than what he apply his principles himself in forming disciples who says0of himself: “The sagacious reader will dismight spread them over all Germany. Little ca c cover by my writings, that I have been especially lated, by nature or habit, to succeed m an employ- called to serve the cause of truth and humanity, in ment which requires the greatest regularity, patience, following a path hitherto unknown. My opinions and attention, he, however, engaged in this new pro- have succeeded one another, as has been seen, ject with all his accustomed ardour. The name of have been at different times Lutheran, sceptic, inPhilanthropinon appeared to him the most expres- fidel, a friend to natural religion, a convert to sive of his views; and he published at Leipsic m 1774 Christianity, a Christian with paradoxical sentiments, a pamphlet, entitled, The Philanthropinon founded and more and more heterodox. In me has been seen at Dessau, containing the details of his plan. e a thinker tormented within by his own reflections, immediately set about carrying it into execution; and a writer tormented from without, because he but he had few scholars, and the success by no has been at one time hated, at another misundermeans answered his hopes. The institution, badly stood. Bold and enterprising in my actions, I have managed, became the theatre of the quarrels be- always seen, with a faultering heart, the dangers tween Basedow and the masters who taught m it
BAS Basedow, which threatened me, and from which Providence has saved me in part. I have made little account of domestic happiness, of friendship, or society. I have suffered the penalty. Occupied in curing others, I have neglected the health of my own mind. Esteem is due to the sincerity of my opinions, rather than to my conduct. I desired ardently to make it perfect, but this would have required more perseverance and more attention than the meditation of abstract truths ; accordingly, I have oftener been dissatisfied with myself than with others, with whom, however, for the same reason, I have been rarely satisfied. My heart has had little enjoyment of the consolations of religion, because every occasion led me into difficult researches, and thus weakened the force of sentiment. I regard myself as a man and a Christian, such as there are but few in the world, and such as it is not desirable that there should be many.” This frankness, without affectation and without pride, induces us to honour the character of a man who has rendered some services to his country and his age. His work On the Education of Princes destined to the Throne has been translated into French by Bourjoing. A list of his writings may be seen in Meusel’s Lexicon of German Writers, from 1750 to 1800, and a farther account of his life in Schlichtegroll’s Necrology for 1790. Goethe tells an anecdote of going a journey in company with him and Lavater, who fell into a violent dispute about the Trinity. Basedow consoled himself with the hope of getting some beer and a pipe of tobacco at an inn which he saw before them on the road. When they came to it, Goethe made the coachman drive on to the great chagrin of Basedow, to whom he excused himself by saying, that the sign of the inn was two triangles, and as he had such an aversion to one triangle (the scholastic emblem of the Trinity), he was afraid the sight of two might overcome him. This conceit, according to Goethe, pacified our anti-trinitarian divine. Basedow, in his general writings, endeavoured to apply philosophy to practical purposes, and to give a more popular air to his reasonings than had been usual with his countrymen before his time. He held truth to be of little value without practice, and, indeed, he held its essence to depend chiefly on its utility. He considered external or speculative truth to be a very vague and doubtful thing; and that it is principally the consequences of things to the mind itself, that is, a moral necessity, which determines it to believe strongly and consistently on any point, so that that is true to each individual which makes the most lasting impression on his mind, and which he feels to be necessary to his happiness. Thus he regarded practical good as the test of speculative truth. He gave great weight to the principle of analogy, and founded the doctrine of a Providence on this principle. He considered common sense as one ingredient in philosophical reasoning, and rejected all systems which appeared to him to exclude it; such as idealism, the doctrine of monads, and a pre-established harmony. Hjs favourite adage in his system of education, was to follow Nature. He wished the mind to be led to knowledge, virtue, and religion, by gentle means, instead 01 those of constraint and terror. Indeed, his
BAS 149 principles on this subject are very nearly the same Basedow as those of Locke and Rousseau; and he seems to II have done little else than to have given currency in Germany to the same reasonings which those philo- v sophers had taught before him in England and France. He insisted on the disuse of the preposterous and unhealthy dresses used by children and their parents, such as stays, swaddling-clothes, tight bandages round the neck, the knees, &c. He recommended exercise and hardy sports as necessary to the health and activity of the body. He proposed to exercise the judgment by teaching a knowledge of things, and not merely to load the memory with words. He preferred the practical sciences to the speculative, the living to the dead languages, modern to ancient history, things which are more near to those which are more remote. In fine, most of his principles were in themselves sound and good, and have in fact exerted their influence on the actual progress of civilization; they were only erroneous from the excess to which he sometimes appears to have carried them; partly from the natural vehemence of his mind, partly from the natural tendency to paradox on the side of new opinions. Paradox, by exciting attention, and enlisting the passions, is perhaps necessary to contend against prejudice; common sense and reason are lost sight of by both parties during the combat; but in the end they prevail, if they have fair play allowed them. Thus, in the present instance, it is now generally admitted, that something besides the classics is necessary to a liberal education; nor is it thought requisite to arrive at this conclusion through the antithesis to the vulgar opinion of his day set up by Basedow, viz. that the classics are of no use at all in a rational system of education. iz\ BASKE1-MAKING. The earlier arts among mankind, in an uncivilized condition, are restricted to operations on materials which undergo slight and imperceptible changes; and implements are fabricated from substances almost in their natural state. The process of interweaving twigs, reeds, or leaves, is seen among the rudest nations of the world, and there is known even an inferior specimen of art among the natives of Van Dieman’s Land, consisting of a bunch of rushes tied together at either end, which, spread out in the middle, forms a basket. But the sudden alteration of shape obviously renders this construction less convenient; whence the same and other tribes make a basket of leaves interwoven, and that so skilfully executed, that it retains either milk or water. A bundle of rushes spread out may be compared to the warp of a wreb, and the application of others across it to the woof, also an early discovery, for basket-making is literally a wTeb of the coarsest materials. By experience these materials are refined and ornamented, and in the most improved stages of manufacture, neat and useful implements and utensils are produced. Scarcely any nation has been entirely ignorant of the art; and our ancestors in this island made baskets which, we learn, were carried to Rome either for use or ornament. Basket-making, however, has by no means been Various apconfined to the fabrication of those simple and use-phcaiions of ful utensils from which its name is derived. Of old, Kasketthe shields of soldiers were fashioned of wicker-W0lk*
Basketmaking,
Muterials employed.
B ASKET-M AKING. work, either plain or covered with hides, and the of the number. The natives of some parts of South Baske iias been witnessed among modern savages. America make baskets simply of rushes, so closely jn Britain, the wicker boats ot the natives, co- interwoven as to hold water, and thousands of them vered with the skins of animais, attracted the no- are annually sold in the Spanish provinces. The tice of the Romans; and Herodotus mentions Caffres and Hottentots are alike skdful with the boats of this kind on the Tigris and Euphrates. roots of plants. Thus it does not belong to EuroBut there was this difference, that the former peans to rival an uncivilized tribe in the exercise of seem to have been of the ordinary figure of a a simple art. But of all materials, osiers or willows boat, whereas the latter were round and covered are in most general use. Osiers, employed for basket-making, are either Osiers fa with bitumen. Boats of this shape, about seven feet in diameter, are used at the present day on taken entire, cut from the root, split asunder, or these rivers; and boats ot analogous consti ac- stripped of their bark, according to the work to be tion are employed in crossing the rivers of india, produced ; but in the latter case, they are previously which have not a rapid current. At Hurrial, a soaked in water. The stripping is performed by town on the western side of Hindostan, the river drawing the willow's through an iron-edged impleToombudra is not fordable from June to October; ment called brakes, which removes the bark, and the during which interval, round basket-boats are used willows are then cleaned, so far as necessary, by the to transport people, goods, and cattle, to the opposite manual operation of a sharp knife. Next they are sides. They are of all sizes, from three to fifteen exposed to the sun and air, and afterwards placed feet in diameter, but shallow, not being above three in a dry situation. ‘ But it is not less necessary to feet in depth ; and some will carry thirty men. They preserve willow's with their bark in the same manner, are of very simple construction: A number of pieces for nothing can be more injurious than the humidity of split bamboo, twenty for example, are laid on inherent in the plant; and previous to use, they must the ground, crossing each other near the centre, and be soaked some days in water also. The barked or there fastened with thongs; the ends of the bam- white osier is then divided into bundles or faggots boos are then elevated by several persons, and fixed according to size; the larger being reserved to form asunder at due distance by means ot stakes, in which the strong work in the skeleton of the basket, and position they are bound by other long slips of bamboo. the smaller for weaving the bottom and sides. Should The latter are introduced alternately over and under the latter be applied to ordinary work, they are taken the pieces first crossed, and tied at the intersections whole, but for implements of slight and finer texture, to preserve the shape. This being completed, begin- each osier is divided into splits and skains ; which ning from the bottom to the centre, the parts above the names denote the different degrees of size to which intended height or depth of the basket-boat are cut they are reduced. Splits are osiers cleft into four off, and it is liberated from the stakes reversed, and parts, by means of a particular implement employed covered with half-dressed hides sewed together with for that purpose, consisting of two edge tools placed thongs. Nothing can be more expeditious or more at right angles, whereby the rod is longitudinally simple than the fabrication and materials of these divided down the pith. These are next drawn vessels, if they merit that name. One may be made through an implement resembling the common by six men in as many hours. Only two substances, spoke-shave, keeping the grain of the split next almost always accessible, are used,—hides and bam- the wood or stock of the shave, while the pith is preboo. They are navigated either by paddles where sented to the edge of the iron, which is set in an the water is deep, or are pushed over a shallow- oblique direction to the wood : And in order to bottom with long poles; and the passengers with- bring the split into a shape still more regular, it is in are safely transported, being kept dry by planks passed through another implement called an upright, and pieces of wood at the bottom. The basket- consisting of a flat piece of steel, each end of boats on the river Kristna, in the same country, are which is fashioned into a cutting edge, like that of an about twelve feet in diameter, and four feet deep. ordinary chisel. The flat is bent round, so that Whole armies are thus enabled to continue their the two edges approach each other at a greatei or march, and even heavy artillery has been in the same less interval by means of regulating screws, and the manner conveyed across rivers. Sometimes the whole is fixed in a handle. By passing the splits boats are towed by bullocks fastened to them, and between the two edges, they are reduced to skains, goaded on in the proper direction. We may al- the thickness of which is determined by the interval so observe, that in different parts of the world, between the edges of the tool. All the implements whole houses, cottages, fences, and gates, are form- required by a basket-maker are few and simple : they ed of basket or wicker-work. On the Continent, a consist, besides the preceding, of knives, bodkins and two horse carriage, called a Holstein waggon, of drills for boring, leads for keeping the work steady very considerable size, and fit to carry several per- while in process, and where it is of small dimensons, is composed solely of basket-w ork; the same sions, a heavy piece of iron, called a beater, which is is done in Britain with regard to the bodies of employed to beat the basket close as it is augmentgigs; and an appendage of the stage-coaches is lite- ed. Thus a basket-maker has this great advantage rally designed the basket ; besides a vast variety of over many other artificers, that he can establish himself in his profession at the most inconsiderable exworks on a smaller scale. In respect to the materials employed, besides those pence either for tools or materials. An ordinary basket is made by preparing the re* j^sket. ° Specified as belonging to the ruder nations, there are many which are equally the product of nature and quisite number of osiers, and preserving their length art. Twigs, branches, straw, and whalebone, are all considerably greater than that of the finished work.
j
1
B A S K E T-M A K I N G. 151 Basket- They are ranged in pairs on the floor parallel to Edinburgh, a number of the blind find employment Basketmaking_ each other, at small intervals, in the direction of the of the same kind, in the asylum established there. y roakins longer diameter of the basket; and this may be callThe best materials for basket-making have been * ed the woof, for, as we have said, basket work is lite- principally imported into Great Britain from France P,0«refs.in rally a web. These parallel rods are then crossed at and Holland; but the duration of the war induced tfon of S’ right angles by two of the largest osiers, with the the inhabitants of this country to endeavour to obtain ers. thick ends towards the workman, who places his foot a supply at home. Cultivation of the osier was imupon them; and weaving each alternately over and perfectly understood in England, and in Scotland it under the parallel pieces first laid down, they are scarcely received any attention whatever; whence, as by that means confined in their places. The whole a suitable encouragement, that patriotic Society, now forms what is technically called the slat or slate, whose notice is specially directed to the improvewhich is the foundation of the basket. Next, the ment of arts and manufactures, some years ago, oflong end of one of the two rods is taken, and wove fered premiums to those cultivators who should raise under and over the pairs of short ends all round the the greatest quantity, not being less than 6000 plants bottom, until the whole be wove in. The same is on an acre. done with the other rod; and then additional long It became an object with such cultivators to asosiers are also wove in, until the bottom be of certain, not only the quantity that could be obtainsufficient size, and the woof be occupied by them. ed, but the quality of the produce, which was of Thus the bottom, or foundation on which the super- the greater consequence, as many plants, passing structure is to be raised, is finished; and this latter under the general name of osiers, and even possesspart is accomplished by sharpening the large ends of ing their external characters, are ill adapted for the as many long and stout osiers as may be necessary to werk intended. But considerable light has been form the ribs or skeleton. These are forced or thrown on the subject by Mr Philipps of Ely, who plaited between the rods of the bottom, from the was early rewarded by a premium on account of the edge towards the centre, and are turned up in the utility of his observations. He remarks that the osier direction of the sides; then other rods are wove in is a species of salix, of which there are many varieand out between each of them, until the basket is ties ; and these may be comprehended under two raised to the intended height, or, more correctly classes; the first containing nine or ten species. speaking, the depth it is to receive. The edge or None, however, excepting one, the grey or brindled brim is finished by turning down the perpendicular osier, is of use. This, in common with the others, ends of the ribs, now protruding and standing up has a light coloured leaf, but is distinguished by the over each other, whereby the whole are firmly and bark being streaked with red or blood colour; and compactly united. A handle is adapted to the work it is of late introduction into Britain on the Isle of by forcing two or three osiers sharpened at the end, Ely, where the observer’s experiments seem to have and cut to the requisite length, down the weaving of been chiefly made. It grows vigorously, is very the sides, close together; and they are pinned fast, hardy and tough, and bleaches well. All the others about two inches from the brim, in order that the of the same class prefer a wet soil, where they grow handle, when completed, may be retained in its pro- quickly and large, and will flourish even in the most per position. The osiers are then either bound barren kind of peat; but they are coarse and spongy, or plaited, in such fashion as pleases the taste of the have a thick pith, and are perishable. Nevertheless, artist. they are sometimes used for coarser workmanship, This is the most simple kind of basket; from which and are profitable to those who live in the vicinity of others differ only in finer materials, and nicer exe- places where there is a great demand for osiers, and cution ; but in these there is considerable scope fox- cheap conveyance. During the interruption of contaste and fancy, and implements ai’e produced of ex- tinental intercourse, they were much resorted to treme neatness and ingenuity in construction. Some by basket-makers; but their inferiority has brought jire formed of twigs or straw entire; others of sec- the English baskets into disrepute in foreign markets. tions, split of various thickness, coloured, plaited, ox- The second class, according to Mr Philipps, contains plain ; and baskets of endless variety in size, figure, four or five different species. One of these, the and texture, are fabricated according to the artist’s in- Welsh willow, is very tough and durable, but not of clination. I he skains are fx-equently smoked and dyed, a favourable colour; there are two varieties, red and either of dull or brilliant colours, and, by intermixing white ; the former of which is preferred, and forms them judiciously, a very good effect is produced. part of every plantation, from its particular utility in Util of riom the simplicity of this manufacture, a great tying up the bundles of willows, after they have been this mufacii to many individuals, independent of professed basket- barked or whitened. Their bitterness is such as to be the •ml. makers, are occupied in it; and, fortunately, it affords a protection from the depredations of cattle. Beemployment to the blind in the several asylums sides these, there are the west country Spaniard, established for their reception. Not that persons the new willow, the French, and red Kent willow. suffering privation of sight are incapable of more in- I he flrst has been superseded by others of superior quagenious and delicate mechanical exercises; but the lity, but experience proves that an acre will carry 2000 acuity of teaching and acquiring the principles of plants of them, with greater advantage, than of basket-making being alike obvious, is one of the some inmore higher repute. But the best of all is esteemstrongest recommendations in its favour. At Liverpoo , w ere there is an asylum of this description, ed the French willow; especially as being most adaptthe art is practised with success; and in the city of ed for smaller and liner work in baskets, fans, hats, and other light articles. It is rather of slow growth,
B A S K E T-M A K I N G. 152 Basket- but extremely taper, pliant, close grained, tough, and but water constantly stagnant is ruinous. He pro- Basket, ,naki B«. making, durable. Great quantities of it are always imported poses to make the cuts or shoots from 15 to from the continent, its culture being more neglected 17 inches long, and to allow four or five inches here than that of others; however, it must be distin- to remain above ground, to be cut over by the surguished from a species resembling it, which is cha- face of the soil, when the heads of the stocks shall, racterized by the leaves snapping in a manner as in a series of years, have become too bushy. By brittle as glass, when drawn through the lingers. this operation, the vigour of the plant is renewFlotations of the French willow have been strongly ed in the most decided manner. Mr Sheriff forrecommended, as forming a useful commodity, and gets, however, that, in the time he mentions, a being always in demand. Having attained the re- much greater protrusion from the earth will have quisite maturity, all willows are cut over and made up taken place by the simple vegetation of the plant into bunches in iron hoops, an ell or 40 inches in than necessary to leave room for cutting off the head. diameter, for the manufacturers, and are sold, either It is necessary, in his opinion, to trim and dress the in this way or in loads; the price being subject to stocks from decayed wood, and to retain only as many buds on each as the plant may be expected to fluctuation, according to scarcity or abundance. In regard to the cultivation of osiers, very differ- bring to perfection in length and strength of shoot. ent opinions prevail; originating, it is probable, from Thus the superabundant stumps of old wood are cut too limited experiments, combined with the diversity down, the weakest shoots extirpated in November of soil and climate. Mr Philipps, whose opinions and December, or March and April, and seldom are entitled to attention, conceives, that autumn more than two buds should be left on those selected and not spring is the most proper season for plant- to stand and produce the next summer’s growth. ing willows; the stagnation of the juices, he con- He considers the leading errors of those who have siders the true criterion whereby to regulate the pe- attempted the cultivation of osiers to consist in riod, but not on account of the set so much as on employing improper soil, peat earth, perhaps, or account of the trunk ; for if the shoot be severed when poor bogs ; and also in defective preparation of the sap is in circulation, the parent plant bleeds the soil, though suitable in other respects. Failure to death. The osiers which he planted in the first may, besides, arise from planting bad or useless speweek of October, he found to have struck roots about cies of osiers ; putting too few cuts in the ground; Christmas, though there was no external sign of ve- neglecting their subsequent culture, particularly durgetation. In prosecuting this subject, Mr Philipps ing the first spring and summer after plantation ; alobserves, that he made a plantation in autumn, and lowing the shoots to be cut over after Christmas, and filled up part of the ground which was vacant in the before the middle of March, which may admit of the following month of March with additional sets. The stocks being much weakened by hard frosts succeedlatter were the further advanced in May, but in June ing heavy rains, immediately after the twigs have the autumn plants had the advantage, and continued been cut, and before the wounds from the knife growing well, while many of the others died. In have healed. By pursuing a system analogous to summer, he remarks, “ when the fibres have been what is here exposed, he calculates the profits of formed before the winter, or when a tendency to form an acre of osiers at about L. 18, 10s.; and he menthem has been observed by the swelling of the bark, tions that he contracted to receive a sum between and particularly at the eye, the plant is enabled to L. 220 and L. 250, for the produce of twelve statute charge itself with a sufficient portion of the juices to acres and a half. It does not appear, however, that answer the demand of spring.” Therefore, he con- this was an annual crop, and it is rather to be infercludes, that the proper rule is to plant as early in au- red that willows of several years growth formed part tumn as the shoots may be cut, without injuring the of it. Mr Sheriff’s experiments and observations parent stock. The cultivator lays out the ground were rewarded with the gold medal of the Society in beds or burrows 18 feet broad, digging ditches for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures. nine feet wide on each side. The upper surface of Another cultivator, Mr Wade, calculated his profits the ditches, to the depth of 14 inches, is thrown on on fourteen acres, which were planted with 12,000 the beds, and the remainder of what is excavated sets each, at intervals of 26 inches by 10, as amountfrom them is used for turf or fuel. The beds, now ing to L. \0per acre. Among the experiments on the quality of soil may consisting of about two feet and a half thick of solid earth above the surface of the substratum of peat, are be instanced a plantation made in spring, of large planted in the following autumn, and produce good cuttings, 18 inches long, thrust so far into the earth as to leave four or five inches protruding. Part of crops. Sriil best Experiments have been made by various cultiva- the ground had been in wheat after summer fallow, suited for tors respecting the suitableness of different soils, and and part, which was also planted, had been sown with Osiers. after having borne different kinds of grain. Mr grass seeds. The plants made a more vigorous shoot Sheriff has related a profitable mode of culture prac- in spring than at any subsequent period, and but few tised by him in Scotland ; and also makes some judi- failed of the whole. Those w'hich succeeded the cious observations on the subject in general. He re- wheat produced the best osiers, and those which marks, that the finest and most valuable twigs can be were planted among the grass seeds the worst. Both procured only from land cured of chilling, weeping stood on a strong clay soil. From the difference seen springs; and if the soil is not of considerable thick- here, it has been concluded, that, as the cleanest ness, it must be rendered so by manure. Moderate ground produced the best crop, summer fallowing moisture is favourable to the production of fine twigs, would be advantageous. Another example is given* 6
BAS BAT 15* Basket- where, of 350 sets planted in garden ground, of which spot for a plantation. The purposes to which the Bsskotmaking. ^ the soil was clay, 341 succeeded, producing, in the plants are to be applied must be considered, and the making first year apparently, a bundle 38 inches in circumcircumstances of their growth so regulated, that they J ference, and some of the osiers above 10 feet Iona-. become suitable and adapted for them. There i*s n N They were planted in the latter end of March, ar- little doubt, that, with due notice and consideration, ranged in rows, between which was sown a crop of this plant may receive great amelioration by culJ beans. Both the interval separating the plants and ture. their age are arbitrary, as is also the extent of the All plantations must be well fenced against cattle plantation, and we must likewise add the quality of as the willow, both shoot and leaf, is a favourite the soil, for experiments have not been made on a suf- kind of food; and as some particular caterpillars inficient scale to determine the fact. The most super- test the plant at certain seasons of the year, stripficial observer cannot fail to have remarked the compa- pmg it totally bare and injuring its vegetation, care rative slenderness of all plants crowded together, and should be taken to remove them as effectually as posthe superior strength of those apart from each other. sibJe. ^ The sets of osiers, for several reasons, should be insertBATHING. In addition to the historical, ecoMedical ed in regular rows : their age does not appear imand physical details respecting the practice ant l Physio, ,0 ical portant, and no where is a more vigorous crop noimcal, ot .bathing, which have been inserted in the body of ^ h-fproduced than from the root of the oldest tree de- the Encyclopedia, we find many investigations in uflUl prived of its trunk. In general, previous prepara- the works of some of the latest authors, relating to "°tion of the ground is profitable; and plantations its medical and physiological effects, which require may thence be formed, which are to be annually cut to be attentively considered. over for baskets and such light utensils ; but the A methodical arrangement of these effects, reshoot is allowed to grow two, or even four years, if ferred to the respective divisions of therapeutic strong rods are required for larger and coarser workagencies, would be of great use in enabling us to manship. The rapidity and certainty with which attain a distinct idea of their nature; but such an this plant vegetates, preserves it in a manner under is, in fact, a matter of extreme diffiabsolute control, and adapts it particularly for a arrangement culty, for two reasons; fast, Because the temperavariety of mechanical purposes. Many cultivators ture, the continuance, and the impregnation of the recommend deep insertion of the shoot into the are capable of being so varied, as materially to ground; but here there is a limitation ; for if too bath, deeply inserted, the vegetation will be less vigorous. vary the nature of the remedy, without any distinct At the same time, the powerful tendency to vegeta- limit between its different forms; and, secondly. Betion in a willow is rather an exception to ordinary cause the classes of medical agents, to which several rules, and although the lower part be injured, roots of these effects belong, are by no means distinctly may spring nearer the surface. But it is not to be defined; to say nothing of the additional complexity overlooked, that if a tree be transplanted into too arising from the division of the effects into immedideep a pit, the root, instead of striking out new ate and remote, which is often extremely important. fibres, remains inactive, and the tree withers and The remote effects, however, being of a more genedecays; or if seeds be deposited too deep in the ral nature, and relating chiefly to the improvement earth, no vegetation will ensue; whereas, even those or deterioration of the actions of the whole system on the surface will put forth a radicle, and establish it is only the immediate effects that require to be themselves there. In the former case, they either accurately analyzed and distinguished ; and these lose the germinative faculty, or are destroyed ; but, we must endeavour to reduce to some methodical if a tree be transplanted into a shallow pit, the root classification of therapeutic powers. Baths, as depending on water, have been nawill spread, and the whole exhibit luxuriant vegetaturally referred to the class of diluent remedies, in tion. These are facts which demand greater attenwinch water is comprehended; and they have sometion than they usually receive, and the depth at which the shoots of osiers are inserted should be times even been recommended as nutrients; they carefully observed. Nevertheless, we must repeat, may also act as excitants of cutaneous sensation • as that it does appear deep insertion is not equally stimulants, or rather calefacients, increasing the’velocity of the circulation of the blood; as sudorifics • noxious to them as to other plants. as diuretics ; as “ sorbentia” or sorbefacients ; as reIt is commonly understood, that willows flourish no where but with abundance of water. Undoubted- frigerants or astringents; as tonics; and as retarly, adequate humidity is very essential; but this ge- dants of the pulse, a capacity in which some would neral position is quite erroneous, as experiment and cal them relaxants; while they seem in many cases observation daily testify. Willows growing in water to be useful as antispasmodics, or to relieve certain have almost invariably a sickly aspect, few strong or nervous affections, by something like a narcotic or healthy scyons spring from them, and their vegeta- sedative power, ty e might also refer the mechanilon is never so vigorous as when they are at some cal effect of ablution, in removing the natural secredistance from it. Every plant has a predilection for tions of the skin, to the dietetic habits conducive to a particular place, where the conditions of its aliment the preservation of health; but this process, though and vegetation concur. The willow requires a con- highly necessary for our comfort, is perhaps less essensiderable degree of humidity, though it will also be tially important to health, than has often been imaseen vigorous on drier soils; but the vicinity of gined; and, in some particular cases, the practice of water is an essential quality in selecting a suitable the very frequent removal of the unctuous and volatile secretions of the skin has even appeared to be injuriVOL. II. PART I.
BATHING. 134 cidentally wetted with salt water are but little lia- Bathme. Bathing. ous, and to occasion indolent tumours of the absor- ble to take cold; and this fact has been supposed to ' bent glands belonging to the parts concerned. indicate some stimulant property in the contents of If we admit that baths are ever, strictly speak- the fluid; but it maybe explained, with greater siming, either diluent or nutrient, we must suppose plicity, from the slower evaporation of salt water, the cutaneous absorbents to be tbe channels ot which causes it to carry oft heat much less rapidly these actions; and the majority of authors, both than fresh, the cooling process being also retarded ancient and modern, have certainly considered the by the greater moisture of the sea air. skin as imbibing, with great facility, not only waIn order to determine how far any kind of bathing ter but also any kind of substance capable ot being may properly be called a stimulant or calefacient, we dissolved in it; nor is there any doubt that, under must consider what are the tests by which we judge some circumstances, the cutaneous absorbents have of the increased rapidity of the circulation of the been found to possess such a power in a certain blood. The term calefacient is, indeed, somewhat degree; but Mr Seguin and Dr Currie have shown objectionable, as implying, that animal heat depends that, in common cases, very little or no effect is to solely or principally on the motion of the blood, be expected from this absorption ;* that the strongest which is not, in the present state of our knowledge, medical agents, when dissolved in the water of a bath, the most probable opinion; and besides this etymoexhibited no operation on the system while the skin logical inaccuracy, the definition of the term, as imwas entire ; and that no perceptible advantage was ob- plying an accelerated circulation, involves a contained from a continued immersion in a bath ol nutritive siderable difficulty, since we have no means of asfluids, notwithstanding the extreme exhaustion of the certaining whether increased frequency of pulsation system, in a case of completely obstructed deglutition ; compensates, or not, in any particular instance, for and they suppose that where weight has been gam- diminished fulness and strength. On the other hand, ed during immersion in a bath, the absorption oc- the operation of almost all medical agents is such as casioning its increase has been principally per- to relieve us from this ambiguity in the application formed bv the lungs, retaining the moisture, wine i of the definition ; for we can scarcely mention any they receive in abundance with the air inhalet. remedy which materially accelerates the pulse, withThe other immediate effects of bathing must de- out. at the same time, increasing its strength. Ihere fend on the contact of the fluid with the skin, either are, indeed, many medicines which are often designatas simply moistening and softening the cuticle, or as ed by the vague denomination of stimulants, and excitins * peculiar sensation in the cutaneous nerves, which have no effect whatever on the circulation, whether of touch only, or of heat or cold, or, in but either simply awaken the nervous energies in some cases, of slight pain, where the skin has been general, or excite local sensations ot heat or pain, previously in a state of irritation, especially it the and this multiplicity of significations is a sufficient water contains a saline impregnation ; or, lastly, as reason for rejecting the term from a correct classifialtering the state of the circulation by any of these cation. It happens, however, not unfrequently, that means, especially by the change of temperature ; astringent and febrifuge medicines will reduce the this effect being also often modified by the change frequency of the pulse, and increase its fulness; and of the position of the body, and by the distribu- it becomes necessary, for an accurate analysis of the tion of the pressure or resistance which supports operation of remedies which affect the circulation, its weight throughout almost the whole surface, in- to distinguish the accelerants of the pulse from the stead of its being confined, as usual, to the pai ts on aus-mentatives and the iniensitives, all of which may which we sit or stand. The excitement of the possibly be independent of the production of an innerves of the skin appears to be salutary m many crease of temperature ; and this increase may also cutaneous diseases, which are benefited by warm in some cases be produced, at least in the extremities bathing, whether in fresh or in salt water, or in sa - and the superficial parts, and apparently also in the fureous or other mineral waters, as at Harrow - whole system, without any change in the circulation, gate, and at Baden, and Pfeffer and Leuck in Swit- by the operation of certain remedies, which might zerland ; the bathers sometimes remaining whole days be called thalptics, if it were necessary to distinin the water for weeks together, until a peculiar guish them as independent agents: and to these efflorescence has appeared on the skin, and has again four classes we might add four others of an exactly disappeared.f The mud baths in the north of Italy are opposite nature, which might be called retardants, of a nature somewhat similar, and are said to be of con- diminutives, and remissives of the pulse, and psyches, siderable advantage in some paralytic cases. But it we or direct refrigerants; and the last four classes allow the truth of the opinion of Seguin and Currie, we would belong to a general division of remedies commust infer that there are few instances in which the prehending those which lessen the force of animal effects of bathing on the system in general can de- actions ; a division which it has not commonly been pend much on the impregnation of the water; and found necessary to establish, for any practical classiwe ought perhaps to attribute the acknow edged ad- fication of the materia medica. vantage of sea bathing in a variety of diseases, in Mow, it appears that a hot bath, of a temperature o-reat measure, to the mildness and equability of the exceeding 98°, the usual heat of the human body, temperature of the sea. It is true, that persons ac. Currie’s Medical Reports on tie Effects of Water 8vo. Uverpool 1798. PMarcard Uer die Bier, 8. Hanov. 1793. Tradmt par Parant, 8. Car. 1801, p. w,
155 B AT KING. Bathing. Bafliins. will commonly act both as an accelerant and an aug- times ; it is obvious, that what Galen calls moderatementative of the pulse, but probably not as an in- ly warm, we should at present term a hot bath ; and tensitive; it may, however, very properly be classed probably his excessively hot baths somewhat reas a calefacient, if such a description of remedies sembled that which is mentioned by Fourcroy. be admitted. Dr Parr* says, that a bath of 100° “ Cold baths,” he says, “ at first make the pulse rendered the pulse fuller and more frequent; but slow and weak; afterwards, if they disagree, and that, after the bath, it was slower than usual; at produce torpor, the pulse remains weak ; but if the higher temperatures, the effects were still more bath is likely to strengthen the system, producing a marked; and in Mar card’s experiments (p. 71) the salutary glow, then the pulse becomes full and strong, results were nearly similar. Dr Haygarth observed and natural in point of frequency.” It is, however, remarkable, that the cold bath not [Marcard, p. 67), that in a bath of 114° the pulse was rendered more frequent, and the arteries were evi- uncommonly renders the pulse very considerably dently dilated. In Finland, according to Martin more frequent at the first immersion ; a circumstance [Marcard, p. 223), the vapour baths are usually which was particularly observed by Athill, f and heated to about 120°, and they often increase the which, notwithstanding Marcard’s doubts, has been frequency of the pulse from 70 in a minute to 110 since fully confirmed by Dr Stock. J This increase of or 120. Fourcroy mentions a bath of 66° degrees, frequency seems principally to depend on the painful which must have been of the centigrade scale, sensation of cold occasioned by the first immersion, making 151° of Fahrenheit, and not 181°, as Mar- especially while it is incomplete ; it is commonly very card supposes (p. 216), which was followed, an hour transitory, and is succeeded by a retardation, while afterwards, by a fatal apoplexy. Whatever exagger- the fulness of the pulsations is diminished from the ation there may be in this report, it may still serve first. The sudorific effect of the hot bath seems to be, in to explain to us the excesses which were frequently committed in the use of baths by the Greeks and great measure, the natural consequence of the acceRomans, and the pernicious effects attributed to them leration of the circulation, and to be nearly proporby the ancient physicians. Hippocrates observes tional to this acceleration, being also favoured by the [Aph. v. 16), that the too frequent employment of softening of the cuticle, and perhaps by the dilatahot bathing causes a softness and debility of the tion of the cutaneous exhalants. It is principally remuscles, a want of firmness of the nerves, and a commended in rheumatism, and it is also considered dulness of the faculties, with occasional haemorrhages as conducive to the cure of some cutaneous affecand faintings, sometimes even terminating in death; tions ; and when this effect is thought particularly deand in the Clouds of Aristophanes, we have' a mock sirable, it is usual to take the bath late in the evening, defence of warm bathing deduced from the usual and to promote its operation by going into a warm dedication of hot springs to Hercules, which implies bed immediately after it. In considering these and other changes produced, a perfect confidence in the opinion ot the pernicious tendency of the practice, accompanied, or followed, in the system by bathing, we must be careful to avoid as it frequently was, by other indulgencies, to which the very common error of applying inaccurately and it has too often given occasion. This traditional indiscriminately the laws of mechanical and physical condemnation of hot bathing has been erroneously agents to the effects produced in the animal econotransferred by some of the moderns to warm or tepid my. Some of the latest and best authors on therabathing ; and since it has been asserted by authors peutics have talked of the expansion of the fluids of high celebrity, that air above 60° will generally contained in the vessels, in consequence of the eleoccasion a sensation of warmth, it seems to have vation of temperature occasioned by the warm bath, been inferred that water above 60° must constitute and of the contraction of the vessels themselves by a warm bath, and consequently produce enervating the cold bath, as if they were phenomena of the same and debilitating effects. The fact is, however, that kind, and simply opposed to each other. The truth a bath below 100° is scarcely ever heating in any is, that the mean temperature of all the fluids in the material degree ; and even at 100°, the pulse, though body is seldom elevated more than a degree or two somewhat accelerated, is often not at all augmented in by the effect of a bath of any kind; and even if the fulness, nor are the subsequent effects materially elevation were ten degrees, the expansion of all the different from those which usually result from an circulating fluids would not exceed the bulk of a sinequal acceleration produced by any kind of mode- gle additional ounce of blood or of water. The merate exercise. It is observed by Galen in his Treatise chanical effect of cold, on the other hand, would imon the Pulse (Opp. Vol. III. p. 3. Ed. Bas.), that mediately tend to lessen the tension of the vessels, baths, when moderately wrarm, cause the pulse to by contracting the fluid contained within them more be full, and strong, and frequent; when excessively than the vessels themselves ; but this effect w'ould be hot, small and obscure, but frequent and hard, scarcely more sensible than the former, even if we sometimes, however, after a time, becoming slow, allowed that the general temperature might be dethough still feeble.” Of this retardation of the pulse pressed 10° or 12°, as it seemed to be in some of Dr in a very hot bath we have no experierifce in modern Currie’s experiments; and the actual contraction, Balneo, Med. Comm. Ed. i. 297> or Marcard by Parant, p. 66. t Cold Bathing, Marcard, p. 239 ; Med. Comm. Edinb. vi. 62. t Medical Collections on the Effects of Cold, 8vo, Lond. 1805, App,
B A T H I N G. 156 Bathing, which is really observable in the superficial parts pletely to the superficial parts, to which the hand is Bathing, during immersion in the cold bath, can only be applied. The diuretic effect of a cold bath may referable to the action of living powers, which be partly explained from a similar distension of the fall decidedly under the description of involuntary renal vessels, which must be favourable to the secremuscularity. Dr Parry’s late experiments have tion of the kidneys ; and if the same effect is somevery clearly shown the existence of such powers, times produced in a hot bath, when the superficial and exhibited their temporary and local action. * vessels are rather dilated than contracted, it is in this He found that, when the carotid of a ewe was laid case much less considerable than in the cold bath, bare, its circumference was 525 thousandths of an and probably only takes place in consequence of the inch; “but it almost immediately shrunk, through the increased rapidity of the circulation, which affects whole space which was exposed, so as to become in the whole sanguiferous system. The glow, which succeeds to the first sensation of circumference only .470; at the same time, a portion of the artery, before the contracted part, and cold, may be attributed in great measure to the inwhich had been more recently exposed, was .635 ; creased sensibility of the nerves after a partial torthe pulse in the dilated part was very strong and full, por, rendering them more susceptible of the sensathat in the contracted part very weak and soft.” tion of heat, which is always relative to the actual Dr Parry has chosen to distinguish these effects from temperature of the skin; but it appears, from Dr those which are observed in other muscular parts by Currie’s experiments, that there is also sometimes a a peculiar denomination; but the distinction appears real increase of heat as measured by the thermometo be perfectly arbitrary, and Dr Young, whom he ter; and it is probable, that the causes concerned in quotes as denying the muscular powers of the arte- the production of animal heat are called up into a ries, on account of the chemical nature of their more vigorous exertion, in a strong constitution, coats, has expressly asserted their muscularity, in whenever they are required for the purposes of life; contradiction to the conclusions of Bichat and Ber- so that they first supply the superficial parts of the zelius. {Medical Literature, Svo, Lond. 1813, p. 502.) body during the immersion, with as much heat as is But by whatever term we choose to denote the ef- necessary to overcome the painful sensation of cold, fect, there is little doubt that an unusual degree of and afterwards, by a continuation of the same action, cold has a tendency to produce such a general con- occasion an actual elevation of temperature above traction of the coats of all the superficial capillary the natural standard. Dr Currie found, that, during arteries ; and the diminution of their diameter must the affusion of a bucket of cold salt water on the necessarily increase that part of the resistance to the heads and whole bodies of two healthy persons, no blood’s motion, which is derived from its friction depression of temperature was observable ; but in a against the sides of the vessels, and must, therefore, minute or two afterwards, although they remained tend materially to lessen its velocity. Again, if the without motion, the mercury rose 2°: in a third percontractions of the heart are at all propoitional in son of a feebler constitution, although the temperamagnitude or in frequency to the quantity of blood ture remained equally unchanged during the affusion, entering it, and acting as a stimulus to its motions, it sunk, in a minute after, half a degree. These efit is not unnatural to suppose that its pulsations will fects seem to be almost entirely independent of any be rendered feebler by the diminution of that quan- change in the state of the circulation, which must tity, occasioned by the increase of the resistance, be rather retarded than accelerated, while the geneand that the primitive retardation will be redoubled ration of heat is increased. It is true, that the heart by the operation of this cause. At the same time, might be called into more powerful action at the however, that the cutaneous vessels are conti acted, same time that the pulsation at the wrist became those of the internal parts must necessarily be en- feeble, from the permanent contraction of the I'adial larged. Hence arises the sensation of oppression on artery ;,.but the action of the heart would still be exthe&chest, with the sobbing or panting for breath, hibited by the carotids, undisguised by this modificawhich generally occurs at the first immersion in cold tion ; and the carotids have not been observed to water, from the fulness of the vessels of the lungs, beat more strongly in the cold bath than at other and which is increased, in some measure, when the times, although Dr Currie has remarked, that when immersion becomes total, by the pressure of the wa- “ the pulse could hardly be felt at the wrist,” “ the ter on the abdomen, and consequently of the con- heart pulsated with great steadiness and due force:” tents of the abdomen on the diaphragm. From the a fact precisely analogous to Dr Parry’s interesting same cause arises also the pulsation in the descend- experiment on the carotid of the ewe. Warm baths may be classed with propriety among ing aorta, which has been observed to be much more distinguishable after swimming than at other times the most useful sorbejacient remedies; but it is not {Medical Transactions, Vol. V.) ; the internal vessels easy to decide, whether they are much more active being distended so as to exhibit the effects of the in promoting absorption than other sudorifics, or heart’s action more violently, and the heart itself than evacuants in general. When the weather debeating with more than usual force in consequence of prives a valetudinarian of his accustomed walk, the the exertion, while the contents of the abdomen aie bath often affords him a valuable substitute, increascompressed, and are enabled, by the presence of the ing the appetite, and promoting the digestion ; but surrounding fluid, to transmit the pulsation very com- too great an appetite, without muscular exercise, is * Experimental Inquiry on the Arterial Pulse, Svo, Bath, 1816, p. 41.
157 B A T KING. Bathing. Bathing, sometimes an evil, and this may have been one of the stores us to comfort, and defends us from fevers. A causes of the inconveniences occasioned by an abuse strong young man in the country will plunge into of bathing. A warm bath has often been of advan- cold water at once when heated, and be much retage in promoting the absorption of dropsical fluids, freshed by it. Animals also wash themselves when especially when they are of limited extent, as in they are hot, by a natural instinct, as they eat when cases of partial anasarcous swellings ; but the most they are hungry, and r seek warmth w'hen they are important sorbefacient effect of bathing is exhibited cold. In fevers, if w e had sufficient powers of disin the cure of glandular diseases, for which sea wa- crimination, we might probably sometimes derive mater, whether in the form of a warm or a cold bath, terial advantage from the use of the cold bath, withhas long been considered as a specific remedy ; and out premising the hot; and some persons have been there is no doubt that a residence by the sea side, actually benefited by this remedy. But without a with a judicious employment of bathing, and the oc- more intimate knowledge of diseases than we possess, casional internal use of sea water, or of some equi- we cannot generally venture on the practice ; and valent remedy, has been of the most essential service least of all in hectic fever, where there is not strength to many constitutions, which have exhibited these enough to bear the shock. A stout young man, symptoms of general debility and languid absorption; having a fever, in warm weather, without visceral the tonic and sorbefacient powers of the remedy be- inflammation, would bring on a salutary perspiration ing happily combined, for invigorating and calling into by bathing in cold w'ater; and if he were in the habit of cold bathing, he might have recourse to it with activity the diminished energies of the constitution. The refrigerant or astringent powers, both of warm the more confidence; but, for the hectic, it is unand of cold bathing, have been abundantly elucidated safe, especially when there is much emaciation : thus, by the late Dr Currie, who has introduced the reme- in a hot and dry summer, those who have travelled dy into general practice, as a febrifuge, especially in far, and are become thin and weak, have no need of the form of cold or tepid affusion, with the most sa- being cooled, nor would it be safe for them to use lutary effects. It is not easy to determine how far the cold bath without first going into the warm. For the contraction of the superficial vessels by the we seem to be hardened by the cold bath like iron, astringent powers of cold, and how far the retarda- when heated first; and if we previously warm ourtion of the pulse, which may possibly be dependent selves by exercise, the effect is the same.” Dr Curon that contraction, are concerned in the advantage rie’s relation of an adventure of his own might almost derived from bathing in fevers; but it is at least ob- be supposed to have been intended as a commentary vious that the remedy does not operate simply by on these remarks of Galen. [Reports, p. 120.) “ On the abstraction of heat, since the tepid affusion is the 1st of September 1778, two students of medioften more rapidly successful in abating fever than cine at Edinburgh set out on foot on a journey, a the cold. We may also collect from the experiments considerable part of which lay along one of the rivers of Marcard, that a bath at about 90° is more effica- of Scotland. They started by sun-rise, and proceedcious in abating the frequency of the pulse, than at ed with alacrity in the cool of the morning. At the any lower or higher temperature ; and these facts end of eight miles, they breakfasted, rested for an appear to afford a very strong argument against the hour, and then resumed their journey. The day hypothesis, that the principal utility of the cold affu- grew warm as it advanced, and after a march of eight sion depends on the sudden shock which is given miles more, they arrived heated, but not fatigued, on to the nervous system. Dr Currie has frequently the banks of the river above mentioned, about eleven found the pulse reduced by a single cold affusion in the forenoon. Urged by the fervor of the day, from 120 or 130 to 80 or 90, and the heat from 104*° and tempted by the beauty of the stream, they stripor 106° to the natural standard. But he very pro- ped instantly, and threw themselves into the river. perly limits the employment of the remedy to those The utmost refreshment followed, and when they recases in which the temperature is considerably ele- tired to the neighbouring inn, this was succeeded by vated, and the arterial system is in strong action, a disposition to sleep, which they indulged. In the without local inflammation ; and wrhere there is less afternoon they proceeded, and travelling sixteen vigour in the system, he often employs the tepid in- miles further at a single stretch, arrived at the inn stead of the cold affusion, or even contents himself where they were to sleep, a little after sunset. The with moistening the face and the extremities; for afternoon had been warm, and they perspired proinstance, in hectic fever, the hands and feet only, fusely: but the evening was temperate, and rather which he finds actually hotter than the rest of the cool. They had travelled for some miles slowly, and body. A late writer on consumption has very justly arrived at the end of their journey stiffened and remarked how much of Dr Currie’s reasoning on the wearied with their exercise. The refreshment which effects of cold bathing had been anticipated by Ga- they had experienced in the morning from bathinglen, although, for want of a thermometer, he had induced, however, one of them to repeat the experinot been able to employ the remedy in fever with ment, and he went perfectly cool into the same river, safety. “ Bathing,” says Dr Young [On Consump- expecting to relax his limbs in the water, and aftertive Diseases, 8vo, Lond. 1815, p. 135), “is very wards to enjoy profound sleep. The consequences strongly recommended in the Method of Healing, and were very different. The Tweed, which was so rethe process is very minutely described : first warm freshing in the morning, now felt extremely cold ; air is employed, next warm water, and then cold and he left the water hastily. No genial glow sucwater, and lastly, the sweat is wiped off. When we ceeded, but a feverish chill remained for some time, are fatigued or dried up by exercise, the bath re- with a small frequent pulse, and flying pains over the
B A T H I N G. 158 Dr Parr, there is commonly no observable change. ^ Bathing. Bathing, body. Warm liquids and frictions brought on at to IMarcard, p. 6.3, 66.) ' length considerable heat, and towards morning perFrom these experiments Dr Marcard very justly spiration and sleep followed. Next day about noon infers, that in a great variety of cases, the watm they proceeded on foot, but the traveller who had bath affords the only direct and certain mode of bathed was extremely feeble ; and though they had lowering the pulse without inconvenience (p. 88); to perform a journey of a single stage only, as some and we must be contented with the empirical knowpart of it was difficult and mountainous, he was ledge of this fact, without attempting to explain why obliged to take the assistance of a carnage which a temperature of 90n is more favouiable foi the reovertook them on the road. It was several days be- tardation of the pulse, than a much iowei tempeiafore he recovered his usual vigour.” . ture, at which the thermometrical heat would cerThe experiments of the same judicious author, tainly be more rapidly reduced. Dr Stock has also published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1792, made several observations on the effect ot cold bathafford some striking illustrations of the effects ot se- ing on the pulse; but, in his experiments, the retarvere cold : he employed baths at the temperature ot dation was much less constantly observable than the 44° and 40°; the natural pulse ot the person sub- diminution; a variation which frequently occurs jected to the experiment was about 70 in a minute, when the temperature is very low. and it was generally raised to 85 or more by the preThe salutary effects of cold applications, in some paration for immersion ; but in the water it invariably cases of gout, were wrell known to Hippocrates, and sunk to-about 65, becoming firm, regular, and small. have been more lately extolled by Homberg, Floyer, The change of temperature, as measured under the and Pietschen : Marcard (p. 256) very properly states tongue, was still more remarkable, and greater than the objections to their employment, and, notwithcould have been expected either from reasoning or standing all that Dr Kinglake has done to recomfrom former observations ; for the mercury fell, within mend them, they have not been adopted by prudent a minute or two after immersion, from 98° or 100 practitioners, except in very recent cases, and in to 87° or 88° ; it then rose gradually, but not regu- young and unbroken constitutions. Aretaeus prelarly, in a quarter of an hour, to about 96°. Upon a scribes the affusion of cold water for giddiness and second exposure to the wind, it fell to about 90 , and headache, and it has certainly been successful in some was in one instance lowered 2° more at the first im- obstinate cases of this kind (Marcard, p. 255); and mersion in a bath of 97f°, in which the natural tem- has even appeared to be a powerful palliative m some perature was by degrees recovered, although not much descriptions of mania. In fevers, Dr Currie found more rapidly than it had risen during the former im- its effects more permanent than those of the tepid afmersion in the very cold water ; but what raised it fusion, although not always so speedy. by far the most speedily was the application of very We have ample experience of the tonic powers ot hot water to the region of the stomach. W hen, how- bathing in more than one of its forms ; although no ever Dr Currie himself went slowly into a bath of more than thirty or forty years ago, the great majo36°, in a light flannel dress, arid remained in it for rity of practitioners in Great Britain were disposed to two minutes, no observable alteration was produced confine these powers within the limits of the cold, or at in the heat of his body ; and this circumstance nng it most of the tepid bath. But travellers in warmer almost induce us to suspect that the other subjects countries had often informed us of the invigorating of his experiments had incautiously allowed their effect of a warm bath taken after fatigue; and Bruce, < mouths to be cooled by the inhalation of the cold air. in particular, extolled its comforts and its salubrity, Dr TMarcard’s experiments (p. 71) not only confirm from having used it in Egypt. The opinions o Marthe fact of the general retardation and diminution of card on the same subject were partly made known the pulse by the cold bath; but they show that the through Beddoes: Count Rumford, in his thirteenth retardation commonly extends to all temperatures Essay’ has exhibited, in a popular point of view, the below that of the human body, becoming, indeed, benefits which he himself derived from taking the much more remarkable in the tepid bath than in a warm bath habitually in the middle of the day rabath of the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, ther than at night; and Dr Alexander Buchan in which does not appear to produce the effect with his work on sea bathing, has assisted m dissipating equal uniformity. Thus, in a bath at 60 and at 60 , the remaining prejudices against its employment as the pulse was rather accelerated than retarded . in a mild tonic. For feeble or enervated constitutions, six experiments from 70° to 80° inclusive, taking the and for persons who have suffered from great famean of all the quaritities, in order to obtain a result tigue, it is decidedly preferable to the cold bath ; less liable to accidental errors, and representing all but as the strength is gradually recovered, it may the experiments in a compendious form, the tempe- often increase its efficacy to lower the temperature rature was 75°, and in 20 minutes the pulse was bv degrees. We may begin, for instance, with a reduced from 78 to 70: in four from 80° to 90 , the warm bath at 96° or 98°, and lower it by degrees mean temperature was 87°, and the pulsations were to 90° or a little less; and hence the transition to reduced in 54 minutes from 91 to 75 : ni three a the open sea in the middle of a summer s day will Q0°, the mean reduction in 36 minutes was from 9/ to not be too abrupt, the water being often heated to 75: and three experiments above 90° give tor a mean 70° or more on a coast well suited for bathing ; and temnerature 92°, and a reduction from 8~ to 70, et- if the constitution appears to acquire strength under feSTn 35 minutes. Marteau had found a shght the experiment, the hour of bathing may be made reduction of frequency at 93» •• but at 96», accord,ng
159 B A T H T N G. Bathing. Bathing, earlier and earlier, until the temperature is no high- some cases of rheumatism; but, more commonly, the er than about 60°. The time of remaining in the best mode of using baths in rheumatism is to begin water may also be modified according to the powers with a bath raised, during the immersion, to as high of the constitution; a single immersion being the a temperature as the patient can bear, so as to act as most easily supported, and a longer continuance in a powerful sudorific, and to continue the course, the water, till the sensation of cold has subsided, when the pain has been relieved, at lower and lower calling forth the faculty of generating heat into fuller temperatures, ending it with cold bathing in the open action; observing always not only how the health sea. Notwithstanding the acknowledged utility of warm appears to be affected, but which mode is the most conducive to the pleasure or comfort of the indi- bathing in a variety of circumstances, thdre may posvidual, which will often throw some light on the sibly have been some exaggeration in the marvellous operation of the remedy. In most cases it will be opinions which have been sometimes entertained of found, that where either warm or cold bathing agrees its utility for the prolongation of life. Galen has with the constitution, it is followed by a sense of indeed mentioned a number of persons who had atyouth, and vigour, and self complacency, which is tained a great age, and who were in the habit of equally agreeable and salubrious. We must also making daily use of the bath, which is enough to make allowances for peculiarities of constitution, prove that such a habit cannot be extremely perniwhich may require a deviation from the temperature cious ; and if we supposed a constitution to retain usually recommended. Thus, there are some persons all its energies, but to have them concealed and obwho have so singular a sensibility, as to feel a bath of scured for want of proper stimuli, the warm bath 110° not too warm, and to be absolutely chilled by a might tend to remove the evil; but it is more natubath of 100° : and, in such cases, it is probable that ral to believe, that the approach of old age has a at 105° the pulse would not be materially accelerat- tendency to weaken the radical powers of the coned. In other instances, the cold bath produces stitution, which cannot afford to be roused into disheadache and dejection of spirits. This inconvenience proportionate exertion ; and to apprehend, that the is sometimes obviated by proper evacuations, which temporary vivacity and activity, superinduced by should also always be premised to bathing, where any foreign agent, whether by warm bathing, or by there is any appearance of visceral disease, or of a removal to a warmer climate, would only tend still congestion of any kind. The sea water will answer more to exhaust the already diminished store of this purpose sufficiently well, either alone or mixed vitality. with warm milk, or with some chamomile flowers inThe narcotic and sedative, or specifically antispasfused in it; but it has no material advantage over modic effects of bathing are most effectually exhiany other cathartic which may be preferred by the bited, in ordinary cases, by the warm or tepid bath, patient. It is also recommended by all authors on which is often employed for the relief of pain, and cold bathing to plunge in head foremost, and this for the removal of any irregular or convulsive affecpx*ecaution is highly proper where there is any ap- tion. Possibly also the effect of the warm bath in prehension of headache, but in other cases it is of retarding the pulse may be partly derived from its little moment. If, after all, the cold bath continues sedative power as affecting the heart; and if we take to disagree, it will be generally advisable to exchange this connexion for granted, we may infer from it, it for the warm; and after a time it may be proper that the antispasmodic effect will be most advantato give the cold a second trial. geously obtained from a bath at 90°, which has been It is unnecessary to enter into a minute detail of found to retard the pulse the most effectually. But the diseases in which bathing is useful as a tonic. It where there is internal inflammation, it may be deis, however, particularly indicated in a variety of sirable to dilate the superficial vessels by a bath complaints which are peculiar to females; and to somewhat hotter than this, so as to relieve the interweakly children, especially such as are ricketty and nal parts from a part of the fluid which distends them, scrofulous, sea bathing is most essentially necessary. but without increasing the velocity of the circulation On the other hand, cold bathing is almost universal- by too high a temperature. The cold affusion is ly to be avoided where there is any consumptive also a powerful remedy in many cases of tetanic disease, or any inflammatory affection of any of disease. Hippocrates {Aph. v. 21) has remarked, the internal parts ; an exception which is easily un- that it often creates a glow which overpowers the derstood, from the natural tendency of cold to cause convulsive contraction, especially where the subject a congestion of blood in the vessels of those parts, is young and athletic, the weather hot, and the disin consequence of the contraction of the superficial ease independent of local injury ; and the modern exvessels. The sudorific effect of the warm bath, fol- perience of Dr Wright and Dr Currie has confirmed lowed by the refrigerant quality of the tepid, and and extended the observation. In another passage the tonic powers of the cold, exhibit a succession of he tell us (Aph. v. 25), that the abundant affusion remedies nearly analogous to the mode of treatment of cold water generally relieves and removes swellwhich is usually found to be most successful in fevers ings and pains in the limbs as w'ell as spasms, proof various kinds; in most of which we begin with ducing a moderate degree of torpor, which supersudorific medicines, and proceed to astringents and sedes the pain ; but, in fact, the relief of inflammatonics. Hippocrates, in his book on the use of li- tory affections by cold is rather to be referred to its quids, observes that gout is one of the diseases in astringent than to its sedative powers. This is, inwhich both hot and cold applications afford effectual deed, a point which has been much discussed by morelief; and the remark is equally just with respect to dern theorists; but it must be confessed, that all our
BAT 160 B A T Baltics, theories are of little importance in physic, any fur- ing the ravages of this immense banditti, willingly Battiej, ther than as they assist us in clearly comprehending participates of the spoils. When strangers observed to and distinctly remembering the facts, which we de- him, that the soil and agriculture of his country were rive from immediate experience in the treatment of sufficient to enable his subjects to enjoy plenty, he replied, that the number of Rajpoots in his service diseases. BATNEARS, or BATTIES, a people of the north is so considerable compared with the mass of the part of Hindostan, inhabiting a country which ex- people, that, should he attempt to restrain the depretends about 200 miles in length, and 100 in breadth, dations of the latter, the subversion of his own authoand of which the capital is Batneer, situate, accord- rity might ensue, because it would be interfering ing to some authorities, 1J0, and according to others, with old and established customs. The rajah who 219 miles west-north-west of Delhi. This country made this remark was in every respect a good and comprehends part of the province of Delhi, Lahore, humane character. But the people over whom he rules are by no and Ajmeer. The Batties present many peculiarities in manners means entitled to the same repute; they are of a and customs, distinguishing them from the other cruel, savage, and ferocious disposition ; they enterpeople of Hindostan. They seem to consist of three tain an utter abhorrence of the usages of civilized different races ; the chief are Rajpoot Mahometans ; life; they are thieves from their earliest origin, and the common people Jauts, who have adopted the during their predatory incursions into the neigh* same religion ; and the cultivators of the soil are bouring districts, do not scruple, though unresisted, called Ryis, a very peaceable and inoffensive class. to add murder to robbery. This systematic plunderBut in general they are characterized as shepherds ; ing produces a revenue of above L. 120,000 per anand although principally restricted to the territory num to their princes, at least that is the conjectural whence their name is derived, various tribes of them amount, for there are no data whereon to form exact are to be found in the Punjab ; as they are also scat- calculations. Many of the Batties appear to be entirely nomadic, tered over the high grounds to the east of the Indus. But great obscurity prevails in every thing regarding changing their residence from place to place, as subsistence fails. Their exports are horses, camels, them. The Batties are Mahometans, and highly venerate bullocks, buffaloes, and ghee ; and they sell some the memory of a certain saint, Sheik Fereed, who surplus grain above what is necessary for their flourished in the fifteenth century ; and it is said, own consumption; but their traffic is very inconthat however adverse to their natural disposition, siderable ; and what they do carry on is with the should any one, in invoking his name, claim then petty merchants of Behadra, E ohur, and other protection, it is never withheld. Yet their cus- towns, through the means of the disciples of the toms, in other respects, are at variance with those of Sheik Fereed, their favourite saint. A large portion the Mahometans ; and particularly in the females ap- of the country is unproductive ; but along the banks pearing, without any reserve, unveiled in public, and in of the river Cuggur, from Batneer to the town of their associating promiscuously with the men, as in Futtahbad, the soil is uncommonly rich, and well other countries. The wives of the Rajpoot chiefs form adapted for cultivation. The inundations of this an exception ; and it is reported among these Raj- river fertilize its banks, and the subsidence of the poots, that their ancestors migrated some centuries ago waters leaves them to a great distance, prepared for from the district of Jesselmere, and after various vi- plentiful crops of wheat, rice, and barley, amply recissitudes, settled in the Batneer country. Most of warding the labours of the husbandman. It is the the inhabitants under their rule were originally Jauts, scarcity of water which occasions, the bat-rennesS dwelling on the western bank of the river Sutledge, of the ground; nevertheless, there is more raised in the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude, and than the inhabitants can consume. Their horses are who have not been known long in the portion of numerous, but it is computed that they lose a fourth the peninsula now occupied by them. Having em- of them annually by the sting or bite of a winged braced the Mahometan faith, they were invited by insect; for the injured part degenerates into an inthe ancestor of the present Rajah of the Batties to curable cancerous sore. We are unacquainted with any river of note, excross the river about a century ago, and settle in his country, where their posterity still reside. The Jauts cepting the Cuggur, which is lost in the sands to the constitute the lower orders of the people, and are westward of this district. According to the tradition of the natives, its original bed being choked up by treated with great moderation by their superiors. The whole territory, extending as above described, immense quantities of earth, forced down from the is apparently under the dominion of a supreme prince mountains, its course was altered. The chief towns of the Batties are Batneer the caor rajah, whose authority is acknowledged by inferior chiefs or rajahs; for the term rajah, in pital, which lies in a situation almost inaccessible to strictness, applies to none but those invested with an enemy, for no water is to be procured within a paramount rule. This potentate can bring 12 miles, but what supplies the inhabitants ; however, 20.000 or 30,000 troops into the field, but quite it was taken in 1398 by Timour, and more recently undisciplined, and despising the necessary prin- by General Thomas. Their other principal towns ciple of subordination. His revenue chiefly arises are Arroah, Futtahbad, Sirsa, and Ramgah, and from the plundering of his troops ; for their wars there are many forts, which, though defenceless are directed more to predatory purposes than to against the skill of European troops, are impregof Hindostan. an open contest; and the rajah, instead of repress- nable to the irregular marauders 6
BAT B A U Jattips. Numbers of the Batties have, of late years, emigrated marched to dislodge them. He found a numerous from their native country, to establish themselves in garrison, and, having brought up his artillery, began the western parts of the dominions of Oude; and se- to batter the place, preparatory to an assault. This, veral families of them are to be met with in Rohilcund. however, the enemy avoided by capitulation, and was They are practised travellers, and well trained to it allowed to evacuate the city with the honours of war, by the laborious journies undertaken in crossing the while the Batties were put in possession. In further great desert to the west of their territories. These ex- prosecution of the war, several actions ensued, and vapeditions are frequently made by large parties, for the rious fortresses were taken; but it would appear, that purpose of a predatory incursion on some peaceable one of the Battie chiefs, at variance with General country more remote; and they exemplify both skill Thomas, commenced hostilities against him, about the and determination in attaining their object. Camels period now alluded to; and, in this new warfare with previously laden with provisions are dispatched to his late allies, his forces were so much reduced by different stations in the desert, which is about 130 repeated encounters, that, being scarcely able to miles in breadth, and deposited there. The most in- stand an engagement, he fortified his camps. The telligent of the party, about to follow, are selected as Batties, after frequent attacks, withdrew their troops guides, and receive the most implicit obedience from by night, whereon General Thomas took and burnt their companions during the journey, which closes Futtahbad, and other places, and might have occuat the frontier of the hostile country, or rather that pied the whole country ; but a neighbouring chief, to which their hostility is directed. The guides, having concluded an alliance with the Batties and by long experience, become expert, without com- sent 1000 cavalry to their aid, General Thomas repass or land-mark : they seldom fail to conduct the treated to Jyjur, a town within his own territory, in party to the appointed station where the provisions order to relieve his people from the fatigues and diswill be found, and thence across the remainder of eases of the, preceding campaign. (s.) the desert in safety. But should they accidentally BAUME (Anthony), a druggist in Paris, dis» miss the points of rendezvous, and those where their tinguished by his knowledge of chemistry, and by his necessities shall be relieved, they are exposed to in- practical application of that knowledge, was born at evitable destruction, and any of their party heedless- Senlis in 1728. He was the son of an innkeeper, ly straying from the rest, become the victims of and was put apprentice to the eminent chemist Geofthe accumulated evils of hunger, thirst, and fatigue. frey. He had not received a regular school educaThe adventurers steer their course by the sun in tion, a defect which occasioned him many difficulthe day-time, and by the polar star at night; and by ties in prosecuting his scientific researches, which he similar aids they are enabled to retrace the way nevertheless did with much ardour. In 1752, he they have travelled. Should provisions fail, a bul- was admitted a member of the College of Pharlock is killed, roasted, and partitioned on the spot, macy. Soon after he was appointed professor of and, after a hasty meal, the journey is resumed. chemistry at that establishment, and in his lectures The history of the Batties has attracted the notice he displayed the excellent arrangement which is of few European authors. They seem to carry on fre- seen in his published works. He carried to a great l quent wars with neighbouring states, and are the extent his commercial establishment in Paris for the most formidable enemies that oppose the Rajah of preparation of drugs for medicine and the arts, such Beykaneer. The latter invaded their territories as the acetate of lead, the muriate of tin, mercurial some years ago, but without success, which is not salts, and antimonial mixtures. At the same time, surprising, considering the comparative smallness of he published papers on the crystallization of salts,’ the force which he can bring into the field, and on the phenomena of congelation, on those of ferthe nature of the country. Temporary advantages mentation, on the combinations and preparations of were, notwithstanding, obtained over the Batties, and sulphur, opium, mercury, boracic acid, platina, and the Beykaneer Rajah erected a fortress in Batinda, Peruvian bark, on the metallic oxides, the acetates of wnich, if not within their territory, is on its imme- the alkalis, on emetic tartar, on vegetable fecula, diate confines. 1 his contributed to overawe them and on vegetable extracts. In consequence of these for a time, and repressed their incursions into his works, Baume was elected a member of the own domains; as, independent of the garrison, he scientific Academy of Sciences. He wrote a great many arstationed a large body of cavalry in the fort, whose ticles in the Dictionnaire des Arts et Metiers, and had frequent saihes and captures of cattle annoyed the previously published several technological papers, Batties so much, that they contemplated a total namely on dyeing, on the gilding of clock-work, on a emigration from their own country. But a mili- method for extinguishing fires, on the mode of keepta.ry adventurer, George Thomas, an Irishman by ing corn, on buildings of plaster, on soap-making, birtn, who, endowed with singular talents and intre- on clay, and on the nature of soils fitted for agriculpidity, had founded an independent state in the north- ture. He made numerous experiments along with west of India for himself, was then at war with the province of Beykaneer. Having reached its frontiers, Macquer, for the purpose of fabricating in France a ie a ties so icited his alliance, and, to induce him porcelain equal to the Japanese. He established the first manufactory of sal-ammoniac in France,, a sub1186 t,lei c ause the stance which before that was obtained from Egypt. inn^n % , more readily, offered him 40,000 rupees, if he would reduce the obnoxious fort. appears, that the Beykaneer forces were now mas- He was the first who devised and set on foot a proers of Batneer, the capital, whither General Tho- cess for bleaching raw silk. Having acquired a mas, who had accepted the proposals of the Batties, competency by the success of these different undertakings, he retired from trade, and devoted his VOL. II. PART I.
161 Battles I! Baumt*.
BAY 1? A U 162 court was not attained without formidable arma- Havana iiaunie time to the application of chemistry to the arts. ments, and a repetition of manoeuvres indicative l! He improved the process for dyeing scarlet at the Bavaria. manufactory of the Gobelins, and he published hostilities on a large scale. Fortunately, however, the remembrance of the seven years’ war, the recola cheap process for purifying saltpetre. He be- lection of the firm stand made by Prussia, and tne stowed much time in forming an areometer in- disposition to resistance evinced by the smaller couits tended for general use; and published a process of Germany, had the effect of producing an adjustfor obtaining a mild fecula from the horse-ches- ment without bloodshed. The particulars of this innut By the revolution he lost his fortune, but teresting episode in German history, are given at was not thereby disheartened : this calamity led him considerable length in a pamphlet lately published, to resume his trade. He was chosen a correspond- under the title of Memoire Historique de la Megoent of the Institute in 1790. He d.ed in 1804, at ciation en 1778, au sujet de la Succession de la Dathe age of 76. He was temperate, regular m his habits” and active. Many of his papers are publishFrom this time forward, Bavaria remained in proed in the Manoires de VAcademe des Sciences. U1 found peace until the French Revolution roused Gerhis separate publications, the following may be men- many to arms. The Elector, although pacifically distioned here: Dissertation sur VEther, in 12mo. posed, felt it necessary to join a cause embraced by Plan d'un corns de Chmie Experiment ale, 1757, m Austria and England, and continued to let his con12mo. Opuscules de Chimie, 1798, in 8vo. Elemens tingent fight along with the Imperialists, until the de Pharmacie Theorique et Pratique, 2 vols. 8vo. French found the means of making their way into Chimie Experimentale et Raisonnee, 3 vols. m 8vo, the interior of the empire. His first departure from 1773. This last is antiquated, on account ol tne the alliance took place in 1796 (August), when many improvements which have been made m the Moreau advanced with a powerful army to his capiscience of chemistry since its publication; but his tal, and concluded a treaty for a cessation ot hostiElements of Pharmacy are still useful, as a good dis- lities, at a moment when the French were expected pensary, written with method and clearness : the pro- to invade the Austrian states in three different dicesses are well described, and the formulae properly rections. This time, however, the project ot invasion discussed. He did not adopt the Lavoisienan No- failed, the armies being too much divided, and one menclature* , ' ’ i of the generals (Jourdan) being ill qualified to meet BAVARIA. This country has undergone seveial a moment of emergency. The peace ot Gampo Becent History. very remarkable changes within the last forty years. Formio was concluded next year under circumstances The first of these political agitations, in point ol time, that began to favour the influence of trance m and the greatest, perhaps, in point ol general in- Germany, and particularly in Bavaria. This peace terest (for, in those days, the European public were lasted hardly two years; and, in the second war, not accustomed to the making and unmaking ot go- Jourdan advanced once more (March 1/99) to ex vernments), was the disputed succession m the year perience new defeats at the hand of the Austrians. 1778 It was occasioned by the extinction ol the This army bore the high-sounding name of Armee reigning branch, by the death of the Elector, on 3 Lst de VExecution de VEmpire, but its composition December 1777- The right of succession, ^ tb6 bore many marks of the corrupting influence of part of the collateral heir (the Palatine of the Rhine), an interval of peace and bad government. Baadmitted of no doubt; but various fiefs, obtained at varia remained free from the presence of contendsuccessive intervals by Bavaria, were of a nature to ing armies for somewhat more than a twelvemonth, be considered in the light ol Imperial propeity, o until Moreau advanced at the head ot a much more the failure of the direct line. This, however, was powerful and better appointed force. His operations but a small part of the expected change—the House were crowned by the decisive victory of Hohenhnof Austria, having long cast an eager eye on a pro- den, and the influence of France over the emvince which lay so conveniently lor annexation, am pire too strongly confirmed by the peace of Luneville. which had so often, by the influence of France P It is from the date of that treaty (1801) that we proved a thorn in its side, was impatient to avail are to look for the direct interference of Bonaparte itself of this opportunity of obtaining possession in the affairs of the interior of the empire, where the of Bavaria. Little opposition was t° be exPec * disunion of Austria and Prussia parahzed every wish ed from France, the young king (Louis X\ I.) being to assert the independence of the Germanic name. married to a sister of the Emperor Joseph; but a That wish, however, was not strongly felt in Bavaria, very different conduct was anticipated from Frederick where Bonaparte's character was not understood, and II. This warlike sovereign, though now approach- where the predominant feeling was a dread of Ausins to his 70th year, came forward in support or the tria. An alliance was accordingly contracted beindependence of Bavaria with all his characteristic tween Bavaria and France; and when, in the summer decision : and though unsupported by the heir of the of 1805, there remained no farther doubt of the hoslate Elector, found means, by dint of military and di- tile movements of Austria and Russia, Bonaparte plomatic exertion, to induce the cabinet of Vienna thought proper to delay his notice of war until the to desist from the chief part of its ambitious pre- Imperialists had passed the frontiers of his new ally. tensions. Had England been so situated as to come The consequence of the disastrous campaign that enforward with the appearance of efficient co-operation, sued was the aggrandizement of Bavaria by the cesthe matter would have been speedily brought to sion of various provinces, particularly \ yrol, an issue • but we were then embroiled with our Ameri- elevation in 1806 of the Elector to the title of King. can colonies, so that the object of the Prussian
BAY Bavaria. The subsequent resignation of the rank of Emperor of Germany by Francis II. the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, but, above all, the overthrow of Prussia, rendered the power of France paramount throughout the empire, and enabled her, in 1809, to find, even in a German force, the means of resisting the efforts of Austria. The connection of Bavaria and France, now farther confirmed by the marriage of Bonaparte’s step-son to a princess of the reigning family, seemed to rest on an immoveable basis, when the intoxication of success produced at last the memorable march to Moscow, and made the possession of unparalleled power the cause and instrument of its own overthrow. The Bavarian force engaged in the Russian expedition perished chiefly in the latter part of the retreat, between the Berezina and the Niemen. The horror excited by so melancholy an event, and the hatred inspired by Bonaparte’s tyranny for some years back, created a general desire in the Bavarians to make common cause with their countrytnen in the north, and vindicate the independence of Germany. The public, however, both there and elsewhere, imagined that the court would not go along with the people ; and, after the rupture of the armistice in August 1813, Bavaria stood ostensibly on the side of France. Two months elapsed, before it was discovered that this attitude formed part of the plan concerted with Austria, and discovered to the world only by the sudden march of the Bavarians to interrupt Bonaparte’s retreat at Hanau. General Wrede commanded on that occasion with great spirit, and caused a severe loss to the French; but found it impracticable to arrest the progress of a mass which pushed on in close order, regardless of the havock made on its flanks and extremities. Bavaria now followed, without interruption, the line of policy concerted with Austria, and was not supposed to waver for a moment on the temporary resumption of power by Bonaparte when he landed from Elba. Her unexpected abandonment of him in 1813, is to Be attributed to a guarantee from Russia and Austria that she would be maintained in the possession of her actual acquisitions, subject, however, to partial changes, of which the principal was the restitution of Tyrol. That country, proverbially poor, was attached to Austria with all the ardour natural to a retired and simple population. Its relinquishment was, therefore, a slight sacrifice for Bavaria, when compared with the fate that would have awaited her had she ventured, like Saxony, to resist the allies. The proceedings of the Vienna Congress, as well as the subsequent treaties,’ placed Bavaria on the footing of a power of consequence, confirming the title of the King, granting him a share of the contribution-money paid by France, and stipulating the support of a division of Bavarians, along with the other allies, at the expence of that country. I iNJilitary The military establishment of Bavaria has lately Establish- been raised to nearly 60,000 men ; in peace, it will ments, Po. | oulation, probably be somewhat below the half. The populamd Kuve- tion, including the late acquisitions, is understood to me. exceed 3,000,000; the revenue about L. 1,500,000 Sterling. Considerable progress has been made during the last half century in redeeming the reproach
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of ignorance, so long cast on the inhabitants of this, Bavaria, in common with the other southern provinces of Germany ; for it must be confessed, that all that we had occasion to lament in regard to the backwardness of education and knowledge in our account of Austria, is applicable to Bavaria. The misfortune of both countries has been a bigoted and ignorant priesthood, who, not content with absorbing in their own hands a very valuable portion of the lands of the country, have all along insisted on the expulsion of the Protestants, and on the observance of the endless holidays and absurd usages which impede the progress of industry among their followers. Hence, a general habit of indolence, andmiserable backwardness in agriculture; and, in point of learning, a complete contrast to the northern part of Germany. It would be wrong, however, to carry this unpleasant picture so far as to represent the present generation as worse than their ancestors, or the population as in a state of diminution. On the contrary, Munich hopes ere long to rank among the literary cities of Germany ; but ages will be required to bring the population on a level with their northern neighbours. Bavaria, like Austria and the rest of Germany, has, all along, had the semblance of a representative government, composed of prelates, noblesse, and deputies from the towns. Munich is their place of assemblage ; but they have met very seldom for a long time past. That city contains a population of between 40,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, and is one of the handsomest towns in Germany. As to soil, Bavaria is mountainous and woody towards the south; the ground rising in the direction of the Alps, and containing a number of lakes and marshes, with little that has as yet been brought under tillage. To the northward are plains, extensive and rich, until we reach the Palatinate, which is, in great part, mountainous and woody. The word Palatinate being ambiguous, it may be well to observe that the Palatinate, properly called Bavarian, lies to the north of the Danube, and has Amberg for its capital. But the Rhenish Palatinate belonged likewise, until recent exchanges, to the dominions of this house, the late Elector of Bavaria having been originally a member of the Imperial Diet, in the capacity of Elector Palatine, and having, by his succession to the government of Bavaria, combined the possessions of the two houses. FI is chief error was, like that of his neighbour, the Emperor Joseph, a desire to introduce improvements without making sufficient allowance for the ignorance of his subjects. He abolished the monastic orders in parts of his dominions, which were by no means ripe for such a change. A great deal has been said about the masonic and other secret societies formed in this country, at the time of the French Revolution, and combining, as was pretended, their efforts with similar societies in Prussia, for the purpose of shaking the established government. These rumours, we are inclined to think, had but slender foundation, there being very little in the condition of Bavaria to afford a promise of success to so strange a project. The present King succeeded to the Electorate in 1799; he was formerly Duke of Deuxponts, and cousin of the preceding Elector. (dd.)
* 164 Bayen.
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^ BAY BAYEN (Peter), a celebrated chemist, member of the Institute of France, was born in 1725, at Chalons sur Marne. He showed a great inclination to study, and was sent by his parents to school at Troyes, where he went through a course of classical education with success. The bent of his disposition was to physical science. He went to Paris in 1749, and became the pupil and friend of an eminent druggist. In this situation, he acquired a complete knowledge of the profession ; and before the age of thirty, he was appointed chief apothecary to the French army in Germany, in the seven years’ war, a situation which he filled with industry, intelligence, and integrity. After the conclusion of peace, he returned to Paris. The French government had employed Rouelle to name chemists for the purpose of analyzing the mineral waters which are found in different parts of France, and had allotted funds for this purpose. One of the chemists named was Bayen, and he employed himself ardently in these analyses for several years. His analysis of the waters, of Barege and of Bagneres de Luchon are published , and besides the detail of accurate and well-contrived chemical processes, they contain matter interesting to the medical man, to the naturalist, and even to the general reader. He resided at the above-named baths in the Pyrenees, whilst he was employed in analyzing the waters. The project of the French government was not carried farther than the analysis of these waters, so that the public employment of Bayen now ceased. He returned to Paris, and made the analysis of different minerals which he had collected, chiefly during his residence in the Alpine region of the Pyrenees ; amongst them is the marble of Campan, of which there are two varieties, the red and the green. These are brought from that country to Paris, where they make a distinguished figure in ornamental architecture, as may be seen in the columns of the palace of Great Trianon, in the interior of the.church of St Sulpice, and in other great buildings. These analyses are published in the Memoires presentes h VAcademie par divers Savans, commonly called Memoires des Savans Etrangers. He made most accurate experiments on the oxides of mercury, to show that oxidation arises from the absorption of a portion of the atmospheric air, and that the existence of the phlogiston of Stahl could not be proved. Lavoisier was present when the account of these experiments was read, and was employed at the same time in examining the metallic oxides, and it was Lavoisier that brought the subject into a clearer light, and demonstrated the nature of oxygen, and the composition of the atmosphere. Bayen published an analysis of tin and pewter. In consequence of the writings of some German chemists, fears had arisen amongst the public, that the use of these metals in culinary vessels was pernicious. Bayen showed that these fears were without any ground, if the pewter be of the legal standard, and be not fraudulently mixed with too great a portion of lead. His mode of analyzing minerals required a long time ; he exposed the mineral, without being redu-
B A Z ced to powder, to the action of sulphuric acid at the Bayer, temperature of the atmosphere; after this action had RazeeU t continued for a length of time, he got by lixiviation ?’ the sulphates formed by the combination of the acid, with the different component elements of the stone. He did not make use of the trituration of the stone to an impalpable powder, nor its fusion with caustic potash, which facilitate the subsequent action of acids, and which are used with so much advantage in the processes of modern chemists. The account he has published of his analysis will, nevertheless, be instructive to the chemical student, although the excellent and expeditious methods of Klaproth and Vauquelin are those that should be followed in practice. He enjoyed good health till sixty, and died at the age of seventy-six, in the year 1801. He was a man of sound judgment, of strict integrity, and acquainted with several other branches of knowledge besides that which he particularly cultivated. There is a collection of his works, entitled, Opusczdes Chimiques, 1798, 2 vols. 8vo. (y.) BAZEEGURS, a tribe of Indians, inhabiting different parts of the peninsula of Hindostan. The appearance and manners of mankind are so much diversified in the various countries where they dwell, that animated controversies have been excited, whether all have had a common origin ; or whether they have sprung from Protoplasts, whose conformation, at the beginning of the world, was dissimilar. Some maintain, that, in consequence of the changes produced by situation, climate, and circumstances, the present generations may possibly exhibit figures and proportions altogether different from those that distinguished their ancestors thousands of years ago; while others hold that no such differences could appear, unless they had actually formed a part of the original conformation of a race. The partisans of either theory have appealed to that uniformity of features and customs known to be continued among tribes, who preserve their own descent pure and unmixed with others, of which the Jews constitute a striking example ; and a case something similar, though not equally prominent, is that of the Bazeegurs. This class of people is recognised by several appellations, as Bazeegurs, Panchperee, Kunjura, or Nuts; they follow a mode of life, distinguishing them from the Hindoos, among whom they dwell; they also abstain from intermixing their families with them, and from any intercourse by which they can be united. The name Bazeegur is said to signify a juggler; some etymologists find a probable derivation of conjuror from Kunjura, which might certainly find a corroboration from the similarity of professions. In India, they are dispersed throughout the whole country, partly in wandering tribes, partly adhering to fixed residences, but the greater proportion lead a nomadic life. The Bazeegurs are divided into seven casts, Charee, Histo>7> Athbhyeea, Bynsa, Purbuttee, Kalkoor, Dorkinee, and Gurgwar ; but are the same people, intermarrying as such, and avoiding alliances with other tribes. According to their own traditions, they descend from four brothers, who, finding it difficult to provide for their numerous followers, resolved to separate, and
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Bazeegnrs. to direct their course respectively to each quarter of the world; in consequence of which, one of them, named Sa, arrived in Bengal from Gazeepour or Allahabad. He took up his abode at Hoogly, and having governed his tribe peaceably during many years, died at Uncourpoor, whither his posterity still repair to offer up their prayers to his manes. Sa left three sons who succeeded each other, and the succession having afterwards regularly passed through several generations, at length devolved to Munbhungee, about fifteen or twenty years ago. At the same time, some of the casts considered a woman called Toota as the chief of the whole; but the power ascribed to the chief seems merely nominal, scarcely amounting to restraint, and not at all to coercion. Munbhungee only resisted the entrance of any of the people, acknowledging the superiority of Toota, to seek a livelihood in the territory occupied by his own sect; and the latter were under the same prohibition with respect to the places frequented by her and her dependents. Besides those who are united into sets or casts, there are individuals who wander about endeavouring to gain a precarious livelihood. It is not evident, although the Bazeegurs are certainly distinguished by their manners and customs from the natives of Hindustan, that their features discriminate them as a separate race. Some of their women are reputed to be very beautiful, and are thence sought after in those temporary alliances common in the East. The manners of the Panchperee are somewhat different from those of the Bazeegurs; and some of the sects are more civilized than others. It has already been observed, that they are not in the exclusive occupation of any district in particular, but their villages or respective quarters are found in the same places as those of the Hindoos or British settlers. The Panchperee form neat little encampments in the upper provinces ; their huts are small and regular, and each is surrounded by a small inclosure or court-yard, generally disposed in such a manner that the whole hamlet, formed of portable matting, obtains a kind of circumvallation by means of them, i iligion. The Bazeegurs, more especially distinguished by that name, are the most civilized of the whole; they are Mahometans in food, apparel, and religion. The Panchperee profess no system of faith in preference, adopting that of any village indifferently, whither their wanderings may guide them. Some traverse the country as Mahometan Fakeers, and live on the ill directed bounty of devotees ; and a particular association among them, of bad repute or abject superstition, has been accused of sacrificing human victims. Notwithstanding their ignorance of the established religions, they seem to venerate a female deity, Kali, probably the sanguinary goddess of the Hindoos, and may perhaps in this way seek to purchase her protection. The Bazeegurs are circumcised, and have priests to officiate at their marriages and funerals, but their knowledge of the prophet Mahomet is very imperfect, for they can give little account of him, except that he was a saint. They seem to acknowledge an omnipotent being, and con-
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16.5 ceive that all nature is animated by one universal Bazeegurs. spirit, which the soul, as being part of it, will rejoin after death. At the birth of their children, some Bramin, supposed an adept in astrology, is called in to aid them in choosing a propitious name. Among the Panchperee, the marriage ceremony Manners., is commenced by the bridegroom repairing to the hut of his elect, and calling aloud for her to be delivered to him. A near relation, guarding the door, resists his entrance, and rudely pushes him away, while he is the object of taunts and jocularity; but when his patience is supposed to have been sufficiently put to the test, the bride is brought out. Both receive an exhortation from the priest to practise mutual kindness, and the bridegroom, marking the bride’s face with ochre, declares her his wedded wife, and she, on her part, does the same in return. The little fingers of their hands are now joined, and a scene of merriment, from which the bride alone is exempted, commences. But this consists chiefly in the progress to intoxication, for all these people are addicted to the most immoderate use of spirits; and after copious libations, a cavalcade, formed of the two parties, whose little fingers are again joined, their parents and friends, departs for the hut of the bridegroom. Before the door there are some enigmatical ceremonies performed; the mother of the bridegroom advances with a sieve containing rice, paint, and grass, with which the foreheads of the couple are touched, after being waved around them; and the bride is led into the house, before which there stands a small fresh branch of the mangoe tree in an earthen pot of w'ater. The meaning of these ceremonies is not well understood; but it is to be observed, that the origin of most of the customs of the modern races of mankind, are lost in the darkness of antiquity. Some of the peasantry in Britain have various ceremonies both at marriages and ftr rals,—such as breaking a cake above the head ' bride, or strewing flowers on the bier of one v ed, which have descended from remote ages, and from sources at this day unknown. When these ceremonies are completed among the Bazeegurs, a new scene of mirth is resumed; and tow'ards evening, for the whole day from the breaking of dawn is thus occupied, the bride is conducted to her own hut, when those who are able retire; but the majority, and in general the bridegroom among them, pass the night in a state of insensibility on the neighbouring plain. From the earliest period they are accustomed to intoxicating draughts; even infants of five or six months old are supplied with spirits, though their mothers suckle them during five or six years; and it is not uncommon to observe several children of different ages hanging on their mother, and struggling to extract their scanty portion of nourishment, which is gradually diminished by her own insatiable propensities to the same beverage. Many7 of the sects are very indiscriminate in food ; scarce any thing is rejected ; dead horses, jackals, and bullocks, are alike acceptable; and it has been suspected that they can even enjoy a repast of human flesh. However, this fact is not authenticated, and if analogical reasoning may be admitted here, we should be inclined to
B A Z B A Z 166 Some of the Bazeegurs are owners of land, which Bazeegu:, Bgzttesrurs. deny it, because there is no proof that any tribe,, however savage, is addicted to anthropophagy, if they entertain a great desire to obtain, but they are never cultivators. They are collected, as already dwelling among a more civilized people. OccupaThe chief occupation of the Bazeegurs seems to observed, into various associationsr in different parts tions. consist in feats of address and agility to amuse the of India. The dancing girls, how ever, have no republic, in which both males and females are equally gular and settled habitations ; they dwell merely in skilful. The former are extremely athletic, and temporary huts, erected near the place of their exthe women are taught dancing, which, instead of hibitions. The duration of their lives is supposed to the graceful motions seen in the north, there con- be much abridged by the course of life which they sists principally in a display of lascivious gestures. lead, particularly from the violent exercises practised Most, if not all, the men are jugglers, tumblers, and from early youth, and habitual indulgence in intoxiactors, in which they are very adroit. The people cating draughts. Both males and females undergo of each set, or dramatis personae, are hired out by a such a regular progress of debauchery, that few live sirdar, or manager of a company, for a definite pe- beyond forty, and many do not attain their thirtieth riod, generally one year, after which they are at year. But, from the pursuits of the females being liberty to join any other party. But no person can productive to their parents, their marriages are deestablish a set of actors without permission from the ferred to a later period than is usual in India. There Nardar Boutah, a chief of the Bazeegurs, who receives prostitution is free from that odium and contempt a proportion of the profits, and a tribute or tax from which it incurs in Europe, and those females who each female, somewhat analogous to what was called are considered so unfortunate and depraved by us, milk-money, a revenue levied by the Holy See from are under the special protection of the laws. The licences to prostitutes. On the return of a party female Bazeegurs who are taught singing and dancing from an excursion, this money is paid to the Nar- only, are under no greater personal restraint than the dar Boutah, who convenes his people, and they common dancing girls of Hindostan ; but the chastity continue feasting until the whole is expended. of those whose particular department is tumbling, is Should any of the managers be suspected of giv- strictly enjoined until their place be supplied by ing an unfair account of his profits, a court is as- others more youthful. When this substitution comes, sembled, where the accused must undergo the or- they join the companies of dancers alone; and the deal of applying his tongue to a piece of red-hot men, though quite aware of their incontinence, do not iron. It thus appears that these tribes have a kind scruple to select wives from among them. But, after of civil government among themselves ; that each marriage, a total change of conduct is expected, and of five sets, at Calcutta at least, has a sirdar or it is said that such expectations are commonly realruler, and that the whole are subject to the Nardar ized. Nevertheless, among the Panchperee, the fideBoutah. These sirdars and the chief apparently lity of those employed in different vocations in the constitute a court for the trial of infringement of towns becomes suspected, if they have not returned their regulations, w'hich may be followred by pu- to their homes when the cry of the jackal is heard, nishment. Thus if, on application of the red-hot and their husbands are by no means disposed to over.ron, the suspected manager be burnt, he is declared look the offence. It does not appear, however, that guilty of a fraud, which is expiated by a fine, and, if they have either the power or the inclination of the it be an aggravated offence, by the additional punish- Hindoos, who sometimes, in such cases, decoy their ment of having his nose rubbed on the ground. The own daughters to a lonely place for the purpose of same penalty is attached to disclosures to strangers perpetrating a barbarous murder on them, as the of matters which it is the interest of the tribe to con- punishment of their indiscretion. The Bazeegur paceal. The fine is generally converted to liquor; but rents and husbands are content with slighter expiashould the offender be either unable or unwilling tions ; but if the paramour be not of their own parto discharge it immediately, he is banished from all ticular cast, the incontinence of the female is judged society ; or he is universally execrated, and even his a much more grievous fault. The females now alluded to are those who do wife and children avoid him. He soon finds compliance indispensable, and although the Bazeegurs not attend the juggling exhibitions of the men, pique themselves on their honesty, it is conjectured or their feats of activity; they practise physic, cupthat on such occasions they do not entertain many ping, and perform a kind of tattowing on the skin of scruples in acquiring what is so essential to avert the the Hindoos of their own sex, called Godna. As indignation of their fellows. The mulct being paid, the men, besides their usual occupations, collect meis converted to the general behoof, and affords a new dicinal herbs, and a certain bud, the latter is dried, opportunity for gratifying the strong propensities im- and the former prepared by their wives as curatives, planted in these people for ardent liquors. All dif- especially of the complaints of their own sex : thus ferences among this set are the subject of reference they find employment in the towns, in such voeither to & punch eat or a general assembly; but, be- cations, or by the sale of trinkets, though both fore commencing the business, both plaintiff and de- afford but a precarious subsistence. Some tribes alfendant must provide a quantity of spirits propor- so exhibit wild beasts to the vulgar, or offer mats tioned to the importance of the case. The party fabricated by themselves for sale. Before the estanon-suited ultimately bears the whole expence, and blishment of the British government in Bengal, the the assembly is regaled with the beverage produced Bazeegurs were subject to the arbitrary exactions of a tax-gatherer whom they greatly dreaded, and the by the litigants.
rr B A Z Jazeegurs apprehension of the renewal of that officer’s powers 1 . has proved a considerable impediment to investigatBeattie. ing their manners and customs. A general coincidence in the mode of life, the vocations, manners, and language of all the different sects of these people, determine them as belonging to the same race. The distinctions seen among them are too trivial to admit of their being considered of separate and independent origin. They are different from all the other tribes dispersed throughout Hindostan ; and have two dialects also peculiar to themselves, the one most probably a jargon, which is spoken only among the public performers; the other, in common use, among the whole. The Bazeegurs are supposed to present many features analogous to the Gipsies scattered over Europe and Asia, where they subsist as a distinct race from all the other inhabitants of the countries frequented by them. Both the Bazeegurs and Gipsies have a chief or king; each has a peculiar language, bearing some reciprocal analogy, and different from that of the people among whom they reside, and this analogy is so decided, that it is difficult to deny, that with both it has had a common origin. In India, and in Europe, they are equally an itinerant race; their pursuits, in so far as modified by the manners of countries distant from each other, are alike; for the discrepancies they exhibit, may reasonably be ascribed to an insensible acquisition of the habits of those near whom the various tribes of mankind dwell. They are equally indifferent as to the quality of the food serving for their subsistence; and equally ignorant of systematic religious principles. All preserve the strictest adherence to their own sect, and sedulously abstain from intermixtures or intermarriages with those of every nation; and where infringements of these rules are seen, they are to be ascribed more to necessity than inclination. Another resemblance, which has probably been lost in the lapse of time, is supposed to consist in the three-stringed viol, introduced into Europe by the jugglers of the thirteenth century, which is exactly similar to the instrument now used in Hindostan. Separate and disjoined, these analogies may not carry conviction of the identity of the European Gipsies with the Indian Bazeegurs, but, on uniting and combining the whole, it does not seem unlikely, that if Asia is /their original country, or if they have found their way from Egypt to India, they may also have emigrated farther at a period of remote antiquity, and reached the boundaries of Europe. (s.) BEATTIE (James, LL.D.), a distinguished moralist and poet, was born on the 25th October 1735, at Laurencekirk, then an obscure hamlet, in the county of Kincardine in Scotland; near which place his father rented a small farm. He received his early education at the common school of the parish ; of which it is recorded, that Ruddiman had been teacher in it about forty years before. His acquirements are said to have been interrupted at this time by want of books; a difficulty which has excited commiseration in more instances than that ot Beattie, but which is so little able to control natural genius, that it seems almost an incitement td its exertions; as “ all impediments in fancy’s
B e a 107 course are motives to more fancy.” He first became Beattie, acquainted with English versification through Ogilby’s translation of Virgil. By their father’s death he had been thrown, while yet of tender age, on the care of his elder brother, David Beattie ; who, observing his natural endowments, afforded him, notwithstanding his own limited means, every aid in his power towards a liberal education; and in the year 1749, placed him at Marischal College, Aberdeen; where he soon afterwards obtained a bursary, or exhibition. Here he had the advantage of pursuing his studies under Dr Thomas Blackwell, author of the Li/e of Homer, Dr Gerard, and other eminent men. In addition to his academical course, he began at this time to instruct himself in the Italian language; and appears to have had a strong predilection for Metastasio. In 1753, he was appointed schoolmaster of Fordun, a small village at the foot of the Grampian mountains, where he likewise performed the duty of precentor, or parish clerk, usually attached to that of- fice in Scotland. Here he indulged the propensities of the youthful poet, and frequently wandered during a whole night in the fields, chewing “ the food of sweet and bitter fancy ;” and it was from a height in this neighbourhood that his eye first caught a glimpse of the ocean. From the scenery of this secluded spot, he appears to have derived, as might be expected, many of those images which he afterwards transferred into his poetical compositions ; and, certainly, no exertion of the inventive powers can furnish representations equal to these immediate copies from nature. Such is that picture in the small poem, which he calls Retirement. 11
Thy shades, thy silence, now be mine, Thy charms my only theme ; My haunt the hollow cliff, whose pine Waves o’er the gloomy stream; Whence the scared owl on pinions gray Breaks from the rustling boughs. And down the lone vale sails uwatj To more profound repose."
Such also, among many others in the Minstrel; arethose beautiful pictures contained in the 20th and 21st stanzas of the first canto. In this recluse place, Beattie was discovered and noticed by Mr Garden, afterwards Lord Gardenstown, then Sherift' of the county, and by Lord Monboddo. In 1757, he became a. candidate for the situation of usher in the Grammar-school of Aberdeen. He was at this time foiled in the competition ; but, next year, on occasion of a new vacancy, he was requested to accept the office. Lastly, he was removed, in 1760, to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy and Logic in the Marischal College. Here he passed the remainder of his life, occupied in the zealous discharge of his professional duties, and in literary pursuits. Here, too, he possessed all the advantages of a congenial society, in the company of Dr George Campbell, Dr Reid, Dr Gerard, and other men of genius and learning, who then adorned the university of Aberdeen. His first publication was a small collection, entitled
168 B E A Beattie. Original Poems and Translations, which was printed 1760 or 1761. Of many of the pieces contained in this little volume he was afterwards ashamed; and not only omitted them in the subsequent selections which he published, but endeavoured, as far as possible, to obliterate all traces and recollection of them. Of these lesser pieces, The Hermit is best known ; and. though it cannot be considered as a finished composition, is lull ol pathos and beauty. In The Battle of the Pigmies and Cranes, translated from the Latin of Addison, he has displayed a greater command of terse and happy expression than in most of his original pieces. Mr Beattie was married, in 17(57, to Miss Mary Dun, daughter of Dr James Dun, rector of the Grammar-school at Aberdeen. This connection, at fiist every way auspicious for his happiness, proved, in the sequel, a source of the deepest distress, tor, in the course of a few years, Mrs Beattie, whose mother had laboured under a similar malady, showed unequivocal symptoms of mental disorder, which terminated in a state of confirmed insanity. In the year 1770, Mr Beattie published his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism. His design was, to « prove the universality and immutability of moral sentimentand his motives for the undertaking are sufficiently evident from the title which he has prefixed to the book. He appears to have been particularly encouraged to the prosecution of this task by the opinions of Dr John Gregory and Dr Blacklock. A general outline of the work, which appeared in most of the journals previous to its publication, was prepared by the latter. His original intention, as expressed by himself in one ot his letters, was, first, to have considered the permanency of truth m general and, secondly, to have applied the principles which he should have established “ to the illustra^ tion of certain truths of morality and religion, to which the reasonings of Helvetius, of Mr Hume in his Essays, and of some other modern philosophers, seemed unfavourable.” Of this plan, the former part only was completed It is well known that, in the execution of it, the author did not spare the opinions of those whom he considered as the enemies of religious and moral truth ; and particularly treated the writings of Mr Hume without reserve or qualification. The friends of the latter took up arms in return, representing the Essay as a piece of personal and unprovoked hostility ; and, some time after, the opinions which it contained were canvassed in a more public manner, and with much severity, in an Examination by Dr Priestley. These attacks, or retaliations, were met by Beattie with the same firmness which he had displayed in the original publication of his sentiments; nor would he ever consent to abate either the plainness or spirit with which he had expressed them. In proportion to the censure which this publication called forth from a certain number of persons, was its favourable reception with a different class. It was the means of gaining for its author the unsolicited gqod offices of George Lord Lyttleton, Dr Johnson, Hurd Bishop of Worcester, Percy Bishop of Dromore, and many others. From the great suc-
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cess of the work, a second edition of it was called for Beatiie. in 1771. Mr Beattie visited London in the same last of these year, and again in 1773- On ’ occasions, he received some flattering marks of public notice and distinction. He had the honour of being admitted to a private and long interview with their Majesties ; received, from the University of Oxford, an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, at the same time with Sir Joshua Reynolds ; and was afterwards requested by the latter to sit for his portrait. The reputation of his Essay, and still more, perhaps, the motives and general character of the author, likewise procured for him, about this time, a yearly pension of L.200 from the Crown. In the course of the same year, 1773, he published the first part of his Minstrel, or the Progress of Genius ; to which he added a second part in 1774. His object, as described by himself, was “ to trace the progress of a poetical genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a Minstrel; that is, as an itinerant poet and musician; a character which, according to the notion of our forefathers, was not only respectable, but sacred.” It appears from his letters, that he little anticipated the favourable reception which this poem obtained from the public; a doubt which was probably founded on the want of incident .and variety of character, in the composition. Its merit, however, was quickly acknowledged ; and by it the author’s reputation, as a poet and a man of genius, was raised to its height. On occasion of a vacancy which occurred soon after in the chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Edinburgh, it was proposed that Dr Beattie should become a candidate; to which step he was strongly urged by some of his friends, particularly Lord Hailes. And, about the same period, he received various offers of preferment in the English church. These plans of promotion, however, he successively declined, considering the situation which he held as best adapted to his abilities, and affording him the greatest opportunities of usefulness. His reluctance to accept a chair in the university of Edinburgh arose partly, indeed, from the remaining effect of those heats which controversial metaphysics had produced. “ I am so great a lover of peace,” he says in a letter to one of his friends on this occasion, “ and so willing to think well of my neighbours, that I do not wish to be connected with one person who dislikes me.” Between the years 1780 and 1793, he published his Elements of Moral Science, and various other works, moral and critical, which are well known, and deservedly popular. He enjoyed the acquaintance arid friendship of many distinguished characters, in different classes of society. Among his literary correspondents in England were Bishop Porteus, Mrs Montague, Scott the poet of Amwell, and Mr Gray. He was entrusted by the latter, in 17(58, with superintending an edition of his poems, printed by Foulis. During the latter period of his life, Dr Beattie experienced a new train of domestic calamities, which, added to the unfortunate situation of Mrs Beattie,
B E A B E A Beattie, gradually undermined his health, and impaired his genuine reasoning does ultimately terminate in cerintellectual powers. The first and severest of these tain principles which it is impossible to disbelieve, trials was the loss of his eldest son, James Hay Beat- and as impossible to prove; that, therefore, the ultie, who died in 1790 ; in whose society he had found timate standard of truth to us is common sense, or one of his greatest enjoyments, and who had already that instinctive conviction into which all true reasonbeen associated with him in the Professorship of ing does resolve itself.” It is now generally admitted Moral Philosophy, at the early age of 19,* Some that, in the illustration of this doctrine, which is conyears after, his only remaining son, Montague Beat- formable in substance to that of Reid, Dr Beattie has tie, likewise died, after a short illness. This event fallen into some errors, or at least ambiguities, which he intimated to one of his friends, by a letter written the former has been enabled in a greater degree to on the same day, in the terms of calm and unaffect- avoid. What constitutes the chief defect of the ed resignation. But his mind had been violently Essay is a want of that strictness and precision, shaken, even before this blow; and, when he look- which a discussion of the metaphysical parts of the ed on the dead body of his son for the last time, he subject necessarily requires. He has used the term gave way to the scene, and exclaimed, “ Now I common sense with more latitude, and in a greater have done with this world.” Its first effect was the variety of significations, than is consistent with exloss of memory respecting his deceased son. Yet act or conclusive reasoning; and he has stated some it was found, that, by the mention of what the propositions too generally, and without the limitalatter had suffered during his sickness, his recol- tions which they seem to require. Notwithstanding lection could usually be recalled. He continued this imperfection of the work, when considered strictto discharge his duty as Professor; but, notwith- ly as a logical treatise, it is certain that many of the standing some returns of a more vigorous intellect doctrines delivered in it carry with and fancy, he did not from this time resume his fundamental them an irresistible weight, which subsequent instudies, and seldom answered the letters which quiry and discussion have tended, not to diminish, he received. He was attacked with palsy in 1799, but increase. It may justly be considered as an exand afterwards sustained repeated shocks, the last in 1802. Pie lingered till the 18th of August ample, in probable reasoning, of that indirect but 1803, when he expired at the age of 68. A parficu- conclusive mode of proof, which, in mathematical lai Account of his Life and Writings, by Sir Wil- science, is usually termed reductio ad absurdum ; a liam Forbes of Pitsligo, who had long been his form which has been frequently and successfully employed by Dr Reid, for similar purposes. A referfriend and confident, was published in 1806, in which are to be found some interesting selections from his ence to the sources of knowledge possessed by mankind in general, and to their common or universal private correspondence. The character of Dr Beattie is delineated in his sentiments, is an appeal regarding certain acknowwritings; of which the most prominent features are edged facts, as an ingredient and ground-work of purity of sentiment, and warm attachment to the science. Nor is it to be supposed that, in these principles of religion and morality. His disposi- cases, philosophy surrenders her judgment to the potions were gentle and modest, and he possessed great pular opinion ; but only, that the conclusions of the soundest and the most improved reason are conformatenderness of heart. He was laborious in his lite- ble to the dictates of our faculties, as they are exercisrary pursuits, vet fond at all times of conversation ed by the majority of mankind. The materials of knowand society. Towards the latter period of his life he was subject to an irritability of nerves, by which ledge possessed by the philosopher and the vulgar his temper was sensibly affected; and though, to are the same; it is in the extent of the inferences appearance, his bodily frame was robust, he had im- which are drawn from them, in their combination, paired his. strength by excess in study. He pos- and in the uses to which they are applied, that the sessed considerable talents both for music and draw- disproportion is to be found. In their reasoning on mixed subjects, and in the power of remote calculaing. PIis abilities as a writer may be said to have al- tion, men differ infinitely; in their immediate iudgready undergone that ultimate test which is to be ments they differ very little. It is undeniable also, with respect to the style of tound m public opinion; and it has ranked him high as a moralist, a critic, and a poet. His Essay on this work, that Dr Beattie has fallen into an error, by using, on various occasions, a greater keenness VeiT u]ar book of expression than is at all suited to the argumentaP°P > particularly in mngf Kd’ an/? haS1 gone through many editions. It tive parts of his subject. An author may, indeed, Siuf C?n*fSSed’ that this work is not without con- be moved by a commendable feeling of indignation, 3 hilos hi 0 commence the task of writing, whatever be the Win i a f P thus °V stated ™' composition. Its leading doctrine has been by himself: “As subject of discussion. But he who attempts to connodun ofthe S eternal relations of things, that duct a tram of reasoning, while under the immediWhich We feel tbat ate mfluenee even of a just passion, engages in too must belief ffiUSibf is falsehood which we mist disbelieve. I have shown that all ThI ?“atter’ and foregoes many advantages, l e truth is, that the metaphysical speculations of and verse^was8prmt^d^by^r^eatt^hi"the ye&flSOO ^ VOL. II. PART r. ^ aov»v/.
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Berkeley and Hume had proceeded so far in contradicting the ordinary apprehensions and feelings ot mankind, as to prove, in the clearest manner, even to men of science, the impossibility of obtaining certain knowledge, by any exercise of the human intellect, altogether abstracted from the information of matter, and the employment ot our other faculties ; and those consequences with regard to morality, religion, and the social state, which appeared to flow as a necessary result from the speculative principles, particularly of Mr Hume roused in a large class, both of the learned and unlearned, a sense of repugnance and opposition proportionally strong. Dr Beattie was among the first who endeavoured to resist the current of these opinions. His book was polemical; and that warmth ot language, which he has not studied to repress, must be ascribed to these circumstances, if it cannot be defended by them. . .. r ui But the objections in question are not applicable to any of his other works. It is impossible here to enter into a farther detail of these various publications His Elements of Moral Science, and his different critical and philological treatises, are compositions of a very pleasing character; and it was chiefly by them that his reputation was established in other countries. Some of his books were early translated into the Dutch and other languages. A French translation of his Essays on Poetry and Music was printed at Paris in 1798- But is clliefly as the author of the Minstrel that Beattie is known, and will continue to be admired. This poem, or rather poetical fragment, for the design was not completed, stands fully confirmed in the public favour; and it is sufficient to say, that, in beauty both of sentiment and imagery, it stands in the first class of poetical comnositions. It would be difficult perhaps to select, from the body of English verse, any single passage which excels this stanza in the first part: « o how can’st thou renounce the boundless store Of charms, which Nature to tier votary y ields ! The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp of groves, the garniture of fields, All that the genial ray of morning gilds, And all that echoes to the song of even, All that the mountain’s sheltering bosom shields. And all the dread magnificence of heaven; O how can’st thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven. It has been objected to the second part of the Minstrel, that it contains too much philosophy. But, though the instruction conveyed in it is frequently addressed to the understanding, it is never abstruse, and the lessons are those of a poet not less than of a moralist. Like the Castle of Indolence, it is, in scope and design, a didactic piece. Both commence in the highest strain of descriptive and pathetic
B E A poetry; and the subsequent depression of tone in Beattie both is a necessary result of this lofty preparation. II But the criticism is more just when applied to the '] work of Thomson than to the Minstrel. Dr Beattie’s style is classical, and always perspicuous. He was never weary of retouching what he wrote, the chief secret of good composition, without which, at least, no composition can be rendered complete. He deserves, above all, that which is the greatest praise of an author, that no one can read his works with a candid mind, and rise from the perusal unimproved. The following is a list of Dr Beattie s writings:—Poems, first published in lyfiO-—Essay on Truth, 1771 Minstrel, 1771, 1774.—Essays, viz. On Poetry and Music—On Laughter and ludicrous Composition—On Classical Learning, 1776.—Dissertations, viz. On Memory and Imagination—On Dreaming—On the Theory of Language—On Fable and Romance—On the Attachments of Kindred-— and Illustrations of Sublimity, 1783.—Evidences of Christianity, XU86.—Elements of Moral Science, 179b, 1793. He likewise published, in 179b, an edition of Mr Addison’s papers in the Taller, Spectator, Guardian, and Freeholder, and of his treatise on the Christian Religion, with his Life by Tickell, and some original Notes, Edinburgh, 4 vols. 8vo. (ee.) BEAUMARCHAIS (Pierre Augustin Caron de) appears to have been one of those persons who, from restlessness of disposition and singularity of character, obtain, in their own age, more celebrity than they are entitled to from their merit or talents. He was born at Paris in 1732, and was the son of a clockmaker, who brought him up to his own trade. From his earliest youth, however, he discovered an inclination for literature, together with a remarkable talent for music. His proficiency in that art procured him an introduction to the French court, where he was employed to teach the princesses, daughters of Louis XV. to play on the guitar. At their concerts, which he attended, he became acquainted with the banker Duverney , by whom he was instructed in business, and placed in a situation which was likely to lead to fortune. Beaumarchais first attracted public attention by his drama of Eugenie, which was published in 1767 ; but he was chiefly indebted for the notoriety he obtained, to the various law-suits in which he became involvedafter the death of his patron Duverney. Having commenced an action against the Count de la Blache, the grandnephew of Duverney, for payment of a trifling balance of an account which was due to him by his deceased patron, and the suit having been removed from Aix to Paris, M. Goezman, one of the judges of the Parliament Maupeou, which was then very unpopular in the capital, was appointed to report and decide
« It is remarkable that this word should have been objected to by Gray, in his Critique, communicated to the autho" previously to the publication of the Minstrel. His reluctance to admit a term, which could it, rpnflprpd obiectionable by being ranked with none but those of the highest and pmest ^ poetry would of itself be a sufficient tribute to the diction of this beautiful passage. But Gray does amp justice’to the whole stanza; “ This," he exclaims, “ is true poetry ; this is inspiration.
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Beaumar- on its merits. Beaumarchais suspecting that he was had passed some time as an exile from his native Beanmarclmis. excluded from the presence of Goezman by the in- country, he returned to France when the storms of chais. ^ fluence of the Count de la Blache, and thus prevent- the Revolution had subsided into a more settled tyed from explaining the merits of his case, bribed ranny, and having recovered possession of his villa certain dependents of the judge in order to be admit- in the Faubourg St Antoine, he remained there till ted to an interview. The cause, however, was decided his death, which happened suddenly in the year against him before he could obtain an audience, and 1799the whole of the bribe not having been returned, along The moral character of Beaumarchais seems to correspondence took place, by which Goezman was have been far from unexceptionable. He was reat length so much exasperated, that he instituted a markable for extraordinary indiscretion, restlessprosecution against Beaumarchais for an attempt to ness, and ambition, an overweening conceit of hisl corrupt him in his judicial capacity. Beaumarchais own talents, and an undisguised contempt for others. was acquitted of the charge, while Goezman was With these defects, it is not wonderful that his found liable to him in damages, and was farther con- conduct should have formed the subject of some victed of subornation and falsehood in his attempts absurd calumnies. La Harpe mentions, that these to substantiate the accusation. The decision of were propagated to such an extent, that it was Goezman having been rescinded, and the principal at one time reported, that he had made away, by cause remitted to the Parliament of Aix, where it poison, with his two wives whom he had successively had originally depended, Beaumarchais again became married for their fortunes—a report, on which Volinvolved with the Count de la Blache, in a litigation taire is said to have remarked, “ ce Beaumarchais which originated in the calumnies and undue influ- n'est point un empoisonneur—il est trap dr ole." Even ence by which the Count attempted to overpower his the journey which he undertook to Spain, in order to adversary. In this dispute, Beaumarchais also pre- vindicate the honour, and secure the happiness of a vailed ; but the chief advantage which he acquired sister, and which seems to have been the most praisefrom these various processes was the astonish- worthy action of his life, was made the subject of ing interest and admiration which were univer- invidious misrepresentations, from which he has vinsally excited in France by the Factums or Mc- dicated himself in one of his Memoires against La moires which he wrote in his defence ; in which Blache and Goezman. the most logical and convincing argument is diBesides his Memoires, Beaumarchais is the author versified with the bitterest sarcasm, the keenest of various dramatic productions, which made a great raillery, and the relation of incidents as strange and noise, and gained him considerable reputation in Paris amusing as those which are met with in romance. at the time they appeared. His Eugenie, of which the These able and lively productions, however, procur- plot is founded on astory in t\\QDiaUeBoiteux, and his ed him many enemies, as they discovered him to be Deux Amis, which hinges on the embarrassment and a man of a most resentful and calumnious dis- perplexity of a merchant on the verge of insolvency, position. He also lost a good deal of the repu- are serious sentimental comedies, written in imitatation he had acquired, from being involved in tion of Diderot’s Pere de Famille. Eugenie, which a new process, in which he found the advocate was the most successful of the tw o, is rather a roBergasse a more formidable opponent than Goez- mance carried on by dialogue, than a drama. It man or La Blache ; and his new Memoires want- possesses little pathos or interest, and the only emoed the spirit and gaiety to which his former ones tion felt in its perusal, is a certain degree of curiowere indebted for their popularity. Though oc- sity concerning the event of the story. The incicupied with these processes, and various literary dents in Les Deux Amis are flat and insipid, and as pursuits, Beaumarchais did not neglect the im- it is not sustained by the charms of versification, it provement of his fortune. He engaged in various fails almost entirely of theatrical effect. Beaumarspeculations, of which the most, profitable was his chais obtained more success in his dramatic career, project of supplying the Americans with arms and when he quitted the imitation of Diderot, and followammunition during the war with this country. ing the natural gaiety of his own genius, represented Having thus gained a considerable fortune, he the lively and entertaining character of Figaro, in built a magnificent villa in the Faubourg St An- two successive pieces, Le Barbier de Seville and La toine, which he embellished with much taste, and Folle Journee, ou le Mariage de Figaro. The first at great expence. He afterwards lost some part of of these comedies merely turns on the assistance the money he had acquired by an expensive and which the Count Almaviva receives from Figaro, the ill-executed edition of the works of Voltaire; and Barbier de Seville, in his stratagem to carry off Rosine neither the early support which he gave to the by duping an old guardian, by whom she was strictly principles of the French Revolution, nor his im- watched, and who intended to marry her himself. portation of fire-arms for the use of the French The Mariage de Figaro principally hinges on the lorces, were sufficient to preserve his property from scheme devised by the Count Almaviva, of marrying confiscation, or his person from proscription. The a beautiful attendant of his countess to Figaro, wuth sufferings and dangers which he experienced during designs which seem to have been suggested by some this period, have been detailed by him in a work en- scenes in the Casina of Plautus. Both pieces are titled, Mes Six Epoques, which i.-,written with consi- full of lively dialogue, dramatic movement, and inderable force and interest. After he had endured genious jeux de theatre. The author, however, every species of accusation and persecution, and had at first great difficulty in getting the Mariage
172 B E A Beanmar- de Figaro represented; and the curiosity and expectation of the public were excited to the highest Beauty, pitch, previous to its appearance. It continued to be acted twice a-week for two years, and produced immense profits both to the author and the comedians. To a reader of the present day, the chief interest of the Manage de Figaro arises from the distress experienced by the countess, on finding herself forsaken by her husband, and the engaging, though not very moral, character of the page Cherubin ; but in France its popularity might be partly owing to the numerous sarcasms both on the political and judicial administration of the country. This was evidently one of the author’s chief objects, as he boasts in his preface, quil a forme son plan defogon a y foire entrer la critique d'une Joule d’abus qui desolent la societe. Beaumarchais has introduced Figaro a third time, in his last drama, La Mere Coupable ; and it is generally supposed that by this character, in all the three dramas, he intended to represent himself. Figaro, it is true, is originally a barber, and afterwards a valet ; but he is also a poet, a musician, and great intriguer, while the freedom which he uses with his master gives full scope for
B E A the developement of the character. In La Mere Beauma-; Coupable, he has also introduced, under the name of c}li*is Begearss, his old opponent the advocate Bergasse. Bea'L Indeed, he admits in his preface, que Begearss nest pas de son invention et quil Va vu agir. Most of the plays of Beaumarchais are preceded by prefaces, in which he has vindicated them against objections, and pointed out their beauties; but, as he neither possessed much learning nor taste, his literary pleadings were not so happy as his judicial ones. Indeed, the great secret of Beaumarchais’ success was the perceiving and availing himself of the tone and spirit of the times. The vogue in which the Pere de Famille then was, secured applause for his Comedies Larmoyantes. The unpopularity of a parliament, entrusted with the administration of justice, procured a favourable reception for his Memoires ; and the rising clamour against the government of the country, gave additional zest to the sarcasms of the Manage de Figaro. Of consequence, Beaumarchais, during his life, was more celebrated than respectable, and the reputation he enjoyed in his own age was greater than that which he is likely to preserve with posterity. (m.)
BEAUTY. .Beauty,—that property in objects by which they are recommended to the power or faculty of Taste— the reverse of Ugliness—the primary or most general object of love or admiration. Necessary These, we confess, are rather explanations of the imperfec- word than definitions of the thing it signifies ; and tion of deli- can n0 value, even as explanations of the word, 11 except only to those who understand, without exwhether our planation, all the other words they contain. For, if sense of the curious inquirer should proceed to ask, “ And Beauty be vvhat is the faculty or power of Taste ?” we do not a Simple gee at present w}iat other answer we could give, than otherwise.01 ^iat ^ was ^iat °*' which Beauty was the object; or by which we were enabled to discover and to relish what was Beautiful. It is material, however, to observe, that if it could be made out, as some have alleged, that our perception of Beauty was a simple sensation, like our perception of colour; and that Taste was an original and distinct sense, like that of seeing or hearing; this would be truly the only definition that could be given, either of the sense or of its object— and all that we could do in investigating the nature of the latter, would be to digest and enumerate the circumstances under which it was found to present itself to its appropriate organ. All that we can say of colour, if we consider it very strictly, is, that it is that property in objects by which they are recommended to the faculty of sight; and the faculty of sight can scarcely be defined in any other way than as that by which we are enabled to discover the existence of colour. When we attempt to proceed farther, and say that Green is the colour of grass, and Red of roses or blood, it is plain that we do not in any respect explain the nature of those colours, but
only give instances of their occurrence; and that one who had never seen them could learn nothing whatever from these pretended definitions. Complex ideas, on the other hand, and compound emotions, may be always defined, and explained to a certain extent, by enumerating the parts of which they are made up, or resolving them into the elements ot which they are composed :—and we may thus acquire, not only a substantial knowledge of their nature, but a practical power in their regulation or production. ^ It becomes of importance, therefore, in the very ^gtion® outset of this inquiry, to consider whether our sense point, of Beauty be really a simple sensation, like some ot those we have enumerated, or a compound or derivative feeling, the sources or elements of which may be investigated and ascertained. If it be the former, we have then only to refer it to the peculiar sense or faculty of which it is the object; and to determine, by repeated observation, under what circumstances it occurs :—But, if it be the latter, we have to proceed, by a joint process of observation and reflection, to ascertain what are the primary feelings to which it may be referred; and by what peculiar modification of them it is produced and distinguished. We are not quite prepared, as yet, to exhaust the whole of this important discussion, to which we shall be obliged to return in the sequel of our inquiry; but it is necessary, in order to explain and to set forth, in their natural order, the difficulties with which the subject is surrounded, to state here, in a very few words, one or two of the most obvious, and, as we think, decisive objections against the notion of Beauty being a simple sensation, or the object of a separate and peculiar faculty. /
B E A U T Y. 173 The first, anti perhaps the most considerable, is the recognised to be the same, when they are again per- Beauiy. Beauty. want of agreement as to the presence and existence ceived in another; and the objects in which they Vs^V^‘ -’irst reasuu 0f Beauty in particular objects, among men whose are thus perceived, are at once felt so far to resemTtlonof'6 organ'zati°n *s perfect, and who are plainly possess- ble each other, and to partake of the same nature. Seauty be- ed of the faculty, whatever it may be, by which Thus snow is seen to be white, and chalk is seen to be ng a pecu- Beauty is discerned. Now, no such thing happens, we white ; but this is no sooner seen, than the two sub'ar ob’ ima8ine’ or can be conceived to happen, in the case stances, however unlike in other respects, are felt at "ct ofa° ' any ot;ber simple sensation, or the exercise of any once to have this quality in common, and to resemble iistinci other distinct faculty. Where one man sees light, each other in all that relates to the quality of colour, Sense or all men who have eyes, see light also.—All men al- and the sense of seeing. Now, is this felt, or could faculty,— iow grass to be green—and sugar to be sweet, and it even be intelligibly asserted, with regard to the co bo have *ce to ^’—an(^ ^e unavoidable inference from quality of Beauty ? Take even a limited and specific je Faculty any apparent disagreement in such matters necessa- sort of Beauty,—for instance the Beauty of Form. o not re- rily is, that the party is insane, or entirely destitute The form of a fine tree is beautiful—and the form ognise this of the sense or organ concerned in the perception. of a fine woman,—and the form of a column, and a iala 111 y With regard to Beauty, however, it is obvious, at first vase, and a chandelier. Yet how can it be said that ie same sight, that the case is quite different. One man sees the form of a woman has anything in common with yects. it perpetually, where to another it is quite invisible, that of a tree or a temple ? or to which of the —or even where its reverse seems to be conspicuous. senses by which forms are distinguished, does it apNor is this owing to the insensibility of either of the pear they have any resemblance or affinity ? parties—for the same contrariety exists where both The matter, however, becomes still more inexare keenly alive to the influences of the Beauty they tricable when we recollect that Beauty does not berespectively discern. A Chinese or African lover long merely to forms or colours, but to sounds, and would probably see nothing at all attractive in a belle perhaps to the objects of other senses; nay, that in all of London or Paris,—and undoubtedly, an elegansfor- languages and in all nations, it is not supposed to marum spectator, from either of these cities, would dis- reside exclusively in material objects, but to belong cover nothing but deformity in the Venus of the Hot- also to sentiments and ideas, and intellectual and tentots. A little distance in time produces the same moral existences. Not only is a tree Beautiful, as effects as distance in place ;—the gardens, the furni- well as a palace or a waterfall; but a poem is Beauture, the dress, which appeared beautiful in the eyes tiful, and a theorem in mathematics, and a contrivance of our grandfathers, are odious and ridiculous in in mechanics. But if things intellectual and totally ours. Nay, the difference of rank, education, or segregated from matter may thus possess Beauty, how employments, give rise to the same diversity of sen- can it possibly be a quality of material objects ? Or sation. The little shopkeeper sees a Beauty in his what sense or faculty can that be, whose proper office roadside box, and in the staring tile roof, wooden it is to intimate to us the existence of some property lions, and clipped boxwood, which strike horror into which is common to a flower and a demonstration, a the soul of the student of the picturesque,—while valley and an eloquent discourse ? he is transported in surveying the fragments of anThe only answer which occurs to this, is plainly Suggestion cient sculpture, which are nothing but ugly masses of enough a bad one; but the statement of it, and of its tl,at »wir mouldering stone, in the judgment of the admirer of insufficiency, will serve better, perhaps, than anything neatness. It is needless, however, to multiply in- else, to develope the actual difficulties of the subject, their com-C stances, since the fact admits of no contradiction. and the true state of the question with regard to them, nion quality But how can we believe, that Beauty is the object It may be said, then, in answer to the questions we of a peculiar sense or faculty, when persons un- have suggested above, that all these objects, however doubtedly possessed of the faculty, and even in an various and dissimilar, agree at least in being Agreeeminent degree, can discover nothing of it in objects able, and that this Agreeableness, which is the only where it is distinctly felt and perceived by others quality they possess in common, may probably be with the same use of the faculty ? the Beauty which is ascribed to them all. Now, to This one consideration, we confess, appears to us those who are accustomed to such discussions, it by conclusive against the supposition of Beauty being a would be quite enough to reply, that though the Senelal real property of objects, addressing itself to the Agreeableness of such objects depend plainly enough tiom ^ power of Taste as a separate sense or faculty,—and upon their Beauty, it by no means follows, but quite ’ seems to point irresistibly to the conclusion, that the contrary, that their Beauty depends upon their our sense of it is the result of other more elementa- Agreeableness; the latter being the more compreS* md rea ^ee^nSs> which it may be analyzed or resolv- hensive or generic term, under which Beauty must sa -tiie63 e^'eater ^ second objection, however, if possible of still rank as one of the species. Its nature, therefore, is in ite va- 8y force, is suggested, by considering the pro- no more explained, nor is less absurdity substantially ri'j ofob- digious and almost infinite variety of things to which committed, by saying that things are Beautiful, bet s ro w j‘”|le Slbll |y P perty of Beauty is ascribed, and the impos- cause they are Agreeable, than if we were to give qi tty «f can ’ty of imagining any one inherent quality which the same explanation of the sweetness of sugar ; for fjpty belong to them all, and yet, at the same time, no one, we suppose, will dispute, that though it be possess so much unity as to be the peculiar object very true that sugar is agreeable because it is sweet, lo 0 e* ° a sepaiate sense or faculty. All simple qualities it would be manifestly preposterous to say that it that are perceived in any one object, are immediately was sweet because it was agreeable. For the bene-
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B E A U T Y. fit, however, of those who w ish or requirer to be more all material Beauty is perceived ; and yet the Beauty Biauiy. regularly initiated in these mysteries, w e beg leave which discloses itself to these two separate senses, to add a few observations, and plainly depends upon qualities which have no and more In the first place, then, it seems evident, that sort of affinity, is supposed to be one distinct qualiparticularly. Agreeableness, in general, cannot be the same with ty, and to be perceived by a peculiar sense or faculBeauty, because there are very many things in the ty ! The perplexity becomes still greater wffien we highest degree Agreeable, that can in no sense be think of the Beauty of poems or theorems, and endeacalled Beautiful. Moderate heat, and savoury food, vour to imagine what qualities they can possess in and rest, and exercise, are Agreeable to the body; common with the agreeable modifications of light or but none of these can be called Beautiful; and of sound. among objects of a higher class, the love and esteem of It is in these considerations undoubtedly^ that the In what the others, and fame, and a good conscience, and health, difficulty of the subject consists. The faculty of and riches, and wisdom, are all eminently Agreeable ; Taste, plainly, is not a faculty like any of the external but not at all Beautiful, according to any intelligible senses—the range of whose objects is limited and pre°’ use of the word. It is plainly quite absurd, there- cise, as wTell as the qualities by which they are gratified fore, to say that Beauty consists in Agreeableness, or offended,—and Beauty, accordingly, is discovered without specifying in consequence of what it is agree- in an infinite variety of objects, among which it seems, able,—or to hold that anything whatever is taught as at first sight, impossible to discover any other bond to its nature, by merely classing it among our plea- of connexion. Yet boundless as their diversity may surable emotions. appear, it is plain that they must resemble each other In the second place, however, we may remark, in something, and in something more definite and dethat among all the objects that are Agreeable, whe- finable than merely in being agreeable;—since they ther they are also Beautiful or not, scarcely any are all classed together, in every tongue and nation, two are Agreeable on account of the same qualities, under the common appellation of Beautiful, and are or even suggest their agreeableness to the same fa- felt indeed to produce emotions in the mind that have culty or organ. Most certainly there is no resem- some sort of kindred or affinity. The words Beauty blance or affinity whatever between the qualities and Beautiful, in short, must mean something; and.are which make a peach agreeable to the palate, and a universally felt to mean something much more debeautiful statue to the eye; which soothe us in an finite than agreeableness or gratification in general; easy chair by the fire, or delight us in a philosophi- and while it is confessedly by no means easy to decal discovery. The truth is, that Agreeableness is scribe or define what that something is, the force and not properly a quality of any object whatsoever, but clearness of our perception of it is demonstrated by the the effect or result of certain qualities, the nature of readiness with which we determine, in any particular which we can generally define pretty exactly, or of instance, whether the object of a given pleasurable which we know at least with certainty that they ma- emotion is or is not properly described as Beauty. nifest themselves respectively to some one particular W hat we have already said, we confess, appears to sense or faculty, and to no other; and consequently us conclusive against the idea of this Beauty being any it would be just as obviously ridiculous to suppose a fixed or inherent property of the objects to which it faculty or organ, whose office it w’as to perceive is ascribed, or itself the object of any separate and inAgreeableness, as to suppose that Agreeableness w'as dependent faculty; and w'e will no longer conceal from a distinct quality that could thus be perceived. the reader what w e take to be the true solution of the The class of agreeable objects, thanks to the difficulty. In our opinion, then, our sense of Beauty Solution bounty of Providence, is exceedingly large. Certain depends entirely on our previous experience of simpler proposed things are agreeable to the palate, and others to the pleasures or emotions, and consists in the suggestion smell and to the touch. Some again are agreeable of agreeable or interesting sensations with which wre to our faculty of imagination, or to our understand- had formerly been made familiar by the direct and ining, or to our moral feelings; and none of all these telligible agency of our common sensibilities:—and we call Beautiful. But there are others which we do that vast variety of objects, to which we give the comcall Beautiful; and those we say are agreeable to mon name of Beautiful, become entitled to that appelour faculty of Taste :—but when we come to ask w hat lation, merely because they all possess the power of is the faculty of Taste, and what are the qualities recalling or reflecting those sensations of which they which recommend them to that faculty ?—we find our- have been the accompaniments, or with which they selves just where we were at the beginning of the have been associated in our imagination by any other discussion, and embarrassed with all the difficulties more casual bond of connection. According to arising from the prodigious diversity of objects which this view of the matter, therefore, Beauty is not an seem to possess these qualities. inherent property or quality of objects at all, but We know pretty well what is the faculty of seeing the result of the accidental relations in which they may or hearing; or, at least, we know that what is agree- stand to our experience of pleasures or emotions,— able to one of those faculties, has no effect what- and does not depend upon any particular configuraever on the other. We know that bright colours tion of parts, proportions, or colours, in external afford no delight to the ear, nor sweet tones to the things, nor upon the unity, coherence, or simplicity of eye ; and are therefore perfectly assured that the intellectual creations,—but merely upon the associaqualities which make the visible objects agreeable, tionswhich, in the case of every individual,may enable cannot be the same with those which give pleasure these inherent, and otherwise indifferent qualities, to to the ear. But it is by the eye and by the ear that suggest or recal to the mind emotions of a pleasur-
B E A U T Y n:y Beauly able or interesting description. It follows, therefore, explain, as consisting in the prodigious multitude and Beauty, ^ that no object is beautiful in itself,—or could appear diversity of the objects in which the common quality so, antecedent to our experience of direct pleasures of Beauty was to be accounted for. Those who have or emotions; and that, as an infinite variety of ob- not been sufficiently aware of the difficulty have genejects may thus reflect interesting ideas, so all of them rally dogmatized from a small number of instances, and may acquire the title of Beautiful, although utterly have rather given examples of the occurrence of Beauty diverse and disparate in their nature, and possessing in some few classes of objects, than afforded any light nothing in common but this accidental power of re- as to that upon which it essentially depended in all — minding us of other emotions. while those who felt its full force have very often found This theory, which, we believe, is now very no other resource, than to represent Beauty as generally adopted, though under many needless consisting in properties so extremely vague and gequalifications, shall be farther developed and il- neral (such, for example, as the power of exciting lustrated in the sequel. But at present we shall only ideas of relation), as almost to elude our comprehenremark, that it serves at least to solve the great sion, and, at the same time, of so abstract and metaproblem involved in the discussion, by rendering it physical a description, as not to be very intelligibly easily conceivable how objects which have no inhe- stated, as the radicals of a strong, familiar, and plearent resemblance, nor, indeed, any one quality in surable emotion. This last observation leads us to common, should yet be united in one common rela- make one other remark upon the general character tion, and consequently acquire one common epithet,— of these theories ; and this is, that some of them just as all the things that belonged to a beloved in- seem necessarily to imply the existence of a pedividual may serve to remind us of him, and thus to culiar sense or faculty for the perception of Beauty; awake a kindred class of emotions, though just as un- as they resolve it into properties that are not in like each other as any of the objects that are classed any way interesting or agreeable to any of our under the general name of Beautiful. His poetry, known faculties. Such are all those which make it for instance, or his slippers,—his acts of bounty, or consist in Proportion,—or in Variety, combined with his saddlehorse,—may lead to the same chain of in- Regularity,—or in waving lines,—or in Unity,—or in teresting remembrances, and thus agree in possessing the perception of Relations,—without explaining, or a power of excitement, for the sources of which w e attempting to explain, how any of these things should should look in vain through all the variety of their affect us with any delight or emotion. Others, again, physical or metaphysical qualities. do not require the supposition of any such separate faBy the help of the same consideration, we get culty ; because in them the sense of Beauty is consirid of all the mystery of a peculiar sense or faculty, dered as arising from other more simple and familiar imagined for the express purpose of perceiving Beau- emotions, which are in themselves and beyond all disty ; and discover that the power of Taste is nothing pute agreeable. Such are those which teach that more than the habit of tracing those associations, by Beauty depends on the perception of Utility, or of which almost all objects may be connected with in- Design, or Fitness, or in tracing Associations between teresting emotions. It is easy to understand, that its objects and the common joys or emotions of our the recollection of any scene of delight or emotion nature. Which of these two classes of speculation, to must produce a certain agreeable sensation, and that one or other of which, we believe, all theories of Beauthe objects which introduce these recollections should ty may be reduced, is the most philosophical in itself, not appear altogether indifferent to us : Nor is it, per- we imagine can admit of no question; and we hope haps, very difficult to imagine, that recollections thus in the sequel to leave it as little doubtful, which is to strikingly suggested by some real and present exist- be considered as most consistent with the fact. In ence, should present themselves under a different as- the meantime, we must give a short account of some pect, and move the mind somewhat differently from of the theories themselves. those which arise spontaneously in the ordinary course The most ancient of which it seems necessary to Speculaof our reflections, and do not thus grow out of a take any notice, is that which may be traced in the ,ious of on t,ie direct and peculiar impression. Dialogues of Plato,—though we are very far from The whole of this doctrine, however, ure shall en- pretending that it is possible to give any intelligible ^ >Jf Ct* deavour by and bye to establish upon more direct or consistent account of its tenor. It should never evidence; but having now explained, in a general way, be forgotten, however, that it is to this subtle and both the difficulties of the subject, and our sug- ingenious spirit, that we owe the suggestion, that it gestion as to their true solution, it is proper that we is Mmd alone that is Beautiful; and that, in perceivliort his!o should take a short review of the more considerable ing Beauty, it only contemplates the shadow of its cal View theories that have been proposed for the elucidation own affections;—a doctrine which, however imstithe The ics pro- of this curious question; which is one of the most cally unfolded in his writings, or however combined [sprofbsscm ofHmath1 Ca^ulat;o"s co™ected vvith this subject, he was assisted, as he himself states, by vol. 11. parX 1 Mathematlcs at Plsa 5 and in the mechanical part by his brother Annibale. cc
BEG ^02 B E C Beccaria. weak. But this is not a necessary or a just interence. and entered the religious order of the Pious Schools Beccam. in 1732. He became a professor of experimental The fact is, indeed, singular, and deeply impressive; physics, first at Palermo, and then at Rome, and was but, in truth, it only serves as a new example to appointed to the same situation at Turin in 1748 : he prove how mixed is the nature of our frame ; how was afterwards made tutor to the young Princes de imperfectly the understanding acts upon the will, Chablais and de Carignan, and continued to reside and the will upon the mortal part; how many things principally at Turin for the remainder ef his life. appear to be within the jurisdiction of our reason, In May 1755, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal which, nevertheless, are superior to its control. Society of London, to which he afterwards commuThis is not the place to engage in a more particu- nicated several papers, relating to his favourite purlar examination of the spirit and scope of Beccaria s suits. He died 27th May 1781. writings. He is said to have expressed, at least during 1. The most voluminous and most important of the early part of his life, too unqualified an approba- his works, entitled Del! Eletlricismo Artificials tion of the works of Helvetius, and others belonging Naturali, appeared at Turin, 1753, 4to ; and was to the same school of philosophy. On this score, ereprinted in 1772. It was translated into English, and some excuse may, perhaps, be found for him in the published, with the original engravings, under the attractions which the style of the author now mentitle of A Treatise upon Artificial Electricity, and an tioned possesses for a youthful and ardent mind. It Essay on the Mild and Slow Electricity oj the Atis to be observed, likewise, that, when he expressed mosphere. 4. Lond. 177L this admiration for the productions alluded to, the 2. Risposta ad una Lettera intorno al suo EletSystime de la Nature had not yet made its appear- tricismo. 4. Milan, 1753. ance. Nor is it to be supposed that he could be in3. Lettere ddl' Elettricismo Atmosferko Ed. 2. 4. sensible to the notice, and the applause, of such men Turin, 1758. . . as then held the stations of greatest eminence in the Experiment a et Observationes yuibus T.lecirici scientific world. Yet, whatever temptations he may tas4. vindex late constituitur atque explicatwi. 4. have been exposed to from the influence of some of Graz. his literary associates, it is consolatory to reflect, The accurate and elaborate experiments, related that, neither in the works which he himself gave to in these works, have obtained for their author the the public, nor in those which have been brought to warm and repeated encomiums of the scientific histolight since his death, are sentiments to be found rian Dr Priestley, and the approbation and friendship which have a tendency to subvert any one foundation of other contemporary philosophers ; although it must of private or of public good. His labours were be- be confessed, that amidst the multitude of important neficent, and their natural fruits, the dissemination facts recorded in them, we sometimes observe a want of useful knowledge, the increase of industry, and of clearness of arrangement and closeness of reasonthe improvement of social order. But he was not to ing ; nor must wTe attempt to claim for Beccaria either witness the spectacle which ensued, or to be an ob- the originality of a franklin, the mathematical preserver of that moral crisis, of the results of which it cision of an Hipinus, the enlarged views of a Cavenmaybe questioned, if, hitherto, they have less dis- dish, or the neatness and inventive talent of a Volla. turbed the calculations of the friends of humanity, The most remarkable novelties, which deserve to be than baffled the counsels of its foes. distinguished among our author s experiments and Some farther information, with respect to Bec- opinions, relate to the limited conducting powder of caria’s publications, will be found in the Notizie, pre- water, to the electrification of the air and smoke, to fixed to his Economia Pitbblica (Scntton Classici the velocity of electricity, to the reduction of metals Haliani, Tom. XI.); in the 4th volume of the Bw- by its powers, to the illumination of the solar phosrr rap hie Universelle, printed at Pans in 1811, and in phori by the spark, to the light excited by the mothe 4th and 5th volumes of the Corresponda?ice par tion of the air, and to a variety of meteorological le Baron de Grimm. In the compilation first men- phenomena, especially lightning, storms, rain, w atertioned are contained (besides his Elementi), repub- spouts, and atmospherical magnetism. The resistance lications of his Relazione della Riduzione delle Misure exhibited by water to the passage of the electiic di lunghezza all' Uniformity per lo stato di Milano ; fluid is demonstrated by the luminous appearance of of his°Prolusione letta neW apertura della nuovo cat- its path, while it passes through more perfect contedra de scienze earnerali; and of his inquiry Del ductors without producing light ; as well as by the Disordine e De’ Rimedi delle Monete. In the same explosion of glass tubes containing water, thiough collection is likewise to be found a paper written by which the spark is taken; and this experiment is him for the periodical work called II Caffe ; viz. extended to the construction of an electrical water Tentativo Analitico sui Contrabbandi, being an at- gun, which is said to have carried a small buiiet with tempt to apply the algebraical method to certain considerable force. subjects of political economy. A new edition of Father Beccaria observed, about the same time Morellet’s French translation of the Treatise on with Mr Canton, that the air surrounding an electriCrimes and Punishments was published by M. Roede- fied body was capable of becoming electric by slow rer in 1797 ; and a version of the same treatise into degrees, and that it also parted slowly W’ith its elecmodern Greek, by Coray, was published at Paris tricity ; and, by means of some property of this in 1802. . . (EE:) BECCARIA (Giambattista), a very ingenious kind, he produced the appearance of a luminous atmosphere about an electrified ball, to which another and industrious electrician and practical astrono- was presented, in a partial vacuum. The smoke ot mer was born at Mendovi, the 2d of October 1716, i
B E C Beccaria. colophony, surrounding an electrified body, enabled it to give longer sparks, but this smoke was little attracted by the body when the heated spoon containing the colophony was insulated. Respecting the velocity of electricity, he relates some experiments, which amply deserve to be confirmed or confuted. He found the effect of a spark occupy at least half a second in passing through 500 feet of wire, and through a hempen cord of the same length, although, when the cord was wetted, it passed through it in 2 or 3 seconds. It is well known, that, in the earlier experiments of Watson, a shock was transmitted through a much longer circuit of wire, without occupying any perceptible interval of time in its passage. Many of the metals were revived from their oxyds, and mercury was reproduced from cinnabar by the powers of electricity ; and our author fancied that he had discovered a common principle in the different metals, as several of them gave the same colour to the surface of the glass to which they were attached. The brilliancy of the electric light was demonstrated by the permanency of its effect on the solar phosphori; and this subject was afterwards pursued by various experiments of Canton, and others. The light often exhibited by the air rushing into a vacuum, is attributed by Beccaria to the friction of the air against the sides of the glass. It may be remarked, that the phenomenon is, in all probability, of the same kind as the appearance of light observed long ago in the air-gun by its first inventor, Ctesibius of Alexandria. With respect to atmospherical electricity, Beccaria’s researches were most laborious and extensive, and he made a great variety of experiments illustrative of the nature of lightning, and of storms in general; showing, for instance, the facilitjr with which small bodies are forced into the course of the electric current, as light clouds are made to assist in conveying a stroke of lightning, and proving that evaporation, and the deposition of vapour, are always accompanied by electrical changes. Thunder-storms, in general, he attributes to terrestrial electricity, and supposes the clouds to be merely the channels by which the fluid is carried from one part of the earth’s surface to another, the equilibrium having been first disturbed by chemical changes within the earth; and it must be confessed, that this opinion is, in some measure, encouraged by the frequent connection which is observable between these phenomena, and those of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Waterspouts, he assures us, on the authority of several eyewitnesses, may certainly be dispersed by pointing swords and knives at them ; and, with respect to conductors erected for safety, though he appreciates their utility very highly, he thinks that every large building should be furnished with more than one or two. The electricitas vindex, so often mentioned, is the electricity made sensible in one body by the removal of another which has been situated near it,—a property which afterwards led to the elegant inventions of the electrophorus and the condenser of Wilke and Volta. Our author appears to be sometvhat disposed to exaggerate the importance of electrical changes as the causes of other atmospherical phenomena, and, in particular, to overrate the intimacy of the connection of electricity with magne-
BEG 203 tism. The appearance of the aurora borealis he at- Beccaria. tributes to the circulation of electricity through the higher regions of the atmosphere, and he was well aware of the magnetical changes which usually accompany this remarkable occurrence. 5. His papers in the Philosophical Transactions are all in Latin. The first is entitled, Experiments in Electricity, in a Letter to Dr Franklin. (Ph. Tr. 11 GO, p. 514.) These experiments relate principally to the subject of electrical attractions and repulsions, which the author attempts to reduce to the effect of currents of air displaced by the immediate action of the electric fluid. He supposes the air between two bodies, in dissimilar states, to be rarefied by the interchange of their electricity, so as to produce the appearance of attraction; and when the bodies are in similar states, he imagines the air interposed to be the immediate object of their apparently mutual repulsion. The paper is accompanied by a note of Dr franklin, explanatory of the apparatus employed. 6. An Account of the double Re.fractions in Crystals. {Phil. Trans. 1762, p. 486.) The double refraction of rock-crystal had been observed by Huygens. Beccaria seems to have imagined, that it w as not discoverable when the surfaces concerned were parallel to each other; but later observations have shown, that his observations were defective in this respect, at the same time that they have confirmed his conjecture respecting the existence of a similar property in almost all crystallized substances. 7- Novorum quorundam in re Electrica Experimentorum Specimen. {Phil. Trans. 1766, p. 105.) In this paper, our author defends the simpler theory of Franklin against Mr Symmer’s doctrine of the existence of two separate electric fluids. He also enumerates a great variety of cases of the excitement of positive or negative electricity by the friction of different substances with glass, hareskin, a silk stocking, sealing-wax, and sulphur. 8. A second paper, with the same title, appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1767, p. 297. It contains an account of a repetition of experiments on the modification produced in the charge of two or more glass plates, by separating them, and by removing and replacing their coatings. These investigations were principally suggested by the well-known observations of the Jesuits, made at Pekin many years before, and by some subsequent experiments of Mr Symmer. The author calls the effect an oscillation of electricity; it depends on the same causes as the “ vindicating electricity,” which he has elsewhere described. 9- De Atmosphcera Electrica libellus. {Philosophical Transactions, 1770, p. 211.) The phenomena of induced electricity are here discussed, but not with great precision ; the author adverts, however, to the Newtonian demonstration of the equilibrium of the force of a gravitating substance, distributed through the surface of a sphere, with respect to a particle wdthin it, and gives somewhat clearer views of the theory of electricity than his former works had exhibited, but still falls far short of the perfection which iEpinus had attained more than ten years before. 10. A short Letter to Mr John Canton, on his ncxv
BEG 204 B E C his education belongs to his mother, who, having be- Beckmaim. Beccaria phosphorus receiving several colours, and only emitting M the same, is printed in the Philosophical Transac- come a widow when young Beckmann was hardly tions for 1771, p. 212. Our author admitted the seven years old, sent him, in his fifteenth year, to ' sun’s light through gi*een, red, and yellow glass, and the school at Stade, placing him under the care of found that the pieces of sulfureted lime exposed to Gehlen. Being intended for the clerical function, it, emitted only a light similar to that which had he repaired in 1759 to Gottingen, to finish his been thrown on them. A multiplicity of later ex- studies there ; but whether the advice of Hollmann, periments have however shown, that the contrary who testified much kindness towards him, produced result is by far the most common ; and Zannotti’s a change in his plans ; or that the instructions of the earlier observations have been fully confirmed by mathematicians, Kaestner and Tobias Mayer, had greater attractions for him than theology, he abanWilson, Grosser, and Seebeck. 11. In 1759, Beccaria received orders from his doned the career on which he had entered, in sovereign, in consequence of a suggestion of Bosco- order to devote himself entirely to the natural scienvich, to measure the length of a degree of the meri- ces, and principally to the application of these sciendian in the immediate neighbourhood of Turin ; the ces to economical purposes. His first studies were measurement was completed in 1768, and an ac- not without their use to him ; he derived from them count of it was published under the title ol Gradus a methodical habit of mind, and a considerable Taurinensis, 4. Turin, 1774; prefaced by a proper knowledge of languages, which, in the sequel, ascompliment to the memory of the monarch who pa- sisted him greatly in the pursuits to which he owed tronised the undertaking, and to the virtues of his his celebrity. In 1762, having lost his mother, and successors, under whose auspices it was completed. with her his former means of subsistence, he acceptThe result did not, however, exhibit the appearance ed the offer of Busching, who invited him to come of any great accuracy or good fortune, for there is and fill the situation of Professor of Natural Philonot only a difference of one-seventieth of the whole sophy in the Lutheran Academy at St Petersburgh, in the lengths of the degree computed from the of which this celebrated geographer had at that time northern and southern portions of the arc, of 27' the direction ; but Busching quitting the institution and 4T respectively, but the length deduced from shortly after, and dissensions having arisen among the whole arc, which is 57468.59 French toises, is the superintendents, Beckmann r gave up his place, 445 toises more than would be inferred from other and made a journey through Sw eden to acquire a measurements in the neighbouring latitudes : hence detailed knowledge of the mines of this country, and it appears to have been thought necessary by later of the manner of working them. Linnaeus having astronomers to reject the northern portion alto- received him hospitably at Upsal, he prolonged his gether, and to make some corrections in the calcu- stay there, and availed himself of the friendship as lation from the southern, by which the length of the well as the instructions of this naturalist. In 1766, degree has been reduced to 57069 toises. The Zenith the governors of the University of Gottingen apsector employed for the observations was made on pointed him, on the recommendation of Busching, Boscovich’s construction, the length of the tangent Professor to this celebrated establishment, of which being measured instead of that of the arc, a method he became one of the principal ornaments. His by no means calculated to lessen the chances of error. mind, entirely directed to the practical uses of A portable syphon barometer is also described, by human knowledge, had early conceived the idea of means of which the elevations were ascertained ; and an academical classification of the arts and different a number of heights of places in the mountains of branches of economy, both political and domestic, which had hitherto been left to routine and acciPiedmont are recorded. 12. This volume appears to have been the last of dent. He composed, to serve him as a guide in Beccaria’s publications: An Essay on Storms and this course of instruction, Treatises on Rural EconoTeynpests is mentioned, without approbation, in the my—Qn Policy—On Finance—On Commerce, and Dictionnaire Historique, but it was probably extract- other departments of practical knowledge; which, ed from some of his other works. In his private though since carried to a higher degree of perfechistory and adventures there appears to have been tion, owed to Beckmann their first elements, and little for a biographer to relate ; his ambition having their first scientific form. His Lectures, which had been in great measure limited, by the religious pro- at the time the recommendation of novelty, were atfession which he had adopted, to the acquirement of tended by the flower of the studious youth, whom literary celebrity, his taste was guided by his pre- the most civilized nations of Europe sent to the vailing- pursuits. His only luxuries consisted in his University of Gottingen; and it may be added, that library and instruments ; and on these he expended the most distinguished statesmen and public funca considerable part of the remuneration which he tionaries of Germany were qmong his auditors. He received, as a recompense for his services to the was in the habit of accompanying them himself into the workshops, to give them a knowledge of the difpublic, and to his royal pupils. (a. M.) BECKMANN (John), during nearly forty-five ferent processes and handicrafts, of which he had years Professor at Gottingen, was born at Hoye, in explained to them the theory. He never relinthe electorate of Hanover, in 1739* His father, who quished his public lectures; but his private studies was receiver of taxes, and postmaster in this town, took insensibly a direction altogether historical, the occupied himself in the cultivation of a small piece motives for which it will not be uninteresting to of land, and appears to have inspired his son with a point out. It is considered at Gottingen, that a Professoi taste for agriculture. However, all the honour of 3
BEG Beckmann, cannot be excused from explaining the progress of the science, which he teaches, in all the civilized nations of Europe at the same time. Any one, who, two years after the appearance of a work of importance in his department, published in any country of Europe whatsoever, should not have read and analyzed it in order to refute or else enrich his own observations from it, would not regard himself as a worthy successor to the chair of Haller, of Mosheim, of Gessner, and Michaelis. Beckmann in particular, having studied at Gottingen at a time when the example of these great men dictated the law and gave the tone there, was determined to advance in a line with his age, and not to be ignorant of any of the steps which were making by the numerous and extensive sciences which furnished the foundation and the subjects of these practical principles. But these steps were the steps of a giant; and whatever might be his ardour, or his love of study, how could he be supposed to read and judge of all the important works which appeared from the year 1770, on chemistry theoretical and practical, on physics, natural history, and mathematics? His disappointment ended in chagrin, and gave him a degree of anger against the new ideas, methods of reasoning, and materials, which changed the face, enlarged the limits, and facilitated the study ©f these sciences. His course of lectures, turning only on practical matters, suffered little from this circumstance ; but feeling that his writings wrould be accused of remaining behind the progress of the sciences which were the subject of them, he directed the researches with which he wished to occupy the attention of the public to the history of arts and trades, and employed, in the illustration of this subject, the materials to which he had access in the Gottingen library, assisted by general information, a mind peculiarly fitted for this kind of study, and by indefatigable industry. It is to these labours that we owe the Notices of Beckmann on the history of discoveries in the most common arts of life ; for instance, the history of watch-making, of distillation, of almanacs, of insurance, of the lighting of streets, of the original country and migrations of the fruits and flowers in our gardens, of the common materials for dyeing, of bellows, of firearms, of mills, of grinding corn, of carriages, of different parts of our dress, of different household utensils, of a multitude of machines and mechanical contrivances employed in common trades, and of.most of the products of industry; such as the gathering of saffron, the preparation of alum, the printing-press, of fulling-mills, of book-keeping, of the digging of turf, of gazettes and newspapers, of stamped paper, of the pearl-fishery, of pavings, of chimneys, of collections of natural curiosities, of milestones, of pharmacy, of quarantine, of painted paper, of ruffles, of milking, of pawn-brokers, of lookingglasses and glass in general, of soap, of musicalglasses, of watchmen, of ices to eat, of the anatomy of plants, of exchange, of pens for writing, of instruments ot husbandry, of fireworks, of the working of
BEG 205 pewter, of the procuring of amber, of indigo, of Beckmann, gilding, of weathercocks, of furs, of steel, of gardening, of crayons, of knives and forks, of corks, of sal-ammoniac, of hops, of weaving, of lotteries, of hospitals for orphans and foundlings, of infirmaries, of lazarettoes, of fighting-cocks, of saltpetre, of gunpowder, and aquafortis, &c. &c. We should form to ourselves a very false idea of these Notices, if we expected to find in them only some general account of these arts, and of the different manner of practising them, used in different times and places. Beckmann traces their first germ from the most remote periods of antiquity; he follows their developement through the obscurity of the middle ages ; and exhibits their latest improvements amongst the civilized nations of modern Europe, witli a patience and a depth of learning which can only be equalled by the sagacity and the variety of knowledge displayed in his researches. We have thought it would be interesting to the reader to see a list of the most remarkable among these notices, in the order in which they were published. They make five volumes in octavo, published at Leipsic from 1783 to 1805; and will furnish the most invaluable materials to the individual, or to any society of men of letters who may hereafter venture to undertake the general history of the origin and progress of the mechanic arts, which are so important a branch in that of civilization. It is almost needless to add, that the most exact references to original authorities accompany each article, and give it a new value in the eyes of those who are unwilling to take things upon trust, or may be desirous to push the inquiries of the author still farther. The same merits belong to his History of the earliest Voyages made in modern times; a highly interesting collection, which occupied the last years of his life, and which he left at the eighth number. Another result of the literary application of the industry of Beckmann was a return to the studies of humanity, to which we are indebted for editions of the work De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus,aXtx\bu.tedL to Aristotle (1786); of the Wonderful Histories of Antigonus Carystius (1791); and ot Marbodius’s Treatise on Stones (1799);—editions which required the rare union of physical knowledge and sagacity with philological learning. The Royal Society of Gottingen had, in the year 1772, admitted him one of its members, and, from that period to 1783, Beckmann supplied their proceedings with interesting memoirs, among which are the following : On the Reduction of Fossils to their Original Substances.—On the History of Alum.—On the Sap of Madder.—On the Froth of the Sea, from •which the Heads areformed for the Nicotian Fistidcc.— On the History of Sugar.* But, from this period, he desisted all at once from partaking the labours of this learned body, probably from the same motives that we have assigned above for the change in the objects of his own particular studies. He was, besides, modest to an extreme degree ; and his natural timidity did not find any thing to counteract it in the traditional jealousy of reputation, which the example of
* See Novi Commentarii Soc. Sc. G. Tom. II—VIII. and Commentar. Tom. I
V.
206 B E C Beckmann his predecessors, who had founded the glory of Gdtf! tingen, had transmitted to a generation more confident of its powers, and more vain of its merit, but still restrained by habits difficult to lay aside, when the respect for great authorities had originally sanctioned them. His candour, his sincerity, his fidelity in friendship, his affability to his scholars, have been celebrated with one accord by his coadjutors and his auditors. Schlaetzer, whom he had known from his youth in Russia, was the one among his colleagues with whom he maintained the most uninterrupted intimacy. He was better qualified than almost any one else, to appreciate the researches of Beckmann, as he had himself insisted with so much force on the necessity of introducing into history a view of the influence exercised on social institutions by the efforts of industry, and by the birth or maturity of the most common arts. Beckmann died the 3d of February 1811, after having been admitted into almost all the learned societies of Germany and the north, and after having impressed a tendency to pursuits of practical utility on the minds of a multitude of distinguished young men who had attended his lectures, and whom his celebrity drew to Gottingen during the forty-five years of his professorship. A portrait of him will be found at the head of the twelfth volume of the Economical Encyclopedia of Krunitz, and it has been engraved separately by Raid, Schwenterley, and Grape. Beckmann married the daughter of Hollmann, his tutor and friend ; she survived him only a few weeks, and they left a son and daughter grown up. His eulogium was pronounced by his colleague, the illustrious Heyne, and was published at Gottingen, with this title: Memoria Joan. Beckmann, Soc. R. Sci. Gotting. sodalis in concessu Soc. Publico D. 16 Febr. 1811, commendata. (z.) BEDDOES (Thomas), a physician of great eminence for his talents and philanthropy, was born at Shiffnall in Shropshire, on the 13th of April 1760, and was originally of Welsh extraction. He received the first rudiments of his education at a school in his native town, and afterwards at a seminary at Brood in Staffordshire. The strength of his intellectual powers was apparent at a very early period of his life: and he was remarkable from his infancy for his insatiable thirst for books, and for his indifference to the common objects of amusement, which usually captivate the attention of children. His rising abilities were discerned and justly appreciated by his grandfather; a man of great natural acuteness of mind, and who, by his industry and enterprise in trade, had acquired a considerable fortune. To this intelligent relation he was deeply indebted for many of the advantages of his early education, and for prevailing on his father (who, wishing to retain his son beneath the paternal roof, and train him up to business, was less anxious about his literary acquirements) to fix his destination for one of the learned professions. When he was only nine years old, the circumstance of an accident which befel his benefactor, and which, after being followed by some remarkable symptoms, terminated fatally, was calculated to make a deep and lasting impression on a * mind like that of young Beddoes, and was sufficient to give it a decided direction. By the extraordi-
B E D nary acuteness and interest which he manifested on Reddoes. this occasion, he attracted the notice of Mr Yonge, '*0*v**» the surgeon who attended the sufferer ; and a foundation was thus laid for the friendship which ever after subsisted between them, and which appears to have had a considerable influence in his choice of that profession, in which he was destined to run so brilliant a career. Under the tuition of the Reverend Mr Harding, at the Free Grammar School in Bridgnorth, he made rapid progress in classical learning ; and was distinguished by his great fondness for reading, by his facility in acquiring knowledge, and by the possession of a memory surprisingly retentive, a faculty which he retained through life. When about thirteen years of age, he was placed as a pupil with the Reverend Mr Dickenson, Rector of Plymhill in Staffordshire, with whom he continued about two years, and who has given the following report of the zeal with which he pursued his studies. “ During the period that Dr Beddoes w as under my care,” observes Mr Dickenson, “his mind was so intent upon literary pursuits, chiefly the attainment of classical learning, that 1 do not recollect his having devoted a single day, or even an hour, to diversions or frivolous amusements of any kind. His vacant hours were generally employed in reading Reviews, of which he had access to a very numerous collection.” It is singular, that, in giving a sketch of his mental powers, though he describes his judgment as solid, he represents his genius as not “ enlivened by any remarkable brilliance of fancy.” W'e shall soon have occasion to observe how eminently he was afterwards gifted with the very quality, in w^hich a near observer of his character pronounced him to have been at that time deficient. His moral conduct was ever irreproachable, and his docility and equanimity of temper were in the highest degree exemplary. He continued the same habits of sedulous application, and retained the same independence and integrity of character at the university, to which he was removed on quitting Mr Dickenson. He entered at Pembroke College, Oxford, in Michaelmas term 1776. The simplicity of his appearance, and the rusticity of his manners and address, could not long conceal the superiority of his mental powers, which became more conspicuous by extended competition, and soon met with the respect and applause to which they had so high a claim. The themes and declamations of young Beddoes were remarkable for their elegant latinity ; and he soon acquired distinguished reputation as a classical scholar. Success in one acquisition was to him but an inducement to the possession of another; and already versed in the ancient, he resolved to become master also of the modern languages. He was found one morning by a friend, who casually entered his apartment, very busily engaged with a French grammar and dictionary before him. On his inquiring what was the nature of his studies, Beddoes told him that he was only learning French. His friend expressed surprise that he should attempt it without a master. He replied, that it was unnecessary, and that he should conquer the difficulties of the language by himself in about two months. His friend
BED BED 207 Beddoes. desisted from farther interference; but, noting in Sexual System of Linnams, the other on the Scale of BecHocs. his own mind the date of his visit, called upon him Being, both of which have been preserved at full again at the expiration of two months, and taking the length in Dr Stock’s Memoirs of his life. The high opportunity of turning the conversation to the sub- estimation in which his talents were held at Edinject, inquired whether he had mastered the lan- burgh w as shown, not only by his receiving every guage. Beddoes answered in the affirmative, and mark ol honourable distinction from his fellow stuproved his assertion by reading in English, with dents, which it was in their power to confer, but perfect fluency, and much to the astonishment of the also by their choosing him as the organ of their rehearer, a French book which the latter presented to monstrances with the Managers of the Infirmary, on him. From the French he proceeded to the Italian, the occasion of a misunderstanding which had arisen which, from its analogy with the former, he acquir- between them, as to the hours at which they should ed with great ease. The German language present- be permitted to attend; and they were eminently ined more serious difficulties; but his perseverance debted to him for the firmness with which he, on triumphed over them without the aid of any master. that occasion, maintained their privileges. Not content with this, he afterwards added the After taking his degree of Doctor in Medicine at Spanish language to his other acquisitions, as if de- Oxford, in December 1786, he made, in the entermined to possess every avenue, by which useful suing summer, an excursion into the Highlands, and or ornamental knowledge could possibly be attained. also spent a short time at Paris and Dijon, where he Whatever time he may have devoted to general cultivated the acquaintance of Lavoisier and Guyton literature, while at the University, chemistry and the de Morveau. Soon after his return, he was appointother sciences more closely connected with his fu- ed to succeed Dr Austin, in the Chemical Lectureture profession, were always his favourite objects of ship at Oxford, an office which he was eminently pursuit. The splendid discoveries of Black and qualified to fill. The success which attended his Priestley, which had opened a new field of discovery, exertions to inspire a taste for scientific researches and promised to lead to the most important results, was soon apparent, in the full and generally overwere povyerfully calculated to inflame the ardour of flowing audience attracted by his lectures, and by so inquisitive and sanguine a spirit as that of Bed- his communicating to most of his hearers a. large does ; and he accordingly soon became perfectly portion of that enthusiasm for the pursuit of which conversant with the new doctrines of pneumatic he was himself possessed. Enjoying the reputation of chemistry, and used to exhibit, with great delight, distinguished talents, in a place where so much dethe experiments which supported them, to a circle ference is paid by all ranks to the possessor of so of literary friends in Shropshire, during his vacations. noble a distinction, and surrounded by men of learnHe was also much occupied with mineralogy and ing and abilities, who courted his society, his sibotany ; and for the former of these sciences, espe- tuation at the University appears to have been truly cially, retained throughout life a remarkable fond- enviable ; and it is difficult to understand the moness. tives which could have led him to relinquish all Having taken his Bachelor’s degree at one and twen- these advantages, for the uncertain prospects afty, he repaired to London, in order to commence the forded by his establishing himself in any other study of his profession, for which, as is well known, town. The decided part which he took in the pothe English Universities do not provide the means. litical discussions that were agitated at the beHe became a pupil of the celebrated Sheldon, and ginning of the French Revolution, seems to have devoted his time to the details of practical anatomy, had a principal share in this determination. His and the physiological inquiries connected with it. It opinions, which it was no part of his character ever was while he was engaged in these studies, that he to conceal within his own breast, were, on this ocgave to the vyorld, in 1784-, a translation, from the casion, expressed with his usual freedom; and were Italian, of Spallanzani’s Dissertations on Natural of a nature to give offence to many of his former adHistory; a work which, in the year 1790, went mirers ; and the circulation of a political article through a second edition. In the year following wflich he inserted in a Shropshire paper, in reply to (1785), he published a translation of Bergman’s Es- some misrepresentations which had previously been says on Elective Attractions (the first work to which made, in an advertisement soliciting relief for the Beddoes affixed his name), accompanied by nume- French emigrant clergy, excited a clamour against rous original notes, which display an accurate ac- him, which accelerated his adoption of the step he quaintance with all the modern improvements in the had previously determined upon, that of resigning physical sciences. In 1786, he became again known his Lectureship, and quitting Oxford. to the public as the editor of Scheele’s Chemical EsDuring his connection with the University, he says. Previously to this, in 1783, he took his de- published, at the Clarendon press, in 1790, an anagree of Master of Arts ; and, in the autumn of 1784, lytical account of the writings of Mayow, under the removed to Edinburgh, where he remained during title of Chemical Experiments and Opinions, extractthiee successive winters, and one summer. Shortly edfom a IVork published in the last Century; in after his arrival, he became a member of the Medi- which lie asserts the claims of that extraordinary cal Society, and of the Natural History Society of man to the discovery of the principal facts on which that place, and took an active part in the series of the modern system of pneumatic chemistry is foundphysiological experiments, in which some of the mem- ed ; discoveries which Mayow had achieved at a bers of the former were, at that period, engaged: to very early period of life, and which had failed, for the latter he contributed two papers, one on the upwards of a century, to attract any notice from
t BED 208 BED Beddftes. the philosophic world. In the Philosophical Trans- He supports these opinions by a variety of ingenious Beddoes. actions for 1791 and 1792, we also find three papers and plausible arguments ; and proposes submitting by Dr Beddoes, the one containing Observations on them to the test of experiment, by administering to the Affinity between Basaltes and Granite, in which consumptive patients such gases as may contain a he rejects the common division of mountains into smaller proportion of oxygen than is contained in primary and secondary, and states some stiong argu- common atmospheric air. The new views of pathoments in favour of the volcanic origin of both ; the logy which these speculations presented, and the other giving An Account of some Appearances at- hopes of valuable practical results which they raised, tending the Conversion off Cast into Malleable I) on, excited great attention in the medical world, and which he supposes to consist in its purification from contributed much to increase the reputation of their oxygen, charcoal, and hydrogen, which escape, dur- author. On leaving Oxford, he retired to the house of his ing the process, in the form of carbonic acid and carburetted hydrogen gases ; and, in a paper which friend Mr Reynolds of Ketley in Shropshire. It was forms an appendix to the latter, he relates a variety here that he published his admirable History off Isaac of experiments which he had made, confirming this Jenkins ; a story intended to impress the most useful of moral lessons on the labouring classes, by exhibittheory. The uncertainty, of his future destination, on his ing the reformation of a drunkard, and his return to retiring from Oxford, does not appear to have in- habits of sobriety and industry. The execution of terrupted his literary labours ; for it was at this pe- this wmrk is worthy of the design. There is, probariod that he published his Observations on the Nature bly, none of Dr Beddoes’s productions which unites of Demonstrative Evidence, with an Explanation off so many peculiar excellencies as this inimitable ficCertain Difficulties occurring in the Elements of Geo- tion, or which displays at once, in so favourable a metry, and Refections on Language, 8vo, London, light, the vigour of his genius, his deep knowledge 1793. In this essay he contends, in opposition to of the human heart, and the power with which the doctrines of the ontologists, and particularly to he could command the interest and sympathy of that of Mr Harris, the author of Hermes, that geo- his reader. No work of its kind has ever had the metry is essentially founded in experiment; and that same success; repeated editions, amounting to above mathematical reasoning proceeds, at every step, upon forty thousand copies, wnre rapidly sold ; and a large the evidence of the senses ; or, in other words, that impression has since been issued at the request of a this science is a science of experiment and observa- Society for promoting knowledge by the distribution tion, founded solely upon the induction of particular of useful popular books. A prospect now opened to him of realizing a facts ; as much so as mechanics, astronomy, optics, or chemistry. He endeavours to show that Euclid scheme to which his wishes had for a long time been sets out from experiment, and appeals constantly to ardently directed, that of establishing a pneumatic what we have already learned, or may immediately institution, where the medical efficacy of the perrna • learn from the exercise of our senses. This paradox nently elastic fluids, the fruits of the modern imhe attempts to support by a sophistical analysis of one provements in chemistry, could be fairly put to the of the elementary theorems in the first book of test of experiment, by being administered on an exEuclid, and of the leading definitions and axioms tensive scale. The metropolis first suggested itself prefixed to it. He is afterwards led to consider the as an eligible spot for the formation of the projected origin of abstract terms, and the philosophy ot establishment; but several obstacles having occurred language; and adopts on these subjects the views in the execution of this plan, the neighbourhood of which have been presented by Mr Horne Tooke in Bristol was at length fixed upon as the most proper his Ecrs# n«go£v7a ; whose speculations, together with place for the purpose. In making the various arthose of Lord Monboddo, Schultens, Hemsterhuis, rangements required in the infancy of such an inand other Dutch etymologists, he severally reviews stitution, and which presented peculiar difficulties, he derived material assistance from the cordial co-operand criticises in an appendix of some length. r About the same period he published a w ork en- ation of Mr Edgewmrth, the author of Practical Edutitled Observations on the Nature and Cure off Cal- cation, with whose family he soon became more culus, Sea-Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and lever ; closely connected, by marrying one of that gentledaughters ; an event which took place in April together with Conjectures upon several other Objects man’s 1794. The pneumatic institution continued to ocoff Physiology and Pathology. He there recommends, cupy his attention for many years, in the course of as a cheap and commodious remedy for calculus, the exsiccated carbonate of soda, made into pills w'ith an which, a great number of publications issued from equal weight of soap ; in proof of the efficacy of his pen, illustrating the principles on which he exwhich, he adduces a number of interesting cases. pected it to be useful, and detailing the experiments He then proceeds to develope his favourite patholo- and the results to which it gave rise. The principal gical theories on the diseases which destroy so large of these are the following : “ A Letter to Dr Darwin,, a proportion of the human species ^theories on which on a new mode off treating Pulmonary Consumption,’’ he afterwards built so many specious, but unfortu- in 1793; as a supplement to which appeared, in nately abortive projects for their cure.. Sea-scurvy 1794, Letters from Dr Withering, Dr Ewart, Dr and pulmonary consumption he conceived to arise Thornton, &c. together with an analysis of a paper from opposite chemical conditions ot the body; the by Lavoisier, on the state of the air in crow ded asformer consisting in a gradual abstraction, the latter semblies, and of another by Vauquelin, on the liver in a gradual accumulation of oxygen in the system. cf the skate.—Considerations on the Medical Use,
BED Heddoes. and on the Production of Factitious Airs, in five parts, which came out successively at different periods, from the year ITg* to 1796.—In 1795, he published an Outline of a Plan for determining the Medicinal Powers of Factitious Airs.—In 1797, Suggestions towards setting on foot the projected Establishment for Pneumatic Medicine : and Reports relating to Nitrous Acid, in confirmation of the efficacy of that remedy in syphilitic affections.—In 179.9, Contributions to Medical and Physical Knowledge, collected principally from the West of England.—Notice of some Observations made at the Pneumatic Institution. —A second, and afterwards a third Collection of Reports relating to Nitrous Acid. Considerable difficulty was at first experienced in the construction and management of the apparatus required for carrying on the objects of this institution ; these were, however, in no long time entirely surmounted by the friendly assistance of Mr Watt, whose exertions at this critical period were eminently serviceable, and are acknowledged in a dedication prefixed to the first part of the Considerations. Mr William Clayfield and Mr Read also contributed their assistance in the invention of different parts of the pneumatic apparatus. At the opening of the institution in 1798, the sums subscribed were found to be very inadequate to the purposes for which it was designed ; but every deficiency in this respect was amply supplied by the liberality of Mr Thomas Wedgewood, who offered Dr Beddoes L.1000 to enable him to carry the plan into immediate execution. All that was now wanted was to procure a superintendent; and he had the good fortune to engage in that capacity a young man, who had already given proofs of extraordinary talents, and to whose penetrating genius chemistry has since been so deeply indebted. There needs no other indication to suggest the name of Davy,—a name that will descend to distant ages, as associated with so many important discoveries in philosophical science. The history of the pneumatic institution, indeed, derives considerable splendour from many of these discoveries, which were perfected in its laboratory, and which were first announced to the world through the medium of the publications above mentioned; and in the work entitled Researches, Chemical and Philosophical; chiefy concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and its Respiration. By Humphrey Davy, Superintendent of the Medical Pneumatic Institution. London, 1800. The discovery of the chemical properties of this gas, and of its astonishing effects on the system when respired, were among the first, and must ever be esteemed the most brilliant, of the results of this institution ; it raised the most sanguine anticipations in the mind of Dr Beddoes, and called forth all his eloquence in the description of what it already had and might be expected to accomplish. These, like the other splendid visions, in which his ardent imagination was but too prone to indulge, have never been realized; and have even created, by their signal failure, an unfortunate prejudice against future attempts to improve the art of medicine by novel methods of treatment founded on chemical or philosophical principles. The original objects of the institution being found VOL. II. PART I.
BED 209 unattainable, were successively abandoned, and it Bo.Jdor*. assumed, by insensible gradations, the form of the more common establishments for the relief of the sick ; and the prevention rather than the cure of diseases became the principal aim of its conductors. In 1807, it was finally relinquished by Dr Beddoes to the care of Mr King and Dr Stock. A great variety of medical topics in the mean* time engaged the active mind of Dr Beddoes, and gave employment to his pen. In the strictly practical branch of the art we may enumerate, in addition to the works above mentioned,—in 1793, A Letter to Dr Darwin on a new mode of treating Pulmonary Consumption.—In 1795, an edition of Brown s Elements of Medicine, with a preface and notes.—Translation from the Spanish of Gimbernat’s new method of operating in Femoral Hernia.—In 1799, Popular Essay on Consumption.—In 1801, Essay on the medical and domestic Management of the Consumptive, on Digitalis, and on Scrofida.— In 1807, Researches, Anatomical and Practical, concerning Fever as connected with Inf animation. In this latter work he successfully combats the theory of Dr Clutterbuck and of Ploucquet, in which fever is supposed to consist essentially in topical inflammation or its membranes. The object which Dr Beddoes had ever most at heart was, to excite a lively and general attention to the means of preserving health, and of repelling the first inroads of disease, by the diffusion of medical knowledge throughout all ranks of the community, as far as they were capable of acquiring it. His attention was uniformly directed to this favourite object, and he suffered no opportunity to escape of enforcing those maxims which tend to prevent the necessity of the interference of his art. His works on popular subjects, on the improvements of medical education, and the exercise of the profession ; and the popular lectures which he promoted, and in which he himself took an active part, all tended to this object. To this head may be referred the following publications: In 1794, A Guide for Self-preservation and Parental Affection. A Proposal for the Improvement of Medicine.—In 1797, A Lecture Introductory to a Popular Course of Anatomy.—In 1798, A Suggestion towards an Essential Improvement in the Bristol Infirmary. But more especially his Hygeia, or Essays, Moral and Medical, on the causes affecting the Personal State of the Middling and Affluent Classes, in 3 vols. 1801-2; in which he embraces a great variety of topics, and describes, with a glow ing pencil, and occasionally with extraordinary eloquence, the sufferings of patients under different diseases. In 1806, there appeared The Manual of Health, or the Invalid conducted safely through the Seasons.—In 1808, A Letter to Sir Joseph Banks on the prevailing Discontents, Abuses, and Imperfections in Medicine ; and, in the same year, Good Advicefor the Husbandman in Harvest, andfor all those who labour hard in hot Births ; as also for others who will take it in Warm Weather ; which was the last production he ever wrote, his death happening soon after, of dropsy and enlargement of the pericardium, in December 1808. Dr Beddoes has been very justly characterized as a dd
210 BED Beddoes pioneer In the road to discovery. He was full of ardour • I! and enterprise in the pursuit of knowledge, and was B t0 d ^. r e' * easily captivated by every new project that seemed to lead towards any practical improvement. He was more active, however, in exciting the labours of others, than in labouring himself in the field of experiment. He had the imagination of a poet, and could paint in the most vivid colours the sufferings entailed by disease, and enforce with the most powerful eloquence whatever he wished to impress on the minds of his readers. He has been accused of versatility of opinion ; but, if he was, perhaps, hasty in publishing the first conceptions which he formed, he has atoned for this fault by the remarkable candour witli which he retracted them the moment his confidence in them was shaken. He took a decided line in politics, as appears from the following political publications of his, which appeared in 1795, 179(i, and 1797: viz. A Word in Defence of the Bill of Rights against Gagging-Rills,— Where would be the Harm of a Speedy Peace?—An Essay on the Public Merits of Mr Pitt.—A Letter to M? Pitt on the Scarcity—Alternatives Compared, or What shall the Rich do to be Safe ? See Dr Stock’s Memoirs of the Life of Dr Beddoes, London, 1811. (w*) BEDFORDSHIRE. The article, in the original work, on this county, is almost exclusively confined to its ancient history, and its antiquities, and in the short notices which it gives on other points, it is by no means accurate. In this article, therefore, we shall attend to what is omitted or incorrect in the former. Boundaries This county possesses no natural limits, except and Extent, the Ouse for a short space on the east and west sides, and a rivulet on the south-west border. It is situate between the parallels of 51.47 and 52.17 north latitude, and between 0.17 and 0.46 west longitude from Greenwich. According to the report to the Board of Agriculture, it contains 307,200 acres ; according to the returns to Parliament of the poor-rates, drawn up under the inspection of Mr Rose, 275,200; and according to Dr Beeke, in his Observations on the Income Lax, 293,059* Nearly the whole of this county is situate on the eastern side of the grand ridge of the island, and consequently nearly all its waters drain oft in that direction. Face of the The face of the country is, in general, varied with Country. small hills and valleys, and affords few extensive level tracts. The highest range of hills are the Chiltern, which cross a part, and skirt the remainder of the southern extremity of this county. This ridge frequently projects abruptly into the valleys in a striking manner. Under it is a large tract of hard, steril land, which gives this part a dreary and uncomfortable appearance. The next most considerable range, in point of height, is of clay, crossing the county near its northern end. The next range is of sand, and enters the county on its western side, near ApsleyGuise, and passes on in a north-eastern direction. The other ranges are for the most part of alluvial clay. Strata. Four-fifths of the surface of this county are covered with alluvial soils, which consist principally of yellow and dark coloured clays. Fuller, speaking in general terms of its soil, gives a pretty just description of it, by saying, that it is a deep clay with
BED a belt or girdle of sand about, or rather athwart the Bedford!! body of it, from Woburn to Potton. This soil provails in the north-west parts. From the south-eastern corner to the middle of the county, light loam, sand, gravel, and chalk predominate. lh ewestern part is, for the most part, flat and sandy. In the south-west, about Woburn, are large tracts of deep barren soil. Upon the gravel, in the bottoms of the vales in the sand district, there is a considerable quantity of peat, which contains a large quantity of sulphuric acid. . . » . , The uppermost stratum in Bedfordshire is a thick body of chalk, with numerous layers of flints. This advances no farther northward or north-west than Luton and Dunstable. Hard chalk, without flints, succeeds. Near the bottom of this is a very durable freestone. The upper and lower chalk strata are together about 400 feet thick. Chalk-marl succeeds the chalk. To the northward of ilockliff there are thick masses of alluvial clay. The ferruginous sand stratunl of Woburn crosses the county, as has been already mentioned, from Woburn to Potton. It is about 170 or 180 feet thick. Near the bottom of it are beds of fuller’s earth. This substance is found from five to seven or eight feet thick, between beds of sand or sandstone, over several hundred acres on the north-west of Woburn, both in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Formerly, the most extensive workings were in Apsley-Guise parish, in the former county ; but, at present, the only pk that is used is in Buckinghamshire. The site of Bedford is formed of a stratum of clunch clay; it is the thickest of the Bedfordshire strata, and extends for several miles to the south side of the county town. In some parts of this stratum, there are beds of argillaceous schist, so impregnated with a bituminous substance as -to burn like bad coal. In the immediate site of the town of Bedford are several strata of grey compact limestone, which are probably the lowest strata in the county. The strata of Bedfordshire have a pretty regular dip towards the southeast, at the rates of 1 in 50 to 1 in 80. Amongst the most rare of the indigenous plants Rare of this county may be enumerated Lythnm hysso- pldnts' pifulium, grass-poly, or small hedge-hyssop, which grows plentifully in the fields between Oakley and Clapham ; Campanula latfolia, giant throat-wort, and Eriophoron polystachion, cotton grass, near Dunstable ; Geranium pheeum, spotted cranes-bill, near Eversholt; Hyoseris minema, small swines’ succory, near Aspley and Ampthill; and Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, spiked star of Bethelem, near Eaton-Locon. Dr Abbot, who has published a very ample Flora of the indigenous plants of this county, found the Euphorbia cyparissias, considered as a doubtful native plant, growing wild in Barton-lect woods. According to meteorological observations made at Climate. Leighton-Buzzard, the monthly mean for four years, ending the 1st of January 1804, of the barometer, was 29.520 ; of the thermometer, with a northern aspect, observed at eight o clock in the morning, without the house, 47*2, within the house, 49.6; of rain, 1.93 inches; and of evaporation, 1.05. The most prevalent wind, during that period, was southwest by west.
BED BedfordThe principal rivers in this county are the Ouse, shire, the Ivel, and the Ouzel. The circuitous course of the first has been much exaggerated. As it is deRivers. scribed on Jeffries’s map, which was made by a trigonometrical survey, its course does not appear to be more than 45 miles. It enters this county from Buckinghamshire, in the parish of Turvey, and, taking a winding course through fertile meadows, passes the town of Bedford, from which it becomes navigable, and makes its exit into Huntingdonshire. Its stream is remarkably slow, except in time of floods, when it is liable to great inundations. Its average depth is about ten feet. The fish of the Ouse are pike, perch, bream, chub, bleak, cray-fish, eels, dace, roach, and gudgeon. The eels are of a very large size, in great abundance, and very fine. The Ivel enters Bedfordshire near Stodfield. At Biggleswade it becomes navigable, and at Tompsfurd falls into the Ouse. It is particularly famous for gudgeon. The Ouzel separates this county from Buckinghamshire, in its course to Leighton-Buzzard. The Lea rises in Bedfordshire, and runs through the whole extent of Luton parish. The Grand Junction Canal touches the borders of this county for about three miles, near Leighton-Buzzard. Landed There are several very large estates in BedfordProperty. shire, the principal of which belong to the Duke of Bedford, the Marquis of Bute, the Earl of Upper Ossory, Lord St John, Earl Spencer, and Mr Whitbread. The principal agricultural products are corn and butter. Much of the former is sent down the Ouse to Lynn, and the latter goes principally to Produce. London by land-carriage. This county has been long noted for its abundant produce of fine wheat and barley. The vale of Bedford is one of the most extensive corn districts. The rich dairy ground principally extends in a line, from the middle of the county to the south-east corner. In some parts of Bedfordshire, especially in the parish of Sandy, garden vegetables are raised in considerable quantities for the supply of the neighbouring towns. The agriculture of this county, it is well known, was extremely indebted to the judicious and liberal patronage and example of the late Duke of Bedford. His favourite pursuits were experimental agriculture and the breeding of cattle. For these purposes, he kept several farms in his own hand. The principal IVolmrn. farm-yard is in Woburn park. The buildings of every kind are upon the most extensive scale, and abound in every convenience. One of the most remarkable is the room constructed for showing the sheep at the annual shearing. On the farm at Woburn is a mill for malting, thrashing, winnowing, &c. The cultivation of woad, mentioned by former writers as carried on to a considerable extent in Bedfordshire, has long been laid aside. On what iVoods. are called the “ woodland soils,” and on the colder parts of the alluvial clay, particularly the steep sides of the hills, in the northern and middle parts of the county, there are between 6000 and 7000 acres of very old wood. There are also about 500 acres on the sand, where also large plantations of fir have been made. A considerable part of the timber that is felled is sent to the sea coast by the Ouse. LnufacThe principal manufactures are the plaiting of nres.
BED 211 straw, and making it into bonnets, &c. and thread- Bedfordlace. The straw manufacture prevails, and latterly s,|he* has much increased, in the neighbourhood of Dunstable and Toddington, and on the borders of Hertfordshire. The employment is deemed more healthy than that of lace-making, as the straw may be plaited by persons standing or walking. The earn, ings, even of those who make the coarse plait, are higher than those of the lace-makers; and the profit ot making the fine plait is very considerable. Thread-lace, formerly known by the name of bonelace, was for a long time the staple manufacture of this county; but latterly it has given way to the manufacture of straw; and has farther declined in consequence of the general introduction of cottonlace. It is now made only in a very few villages in the neighbourhood of Buckinghamshire, and in the town of Bedford, It is not so fine in its texture as the lace made in some parts of Buckinghamshire. The average day’s-work of an adult, when the manufacture flourished, was rather more than a shilling a-day ; the children earning from threepence to sixpence. The posture in which the manufacturers sit, the sedentary nature of the employment, and the habit ot working together in crowded rooms, ill ventilated, give the manufacturers a weak and sickly appearance. In the neighbourhood of Dunstable, there is a whiting manufactory, which employs a few people. In the year 1377, the number of persons in this Population county who were charged to a poll-tax, from which the clergy, children, and paupers were exempted, amounted to 20,239- This tax was levied not long after a fatal pestilence. In the year 1700, the total population was estimated at 48,500; in 1750, 53,900. By the returns to Parliament, in 1801, the number of inhabited houses was 11,888; of uninhabited 185 ; the number of families was 13,980; the number of persons chiefly employed in agriculture was 18,766; the persons chiefly employed in manufactures, trade, and handicraft, 13,816; and persons to whom no occupation wras assigned, and children, was 28,789: the total number of resident inhabitants was 63,393; of whom 30,523 were males, and 32,870 females. The population, in 1811, had increased to 70,213; of whom 33,-171 were males, and 37,042 females; the number of inhabited houses was 13,286; of families 14,927 ; of houses building 139; of houses uninhabited 219:—the number of families employed in agriculture was 9431; and the annual value of the land at rack-rent Was nearly L.280,000. The number of families chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, &c. was 4155; and the amount of annual profits was rather more than L.94,000. The number of people to a square mile ^ was 171 ; the annual proportions of baptisms was 1 to 32 persons; of burials, 1 to 56; and of marriages, 1 to 126. In the year 1776, the amount of the poor-rates Poor-rates, raised in this county was L.18,193 ; in the year 1784, L.22,638; and in the year 1803, L.47,484. This was at the rate of 3s. 9|-d in the pound, on a rental of L.248,600, or 14s. 9^d. a head, on the whole population. The total expenditure for the poor, in 1803, was L.38,070; nearly L.10,000 being ex-
2P2 BED be>ltoi J- pended in law-suits, county-rates, &c.; L.3/,9^^ shire was distributed to 727^ persons, or 1 in every 8-fth of the whole population, the average allowance being a week. Of these paupers, 674 were wholly maintained in work-houses, at the average expence of L.12, 10s. 5^d. each annually, or 4s. 9fd. per week. There were at that time 2370 persons associated in 75 Friendly Societies : eight parishes in the county had schools of industry, in which 196 children were taught to work. Only an incomplete return has as yet been made to lailiament ot the poor-rates, or other rate or rates raised in Bedfordshire, in the year ending 25th March 1815; six parishes out of the 140 having made no return ; but it appears, from the return actually made, that lt>4 parishes paid, at that time, L.69j464, 6s. S^d. . Gothic ArRemains of the earliest style of Gothic architecchitecture. ture are to be seen in this county, in the nave of Elstow church, in the west part of Folmeisham church, and in the west end of Dunstable church. Of the succeeding style of Gothic architecture, which prevailed during the fourteenth century, few examples are to be met with in Bedfordshire. \\ immington church, however, though small, is an elegant specimen of it, and appears never to have been altered. Several of the Bedfordshire churches are in the latter style of Gothic architecture, which prevailed during the fifteenth, and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The churches of Northill, \\ ilmington, Mayton, Eaton-Socon, Odill, Biggleswove, and St Paul’s at Bedford, are in this style. Historical In the original work, there are notices of the hisNotices. tory of this county till the time of Alfred. Nothing important occurred in it for several centuries afterwards. During the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, it presents no remarkable events, probably in consequence of the destruction of its castles by King John, in his march northward. But Bedfordshire was one of the first counties that associated against Charles I.; and Lord Clarendon observes, that this was one of the counties m which the King had not any visible party, nor one fixed Town of Bedford.
q
To the notice of the town of Bedford, in the ongjnai Work, some particulars may be added. It is 50 miles north-west by north from London; the latitude of St Paul’s church, according to the government trigonometrical survey, is 52, 8, 8,8, north; and its longitude 0, 27, 43, 3, west of Greenwich Observatory, or V, 50", 9, in time. The right of election is vested in the burgesses, freemen, and inhabiting householders not receiving alms ; their number is about 1400. Besides its parish-chui ches, its public buildings, are a county-infirmary, a eounty-iail, and bridewell, a town-jail, and a county-hall. It is situate rather to the north of the centre of the
BED county, and in the midst of a very rich tract of land, Bedfordcalled the Vale of Bedford. The Ouse is navigable sll‘re from the Eastern Sea to this town. By its situation, BJe> on this river, the inhabitants carry on a considerable trade in forwarding the corn of the adjacent fertile country to Lynn ; and in importing from thence coals, timber, wine, and groceries. The inundations of the Ouse have been more frequent and destructive latterly than they used to be, in consequence, it is supposed, of the many newly inclosed parishes, which drain into the river. There is sometimes a stagnation of water in the meadows of the Ouse, near Bedford, to the depth of 12 or 14 feet. Thread-lace is the principal manufacture of the place. According to the Parliamentary returns of 1801, of 3948 inhabitants, which it then contained, there were 2236 females. This great dispropoition between the sexes has been justly ascribed to the will of Sir William Harper, who, in the year 1561, bequeathed 13^ acres of land in the parish of St Andrew, Holborn, to the corporation of Bedford, for the support of a grammar-school, and the apportioning young women of the town upon marriage. The rent of this estate being now between L. 4000 and L. 5000, it may well be supposed that young women from the vicinity of Bedford are drawn into the town in the hope of getting apportioned and married. In 1811, the population of the town consisted of 2057 males, and 2548 females; the inhabited houses were 940, and the families inhabiting them 1099. The principal market at Bedford, held on Saturday, on the north side of the river, is a considerable mart for corn. The Monday market, on the south side of the river, is chiefly for pigs. There are six annual fairs, besides a fair held in the vicinity at St Leonard’s Farm. It is generally supposed that Bedford is the Bedanford of the Saxon Chronicle, where the battle was fought between Cuthwulf and the Britons in 572; it is said to have been the burial place of Offa’ king of the Mercians. According to Doomsday-book, it was taxed as half a hundred, both for soldiers and shipping. Before the Conquest, there was a collegiate church here, dedicated to St Paul. The celebrated John Bunyan was porter of an independent meeting-house in Mill Lane, from 1671 till his death in 1688. His memory is much revered by the congregation, and the chair in which he used to sit is preserved as a relic in the vestry. The Moravians have had an establishment at Bedford ever since the year 1745. . See Bachelor’s Agricultural Report of Bedfordshire ; Beauties of England and Wales, \o\. 1.;—Lyson s Magna Britannia, A ol. I.;—Smith s Map of the Strata of England, tvith a Memoir. (c.)
BEE. Progress of T he Bee, from its singular instincts, its active mKnowlrdge dustry, and the useful products resulting trom its laregarding hours has, from the remotest times, attracted the this Insect. attent’ionj not only of naturalists, but of mankind in
general. No nation upon earth has had so many historians as this remarkable tribe of insects. The patience and sagacity of the naturalist have had an ample field for exercise in the study of their struc-
.OW II to> B E E. Bee. ture, physiology, and domestic economy. Their supposing the reader to possess some general ac- Bee. preservation and increase have been objects of assi- quaintance with the history of these insects. We '^**s^*/ duous care to the agriculturist; and their reputed shall, therefore, premise a brief account of the difperfection of policy and government, have long ferent sorts of bees inhabiting the hive, and of the been the theme of admiration, and have afforded respective offices of each. We shall then proceed copious materials for argument and allusion to to consider their comparative physiology; under the poet and the moralist in every age. It is a which head we shall state the leading particulars subject that has been celebrated and adorned by relating to their nutrition, secretion, respiration, the muse of Virgil, as well as illustrated by the progressive motion, external senses and instincts. philosophic genius of Aristotle. Cicero and Pliny We shall next follow them in their different labours, report that Aristomachus devoted himself during from the period when the swarm has settled in a sixty years to the study of these insects ; and Phi- new habitation; we shall detail the complex strucliscus is said to have retired into a desert wood, ture of their hives,—their curious processes of arthat he might pursue his observations on them with- chitecture,—the pains they bestow on rearing their out interruption. A prodigious number of authors progeny and in sending forth new swarms; and this have written express treatises on bees; periodical wull lead us to the subject of the fecundation of the works have been published relating exclusively to queens, and the massacre of the drones. After their management and economy; and learned so- having thus given an account of their usual condicieties have been established for the sole purpose tion, we shall, in the last place, describe the result of conducting researches on this subject. The most of several experiments and observations, which have celebrated association of this kind is the Societe des been made when they were placed in unusual cirAbeilles, founded about fifty years ago in Little cumstances ; experiments which have exhibited maBautzen, a village in Upper Lusatia, under the aus- ny interesting features of their character, and have pices of the Elector of Saxony. Its labours, as we thrown considerable light on the whole of their hisshall presently find, have enriched the science with tory. as well as suggested various practical and ecoa number of valuable discoveries. nomic applications in the management of these inIn so complicated a branch of natural history, the sects. application of the difficult art of observing correctThe leading feature in their history, and one which Functions ly, and of the cautious processes of induction, can- distinguishes them from almost all insects, is their of the not be effected without laborious and long continued singular distribution into three different kinds, con- Males, reefforts. But, on the subject of bees, the inquirer stituting, to all appearance, so many different modiafter truth had, besides, many obstacles to encounter, fications of sex. The drone, which is characterized from the very general diffusion of errors, which had by a thicker body, a round head, a more flattened been transmitted without due examination from one shape, and more obtusely terminated abdomen, within author to another. The history of the opinions of which are contained the male organs of generation, successive writers, will sufficiently prove how gra- has been admitted as the male of the species. It is dual and how slow has been the advancement of real distinguished, also, by the absence of a sting, and by knowledge in what concerns these insects, and will the humming noise that accompanies its flight. The teach us to estimate the value of that which we at queen-bee, which is larger than any of the others, has length possess, as being the result of the labour of the abdomen of greater length, and is provided with ages, and as being extorted from nature by indefa- a sting, and with two ovaria of considerable size, is tigable and persevering exertions. So great an ac- unequivocally recognised as the female. The workcumulation of curious and interesting facts, indeed, ing-bees compose the third class, and are distinhas accrued to us from the researches of Swammer- guished by the smallness of their size, their lengthdam, Maraldi, Reaumur, Schirach, and Huber, as ened proboscis, the peculiar structure of their legs to constitute almost a new science. Many of these and thighs, which are adapted to the collection of have been discovered subsequent to the time of the certain materials collected from vegetables, and by compilation of the article Bee in the Encyclopedia. the apparent absence of every trace of generative It will therefore be proper, in this place, to give a organs,—we say apparent absence, because, as will connected and systematic account of the natural be hereafter stated, rudiments of ovaria have been history of this remarkable insect. For the details of very lately discovered to exist, which, however, are the external characters and distinctions of species, not perceptible without a very minute and careful we shall refer to what has been already stated in the dissection. Till within a few years, the working-bees above article, and in that of Entomology. The were regarded as animals deprived of sex, and were principal features of their internal conformation will accordingly termed neuters or mules. It is these be described when treating of the particular functions which perform all the laborious offices for the comto which they are more immediately subservient; munity,—which construct the interior of their habitaand our descriptions will apply, more especially, to tion,—which explore the country in search of nourishthe common and best known species, the Apis melli- ment and other materials,—which collect and bring fica, which is the one particularly prized on account them to the hive, and apply them to different purof the rich products it affords. poses ; it is they who assiduously attend upon the Plan of this The economy of bees comprehends so wide a queen, and supply all her wants,—who defend the Article. field of inquiry, the different parts of which are so hive from the attacks of depredators,—and who carry connected and dependant upon one another, that it on hostilities against the various enemies of the is impossible to treat of them distinctly, without tribe. The life of the females is chiefly engrossed
BEE. with the duties of laying eggs, and conducting the trine ; but became at length one of its most stre- Bee. colonies, which, at certain periods, emigrate from nuous supporters. It is noticed in a vein of sarcasthe parent state. The drones, producing neither tic ridicule by Mr John Hunter, in his otherwise wax nor honey, and depending on the rest for their excellent paper on bees in the Philosophical Transsubsistence, are idle spectators of these labours. actions. Needham wrote a memoir for the Imperial They appear to be formed only for the momentary, Academy of Brussels, in 1777, for the express purbut important duty of impregnation ; since they pe- pose of refuting it; and he then inveighs in strong rish when this purpose is accomplished. There is language against those naturalists who had deigned commonly only one perfect queen existing at a time to give it the least countenance. Mr Key, in the within each hive; and she appears to be treated by Bath Society Papers, declares that he made experiall the other bees with every mark the sexes took place, and Reaumur fancied that he
B E E. 227 ee The swarm having rested for some time on the B * Bee. served “ that, about fourteen days previous to their arrival, a small number of bees, varying from twenty first landing-place, and collected the whole of its to fifty, were every day employed in examining, numbers, soars again in the air, keeping in a close and apparently in keeping possession of the cavity; phalanx, and directing its course with great velocity for if molested, they showed evident signs of displea- to the spot which their guides had selected ; giving sure, though they never employed their stings in out, at the same time, a loud and acute toned hum defending their proposed habitation. Their exami- by the action of their wings. nation was not confined to the cavity, but extended The parent hive, thus deserted by its queen and Succession to the external parts of the tree above; and every a large proportion of its inhabitants, is busily occu- ot Swainis‘ dead knot particularly arrested their attention, asi f pied in repairing its loss. The bees which remain they had been apprehensive of being injured by quietly pursue their labours; the young brood, soon moisture, which this might admit into the cavity arriving at maturity, quickly fill up every deficiency ; below; and they apparently did not leave any part and young queens, being allowed their liberty, one of the bark near the cavity unexamined. A part after the other, conduct in their turns new swarms, of the colony, which purposed to emigrate, appeared in the same manner as the first. The second swarm in this case to have been delegated to search for a is not sent off till after the space of from five to ten proper habitation ; and the individual who succeed- days after the first. Tl(je following swarms succeed ed must have apparently had some means of convey- quicker to each other, but consist of smaller numing information of his success to others; for it can- bers than the earlier ones. If it happen that two not be supposed that fifty bees should each accident- queens are found in a swarm, either the swarm dially meet at, and fix upon the same cavity, at a vides itself into two, and have separate destinations, mile distant from their hive, which Mr Knight has or a single combat between the queens decides on frequently observed them to do, in a wood where which of them the empire is to devolve. Sometimes, several trees were adapted for their reception; and, indeed, they appear not to perceive each other, and indeed, he observed, that they almost uniformly se- the parties belonging to each construct separate lected that cavity, which he himself thought was the combs within the same hive; but no sooner do these best adapted to their use. It not unfrequently hap- combs come in contact, and thus give occasion to pened, that swarms of his own bees took possession the queens meeting each other, than the contest beof these cavities, and such swarms were in several gins, and it does not terminate but by the death of instances followed from his garden to the trees; and one of the rival queens. Successive swarms are sent they were observed to deviate very little from the off so long as the increase of population admits of it, direct line between the one point and the other, and the numbers thus produced in a season depends which seems to indicate that those bees, who had on a variety of circumstances, such as the abundance formerly acted as purveyors, now became guides.’’ of flowers, and the warmth of the climate, and the Departure On the day on which the swarm quits the hive, capacity of the hive. Bose, while he was French few of the workers roam to any distance, but seve- consul in Carolina, found a hive in the woods which ral are seen performing circles in the air round the had been robbed of its wax and honey by the nehive. The noise is on a sudden hushed; and all the groes ; he contrived to convey the bees in his hat to bees enter the hive; this silence announces their a hive in his garden; he obtained from this hive immediate departure. A few workers appear at eleven swarms before the end of autumn; and these the door, turn towards the hive, and striking with again afforded him the same number of secondary their wings, give,'as it were, the signal for flight. swarms, so that, by the end of the year, he had All those who are to accompany the expedition rush twenty-two hives stocked from the one he had thus towards the door, and issue forth with wonderful rapi- saved from destruction. In this country, a hive dity, rising in the air and hovering for sometime, as if commonly sends off only two, and sometimes three in order to wait for the assemblage of the whole troop. swarms in the course of the summer. Then, following the motions of the queen, they settle Very few drones accompany the new colonies; Massacre of wherever she alights, forming a dense cluster around so that almost all those produced in the spring rfe- tl,e Clones, her. Sometimes, from weakness, or other cause, main in the hive. But when the queens are impregshe returns back to the hive, and is immediately at- nated, and no new swarms are about to take place, tended thither by the rest. But if the weather be the workers, who had till then suffered them to live fine, the expedition is only deferred for one or two unmolested in the hive, are on a sudden seized with days, and again takes its departure. If their return a deadly fury towards them, and a scene of carnage be owing to the loss of their queen, they remain a ensues. This usually happens in July or August. fortnight or longer before the attempt to migrate is They chase their unhappy victims in every quarter, renewed, and then the swarm is much larger than till they seek a refuge at the bottom of the hive, before, which renders it probable that they have where they collect in crowds, and are indiscrimiwaited for the queen that was to go off with the nately, and without a single exception, massacred next swarm. Sometimes when every thing indicates by the working-bees, who, with implacable fury, an approaching emigration, the passage of a cloud transfix them with their stings, and throw the dead across the sun will suspend all their operations, and bodies out of the hive. So great is their antipathy the previous bustle gives place to a state of perfect to all the race of drones, that they destroy, at the calm. But, if the day be not far advanced, the same time, the male eggs and larvae, and tear open breaking out of sunshine will renew the commotion, the cocoons of their pupae, in order to devote them and determine the moment of actual flight. to one common destruction. This sacrifice of the
B E E. males is not, however, the effect ot a blind and indis- that the whole generation is renewed in that space Bee. criminating instinct; for if a hive be deprived of its of time, from the results of experiments which have queen, the massacre does not take place, while the been tried of marking all the individuals of a hive in hottest persecution rages in all the surrounding hives. the spring, when it was found that none were in exIn this case the males are allowedto survive one winter. istence the next season. They are the natural prey Provision Having thus got rid of the useless mouths, which of a number of quadrupeds, birds and insects ; many for the consumed, without any advantage to the public, are overtaken by stormy weather, or fly to too great Winter. ^ jarge p0rt;0n 0f their provisions, the bees spend a distance, and never find their way back again to the remainder of the summer in collecting stores of the hive; others are benumbed by cold; and numhoney and of pollen for the ensuing winter. Their bers perish in battle with others of their own species, gleanings are now less abundant than in the spi mg, or lose their lives by being unable to withdraw the and require more labour in the search and collec- stings which they have employed against their enetion. But at this season, the leaves of many kinds mies. The fecundity of the queen-bee is, however, Fecundity of trees, which are covered in the morning with a adequate not only to repair these losses, but to mulsaccharine fluid that transudes through them, fur- tiply the population in a very high progression. It nish them with a species of nourishment, which, is computed that in France a single queen will lay though of very inferior quality to the fluid of the from 30 to 6‘0,000 eggs; this however varies accord-, nectaria, still contributes to their support. Fruit is ing to the climate ; for in Carolina and the West also attacked by bees, after the cuticular covering Indies, they are known to produce at least three has been broke through by birds or snails. They times this number. A single intercourse with the also find nutriment in the Honey-dew, which is an male is sufficient for the fecundation of all the eggs excrementitious fluid from the Aphis. (See that ar- which the queen lays for at least two years, as has been ticle). Often, however, these resources fail, and proved by Huber; but its influence probably exthe hive is threatened with famine. On these occa- tends to all the eggs which the queen may lay dursions, the distressed bees often betake themselves to ing the rest of her life. The same queen has been Mutual De-plunder. Spies are sent out to examine the neigh- observed to conduct swarms for two successive years ; predalions. kouring hives; allured by the smell of honey, they but the natural period of their lives is not known with examine the appearance and strength of its posses- any certainty. The ancients supposed it to be seven sors ; and, selecting the weakest hive as the object of years, but Feburier suspects, that, like the males, they attack, they begin a furious onset, which costs are destroyed by the labourers, when they have fulgreat numbers their lives. If the invaders should filled their destination; for he was witness to an attack fail in their attempt to force the entrance, they re- made by six labourers on a queen, whom he rescued treat, and are not pursued by those whom they have with difficulty. Mr Hunter observes, that, judgassailed ; but if they succeed in making good the ing from analogy, a bee’s natural life is limited to a assault, the war continues to rage in the interior of certain number of seasons ; for he conceives that no the hive, till one party is utterly exterminated; re- individual insect of any species lives one month inforcements are sent for by the invading army, and longer than the others of the same species. In the the bees from the neighbouring hives often join the bee, one might suppose the period of life to be equal assailants and share in the plunder. In a short to the time that a hive can last; but this is not a time the whole of the enemy’s magazines are com- necessary consequence, since they keep up a sucpletely emptied. If on the other hand, the invad- cession of generations. The comb of the hive may Durability ers should be defeated, the successful party is by no be said to be the furniture and storehouse of the means safe from the attacks of the bees from other bees, which by use must wear out; but, indepenhives, if any of them should chance to have mingled dently of this, it will, in time, become unfit for use, in the fray, and especially if they have once pene- by the accumulation of cocoons, together with the trated as far as the magazines, for in that case they excrements of the maggots, which are never removare sure to return, accompanied with a large rein- ed. The former, indeed, lines the whole cell, top, forcement, and the unfortunate hive that has been sides and bottom ; and may be distinguished from once attacked, ultimately falls a sacrifice to these the cocoons of former maggots, that have been hatched in the same cell, by a portion of dried exrepeated invasions. The close of autumn puts a period to their labours crement, which is interposed between them, at the abroad. They then live on the provisions they have bottom of the cell. Mr Hunter has counted above amassed, till the cold of winter reduces them to a twenty different linings in one cell, and found the torpid state ; from which they awake on the return cell about one quarter, or one-third filled up. A of vernal warmth, and renew the same circle of la- piece of comb so circcumstanced, when boiled for bours. Sometimes the strong light reflected from the wax, will keep its form, and the small quantity the snow during a clear sunshine, deceives them of wax is squeezed out at different parts, as if squeezwith the appearance of warmth, and some bees are ed out of a sponge, and runs together in the cretempted to issue forth in order to collect provisions. vices ; while a piece of comb that never has been All who thus venture out perish by the cold in a bred in, even of the same hive, melts almost wholly down. Hence, the combs can only last a certain few minutes. Duration Bees seldom die a natural death. rI hey are at all number of years. However, to make them last long*f Life. times exposed to a variety of accidents, which thin er, the bees often add a little to the mouth of the their numbers ; so that the average duration of their cell, which is seldom done with wax alone, but lives does not exceed one year. We may conclude with some sort of mixture; and they sometimes
228 Bee.
229 B E E. liee Bee. cover the silk lining of the last chrysalis ; but all out of their cells without impediment, and, after a this, observes Mr Hunter, makes such cells clumsy, number of deadly combats, the empire remains with in comparison to the original ones. the survivor. Huber has made the singular observaWe have thus given an account of the principal tion, that two queens, however inveterate may be facts in the history of bees, as far as they relate to their mutual hostility, never actually both destroy the usual or natural condition of these insects. We each other; and that when, in the course of their shall conclude with the relation of several curious contest, they are placed in such a relative position phenomena, which they exhibit under particular and as that each has it in .her power to strike a mortal unusual circumstances, in which accident, or the blow on the other with its sting, they suddenly sepadesigns of the experimenter, may have placed them. rate, and fly from each other with every appearance What hapThe loss of the queen is an event which has the of being panic-struck. The final cause of the inmost nia! l^lose” 'ked influence on their conduct. Although stinct that prompts this conduct is sufficiently obviliejr the queen is constantly an object of attention and of ous, as, without it, the hive would be altogether deifiieen. strong affection to the whole community, they are prived of a queen. not immediately sensible of her absence when she is The bees recognise the individual person of their removed from the hive. The ordinary labours are own queen. If another be palmed upon them, they continued without interruption, and it is not till a seize and surround her, so that she is either suffocatwhole hour has elapsed, that symptoms of uneasiness ed, or perishes with hunger; for it is very remarkaare manifested, and it is even then only partially dis~ ble that the workers are never seen to attack a queenplayed. The inquietude begins in one part of the bee with their stings. If, however, more than eighhive, the workers become restless, abandon the young teen hours have elapsed before the stranger queen be which they were feeding, run to and fro, and, by introduced, she has some chance of escape. The striking each other with their antennae, communi- bees do,' indeed, at first seize and confine her, but cate the alarming intelligence very quickly to their less rigidly ; and they soon begin to disperse, and at companions. The ferment soon extends to the whole length leave her to reign over a hive, in which she community; the bees rush precipitately out of the was at first treated as a prisoner. If twenty-four hive, and seek for their lost queen in every direction. hours have elapsed, the stranger will be well received This state of confusion continues for two or three, from the first, and at once admitted to the sovereignand sometimes for five hours, but never longer. Tran- ty of the hive. If a supernumerary queen be introquillity is again re-established; they return to their duced into the hive, she is laid hold of by the bees, labours ; and selecting one of the larvae that is not and pi’esented to the reigning queen, while a ring is more than three days old, they break down tvro of formed by the bees, who continue to be spectators, the contiguous cells, sacrificing the larvae contained and even promoters of the combat, in which one or in them, and proceed to build up one royal cell from other of the queens is destined to perish. Schirach their ruins. They then supply the worm with the and Reims had imagined that, in these circumstances, food necessary to promote its quick growth ; and, the stranger met her death from the hands of the leaving untouched the rhomboidal bottom, they raise working bees, but this mistake has been rectified by around it a cylindrical enclosure. In three days, the Huber, who gives the account above stated. larva has grown to such a size as to require an extenIf the impregnation of the queen be delayed be- Retarded sion of its lodging, and must inhabit a cell nearly of yond the twenty-first day of her life, she begins soon ^ecunda’ a pyramidal figure, and hanging perpendicularly. A after to lay the eggs of drones, and produces notion’ new pyramidal tube is therefore constructed with the other kind of eggs during the remainder of her life. wax of the surrounding cells, which is soldered at This very curious and unexpected fact was discoright angles to the first, and the bees, working down- vered by Huber, and has been satisfactorily estawards, gradually contract its diameter from the base, blished by his very numerous and varied experiments, which is very wide, to the point. In proportion as although its explanation is perhaps attended with inthe worm grows, the bees labour in extending the superable difficulties. The body of a queen, whose cell, and bring food, which they place before its impregnation has thus been retarded, is shorter mouth, and round its body, forming a kind of coiled than common, the extremities remain slender, while zone around it. The worm, which can move only in the two first rings of the abdomen, or those next the a spiral direction, turns incessantly to take its food thorax, are uncommonly swollen. On dissecting the before its head ; it insensibly descends, and at length double ovary, both branches were found to be equalarrives at the orifice of the cell. It then transforms ly expanded and equally sound ; but the eggs were itself into a pupa, is enclosed with a covering of wax, apparently not placed so closely together as in comas before described, and, in the space of ten days, mon queens. It was not correctly ascertained, whethe original loss is thus repaired by the birth of a ther the queens, whose impregnation was retarded, new queen. Schirach found, that if a number of laid a number of drone eggs corresponding to the bees be confined with even a single larva, which, in whole number of eggs, both of workers and drones, the natural course would have become a working bee, which they ought to have deposited ; but it is certhey immediately set about giving it the royal educa- tain that they laid a greater number of drone eggs tion above related, and thus raise it to the dignity of than they ought naturally to have done. On these queen. occasions, the instinct of the queen-bee appears to While the hive remains without a queen, swarm- suffer, for she then lays her eggs indiscriminately in ing can never take place, however crowded the hive large and in small cells ; those laid in large cells promay be. The young queens are suffered to come ducing large drones; those in small cells small
y> l j E. 230 Bee drones; and she has been known to lay the eggs of both the antennae was followed with singular effects. J IBee. ’*****-^'^mS Ji-ones even in royal cells, some ol which are always The queen who had suffered this operation ran about' * ~ constructed when the queen begins to lay male eggs. in apparent disorder, dropping her eggs at random, It is curious that the workers were, on these last oc- and was incapable of directing her trunk with precicasions, deceived, and treated the embryo drones as sion to the food that was offered her. At times she appeared desirous of escaping from the hive, and if they had been truly of the royal brood. when this was prevented, she returned in a state of Prolific One of the most remarkable facts concerning the delirium, was indifferent to the caresses of the woikWorking- generation of bees, is the existence occasionally of Bees. prolific workers, the discovery of which we owe ers, and received another similarly mutilated queen, to Reim. Although it was doubted by Bonnet, its that was presented to her, without the least symptom reality has been fully confirmed by the researches of of dislike. The workers, on the other hand, received Huber ; and it explains what was before unaccount- the stranger queen with great respect, although the able, the production of eggs in hives absolutely des- first still remained in the hive. A third queen, not titute of a queen. It is also remarkable, that the mutilated, was next introduced ; she was very dl reeggs thus produced are always those of drones. The ceived, and immediately detained and kept close origin of these supplementary queens is accounted prisoner. When the queen deprived of her antennae for, from their having passed the vermicular state in was allowed to quit the hive, she was followed by cells contiguous to the royal ones, and from their none of the workers, and was abandoned to her fate. Bees naturally build from above downwards, but Variations > having, at an early period, devoured some portion of the stimulating jelly, which was destined for the may, by a particular artifice, devised by Huber, be ™ nourishment of the royal brood; and from their induced to reverse this process, bor this purpose, a ovaria thus receiving a partial developement, which glass hive, with slender laths fixed at the bottom of renders them susceptible of being impregnated. It it, must be provided, and the bees confined in it. is curious that these imperfect queens are still ob- They are unable to fasten themselves to the smooth jects of jealousy and animosity to the queen-bee. surfaces, and, therefore, establish the foundations of How they become impregnated has not been ascer- the combs on the wood, and are forced to proceed in tained ; but the fact of their being productive was a direction opposite to the usual one ; in this wa} a strong confirmation of the truth of Schirach s theoiy Huber was enabled to observe their proceedings. concerning the sexes of bees. Needham, to whom But the readiest mode of inducing them to build in the fact was known, had eluded the force of the ar- any particular direction, is to supply them with porgument, by pretending that these bees did not be- tions of ready-made combs, which should be fixed long to the working class, but were real queens of with wires in the proper position ; and they will alan unusually small size. The supposed absence of ways continue to complete them upon the model ovaria in the working-bee w’as still, indeed, a diffi- presented to them. The hive which Huber recomculty which tended to throw some degree of doubt mends is constructed on this principle, consisting o on the correctness of Schirach’s doctrine. No per- upright frames of a square form, fitted to each other, son, as Bonnet repeatedly alleges, could suppose that and of such a size as just to contain each of them a these organs, however minute they might be, had single comb ; by separating these, every part of the escaped the penetration of Swammerdam, who was hive can be laid open and examined with the utmost unrivalled in his anatomical skill in all that related ease. Feburier has improved upon this construction to insects, and who had bestowed great labour in the by changing the shape of the frames from a square examination of the structure of the bee. hat had to a trapezium, having an acute angle at the summit, eluded his scalpel and microscope, was reserved for a form which allows the moisture that collects at the the still finer hand, and more dexterous dissection of top to run down the sides more easily than it would a lady. Miss Jurine, the daughter of the celebrated do from a flat roof. In this way, any portion of naturalist of Geneva, has discovered, by adopting a the honey or wax may be removed at pleasure, withparticular method of preparing the object to be view- out hurting or incommoding any one of the bees ; and artificial swarms may, at the proper season, be ed, the rudiments of ovaria in the common workingbee ; she examined a great number, and never failed readily procured, by dividing the hive into two porto find them. Cuvier, in his Legons d Anatomic tions/and adapting empty frames to each portion. The wasp and the hornet have long been known Enenue Comparee, mentions a suspicion that lie had seen as the determined enemies of the bee, committing Bcfssome very small oviducts in the working-bees, a susoreat ravages among these weaker insects; they atpicion which we now find to be completely verified. We have next to relate the event of experiments tack them individually, but oftener commit their Frr ,s of Mutilations, of a more cruel kind, but which illustrate several aggressions in large armies, on which occasions points in the physiology of these insects. The am- numbers perish on both sides. In some parts o putation of the four wings of the queen did not in- America, wasps have multiplied to so great a deterfere with her laying of the eggs, and the workers gree, as to render it impossible to rear bees. Among did not show her the less attention on account of her quadrupeds, the ant-eater occasionally devours them. being thus mutilated. Of course, if the operation be The bear and the badger overturn the hives, and performed before she is impregnated, she remains plunder their contents. Rats and mice are very barren, since it is necessary for the sexual congress formidable enemies, as they invade them at all seathat she should fly out of the hive. The amputation sons, and especially during their torpid state, when of a single antenna appeared to be productive of no they are incapable of revenging the aggression. in breaking throng i bad consequence of any kind; but the removal of The woodpecker may succeed 6
B E j:. the hive, and then speedily destroys all its inhabi- ty to introduce itself into the hive during the night, tants ; the swallow, the sparrow, the titmouse, the when the bees are deprived of the advantages of vicuckoo, and the Merops apiaster, or hee-eater, and sion, which the sphinx enjoys in greater perfection poultry of every kind, prey upon them separately. at this period. By rendering the door-way extremeAccording to Bose, they are also food for the shrikes, ly narrow, so as only to admit a single bee at a time, and for the Falco apivorus. Lizards watch for them, this accident may be prevented; and it is curious and seize them as they alight near the hive. Toads that the bees themselves frequently anticipate this occasionally devour them. They are in some danger danger, and provide against it by employing, of their from the larger kinds of spiders, -and of Libellulcc, own accord, the very same mode of defence. They as also from the Philanthus apivorus of Fabricius. construct a thick wall which barricades the entrance, But the most insidious and destructive enemy of anu resembles a regular fortification, with bastions, these insects is the moth ; various species of which, casemates, and massive gateways. They often, inparticularly the Phalena mellollena, insinuate them- deed, have recourse to a similar contrivance for proselves into the hive, and deposit their eggs unperceiv- tection against the pillaging-bees, enabling them to ed between the cells, in such numbers, that the hive repel the assault with greater effect. At other times is soon overrun with the larvae, where they are hatch- when the danger is less pressing, the inconveniences ed, and the bees are forced to abandon the hive. of so narrow a gateway being strongly felt, they A new enemy of the same tribe has been lately dis- enlarge it by removing the fortification they had covered by Huber, in the Sphinx alropos,' well built, and do not again construct it unless the appearknown by the name of death’s head. Towards the ance of the enemy in the ensuing season should inend of autumn, when the bees have filled their ma- spire them with fresh alarms. If, on the other hand, gazines, a loud hum is sometimes heard near their the precaution of narrowing the gateway should alhabitation, and a multitude of bees come out during icady have been taken by the cultivator, the bees, the night, and fly about in the utmost confusion. feeling themselves secure, spare themselves the unThe tumult continues for several hours, and the next necessary labour of erecting these walls. This sinmorning a number of dead bees are strewed before gle trait in their history is a sufficient refutation of the hive. On examining the hive, it is found to those theories which ascribe all their actions to the have been robbed of all its honey, and the bees do operation of a blind indiscriminating instinct, and not return to it. These effects result from the in- would exclude every species of foresight and refleccursions of the sphinx, which watches its opportuni-
BEGGAR. ■iuition. The word literally means, one who begs. In a more restricted sense, it means one who begs the means of subsistence. Even this definition, however, is too extensive for the idea to which, in this article, we mean to confine it. I he class, in fact, of the persons to whom the term beggar, in the most restricted sense, applies, cannot easily be separated by an exact line of distinction from the kindred tribes' You cannot define the beggar as one who asks the means of subsistence, or money to purchase it, from passengers in the streets and highways; because there are people who beg from house to house. If you include those who beg from house to house, even that will not suffice, because there are persons who beg by letter, and have various means, beside language, of brino-mg to the knowledge of others the tokens of real or fictitious distress. And, if you make a definition extensive enough to embrace all these classes, you will make it include persons whom no one regards as standing in the rank of beggars; every person, erent almost, who, from any cause, is brought to reises of quire the assistance of others. It is not useless to Kars. contemplate how these classes run into one another; because it teaches the necessity of delicate and cautious proceedings, when we take measures of cure ; especially rtforce enters at all into their composition. 1. Of the class of persons to whom, in the common use of language, the term Beggar is with pro-
priety assigned, there is one distinction which is obviously and commonly made; that is, into those who beg fiom necessity, and those who beg from choice. In each of these divisions, there is great \ariety. For a description ot the field of mendicity we derive helps from the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in the year 1815, to inquire into the state of mendicity in the metropolis. The inquiry is very imperfect; the interrogation of the witnesses superficial and unskilful; the information which they give not followed up, by exploring other and better sources, which they indicate ; but, as people had been left to casual observation, to fancy, and conjecture before, the facts and conjectures which that Report lays before us are still the best information we possess. Nothing more strongly indicates the deficiency of our knowledge upon this subject, than the different opinions which the Committee received on the proportion between those who beg from necessity, and those who beg from choice. The persons examined were those of whom the Committee made choice, as having possessed peculiar opportunities of knowledge ; and this w as a point to which their inquiries were peculiarly directed. Yet one part of the witnesses strongly asserted, that a proportion as large as one half were beggars from necessity: another part of them asserted that all beggars, with hardly any exception, prosecuted the occupation from choice.
232 Beggar.
B E G G A 1! Mr Martin, the conductor of an inquiry into the neighbourhood of Spitalfields, affirms, that, out of Beggar, state of mendicity in the metropolis, under instruc- full 300 cases of abject poverty and destitution, and tions from his Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State at least 100 of literal want and starvation, not a dozen had been found to have recourse to for the Home Department, which inquiry extended begging. Many of the most wretched of the to about 4-500 cases, stated, as “ the general result above cases had been, not long before, able to supof his information, that beggary is, in very many port themselves in some comfort, but want of emcases, perhaps in about half the cases of those who ploy had completely ruined them. They were, at be**, the effect rather of real distress, than of any that moment, pressed by landlord, baker, and taxvoluntary desire to impose. So far from having gatherer; had pawned and sold every thing that could found, amongst those who have attended at the ofturned into money; were absolutely without a fice, any reason to think that the whole was a matter be of food for themselves or family ; but still l.iad of imposition, I have (says he) found cases of the morsel not recourse begging. As a general fact, the most acute suffering, which have long been conceal- decent poor to will struggle to the uttermost, and ed, of some of the beggars, who belonged to parishes even perish, rather than turn beggars. in the metropolis, who have not made their cases This is heroism, in comparison with which, that properly known to the parish-officers, and who have ventured to slip out of their parishes, not so much of the Herculeses and the Hectors, ancient and mosinks into nothing ! What an admirable founbecause they wished to impose, as because they dern, dation of virtue must be laid, in these minds, which were driven by distress to beg.’’ Mr Martin ground- even thus endure the horrors of death, appi caching ed this conclusion also upon the general fact, that with all the torments of hunger and cold, rather than the number of women was much greater than that of to relieve themselves by courses reputed dismen, and that of married women greater than that seek graceful ! And how unworthily is this class of perof single. “ Men,” he remarks, “ are stronger than women, have more resources, and are better able to sons traduced, by those who represent them as caprovide for themselves; and single women are moie pable of being restrained by nothing but a dungeon or a bayonet; and who, by their ignorance of human eligible for service than married, and usually have nature, so cruelly prolong the needless miseries unonly themselves to maintain.” which it labours ! The Rev. Henry Budd, who had been fourteen derAccording to the experiment mentioned by Mr years Chaplain to Bridewell Hospital, to^ which the Doughtry, and it is upon a large scale, and a part of greater number of the persons taken up for begging population (the circumstances of the people in in the streets of London are committed, was askei, the
working tools of her husband : if they could immeChildren, about 1,223 diately go to any magistrate, and claim the necessaTotal Non-Parochial Individuals, about ..... 1,997 ry relief, to be afterwards refunded by their parish, that distress would be prevented.” Total Children on the 2,000 To Mr Colquhoun, the magistrate, it was observed, cases, about 3,096 Total Individuals on the 2,000 cases, about - 5,096 —“ You have given it as your opinion, in your Treatise on Indigence, that among the causes of vagrancy Mr Martin observes, “ It may appear extraordi- is the hardship and dread of removals ?—I look nary, that the parochial poor should be found to fur- upon the removal as one of the greatest evils atnish above one half of the general mass of beggars taching to the pauper system; if that could be in the metropolis. There are, however, two causes done away by legislative regulation, so as to let the particularly affecting the parochial poor, which have burthen fall equally upon the country at large, that doubtless contributed to reduce many of them to a would do more to reduce the rates than any thing state of beggary; viz. else; it is a lamentable thing. I know in the year “ 1. The practice, generally prevailing in the me- 1800, that in Braintree and Booking in Essex, altropolis, of refusing relief to paupers out of the though the average of the whole country was not work-house ; and, above 5s. 6d. in the pound, they paid actually 40s. “ 2. The want of a provision by law, to direct, in in the pound for poor rates, which amounted nearly particular cases, adequate relief to parochial poor, to a disinherison of property, in the hands, perhaps, not resident within the limits of their legal settle- since William the Conqueror, of some of the proments.” prietors ; and I know of property which would let It was observed to him, “ If it be real distress and for L. 200 a year in any other part of the country, not imposture, it should appear that the proper place letting for L. 20: And I remember another into apply for relief would be the place of their own stance, of a person who had established a nursery ; settlement ?—It is astonishing how ignorant the poor he was rated for that nursery L. 70 a year ; it had people are. A great many live in a contiguous pa- cost him L. 800; and the question with him was, rish to that to which they are chargeable, then they whether it would not be better to abandon it than are afraid of the law which directs they should be sustain the burthen. Wherever you see in England either imprisoned or whipped, or removed home, in the finest surface of country, such as Hertfordshire, case they apply for relief; and some, who have and all the southern counties, there you have the been in better conditions in life, are very delicate in greatest portion of poverty: In Sussex, by the last making their distresses known at all. returns, it was 25 in the hundred, that was, a fourth “ Have you ascertained that ?—Yes ; even when I part of the population; in Cumberland, five; in have written, I have frequently found the testimony Lancashire, where we should expect more poor than in some degree corroborated I have received be- any other, from the fluctuation of labour, 17. fore ; there may have been a variation in a few cir“ Do you conceive, that the system of removals at cumstances, but the general statement has been of- once adds considerably to the expence of the rates, ten tine in those cases with which the committee and is a great grievance to the morals of the poor ? VOL. II. PART I. hh
BEGGAR. 242 Beggar. —That it degrades the poor to a very great degree those work-houses for the purpose of begging, in the Beggar. is certain; and that it adds to the rates, but mostly course of the day ?— They go out on the Sunday ^ in the metropolis. The managers of the poor are generally, and I believe many of them beg, indeed I very willing, thinking to get rid of them in a short am pretty sure of it.” As a cause of beggary, it is necessary here to mentime, to maintain them, rather than send them to a remote quarter; if it is within 20 or 30 miles, they tion early and improvident marriages, and all those will remove them, but if it is 200 miles off they do other proceedings which tend to increase procreation beyond the measure of subsistence, and thus to keep not go to the expence. “ Then they must have the paupers perpetually the great mass of the people sunk near to the level upon them ?—They are in hopes of soon getting rid of of mendicity,—a proximity from which, by the slightthem ; they often go into the house from the sickness est accident, many of them are continually falling of the head of the family, or from various casualties; down to it altogether. That this is the grand medium through which beggary is produced, it is needthey are in hopes things may come round.” Of the existing system of extraordinary laws con- less to offer any proof. The mode in which the cerning the poor in England, that part which relates principle of population, when injudiciously encouto the whipping and imprisoning of persons found raged, instead of being wisely restrained, operates to soliciting alms, is represented by the witnesses as the degradation of the people, has been already, in one of the grand sources of evil; because it is a law part, explained ; and it will be still farther elucidated which the present state of humanity will not allow, in a subsequent article of this work. Among the causes of beggary in England, one in ordinary cases, to be executed. The whipping is regularly and totally disused. The putting a wretch- may be regarded as pretty remarkable, that is, Ireed being into an English prison is not a way to ele- land. Ireland is one of the greatest of all the causes vate his mind, and place him above the base thoughts of beggary in England. Considerably more than of beggary. It is likely to make him more regardless of one-third of all the beggars in the metropolis appear all moral, very often of all legal restraints ; and where to be Irish. Of all human beings in any part of the he went in a beggar, to come out a thief. Upon the globe, the mass of the Irish appear to be in the most atrocious cruelty of driving a wretched creature to deplorable circumstances, whether their moral or phybeggary, in the way explained above, by refusing sical situation be considered; and that under a goprompt assistance, and then whipping or imprison- vernment regarded as the best in the world. I he ing for an act of such necessity, no comment is re- art of making governments efficient to the purposes of government is, therefore, still but imperfectly unquired. Into the mischievous tendency of the principle derstood. Some of the witnesses, Mr Colquhoun in particuupon which the system of the English poor laws is built, holding out a premium for worthlessness, and lar, bring forward a very important subject. They for that excessive multiplication of the people, to give the state of the criminal laws as one of the which a state of general wretchedness is attached, chief among the causes of mendicity—“ About 5000 we shall not at present enter. It will come to be individuals,” he says, “ are vomited out of the jails, considered, where the pook, and the policy regard- without character. These people come on society, ing them, become the subjects of discussion. What, without any asylum provided for them. If such an in this place, chiefly calls for attention, is the course asylum could be established, I think, in a very short of of procedure and detail, in the hands of the parish time, it would relieve the town of a great many r the beggars.” The operation of the penal law s upon officers ; not as a system of waste and of oppression upon the contribution, nor as a system of tyranny the moral state of the people is a field of inquiry far and vexation to the paupers, but as a mode of mak- too extensive to be introduced into the present aring beggars. This they do, by their modes both of ticle. That an ill-contrived system of correction for giving and withholding relief. They give it under offences may degrade the minds of a people, desuch circumstances as to make people fly from it stroy their sensibility to moral considerations, render to beggary; they withhold it in such a manner as many of them incapable of that self-esteem, on which both to compel and seduce them into beggary. Mr the abhorrence of becoming a beggar is founded, Gurney was asked,—“ What is the police establish- nobody can help perceiving. That a great part of ment of your parish ?—We have four beadles and the British system of penal law is infected with this six constables, besides special constables occasion- tendency, has long been the complaint of discerning ally ; but there is a great terror and alarm on the and philosophic minds. The public is not a little inminds of the parish officers of all the parishes, lest debted to the popular writings of Mr Colquhoun, for the work-house should be overstocked, and lest the the degree of attention from men in power which it parish should be burthened ; and, as long as persons cannot long be hindered from receiving. Another get their livelihood without looking to them, though place in this work will be found for giving to the it is by pilfering, unless they actually know that they subject that degree of elucidation which it so highlyare pilfering, they take no notice. I have often deserves. Of all the causes of beggary, tvar may undoubtedthought that if many of our poor laws were imperative, instead of permissive, it would be useful; and I ly be assume!I as one of the most extraordinary. We am afraid many of the parish officers are ignorant of have already seen in what manner the people converted by it into soldiers swell the ranks of mendicitheir duty, as well as the beadles and constables. “ Do you know whether persons confined in the ty ; but this is only a small part of the deplorable w ork-houses, and relieved there, are ever let out of effects. It brings the condition of the whole of the 4
BEGGAR. 243 Beggar, labouring mass down nearer to the mendicant level; likely to be more intemperate as a beggar, he injures Besrjrar. and, of course, a new and additional portion down his health, and destroys the pleasures of sympathy. to it altogether. This it does by the consumption And in as far as he is less religious than he would which it produces. Exactly in proportion as money otherwise have been, he is a loser in respect to the is spent upon war, exactly in that proportion is the hopes which religion bestows. means of employing labour, that is, of buoying up If he has fallen to beggary, by his misconduct, the condition of the people, destroyed ; exactly in from a superior state, in which he would have enthat proportion must the people, cceteris paribus, joyed more happiness; of this loss, whatever’ it is, sink. These are conclusions which may be regard- beggary is not the cause, but the previous misconed as scientific, and which will never be called in duct. The question is not, what he would have dispute except by those who are ignorant of the been, had he not lost what he has lost by misconsubject. It is not impossible for war to be accident- duct, but what, having made that loss, he can now ally accompanied with circumstances which counter- do that would make him happier than begging. If balance this tendency, even in respect to wealth ; a mind is well educated, and its sensibility to moral but this is exceedingly rare. The great men very considerations acute, almost anything would render often gain by war : the little almost always lose. it happier than begging. If it is in the brutal state There is one other cause of mendicity, which it is of an uneducated mind,—a mind which has never had incumbent to mention, because it really includes all its moral sensibility sharpened, few things would the rest; but it can be very little more than men- render it happier that did not afford it in greater tioned, as it is far too extensive for elucidation in plenty the means of sensual indulgence and ease. this place. This cause is legislation,—bad legislation. These, such as these, are the considerations by An argument, which, though it is too general deeply which we should endeavour to estimate the loss of to impress a mind unaccustomed to generalize, is in happiness which beggary produces to the generality fact almost demonstrative, may be given in a few of beggars themselves. words. Perfect legislation, a legislation capable of Let us next endeavour to estimate what is lost turning to the best possible account the command through it by the community to which the beggar which in this world man possesses over the good belongs. things of life, would so conduct society, that, as There is, first, the loss of his labour, provided he there would be scarcely any individual who would was able to work. He consumes without producing. not, by his moral qualities, deserve, so there would In this particular he is equally mischievous with be not one who would be left without the means every useless soldier, every useless functionary of the of corporeal well-being. If this proposition be cor- state, and not more. Not so much, indeed, as often rect, it follows, as an unavoidable consequence, as their consumption is greater than his. that every beggar who exists is, in some way or If the beggar is unable to work, the public, in a another, the eftect and consequence of bad laws. pecuniary sense, loses nothing by his beggary, beExactly in proportion as we can make our laws do cause, it being not proposed to let him die of hunger, more of that which all laws ought to do, we shall he would have been maintained in all events; diminish the number of those who approach the leWhat remains, exclusive of moral effects, is only vel of mendicity; and at last dry up every source the annoyance which is given to the people at large from which it springs. And in the meantime, ex- by the solicitations of beggars ; by conveying to actly in proportion as a greater number of the them disagreeable impressions through their eyes mass of any people are either at, or approach to, the and their ears. We shall not reckon this for absolevel of mendicity, in that proportion infallibly may lutely nothing. But sure we are, that all the amount the laws be pronounced to be bad. of pain which in a year is produced in this country Effects °f 9. We have now stated what the present occasion by that cause is very inconsiderable. There are exeuaicity, appears to require, on the subject of the causes of hibitions of sores and filth, and a degree of importumendicity. We proceed to the effects, which, being nity which we can conceive amounting to a pretty a much less complicated subject, will be much more serious nuisance. But these things, we see, it is quickly dispatched. very easy to prevent. The effects may be considered as bad, first, in reWe come now to the moral effects produced by spect to the beggar himself; next, in respect to the beggary, which, except in regard to the beggars Community. themselves, in which respect they have been consiWith respect to the beggar himself, they are bad dered already, consist entirely in example ; in the exactly in so far as he is less happy in that state, tendency which the immorality of beggars has to than he would have been in any other in which it is produce imitation. in his power to place himself. If it was not in his But it is the privilege of beggars that their vices power to have placed himself in a situation above are not contagious. The vices of the great infect suffering to a greater degree for want of the means the whole community. The vices of beggars infect of well-being, he suffers nothing bodily ; perhaps he nobody but themselves. even gains, it the bodily pains of begging are less We do not think it is necessary to pursue this subthan tnose of the labour to which he would have ject. The evidence appears to be satisfactory, that been doomed. He may suffer in his mind, by the beggary, when considered as a cause of evil, turns sense of degradation. But when that ceases to be out to be a cause of no great importance. Of an object, this pain is at an end. In as far as he is the inconveniences sustained by the nation, a very r'
B E G G A R. “ Can you suggest any alteration of the law, Beggar, small portion can be traced to beggary. For even which would have the effect of clearing the streets ?— the loss of labour, which is the main article, is very I think that might be effected by a strict execution inconsiderable, as the number of able-bodied mendicants is very small, compared with that ot the veiy of the existing laws ; but that would introduce such a degree of severity as to a considerable part, not youno-, the very old, the mutilated, and diseased. that it would be quite as great as the In die case of beggary, as of many other results perhaps half, of the mind of the passenger on seeing in an’’imperfect state ot the social union, the disap- laceration probation and hatred of the mind are very apt to such objects. “ The question refers to the case of persons rebe misplaced. We abhor beggary, but it is the turning to their parishes, and then beginning begging causes out of which beggary springs, and from again ?—The nature of the legislation of England is, which, along with begging, infinite other evils arise, that it always goes upon the idea of the whole, and that deserve almost all our abhorrence. not of a crowded metropolis; and it supposes the Expedients 10. We come now to consider the remedies which profligacy or industry of each individual to be for supmay be applied to the disease of beggary; the fa- known. pressing cienda, in short, the things to be done tor its reu lieggary. moval. You wrere understood to state, that when a per7 son w as taken up, he was sent to Bridewell for seven The first and most natural course would be to go days, then passed to his parish, and that, if that pato the list of causes; the excess of multiplication, rish was in London, he then returned to a state of and consequent poverty of the mass ot the peop e , mendicity. Can you suggest any alteration which the want of education; the poor laws ; the criminal would prevent the beggar who had been in Biidecode ; wars ; and in one word including the whole, and who had been passed to his parish, returnbad legislation. Take away the causes, and the ef- well, ing to a state of mendicity ?—Parliament might comfect immediately disappears. As among the causes of beggary, however, there pel the parish to maintain them until they are enato obtain their own livelihood, according to their are some, and these among the most powerful, which bled age, or strength, or sex ; but nothing less than that cannot be easily or speedily removed, it remains to do, for the person goes out without clothing inquire what, in the meantime, can be done to check would sufficient for a decent occupation. their operation. Sir Nathaniel had stated, that he did not give orThe first question is, what can be done by the ope- ders for taking up the beggars with all the strictration of the existing laws. . ness of law, and gave the following as his reaThe following testimony was given by bir Natha- sons : “theThat if I did give those orders this mornniel Conant: . ^ ing, I should have those that are impostors all run “ You think if there was a strict execution of the laws nowin force, the streets might be cleared of the avvay into the next street, only so to elude the people to whom I gave the directions; and I should beggars?—Certainly. “ In what way would they then be disposed of un- have blind and imbecile creatures, who had no claim at all upon the justice of the parish in which they der the existing law ?■—If they were taken in the act happen to be taken, though that parish would, in the of begging in an individual parish, they must be sent into the Bridewell for seven days at least; then a first instance, be made liable to them, if I passed them into that parish after sending them to prison pass must be made to the place of their last ment; if that is not found by the examination of the for a week, which the Act of Parliament necessarily Justice to his satisfaction, he sends them into the includes ; for no pass can be made till they have place of their last residence, the place where they been in prison a week. If they were passed into were taken ; that parish is to fight against them as that parish, the parish-officers would, in their policy, well as it can, that is, by bribery, if it can be called and in justice to their neighbours, say, “ Why do so, by giving them relief and letting them slip out of you come here ? you come here as a beggar, and have been punished ; here is a shilling, go about doors. . your business, and get yourself conditioned in some “ What becomes of them then ?—Then they begin again ; the existing law will clear them, but it is only other place.” They would walk down below the Tower) and beg there for another week, and then get for a day. “ Then the laws, as at present constituted, are not up a^ain into Westminster, and continue the pracsufficient for clearing the streets ?—My answer to tice of begging, having no settlement perhaps. “ Supposing the magistrates were to follow the letthat would be, that the nature of such a town as this is such, that they cannot be cleared in those inter- ter of the law, might not they be all removed from vals which occur between the application and the re- the neighbourhood of the metropolis ?—I think they lief given; there will be distress and hunger, which might; 1 think the practice established at Edinburgh might be practised here, but with dreadful will drive the paupers to mendicity. “ Then, if they are passed to a parish near to cruelty to two-thirds of the persons subjected to that London, they may be engaged in begging again in mode of subsistence. In Edinburgh, they act with eight and forty hours ?—Yes, in less than that; and extreme severity to every person found in a state of where they are passed to distant parishes, there are mendicity.” Sir D. Williams gave the following testimony:— perhaps only two or three farms; the occupiers of “ Do you take any steps, through the medium of those farms are very unfit to have the care of such persons, perhaps, from their age or their sex, and your officers, to take up beggars ?—We have given instructions generally to take up all beggars ; and it very unwilling to have such pensioners.
BEGGAR. 245 Beggar, has been done also by several parishes in the neigh- tempts made at different times, and they have all Beggar, bourhood, who have directed their beadles to take failed. I think the Act of 17th Geo. II. totally inadequate to the purpose; it is loosely worded*, it is them into custody. “ Is it your opinion, that if the same mode was not at all adapted to the present state of society; pursued by the other magistrates in different districts, and that Act ought to be revised from the beginthat many beggars would be prevented from pursuing ning, and adapted to the present state of societyf “ Do you mean individual and separate attempts ? that course of life ?—There can be no doubt of it. “ You consider the present laws sufficiently strong, —I mean to say various attempts have been made, by taking up the beggars; the expence is enormous if those laws were put in force ?—No doubt. “ And that if the magistrates were to put the law on the county rate. I believe at one time there into force as it now exists, public begging might be was more than L. 100 paid to the office I belong to, in the course of the sessions. prevented ?—There can be no doubt of it. “ You consider that the laws might be so far put “ If all the magistrates were to unite, the magiin force, as to clear the streets of beggars; have the strates of the city of London, the magistrates of goodness to state to the committee the process which Westminster, and the magistrates of the vicinity, to takes place with the beggars found in your district?— put the laws in execution, do you think that would be Any person has a right to capture a beggar in the successful ?—As far as my judgment goes, if the whole act of begging; he is to take him before a magi- were to join their efforts it would not succeed.” strate ; the magistrate, by the confession of the parThe beadles complain that when they take up ty himself, or the oath of another party, is bound to beggars the magistrates discharge them. One of the pronounce him a rogue and vagabond, and send him beadles of St George’s, Bloomsbury, said, “ I took to the House of Correction for the county of Middle- up a man yesterday that I observed knocking at sex ; there he remains seven days, and is passed by every house, regularly, in Bloomsbury-square, two the pass-master of the county to the next parish or three days ago. He was again yesterday taking leading to his settlement, and so forward till he ar- every house regularly ; I waited till the servant came rives at the place of settlement; and for which the to the door, and he then put a petition into her person capturing the mendicant is allowed by law 5s.; hand; I took the petition from him, and took him there is a premium for it. to the watch-house. I found three copies of the “ Supposing the parish to which he actually be- petition upon him. I took him to the office in Hatlongs remains within your district, or is that in ton Garden, and the magistrate discharged him. which he is found begging; there is nothing to pre“ Did the magistrates examine you upon your vent him, on his return, resuming the same practice oath ?—They did; and I told them I had removed of begging ?—The law will prevent that, by senten- him out of Bloomsbury-square, three days before, in cing him as an incorrigible rogue, to six months consequence of great complaints of the inhabitants, imprisonment, if he has been pronounced a rogue that those persons were suffered to be about. and vagabond under the first charge. Lou stated upon your oath, to the magistrate, “ Are those steps frequently taken by you ?—They that you believed him to be a common vagrant ? are brought before the Court, and the Court ad- Yes ; he paused a quarter of an hour upon it; and judges them to a further imprisonment. he said, the prison was so full of people that lie “ How long do they remain there ?—Seven days thought it not right to commit him there. He talkin the first instance, and six months in the second.” ed of sending him to the New Prison, and the clerk Patrick Colquhoun, Esq. to whom, primarily, his said it must be the House of Correction. I told Country is indebted for all the knowledge it has re- him 1 should not object, if he thought proper to cently gained, and all the improvement it has made discharge him, which he did. The magistrate told in Police, delivered the following testimony:—“ Of me, if I saw him again, I might bring him. I could late it is inconceivable the number that have receiv- have taken four beggars up on Sunday, but if we ed passes from the magistrates to go to their differ- take them down they discharge them. ent parishes; which we give now, though directly in “ That is the practice of the magistrates ? It is. opposition to the Act of 1792, which requires they I have taken many and many down, and they have should be previously whipped or imprisoned a cer- been discharged; and my brother beadles will give tain number of days, and then passed as vagrants to the same testimony.” their parishes; that Act has been found impracticable. Mr Mills, a gentleman who had been Overseer of It arose from the Lord Mayor and the magistrates the parish of St Giles, stated, “ We used to take giving innumerable passes, of which I am afraid ma- them to the magistrates, and take the recourse the ny make the very worst use; but we are very glad to law provided; but, in fact, the magistrates themget them out of the town, that they may be subsisted selves would have loaded the prison, they were so m the quarters to which they belong, or where they numerous. In our parish there was no end to the have friends; in that way we are relieved of a very commitments which would have taken place. I have considerable number, who must otherwise beg in the sat with my brother officers from two o’clock in the streets. afternoon till eight in the evening, constantly reDo ygu conceive that the laws as they at pr*esent exist relative to beggars, if put into due and strict lieving those persons.” we think, sufficiently appears, that the execution by all the magistrates in London and its lawItforthus, the compulsive prevention of beggary can\icmity, would be sufficient to clear the streets of not be executed, or, more accurately speaking, it is beggars. I do not indeed; there have been at- unfit for execution; it cannot be executed without
H BEGGAR. Reform your criminal code; and cease to deal with producinff a much greater quantity of evil than it offences in such a fashion, as to make the indigence ^ Beggar. seeks to remedy; and therefore the magistrates take of your people greater, and the virtues less, than they upon them, without scruple, to violate it, and leave would otherwise be. it without execution. t , . Under the head of improvement in the criminal law, Of the things to be done, one, then, most obvi- it may be fittest to speak of that indispensable inously suggested, is a review of the existing laws which strument for the cure of beggary,—a system of Rerelate to beggary ; the repeal of all the enactments, formatories, or houses in which bad habits may be which are ill adapted to the object in view; and the eradicated and good acquired. On this point, some passing of other enactments which may possess the of the witnesses, whose testimony is entitled to the greatest practicable degree of adaptation and ethci- greatest respect, used a language unusually strong. ency. Into the detail of these enactments, it is not The chaplain to Bridewell Hospital said, “ I have here the intention to enter, because they must em- long thought, seeing so much misery as I have done-, brace the provision which is made for the destitute; that, as to remedy, very little could be done, unless the questions relating to which, we reserve tor the you deprive the beggars of the pretext of begging ; article on the Poor. that that could be onl) by a large penitentiary system. Another of the remedial operations, importunate“ Plus it occurred to your mind, that there could be ly demanded, is to make provision immediately tor a Penitentiary large enough to include all those the careful and efficient education of the whole mass persons ?—I have not proposed one for the whole of the population, down to the lowest individual. Un town, but four or five at different parts of the town, the potent connection between good education, and “ Did you propose this for persons having settlethat sort of conduct which keeps people above the ments in the country, and others ?—Yes ; that every level of mendicity, as well as on the mode in which person knocking at the door might have admission, education should be provided, our sentiments will and that no person should have a pretext for begbe given with more propriety on another occasion. ging in the streets. If a committee was sitting at As the tendency in population to increase taster either of those Penitentiaries, and work was going than food, produces a greater number of individuals on at them, that would relieve from part of the exthan can be fed,—as this is the grand parent ot mdi- pence ; the great advantage that appears to my fence, and the most prolific of all the sources of mind is, the investigation of each case. I do not evil to the labouring portion of mankind, take all know any place in town where that can be done. possible measures for preventing so rapid a multi- I have frequently thought, that unless there could plication ; and let no mere prejudice, whether reli- be such a system as that to which I have alluded, gious or political, restrain your hands in so beneh- the clearing of the town is hopeless: Ihe great cient and meritorious an undertaking. It would be mass of misery which floats in this metropolis, I am easy to offer suggestions on this head, if we were fearful can never be removed, unless there is such not entirely precluded from going into detail. It is a penitentiary system as that to which I have alludabundantly evident, in the meantime, that indirect ed : the two societies established for the reception methods can alone avail; the passions to be com- of such persons are far too confined. bated cannot be destroyed; nor, to the production “ If one, two, or three large ships could be of effects of any considerable magnitude, resisted. fitted up with good accommodation, do you think With a little ingenuity they may, however, be elud- such places could be substituted for penitentiary ed, and, instead of spending themselves in hui™, houses, till the parties were disposed of ?—I never made to spend themselves in harmless channels. Ihis but once saw any thing of the kind, and that was at it is the business of skilful legislation to effect. Sheerness some years ago, when I think the sailors In cutting off other causes, cut off Ireland; we wives lived in two large hulks drawn up on shore ; do not mean literally; but what we mean is, that the but there appeared to be so much misery and wretchmode of governing Ireland should be so refoimed, edness, and they were so close and confined, that I as to make it able to send to England something did not form a favourable opinion of it. better than a mass of beggars nearly equal to all her “ The question supposes the ships to be fitted up in an airy manner, with convenient apartments, Make a law to prohibit all modes of paying the that would receive nearly as many, at little or no people, which have an affinity with yielding to the expence to the public, as the Penitentiary House cravings of a beggar. . now building at a very great expence ?—-The penitenTake all proper methods of rendering universal tiary houses, as proposed by me, would include workand preserving alive that exquisite moral sensibility, shops and rope-walks, and so on.” which is possessed by so great a portion of your poMr Colquhoun was asked,—“ Do you think there pulation, and makes them willing to die ol hunger could be any law devised by which there could be a rather than beg. . . possibility of furnishing relief to that class ot perProvide a proper asylum for rearing to virtue toe sons who may be properly called beggars, by which children of beggars; and let no person who begs they could be removed out of the streets ?—I think be allowed, on any terms, to retain power over a it is perfectly possible to lessen the evil in a very single child ; that, at any rate, you may prevent considerable degree, but it must be by legislative any portion of the young from being reared to beg- regulation, and at pretty considerable expence. The gary This is an easy, obvious, and most important situation of this town, to which so many wander up, part "of a good plan for lessening or extinguishing is such that there must be an asylum for beggars, the evil of beggary.
BEGGAR. Beggar, with a species of work-house, or what I would call enormous trouble, and, indeed, to render it possible a Village of Industry, that would apply to all. That with any tolerable degree of exactness, another and struck me so strongly in the year 1792, that I wrote a most important operation is required, subservient a paper on the subject; and I believe if the war had to an infinite number of good purposes; and that is, not broken out, it would have taken place. About a proper system of registration. The whole country 5000 are vomited out of the jails, without charac- should bo divided into sections, containing each a ter ; those people coming on society, it would have moderate number of inhabitants; the names, residenbeen a most desirable thing to have had an Asylum ces, and descriptions of the inhabitants of each secfor them; but it was so gigantic a thing, that that tion should be entered in a public record ; and means prevented its being carried into effect. If such an employed (as much as could be without incurring Asylum could be established, I think in a very short any serious inconvenience of a different sort) for time it would relieve the town of a great many of placing the people of each under the full inspection the beggars ; but the magistrates must necessarily of one another. How important a check this would have some place to send them to. be on improper conduct of every sort is intuitively “ The Committee have been informed, that, within manifest. How easy, too, it would render the busithese few weeks, as is customary at this season of ness of visitation, and what perfect knowledge it the year, there have entered London about 5000 would afford of the circumstances of each individual persons of the labouring class, probably many of the case, it is impossible to overlook. mendicant class ?—I cannot speak to the number ; The importance of registration was not unknown but I have no doubt of it. to some of the witnesses before the Mendicity Com“ Would your plan of an Asylum go to the reliev- mittee. Sir N. Conant observed,—“ In a town like ing those persons ?—It would go to the relieving all this, where no creature knows the inhabitant of the persons who are mendicants, or had lost their cha- next house hardly, or their character, and especially racter, by being committed for petty offences to among the poor, the overseers of parishes ready the different prisons of the metropolis.” enough at all times to spare if they can, by any This, undoubtedly, is the right idea. Provide a sys- kind of indulgence (I was going to say) the parish tem of Reformatories as perfect as they might easily purse, are always willing to put at a distance every be made, and you may accomplish every thing. De- person who applies, being entirely ignorant either of prive yourselves of this important instrument, and you their character or of their necessity. Until they are can do but little to any good purpose. A more ap- forced to take them in, and give them relief, they propriate place for describing this measure in detail^ seldom do, unless they know them, and they know will occur more than once hereafter. We know, very few of the inhabitants even of their own parish, however, only one good plan, and that is before the in the very nature of the thing ; this applies to any world already, in Mr Bent ham’s Panopticon. Ap- condition of life, and more especially to the poor; ply this, with the system of management which he that introduces another class of mendicants, which has contrived for it, and if you do not extinguish are people deserving of parochial relief, in the interthe evil of pauperism, in all its degrees, you will un- val before they get it. If the paupers apply to-day doubtedly reduce it to its lowest terms. to the parish officer, being settled in their parish, In the testimony given by the chaplain of Bride- they are not known to him; and the parish officer well, as we have seen in the preceding quotation, he either says, he shall make some inquiry; or, that mentions, “ the investigation of each particular case they look strong and hearty, and able to maintain of beggary,” as an advantage of the highest possible themselves, or that their families may be imposed kind. upon them, and that he shall inquire and see, and Mr Butterworth said,—“ I conceive that no plan they may work.” of relieving tne poor is so effectual as that of visiting We find Benefit Clubs, and Savings Banks, held them at their own habitations ; and even then, in- forth as means for the preventing of beggary. But quiry must be made of their neighbours, to know we question, whether the sort of people who applytheir real characters, as persons in the habit of beg- to savings banks and benefit clubs are apt to become ging are adepts in the art of imposition.” beggars. We see, that those among the common Mr Cooper was asked,—“ In what way do you people, who have had any moral feelings implanted think poor families may be mostly benefited by the in them, will in general hie rather than beg. We exercise of benevolence ?—I know of no way more see also, that the having a provision already made is efficient than that of their being visited and relieved no security against mendicity, when the mind is at their own habitations ; and, in fact, as far as my worthless; because many of the Greenwich and observation and experience go, there is no certainty Chelsea pensioners beg, and are among the most whatever of any donation being properly applied, troublesome of all beggars. It would surely not be without investigating the circumstances at their own difficult to find a better mode of paying these penhabitations.” sioners, so as to afford a check upon their vices. We deem these testimonies of great import- Some way might also be found of punishing those ance; as we are convinced, that what is here parishes, who, when a beggar is passed to them, inrecommended, a distinct investigation of each in- stantly let him out again, to prey upon the public. ividual case, rendered co-extensive with the po- When a beggar appears, if it is resolved to suppress pulation, would be attended with innumerable advan- them altogether ; or when he acts in any such mantages. To render this investigation practicable, without ner as to create a nuisance, if it is only proposed to suppress what is noisome about them; it should al-
247 Beggar.
i
beggar. superintendence of the district itself, to take the la-1 BeggarwayS be easy at the moment for any passenger, or observer, to put in execution the means of taking hour of superintendence wholly upon themselves. them up. For this purpose, it would be necessary If the business of registration, thus imperfectly that a constable or beadle authorized for this pur- performed, is yet an important instrument, how pose should be in every street, and his residence much would that importance be increased, if it were performed completely by legislative regularendered conspicuous to all the passengers. Under the head of remedies for the disease of tionThirdly, the Reformatory, or Employment prinbeggary, it is necessary to speak of societies for the suppression of it. In the first place, it is abundant- ciple : The society is divided into four committees, ly evident, that an assemblage of private individuals of one of whom the business is to find employhave little power over the chief causes of mendicity ; ment for those of the applicants who are able to over wars, for example, excessive procreation, and labour. It is evident under what prodigious disbad legislation. They can only endeavour to coun- advantages they carry on this part of their benework. To perform it with any degree of teract," by such powers as they possess, the operation ficent completeness, a great establishment, such as those of these causes. They may, indeed, contribute indirectly to the removal of the causes ; namely, by which have been called penitentiaries, houses of inholding them up in their true colours, to the legis- dustry, reformatories, or panopticons, is required; lature, and to the nation. This, it may be observed, an establishment in which different species of work be carried on with all the accommodations in one of the ways in which they may effect the may which belong to them ; in which the parties may greatest quantity of good; may, in fact, advance with the greatest expedition to the accomplishment work under the most complete superintendence; and which they may be as completely as possible exof their own end. With the means possessed in this in country of operating upon the public mind, and tbe posed to the operation of all the salutary motives can be brought to bear upon them. influence of the public mind upon the legislature, a which Fourthly, the Education principle : The children society of gentlemen, rendered conspicuous by their the beggars are clothed, and sent to a Lancasunion, and the beneficence of their proceedings, of trian school; and so important is this part of the might, by representations, sufficiently persevering, business of the society accounted, that one of the and sufficiently strong, more especially if the opera- four committees is wholly employed in conducting tion was not confined to one society, but common to a number of societies, in numerous parts of the it. What the Society professes is, to provide subsistcountry ; effect almost any improvement of which ence for all those who really are deprived of it, and the nature of the case would admit. The first idea of a Society of this sort, as far as we of the means of providing it for themselves ; and upon the strength of this undertaking the police of the vuInimt-oli know, was started in Edinburgh, and there carried city prohibit begging, by imprisoning and removing for the Sup-into execution in the year 1813. I he sole object pression of of this society appears to have been to try what they the beggars. The only question which applies to this expedient Beggary. coujtl clo for the cure of beggary, under the existing regards the power of the Society to accomplish all laws. There is no evidence of their having elevated which they undertake. If they can make provision their views to the thought of operating through for all who really and truly are in want; to prohibit the public upon the legislature, and through the legislature upon the sources from which mendicity begging is then to prohibit imposture, and can produce nothing but good. And if, along with this, they flows. * In the sphere which the Society of Edinburgh are able to make the distinction completely between who are and those who are not able to piovide have chalked out for themselves, it is impossible for those themselves; and to draw the benefit of labour us not to bestow upon their proceedings the highest for encomiums ; since they have put in practice, as far from all who are capable of it; as far as there is any evil in mere begging, beyond the evil of being reas it lay within their power, the principles which we duced to the begging condition, which is the prinhave here recommended as the groundwork of recipal, it is removed. It is not absolutely impossible form. In the first place, the Visitation principle :—“ Ihe that such an expedient as that of the Edinburgh bobasis of the whole plan,” says their Report, 44 was to ciety, at one particular place, and one particular time; namely, when taken up with extraordinary be investigation, and personal inquiry. owing to some particular concurrence of cirSecondly, the Registration principle :—44 For the ardour, cumstances,—as in Edinburgh at the era of a new Syssake of facilitating the task of making such inquitem of Police ; or to the ardour of one or more indiries,” continues the Report, 44 and the laboui of su- viduals of sufficient influence to set a fashion, may, perintending the poor, as the only means of preventing fraud and imposture, it was necessary to divide to a considerable degree, succeed. But it is abunthe city into separate wards or districts. hrom the dantly cetrain, that it is not calculated for general want of legislative powers, however, it is abundantly or permanent use. How could it be applied to Lonevident, that they could perform the work of regi- don, for example ?—Besides; a great national benestration very imperfectly ; were obliged, in fact, to fit can never rest with safety on any thing so precacontent themselves with the registration ^ of those rious, as the chance of extraordinary virtue in parpersons exclusively who applied to them foi.ielief; ticular men. and instead of placing them effectually under the
248 Beggar.
c.
B E J A Hfjapoor. BEJAPOUR. The great peninsula of India is divided into several extensive kingdoms, which are partitioned into subordinate states of different denominations. Some were powerful sovereignties, enjoying a distinguished rank in the scale of nations, and subsisting during many centuries in splendour, as the empire of the Moguls; while others, as the Mysore, constituting the dominions of Hyder Ali, and his son Tippoo Saib, were of more recent formation, and owed their aggrandizement to the weakness of their neighbours. Bejapour is a large province in that part of India called the Deccan, extending from the 15th to the 19th degree of north latitude, and intersected by the 75th degree of east longitude, passing nearly through its centre. It is calculated to be 350 miles in length, by at least 200 in breadth, and lieuudaries. thus is about equivalent to England in size. This province is bounded on the north and east by the provinces of Arungabad and Beeder, on the south by North Canara and the river Toombudra, and on the west by the sea. The western coast, for the space of 200 miles, is denominated Concan, forming a subordinate district, which has been long noted for hhe piracy of its inhabitants, who find secure retreats in the numerous bays and inlets on the shore, and a ready market for their plunder. Rivers. Bejapour is watered by many fine rivers, of which the principal are the Toombudra, Krishna, Beemah, and Gutpurba. The last exhibits a tremendous cataract, perpendicularly precipitated from a rock 174 feet high; where the river, during the rains, is 507 feet wide. A great range of mountains, being the continuation of the western Ghauts, traverses the province 40 or 60 miles from the sea, through which are several passes of long and painful ascent, leading to the more level parts of the country. Their height intercepts the passage of the clouds, and numerous streams pour down from them, which, in the wet season, are swelled into irresistible torrents, spreading over the plains; but where low and smooth, they are crossed by travellers in large round baskets, covered with hides, as a substitute for boats. Soi1, The fertility of the soil is various ; but except in the rocky and mountainous places it is in general sufficient to afford an ample subsistence to the inhabitants. Nevertheless, they are sometimes visited by famine, resulting as much from the injuries of warfare as the effects of climate. Provisions are both cheap and plentiful. The horses reared on the banks of the river Beemah are highly esteemed, and constitute the best cavalry of the Mahrattas, who are ^ eminently distinguished for that kind of military force. Population. I he population of the province is calculated at 7,000,000; of which, about a twentieth part is supposed to consist of Mahometans; the great body follow the doctrines of Brahma. They affect observance of their religious customs in the utmost purity ; they totally abstain from animal food, and some of them even scruple to subsist on roots. But they are said, notwithstanding, to be rather in disrepute among their own tribes in different parts of India. It is undoubted, however, that there are some devotees in the peninsula, who, far from crediting that all things are created for the use of mankind, reject every species of subsistence but VOL. 11. part 1.
249 P 0 U R. milk, that nothing more gross may form in their in- Bejajxitar. testines. Cows, it is well known, are objects of veneration, and in some places, beef is never used except by certain lower tribes of Hindoos; but particular towns have the privilege of killing beef for sale. Religious prejudices are carried to such an extraordinary height in India, that the lowest ranks of those sects which pique themselves on purity, would refuse to eat with sovereigns whom they did not esteem of an origin equally-pure. Widows in Bejapour burn themselves with the bodies of their husbands, and a year never elapses without witnessing some of these horrible sacrifices ; the offspring of the most barbarous principles of delusion. Bramins are found in this territory weak enough to maintain, that the ground they occupy is so sacred that it will bear only a particular species of shrub, w hich, in the fervour of their zeal, they have consecrated. It is likely that the Mahometan religion was much more in observance formerly than at the present date, from the number of mosques seen in various stages of decay. There are many large towns and celebrated cities in Cities, this province, which was once a great and independent kingdom. Of these, the principal are Bejapour, Poonah, Satarah, Hubely, Huttany, Punderpoor, Darwar, and Meritch, for the most part populous and wealthy places. Bejapour is a city of such im- Bfjapour. mense extent, that, were we not in possession of recent observations, what has been said regarding it might be supposed altogether fabulous. It is situate on a fine plain, in a fertile country, and now rather resembles the ruins of several separate and detached towns, than the remains of a single city. Its name, in the native language, signifies impregnable ; and it may be said to consist of three cities contained within each other. The exterior is encompassed by a wall many miles in circuit, fortified by capacious towers of hewn stone, at intervals of 100 yards, and secured by a ditch and rampart. The interior, or second city, which is the fort, is not less than eight miles in compass; and the third or innermost, contained in it, is the citadel or strong-hold, which is a mile in circumference. But the whole are approaching to a state of decay, although the massy materials of which they are composed will long resist the ravages of time. The natives affirm, that, when the city was in its full splendour, it contained, according to authentic records, 984,456 houses, and 1600 mosques or temples. How far the former number is exaggerated w e have no means of determining ; the latest visitors are of opinion that the number of mosques and temples may have been as stated. Without supporting the affirmation of the natives, we may observe, that some great cities of the east are, in fact, an assemblage of towns and villages encompassed by a common wall, and even include gardens and cultivated fieldsBesides, w ith regard to Bejapour, w-e learn, that, in the year 1689, when invested by Aurungzebe at the head of his army, 15,000 cavalry could encamp between the fort and the city wall. A mile and a half distant from this, a town, called Toorvee, has been built from part of the remains of the city, amidst magnificent piles of ruins. The fort is approached from one side, through a Ii
m
bejapour. neat small town on the south-west. The ditch, ori- there is a mystical tetrastich, signifying that the cost Hojapom ginally a formidable obstacle, is excavated from the of the edifice was equivalent to L. 700,000, and it rock on which it stands. The curtain or wall is of is said that 6533 workmen were employed on it 36 great height, probably 40 feet, entirely composed of years, 11 months, and 11 days. Six graves are inby the sepulchral chamber, which are always huge stones, strongly cemented together, and fre- closed quently ornamented with sculptures of lions and covered with a fine white cloth. Above it is a cu: and the mosque is surmounted by another imtigers. It is flanked by numerous great towers, pola built of similar materials, and some with^ orna- mense dome, supported on arches. The wdiole ediments resembling a cornice at the top. The fort fice is finished with a profusion of ornaments in the highest style of embellishment. There is also in Behas seven entrances, five of which are in use, and the japour the tomb of Aurungzebe’s queen, who was other two are shut. On the south-west side it is enmother of his favourite son, consisting simply of tered by three gates, near to the innermost of which beautiful white marble. is a tank, or artificial pond, about 300 feet long, This city, have already seen, is equally disby 225 broad, environed by steps descending to the tinguished byasitswefortifications. Indeed, everything water, and surrounded by an inclosure of fine stone houses, through which it is reached by an arched here appears on a gigantic scale ; and among the most passage 50 feet wide. Several distinct towns are remarkable objects, may be enumerated some enorcontained within that part called the fort, with neat mous cannon, said to be twelve in number, deposited bazars or market-places ; and there are many splen- in different places. Many more were originally emin its defence. Tl hree of these are particudid edifices, on which all the embellishments of east- ployed larly described ; the first, contained in a great tower ern taste and magnificence have been lavished. Among the first which claims admiration, is a great on the south-east side of the fort, is a Malabar gun mosque, commenced by Mahomet Adil Shah, king composed of iron bars hooped together, and hamof Bejapour, who died in the year 1660, and conti- mered smooth ; its dimensions are as follows : nued by his successors. The main body extends Length, 21 Feet 5 Inches. 291 feet by 195, and there is awing projecting from Diameter at the breech, 4 5 each end 219 feet long by 45 broad, inclosing togeDiameter at the muzzle, 4 3 ther, with the main body, a large reservoir and a Calibre, 1 9 fountain. Five lofty arches spread along the whole extent of the eastern front, under the centre of The second gun, which is of the same construction, which are a few steps leading up into the building. and in the language of the country the FarThe interior is richly ornamented with passages from flyer,called is contained in a lofty tower near the western the Koran, with the names of God, Mahomet, or the side of the fort; its dimensions are, Caliphs, in relief; the groundwork enamelled, and the letters polished or gilt. In a mausoleum, 153 feet 30 Feet 3,V Inches. Length, square, the body of the Shah reposes. Ihere are cirCircumference at the cular buildings on the external angles, which, as well breech, 9 as the wall, rise about 100 feet high. Its grand enCircumference at the trance is very lofty, and hignly adorned with sculpmuzzle, 7 tured inscriptions, and other ornaments. I his sepulCalibre, 1 chral chamber is surmounted by a great dome, whose internal diameter is 117 feet, a vault under the cenBut the third is of brass, and fixed on a great iron tre of which contains the royal remains. But the ring inserted in the ground, and grasping its trundome is much neglected, and shrubs and weeds find nions, in the manner of a swivel. It is contained in root in it, which must occasion premature decay. still larger than the former, on another side The whole is executed in a style of plain and simple aoftower the fort, and its dimensions are not inferior, grandeur. though in none of the modern proportions; Without the fort, in the exterior city, there is a mosque of still larger dimensions, and the mauLength, J14 Feet 1 Inch. soleum of Ibrahim, another king of Bejapour, who 104 Diameter at the breech, 4 seems to have completed it about the yeai 1 fi20. Diameter at the muzzle, 4 The mosque is 390 feet in length, by 156 in Circumference in the breadth. Fronting it, at the distance of 40 yards, middle, - 13 ee is the mausoleum, 57 i t square, inclosed by Calibre, _ 2 two virandas, the inner 13 feet broad and /i2 feet high, the outer 20 feet broad by 30 in height, supported by seven arches in eachr face, which are This enormous gun is called Moolk e Meidan, 01 beautifully ornamented above. lhe sides ot the the Sovereign of the Plains, and it would carry an chamber are sculptured in the most elaborate man- iron shot of 2646 lbs. It is beautifully wrought with sener with flowers on a blue ground resembling enamel, veral ornamental devices, particularly about the muzand its polish is almost equal to that ot glass. Seand sacred passages, as before, in reliet, cut out of zle, veral Persian and Arabic inscriptions appear upon it a black stone, and polished as highly as a mirror. in elegant characters, one of them, according to EngThe doors are studded with gilt knobs, and the doorways are adorned with a variety of ornaments ex- lish travellers, purporting that it was cast by Aurungon his conquest ot quisitely executed. Around the southern entrance, zebe, the famous Mogul emperor, 5
E E J A POUR. 3-51 llejaponr. tlie city in 168.9; but we observe that some eastern square, and washed on the north by the river Moota ; B^japour. historians affirm that he only substituted this inscrip- there about 600 feet wide, but shallow in the dry tion on crazing a previous one, and that during the season. A bridge across it was commenced some siege of Bejapour, the shot of Moolk e Meidan da- time ago by the Peshwa, or Mahratta chief; but maged the mosque and mausoleum of Ibrahim Adil the decease both of himself and his successor havShah. This gun had a companion of equal size, called ing followed, the undertaking was abandoned as disKurk e Bedjlee, or Thunder and Lightning, which was pleasing to the gods. The streets here are named after carried to Poonah, and is supposed to have been mythological personages venerated by the Hindoos, melted down. Probably no European cannon of adding the termination xuarry to their proper appelequal size are known ; Mons-Meg, a celebrated gun, lation ; and the divinities, with their monstrous and now in the Tower of London, whither it was re- grotesque appendages, are sometimes painted on the moved from Edinburgh Castle, is only of 20 inches exterior of the houses. There is an ancient castle calibre, and tapers downwards. # in Poonah, surrounded by lofty strong walls, with The inner fort or citadel, though a mile in cir- only one entrance, and protected by four round cuit, is compared to a speck in the space occupied towers, wherein some members of the Peshwa’s by the outer one. It is a place of great strength, family reside; but he occupies another residence, consisting of a curtain, frequent large towers, a and, not long since, he had directed a palace to be ditch, and covert way ; the whole composed of massy erected by British architects. The population of materials, well constructed. The ditch, which w^as Poonah is estimated at 100,000 souls. Formerly, formerly supplied with water, is in most parts 100 the Mahrattas, on invasion of a hostile force, did not yards wide, but the rubbish now filling it precludes consider the preservation of so defenceless a place any calculation of its original depth. The citadel it- of importance to their power, and they have themself is gained through several gates ; but within it is a selves destroyed it, retiring to Poorunder, a fortress heap of ruins; and only one edifice, a beautiful small on a mountain, about 18 miles distant, where the armosque, is in complete repair. Here ’were the palaces chives are deposited, and where some of the prinof the kings; the front of one of which is formed cipal officers usually reside. Its prosperity is said to of three arches; that in the middle 87 feet wide. It have been retarded by great assemblages of people has been observed, that all the arches in the city of who convoke for the purpose of celebrating some Bejapour are Gothic, except those in the remains of religious festivals, and marking their retreat, when a fine black stone palace in the citadel, built by these are over, by indiscriminate pillage and depredaIbrahim Shah, where they are elliptic. tion. Poonah is 98 miles from Bombay. These are only a few of the public edifices contained Punderpour is a flourishing and populous city, SfiPnnderin this extensive place, situated amidst piles of ruins, miles south-east of Poonah, situate in a fertile andPour* which appear at the interval of miles. A minute and pleasant country, on the river Beemah, by which it accurate traveller has remarked, “ that none of the is sometimes inundated. Though not of great extent, buildings here described, the palaces in the fort ex- it is regularly and well built; the streets are broad, cepted; have in them any wood ; they are in general paved, and adorned with many handsome houses, constructed of the most massy stone, in so durable the first storey consisting of stone, and the second a style, that one is almost induced to suppose, that the of red brick, which has a very agreeable effect. The rudest hand ol time, unaided, could scarcely have ef- Peshwa and most of the principal members of the fected such destruction, nor could it seem that such Mahratta government have elegant mansions in Punponderous gates were reared by the hands of men. derpour, whither they retire as a relaxation from the The massy materials of some, the minute exquisite fatigues of business. Besides native products, many workmanship, and still greater durability of others, articles of European manufacture are to be obtained the ingenuity of the projectors, the skill* of the art- here, as the merchants have connections with those ists, everything, indeed, that adorns the science of of Bombay. architecture are here united in so many instances, Among other towns in the province of Bejapour, Hubely and that the mind can scarcely realize the grandeur and there are two of considerable size, called Hubely Huttany. magnificence of the objects that are in every direc- and Huttany. The appearance of the former, tion scattered so profusely. On the other hand, which is situate in a district w-ell w'ooded and wasuch mountains ot destruction, noble even in ruins, tered, and in a high state of cultivation, bespeaks indictate the idea, that i| proceeded, not from the or- dustry and comfort. An extensive inland traffic is dinary revolution of time and things, but that they carried on by its inhabitants, and a commercial inwere rent from their foundation by some violent tercourse is conducted with the east, principally convulsion of nature.” Until very lately, the most through the medium of Goa, whence, in return for inaccurate opinions prevailed in Europe regarding sandal-wood and elephants’ teeth, they receive raw the site and extent of Bejapour, which was better silk, cotton, and woollen stuffs. The bankers, who known by the name of Visiapour. are rich and numerous, extend their transactions to I oonah, the capital of the formidable empire Hyderabad, Seringapatam, and Surat: and the marof the Mahrattas, also stands in this province; at kets are so well attended, that the streets are scarcea place where the rivers Moota and Moola meet, ly passable from the crowd. There are two forts and form a united stream called Moota-moola. Un- here, now very defenceless, from nearly being enlike the former, it is an open and defenceless city, vironed by houses; but the town has frequently occupying a superficial area of about two miles been an object of competition between contending
B E J A P O U R. 252 Jiejaponr. powers. Huttany is inclosed by a wall and ditch, studied to devise the means of Ids preservation. Bejapant, sent immediately for Khajeh Ummed ud Dien, and also has a fort, which is incapable of standing She a merchant accustomed to supply her household, a siege. In the year 1679, it was taken from the inquiring how many slaves he had tor sale; and Mahrattas, and the enemy proposed to sell a 1 the finding he had five Georgian and two Circassian inhabitants for slaves; but this was not carried into boys, selected one of the latter who bore the greatexecution. It is now large and populous, carrying est resemblance to her own son. He was strangled, on a great manufacture of silk and cotton ; and an and brought out in a shroud, without any suspicion extensive trade in these articles, and also in grain, being excited of the deception. The Sultana then with the north of India and elsewhere. The natives induced the merchant to hasten with the young prince are celebrated for their courtesy to strangers, whom to a secure retreat, out of the Mahometan dominions ; they apparently are desirous of impressing with a and he repaired with his charge to a town in Persia. high opinion ot their wealth. There the prince attained many accomplishments, and There are many strong forts in the province, remained until reaching the age of eighteen, when he smaller, and thence more capable of protracted re- resolved to revisit Hindostan, He soon obtained an sistance, than those already named. Such is Dar- important appointment in one of the courts ot that war, or Haserabad, a place ot great strength, in- country ; and, by a series of good fortune, ascended closed by a wall and ditch. In the year 1790, it the throne of Bejapour in the year 1489* His reign was besieged by the united forces of the British and was long and prosperous; he patronised learning; Mahrattas, amounting to 40,000 men, and sui ren- encouraged the residence of foreign artists; the kingdered by capitulation, chiefly from scarcity ot pro- dom flourished ; and his death was deeply regretted visions. This fort stands in a territory called Dar- as a misfortune by his subjects. The fourth in sucwar, which is particularly subject to whirlwinds, cession from this prince was Ibrahim Adil Shah, who, advancing in the figure of an immense column, with attacked by a complication of disorders, put to death irregular motion, great noise, and considerable rapi- the physicians unable to effect his cure ; decapitating dity! Clouds of dust are carried up by the column, some, and trampling others under the feet of elephants, which is 20 or 30 feet in diameter at the base, to a which excited such an alarm, that all the survivors greater height than the eye can reach. Sometimes fled beyond his boundaries. In the year 1665, the tents are beat down in its progress; and the only governor of the Deccan was directed to render dress of their inmates swept half a mile away, while himself master of Bejapour. The natives were dea close pursuit is necessary to recover it. Satarah, feated, though they had an army of 80,000 horse, a strong hill fort and tower, stands at the summit their general was killed, and the survivors pursued of a declivity ascending several miles, distant 10 within ten miles of the capital. Aurungzebe releagues from Poonah. Its name, according to some, newed his invasion in 1668, and besieged the city signifies a star, being the form in which it is built; in person ; but the inhabitants defended themselves or, according to others, 17 walls, 17 towers, and 17 with great resolution. The country had been laid gates, with which it is said to be provided. It is waste, supplies were intercepted, and so great a accessible only by a very narrow path, admitting a body of people confined in a restricted space besingle person at a time. In the year 1651, it was gan to be distressed for provisions. Meantime, the taken from the sovereign of Bejapour by the found- hostile batteries having effected sufficient breaches, er of the Mahratta empire; and here the descendant preparations were made for an assault; but the inof the captor is still imprisoned. It should be un- habitants, apprehensive of the issue, resolved to caderstood that the Peshwa who is invested with the pitulate, and the king surrendered himself to the real authority, is only the representative of the head Mogul emperor, by whom he was treated honourof the Mahrattas, while the sovereign enjoys nothing ably ; for one of his sisters had been married to a but nominal power, and is kept m a situation of re- son of Aurungzebe ; and his principal officers restraint. But the Peshwa must nevertheless be in- ceived marks of distinction. Aurungzebe entered the vested in office by him, and he refive® fort through the breach by which the assault was to nal demonstrations of authority, though deprived of have been made, and, repairing to the great mosque, liberty, and is otherwise slenderly provided tor. already damaged by his cannon, offered up a thanksBejapour is therefore a populous and flourishing giving for his success. But the internal tranquillity History of tliis Fro province, and one which, with its capital, has held of Bejapour had been previously weakened by the \ince. a distinguished place in history. Four-fitths of it revolt of Sevajee, the founder of the empire of the pertain to the Mahrattas; the remainder to the Mahrattas. They did not view the invasion of Nizam. It formerly constituted an independent the Mogul emperor without jealousy ; and, as their sovereignty, with the antiquity of winch we are own power was constantly augmenting after his not acquainted, farther than that Abou alA^Z^JRr decease in 1707, they gradually compelled his sucEusuff Adil Shah was the founder of the Add bha- cessors to withdraw. Descending to a later pewee, one of the principal dynasties. The father riod, we find that they had been unable to reduce of this prince, dying in the year 1450, his bro- the country to order and quietness; and, after a keen . ther to obviate all disputes about succession to contest between them and the British, which teimithe kingdom, directed that he should be put to nated in the year 1804, their whole territory was in death ; but the Sultana his mother, having prevailed a state of anarchy. The authority of the Peshwa on the executioners appointed by this barbarous was either resisted or denied, and scarcely extendorder to spare her innocent child a single day,
255 BEL L R 0 C K. eJ beyond his capital, I’oonah. The country was the rock as appear only in the lowest tides,, are Bell Rock, occupied by lawless depredators, and all the subor- thickly coated with fuci; the larger specimens are dinate chiefs were rebellious and dissatisfied. It was Fucus digitatus, great tangle, and Fucus esculentus, found expedient for the British government to inter- or badderlock, a sea-weed which sometimes attains pose, and endeavour to restore tranquillity,—a lauda- here the length of 18 or 20 feet. Those parts most ble measure, which was in a principal degree effected frequently left by the tide are covered with small by the prudence and moderation of Sir Arthur Wel- shell-fish, such as the common barnacle, the limpet, lesley, now Duke of Wellington. He preserved many the whelk, and a few common muscles; and some of the chiefs from the vengeance which their leader very large seals rest upon its extremities at low wahad resolved to take upon them, and induced them ter of spring-tides. At high water, the red ware to recognise his authority, in paying the service due. cod is caught over the rock ; and at a distance from Nevertheless, it is easy to anticipate, that, if their it, as the water deepens, the common cod, haddock, union is preserved, they will steadily resist the ap- whiting, skate, holibut, and other fishes common in proaches of foreign nations towards their territory, and these seas, are very numerous. Such being the position and nature of the Bell Dangerous most probably will prove a material obstacle to the furP08^0"^ ther aggrandizement of the British in Hindostan. (s.) Rock, lying in the dhect track of a numerous classtae °C r BELL ROCK LIGHT-HOUSE. The accom- of shipping, and appearing only a few feet in height panying Plate (XXXIII.) exhibits a perspective view above the water, and that only at the ebbs of springof this important national edifice (which has not tides, being at high-water wholly covered to the improperly been termed the Scottish Pharos), as it depth of from 10 to 12 feet; the want of some disis seen after a gale at north-east. In describing it tinguishing mark that might point out its place was we shall first notice the position of the i*ock, and long felt by the mariner, and of the utility and necircumstances connected with it, and then describe cessity of this, every returning winter gave the pubtlie progressive advancement and finishing ofthebuild- lic fresh proofs. But it required a great extent of commerce to afford the probability of raising an ing. Description 'phe Inch Cape, or Bell Rock, is situate on the adequate revenue, by a small duty or tonnage upon Rock north-eastern coast of Great Britain, about 12 miles vessels passing it, to meet the risk and expence of in a south-western direction from the town of Ar- such a work, as the erection of a habitable house broath, in the county of Forfar, and about 30 miles about 12 miles distant from the nearest land, and on in a north-eastern direction from St Abb’s Head, in a rock from 10 to 12 feet wholly under water at the county of Berwick ; and, as may be seen from spring-tides. We have read of the wonderful extent the charts of that coast, it lies in the direct track of of the Pharos of Alexandria, and are acquainted with the Firth of Tay, and of a great proportion of the ship- the Tower of Corduan, erected upon a small island ping of the Firth of Forth which embraces the exten- at the entrance of the Garonne, on the coast of sive local trade of the populous counties of Fife, Clack- France, and know, more particularly, the history and mannan, Stirling, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Had- structure of the Eddystone light-house, built upon a dington ; and which being an admiral’s station, is now small rock lying 12 miles off the coast of Cornwall. the rendezvous of the North Sea fleet. This estuary The public is in possession of Mr Smeaton’s perspiis, besides, the principal inlet upon the eastern coast cuous and valuable account of that work; but it is of Britain, in which the shipping of the German Ocean to be observed, that, in the erection of a light-house and North Sea take refuge, when overtaken by easterly upon the Bell Rock, independently of its distance storms. When the tides are neap, or at the quadra- from the main-land, a serious difficulty must here tures of the moon, the Bell Rock is scarcely uncover- have presented itself, arising from the greater depth ed at low water; but, in spring tides, when the ebbs of water at which it was necessary to carry on the are greatest, that part of the rock which is exposed to operations, than in the case of any former building view at low water measures about 427 feet in length, of this kind. by 230 feet in breadth; and, in this low state of the Tradition tells us, that so far back as the fourtides, its average perpendicular height above the teenth century, the monks of Aberbrothick caused a surface of the sea may be stated at about four feet. large bell to be suspended, by some means or other, Beyond the space included in these measurements, upon the Rock, to which the waves of the sea gave at very low tides, there is a reef on which the larger motion, the tolling of the bell warning the mariner kinds of fuci appear floating at the surface of the of his approaching danger. From this circumstance water. This reef extends about 1000 feet, in a it is said the Rock got its present name, but in so south-western direction from the higher part of the far as can now be discovered, there is no record of rock just described, on which the light-house is this contrivance ; and it seems more probable that, at erected. The whole rock is composed of sandstone an early period before the wasting effects of the sea of a red colour, with some spots of a whitish colour. had brought the Rock into a state so low and mutilatIt strongly resembles the rocks forming the promon- ed, some part of it may have resembled a bell in aptory on the Forfarshire coast, called the Red Head, pearance, and have thus given rise to the name. and those also of the opposite shores of Haddington Although the dangers and the inconveniences Preparalorv and Berwick shires, near Dunglass. The stone is of this Rock, and of the coast in general, were long Measures, hard, of a fine grain, and contains minute specks of and severely felt by the shipping of the eastern coast mica. Its surface is rugged, with holes which, at of Great Britain; yet, till of late, there was no conebb-tide, form small pools of water. Such parts of stituted body for the erection of light-houses ia Bgapour li ^jr~
251 ' BELL Bell Rock. Scotland; such an appointment necessarily supposes a more extensive trade than that part of the united kingdom possessed prior to the union ot England and Scotland; and even long after that happy event, the finances of the country were not in a state to warrant expensive undertakings of this nature. About the middle of the last century, however, when the improvement of the highlands and islands of Scotland was viewed as an object of great national importance, the establishment ot lighthouses upon that coast was found indispensably necessary to the extension and success of the British Fisheries. This subject was accordingly agitated in the Convention of the Royal Burghs ot Scotland; and, in the year 1786, a bill was brought into Parliament, appointing the Lord Advocate and Solicitor-General of Scotland, the Sherifis depute of the maritime counties, and the chief Magistrates ot certain of the Royal Burghs, ex officio, to act under the title of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses ; and a certain duty on tonnage upon shipping was granted to them, for the erection and maintenance of such light-houses as they should find necessary to erect upon the coast of Scotland. But when a sufficient number of Light-houses are erected upon the coast, and a fund accumulated for their maintenance, the act provides, that the lighthouse duties shall cease and determine. These Commissioners, in virtue ot the powers vested in them, proceeded to the immediate improvement of such accessible points of the coast as suited the infant state of their funds; and, in the course of a few years, eight of the principal headlands between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, including the Orkney Islands, were provided with light-houses, erected upon the most approved principles of the time, by the late Mr Smith, engineer for the Lighthouse Board. Keeping always in view as a principal object the erection of a light-house on the Bell Rock, the Commissioners, independently of these highly useful and important works, were gradually accumulating a fund for this purpose, in order to undertake that work as soon as their limited means would admit. In the month of December 1799> the occurrence of a dreadful storm rather tended to hasten this measure. The wind for two days w as excessive, and being from the south-eastern direction, all the ships were driven from their moorings in the Downs and Yarmouth Roads. No fewer than about 70 vessels were wrecked, and with many of their crews were totally lost, upon the eastern coast of Scotland; a calamity that more especially directed the attention of the country and ot the Commissioners, to the erection of a light-house upon this Rock; as, in this particular instance, a lighthouse there would have opened the Birth of Forth, as a place of safety to many, which, to avoid the hidden dangers of the Rock, were lost in attempting to get to the northward of the Firth in this storm. After the loss of so many lives, and much valuable property, various measures were taken for the erection of a light-house upon this Rock. In the year 1803, a bill was brought into Parliament, which, with some alterations, ultimately pass1
R O C K. ed both Houses, in the session of 1806; by which Bell Rock, the northern light duty of three halfpence per ton on British vessels, and threepence per ton on foreign bottoms, was extended to all vessels sailing to or from any port between Peterhead to the north, and Berwick-upon-Tweed to the southward. This bill also empowered the commissioners to borrow L. 25,000 from the three per cent, consols, and having already accumulated the sum of L. 20,000 of surplus duties, with this loan from Government they were enabled to commence the operations at the Beil Rock with a disposable fund of L. 45 000. Several plans for the erection of this light-house had for a considerable time been in contemplation, and were submitted for consideration of the Light-House Commissioners. Captain Brodie of the Navy constructed a very ingenious model of a castiron light-house to stand upon pillars; and Mr Murdoch Downie, author of several marine surveys, brought forward a plan of a light-house, to stand upon pillars of stone. Mr Telford, the engineer, was likewise employed in some preliminary steps, connected with Mr Downie’s inquiries. In the year 1800, Mr Stevenson, engineer for the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, modelled a design applicable to this situation; and having, by their directions, made a survey and report relative to the situation of the Bell Rock, which was published by the Board, along with a letter from Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, when he commanded his Majesty’s ship Hynd, upon the Leith station, in 1793, recommending the erection of a light-house on this Rock ; these, with other documents, were afterwards submitted to Parliament, in a memorial from the Commissioners, drawn up by Robert Hamilton, Esq. advocate, one of their number ; when application was made for a loan from Government. So* different, however, were the views taken of the subject, and so various and doubtful were the opinions of the public about the kind and description of building best suited to the peculiar situation of the Rock, and even with regard to the practicability of a work so much under the surface of the water, and where so large a sum of money was necessarily to be expended, that the Commissioners thought it advisable to submit the matter to the opinion and advice of Mr Rennie. This eminent engineer coincided with Mr Stevenson in preferring a building of stone upon the principles of the Eddystone light-house, which being approved of and adopted, the execution of the work was finally committed to these gentlemen. The bill having passed late in the session of 1806, Bell Rock in the following summer a vessel was fitted out as a1^1itt1"s' floating-light, for which the act of Parliament made "® provision, and she was accordingly moored off the a Bell Rock in the month of July 1807- During the first season of the operations, this vessel was used as a Tender, to w hich the artificers retired while the Rock wras covered with water. Her station was about a mile and a half north-east from the Bell Rock, and her moorings consisted of a mushroom anchor, weighing 33 cwt. and a weighty chain laid down in 22 fathoms water, and at these moorings she rode by
BELL ROCK. ' 255 Bell Rock, a strong hempen cable, measuring 14 inches in cir- retard their progress, and by the latter end of Octo- Bell Rock, cumference, without accident, during the four years ber, the beacon, consisting of twelve large beams of in which the light-house was building. This vessel fir-timber, was erected, having a common base of 30 was rigged with three masts, each of which carried feet, and rising to the height of 50 feet above the a lantern, which, in a curious manner, was made to surface oi the Rock. These spars were of fir-timembrace the masts; and, by this means, the use of ber, strongly framed with oak-knees, connected to cumbrous yards and spars over head were avoided ; the Rock with iron-bats of a particular construcand as each mast passed through the centre of its tion, set into holes, cut about 18 inches in depth, respective lantern, on which it traversed, the light and wedged into their places, first with slips of fir, was not obscured on any side. Each of these lan- then with slips of oak, and, lastly, with pieces of terns contained ten lamps, with as many small silver- iron. The upper part of this beacon was afterwards plated reflectors ; and thus, by the appearance of fitted up, and occupied as a place of residence durthree distinct lights (the centre one being the high- ing the working months. The lower floor was emest), the Bell Rock floating-light formed a triangular ployed as a smith’s forge, and also for preparing light, and was easily distinguishable from the double mortar for the building. The cook-house was imand single lights upon the coast, and rendered imme- mediately over this; the next floor was occupied by diate and essential service to the trade and shipping the cabins of the engineer and foremen, and over all of the coast. was the barracks for the artificers, whose hammocks Operations Early in the spring of 1807, stones were collect- were ranged in tiers of five in height. The dwelling et 180;r ’ - ed from the granite quarries of Rubeslaw in Aber- or lodging part of this temporary residence was deenshire, for the outside casing of the first 30 feet, above the reach of the sea in moderate weather, but or lower part of the building ; those of sandstone for the lower floor was often lifted by the waves, when the hearting, or interior of the solid, and also for the the lime casks, and even the smith's anvil and appahigher parts of the building, were got from Mylne- ratus, were frequently washed away. The beaconfield quarry, near Dundee. For the conveniencv of house, so constructed, was erected near the site of the work, the cornice and parapet-wall of the light- the light-house, and in the more advanced state of room were hewn and prepared at Edinburgh, and the work, was connected with it by a wooden bridge; the stones for these parts were accordingly taken which was also of the greatest utility as a stage in from the quarry of Craigleith. At Arbroath, the raising the materials from the Rock to the building. most contiguous harbour to the Bell Rock, a piece A little reflection upon the singular position and cirof ground for a work-yard was procured on a lease cumstances of the Bell Rock, will show the great and of seven years, the supposed period for the duration indispensable use of this beacon-house in facilitating of the works ; and here the works were conducted ; the operations. Unless some expedient of this kind materials were laid down, and workmen collected ; had been resorted to at a work so much under washades were also constructed, and a barrack erected' ter, the possibility of erecting a light-house here is for the accommodation of about 100 artificers when extremely doubtful: at any rate, it must have requirthey landed from the Rock, that they might be at a ed a much longer period for its accomplishment, and, call, by night or day, when required to sail for the in all probability, many lives would have been lost works at the Rock. These previous steps being in the progress of the operations. taken ashore, the operations at the Rock itself con£ The circumstance of the beams of the beacon Second Seamenced in the month of August 180/. having withstood the storms of winter, inspired new son s OperaK’ooden The first attention at the Bell Rock was to erect a confidence in the artificers, who now landed uponlions Scacon- place of refuge for the artificers, in the event of an the Rock in the summer of 1808 with freedom, 18°8' use ‘ accident befalling any of the at tending-boats,—a cir- and remained upon it without fear till the tide flowcumstance which, if unprovided for, might not only ed over it. Although it required a considerable part involve the safety of every person employed at the of the summer to fit up the beacon as a barrack, out-works, but prove a serious check to the future yet it was in a state sufficient to preserve the workmen progress of the undertaking, which could only be in case of accident to the boats. The great personproceeded in at low water of spring-tides, when al risk and excessive fatigue of rowing boats, crowdtwo and a half or three hours were considered a ed with the artificers, every tide to the floating lightgood tide’s work. From this circumstance, it became vessel was now also avoided by an additional vessel necessary to embrace every opportunity of favoura- having this season been provided, and entirely set ble weather, as well in the day tides as under night apart for the purpose of attending the Rock. This by torch-light, and upon Sundays. In the early vessel was a very fine schooner of 80 tons. Her stages of the business,- the flood-tide no sooner be- moorings were so constructed, that she could be cast gan to cover the exterior parts of the Rock, than loose at pleasure, and brought to the lee-side of the the workmen were obliged to collect their tools and Rock, where she might at once take up the artificers apparatus, and betake themselves to the attending- and their boats in bad weather, instead of their havboats, before the water burst in upon them. These ing, as formerly, to row often against both wind and boats were rowed often with the utmost fatigue and tide, to the more distant position of the floating uimculty to the floating-light, where the workmen remained till the Rock began to make its ap- light. From this circumstance, it was now found both to commence the works at the Rock pearance again at next ebb-tide. Happily no ac- practicable cident occurred during this perilous part of the much earlier, and to continue them to a later period. work, to check the ardour of the artificers, nor to Being now provided with a place of safety, by the erection of the spars of the beacon-house, and having a
B E L L R 0 C K. 956 Taking these mainly into account, and by a fortu- BH1 Rocl!.| Bell Rorls. tender always at command, which could be cast loose, r nate train of circumstances, the masonry of the buildY” in case of need, the works now w ent forward even in pretty rough weather ; and thus struggling both ing was completed in October; and the light-room during the night and day tides, the site of the light- being finished in the month of December, the light house tvas prepared, and cut to a sufficient depth was advertised to the public, and exhibited for the into the Rock; and on the 10th of July 1808, the first time from the new Light-house on the evening foundation stone of the building was laid. In the of the 1st of February 1811 ; and, on the same night, course of this season, tracks of cast-iron railways were the floating light-vessel was unmoored, and that tem. . also fixed upon the Rock, from the different landing porary light discontinued. Having thus given a general account of the Bell Description places to the building, calculated for conveying blocks of stone of two or three tons weight along the Rock, and the erection of the Light-house, we shall Rock; and by the latter end of the season’s opera- now describe the building, noticing its principal ditions the first four courses of the Light-house were mensions, and making such farther remarks as may built, which brought it to the height of five feet six appear interesting to the reader. The Bell Rock Light-house is a circular building, the foundationinches above the foundation. In the course of the winter preceding the third stone of which is nearly on a level with the surface Third Season’s Ope- season’s operations, the works at the Rock were fre- of the sea at low-water of ordinary spring-tides ; and rations, quently visited, and, in the spring of the year 180f), consequently at high-water of these tides, the build1809. were resumed with new vigour; and it was no small ing is immersed to the height of about 15 feet. happiness to find, that not only the four courses of The two first or lower courses of the masonry are the light-house built last season were in perfect order, imbedded or sunk into the rock, and the stones of all after a long and severe winter, without the least shift the courses are curiously dovetailed and joined with or change of position, but that even the beacon-house each other, forming one connected mass from the and railways were little injured, being almost in a state eentre to the circumference. The successive courses of readiness for resuming the operations. The first of the work are also attached to each other by jogthing to be done was to lay down sets of chain moor- gles of stone; and, to prevent the stones from being up by the force of the sea, while the work was in ings^ with floating buoys for the tender, and for the lifted flush-decked praam-boat, stone lighters, and vessels progress, each stone of the solid part of the building employed at the Rock, and to erect the necessaiy had two holes bored through it, entering six inches into apparatus and machinery for landing the stones, the course immediately below, into which oaken two inches in diameter, were driven, after Mi and laying them in their places upon the building. nails, Smeaton’s plan at the Eddystone Light-house. The These arrangements being made, every thing went cement used at the Bell Rock, like that of the Eddyforward in the most prosperous manner ; and, by the stone, was a mixture of pozzolano, earth, lime, and month of September, the building was got to the height of 30 feet, which completed the solid part of sand, in equal parts, by measure. The building is of a circular form, composed of stones of the weight ot the light-house. After obtaining this height, from from two tons to half a ton each. Ihe ground the advanced state of the season, Mr Stevenson did course measures 42 feet in diameter, and the buildnot find it advisable to risk the machinery and ap- ing diminishes, as may be observed from the plate paratus longer, and the building was left in this state of the light-house, as it rises to the top, where the for the winter months. parapet-wall of the light-room measures only 13 feet At the commencement of the fourth and last sea- in diameter. The height of the masonry is 100 Fourth Season’s Ope- son’s work, it was a matter of some importance for feet, but including the light-room, the total height rations, the preparation of the higher or finishing parts of is 115 feet. The building is solid from the ground 1810. the building, to ascertain whether it would be pos- course to the height of 30 feet, where the entyy" sible to carry the masonry from the height of 30 feet door is situate, to which the ascent is by a kind to 100 feet in the course of this summer; but it was of rope-ladder with wooden steps, hung out at ebbextremely doubtful whether this could be accom- tide, and taken into the building again when the plished, so as to secure good weather for fitting up water covers the Rock; but strangers to this sort oj the light-room, and completing the more delicate climbing are taken up in a kind ot chair, by a small operations ©f the painter and glazier, connected with moveable crane projected from the door, from whic i it. Under these uncertain prospects, the work was a narrow passage leads to a stone stair-case 13 teet begun in 1810, at as early a period as the weather height. Here the walls are seven feet in thickwould at all admit. From the great number of finish- in ness, but they gradually diminish from the top ot ed courses of prepared stone at the work-yard, which the stair-case, to the parapet-wall of the light- room, had been tried upon the platform, numbered and where they measure one foot in thickness. I ie ready to be shipped from Arbroath for the Rock, upper half of the building may be described as dithere was only the winds and tides-to contend with ; vided into six apartments for the use of the hR"1" and even these were, in effect, wonderfully soften- keepers, and for containing light-house stores. Ihe ed and allayed, by the enterprising exertions and lower or first of these floors, formed by an inside thorough practice of the seamen and aitificers, dur- scarsement of the walls at the top of the stair-case, ing four successive seasons ; which had given much dexterity to the several departments, both in the is chiefly occupied with water tanks, fuel, and tfie work-yard at Arbroath, and at the Rock, where the other bulky articles ; the second floor is for the oil operations of the builder and of the landing-master’s cisterns, glass and other light-room stores ; the third is occupied as a kitchen; the fourth is the bed-room, 4rew were conducted with much skill and activity. 3
B E L I ,noc k. tlielittli the library or strangers’ room, and the upper weather, two large bells, weighing about 12 cwt. are Bell Rock, apartment forms the light-room. The floors of the tolled day and night by the same train of machinery v'-*e,‘v^w several apartments are ot stone, and the communi- which moves the lights. As these bells, in moderate L**'118 w ... cation from the one to the other, is made by means weather, may be heard considerably beyond the li-tfurT^ < u ot wooden ladders, excepting in the light-room, mits of the Rock, vessels, by this means, get warnwhere every article being fire proof, the steps are ing to put about, and are thereby prevented from made of iron. There are two windows in each running upon the Rock in thick and hazy weather ; ot the three lower apartments, but the upper a disaster to which ships might otherwise be liable, rooms have each four windows. I he casements notwithstanding the erection of the light-house. of the windows are all double, and are glazed t0 01 a out t e t me with plate-glass, having besides an outer storm- Bell p Vp* • ^ ^ it ‘ was by^ie of theLiglitRock ’ light-house, no section means uncomRftpois. shutter, or dead-light of timber, to defend the nion to meet with various doubts, regarding the glass from the waves and sprays of the sea. The practicability of the works, expressed in such terms parapet-wall of the light-room is six feet in height, as the following : “ That, even if it were practicable and has a door which leads out to the balcony or to erect a light-house, upon such a sunken rock, no walk formed by the cornice round the upper part of one would be found hardy enough to live in an abode the building; which is surrounded by a cast-iron so dread and dreary, and that it would fall to the lot rad, curiously wrought like net-work. This rail of the projectors themselves to possess it for the rests upon batts of brass, and has a massive coping hist winter. But the reverse of all this took place; or top rail of the same metal. oi the confidence of the public had been coni Furniture of In the kitchen, there is a kind of grate or open finned by the stability as well of the wooden -beaconTlie House, fire-place of cast-iron, with a smoke tube of the house, as of the building itself, which, in its prosame metal which passes through the several apart- giessive rise, withstood the storms of two succesments to the light-room, and heats them in its pas- sive winters, in an unfinished state; so that, bv I , sage upwards. This grate and chimney merely the time the house was ready for its inhabitants, the touch the building, without being included or built applications for the place of light-keepers were much into the walls, which, by this means, are neither more numerous than the situations; and applicants weakened, nor liable to be injured by it. The tim- on both sides of the Tweed were disappointed in ber of the doors, and the pannelled partitioning of their wishes. the rooms from the stairs, and also of the bed frames The establishment of light-keepers at the Bell and furniture in general, is of wainscot. 'ughMoom. The light-room and its apparatus was entirely Rock, consists of a principal light-keeper, who has at the rate of 6‘0 guineas per annum, paid quarterly; fiamed and prepared at Kdinburgh. It is of an octa- a principal assistant, who has 55 guineas; and two gonal figure, measuring 12 feet across, and 15 feet in other assistants at 50 guineas each ; besides a suit height, formed with cast-iron sashes, or window of uniform clothes, in common with the other lightframes glazed with large plates of polished glass, keepers of the Northern Light-houses, every three measuring about 2 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, years. While at the rock, these men get a stated each plate being of the thickness of a quarter of an allowance of bread, beef, butter, oat-meal, pot-barinch. I he light-room is covered with a dome roof Jey, and vegetables, besides small beer, and an alof copper, terminating in a large gilded ball, with a lowance of fourpence per day each for the purchase vent-hole in the top, of tea and other necessaries. At Arbroath, the . . . light of the Bell Rock is very powerful, and most contiguous town on the opposite coast, a suite ,s readil seen at th of buildings has been erected, where each lightfSr , e distance six or seven leagues, » • when they atmosphere is clear. ofThe light is from oil, keeper has three apartments for his family. Here with Argand burners placed in the focus of silver- the master and mate of the light-house tender have plated reflectors, measuring 24 inches over the lips; ahio accommodation for their families; a plot or piece the silvered surface or face being hollowed or of an inclosed garden ground is attached to each wrought to the parabolic curve. That the Bell Rock house, and likewise a seat in one of the pews in the ight may be easily distinguished from all other lights parish church of Arbroath. Connected with these upon the coast, the reflectors are ranged upon a buildings, there is a signal tower erected, which is liame with four faces or sides, which, by a train of about 50 feet in height. At the top of it, there is a machinery, is made to revolve upon a perpendicular room with an excellent five feet achromatic teleaxis once in six minutes. Between the observer scope, placed upon a stand. From this tower, a set and the reflectors, on two opposite sides of the re- of corresponding signals is arranged, and kept up volving frame, shades of red glass are interposed, in with the light-keepers at the rock Three of the sue i a manner, that, during each entire revolution of hght-keepers are always at the light-house, while the reflectors, two appearances, distinctly differing one is ashore on liberty, whose duty it is for the from each other, are produced ; one is the common time to attend the signal room ; and when the weabright light familiar to every one, but, on the other, ther will admit of the regular removal of the lightor shaded sides, the rays are tinged of a red colour. keepers they are six weeks at the rock, and a fortihese red and bright lights, in the course of each night ashore with their families. revolution, alternate with intervals of darkness, which, The attending vessel for the Bell Rock, and the Attendin'* m a very beautiful and simple manner, characterize ught-houses of the Isle of May and Inchkeith, in the V essel. 0 this light. ruth of Forth, is a very handsome little cutter of As a farther warning to the mariner, in foggy about 50 tons register, carrying upon her prove a VOL. II. part i. kk Ueli
BEL 258 Bell Rock model of the Bell Rock light-house, and is approII priately named the Pharos. She is stationed Ar_ Bdoochis- broath) and is in readiness to proceed for the Rock e * at new and full moon, or at spring-tides, carrying necessaries, and the light-keeper on |^ave> | f Rock, and returning with another. This vessel is navigated by four men, including the master, and is calculated for carrying a boat of 16 feet keel, or of sufficient dimensions for landing at the Rock in moderate weather. The master and mate aie kept in constant pay, and have apartments in the establishment ashore; the former, acting as a superintendent, has the charge of the buildings and stores kept at Arbroath. . , , j •* Expence of The expence of the Bell Rock light-house, and its this Light- establishment, in a general way, may be stated to house have amounted to about L. 60,000. The undertaking does much honour to the exertions of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, and is even creditable to the age which has produced it; especially when it is remembered, that it was commenced and completed amidst the difficulties and demands of a war, unparalleled in the history of our country. (HHv
BEL
trace the first settlement of this country; and the Beloochisdescent of its inhabitants can only be imperfectly as- ^ancertained by analogy and conjecture. As the natives have no written language, their historical annuls are merely traditional, and therefore entitled to little credit. The Belooches ascribe their own origin to the earliest Mohummudan invaders of Persia, and are very desirous of being supposed to be ol Arabian extraction; but the latter part of this supposition derives no confirmation from their features, then manners, or their language, which do not bear the slightest similitude to those of the Arabs. There can be little doubt, however, that they originally came from the westward; of which there is strongevidence in the affinity between the Beloochekee and Persian languages ; and their institutions, habits, and religion, seem to indicate that they are of looi human lineage. It seems highly probable,, indeed, that, during the frequent sanguinary revolutions to which the monarchy of the Seljukide Tartars was subject, some of these barbarians had been forced to wander over the country in quest of new settlements ; and that a portion of them had found refuge in the mountainous districts of Beloochistan. But, besides the Belooches, there are other distinct tribes of inhabitants in Beloochistan, whose peculiar habits and Our readers will perceive, that the account we shades of character, we shall afterwards take an ophave given of this Edifice is, necessarily, of a very portunity of describing. These are the Brahooes, general nature; but the public,.we believe, will soon be apparently a race of Tartar mountaineers, who setgratified with an ample Historical Account of the Nor- tled at an early period in the southern parts of Asia, thern Light-houses, including a full detail of the whole but whose history is extremely obscure and uninteoperations connected with the Bell Rock light-house, resting ; the Dehwars, clearly a Persian colony, and the Carr Rock Stone-Beacon, illustrated with whose original settlement cannot be traced ; and the numerous plates, showing the progressive stages of Hindoos, who appear to have been the first settlers these works, by Mr Stevenson ; and we are happy to in the upper part of the Brahooick mountains, on learn, that the Commissioners of the Northern Light- their being expelled from Linde, Lus, and Mukran, liouses, from a conviction of the utility ot the dethe armies of the Caliphs of Bagdad. This last sign, have, as a Board, liberally expressed their de- by tribe appears to have constituted the governing sire to promote the intended publication of Mr Ste- party, at the earliest period of which any thing apvenson, whose name, as an Engineer, is so credit- proaching to authentic information has been obtainably connected with these two important national un- ed. The Brahooes and Belooches, however, gradertakings. GeographiBELOOCHISTAN, a country of Asia, situate dually spread over the country ; and the Hindoo cal Situa- on the north-west coast of the Indian peninsula. It power was at length subverted by a revolution, which tion and ig bouuded on the north by Affghanistan and Seistan; placed the ancestors of the present Khan of Kelat 0 anes upon the throne. . on the west, by the Persian provinces of Kirman and The precise period at which this revolution took Laristan ; on the south, by the Indian Ocean ; ana, place, cannot be accurately ascertained; but it is on the east, by a part of Sinde and Shikarpoor. In probable that two centuries have not elapsed since general, it may be said to comprehend all that space that event. The last rajah of the Hindoo dynasty within the 25th and 30th degrees of north latitude, found himself compelled to call for the assistance of and the 58th and 68th degrees of east longitude ; the mountain-shepherds, with their leader, Kumbur, and its whole superficial extent may be computed at in order to check the encroachments of a horde of 550 geographical miles in length, and 300 in breadth. depredators, headed by an Affghan chief, who infestHistory. Of the early history of this portion of the Asiatic Continent, little or nothing is known. The poverty ed the country, and even threatened to attack the seat of government. Kumbur successfully performand natural strength of the country, combined with ed the service for which he had been engaged ; but the ferocious habits of the natives, seem to have having, in a few years, quelled the robbers against equally repelled the friendly visits ol inquisitive sti an- whom he had been called in, and finding himself at gers, and the hostile incursions of invading armies. head of the only military tribe in the country, he The Greeks, from whom we derive the earliest in- the formally deposed the rajah, and assumed the reins or formation relative to the western frontiers of India, are almost entirely silent with respect to this moun- S The history of this country, subsequently to the tainous and inhospitable tract; and scarcely any no- accession of kumbur, is involved in the same obtice of it occurs for many centuries posterior to the Macedonian invasion. Hence it is impossible to scurity as during the Hindoo dynasty. It would ap-
B E L O 0 e H I S T A N. 259 Beloochis. pear, however, that the sceptre was quietly trans- was stipulated that the king was to receive the cousin Beloochismitted to the descendants of that chief, who seems to of Nusseer Khan in marriage; that the khan was to, , have persevered in a peaceable system of govern- pay no tribute, but only, when called upon, to furment, until the time of Abdoolla Khan, the fourth nish troops to assist the royal armies, for which he in descent from Kumbur; who, being an intrepid and was to receive an allowance in cash, equal to half ambitious soldier, turned his thoughts towards the their pay. conquest of Kutch Gundava, then held by different Subsequently to this period the khan frequently dispetty chiefs, under the authority of the Nuwwabs of tinguished himself by his gallantry and judgment, in Sinde. the wars carried on by the monarch of Caboul, and, After various success, the Kumburanees, at length, as a reward for his eminent services, the king bestowed possessed themselves of the sovereignty of a consi- upon him several districts, to hold in perpetual and derable portion of that fruitful plain, including the entire sovereignty. Having succeeded in quelling chief town, Gundava. It was during this contest, a dangerous rebellion, headed by his cousin Behethat the famous conqueror, Nadir Shah, commonly ram Khan, this able prince at length died, at an excalled Fhamas Koolee Khan, advanced from Persia to the invasion of Hindoostan ; and while at Kanda- treme old age, after a happy and prosperous reign, in the month of June 1795, leaving three sons and har, he dispatched several detachments into Beloo- five daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest chistan, and established his authority in that pro- son, Muhmood Khan, the present chief of Kelat, then vince. rvbdoola Khan, however, was continued in a boy about fourteen years old. During the reign the government of the country by Nadir's orders ; of this prince, who is described as a very humane but he was soon after killed in a battle with the and indolent man, the country has been distracted forces of the Jsuwwabs of Sinde. He was succeed- by sanguinary intestine broils ; the governors of seed by his eldest son, Hajee Mohummud Khan, who vcial piovinces and districts have withdrawn their abandoned himself to the most tyrannical and licen- allegiance; and the dominions of the khans of Ketious way of life, and completely alienated his sub- lat have so gradually diminished, that they now jects by his arbitrary and oppressive system of taxacomprehend only a small portion of the provinces tion. In these circumstances, Nusseer Khan, the se- which were formerly subject to Nusseer Khan. cond son of Abdoolla Khan, who had accompanied The territories of the last-mentioned prince are Principal the victorious Nadir to Delhi, and acquired the fat v s ons ^ '‘ vour and confidence of that monarch, returned to comprised under the following divisions : l. TheBeIoochis provinces of Jlmlawan and Sarawan, and the district * Kelat, and was hailed by the whole population as of Kelat. 2. The provinces of Mukran and Lus/3"' their deliverer. Finding that expostulation had no 3. The province of Kutch Gundava and district of effect upon his brother, he one day entered his apartHurrund Dajel. 4. Kohistan, or the Belooche ment, when the prince was alone, and stabbed him country, west of the desert. 5. The desert. 6’. The to the heart. As soon as the tyrant was dead, Nusprovince of Sinde. seer Khan mounted the musnud, amidst the univerThe features of this extensive tract of country Mountains, sal joy of his subjects, and immediately transmitted vary considerably; but, in general, it may be dea report of the events that had taken place to Nadir Shah, who was then encamped near Kandahar. The scribed as extremely mountainous. A stupendous shah received the intelligence with satisfaction, and range, to which the appellation of the Brahooick mountains has been assigned, and which seems to be dispatched a furman, by return of the messenger, the primitive root of all the others, springs abruptly appointing Nusseer Khan, Beglenbeg of all Beloo- to a conspicuous height out of the sea, at Cape Mochistan. This event took place in the year 1739. waree (or Monze), in north latitude 25°, east longiNusseer Khan proved an active, politic, and war- tude 66° 58', whence it takes a north-easterly direclike prince. He took great pains to re-establish the tion for 90 miles. There it projects a ridge, east by internal government of all the provinces in his dothe base of which is washed by the river Inminions, and improved and fortified the city of Ke- north, lat. On the death of Nadir Shah, in 1747, he dus, at the fort of Sehwan. From the separation of this arm, in latitude 25° 45' to that of 30°, the priacknowledged the title of the king of Caboul, mitive body runs due north, marking the western Ahmed Shah Abdalli. In 1758, he declared himself entirely independent; upon which Ahmed Shah limits of Sinde, Kutch-Gundava, and a part of Seedispatched a force against him, under one of his weestan; and from thence it once more regains its original inclination to the north-east, and decreases ministers. The khan, however, levied his troops, and in magnitude and elevation so rapidly, that, in the totally routed the Affghan army. On receiving incourse of 40 miles, it sinks to a level with the hills telligence of this discomfiture, the king himself inhabited by the Kaukers and other Affghan tribes, marched with strong reinforcements, and a pitched with it becomes incorporated. To the westbattle was fought, in which Nusseer Khan was worst- ward,which the Brahooick mountains send forth many ed. He retired in good order to KeJat, whither be was followed by the victor, who invested the place collateral chains, some of which extend the whole with his whole army. The khan made a vigorous length of Beloochistan, and join the mountains of defence ; and, after the royal troops had been foiled 1 ersia; others elongate southerly till they touch m their attempts to take the city by storm or sur- the sea, or come within a few miles of it, and then prise, a negociation was proposed by the king, which either take the inclination of the coast, or subside in terminated in a treaty of peace. By this treaty, it the low and barren plains in its vicinity ; while the main body, or rather its western face, stretches
260 B E L O O C H I S T A N. Beloochis away north-west by north, to the 28th degree of wet. This seems a very rude attempt to imitate the Belooehis- 1 tan - north latitude, where it meets the south-eastern cor- bazars of Persia and Caboul. The bazar of Kelat. * s -*~v jier of the sandy desert, about the 64*th degree of is extensive, and well furnished with every kind of east longitude ; and from thence it inclines with a goods; all the necessaries of life may be procured northern aspect, between the north-east and north daily at a moderate price. The town is supplied points of the compass, to Noosfcky, in latitude 80° with delicious water from a spring in the face of a north; from which place it runs more easterly, till at hill on the opposite side of the plain, whence it melength it gradually sinks, like the eastern front, to a anders nearly through the centre of it, having the size of equality with the Affghan hills. Besides the town and suburbs on one side, and on the other the Brahooick chain, there are several other ranges of gardens. T It is a remarkable property of this spring, mountains, extending in vaiious directions and ra- that the w aters, at their immediate issue from the mifications throughout Beloochistan, but all of them smaller channels, possess a considerable degree of inferior to the former in magnitude and height. 1 his tepidity, until after sun-rise, when they suddenly bestupendous chain is believed to have attained its come exceedingly cold, and remain so during the greatest altitude at Kelat; from which city, accord- day. We have no data from which we can form an ac- Inhabitants, ing to the natives, whatever route he may pursue, a traveller must descend ; but the descent is so very curate computation of the total amount of the potrifling, for a long wTay on either side of that capital, pulation of Beloochistan. 1 he inhabitants are diRivers. that it is not perceptible by the eye. Throughout vided into two great classes, distinguished by the the whole of this country, there are no rivers of appellations of Belooche and Brahooe; and these such size or importance as to merit particular notice. two are again subdivided into an infinite number of In general, they have a broad and deep channel tribes, which it were tedious and unnecessary to from the coast, until they reach the mountains or enumerate. The most remarkable distinctions bestony hills, where they become contracted into nar- tween these two classes consist in theii language row and intricate water-courses, that are quite dry and appearance. The Belooche, or Beloocheekee during the greater part of the fair season ; and, in language partakes considerably of the idiom of the the wet one, swell to terrific torrents, which run off modern Persian, although greatly disguised under in the course of a few hours after the rain that has a singularly corrupt pronunciation. 1 he Brahooekee, on the other hand, has nothing analogous to the filled them ceases. City of The principal city of this country is Kelat, the Persian idiom. It appears to contain a great numKelat. capital of the whole of Beloochistan. This city ber of ancient Hinduwee words, and, as it strikes stands on an elevated site, on the western side of a the ear, bears a strong resemblance to the dialect well-cultivated plain or valley, about eight miles long spoken in that part of India called the Punjaub. and two or three broad; a great part of which is With regard to external appearance, the contour of laid out in gardens and other inclosures. The town these two classes seems to differ, in most instances, is built in the form of an oblong square, three sides as much as their language. The Belooches, in geof which are encompassed by a mud wall, 18 or 20 neral, have tall figures, long visages, and raised features; the Brahooes, on the contrary, have short feet high, flanked, at intervals of 250 paces, by thick bones, with round faces and flat lineaments. bastions, which, as well as the wall itself, are pierced The Belooches are a handsome active race of Be’ooclies. with numberless loop-holes tor matchlock-men. The men, not possessing great physical strength, but defence of the fourth side of the city is formed by the western lace of the hill, on which it is paitly inured to changes of climate and season, and cabuilt, being cut away perpendicularly. On the sum- pable of enduring every species of fatigue. In their mit of this eminence stands the palace of Muhmood habits they are a pastoral people, and much addictKhan, chief of Kelat, and nominal Beglerbeg of Be- ed to predatory warfare, in the course of which loochistan, commanding a distinct view of the town they do not hesitate to commit every kind of outand adjacent countx-y. That quarter of the hill on rage and cruelty. The lawless excursions in which which the khan’s residence is erected has been in- they frequently engage are called Chupaos, and aie closed by a mud wall, with bastions ; the entrance almost always conducted under the immediate orders of their chiefs. The depredators are usually to it is on the south-western side ; and here, as well mounted on camels, and furnished with food and as at the city gates, which are three in number, water, according to the distance they have to go. there is constantly a guard of matchlock-men. Within the walls, there are upwards of 2500 houses, When every thing is prepared, they set oft, and and the number of those in the suburbs probably march incessantly till within a few miles of the point exceeds one-half of that amount. Ihese houses are where the chiipao is to commence, and then halt in built of half-burnt brick, or wooden frames, and a iungul, or some unfrequented spot, to rest then plastered over with mud or mortar. In general, the camels. On the approach of night they mount streets are broader than those of native towns, and again; and as soon as the inhabitants have retn ed most of them have a raised pathxvay on either side, to repose, they begin their attack by burning, defor foot-passengers, and an uncovered kennel in the stroying, and carrying off whatever comes m their centre ; the latter of which is a great nuisance, from wav 'They never rest for one moment during the but ride on, at the rate of eighty or ninety the quantity of filth thrown into it, and the stagnant chuvao, rain-water that lodges there. The upper stories of miles a day, until they have loaded their camels as much pillage as they can possibly remove. the houses frequently project across the streets, and with If practicable, they make a circuit, which enables thereby render the part ‘beneath them gloomy and
B EL O 0 Biloochis them to return by a different route from the one tan. they came. This plan affords them a double prospect of plunder, and also tends to mislead those who go in pursuit of the robbers. Notwithstanding their predatory habits, the Belooches are proverbial for their hospitality. Among them pilfering is considered a most despicable act; and w'hen they once promise to afford protection to any person who may solicit or require it, they wall Habitadie before they fail in their trust. Their usual habitions. tations are Ghedans or tents, made of black felt or coarse blanket, stretched over a frame of wickerwork, formed from the branches of the tamarisk. An assemblage of these g/zecfa;?,? constitutes a Toomun or village, and the inhabitants of it a Kheil or society, of which there may be an unlimited number in one tribe. These kheils are commonly discriminated by some appropriate title, such as the Umeeree kheil, the Noble Society, Daodee kheil, David’s Society, &c. These titles, however, they frequently change with their places of residence. Some of the Belooches, particularly the Nharooe clans, prefer mud houses to tents, and even live in forts; nor is it uncommon, in the western parts of Beloochistan, to find one half of the keil residing in ghedans and the Reception other in huts. When a visitor arrives at a toomun, of Visitors. a carpet is spread in front of the door of the Mihman Khanu, or house for guests, of which every village has one ; the Sirdar or head of the kheil immediately appears, and he and the stranger having embraced, and mutually kissed hands, the followers of the latter successively approach, and the sirdar gives them his hand, which they press to their foreheads and lips. The parties then sit down, on which the chief addresses the stranger, and asks him, four several times, how he does, to which the other answers in the usual complimentary terms; he then inquires, in the same manner, for his family and friends, and even for the health of his followers who are present, to whom the visitor turns, as if to appeal for information: they all nod assent to being in good health; and the ceremony concludes by the new-comer making an equal number of inquiries for the welfare of the family, kheil or society, followers and friends of the sirdar. Food. The food of the Belooches consists of wheaten and barley cakes, rice, dates, cheese, and milk, which last they prefer in a sour state ; soup made from d/io/l or peas, and seasoned writh red pepper and other heating herbs, and flesh-meat whenever they can procure it. The vegetables most esteemed by them are onions, garlic, and the leaves and stalk of the assafcetida plant, which they roast or stew in butter. They usually limit themselves to one or two wives, and their chiefs to four; but this depends altogether Women. upon choice. They treat their women w ith attention and respect, and are not so scrupulous about their being seen by strangers as most other Moosulmans. They keep a great number of slaves of both sexes, captured during their chupaos, who are treated Dress. with liberality and kindness. The common dress of the Belooches is a coarse white or blue calico shirt, buttoning round the neck, and reaching below the knee j their trowsers are made of the same cloth, or
C H I S T A N. 261 a kind of striped stuff called Soosee, and puckered Beloochistal> round the ancles. On their heads they wear a small - ( silk or cotton quilted cap, fitted to the shape of the skull, over which, when in full dress, they place a turband, either checked or blue, and a kuvnmurbund or sash, of the same colour, round their waists. In winter, the chiefs and their relatives appear in a tunic of chintz, lined and stuffed wdth cotton; and the poorer classes, when out of doors, wrap themselves up in a surtout made of cloth, manufactured from a mixture of goats’ hair and sheep’s wool. The women’s dress is very similar to that of the men; their trowsers are preposterously wide, and made of silk, or a mixture of silk and cotton. A Belooche sol- Warlike dier carries a matchlock, sword, spear, dagger, and Weaponsshield, besides a multiplicity of powder-flasks, priming-horns and pouches. They are all capital marksmen, and in battle avoid, as much as possible, coming to close combat. Their best warlike weapons are of foreign manufacture. At Kelat, there is an armoury for the manufacture of matchlocks, swords, and spears; but the workmanship is very indifferent. The principal amusements of the Belooches are Amuseshooting, hunting, and coursing; for wdnch latternients* purpose they bestow a vast deal of attention in the training of their greyhounds. Firing at marks, cudgelling, wrestling, and throwing the spear, are likewise favourite diversions among them, and neighbouring kheils frequently cope with each other at these exercises. I heir funeral and marriage ceremonies, being in a great measure such as are prescribed and regulated by the Koran, are similar to those of all other Moosuhnans, and therefore merit no particular notice. With regard to religion, the Religion. Belooches are, with a very few exceptions to the westward, Soonee Moosulmans. The Brahooes, or second great class of the natives Brahood?'. of Beloochistan, are a still more unsettled and wandering nation than the Belooches. They reside in one part of the country during the summer, and emigrate to another for the winter season; and even change their immediate places of abode many times in the year, for the sake of pasturage for their flocks. The Brahooes are distinguished for activity, strength, and hardiness ; inured alike to the cold of the mountainous regions of Beloochistan, and the heat of the low plain of Kutch Gundava. They are very laborious in husbandry, and other domestic occupations ; and those who reside in the vicinity of the plains to the southward of Kelat, cultivate large tracts of land, and dispose of the produce for exportation to the Hindoos of Kelat, Bela, and Khozdar. This, and the sale of the cheese and ghee made from the flocks, with a few coarse blankets, carpets, and felts, constitute their only traffic. They are famous for having voracious appetites, and devour a great quantity of flesh in a half dressed state, without bread, salt, or vegetables. The Brahoogs are as faithful in adherence to their promises, and as hospitable as the Belooches: They are more quiet and industrious ; ahd although they are esteemed superior to the other inhabitants of Beloochistan in personal bravery, and the endurance of privations and hardships, yet their habits are decidedly averse
262 BELOOCHISTAN. Beloochis- from that system of rapine and violence pursued by ministration of justice was vested in the person at Beloocliis. ,an tan * their neighbours. A Brahooe always dresses in the the head of the government. The Sirdar, however, has the power of adjusting petty quarrels, thefts, same style; whether it be summer or winter, his whole clothing consists of a loose white shirt, a and, in short, disputed points of every description, pair of trowsers of the same texture, and a felt cap. among the inhabitants of a kheil, or society; but in The shepherds sometimes wear a covering of white all cases of importance, an appeal lies, in the last felt, made so as to wrap round the body, and come instance, to the Khan at Kelat, A register of the Belooche army, drawm up dur- Army, to a peak above the crown of the head; this habit is ing the reign of Nusseer Khan, exhibits an aggreused as a defence against rain or snow. The dor mestic life of the Brahooes is extremely simple; gate of 250,000 men, but the number w as probably Tiie men employ themselves in field labour, in which, exaggerated. At present the same documents comif necessary, they are assisted by the women ; but prise a list of 120,000 troops, after excluding all the in general the latter are engaged in attending to the revolted provinces and districts ; but it is believed, household affairs. The dress of the women consists that Muhmood Khan could not, on the greatest emerof a long shift and pair of trowsers, both ot cotton gency, muster more than half that number of fightcloth; and after they arrive at the age of puberty ; ing men. His total revenues, in their present reduced Revenues, they wear over the former a kind of stays, made to state, may be estimated at 350,000 rupees annually, lace behind, and decorated in front with ridiculous a large portion of which is paid in produce. In devices of birds or animals, worked in coloured Nusseer Khan’s time, the revenue exceeded 30 lacks worsted. In religion, the Brahooes are all Soonnitte of rupees. The duties levied at Kelat are extremeMoossulmar.s. All their tribes intermarry with each ly moderate. Horses or cattle pay nothing whatother, except the Kumburanees, regarding whom ever throughout the Belooche territories; but there there is a peculiarity which does not attach to any is a species of land-tax, payable from all cultivated of the other tribes ; that of being divided into three grounds. The exports from Kelat are, at present, Exports and distinct gradations of rank, the Ahmedzgees,Khanees, very trifling ; its imports are iron, tin, lead, steel, Imports, and Kumburanees. The first consists of the family copper, indigo, beetel-nut, cochineal, sugar, spices, of the prince; the Khanees are of the secondary silks, keemkhab, gold-cloth, chintz, and coarse woolrank, of whom there are between twenty and thirty ; lens from India. The climate of Beloochistan is extremely various Soi Climate and and the Kumburanees include the remainder of the tribe ; although, in general, the term is applied to in the different provinces. The soil, in general, is h exceedingly stony. Of the province of Kutch the whole body. Hindoos. Besides the Belooches and Brahooes, there is a Gundava, however, the soil is rich and loamy, and considerable number of Hindoos resident at Kelat, so very productive, that, it is said, were it all prowho are principally engaged in mercantile specula- perly cultivated, the crops would be more than suftions, and are much respected both by the govern- ficient for the consumption of the whole of Beloochisment and people. Their religion is tolerated ; and tan. Gold, silver, lead, iron, tin, antimony, brim- Metals and Dehwars. they have a pagoda at Kelat. The Dehwars, or stone, alum, sal-ammoniac, and many kinds of mineral Minerals, Dehkans, constitute the only remaining class of the salts and saltpetre, are found in various parts of the population, which seems worthy of particular notice. country. The precious metals have only been disThey are to be recognised in different districts of covered in working for iron and lead, at mines near r the country under various names ; quiet and harm- the town of Nal, about 150 miles south south-w est of Kelat. The different other minerals, above enuless in their disposition, and addicted to agricultural pursuits. Their colloquial language is common, merated, are very plentiful. The gardens of Kelat Fruits, pure Persian ; from which fact their origin may be produce many sorts of fruit, which are sold at a very deduced, although no traces of their first settlement moderate rate, such as apricots, peaches, grapes, almonds, pistachio nuts, apples, pears, plums, curhave been discovered. GovernThe fluctuation of power renders it difficult to rants, cherries, quinces, figs, pomegranates, mulberment and define precisely the nature of the government at ries, plantains, melons, guaivas, y- Another system, not very remote from this, is that is founded upon the most obviously marked, and ge-, proposed by M. Denis, keeper of the Imperial Li- nerally recognised divisions of those subjects. We brary at Vienna; in which books are divided into may add, that to compile a good Catalogue of an exthe classes of Theology, Jurisprudence, Philosophy, tensive Library, even on this humbler plan, would Medicine, Mathematics, History, and Philology. This require more ability, and more correctness of knowsystem is developed in his Introduction to the Know- ledge, than are often likely to be employed in such an undertaking. ledge 1of Books, to be afterwards described. Though we are not altogether satisfied with the Dr Middleton is the only British author, so far as we know, who has written any separate division and order of the classes in the system comtract on the classification of Books. The classes monly followed, we have no doubt, that by means of proposed by him are these: Theology, History, an additional class, and a correct arrangement of the Jurisprudence, Philosophy, Mathematics, Natural subdivisions, a Catalogue might be formed, perfectly History, Medicine, Belles Lettres (Literce huma- adequate to every useful purpose. We allude to nionesJ, and Miscellanies. His object in the tract a class, such as is partly indicated in the schemes both referred to, was to recommend the adoption of this of Leibnitz and Middleton, for the reception of all arrangement for a Catalogue of the University Li- Encyclopaedical works, of Collections of treatises on brary of Cambridge; and whatever may be its de- various subjects, and Works of authors who cannot fects, it cannot be questioned that a printed Cata- with propriety be limited to any one division of logue of this collection so classed, would have proved knowledge. M. Camus thinks, that the latter deof much utility; and would have helped to wipe scription of works may be properly enough entered away that stain of remissness in this particular, in the class in which their authors most excelled; which still unfortunately attaches to our great Uni- those of Cicero, for example, among the Orators ; X but, not to mention the evident incongruity versities. Naude mentions a writer, who proposed to class all of placing a collection, so multifarious as Cicero’s sorts of Books under the three heads of Morals, works, under Oratory, there may sometimes be room Sciences, and Devotion ; and who assigned, as the for uncertainty, as to the division under which, acgrounds of this foolish arrangement, these words of the cording to this rule, an author’s works ought to be Psalmist, Disciplinam, Bonitatem, et Scientiam doce sought. These incongruities and inconveniences, tome. We confess, that all such systems as those of M. gether with those which must arise from placing Peignot and M. Thiebaut, when applied to the forma- Encyclopaedias, and General Collections, under tion of Catalogues, appear to us quite as absurd as any of the common divisions, can only be remethis system deduced from the Canticles. The re- died by a Miscellaneous Class;. and while this mark which Naude applied to it, that it seemed in- class ought to indicate, in one of its divisions, the tended “ to crucify and torture the memory by its Collective Editions of an author’s works, his separate subtilties,” is just as applicable to the former, lhat treatises ought to be entered under the subjects to system, he adds (we use the words of Evelyn’s which they belong; as, without this, the Classed Translation of his Avis pour dresser une Biblio- Catalogue will not fully answer its purpose, of theque), li is the best, which is most facile, the least showing what has been written by the authors intricate, and the most practised; and which follows contained in it, on the different branches of knowthe faculties of Theology, Physic, Jurisprudence, ledge. Thus, a Catalogue compiled upon this plan, Mathematics, Humanity, and others. M. Ameilhon would not only be rendered more consistent in its also objects decidedly to all over refined Bibliogra- arrangement, but much more complete as an index phical systems, and particularly to those which aspire to the materials of study. to follow the genesis and remote affinities of the different branches of knowledge. “ L’exccution,” IX. Of Bibliography in general. says he, “ en seroit impossible; ou si elle ne 1 etoit It was our object in this article, to institute such pas, au moins entraineroit-elle des difficult6s, qui ne pourroient etre surmontees que par des hommes pro- a division of the general subject, as should enable us fondement refleches et exerces aux meditations me- to point out the best sources of instruction and intaphysiques.” f The truth is, that when Bibliogra- formation in regard to all its branches ; and in order phers speculate in this field with a view to Catalogue to complete our view, we have still to notice some making, they entirely forget their proper province of those works which treat generally of all matters and objects. They have nothing whatever to do with appertaining to Bibliography. We do not know Genealogical Trees of knowledge, or with any mode any Book that presents a well written, judicious, and of classing Books which is founded upon remote and comprehensive digest of these matters ; but there are arbitrary abstractions. The whole use and end of a several, nevertheless, which contain much curious Classed Catalogue is to furnish a ready index to and useful information in regard to them. 1. The Books, arranged according to their subjects; and Introduction to the Knowledge of Books ( Einleitungiu
* Idea Leibnitiana Bibliothecce Publicee, Secundum Classes Scientiarum Ordinandce,fusior, et contractor. Works. Vol. V. f M 'm. de VInstit. Class, Litterat. et Beaux Arts, Tom. I. p. I Mem. de VInstit. Tom. I. Litt. et Beaux Arts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 299 BibliogrK- Buc/ierZunde), by M. Denis, wliose Supplement to 4. Cours de Bibliographic, au l* science tlu Bi- BibiiogniPfy Maittaire, and Bibliographical system, we have al- bliothecaire ; par C. F. Achard, in 3 vols. 8vo, pubP*|y Bichat. ready mentioned, is of’ this description. The last edi- lished at Marseills in I8O7. The chief value of Bichat. tion, published at Vienna in 1796, consists of two vo- this compilation consists in its details of the dif- \ lumes quarto. It has never been translated from the ferent systems which have been proposed for classioriginal German; and it is to be observed, that though fying Books. We learn from the Introduction, that it treats of the substances, forms, and classification of M. Francois de Neufchateau, when Minister of the Books, it cannot be considered as a merely Biblio- Interior, gave orders that the Librarians of all the graphical work, a large portion of it being devoted to Departments should deliver Lectures on Bibliograthe general History of Learning. The author, who phy ; but that the plan, which indeed savours somewas long principal Librarian of the Imperial Library what of Bibliomania, entirely failed ; these Librarians at Vienna, died in 1808. In Germany he ranks high, having been found quite incapable to prelect upon not only as a Bibliographer and general Scholar, but their vocation. 5. Introduction to the Study of Bias a Poet. He was the first who made his coun- bliography, to which is prefixed a Memoir on the pubtrymen acquainted with the Poems of Ossian, by lic Libraries of the Ancients ; by Thomas Hartwell means of a poetical translation, which he published Horne, in 2 volumes 8vo, published at London in in 1768. His own poetry has much of the spirit 1814. This, which is the only English Book of its and manner of the ancient Bards of the North; but kind, is chiefly translated and compiled from the he unfortunately chose hexameters for his transla- French Bibliographical Works, and will be found usetion of Ossian,—a form of verse not at all suited to ful to those who have not access to them. It conthe genius of the poetry which bears the name of tains full lists of Writers on Bibliography and Litethat Bard. We are told, that his brother Poet, rary History; and the fullest account we have seen Alxinger, who died a year or two before him, had of Catalogues of Libraries both British and Foreign. bequeathed his Head to augment the craniological The specimens of early Typography, and of the stores and science of Dr Gall; a destination which Vignettes and Monograms of the early Printers, are Denis appears not at all to have relished for his own very neatly executed. head, and to have feared that it might yet take it; for, We do not understand what this writer means, by his testament, he enjoined his executors, in very when he describes his Book as intended for “ an Inpositive terms, to see his body inhumed without troduction to the infant Science of Bibliography.” dismemberment. * 2.Manuel Bibliograpkique, ou Es- He seems to have allowed himself to be imposed upsai sur la oonnoissance des livres, des formats, des on, by the vague verbiage of those French Writers, editions, la maniere de composer une Bibliotheque, who claim for this branch of knowledge a character etc.; par G. Peignot, published in 1800. 3. Dic- of vastness which does not belong to it. Bibliography tionnaire raisonne de BibUologie, contenant fexplica- certainly presents a pretty wide field of inquiry, and tion des principaux termes relatifs a la Bibliographic; in which there is yet room for many useful works ; des notices sur les plus celebres Bibliographes ; et but it must appear evident from the details contained 1’exposition des differens systemes Bibliographiques : in the present article, that this field has in almost in 3 vols. 8vo; by the same author. Bibliography is every part been long cultivated; if not always with certainly indebted to this industrious compiler; but his perfect taste and judgment, yet with great industry, vague and extravagant notions of its objects and rank and so as to yield very profitable returns to the have too often led him into confusion in his Books. Commonwealth of Learning.
BICHAT (Marie Fran$ois Xavier), celebrated as an Anatomist and Physiologist, was born in France, at a village called Thoirette, on the 11th of November 1771. Great attention was paid to his education by his father, who was himself a physician, and who initiated him at an early age in those studies which were to prepare him more particularly for the profession to which he had destined him. He studied first at the College of Nantua, and afterwards at a seminary at Lyons; and was early distinguished for that activity of mind and facility in acquiring knowledge, which are the sure presage of great attainments at a mature age. In Mathematics
and the Physical Sciences more especially dependant on abstract reasoning, for which he showed a remarkable predilection, he made rapid progress. He afterwards became passionately fond of Natural History, and devoted all his time to this new study. He had already made considerable advances in this branch of science, as he had before done in Natural Philosophy and Mathematics, when his ardour was suddenly checked by the reflection that he was engaging in pursuits that were boundless in their object, and that were in danger of leading him too far from his future profession, through which alone he aspired at celebrity. Bidding a-
& Biographic Universclle, Tcm. II. v. Denis.
300 Hiclikt.
B I C dieu, therefore, with a singular effort of resolution, to his favourite occupations, he applied himself at once with great diligence to the study ot Anatomy and Surgery, under the guidance of Petit, who was chief-surgeon to the Hotel Hieu at Lyons. It is also curious that, some time after he had fully engaged in this course of instruction, he experienced a relapse of his passion for Mathematics to such a degree, that, yielding to the fascination, he resumed his early studies, in which, however, he had sufficient discretion to restrict himself within such limits as did not interfere with his medical pursuits. Petit soon discerned the superior talents of his pupil ; and, although he had scarcely attained the age of twenty, employed him constantly as his assistant in his professional labours. The revolutionary disturbances, which raged with so much fury at Lyons, unfortunately interrupted his progress, in the midst of the flattering prospects which were opening to him : and flying from the horrors of the siege, which that devoted city was about to sustain, he took refuge in Paris, about the end of the year 1793. He there resumed the course of his professional studies, and became the assiduous attendant upon the Lectures of the celebrated Hessault; and in this, as in the former instance, became, in no long time, the companion and friend of his instructor. His merit was brought to the notice of Dessault by an accidental circumstance. It had been an established custom in the school, that the substance of the lecture of the preceding day was to be recapitulated, as an exercise, before the whole class, by one of the pupils, selected for this purpose. It happened one day that the pupil on whom this task devolved was absent at the time when he wras expected to perform it, and the Professor asked if any one among his auditory would offer himself as a substitute. Bichat boldly came forward to volunteer his services, and acquitted himself to the admiration of all his hearers. I he subject he had to explain was the theory and treatment of fractures of the clavicle, ihe exact analysis which he made of the instructions contained in the lecture, the copiousness and novelty of his illustrations, and the spirit of order and of method which characterized the whole of his exposition, joined to the modesty with whiph he stated some doubts, as well as some original views which he had taken of the subject, revealed at once the extent and vigour of his genius, and the expectations which might justly be entertained of his future eminence in his profession. Dessault, in particular, wxts strongly impressed with the superiority he had manifested over all his other pupils ; and from that day he became an inmate in his house, and was treated in all respects as an adopted son. The opportunities which fortune thus placed within his reach were eagerly employed ; and the favoured pupil showed himself worthy of the protection and confidence which he received. We find him, between the years 1793 and 1795, actively participating in all the labours of Dessault: visiting his patients both at the hospital and in private, accompanying him every where, as his assistant in his operations, and writing the greater part of his letters, in answer to those who consulted him from a
B
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distance. His exertions by no means closed with Bichat, the day ; and he passed a great portion of the night in assisting to conduct the experimental researches on the diseases of bones, in which that able surgeon was engaged, and in consulting, previous to each lecture, the works of the ancient authors on the subjects to which they related. Whatever Dessault expressed a desire to have done, and he often required more than an ordinary person would have supposed it possible to perform, w7as sure to be accomplished within the requisite time by his indefatigable pupil. Notwithstanding these multiplied occupations, Bichat found means to prosecute his own researches in Anatomy and Physiology, to which he devoted every interval of leisure he could seize. The sudden death of Dessault, who was snatched from the world in the meridian of his fame, was a severe stroke of adversity to Bichat; but the event, though it deeply afflicted, did not discourage him : and though it might interrupt for a time, did not eventually relax his efforts at advancement. His first care seems to have been to acquit himself of the obligations he owed his benefactor, by contributing to the support of his widow and her son; and by conducting to a close the fourth volume of Dessault’s Journal de Chirurgie. To this volume he subjoined a biographical memoir of its author, in which he pays a just tribute to his merit. His next object was to reunite and digest in one body the different surgical doctrines which Dessault had advanced in fugitive papers, published in various periodical works. Of these he, in 1797, composed a work, in two volumes octavo, entitled CEuvrcs Chirurgicales de Dessault, ou Tableau de sa Doctrine, et de sa Pratique dans le Traitement des Maladies Externes : a work in which, although he professes only to explain the ideas of another, he developes them with the clearness and copiousness of one who is in perfect possession of the subject which he treats. He was now at liberty to pursue the full bent of his genius, and soon arrived at those comprehensive and masterly views of Physiology, which, when afterwards developed in his writings, gained him so much applause. Undisturbed by the storms which agitated the political world, he pursued with steadiness the course he had meditated, and directed his more immediate attention to Surgery, which it was then his design to practise. We meet with many proofs of his industry and success, at this period, in the Recueil de la Societe Medicale d'Emulation, an association of which Bichat was one of the most zealous and active members. Three memoirs which he communicated, were published by the Society in 1796 ; the first, describing an improvement in the instrument for trepanning ; the second, detailing a new process, which he devised for the ligature of polypi; and the third, in the distinction to be observed in fractures of the clavicle, between those cases, requiring the assistance of art, and those in which its interference would be of no avail. In 1797, we find him undertaking the arduous task of instructing others, which he commenced by a course of anatomical demonstrations. Not expecting any great number of pupils, he had hired a small room for the purpose; but his merit as a
B I C Bichat, teacher soon attracted a crowd of auditors ; he was obliged to enlarge his theatre, and was also encouraged to extend the plan of his lectures, and to announce wlpit had hitherto never been attempted by one so young and inexperienced, a course of operative surgery. If the boldness of the enterprise was calculated to excite surprise, his success in the execution of it was still more astonishing. His reputation was now fully established, and he was ever after the favourite teacher with the students who resorted to the capital. In the following year, 1798, he gave, in addition to his course on Anatomy and operative Surgery, a separate course of Physiology. But the exertion of speaking, which these numerous courses of lectures, all of which he conducted at the same time, required, was more than his frame could bear ; and a dangerous haemoptysis, with which he was seized in the midst of his labours, obliged him to interrupt them for a time, and warned him that there are limits to human strength. But the danger was no sooner passed, than the lesson seems to have been disregarded; for we find him plunging into new engagements with the same ardour as before. He had now sccpe in his physiological lectures for a fuller exposition of his original views In the animal economy, which were no sooner made known to his pupils, than they excited much attention in the medical schools at Paris; and he was induced to publish them in a more authentic form. Sketches of these doctrines were given by him in three papers contained in the Memoirs of the Societe Medicale d'Emulation. The first is on the synovial membranes ; in which he gives a more clear description of the organ that secrets synovia, a fluid, the origin of which had been a matter of much controversy. The next contains an account of the membranes of the human body in general, which he considers apart from the organs they invest and support, and which they serve to supply with vessels; and regards as performing offices in the economy distinct from those of the organs with which they are so connected. His last memoir relates to the symmetry, which is so remarkable a feature in all those parts of the body that are the instruments of the animal functions, and which establishes so exact a similarity between the limbs and organs of sesise on each side of the body; while, on the other hand, no such regularity can be traced in the forms and dispositions of the viscera, which, like the heart, the stomach, liver, and other organs of assimilation, are subservient to the vital functions. He even assumes this difference as the foundation of a marked distinction between these two classes of functions; the one, being common to all organized beings, he denominates organic ; the other, as exclusively pertaining to animality, he denotes by the name of animal functions. The doctrines contained in these memoirs were afterwards more fully developed in his Trade sur les Membranes, which appeared in 1800, and which immediately drew the attention of the medical world both at home and abroad. Some time previous to this, he gave to the public a small work, in which he endeavoured to bring together, in a condensed form, the lessons of Dessault relative to the
B I C 301 diseases of the urinary passages; in the notes to this Bichkt. volume, we may perceive the germ of many of those ' views which were peculiar to Bichat. His next publication was the liecherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et sur la Mart, in 1800, which consists of two distinct dissertations. In the first, he explains at still greater length than he had previously done, his classification of functions, and is at pains to trace the distinction between the animal and organic functions in all its bearings. In the second, he investigates the connection between life and the actions of the three central organs, the heart, lungs, and brain, on which its continuance so essentially depends. But the work on which he bestowed the most attention, and which contained the fruits of his most profound and original researches, is the Anatomic Generate, which was published in four volumes octavo in 1801. It is founded on his classification of the parts of the body, according to their intimate structure; in order to establish which, he decomposes the animal machine, not merely into the larger pieces of which it is formed, but into the organic elements that constitute them. Of these elementary parts or textures, as he terms them, into which every organ may be ultimately analyzed, he enumerates twenty-one different species. He conceives each of these textures to possess a peculiar modification of vitality, from which it derives those properties that distinguish it from dead matter, and that give rise to all the phenomena of the animal economy, both in a healthy and diseased state. Before Bichat had attained the age of eight-ardtwenty, he was appointed’ physician to the Hotel Dieu, a situation which opened an immense field to his ardent spirit of inquiry. In the investigation of diseases, he pursued the same method of diligent observation and scrupulous experiment, which had characterized his researches in physiology. He learned their history, not from books, but by studying them at the bedside of his patients, and by accurate dissection of their bodies after death. He engaged in a long series of examinations, with a view to ascertain the exact changes induced in the various organs by diseases, which he conceived, in every instance, primarily to affect some one of their constituent textures, while the rest did not suffer any change, unless by the supervention of some other disease. In the prosecution of these inquiries, he had, in less than six months, opened above six hundred bodies. As intimately connected with the practical exercise of the healing art, he was anxious also to determine, with more precision than had hitherto been attempted, the effects of remedies on the body. It must be confessed, that our knowledge of the operation of remedies is, for the most part, extremely vague and conjectural; and it appeared to him an object of great importance to rescue this branch of science from the uncertainty in which a multitude of points relating to it were still involved, by applying to it the same methods of inductive reasoning as have, in other sciences, been attended with so much success. The basis of the inquiry was to be laid by collecting a sufficient number of facts to admit of their being compared and generalized. A large hospital could
302 BIG Bichat alone furnish the means of conducting such an in. H vestigation ; and Bichat eagerly availed himself of BUhngcr. tjie 0pp0rtunities which his appointment at the Hotel Dieu now affor(ied him, of instituting on these subjects a series of direct experiments on a very extensive scale. He began by giving singly different medicinal substances, and then watching attentively the phenomena that ensued. He then united them in various ways, first joining two together, then three, and so proceeding to more complicated combinations ; and observed the particular changes in their mode of operating, which resulted from their being thus combined. So wide a range of experiments, it is evident, could not have been conducted without assistance ; and he selected forty of his young pupils to aid him in collecting the requisite observations. He had already, in this way, procured a vast store ot valuable materials for his course of Lectures on the Materia Medica, the completion of which was unfortunately prevented by his untimely death ; but a great part of the facts were subsequently published in the inaugural dissertations of his pupils. Latterly, he had also occupied himself with framing a new Glassification of diseases. During these arduous vocations, he never lost sight of his anatomical pursuits, and had commenced a new work on the subject, in which the organs were arranged according to his peculiar classification of their functions, under the title of Anatomic Descriptive. He lived only to publish the two first volumes of this work. It was, however, continued on the same plan, and completed in three volumes more, by Messrs Buisson and Roux, who had been Ins most active assistants, and who appear to have been perfectly master of his ideas on the subject. His death was brought on by a fall from a staircase at the Hotel Dieu; and although the accident did not at first appear serious, it excited so great a degree of fever, that his frame, already exhausted by excessive labour, ■and enfeebled by constantly respiring the tainted air of the dissecting-room, in which he had latterly passed the greater part of his time, sunk under the attack. He died July 22, 1802, universally regretted by his pupils, and attended to the last by the widow of his benefactor, from whom he had never been separated. Every tribute of respect was paid to his memory ; his funeral was attended by above six hundred of his pupils, and by a number of the Physicians in Paris. His bust, together with that of Dessault, was placed at the Plotel Dieu by order of the First Consul, in joint commemoration of the man under whose fostering protection so bright a genius was first brought before the public, and of the pupil who nobly emulated the fame of so great a master. We cannot, indeed, refrain from admiration, when we contemplate all that Bichat has done in his profession in so short a period of time, nor sufficiently lament that a career so auspiciously begun, should, at the age of thirty, have been so suddenly and prematurely terminated. (w*) BILFINGER (George Bernard), born 23d January 1693, at Canstadt in Whirtemburg, acquired considerable celebrity as a Philosopher and Statesman. His father was a Lutheran minister. By a singularity
13 I L of constitution, hereditary in his family, Bilfinger BMnger. came into the world with twelve fingers on his hands, '-**M^f**~ and twelve toes. An amputation happily corrected this deformity. Bilfinger, from his earliest years, discovered the greatest inclination to learning, and made himself remarkable by his fondness for meditation. He studied in the schools of Blanbeuern and Bobenhausen, and afterwards entered into the Theological Seminary of Tubingen. The works of Wolf, which he studied in order to learn Mathematics, soon inspired him with a taste for the Wolfean Philosophy, and that of Leibnitz ; a passion which made him neglect, for some time, his other s'tudies. Returning to Theology, he wished, at least, to try to connect it with his favourite science of Philosophy, and in this spirit composed a tract, entitled, De Deo, Anima, et Mundo. This work, filled with new ideas, met with great success, and contributed to the advancement of the author, who was appointed soon after to the office of Preacher, at the Castle of Tubingen, and of Reader in the school of Theology: but Tubingen was now become too small a theatre for him. He obtained from his friends, in 1719, a supply of money which enabled him to spend some time at Halle, in order to pursue the lessons of Wolf, and after two years of study, he returned to Tubingen, where the Wolfean Philosophy was not yet in favour. He found his protectors there cooled, saw his lectures deserted, and perceived himself shunned, from the dislike of his new doctrines: his ecclesiastical views also suffered from it. This unpleasant situation lasted almost four years, when he received, by the intervention of Wolf, an invitation to go to Petersburg, where Peter I. wished to appoint him Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, and member of his new Academy. He was received in this city, where he arrived in 1725, with the consideration due to his abilities. The Academy of Sciences of Paris having proposed, about this time, the famous problem, on the cause of Gravity, Bilfinger gained the prize, which was a thousand crowns. The reputation of this success was spread abroad among all the learned of Europe. All the journals repeated it; and the Duke Charles Edward of Wurtemburg, finding that the author of this admired Memoir was one of his subjects, hastened to recal him into his dominions. The court of Russia, after having made some useless attempts to detain him, granted him a pension of four hundred florins, and a present of two thousand, in reward of an invention relative to the art of fortification. He quitted Petersburg in 1731. Returned to Tubingen, Bilfinger soon excited considerable attention in that quarter, both by his own lectures, and by the changes which he introduced in the school of Theology. The whole University prospered under his care; and this establishment's conducted to this day according to his excellent regulations. Without overturning any thing in the foundation of Theology, he succeeded in applying his system of Philosophy to this science, exhibiting, it is said, in his deductions, and in his proofs, a method, a justness, and a clearness, which bespoke a mind long exercised in deep and rigorous investigations. The Duke Charles Alexander, who succeeded
B 1 L Bilfmger. Edward, had already had occasion to appreciate his talents, and put them to use. At the time when he carried on the war in Servia, he maintained a regular correspondence with Bilfinger, who had long been known as an able Engineer, and had, indeed, made some improvements of value in the received system of Fortification, After his return to Tubingen, he had frequent conversations with the Professor on different subjects of administration, and appointed him, in 1735, Privy-Counsellor. This nomination was not a simple honorary title. Bilfinger saw himself raised at once to a power almost unlimited. He resisted some time a promotion, which he did not think himself qualified to sustain. In accepting office, his first care was to acquire all the knowledge necessary to the discharge of its duties. He employed almost two years in assiduous labour to instruct himself thoroughly in the statistics of the country, in considering its political situation, its constitution, its interests, and became, at the end of all this study, one of the most enlightened ministers that his country had yet produced. Bilfinger was placed in a situation too elevated not to excite jealousy and hatred. He felt it, and wished to quit the ministry ; but the court refused to receive his resignation, soon after the tender of which, the Duke died. Bilfinger experienced from his successor all the consideration and all the friendship which he had experienced in the beginning of his career. Received into a confidence without bounds, he had the power to realize, without obstacle, those plans of administration with which the most enlightened patriotism had inspired him. Wurtemberg still feels the happy influence of his ministry. Commerce, public instruction, agriculture, were protected and ameliorated by his cares. The culture of the vine, of so much importance in this country, was one of the principal objects of his attention. We ought not to forget that he was the original author of that strict union which has long united W'urtemberg and Prussia, and of the importance to which the hereditary Prince of Wurtemberg was raised at the court of Berlin. In 1737, the Duke nominated him President of his consistory, and Secretary of the grand Order of the Chace. He was also Curator of the University of Tubingen, and member of the Royal Academy of
B I L 303 Berlin. All his time was consecrated to some serious Bilfinger. occupation, with the exception of one hour in the evening, which he employed in making and receiving visits. His greatest enjoyment was in cultivating his garden. A warm and strong friend, he gave many proofs of gratitude to those protectors, who had generously assisted him in his studies. He has been reproached with being irascible; but in spite of some slight blemishes, the memory of Bilfinger will be always dear to his countrymen, and honoured by all Germans. Wurtemberg reckons him among the greatest men which she has produced, and proposes him as a model to her statesmen and her men of letters. He was never married, and left no issue. He died at Stuttgart the 18th of February 1750. His works, besides various Papers published in the Memoirs of the St Petersburg and Paris Academies of Science, are : 1. Disputatio dc Harmonia prcestabilita, Tubingen, 1721, in 4to. 2. De Harmonia Animi et Corporis Humani maxime prcestabilitd Commentatio Hypothetica, Francfort on the Main, 1723, in 8vo. This work was inserted in the Expurgatory Index at Rome in 1734. 3. De Origine et Permissione Mali, prcecipue Moralis, Commentatio Philosophica, ibid. 1724, in 8vo. 4. Specimen Doctrince Veterum Sinarum Moralis et Politicce, Francf. 1724, in 4to. 5. Dissertatio Historico-cataptrica de Speculo Archimedis, Tubingen, 1725, in 4to. 6. Dilucidationes Philosophicce de Deo, Animd Humana, Mundo, et Generalibus Rerum Affectionibus, ibid. 1725, in 4to. 7. Bilfingeri et Holmanni Epistolce de llarmoniu Prcestabilitd, 1728, in 4to. 8. Disputatio de Naturd et Legibus Studii in Theologia Thetici, ibid. 1731, in 4to. Q. Disputatio de Cidtu Dei Rationali, ibid. 1731. 10. Nota Breves in Ben. Spinosce Methodum Explicandi Scripturas, Tub. 1732, in 4to. 11. tatis Sermo, Recitatus 1732, Tubingen, 1732, in 4to. 12. Elementa Physices, Leipzig, 1742, in 8vo. 13. La Citadelle Coupee, Leipzig, 1756, in 4to. See Biographic Univcrselle, Tom. IV.
(z.)
D
r 304
BILLS
OF MORTALITY.
Hills of Bills OF MORTALITY are abstracts from pa- and Fontana, which was published at Milan, in 8vo, Bills of in the year 1776. {Discorso Preliminare, Parte 2.) Mortality. Mortality, registers, showing, as their name imports, the The keeping of parish registers commenced in ~'*ir numbers that have died in any parish or place during certain periods of time, as in each week, month, or England in the year 1538, in consequence of an inyear ; and are, accordingly, denominated weekly, junction issued in that year by Thomas Cromwell, monthly, or yearly bills, they also include the num- who, after the abolition of the Pope’s authority in bers of the baptisms during the same periods, and this kingdom, in the reign of Henry VIII., had been appointed the King’s vicegerent in ecclesiastical afgenerally those of the marriages. What has been advanced on this subject, under the fairs. Some parish registers in Germany appear to have head Mortality, bills of, in the Encyclopedia, appears to have been taken from Dr Price’s Observa- commenced with the sixteenth century; and in the tions on Reversionary Payments ; and is designed Gottliche Ordnung of Sussmilch (1.3. S. 23.), we principally, to explain the method of consti ucting are informed, that at the time of Lord Cromwell’s Tables of Mortality from such Bills, which shall ex- injunction, they had already old registers of that hibit the law according to which human life wastes kind, both at Augsburgh and Breslaw. However, at every age, and shall enable us to determine leadi- the extracts he has given from the Augsburgh rely, the probability of its continuance from any one gisters do not go back further than the year 1501, age to any other; a subject which will be treated in this nor those for Breslaw beyond 1555. About the beginning of the seventeenth century, such registers Supplement under the head Mortality, law of. r Objects of phe objects of the present article are these :— appear to have been established in most parts of EuJ 'this Article. First) tQ g ive a brief history of the principal things rope ; but it was not until the year 1662 that they that have been done in this way, which may suffice began to attract public notice, and to be considered for such as are not disposed to go further into the as the sources of valuable and interesting informasubject, and may, at the same time, indicate the best tion. In that year, John Graunt, a citizen of Lon- Mr Graunt, sources of information to those who take moie inte- don (afterwards an officer in the trained bands of rest in it. _ . _ the city, and a Fellow of the Royal Society), publishAs both mortuary registers and enumerations of ed his Natural and Political Observations on the Bills the people are much more valuable when combined of Mortality, principally those for London. The than when separate, we shall also notice some of the London bills, or accounts of baptisms and burials, principal enumerations, the results of which have appear to have been occasioned by the plague, and been published. We shall then point out some of to have been begun in the year 1592, a time of great the principal defects in most of the published regi- mortality. They were afterwards discontinued, but sters and enumerations ; and, lastly, shall submit some were resumed in 1603, after the great plague of that forms, according to which, if enumerations be made, year. They have ever since been continued weekly, and registers kept, they will be easily convertible to and an annual bill also has been regularly published. In 1629, the number of deaths by the different disuseful purposes. History. The ancients do not appear to have kept any exact eases and casualties, were first inserted in them, also mortuary registers, at least no account of any regi- the distinction of the sexes; and these have been sters of that kind, with the ages of the deceased, have continued ever since. But it is in the totals only of come down to us; and although, in the Roman Cen- the baptisms and burials that the sexes are distinsus. first established by Servius Tullius, both the guished in these bills. They do not show how many ages and sexes of the people were distinguished, we of each sex died of each disease, neither have they, have no exact account of these particulars in any since 1728, when the distinction of the ages of the dead was first introduced, shown how many of each one of their enumerations. Indeed, the principal object of the census among sex died in each interval of age, but only the total that warlike people, was the levying of men and number of both sexes. This book of Graunt’s, although the first, is also money for the purposes of conquest; the duration of human life appears to have occupied very little of one of the best that have been published on the subtheir attention, and their proficiency in the science ject. It contains many judicious observations on the of quantity was not sufficient either to show them imperfections of the bills, on the proportions of the what the necessary data were, or to enable them to deaths from different diseases and casualties, and on draw just inferences from them, had they been in their increase and decrease, with the probable causes of such fluctuations. He also observed, that “ the their possession. A ^rood account of wlint tlic ancient -ttornans clici more sickly the years are, the less fecund or fruitful in this way, witn references to the original authori- of children also they be.” Besides the London bills, he gave one for a counties, may be found in ihe Italian translation of M. ✓Dernoivre’s Treatise of Annuities on Lives, by Gaeta try parish in Hampshire, in the first edition of hi$
BILLS OF M 0 R T A’ L I T ^r. 305 Bills of book; and, in an appendix to the later editions, two they still remained in manuscript; and the whole of Bills of Mortality^ others, one for Tiverton, the other for Cranbrook in this very curious production was published by Mr Kent, with a few observations on foreign bills. He Chambers at the end of his Estimate in 1802. Mr ^* almost always reasons justly from his data ; but, as King derived his information from the poll-books; these were very imperfect, in his endeavours to draw from actual observations in particular places ; from more information from them than they could supply, the assessments on marriages, births, and burials ; he has sometimes fallen into error. and from the parish registers. Many of his concluEven in this enlightened age, when a much greater sions agree surprisingly well, considering the time he proportion of the people devote a portion of their wrote, with those which are the results of a hunleisure to the acquisition of knowledge than in dred years of further observations and inquiries. He Graunt’s time, subjects of this kind have but few at- had access to much better data than Graunt, and tractions for the generality even of reading men, his conclusions are more accurate ; but he does not who cannot endure the fatigue of thinking "closely explain so fully how he arrived at them. for any length of time. The author, accordingly, From the publication of Davenant’s essay, above M. Kersaexpected his readers to be rather select than nume- mentioned, nearly forty years had elapsed without boom, rous, and was ambitious of that distinction, as ap- any thing further being done in this way, when M. pears by the motto he prefixed to his work, Kerseboom published an essay, in the Dutch language, on the probable number of people in Holland 'Non, me ut miretur Turin, lubora, and West kriesland, which he deduced from the Contentus paucis Ledoribus. Bills of Mortality (Hague, 1738, 4to) ; and two The book was, however, favourably received by others in 1740 and 174-2 : an account of the first of the public, and went through five editions in fifteen these three essays may be seen in the Philosophical years, the two first in 4to, the three others in Svo; Transactions, No. 450, and of the two others in No. the last of them, published in 1676, two years after 468. the author’s death, was edited by his friend, Sir WilIn 1742 was published the first edition of the ce- j. p. siissliam Petty, who, in consequence of having sometimes lebiated work, entitled Die Gotthche Ordnung in den milcln spoken of this edition as his own, has by some writers Veranderungen des menschlichen Geschlechts aus der been erroneously considered as the author. Geburt, dem Lode und der Fortpjianzung desselben Graunts observations, like all others of a similar erwiesen von Johann Peter Sussmilch. The second kind, by showing the usefulness of parish registers edition appeared in 1761, enriched with the mateand bills of mortality, contributed to form a taste for rials which had been laid before the public through these inquiries among thinking men ; and, conse- various channels in the interim ; the third in 1765, quently, to improve both the registers and the bills and in 1775 a fourth edition of the two volumes of derived from them ; so that, from his time, the sub- Sussmilch was published by Christian Jacob Bau-J Baumann, ject has been continually cultivated more and more. mann, to which this editor himself added, in 1776, a Parish registers, in most parts of Europe, have been third volume, consisting of additions to the other two, kept with more care; and a succession of works of and remarks upon them, with many new tables, and considerable merit have been published on the sub- a copious index. The last edition of this work was ject, containing an important part of the natural and published in 1798, but it does not appear to have political history of our species, and affording valua- been augmented or improved since 1776. It conble materials for the science of political economy. tains long dissertations on every thing not matheThe principal of these works we proceed to give matical connected with the subject, and, besides a short account of, in the order of their publica- original information, includes the substance of all tion. the other publications on it previous to 1776; with As the ages at which the deaths took place were an immense collection of materials, which, when not inserted in the London bills till 1728, Captain borrowed, are often better arranged and renderGraunt could not avail himself of that important in- ed more convenient for reference, than they will formation, but made a fruitless attempt to determine be found to be in the works they were extracted the law of mortality without it. from; besides, the original sources of information Dr Halley The Breslaw bills appear to have been the first are always referred to, and these advantages, with wherein the ages at which the deaths took place were that of a full index, render it a valuable Work for inserted, and the most important information which occasional reference, i he three thick Svo volumes Bills of Mortality can afford, was first drawn from contain upwards of 2300 pages, closely printed them by Dr Halley ; who, in l()Q2, constructed a ta- with a small type, and the tables alone occupy 330 ble of mortality for Breslaw from these bills for the pages. five preceding years, and inserted a paper on the In 1746 was published the Essai of M. Depar-M. Deparsubject in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 1Q6. cieux, which has been already mentioned in the his- cieux. anPaVf* ?,n Dr Davenant, in An Essay upon the pro- torical introduction to the article Annuities in this Jregory^e^t0(^sr °J making a People Gainers in the Supplement: information much wanted on this subfing. hauance of Irade, published some extracts from ject, was there given in a very clear and popular Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions manner, and the work no doubt contributed greatly n n Pf the State and Condition of England, by per- to the advancement of the science. It probably had mission of their author, Gregory King, Esq. Lancas- some influence in promoting the establishment of ter herald, who had completed them in l6'9b, though what is called the Tabellvdrket in Sweden, which VOL. 11. part 11, ttq
BILLS OF MORTALITY. 306 Bills of took place in 1749, and of which we shall have oc- more than adequate to supply any waste of that kind, Billsta| of Mortaliiy. casjon to take further notice presently. and that the real obstacle to the increase of the peohy. v In 1750 appeared, in 8vo, New Observations na- pie, is the limited means of subsistence. This had Dr Sliorl. iurni^ moral, civil, political, and medical, on City, been observed by Dr Halley in his Further ConsiTown, and Country Bills oj' Mortality ; to which are derations on the Breslaw Bills of Mortality [Phil. added, large and clear Abstracts of the best Authors Trans. 1693), though it there also appears, that he who have written on that subject ; with an Appendix had not sufficiently considered the mode of its opeof the Weather and Meteors, by Thomas Short, M.D. ration ; this was first fully illustrated by Dr Franklin which he had “ had on the anvil” for eighteen years, in his excellent Observations on the Increase qf'Manas he informs us in the Preface to his History of Air, kind, Peopling of Countries, &c. written in PhiladelWeather, &c. This author, with incredible labour, phia in 1751, the same year in which Mr Morris’s collected extracts from the mortuary and baptismal pamphlet was first published. The author also pointregisters in a great many market-towns and country ed out in that pamphlet, material defects in the Bills parishes in England, chiefly in the northern counties, of Mortality, and proposed a better method of keepin almost every variety of soil and situation, and re- ing them, not only in London, but throughout the duced them into tables in various ways, so as to kingdom. This gave occasion to a paper by Mr James Dodson, which was inserted in the Philoso- Mr Dodson. enable him to draw useful inferences from them. He informs us that Lord Cromwell’s injunction in phical Transactions for that year (1751), wherein he 1538 was but little regarded in many places till the showed the importance of their being so kept as to year 1559, when another was issued for the same afford the means of valuing annuities on lives, and purpose by Queen Elizabeth; nevertheless, he had proposed other alterations which appeared to him procured several exact country registers, commen- calculated to fit them for the purpose. Nicolaas Struyck of Amsterdam, who, in his In- Nicolaas cing with 1538, and continued, without one chasm, 1 for more than two hundred years; and the registers traduction to General Geography, published there in^' "^ before 1644, he considered to be much more valuable 1740, had inserted (Gissingen over den staat van ’t than afterwards, on account of the increase ot dis- Menschelyk Geslagt) Conjectures on the State of the senters from that time. He likewise procured both Human Species; published at the same place in the numbers of families and of souls in seven of the 1753, a quarto volume, the first half of which is asmarket-towns, and fifty-four of the country parishes, tronomical, the other (216 pages) is entitled f Nader for which he had registers; and thus arrived at sa- Ontdekkingen noopens den staat van het Menschelyk tisfactory information on several points, which, till Geslagt), Further Discoveries concerning the State of then, had been very imperfectly understood. But the Human Species. It contains statements of acthe sexes were not distinguished in his enumera- tual enumerations of the people in many Dutch viltions ; neither were the ages, in any of the enume- lages, principally in North Holland, wherein the rations or registers he has given accounts of, except sexes are distinguished, and the numbers in childin the London Bills of Mortality, and what he has hood, celibacy, marriage, and widowhood ; but with taken from Dr Halley, respecting those for Bres- respect to their ages, it is only stated for each sex, how many were under ten years, and how many of law. Although Dr Short took so much trouble in col- the unmarried were above that age; except in two lecting materials, and has generally reasoned well instances, wherein the number of each sex is given upon them, he has shown but little skill, and does in each interval of five years of age, from birth to not appear to have taken much pains in communi- the extremity of life : they amount altogether to cating his information to his readers; so that it costs 2728, of whom not one was above the age of 85, them considerable labour to find what they want, es- and only four above 80. He generally gives, for each place, the names and pecially in his tables; and when found, to underprofessions or occupations of the persons who made stand it. Mr Morris. In 1751 was first printed a tract by Corbyn Mor- the enumeration, and the precise day on which it ris, entitled, Observations on the past growth and was made; or if it occupied the parties more days present state of the City of London, with the most than one, those on which it was commenced and convenient and instructive tables of the London bills completed are given; a practice which shows a laudthat have been printed: they contained the annual able solicitude about particulars, and a title to our baptisms and burials from the year 1603, the num- confidence, the want of which we have great cause ber of annual deaths by each disease from 16’75, and to lament in too many other writers. Extracts from many parish registers are also given ; of each age from 1728; all brought down to the year 1750. This tract was reprinted in 1758, with a con- in these, too, the ages are seldom noticed; but in a tinuation of the tables to the end of 1757; these few cases they are given very minutely, especially in also contain useful annual averages and proportions. that of Westzaandam, for which, the numbers who Mr Morris’s observations are generally very judici- died in each interval of five years of age, from birth ous, but he was one of those authors who appear to to the extremity of life, are given; also the number have laboured under much misconception with re- in each year of age under fifteen, the number in gard to the evils to be apprehended from the mor- each month of the first year of age, even the numtality of London, and what they considered to be its ber that died in the first hour from birth, in the first baneful effects in drawing recruits from the country. twenty-four hours, and in each day of the first week These writers did not perceive, or did not sufficiently of their age. During a term of nineteen years, the consider, that the natural procreative power is much whole number of deaths thus registered was 3328 ; 1
BILLS OF MORTALITY. 307 Bills of but the sexes were not distinguished under fifteen different parishes, and more extensive districts, under Bills of Mortality. years Gf age> which Struyck himself lamented. The 5 years of age, between 5 and 10, and in each in- Mortality, work also contains much information respecting the terval of 10 years, from thence to the age of 100population and parish registers of Amsterdam, Haar- during different periods of from 10 to 40 years, or lem, &c. with some accounts of other countries, and more, generally ending about the year 1760 ; but in of other works on the subject. these the sexes are not distinguished. In 1759 was published, at London, in 4to, A ColDr Birch. In all cases, he has given the general results of lection of the Yearly Bills of Mortality, from l6‘57 to his tables, and the proportions they afford, very dis1758 inclusive, together -with several other Bills of an tinctly stated ; and among these results, the increase earlier date ; to which were subjoined Captain Graunt’s of the population during the preceding 60 years, Observations ; Another Essay in Political Arithmetic, to which his researches were generally limited, is by Sir William Petty; the Observations of Corbyn clearly ascertained. Morris, Esq.; and A Comparative View of the DisThe work also contains many interesting tables, in eases and Ages, with a Table of the Probabilities of which the rate of mortality, and the produce of maLife for the last thirty years, by J. P. Esq. F. R. S. nufacturing labour, are compared with the contemThis is a valuable compilation, and has been gene- poraneous prices of grain, in various places, generalrally attributed to Dr Birch, the Secretary and" His- ly for periods of 20 years each. torian of the Royal Society ; the preface is very juIn the same year was published, at Yverdon, in M. Muret dicious, and contains a good deal of information. 8vo, the work entitled Memoire sur I'etat de la PoFor the following history of this publication, the pulation, dans le I ays de Vaud, qui a obtenu la prix author of the present article is indebted to the propose par la Societe ceconomique de Berne. Par M. kindness of Dr Heberden :— Muret,' premier Pasteur a Vevey, et Secretaire de la “ The bills were collected into a volume by his Societe (Economique de Vevey. father, the late Dr Heberden. He procured likeThe Pays de Vaud contains 112 parishes, and the wise, observations from several of his friends, rectors population at that time was about 113,000 souls. of some large parishes, or others likely to give him M. Muret wrote for information to all the clergymen information ; particularly from Bishop Moss, Bishop in the country, who made him returns of the numGreen, Bishop Squire, and Dr Birch. These, to- bers of baptisms and burials in their respective pagether with some ol his own remarks, were thrown rishes, for different periods, from 10 to 40 years, in into the form of a preface; and the whole was com- many of which both the ages and sexes were dismitted to the care ol Dr Birch. To make the cal- tinguished ; and from about two-thirds of them he culations which appear at the end of the book, Dr obtained also the numbers of marriages and families Heberden employed James Postlethwayt, Esq. a actually subsisting ; also the number of souls, “or very distinguished arithmetician.” at least of communicants,” in their parishes: but M. Mcs In the year 1766, this branch of knowledge was neither the ages nor sexes were distinguished in any iance. enriched with new materials, of more value than all of the enumerations of the living. that had previously been laid before the public. This performance does much credit both to the These were contained in three publications, of which author’s industry and judgment, but it has also mawe shall first notice the Recherches sur la Population terial defects. He gave upwards of 50 tables, by des generalites d' Auvergne, de Lyon, de Rouen, et de which he intended to show the probabilities and exquelques Provinces et Villes du Royaume. Par M. pectations of life till five years of age, and at every Messance, Receveur des Tailles de l'Election de Saint fifth year after that, in different parishes and places, Etienne. under various circumstances of soil and situation, Most of the political writers in France, for some and for people of different habits and occupations ; years previous to the date of this publication, had also for the two sexes separately. These must have asserted confidently that the kingdom was depopu- cost him a good deal oflabour, and would have been lated, but without producing any proofs. The ob- extremely valuable had they been correct; but, unject of M. Messance was, to enable his readers to fortunately, he did not understand the construction judge of the merit of such assertions, and to pro- of such tables, and they are not to be depended nounce less vaguely on a subject in itself so interest- upon. He also took considerable pains to determine ing, the knowledge of which can only be obtained by the rates of mortality among married and single woa great number of facts and actual observations. men, considered separately, and thought he had The work, accordingly, is filled with tables, exhibit- proved that it was less among the married; but the ing the results of actual enumerations of the people, proofs he adduced were not conclusive. Some of and of extracts from the parish registers. They his observations on the state of the population, and show, for each sex, how many were under 14, the plans he recommended for increasing it, also or in celibacy above that age ; those in the states of show, that he did not understand the principle on marriage and of widowhood ; and the number of do- which its progress depends. mestic servants. The numbers of families are also It is w'ith much reluctance that we make, on so stated; and the enumerations of the ecclesiastics, respectable an author, remarks which apply equally properly classed, are given separately ; but no other to almost all his predecessors in these inquiries; but information respecting the ages of the living is given this we consider to be rendered necessary, by the than that mentioned above. A great many state- Memoir generally, and the Tables in particular, havments are also inserted of the numbers that died in ing been praised for their extreme accuracy, in a
i BILLS OF 308 Bills of very good abridgment of them, inserted in the seMoitality. con(j volume of a book, entitled De Re Rustica, or the Repository, 8vo, London, 1770. The disadvantages of her soil and climate necessarily keep Sweden thinly peopled in comparison with the countries which, in these respects, are more happily circumstanced; and since the year 1748, the state of the population has been an object oi anxious solicitude with the government; which, in 1749> established what, in this country, would probably be called a Board of Population (but is there denominated Tahellvarhet), for reducing into convenient forms the extracts from the parish registers, and the returns from the magistrates of the numbers of the people, which the governors of the different provinces are required to state to the commissioners appointed for these purposes. The extracts from • the registers are made and transmitted annually, but the enumerations only once in three years. Printed forms, with proper blanks, distinguishing the ages and sexes, both of the living and the dead, with the diseases the deaths were occasioned by, are distributed throughout the country, to enable the people to make these returns correctly and uniformly ; and the information thus acquired, respecting the state of population and mortality, is much more correct and satisfactory than what has been obtained in any other place of considerable extent; but from causes which we have not room to explain here, the results were not laid before the public until some years after the returns were made. M.Wargen- M. Wargentin, wdio was one of the Commissioners tin * of the Tabellvarket, inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, for the years 1754 anr/ 1755, papers on the usefulness of annual register's of births and deaths in a country ; which, like all his other productions, were written with much judgment and modesty ; but, to illustrate the subject, he was generally under the necessity of borrowing materials from the writings of others ; as, at that time, he was only in possession of the results of the Swedish returns for the single year 1749* In the same Transactions, for the year 17^6, he inserted a paper on the mortality in Sweden, wherein he gave tables exhibiting the number of the living of each sex in each interval of age, in the years 1757j 1760, and 1763 ; also the number of annual deaths of each age and sex during a period of nine years, commencing with 1755, both for all Sweden and Finland, and for Stockholm separately; with other interesting results of the registers and enumerations, and many judicious observations upon them. This paper of M. Wargentin’s is more valuable than all that had previously been published on the subject; it is also to be found in the French abridgment of the Stockholm Transactions, in the eleventh volume of the Collection Academique (partie etrangere), which abridgment was also published separately, at Paris, in 1772. In I767, Dr Short published, in 4to, A Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind, in which the tables are printed more intelligibly, and there is more information respecting foreign Bills of Mortality, than in bis 'Ne-w Observations. Dj Price. The first edition of Dr Price’s Observations on
M 0 R T A L I T Y. Reversionary Payments appeared in 1771, and Bills of contained “observations on the expectations of lylorla,ltylives, the increase of mankind, the number of inhabitants in London, and the influence of great towns on health and population,” which had been published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1769> and added considerably to the information on those subjects which had been previously before the public; also observations on the proper methods of constructing tables of mortality, mentioned at the commencement of this article, and which wTe shall have occasion to notice again. In the Philosophical Transactions for the yearsDrHay1774 and 1775, were inserted two excellent papers Sart}l* by Dr Haygarth of Chester, wherein he gave the Bills of Mortality for that city, for the years 1772 and 1773 respectively, in a form calculated to exhibit, at one view, the most useful and interesting information such bills can afford without calculation, and presenting to the calculator data that are essential to the solution of the most important questions respecting the state of the population. Three papers by Dr Percival (also of considerable merit) DrPereival. appeared in the same Transactions about this time, relating principally to the population of Manchester and its neighbourhood. In 1778 was published, at Paris, in 8vo, the workM. Moheatt. i entitled Recherches et Considerations sur la Population de la France, par M. Moheau. This book is agreeably written, in a way entirely popular, and will probably be perused with more pleasure, therefore, also with more profit, by the generality of readers, than any other on the subject of population. It contains a great number of tables, for many of which he was indebted .to other writers, especially to M. Messance; nut he has also given many that are original, derived from the Bills of Mortality and actual enumerations of the people, though, without explaining in a satisfactory manner how he obtained his information, which, if it be correct, must have cost great labour. In his preface he says, “ il est tel page de ce livre qui a coute necessairement deux mois de travail, et un volume de chiffres." The fourth edition of Dr Price’s Observations on Reversionary Payments appeared in 1783, and contained much new and valuable information on these subjects, as has already been observed in the historical introduction to the article Annuities in this Supplement. In 1786 was published, at Petersburgh, in the Acts M. Krafft. of the Academy of Sciences there, for the year 1782, an essay by M. Krafft, on the marriages, births, and burials, at St Petersburgh, during a period of 17 years, from 1764 to 1780, preceded by a general exposition of the uses such tables might be applied to, it the observations they record were extended over entire governments in Russia. This paper contains seventeen tables, which show the number of deaths at each age, and by each of the principal diseases, together with the numbers of marriages and baptisms; the numbers in each case, being given for each of the 17 years separately, as well as for the whole term; and the sexes are always distinguished ; as are likewise foreigners from the native Russians, IQ
BILLS OF MORTALITY. 509 HiHs of These tables would have been rendered very va- Carlisle and its neighbourhood. M. Nicander was a bills oi ^Mortality.^ luabie> }1ati they been accompanied by statements of Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at ^ ~ '”^Y — the numbers of the living of each sex in the differ- Stockholm, also one of the Commissioners of the ent intervals of age ; but for want of this informa- Tabellvarket, and their secretary. We are sorry to tion, it is difficult to apply them to any useful pur- announce his death, which took place in the summer pose, and many of the inferences M. Kraffthas drawn of 1815. In the year 1800 was published, at Pax-is, in M Mourgae from them are very uncertain. Wr Hey. During a period of nine years, commencing with 8vo, under the title of Essai de Statistiyue, a mesham. 1779, and ending with 1787, Dr Heysham of Carlisle moir by J. A. Moux-gue, on the births, markept accurate registers of the births, and of the riages, and deaths, that took place in Montpellier deaths at all ages, in the two parishes which compre- during a period of 21 yeai’s, ending with 1792, with hend that city and its environs; also the diseases the ages at which the deaths happened, the sexes or casualties which the deaths at each age were oc- are also distinguished, and the population of the casioned by ; and the sexes were in all cases dis- place appears to have been nearly stationax-y. The tinguished. These excellent registers were kept tables and observations of M. Mourgue appear to be with great care and skill on the plan of Dr Hay- more valuable than any others relative to the popugarth above-mentioned, and included all dissenters lation of France, that have yet been published, exwithin the two parishes. Dr Heysham published cept those of M. Deparcieux, which related only them from year to year as they were made, and ac- to select orders of the people. This memoir was companied them with valuable observations on the read at a meeting of the French National Institute in state of the weather and diseases in each year. Their 1795, and printed in the Mem. dcs Sav. Etr. an. 14. value was greatly enhanced by two enumerations of An enumeration of the people in Spain was made Spanish Re. the people within the two parishes, the one made in by royal authority in the years 1768 and 176’9, and outers, January 1780, the other in December 1787, in both again in 1787 ; a minute account of this last was of which the ages were distinguished, but not the printed at Madrid, showing for each province sepasexes of each age, though the totals of each sex rately, the numbers of parishes, cities, towns, vilwere. These documents, printed in convenient lages, &c. &c. with the number of people in each forms, with further information respecting them, class according to their x-anks, professions, occupaand many useful tables deduced from them, may be tions, &c. and the monastic ordex-s of both sexes were particularly distinguished : to these was prefound in Mr Milne’s Treatise on Annuities. Mr B aton; In the third volume of the Transactions of the fixed a summary of the census of 1768 and 1769. American Philosophical Society, published in 1793, In these two enumerations, the ages of the people were inserted Observations on the probabilities of were not distinguished with sufficient minuteness ; the duration of human life, and on the progress of they only showed how many were under 7, between population in the United States of America, contain- 7 and 16, 16 and 25, 25 and 40, 40 and 50, and ed in a letter from Mr Barton, which had been read above 50. In both enumerations, together with the to the Society in March 1791 ; also a postscript to ages, the distinction of the sexes was given; in the that letter, read in December following; the returns first, the married were only distinguished from the of an actual enumeration of the people in the United single; but that of 1787 showed how many of each States having been made in the mean time. The sex, and in each interval of age, were in the states of information there given from the parish registers is celibacy, marriage, and widowhood. A third enumexation of the people in Spain and of little value. In the enumerations, the sexes were distinguished, but not the ages, except the numbers the Spanish possessions in Europe and Africa, inof free white males under and above sixteen ; but cluding the Canary Islands, was made in 1797; and even that information with regard to the population a full account of it, occupying nearly 50 lai’ge tables, of America is very interesting, whether we contrast was printed at Madrid in 1801. The distinction of the early with the more recently settled counties, or the ages in this; enumeration was still not sxxfficiently the whole of the United States with the population of minute; under 40 it was the same as in the two preceding, but after that age, the number of the Europe. M. NicanIn the years 1799j 1800, and 1801, M. Nicander living in each interval of 10 years to 100 was given, inserted eight different memoirs among those of the and the number above 100. No information from the parish registers in Spain Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, exhibiting the state of population and mortality in all was given in any of these cases ; although satisfactoSweden and Finland, from the year 1772 to 1795 x-y extracts from them all, distinguishing the ages inclusive. These contain a great number of tables, and sexes of the deceased, or even from those only which present the most interesting results of the which could be most depended upon, during the ten Tabellvarket during that period ; the ages and sexes, years that intervened between the two last enumeraboth of the living and the dead, are distinguished tions, would have x-endered the x-esults of these inwith sufficient minuteness, and the number of deaths comparably more valuable, px-ovided that the popuof each sex by every disease is given. The informa- lation of the places for which con-ect registei’s were tion in these papers is much more complete and sa- given, could be distinguished from the i-est. Those tisfactory than any other yet collected respecting to whom the superintendence of these measures were the state of the population of a whole kingdom, ox- entrusted in Spain, seem to have been well aware of even of any particular part of it, if we except the this, and to have actually entered upon the formation observations of Dr Heysham, which were confined to of these necessary supplements to the enumerations,
BILLS OF MORTALITY. 310 Bills of as appears by the following passage extracted from the distinction of the sexes, which has not been Bills of Mortality.^ introduction to the printed statement of the last made, would be a material improvement; and it Mortality might also be useful to state, what year the Board census:— “ Interin que seforman las tablas necrolbgicas, las consider to be the limit between childhood and de nacidos y casados, en que entiende el ministerio de adultage. If, in addition to this, the number of the Estado, y que son muy utiles para valuar casi geome- people in each interval of age within^ the city and tric ament e el total de la poblacion del Reyno, debe- liberties, be determined at regular intervals, as every mos contentarnos con las noticias que nos proporcionen 5th or 10th year, and the registers of deaths, with los censos executados por el metodo que el presenter the diseases and ages, be regularly continued for seBut the author of this article has not yet succeeded veral such periods, the annual births of each sex bein his endeavours to procure further information as ing also given, they cannot fail to become very valuable. to these tables of births, deaths, and marriages. Dr Heberja 1801 were published (in 4to), Observations on In pursuance of an act of Parliament (41st Geo. Observaon ,!ie !eacbins». tablished a bleaching manufactory. On applying to other experiments to which he subjected this mine- Bleaciiinr. the principal Scotch makers of linen, they readily ral, he mixed it with muriatic acid, put the mixture furnished him with a quantity of goods ; but after in a retort, and applied heat. He perceived a smell keeping them a whole year, he failed in all his en- similar to that of aqua regia. This induced him to deavours to bleach them, and the proprietors were collect what came over in a receiver, and he found it obliged to send them to Holland to get the process to be muriatic acid, altered in a remarkable manner completed. Next summer his elforts were not more by the action of the manganese on it. Its smell was successful; the linen was considerably injured, and greatly heightened, it was become less soluble in waeven rendered tender by his management, but it ter, and it possessed the property of destroying those was not whitened. Nevertheless, this man by per- vegetable colours on which it was allowed to act. severance became in a few years an excellent prac- M? Berthollet repeated the experiments of Scheele tical bleacher. He had the merit of introducing the on this new acid in 1785, and added considerably to art into Great Britain, and his descendants at this* the facts already known. He -showed that this new day figure among the higher ranks in the metropolis. acid (called by Scheele dephlogisticated muriatic The bleaching process, as at that time performed, acid) is a gas soluble in water, to which it gives a was very tedious, occupying a complete summer. It yellowish green colour, an astringent taste, and the consisted in steeping the cloth in alkaline leys for peculiar smell by which the acid is distinguished. several days, washing it clean, and spreading it upon When water, impregnated with this acid, is exposed the grass for some weeks. The steeping in alkaline to sunshine, it gradually loses its colour, while, at the leys, called bucking, and the bleaching on the grass, same time, a quantity of oxygen gas is disengaged called crofting, were repeated alternately for five or from the water. If the liquid be now examined, it six times. The cloth was then steeped for some will be found to contain, not the new acid, but comdays in sour milk, washed clean, and crofted, these mon muriatic acid. This experiment Berthollet processes were repeated, diminishing every time the considered as exhibiting an analysis of the new acid, strength of the alkaline ley, till the linen had ac- and as demonstrating that it is a compound of muriatic acid and oxygen. On that account, he gave it quired the requisite whiteness. For the first improvement in this tedious process, the name of oxygenated muriatic acid, which was afwhich was faithfully copied from the Dutch bleach- terwards shortened into oxymuriatic acid, an appelfields, manufacturers were indebted to Dr Home of lation by which it is still known among bleachers. The property which oxymuriatic acid possesses of Edinburgh, who proposed to substitute water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, for the sour milk previous- destroying vegetable colours, leu Berthollet to susly employed. This suggestion was in consequence pect, that it might be introduced with advantage inof the new mode of making sulphuric acid, contiiv- to the art of bleaching, and that it would enable ed some time before by Dr Roebuck, which reduced practical bleachers greatly to shorten their processes. the price of that acid to less than one-third of what At what time these ideas first struck his mind, we not exactly know ; but at the end of a papei on it had formerly been. It is curious, that when this do dephlogisticated muriatic acid, read before the Acachange was first adopted by the bleachers, there was demy of Sciences at Paris in April 1785, and pubthe same outcry against its corrosive effects as we have seen some years ago, when oxymuriatic acid lished in the Journal de Physique for May of the was substituted for crofting. No allegation, how- same year (Vol. XXVI. p. 325), he mentions that ever, could be worse founded, and it was completely he had tried the effect of the acid in bleaching cloth, destroyed by the publication of Dr Home [Essay on and found that it answered perfectly. This idea is Bleaching), who demonstrated the perfect innocence developed still farther in a paper on the same acid, and the superior efficacy and cheapness of sulphuric published in the Journal de Physique for 1786. In acid, w’hen properly applied, over sour milk. Ano- 1786, he exhibited the experiment to Mr Watt, who, ther advantage resulted from the use of sulphiuic immediately upon his return to England, commenced acid, which was of the greatest importance to the a practical examination of the subject, and was acmerchant. A souring with sulphuric acid required cordingly the person wdio first introduced the new .... at the longest only twenty-four hours, and often not method of bleaching into Great Britain. Mr Parkes, in his Chemical Essays, published in more than twelve ; whereas, when sour milk was employed, six weeks, or even two months, were requi- 1815, has mentioned some facts upon this subject, site, according to the state of the weather. In con- which it will be proper to state. In tlm early part of the year 1787, Professor Copland of Aberdeen sequence of this improvement, the process of bleach- accompanied the present Duke of Gordon to Geneva, ing was shortened from eight months to four, which and he was shown the discolouring property of oxyenabled the merchant to dispose of his goods so much the sooner, and consequently to trade with so muriatic acid by M. de Saussure. Mr Copland was much struck w'ith the importance of the experiment, much less capital. The bleaching art remained in this state, or near- and on his return to Aberdeen in July 1787j menly so, till the year 1787, when a most important tioned the circumstance, and repeated the experiment before some eminent bleachers in his own change began to take place in it, in consequence of neighbourhood. These gentlemen were Messrs a discovery which originated in Sweden about thir* Milnes of the house of Gordon, Barron, and Comteen years before. In the year 1774, there appearAberdeen. They immediately began the aped in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Stock- pany, plication of the process to the bleaching of linen on holm a paper on manganese, by Mr Scheele. Among
BLEACHING. 323 Bleaching* a great scale ; ami Mr Parkes assures us that they of employing muriatic acid and manganese, as had Bleaching, were the first persons who applied the new process been done by fecheele and Berthollet, he had to practical bleaching in Great Britain. recourse to the cheaper mode of a mixture of comNew ProBut this statement, though it may appear plausicess intro- ble at first sight, is quite incorrect. The writer of mon salt, black oxide of manganese, and sulphuric duced into acid. He made use of wooden vessels to hold the Britain by this article took the liberty of applying to Mr Watt water, which was to be impregnated with the oxyMr Watt. himself for information on the subject. Mr Watt munatic gas, coating them within with a mixture of has preserved copies of all his letters since the year wax and pitch, which rendered the air light, and 1782, taken by means of his copying machine. He the gas from acting on the wood. Mr allowed the writer of this article to peruse such of prevented Watt likewise contrived a test to indicate the them as bore any reference to this subject. Now, two strength of the water impregnated with oxymuriatic letters were found, which entirely set the matter atrest. acid, as far as its bleaching effects were concerned. The first of these is to his father-in-law, Mr Macgre- He took a determinate quantity of the infusion of gor, dated Birmingham, March 19, 1787. In ^his cochineal, and ascertained how much of the bleachletter he gives a particular detail of the new bleach- ing liquor was necessary to destroy the colour. The ing process, states its advantages, and says that he strength of the bleaching liquor was obviously inhad sent Mr Macgregor a quantity of the whitenino- versely as the quantity necessary to destroy the coliquor. The second letter is to Berthollet, and is our. But M. Welter hit upon another method dated Birmingham, May 9, 178J. The following is about the same time, which has been considered as a part of that letter, which we have transcribed verpreferable, and has in consequence come into genebatim : “ Je ne sais pas si j’ai encore fait la liqueur ral use. He employed a solution of indigo in sulacid si fort que vous avez fait, mais je vous donnerois phuric acid instead of the infusion of cochineal. In les moyens de juger. Je trouve que 4 onces de mon other respects the two methods were the same. acide mele avec la quantite necessaire d’alkali de Mr Thomas Henry of Manchester began his expearl-ash pent blanchir un gros de toile brune, telle periments on bleaching, by means of oxymuriatic comme j’ai vu chez vous. II est vrai qu’il ne la fait acid, nearly as early as Mr Watt, and without any tout a fait blanc; mais il le fait aussi blanc, que je knowledge of what he had done. He was puis le faire, meme en ajoutant une second dose previous very assiduous, and very successful in his trials \t d acide., Je bouille la toile par avance dans une so- a meeting of the bleachers, held at Manchester, earlution d’alkali faible ; et a mi blanc, je la bouille une !y m 1788, he exhibited half a yard of calico, bleachsecond fois. Jj trouve que le savon est meilleur ed by the new method, which was considered as suque 1’alkali pur pour la second bouillon. J’ai blan- perior m whiteness to half a piece of calico, bleachchi toute a fait le coton, mais je ne suis encore par- ed by the same process by Messrs Cooper, Baker, venu a blanchir parfaitement la toile de lin.” The and Charles Taylor. In consequence of this exhibireader will observe, that the date of both of these tion he was applied to by Mr Ridgway of Horwich letters is some months before Mr Copland’s return to be instructed in the new process. And the infrom the Continent. ]M. Berthollet had published structions which he accordingly received, were the his process in 1780, and as Watt had brought it to 1St ste ,T P ^ a series improvements carried on England in the end of 1786, and had put it in prac- ^by Mr and his Son, with an ability and tice, and introduced it into Mr Macgregor’s bleach- spirit ofRidgway enterprise, which have raised their esfield, near Glasgow, in the month of March 1787, it to its present extent and importance. is clear that Saussure has no claim to the original tablishment (See Annals of Philosophy, VI. 423.) These two discovery, nor Mr Copland to the first introduction gentlemen, Messrs Watt and Henry, had the chief of the new process into Great Britain. merit of introducing the new mode of bleachDr Henry quotes a letter of Mr Watt, dated 1788, ing into Lancashire, and the neighbourhood of GlasFebruary 23, in which he says, “ I have for more gow. than a twelvemonth been in possession and practice In the year 1789, M. Berthollet published a meof a method of preparing a liquor from common salt, moir on the subject, in the second volume of the which possesses bleaching qualities in an eminent de- Annates de Chimie (p. 151). In this memoir, which gree; but not being the inventor, I have not at- constituted the first publication on the mode of tempted to get a patent or exclusive privilege for it.” bleaching by means of oxymuriatic acid, Berthol[Annals of Philosophy, VI. 423.) This letter alone let gives a detail of the progress of his experiments is sufficient to show, that Mr Watt’s experiments and states the attempts that had been made to introwere of an earlier date than those of Messrs Milnes. duce the new mode of bleaching into France. M. He says, farther, that “ at that very time 1500 yards of linen were bleaching by the new process, under Bonjour, who had assisted him in his experiments’ associated himself with M. Constant, a manufacturer his directions.” This great experiment was con- ot cloth at Valenciennes, to form a bleaching estaducted in the bleachfield of his father-in-law, Mr blishment in that city upon the new plan. But their Macgregor near Glasgow; where, as he wrote to project was prevented by the prejudices of the inha1. BerthoJet, soon after, 500 pieces were bleached y tue new method, and Mr Macgregor was so sa- bitants, and by the jealousy of the bleachers, who were afraid of being injured by the introduction of tisfied of the importance of the new process, that he any new improvements. M. le Comte de Bellaing, resolved to continue it. Mr Watt made several imhowever, who approved of the project, granted a provements in the method of M. Berthollet. Instead piece of ground possessed of all the requisite conve*
B L E A C 124 Bleaching, niences ; but rather at too great a distance from \ a' lenciennes. M. Bonjour applied to the Board o Commerce for the exclusive privilege of bleaching for some years, according to the new method in Valenciennes and Cambray, and for two leagues around these places, offering at the same time to explain the new process in all its details to those who wished to make themselves acquainted with it. But the request was refused. It does not appear, from Berthollet s account, that the new mode of bleaching had been able to establish itself in any manufactory in France, before the publication of his Memoir. One of the great difficulties in the way of applying oxymunatic acid to bleaching was the very disagreeable and noxious odour which characterizes it, and which rendered it not only very offensive, but highly injurious to the health of the workmen. He describes, at considerable length, a vessel contrived for impregnating water with it, by M. Welter, and likewise the mode of preparin0- the gas from common salt, black oxide of manganese, and sulphuric acid. But h^improvements, though considerable, were far from obviating the inconveniences complained of. Some method was wanted which should deprive water impregnated with this gas of its smell, without depriving it of its bleaching qualities. The first attempt to accomplish this object originated from M. Berthollet him-
H I N G. that Mr Henry exhibited the half yard of calico Bleaching, bleached according to the new method. Mr Wattv'«^ """ had written a letter to Dr Percival on the subject, which was communicated to the meeting. He stated in it that he had been in possession of a new method of bleaching, by means of oxymuriatic acid, for above a year; that he had learned it from Berthollet, and that he had every reason to believe that the liquor of MM. Bourbollon de Bonnueil and Company, consisted of oxymuriatic acid, or of some proportion of it. In consequence of this meeting, the county members of Parliament were requested to oppose the intended monoply. Mr Watt also exerted all his influence; and Mr Parkes informs us likewise, that one of the Messrs Milnes of Aberdeen, who had been informed of the use of oxymuriatic acid by Mr Copland, happened to be in the gallery of the House of Commons wdien this application in favour of these gentlemen was made. He took immediate measures to inform the principal members that this was not a new process; that he himself had long ago prepared an article equally advantageous, and that he was ready to substantiate the truth of his statement when required. (Parkes’s Chemical Essays, IV. 62.) In consequence of the united exertions of all these different gentlemen, the bill was thrown out, and the monopoly prevented. It seems to have been partly in consequence of this application of the French gentlemen that Mr Sel \yhen he first began to bleach, by means of water Henry of Manchester was induced to attempt impregnated with oxymuriatic acid, he employed bleaching in the large way with oxymuriatic acid. that liquid as concentrated as possible ; but he found His attention had been first drawn to the subject by papers of Berthollet, published in the Journal de that the texture of the cloth, steeped in this liquid the Physique, during the years 1785 and 1786. He w’as was considerably injured. To prevent this effect, he that time engaged in a course of lectures on Dyeat first added a little alkali to the liquid, to saturate at Printing, and Bleaching. An acquaintance writh a portion of the acid. But he found afterwards ing, properties of oxymuriatic acid, which he had rethat it was better to dilute the liquid with water. the peatedly had occasion to exhibit in his course of Before this last method occurred to him, he was re- lectures, and the general hints previously throwu out quested to go to Javelle, to show the bleachers Berthollet, led him to conclude, that the liquor there, the method of preparing the oxymuriatic acid, by Bourbollon and Company could be nothing else and making the bleaching liquor. He went twice in of than oxymuriatic acid, or some compound of it. His consequence, prepared the liquor before the bleachfirst operations on the large scale consisted in exers and added some potash to prevent the acid from posing the goods, in a moist state, in air-tight chaminjuring the texture of the cloth. Sometime after to the action of oxymuriatic acid gas. He the manufacturers of Javelle announced in the dif- bers, likewise began to prepare for sale a bleaching liquor, ferent journals that they had discovered a peculiar in which the gas was condensed in a very w eak soliquid which they called Lessive de Javelle, and which lution of potash ; which, as we learn from Berthollet, possessed the property of bleaching cloth immersed was the very same with the Lessive de Javelle. Ihis in it for a few hours. This liquid they prepared by liquid possessed twm advantages over water simply dissolving potash in the water which they were go- impregnated with oxymuriatic gas. Its smell was ing to impregnate with oxymuriatic acid. The con- less noxious, and it might be employed to whiten sequence was, that the liquid absorbed a much printed calicos w ithout destroying the colours which greater quantity of gas, and might be diluted with a considerable proportion of water, without losing its had been dyed upon the cloth. But these advantages were much more than counterbalanced by bleaching quality. . . , Being disappointed in their attempts to introduce equivalent disadvantages It was found not to go so far as water impregnated with oxymuriatic this liquor among the french bleachers, they came nearly and when kept for some time, it lost its bleachover to England, and applied to Parliament for the acid, properties altogether. The reason ol this last exclusive privilege of supplying the British bleacheis ing alteration is now sufficiently understood; the oxywith this liquid. The patent was to be given to muriatic acid in the liquid was gradually destroyed, MM. Bourbollon de Bonnueil and Company. In con- and converted into common muriatic acid and chlosequence of this application, a meeting of the bleachers of Lancashire was advertised, in the be- ric acid; the water containing merely common muginning of the year 1788. It was at this meeting riate of potash and chlorate of potash. In conse-
BLEACHING. 325 «](achinsr. quence of these disadvantages, the addition of pot- objection or injury to his emolument. If the very Bleaching. '**'~*S~***' ash to the bleaching liquid was soon laid aside. same process as that of Mr Tennant was employed The next attempt to destroy the noxious smell of before he took out his patent, there could be no the liquid, without destroying its bleaching property, doubt that the process originated with him, and that was the addition of lime to the liquid. Mr Henry of those who used it had been induced to do so from Manchester was one of the first persons who thought the information which they derived from him. In of this addition. On the floor of his air-tight cham- the opinion of the writer of this article, Mr Tennant bers rested a stratum of thin cream of lime, through was hardly used, and the words employed by Lord which the goods were passed by means of a wince ; Ellenborough were quite inapplicable to him. But and were afterwards exposed, on quitting the liquor, when a very powerful combination is formed against to oxymuriatic acid gas. Hence the oxymuriate of any individual, the sentiments wuth which they are lime was formed upon the cloth. But this method actuated propagate themselves with rapidity, and it was objectionable in the case of some coloured is difficult for the most upright jury to avoid being goods, the colours of which were injured or destroy- swayed by prejudices so much the more formidable, ed by that earth. It admitted, therefore, of only a because their existence is not perceived. partial application. In consequence of this decision, the use of liquid Other persons made similar attempts, but none of oxymuriate of lime in bleaching was thrown open to them appear to have been attended with success. all, and appears now to be universally employed by But Mr Tennant of Glasgow, after a great deal of all the great bleachers in Britain. Mr Tennant, thus most laborious and acute investigation, hit upon the deprived of the fruits of several years of anxious and method of making a saturated liquid of oxymuriate laborious investigation, advanced a step farther, to of lime, which was found to answer perfectly all the what may be considered as the completion of the purposes of the bleacher. This was certainly a most new method. This consisted in impregnating quickimportant improvement. Without it, the prodigious lime in a dry state with oxymuriatic acid. He extent of business carried on by some of our bleach- had taken out a patent for this on the 13th of April ers could not possibly have been transacted. To 1799> and his right fortunately was not contested. give some idea of the rapidity with which bleaching He began his manufactory of solid oxymuriate of is conducted according to the new process, we may lime at first upon a small scale, which has been ever mention the following fact, which we state on what since gradually extending, and is now very considerw7e consider as very good authority. A bleacher in able indeed. During the whole period of the duraLancashire received 1400 pieces of grey muslin on tion of his patent, he laboured under great disadvana Tuesday, which on the Thursday immediately fol- tages. The oxymuriatic acid gas with which the lowing were returned bleached to the manufacturers, lime wras impregnated, was obtained from common at the distance of 16 miles, and they were packed salt. Now, his patent did not extend to Ireland, in dp and sent olf on that very day to a foreign market. consequence of which, manufactures of dry oxymuThe quick return of capital which is thus made is a riate of lime were established in that kingdom. In benefit entirely to be ascribed to the new mode of Ireland, the manufacturer obtained his salt-duty bleaching. free, while in Scotland Mr Tennant was obliged to In the year 1798, Mr Tennant took out a patent pay a duty of 7s. 6d. per bushel. Such, however, for his new invention, and offered the use of it to was the superiority of the methods employed by Mr practical bleachers, for a fair and reasonable portion Tennant, that he was able to compete with the Irish of the savings made by its substitution for potash, manufacturers in their own country. then in general use. Many of the bleachers, howIn the year 1815, in consequence of the joint apever, used it without paying him, and a combination plication of the bleachers, the duty on common salt, was formed to resist the right of the patentees. In formerly charged upon all bleachers and others who December 1802, Mr Tennant and Company brought employed that article in the preparation of a bleachan action for damages against Messrs Slater and ing liquid, was taken off, and they were henceforth Varley, the nominal defendants; but who, in fact, allowed to use it duty free. But this act, while it were backed and supported by a combination of al- affords great advantages to bleachers on a large most all the bleachers in Lancashire. In conse- scale, precludes those who only work on a small quence of this action, the patent right wras set aside scale, from making their own oxymuriate of lime; by the verdict of a jury and the decision of Lord the consumption of the powder, therefore, is likely Ellenborough, who used very strong language a- to increase very much among the little bleachers gainst the patentees. The grounds of this decision and calico printers. Its use is also considerable in were, that the patent included a mode of bucking partially discharging the colour of Turkey red cloth. with quicklime and water, which was not a new in- The method was originally a French invention; but vention. It was decided that, because one part of a patent has been lately granted to Mr Thomson, a the patent was not new, therefore the whole must be Lancashire bleacher, for the process, which, we be>et aside. Had the writer of this article constituted lieve, he imported from lony. The method is this; the jury, the verdict would have been very different. An acid paste, consisting of citric acid, or any other Lime was indeed used previous to the patent of Mr acid thickened with gum, is first printed on the TurTennant; but it was employed in a quite different key red cloth, which is then passed through liquid manner from his, and he would have allowed all of oxymuriate of lime. It becomes white only where them to continue their peculiar method without any the acid was applied. On this bleached part any
r
B L E A C 326 Bleaching, other colour may be applied, and the combinations produced are exceedingly beautiful and striking. * Such, as far as we are acquainted with the subject, is the history of the progress of the new method of bleaching in Great Britain. \\ e have said nothing of the Irish bleachers, because we are not particularly acquainted with the progress of the new method in that country ; though we believe that oxymuriatic acid was tried by the Irish bleachers almost as early as it was in Great Britain. Mr Parkes supposes that Mr Kirwan might have proposed the trial of the new reagent, in consequence of some suggestion from Scheele or Saussure. (Parkes's Chemical Essays, IV. 43.) But we have no evidence that this was the case. Indeed, it would be quite unreasonable to attempt, by such vague suspicions, to detract from the merit due to Berthollet for his original suggestion of the application of oxymuriatic acid to bleaching,—a merit which he has enjoyed without a competitor for 30 years. Scheele was dead before any one attempted to introduce the new acid into bleaching, either in Great Britain or Ireland. And there is every reason for believing that Saussure’s knowledge of the bleaching qualities of oxymuriatic acid, originated from Berthollet’s publications on the subject in 178£ and 1786. There are three different ways of employing oxymuriatic acid in bleaching, still followed by different manufacturers; the first, the simplest, and we may add, the most economical and efficacious mode, is to impregnate water with oxymuriatic acid, and to use this liquid without any addition in a sufficiently diluted state. Mr Rupp, long ago, demonstrated the superior economy of this process, and even at present it is used by the great house of Oberkampf, Widmer, and Company, of lony, near Versailles, who have contrived a very ingenious apparatus for its preparation. rihe only objection to this mode of using the gas, is its suffocating odour, which renders it injurious to the health of the workmen employed. But the method universally employed by the great bleachers of Britain and Ireland, is to form a liquid oxymuriate of lime, and to immerse the goods in it. The gas is always obtained from common salt, by the joint action of sulphuric acid and black oxide of manganese. Various proportions of these ingredients have been recommended by different persons ; but none of them seem to have founded their numbers on scientific considerations. Berthollet, in his dissertation on this subject, pub-
H I N G. lished in 1J89 (Annales de Chimie, II. 165), re- Blcacliina;. commends the following proportions as the best: 6 parts of black oxide of manganese, 16 parts of common salt, 12 parts of sulphuric acid, 8 or 12 parts of water. Boullon La-Grange, in his Elementary Chemical work, recommends 3 2 1 2
parts of common salt, parts sulphuric acid, part of black oxide of manganese, parts of water.
Mr Rupp directed 3 8 6 12
parts of manganese, parts of common salt, parts of sulphuric acid, parts of water.
Mr Tennant of Glasgow directs 3 3 3 3
parts common salt, parts of manganese, parts of sulphuric acid, parts, by measure, of water.
The usual proportions in France are, 3 10 7 9
parts manganese, parts common salt, parts sulphuric acid, parts water.
The numbers recommended by Mr Dalton, as agreeing with the atomic theory, are, 100 76 40 35
sulphuric acid of the specific gravity 1.850, water, common salt, black oxide of manganese.
These numbers are founded on the supposition, that two atoms of sulphuric arid are requisite to disengage one atom of muriatic acid from common salt, which, at the common temperature of the atmosphere, or when the heat of boiling water is only applied, is probably true ; though at higher temperatures we know, that one atom ol sulphuric acid will drive olf one atom of muriatic acid. If we consider the state of the common salt, as it is employed, and the frequent impurity of the oxide of manganese used, pro-
* We may notice here, what we consider as a very improper restriction in the new act ot 1 arhamen , which takes^off the duty on the common salt used by bleachers. They are prohibited from using roc salt as it is dug out of the mine, but must employ what has been refined, and which, of couree, lf to four times the price. Surely the framers ot the act might have easily seen that, i prevent smuggling, it would have been answered much better by prohibiting the use of refined salt, than by restricting the bleachers to it. It would be impossible to smuggle rock-salt without actually refi g , which no bleacher could do without the certainty of detection. Indeed, such a smuggling tiadc co • y be followed on a scale totally below the attention of a bleacher. Tn„i_ Since the preceding note was written, this absurd restriction has been withdrawn, and the use o salt permitted.
BLEACHING. 327 Bleiichins;. bably the bleachers would find the following pro- by no means applies to the processes of the bleach- Bleaching. portions the most economical and advantageous : The third state in which the oxymuriatic acid is 2 parts sulphuric acid, employed by bleachers, is combined with lime, con2 parts water, stituting dry oxymuriate of lime. Hitherto the ma1 part common salt, nufacture of this salt in Great Britain has been conI part black oxide of manganese. fined to Mr 1 ennant of Glasgow, the inventor of At present there can be no doubt that the propor- the process. But his patent being now at an end, tion of common salt used by the bleachers is too other persons have begun to make it in the neighgreat. It is well known, that what remains in the bom hood of Manchester. For the manufacture of stills after the process, contains still a considerable this salt, leaden stills are employed similar to those proportion of muriatic acid. Thus Mr Wilson used in making liquid oxymuriate of lime, and likefound the salt which crystallized in the liquid resi- wise cast-iron stills. The gas is conveyed into a close wooden vessel, on the bottom of which is duum, after distillation, was composed of spread some quicklime, newly slaked and sifted. Sulphate of soda, 55.4.7 As the gas passes over, it combines with the lime, Muriate of manganese, 26.79 and gradually forms the salt required. It is a soft Munate of lead, 1.52 white powder, possessing little smell. When heatWater, _ . ed it gives out oxygen gas; but if it be mixed with1^22 sup umc aciu, oxymuriatic gas is given out when t le heat of a lamp is applied. It is partially solu100.00 ble m water, and the solution gradually disengages This lesidue was obtained from a mixture of bubbles of oxygen gas, while the salt is changed into common muriate of lime. This change appears to 3 parts common salt, take place gradually, even when the salt is kept in a 1 part black oxide of manganese, dry state. Mr Dalton has analyzed this salt, and 4 parts sulphuric acid of the sp. gr. 1.500. found it composed of See Annals of Philosophy, I. 365. Oxymuriatic acid, 23 or 1 atom, ^iIne> " 38 or 2 atoms, Dr Henry of Manchester found very large pro Water, . 39 or 6 atoms. portions of common salt and muriate of manganes in the residue left after distillation ; and he inform 100 ed the writer of this article, that he had known oleacher, when in want of common salt, to wor' When the salt is dissolved in water, one-half of the twice from the same ingredients, by adding fresl hme is precipitated, so that the compound which manganese and oil of vitrol. This is a sufficient proo was formerly a subchloride of lime, is now convertthat vastly too much common salt is employed. In ed into a chloride. Its constituents are, deed, the consumption of common salt by the bleach ers is enormous. One bleacher in Lancashire, for ex Oxymuriatic acid, 54.7 or 1 atom, Lime, 45.3 or I atom. ample, uses, every six weeks, four waggon loads 0 common salt, each load containing 3 tons 13 cwt Ibis is almost at the rate of two tons and a half o 100.0 salt per week. He employs, for his process, 22 leaden stills, each 22 inches deep, and about 2 feel When a current of oxymuriatic gas is passed to sa4 inches in diameter. Eleven of these are worked turation through water in which lime is suspended, a bichloride of hme is formed. It is composed of on alternate days. The temperature of steam, under the pressure of Oxymuriatic acid, 70.7 or 2 atoms, the atmosphere, is sufficient to expel the whole of ^me> 29.3 or 1 atom. the oxymuriatic acid, and nothing is gained by employing a stronger heat. Accordingly, the stills are 000.0 umversally heated by steam. The calculation is, See Annals of Philosophy, I. 15, and II. 6. that ~5 square feet of surface in the boiler, is sufficient to heat six stills of the dimensions given above, From Mr Dalton’s experiments, the oxymuriate into each of which are put 112 lbs. of common salt. ot lime of commerce contains one-third of its weight I he gas is received into cream of lime, in which the hme is kept suspended by mechanical agitation. of common muriate of lime ; but this portion varies according to the age of the salt, always increasing, the proc s ls Jifln f. finished, lime till at last the whole is converted into common is allowed to subside, and the the clearundissolved liquid is drawn muriate of lime. s Li' gravityisis,usually generally, about id *of Pecific L quid this strength mixed with1.0125. five or II. In the article Bleaching in the Encyclopedia, Vre%erA six times its bulk of water, before the goods are Method of immersed in it. It has been said, that muriate of very copious extracts have been given from Kirwan,Bleachil, Berthollet, Decharmes, Oreilly, Rupp, &c. with deS* the teXture of cloth mn it it. But rT t? thisUreS is true only when the solution immersed is scriptions and drawings of the different apparatus concentrated, and when it is used boiling hot; but recommended by them. But the reader of that aricle will be at a loss to form any idea of the method
BLEACHING. 328 that the colouring matter of the flax itself may be Bleachiu" Bleaching, of bleaching at present employed by the most en- laid open to his subsequent operations. For this lightened bleachers in Great Britain _ On that ac- purpose, the goods are immersed in warm water, or count, we conceive that it will be requ.site to give a in a warm alkaline ley, which has already been used concise sketch of the different processes as they oc- in the bleaching processes to be described immeZZ a practical bleachfield. We shall omit most diately. In this situation they are allowed to remain of the descriptions of apparatus, which would oblige till some degree of lermentation appears on the surus to repeat many things contained in the article to face of the liquid with which they are covered. whLhX is a supplement. The bleaching appa- This appearance takes place sooner or later, accordratus is sufficiently simple to be easily conceived by ing to the nature of the goods and the heat ol the the reader without many particular descriptions. weather, and it is allowed to continue longer or Cotton being much more easily bleached than linen, shorter according to circumstances. The goods are it will be requisite (though the processes are nearly then taken out, and well washed in pure water, which the same) to give the method of bleaching each se- now removes all the foreign matter added uuiing the parately, because the quantity of materials employed spinning and weaving. _ . differ for each. 2. The second process consists in exposing the goods to the action of alkaline leys. 1. Bleaching of Linen. The alkali universally employed by the bleachers It would appear from the new process of Mr Lee in Great Britain is Russian or American potash, who separates the woody matter from the hbi^ of which contains about two-thirds ot its weight of flax without steeping it, by means of mechanical ac- caustic potash, according to the experiments ot tion, and then bleaches his flax by simply washing it Vauquelin [Annales de Chemie, XL. 273). The other in warm water, that the colouring matter is not che- ingredients are sulphate of potash, muriate of potash, mically combined with the fibrous matter while the carbonic acid, and siliceous earth. It has been alleged plant is vegetating, or after it is pulled, but that the that the potash of commerce is often adulterated archemical combination takes place while the plant is tificially with common salt. This the bleacher should steeped in water. The object of this steeping is to always ascertain before employing it. Indeed, every induce a fermentation, which loosens and destroys a bleacher, who wishes to be exact, ought to be in poscement which bound the fibres of flax to each other session of a mode of determining the exact quantity and to the wood. This fermentation weakens con- of potash which the alkali that he intends to use siderably the strength of the flax^ fibres, and even contains. There are two methods which may be destroys many of them. Mr Lee s process, there- employed for this purpose. The first is to dissolve fore if it be practicable on a large scale, would be a certain quantity of the potash in water, and to try a prodigious improvement. It would render the flax how much acid of a known strength is requisite to fibres much stronger, it would increase their quan- saturate the alkali contained in this solution. Ample tity and it would save the expence of the materials directions for reducing this method to practice, are employed in bleaching the linen. The writer of this contained in the dissertation of Vauquelin above rearticJhas been informed that Mr Lee s process has ferred to. The second mode of testing the alkali is uniformly failed of success, when tried in Ireland more rapid ; but would be less convenient for the If this account be true, it is extremely difficult to bleacher, unless he were in possession of a mercurial explain it. We have seen Mr Lees process per- pneumatic trough; but if he is supplied with this part formed by workmen under his own direction at Old of chemical apparatus, the method is very easy ; and, Bow, near London, with the most complete success; perhaps, in the hands of persons not very conversant not merely upon handfuls of flax, but upon who e with chemical experiments, more to be depended on fields of it Indeed, the whole is so extremely simple, than the first described method. It is this. A glass S « cannot well see how it should fail tf proper- tube of the capacity of 10 or 12 cubic inches, shut jy conducted. We cannot, therefore, help suspect- at one end, and flat at the other, so as to stand on ing that the prejudices of the Irish, with which it the mercurial trough when filled with mercury, is to would have to contend, have been too pow eiful for be graduated into cubic inches and tenths. Ihe Tt but that, as soon as it shall meet with fair play, tube, when the strength of the alkali is to be trie , it ’will be found just as practicable, and certainly is to be filled with mercury, and placed inverted on much cheaper and better, than the methods at pre- the trough. Then let up 20 grains of the alkali to be examined, which will rise to the top of the tube. cis during the steep, then, that flax acquires its Add now about 50 grains of sulphuric acid. As soon permanent dark colon!'; and four processes, which as the acid comes in contact with the potash, an efwe shall now briefly describe, are requisite to ie- fervescence takes place, and the carbonic acid is exstore it to its original white colour, or to separate tricated. Observe the number of cubic inches and the colouring matter, which is chemically combined tenths of this gas extricated, taking care to sink he with the fibres of the flax. . , , • tube so far in the trough that the mercury in th 1. When the flax is converted into thread, it is tube and trough are upon the same leve . . ^ y. repeatedly moistened with the saliva of the spinner, the bulk of the carbonic acid by the numbei 0.45313 , which leaves attached to it a quanWy of alb„™ the product is the weight of carbonic acid present When the thread is woven into linen, it is covered in grains. Multiply this weight by 2.18 ; the prowith the weaver s dressing, which consists of a paste, durt is the weight in grains of real potash “Ded made of flour and water. The first step ot ie in 20 grains of the pearl ashes under examination. 6 bleacher’s process is to remove these foreign bodies,
BLEACHING. 329 This last method is founded upon several chemi- different bleaching-houses. But they may be all re- Bleaching, cal facts which have been sufficiently established. duced to one or other of the following three : 1. The The potash, as it exists in American or Russian goods are placed loosely in a proper vessel, the potash, is combined with carbonic acid in such a heated ley is made to run upon them, and to pass proportion, that one atom of acid is combined with through them. As it comes to the bottom of the one atom of alkali. An atom of carbonic acid weighs vessel containing the goods, it is pumped back again 2.750, and an atom of potash 6. The weight of a into the boiler, wheredt is heated a second time, and cubic inch of carbonic acid gas is 0.46313 grains. then made to pass through the goods as before. Hence, if we multiply the bulk of carbonic acid in This process is repeated as often as is thought recubic inches and tenths, by 0.46313, we obtain its quisite. 2. The alkaline solution is put into the botweight in grains. The numbers 2.750 and 6, are tom of a large boiler, having a platform of wood, very nearly to each other as 1 to 2.18. Hence, if with holes through it, placed a little way above the we multiply the weight of carbonic acid, found by surface of the ley. Through the middle of this 2.18, we obtain the weight of .potash with which it platform there passes a pipe of a convenient size, the was combined. It is proper to know, that this lower end of which reaches nearly to the bottom of method will give the proportion of potash rather the boiler, being immersed deep in the ley, while the below the truth, because, a little of the carbonic acid upper end rises as high as the mouth of the boiler. will be held in solution by the acid employed. If The goods are placed upon the platform, and round wc add such a quantity of sulphuric acid, that, after the tube within the boiler to a convenient height. the expulsion of the gas, the whole shall remain in When heat is applied to the boiler, the steam genea liquid state, the result will be almost perfectly ex- rated is prevented from making its escape by the act, if the bulk of the liquid be added to that of the wooden platform and the goods. It, therefore, acts gaseous product, and the whole be considered as car- upon the surface of the ley, and forces it to ascend bonic acid gas. through the tube. A kind of umbrella is suspended Formerly, the Irish bleachers were in the habit of over the top of the tube, which assists in spreading using barilla instead of potash. But there are two the ley over the surface of the goods. By this conobjections to the use of this alkali. In the first trivance, it is made to spread over and trickle down place, the weight of real alkali contained in the same through the goods, till it gets again to the bottom of proportion of barilla, is much smaller than in pearl- the boiler, to be heated and forced up by the steam ash ; and, in the second place, the weight of an atom as formerly. This method is more efficacious than of soda being greater than that of an atom of potash, simple boiling, because the temperature of the ley is it is probable, that the second will go farther in heated some degrees higher than 212°, which has a bleaching than the former. When to this fact we considerable effect upon the goods. add the difference of the price, which is always in The following are sections of the vessels used for favour of potash, there can be no hesitation in af- these two different methods of bucking : This figure firming, that no bleacher who studies the principles shows the vessels employed, when the ley is simply of economy, would make use of barilla if he can be pumped back into the boiler. A is the boiler supplied with pearl-ash. In trying the strength of barilla, the second of the two methods above described cannot be employed, because barilla contains both carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia. Hence the quantity of carbonic acid will always be much greater than it would be, if barilla contained only carbonate of soda. According to the experiments of Kirwan, a great proportion of the soda in barilla is in a caustic state. But if we attend to the way in which this substance is procured by burning the salcola vermiculata, we shall scarcely be induced to adopt this opinion. For, during the combustion of vegetable substances, carbonic acid is always evolved in considerable quantities, this acid would, of course, combine with the alkali, and the heat of the combustion is insufficient to decompose the carbonate of soda when once formed. Two methods of applying pearl-ash to the purposes of bleaching, are generally followed. These methods are called Boiling and Bucking. Boiling needs no description. The alkaline le;p and the goods are put together into a boiler, and the for heating the alkaline ley. B is the large wooden whole kept at the boiling temperature for the re- vessel in which the goods are placed. C the quisite length of time. cock and pipe, by means of which the lev is conBucking is somewhat more complicated. It con- veyed upon the goods. D a square box designed for sists in making the alkaline ley, raised to a boiling spreading the ley over the goods within the vessel heat, to pass repeatedly through the goods. Various B. Fi the pump for raising the liquor again out modes of performing this process are followed in of the vessel B, from which it is conveyed by the VOL. II. PART II, xt
Bleaching.
BLEACH! N 6. 330 Bleaching, spout I back again into the boiler. F is the furnace to give them a third, or even a fourth boil, diminish- Bleaching, for heating the ley. G represents the false bottom ing the allowance of potash each time. In the last of the wooden vessel, full of holes, for the passage of boil, one-third or one-half of the potash is frequently the ley when it has run through the goods. H is a kept out, and its place supplied by an equal quantity round' wooden staff, which completely fits a hole at of soft soap. When the weather is favourable, the the bottom of the bucking vessel. It is called a duck, goods are sometimes exposed on the grass after each and is intended to be pulled up whenever the spent boiling. * 3. The third process is to expose the goods to alkaline liquor is to be run off. » This figure represents the second kind of bucking the action of oxymuriatic acid in some one of the part of this apparatus. A is a metallic boiler to be fixed in brick three states described in a preceding article,—namely, dissolved in wrater, combined with work, as in the precedlime in the state of liquid oxymuriate of lime, or ing figure. BB is the top in the state of solid oxymuriate of lime. The part of wood, called a first of these states is the most economical; but its crib, with the bottom very noxious odour renders its application scarcely full of holes. In this, practicable on a great scale. The second state the goods are placed one consists of two atoms of oxymuriatic acid, combinabove another, often aed with one atom of lime, or it is a bichloride of mounting to many hunlime; and the third state, or the dry pow?der, is a dred pieces at one opecompound of one atom of oxymuriatic acid and one ration. C is the pipe atom of lime, or it is a chloride of lime. Of these through which the leys two last substances there can be little doubt that boil up, and cld is the Scale of Feci the first, or the one made in the liquid way, is the \imbrella suspended omost efficacious. But wre shall suppose the dry ver the pipe, for the purpose of spreading the ley more effectually over chloride of lime to be the substance used ; as it* employment is likely to increase very much, espethe goods. The third method of bucking is a modification of cially among those bleachers who are the most likethe second. It is considered as preferable, and is ly to require instructions. Besides, it is not diffiperhaps most generally used by experienced and ex- cult to apply the observations made on chloride of tensive bleachers. The platform and its ascending lime to the liquid bichloride. The quantity of oxymuriate of lime required for pipe are placed, not in the boiler, but in a convenient tub or cistern. The requisite quantity of ley bleaching linen varies considerably, according to the is put into the cistern below the platform. A tube nature of the linen operated upon,—according to passes into it, which conveys steam from a steam- the season of the year, and the degree of exposure boiler, in such quantity as first to heat up the ley to on the grass,—and according to the whiteness rethe boiling point, and then to force it up through the quired. But w-e may state the average quantity as central tube, to be deposited over the surface of the varying between y^th and g^th of the weight of the goods, and to filter through them into the space goods employed. This quantity may be divided inIf three processes be below the platform. This method of bucking so to three or four processes. 5 nearly resembles the last, that the nature of the reckoned sufficient, T gths of the oxymuriate may vessel employed will be easily understood without a be expended3 on the first operation, T%ths in the second, and T gths in the third. If four processes are figure. The quantity of pearl-ash required for bleaching considered as requisite, then ygths of the oxymulinen in general, amounts to -^jth or jgth of the weight riate should be used in the first operation, y^ths in of the goods to be bleached. This quantity, how- the second, ygths in the third, and ^ths m the ever, is not to be used all at once ; but is to be di- fourth. Two wine pipes may be employed lor the vided into six or eight portions, to be employed each solution of the bleaching powder. They should be in as many bucking processes. When the goods are placed on one end, the other end being open ; and boiled in ap alkaline ley, the boiling is usually con- a plug-hole should be made in each, about 10 or tinued for four or six hours. In bucking, the process 12 inches above the bottom. From 20 lbs. to is generally continued till the liquor is so tar evaporat- 100 lbs. of the bleaching powder is to be put into ed, that the w hole of it w hich remains is retained by a small tub or bucket, wdtere it is to be w’ell bruised the goods themselves. This generally requires from and mixed with a little water. This mixture is to be thrown into one of the wine pipes, more water is six to eight hours. Heavy yarns for making ducks and similar fabrics to be added, and the whole carefully stirred togeare most advantageously bleached before being ther for a few minutes. A cover is then to be put woven into cloth. These yarns are usually boiied upon the pipe, and the wdiole is allowed to stand with from 16 to 20 •per cent, of their weight of pearl- till the insoluble part of the powder, consisting of ash, divided among two, three, and sometimes four quicklime, subsides below the plug-hole. The clear boils, in proportion to the nature of the fabric, and solution, called stock-liquor> is now to be drawn off the degree of whiteness required. When two boils through the plug-hole, and may either be used imare required, 11 th of the weight of the goods may be mediately, which is most expedient, or it may be used in the first, and ^th in the second boil. If kept under a close cover till w anted. K.peatrd portions of powder may, in this manner, the goods are difficult to bleach, or if a greater degree of whiteness be required, it is sometimes customary be dissolved in the same pipe, till the sediment ac-
BLEACHING. 331 Bleaching cumulate to the height of the plug-hole. When rations, with muriate of lime. These operations IMeachins w ' ^V^ this happens, fresh stock-liquor must be prepared should alternate with the last bucks or boils. In all in the other pipe. But instead of using 'pure water, cases, the oxymuriate of lime musj, be dissolved in as in the first operation, the sediment in the first such a proportion of water as to allow the goods impipe should be repeatedly washed, by filling up the mersed in it to float loosely and easily in the solution, pipe with water,—stirring the sediment well,—allow- that the liquid may come into free contact with eveing it to settle, and then drawing off the clear liquor ry part of them. by the plug-hole. These washings, as long as they Though the method of immersion or steeping the show any bleaching power, are to be used in the goods in the solution of oxymuriate of lime is most second pipe, instead of pure water, for preparing generally used, yet, in some cases, great advantage stock-liquor. The sediment, in every future opera- is obtained by ’wincing the goods through the solution, should be exhausted in a similar manner. tion, instead of allowing them to rest for any length The strength of this liquor is deterol time in it. When the method of wincing is folho mined by means of the graduated glass lowed, a solution of twice or thrice the ordinarytube, figured in the margin, which is strength may be safely used, and much time in conknown by the name of the Test-tube. sequence saved. When the goods are coarse and The method is as follows : One part of heavy, such as yarn for ducks, this last method is althe best indigo is dissolved in nine parts is most universally preferred. These heavy yarns reof strong sulphuric acid, and the soluquiie from Tyth tOyb-th of their weight of oxymuriate tion is mixed with 990 parts of water, of lime, divided into a number of operations cormaking a solution, y^jjth part of which responding to that of the boils, and following these is indigo. Of this liquid a quantity is JO bods, or these boils with exposure on the grass, when to be poured into the test-tube, so as to such exposures are employed. In the first oxymufill it up to 0, or the commencement of riatic operation, they are winced through a strong the scale. The bleaching liquor, whose solution, produced by adding about three or four power is to be tried, is then to be dropt ounces of dry oxymuriate of lime to each gallon of gradually in and mixed with the blue wmej. I heyarns are hung over a roller fixed in the . liquor, by shaking the tube from time to mouth of the trough or tub that contains the solu- time, till the blue is changed into a tion, which covers part of its surface. This relief dear brown. As soon as this takes being then turned rapidly round by means of a crank place, the degree of the scale to which fixed on one of its ends, the yarn is made to pass the mixture reaches is observed, and the rapidly and repeatedly through the liquor for the figure marked at that degree indicates space of thirty or forty minutes. Fresh parcels of the strength of the steep-liquor. The yarn are, in succession, passed through the liquor, lowest on the scale is, of course, the its strength being restored by additions of oxymustrongest in bleaching power, being cariate when necessary, and the whole changed when pable of destroying , „ most colour. The exhausted of bleacldng powers and foul. In this liquor, whose strength is thus ascertained, is deno* way, a very powerful bleaching effect is produced, minated Steep-liquor, of 1, 2, S, 4, 5, and 6 de- and yarns which have undergone one process in this grees ; the last of which is the weakest ever used way, may receive the remaining oxymuriatic profor any kind of goods. By adding stock-liquor, cesses to which they are to be exposed in the orwhen the steep-liquor is too weak, and water when dinal y way of immersion, which is less expensive in too strong, this liquor may be obtained of any point of labour, though less efficacious. strength which is required. The oxymuriatic process then is repeated three The bleacher’s operations should go on in regular or four times, beginning after the second or third rotation. Ihe whitest goods are put into the clean boil or buck, and alternating with every subsequent fresh steeps. As these goods do not exhaust the boil or buck. The time during which the goods are bleaching power of the liquor, its strength is restor- exposed to the oxymuriatic solution during each ed after they are taken out, by the addition of fresh process, is from six to twelve hours. stock-liquor. It is then used for goods in a less 4. The fourth process consists in steeping the advanced state of whiteness. If the second opera- goods in an acid solution. This is called the acid tion has not exhausted its bleaching powers, or ren- process. We have already observed, that the acid dered it foul, it may be used a third time by another at first used for this purpose was sour milk ; but that, addition of stock-liquor But if it has been render- when Dr Roebuck contrived his new method of preed very foul, and indicates only 12 or 15 degrees in paring sulphuric acid, Dr Home proposed this acid the test-tube, it is not worth preserving or using. as a substitute for sour milk ; that it speedily came One pound of the bleaching powder, as it is pre- into general use, and very much improved and shortpared by Mr Tennant and Company of Glasgow, is ened the tedious bleaching processes at that time in capable of forming from ten to twelve gallons of liquor geneial use. This steeping in sulphuric acid is reof one degree. peated twice, and sometimes thrice, once afrer each The exposure of the goods to the action of the of the last two or three immersions in the oxymuoxymmiate of lime should not commence till after ilate of lime. For this purpose, a quantity of strong t e third boil or buck, if they are to be exposed three times to the action of this substance; and af- sulphuric acid is taken, amounting to about ^th or ef the weight of the goods to be immersed. ter the second, if they are to be exposed to four ope- Jp'h Ibis acid is diluted with 60 or 80 times its weight
B L E A C H I N G. 332 Bleaching, of water, which reduces it to the specific gravity of easy and less expensive. The processes are nearly IGvahimr. about 1.015. Now, sulphuric acid of this specific the same as those for linen ; but it will be requisite go over them shortly, in order to point out the gravity contains about 1 £ per cent, of its weight of to difference in the proportions ot the ingieiiients emreal sulphuric acid. In this liquid they are steeped ployed, and some other little circumstances which from eight to twelve hours. When linen fabrics ought to be generally known. are intended for printing, they require two or three 1. The first, or fermenting process, is the same for .additional processes in alkali, and one in acid, and cottons as for linens. Ihis must be the case, be-^ the solution of the sulphuric acid is generally made cause the weaver’s dressing, which it. is the object of one-third stronger when the goods are intended lor the process to remove, is the same in botii cases. the madder copper. -„ 2. But there is a difference in the second process, Such are the different processes at present follow- which consists in exposing the goods to the action ed by the practical bleachers in Great Britain. Alter of alkaline leys. each of them, whether boiling or bucking in an alkaCotton goods are generally exposed to the action line solution, immersion in oxymuriate of lime, or of lime diffused through water, so as to constitute steeping in sulphuric acid, the goods must be carewhat is called milk of lime. The liquid is heated to fully washed in pure water, either by machinery or the temperature of 200°, and the cloth is kept in it otherwise, till all the materials employed are com- from four to six hours. Two or three alkaline piopletely washed out of them. Upon this much ot the cesses will be required after this, and the quantity economy and success of bleaching depends. It is potash which ought to be used should amount to likewise of great advantage to free the goods from ofi th of the weight of the goods. When the applicathe water which they contain after each washing, be- tion is to be made at twice, the first of the operafore subjecting them to the next operation. lor tions should have |ths, and the second fths of the this purpose, Bramah’s press is employed m almost whole potash. If" three processes are to_ be gone all the large bleaching-houses, and constitutes one through, the first and second should have -gths each, of the greatest improvements introduced ot late and the third fths of the potash. years. When heavy cottons are bleached, either boiling or bucking may be employed, as descrioed undei 2. Bleaching of Cottons. head of linens. When the cotton fabrics are Cotton is a kind of down which fills the seed pods the light, or contain dyed colours, boiling is generally ef various species of plants, particularly the Gossypl- preferred, and the proportion of alkali diminished um herbaceum, hirsutum, and arboreum, from all ot one -third, while a quantity of hard or soi l soap, equal which it is extracted in considerable quantity for the to the diminution ot the alkali, is added to the ley. purposes of manufacturers. This substance was 3. The third, or oxymuriatic process, is nearly the known to the ancients, and made by them into thread same for cottons as for linens. The quantity of oxyand cloth. Cotton cloth appears to have been ge- muriate of lime used, should amount to ^jtl- oi ^th of nerally worn in Egypt and the neighbouring coun- the weight of the cotton cloth to be bleached. This tries at a very early period ; and no doubt the plant quantity is divided among two or three operations, an was cultivated in India and China for similar pur- oxymuriatic process following each alkaline process. poses before the time at which the history of these When three operations are to be performed, the first nations, as far as we are acquainted with it, com- must have ^th®? second ^jths, and the third y^ths mences. Pliny gives a short description ot the gos- of the whole oxymuriate ot lime. When only two sypium which grew in Upper Egypt, which is suffi- operations are to be performed, the first should concient to show us that it was the same with our cotton tain two-thirds, and the last one-third ot the whole. plant. “ Superior pars TEgypti in Arabiam vergens The duration of each steep should be fron^lix to mgnit fruticem, quern aliqui gossipion voeant, piures twelve hours, but not longer. If wincing through xylon, et ideo lina inde facta xyhna. 1 arvus est, si- the solution be preferred, a stronger liquor may be milemque barbatae nucis defert fi'uctum, cnjus ex used, and the operation may be finished m fifteen or interiore bombyce lanugo netur. ^Nee ulla sunt eis twenty minutes. in candore moilitiave praeferenda. {Plinth Natur. 4>J The fourth, or acid process, is pretty much the Hist. Lib. xix. c. 2.) The byssus mentioned in the same for cottons as for linens ; the quantity of sulphusame chapter was probably likewise a species of cot- ric acid should amount to about -g^th or ^th ot the ton ; though the account of it given by 1 liny is not weight of the cotton goods. It must be diluted with sufficiently precise to enable us to make out the water till its specific gravity be reduced to 1.010. point with certainty. . . c . A steep in this diluted acid from six to twelve Since the discovery and colonization of America hours after each of the two last oxymuriatic proand the West Indies, and our great connection with cesses is generally made use of. East India, cotton has become a very common article When the fabrics are very light, or contain dyed of clothing in Europe. The manufacture ot cotton colours, the souring is only once used, and the cloth in consequence has increased prodigiously, and strength of the acid is reduced to 1.008. Ihis sourin Great Britain constitutes one of the great branches ing is applied after the last oxymuriatic process. In of manufacturing industry. As iG does not go this case thorough washing or rinsing in water, is through the complicated processes of flax and hemp, most strictly to be attended to before exposure to ind is naturally (for the most part at least) ot a the sulphuric acid in souring. When cotton febrics lighter colour, the art of bleaching it is much more
B L E A C III N G. hin?. are intended for printing with madder colours, they other applications of the same operations, we refer Bleaching, require one or two additional bucks or boils, and to the article Bleaching in t\\Q Encyclopcedia. But the sours should be one-third stronger. probably a few words will be expected from us on The intermediate washings in pure water, and the the theory of the art. Upon this subject, the folproper draining of the goods after washing, must be lowing observations are all we have to offer : observed with as much care in bleaching cotton as The fibres of hemp, linen, and cotton, are naturally Theory of in bleaching linen. It is only in the bleaching of white ; but, before bleaching, they are combined with Bleaching, those goods intended for printing, that any exposure a substance which gives them their grey or brown to the light and air is now used, and that but seldom colour. The onject of bleaching is to remove this even in this case. substance. From the experiments which have been made upon the subject, it would appear that this 3. Bleaching of Rags for the Papermaher. substance is partly in the state of resin, and partly The rags to be whitened should be well washed in in a state analogous to chat of the volatile oils. Rethe engine, and when reduced to what is called half- sins dissolve readily in the alkalies, which they stuff, the water should be run off, leaving just enough neutralize and convert into a species of soap. But to allow them to be easily turned. While the rags this is not the case with the colouring matter, are thus preparing, a solution of the bleaching pow- which is in a state analogous to that of volatile oil. der is to be got ready, by putting the powder into a After the weaver’s dressing has been removed, the pitcher or other convenient vessel, and pouring up- cloth is boiled or bucked repeatedly in alkaline leys, on it two or three gallons of water, stirring and which dissolve and separate the whole of the colourbruising it well, till every thing soluble is taken up. ing matter, which possesses the characters of resin. After it has stood some time to allow the insoluble The alkaline ley, after this process, is turbid, has a sediment to fall down, it is fit for use, and the pure brownish red colour, a strong smell, and has lost its solution should be poured into the engine. The se- alkaline properties. When muriatic acid is poured diment may be repeatedly washed with fresh por- into it, a copious flocky precipitate subsides, consisttions of water to exhaust any remains of soluble ing of the colouring matter. This substance, when matter, which alone is useful in the whitening pro- properly edulcorated, has a greenish grey colour, cess. While this last operation is going on, the which it retains when separated from the water by engine is to be kept moving, and to continue so for the filter. But, when dry, it becomes blackish exabout an hour, which will generally be surficient to ternally, though it retains internally its greenish tint. produce the requisite degree of whiteness. The It is soluble in alcohol, insoluble in oil of turpentine, water may now be returned upon the engine, and but dissolves readily in the alkalies. It tinges the the washing continued as usual till the process be strong acids, but does not readily dissolve in them. completed. The quantity of powder usually billow- When thrown upon a red-hot iron, it burns with a ed, is from two pounds to four pounds for every hun- yellow flame and a black smoke, leaving a charry redred weight of rags, in proportion to the whiteness siduum. These properties, for the knowledge of required, and the difficulty of whitening the stuff. which we are indebted to Mr Kirwan, * are sufficient Rags containing dyed colours, to be discharged, to show us that the substance which the alkalies seshould be well washed and reduced to half-stuff. parate from linen is analogous to the resins. They are then removed from the engine and put into By repeated boiling in alkaline leys the cloth is a puncheon, made water tight, but having a sufficient rendered whiter. But it is not yet bleached; beopening in the side to admit with ease the putting in cause a colouring matter still remains, which the and taking out of the stuff, and capable of being shut alkalies are incapable of dissolving. The action of up so as to retain the water. Having put the stuff oxymuriatic acid, or exposure to the air and light, into this puncheon, take for every cwt. of the rags produces a change on this colouring matter, and a solution containing from five to eight pounds of renders it capable of being dissolved in alkalies. In bleaching powder, according to the strength and short, by these processes it is converted into a resifixedness of the colours to be discharged. Pour the nous matter, similar to that which the alkalies had solution into the puncheon among the stuff, allowing previously removed. There can be no doubt that liquid enough to let the stuff float easily, and for this change is produced by the union of the coloureach pound of powder used, add half a pound of sul- ing matter with oxygen. When the oxymuriatic phuric acid. Then shut up and secure the opening acid is used, the oxygen is supplied by the water so as to make the puncheon air tight; then turn the which is decomposed by the mutual action of the puncheon round upon its axis, by means of a crank chlorine and the colouring matter. The chlorine fixed at one end of it. Moving it in this manner combines with the hydrogen of the water, and is congives facility and uniformity to the discharging pro- verted into muriatic acid ; while the colouring matcess. ter combines with the oxygen of the water, and is VV e have now finished the sketch which we pro- converted into resin. posed to give of the processes at present followed by It would appear, that this change in the colouring the practical bleachers of Great Britain. For several matter renders it white ; for linen will appear bleach-
* See his Experiments on the Colouring Matter of' Linen Yarn and its Solvents, in the Transactions of ■the Royal Irish Academy for 1789.
334 B LEA CHIN G. Bleaching oil if it be treated with a sufficient quantity of oxy- This explanation is not improbable, though we are Bleaching | * I muriate of lime. But this state of the colouring not aware of any accurate experiments, by means of | . j°r matter is not permanent. If it be allowed to remain which, the presence of iron in the sulphuric acid , j in the cloth it speedily becomes yellow. Hence the solution, employed as a souring, has been ascertained. reason why cloth, bleached with oxymuriatic acid But, probably, the great use of the acid is to remove alone, soon loses its white colour again. This hap- or neutralize the alkali, which, if allowed to remain pened to Berthollet, in his first trials to bleach in the in the cloth, would gradually injure its texture. We have taken no notice, in the preceding article, large way, by means of oxymuriatic acid. It happened likewise, at first, to several bleachers in this of a proposal, made a good many years ago in Irecountry. It is requisite, that the colouring matter, land, and, in support of which, a pamphlet was pubnow become soluble, should be removed by alkalies. lished by Mr Higgins of Dublin ; we mean the subHence we conceive, contrary to the practice of stitution of the bydrogureted sulphuret of lime for r bleachers, that the last process ought always to be the alkali. The reason of this omission is, that w e boiling in an alkaline ley. In great towns, as in are not in possession of any facts on > the subject. London, where linen cannot be exposed to the air But we. consider the circumstance of no British and sun upon the grass, it would be a great advan- bleacher having introduced this substitute into his tage, if it were steeped, for some time before it is work, as sufficient to entitle us to infer, that the subwashed, in a solution of oxymuriate of lime. It stitute would not answer the purposes for which it might then be boiled in an alkaline ley. Linen or was recommended. Several objections to its use cotton, thus treated, would not become yellow by will readily present themselves to those who consider age, as is too often the case with linens in large the subject. Among others, we may mention, that if any metallic substance, as iron, w'ere to come in towns. The precise use of the steeping of the goods in contact with the goods which are under the insulphuric acid has not been ascertained ; though it is fluence of hydrogureted sulphuret of lime, this last known to be indispensable. It is supposed, that substance would act as a-mordant, and fix the metal both linen and cotton contain a portion of iron, and on the cloth ; from which it could not be again rethat the acid removes this substance, which both moved without some expence, and without the risk (J.) renders the colour whiter and the cloth fitter for the of injuring the strength of the substance. subsequent processes of dyeing and calico-printing.
Definition.
BLOCKADE, in war, the shutting up of any place or port by a naval or military force, so as to cut off all communication with those who are without the hostile line. There is, perhaps, no part of the law of nations which, in practice, presents so many perplexing questions, as that which concerns the resjrective rights of neutral and belligerent states. No definite line of distinction has yet been drawn between the privileges of war and peace ; and the consequence has been, that, in all the wars which have been waged in Europe, the general tranquillity of the world has been endangered by the jarring of these two different interests. It has commonly happened, too, that all these important questions have been agitated during a season of war, when the passions of the contending parties were keenly engaged in the dispute,—when principles were already subverted,—and when the minds of men, exasperated by the glaring infraction of acknowledged rights, were not in a state to agree on any system ot general equity, by which to regulate and reform the erring policy of states. In these circumstances, many points of international law, which appear to rest on the most obvious principles, and which are very clearly settled in the writings of civilians, have, nevertheless, been the occasion, in practice, of no small controversy, and have frequently involved nations in all the miseries of protracted war. This has been, in some measure, manifested in the case of the Rights of Blockade ; respecting which, though no difference of opinion has ever prevailed among speculative
writers, a controversy arose during the late contests in Europe, which, along with other points, ultimately involved Great Britain in a war with the neutral powers. We propose, in the course of the subsequent observations, to state, \st, The general principles from which the most approved writers have deduced the rights of blockade; and, 2dt To give a short account of the i*ecent differences which have taken place between the neutral and the belligerent states, respecting the extent of those rights. In regulating the respective privileges of the neu- Foandatien tral and the belligerent, it has been generally held of the as a fundamental principle, by writers on the law gf^ade. of nations, that those rights, from the exercise of which less benefit would accrue to the one party than detriment to the other, should be abandoned; and in all cases where the rights of peace and the rights of war happen to come into collision, the application of this rule will decide which of the two parties must yield to the convenience of the other. Thus the neutral state is debarred from carrying on any trade with either of the belligerents in warlike stores. The general right to a free trade is modified, in this particular instance, by the paramount rights of the belligerent. To refrain, for a time, from trading with an individual state in warlike stores, can, "at most, only impose a trifling inconvenience on the neutral power, while the continuance of such a trade might terminate in the destruction of the belligerent. The detriment occasioned to the one party, by the existence of such a trade, is, n
B L O Blockadp. Jn this manner, infinitely greater than the loss suffereel by the other from its abandonment. Warlike stores, and whatever else bears a direct reference to war, are, accordingly, proscribed as unlawful articles of trade, and made liable to seizure by either of the belligerents. To this inconvenience the neutral is exposed, to avoid the greater inconvenience and damage which might tall on the belligerent, by the licensing of such a trade. On the other hand, the neutral state enjoys the most unlimited freedom of trade in all other articles, with either of the powers at war; and though, by means of this beneficial intei course, they may be both furnished with the means of carrying on a protracted contest, this is a contingent and incidental consequence of the trade, which, in its character, is substantially pacific, and which is attended with such great and immediate advantages, that they could not, with any regard to equity, be sacrificed to the remote convenience of the belligerent. Applying these principles to a siege or to a blockade, it is evident, that the belligerent who had an expensive scheme of hostile operations of either kind in dependence, would be far more seriously injured by its inten uption, than the neutral would be benefited by a free intercourse with the blockaded place. On this ground, therefore, a belligerent who has formed a siege or a blockade, has an indisputable right to debar the neutral from all intercourse with those who are included within his lines; and anj'attempt to penetrate the blockade for the purposes of trade, subjects those who attempt it to destruction^ and their properties to confiscation. The very existence, indeed, of a siege or a blockade, as a lawful act of hostility, implies the right of enforcing it by an indiscriminate exclusion of all who seek access to the besieged, Cfrom and!iuofI- thou Sh thi& view of the nature of a blockade, th e ri lese . ghts attaching to it, is clearly laid down jilts. by all writeis on the law ol nations, and though it has been acknowledged, in practice, by all civitized states, a question has been agitated in the late wars Oi Europe, between the neutral and the belligerent powers, as to the degree of restraint necessary to constitute a blockade, and, of course, to entitle the blockading party to all the rights consequent upon this scheme of operations ; and it is this dispute which was, in a great measure, the occasion of a general war with the neutral powers. Ihe unexampled success which attended the naval operations of Great Britain, during her late wars with trance, naturally suggested to her rulers the possibility of extending this species of annoyance, and of converting the all-powerful navy which they possessed, into an instrument of active hostility. \\ith this view, in place of confining its efforts to the mere watching of the enemy’s already ruined trade, it was resolved to give greater scope to such an immense engine of maritime power, by placing under blockade the enemy’s ports,—the mouths of tiavigable rivers,—-and even extensive tracts of his coast Proclamations to this effect were, accord^ and ^' lssued >—the under neutral duly warned prohibited, the trader peril ofwas detention, from
L O 335 all intercourse with the interdicted coast. But the Blockade, legality of these blockades by proclamation being disputed, both by the neutral powers and by the enemy, their execution was resisted by a counterdecree, which, on the plea of retaliation, placed undei blockade the whole island of Great Britain, and subjected all neutral vessels to detention and capture, which should have been found touching at any of its ports. On the same plea of retaliation, several decrees, or Orders in Council, were issued by Biitain, ordaining, that no neutral vessel should have any intercourse with hranee and her dependencies, except such vessel should first touch at a British port, where, in some cases, the cargo was to be landed, and was to pay certain duties to the British government. From this period the maxims of equity, a id the rules of international law, were set aside, and the ocean became a scene of proscription and pillage. All this anarchy originating in a disagreement respecting the nature and extent of a blockade or siege, it becomes of importance to settle this important question. The object of a blockade is to reduce the inhabi- Principles tants of the blockaded town to such straits, that they according shall be forced to surrender to the discretion of their t0 wbicb enemies in order to preserve their lives ; and the le!'"ufs gahty of every blockade, except with a view to cap- exercised. * ture, has been questioned. But without entering into this question, it seems obvious, that, in order to constitute the blockade of a town, either with a view to capture, or to temporary annoyance, the line by which it is surrounded should be so complete, as entirely to obstruct all access into the place. When a place is blockaded, with a view to capture, the task of maintaining a real blockade may be safely left to the blockading party. But when a port is blockaded, with a view to mere maritime annoyance, the case is widely different; because, in these circumstances, the belligerent will equally attain bis end by maintaining the mere show of a blockade, while he is in possession of all its substantial rights. He may, to save himself expence and trouble, relax the blockade of his enemy’s ports, while he enforces the exclusion of all neutrals, as rigorously as if he were maintaining an effectual blockade: and, in this case, his proclamations, while they are issued ostensibly for the blockade of the enemies’ ports, would, in reality, amount to edicts for the suppression of the neutral trade. The urgent, immediate and obvious interests of the neutral would here he sacrificed to the remote, and in many cases, imaginary, convenience of the belligerent. The edict might be issued for the blockade of the enemies’ports, or for extensive tracts of his coast, round which no hostile line can ever be drawn so as to constitute a real blockade, and the whole trade of the neutral, with those interdicted parts of the enemies territory, must be immediately given up at the arbitrary mandate of one of the belligerents. The neutral trade,—in place of being carried on as a matter of right,—in place of being regarded as a common benefit to the civilized world, and on this account to be cherished and encouraged, would, under such a system be looked upon in the light of a tolerated evil,
B L O B L O 556 Blockade existing only by the sufferance of those who itnagin- himself as a physician at Berlin, and found means to -Block. II ed they had an interest in obstructing and 1in crush- collect there a valuable museum of the subjects of'" " Bloch. ing it.J The law of- nations ■ • not■ a partial •• system, — all the three kingdoms of nature, as well as an exis modelled to suit the convenience of one party. It tensive library ; and these objects often attracted to is a system of general equity, and its edicts are \ his house an assemblage of the most accomplishfounded on a comprehensive view of what is for the ed naturalists of his age and country. He applied himself, however, more particularly to common advantage of all. In this view, then, the consequences to the neutral of those extensive and those parts of natural history which are the most nominal blockades are sufficient to constitute them connected with the practice of physic : and, on ocillegal. The damage to the neutral is infinitely casion of a prize question of the Academy of Copengreater than the benefit to the belligerent. The hagen, he entered into a very elaborate examination rights of blockade, and the limitation of those rights, of the different species of worms, which are found in must stand upon the same principle of justice and of the bodies of other animals. In his Essay on this public law ; and their extension beyond this equitable subject,- to which the prize was' adjudged, he mainprinciple, must terminate in universal confusion and tains, that the parasitical species are only lound within the animal body ; and since they often occur anarchy. In opposition to those arguments in favour of the in the foetus, and in cavities which are completely neutral powers, it has been urged, that the new system inclosed, he infers that they must be generated in of naval annoyance, introduced by Great Britain, in some unknown way, and not taken in with the food 1806, was legal according to the strictest construction in the form of eggs. For the general remedy in of the law of blockade, because the proclamations for cases of worms in the intestinal canal, he recominterrupting all intercourse between the different par is mends large draughts of cold water, followed by ca" He has added to his Essay a complete of the French coast, were not issued until it was ascer- thartics. tained, by the most particular inquiries, that Great classification and description of all the species of inBritain possessed an effectual naval force to blockade testinal worms, accompanied by figures. M. Bloch also published a variety of papers on the enemy’s coast from Brest harbour to the mouth different subjects of natural history, and of compaof the Elbe. It is solely upon this principle that the rative anatomy and physiology, in the Collections of ministers of this country maintained the legality of those blockades, and any breach in the line of the various Academies of Germany, Holland, and blockade, they admitted, would be sufficient to con- Russia, particularly in that of the Friendly Society Naturalists at Berlin. But his great work was his stitute them illegal. Such, then, is the present state of Ichthyology, which occupied the labour of a consiof this important controversy, which seems to resolve itself into a mere question of fact, namely, whetner derable portion of his life. His attention was first directed to the subject by receiving a present of a the blockading power has actually carried into effect species of salmon, which he could not find described the blockade, of which notice by proclamation has in the Linnsean System of Nature ; and he discoverbeen given to the neutral powers. a number of similar omissions in Artedi, and in At the conclusion of the last treaty between ed all former ichthyologists. He undertook to collect Great Britain and America, no settlement took place into one work every thing that wras knowm respectof those disputed questions. The main war between ing the natural history of fishes, and to give figures the European belligerents, out of which the American of all the species; and he passed several summers by dispute had incidentally sprung, being at an end, the controversy respecting rights, which could only be the sea side, and among fishermen and their nets, exercised in a state of war, had lost all practical im- comparing the descriptions of authors with nature, taking bold sketches of the most interesting portance. It had become a mere question of abstract and subjects, not uncommonly on board of the very rio-ht, the decision of which was wisely adjourned by boats which furnished them. His publication was the powders at war, and not suffered to clog the great encouraged by a large subscription, and it passed work of a general peace. It is likely, however, that rapidly through five editions in German and in on the breaking out of any new war, this and other French. He made little or no alteration in the sysquestions of a like nature would recur ; and on this tematical arrangement of Artedi and Linne, although account it might be of importance to the futuie was disposed to introduce some modifications peace of the world, if, in the present interval of uni- he into the classification, depending on the structure ot versal peace, while men’s passions are at rest, these the gills, especially on the presence or absence of a questions could be settled according to some acgill, without a bony arcli; a character which knowledged rule of equity or policy, and not left, in fifth affords some useful subdivisions of several genera, lo the case of another war, to the rude arbitration of the number of genera before established, he found it force. (°-). necessary to add 19 new ones; and he described BLOCH (Mark Eleazar), an Ichthyologist 176 new species, many of them inhabitants of the and Helminthologist, born at Anspach, about the remotest parts of the ocean ; and by the brnuancy year 1730. He was of the Jewish nation, and Ins of their colours, or the singularity of their forms, as parents being indigent, his early education w^as much objects of popular admiration as of scientific neglected: but, having entered into the employment much cunosity^ ^ ^ a vigjt to Paris, where he was of a surgeon at Hamburgh, he supplied the deficiency by his own exertions, and made great progress m secure of finding a variety of collections of sue i the study of anatomy, as well as in the other de- subjects of natural history as had been maccessib 5 partments of the medical sciences. He established
BLOC K-M A C H I N E R Y. to him mi the shores of the Baltic; and he returned pend entirely on a single contractor, whom accident Block-Maclliner t0 B rIin wa yBIock-Ma- hati ^ y of Holland. His health, which or misfortune might disable from fulfilling his contract: A fire might destroy his wood-mills, in which diinery. hitherto been unimpaired, began now to decline. tract He went to Carlsbad for its recovery, but his consti* case it would have been difficult to procure, in all tution was exhausted, and he died there the 6th of England, an adequate supply of blocks for the navy. August 1799. ( Coquebert in Rapport de la Society On these considerations, it seems to have been Philomathique, Vol. IV'. 8vo, Par. 1800.) e. x. the intention of government to introduce, among BLOCK, an instrument or machine of wood, other improvements then carrying on in Portsmouth chiefly employed in the rigging and other parts of a Dock-Yard, a set of machines for making blocks, at ship, by means of which a facility is given to the the new wood-mills erected in that yard in 1801. hoisting up or lowering down the masts, yards, and About this time, the improvements which had been sails, or to the moving of any great weight, as guns, introduced into private concerns were gradually anchors, bales, casks, &c. It is, in fact, a modifica- finding their way into the great public establishtion of the pulley, and the names may almost be ments of the country. Still, however, an old maxim considered as synonymous. seemed to prevail, that government ought not to be There is nothing in the appearance of a block its own manufacturer. This maxim, though perhaps Inch, to an unpractised eye, would seem to re- generally just in political economy, is, we conceive, quire any stretch of mental ingenuity or of manual neither just nor wise when applied to those articles dexterity to manufacture. It is a machine apparent- which are of the first necessity in the King’s navy. ly so rude in its structure, and so simple in its con- Indeed, where the safety of so many thousand lives tiivance, that the name was probably given to it depends wholly, as is sometimes the case, on the from its general resemblance to a log of wood, as is strength of materials and goodness of workmanship, obviously the case with a butcher’s block, a barber’s it is most desirable that the whole ship, and every block, the block of the executioner, &c. Of the two part thereof, from the pin of a sheave to the sheet constituent parts of a ship’s block, the external shell anchor, should be manufactured under the immediand the internal sheave, every carpenter might make ate superintendence of respectable officers in the the one, and every turner the other; and yet, when King’s service. blocks were made by the hand, it seldom happened About this time, too, Mr Brunell, an ingenious that the several parts were adjusted to each other mechanist from America, had completed a working witli sufficient accuracy, or that a strict uniformity model of certain machines for constructing, by an was observed in the various sorts and sizes, without improved method, the shells and sheaves of blocks. which they cannot be expected to work with that This model was submitted to the inspection of the degree of ease and truth, which is so desirable, and Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and by them even necessary in the important office they are de- referred to General Bentham, the Inspector-General signed to fulfil, in the rigging and other parts of a shin. of Naval Works, who represented that, as the BLOCK-MACHINERY. To acquire a greater making of blocks was one of the purposes for which degree of accuracy and uniformity, as well as celeri- a part of the force of the steam-engine, erecting at ty in the making of blocks, Mr Walter Taylor of the wood-mills, was intended to be applied, he did not Southampton took out a patent in the year 1781, to hesitate to recommend the new machine, as an insecure to himself the benefit of some improvement vention which would enable the government to conhe had made in the construction of the sheaves ; he struct its own blocks with a greater degree of celealso shaped the shells, cut the timber, &c. by machi- rity and exactness than those which were then in nery, which was put in motion by water on the river use ; and that it appeared to be well suited for maItchin, near Southampton, where he carried on so nufacturing blocks of every description and size, extensive a manufactory of blocks, as to be able to with a degree of accuracy, uniformity, and cheapcontract with the Commissioners of the Navy for ness, far beyond any of the methods hitherto pracnearly the whole supply of blocks and blockmakers’ tised. The adoption of Mr Brunell’s machinery was wares required for the use of the royal navy. the consequence of this opinion. Mr Dunsterville of Plymouth had also a set of The advantages tohe expected from blocks so made machines for making the principal parts of blocks, were stated by Mr Brunell to consist, first, in bringwhich was wrought by horses ; his manufacture, how- ing the shape of the outside of the shell to certain ever, of this article was not carried to any great ex- determined dimensions, so that those of the same tent ; but the blocks made by this machinery, as well size should actually be so, and not differ from one as those by Mr Taylor’s, were said to be of a superior another, either in the proportion of the mortices, or quality to those constructed by hand, though still in the shape and dimensions of the outside. Seconddeficient in many respects* ly, in adding strength where it was wanted, by No objection, however, would probably have been making the head and bottom more substantial, and made to the quality of the blocks furnished by Mr less liable to split; and, thirdly, in leaving the wood Taylor, and used in the navy. It would rather appear that the enormous quantity consumed in the between the two mortices thicker, so as to admit a bearing for the pins ; all of which would course of a long protracted war first called the at- sufficient be accomplished without requiring any dexterity on tention of the Admiralty or Navy Board to the pos- the part of the workman, but entirely by the operasibility or some reduction being made in the expence tion of the machinery. The uniformity and exactor so indispensable and important an article in the ness with which they were to be made, would be atnaval service; and that it was not prudent to detended with another important advantage to the VOL. II. part 11. uu Block
BLOC K-MACHIN ERY. 338 Biock-Ma- publie—the difficulty of counterfeiting them would turning pins, rivetting, polishing, Ac. exercised his Block-Machinoty. act as a precaution against embezzlement. Another skill and ingenuity till the year 1808, when he considered the whole system to be complete in every —^^■'very considerable advantage would be derived from part, and incapable, so far as he could judge, of the employment of much waste wood in the dock- further improvement. From that time to the preyard, usually sold for little or nothing, for firewood sent, the block-machinery has been in full and conand other purposes. stant employment, without requiring the least alterThe sheaves or shivers would, by this new ma- ation, and very little repair, beyond the unavoidable chinery, be made so mathematically true, and so ex- tear and wear of engines that are kept in almost act to each other in their thickness and diameters, constant motion ; and, which is still more extraoi dithat every sheave of any particular size would equally nary, without requiring the aid of the inventor, fit any shell of the size for which it was intended; though attended only by a few common workmen and the inconvenience to which ordinary blocks are or labourers; but they are superintended by Mr liable from the friction of the ropes against one or Burr, the master of the wood-mills, who is consideralternately both of the sides of the mortices, was in- ed as an able and ingenious machinist. The quantended to be removed, by placing a sheet of metal tity of blocks of every description, manufactured by on the upper part of the mortice, bent to the pro- the machinery in Portsmouth wood-mills, is more per shape by an engine adapted for the purpose. than sufficient for the consumption of the whole navy Brunell also proposed a new form for the clue-line and the Board of Ordnance, and if pushed to the and clue-garnet blocks so as to secure the sails from utmost extent of the works, would also have been splitting, by preventing the points of the sails getting sufficient to supply a great part of the shipping eminto the blocks, which has since been adopted and ployed in the transport service. greatly approved of in the navy. It may be a matter of some curiosity to know the In the sheaves, instead of the double coak 01 cogue results of this system of machinery. It is put in inserted in two halves, he substituted a mixed meta motion by a steam-engine of thirty-two horses power, coak of a new and particular form, which will be de- which, however, is applied to a great variety of other scribed hereafter, of increased strength and durabi- purposes at the same time, wholly independent ot lity. This coak was to be cast with a precision m the block-machinery. It has been found by calmoulds, and fitted by an engine with the greatest culation, that four men with the machinery, as it nicety; the pins or axes of the sheaves to be ol now stands, can complete the shells of as many wrought iron, case-hardened and coated with tin, blocks as fifty men could do by the old method; which would preserve the iron from rust in the parts and that six men will furnish as many sheaves as bewhich are not kept free from it by friction; as it fore required sixty; and that these ten men, in dishas been found by experience that, however tight placing the labour of one hundred and ten men, can the pin be forced into the shells, the water will in- with ease finish in one year from 130,000 to 140,000 sinuate itself and corrode the pin; when this is the blocks of different sorts and sizes, the total value of case, the rust soon extends itselt to the parts on which cannot be less than L. 50,000; and this is which the sheave turns, and renders it unlit tor stated to be the average number which has annually been made from the year 1808, to the conclusion of From the machines that were already completed the war. This number is found to be fully suffifor manufacturing blocks of certain dimensions, Mr cient for supplying the wear and tear of blocks, not Brunell was enabled to make a calculation ot the only in the naval, but also in the ordnance departsaving as to the first cost compared with the contract ment. The consumption, however, must depend on prices, which would be effected by the adoption ot other circumstances besides the number of ships in his invention. It was as under : commission, and will be greater or less according as Blocks of 8 inch. 12 inch. l6 inch. 21 inch. ships have been employed on severe or easy service, s. d. s. d. s. d- s. d._ in a good or bad climate, in fine or rough weather, Brunell’s prices, 1 8| 4- 5 8 ll£ 18 if &c. Nor will the number here stated appear to be Contract prices, 2 6 ll£ 13 6 27 Of enormous, when it is considered wdfat a multitude of blocks are required for a thousand sail of ships, Saving in first cost, 0 2 6^ 48 lOf which, at one period of the war, were in commission at the same time. A ship of 74 guns, for instance, These savings, if realized to the full extent, were requires the following blocks for her equipment: No. probably not more important than the increased strength, durability, and facility of working, which Single blocks from 5 to 26 inches, 6-2 130 have been gained by the adoption of the block-ma- Double ditto from 7 to 26 ditto, Various other blocks generally large, and se-1 Those parts of the' machinery which Brunell veral of them treble, J 444 had completed in London, under his patent, were For each of the 74 guns, 6 blocks, transferred to Portsmouth, and, in the course of the year 1804, were in operation; but the increased Total, 1270 number of machines, the improvements that suggest- Besides dead-eyes, hearts, parrels, and put-\ 1(5o ed themselves to the ingenious inventor, the applitock-plates, all manufactured at the mills, J cation of other machines for making dead-eyes, trucks, and all manner of block-maker’s wares, beOf all kinds in a 74 gun ship, 1430 sides circular and upright saws, lathes, engines tor
BLOC K-M ACHINERY. 539 Biock-Ma The average number of ships of the line in com* to mislead or confuse, than to inform the general Block-Macliinery.^mission, appears to have been about 100; these chi,,er y* woiud letjUife 143,000 ; and allowing the remaining reader. But as every body who happens to inspect Portsmouth dock-yard, makes a point of visiting the 900 ships and vessels to require only twice this we think it may be of some use, number, there would be wanted for the first equip- block-machinery, in conveying a general idea of the most striking ment of the 1000 ships of war, 429,000 blocks, which, at the ordinary rate of making them at the parts of the machinery, by following the process of making a block from the rough unsided tree, till the mills, would require three years in completing. last finish is given to it. The uiiferent sorts and sizes of blocks used in the We have stated, that the original intention of the navy exceed two hundred, and they vary from four to twenty-eight inches in length. Those above eigh- building was that of a wood-mill, in which all manteen inches are more sparingly used, and the shells ner of sawing, turning, boring, rabbetting, &c. was of the largest kinds are made in parts, and fitted to- to be performed, and that the block-machinery was superadded to the first design, with w hich, however, gether by hand. do the completion of this ingenious machinery, it has interfered so little, that, in addition to the imBrunell gave his whole attention from the month of mense number of blocks manufactured at the mill, upwards of a hundred different articles of w ood work September 1802 to June 1808, during which time are made by other machinery—put in motion by the he received no other compensation beyond the daily same steam-engine, from the boring of a pump of allowance of one guinea; but as it was now in full forty feet in length, to the turning of a button for operation, and ascertained to be capable of making the knob or handle of a drawer. (See Dock-yard, a sufficient number of blocks for the whole naval and 1 ortsmouth.) Lest, however, the engine, with ordnance departments, it became a question in what such variety of work, might be overloaded, a semanner the author of the invention should be re- cond aengine has been added, to assist, if found newarded. It was suggested by General Bentham, and agreed to by Brunell, that the savings of one year, cessary, or to substitute in the event of accident as compared with the contract prices, would be a fair happening to the other. Among the many ingeniand not an unreasonable remuneration for the time, ous machines belonging to the wood-mills, exclusive labour, and ingenuity, bestowed on these extraordi- of those for making blocks, one of very great eftect, nary machines. It was no easy matter, however, to and, at the same time, great simplicity, is a circular ascertain with precision what the actual savings saw for cutting rabbets in the edges of deal planks invented by Mr Burr, the superintending master of amounted to. ° the wood-mills. Mr Brunell, by estimate, made them amount to L.21,174 0 0 Mr Rogers, clerk to General Bentham, by estimate 12,742 0 0 General Bentham, after going into every possible details of expence with the utmost minuteness that could be expected in a private manufacturing concern, calculated them at L. 16,621 0 0 Add six years’ allowance at a guinea a-day about 2j400 0 0 Tor the working-model 1,000 0 0 Total amount received by Brunell, about L. 20,000 0 0 Supposing, therefore, the whole cost of the buildings, steam-engine, machinery, interest of money, &c. to amount (which we understand to be about the mark) to L. 53,000, and the net compensation for piofits to about L. 18,000, the whole expence of the concern was completely cleared in four years. The savings of L. 18,000 on one year’s manufactured articles of the value of L. 50,000, amounts to somewhat more than Brunell had originally made it by computation. & j y It would occupy too much space to enter into a minute description, and require more time than we can spare, to prepare engravings in detail of the vaiious complicated systems of machinery that are employcd for the completion of a block; and, after all, y wou afford but little use or instruction, excepting perhaps to a professed machinist; and perspective views of the several systems would tend rather
. The whole of the machinery in these mills is put in motion by straps passing over drum-heads, by which the several movements, numerous as they are are carried on without the least noise; and all the engine-work, and every part of the machinery, are so truly made, and so firmly put together, and Work with such accuracy in all their motions, that, though the spectator is surrounded on all sides with movements in every possible direction, and some most rapid and violent, the only noise that disturbs him arises from the cutting, boring, turning, polishing, and other instruments which are actually in contact with the w ork that is under execution, and none of it from the working of the machinery. All the iron work, of which it is chiefly composed, was made by Mawdsley ; and there is but another workman, perhaps, in the United Kingdom, who could have finished the engines in a manner so worthy of the invention. The first wing of the building is chiefly Occupied by upright and circular saws, used for a variety of purposes not immediately connected with the making of blocks. The only operation for this department is that ot converting the rough timber, which is generally elm or ash, most commonly the former, into its proper scantling ; that is to say, squaring it by the uprio-ht or straight-cutting saw, and then, by a circular saw, cross-cutting it into a certain number of parallelopipedons, whose lengths may bear the required proportion to the thickness of the log. Some of these pieces are again cut longitudinally, according to the thickness that may be required for the shell of the block, especially those for single and double blocks, which of course are thinner than three and four-
BLOC K-M ACHINERY. 340 and most effective contrivances in the whole Block-MaBtock-Ma- fold blocks. This operation is performed by what is ingenious chine ^ychinery. called a ripping-saw. The logs thus cut out are then machinery of the wood-mills. It consists principally of two equal and parallel circular wheels moving on ' taken into the second wing of the wood-mills, where the same axis, to which one of them is firmly fixed, the machinery peculiar tor the construction ot blocks but on which the other is made to slide; so that is erected; and here the first process may be said to these two wheels may be placed at any given discommence in making the Shell. . tance from each other, and blocks of any size adThis operation is performed by the Boring-Ma- mitted between their two rims or peripheries. For chine, which, by means of a centre bit applied to the this purpose, both rims are divided into ten equal middle of the shell, bores a hole for the centre pm parts, for the reception of ten blocks, which are firmly of the sheave, while another bores one, two, or three and immoveably fixed between the two wheels. When holes, at right angles to the direction of the first, to the double wheel with its ten attached blocks is put admit the first stroke of the chisel, and, at the same in motion, the outer surfaces of the blocks, or those time, to serve for the head of the mortice or mox- which are farthest from the centre, strike with great tices, according as the intended block is to con- violence against the edge of a chisel or gouge fixed tain one, two, or three sheaves. When thus bored, in a moveable frame, which, being made to slide in the log is carried from hence to the Morticing-Machine, which is an ingenious and a curved direction in the line of the axis, cuts those outward faces of the blocks to their proper curvastriking piece of mechanism. The block being fiimly ture, which can be altered in any way the workman fixed on a moveable carriage, the latter is so con- pleases, by a contrivance attached to the cutting trived as to be made to advance to the cutting chisels, tool. As soon as the tool has traversed the whole which are set fast in a moveable frame. Every tune length of the block, or over the space contained bethe frame, with the chisels, ascends, the block in its tween the two peripheries of the wheels, the machine carriage advances a little, so as to present to the is thrown out of the gear, and its prodigious velocity chisels ar fresh surface of wood to be acted upon at checked by a particular contrivance. The ten blocks each stroke of their descent; and this up and down are then, by a single operation, and without removmotion is continued with such rapidity, that the chisels ing them, each turned one fourth part round, and make from one hundred to one hundred and thirty another fourth part of their surface brought outstrokes in a minute, until the prescribed length has wards, which, being exposed to the cutting instrubeen morticed out; when, by raising a handle, which ment traversing in the same direction as before, have is done by a boy, the machine is stopped precisely the same curvature given to these new surfaces. A when the chisels stand at their greatest elevation ; third side is then turned outwards, and, after that, apd are thus left in the proper position, ready to the fourth and last side, when the whole ten blocks are commence a second operation. No harm, however, completely shaped, and ten other octagonal logs applied would happen either to the block or the machi- to the peripheries to undergo the same operation. nery, should the attending boy neglect to stop the The immense velocity with which the wheels rework at the proper time, or even to fall asleep, not- volve, and the great weight with which their periphewithstanding the force and rapidity of the stroke ; ries are loaded, would make it dangerous to the for, by a particular contrivance, the farther advance workmen or byestanders, if, by the violence of the of the block is stopped, and the chisels, therefore, centrifugal force, any ot the blocks should happen to act in full space, and cut only the air. It is, indeed, be thrown off from the rim of the wheels ; to prevent a general characteristic of Brunell’s machinery, to the possibility of such an accident, an iron cage or be so constructed as to carry with it a defence or guard is placed between the workman and the machine. protection against its own operations, and to coun- ^ The shell of the block being now mortised and teract all ill effects that might otherwise arise from completely shapen, the last operation is performed any neglect or inattention of the workmen. by the Scoring Machine, which, by means of cutters, The chips cut by the chisels are thrust out of the scoops out a groove round the longer diameter of the mortice by small pieces of steel attached to, and block, deepest at the ends and vanishing to the proiecting from, the back of each chisel. They are central hole for the pin on which the sheave turns. each of them, besides, armed with two cutters placed The intention of this groove or channel is to receive at right angles to the edge, called scnbers, which the hempen or iron strap which surrounds the block. mark out the width of the chip to be cut by the The only thing that now remains for completing chisel at each stroke. These scribers answer another the shell, is the removal of the little roughnesses purpose; their cutting is so true as to leave the two from the surface, and giving to it a kind of polish, sides of the mortice so perfectly smooth, as to re- which is done by the hand. quire no further trimming or polishing. The Sheaves. The wood generally used tor The next process is to remove the block from the making sheaves is lignum vitae; but iron or bellmorticing machine to a circular saw, in order to have metal have occasionally been substituted for this the four corners taken off, by which operation it is wood. An attempt was made to introduce sheaves reduced to an octagonal shape. This saw being fix- of a kind of porcelain, which answered well enough ed into a table or bench, the workman has nothing for some particular purposes, but were not to be more to do than to slide each log along the surface trusted in situations where they were liable to sudof the table, in the direction of the line marked out den jerks and irregular motions. In the navy they for the saw to cut it. , ,, , are almost invariably of lignum vitae, a few perhaps The next operation is to place the block upon the of ebony. The machinery employed for making this Shaping Machine. This is perhaps one of the most
B L 0 W-P I P Block-Ma- part of the block, consists of a Circular Saxu by have long been in the practice of making blocks by Block-Mawhich the log is cut into plates of the thickness rebut they have not attempted anything cllinery quired for the sheaves, according to their several dia- machmery; like a Shaping-Machine, nor any substitute for it; p. ^ • meters. These plates are next carried to a Crown the external shape ot the shell being made entirely Saw which bores the central hole, and, at the same by hand; nor have they such a Cooking Machine as time, reduces them to a perfect circle of the assign- that invented by Bfunell. The machinery at Brest ed diameter. The sheave, thus shaped, is next is put in motion by horses. (See Dock-Yard.) brought to the Coaking Machine, a piece of meBLOW-PIPE, an instrument for directing the chanism, not inferior in ingenuity to the Shaping flame of a lamp or candle horizontally, so as to comMachine, for the shells. It would be useless to at- municate an intense heat to small bodies placed in the tempt to describe, by words, the movements of this flame. Phis is effected by impelling through a small engine, but the effect of the operation is singularly apeiture, against the flame, a stream of air moved with curious. A small cutter, in traversing round the velocity, by means of the muscles of respiration and central hole of the sheave, forms a groove for the tlie mouth, or by a bellows. The Blow-pipe is used in insertion of the coak or bush, the shape of which soldering, by the jeweller and goldsmith, and other is that of three semicircles not concentric with artists, who fabricate small objects of metal; by the each other, nor with the sheave, but each having in making thermometers and baromea centre equally distant from that of the sheave. glass-blower, ters, and other instruments made from the tubes The manner in which the cutter traverses from the which are got from the glass-house; by the enaraelfirst to the second, and from this to the third semi- ler; and in glass-pinching, which is the art of forming circle, after finishing each of them, is exceedingly glass in a mould fixed on a pair of pincers, into the curious, and never fails to attract the particular ornamental pendants for glass lustres. This is one of notice of visitors. So very exact and accurate is this the many ingenious processes carried on at Birminggroove cut for the reception of the metal coak, and ham. The glass-blower, the enameller, and the so uniform in their shape and size are the latter cast glass-pincher, work their blow-pipe with the blast m moulds, that they are invariably found to fit each from a pair of bellows. As the process of soldering other so nicely and without preparation, that the tap requires shorter continuance of the blast, the of a hammer is sufficient to fix the coak in its place. blow-pipea for this purpose is blown by the mouth. The coaks are cast with small grooves or channels By the mineralogist and chemist, the blow-pipe is in the inside of their tubes, which serve to retain the used as an instrument for extemporaneous analysis oil or grease, without which it would soon ooze in the dry way. out, and the pin become dry. . Fig. 1.Plate XXXI V.is the common blow-pipe used Different The sheave, with its coak thus fitted in, is now in soldering ; it is of brass. Fig. 2. is Dr Wollaston’s Bom's of taken to the drilling-machine, which is kept in con- blow-pipe, which is composed of three tubes of brass, BIow"PiPe* stant motion. In casting the coaks a mark is left of an elongated conical form, which are made to fit in the centre of each of the three semicircles. This stiff and air-tight into each other when in use, and mark is applied by a boy to the point of the moving the two smaller pack into the largest; so that the drill, which speedily goes through the two coaks and instrument, when not in use, occupies a very small the intermediate wood of the sheave. A copper pin, space, and may be carried in the pencil-case of a cut from wire, of the proper length and thickness, is common pocket-book. This, with apiece of platinainserted into the holes thus drilled. And the sheave foil, two or three inches long, to hold the object of is then taken to the rivetting-hammer, which is some- experiment to the flame, constitutes a commodious thing like a small tilt-hammer, and can easily be docimastic apparatus for the travelling mineralogist. made to strike on the pin with greater or less velo- The three parts of the tube are represented, packed city, according as the workman presses with more or the one within the other, at A, separate at B, and less force on the treadle. The rivetting being perform- put together ready for use at C, fig. 2. ed, the next operation is that of broaching the central A second division of blow-pipes consists of those Bulbed hole on which the sheave turns, by means of a steel which have a cavity for the purpose of retaining the Blow-pipes, drill or cutter. humidity of the breath, which, without this precauThe last process is that of turning a groove for the tion, collects into drops when the blowing is conrope to run in round the periphery of the sheave, tinued long, and is at last driven upon the matter and this operation is performed by a lathe, which is under operation so as to cool it. They are of various so constructed, that while this grove is cutting round forms; see figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ; and have been contrithe rim of the sheave, another part of the engine is ved for the purposes of the chemist and mineralogist. turning smooth the two surfaces or faces of the Fig. 3. is of glass or of metal. Fig. 4. is of brass br sheave; and this lathe can be made to adapt itself to of silver, containing no alloy of copper, so that it sheaves of different diameters. may not be subject to green rust. This is the form The shell and the sheave being now completed, recommended by Bergman in his treatise on the ere er a ns onl * ” ^ two sides y theof iron pin, which, tT roughJ* the the former, servespassing as the application of the blow-pipe to the purposes ot the axis on which the latter turns within the mortice. mineralogist, which is contained in the collection of Ihese pins are also made, turned, and polished by his works. (See Bergmani Opuscida, Vol. II.) For the facility of cleaning, it is in three pieces, which fit in engines for the purpose, so that, with the exception stiff at A and B. Fig. 5. is of tin, that is to say, ot strapping by rope or iron, the whole block is tinned iron ; the small pipe A is of brass, and has two completed at the wood-mills. It may here be re- or three caps that fit on stiff; each cap is pierced marked, that the French, in the dock-yard of Brest, with a hole of a different diameter, and as the blast
B L O W-P I P E. The blow-pipe is useful to the mineralogist and Blow Pipp Blow-pipe, issues through this hole, the force of the blast may chemist, as affording a ready method of knowing be varied by changing the cap: this is called Di i,1,ed what the component parts of bodies are. d rials £j ow-pipes. Black’s Blow-pipe. Fig. 6. is of silver; the adjutage, with the blow-pipe are generally made by the chewh;ch is 0f platina, turns on an axis at right angles to the main tube at A, so that it may be made to mist in order to know the nature of the constiform different angles with the main tube ; the pro- tuent parts, before he proceeds to the other steps longation B, serves to receive the condensed vapour of dry or humid analysis, which are requisite for asof the breath. Fig. 7* is °f brass ; A is cylindrical, certaining the quantities of the constituent parts. the axis of the cylinder being at right angles to the Then recourse is had to other means than the blowaxis of the blow-pipe. A consists ot two pieces, one pipe ; for, in order to come at a knowledge of the of which tits air-tight into the other, and maybe proportions of the constituent parts, it is necessary turned on its axis, so that the pipe ot issue may be that the quantity of each constituent part be large made to form different angles with the axis of the enough to be weighed in a balance, and, for this blow-pipe, as the position ot the matter under expeii- purpose, the quantity of the substance empjojed must be larger than what can be managed with the ment may require. Flame. Flame consists of vapour in a state of incandescence. blow-pipe. In experimental mineralogy, with the blow-pipe, Support of Many substances, both of the vegetable, animal, and iarc0 mineral kingdoms, have the quality of giving out this the small fragment of the body, subjected to trial, should not exceed the size of half a peppercorn ; if incandescent vapour, for domestic uses, and for the arts, organized bodies of the vegetable and ani- larger, it cannot be sufficiently heated. It is placed mal kingdom alone are employed to produce it; in a lenticular cavity, made with a knife, in a piece such as oils, some of which are solid, others fluid, of well burnt charcoal of wood, free from cracks, and at the usual temperature of the air, alcohol, ether, not too porous, and of the length ot four or five wood, and pit-coal. This latter, though found amongst inches, so as to be held conveniently in the left hand. minerals, is composed of organized matter, changed Some blow-pipes have been made with a stand,, to and rendered bituminous by a particular process of which they are connected by a ball and socket joint; decomposition. The blow-pipe, by directing the in- the stand is fixed to the table by a clamp; this concandescent particles of which the flame consists, so struction leaves the right hand at liberty. In reducing fragments of metallic ores by the blowas to strike against and surround a small body, pio- pipe, charcoal should be used as a support, as duces the effect of heating the body considerably. The flame used with the blow-pipe, may either be the charcoal attracts the oxygen from the metaloxide, and reduces it to a metallic form ; and the flame of an oil or spirit lamp, or of a candle; the lic flame of the carbonated hydrogen gas proceeding when thus reduced, the metal may be kept fused on from the distillation of pit-coal* is also found advan- the charcoal, which prevents or retards its again attracting oxygen. The charcoal support has liketageous for this purpose. c Mode of in order t0 use the blow-pipe, the breath impelled wise the advantage of increasing the heat by its inBlowing, through it is to be directed across the flame of a candescence. For both these reasons, to prevent oxidation, and to increase and reverberate the heat lamp or candle, applying the orifice from which the proceeding from the jet of flame, the goldsmith who air issues a little above the upper end of the wick; a solders his small work by the blow-pipe, attaches his jet of flame is thus formed, as represented at fig. 8. work to a piece of charcoal, by means ot wires, in This jet is made to fall on the body to be heated. process of soldering. # The operation may be continued for a considerable theWhen it is required that the fragment of a mine-Support of length of time; an uninterrupted blast is kept up by ral should be heated, without the contact of char-F13'111** the muscular action of the cheeks, whilst the ordicoal, the fragment is exposed to the flame in a small nary respiration goes on through the nose: a little spoon of platina, with a wooden handle; the cavity of practice is sufficient to enable the operator to sucthe spoon is a hemisphere of three-tenths of an inch ceed. The jet of flame is conoidal, internally blue, and externally yellow, by more or less immersion in in diameter; or on a thin lamina of platina two or this jet of flame. The subject of operation receives a three inches long, and half an inch broad, and of greater or less degree of heat, and becomes oxidated the thickness of common writing paper; or it is held a forceps, three inches long, made of thin platina. in a greater or less degree. If a bead ot borax, con- by Bergman, who published his treatise on the blow-pipe taining oxide of manganese, be kept fused foi some time in the inner flame, the bead becomes colourless ; in 1780, before the working of platina had come inwhen it is afterwards kept fused in the outer flame, to use, employed a small gold spoon, as that metal the quality of remaining pure and uncontamithe manganese acquires more oxygen, and the bead has whilst in contact with many of the chemical becomes of a violet colour. This violet colour may be nated, agents; but platina is preferable, for, besides possessmade to appear more speedily, by adding a particle ing the quality of resisting the action of many cheof nitre. . Its Use in The first who applied the blow-pipe to the analysis mical agents, it has likewise the advantage of diffiMineralogy. minerals was Swab, Counsellor of the College of cult fusibility. It has now, for a good many years, Mines in Sweden, in 1738. Its application to the been wrought into various instruments both in science of Mineralogy was afterwards farther im- London and Paris; when wrought, it is sold at the of about a guinea the ounce, which is one proved by Cronsted, Rinman, Gahn, Scheele, and price quarter the price of gold. Some platina workers, as Bergman," and by other men of science since their Jeanetti of Paris, who was one of the first, form the time. 7
B L 0 W-P I P E. 343 iMow-pipe. crude granular platina into masses, by meltino- it of oxide. 1 he smell emitted by some minerals, blow-pipe, with arsenic, and subsequent heating and forging ; when heated by the blow-pipe, is another character others dissolve the crude platina in nitro-muriatlc serving to distinguish them. That of minerals acid, and reduce the nitro-muriate of platina to a containing sulphur, is the peculiar suffocating smell metallic state by heat. Platina, however, although of sulphureous gas ; minerals that contain arsenic, infusible alone by the heat or the common blow-pipe, emit, when heated, a smell like that of garlic. The will be dissolved and melted, if heated along with nature of some minerals is recognised by the partisome ot the metals. Platina supports, therefore, cular form of crystallization which they assume in should not be used where they are liable to be in cooling; this is the case with phosphate of lead, contact with a fused metal. These effects are notable which, after being fused, cools on the charcoal into in the case of tin ; when tin is melted in contact with an opaque white spheroidal polyhedron. Some ores a vessel of platina, the tin enters into a combination are reduced to a metallic globule, with great ease, with the platina, corrodes and renders it brittle, so on the charcoal; thus the native sulphuret of lead, that pieces of the platina vessel come off on the ap- called Galaena, being heated by the blow-pipe, the plication of a small force, and the vessel is thus reiv» sulphur is driven off, and the lead remains in its medered useless. Platina vessels also become unser- tallic state. A small particle of silver may be meltviceable by frequent and continued exposure to ed by the blow-pipe, likewise gold, copper, and, great heat. Platina crucibles that are much used be- Bergman says, cast-iron. Metallic zinc, when excome brittle, and crack at the edges; and care should posed to the flame of the blow-pipe on the charcoal, be taken to cool these vessels gradually, that they melts and burns with a bluish green flame, and bemay last as long as possible. A platina vessel, in comes covered with oxide, which flies off and floats which sulphuric acid was boiled, for a long time, at m the air in light white flocks. Metallic antimony last became perforated and unserviceable. becomes red hot, and melts on the charcoal; and if "luxes. Borax (borate of soda) is used along with the frag- the operator ceases to blow, a white fume rises, and ment of mineral in many cases. When exposed to the oxide of antimony forms upon the globule, in whitish flame, it becomes opaque, swells and ramifies much, crystalline spiculae: if the globule, in a state effusion, in consequence of parting with its water of crystalli- be thrown upon a brick floor, it runs along for a conzation; afterwards it fuses into a colourless and trans- siderable way, rebounding several times, and leaving parent bead. It is convenient to use calcined borax, a trace of white oxide of antimony. which is borax deprived of its water of crystallizaSome substances communicate colour to the tion by heat in a crucible; this melts into a bead on flame of the blow-pipe. Muriate of copper, wdiose the charcoal at once. The solubility of a mineral in crystals are green, communicate a vivid green to borax, with effervescence, or without effervescence, the flame; sulphate and nitrate of copper, whose cryand the colour that the mineral communicates to the stals are blue, likewise impart a green colour to the borax, are the chief distinctive characters obtained flame when they are exposed to its action. Some by treating a mineral with that substance. Phos- of the salts of strontian give a purple tinge to the phate of ammonia is also sometimes used as a flux in flame. the same manner as borax, and carbonate of soda; but both these, especially the latter, have the inconM hat precedes relates to the blow-pipe worked Glass-r,lowvenience of sinking into the charcoal, which borax by the breath. When it is required to continue the ei s’ Belis free from. use of the blow-pipe, so long as would be fatiguing Mention ma be made here of if the breath merely were employed, the glass-blowSen by the Some minerals are fusible alone, such as garnet and double and to impel a current of air through a tin blow-pipe, ow pipe, felspar; this last is rather difficult to fuse. Some are against the flame of a lamp fixed on the table. For infusible and change colour ; bituminous shale loses the sake of durability, the blow-pipe is sometimes of its black colour, and becomes white, green, and dark; brass, on which is screwed a nozle of platina. coloured steatite become white. Some dissolve in The blow-pipe may have a stop-cock, as in fig. 9". borax without effervescence, as agate, quartz, felspar, serving to regulate the blast. The lamp has a'cotamiantus, garnet. Some dissolve in borax with ef- ton wick of nearly an inch in thickness; the wick fervescence ; this is the case with carbonate of lime ; is kept together by a tin wick-holder, which is solit forms with borax a globule transparent whilst in dered to the lamp; melted tallow fills the lamp, and fusion, but in cooling it, the globule becomes opaque, feeds the wick with fuel. In order to get rid of the the lime being no longer held in solution by the bo- smoke, which is in considerable quantity, there may rax ; in liKe manner, as the watery solutions of cer- be placed, at a convenient distance above the flame, tain salts, saturated when hot, deposit a part of the a tin funnel ending in a tube, which conveys the salt on cooling. Some of the metals communicate smoke out of the room. A convenient method of peculiar colours to borax. Copper, in certain pro- carrying away the smoke from the glass-blowers’ portions, and at a certain degree of oxidation, lamp, is represented in fig. 13. It consists of a cover gives a brown colour to borax when heated by of thm sheet copper, which is placed on the table, the blow-pipe. Cobalt gives a deep blue tinge. covering the lamp and nozle. The fore-part of this ‘ langanese a violent colour. Iron tinges borax cover is open, so as to allow the jet of flame to pass brown, and if in greater quantity black. These freely, from the upper part of the cover two tubes •colours are produced by the metals in a state go upwards for the exit of the smoke; between
B L O W-P I P E. 344 Blow-pipe, these two tubes the glass-blower has a view of the issue through a nozle. This apparatus is described Blow-pipe, yobject he is at work upon, whilst his eyes are screen- by Mr Greenough, in Nicholsons Journal, Vol. ed from the light of the flame. The two tubes join IX. p. 25 and 143. It has some inconveniencies, above in one short tube. Over the open end of this and does not appear ever to have come into much short tube, at a small distance above, is a tube sus- use. The water-pressure apparatus, applied to the^ater-pre*. pended from the ceiling by wires, which conveys the smoke into the chimney of the room. By a handle blow pipe, of which a section is given at fig. 10.*"™ attached to the cover, the cover with its tubes is was contrived by Mr Tilley, an ingenious fancy (3ja^g.bjow, removed when it is necessary to trim the wick. glass-blower. It consists of a tin box with a par-ers. The flame of gas from pit-coal may be used instead tition in it, reaching within half an inch of the bottom ; w ater is poured in equal in bulk to threeof a lamp, with a bellows of this kind. Water-pres- The regularity of the blast in the double bellows, fourths of the capacity of the box. The water in sure Appa- is effected by means of a weight pressing on the air the cavity DE is open, and subject to no other presrat os. contained in the second copartment of the bellows ; sure but that of the atmosphere, being only covered just in the same way as a stream of air is made to by the lid of the vessel; the apartment f is closed issue regularly from a tube fixed in the mouth of an at top, so as to be air-tight, and the water in it is inflated bladder, when a weight is placed on the pressed by the elasticity of the air confined in its bladder. A regular stream of air may also be ob- upper part. The tube C has its lower extremity altained, by subjecting inclosed air to the pressure of ways plunged in water, so that, when air is blown a column of water, mercury, or some other liquid. in through it, the return of the air by that tube is If a vessel containing air, and open at the mouth, prevented. Before the apparatus is set to work, the be plunged into water with the mouth downwards, surface of the water in both copartments is at the and if the water on the outside of the vessel rise same height, both being pressed by air of the densihigher than the surface of the water within the ves- ty of the surrounding air ; but, when air is blown in sel, then the column of wrater, whose height is the through C, the air rises through the water to the difference of level, exercising its pressure, as all li- top of the copartment F; and as the only issue for quids do, in every direction, acts upwards on the the air is through the small aperture of the blow-pipe, inclosed air; and the inclosed air will be pressed and by which it cannot escape nearly so fast as it is more condensed than the external air, and will blown in, the air consequently becomes condensed the upper part of the copartment F; and this escape in a current, by a stop-cock opened on the in condensed air pressing on the water in F more top of the vessel for its issue ; this issue will con- strongly than the atmosphere does on the water in tinue till the surface of the exterior and interior water come to a level; for then the air in the vessel DE, depresses the surface of the water in F, and is come to have the same density as the external air. causes it to rise in DE, which is effected by a porThe force with which the inclosed air is pressed, is tion of the water passing under the partition into the equal to the weight of a volume of water whose open copartment DE. Thus the pressure exerted height is the difference of levels, and its base the by the column of water whose height is the differsurface of water exposed to the inclosed air. The ence of level of the water in DE, and of the water gasometers used by Lavoisier, to afford a stream of in F, forces the air from the copartment F through oxygen gas and a stream of hydrogen gas, for ac- the blow-pipe a, which is directed against the flame complishing the composition of water, are construct- of a lamp ; and this pressure keeps up a constant till the water in the two copartments comes ed upon this principle. An apparatus of the same blast to the same height. The degree of condennature has, for many years, been employed in the nearly of the inclosed air, and the height of the great way, in different parts of Britain, to regu- sation column of water pressing on the condensed air, are late the most powerful blast used in the arts,—« measures of each other, when much air is blown in, that for reducing ironstone to the state of cast-iron. as to occasion a considerable degree of condensaIn blast-furnaces upon this construction, the blast so is raised by means of a large cast-iron cylinder tion. The difference of level resulting is considerable; which acts as a bellows, having a valve in the bot- and the column of water, which is always reacting an equal and contrary pressure on the condensed tom that opens inwards, and that admits the air with causes it to issue with greater velocity from the during the ascent of the piston ; when the piston air, descends, the valve shuts, and the air is driven into blow-pipe ; when the condensation diminishes, so does the column of water, and the velocity of the isa large parallelopipedal vessel, less in height than in suing stream of air. More air is to be blown in the other dimensions, immersed in water, and having with the mouth through the tube C, from time to its under surface closed only by the water. In this time, so as to keep the blast regular. Mr Tilley is vessel the air is pressed by the column of water^ of opinion that this apparatus produces a more reguwhose height is the distance between the surfaces oi lar stream of air than a double bellows, and it has the exterior and interior water; a pipe ot issue ter- likewise the advantage that the'operator is frep from minating in a nose-pipe, conducts the blast to the the trouble of moving a pedal. The dimensions of Me log rani’s The blowpipe of the Abbe Melograni of Naples, the vessel A A, which is either of tinned iron or of Blow-pipe. £or t]ie use 0f the mineralogist, operates by the pres- tinned copper, are 17 inches in height, 5 inches in width, and 9 in breadth; the lid of the vessel opens sure of water. It is composed of two hollow globes, and shuts on hinges, and supports the tallow lamp the upper filled with water, which, by running into the lower, forces the air contained in the lower to B. The bent glass tube a, which terminates in a
1 li L O W-P I P E. 345 Blow-pipe, small hole, is fitted air-tight into a tin tube, which is from the small aperture of the tube, and being directed Blow-pipe, made conical, and which forms the issue from, the against the flame of a lamp, the flame is driven in a top of the copartment F; for this purpose, paper is hoiizontal stieam, such as the blow-pipe produces. wrapped round the glass tube, and then cotton wick The instrument has a safety-valve (S) to prevent the’ yarn, in a conical form, so that the glass tube thus danger of explosion, which might happen if the clothed may fit tight into the socket, and may nozle were stopped. The same wick that heats the nevertheless be moved round, that the blast may act bulb may serve to furnish the jet of flame, as is the properly on the flame. The bent metal tube C h, case in the eolipile represented in fig. n. This inalso fixed into its socket in the same manner; its strument has been proposed to be applied to the purjunction with the socket is seen in fig. 10. There is poses of the mineralogist; but it does not appear to a screen formed of a tin plate sliding vertically in be either so readily put in action, or so efficacious as grooves between two upright pieces of tin ; the edge the common blow-pipe, which is also simpler in its of this is seen at S, in fig. 10. It is intended to pro- construction, less bulky, and more easily carried tect the eyes of the operator from the light of the about. lamp, whilst, at the same time, he can see the subject Newman of his operation over the top of the screen. This tLisle . ^Ir otreet, ’ philosophical instrument of Blow-pipe; Newman’s London, having observed thatmaker air, conscreen is not soldered to the vessel, but is held fast densed in a cavity, required a considerable time to by its foot being placed between the lid of the ves- escape through a small aperture made to give it issue sel and the top of the close chamber F. Two rests contrived the apparatus represented at fig. 12., which for supporting the operator’s arms project one from acts as a blow-pipe. This apparatus consists of a each side of the vessel; upon these the arms are strong plate copper box perfectly air-tight, three placed when any substance is held to the flame. inches in width and height, and four in length, a conThese rests are wrapped round with woollen list or densing syringe to force air into the box, and an adleather, so as to be more convenient for leaning jutage with a stop-cock at one end of the box, by upon. The whole of the apparatus, including the which the issue of the air is regulated. The piston lamp and case, weighs only three pounds and a half. rod of the condensing syringe works through collars When it is to be used, the vessel is fixed to a table of leather in the cap, which has an aperture in the or bench, by means of a leather strap buckled to side, and a screw (N) connected with a stop-cock, two loops, which are on the sides of the vessel op- which may be made to communicate with a jar^ posite to each other; the strap is passed under the bladder, or gazometer, containing oxygen, hydrogen’ table or bench. The long flat cotton wick is pre- or other gases. When this communication is made,’ ferred by some glass-blowers to the usual round cot- and the condenser worked, the gas contained in the ton wick. The lamp is filled with tallow, which jar or bladder is thrown into the box, and issues melts after the lamp has been lighted for some time, through the adjutage upon the flame of a lamp and then it burns as freely as oil, and with a less placed near it, YV hen the apparatus is worked with offensive smell. When not in use, the tallow be- common air, a few strokes of the piston fills the comes solid, and is more conveniently carried about chamber with compressed air. When the cock of than oil : hogs’ lard also does well for burning in this the adjutage is opened, the air issues with great velamp. Some glass-blowers mix cocoa-nut oil, which is locity in a small stream, and when directed on the solid, at the temperature of the climate of Britain, flame of a lamp, produces a jet of flame as the com- * with hogs’ lard, and find it to answer well in the lamp. mon blow-pipe does, but with more precision and reThe lamp is placed within another vessel, marked K, gularity. The force of the stream of air is easily which supports it at a proper height, leaving a space adjusted by opening more or less the stop-cock of between all round, to receive any tallow that may the adjutage ; and, when the box has been moderun over the edge of the lamp. A wire bent at the rately charged, the stream will continue to issue uniend is convenient for trimming the wick, and form- formly for twenty minutes; when the strength of the ing it into a, channel through which the stream of blast begins to decline, it will be restored by workair is to be directed. It is convenient to have seve- ing the syringe. The apparatus is very portable, and ral lamps with wicks of different thicknesses, name- not liable to injury. It is made by Mr Newman, the hr> one to hold twro flat cottons of about one inch inventor, with a lamp adapted to it, so as to pack up and a quarter broad, another to hold four, a third to in a box not more than six inches in length, and four hold six, or as much common wick-yarn as is equal inches in width and height, enough of space beinoto those wicks in bulk, and glass adjutages of differ- left for other small articles : others he makes in boxes ent sized apertures to suit the different sized wicks. meyvhat Jai^ci, so as to contam also a selection of See Transactions of the Society for Encoura°'ino' chemical tests. See Journal of Science, edited at & Arts, Vol. XXXI. * the lloyal Institution, No. 1. The Eolipile, fig. 11., Plate XXXIV. has been ap■ lipile. Sir Humphrey Davy having discovered that the ex- with a mixplied to act as a blow-pipe. It is a hollow vessel of plosion from oxygen and hydrogen gases would not,,ire ol °xybrass, sometimes made in form of a small kettle, some- communicate through very small apertures, Mr Chil- "en an*f**v^**/ from the King to establish a mint at Bombay, at which they were empowered to coin rupees, and other smaller pieces. At this period Bombay continued to be of very little importance, which partly proceeded from the vigorous government of Aurengzebe, and the rising power of the Mahrattas. These two powers contended for the possession of the Island of Kenery, which was seized on by the troops of both, the Bombay government not daring to oppose either party, but trembling for its own safety amid these formidable contentions. Bombay was soon afterwards, in consequence of the capture of Bantam by the Dutch, constituted an independent English settlement, and the seat of the English power in the East Indies. In 1678, the Company, finding it necessary to retrench the expences of the establishment, proceeded to reduce the salaries and to lower the rank of their military officers, which produced general discontent, and, finally, a serious revolt, which threatened the most alarming consequences to the Company’s affairs. This insurrection was headed by Captain Richard Reigwin, Commander of the Garrison, who seized the Governor and such members of the council as still adhered to him, and having assembled the troops and militia, annulled the authority of the Company by proclamation, requiring the inhabitants to renounce obedience to their authority, and to take the oaths of allegiance to the King. The whole inhabitants and all the troops immediately complied with the terms of this proclamation; and all the exertions of the Governor of Surat to persuade the revolters to return to their duty were in vain. The mutiny was at length quelled by the prudence of Sir Thomas Grantham, who arrived from Surat with a commission from the King, and had a conference with Reigwin, in the course of which the latter agreed to deliver up the fort, on condition of receiving a free pardon for himself and his associates. Since this period, the settlement of the English East India7 Company at Bombay, has been frequently in a ver} precarious condition, sometimes from the unhealthiness of the climate, and, at other times, from the jealousy of the native powers. But, after the power of the Company became more firmly rooted in India, it has continued gradually increasing in wealth and consequence, and may now be accounted one of the most important and durable possessions of the British in India. The Government of Bombay and its dependencies, is by law vested in a Governor and three Counsellors, who are placed under the control of the supreme government of Bengal, and are in all cases to obey such orders as they may receive, provided they have no different instructions in their possession from the Court of Directors, of which they are bound to send immediate notice to the Bengal Government. The Court of Directors appoint the Governor and members of the Council, and likewise the Commander in Chief of the forces, who is not officially a member of the Council, but may receive such an appointment from the Directors, and, in that case, he takes precedence of all the other members. It is difficult to fix with precision the extent of the territories included within the Presidency of Bombay,
BOR 357 as some districts belonging to the native powers are Bombay II intermingled with them. On a general estimate, Borda. however, they may be calculated to comprehend 10,000 square miles, and to contain a population exceeding altogether two millions and a half, which may be supposed to consist of one Mahometan to fifteen Hindoos. Of the Persees no exact estimate has ever been made.—See Milburn’s Oriental Commerce. Voyages and Travels of Lord Valentia. Hamilton’s East India Gazetteer. (o.) BORDA (John Charles), a Mathematician and Nautical Astronomer, celebrated for his improvements in the theory of Hydraulics and Pneumatics, and in the construction of instruments for observation. He was born at Drax, the 4th of May 1733, and was originally destined for the bar, but abandoned the pursuit of the law in favour of a military life, which he considered as better calculated to afford him opportunities for the cultivation of his mathematical talents, and, for the application of the results of his studies to practice. His acquirements in science had very early attracted the attention of D’Alembert, who predicted his future eminence, and warmly recommended his turning his thoughts to the occupation of a place in the Academy. He obtained a commission in the Light Cavalry, and was appointed Teacher of Mathematics to the corps; and, in 1756, he presented to the Academy of Sciences (A.) A Memoir on the Paths of Bombs, which was ordered to be printed in the collection of the Savans Etrangers, but which has not excited much attention. He was elected in the same year a member of the Academy; and in the next he was present at the battle of Hastinbeck, in the capacity of Aide-de-Camp to the celebrated General Maillebois, to whom he looked up as a great master in the art of War. He was afterwards admitted into the corps of Engineers, without the usual form of examination into his qualifications ; and, being stationed at a seaport, the occurrences of the place naturally directed his attention anew to the phenomena of the resistance of fluids. He published, in 1763, a detailed memoir on this subject (B. Mem. Ac. Par. 1763, p. 358), in which he relates a variety of experiments, showing, that the resistance of the air is actually proportional to the square of the velocity, as had commonly been supposed from theoretical considerations. He also determines, by other experiments, the magnitude of the resistance to the motion of a sphere, and proves, that nothing can be more erroneous than the supposition, that the resistance to an oblique surface decreases as the square of the sine of the angle of incidence. He also finds, that the resistance to the motion of a cube, in the directions of the diagonal of its base and of one of the sides, are as 21 to 16, while the calculations of former theorists had made the resistance greatest in the direction of the side. In 1766, he published an Essay on the discharge of fluids through the orifices of vessels (C. Mem. Ac. Par.l 766, p. 579), in which he first states the objections to considering the different strata of a fluid as descending in all cases very nearly in parallel directions; he examines the contraction of the jet after its escape from the orifice, and determines some
358 Boria.
■?
B O R BOR of the effects of abrupt changes in the velocity of the fled the practical theory of projectiles, which had Borda. fluid passing through pipes or apertures of different been treated in a satisfactory, though very general manner by John Bernoulli, and had been reduced into forms. He contributed, in 1767? to the publications of the a much more convenient form by Euler. M. Borda Academy, an important Memoir on Water Wheels has substituted some approximate expressions for (D. p. 270), which has escaped the notice of his able the true value of the density of the air, and has thus Biographer M. Lacroix. He observes, in this paper, been enabled to integrate equations which, in their that the simple hypothesis of a resistance varying as more strictly correct form, had resisted the powers the square of the velocity, which is so near the truth of Euler himself; and he has justified the adoption of in common cases, where a number of particles, pro- the formulas thus obtained by a comparison with exportional to the velocity, strikes, in a given time, periment. In the meantime his talents were very actively emupon a small exposed surface with a force also protional to the velocity, is totally inapplicable to the ployed in the naval service of his country, which he action of a confined stream upon the floatboards of entered in 1767, by the nomination of M. Praslin. a wheel, since, in this instance, the number of par- The time-keepers of Le Roy and Berthoud were beticles concerned cannot vary materially with the ginning to rival those of the English artists, and the velocity, the whole stream being supposed to operate French Government ordered several vessels to be in all cases upon the successive floatboards; so that fitted out for cruises, in, order to examine the accuthe analogy would require us to suppose the force in racy of these time-keepers. M. Borda was appointthis case nearly proportional to the simple relative ed a Lieutenant on board of the Flore, and acted velocity ; a conclusion which agrees remarkably well jointly with M. Pingre as a delegate of the Academy of Sciences for the purposes of the expedition. The with the experiments of some practical authors. The same volume contains a continuation of M. voyage occupied about a year, and extended to the Borda’s researches relating to the resistance of Canaries, the West Indies, Newfoundland, Iceland, oblique surfaces (E. Mem. Ac. Par. 1767? P* 495), and Denmark. M. Borda had a considerable share with a statement of experiments still more con- in the account which was published of the observaclusively confuting the received hypothesis, respect- tions ; and the formula, w’hich he has here given, for ing oblique impulse, than his former investigations the correction of the effects of refraction and paralhad done. We also find in it an Essay on isoperi- lax, is considered as equally elegant and convenient. metrical problems (F. p. 551), in which it is shown, He also presented to the Academy a separate Methat Euler’s method of treating them, which had moir on the results of the expedition. (L Voyage been in great measure abandoned by its equally pro- vour eprouver les montres cle Leroy. 4. Paris. (K. found and candid author, in favour of the more ge- Mem. Ac. Par. 1773, p. 258.) After an interval of weeks, these watches were found capable of deneral and more elegant calculations of Lagrange, six was still capable of affording all the results that had termining the longitude within about fifteen minutes been derived from the method of variations ; and he of the truth. In order to supply some deficiencies in the obsereven pointed out some deficiencies in the first Memoir of Lagrange, which contained the detail of his vations made at the Canaries, Borda was sent out a ingenious invention. These investigations of M< second time, with the Boussole and the Espiegle, and Borda afford collateral evidence of the strict truth of he published, after his return, (L.) a very correct the demonstrations of both his great predecessors ^ and highly finished map of these islands. He was and though they have been little employed by later soon afterwards promoted to the rank of Captain, Mathematicians, yet it must be admitted to be of and served under the Count d Estaing as a Majoran appointment nearly similar to that of some importance, in enabling us to appreciate the General, value of a new mode of calculation, to determine our Captains of the fleet. In this capacity, he obwhether its results are or are not such, as might be served the inconvenience of too great a variety in the obtained, with almost equal convenience, by methods sizes of the vessels constituting a fleet, and proposed to abolish the class of 50 and of 64 gun ships, before in use. His memoir, inserted in the collection of the Aca- as too small for the line of battle, and to build ships demy for 1768 (G. Mem. Ac. Par. 1788, p. 418), of three rates only, the lowest carrying 74 guns, so is devoted exclusively to the theory of pumps; and that a smaller quantity of stores should require to be he considers especially the effect of the passage of kept ready for use in the dock-yards, than when the fluid through valves and other contracted parts, ships of more various dimensions were to be refitin diminishing the quantity of the discharge. His ted. In 1780, he had the command of the Guerrier, results are derived from the principle of the preser- and in 1781 of the Solitaire, which was taken, after vation of the living force or energy of a system of a gallant resistance, by an English squadron. He was bodies, throughout all the vicissitudes of its motions, thus compelled to pay a visit to Great Britain, but which had before been employed with success by was immediately set at liberty upon his parole. He proposed to the Academy in this year (M. Daniel Bernoulli in problems of a similar nature; but it was not until the experiments of Buat had af- Mem. Ac. Par. 1781), a mode of regulating elecforded sufficient grounds for the determination of the tions, which was adopted by that body. Its pecuconsisted in having the names of the candifriction of fluids, that cases of this kind could be sub- liarity dates arranged by each voter in a certain order, and mitted to exact calculation. the numbers expressing the degrees ot In his Essay on the curve described by cannon- collecting preference into separate results, so that the simple balls, published among the Memoirs for 1769 (H. Mem. Ac. Par. 1769? P- 247)? he has greatly simph- majority of voters did not necessarily establish the
BOR BOR 359 Borda. claim of any individual, if he was placed very low might derive from their casual relations to general Borda in the list by any considerable number of those who society. He never married ; and he was too much „ It voted against him. But, it must be allowed, that absorbed in the pursuit of science, to associate with Lfj this mode of election is by no means wholly unob- a very extensive circle even of private friends. Though jectionable. not a man of learning, he was not deficient in liteM. Borda appears to have rendered an essential rary taste, and he was, in particular, a passionate service to the cultivators of Practical Astronomy, admirer of Homer. He seems to have possessed a by the introduction and improvement of the repeat- considerable share of that natural tact and sagacity, ing circle, although this instrument has probably which was so remarkable in Newton, and which we been less employed in Great Britain than elsewhere, also discover in the works of Daniel Bernoulli; enaon account of the greater perfection of those which bling them, like a sort of instinct, to elude the inwere previously in common use. It had been sug- surmountable difficulties with which direct investigagested by Mayer, in 1767? that a circle with two tions are often encumbered; while Euler, on the moveable sights, would enable us to observe a given contrary, as M. Lacroix most truly observes, seems angle a great number of times in succession, and to have taken pleasure in searching for matter which to add together the results, without any error in would give scope to his analytical ingenuity, alreading them off, and thus to obtain a degree of though wholly foreign to the physical investigations precision equal to that of much larger and better which had first led him to the difficulties in question. instruments of a different construction ; but the pro- It would have been fortunate for the progress of posal had been little noticed until ten years after- science, if some of the most celebrated of M. Borwards, when Borda pursued the path pointed out by da’s countrymen had profited by his example, in Mayer, and trained Lenoir, then a young and un- studying to attain that unostentatious simplicity licensed artist, to the execution of the improved in- which is the last result of the highest cultivation. strument, notwithstanding the opposition of the rival (Lacroix in Rapport des Travaux de la Societe Phiopticians, and the wrant of encouragement from the lomathique. Vol. IV. 8. Par. 1800.) (AL-) opulent public. He published, in 1787 (N.) his BORING, generally speaking, is the Art of perDescription and Use of the Reflecting Circle, with forating a solid body. In the present article, we different Methods for Calcidating the Principal Ob- propose to give some account of the Boring of Canservations of Nautical Astronomy ; but the olficers non, of Cylinders, of Muskets, of Portland of the French navy, for whom this work was intend- Stone, of Rocks, and of Wooden Pipes. ed, appear to have profited but little by his instruc1. Boring of Cannon is performed by placing Cannon, tions. His instrument was, however, much employ- the cannon on an axis which is turned by a very ed in the operations for determining the length of strong power, whilst a steel cutter, in form of a drill, the terrestrial meridian, and he himself took charge is pressed against the metal, and excavates the cyof the experiments required for ascertaining the lindrical cavity which is required. Boring may be length of the pendulum, and for the comparison of considered as a branch of the art of turning, which, the different standards wfith each other. He invent- in general, is the formation of cones, cylinders, and ed some very ingenious methods of overcoming the other figures that have an axis, by making a straight difficulties which present, themselves in the pursuit line or curve revolve round the axis on which the of these objects ; but he was interrupted in his re- material is fixed, or by making the material revolve searches by the horrors of the Revolution, nor did whilst the generating line remains at rest. In turnhe live to see the whole of the operations completed. ing bodies of no great degree of hardness, and where He endeavoured, also, to promote the introduction it is required to take off only a small portion of the of the new mode of subdividing the circle, by the surface at once, a small power is sufficient to put the laborious computation of Tables of Logarithms (O. turning machine in motion ; and the longer the edge 4to, Par. 1801i, adapted to decimal parts of the of the cutter which is applied to the metal is, and quadrant,—a work in which he was assisted by M. the harder the metal, the greater force is requirec. to Helarabre. From the increasing indisposition of turn the machine. M. Callet, who had undertaken to correct the proofs Cannon, at first, were frequently made of bars of of these tables, some very material errors had been malleable iron, placed longitudinaiiy, and these bars committed in the first half of the tables, and M. covered with iron hoops, the whole welded or brazed Borda thought it necessary to cancel a great num- together. Ordnance of this construction was not ber of the pages; and in order to meet the expence sufficiently strong to resist the explosion of the powthus entailed on him, he was obliged to dispose of der, and did not admit of the cylindrical cavity bean estate which he had lately acquired in his native ing formed with much accuracy. Its use was, thereplace. He was also engaged, towards the close of fore, gradually laid aside, and guns of cast metal his life, in the measurement of the force of magnet- ’were employed. And before the casting of cannon ism, and in the calculation of astronomical refrac- became general, guns of cast metal were reserved tion. His health had been threatened for several for the most important situations; thus the ships of successive winters, and he died the 10th of March the Admiral and Vice-Admiral alone had cast metal 3799cannon, the other ships of war being armed with In his manners he was animated and unaffected : wrought-iron guns only. he avoided those who sought his acquaintance mereCopper, without mixture, has been employed to ly from tne vanity of being intimate with a man of cast guns, as appears from two large cannon made in talents, whatever pretensions to importance they the time of Henry VIII. and bearing his name, in
360 Cannon,
BORING. armoury of the Tower of London. But the respect to the nature of the metal; for the nature of v Cannon only two materials now used for cannon are bronze, the metal given by the blast-furnace varies frequent- ' ^ which is a mixture of copper and tin, and cast-iron. ly and suddenly, from causes either unknown, or not the command of the iron-master. lor this In modern times, the use of cast-iron cannon has be- under come more general, as that metal has the advantage reason guns are no longer cast from the blast-furbut pig-iron already formed is taken, of such of not being softened by the heat of the inflamma- nace, qualities, and in such proportions, as to form a metal tion of the powder ; whereas brass guns, when filed neither too soft nor too brittle and hard for guns. many times in rapid succession, become heated so The different kinds of pig-iron thus selected are nearly to the melting temperature of the metal, that melted together in a furnace called, in iron manufacthe muzzle of the gun droops. an air-furnace, and by some writers a reverThe first cannon made of cast-metal were cast tories, beratory furnace, by the flame of pit-coal; the flame hollow, with a cavity as nearly cylindrical as could being impelled by a strong current of air produced be executed by casting. The surface of this cavity by the rarefaction of the air in a chimney of thirty was then smoothed on a boring machine by steel or forty feet in height, the column of the atmosphere cutters set in a copper head, and disposed so as of which the air in the chimney makes a part, being to describe a cylinder terminated by a half sphe- lighter than the unrarified columns of the atmo roid. These cutters (in French alezoirs, and the ope- sphere next it, its equilibrium with these columns ration alezer) are represented in the French Encyclope- is destroyed; the neighbouring columns therefore dic—Vl&n dies—Fonte. This method of making guns rush through the grate of the furnace, which is the has been long laid aside on account of the holes and only aperture by which they can attain the bottom inequalities in the cavity thus formed, and the dimof the rarified column, and they carry the flame of cultv of casting the cavity so as that its axis snail the coal against the pig-iron, which is thereby coincide with the axis of the piece. Cannon are brought into fusion. From the iron thus fused only now always cast solid, and the cylindrical cavity is one large gun is cast at one time, the furnace not formed by boring in this solid mass. being capable of melting more metal than is requiThe power employed for boring cannon ought to site for that purpose. be in proportion to the hardness of the metal of The gun is cast with two appendages, which are which they are composed, and to the size of the to come off before it is finished and ready for use: pieces. For the boring of guns of brass, as it is The one is a square piece beyond the cascabel, for called, that is, a metal composed of ten parts ot fixing the gun so as to revolve with the axis of the copper, one of tin, and two of brass, or of these boring-mill; the other is the head. metals in other proportions,. a metal softei and The head in cast-iron cannon is a mass of castmore easily bored than cast-iron, horses are fre- iron two or three feet long, somewhat bell-shaped. quently employed as a moving power ; but the It is a prolongation of the mass of metal beyond strong moving powers of water or steam must the muzzle ring, and in the position in which the be had recourse to for boring large guns of cast gun is cast, the head is the top of the whole iron, which is the material used for making the largest mass, the square beyond the cascabel being the guns now in use, and is also the hardest substance lowest part. After the metal has cooled, the upper used in their manufacture. Indeed, some kinds surface of the head is cavernous, as is the case of cast-iron are too hard to admit the aption 01 the with the surface that is uppermost during the castborer; and for the making of guns it is necessaiy ing and cooling of any large body of cast iron: to melt pi'T-iron of different qualities together, m or- the sides of the cavities in the head are frequently der to have a metal that shall possess no more than formed of cast iron crystallized in a fern-leaf form. the required degree ot hardness. The intention of the head is to prevent these caviThe quality of pig-iron is known by the appeal- ties, which are formed most abundantly at the upper ance of its surface, but more decisively by tne ap- surface of the cooling cast iron, from forming in the pearance which its fracture presents, lo obtain cun itself. But, notwithstanding the precaution of this fracture, a man takes one end of a pig m each casting the gun with a large head, and of mixing hand, and lifting it as high above his head as he can, proper kinds of cast iron in the air-furnace, it frethrows it with force, so that the middle of the pig quently happens that small cavities occur in the shall fall across another pig placed on the ground , in this way the pig thrown down is broken. Soft or ^ The gun with its head being cast and allowed to Vfr.tica! grey pig-iron, which is the most valuable, breaks cool, is taken to the boring-mill, where the head is boru,g* with difficulty, and the surface of its fracture is of a to be taken off, the cylindrical cavity or bore is to grey colour, composed of pretty large crystalline be formed, and the outside of the gun is to be turngrains. Hard or white pig-iron breaks easily ; the ed. Formerly the boring of guns was done in an surface of the fracture is white, and not sensib y upright position; the gun being placed above the granulated, the grains that compose it being sma . boring-bar was fixed in a frame sliding vertically The pig iron here spoken of is that smelted by the in grooves; this frame was suspended on each side coak of pit-coal. Pig-iron smelted with charcoal ot by a block and tackle,’and the end of each of wood has a fracture of a different appearance, some- the two ropes was wound round a windlass. By times lamellar, like the fracture of a metallic bis- turning these windlasses, the gun might be raised or muth. Formerly guns used to be cast from the lowered, and by this means might be allowed either blast-furnace; that is to say, immediately from the to press with its whole weight on the boring-bit, or ironstone. This was attended with uncertainty m
B O R Cannon, with any part of its whole weight. A figure of this apparatus may be seen in the French Encyclopedic— Planches—Fonte. Another vertical apparatus for boring cannon is represented in Rinman, Bergwerks Lexicon, Stockholm, 1789, Tab. IV. Horizontal The practice which has long been followed in this Boring. country, is to place the gun horizontally in the boringmill ; and it is fixed on the axis of the mill by means of the square piece at the cascabel. In a boring-mill constructed by Smeaton, one gun is placed on the horizontal axis of the water-wheel itself, and, consequently, revolves with the same velocity. On this same axis is a toothed wheel with 78 teeth, which works two wheels, one placed on each side of it, and each having 29 teeth ; on the axis of each of these a gun is placed ; their power is |yth of the power of the centre wheel. (See Smeaton’s Reports, Vol. I.) On the axis where the power is least, smaller sized guns are bored; on the axis of the greatest power, the large guns are bored. A crane moveable on a vertical axis, with a sweep that extends over all the carriages, with a tackle hanging from its beam, and wrought by a windlass, serves to place the gun on the carriage where it is to be bored, or to remove it from one carriage to another if required; and afterwards, when the gun is bored and turned, the crane serves to remove the gun from the boring-mill. The gun, when placed on the machine, has the square at the cascabel fixed in a square iron box (G, Plate XXXVI. fig. 5.), on the axis. This box has a screw passing through each of its sides, and by the operation of these screws, the square of the gun is adjusted, centered, and fixed; the chace of the gun is also fixed in a collar N, in which it is to revolve. (The collar in the figure is represented too near the muzzle ring.) The axis on which each gun is fixed, may be set in gear or put in connection with the revolving axis of the machine, so as to move round with it, or taken out ot gear, so as to remain at rest, although the other parts of the machine continue in movement. There are various methods of doing this; one is given by Smeaton in the work above cited. After the gun is fixed on the axis, and before beginning the operation of boring, the head, which has been described above, is cut off near the muzzle ring: for this purpose, the gun is set in gear so as to revolve on its axis with the moving power; and a bar of steel, in shape and size like the coulter of a plough, is applied at right angles to the axis of the gun; the narrow side of this bar is sharpened to a cutting edge, so that it has the form of one tooth of a very large saw ; and this cutting edge is opposed to the direction of the revolving motion of the gun, and held strongly on to the gun by a screw pressing on the bar; the cutter takes off an angular portion at right angles to the axis, till the cylindrical part connecting the head with the gun is so much diminished, that the head is made to fall off by the blow of a hammer applied on it. In brass guns, cast with a core, the head was sawed off by hand with a blade of steel, whose edge was toothed as a saw, and the sides toothed as files. See the French Encyclopedic—► Planches—Fonte. VOL. II, PART II.
1 N G. ‘ 361 A great degree of heat is generated by the violent Cannon, friction of the steel-cutter on the cast-iron, during the operation of cutting off the heads of guns. The quantity of this heat has been estimated by Rumford in one of his Essays on Heat. After the head is taken oft', the workmen proceed to bore the gun. This is done by exposing the revolving gun to the action of a steel-cutter, fixed on the end of a bar, which bar is placed on a carriage, and impelled continually towards the gun. The operation of boring is done on the same axis on which the head was cut oft', if the power be sufficient ; if not, the gun is removed, by means of the crane, to an axis, where it is made to revolve by a stronger power. The boring-bar is fixed on a carriage, sliding in iron grooves, which are truest when made triangular. The carriage, which, in the apparatus represented at fig. 5. consists merely of the bar on which the rack is, is pressed forward by a pinion P, whose gudgeons are on a fixed frame BB : this pinion works into a rack R. The axis of the pinion has mortise holes in it, through which one end of a lever L is passed; the other end of this lever is loaded with a weight W, which causes the pinion to propel the carriage and boring-bar towards the gun. In many boring-machines there are two pinions on the same axis, acting on two racks ; in others, the carriage is propelled by two upright levers, on the end of one of which acts a weight, hanging from a rope, that passes over a pulley ; the lower end of the upper lever acts on the upper end of the low^er, whilst the lower extremity of the lower lever presses forward the carriage. This method, which is free from any inequalities that may arise from the teeth of the rack, is figured by Smeaton in his Reports, Vol. I. p. 396. Another method of propelling the carriage of the boring-bar, is by a screw acting on the end of the carriage. See Meyer in the Transactions of the Acad, of Stockholm, 1782, Tab IX. The boring-bar is a strong piece of wrought iron, of less diameter than the intended calibre of the piece, in order that the boring dust or shavings, detached by the cutter, may be got out. The boringbar is increased in diameter near the end, for some inches ; see fig. 6. B; in this part there is a superficial groove for receiving the sides of the steel- cutter or bit, which is to be firmly fixed in the bar. The bit T, fig. 6. is made from a rectangular piece of a steel bar, in which the two diagonally opposite upper angles are cut off obliquely, so as to form two cutting edges like an obtuse angled drill ; the side of the rectangle, opposite to the point of the drill, is hollowed out in the form of a pigeon hole; this hollow fits into, and embraces, the solid part of the boring-bar, whilst the sides of the pigeon hole fit into the grooves of the bar. The point of this obtuse angled bit is pressed against the revolving metal of the gun, by the force which propels the boring bar; and the edges coming in contact with the revolving metal, a conical cavity is produced; and by taking off successively a multitude of similar shells or shavings, the cylindrical bore, with a conizz
boring. 362 chisel. The cyphers and arms which had been Camjoii Cannon, cal termination, is formed. Hie diameter of the the ' pointed bit first used, must be less than the intend- cast on the gun, are finished by the chisel. A cannon is said to be the ultima ratio regum,— ed calibre of the piece, as the boring is to be re- the last argument that governments have recourse peated again at least once, in order to make the in- to ; and even this severe kind of argument has someternal cylindrical surface as smooth as possible, by times been embellished. Amongst ornamented cantaking off any inequalities that have been left by the non, the brass three-pounder in the Tower, brought first cutter. In finishing the bore, a cross bit may from Malta, is a masterpiece: it is covered with be employed. It is a rectangular piece of steel, carving in a good taste, by a sculptor of Rome. ground to a cutting edge at each end, and put The touch-hole is drilled by stock and bit, or by through a hole in the boring-bar, in which it is fix- drill and bow; the drill being propelled by a lever ed. The edges of this cutter, in revolving, describe placed on a carriage, moveable on wheels. A fia cylindrical surface. After the cylindrical surface gure of this apparatus is given in the Encyclopedic— of the bore is made sufficiently true, and of N16 re" Planches Fonte. Another apparatus for this purquired calibre, a bit without a point, and rounded pose is figured in Rinman, Bcrgxverks Lexicon, fab. off to the desired curve, is used to form the bottom XIV. fig. 9, 10. See also Monge, Description dc of the chamber. ,. „ . l* Art de Fabriquer les Canons, in 4to, Paris, 1704. Some recommend, that the boring bit for cast- This work was published by order of the revoluiron should have its cutting edges brought to an tionary government, and distributed to the Ironacute angle, by being filed hollow; but in this case masters and Founders, in different parts of France^ the two edges cannot be brought into one point; for their instruction. It contains, amongst others, but the obtuse angled edge formed by the thickness figures and descriptions of two kinds of vertical of the metal of the bit, joins the two cutting edges boring machines,—-of three kinds of horizontal borcrossways, and forces itself forwards by being near the ing machines,—of a machine for turning the trunions, centre, requiring, however, a considerable pressure. —of two different machines for boring the touchThese hollow edged bits are not so well adapted to hole,—of a machine for putting copper boshes in continuance of grinding, as the plain ones, but they brass guns,—and of various instruments for examinmake amends by their much less frequently wanting ing and proving guns. sharpening. It does not appear, however, that these Before the gun is sent off, it is examined and hollow edged bits have been found advantageous in proved in various ways. And first to ascertain whegun boring. , . . ... ther the bore is free from holes, an instrument is emThe howitzer appears to have had its origin in ployed, consisting of several elastic steel prongs disGermany. This piece of ordnance, the mortar, and posed in a circle, and with their sharp points turned the carronade, in all of which the diameter of the outwards ; this being fixed on a hole, is introduced chamber for the powder, is smaller than the dia- into the bore of the gun, and drawn to and fro; the meter of the rest of the bore, are first bored all points of the prongs press against the sides of the through, nearly to the intended calibre of the cham- bore, and the presence of a hole is known by one of ber, and then that part of the bore that requires it the prongs getting into the hole, and preventing the is enlarged. instrument from being drawn out directly, unless by The cutters, in gun boring, become magnetic, m the use of a ring that is pushed over the prongs to consequence of being continually rubbed m the unbend them. , r , , same direction, so that the boring dust is seen adThere is another instrument, composed of a board hering and hanging from their edges, when they are twice as long as the bore of the piece; along the withdrawn from the gun. .. middle is a groove proceeding in a straight line. In It is required, that the bore shall be a cylin- this groove a button is moveable, and on the button drical cavity, whose axis coincides with the axis as a centre are fixed two radii or arms; the two ends of the gun ; for this purpose, care must be taken to of these arms within the gun describe a line on the place the axis of the boring-bar, and that of the gun, inside of the bore when the button is pushed inwards, both in one horizontal line, and it is requisite that whilst the extremities of the arms on the outside these two lines continue in this position during t e describe two lines similar on the part of the board whole operation of boring. The centering of the that is situate without the bore: in this way the outboring-bar for this purpose, requires to be done by line of a longitudinal section of the bore is describan experienced workman, and an accurately con- ed and its sinuosities or deviation from the axis are structed boring-machine is necessary for the conti- rendered sensible. This instrument is seldom used: nuance of the right position. it requires to be made by a workman skilled in the Whilst on the axis of the mill, the gun has a construction of mathematical instruments, or m smooth outer surface given it by turning tools, which are applied in the way usual in turning metals; A lighted wax-candle is introduced into the gun a wooden guage, or cut-out profile, of the gun, with for the purpose of seeing any defects there may be its intended mouldings, being applied to know when in the box, or the light of the sun is reflected into the turning has been continued to a properthedepth. the box by a mirror. The strength of the gun is When this is done, the gun is taken out of ^or_ proved by firing it with a large charge of powder, ing-mill,—the square, at the cascabel, is cut oft by and by forcing water into the bore by a powerful the chisel,—and the trunions, and other parts which forcing pump, the touch-hole being stopped, and the are hot susceptible of being turned, are dressed by
BORIN G. Cylinders, mouth of the piece, so that water forced in by the Bowling Iron-works, near Bradford. (See Repertory Cylmdeis. of Arts, second series, Vol. II. p. 322.) In this memouth cannot return that way, 2. Boring of cylinders for steam-engines, thod, the cylinder is placed with its axis perpendiand for blowing machines, and the boring of the cular to the horizon. The object of which is, first, working barrels of large pumps, and other hollow that the boring-dust may fall out, and not remain on cylinders in which pistons are to work, is performed one side of the cylinder, wearing the cutters ; so that by making the steel-cutters describe a cylindrical in this way the cylinder may be bored through withsurface on the inside of the cylinder, whilst the cy- out changing the cutters, by which means a more relinder remains fixed. The first steam-engine cylin- gular bore is obtained. Secondly, That the cylinder ders in this country were of brass, or of a mixture of may not deviate from its cylindrical form by its own copper and tin ; this was the case with the cylinder weight, a deviation which is found to take place in of the steam-engine, erected in the early part of the large and slender cylinders when laid on their side ; eighteenth century, for lifting water from the col- the vertical diameter being then less than the horiliery of Elphinston in Stirlingshire. But, since that zontal diameter. A similar loss of shape may happen time, the construction of steam-engines, and the ma- to cylinders that are improperly wedged and strapnufactory of cast-iron, have been greatly improved ; ped down for the purpose of being bored. In this the uses of both have been much extended ; and cast- method, the cylinder is fixed with screws by the iron has now for a long time been the only material flanges, where it is most capable of resistance, and employed in making cylinders for steam-engines, the screws are disposed so as to press the cylinder Thirdly, That the operation and other large cylinders in which pistons are to equally all round. may be sooner completed, which is effected in conmove. In the boring of cylinders, the steel-cutters are sequence of less time being employed to fix the fixed in a cutter-head, which revolves with the bor- cylinders in this method. In the usual mode of proing bar at the same time that it is impelled along the pelling the cutters described above, the attendance interior surface of the cylinder by a rack, with a pi- of a man is necessary to change the position of the nion moved by a lever and weight as already de- bar on the axis of the pinion, and to raise the weight. scribed. The axis or boring-bar, employed for This attendance is dispensed with in the machine cylinders, is a hollow tube of cast-iron, and has under consideration, the mechanism for propelling a groove passing through it: the length of this the cutters being as follows. A leather strap passing groove is proportioned to the length of the cylin- over the boring-bar, communicates the revolving moder to be bored. The cutter-head consists of two tion of the boring-bar to a wheel, which communicast-iron rings, the first of which is accurately cates a slow motion by a train of wheels and pinions fitted on the boring-bar, which is turned truly cylin- to an axis, bearing two pinions which work into two drical, so that this ring may slide along the boring- racks; these racks push the boring-head and cutters bar ; the second ring is fixed round the first by slowly forward on the boring-bar, at the same time wedges; its diameter is proportioned to the diameter that the boring-head is revolving with the boringof the cylinder to be bored; on its circumference are bar. The velocity with which it is required that the eight notches to receive the steel-cutters, which are cutters shall advance, varies as the diameter of the fixed in by wedges. The first ring is fixed on the cylinder varies, the moving power remaining the boring-bar, so as to make the whole cutter head same. And by altering the train of wheel-work, the move round with the boring-bar, by means of two cutters may be made to advance with any velocity small iron bars, which go through notches in the required. 1'igs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, Plate XXXVI., are different Murray’s, first ring, and pass through the groove of the boringbar. These small bars have each a round hole in the views of the machine for boring cylinders, invented part which passes through the geometrical axis of by Mr Murray of Leeds. Fig. 1. is an elevation, and the boring-bar; through these round holes there fig. 2. a plan of the machine. W fig. 1. and 2. is the passes a bolt, which forms the end of the rack ; a key spur wheel, deriving its motion from water or steam, is put through the end of the bolt, which prevents and communicating a revolving motion to the boringthe rack from being drawn back by the lever and bar. The toothed wheel A fig. 1. moves round with weight; and by this means, the rack impelled by the the boring-bar B on which it is fixed; it gives motion lever and weight pushes forward the cutter-head, through the wheels D andE, and to the screw S, whose which is at the same time revolving with the boring- threads act on the two racks, which racks are fixed to bar : the connection of the rack and cutter-head be- the cutter-head H, and revolve with it. The velocity ing round, and in the axis of motion, the rack is with which the cutter-head is impelled along the thereby free from the circular motion of the cutter- cylinder, depends upon the number of threads of the head. This mode of constructing the boring-bar screw in a given length, and on the proportions of was invented in the works of Mr Wilkinson, at the the wheels A, C, D, and E to each other. By vatime when accurately bored cylinders came to be rying the velocity of the screw, the cutter-head may required in consequence of Mr Watt’s improvements be made to move in either direction, up or down the in the steam-engine. In the machines about to be cylinder, F is a pinion, whose axis ends in a square, mentioned, the cutters are made to advance by a which may be wrought by a key, so as to bring the train of wheels deriving their motion from the power cutter-head out of the cylinder, or push it home by that turns the boring-bar, the hand when that is required. Billingsley’s An apparatus of great merit was contrived and deThe cylinder is fixed in its bed by screws passing lachine, scribed in 1802 by Mr Billingsley, Engineer of the through two iron rings, as represented at fig. 4.; in
IS O R I N G. 364 Cylinders this way the cylinder is equally pressed in the differ- barrel then undergoes the operation of the grinding- Musket mill, to the effect of polishing its exterior surface. p0,|irtm II Muskets. ent parts of its circumference. Rifled-barrels are put on a bench twelve feet long, stone!' Fig. 3. is a transverse elevation of the collar^ in which the end of the bar at A, fig. 1. turns; X is The boring-bar is guided by a matrix or femalethe gudgeon in which the spindle X, fig. 1. turns. screw, whose spiral curve is similar to the spiral of In fig. 3. are also seen the two apertures through the rifles intended to be made ; the boring-bar being fixed to a male-screw, which passes through the fewhich the two racks pass. By this machine also, the flanges are tuined truly male-screw, and fits it exactly. The female-screw is plane, so that the lid of the cylinder may fit on ex- fixed to the bench, and has four threads and as many furrows; these threads, in general, return to the actly. Mr Murdoch’s The patent granted in 1799 to Murdoch, En- point of the circumference from which they set out, Patent. gineer, Redruth, tor new methods of constructing or make a revolution in the length of two feet. T.he steam-engines (See Repertory of Arts, Vol. XIII.), male-screw, which fits into the female-screw, has at contains some articles relative to boring. He em- one end an iron bar attached to it, by which it is put ploys an endless screw, turned by the moving power ; in motion ; at the other extremity is fixed the boringthis screw works into a toothed wheel, whose axis bar, which passes through the barrel to be rifled; the carriesthe cutter-head; and this method, he says, pro- boring-bar has a cutter fixed in it, which forms a duces a more smooth and steady motion than the spiral furrow in the barrel when the screw is turned usual mode of fixing the boring-bar immediately on by the handle. The number of spiral threads in rifle-barrels is from three to twelve. Sometimes the the axis turned by the moving power. Another article in Mr Murdoch’s patent that re- threads and furrows of the rifle-barrel are required lates to boring, is his method of forming the cy- to be in straight lines; in this case a straight lined linder and steam case. He casts them of one solid matrix is used. In order that the threads may be piece, and then bores a cylindrical interstice, by placed at an equal number of degrees of the cirmeans of a boring tool, made of a hollow cylinder cumference from each other, the bench is furnished of iron, with steel-cutters fixed to its edge, and act- with a brass plate, divided in the same way as the plate of the machine for cutting the teeth of clocking like a trepan. f The chambers of brass pumps, whose diameter does wheels. 4. Boring of Portland stone, so as to form Portland not exceed a few inches, are fixed within iron rings, by stone * means of screws, in the manner described above when pipes. That kind of calcareous stone, called by Geologists oolde, which is quarried for building speaking of Mr Murray’s apparatus, ihe lings aie made accurately cylindrical by turning, as is also the at Portland, Bath, in the neighbourhood of the city boring-bar. The boring-bar has four cross arms on its of Paris and other places, admits of being cut with outer extremity, to one of which a handle is fixed, an iron blade, with sand and water, acting as a saw. whereby a workman makes the boring-bar revolve. The more compact limestones and marbles are also The cutter-head is made to advance along the bor- cut in this way, but not so easily. The other kinds of stone that can be squared for building, namely ing-bar by a screw. sandstone and granite, do not yield to the saw, but 3. Boring the barrels of muskets and other Muskets. are formed into the desired shape by the chisel and small ARMS. Rectangular pieces of iron are forged hammer. A modification of this mode of working of a proper length and breadth ; these are heated in Portland Stone, consists in forming it into pipes. the fire, and the two long edges, which had been previously thinned off, are welded together on a man- The method of Sir George Wright, proposed in 1805, is as follows: A hole is drilled through the dril. The barrel thus formed, is fixed by a screw on block of stone, in which a long iron bolt is inserted a carriage that moves in iron grooves ; this carriage for the saw to work round as a centre; this bolt is propelled towards the boring-bar by a rope which forms the axis of the cylinder which is to be taken passes over pullies, and has a weight hanging from and projects considerably beyond the bleck at its end. The boring-bar is turned by the power of out, both ends. Another hole is drilled in the intended the same mill that turns the grinding-stones for po- circumference ; into this the blade of the saw is inlishing the outside of the barrels. (See Encyclo- troduced. The frame of the saw is so disposed, that pcdie Planches—Arquebusier ; and Rozier, Intro- when it is wrought to and fro, the blade is guided duction aux Observations sur la Physique, lorn. means of the centre bolt so as to describe the inI. p. 157.) Water is thrown on the barrels whilst by tended cylindrical circumference. In this way a solid 0borin from a trough placed underneath. After cylindrical core of stone is detached, and a cylinthe barrel is bored, the interior surface of the drical cavity or pipe left in the block. Or the saw bore is polished by the action of the boring-bar. may be made to describe a circle without drilling a The barrel is tried during the operation, by an iron in the centre, by drilling a hole in the circumgauge of an inch and a half in length, and of a dia- hole ference, and fixing on the surface of the stone two meter equal to the intended diameter of the musket. When the barrel is bored, it is held to the light and metallic concentric rings, so that the hole shall be looked through, and if it contains any flaw, the included in the interstice between the rings. The place of that flaw is marked on the outside with saw is then introduced into the hole, and being workchalk, and the barrel is put on the mandril again, ed, it cuts in the circular path formed by the interof the rings. See Repertory cf Arts, second and the defective place heated and hammered ; the stice workman also examines with a gauge, whether the series, Vol. VIII. Mr Murdoch’s method, for which he obtained a barrel is crooked. When the bore has no flaws, the
r B O R Portland patent in 1810, is preferable in practice to the above Stone mentioned method. He employs a cylindrical saw to „ N, form the pipe. A itlm; of wood is inserted in the rentrp of the intended pipe; this plug receives the lower end of a vertical spindle, longer than the intended pipe; this spindle is square, and has sockets sliding on it. On the upper part of the spindle is,a pulley or toothed-wheel, by which the spindle is made to revolve. Near the lower end of the spindle is a wheel, having a circumference like a hoop, three inches broad. The diameter of this wheel is somewhat less than that of the pipe to be bored. It regulates the motion, and fits in the inside of a tube of metal attached to the spindle. The diameter of the tube is nearly equal to that of the intended pipe; its length is greater by two feet. On the lower edge of the tube is a rim of metal, so much thicker than the tube, that the groove cut in the stone by the rim, may admit the tube to move freely in it. This rim has an edge like that of a stone-cutter’s saw, and performs here the office of a saw. The tube is caused to make a reciprocating circular motion round the spindle. There is a cistern placed above the tube, for the purpose of conveying a mixture of sand and water into the cylindrical groove formed in the stone, whilst the machine is working. Stone pipes, made in the above described way, have been tried for conveying water in London. They were joined by means of Parker’s cement, which consists of clay ironstone, burnt, and ground to a fine powder. This was the best material that could be got for forming the joints; but these joints cracked, and allowed the water to escape in consequence of the motion of the carriages on the streets under which the pipes were laid; and the adventurers found that they “ had hewed out unto themselves broken cisterns, that could hold no water." tocks. 5. Boring of rocks, for the purpose of splitting them by means of gunpowder. We have already treated this subject under Blasting, and shall only add here the mode of boring for this purpose practised in the mines of Germany. A boring bar of steel is applied to the stone by its lower end, whilst its upper extremity is struck with a hammer of two pounds in weight. The form of the lower end of the boring-bar is various; some were formed like a swallow’s tail, ending in two points ; this form is no longer in use. Another kind has the end formed by the intersection of two wedgeshaped edges, with a point at each corner, and one in the middle. A third kind has the end composed of four pyramidal points, with cavities between them. A fourth kind, and which is that most frequently used, has the end in form of a wedge. See R in man, Bergwerks Lexicon. Stockholm, 1789, Tab. II. Ihree sizes of boring bars are employed to make one hole ; the first is the shortest and thickest, the second is longer and less in diameter, the third is the longest, and the least in diameter. When a hole is to be made, a small opening is first formed with a pick in the place where the boring-iron is to e applied ; and all pieces of the rock are removed that might impede the action of the powder. Then t v, workman uses the first boring-iron, which he drives with blows of the hammer till this boring-iron
I N G. 365 can reach no farther; he then employs the second Rocks and third boring-bars in like manner; after each ,, II stroke of the hammer, the boring-bar is turned round 'p: a portion of the circumference. The stone, pulveriz- ■ j- ^ ed by the action of the boring-bar, as it hinders the progress of the operation, must be removed from time to time by means of an iron rod, terminated at right angles by a Small round plate. From the different diameter of the boring-bars, it follows that the end of the hole is of a smaller diameter than the beginning. The depth to which the hole is bored is proportioned to the nature of the rock. It varies from 10 to 15 and 20 inches. When the rock is solid a great way round, a deep hole is not used, because the resistance at a considerable depth, in such a situation, is too great; so that the explosion does not split the rock round the powder chamber, but acts upwards against the ramming, where it meets with less resistance. But if the rock be laid bare on one side, a deep hole is advantageous. Water is poured into the hole during the operation, to facilitate the action of the boring-iron. When the hole is perpendicularly downwards, it is kept full of water; when the hole is driven from below upwards, no water can be used. The water must be taken out, and the hole dried, before the cartridge is introduced. The most frequent case is, that one man performs the work, holding the boring-iron in his left hand, and striking on it with the two pound hammer in his right. Sometimes two men are set to do the work, one holding the boring-iron, whilst the second strikes it with a hammer of 4 or 5 pounds ; this is done where it is required to make the hole 30 or 36 inches deep. When a still deeper hole is wanted, two men strike alternately with heavier hammers. 6. Boring of wooden pipes, is done by means Wooden of a long auger, beginning with one of small dia- Pipe*, meter, and proceeding to employ successively spoonformed augers of larger diameter. Notwithstanding the frequent employment of cast-iron pipes, some wooden pipes are still used for conveying water in London; they are of elm, which is the kind of tree most frequent in the neighbouring country. A pipe is bored out of one trunk of elm, and the bark is left on. When a tree is to be bored, it is fixed on a carriage, with a rack on the under part. This rack fits into a pinion, whose axis passes through gudgeons on a fixed frame. On the axis of the pinion is a ratchet wheel, moved by two catches, which derive their motion from the wind or water power that turns the auger; and the pinion is moved in a direc- ' tion that brings the tree towards the auger. See a figure in the EncyclopcediaBritannica, Plate CCCXIX; and in Belidor, Architecture Hydraulique, L l, 341. This apparatus is the same as the one employed in saw-mills. In the boring of pipes for the waterworks in London, the tree is made to advance by ropes, which pass over a windlass wrought by men, whilst the auger is turned by a horse-mill. Wooden pipes are frequently bored by an auger having at its outer end a wooden drift or handle, which is put in motion by the-workman. The trees are placed on tressels, and there are also tressels of a convenient height that support the auger ; there is also a lathe
BOR BOR 366 Born. Boring to turn one end ®f the tree conical, so as to fit into during the reign of Maria Theresa, amounted in value to about L. 300,000 Sterling. The mines in other' tl a conical cavity in the end of the adjoining tree, and Born- thus . • , water-tight. ^4.:..I-.*- HTBo trpft. parts of the dominions produced likewise a considerform a joint The nr%A end rvf ot tnp the tree, quantity. Maria Theresa, seeing their importwhich receives the adjoining pipe within it, has a able ance, much for the regulation of the mines ; and, surface at right angles to the axis of the pipe. Into with adid view of diffusing the knowledge of Mineralogy this surface is driven an iron hoop, whose diameter amongst the nobles, many of whom were proprietors is some inches greater than the diameter of the aper- of mines, she had lectures on that science delivered ture of the pipe. This precaution prevents the tree in the Universities. — administration of the re The from splitting when the conical end of the next tree venue arising to -Government from this souice, is is driven home. When the tree is crooked, a bore conducted by a Board composed ot Managers, Oveiis driven in from each end, and the two bores meet, seers, Assayers, and other Officers, who are brought forming an angle. An auger, whose stalk is formed spirally for some way up, is figured in Bailey s Ma- up in the knowledge of Metallurgy and Mineralogy, reside at the mines. The operations ot these chincs of the Society oj Arts. The object of this is and functionaries are under the control ot the that the chips may be delivered without taking the Chamber of the Mint and Mines at \ienna, which auger out ot the hole. _ Tt n There is a patent granted m 1796 t0 Mr Howell, keeps a set of books where all the transactions relaCoalmaster, of Oswestry, for boring wooden pipes by tive to the mines, and their situation and state, digested and registered. An administration a hollow cylinder, made of thin plates of iron, about are thus offers a field of some preferment. an inch less in diameter than the hole to be bored. Von constituted Born chose to devote himself to this line ot To one end of this cylinder is fixed a flange about a quarter of an inch in breadth, and one part of this life, and was received into the department of the Mines and Mint at Prague in 1770. flange is to be divided, so that, being of steel, a cutAbout this time he met with an accident which ter is formed thereby. The object of this method is nearly proved fatal. In the course of a mineralogito bore out a solid cylinder of wood, capable ot iourney through Transylvania, he came to Fdsobeing converted into a smaller pipe, or of being ap- cal Banya, where, the gang is rendered brittle and deplied to some other use in carpentry. {Repertory of tached from the rock, by exposing it to the flames Arts Vol. IX.) This kind of borer is like the trepan, wood heaped up in the mine and set on fare. which is a hollow cylinder of steel, saw-toothed on of Having gone into the mine soon after the combusthe edge, and, when made to revolve rapidly on its tion had ceased, and whilst the air was hot, and axis, in the hand of the surgeon, it saws or bores out charged with arsenical vapour, and returning through circular pieces of the flat bones ot the head, (y.) . BORN (Ignatius) Baron Von, Counsellor in a shaft which was occupied by a current of this vapour, he was deprived of sensation for fifteen the Aulic Chamber of the Mint and Mines at Vien- hours, and, after recovery, continued long to suffer na • of considerable eminence in the scientific world from a cough and general pain. Some time after as a Mineralogist and Metallurgist, and a promoter this accident, he was affected with violent colics, of science ; was born of a family that had the rank ot which a large dose of opium removed, but left him nobility, at Karlsburgh in Transylvania, in 1742 ; and with a numbness of the lower extremities, and lame died in 1791. He was educated in a College ot the Jesuits at Vienna, and afterwards entered into that in the right leg. In the latter part of his life he deprived of the use of his legs. All these calaorder, but continued a member only during sixteen was mities, which, however distressing, did not repress the months. He then went through a course of study activity of his mind, were considered as the consein law at Prague, and afterwards travelled into Ger- quences of the arsenical fumes he had inhaled at many, Holland, and France. On his return to Prague, Felso-Banya. . . . . he engaged in the study of Mineralogy. One of the chief objects of his exertion was to inThe mines in the dominions of the house ot troduce amalgamation in Hungary, in place ot Austria are very important, and give livelihood to a smelting and cupellation heretofore used m hat numerous population, more particularly in Hungary, country, for extracting silver from the ores. _ 11 v Transylvania, and the Bannat, and in Styna and Caand Vitruvius speak of the use of ^rcurym colrinthia. Idria produces mercury; Bohemia, tin and lecting small disseminated particles of gold. Un tne cobalt; and the other metals are got in sufficient arrival of the Spaniards in America, the Peruvians abundance, not only to supply the internal trade of extracted the silver from the ore by smeltmg-furthe nation, but also for export, either in the form naces exposed to the wind on the tops of hills. II e of raw metal, or manufactured into various instru- SZ mines of Guancabellica in Peru were ments. A revenue accrues to the public Ireasury (liscovereil in 1563, and three years Urereafter the from the mines in various ways. Some, as those ot Spaniards began to employ amaigamat on Alonzo Schemnitz, Cremnitz, and Idria, are wrought on ac- Barba, an Andalusian, farther improved the process count of government. A tenth part of the produce the addition of heat. Amalgamation had been of all mines wrought by private adventurers goes to by practised in Europe for collecting silver and gold Government as a royalty. Government has a right when they existed in visible metallic particles, bu of pre-emption of all metals, and an exclusive right "he case of ores where the gold and silver are of buying all gold and silver, the produce of the invisible, even with the aid of a microscope. Soon country, at a stated price. The annual quantity of after its application to ores in America, an attemp gold and silver got from the mines of Hungary and was madefy a Spaniard to introduce this operatic* Transylvania, and coined into money at the Mint,
B ORIENTC
J. Farcy Delitu Engraved by WArdtibaldsEdinT
Published ly A. Constable k Co.Edin?l8W.
PLATE XXXVI.
BOR for extracting silver from the ores in Bohemia, but without success. Gellert, Walerius, and Cramer, had written against the use of Amalgamation when applied to ores. But Von Born, seeing its advantages, particularly in the saving of fire-wood, which had become scarce in many parts of Hungary, set about examining the accounts given by authors of the different processes used in Mexico and Peru; repeated these processes experimentally, first in the small way, leaving out the ingredients that a knowledge of the chemical action of bodies showed to be unnecessary ; afterwards he had the process carried on in the great way for several months near Schemnitz, under the inspection of Ruprecht. At this time he published his book On Amalgamation. It contains a history of Amalgamation, and extracts from different authors describing the South American methods. This occupies nearly one half of the volume. He then gives the chemical theory of operation in its different steps, describes the method he had adopted at Schemnitz, and gives figures of the machinery employed. Von Born met with much opposition in his attempts to inti'oduce Amalgamation. He says that some booklearned Chemists, who never had handled a retort, and some Mine-Overseers, when he first set about his experiments, declared that it was impossible to obtain silver by that method. After he had succeeded in getting silver from the ore publicly at Vienna, his detractors came forward with doubts and long calculations, showing that the process was inferior to that already in use. At last his process was tried successfully in the great way by orders of Joseph II. at Schemnitz; and then the calculators and doubters shrugged up their shoulders, saying, “ It is only the old Spanish process of Amalgamation.” He obtained from the Emperor an order that his method should be employed in some of the mines belonging to Government, and that he should receive a third part of the savings arising from the improvement during the first ten years, and four per cent, of this third part of the savings for the next twenty years He was a Satirist, without possessing the qualities of style that are necessary to attain a high rank in that class of writers. The Stoats Peruche, a tale, published without his knowledge in 1772, and an attack on Father Hell, the Jesuit, and King’s Astronomer at Vienna, are two of his satirical works. The satirical description of the Monastic Orders, written in form of an academic inaugural dissertation, entitled Monachologia, is generally ascribed to Von Born. In this piece the Monks are described in the technical language of natural history. Von Born, however, was not deeply versed in the phraseology of Linnaeus ; and it is the opinion of some good judges of the subject, that the language at least was furnished by Hermann, Professor of Medicine in the University of Strasburg, and author of the very ingenious work on the mutual affinities of animated beings, entitled, Tabula Affinitatum Animalium Commentario illustrata. But although the technical language may not be Von Born’s, the sentiments are such as he was known to profess; for the to-
BOR pic was so great a favourite with him, that he found room for invectives against the monks even in his book On Amalgamation. The Monks in the A ustrian dominions were not then in a situation to obtain redress against this lampoon ; for it was published in 1783, when-Joseph II. had suppressed many of the Monasteries in different parts of his dominions, and transferred their property into his treasury, allowing but a scanty sum for the subsistence of the members of these communities. Von Born was well acquainted with Latin, and the principal modern languages of Europe. He also possessed information in many branches of science not immediately connected with Metallurgy and Mineralogy, which were his professed pursuits. He had a good taste in the graphic arts, and his printed works are ornamented in a neat manner with vignettes illustrative of the subject. His inclination led him to engage in politics; and, in particular, he took an active part in the political changes in Hungary. After the death of Joseph, the Diet of the States of Hungary passed a great many acts, rescinding the innovations of that scheming Ruler, which tended to force upon them German Governors and laws, and even the German language. This Diet conferred the rights of denizen on several persons of distinction who had been favourable to the cause of the Hungarians, and, amongst others, on Von Born. At the time of his death, he was employed in writing a historical work in Latin, entitled, Fasti Leopoldini, probably relating to the prudent conduct of Leopold II., the successor of Joseph, towards the Hungarians. He was of a middle size, slender made, and dark complexion ; his eye was penetrating and his countenance agreeable. His constitution was delicate even before his accident. He was a pleasant companion and fond of society. He lived in splendour, and his house at Vienna was resorted to by scientific men of all nations. It is likely, that his profits from the process of amalgamation were not considerable; at least, they were not sufficient to put his fortune to rights, as his affairs, at his death, were in a state of insolvency. His family consisted of a wife and two daughters, who survived him. See Townson’s Tra* vels in Hungary, and Pezzil, Ostreich Biographien, 1792. The following is a list of his published writings, and of the works of others which he edited: Lythophylacium Borneanum, 1775, 8vo. This is a Catalogue of his collection of minerals, which collection he afterwards sold to Mr Greville, and it forms a part of the magnificent Greville Collection of Minerals, purchased from the heirs of that gentleman by Parliament, and deposited in the British Museum. This Catalogue is arranged according to the system of Cronstedt, with the nomenclature of Linnaeus. Index rerum naturalium Muscei Ccesarei Vindobonensis. Pars. I. Testacea. Vindob. fol. maj. This splendid volume, which contains the description and figures of the shells in the Museum at Vienna, was composed by order of the Empress Maria Theresa. The shells are arranged according to the
367 Bom.
368 Bom. -*
BOR method of Linnaeus. Von Born’s knowledge in this department of Natural History was not profound, so that, he needed some assistance in composing the work. The shells only are described ; of the animals to which they belong little is said. Joseph II. coming to the throne, and being fully occupied with a multitude of innovations and vast schemes for the aggrandizement of the House of Austria, the project of continuing the work, so as to form a description of the whole Museum, was laid aside* On the Amalgamation of Ores containing Gold and Silver, in the German language, published in 4to, in 1786. Of this work something has been already said above. There is a translation o4’ the work into English, by Raspc, a Hanoverian, once Professor at Hesse Cassel, and who afterwards resided in Britain, where he w'as sometimes employed as a viewer of mines. Catalogue methodique et raisonne dc la Collection des Fossiles de Mademoiselle Eleonore de Raab, a Vienne, 8vo, 1790. This catalogue is drawn up so as to form a system of mineralogy, each spectes of mineral being carefully described, and arranged systematically. It was well esteemed, and cited by mineralogical writers in its time, but has been superseded, like other treatises, by more recent works, on account of the great additions that have been continually making to the science. He edited the Jesuit Poda’s description of the machines used in the mines of Schemnitz. Ferbers Letters from Italy ; were written to and edited by Von Born. Berber and he were in habits of great intimacy ; and, Berber in return, published the letters that Von Born addressed to him, during his excursion in Transylvania, &c. in 1770 ; entitled Briefe uber mineralogische gegenstande auf seiner reise durch das Temeswarer Bannat, Siebenburgen, Ober und JSHeder Hungarn. Brankf. 177T To this work is prefixed a well engraved portrait of Von Born. There is an English version by Raspe, and a Brench one, with notes, by Monnet. He lent his assistance to the first three volumes of a work published in German, entitled Portraits of Learned Men and Artists, natives of Bohemia and Moravia. There are some papers of his in the Abhandlungen der Bohmischer gesellschaft den Wissenschaften. The Transactions of a Private Society at Prague, in Bohemia, for the improvement of Mathematics, Natural History, and the Civil History of the country, contains several papers written by him. He was the founder of this society. He published an annual periodical work in German, entitled The Philosophical 1 ransactions of the^ Masons Lodge of Concord at Vienna. This masons’ lodge, of which Von Born was the founder and patron, employed a part of its meetings in scientific pursuits. This, as well as other societies of a similar nature, was tolerated by Joseph II. for some time ; but he afterwards imposed restraints that caused its dissolution. Von Born was also a zealous member of the Society of Illuminati; and when the Elector Palatine of Bavaria suppressed the masonic societies in his dominions, Von Born being a member of the Academy
BOR of Sciences of Munich, wras required to declare, within Bom eight days, whether he would withdraw from the maI sonic societies. He returned an answer, in which he , j' praised the principles of the free-masons, and resigni ed his place in the Academy, by sending back his diploma. He wrote some articles in the German work published by Trebra, mine-director at Zellerfeld in the Hartz, entitled, a System of Instruction in the Art of Working Mines, 4to. Also, Observations in support of the Metallization of the Alkalis, in Crell’s Annah, 1791. Iluprecht and Tondi thought at that time that they had reduced the alkalis and barytes to a metallic state, by the strong heat of a furnace urged by bellows; but it was afterwards found that the metallic substance thus obtained was phosphate of iron, proceeding from their ciucibles and fluxes. Sir Humphry Davy wTas the first who obtained any of the alkaline class of bodies in a metallic state ; and this he accomplished by the intense heat excited by a galvanic battery, mamy years after the time here spoken of. Relatio de Aurilegio Dacm Transalpince, 1789? in the Nova Acta Academics JSaturce Curiosorum, Tom. VIII. p 97. This is an account of the method employed in Transilvania in collecting gold from the sand of the rivers. The auriferous sand generally contains iron, attractable by the magnet. It is washed oji a sloping board seven feet long and three feet broad, covered with a woollen cloth, having a dishshaped cavity at the upper end, and inclined to the horizontal plane at an angle of 20 or 25 degrees- Only a very scanty livelihood can be gained by this employment. It is carried on by the poorer classes of the country people, and in some districts by bands of the people called Gipsies. fthe Kings Collectors buy the gold from the gold washers at a stated price, to the amount of more than 800 pounds weight annually. (Y*) BORNEO, an Island forming part of the Great East Gpneral i Indian Archipelago. Next to New Holland, which may be considered as a species of continent, it seems indisputably the largest in the known wmrld. It reaches from about 7° north to 4° south latitude, and from 1099 to 118° east longitude. Its length may be estimated at 750 miles, its greatest breadth at 600, and its average breadth at 350. It exhibits the usual insular structure, a mass of lofty mountains in the centre, sloping gradually down to level and alluvial tracts along the sea shore. It is watered by many fine rivers, of which those of Borneo Proper, Banjar Massin, and Passir, are navigable for more than fifty miles above their junction with the sea. All these rivers are understood by Dr Leyden to be derived from an immense lake in the interior, called the Sea of Manilla. It is more probable that they all rise from the mountainous district of greatest elevation. The interior of Borneo is covered with immense forests, filled with wild animals, particularly ovan-outangs. A great part ot the coast is marshy, so that it is in portions only that it displays the exuberance of tropical fertility. Of all the East Indian Islands, Borneo ranks lowest as to civilization and improvement. Nothing, perhaps, has tended so powerfully to check its progress as the
BORNEO. 369 Borneo, solid and unbroken form of its coasts, destitute of 300 wooden houses, which are built along the river. Borneo. those large bays or inland seas, which have always The Sultan has a palace and wooden fort, along the northern bank. The people of Passir have an exproved the nursery of commerce. The Portuguese discovered Borneo in 1526, though tremely bad reputation as to their conduct in merthe superior wealth promised by the Spice Islands cantile transactions. They use false weights and made it attract comparatively little attention. Yet measures,—manufacture counterfeit articles,— and they, as well as the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the embrace, in short, every opportunity of cheating English, formed establishments on different parts of that offers. The English East India Company made the coast; but the small force defending them, and an attempt, in 1772, to establish a factory here, but the tierce animosity of the natives, made their tenure it did not succeed. Banjar Massin is the principal state on the south- Southern generally of very short duration. The physical strucCoast * ture of Borneo, the vast forests, mountains, and ern coast of Borneo ; like the others, it owes its prosperity to a large river, on the banks of which it is jungles of the interior, obstruct communication between the different parts of its coast, as completely situate. This river is five or six fathoms deep; as if an extent of sea had intervened. It is thus split but, unfortunately, the bar does not allow above into a number of petty districts, entirely detached 12 or 13 feet of water, and requires the aid of the from each other, and which cannot be satisfactorily tide to produce even that depth. Ships, however, described, unless in detail. We shall consider, there- may anchor in the port of Tombangou or Tomborfore, in this manner, the principal states, beginning nio, near the mouth of the river, where they are well with Borneo Proper, and thence making the circuit supplied with water and provisions. Banjar Massin, of the Island ; after which, we shall attempt some ge- in 1780, was estimated to contain a population of 8500 Mahommedans, chiefly Javanese, with a conneral views of its population and commerce. Borneo Proper occupies the northern coast, and siderable proportion of Bugis, Macassax-s, and Maortheru sast. is reckoned a state of great antiquity. The soil is lays. The Chinese are also pretty numerous. The comparatively fertile, supplying rice sufficient for the Sultan resides at Martapura, about three days’ jourconsumption of the inhabitants, as well as most of ney up the river, to which he is attached, by the the camphire for which the Island is celebrated. The circumstance of its being an uncommonly fine huntcity, called also Borneo, is built upon alluvial ground, ing station. The district of Banjar produces gold and diaabout ten miles above the mouth of the river of the same name. It is compared to Venice : canals are con- monds, both of superior quality to those found in ducted through every street, and all business is con- other parts of the Island. Pepper is so abundant, ducted in boats, usually rowed by women. The houses that, in a commercial view, it may be considered as are built upon posts, and ascended to by ladders. The the staple commodity. The iron is very excellent, river is navigable for large vessels considerably above and peculiarly fit for steel; though Dr Leyden asthe town ; but there is a bar at its entrance, over serts, that the inhabitants do not, themselves, unwhich there is scarcely a depth of seventeen feet at derstand the art of manufacturing it. In 1700, the English East India Company formed high water. The Sultan is treated with those marks of peculiar respect which in this part of the world a settlement at Banjar Massin. A rage then preusually indicate an ancient dynasty; but the chief vailed for multiplying establishments, and the prepower rests in the council of the nobles. This state sent one was soon so far extended, as to equal that has little communication with Europeans; the Eng- of Calcutta. But the expectations of extensive trade, lish, who were accustomed to deal to a small extent which prompted to such an enlargement, were, in a in piece-goods, have in a great measure discontinued great measure, illusory; a thousand tons of pepper this traffic. The commerce of this city and district being the most valuable article drawm from the setis almost entirely engrossed by the Chinese, who tlement. Before, however, the Company could be bring annually from Amou four or five junks, of fully aware of its unproductive nature, this settlement about 500 tons burden. As the neighbourhood was brought to a premature end. An attack was made abounds in excellent timber, they frequently build by the natives on so great a scale, and with such fury, their junks here, and carry them away loaded with that, though repulsed, it seemed to leave no choice, but the immediate evacuation of the factory, without the commodities of the country. istern On the eastern coast of Borneo, Mangedava and even removing the stores. The damage sustained on 'ast. Pappal are populous, fertile, and well watered dis- the occasion is estimated at 50,000 dollars. tricts. Malloodoo possesses these advantages in a 7 Succadana, or, as Dr Leyden calls it, Sacadina, Western still superior degree, and grows also a large quanti- w as anciently the most powerful state on the western Coast, ty of rattans. Tiroon produces sago in abundance, coast of Borneo. The Dutch began to trade there and birds nests more copiously than any other part in 1604, but they soon after attached themselves, in of the eastern Archipelago. None of these states, preference, to Sambas. In 1623, they abandoned however, are much frequented by, or known to, Eu- their factory at Succadana. In 1786, they united ropeans. with the Sultan of Pontiana in an expedition against The chief state on the eastern coast is Passir, si- this place, which they took and entirely destroyed. tuate about fifty miles up a river of the same name. It appears to have been since rebuilt, but is entirely This district is very low and flat; and, were it not in the hands of the Malays, and scarcely ever visited cooled by the sea breezes, would be intensely hot. by Europeans. Being marshy and filled with woods, it is extremely Pontiana is a state of very recent origin, but it unhealthy. The town is said not to contain above now exceeds, in wealth and power, all others upon VOL. II. part II. 3A
370 BOR N E O. Borneo, the western coast of Borneo. This distinction it society. It has been strongly reported, that they Borneo I owes to the wisdom of the Arab Prince by whom it devour the flesh of their enemies ; an assertion not was founded. He renounced, from the first, the noticed by Dr Leyden, and which has, in many inpernicious policy, almost universal in these petty stances, been made without foundation. All acstates, of embarking in trade, and monopolizing its counts agree, however, as to the existence of anoprincipal articles. He confined himself to his pro- ther truly savage custom, by which every man is deper functions, of dispensing justice, and securing barred from the privilege of matrimony, till he has, protection to all, of whatever country or religion, with his own hand, cut off the head of an enemy. who resorted to his dominions. Under this salutary Those, therefore, who are desirous of entering into policy, Pontiana soon rose to be the greatest em- that state, form themselves into what Dr Leyden porium in those seas. It is situate on a large river, calls head-hunting expeditions. They make an incalled, formerly, Laua, and the country behind pro- road into the territories of a neighbouring tribe, and duces diamonds the most abundantly of any district if their strength appears sufficient, endeavour to in Borneo. The Dutch established a factory here effect their object by force; if otherwise, they conceal in 1776, and maintained ever after a good under- themselves behind thickets, till an unfortunate indistanding with the Sultan. In 1813, after the Bri- vidual passes, whom they can make their prey. tish force had taken possession of Batavia, that Prince, Some are also said to immolate human victims on the dreading an attack from Sambas, solicited the pro- altars of their divinities. The inhabitants of the towns along the coast tection of a British garrison, which was immediately sent; and he afterwards assisted our troops in the consist chiefly of that race so universally diffused through the Indian Islands, under the name of Mareduction of Sambas. Momparwa, situate a little to the north of Pon- lays. This name, to an European ear, has usually tiana, is the best market for opium upon this coast. suggested every extreme of perfidy and atrocity. We The city lies 19 miles up the river; the entrance have perused, however, a very different estimate of of which is obstructed by a bar, and by several their character, formed by an intelligent gentleman, small Islands. This is probably the same district who spent several years in this part of India. He decalled Mattan by Dr Leyden, who says, that the scribes them as honest, frank, simple, and even genKing possesses the ‘finest diamond in the world, for tle in their manners, decidedly superior, in a moral which a high price was offered by the Dutch, which view, to the degenerate Hindoos. The sanguinary deeds, which have exposed them to so much rehe refused to accept. Sambas is situate about 30 miles up the river of proach, he ascribes to a proud and almost chivalrous the same name. Like most other towns in Borneo, sense of honour, which makes them regard blows, it is built of timber and bamboos, and raised by stakes or any similar personal insult, as an offence only above the swampy foundation. Sambas has been to be expiated by blood. The coarse and unfeelalways a powerful state, but for sometime past, has ing treatment which they often experience from devoted itself so entirely to piracy, as to render its Dutch and Chinese masters, drives them to these existence scarcely compatible with that of its civi- dreadful extremities. Piracy, however, is a vice lized neighbours. Upon this principle, the British, of which this race cannot be acquitted ; and the in 1812, undertook an expedition against it; but western coast of Borneo, situate on the great naval they were repulsed with great loss in the attack, and route to China, may be viewed as the grand field suffered still more from the malignant influence of for its exercise. To a poor and hardy race, who see the climate. In the following year, however, a new half the wealth of Asia passing along their shores, expedition was undertaken under Colonel W atson, the temptation is almost irresistible. Like the Arabs, who, on the 3d of July, carried the fort by storm,^ they have formed for themselves a code of morality, and obliged the Rajah to retire into the interior of in which plunder is expunged from the list of vices. his dominions. We presume, however, that both Yet, though individually brave, they possess no skill Sambas and Pontiana have been evacuated by the or discipline, which could render them formidable to British troops, in consequence of the recent treaty an European crew. The cowardice of the Lascars, by whom Indian trading vessels are usually navigatwith Holland. Population On a general view of the state of culture and ci- ed, is the only circumstance which has made our and Man- vilization in Borneo, Mr Hamilton estimates the po- trade suffer so‘severely from their ravages. ners Next to the two classes above enumerated, the pulation at 3,000,000, which we should suppose to most numerous are the Chinese. These, by the be rather above than under the truth. The interior is entirely occupied by a native race, called various- gentleman above alluded to, are considered as the ly, according to the parts of the Island which they most valuable subjects whom an uncivilized state can inhabit, Dayak, Idaan, and Tiroon. Those which receive into its bosom. The difficulty of finding subsist by fishing, are commonly called Biajoos. subsistence in their own country, has led them to The appellations of Horaforas and Maroots, have emigrate in vast numbers into Borneo. Nothing, also been applied to these races. The whole may be perhaps, except the law which prohibits femal^» considered as one, almost savage, and nearly similar from leaving the empire, could have prevented this to that which occupies the interior of Sumatra. almost unoccupied Island from being entirely filled Some, indeed, cultivate the ground,—some display with a Chinese population. From this circumstance, considerable industry in fishing,—and a few employ however, the colonists are composed entirely of men themselves in collecting gold ; but their institutions, in the vigour of life, and of the most enterprising in general, indicate the very rudest state of human and industrious character. Their chief settlement
B O R is at Sambas, on the western coast, where the numbers cannot be estimated at Jess than 30,000, composing a sort of independent state. Their almost sole occupation is that of extracting the gold, which abounds upon this coast. It is found in alluvial soil, and is purified by the simple process of passing a stream of water over the ore. The processes employed for this purpose are daily improving, and it is conceived that the produce here and at other quarters, will be sufficient to remove all future apprehensions of the East proving a drain upon the gold of Europe. Cam'merco. The Commerce of Borneo, though not equal to its extent and natural capacities, is by no means inconsiderable. Gold is its principal export. Mr Milburn estimates the annual quantity exported at 200 peculs, or 2(5,000 lbs. avoirdupois, which would coin into upwards of 900,000 guineas. Like some other commodities, it is divided, by a grotesque scale, into three kinds, called the head, the belly, and the feet; the first being the best, and the two others gradually diminishing in value. Camphire is exported to the extent of 30 peculs (3990 lbs.), all to China, where it is more esteemed than that of §#matra. The singular Chinese luxuries of beech de mer, or sea slug, and edible birds' nests, are found in Borneo, as over all the Indian archipelago. Pepper to a considerable amount, canes and rattans of various descriptions, sago, and a little tin, complete the list of exports. The chief import is opium to a very great extent, with piece-goods, hard-ware, coai’se cutlery, arms, and toys. By far the greater proportion of the trade is in the hands of the Chinese. Leyden’s Description of Borneo, in the Asiatic Journal ; Hamilton's Gazetteer ; Milburn’s Oriental Commerce; MS. of a Gentleman long resident in India. (B.) BORIIOMLAN ISLANDS. Not far from the south-east termination of the Alps, there is a lake called Lago di Locarno, or Lago Maggiore, extending above fifty miles in length, by five or six in breadtln It contains several islands, among which are, the Isola Bella and Isola Madre, situate in a large bay towards the west, and designed the Borromean Islands. Towards Switzerland, the lake terminates in a canal, which is of much utility for commercial purposes ; and near Cesti, which is ten leagues from the city of Milan, it discharges itself into the river Ticino, with a current rapid and dangerous to the navigation of small vessels. The Borromean Islands lie about fifteen miles distant by water from Cesti, and the passage to them displays a succession of curious and interesting objects, some of which are connected with their own history. Among these may be named a colossal bronze statue of San Carlo Borromeo, above the small town and port of Arona, which is sixty feet in height, and stands on a pedestal or proportional dimensions. This gigantic image was cast at Milan, and brought hither in pieces. The Borromean Islands are of inconsiderable size, but the artificial decoration they have received, has been the admiration of spectators since the middle of the seventeenth century, when both were barren ^md unprofitable rocks. About this time Vi tali an o, Count Borromeo, a nobleman of illustrious descent,
Borneo IJorromean Islantis. _ ^ _
B O R 371 and Mastei-General of the Ordnance to the King BoiTomean of Spain, resolving on their embellishment, directed Llanrfr. that they should be covered with ear'll from the neighbouring banks of the lake. His injunctions wrere fulfilled,and, at an immense expence, the Islands were converted into two gardens. Isola Madre appears in ten successive terraces, rising one hundred and thirty feet above the level of the water, each regularly decreasing in size from the base to the summit, which is an oblong surface, seventy feet by forty in extent, paved and surrounded by a balustrade. The whole are environed by gigantic marble statues of gods, goddesses, and horses, or other figures; and the walls are clothed with the finest fruit trees and evergreens, many of which belong to the southern climates. There is, besides, a magnificent palace towards the west end of the Island, close to the lake, which almost washes its walls. It is built on arches, which are formed into grottos, with a floor of Mosaic, representing various objects, and decorated also with shell-work and marble. The palace itself, contains a profusion of marbles and paintings, and some flower-pieces, executed on marble, have been particularly admired; as also busts and statues. At the angles of the garden, which has a southern exposure, there are two round towers with lofty chambers adorned with red and white marble; and in the vicinity are groves of laurels, orange-trees, lofty cypresses, and other odoriferous plants, rendering it a delightful retreat. But much of the embellishment is lost by the immediate neighbourhood of a miserable hamlet. Isola Madre, which is the larger of the Islands, is between one and two miles from Isola Bella; it consists of a superstructure of seven terraces, apparently lowei, but not less beautiful than the other. However, it is of equal height in reality; the base being a perpendicular rock, rising considerably out of the water, and on that account not having required so much covering. Here also there is a palace embellished with paintings and different ornaments; and in the gardens are groves of citrons, cedar, ami orange-trees, besides a summer-house close to the lake. But all the decorations, as before, are necessarily on a limited scale from the size of the Island; and it excites the wonder of the spectator, that in a space so restricted, so much has been done. Pheasants were formerly bred in this Island, as they were deterred by the vicinity of the water on all hands from attempting to escape. There were some hydraulic exhibitions in Isola Bella, and large cisterns or reservoirs to preserve them in action. When any foreign Prince visited these Islands in the night, or resided upon them, they were illuminated with various coloured lights. Their decorations were not only completed at an enormous expence, but to keep' them in the same state since 1671, about which time they seem to have been finished, the charge has proved equally great. They are frequently called the “ Enchanted Islands.” Keysler, a learned traveller, says, “ these two Islands can be compared to nothing more properly than two pyramids of sweetmeats, ornamented with green festoons and flowers.” And a later tourist, Coxe, who borrows largely from him} in speaking of the Isola Bella, observes, if anything
D O R 372 Borromean iustly gives this Island the appellation of enchanted, Islands 'jt js tjie prospect from the terrace. The gradual diBoswell. minution of the mountains, from the regions ot eternal snow to the rich plain ; the sinuosity ot the lake ; its varied banks ; the bay of Marzozzo, bounded by vast hills; the neighbouring borough ot Palanza, and more distant view of Laveno, the numerous villages, the Isola Madre, and another Island sprinkled with fishermen’s huts, form a delightful assemblage. - These Islands, after passing from the family ot Borromeo, appear to have come into possession ot the Emperor of Germany. More recently, both ot them, together with the western coast of the bauliage of Locarno, are said to have been ceded by the Empress Maria Theresa to the King of Sardinia, m consideration of the assistance she had derived trom him. The whole lake is environed by hills, covered with vineyards, and interspersed with summer-houses; beautiful rows of trees traverse its banks, and the scene is still farther embellished by cascades falling from the mountains. (s’\ BOSWELL (James, Esq. of Auchmleck, m the county of Ayr), whose life of Dr Samuel Johnson entitles him to a place among those who have contributed to the great stock of intellectual wealth, was the eldest son of Alexander Boswell (styled Lord Auchinleck), one of the Judges of the Supreme Courts of Session and Justiciary in Scotland. He was born in the year 1740 ; and, having received the rudiments of his education, partly in his father s house, and partly at Mr Mundell’s school m Edinburgh, successively prosecuted his studies at the universities of that city and of Glasgow. He was destined by his father for the Scottish bar; a pursuit with which his own inclinations did not much accord, and in place of which, he would gladly have substituted one of greater activity and enterprise. His father’s wishes, how7ever, and his own sense ot filial duty, prevailed; and, as the study of Civil Law, at one of the foreign Universities, was then included in the most liberal plan of education for a Scottish Advocate, it was determined that Mr Boswell should repair, for that purpose, to Utrecht; with a permission, before his return, to make the tour of bu-
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which commenced in 1763, and was to prove at once Boswell the principal era in his own life, and the means of adding not a little to the fame of the philosopher. Mr Boswell had visited London, for the first time, in 1760, when he accidentally became acquainted with Derrick, afterwards Khig Derrick, as the Master of Ceremonies at Bath was then fantastically titled ; and by him was initiated into the arcana of London life. In 1763 he proceeded to Utrecht. Having passed a year at that university, he travelled into Germany and Switzerland, was entertained by Voltaire at his castle of Ferney, and conversed with Rousseau in the solitudes of Neufchatel. He continued his route to Italy; but, led by his natural enthusiasm, forsook the common roads of travel, and^ passed over to Corsica, which, after a contest ot more than thirty years, was still struggling for independence with the republic of Genoa. He thus describes his feelings while he approached the island : “ As long as I can remember anything, I had heard of the malecontents of Corsica; it was a curious thought that I was just going to see them.” Rousseau had given him a letter of introduction to the romantic Paoli; and his tide was suddenly at the full. In the small court of this simple but dignified Chieftain, he found everything to gratify his taste for the virtuous and sublime in natural character. He became a favourite, too, in his turn; was caressed by the islanders, admitted at all times to the society of their leader, and not only witnessed the movements of their political machinery, but appeared to be himself an actor in the scene. Of his visit to this island, he published a narrative on his return to Scotland, entitled, An Account of Corsica, with Memoirs of General PasquoAe de Paoli, printed at Glasgow in 1768. This book was translated into the Dutch, German, French, and Italian languages. He likewise printed, in the following year, a collection of British Essays in favour of the Brave Corsicans ; and made such attempts as he could to interest the British Government in favour of that people, before they were finally crushed by the pressure of the French arms. His acquaintance and friendship with General Paoli were afterwards renewed in London, when that chief, having escaped with difficulty from his native isle, found an asylum in the British domi^Already, however, those traits of character might nions. . . , be observed, which gave the peculiar direction to his From Corsica Mr Boswell repaired to Paris; and, after life. He was, very early, ambitious of being admit- returning to Scotland in 1766, was admitted to the ted into the society and friendship of men distinguis - bar. Soon after he published a pamphlet, under ed by talent and public estimation, more especially the title of Essence of the Douglas Cause ; written those of eminence in the literary world ; and his natural while that great suit was depending in the Court of urbanity, as well as gaiety of disposition, renderec it Session, with a view to excite the public interest in no difficult matter to gratify his propensity. While favour of Mr Douglas. In 1769 he was married to at the University of Glasgow, he had formed a par- Miss Montgomery, daughter of David Montgomery, ticular intimacy with Mr Temple, the friend of Gray, Esq.; an accomplished lady, in whose society he enafterwards Vicar of St Gluvias in Cornwall; and he joyed every domestic happiness. * ... was known to many of the conspicuous characters at In the year 1773 Mr Boswell was admitted into that time in Scotland, among others, Lord Karnes, the Literary Club, which then met at the Turk’s Lord Hailes, Dr Robertson, and Dr Beattie. But Head in Gerard Street, Soho, and of which Dr the most remarkable acquisition which he made of Johnson had been an original member. Here he this kind was his acquaintance with Dr Johnson,
* He had a family by her of two sons and three daughters.
Mrs Boswell died m 1790.
BOS Boswell, had the pleasure of associating, among others, with Burke, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Garrick. Dr Johnson had long projected a tour to the Hebrides ; and Mr Boswell at last prevailed upon him, in the course of this year, 1773, to put the plan in execution, and became the companion of his journey from Edinburgh. During this excursion, they saw whatever was most remarkable in the Western Highlands and Isles; and here Mr Boswell was again at large in his natural element. Conscious of the advantages which he enjoyed, and aware of their value, he improved every opportunity of knowledge and remark, and has preserved a faithful record of all. His feelings were like those which Dante ascribes to the pilgrim, who, having paid his vows, “ Long gazes on the holy fane, and thinks How he shall paint it when he reaches home.” Both travellers gave the world an account of this tour. Mr Boswell’s Journal was published in 1785. In the course of this work, he has given a simple and very interesting narrative of some minute circumstances attending the escape of Prince Charles Edward after the battle of Culloden, collected from the information of persons on the spot, and privy to his concealment; particularly from the celebrated Flora Macdonald, whom they visited at Kingsburgh, in Sky, and from.Malcolm Macleod, who had been the faithful and intelligent companion of the Wanderer’s flight. Lord Auchinleck died in 1782 ; and, a few years after (1786), Mr Boswell, giving up his law pursuits at Edinburgh, removed with his family to London, towards which, as a great emporium of literature and theatre of varied life, his inclinations had always tended. He had recently before been called to the English bar. He did not, however, prosecute the profession, but gave himself up to his natural bent for society and letters. After Dr Johnson’s death, in 1784, he was occupied for several years in collecting and arranging, with indefatigable diligence, the materials for a narrative, which he had long projected, of that eminent man’s life.* Besides the works which have been already mentioned, he was the author of two Letters addressed to the People of Scotland; being his only productions of a political character. In the first of these, which was published in 1784. he appeared as an advocate for the new administration, then recently formed. The second Letter, written in 1785, was a strenuous appeal against a measure brought forward under the sanction of the same ministry, for effecting a reform in the Court of Session in Scotland, by reducing the number of the Judges. Mr Boswell died on the 19th June 1795. In his private character, he was loved by his friends, as well as a favourite in the circles of social life; and, if his attachments were often suddenly formed, they were not less durable on this account. ^-Whatever
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he has written is favourable to virtue; and, during a Boswell, course of living which naturally dissipates the mind, his moral principles remained entire, and his religious faith unshaken. “ Few men,” says his friend Sir William Forbes, in a Letter published in his Life of Dr Beattie, “ possessed a stronger sense of piety, or more fervent devotion—perhaps not alw’ays sufficient to regulate his imagination, or direct his conduct, yet still genuine, and founded both in his understanding and his heart.” His talents would probably have been rated higher, if they had not been obscured by certain eccentricities of character. Yet his writings bear sufficient testimony to his natural abilities, and to the delicacy as well as aptness of his intellectual touch. He has described himself as being of a temperament inclined to melancholy ; but in society he was remarkable for the gaiety of his disposition, and his life was full of activity and stir. To be distinguished was his ruling passion, and he indulged it freely. He sought those whom the world, on whatever account, held in honour; and w^as desirous of being known as one with whom they assorted, and who possessed their friendship. He was fond of his pedigree and family connections, and he aspired after literary fame. While some of these propensities have been common to the great and good in every age, others, it must be confessed, are more frequently harboured than avowed. Mr Boswell adopted the latter and more unusual course, jHe fairly owned his passion, and, if not thus secured from attack, had all those advantages, at least, which are gained by meeting an enemy in the field. But, in reality, he has dealt so openly, and with such candour, on every occasion which touches himself as well as others, that he wins not only our forgiveness but our affection, and maintains, by ingenuousness and complete truth of character, a kind of superiority over any person who should feel desirous of assailing him. Nor was evidence of a substantial sort wanting to show the independence of his mind. For, however attached to individuals of extensive influence, and however ambitious of exalted patronage, he was neither an instrument of party, nor a server of the time. What he gave in attention, he received back in kindness ; and, while he associated with the learned and the philosophical, he contributed his share to the general stock of enjoyment. Of Dr Johnson’s sincere attachment to him, there are many and unequivocal proofs in their correspondence. But it is not on account of his private character, or of a certain domestic celebrity which he enjoyed during his life, that he is to be distinguished in a work of this kind. We commemorate him as an author, and particularly as a writer of Biography. Here he is almost an inventor ; he has, at least, carried this species of composition to a degree of accuracy and detail formerly unattempted. Other writers, as the Abbe de Sade, in his Memoirs of Petrarch, and Mason, in his Life of Gray, had conducted the
* Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.P. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1791f “ Egotism and vanity,” says he, in his Letter published in 1785, “ are the indigenous plants of my mind : they distinguish it. I may prune their luxuriancy, but I must not entirely clear it of them ; for then I should be no longer as I am, and perhaps there might be something not so good.’’
374 BOS Boswell, course of their narratives partly by means of oiiginal letters. But Mr Boswell has, more than any preceding Biographer, made use of all the varied means - by which such a history admits of being dramatized. He paints the whole man, presents the incidents ot his life in their actual order of succession, and preserves him as it were entire ; fulfilling in the history of the moral, what Bacon has assigned to 1 hilosophy as her genuine work in that of the natural, woi d, faithfully to return its accents and reflect its image, neither to add any thing of her own, but iterate only and repeat. ., , The plan of keeping a Miscellaneous Journal had been recommended to him by Dr Johnson, on their, first acquaintance ; and he appears very early to have followed it, so far as writing down what was remarkable in the conversation of those whom he aumired. From bis frequent allusions to the discouises of Selden, commonly called his Table Talk, as pieserved by Lilward, it is probable that he had the example of that work in his view; and by long use he acquired a great facility in this process. Ot his first publication, containing an account of Corsica, the Journal of his residence with General Paoii is by tar the most interesting part. It is a sketch remarkable for life and natural colouring ; and is one of those productions which, though enhanced by their occasion, do not depend on this circumstance alone tor the attraction which they possess. In his Journal oj a Tour to the Hebrides, he pushed to a still greater extent, and even beyond its just limits, his favourite style of writing. Carried away by his natural enthusiasm, and delighting “ to pour out all hansel:, like old Montaigne,” he indulged in a more ample and unqualified disclosure, both of his own sentiments and of the opinions of others, than is consistent with a salutary prudence, or necessary tor the purposes of instruction. Of this he himself became sensible, on cooler reflection, and not only acknowledged it with candour, but in his subsequent and more laboured compositions, profited by the genera opinion, and imposed a greater restraint upon Ins P6 For the task of writing Johnson’s life he was m many respects peculiarly qualified. He had lived in habits of intimacy with the Sage for a period of twenty years, had early conceived the plan of such a work, and received from Johnson himself, to whom his intention was known, many particulars of his early life and personal history. As the writer was thus furnished for his undertaking, so there has seldom been a more fertile or interesting subject for the Biographer. Johnson was not a mere scholar, “deep versed in books, and shallow in himself, nor was he one of those unprofitable misers who hoard without expending. He was a general and a minute observer, and, while he possessed in a degree seldom equalled “ the strenuous use of profitable thought,” his talent for communicating knowledge was more remarkable even than the large capacity of his mind, or the accumulation of his learning. According to Baker’s character of King James, in
BOS that passage which Mr Boswell happily prefixed to Boswell, ; his Journal, “ he was of an admirable pregnancy of wit, and that pregnancy much improved by continual study from his childhood, by which he had gotten such a promptness in expressing his mind, that his extemporal speeches were little inferior to his premeditated writings. Many, no doubt, had read as much, and perhaps more than he, but scarce ever any concocted his reading into judgment, as he did.” Johnson’s conversation, accordingly, is the matter and substance of the book ; and, as the Philosopher did not, in the midst of his studies, forget to cultivate his friends, nor gave up the advantages and comfort of society, there was in his discourse a range and diversity of subject not often found in combination with classical knowledge and habits of profound thinking. Nor does this work exhibit a series merely of witty and sententious sayings : it is interspersed alike with miscellaneous narrative and criticism; and, which constitutes its principal feature, it contains a mass of opinions on subjects of a more common nature, where the powers of reasoning and illustration are applied to familiar topics, and the ordinary occurrences oflife. Valuable as a deposit of literary anecdote, it is still more so as a collection of ethical discourses, to which its popular form gives a singular currency and effect; so that there are few books extant where the religious and social duties, as well as the love of science, in its largest acceptation, are impressed more agreeably, or with greater force, upon the mind. Among the many circumstances which have conspired to heighten our interest in this narrative, is the exhibition which it affords of illustrious characters in different walks of life. The period was distinguished by an unusual measure of genius and talent; and we are not only introduced to the closet of the Philosopher, but carried with him also into assemblages of the brilliant and the wise, with whom he associated. The tone of this society, moreover, is highly pleasing, and in harmony with our best principles and feelings; in which respect, it is impossible to avoid contrasting it with those more boasted Parisian societies during the same period, which were supposed to be the centre of French literature and wit, as they are displayed to us by some of the chief actors in that scene.* Mr Boswells work has not yet, indeed, acquired all its interest; the period is still too recent; but, to estimate its value in after times, we have only to consider what we ourselves should have gained, if such a volume had been preserved to us from the rolls of ancient life. In the great attainments of a Biographer, which are the truth and minuteness of his relation, Mr Boswell has been eminently successful. If, in this species of writing, an author is exempted from the formality, as well as comprehensive research, necessary in the higher classes of historical composition, it is well known that he has his peculiar difficulties to encounter; difficulties, too, which are the greatest where, by his intimate knowledge of the subject, he is best qualified for the task of writing. Nor does
. Particularly in the Correspondence of the Barm de Grimm, and the Memoirs of Marmontel.
BOS Bdswell. the partiality to which he is himself exposed constitute his only danger; since he is no less apt to be led away by the expectation of gratifying his readers. We are fond of seeing the picture of character completed according to our fancy; and, whatever be the feeling which has commenced, are impatient of any interruption to its train. In the case of those whom we respect and love, the disappointment is doubly ungrateful; we dislike being told of their frailties, because we are unwilling to believe that they were frail. But such is not the colour nor the tissue of human characters; and the artist who would represent them truly, must do perpetual violence to his inclination. The fidelity of Mr Boswell’s portrait may be ascribed, in a great measure, to the form and method of his composition. Had he given us only the results of his observation, the effort at impartiality could scarcely have been preserved; but he has presented us with the whole materials as he found them, and allows us to work them up for ourselves. In the other distinguishing quality of a Biographical work, namely, the minuteness of its information, he is so little deficient, that his observance of this requisite has been converted into an accusation against him. And it is certain, as already observed, that, in his early productions particularly, he left some room for such a charge ; and that, "while his veracity and candour were unimpeached, his prudence was not on all occasions equally conspicuous. Yet it must be remembered, that the great use of Biography is to bring instruction home; to give us examples, not of individual actions and conduct merely, but of that conduct as displayed in the common paths of life. The history of nations is too often a species of heroical romance. Its lessons are, at all events, of a different nature from those now in question, and its moral is far too remote to answer the necessities of individuals. General precepts, again, when delivered without the aid of story, commonly fail to produce their effect, either because they fail to excite attention, or because the power of applying them to particular cases remains difficult as before. Nor do works of fiction, however excellent, and even where the scene is laid as it were at home, and the characters are those of a private station, leave any very permanent impressions on the mind. They do not carry with them a sufficient presence and authority; for, the writer’s first object is, not to instruct but to please; and, above all, they want that great requisite, truth, for which, in the time of need, all others are abandoned and forgot. A manual of instruction for human conduct, which, instead of being couched in general maxims, or calculated for situations of unusual occurrence, should
BOS 375 descend to particular cases, and to the ordinary emer- Boswell. gencies of private life, would certainly be one of the most valuable presents which Philosophy could offer to the bulk of mankind. Biography makes the nearest approach towards the compilation of such a code; and, as a commentary on moral duties, it is, when faithfully executed, invaluable. But it is so in proportion only to the closeness of the resemblance, and the exactness of the detail. Minuteness, therefore, is the characteristic and soul of biographical writing, if its proper uses are considered. That such a plan of delineation may be carried to excess, indeed, is undeniable. He who is accustomed to set down whatever he sees and hears, may become indiscriminate in his choice, and forget the value of his store, in the pleasure of collecting it. To ascertain the just medium in this respect, is one of the many things for which rules are ineffectual. A sound judgment alone can determine the limits. As to the licence of publication, the Biographer is under one common restraint with authors of every class. He violates the due boundary, if he introduces into his work what is injurious to virtue, or, if he discloses, for the purposes of general information merely, anything which may probably affect the interests, or wound the minds, of the living. When that period has arrived which secures against dangers of the latter description, even individual characters become, to a certain extent, the property of mankind at large, and may be employed as a vehicle for instruction, if exhibited with fidelity. On this score, Mr Boswell, notwithstanding his natural promptness and want of reserve, has, in his latest and principal work at least, given little ground for animadversion. His habitual quickness of feeling and liveliness of fancy appear to have been corrected, where others were concerned, by his love of justice, and a general benevolence of mind. With regard to his style of writing, a progressive improvement in it may be discovered through his different productions. It is, in general, well suited to his matter, is animated and easy where he is himself the narrator, and bears evident marks of being true to the original, where, as commonly happens, he is a reporter merely. On the whole, whatever blemishes may be found in it as a literary composition, his Life of Johnson is a very valuable work, fraught with information at once useful and pleasing. There are few books which present learning in a more attractive form ; and few where the seeds of knowledge are scattered more profusely. See the Gentleman'’s Magazine. Chalmers’s edition of the Biographical Dictionary, 1812 ; and the writings of Mr Boswell, passim. (ee.)
376
botany. beginning of the eighteenth, the necessity of some Botany, Botany. T he Linnaean System of Botany, the principles botanical system, oi of arrangement as well as nomen- Kecemivi w^V^upon which it is founded, with its application to clature, by which the cultivators of this pleasing practice, have all been amply elucidated m the fourth science might understand each other, became every yy t , volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ihe day more apparent. Nor was there any deficiency S em reader will there find a general view of this celezeal among the leaders and professors of this brated system, including the generic characters, as of science. Systems, and branches of systems, sprung well as some of the specific differences, of most plants up over the whole of this ample field, each aspiring hitherto discovered, with their qualities and uses. to eminence and distinction above its neighbours. The terminology of Linnaeus is explained ; his argu- Many of these, like the tares that fell by the way ments for the existence of sexes in flowers are de- side soon withered for want of root; others, like the tailed ; his ideas of a natural method of classification, herba imvia of the old herbalists, strove to overtop and of its utility in leading to a knowledge of the and stifle their parents; and all armed themselves virtues of plants, are subjoined to a compendious plentifully with thorns of offence, as well as defence, history of Botanical Science. , by which they hoped finally to prevail over their nuObjects of The writer of the present supplementary article merous competitors. This state of scientific waifaie this Article, proposes to take a different view of the subject. his did not, in the mean while, much promote the actual study has, within twenty or thirty years past, become knowledge of plants, though it prepared the way for *o popular, and has been cultivated and considered a final distribution of the numerous acquisitions, in so many different ways, that no dry systematic which were daily making, by the more humble, detail of classification or nomenclature is at all ade- though not less useful, tribe, of collectors and disquate to convey an idea of what Botany, as a coverers. The success of the Linnsean artificial sophical and practical pursuit, is now become, ihe system is not altogether, perhaps, to be attributed different modes in which different nations, or schools, to its simplicity and facility ; nor even to the pecuhave cultivated this science; the circumstances which liar attention it commanded, by its connection with have led some botanists to the investigation of certain the striking phenomenon, brought into view at the subjects more than others; and the particular success same time, of the sexes of plants. The insufficiency, of each; may prove an amusing and instructive object or at least the nearly equal merits, of the many other of contemplation. In this detail, the history of scienti- similar schemes that had been proposed, began to be fic Botany will appear under a new aspect, as rather an most strongly felt, just at the time, when the great account of what is doing, than what is accomplished. progress and success of practical botany, rendered The more abstruse principles of classification will be {he necessity of a popular system most imperious. canvassed ; and the attention of the student may in- While the cause of system was pending, some of me cidentally be recalled to such as have been neglected, greatest cultivators of the science were obliged to or not sufficiently understood. The natural and ar- have recourse to alphabetical arrangement. I his tificial methods of classification having been, con- was the case with Dillenius, the man who alone, at the trary to the wise intention of the great man who first time when Linnaeus visited England, was found by him distinguished them from each other, placed in oppo- attentive to, or capable of understanding, the sound sition, and set at variance, it becomes necessary to principles of generic distinction. These he probainvestigate the pretensions of each. Ihe natural bly understood too well to presume to judge about method of Linneeus may thus be compared with his universal classification. It was the fashion of the artificial one, and as the competitors of the latter time however for every tyro to begin with the latter; have long ceased to be more than objects of mere and the garden of knowledge was consequently too curiosity, we shall have occasion to show how much long encumbered with abortive weeds. . , e^vjces the rivals of the former are indebted to both, in Linnaeus had no sooner published and explained the progress of this inquiry, the writer, who has his method of arranging plants, according to that lived and studied among the chief of these botanical which is generally termed the Sexual System, than it polemics, during a great part of their progress, may excited considerable attention. His elegant and inpossibly find an occasional clue for his guidance, structive Flora Lapponica could not be perused by which their own works would not supply. No one the philosopher or the physician, without leading its can more esteem their talents, their zeal, and the readers occasionally aside, from the immediate obpersonal merits of the greater part, than the author jects of their inquiry, into the paths of botanical of these pages ; but no one is more independent of speculation, and awakening in many a curiosity, theoretical opinions, or tess dazzled by their splenhitherto dormant, on such subjects. But the scope dour, even when they do not, as is too often the that limited Flora is by no means sufficient to case, prove adverse to the discovery of truth. Nor of show either the necessity or the advantages of any is he less anxious to avoid personal partiality. In- mode of arrangement. Linnaeus may be said o corruptam Jidem professis, nec amove quisquam, et sine grasped the botanical sceptre, when, in the year odio, dicendus est. edition of his Specif About the end of the seventeenth century, and the 1753, he published the first 5
B O T Botany. Plantarum ; and the commencement of his reign must be dated from that period. The application of his system to universal practice, in this compendious distribution of all the known vegetables of the globe ; his didactic precision ; his concise, clear, and certain style of discrimination; his vast erudition displayed in synonyms ; and, perhaps as much as any thing else, the fortunate invention of trivial or specific names, by which his nomenclature became as evidently commodious, and indeed necessarily popular, as any part of his performance; all these causes co-operated to establish his authority. An immediate impulse was given to practical botany. The vegetable productions of various countries and districts were marshalled in due array, so as to be accessible and useful. A common language wras established throughout the world of science; a common stock of knowledge and experience began to accumulate, which has ever since been increasing, and can now never be lost. Of these partial Floras to which we allude, those of Lapland and Sweden, the productions of Linnaeus himself, were the models of most of the rest, and have never, on the whole been excelled. ] na?an Hence arose the Linnaean school of Botany, which ool. though founded in Sweden, extended itself through Holland, Germany, and more or less perfectly % other parts of Europe, though not without impediments of which we are hereafter to speak. In Britain it was firmly established, by the influence of some of the most able pupils of Linnaeus, and strengthened at length by the acquisition of his literary remains. But these are adventitious supports. The strength of philosophical, like political, authority is in public opinion, and the cement of its power is public good. As we pioceed to trace the practical influence of the Linnaean system, or rather of the facility which it afforded, in botanical studies, it will be useful at the same time to observe the effects of adventitious circumstances, which render botany almost a different sort of study in different parts of the habitable globe. 1 any of In those northern ungenial climates, where the in* Norlh. tellect of man indeed has flourished in its highest perfection, but where the productions of nature are comparatively sparingly bestowed, her laws have been mast investigated and best understood. The appetite of her pupils was whetted by their danger of starvation, and the scantiness of her supplies trained them in habits of economy, and of the most acute observation. The more obvious natural productions of such climates are soon understood and exhausted. But this very cause led Linnaeus to so minute a scrutiny of Swedish insects, as had never been undertaken before in any country; in consequence of which a new world, as it were, opened to is contemplation, and the great Reaumur declared that Sweden was richer in this department than all ie rest of the globe. Such indeed was its appearWW, fcaus J perennial, not, as in our trees, annual, nor can it, for 3d
BOTANY. three in each fruit. Hence, while the fructification Botany, this reason, be renewed. Fresh buds, in time be- affords sufficient materials for discriminating genera, ^ coming trees, are furnished from the generally Linnseus observes that no common character, exclucreeping, perennial, and deeply descending roots. sively descriptive of the whole order, can be foundWhat have commonly been denominated the branc ed upon it. The reader will find the essential chaes of Palms, Linnaeus very properly declined calling racters of his genera in our Vol. IV. 288. His Zaso, because they never increase by producing lesser mia, concerning which he avowed considerable doubts, branches. He objected to calling them leaves, be- chiefly because it wanted a spatha, is now, by comcause they are each attended by no separate annual mon consent among botanists, removed either to the bud, neither have they the texture of ordinary leaves, Ferns, or to an intermediate order between them and nor do they wither and foil off at any particular sea- the Palms, to which also Cycas belongs. The techson.” He adopted the texm frond, which he always nical characters which have induced this alteration, used when he could not decide whether the part in are confirmed by circumstances attending the habit question were a branch, leaf, or stem. We cannot and qualities of these genera. but think these are truly leaves, though it must be At the end of his proper Palma, Linnaeus subconfessed they differ from the generality ol such, in joins, in a distinct section, three genera, which he being destitute of any line of separation by whic was doubtful whether to leave there, or to establish they are capable of falling, or being thrown off, from as a distinct order. These are Stratiotes, Hydrochathe stem. In this they agree with the foliage of ris, and Valisneria. He remarks in his lectures that Musci and Jungermannice; there being a perfec “ they have a spatha extremely like the palms; a cacontinuity of substance throughout. The hardened lyx of three leaves, and a corolla of three petals ; torn fibres, or rather vessels, which remain on the leaves perennial and evergreen, folded when they stems of palms, where the leaves have once been, are first come forth. Hydrocharis cannot be separated precisely the same as what occur in various mosses; from Stratiotes, nor Va isneria from Ilydrocharis. and something similar may be observed in many lilia- They produce their leaves crowded together at the ceous plants and their allies, which approach to the base, like Ferns. Although their strict affinity with nature of palms. t T • the larger Palms of India cannot be demonstrated, In describing the fructification of this order, Lin- they ought nevertheless to be associated therewith. naeus considered as belonging thereto, what we They are all aquatics, whence we may presume that should presume to be rather the inflorescence. India may afford some aquatic palms, smaller than Hence the great branching flowerstalk retains, in a the others, which may prove a connecting link betechnical sense, the name of spadix, denvedfrom tween the latter and the plants of which we are the ancients; and its ample containing sheath is de- speaking.” Giseke points out seveial palms, in \niinominated a spatha. The latter is reckoned a kind ous authors, which though but imperfectly ascertainof calyx, as the former a sort of branched common ed, confirm this conjecture of his preceptor. Linreceptacle. Linmeus strengthens his terminology m nmus in his own copy of the Genera Plant arum, enthis case, by tracing an analogy between the spatha riched with his manuscript notes, to which we shall of palms, and the glume of grasses. We doubt often refer, has marked this section, or appendage., whether any such particular analogy exists. M ei- of his Palmce, as distinguished by “ an inferior fruit,, ther does his other comparison, of the part in ques- with many seeds ” He has moreover added 4 genera tion to the sheath of a Narcissus and its allies, at to this assemblage, Pundanus, Promeha, 1 illandsia, all, as far as we can judge, elucidate or confirm his and Burmannia. Giseke has amply illustrated the principle. He surely swerves in these instances, as order of Palmes, by observations of his own, oi those well as in his generic distinctions of the umbellife- of various writers; but the most solid acquisitions to rous plants, from the correctness of an axiom, on our knowdedge, in this interesting tribe, aie deiived which botany as a philosophical science depends, from the labours of Dr Roxburgh, in his Plants of that generic characters, and much more those of Coromandel. classes and orders, should be exclusively derived Order 2. Piperita. “ The plants of this order from the parts of fructification. Surely a very slight have an acrid flavour, whence the name.” They afconsideration of the flowers and fruits of the Palma:, ford no common character to discriminate the older, as we have become acquainted with them since the except possibly the elongated receptacle and sessile time of Linnaeus, will abundantly satisfy any person, anthers, but some amentacecs have the same. They that they afford clear characters, .on which to found consist of Zoster a, Arum and its allies, OronJmw, a sufficient number of distinct and very natural ge- Acorus, Piper, and Saururus. The last is removed nera. Even that author, in the lectures before us, Linnseus in his manuscript to his 15th order. records that some genera have a three-leaved calyx, by Order 3. Calamaui^. “ These are closely reothers none at all; some have a corolla^ of thiee, lated to the true grasses, and have almost the same others one of six, petals; most have six stamens, of leaves. Their seed is solitary and naked ; some three, others nine, while the Nipa ot Ihunberg kind stamens three; style one, not unfrequently three-cleft has only one. The germens are three in some, solitary in others, and the style and stigma are subject at the summit. Their glume is of one valve (whereas grasses have two valves), except Schcenus, which to like diversity in difl'erent genera. The fruit is in most several valves irregularly disposed, though in some, as, the Phcenix dactylifera, or Date, a single bears other respects so near the rest of its order, as scarcedrupa, in others composed of three; in some, like ly to be distinguished without accurate examination the Cocoa, a nut with a coriaceous coat. The seeds of the parts alluded to. The stem of these plants is are mostly solitary, but in several instances two or
BOTANY. 395 Botany, a culm, mostly triangular, rarely round, often leaf- usually simple, unless in consequence of cutting Botany. less, or nearly so. Leaves rather rigid and rough. away the flowering part; in the Indies most culms Flowers often disposed in an imbricated n’anner. are branched. The leaves are mostly alternate, Seed in a few instances surrounded with bristles. always undivided, and generally flat on both sides, When these are extended into a kind of wool, hang- with a rough edge, and either smooth or hairy ing out beyond the scales, such a character marks surface. Each leaf stands on a sheath, which emthe genus Eriophorum” Linnaeus asserts that “ Scir- braces the stem, and is crowned with a membrane, pus differs from Carex, in having all the flowers sometimes termed ligula, closely embracing the united, whereas in the latter some scales are accom- stem, to hinder the admission of water. The sheath panied with stamens only, others wath pistilsbut springs from a knot, and (with its membrane) answers he forgot the tunic, or arillus, of the seed, which the purpose of a stipula.” makes the essential and clear character of Carex. “ The fructification of Grasses differs so much He mistakes also in supposing the stamens are al- from that of other plants, that it was supposed imways three in this order ; in several instances they are possible to reduce them to scientific order. They but two, in a few they are solitary. Much has been were first distinguished into corn and grasses; but done respecting the genera and species of this order such a distinction is founded merely on the compaby Rottboll, Vahl, Brown, Schrader, and others. ratively larger seeds of the former, on which we deLinnaeus has made a manuscript correction in the pend for food, as small birds do on the very minute Calamarice, excluding from thence Typha and Spar- seeds of the latter. Ray was the first botanist who gayiium, which he would remove to the preceding undertook a regular examination of grasses. He order, principally, it seems, because he judged the distributed them according to their outward appearlatter to be very closely allied to Zostera ; as well ances, but distinctive characters failed him. Neither as on account of its anthers, but we can trace no was Tournefort, however great a botanist, equal to resemblance in those to the Piperitce. On the con- the arrangement of this tribe. Monti followed Ray, trary they and their filaments agree with the Cala- but investigated such only as were natives of Italy. marice. The stamens of Typha indeed are some- John Scheuchzer, first induced by Sherard, paid a what different, and Mr Brown, in his Prodromus most laborious attention to this subject, collecting Florce Novce Rollandice, has anticipated this altera- grasses from all quarters, and describing them with tion of Linnaeus. the greatest exactness ; but he was deficient in techOrder 4. Gkamina. “ The true grasses compose nical terms, and his very long descriptions are nearas peculiar a family as the palms. They are the ly all alike, till he arrives at the flowering part. The most common plants in the world, making about a terms which he uses are folliculus for the corolla, sixth part of the vegetable kingdom, especially in gluma for the calyx, locusta for the spikelet containopen situations. There they multiply, and extend ed in the latter. After him Micheli contrived a new themselves by their creeping roots, prodigiously. In method, dividing grasses according to their spikelets, confined and woody places they scarcely creep, but which he observed to be either compound or simple. stand erect. They are the most important of all He subdivided them by their flowers being united or vegetables, for this reason, that they are the chief separated; and subjoined an order of plants “ akin support of such animals as depend on vegetable food. to grasses,” which really do not belong to them. If They make the verdure of our summers, and the their sexes be attended to, the arrangement of grasses riches of rustic life. Their leaves are not easily becomes less difficult. They are either monaudrous, hurt by being trampled on, and though the severity diandrous, triandrous, or hexandrous. The two latof winter may wither and fade them, so that in the ter have either united, monoecious or polygamous early spring no appearance of life remains, yet they flowers.” revive. The solicitude of the Author of Nature, for “ The inflorescence in this order of plants is either the preservation of this important tribe of vegetables, spiked or panicled. Their spike, properly so called, appears from their flowering stems being rendered consists of several flowers, placed on an alternately unfit for the food of cattle, that nothing may hinder toothed rachis, or stalk. If such a rachis be conthe perfecting of their seeds. Besides, the more ceived perfectly contracted, it will become a toothed they are cut and ill-treated, the more vigorously common receptacle, as in compound flowers, so that they grow, propagating themselves proportionably grasses may thus be distinguished into simple and under ground ; and in order that they may be en- compound. Or if we imagine all the flowers to be abled to thrive any where, their narrow leaves are so sessile on one common base, such grasses as are procontrived, as to insinuate themselves between the perly spiked will have a scaly receptacle, the rest a divisions or branches of other herbs, without any naked one, according to the analogy of the syngemutual impediment. There are very few grasses nesious class ; and by this means the corn family agreeable to our palate. For the most part they are may be separated from the rest, for they are scaly. insipid, like pot-herbs; a very small number being “ The calyx is a husk of two valves, one proceedfragrant. None are nauseous or poisonous. Grasses ing from within the base of the other, like the claw are the most simple of all plants ; having scarcely of a crab. These husks are concave, and truly the any spines, prickles, tendrils, stings, bracteas, or si- leaves of the plant in miniature. The calyx conmilar appendages to their herbage.” tains one, two, or more, florets, which are construct“ Their stem is termed a culm, being hollow, com- ed in the same manner, of two leafy husks, called by posed of joints which are separated by impervious Linnaeus petals, to distinguish them from the former. fcnots. In our quarter of the world the culm is Within the petals the receptacle bears two very
396 B 0 T A N Y. F.otany. minute, roundish, pellucid, extremely tender, wither- Iris involute; in not a few Commelince ovate ; in Botany, jng scales, often invisible without a magnifier, which Xyris and various kinds of Eriocaulon awl-shaped. Micheli termed petals. Linnaeus nectaries. Stamens Fulcra, or appendages, are scarcely to be found in generally three, in a few one, two, or six, with capil- this order. The calyx is a spatha, though but of a lary filaments, and oblong incumbent anthers, whose spurious kind, being mostly a large concave valve, lobes become separated at each end. Micheli er- resembling a halved sheath in Iris; most beautiful roneously imagined those which have six stamens, in Commelina, where it is heart-shaped. In Sisyrin* to bear, as it were, doubled flowers. The germen chium however this part is more perfectly bivalve. is superior, with two styles, sometimes raised on a Corolla generally of six petals; though in Iris so common stalk or elongated base, and they are usually united by their claws, as to constitute a monopereflexed to each side, being either longitudinally talous corolla. In Commelina and Tradescantia the hairy, or tufted at the summit only. Seed univer- petals are very distinct, but the three inferior being sally solitary, without a capsule, Lygeum only hav- ruder in texture, and smaller, resemble a calyx. ing a nut, of two cells, which is very singular. A Style with three stigmas, except some Commelince. few have a simple style, as Zea, Nardus, and Lygeum. Pericarp a capsule of three cells and three valves, The seed is occasionally coated by the petals, which with many seeds; generally inferior, but not so in closely enfold it, and are almost united with it, wit- Commelina, Tradescantia, and Callisia. Hence it ness Hordeum and Avena (to which examples in- follows that this order affords no certain mark, on dicated by Linngeus we may add Briza). “ Many which a distinctive character could be founded.” Order 7. Orchideae. “ Orchis is a most ancient grasses are furnished with an awn, arista, mostly rough, like a prominent bristle, inserted into the generic appellation, alluding to the testicular shape back of the outermost petal, either at the bottom, of the roots, in many plants of this family, which middle, summit, or a little below the latter. This have, at all times, been believed to possess a stimuappendage is either straight, or furnished with a lating, or aphrodisiacal virtue. All the Orchidece joint, and twisted backward, or simply recurved ; in might be comprehended in one genus, in which light some it is woolly; in several it is accompanied by also the Umbellatce, Semiflosculosce, Papilio?iacece, hairs at the base of the corolla. The use of these might each likewise be considered. But the science parts is to attach the ripe seeds to the coats of ani- would be overwhelmed in confusion by such extensive genera, which it is therefore found necessary to mals, that they may be the more dispersed. “ Although grasses are destitute of spines proper- subdivide. “ Many Orchidece have a tuberous fleshy root; ly so called, a few have their leaves longitudinally involute, in such a manner that their rigid perma- not properly to be termed bulbous, because its fibres nent points have all the properties of thorns, as in are thrown out from the top, or crown, whereas true Spinifex, and some Festucce. Their foliation is, bulbs produce their fibres from the base. These for the most part, involute, but in some instances, as tubers, or knobs, are mostly in pairs; some of them Dactylis glomerata, it is folded. This character has globose and undivided, others palmate, like the hand. not as yet received sufficient attention, but ought to One of these tubers, from whence the plant of the be noticed in future, as it may throw great light present year has come, being exhausted, will swim on the distribution of the family of plants in question. in water; the other, destined to blossom next season, is so solid as to sink. In the palmate kinds, Very few indeed are furnished with setaceous leaves. Order 5. Tripetaloidea*:. “ Scheuchzer and the former is vulgarly called the hand of the Devil, other authors have referred Juncus and its allies to the latter the hand of God. Ophrys corallorrhiza Grasses, under the title of Graminibus affines. In however has a threadshaped, branched, and jointed truth, they are so similar to grasses, as scarcely to root; that of 0. bifolia is perfectly fibrous. In other • be distinguishable without fructification. The ge- genera, particularly Epidendrum, the root consists nera are Juncus, Aphyllanthes, 1 riglochin, Scheuch- of clusters of fibres.” “ The stem is solitary and herbaceous, except in zeria, Elegia and Restio in the first place, then Fla several kinds of Epidendrum, quite simple, often gellaria, Calamus, Butomus, Alisma and Sagittaria. Linnaeus, in his manuscript, has hinted, that the leafy. In some however there is merely a leafless, three latter may possibly belong to the above-men- radical flowerstalk, generally round, though not so tioned section at the end of his Palmce ; see Ord. 1. in Ophrys Loe'selii and paludosa. The leaves are Order 6. Ensat^. “ So called from the form of simple, alternate, undivided, sheathing the stem; their leaves, resembling a sword, being perfectly sometimes wanting, as in Orchis abortiva. Appensimple, almost linear, alternate, mostly converging dages none at all, except bracteas. Inflorescence by the margins, often cloven longitudinally, so that terminal, either spiked or racemose. Fructification the edge of one leaf embraces the other, thus con- irregular, and very singular, for it is impossible to say stituting what is termed equitant foliage. I he root what is calyx, and what corolla; nor is this point of in many cases is oblong and fleshy, lying flat on the much importance, nature having placed no limits ground, or creeping. But some species of Iris are between them. There are five petals; besides a truly bulbous, like Crocus, Ixia, Antholyza, &c. nectary, which makes, as it were, a sixth. These Stem, in these genera, simple, erect, zig-zag; but five seem to constitute an upper lip, the nectary an in Commclina, especially the annual kinds, it is under one. Or it may be said that the corolla is branched, as in Tradescantia. Crocus and Bidbo- composed of three outer, often ruder, petals; and codium have no stems. Leaves usually sword-shaped; three inner, the lowermost of which ought rather to very rarely quadrangular; in the bulbous species of be denominated a nectary. 7 This last is various in
BOTANY. 397 Botany, different genera, having its appropriate figure and able number there;) “ both Indies abound with Botany, dimensions, while the rest of the petals are more singular ones, especially with Epidendra. Their fauniform. Sometimes the middlemost of the five pe- vourite soil is a spongy, moist, friable, rich, but not tals, composing the upper lip, (like that of a ringent manured, earth, in rather shady situations. The or helmet-shaped flower,) is more erect and dilated ; species of Epidendrum are all, perhaps, parasitical, but I have received some species from the Cape of insinuating their roots into the bark of aged trees.” “ Orchidece are extremely difficult of culture.’* Good Hope, in which these petals are united to each other, and elongated at their common base in- We refrain from transcribing the ideas of Linnaeus to a spur. Such will constitute a new division or on this subject, as it is now known that some of genus, of this family, as it stands in the Species these plants may be propagated by seed, and that Plant arum.) many of which have a spur from the several succeed very well in our stoves, among the base of the lower lip, or nectary. The petals how- rotten bark of trees, accompanied by fresh vegetable ever do not afford sufficient distinctions, for genera mould. Our wild Orchises are best removed when or species. The former are determined by the nec- in full bloom, when the mould should be entirely tary, which is for that purpose principally to be re- cleared away from their roots, and the latter planted garded. There is indeed no occasion to advert to immediately in fresh sifted soil from their native any other part than the flower of these plants, for place of growth, with moderate subsequent waterdistinguishing either genera or species. Vaillant ing. Thus treated they wall come up and flower for therefore, and Seguier, have contented themselves many successive years in the same pot. Order 8. Scitamine^e. “ These nearly approach with delineating their various flowers alone.” “ The stamens consist of two anthers, nearly the Orchidece in aspect. The name of the order is without filaments, very singular, and peculiar to this an ancient word, synonymous with aromatic, and anorder, concealed in a double pouch or hood, but swers to the whole of the tribe, except Musa, Helitheir pollen has not been ascertained. They are conia, and Canna.” (The two former certainly do not “ contracted at the base, naked, or destitute of a belong to this order, and the last but imperfectly.) “ The roots of the Scitaminece are fleshy, mostly skin, divisible like the pulp of an orange, and covered each by a cell open underneath, inserted into the acrid and aromatic, lying on the surface of the inner margin of the nectary;” as described in the ground, and throwing out fibres from their under Genera Plantarum. It remains therefore for in- side, like some of the fith order. Stem always quite quiry, whether the anthers burst in these as in other simple,” (to this there are exceptions in Maranta); stamens, and whether the pollen explodes upon the “ in some bearing alternate leaves; in others naked, female organs ? or whether there be any internal and separate from the foliage. Leaves lanceolate, communication between the anthers and germen ?” quite entire, even, stalked, convoluted contrary to This, latter opinion Linnaeus was inclined to adopt, the direction of the sun; their stalks sheathing the because, (as he thought), “ the pistil was so obscure, stem. Inflorescence either a spike or cluster, the that no one was able to say whether there were any flowers being separated by coriaceous or membrastyle or stigma.” We cannot but remark here that nous bracteas. Flower superior. Calyx a perianth the latter is sufficiently apparent, in the form of a of three valves. Corolla always irregular. Pericarp shining glutinous depression or cavity, just below in most instances a capsule of three cells and three the anthers; nor is there any doubt that the pollen, valves, with many seeds in each cell.” We pass though different in texture from other plants, and over much of the Linnaean description, recent disvarious in the different species of these, performs coveries having enabled succeeding writers, particuthe office of impregnation by the stigma. It consists larly Mr Roscoe, in Trans, of Linn. Soc. Vol. VIII. of naked elastic or granular masses, being what and Mr Brown in his Prodr. Nov. Holl. to explain the flowers much better. The corolla is monopetaLinnaeus terms the anthers. “ The germen is inferior in the whole order; the lous, with a double limb, and more or less irregular; style short, inclining, in many hardly manifest, in each limb in three deep segments; the inner most some American Orchidece very conspicuous. Stig- unequal, one of its segments being a dilated, lobed, ma either obsolete, or funnelshaped, sometimes com- ornamented lip, like that of the Orchidece, the other pressed. A small gland moreover is present, sus- two sometimes very small, or obsolete. Stamen one, pected to belong to the female organs of impregna- inserted into the tube, opposite to the lip; its filation, but not very decidedly.” (Linnaeus surely errs ment mostly dilated, and of a petal-like habit, by the in asserting that the sexes of the plants in question diversity of whose shape Mr Roscoe has first reduced are very obscure.) “ 'Hie fruit is a capsule, of one this order into natural genera, a matter in which precell, and three valves, which last are connected by a ceding botanists had altogether failed. The anther lateral suture, to which the seeds are attached, as to a consists of two parallel distinct lobes, united lengthreceptacle. The capsule does not burst in the usyal wise with the filament, bursting longitudinally, somemanner, but the valves separate at their lateral su- times spurred at the base. There are usually the tures, while their extremities remain united at top rudiments of two abortive stamens, first asserted to and bottom. The seeds are numerous, of a chaffy be such by Mr Brown. Gennen roundish, with a appearance, like saw-dust.” threadshaped style, lodged between the lobes of the “ Many fine species of this order are found in anther, and a dilated, cup-like, often fringed, stigEurope and America; the Cape of Good Hope is ma. not rich in them;” (Mr Brown observed a consider“To this order belong the Ginger, Cardamoms,
botany. 398 Botany. Grains of Paradise, Costus, Galangalfe and Zedoary flower was anciently such as, on account of its beau- Botany, '^VX/ of the shops, all aromatic. We have nothing similar ty, was used for ornamental wreaths.” “ Orrnthogalum has much in common with Allium, to them in Europe, except Acorus.' What Professor Giseke has subjoined to the lec- but wants the spatha. Scilla is so nearly related to tures of Linnaeus, relative to this order, is, to say Ornithogalum, that they are scarcely to be distinguished but by the breadth” (some say the proporthe best of it, superfluous. Order 9. Spathaceje. “ These are distinguished tion) “ of their filaments. Hyacinthus and Scilla by their bulbous root, consisting of a radical bud, are with difficulty distinguishable, though the latter formed from the bases of the last-year s leaves, has six petals, the former a monopetalous six-cleft which envelope the rudiments of the future foliage. corolla, but this is in some instances so deeply diIn a bud the scales are expanded into leaves ; in a vided as nearly to approach the latter.” “ In this order the root is either tuberous, a solid bulb the permanent base of the leaves becomes fleshy. In this order the leaves are sheathing at the root, so bulb, or, as in Lilium, a scaly one. The leaves of that they exhibit no instance of a scaly bulb, but Aloe, Yucca, Agave and Bromelia, are, as it were, a only a coated one. Their leaves are, with a few bulb above ground, whose dilated, fleshy, permanent exceptions, almost linear, or linear lanceolate. Stem scales remain year after year; just as the bulb of no other than a scapus, or radical flowerstalk, either the Lily consists only of the perennial bases of the round, two-edged, or triangular. The spatha, or foliage. In the Aloe tribe, not merely the base, but sheath, is a terminal membrane, splitting lengthwise, the whole leaf is perennial. Whoever is ignorant of except in Hcemanthus, where it divides into six this, cannot fail logo astray in studying the order in segments, resembling an involucrum, and is perma- question.” “ The stem is simple, often a mere scapus, occanent. The spntha sometimes contains many flowers, and where it naturally bears but one, is liable occa- sionally leafy, in consequence of a partial elevation sionally to produce more. The flowers are stalked of the radical leaves.” “ The flower, destitute of spatha or any sort of within the spatha ; in most instances they are superior, but not in Bulbocodium, whose corolla is di- calyx, consists of six petals.” (Linnaeus terms them vided to the very base. This plant therefore has such, because they fall oft' when the flowering is over.) erroneously been referred to Colchicum. Tulbaghia “ In Ornithogalum some species have the under side has a perfectly inferior flower, but cannot be referred of the corolla green, which part therefore is permato Hyacinthus, on account of its many-flowered nent here, as consisting of corolla and calyx united. spatha.” (The nectary, or crown of the tube, In some kinds of Anthencum, and in Veratrum, the abundantly distinguishes it.) “ Allium has invaria- petals are likewise permanent, but in a faded condibly an inferior flower, but its spatha shows that it tion. The stamens are universally six, three of them belongs to the order before us. Some of its species interior. Germen superior. In Aloe the pistil is solitary, and three-cleft; but the style is divided to the bear flowers as big as a Narcissus.” “ The corolla in most of the genera is monopeta- very base into three parts in Melanthium, Helonias, lous, inasmuch as the nectariferous tube bears the Veratrum, and one species of Ornithogalum. All petals. Otherwise they might all be denominated the tribe have a capsule of three cells, and three hexapetalous, except Colchicum and Crinum; to valves, the seeds being placed one above another.” “ There is no uniformity in the qualities of the say nothing of Gethyllis, distinguished from all the rest by its very long tube. Stamens six, except in Coronarice, there being among them a great diversithe genus last mentioned, where they are twice that ty of scent. The nauseous smell of Fritillaria impenumber. Pistil one, except Colchicum ; but many rialis and Veratrum indicates a very poisonous quahave a three-cleft stigma, so that in Colchicum this lity, of which likewise Aloe partakes. Lilium is part may be considered as only further divided even mild ; its root inodorous and mucilaginous ; its quadown to the germen. Capsule in all of three cells, lities therefore are emollient and lubricating Scilla maritima is in the highest degree acrid and diuretic, with many seeds.” [llcemanthus has a berry.) “ The roots of this tribe grow best if they are dissolving viscid humours. The root of Ornithogadried after the leaves perish, either artificially, or lum umbellatum, as well as of O. luteum, is eatable. by the arid nature of their place of growth. Many The former appears to be the Dove’s dung, sold of these roots are nauseous and acrid, therefore poi- for so high a price during the siege of Samaria, as sonous, especially Colchicum. The bulb of a Nar- recorded in the Second Book of Kings, chap. vi« v. 25 ; in the first place, because it is very abundant in cissus will kill a dog. No analogy holds good be tween these plants and the Tulip, whose bulb may Palestine, whence the English call it Star of Bethlebe eaten with impunity ; because they are not of the hem ; secondly, because the flower resembles the same natural order. All the species of Allium are dung of pidgeons and other birds, in its greyish and impregnated with their own peculiar pungent fla- white partycoloured hue, whence also comes the vour, and nature being disposed to expel them with name Ornithogalum, or bird’s milk, alluding to the violence from the stomach, they prove most power- white substance, always accompanying the dung of ful sudorifics. Much of the substance of these last these animals; and lastly, because the root in mentioned is mucilaginous, which involves and sepa- question is to this day eaten in Palestine, at least by rates their acrid particles. Hence they are not dan- the poor.” (See English Botany, t. 130.) “ Wepfer has proved, by many experiments, the gerous in substance, but their expressed juice, devery poisonous nature of the root of the Crown Imprived of viscidity, is fatal.” Order 10. Cohonariaj. “ A coronary or garland perial, which kills dogs, wolves, and various other 4
BOTANY. 399 Botany, animals. The ancients relate that the honey of its Aristolochia, Asarum and Cytmus, nearly akin to Botany. flowers caused abortion. No flower, except Meli- each other, are removed from this order, by the auanthiis, produces more of this fluid, yet the bees do thor in his manuscript, to the 27th, Rhoeadece, but not not collect it! We owe this fine plant, now so com- without a query. In the same place we meet with mon, to Clusius, who more than two hundred years what may perhaps prove a solution of the mystery, ago received it, along with the Horse-Chesnut, from which Giseke was so anxious to unriddle, and to the east. He likewise acquired many other bulbs, which we have already alluded in the beginning of before unknown, now become the ornaments of our this part of our subject. Linnaeus has here mengardens. From his time, no one has taken the same tioned Nymphcea, as having in some of its species pains. Certainly if any person could travel, for this one cotyledon, in others two. He notes also that object, into the interior of Persia and the kingdom Menispermum and Aristolochia are dicotyledonous. of the Mogul, he would be likely to obtain many Nymphcea however appears to be the great secret, superb plants of this order, as recent travellers to which the worthy professor told his pupil, that he, or the Cape of Good Hope have made us acquainted some other person, might chance to find out in ten, with so many novelties among the Ixice, Antholyzce, twenty or fifty years, and would then perceive that &c. of which Hermann, Oldenland, &c. their prede- Linnaeus himself had been aware of it. Accordingcessors, have not mentioned a word. Tulipa Gesne- ly? Gaertner and Jussieu have made the same discoriana is so called, because it was procured by Con- very, or rather, fallen into the same mistake ; derad Gesner, from Cappadocia, whence it has become scribing Nymphcea as monocotyledonous, and Cy~ common throughout Europe : its endless varieties amus Sm. Exot. Bot. v. i. 59. (their Nelumho, or are the delight of florists, and some of them fetch a Nelumhium), as in some measure dicotyledonous. high price.” The excellent De Candolle, in the Bulletin des Linnmus in his own manuscript has, as we have Sciences, n. 57, published in 1802, has first rightalready said, removed Bromdia, Tillandsia, and ly considered both as dicotyledonous, and akin to Burmannia, from this order to the Palmce, or at the Papaveracece of Jussieu, the Linnaean Rhoeqleast an appendix thereto. decs. Order 11. Sarmentace^:. “ Sarmenta among the Linnaeus, in his lectures, proceeds to observe, that ancients meant unarmed, prostrate, weak branches, he “wanted to make further inquiry into the cotyler unable to support themselves ; hence this name is dons of his Sarmentacecc, for though he knew that applied to the order before us, many plants belong- several of these plants were monocotyledonous, he ing to which answer to that character, being of a knew two, and did not doubt there were more, perlong, weak, trailing or twining habit. The Sarmen- fectly dicotyledonous. Hence he suspected the ortacecc are monocotyledonous. They differ much in der might be separated into two, in other respects fructification, and may be variously arranged; either very closely related.” by their calyx and corolla; the number of their sta“ The roots of all this family are oblong and mens or of their pistils ; the nature of their fruit; or fleshy, except Erythronium, whose radicles are long the inferior and superior situation of their germen. and quite simple ; those of Smilax Sarsaparilla run Hence it appears that no common character, appli- very deeply into the ground, and are sometimes so cable to the whole order, can be deduced from the thickened at the ends as to become tuberous. The fructification.” stem at first coming forth is smooth and leafless, “ Raiania, Tamus, Dioscorea, Smilax, Cissampelos, mostly branched, except in Paris and Trillium ; in Menispermum and Ruscus, form one assemblage, all some prostrate. Leaves in every instance simple except the last having the above-mentioned kind of and undivided, sometimes linear, sometimes lanceostem, twining to the left, not to the right, except in late and acute, or heartshaped, uniform, mostly alone species of Menispermum. Such a difference is ternate ; except when three or more stand together rare between plants of the same natural order. Smi- in a whorl, and in Dioscorea oppositifolia. It is rare Inx supports itself by two tendrils, springing from that alternate and opposite leaves occur in the same near the base of the footstalks; all the rest are spi- natural order. Flowers mostly on simple stalks, ral, and without examination of the fructification, Smilax excepted, which has umbels; they are droopmay easily be confounded. The above are dioecious, ing except in Paris. Stamens universally six, exexcept one or two species of Ruscus.” (Centella cept in Menispermum. Styles three, or three-cleft. ranged among these in Gen. PI. is now referred to AH the genera, almost without exception, are defiHydrocotyle.) cient in either calyx or corolla. The fruit is geneDraccena, Asparagus, Convallaria, Uvularia, rally ot three cells. Inflorescence axillary in all exGloriosa and Erythronium, compose another section. cept Erythronium, which has but one flower, and The last is intermediate, as it were, between the pre- Ruscus, where it springs from the leaf.” sent order and the Coronaries. Gloriosa simplex is “ Their qualities are to be judged of by the a small plant, not unlike Erythronium, with reflexed smell. All of them betray something of malignity, petals. (What Miller, who is Linnaeus’s sole autho- except two insipid ones which are eatable, Dioscorea rity for this species, intended, nobody has ever been and Asparagus. Gloriosa is very poisonous; the able to make out.) dried flowers ol Lily ot the \ alley cause sneezing, Medeola, Paris and Trillium, have whorled like Veratrum, that is, they produce convulsions. leaves, except M. asparagoides, which scarcely dif- Paris has always been deemed poisonous. One kind eis from the genus Asparagus, except in having or Cissampelos, named Pareira brava, and Smilax, three styles instead of ono.” are known by physicians to be highly diuretic, as
BOTANY. 400 Order 14. Gkuinales. The best known genera Botany, Botany. well as the roots of Asparagus. ^ Menispermum Cochere are Linum, Drosera, Oxalis, Geranium and its cuius kills fishes, lice, and men. “ This whole order is eritirely without pubescence, relations. Linnaeus admits also Quassia, Zygophyllum, Averrhoa, &c., and his editor inserts, with welleven the prickly Smilaces.’' founded doubt, Sparmannia. Their roots and habits Next follow the Dicotyledonous Orders. are various. Calyx usually of five leaves, and corolla Order 12. Holeracea:, pot-herbs, (erroneously of five petals. Stamens various in number and conprinted holoraccce in Gen. PI. which has misled se- nexion. Pistils mostly five or ten. Fruits various. veral writers). “ This denomination is given to plants Linnaeus professed himself unable to define the chathat are tender or brittle in the mouth, and^easy ot racter of this order. Many of the plants have acid digestion, like many of the order before us. ihe order is divided into several sections. Ot the tirst leaves. Order 15. Inundatje. “ So called because they , Blitum, Atriplex, Chenopodium, Salsola, Sahcorma, grow in water, many of them under its surface, ex&c. are examples. T. he second consists of Petiveria, cept their blossoms.” Potamogeton is the genus Calligonum, Ceratocarpus and Corispermum. Calhgenerally knowm, to which Linnaeus suspected triche was subsequently removed to the 15th order. most Orontium to be related, but not correctly. MyIn the third section Axyris stands alone. Of the fourth Herniaria, Illeccbrum, Amarcinthus, Buy' riophyllum, Proserpinaca, Hippuris, &c. are placed and even Elatine, notwithstanding its numerous tolacca, may serve to give an idea. The fifth begins here, Chara and Najas form a section at the end. with Begonia, (of whose affinity Linnaeus candidly seeds. Callitriche, Lemna, and even Pistia, were proposed confesses his ignorance, and to which no botanist to be brought hither; with Saururus and Apotwgehas yet found an ally). Next follow Runicx, hheuin, Polygonum, &c. The sixth section has Nyssa, Mi- ton. “ The qualities of the Inundatce are very obscure. mu,sops, Rhizophora, Bucida and Anacardium ; and These plants are mostly inodorous, except a fishy the seventh Laurus, Winterana and Heisteriu ; in scent in some ; nor have they any particular taste ; both which the fleshy receptacle appears, where he hence they are not used medicinally.” could trace it, to have guided Linnaeus to an arrangeThis order is out of its place with respect to the ment evidently paradoxical, which he labours, with- arrangement by the cotyledons, of which Linnaeus out satisfying us, to justif}^. Order 13. Succulents. “ Bradley wrote on seems aware, from the remarks subjoined to it, in his Succulent Plants, by which he meant such as could lectures, concerning that principle. To these we shall not be preserved in a Hortus Siccus. When gather- hereafter refer. Order 16. CALYCiFLORiE. This consists of Qsyed, vegetables of this nature will live, often for a ris, Trophis, Hippophde and Elceagnus. No obserwhole year, flowering as they hang up in a house, and throwing out roots afterwards if planted. All vation relative to it is given in the lectures, except such plants, however, do not enter into the present that these genera are removed elsewhere. A manuorder. Stapelia, Euphorbia, and Aloe are excluded. script note before us indicates a suspicion of its reThe Succulentce grow, and become very turgid, in lationship to the 6th section of the Holeracece. Linthe driest soil, nor are any found in watery places. naeus sometimes referred Memecylon to one of these If moistened too much they perish, and their roots orders, sometimes to the other, hut finally to his decay. They afford, in putrefying, a fine vegetable 18th; we should rather presume it belongs to the mould, whereas dry plants, like heath and fir, scarce- 19th notwithstanding the definite number of the stamens, which caused Jussieu to range this genus with ly yield any.” Linnaeus has distinguished these into four sections. the Linnaean Calycanihemce ; see the next order. Order 17. Calycanthem^e. “ The title of this In the first are Cactus, Mesembryanthemum, Tamaorder is precisely synonymous with the last, and is rix, and others. Nymphcea placed here, in the Linnaean manuscript, as well as in Giseke s publication, applicable in a different manner to the different gewas afterwards removed by Linnaeus to his Rhoeadece. nera of which the present consists. In those whose Sarracenia he conceived to be akin thereto. In his germen is inferior, the calyx bears the flower and second section are Sedum and its numerous allies ; enfolds the germen ; in those where the latter is suin the third Portuilaca, Claytonia, &c.; and in the perior, it is unconnected with the calyx, into which fourth a very different assemblage, as we should the stamens are, in that case, inserted, like the Senthink, composed of Saxifraga, Adoxa, &c. and even ticosce and Pomacece, not into the receptacle. The Hydrangea. Linnaeus however thought all these germen is inferior in Epilobium, Oenothera, Gaura, sections nearly related. “ They are, ’ says he, “suc- Jussicea, Ludmgia and Isnarda, as well as in Mentculent, insipid, inert, and inodorous, therefore mere zelia and Loosa" (or Loasa) ; “ in the rest, Ammanpot-herbs, widely different from tbe other fleshy nia, Grislcea, Glaux, Peplis, Frankenia, Lythrum, plants, Stapelia, &c. whose fructification is so unlike Melastoma, Osbeckia and Rhexia, it is superior. them, and whose qualities are so poisonous. We Some genera have four, others five or six petals. find in this order, that opposite or alternate leaves is Glaux and Isnarda have none. Ammannia and Pean indifferent circumstance. These plants have no plis have occasionally petals, or not, in the same true spines, no tendrils, nor climbing stems, neither plant. Melastoma has a berry ; the rest a capsule, stipulas nor bracteas.” (Giseke well remarks, that usually of four or five cells, in some genera of but Sedum acre is one exception to their alleged insipidi- two, or one.” Linnaeus mentions Melastoma as the ty, though we can scarcely agree with him that Sem- only arboreous genus. The rest are herbaceous, (rarely shrubby),"with opposite or alternate leaves; pervi'uum tectorum is another.)
BOTANY. Botany, stamens from four to twelve, pistil always solitary, 40th order, and yet said to be akin in Ginora, which the stigmas either four or one. belongs either to this or the 17th. Philadelphus is “ These plants are mostly inodorous and insipid, subjoined as forming a section by itself, and still with except a styptic property in the root of Lythrum ; a mark of doubt. The discoveries in New Holland none of them are used in the shops. It is remark- have thrown much light on this fine order of aromaable in this order particularly, that some flowers are tic and elegant shrubs, of which the Myrtle is a fasessile and axillary, but towards the summit the miliar type. Linnjeus intended to remove Garcinia leaves gradually diminish, and are finally obliterated, hither. so that the inflorescence becomes a spike, as may be Order 20. Rotaceas. The lectures are also defiseen in Epilobium." cient as to this order. It consists of Trientahs, Order 18. Bicornes. “ So called,” by Linnaeus, Centunculus, Anagallis, Lysimachia, Phlox, Exacum, “ from the anthers, which in many of this tribe ter- Chlora, Gentiana, Swertia, Chironia and Sarothra ; minate in two beaks. The plants are rigid, hard and to which Ascyrum, Hypericum and Cist us stand as evergreen, almost all more or less shrubby ; certainly an appendix. The wheel-shaped corolla of many of perennial. Diospyros is arboreous. The leaves of the above plants, has evidently suggested the name. this order are alternate, simple, undivided, scarcely Order 21. Precias. Primula and its elegant re_ crenate, permanent. Stipulas and bracteas want- latives form the basis of this order. “ They are all ing (certainly not always the latter). “ Calyx of destitute of stems. Leaves simple. Flowerstalk one leaf, more or less deeply four or five cleft. Co- umbellate, except in Cyclamen. Flower regular. rolla usually rnonopetalous ; in Pyrola, Clethra, and Calyx, as well as corolla, five-cleft. Stamens five. their near allies, pentapetalous. Nectaries none, ex- Style one. Fruit a simple superior capsule. The cept in Kalmia.” (Linnaeus can here mean only the umbel is often accompanied by an involucrum. They pouches which for a while detain the elastic stamens, are vernal-flowering plants, and have, except Cyclaand those are by no means nectaries.) “ Stamens men, nothing malignant in their qualities.” Limosella from four to ten, answering to the divisions of the stands alone in a second section of this order, but corolla, or twice their number. Pistil 1, except rather perhaps belongs to the 40th. Meny ant lies, Royena, which is digynous. Germen in some supe- Hottonia and Samolus form a third section, attended rior ; in others, as Vaccininm, inferior. Some have by a mark of doubt. Sibthorpia was once inserted a capsule, others a berry ; the cells of each four or in manuscript, but afterwards erased. five; but Diospyros has a fruit of eight cells. The Order 22. Caryophyllei. The Pink and Camseeds are either one or many in each cell, mostly pion tribe. “ Root fibrous. Stem herbaceous, small, chaffy.” Linnaeus remarks that “ they can scarcely shrubby, jointed ; its branches commonly scarcely be raised in a garden, especially as the alternate. Leaves simple, more or less of a lanceoplants are many of them natives of boggy situations late figure, undivided, hardly crenate in any degree, but our English gardeners are masters of their treat- sessile, with no other appearance of a footstalk than ment, witness the abundance of Ericce from the their elongated narrow base, opposite, obvolute. Cape, now common in every greenhouse, and many Stipulas none; neither are there any distinct bracother charming shrubs, cultivated in a peat soil. teas, nor spines, prickles nor tendrils. The plants are He conceived the whole order to be nearly confined mostly smooth, few are hairy, none prickly or bristly. to one meridian, from the North Cape of Lapland, Flower rarely sessile. Stamens never numerous, but to the Cape of Good Hope; but he is incorrect in either the same in number as the petals, or twice as saying, there are very few in North America, and many. Pistils from one to five, not more. Fruit a none in the East or West Indies. capsule, either of one cell, or of as many as there Ilalesia, Styrnx, Spathelia, Citrus and Gnrcinia are styles; the cells usually with many seeds, Dryare subjoined as an appendix to the Bicornes, but ])is only having a solitary seed. A few of these there is allowed to be a considerable distance be- plants with separated flowers occur among the spetween them, and the last is erased in the Gen. Plant. cies of Cucubalus, Silene and Lychnis. The whole as having opposite leaves. Giseke records, p. 345, order is harmless, without any peculiar taste or smell, that when Linnaeus said no Erica grew in America, except in the flowers. It contains the Jlores caryohe asked him whether Hudsonia were not an excep- phyllati of Tournefort, who defined these as having tion to this ? On which he took that genus from his the calyx tubular, and the limb of the corolla flat; herbarium, and alter contemplating and replacing it, but he referred Statice and Linum hither, which difwrote something, Giseke knew not what, in his Ge- fer widely from this order, while his character exnera Plantarum. We find what he wrote to be as cludes the Alsine, or Chickweed, tribe.’’ Linnaeus follows: “ Videnda Hudsonia, Empetrum, Ilex, I tea.” thought Velezia had been wrongly placed here by It is interesting to be thus able to trace the thoughts Gerard, and was doubtful respecting Cherleria ; but of such a man. He was moreover correct as to the he was afterwards satisfied that both are Caryophyllei. genus Erica itself, of which no species has been de- He remarks that “ the order consists, as it were, of tected in America. two leading genera, or rather families, the Caryo. Order 19. Hesperiders. Of this nothing is said phyllus, or Pink tribe, such as Dianthus, Sctponaria, in the lectures. The original genera are Eugenia, Gypsophila, Silene, Lychnis, &c.; and the Alsine, or Psidium, Myrtus, and Caryophyllus; to which Gi- Chickweed family, consisting of Spergula, Cerastium, seke has added Calyptranthes and Legnotis of Swartz. Arenaria, Stellaria, and others. In the first division, Melaleuca also strictly belongs to this tribe; though, the calyx is tubular, of one leaf; in the second of by a strange error, referred in the Mantissa to the five.” A third section of this order has Pharnaceum, VOL. II. PART II.
401 Bitany.
B O T A N Y. 402 Botany. Glinus, Mollugo, Poly tarpon, Minuartia, Queria, widely in their fruit; which in some, as officinalis, Botany.. Ortegia, Loejlingia ; to which were afterwards &c. contains a solitary seed ; in capnoides, claviculata, added Gisekin and Rotala. Holosteum also, having &c. it is a genuine pod; in vesicaria a large inflated laciniated stipulaceous membranes, was intended to capsule.” Monnieria and Melianthus, (two very have been removed to this third section. Scleran- puzzling genera), were thought by Linnaeus to be thus, by itself, makes a fourth, but is erased by Lin- nearly related to each other, though differing from naeus, and removed to his 31st order. Polyprertium, the order under consideration, in having several capsules, and a calyx in five deep divisions. But he with a query, stands at the end. A most extraordinary remark is subjoined by judged the ringent corolla of Monnieria to betray Professor Giseke at p. 354 ; that “ Alsine media an affinity to Fumaria ; while the nectary of Meand Holosteum umbcllatum are one and the same lianthus is similar to that of Monnieria, the combinplant,” and that “ Linnaeus had no specimen of the ed stamens of the latter being exactly those of Fuformer in his herbarium in the year 1771.” Swartz maria. Hence a relationship is traced between Meis cited in confirmation, who only says in his Obs. lianthus and this order, which, but for Monnieria, Hot. 118, that this Alsine is a species of Holosteum. could not have been suspected. “ There is a certain fragility and delicacy of texWe trust it is better referred to Stellaria in Flo. ture characteristic of the Corydales, with a glaucous Brit., and we can affirm that an authentic specimen of this common plant, which Linnaeus had when he hue, which points out their affinity ; as well as a published the first edition of Sp. PL, in 1753, still bitter flavour. Scarcely any of the order are odoriexists in his collection. rlhe real Holosteum umbel- ferous, except Melianthus, which is extremely foetid.” Linnaeus professes his inability to point out any latum, a rare English plant, is wrell delineated in exclusive mark of distinction for this order. “ The Engl. Bot. t. 27Order 23. Trihilat-E. “ So called from its leaves indeed are alternate in all, Calceolaria exthree-celled, and three-grained fruit, for all the cells cepted ; and many bear stipulas. Their mode of are distinct. Melia however has five cells. The flowering is spiked, racemose, or solitary, their stalk calyx in this order is either of four or five leaves, or naked or leafy, different in different species. All of one leaf in five deep segments. Petals four or that we are acquainted with are smooth and unarmfive. Stamens eight or ten. Pistil one. One part ed ; a very few of them climbing by means of tenof the fructification is often diminished as to number, drils. Melianthus and Monnieria only are shrubby. for instance the petals ; and when they become but All the tribe prefer shady, moist situations, where four, the stamens are only eight. A nectary is al- the soil is not disturbed.” (Some however grow in ways present; hence the corolla is frequently irre- cultivated ground, as the Fumitories.) “ The Melianthus, a Cape plant, produces more gular. The leaves are disposed to be compound, and honey than any other plant, so that a tea-spoon full are both opposite and alternate. I he whole order scarcely contains any thing acrid, except Tropceo- may be collected every morning, from each of its lum, nor any thing either fragrant or noxious ; on numerous flowers. But the offensive odour” (of the the other hand, the Tricoccce, properly so called, are bruised plant) “ indicates a poisonous quality, as in Cimicifuga." highly poisonous.” Order 25. Putamine^e. On this order, named The first section consists of Melia, Trichilia, Guarea and Turrcea ; to which Linnaeus has added, from from the strong rind of the fruit in several instances, his 54th or miscellaneous order, Cedrela and Swiete- there is no commentary in the Prcdectiones, nor any nia. The second is composed of Malpighia, Ban- manuscript note in the Gen. PI. The genera are nisteria, Hircea, Triopteris, Acer and Aesculus. Cleome, Cratceva, Morisona, Capparis; Crescentia Linnaeus was inclined to bring hither, from his 14th and Marcgravia being added with hesitation. Taorder, the genus Fagonia, because of the likeness of ncecium of Swartz, and Possira of Aublet, which last its flower to Malpighia, but he found a difficulty in is Rittera of Schreber, are subjoined by Giseke. Order 26. Multisiliqu^e. This consists of four the five cells of its fruit. A third section consists of Stapkylea, Sapindus, Paulinia, Cardiospermum and sections. In the first are Pceonia, Aquilegia, AcoTropceolum ; to which Hippocratea is added in ma- nitum and Delphinium, to which Linnaeus, after much nuscript, and a question subjoined, Whether Staphy- diversity of opinion, finally determined to add Cimilea be not akin to Celastrus ? Cavanilles has added cifuga and Acicea. The second contains Dictamnus, many new genera to this order, but he is surely Jiuta and Peganum : the third Nigella, Garidella, complimented to excess by the editor of the Prce- Isopyrum, Trollius, Helleborus, Caltha, Ranunculus, Myosurus and Adonis: and the fourth Anemone, lectiones. Order 24. Corydales. “ The title of this order Atragene, Clematis, and Thalictrum. “ Most of the is synonymous with Fumaria amongst ancient writ- order, with a few exceptions, are of European growth; rarely arboreous or shrubby, except such ers.” “ The genera are Melianthus, Monnieria, Epi- species of Clematis as climb trees. The roots are jnedium, Hypecoum, Fumaria, JLeontice, Impati- fibrous, sometimes tuberous. Leaves often manyens, Utricularia, Pinguicida, and perhaps Calceola- cleft, or compound; but in a few instances simple; ria. The calyx is of two leaves; except in Pingui- all alternate, except in Clematis integrifolia. There cula, where it is only cloven ; and Melianthus, where are no stipulas, spines, nor prickles. One or two it consists of four leaves. The flower of Fumaria is kinds of Clematis bear tendrils. Flowers in no case remarkable in its throat, and uniform in that respect monopetalous. Stamens always more than eight, throughout the genus, but the various species differ except in the second section. Fruit in some capsu-
B OT Botany- lar, in some single-seeded. An acrid taste prevails through the whole. Their odour is disagreeable, almost universally, so that none is esculent, and many, if not all, are poisonous, though there is no milky plant among the whole, nor any one with a twining stem.” Linnaeus remarks, that “ a calyx is very rarely present, and when it occurs, manifestly originates from the leaves but this is not applicable to Ranunculus and its nearest relations, nor to any genus in the second section ; that section indeed being a most distinct order of itself, called by Jussieu Rutacece, but not well defined by him. Order 27. Rhceade^:. The Poppy tribe. No remark on this order is found in the lectures of Linnaeus, but he has made some manuscript notes. He wished to remove it next to the 24th and to place its genera thus, Argemone, Chelidonium, Papaver, Podophyllum, Sanguinaria and Bocconia. Sanguinaria, he observes, has the flower of Actcea, which last genus he had once brought hither. He has finally placed here Aristolochia, Asarum and Cytinus, as we have mentioned under the 11th order. Nymphcea also is indicated, but afterwards erased, which is unfortunate. Order 28. Luridje. The gloomy family of nightshades, henbane and tobacco. “ This order is a most distinct and evident one. All the plants have alternate leaves; a five-cleft calyx; monopetalous corolla; stamens four or five; pistil one; germen superior; seed-vessel of two cells, in some a berry, others a capsule. Their corolla folds in a plaited manner.” Digitalis, Celsia, Verbascum, Nicotiana, Atropa, Hyoscyamus, Datura, Physails, Solatium, Capsicum, are examples of this order. “ They are none of them arboreous, though some are shrubby. Colour (of the herbage) mostly dull and lurid ; the taste disagreeable, smell nauseous, hurtful to the nerves, hence their generally poisonous qualities.” Elhsia is properly expunged in the manuscript, and Nolana with equal propriety removed hither from the 41st order. Linnaeus observes, that “ the poisonous quality of Verbascum appears in its power of killing fish, if made up into balls with meal.” “ Nicotiana rustica,'' he says, “ furnishes the Turks with their best tobacco, yet it is not cultivated by us, though it grows readily. Atropa Mandragora, a most poisonous and dangerous plant, becomes, under proper management an excellent and powerful medicine,” for instances of which Linnaeus referred his hearers to his lectures on the Materia Medica. These, as Giseke notices, were never published. On turning to the manuscripts used by the professor in that course, we find the Mandragora mentioned as “ virose, acrid, bitterish and nauseous, useful in the gout and colic ; the herb boiled in milk, and applied to scirrhous tumours, more active in dispersing them than hemlock or tobacco. Three of the berries boiled in milk, given to a potter, labouring under a dreadful cholic, threw him into a sleep for twentyfour hours, out of which he awoke cured. The ancients gave an infusion of this plant in wine, before they amputated a limb. Its narcotic qualities render it very useful in epilepsy and hysteria, though
A N Y. 403 to be cautiously administered. Nothing can be more Botany, dangerous in a state of pregnane}'. The editor 0f Hernandez, Hist. Nat. Mexic. Book viii. chapter 28, speaks of this fruit as eatable, without any soporific or injurious eftect.’' Linnaeus himself appears to have been doubtful about Catesbcea, which he has marked as akin to his Dumosce. Giseke has subjoined an observation, not well founded, of the Solandra of Swartz being hardly distinct from Datura. Order 29* Campanace^e. These Linnaeus has noted as most nearly allied to the 24th order. “ They never form trees, rarely shrubs. Leaves in every instance alternate ; calyx and corolla five cleft; stamens five; pistil one, except Evolvulus, which has at least a deeply four-cleft style, if not four distinct ones. Fruit a capsule. They are milky plants, at least while young and tender. Their qualities therefore are purgative, and but slightly poisonous.” Convolvulus and Campanula, with their respective allies, constitute this order. To the latter Viola is supposed to be connected, through the medium of Lobelia. Parnassia, though in the manuscript rightly said to be not milky, stands at the end, its affinity being indicated by the nature of the flowerstalk, calyx, as well as the seeds and their situation, but especially the nectaries and stigma. The anthers come one after another and impregnate the latter, retiring subsequently in their turns. Their close application to that part, as Linnaeus conceived, rendered the access of extraneous pollen impossible, “ hence” says he “ no more species of this genus can be produced.” This alludes to his hypothesis of new and permanent species, or even genera, having been generated, from time to time, in the vegetable kingdom, by cross impregnation ; which we are very unwilling to admit, nor do any of his instances prove satisfactory to us. As to Parnassia, we now know several American species, as distinct as those of any other genus. Order 30. Contorts. “ This order derives its name from the corolla, which,” (in all the species known to Linnaeus,) “ is twisted in the bud, contrary to the course of the sun, its limb being wheelshaped, when expanded, in such a way that each of its segments, unequally proportioned in their margins, is curved inward under the next segment, the shorter side of the former being beneath the lono-er one of the latter. Europe is very poor in this tribe, India very abundant. Many of the plants are milky, and, like most other such, poisonous ; some indeed so violently, as immediately to destroy animals that eat them. Their medical effects, rightly managed, may be very great. They have all, naturally, an injurious property, even Asclepias Vimetoxicum, though this plant, like Nerium and Vinca, is scarcely milky, but in its very youngest shoots.” (It is singularly remarkable that the fruit of one of this family, at Sierra Leone, the size of an orange, yields a copious and wholesome milk, used by the colonists as cream to their tea. See Sm. Introd. to Botany, ed. 3. 31b.) “ Many of the order of which we are treating are shrubby ; the leaves opposite and evei’green, except the species of cold countries. The flower is, in many cases, intricate in structure, because of the
B 0 T A N Y. 404 Botany, peculiar apparatus of the nectaries of various ge- Quisqualis, Dirca, Daphne, Gnidiu, Slruthiola, Botany. Lachncea, Passerina, Stellera, with Thesium, and in nera.” “ The roots are perennial. Leaves all, as far as the manuscript Scleranthns and Santalum. These hitherto known, simple and undivided, and, with three last do not properly belong to the others, very few exceptions, opposite ; sometimes ternate, which constitute a most natural order of generally or quaternate ; rarely alternate. The inflorescence small shrubs, as the name implies. They are known is often peculiar, in having its flowerstidk not axil- by their tough branches; silky inner bark; simple lary, but proceeding from the side ot the stem be- entire leaves ; acrid and even burning flavour ; and tween the insertion of the leaves. Calyx of one leaf, sweet-scented flowers, whose calyx and corolla are five-cleft. Corolla of one petal, regular, its seg- united into one integument, most coloured within. Order 32. Papii.ionace;e, An extensive and ments contorted, as above described, and often notched in the margin. Nectaries, in many in- very natural family, “ consisting of the Leguminosce stances, singularly formed. Stamens five. Pistils of Ray; which Tournefort,” (following an idea of two, or one with a double stigma. Germen supe- Baptista Porta), “ called Papilionacece; Rivinus rior in all, except Gardenia, Genipa, and Macrocne- Jlores tetrapetali irregulares ; and Magnol pentapctali. niuni,” (all now certainly not admitted into thisorder.) ' They have not all five petals, for in many the claw “ The Fruit, in many genera, as Vinca, Nerium, of their keel is simple; in some the keel is separated Echites, Plumeria, Taber nccmontana, Gamer aria, towards the base into a double claw ; while in a few Periploca, Apocynum, Cynanchum, Asclepias, Sta- only, the whole keel is composed of two distinct % pelia, Ceropegia and Pergularia, consists of two dis- petals, as in Spartium.” “ Their character is as follows. Perianth of one tinct follicles, not observable in other plants. This leaf, irregular, inferior, generally withering. Corolla sort of seed-vessel is like a spatha amongst the other kinds of calyx, of one valve, splitting longitudinally nearly the same in all. Its standard either emargiat the inner edge. But the seeds are not attached nate or entire, either reflexed or not at the sides, to the suture, there being a separate thread-shaped for the most part very large, compared with the receptacle, extending the whole length of the seed- other petals. Wings, if present, always two, oppovessel, over the whole ot which the seeds are imbri- site, frequently large, sometimes, as in Colutea and cated, in a downward position. In all the above Hedysarum, very short. Keel simple, either pointed, mentioned the seeds are crowned with a soft hairy obtuse, or abrupt. Stamens ten, nine of which have tuft, except those of Vinca, which have no such ap- their filaments united, more than half way up, formpendage. The flowers of the Contortee are usually ing a membranous sheath to the pistil ; the tenth very handsome, and there is something so singular sticking closely under the pistil, and being somein the structure of many of them, especially relative times inserted into the base of the tube composed to the nectary and stigma, that it is difficult to say, by the other nine. Hence arise two divisions of in many instances, whether they have one or two the order, without attention to which the genera are stigmas ; especially when two germens seem to bear with difficulty defined. Pistil generally uniform; but a single style. The corolla in all is five-cleft, the style downy or woolly, either above or below; and the stamens five. Jacquin contends that the stigma either acute or capitate. Legume of two latter are really ten. Linnams from repeated ex- valves, which must not be confounded with a Siliqua, amination of Asclepias, was confirmed in the former or Pod, though old writers have so termed it, applyopinion, and especially from the investigation of ing that name equally to the fruit of this order and Periploca, whose flower, evidently constructed on that of the Tetradynamia class. As these fruits the same principle as Asclepias, has, no less evident- differ widely in structure, Linnaeus has restricted to the latter the term pod, whose character is to have ly, but five stamens.” Giseke very improperly annexes Embothrium and the seeds attached to each suture of the valves ; Jl hop ala to this order, only because their fruit is a whereas in the legume, or fruit of the class Diadelfollicle; nor does any other genus which he, or Lin- phia, they are connected with one suture, or marnaeus, has mentioned, really belong to it, except Al- gin, only. The name of legnmen indeed originally lamanda, Rawwolfia and Cerbera of the latter ; Gyno- belonged to the seed itself of these plants ; but for pogon and Melodinus of Forster, with Willughbeia of want of a better word, Linnaeus has applied it to Schreber. The first has a bivalve coriaceous capsule, their seed-vessel. The legume is mostly of one cell, as if formed of two follicles united, with imbricated containing many seeds ; except Astragalus and Riseeds; the rest have pulpy fruits. Most of the ser mi a, in which one suture is internally dilated, as other genera referred hither, as Gardenia, Cinchona, it were, so as to make a partition, separating the Portlandia, &c. belong to the great order of Ru- fruit into two cells; whilst Phaca has the same part biacece in Jussieu, of which the Linnaean Stellatre, extended only half the breadth of the legume, renNo. 47, make a part. It must be allowed, never- dering the separation incomplete. Geojfrcea has a theless, that the corolla of Gardenia answers to the drupa, which still ought to be considered as a singlecharacter of the Contortce. Mr R. Brown, in the seeded legume, whose pulp is hardened,” (or rather, Wernerian Transactions, has thrown much light on whose coat is made pulpy.) “ The ripe legume bursts the principal genera of this family, under the title of along its sutures, and throws out its seeds. Ihere Asclepiadece and Apocinece, with the addition of nu- are indeed some which do not open in this manner, but fall off in separate joints, each containing a seed, merous new ones. Order 31. Veprecul;e. No explanation of this examples of which are Hedysarum and Omit nooccurs in the Prcelectiones. The genera are Dais, pus.” 10
Botany.
-
405 BOTANY. “ The genera of this natural order so nearly ap- monocotyledonous, these dicotyledonous ; they are Botany. ^proach each other, that it is difficult to detect their destitute of tendrils, with which these are furnished. discriminative characters. Tournefort, though he The calyx is either of five leaves, or five deep segdistributed other genera by their flowers, divided ments. Corolla of one petal, in five dee]) divisions, and determined these by their foliage. But Hedy- but so much cut, in many instances, that it is scarcesarum forms an objection to such a principle of ar ly possible, but from analogy, to say whether it conrangement, because some of its species have simple sists of one or five petals. The stamens are inserted, leaves, others ternate, conjugate, or pinnate.” not into the receptacle, but into the interior surface “ Lathyrus, Cicer, and Vida are genera most of the calyx, to which also the corolla is attached. nearly akin to each other, as are Phaseolus and Do- Their filaments are often five, but frequently so comlichos. Coronilla, Ornithopus, Hippocrepis, Scorpiu- bined as to appear three only. So also the anthers rus, Lotus, and some species of Trifolium, agree in are often connected, the summit of one to the base their umbellate inflorescence.” (Sophora, and its of another, making a continued serpentine line. The many new-discovered allies, ought to make a sec- style is of considerable thickness, with three, fretion, at least, by themselves.) quently cloven, stigmas. Fruit internally of three “ There is no poisonous plant in this whole order, cells, fleshy, and somewhat juicy. The seeds are, except the seeds of Lupinus, with which the Hippo- for the most part, capable of being kept for a long potamus is killed, and which fowls will not eat. In- time, though they appear of a dry nature ; but that digo becomes poisonous in its preparation, but the they are not really so, is evident from the emulsions plant is originally harmless. On the other hand, prepared from some seeds of this tribe. Gardeners none of this tribe is medicinal, except Glycyrrhiza. think them better for keeping. The sex of the Galega, commended as antipestilential, is not to be flowers is, in several cases, distinct, and either motrusted. These plants have no remarkable odour,” noecious or dioecious. The whole order is noxious (except in the flowers of a few species.) “ Their and foetid, hence it affords some of the most violent seeds are flatulent; but afford nourishing food for medicines, as Colocynth and Elaterium. Even melabouring people.” lons themselves, if taken too plentifully, are said to Order 33. Lomentace^e. “ These are perhaps be injurious, though in ripening they part with much all shrubby,” (or arboreous.) “ Leaves alternate, of their unwholesome quality.” The genera are compound, at least in the indubitable plants of this Gronovia, Anguria, Elaterium, Sicyos, Melothria, order; pinnate or bipinnate ; without a terminal leaf- Bryonia, Cucurbita, Cucumis, Trichosanthes, Molet, Moringa excepted. Stipulas always large, par- mordica, Feuillea, Zannonia, Passiflora. “ The last ticularly to be noticed. Calyx five-cleft. Corolla affords some of the most beautiful of all flowers ; in some degree irregular, polypetalous, except Ce- many of them are fragrant.” ratonia, and several Mimosce. Stamens differing in Order 35. Senticoste. The briar and bramble number ; mostly ten. Pistil universally single. Fruit tribe. The genera are Alchemilla, Aphanes, Agria legume, for the most part having transverse parti- monia, Dryas, Geum, Sibbaldia, Tormentilla, Potentions. The leaves fold together at night, except tilla, Comarum, Fragaria, Rubus, Rosa. Poterium those of Ceratonia, and that in a different manner and Sanguisorba are inserted at the head of this list, according to the different species. Many of this or- in the Linnaean manuscript. See the following order possess a purgative quality, while some have a der. virose or nauseous flavour about them, but this last Order 36. Pomaceje. The apple and plum kinds, is not at all the case with Ceratonia.” consisting, in the first section, of Spircea, Rihes, SorOf Polygala, which stands at the head of this or- bus, Cratcegus, Mespilus, Pyrus ; in a second, of der, nothing is recorded by Giseke from the lectures Punica ; and, in a third, of Chrysobalanus, Primus of Linnaeus, nor has he himself made any note. It and Amygdalus. These two orders are treated of surely answers but indifferently to the Lomentacece. together, in the Prcelectiones, it is not said for what Genuine examples of the order are Bauhinia, Hy- reason, though their strict affinity cannot be overmencea, Ccesalpinia, Cassia, perhaps Securidaca ; from looked. “ Many of these plants,” says Linnams, which Ceratonia, Mimosa, Gleditsia, &c. considerably are shrubs, most of the whole are perennial, very recede in character, though less in habit. Cercis few annual. They are rarely smooth. The leaves ought to be ranged, with Anagyris, Sophora, &c. are alternate, mostly compound. Stipulas always either, in the preceding order, or rather in a separate two, large. None of the plants properly climb, one, intermediate between the two. though some brambles support themselves on their Order 34. Cucurbitaceae. “ In this order neighbours. Their distinguishing character princithere are, properly, no trees. Some of the plants pally consists in the receptacle of the stamens being indeed have a climbing, woody, perennial stem ; equally that of the germen, but raised, at the sides others a perennial root only; whilst others again are of the calyx, above the germen. Hence, the calyx entirely of annual duration. Leaves in all alternate, bearing the stamens, they are calycantfiemi. The simple, always accompanied at their origin by sti- fruit is either superior or inferior, therefore that dispulas. There are mostly glands, either on the foot- tinction is not always important. In Rosa, for instalks, at the base of the leaf, or on its disk. All stance, the part in question seems inferior, but is in have tendrils, by which they climb if they have any fact the contrary, for the seeds are really inserted opportunity ; otherwise they are procumbent. These into the inner side of the calyx, exactly as in Mespiplants seem akin to the Sarmentacece, order 11th ; but lus, with this difference only, that in the latter they the latter have a twining stem, these not; they are are imbedded in the pulp, which fills the calyx. The
B 0 fr 406 Botany, segments of the calyx are mostly in a doable series, the innermost largest, the outer alternate therewith, and smaller, answering to the petals. Stamens for the most part numerous, but Sibbaldici, Alchcyn'iliu, and Aphanes form an exception, the first having five stamens, the two last only four, (01 even fewei ). “ The pistils vary in number. There is nothing acrid in the whole order, nor much fragrance ; there is much of a styptic, little of a mucilaginous quality; nothing poisonous; so that, if the fruits are worth -tasting, they may certainly be eaten with impunity.” Order 37. CoLUMNiFERiE. “ So called, not because the author meant to express, in the name, the essential character, but in allusion to some distinguished examples of this order, whose stamens are united into a columnar form. Linnaeus was really the founder of the order in question, though Tournefort endeavoured to keep together as many of the same plants as possible, under his Monopetali Campaniformes. But the corolla has five petals, though they all fall off in one body, being connected with the combined stamens. Some have been denominated akin to Malvacece ; indeed many of the class Monadelphia belong to this tribe.” “ The root in all these plants is fibrous, in no instance bulbous or tuberous. Stem often herbaceous, but there are many arboreous, and amongst others the kinds of Bombax, or Silk Cotton, almost the largest trees in the world. Some of these only beai spines; but some species of Hibiscus are prickly. There is scarcely a perfectly smooth plant in the whole order. They have all stipulas, in pairs. The leaves are alternate, never opposite; in numerous instances stalked ; plaited in the bud ; and, what is remarkable, many of them have glandular pores under the rib. No tendrils are found in the order. The inflorescence is various. Caly'x in several simple and five-cleft, but in some genera double, as Malva, Alcea, Allhcea, Lavatera, Malope, Gossypium and Hibiscus. Petals generally five, but as they often adhere to the united filaments, the corolla seems monopetalous. This adhesion contradicts the opinion of Vaillant, who has said that stamens aie never inserted but into a monopetalous corolla. Their connected claws often form a nectary between them. The corolla is somewhat abrupt, and twisted contrary to the sun’s motion. Pistils usually corresponding in number to the parts of the fruit; as do the stigmas, where the style is simple. Turnera has as many styles, as there are cells in the capsule. The fruit is always superior, but differs in different genera. Malva, Alcea, Althcea, Lavatera and Malope, have numerous capsules, ranged like a wheel round the base of the style; nor is the latter placed upon, but in the midst of, them, as in the AsperiJblice, order 4*1. Each capsule is single-seeded, and falls off with the seed ; which is likewise the case in Urena ; such seed-vessels might perhaps rather be named arilli, or tunics, as they burst at their inner side. Many of this order have solitary seeds in their cells, or capsules, like the above, and the genus Ayenia ; but many others are polyspermous, as Bombax, Hibiscus, Theobroma, &c. A few of the genera produce woolly seeds, as Bombax and Gos-
A N Y. sypium ; in the place of which appendage, Adansonia Botany, has a mealy powder. Some bear a capsule of five cells, containing many seeds; which in Hibiscus Malvaviscus," (now constituting the genus Achania,) “ becomes pulpy. It is curious that Hibiscus Moscheutos bears its fiowerstalk upon the footstalk, like Turnera; a rare circumstance in the whole vegetable kingdom.” “ Hermannia has hooded petals, in a corolla twisted like that of Malva. They are auricled and dilated below, forming a nectary by their involution, as the true Malvacece do by the cohesion, or approximation, of their petals. The calyx is tumid. Capsule of five cells. All the species are shrubby. The flowers are so alike in all, as hardly to be distinguishable from one another; and hence perhaps it may be presumed, that the various species, all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, may in this, as well as other genera, have been produced from the hybrid impregnation of some original one. H. pinnata has the only compound leaves in this order. W e must protest against this extensive speculation, of the production of permanent mule species, having seen many arise from such a cause, but none continue to propagate itself for any length of time. It is not the least curious particular, in the structure of the genus before us, that the flowers, which commonly grow together in pairs, have the corolla twisted in an opposite direction to each other. The second section of this order, composed of Camellia, Then, Gordonia, Stuartia, Tilia and Kiggelaria, are at least nearly akin to the foregoing genera. “ This whole order contains no disagreeable or hurtful plants, nor are they esculent. None are foetid, but some agreeably fragrant. Many of the flowers are beautiful. Their quality is generally mucilaginous, particularly Althcea, Malva and Alcea. The ancients made considerable use of Mallows in their food, but these plants are now out of use in that respect.” Order 38. Tricoccje. “ Botanists apply this term to plants whose fruit is, in a manner, composed of three nuts, combined together like that of Thea. In the order under consideration, the seed-vessel is generally a roundish three-cornered capsule, rounded on all sides, with single-seeded cells, which bursting elastically, with considerable force, scatter the seeds to a distance. It must be observed, however, that as in this order some genera, like Mercurialis and Clifforiia, are dicoccous” (having only two cells, or lobes), “ so there are tricoccous plants” (as Thea, and many more,) “ that do not belong to it.” “ The plants of this order bear alternate, mostly simple, leaves, often furnished with glands. Many afford a most acrid milk; they are generally offensive, nauseous, purgative, or poisonous. The style is in several highly remarkable, being more or less deeply three-cleft, and each of its branches divided. The calyx, as well as corolla, have always something unusual in their conformation, or in their nectary ; and many of the genera are monoecious or dioeci* ous.” “ Euphorbia, as a familiar and most distinct genus, may serve as a principal example. It is certainly no
BOTANY. 407 less singular than extensive. The calyx of one in- ness in the skin, and their internal use irritates the Botany, flated leaf has four or five marginal teeth, and ter- finer fibres. Nature therefore is solicitous to expel minates in as many abrupt coloured glands. The them, and, in consequence of their watery nature, latter are remarkably situated on the teeth them- by the kidneys, hence they are all diuretic. Salt selves ; but these teeth seem, together with their being of a corrosive quality, produces scurvy; but glands, to be rudiments of petals. In Euphorbia co~ salt is secreted from the body by the promotion of rollata the glands are actual petals, as thin, expand, urine, though it must first be dissolved in a watery ed, and delicate, as those of Flax ; but scarcely ano- menstruum; consequently the herbs in question ther instance is known, of petals originating in teeth rank among the chief antiscorbutics, especially waterof a calyx.” cresses and scurvy-grass. They ought never to be “ Plukenetia, a very rare plant, has a four-cleft used in a dried state, as their acrimony and medical flower, and four-celled fruit, with a climbing stem.” virtues are destroyed by drying. Boiling likewise There are numerous genera besides. Rumphia is destructive of acrimony, especially in these plants ; and Trexma are added to the list in the Linnaean ma- they ought therefore to be taken recent. Their diunuscript. retic powers render them eminently serviceable for Order 39. Siliquos;e. “ All botanists have ac- evacuating water in the dropsy. Yet their use ought knowledged the common affinity of the genera con- not to be too long continued, as their acrimony stituting this order, and have denominated them abrades the minuter fibres, rendering the vessels, liquosce and Siliculosce. Tournefort called them cru- and the intestines, in a manner, callous. This apciform flowers ; Linnaeus, Tetradynamia. These pears from the rigidity and torpidity of stomach inplants have mostly inversely-heartshaped cotyledons, duced by too much use of mustard.” except some Cresses, in which those organs are “ There is scarcely any thing odoriferous about three-cleft; the rest agree with the genus Convolvu- these plants, except in their flowers. When they lus ; so this character is no proof of affinity.” are bruised, indeed, something volatile ascends, of “ The stems are herbaceous, except some species an acrid, rather than odorous nature, irritating the of Alyssum, and one Vella. There is no real tree coats of the nerves, and inducing spasms, which do among the whole. The roots are all fibrous, none not originate in the medullary substance of the nerbulbous or tuberous,” (except perhaps Dentarice.) vous system, but in its coats.” “ Leaves universally alternate, without stipulas, tenNo alteration or addition respecting the genera of drils, prickles, or venomous stings. Inflorescence the Tetradynamia occurs in the Linnaean manuusually a corymbus, which gradually elongates itself script. into a racemus, so that the flowers are corymbose, Order 40. Personatje. There is no commentaand fruit racemose. Calyx always of four leaves, ry on this order in the lectures of Linnaeus. Giseke deciduous, except in Alyssum calycinum and Bras- has given a synoptical arrangement of the genera, sica Erucastrum. Petals four, with claws; some according to the shape of the corolla, which is not species of Lepidium and Cardamine only having flat, in every part precisely correct. He justly expresses or straight petals. The receptacle in most, but not his doubts respecting Melaleuca, of which we have in all, is furnished with glands. Stamens six, the spoken under the 19th order; and he truly observes two opposite ones shorter, or at least more spread- that there is no order in which so many genera are ing.” (A very few species have only four or two named after botanists as in the present. stamens.) “ Fruit commonly a pod, with two valves, The only manuscript additions or corrections, two cells, and many seeds. A few genera have a so- which occur in the Genera Plantarum of Linnaeus, litary seed, either imbedded in pulp, as Crambe; or are the following : Marlynia, Craniolaria, Torenia, in a lamellated flat seed-vessel, as Isalis ; or in an and Scropludaria are pointed out as akin to Pedaliangular one, as Bunins'' um, in order 28th ; Hyobanche, Lindcrnia, Pcedero“ The plants of this order are distinguishable into ta, Manulea, Premna, and Calceolaria are inserted, Siliquosce and 'Siliculosce, the former having an ob- with a question, certainly not well founded, whether long, the latter a rounded pod. But it being difficult the latter should not rather be referred to the 24th to define the precise limits of each, Linnaeus refers order. Brunfelsia also is placed among the Persoto the Siliquosce such as have a stigma without a natce, at the suggestion of Van lloyen. Order 41. AspERiroLiiE. “ These plants were style, and to the Siliculosce such as have a style to elevate the stigma, which character is conspicuous in first collected into an order by Caesalpinus, and reevery instance, except in Draba, where the style is ceived the above appellation from Ray, because of but short.” their generally harsh or rough habit. Their root is “ It is of importance to observe whether the ca- fibrous. Cotyledons two. Stem branched; the lyx in the present order be closed or spreading ; that branches alternate and round. Leaves alternate, is, whether the leaves composing that part be paral- simple; neither divided nor compound, for the most lel, so that their sides touch each other, or horizon- part nearly entire, rough with rigid scattered hairs; tally distant.” convolute before they expand. Stipulas none; nor “ The nature of a Siliqua, or Pod, appears from are there, except.very rarely, any other fulcra, or what has been already mentioned. It differs from a appendages. Common flowerstalk having the flowLegume, in having the seeds attached to each su- ers ranged along one side. Before flowering it is ture, or margin.” rolled spirally backwards, gradually expanding as “ All these plants have a more or less acrid watery the flowers are ready to open, and divided into twro juice ; hence their external application excites red- parts, each bearing the flowers on its back, in the
BOTANY. 408 Botany, form of an unilateral spike. Calyx in five divisions. able to give proper characters of the genera. Her- Botany, Corolla inferior, of one petal, regular except in mann subsequently, establisHing a system upon the Echium, five-cleft; its mouth either furnished with fruit, called the Verticillatce of Ray Gymnotetraspervaulted valves, or crowned with teeth, or naked. mce, plants with four naked seeds, but he could not Stamens five, equal; in Echium only they are un- by this means distinguish them from the Asperifolice, equal. Fruit superior. Germens four, naked, ex- which have the same character. The generality of cept in Cynoglossum, Tournefortici and Nolnna ; in- Asperifolice, in fact, differ from the Gymnotetrasperserted into the receptacle by their base ; hence the mce, in their corolla, which in the former is regular, lowest part of each seed is of a tapering form, as if in the latter irregular, though likewise monopetalous. artificially rounded. Pistil one. Style not standing But Echium, though it belongs to the Asperifolice, upon the germens, but occupying the central space has still an irregular corolla. The Asperifolice have between them; often divided into two equal parts ; alternate leaves, the Gymnotetraspermce opposite not one longer than the other as in the class Eidyna- ones. These classes might therefore be distinguishmia. Seeds four, rarely combined into two; but it ed from each other, according to Hermann’s method, is singular that Nolann has five seeds. Linnaeus were’ not Echium an obstacle. Linnams, however, has, as already mentioned, removed this genus to that he might avoid all confusion between the orders in question, has borrowed a character from the stahis Luridce, order 28th. “ The Asperifolice are distributed according to mens, and has referred to his class Didynamia such the mouth, or throat, of their corolla, which is na- plants as have two stamens longer, and two shorter. ked, or pervious, in Ech;um, Pulmonaria, Lithosper- He has moreover divided that class into two orders, mum, Heliotropium, Cerinthe, and Onosma; tooth- the first of which comprehends Hermann’s Gymnoteed in Symphytum and Borago; closed with vaulted traspermce, whose stamens easily distinguish them valves in Cynoglossum, Asperugo, Anchusa, Lycop- from the Asperfohce. But the consideration ol the stamens has further obliged the author ol the sexual sis, Myosotis and Tournefortici.” In the Gen. Plant. Messerschmidia, Coldenia, Hy- system to refer certain genera, of the natural order under our present consideration, to his class Diandrophyllum, and Elhsici are inserted in manuscript. “ All the Asperifolice are mucilaginous, and act dria. These are Verbena, Lycopus, Amethystea, only as such. The ancients selected their four cor- Ziziphora, Cunila, Monurda, Rosmarinus, Salvia, dial flowers out of this order, seeming not to have and Collinsonia ; of which Verbena and Collinsonia been aware that the motion of the heait depends perhaps ought rather to be placed in the other orupon the nerves, which therefore must be strength- der of the Didynamia, called Angiospermia.” This with regard to Verbena only. ened if the force of the heart is to be increased. is correct “ The calyx of the Verticillatce is of one leaf, inThis end however is not to be attained by either the flowers or the herbs of this tribe, which nevertheless ferior. Corolla of one petal, irregular, in most inhave long been used for the purpose. The leaves stances gaping, with two lips, the uppermost of may be eaten as food, by which their small medical which was called by Rivinus the galea, or helmet, use may be estimated. 1 he root is perennial and the lowermost the barba, or beard. Stamens four, mucilaginous;” (we would rather say “ if peiennial, except in the several genera just mentioned, where is mucilaginous,” which perhaps were the original they are only two, inflexed, ascending under the upwords of the lecture.) “ Among the whole, Symphy- per’ lip. Germens four, from between which the tum abounds most with mucilage, equalling, in quan- style arises, as in the Asperifolice, which is wavy, sotity as well as quality, the monadelphous plant Al- litary, except in Perilla, where there are two, and thcea in this respect. Symphytum tuberosum has been bearing two acute stigmas. Seeds lour, naked, Prarecommended in the gout. Possibly its mucilagi- sium excepted, whose seeds have a succulent skin, nous quality may hinder the crystallization of the causing them to resemble berries. A berry, propergouty matter. The root in almost all the Asperi- ly speaking, is a seed-vessel; but in Rosa it is the folice is red, but for the most part externally only. calyx, in Eragaria the receptacle, and in Prasium * The root of Lithospermum tinctorium, now Anchusa the skin of the seeds.” “ Many of this order are humble shrubs, none are tinctoria, is used for its colouring properties. Of all plants, the herbs of this order yield the largest pro- trees, most of them are annual or perennial herbs. portion of ashes, d here is hardly an odoiiferous, The stem is generally square. Leaves in every innor one fragrant, herb in the whole tribe; though stance opposite, simple, mostly undivided. None of Cynoglossum has a somewhat foetid scent. Iheir the plants are furnished with tendrils, nor of a climbtaste is nothing, the great quantity of mucilage in- ing nature. The scent of nearly all of them is highvolving the stimulating particles. These herbs are ly fragrant, the odoriferous matter being contained esculent, especially when young and tender, al- in minute cells, which, when the leaves are held though their rough surface renders them less agree- against the light, appear like numerous perfora_ . able to delicate palates. They generally grow in tions.” ** The flowers usually stand in whorls, encircling dry mountainous situations; and it is singular that in proportion as they are found nearer to water, they the stem as with a ring. When these whorls approach very closely together, the stems appear spiked, become smoother.” . Order 42. Verticilla-tas. “ Ray, in construct- as in Origanum.” “ This order is in the highest degree natural; ing his system, founded three classes, which all succeeding botanists hitherto have approved, the Stel- whence arises great difficulty in determining the gelatce, Asperifolice, and Verticillatce; but he was un- nera. Linnaeus has derived a character from the
BOTANY. 400 iitany. calyx, according to which the whole order is divided proves, on the detection of its fruit, to be a Bru- Botany. V, into two sections.” nia” “ The first of these comprehends such as have a “ Ceanothus, with its three-lobed fruit, like that of five-cleft calyx, that is, where all the teeth of this Rhamnus Alaternus, agrees in every character with part are nearly of equal size and shape. The second Rhamnus; but the scales of that genus are here consists of those v/ith a two-lipped calyx, which is drawn out into, vaulted petals, supported by long indeed five-cleft, but its two upper segments are, in claws.” a manner, united into one, which might almost be “ Buttneria differs in hardly any respect from termed emarginate only; while between these two Rhamnus, except its anthers ; for the calyx, prickles, united segments and the remaining three, there is so and every thing else, answer so well, that at first deep a fissure, at each side, that the calyx is nearly sight one would decidedly take it for a species divided into two parts, or lobes. Linnaeus has be- thereof.” stowed great attention in searching for the essential “ Sideroxylum has a five-cleft calyx, and at the characters of genera in this natural order, and has same time a monopetalous corolla; but between all detected several, which are marked in the Systema the segments of the latter stands a little serrated Vegetabilium with a sign of exclamation.” tooth, analogous to the scales of Rhamnus. The Order 43. Dumos^e. “ Dumus and nemus are flowers are likewise sessile on the stem, but the synonymous, meaning a thicket; or wood consist- berry has only one seed.” ing of shrubs, not of large trees. All the plants of Chrysophylluni is so nearly akin, and so similar, this order are shrubby, but none of them, except in to “Sideroxylum, as hardly to be distinguishable by the genera of Sideroxylum and Ghrysoyhyllum, grow its general aspect; but its fruit contains many seeds, to large trees.” though indeed they are disposed in a circle.” “ Rhamnus is supposed to be familiar to every “ Achras differs from Chrysophyllum in having a body. Its calyx is tubular, five-cleft at the margin, six-cleft flower ; and to this genus Prinos is very occasionally coloured, like a corolla, but not perfo- nearly related, differing in the flat form of the co-. rated at the bottom. A monopetalous corolla falls rolla, and fewer cells of the fruit.” off, with a perforated tube; which is not the case “//ex so nearly accords with the last-mentioned here. But betwixt every two segments of the calyx genus, that the only Prinos then known was origiis stationed a delicate little scale, which any person nally taken for an Ilex; but the flower of Ilex is might easily take for so many petals. The stamens four-cleft, not six-cleft.” however, being placed under each scale, are there“ Tomex and Callicarpa only differ from Ilex in fore alternate with the divisions of the calyx; wdiere- having a single style, and not four stigmas. The as if these scales were real petals, the stamens ought, berry of Callicarpa is like that of Ilex. In Tomex by a general rule, to be alternate with them, and not the stamens are inserted into the receptacle, whereas with the parts into which the calyx is divided. Some in Callicarpa they are attached to the tube of the species, as the Buckthorn, R. catharticus, have four- monopetalous corolla.’’ These genera have since cleft flowers, but they are mostly five-cleft. This been united by the author himself. last-mentioned, like R. alpinus, is dioecious ; Zizy“ Euonymus is so nearly allied to Tomex, as scarcephus is polygamous. The stigma in some Rhamni ly to be distinguishable, except by having a capsule is emarginate, in others three or four-cleft. The instead of a berry. Its seeds moreover have a pulpy fruit of this genus is various ; a berry in some with tunic.” four seeds, in others, as Paliurus and Alaternus, w'ith “ Celastrus, though differing from E,uonymus in thiee ; in others again it has a single seed with two having alternate leaves, is so much akin to that gecells, as in Zizyphus. Paliurus has not, properly, a nus, as to have been called Euonymus by all systeberry, but a depressed, bordered, shield-like capsule. matic writers. Yet its fruit differs in number and The stem in some is thorny, in others prickly, in proportion from Euonymus, just as Peganum does others unarmed.” from Ruta. The tunic of the seeds however, though . “ French botanists have recommended the divid- not pulpy, confirms the affinity to which we allude. ing of this genus into several, a measure which ap- Some botanists, especially the French, are unwilling pears highly proper to those wrho have not seen the to admit plants with opposite leaves and alternate Indian species. If such genera are to be distinguish- ones into the same natural order, and they are right; ed by their fruit, species most resembling each other yet this character is not absolute, for such a differwill be put asunder, and wddely different ones brought ence often occurs in one and the same genus.” together, as any person making the experiment will and Cassine come so near together, find. Besides, the structure of the flower, and the that“ Viburnum there is rather a question respecting the dishabit of the plants, are respectively so alike in all tinction of the genera themselves, than of their nathe species in question, and so different from all the tural order. Cassine has three seeds, Viburnum one, rest of the order, that any peasant might perceive which seems two combined. The former is akin to their affinity.” “ Phylica agrees in almost every point with Rham- Sambucus, and, like that genus, emetic in quality. nus, except that its flowers are aggregate, and florets Concerning the affinity of Viburnum to Ilex and Calsuperior. This genus is so nearly akin to Brunia, licarpa, any person, who considers their fructification that without seeing the fruit, which very rarely oc- and habit, can have no doubt. Thus far therefore curs, they can scarcely be distinguished. Phylica the matter is clear.” Sambucus may excite some mistrust, because of radiata therefore, universally esteemed a Phylica, its “inferior fruit; yet this is the case in PhylicaY VOL. II. PART II. 3 if
BOTANY. 410 Uotany, about which nobody has ever doubted. The leaves, umbel, each stalk, or ray, of which ends in a recep- Botany, s^PW***' aspect, and stipulas indeed seem to indicate some- taele, producing other stalks bearing flowers, or florets ; theTatter have a simple umbel, whose stalks thing extraneous, and leave us in uncertainty.” “ So Rhus has much the same sort of fructifica- are not subdivided. The latter constitute a separate tion, and a berry with one seed; as well as the closest section in Tournefort’s system. They are compreaffinity to Sambucus, insomuch that if Sandmens be hended by Linnaeus in one natural order with the kept in this order, Rhus must accompany it. So former.” “ An umbel is properly a receptacle of a comalso must the sister shrubs Schinus and Fagara." “ The Dumosce all agree in malignant qualities. pound flower, elongated into stalks; which manifestThey are either purgative, or altogether poisonous, ly appears in Fryngium, whose florets are united inas Sideroxylum is known to be at the Cape. Nor to a head, just' like the proper compound flowers, are the species of Sambucus clear of this charge, for see the 49th order ; nor are they supported by elontheir qualities are either nauseous or foetid, and gated stalks. Hence an umbel may accurately be therefore sudorific, especially the berries and flowers. considered as a compound flower., Those who conThe bark, taken internally, is either emetic, or pow- trovert the opinion of Linnaeus in this point contend, erfully purgative, as its vinous infusion proves in the that many umbellate plants, having male and hermaphrodite flowers in the same species, ought to be dropsy ; externally it is a powerful repellent.” “ Rhus is the most venomous of trees, particular- placed in his class Polygamia But this is a misly its American three-leaved species, called Toxico- take ; for no other plants ought to find a place in dendra, or Poison-trees. Their fumes in burning that class, than such as have distinct male, or feare said to have proved mortal, and their effluvia to male, as well as hermaphrodite, flowers, in the same have blinded an artist who was at work upon some of species. This is not the case with the Vmbellatce, the wood. Those who, being in a perspiration, hold in which all the florets of one universal umbel, that a branch of one of these shrubs in the hand, are is, the whole umbel itself, constitutes but one flower, and this flower is never altogether barren, that is, seized with an eruption over the whole body.” “ The bark of Rhamnus Frangula is our best in- its florets are never entirely male. On the contrary, digenous purge, and a syrup of Rhammus catharticus these florets are to be considered as the parts of a compound flower; and there being male and hermais safely used for children.” “ In this tribe, therefore, some have opposite, phrodite ones intermixed, is exactly a parallel case others alternate, leaves, nor is any general character with the polygamy of the Syngenesious class.” “ This order is eminently natural, though all to be derived from the parts of fructification. The corolla affords none, being either of one or five pe- plants which bear umbels do not belong to it, but tals, or altogether absent, as appears from a contem- only those with five stamens, two styles, and two plation of the characters of the different genera. seeds,” “ The germen is inferior, simple, solitary, sepaNo mark is to be obtained from the nature of the fruit, that being either a berry, drupa, or capsule. rating, when arrived at maturity, into two equal The seeds in some instances are solitary, in others naked seeds; each of which is furnished with a numerous, though never more than one in each cell; thread, inserted into its summit. These two threads and it is well worthy of observation that they are at- combine to form a very slender receptacle, at the tached, as in the Gymnotetraspcrincey by their base. top of the stalk of the floret. Each floret has a suThese plants betray some affinity to the Tricoccce, perior perianth, with five teeth, which is often so small as scarcely to be discerned, even with the help but can never be referred to the same order.” In the Linnman manuscript before us Diosuia and of a magnifier. Petals five, caducous, often unequal; Hartogia are introduced between Callicarpa and hence llivinus referred these plants to his class of Euonymus; see our remark on the 26th order. pentapetalous irregular flowers. Stamens five, inStaphylea is also subjoined, near Celastrus, but with serted into an elevated annular or circular receptatw o marks of doubt, and a note of its having a nec- cle, that surrounds the pistils, deciduous. Styles two, often very short, and hardly visible. Seeds tary, as well as opposite leaves. Order 44, Sepiaui^e. “ All these are shrubby or naked, without any seed-vessel,” “ The stem is mostly hollowq sometimes filled with arborescent. Leaves opposite, with scarcely any evident stipulas, f lowers disposed in a more or less spongy pith ; rarely shrubby, very rarely arboreous, dense panicle. Calyx four-cleft. Corolla four-cleft, of which last character Phyllis is the only example, regular. Stamens two. Pistil one, with a cloven see order 47. Leaves generally alternate, and restigma. Fruit either a drupa, with one, two, or peatedly compound. Boot mostly quite simple; in Oenanthe tuberous; in Buniutn Bullocastamm glomany, seeds, or a capsule.” . ., No manuscript remark occurs here, nor is there bose,” “ Nothing is more arduous than to distinguisn any observation w'orth copying in the lectures, except that Olea is said by Lumpens to be scarcely a the genera of umbelliferous plants by appropriate characters, Tournefnrt himself, who excelled m the distinct genus from Fhillyrea. Order 45. UmbellatvE. “ The name of this knowledge of this tribe,” (perhaps Linneeus meant order is derived from the form of its inflorescence, rather to say, in the discrimination of genera, but nis whose stalks all spread from a centre, like the ribs auditors did not take his words accurately,} “ distributed them according to the shape and si/.e ot of an umbrella.” “ These plants are either perfectly umbellate or their seeds. But this is a very fallacious mode, as not. The former are required to have a compound the seeds often differ much in proportion, though
B01 A N Y. >tany. not m any other respect. Morison wrote an ed; in Richardia three-cleft, because that genus has a entire book on umbellate plants; but with little suc- six-cleft corolla, six stamens,and a three-grained fruit, cess, their genera not being, as yet, established. its parts of fructificarion being all augmented in a simiArtedi first paid attention to the involucrum, which lar proportion. Those parts are not augmented with is either universal as well as partial, or only par- the same regularity in genera furnished with a threetial, or entirely wanting. This principle has like- cleft corolla, and five stamens, for their pistil is still wise been adopted, as fundamental, by Linnaeus, and bifid, and their fruit two-grained, as is the case with his three primary divisions are regulated according- such as have a four-cleft corolla and four stamens. ly. The inequality of the petals affords him a prin“ The fruit is, for the most part, inferior; though ciple for his leading subdivisions, some of the um- superior in Houstonia; and in Crucianella superior belliferous family having the outermost petals of with respect to the calyx, though inferior to the their external florets larger than the rest; while in corolla. This is incorrect, for Crucianella has a others all the petals are equal. The former are real superior perianth, like the rest of the order, termed radiant flowers. Another subdivision is though so small as to be hardly discernible; what taken from the sex of the florets. Some of these, Linnmus here terms calyx, being an involucrum, or having no germen, arc furnished with stamens only ; perhaps bracteas. “ The sexes are rarely separatand such florets are termed abortive; others, having ed in this order, though Valantia, which is polygaboth germen and stamens, bring their fruit to pei^ mous, can by no means be excluded from it. Many fection, and are therefore denominated fertile.” of the genera have a two-grained fruit, of two cells, On these principles Linnaeus has arranged the um- with a solitary seed in each. But in Hedyotis and bellate plants, as may be seen in his works. Nothing Oldenlandia the cells contain many seeds; while in occurs in his manuscript, except the insertion of lier- Cornus both cells are united into one seed, which, mas next to Eryngirnn. nevertheless, has two cells. The fruit has a green, Order 46th. Hedejiaceje. The lectures give no fleshy, but not juicy, coat, nor does it usually benew information concerning this order. The six come coloured in ripening; though in Rubia the genera stand as in the Genera Plantarum ; Panax, fruit is a perfect berry.” Aralia, Zanthoxylum, Hedera, Vitis, and Cissus. (Of the remarks on particular genera, we find noOrder 47th. Stellatae. “ This order was found- thing to extract except the following.) ed by Ray, and received its name from the leaves of “ Asperula tinctoria is used in Gothland instead most of the plants which compose it being placed, of Madder, and is preferable.” four, six, or eight together, in the form of a star, “ Sherardia has an oblong fruit, which the perround the stem. It is unusual to see more than two manent calyx renders toothed, or crowned with three leaves opposite to each other, nor is it the case here. points. It was the fate of William Sherard, a man For two of these only are properly leaves, the rest worthy, in the highest degree of botanical honour, being no other than stipulas, grown to the size of to have two different genera distinguished by his leaves. This appears evident in several Indian name, both which were afterwards referred to others. plants of the present order, as Knoxiat Diodia, &c. Pontedera, Vaillant, and Dillenius each published, at which have only two opposite leaves, though be- the same time, a Sherardia. Pontedera described tween these some small acute stipulas are found, his plant so very obscurely, that it was ten years bebeing the same that in the rest of the order attain fore Linnaeus made it out to be his own Gallenia. the magnitude of leaves. Ray believed all the plants Vaillant called the two-seeded Verbence by the name of this order to have whorled leaves, which is gene- of Sherardia, but he was to blame in separating them rally the case, as far as regards those of European from their proper genus. Dillenius named a Shergrowth, but rarely with the Indian ones, of which ardia, from among the Stellatce, which Linnaeus has few were known in his time.” retained, though not very certainly distinct. Being “ In this order there is no tree, unless perhaps unwilling that so meritorious a botanist should reLippia; there are very few shrubs, most of the tribe main without a memorial, Linnaeus declined referbeing small herbs, growing in barren earth, or coarse ring the plant in question to Asperula ; especially as sand.” the three teeth, at the top of each seed, may serve, “ The roots are in many instances perennial. if not very satisfactorily, to keep it separate.” Leaves opposite, horizontal, mostly rough. Stipulas “ Valantia was so named by Tournefort ; but of the form and aspect of leaves, so that it is impos- Vaillant, perceiving it to be the same with Tournesible to say whether they be truly such or not, fort’s Cruciata, thought it a bad genus, which could hence the leaves appear whorled ; but this does not not support itself. He therefore wished to abolish hold good universally. In those however which have all generic names, given in honour of botanists, beno leafy stipulas, there is found, at each side, a sort cause he supposed his own was untenable. But of toothed membrane, connecting the leaves together, Tournefort confounded several genera under the apand occupying the place of stipulas.” pellation of Cruciata, so that Linnaeus has been en“ The stem is jointed, with mostly tumid knots. abled to establish a Valantia from among them, Corolla of one petal, either flat, wheel-shaped, or referring the rest to their proper places.” .funnel-shaped; in one genus bell-shaped; mostly Order 48. Aggregate. “ These constitute a four-cleft, sometimes almost down to the base; rarely natural order, first established by Vaillant in the Menve-cjeft. Stamens four, never eight, though some- moirs of the French Academy of Sciences. They times five or six, in which case the corolla has a agree so far with the Compositce, that they have gepai a.lel number of segments. Pistil solitary, divid- nerally a common calyx, as well as receptacle, con-
411 Botany,
-fTT B O T A N Y. 412 Botany. turning many sessile flowers, each of which has al- 1718, 1719 and 1720 ; he has displayed an extensive Botany, ways an inferior germen. But there is a total differ- knowledge of species, and has treated the subject '•^yv ence with respect to the remaining parts of fructifica- admirably. As the Memoirs of the Academy are tion, nor can these two ordersbe, by any means, united.” not within the reacli of every body’s purse, a German “ The calyx, as we have just said, is common to named Von Steinwehr has collected the anatomical, many flowers. Common receptacle either naked, chemical and botanical papers, into an octavo volume, villous, hairy, or scaly. In the place of a partial published in 1754 at Breslaw. In this Vaillant’s calyx is the corolla, generally of one petal, regular treatises are preserved entire,” (but in the German or irregular, in four or five divisions, rarely polype- language.) “ The florets of compound flowers are threefold talous. Stamens four, with separate anthers. Germen inferior. Fruit single-seeded. The flower is with respect to sex, being either hermaphroditi, therefore complete in this tribe, except only Vale- perfect, having the organs of both sexes ; female, riana, whose calyx is scarcely apparent. The leaves destitute of anthers; or neuter, deprived of both organs, and barren.” are often opposite, and the stem shrubby.” “ Tournefort, Vaillant, Ray, and almost every Order 49. Composite. “ A compound flower generally consists of a common calyx, containing botanist who has treated of this tribe, divide it into several florets. But this definition is not sufficiently three or four orders, some of them adding the agdiscriminative, for there are certain flowers termed gregate flowers to the compound ones, whence arises Aggregate, which though they have numerous florets the fourth order. But they have not fixed limits to in one common calyx, are connected by no affinity their orders, such being scarcely discoverable. The whatever with these ; witness Cephalanthus, Dipsacus, semifosculosi and capitati, for instance, though apScabiosa, Knautia, Allionia. Hence botanists have parently wddely different, are proved nearly akin by tx’ied to discover an appropriate and distinguishing Scolymus and Elephantopus. The former of these character for a compound flower, but they have has all the habit of a Carduus, and yet all its florets scarcely succeeded. There are indeed flowers of are ligulate; the latter is intermediate between the this order, furnished v/ith solitary florets in each semiflosculosi and capitati, nor are we certain to calyx, as Seriphium, Cori/mbium, Strumpfia. All which of these divisions it belongs. Perdicium, a of them have a monopetalous corolla, but so has new genus, connects Inula, which is radiated, with ‘Scabiosa and others. Most have five stamens, but the semiflosculous genus Hieracium, so that accurate some have only four. The greater number bear limits are hardly to be drawn between them. Most their anthers united into a cylinder, but Kuhnia, of the semijlosculosi are milky, but Lapsa?ia and which belongs to them, has separate anthers; while Cichorium want this quality.” “ Section 1. Semijlosculosi; all the florets liguJasione, Viola and Impatiens, which do not, have combined ones. The united anthers burst internally, late.” “ These genera are distributed, first by their by which means their pollen is communicated to the stigma ; but the anthers of Kuhnia open at the extre- receptacle, which is either chaffy, villous, or naked. mity, and resemble the corolla of an Aristolochia. All In the next place, they are subdivided by the down the floyets are superior, but this holds good likewise of their seeds, pappus, which is either absent, or in Scabiosa. Hence it appears that no essential bristle-shaped, or hairy, or feathery. Thirdly, a pecharacter of compound flowers is to be detected, culiar distinguishing character is borrowed from the though no order can be more natural than that be- form or nature of their calyx.” “ The quality of the Composite in general is infore us.” “ Tournefort first divided the compound flowers nocent ; but some of the present section are milky, into three sections, according to the shape of their which secretion proves, by experience, somewhat of partial corollas. These are either ligulate or tu- a poisonous nature. So Lactuca virosa, in a wild bular. Such as consist of ligulate florets only, are state, is as poisonous as opium ; yet by culture it becalled by this writer semijlosculosi ; such as are form- comes esculent and culinary, though still causing ed only of tubular ones, jlosculosi; while those which sleep by its debilitating power.” Linnaeus surely have ligulate florets in the radius, and tubular ones could not mean that this and the garden lettuce are in the disk, are denominated radiati. This division one species. It is possible his hearers mistook seems natural enough, and yet is not so. For it re- him. “ There are no trees, and few shrubs, among the fers both the discoid and capitate compound flowers of Linnaeus to the Jlosculosi, which nevertheless are semiflosculosi; no bulbs, scarcely a tuberous root, extoo dissimilar to be possibly admitted into the same cept in some species of Hieracium. Their flowers section. The discoidei of Linnaeus, Bay’s aggregali, are mostly yellow; sometimes red underneath, as in having aggregate florets, seated on a hemispherical Leontodon, ilieracium and Crepis(very rarelypink, I'eceptacle, are, in fact, more allied to the radiati ; in Geropogon and Crepis); “ sometimes blue, m while the capitati, such as Thistles, are widely dif- Cichorium and Catananchc ; never white.” “ Section 2. Capitati; all the florets tubular, asferent, so as necessarily to constitute a division by sembled into a head, in one common calyx.” themselves.” “ All these are prickly or spinous, and vulgarly “ Vaillant attempted a new botanical system ; but it is to be lamented that we are possessed of no more called Cardui, Thistles. If however they were all of his labours, than what concerns the compound considered as one genus, such a genus would prove flowers. In this performance, published in the too ample; hence it is best to separate them mto Memoirs of the Parisian Academy for the years several, though the task is very difficult. Centaurea
BOTANY. 413 Botany, belongs to them, though necessarily referred, in the “ Section 5th. Monogamia.''’ (Such as have but Botany, sexual system, to the order Polygamia-frustranea. one floret in each partial calyx.) Its calyx, always tumid, and often spinous, proves Seriphium, Corymbium, and Strumpjia. its affinity. The most extensive genera of this sec“ None of the Compositce are poisonous, except tion, Carduus, and Serratula, are the most difficult Tagetes, Doronicum, and Arnica ; the latter is more to distinguish ; hence it is best to study the rest, in so than Doronicum. They contain much of a bitter the first place, that those puzzling ones may prove flavour; hence many of the order are medicinal and easier.” strengthening. Some, less bitter, as Arctium, Cy“ Vaillant divided this capitate tribe by the spines nara, Carduus, are therefore esculent. Many semiof their calyx, whether simple, spinous, or leafy. Jlosculosi are used as food, though furnished with a But the gradation is so imperceptible, that no ac- milky juice, which in them is not poisonous,” (see a curate principles of discrimination are hence to be remark under Order 30th.) “ except Lactuca virosa, obtained. No plant of this section is milky, or whose juice as above mentioned, has the quality poisonous, or arboreous. Some of the Serratula? are of opium, and L. saliva has a soporific virtue. Boilshrubby; many of the herbs are destitute of stems, ing entirely destroys the power of this, as well as of as in Carlina, Atractylis, Onopordum, Carduusy and the other semiflosculosi.,> Pentaurea." Order 50th. Amentaceas. “ An amentum, cat“ Atractylis has a radiant flower, and the florets kin, is a species of calyx, and very like a spike, of the radius have each both stamens and pistil, a consisting-of a common receptacle, drawn out like a solitary instance among compound flowers, render- thread, on which the flowers stand in alternate oring the genus very distinct. The elongated and der, subtended by scales or bracteas. Such a coloured scales of the calyx in Carlina have misled calyx is found in the plants of this order, whence Tournefort to rank it among radiant flowers.” Linnaeus gave it the above name. They are all ei“ The capitati have a character peculiar to them- ther trees or shrubs, with alternate leaves, and seselves, in the dilatation, or inflation, of the tube of parated male and female flowers, being either moeach floret, just below the limb, which causes their noecious or dioecious. Many of them produce but florets to project, in a more elongated manner, than one seed from each flower; but Salix and Populm in the discoidei, or other compound flowers.” bear a seed-vessel of two valves, with many seeds. “ Section 3d. Discoidei. The first subdivision of The styles are usually two or three. The flowers -these, polygamia cequalis,” (consisting of such as come before the leaves, that the latter may not hinhave all the florets furnished with stamens and pis- der the access of the pollen of the male to the fetils, and all producing seed,) “ are distributed ac- male blossoms.” cording to the receptacle, whether naked, chaffy or “ Monoecious genera are Betula, Carpinus, Co* hairy, and their seed-down, like the semiflosculosi.” rylus, Quercus, Juglans, Fagus, and Flatanus.” “ The second subdivision, polygamia snperjlua, “ Dioecious ones Pistacia, Myrica, Populm and have female florets in the circumference, but these Salix.” are tubular, not ligulate or radiant. So that the Order 51st. Conjpeua?. “ These are generally flowers, though they have a marginal series of fe- evergreen trees of cold climates. In the Indies almale florets, cannot be called radiated.” We have most all the trees are evergreen, and have broad here extracted the ideas of Linnaeus from his re- leaves; but in our cold regions most trees cast their marks on Artemisia, which seem to refer to the foliage every year ; and such as do not, bear acerose, whole of this subdivision, and are certainly correct, that is, narrow and acute, leaves. If they w’ere though they interfere with the distribution of the broader, the snow which falls during winter would order before us in the Genera Plantarum, and seem collect among them, and break the branches by its to have been unintelligible to the editor of the Fra;, weight. Their great slenderness prevents any such lectiones ; see his note in p. 539 of that work. effect, allowing the snow to pass between them. “ Section 4th. Radiati” (Marginal florets ra- This precaution is unnecessary in India, where snow diant.) “ The first subdivision is polygamia superjlua,’ is unknown. Nevertheless, Liquidambar is to be re(all whose florets are capable of producing perfect ferred to this order, though it bears no such slender, seed, though the marginal radiant ones have no sta- but rather broad, foliage; nor is it a native of a cold mens.) country.” These are distinguished by the presence or ab“ The plants of the present order are denominated sence of seed-down, or of a membranous border to Conifer a, because they bear Strobili, which the older the seed, and by the nature of their receptacle, whe- botanists called Coni, Cones. A cone and a catkin ther naked or chaffy. are closely related to each other. The latter bears Ihe second, polygamia frustranea has imperfect several imbricated flowers about a common recepor defective female or neuter florets in the circum- tacle or axis. Under each flower a membranous ference, producing no seed. These in Centaurea scale or bractea is attached, which if it hardens and are tubular, and neuter; in the rest ligulate, fur- becomes woody, the catkin becomes a cone. Hence nished with rudiments, more or less evident, of a a cone is nothing more than a permanent or hardenpistil. ed catkin.” The third, polygamia necessaria, have effective “ All the Conifera? properly bear cones, though seed; bearing female florets in the circumference in some instances their fruit seems of a totally ditteronly. ent nature. For instance the fruit of Juniperu has
BOTANY. 41.4 Botany. all the appearance of a berry, and is universally so ing his performances, in this line, as complete. His Botany# called. Yet it is no other thvLn ■a. strobilus, whose leading ideas may,'nevertheless, be traced, and they scales are replete with pulp, and do not split asun- will often be found to throw great light upon the subder ; being in fact six fleshy united scales, in each ject. It must be remembered that he never thought his of which is concealed a solitary seed. Tnxus has a own, or any other, scheme of natural classification, berry, which is merely a fleshly receptacle, dilated could or ought to interfere with his artificial system, so as nearly to cover the seed, so that the apex of nor does he ever advert to the one, in treating of the the latter only appears. Liquidambar has a singular other. It is evident, likewise, that he studiously kind of fruit, which nevertheless is a strobilus, whose discouraged any attempt at an uniform definiscales are combined, each of them containing seve- tion, or technical discrimination, of his several orral seeds ; whereas in other instances one or two ders. He perceived that plants were not yet sufficiently known to render such a scheme practicable. seeds only belong to each scale.” “ Some have united this order with the last, but Possibly he might be aware that the accomplishment they dift’er essentially. The Coniferce have not of that scheme at present would only turn his natuonly hardened scales, but likewise monadelphous ral system into an artificial one. The authors of most plans of botanical classificastamens, the filaments of all of them being combined tion have, on the other hand, seldom considered the at the base.” “ The fruit in this whole order, Liquidambar ex- questions of natural and artificial arrangement, as cepted, is biennial. It is produced in the spring, opposed to each other. The system of every such remaining in an unripe state through the summer, author seems to have appeared to himself the most and till the following spring, when it gradually ripens, consonant to nature, as well as the most convenient in practice ; yet nothing betrays a more absolute inand the gaping scales allow the seeds to escape.” Order 52d. CoADUNATiE. On this order there is competency to the subject than such an idea, whereno observation in the lectures. Illicium is added in ever it makes itself manifest. To pretend that the manuscript to the genera in Gen, PL elaborate speculations of a proficient, on a subject of Order 53d. Scabridte. Here also the lectures which he can see but a part, and on which his are silent. Forskohlea and Traphis are added in knowledge must necessarily be inferior to that infinite wisdom which planned and perfected the whole, the manuscript. Order 54-th. Miscellanea. Here, although no should be an easy and certain mode of initiation for a remark is preserved in the lectures, great corrections learner, evinces no more than that the professor wishes are made in the manuscript. The genera in the se- his pupil should not be wiser than himself. To teach cond section, Poterium and Sanguisorba, are referred composition without a grammar, or philology withto the 35th order, immediately before Agrimonia. out an alphabet, would be equally judicious. Plants Pistia and Lemna constituting the 3d section, are must be known before they can be compared, and transferred to the 15th order. The six genera the talent of discrimination must precede that of which compose the 5th section, are sent to the 4th combination. Clearness and facility must smooth section of the Holeracece, order 12th. Nymphcea and the path of the tyro ; difficulties, exceptions, and Sarracenia, the only plants of the 6th section, are paradoxes must be combated and unravelled by an referred, as already mentioned, first to the 27th or- . adept. The knowledge of natural classification der, but finally, not without a doubt, to the 11th. therefore, being the summit of botanical science, See the observations under those orders. Cedrela cannot be the first step towards the acquirement of and Sivietenia, which make the 7th section, are re- that science. No person surely, who has published moved to the Trihilatce, order 23d. Corrigiola, a natural system, without knowing all the plants in Limeum and Telephium, the 8th and last section, are the world, will suppose that he has removed every transferred to the 5th section of the 12th order, present obstacle, much less, anticipated every future Holeracece. No genera therefore remain in this 54th obscurity, so that no insuperable difficulty can occur order, but Reseda, Datisca, Coriaria, and Empe- to the investigator of plants by such a system. Neither can any artificial system claim such perfecirum. tion. But they may combine their powers, and coOrder 55th. Filices. operate in instruction. The one may trace an out56th. Musci. line which the other may correct and fill up. The ■ — 57th. Alga. first may propose, and the second elucidate ; the 58th. Fungi. Nothing occurs here, either in the Prcelectiones or former may educate and improve the memory and the manuscript, to the purpose of our present in- observation, for the use of the latter. When they quiry, concerning the ideas of Linnaeus on natural oppose each other, their several defects and weakclassification. These orders are all natural, and ac- nesses appear; by mutual assistance they strengthen knowledged as such by all systematics. His parti- themselves. cular observations on each, although in many points Whether the leaders of natural system in the French Sy*curious, are now superseded by the advanced state French school of botany have thought with us ontematics. of botanical knowledge in the cryptogamic depart- this subject, it might seem invidious to inquire too ment. nicely. It were too much to expect that every one Remarks on From the foregoing copious exposition of the ge- of their pupils, half learned and half experienced, the fore- neral principles, and many of the particular opinions, however commendable their zeal and enthusiasm, fjttwen^ent Linnaeus, respecting a natural classification of should have done so. Nor is science in any danger b ' plants, it will appear how far he was from consider- if they do not. They must improve the system of 5
BOTANY. 415 Botany Jussieu, before they can overturn that of Linnteus; into several sections, under each of which the genera Botany, and if this were accomplished, the nomenclature and' are in like manner synoptically arranged, and dis-' definitions of the learned Swede would still form an criminated by their leaves, inflorescence, calyx, coimpregnable fortress, before which they must perish, rolla, stamens, pistil, fruit, and seeds. In the detail or seek for shelter within. This dilemma has been, of his system, Adanson labours to overset the prinlong ago, but too clearly perceived by the rivals of ciple, so much insisted on by Linnaeus and his school, the fame of Linnaeus, particularly by such of the and to which the great names of Conrad Gesner, French school as have been actuated by a truly con- and Caesalpinus are chiefly indebted for their botanitemptible national partiality, instead of a disinterest- cal fame, that the genera of plants are to be chaed love of science and truth. Hence the so often racterized by the parts of fructification alone. The tepeated exclamations against Linnaeus, as a mere experienced botanist knows that this is often but a nomenclator. Of his didactic precision, and philo- dispute of words; Linnaeus having, in arranging the sophical principles of discrimination, such critics umbelliferous plants, resorted to the inflorescence, were not jealous, for they could not estimate the under the denomination of a receptacle; see his value nor the consequences of these. But they could 45th natural order. But it appears to us that the all feel that the nomenclature of Tournefort was chai acters deduced from thence are in themselves giving way, and that their efforts to support it were faulty, being often uncertain, and not seldom unnavain. The writer of these remarks has perceived tural ; and that the plants in question may be better traces of this feeling in almost every publication and discriminated by their flowers and seeds. Adanson conversation, of a certain description of botanists. however prefers the inflorescence, even in the FertiHe has likewise perceived that it would gradually cillatce of Linnaeus; for no reason, that we can dissubside, and that the interests of science wrere secure. cover, but because Linnaeus has so much better deThe nomenclature of Lmnmus has in the end pre- fined the genera of those plants by the calyx and covailed, and it were unjust now, to the greatest bota- rolla. It were a needless and ungrateful task to nists of the French school, to deny them the honour carp at the mistakes of this or any writer on natural of liberality on this head. classification, with regard to the places allotted for It is time for us to close this article, with a view difficult genera, because the human intellect must of the principles, upon which the eminent system- faulter in unravelling the intricate mysteries of Naatics, to whom we have so often alluded, have plan- ture. But surely, when Plantago is placed with ned and executed their schemes of botanical classi* huddlcea in one section of the Jasminece, and Diafication, pensia with Callicarpa in another; when the most ternarcl de Here the learned and truly estimable Bernard de natural genus oi Lavandida is divided and widely seissien. Jussieu, the contemporary of Linnaeus in the earlier parated ; when Cassytha is ranged with Statice, Eripart of his career, first claims our notice. This ocaidon, and the Proteacece, in one place; Geojfrcea great practical botanist, too diffident of his own with Melia, Rhus, Sapindus and Ruta in another, knowledge, extensive as it was, to be over anxious to we may be allowed to wonder, and to doubt whestand forth as a teacher, did not promulgate any ther we are contemplating a natural or an artifischeme of natural arrangement till the year 1759, cial system. It does not appear that Adanson made when the royal botanic garden at Trianon was sub- many proselytes. He haunted the botanical societies mitted to his direction. His system was published of laris in our time, without associating with any; by his nephew in 1789, at the head of his own nor vyas his extensive knowledge turned to much work, of which it makes the basis. It appears in practical account, Linnaeus has made but one the form of a simple list of genera, under the name slight remark, that we can find, in his own copy of of each order, without any definition, just like the the Families des Plantes, nor could he study deeply Fragmenta of Linnaeus, at the end of his Genera what was, undoubtedly, very difficult for him to read. Plantarnm, He certainly never noticed Adanson’s attacks, unless lanson. In 1763 a very active and zealous systematic, M. the satyrical sketch of the Botanophili, at the end of Adanson, made himself known to the world, by the his Regnum Vegetabile, (see the beginning of Hyst. publication of his Families des Plantes. In this Veg. ed, 14.) be partly aimed at this author. To aplearned and ingenious, though whimsical and pe- ply the whole of it to him would be unjust, though dantic, work, the great task of defining natural or- much is very characteristic. ders by technical characters is first attempted. His The study of Botany had never been entirely ne- Arademyof affected orthography and arbitrary nomenclature glected in France since the days of Tournefort; be-Scienccs. render it scarcely possible, without disgust, to trace cause one department in the Academy of Sciences his ideas; which however, when developed,.prove was allotted to that and other branches of Natural Jess original than they at first appear. His work is History, and the seats in the Academy being penwj itten avowedly to supersede the labours of Linnaeus, sioned places under government, there was someagainst whom, after courting his correspondence, he thing to be got by an apparent attention to such took some personal displeasure; and yet many of pursuits. Buffon and his pupils engrossed Zoology. his leading characters are borrowed from the sexual Botany wag allowed to exist, so far as not to intersystem, fhe discriminative marks of his 58 families fere with his honours; but nothing of foreign origin, are taken from the following sources—leaves, sex of and above all, nothing Linnaean, dared to lift up its the flowers, situation of the flowers with respect to head. Something of true science, and practical the germen, form and situation of the corolla, staknowledge, did nevertheless imperceptibly work its mens, gennens, and seeds. Every family is divided way, Le Monnier, and the Marechal de Noaiiles,
BOTANY. 416 Botany, corresponded, as we have already said, with Linnaeus, shall be perfectly ascertained and defined. Where Botany. and acquired plants from England, of which they Jussieu differs from Linnaeus, in certain generic apdared to speak, and to write, by his names. A most pellations, it is principally because the latter fails in able and scientific botanist and cultivator, Ihouin, respect for his own laws ; as in the use of adjectives, was established in the Jardin du Rob who studied the like Gloriosa, Mirabilis, Impatiens. The inordinate Linnsean system, and even ventured, though secret- abuse of generic names in honour of botanists, of ly, to communicate new plants to the younger Lin* which Linnaeus is, too justly, charged with setting naeus when at Paris. Cels, an excellent horticul- the example, meets with due reprobation from the turist, was unshackled by academic trammels. L’He- French teacher; but he has not as yet stemmed the ritier, Broussonet, and others came forward. An muddy torrent, nor prevented a great additional acoriginal letter of Rousseau, the idol of the day, in cumulation of subsequent impurities. His commenwhich he paid the most flattering homage to Botany dation of Linnaeus, as the author of a new and comand to Linnaeus, was published in the Journal de modious system of specific nomenclature, as well as' Paris, and had a wonderful effect on- the public of technical definition, on the best principles, is limind, and on the conversation of literary circles. beral, manly and just, no less honourable to the In short, a Linnaean party had been, for some writer, than to the illustrious subject of his remarks. time, gaining ground ; and every thing was done by The whole preface of Jussieu is a concise and learnparty at Paris. The old French school was roused ed review of the physiology and distinctions of plants,, Antoine de from its slumbers. Of the family of the Jussieus more particularly explaining the progress of the auJussien. thor’s ideas and principles of botanical classification. one individual remained, who, though he venerated the names and the pursuits of his uncles, had never The main end of the whole book, besides defining the devoted himself to their studies any further than to characters of all known genera, is to dispose them in sit in their professorial chair. He possessed however a natural series, in various classes and orders, whose an inherent taste for Botany; he had leisure, opu- technical distinctions are throughout attempted to be lence, and eminent talents; and though his religious fixed and contrasted. With this view, copious explaprinciples, and his rather strict devotional habits, nations and commentaries accompany each other. We might interfere, which they still do, with his credit learn more from the doubts of Jussieu, than from the in certain philosophical circles, and his predilection assertions of Adanson. I he latter has presented us for animal magnetism might exclude him from the with a finished system, where every genus is referred, Royal Society"of London, yet he has risen above at all hazards, to some place or other. Jussieu, on all such obstacles, to the summit of botanical fame the contrary, has not only a large assemblage of and authority in his own country; and his name Plantce incertce sedis, at the conclusion of his system, stands conspicuous, as the leading teacher of a na- like Linnaeus; but at the end of most of his indivitural classification of plants. The most indefatiga- dual orders we find some genera classed as akin ble study for about five years, and the constant as- thereto, without answering precisely to the character, sistance and encouragement of numerous pupils and or idea, of each. This circumstance, though highly correspondents, enabled Professor Antoine Laurent creditable to the candour and good sense of the de Jussieu to publish, in 1789, his Genera Plantarum author, greatly interferes with the practical use of secundum ordines naturales disposita. This octavo his book, except for the learned. His judicious volume was received by acclamation throughout Eu* doubts, critical remarks, and especially the laxity, rope, and hailed as the most learned botanical work and consequent feebleness, of his definitions, though that had appeared since the Species Plantarum of Lin- eminently instructive to those who want to define, dl to class, a new, or obscure genus, could only benaeus. Before we enter into systematic details, we must wilder a learner of practical botany. A person must remark, that the author of the work before us has already be deeply versed in plants, before he could, judiciously availed himself of the mode of defining by the work of Jussieu, or by any book, that we genera, by short essential characters, as introduced have seen, classed according to his method, refer any by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Sysletna Na- genus to its proper place, or detect any c>ne that tvrce, and since adopted by Murray, Willdenow, and may be there described. Nor does the difficulty to tire generality of botanists, instead of the full or na- which we allude consist so much in the intricacy of tural, characters, of the Linnaean Genera Plantarum. the subject, as in the uncertainty, hesitation, and inThese short characters however are not servilely co- sufficiency of the guide; because that guide, learned pied by Jussieu, but wherever he had materials they as he is, chooses to conduct us by a path, to which are revised and studied, so as to acquire all the me- neither he nor any other mortal has a perfect clue. rit of originality. Secondary characters and re- His index indeed must be the resource of a young marks are subjoined, in a different type, illustrative botanist; who, if he knows a Jtosa, a Convolvulus, or of the habit, history, or affinities, of the several ge- an Erica, may, by finding their places and their chanera. In his nomenclature Jussieu almost entirely racters, trace out the allies of each, and proceed step follows Linnaeus, retaining only here and there a by step to acquire more comprehensive ideas. The name of Tournefort’s in preference, and swerving analytical mode of inquiry, which serves us in the from classical taste and correctness principally with artificial system of Linnams, is here of no avail but to regard to the new genera of Aublet, whose intolera- an adept. This will abundantly appear as we trace, bly barbarous names are nearly all preserved. But the leading principles of this celebrated method, o a note in the preface, p. 24, informs us, that this which we shall now attempt a concise exposiadoption is only temporary, till the genera themselves tion. 4
B 0 T A N Y. m ledons.” We have already, under the 1 ith of his Botany. The System of Jussieu natural orders, pointed out other exceptions, made's by himself, to the rule just mentioned; but in these Consists of fifteen classes, which are composed, all he was partly, as we have shown, mistaken; and had together, of one hundred orders. The characters of the classes depend first on the number of cotyledons ; he been explicit about the Sarmentacece, he probably next the number of petals, and the situation, or would have proved himself in an error likewise with respect to them. So Adanson asserts the Juncus place of insertion, of the stamens and corolla. The author uses the term stamina hypogyna for to have two cotyledons, though the rest of its natusuch stamens as are inserted into the receptacle, or ral order have only one. But Gaertner has demonbelow the germen, which therefore w^e shall call in- strated this genus to be monocotyledonous. Adanjerior stamens; stamina perigyna, (around the ger- son mentions Orobanche and Cuscuta as monocotylemen), are inserted into either the corolla or calyx, donous, which answers to the opinion of Linnaeus, the germen being superior ; these we must denomu but we know not how far this is just. It appears that the line is distinctly drawn by nanate perigynous ; stamina epigyna, superior stamens, are inserted above the germen, which latter is there- tuie between plants with a simple or no cotyledon, foie, in Linnaean language, inferior. The same terms and others with two, or more, and that, so far, the a pply to the corolla, which when inserted into the principle of Jussieu’s classification is correct. Whecalyx is denominated perigynous. The followino- ther all the genera that he has considered as monocotyledonous be truly so, is another question, which table will show the characters of Jussieu’s Classes does not at all invalidate the distinction. Some have not been examined, and seem principally to be reCotyledons none. ferred to that tribe, because, like others that indubiClass 1st. */ tably belong to it, they are aquatics ; or, at least, beCotyledon one. cause of the apparent simplicity of their general Class 2d. Stamens inferior. structure. Doubts are expressed on this subject by Sd. Stamens perigynous. Jussieu himself respecting Valisneria, Cyamus (his •* 4-th. Stamens superior. Jy dumb mm), Trapa, Proserpinaca, and Pistia. Some other genera, ranked as acotyledonous, are involved Cotyledons two, (or more). m similar uncertainty. Class 5th. Petals none. Stamens superior. But with regard to the bulk of the Acotyledones, ^th. —— Stamens perigynous. composing the first of Jussieu’s classes, there seems to 7th. Stamens inferior. iis much greater difficulty. Of his first three orders, Stfi. Corolla of one petal, inferior. ungi, Algce and Hepaticee, nothing indeed is correctQth. — , perigynous. ly known, except perhaps what Hedwig has published • 10th. , superior. Anthers concerning Marchantia and Anthoceros, and that is combined. hardly sufficient for our purpose. With the fourth or11th. -. Anthers der, Musa, this great cryptogamist has made us so well acquainted, that they prove to be any thing else than distinct. -12th. Corolla of several petals. Stamens acotyledonous, or monocotyledonous; at least if his idea of the parts be right. The parts which he takes superior. 13th. —_____ Stamens for cotyledons are peculiarly numerous and complicated ; but we are ready to allow with Mr Brown, at the inferior. . 14th. Stamens conclusion of the preface to his Prodromus Flora: Novte Hollandice, that these organs are of a most unperigynous. 15th. Stamens and pistils in separate flowers. certain nature, rather subsequent to germination than its first beginning, like what has been judged the cotyIn the first place, it is evident that the great ledon of Jussieu’s 5th order, the Filices. Yet hence nmge, on which this system turns, is the number of a new difficulty arises. The parts in question so the cotyledons. The importance of this character complex in Musa, are simple in Filices, insomuch that has, from the time of Csesalpinus and Jungius, been no analogy between these orders, otherwise so nearly much insisted on. Lirmams, in his Prcelectiones, akin, is to be traced in those parts. On the other p. 329, declares his opinion, that “ the monocotyledo- hand, it cannot be concealed that the plants termed nous and dicotyledonous plants are totally different have no cotyledon at all analogous to in nature, and cannot be combined and that “ if monocotyledones those oi Xhe dicotytedones; what Jussieu and others this distinction falls to the ground, there will never call such, being the albumen of the seed, absorbed in be any certainty. Not that characters should be the first stage of vegetation. The minute plants astaken from hence, but sections when formed should sumed to be acotyledonous, must be presumed to be be confirmed by the cotyledons.” So jealous was this great man of any definition of his natural orders! furnished with something analogous, or we cannot subjoins an exception to the above rule, in conceive ho^V vegetation can take place. By all these Cuscuta and Cactus, which having no leaves, he observations we mean only to show, that the primary oupposes have no occasion for cotyledons. Linnaeus divisions of Jussieu’s system, are at least totally insufl procee s to observe that “ the germination of ficient lo answer that practical purpose, which a stuparasitical plants requires investigation, but that dent has a right to expect from any methodical are s iou greatly wonder if they have any cotv- rangement. If the learned be still uncertain, whether the distinctions, on which such divisions are founded VOU II. PART II. J J 1 3 G
Botany,
botany. Botany, ^o, in a great number of cases, really exist, how can the first who announced to his countrymen the per- Botany, a beginner regulate his first inquiries thereby ? We are formance of his illustrious friend and correspondent, not the less ready to confess, that the difficulty in as one of the most learned books ever published, lie question is rather a philosophical speculation, than of humbly conceives that few persons, in any country, any great practical importance. It gives a venerable have studied the work more, or applied it so much to air of mystery, which may procure respect for other practice. If he has been fortunate in establishing parts of a system, that are more intelligible and more genera, which have not been controverted, he allows useful, though not free from exception. We allude his obligations to Jussieu, as much as to Linnaeus. to the next subdivision of the method of the gieat The treasures of neither lie on the surface, nor are French teacher, founded on the petals. This should they to be appreciated by a superficial observer. The seem to be obvious and certain, but we soon find our- foolish contentions of party can neither exalt nor inselves bewildered in an old labyrinth of dispute, con- validate the reputation of such men ; nor is it the cerning the difference between a calyx and a cotoIIul. counting of stamens and pistils, nor the enunciation of We are obliged to submit to a sweeping decision, the names of natural orders, implying ideas which do which allows no corolla to monocotyledonuus plants ; not always exist in the mind ot the speaker, that can a pedant or coxcomb to rai.k as the pupil of a decision which we cannot safely combat, because of entitle either. the difficulty of deciding what are such, but w hich We confess ourselves somewhat partial to the Linshocks our senses and our judgment, and seems refutnsean notion, of conceiving the. idea of a natural order ed in many instances by Nature herself, as decidedly in the mind, rather than to the Jussieuan attempt at as any of her laws can be established. Nor do we very precise technical limitation of its ciiaracteis. get clear of this perplexity among the declared dico- If we contemplate the generality ot Jussieu’s orders in tyledonous tribes, where the evident corolla of the this light, we shall he struck with his profound talents Marvel of Peru is assumed to be an inner calyx, there for combination, as well as discrimination; and as we being a real perianth besides, subsequently indeed peruse his critical remarks, subjoined to seveial of called an involucrum. Yet we are at a loss to discern these orders, we shall profit more by his queries and why the terminology here used, should have been di difficulties, than by those definitions, at the head of ferent from that applied to the next order, Plumba- each order, which are, too often, so clogged with exgines. We are ready, most unreservedly, to admit ceptions, as to bewilder rather than instruct a student, the great difficulty of decision in these cases, as however intelligible they may he to an adept. well as in others, occurring in Jussieu’s 5th, Oth, The uninformed reader may, possibly, he surprised Comparison and 7th classes ; but that very difficulty evinces the to see how great a conformity there is between most^JJ^. r" precariousness of making any thing connected with of the Natural Orders of Linnaeus and those °f Jus* j j . nd t rt a this most disputable of all questions, a primary guide sieu. This will appear by a cursory view of the lat- Liugs acus. un in a system of methodical arrangement. When we ter, which, after the dt tail we have given of the forproceed a step further, and come to the insertion of mer, will more elucidate the subject than any other the stamens, the convenience and clearness of the explanation that our limits will allow. We shall take system indeed improve upon our view ; but we must the orders of Jussieu in their regular series. not hop6 to escape exceptions or inaccuracies, the Class 1. connection of theJilaments with the corolla being, by The first five orders, Fungi, Algce, Ilepaticce, Musa, no means, uniform cr constant, in the orders so cha- and Filices, are the same in both systems, except ciiat racterized, nor even in all the species of particular Linnaeus does not separate the Hepaticcz from Algcs. genera, classed upon that principle. So likewise the 6. Naiades are analogous to the Inundatce, ord. 15, insertion of the stamens into the calyx is attended of Linnaeus. with such inveterate difficulties, that one of the warm- Class 2• est promulgators and defenders of Jussieu s system, 7. Aroidece answer to the Linnaean Piperitce, ord. 2, Mr Salisbury, has thought it easier to deny the exist- though Piper itself is removed faraway, to the Urence of any such insertion, than to make it tlCCB. servient to practical use. We are indeed satisfied 8. Typhce consist of Typha and Sparganium, two that the characters throughout the cele rated method genera first referred by Linnaeus to Calamarice, then of classification now under our contemplation, are atto Piperitce. . tended with as much difficulty and exception as 9* Cyperoidece are the Linnaean Calamarice, or imported are liable at the custom-house to far more productive than this monopoly established an ad valorem duty of 15 per cent. There is also in Brasil. The authors of these devices for cramp- ataximposed at Pernambuco for lighting the streets ing industry seem to imagine, that, for the diamonds of Rio Janeiro, while its own streets are in total which are exported by private adventurers, no va- darkness. The produce of these duties is expended luable equivalent is received in return. They make in the support ot the civil Government, in which, no calculation of the additional capital which they owing to the excessive multiplication of offices with bring into the country ; of the increase thus made inadequate salaries, peculation and bribery prevail to the fund for maintaining productive industry; to such an extent, as not only to escape punishment, and of the general vigour diffused by a free trade but even any great degree of public reproach. over every department of an industrious community. The roads m the interior are generally indifferent. Interior They do not reflect, that an improving commerce, 1 he common mode of travelling is by mules, by w hich Commerce, cherished and protected by an enlightened govern- means are transported to the towns on the coast ment, would soon pour into the treasury, as the cotton, sugar, coffee, grain, and the other produce cheerful gift of a free and a flourishing people, a far o ^ the country. In return are procured iron, steel, ampler revenue than can ever be extorted from them salt, woollens, cottons, common and finer earthenby all the miserable devices of tyranny. ware, and glass. In the towns of the interior Mr Oppressive There are various other duties imposed on the Mawe saw all sorts of English goods, which were by J System ot transit of commodities into the interior, which are no means dear. axatio.i. both oppressive and impolitic. They generally take The most remarkable incident in the recent his-Settlement place at the crossing of ferries, and are laid on ac- tory ot Brasil is the emigration to its capital of the of the Court cording to the weight of the goods passing, without royal family of Portugal from Europe. In the long of Port,,i*al any regard to their bulk or value. All heavy arti- wars which have been recently concluded between in Biabil* cles, in consequence, pay high, while wmollens, cot- rranee and Britain, it was obviously the interest of tons, and other light goods, pay only about 8 or 10 the minor powers, such as Portugal, to preserve a per cent. Iron, which is in great request in the in- strict neutrality. But this was rendered difficult, terior, pays an enormous duty, of nearly 100 per as well as by the inveterate hostility of the two nacent. This is the case also with salt, which, being ab- tion8 at war, as by the preponderating power which solutely necessary in this country for the subsistence both had acquired on their respective elements of of the cattle, the effect of the tax is to discourage land and sea. Portugal, from her situation, was enbreeding, and is, in this view, most injurious to the tirely exposed to the vast military power of France; interests of agriculture. A duty of per lb. is al- and it was well understood, when France had gainso imposed on all commodities which pass into the ed the undisputed ascendancy in Europe, that the mining districts, and a new tax has lately been laid inferior states could only hope to purchase a nominal on the rents of houses. We are informed, that the independence by acceding to, and rigorously exeweight of the taxes presses most severely upon the cuting within their territories, the system devised by poorer classes, and the same remark seems appli- Bonaparte, for the proscription of the British trade. cable to other parts of the country. A tenth in The Court of Portugal, terrified by the menaces of kind is raised upon cattle, poultry, and agricul- so powerful a state, agreed, about the end of the ture. and even upon salt. This belonged, in for- year 1807, though with reluctance, to adopt that mer times, to the clergy; but as, in the infancy of harsh system ; but delaying, under various pretences, Brasil, it wras inadequate to their support, they peti- to seize the property and persons of British mertioned Government to have it commuted into a fixed chants, which was prescribed as an indispensable stipend. This petition was acceded to. In the condition of her alliance with France, the French meantime, by the improvement of the country, the ambassador quitted Lisbon, which was the prelude tithes begun greatly to increase in value to the pro- to more decisive measures. A French army was difit of the Government, apd to the loss of the church, rected to march against Portugal, and there being and the clergy now complain grievously of this no resistance, it was rapidly advancing to the capiagreement, by which, for a temporary advantage, tal. In the meantime, war had been declared such a valuable revenue w^as surrendered. For the against England by the Court of Lisbon, a fleet had due collection of the public revenue, the country is been fitted out, and all the severe measures dictated parcelled out into extensive districts, and the taxes by France against Britain had been agreed to; but of each district are farmed out to the highest bidder. the secret connections of Portugal with this country These again dispose of their farm in small shares to were but imperfectly disguised by this affected hosunder farmers, who oppress and plunder the people tility ; and it had accordingly no effect in retarding for their own private emolument. Besides a tithe the march of the invading army. In this emergenof all the cattle, which is levied on estates in the in- cy, it was resolved by the Court to escapeAhe terior, meat in the shambles pays a duty of about danger by embarking for Brasil, under the protec25 per cent. Fish pays a 10th, and afterw'ards a 15th. tion of Sir Sidney Smith, whose squadron was at A duty of 10 per cent, is imposed on every transfer that time blockading the mouth of the Tagus. VOL. IX. PART II. 3 K
BRASIL. Brasil. Tills revolution was announced to the people by a built,—lands had risen in price,—labour was in re- _ the adjacent grounds, which had been royal decree. A council of regency was established, quest,—and covered with brushwood, were now cleared, and the public archives and treasure were embarked, were laid out for building and for gardens. Before the royal family followed, and on the 19th Novem- Mr Koster quitted the country, in 1815, various ber 1806, the Portuguese fleet, joined by the Eng- other local improvements had been carried into lish squadron, finally departed from Europe, and ar- effect; all which clearly indicate, that the free trade rived at Bahia on the 19th January following. 1 he and the unrestrained intercourse with strangers, had royal family were received with every demonstration diffused a general spirit of amelioration throughof attachment and respect; and the inhabitants o this hitherto languishing community. Bahia even offered to contribute a large sum of outOwing to particular circumstances, the opening of money in order to build a suitable palace for their the trade to the Brasils was not attended with the reception, provided they would agree to reside in , that place. Itio Janeiro, however, was thought same beneficial consequences to Great Britain. At the period when this took place, all British goodsmore suitable for the residence of the Prince, and this were excluded from the Continent of Europe, by capital, to which the court of Portugal soon afteredicts of Prance ; the home market was, in conwards removed, now became the seat of the Portu- the sequence, overstocked, and the British merchant was guese monarchy. _ . r Effects of In considering the emigration of the royal tamny naturally anxious to find an outlet tor his unsaleable the Emi- 0f portugal to Brasil, some speculative writers have produce. In these circumstances, the market of gra'ior. of in(jui„eci in the most fanciful anticipations of im- Brasil was suddenly thrown open, and such immense quantities of British goods were immediately poured of Poriu- provement from this event. They seem to have ima- into it, that it was completely overstocked. Prices gal. gined, that the presence of the Supreme Governfell proportionahly; the goods were sold cheaper ment of Portugal in its colonies would revive the than they could have been bought or even manufaclanguishing industry of these countries; that it would tured at home; and, at last, they were accumulated remove the corruptions and abuses of their domestic in such excess, that the warehouses were not adeadministration ; and that, by opening to them a free quate to contain them. In many cases they were trade, it would enable them, in some degree, to rival exposed on the quays to waste and peculation, or the North American States in their rapid advances they were left to rot in warehouses ill adapted for to wealth and improvement. But in order to realize their reception. J he loss and ruin consequent on those pleasing expectations, it would have been neces- these rash speculations, gave rise to numerous banksary that the Portuguese government, which was fee- ruptcies at home; and thus the commercial embarrassble and corrupt in Europe, should have totally changed ments of the country were rather aggravated than reits character in removing to Brasil, and this unhap- lieved by the opening of this new market for its propily does not appear to have been the case. Abuses duce. There can be no doubt, however, that a free and corruptions still prevail in that country ; the ad- intercourse with this extensive country, must ultiministration of justice is not amended the royal mately create an increased demand tor the manumonopolies for the sale of ivory, Brazil wood, dia- factures of Britain, and must, in this view, be of permonds, gold dust, gunpowder, tobacco, and snuff, manent benefit to her commerce. are upheld in all their rigour ; and, in general, the The military force of Brasil is composed of regu- Military government is regulated upon the same principles as lar troops and militia. The regular army, which ge- ‘,°rcc* before. All the advantages of this translation of the nerally amounts to about 8000 men, is extremely ill government from the mother country to the colonies, regulated. It is badly clothed and poorly paid, and, seem therefore to be comprised in the commercial owing to the disadvantages of the service, has to treaty connected with the measure, the effect o be recruited by impressment, a power which, under which is to open all the ports of Brasil to the vessels this despotic government, is exercised with die grossand produce of Great Britain, on payment of a duty est partiality. The cavalry regiments which patrole of 15 per cent. The former system of restraint being the mining districts, are, however, highly respectable, removed by this treaty, there will thus be a greater both in point of discipline and equipment, flhe mistimulus to improvement of every sort; and industry, litia amount to upwards of 30,000 men ; and to this freed from the pernicious restrictions under which it service all are liable, with the exception of the first formerly laboured, will be excited to new and active rate nobility. exertions by a higher price for its produce. These The population of Brasil has been differently es-Populalion. effects have accordingly, to a certain degiee, taken timated. According to M. Beauchamp, it amountplace. We are informed by Mr Koster, who quitted ed in 1806 to 800,000 Europeans, 1,500,000 nePernambuco in April 1 811, and returned m the end o groes, and to from 800,000 to 900 000 civilized InDecember in the same year, that, during this short dians. This, however, appears to be an exaggerainterval, he observed a remarkable change for the tion. Sir George Staunton computes the number of better in the aspect of the place, and of the adjacent whites at 200,000, and the blacks at 600,000; anu country. The houses had been greatly improved,— some authors make the whole amount only to the ladies, in imitation of some families who had ar- 420,000. , T ,, , j rived from England and Portugal, began to walk Histoire du Brasil, par M. Alphonse de Beauabroad during the day,—the English fashions in champ. 3 tomes 8vo. 1815. Mawe s Travels into the clothes had become general among both sexes,—the Interior of Brasil, 4to. 1812. Koster’s Travels m equipages had assumed a , gayer appearance,—a Brasil, 4to. 1816. \0' greater number of country residences had been
442 Brasil.
BRA BRASS, in Chemistry and Manufactures, an alloy of copper and zinc. This name, however, has not been exclusively applied to the alloy of these metals ; for the gun-metal, which has been also called brass, is an alloy of copper with tin. The same alloy, with more tin, is used in machinery, and is preferred to the alloy ol copper and zinc, on account of its greater hardness. It appears from the analysis of the brass of the Different kinds. ancients, that it was an alloy of copper and tin. A small portion of tin gives to copper great hardness, and renders it capable of bearing much greater resistance. A larger portion of tin gives increased hardness, but is less fitted to bear a straining resistance, on account of its brittleness. Its elasticity is very great, which fits it for bells. In this state it is called bell-metal; with a still greater proportion of tin, it forms an alloy employed for the mirrors of reflecting telescopes. The alloy of copper with tin is easily distinguished from that with zinc from the agreeable colour of the latter, which varies with the proportions of the metals. Pinchbeck has the least proportion of zinc. Common brass has more zinc, and the gold-coloured alloy called Prince’s metal, contains a still greater proportion of zinc. An alloy of copper with a very large proportion of zinc is used for the common white metal buttons. Proportions These various alloys of copper with tin and zinc >f Alloys, forming the different kinds of brass, are to be considered as chemical compounds, and, of course, governed by the same laws of definite proportions which belong to the more conspicuous compounds. On these principles, which cannot be doubted, we have an unerring rule for uniting these and other metals in the best proportions, the weights of their atoms being previously known. See the article Atomic Theory in this Supplement. The weight of the atom of copper being 8, tin 7*35, and zinc 4; the following table will exhibit the proportions of the various alloys, expressed in atoms, and their proportions by weight, the third column pointing out the colour and character of the resulting compound. CZ and T are to represent the atoms of the metals respectively.
BRA
Brass.
COMPOUNDS OF ZINC WITH COPPER. Character and Colour of the ComAtoms. Proportions by Weight pounds. C-f z C + 2Z C-fSZ C+4Z C + 5Z C-j-6 Z 2C-f- Z 3C-f Z
-
1 to 2 The best proportions for common brass. 1 to 1 The alloy called Prince’s Metal, of a beautiful gold colour. 2 to 3 Of a paler yellow, very little malleable. 1 to 2 Still of a lighter colour, and not malleable. 2 to 5 Yellowish white and brittle. 1 to 3 Very brittle, nearly white. 4 to 1 A very malleable brass used in watch-work. 6 to J An alloy much harder than copper and inclining to its colour.
COMPOUNDS OF TIN WITH COPPER. Atoms.
Proportion Character and Colour of the Comby Weight pounds.
T+C
11 to 12 A very brittle and rather white alloy. 11 to 6 Still more brittle and more white. 11 to 4 Very white, used for speculums. 11 to 3 Coarse-grained and too brittle for-any purpose. 11 to 24 A yellowish alloy, very hard and sonorous. 11 to 3(> dell metal. 11 to 48 A very hard alloy used for some culinary vessels. 11 to 6o Softer but not malleable. 11 to 72 Still increases in softness and of a yellower colour. 11 to 84 Used for some purposes in machinery. 11 to 96 An alloy used for cannon. 11 to 108 More common for cannon and machinery, and used for bronze statues.
2T+C 3 T+C 4 T+C T+2 C T+3C T+4C T+5C T+6C T+7C T+8C T+9C
443 Brass.
Hitherto the proportions of these alloys have depended upon the caprice of workmen, obtained by numerous trials; and what confirms the law of definite proportions, is proved by the necessity of adhering to such fixed proportions, ascertained by trials. By attending to the stages of composition pointed out in the above table, the most striking and proper compounds will be produced, without the trouble of trying. Any proportions intermediate will, doubtless, be marked by defective colour, irregular crystallization, or imperfect malleability, in such as are expected to be so. Although the most direct way of forming these different kinds of brass is by immediately combining the metals together, one of them, which is mos” properly called brass, was manufactured long before zinc, one of its component parts, was known in its metallic form. The ore of the latter metal was cemented with sheets of copper, charcoal being present. The zinc was formed and united with the copper, without becoming visible in a distinct form. The same method is still practised for making brass, which we are about to describe. The materials used in making brass are, copper in Brasssmall rounded masses produced by passing the melt- making^ ed metal through an appropriate vessel into water, in which state it is called shot copper, and calamine, an ore of zinc. This latter substance is a carbonate of zinc, often containing some oxyd of iron, which gives it a reddish appearance. As it is chiefly found with lead, the lumps frequently contain more or less gallena, which requires to be separated by the same means employed for purifying lead ore. The calamine is first reduced to powder, and the lead is then separated by washing. When the calamine is separated, reduced to powder, and sifted, it is heated upon the hearth of a reverberatory furnace. This expels the volatile matter, which is principally water
444 BRA Brass. ami carbonic acid. What remains is principally ' v ’ oxyd of zinc, abounding with some earthy matter, and probably much carbonic acid, which is not all expelled by the heat. The calamine thus prepared, charcoal powder, and copper, are the materials to be operated upon. The proportion in which they are mixed together, are equal weights of copper and prepared calamine, and ^ their weight of powdered charcoal. This mixture, intimately blended, is compressed into a crucible of the form of fig. 3. Plate XXXVI.* One of these crucibles holds about 100 lbs. of brass, when the process is finished ; but as this consists of the pure copper and zinc, the pot, when charged, will contain of copper 66.3 lbs., of calamine 63. lbs., and of charcoal powder 13 lbs. When the crucible is filled, the contents should be covered with a mixture of clay sand and horse-dung, in order to defend the metals and charcoal from the action of the air. When this covering is strictly attended to, less charcoal powder might be employed, and a larger dose of the other ingredients might be put in its place, but it is generally the most defective part of the process. Having charged the pots, we will now describe the furnace which has to receive them. Fig. 1. Plate XXXVI.* is a plan of the furnace. The part AB is taken at the level EF, showing the opening into the furnace on the ground floor at a and b : c and d are horizontal flues leading to the chimney and can be cut off from the same by the dampers seen in the dark part of the flue. CD, in the same figure, is a plan on the level GH, where the pots rest upon the cast iron plate on bottom x, y. Fig. 2. is an elevation and section of the same furnace. AB shows a front view of the pyramidal chimney, and the archway opening into it. CD is a section of the same, through the middle of the fire-place II. ll,P,Q, is a vaulted passage going across the building, and open at both ends, for the admission of air, which passes through the openings in the arch, through the fires. The bottom of the furnace is not a common grate, but a thick plate of cast metal, perforated with holes for the air to pass through ; one hole being between each pot, as they are seen arranged in fig. 1. at I, I, and also in the section at y. When the pots arc placed upon the plate, the fire is not placed immediately upon them, as it would not only derange them, but it would displace the covering. To prevent this, the pots are fiist covered by some dried heath, or common brambles. This lying on the pots, defends them for a time, when the fuel is thrown in. By the time the brambles are consumed, the coal will have coked upon the pots, and will act as a defence for the rest of the process. The fire is kept up from twelve to twenty hours at the Cheudle Brass Works in Staffordshire, where these drawings were taken from. 1 hey cast twice in the twenty-four hours. The melted brass, after the refuse is skimmed off, is cast into ingots, if sold for melting over again, and into plates, if intended to be rolled into sheets, or made into wire. The plates are cast between large blocks of Cornwall stone. The lower stone, is fixed, and the face made even and smooth, by filling up the recesses of the ruff stone with fine sand. The
B R E upper stone is similarly prepared, and is suspended Brass' over the fixed one. The height and breadth of the ^i aJ place to receive the metal is limited by iron bars laid on the lower stone. The upper stone/is then let down upon the bars. The lower stone is a little longer than the upper one, and projects to the front. Being a little higher in that part, it forms a lip, or mouth-piece, to pour the metal into. The flat sides of the cast plate are therefore bounded by the surface of the stones, and the edges of the same by the bars above-mentioned. The ingot moulds are recesses in blocks of cast-iron, open on one side. The most certain and correct method of forming brass and the other compounds expressed in the table above-given, is by immediately uniting the metals in given weights. It should, however, be observed, that it will be found difficult to introduce zinc into melted copper. The best way of uniting it with copper, in the first instance, will be to introduce the copper in thin slips to the melted zinc, till the alloy requires a tolerable heat to fuse it, and then to unite this alloy with the melted copper. fx.) BREAD-FRUIT. Among the more valuable products of the warmer climates and the fertile islands of the southern Pacific Ocean, is to be ranked the bread-fruit, or Artocarpus incisa of botanists. Nature has favoured the tropical regions, and those countries in their vicinity, with inexhaustible quantities of the choicest vegetables, while the inhabitants of the north are restricted to shrivelled berries and meagre roots ; and, if they have obtained a supply, always precarious, of some of the finer fruits, it is the result of patience, skill, and industry. Ever since Europeans frequented the Eastern History of world in commercial enterprise, it is probable that'fs discothey were acquainted with the bread-fruit. How,veiy' indeed, could its properties be unknown to Quiros, who visited Otaheite so long ago as the year 1606? Yet the English navigator Dampier seems the first of the Europeans whose notice was particularly directed towards it, during his circumnavigation in the year 1688 ; and he expresses himself in these words: “ The bread-fruit, as we call it, grow s on a large tree, as big and high as our largest apple trees. It hath a spreading head, full of branches, and dark lerives. The fruit grows on the boughs like apples; it is as big as a penny-loaf, when the wheat is at five shillings the bushel. It is of a round shape, and hath a thick tough rind. When the fruit is ripe, it is yellow and soft, and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The natives of Guam use it for bread. They gather it, when full grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an oven, which scorcheth the rind, and makes it black; but they scrape oil the outside black crust, and there remains a tender thin crust; and the inside is soft, tender, and white, like the crumbs of a penny-loaf. There is neither seed nor stone in the inside, but all of a firm substance like bread. It must be eaten new, for if it be kept above twenty four hours, it becomes dry and eats harsh and choaky; but it is very pleasant before it is too stale. This fruit lasts in season eight months in the year, during which time the natives eat no other sort of food of bread kind. I did never see of this fruit any where but here (Guam). The natives told us that
B RA S S
PLITKXXXVI.f
B R E A D-F R U I T. 445 sread-fi'tiit. there is plenty of this fruit growing on the rest of \V est Indian Islands, several dishes are made of it; Bread-fruit* the Ladrone Islands, and l did never hear of it any- either by thus baking it in an oven entire, when it isv-^*V^1' where else.” The bread-fruit, however, is found in considered to equal or surpass any kind of bread; still greater profusion, and in equal perfection, by adding water, or the milk of the cocoa nut, by on many of the groups of islands scattered through- boiling it, or forming it into a paste. This last isout the South Pacific Ocean; nor is it confined to accomplished by taking the fruit before attaining them exclusively, but their soil and climate seem to complete maturity, and laying it in heaps, closely correspond more intimately with the conditions of covered up with leaves, where it undergoes fermenits vegetation. tation, and becomes disagreeably sweet. The core lifferont There are two leading species of this plant, which being then drawn out, the fruit or pulp is thrown pecies. are characterized by the presence or absence of into a paved excavation, and the whole covered up seeds; the latter being the preferable kind, and with leaves, whereon heavy stones are laid: it unthat which is cultivated more carefully for its pro- dergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, duce. The natives of the South Sea Islands maintain, after which it will suffer no change for a long time. however, that eight different species, or rather varie- A leaven may be thus formed of it, which is baked ties, may be distinguished, and for which they have as occasion requires. In the Island of Nukahiwa, the following names: Patteah, Eroroo, Awanna, an agreeable beverage can be obtained from it, and Mi-re, Oree, Powerro, Appeere, Rowdeah. The in the West Indies it can be baked like biscuit, and leaf of the first, fourth, and eighth, differs from that will keep nearly as long. The fruit is in greatest of the rest; the fourth being more sinuated, and the perfection about a week before beginnirg to ripen, eighth having a large broad leaf, not at all sinuated. winch is easily recognised by the skin changing to a In the first, also, the fruit is rather larger, and of a brownish cast, and from small granulations of the more oblong form, while in the last it is round, and juice. In the West Indies, it is soft and yellow when not above half the size of the others. European ob- ripe, and is in taste and smell like a very ripe melon. servers, however, do not seem, in general, disposed Hogs, dogs, and poultry then feed on it readily. to recognise these as essential distinctions, although Besides this, the bread-fruit-tree proper, there is one they admit other varieties. that has been long known in India and the Eastern As Dampier observes, the bread-fruit is a large Islands, of which the fruit contains from forty to an tree, growing to the height of forty feet or more. It hundred farinaceous seeds, in appearance resembling is thick in the stem, and has a luxuriant foliage. The chesnuts. These when roasted or boiled are more trunk is upright, the wood soft, smooth, and yellow- grateful to many persons than the bread-fruit, and ish ; and wherever the tree is wounded, a glutinous the negroes are very fond of them. The external fluid exudes. The branches form an ample head, al- characters of the tree are scarcely to be distinguishmost globular; the leaves are eighteen inches long, ed from those of the other, and the chief distinction and eleven broad, resembling those of the oak, or lies in the fruit, which attains nearly the size of that the fig tree, from their deep sinuosities. The younger we have described, and is covered with prickles like leaves, like all the more tender plants of the tree, a hedgehog. It grows from the seed with rapid veare glutinous to the touch. The male-flowers are getation, and attains larger dimensions than the among the upper leaves, and the female flowers at proper bread-fruit-tree. the ends of the twigs. But it is the fruit which The natives of those islands producing this useful Ils other constitutes the value of the plant, and this is a very vegetable, collect it without the smallest trouble ;useslarge berry, according to botanists, with a reticulated they have only to climb the tree to gather the fruit. surface, resembling a cocoa-nut or melon in size and Nor is this the sole purpose to which it is converted, form, nine inches in length. It is filled with a white for they have a method of fabricating cloth from the farinaceous fibrous pulp, which becomes juicy and bark; the leaves are substituted for towels, and the yellow when the fruit is ripe ; and the edible portion wood is employed in the construction of their boats lies between the skin, which is green, and a core in and houses. A kind of cement and birdlime is also the centre, which is about an inch in diameter. prepared by boiling the juice exuding from the bark I'd as During a considerable portion of the year, the in cocoa-nut oil. f« l toa bread-fruit affords the chief sustenance of the SocieIt appears that there are other vegetables of this Its cultivatf1 ex’ ty Islanders. It is prepared after different fashions, class, producing fruit of inferior quality, but ontion. and its taste depends in a great measure on the mode that account receiving less attention. The breadof preparation. It is insipid, slightly sweet, some- fruit proper is of easy cultivation in its native soil. what resembling wheaten bread mixed with Jerusa- In some of the Islands it seems an indigenous prolem artichokes, and some compare it to a cake made duct, and springs from the root of old trees, without of flour, egg, sugar, milk, and butter. In general, any care; in others, it requires simply to be put into it is cut into several pieces, and roasted or baked in the earth. The trees flourish with greatest luxua hole made in the ground, which is paved round riance on rising grounds; and it has been remarked, with large smooth stones; and then it resembles a that where the hills of the Sandwich Islands rise alboiled potatoe, not being so farinaceous as a good most perpendicularly in a great variety of peaks, their one, but more so than those of ordinary quality. steep declivities, and the deep valleys intervening, areThe. stones are previously heated by a fire, kindled covered with trees, among which the bread-fruit is in the excavation, and the bread-fruit, being wrapped particularly abundant. It has also been observed, that in a banana leaf, is laid upon them, and covered with although we are accustomed to consider Otaheite as leaves and hot stones. In Otabeite, and in the of the greatest fertility in this plaot, the trees ef
1 4 tt> BREA D Jiffiart-fmit, the Sandwich Islands produce double the quantity of fruit. Though nearly of the same height, the branches begin to shoot out much lower from the trunk, and with greater luxuriance. In Otaheite, they are propagated b} suckers from the root, which are best transplanted in wet weather, when the earth forms bails around them ; then they are not liable to suffer from removal. This valuable plant is widely diffused in the Southern and Eastern Isles, and it is generally found throughout the great Paci* fie Ocean. It grows on Amboj'na, the Banda Islands, Timor, and the Ladrones; but it is more specially the object of care and cultivation in the Marquesas, and the Friendly and Society Islands, where it vegetates in uncommon luxuriance and profusion. Attempts to The great utility of the bread-fruit as an article of it toSt,/a tt subsistence for mankind, has, at different times, led AV( st In- t0 speculations on the possibility of naturalizing it in dies. places where it is not of spontaneous growth. M. de Poive, the philosophic Governor of tne Mauritius, succeeded in introducing it there, and in the Isle of Bourbon, whither it was conveyed by M. deSonnerat from Lu$on in the Philippine Islands. Being found in the greatest luxuriance under the same latitudes as the British West India Islands, and in a climate not dissimilar, Government deemed the transmission of it thither, both as practicable without much difficulty, and as promising a future store of subsistence for the inhabitants. An expedition was therefore fitted out, with particular care, under the command of Captain, then Lieutenant Bligh, who sailed in the Bounty store ship, for the South Seas, in December 1787. This vessel was prepared so as to receive a great many bread-fruit and other plants, which would have proved a valuable acquisition to the colonists of the Wrest Indies, and some which were expected to succeed under the culture of the curious in Great Britain. The Bounty arrived in safety at Otaheite, the principal place of her destination, and took on board 1015 bread-fruit plants, besides a great variety of different species of other plants, and after remaining twenty-three weeks, which were busily occupied, set sail on the 4th of April 1789- But it is unnecessary to say more of the expedition, which was rendered totally abortive by a mutiny ensuing three weeks subsequent to its departure; the cause of which still remains in obscurity. The Captain and eighteen adherents were barbarously turned adrift in an open boat, wherein they suffered incredible hardships, and, after a navigation of 3600 miles, reached the Island of Timor, having lost only one of their number, who was murdered by the savages of an intermediate Island. Notwithstanding the unfortunate result of this voyage, the object was still kept in view, and a new expedition planned with still greater precaution than the former; and it has been said that his present Majesty, King George III. took a lively interest in conferring so important a benefit on a distant {fart of his people. Captain Bligh having arrived in England, was appointed to the command of the Providence and Assistance, two vessels specially fitted out as before; and part of their complement consisted of two gardeners, to take the management of the plants col-
F 11 U I T. lected. The vessels sailed in August 1791, reached Bread-fruit] Van Diemen’s Land in February 1792, and anchored at Otaheite in February following. Here they remained above three months, and obtained even a greater store of plants than formerly; for there were now 1281 pots and tubs, whereas the first number of the bread-fruit-trees, in 1789, did not exceed 887. Captain Bligh, in returning, made a dangerous voyage through Endeavour Straits, the exploring of which was part of his former instructions, and anchored at Coupang in the Island of Timor, where he substituted many other plants for those that had died. He then sailed for the West Indies, and, touching at St Helena, landed some bread-fruit plants, and took on board those of different species. The object of his voyage was at length completed by reaching the Island of St Vincent’s in January 1798, where he committed 544 plants, of which 333 were bread-fruit, to the care of Dr Anderson, Superintendent of the Botanical Garden, and substituted for them 467 of different species, designed lor his Majesty’s garden at Kew\ In the next place, Captain Biigh landed 623 plants, of which 347 were bread-fruit, at Port Royal in the Island of Jamaica, and replaced them with a farther collection for the King, with which he arrived in England on- the 2d of August 1798. Five years and eight months had thus been occupied in accomplishing the desirable purpose of these two expeditions. But it belonged especially to Britain, by whom a familiar intercourse with the southern Islanders was first opened up, to effect an object of so much importance. Nevertheless, some have been found inclined to challenge the wisdom of so difficult and expensive an experiment; both because the expectations of those who looked for an inexhaustible source of subsistence were not speedily realized; and because the places the best adapted for its culture alteady possess another vegetable, the plantain, which is much more grateful to the negroes, for whom the bread-fruit was principally designed. It has been argued, that the bread-fruit-tree requires considerable care in cultivation, that its progress to maturity is slow, though in Britain it would appear extremely rapid. Three years are required to reap the fruit; the plantain demands no care, while it produces its crop in fifteen months; thus giving it a decided preference in the opinion of the Colonist, who is always impatient for a return. Further, that wherever. any vegetable, already relished by the inhabitants of a district, is completely established, they will always reject what they think less agreeable. These arguments have certainly had considerable weight; probably, however, from not duly appreciating the difficulties attendant on such an experiment as the naturalization of plants. But were we to take a retrospect of all the obstacles which have opposed the cultivation of many species of grain and fruits at present not uncommon in Britain, it would be very evident that success has resulted only from the most patient and laborious attention. Positive conclusions on this subject, are perhaps as yet premature. In the year 1777> a premium was offered by the
BREADFRUIT. 447 eafl-frnit. Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manu- farther, he had, in the course of the subsequent Bu-ad-fYnit. factures, to any individual who should bring the year, 371 on the point of land, of which no less than bread-fruit plant from the South Sea Islands in a 319 plants were in a flourishing, and some of them state of vegetation to the West Indies, and the gold in a productive state. He transmitted specimens of medal was awarded, in 1793, to Captain Bligh accord- the fruit to England preserved in vinegar, as it will ingly. That Society, with the laudable design of not keep above two days after being taken from the promoting its culture, continued to offer further pre- tree; as also of the dried leaves and blossom. Other miums for the greatest number of plants raised in correspondents, nearly about the same time, sent spethe British settlements; and in consequence a silver cimens of cakes made from the bread-fruit converted medal was awarded to Dr Anderson, Superintendent to flour, which were extremely well flavoured; and it of the Botanical Garden at St Vincent’s in 1798; seemed that a dry nutritious food, resembling Tapiand, in 1802, the gold medal to the Honourable Jo- oca in appearance and quality, might be prepared seph Robley, Governor of the Island of Tobago. from it. The vegetation of this plant is very rapid. From the course adopted by these two Cultivators, Ten of those committed to the care of Dr Anderson, the history of the bread-fruit has received much elu- in 1793, were about two feet high, and half an inch cidation, and we shall comprise it in a few observa- in diameter ; and he observed, that, in the year 1798, tions. most of the trees in the Botanical Garden at St VinMr Robley received three plants from Dr Ander- cent’s were above 30 feet high, and the stem two feet son in June 1793, which he planted in very deep above the ground was from three feet to three and a rich soil, and paid tRem every attention, in hopes of half in circumference. From the remarks he was procuring, shoots. They flourished exceedingly, enabled to make in this interval on the varieties of produced fruit in 1795, and continued to do so un- the tree in the Botanical Garden, it appeared that til autumn 1801, after which we have no notices re- the fruit came out in succession during the greater specting them. Being disappointed of obtaining part of the year, but less of it between November suckers, Mr R bley applied to Dr Anderson, who ad- and March than at any other time. The number vised him to lay bare some of the uppermost roots, produced by a single tree was very great, being often and to wound them very deeply ; and having follow- in clusters of five and six, and bending the lower ed these directions in October ! 800, they almost im- branches to the ground. According to the different mediately began to put forth shoots in abundance. varieties, the fruit was of various shapes and sizes, In December, 120 fine plants were thus obtained, weighing from four to ten pounds, some smooth, which Mr Robley placed in baskets containing about others rough and tuberculated. When taken from a gallon of good rich loose soil, and deposited them the tree before maturity, the juice appeared of the in the shade, in the vicinity of water. With this ele- consistence and colour of milk, and in taste somement also they were refreshed when the weather re- what similar. It issued for above ten minutes in an quired it. Baskets were preferred to pots for the uninterrupted stream, and thickened into a glutinous plants, from being lighter and more easily removed. and adhesive substance. 1 hree months were requirLikewise, because when deposited in the place where ed to bring the fruit to perfection, which, as above they were ultimately to remain, the baskets would remarked, is about a week before it begins to ripen. speedily rot, and not repress the growth of the plant, Besides the Otaheitan bread-fruit, Captain Bligh left which would then extend its roots. European Culti- some of the East India bread-fruit in the Botanical vators would do well to attend to the beneficial use Garden. But this proved of infinitely inferior quaof baskets, for it too often happens that a tender plant lity, and a very indifferent substitute for it. It was is wounded in removing it from a pot, or that the ill-shaped, of a soft pulpy substance, and, like the earth surrounding it is so deranged and displaced, other, wanting seeds, and propagating itself by suckthat no subsequent care can preserve it from destruc- ers springing from the root. tion. Encouraged by the successful issue of these A species of fruit, bearing considerable analogy to Bread-fruit previous experiments, Mr Robley prepared a point of those above described, is found on the Nicobar “fthe Nicoland of loose sandy soil, bounded by a salt lagoon Islands, but we are unacquainted with the degreebar and the sea, for receiving a large plantation. When of attention it has received, either for the purpose of the tide filled, brackish water was to be found every- illustrating its natural history, or for economical uses. where at the depth of two feet and a half from the It is not less beneficial, however, to the natives. The surface; but it had been observed in some of the tree producing this fruit vegetates promiscuously South Sea Islands, that bread-fruit-trees grew in with others in the woods, but preferring a humid full vigour, though brackish water bathed their roots, soil. Its trunk is straight, thirty or thirty-five feet and the point was otherwise defended from the en- in height, and from ten inches to two feet in circumcroachments of the sea by an artificial bank. The ference. The roots spring from it above the surland being ploughed and harrowed twice; was divided face, and do not penetrate deep into the earth. The into beds stretching across from the sea to the la- leaves are disposed like the large calyx of a flower; goon : the beds were 27 feet in breadth, and the they are three feet long and four inches broad, of a plants put into the earth in the middle of each, dark green hue and tenacious substance. A long and exactly at the distance of 27 feet asunder time elapses before the tree produces fruit, not less -—thus leaving a large space for their vegeta- than about the period of human life. It then forms tion. Mr Robley’s expectations were not disappoint- at the bottom of the leaves, from which it proceeds ed. In August 1801, he had 153 plants in a flou- as it is enlarged, and, when nearly ripe, it changes rishing condition ; and, prosecuting the object still from green to yellowish colour. This is the proper
B R E A K W A T E R 448 bread fruit period for gathering it, when its weight is between which cost them more regret than the useless and ex- Ihoak. pensive projects for that port ever could be worth), "ater. ant 40 Jtreak 30 t ie 1* 1 ispounds. The exterior surface is cut off, and water.” ^ ft ” boiled in earthen pots covered with leaves, that while the whole line of their coast, bordering _f—. —» jduring several hours, on a slow fire; when, becom- on the English Channel, presented only sandy ing soft and friable, the preparation is sufficient, and shores with shallow water, or an iron-bound coast the fruit is then exposed to the air, and is next form- bristled with rocks, Nature had lavished on their ed into a mass not unlike maize, either in taste or “ eternal rival” of the opposite coast, the incalcucolour. It may be preserved a long time, but expo- lable advantages of a succession of deep and comsure to the atmosphere occasions acidity. The plant modious harbours, or of safe and extensive roadproducing this fruit, however, is not of the same ge- steads, inviting their possessors to commerce and nus as those above described, although its fruit is navigation, and placing in their grasp “ the sceptre converted to similar uses, but is rather a kind of and the sovereignty of the seas.” M. Curt obpalm which it might be useful to naturalize in the serves, that “ the misfortunes of I.a Hogue, which all the talents of Tourville could not prevent, taught eastern possessions of Britain. (s.) BREAKWATER, is any obstruction of wood, Louis XIV., that, in completing the defence of his stone, or other material, as a boom or raft of wood, frontiers by land, he had too much neglected his sunken vessels, &c., placed before the entrance of a frontiers on the sea ; that this great prince, however, port or harbour; or, any projection from the land profiting by experience, soon discovered that Enginto the sea, as a pier, mole or jetty, so placed as to land owed the superiority of her marine to the milibreak the force of the waves, and prevent their tary establishments which she possessed in the Chanaction on ships and vessels lying at anchor within nel.” With a view of securing to France similar them. Thus, the piers of the ancient Piraeus and of advantages, the Marechal de Vauban was directed Rhodes ; the moles of Naples, Genoa, and Castella- to visit the coasts of Normandy, for the purpose of mare; the piers of Ramsgate, Margate, Folkstone, adopting measures for placing in security, against Howth, and the wooden-dike de Richlieu, thrown hostile attacks, all such bays, harbours, and inlets, as across the port of Rochelle, may all be denominated were favourable for the disembarkation of troops; ■Breakwaters. In French it is sometimes called and to furnish plans of such works as he might judge Baltre d'Eau ; a name which appears to have been to be necessary, not only for military, but for naval applied to the mole at Fangier, a work com- purposes. Among other projects, he reported that menced in 1763, under the direction of Lord Ti- the roadstead of Cherbourg possessed the means of viot, Sir J. Lawson, and Sir Hugh Cholmley, and attack, of defence, and of protection; that it was finished, or rather discontinued, in 177b> after very capable of exerting an influence on maritime having cost this nation the sum of L. 243,897* war, and in their commercial relations with the 5s. 4^d. The term Breakwater, however, has, of northern powers; that it was the spot on which the late years, been considered as more peculiarly ap- head-quarters should be established on the coast of propriate to large insulated dikes of stone, whether the Channel; and, in short, that it was a central adof regular masonry or sunk promiscuously in rough vance post with regard to England. He moreover masses, so placed, as to form an artificial island reported, that it might be made a port for the safe across the mouth of an open roadstead, and thereby, retreat of a squadron crippled by stormy weather, from obstructing and breaking the waves ot the sea, or beaten by an enemy, or even for the reception of to convert a dangerous anchorage into a safe and -a victorious fleet with its prizes. By thus convertcommodious harbour for the reception of ships of ing the present exposed roadstead of Cherbourg into ■a safe and protected anchorage for a fleet of men of War or merchantmen. Of this description of dike, for creating an artifi- war, France, fie said, wmuld be able to watch the cial harbour on a grand scale, fit for the reception of motions of England; to oblige her at all times to ships of war of the largest class, there are two re- keep a corresponding fleet in the Channel; and to markable examples in the Breakwater of Cherbourg menace her shores with invasion of which she at all and that of Plymouth,—the one after thirty years of times stood so much in dread. Opinions, however, being divided between the adalmost uninterrupted labour still very far from being completed; the other, in the course of about four vantages of La Hogue and Cherbourg, Louis XVI., years, in a much more forward state, and if neces- immediately after the conclusion of the American sary, capable of being completed in the course of War, issued his directions to M. de Castries, Secretary of State for the Marine, to appoint a special .two years. commission, to consider and report which of these Break* Breakwate® of Cherbourg. In M.de Cessart s two roadsteads combined the most advantages, and water of Description des Travaux Hydrauliques, will be Cherbourg. foun(l a very minute and laborious detail of all the was, in ail respects, preferable for constructing a preparatory operations, the progress and the expence port and naval arsenal capable of receiving and of constructing the Breakwater of Cherbourg, up equipping from 80 to 100 vessels of war of different to the period of the Revolution. But the history of descriptions. The Commissioners had little hesitathis great undertaking is summarily stated in a re- tion in deciding upon Cherbourg, because, by means port °made to the National Assembly in 179L by M. of a Breakwater, it would be capable not only of adde Curt, in the name of its Committee ot Marine, mitting a fleet to ride securely at anchor when thus concerning the Marine Establishment of Cherbourg. sheltered from the sea, but also of affording them ItsTfistory. It had always been a source of Considerable an- protection against any attempt of an enemy. It was noyance to the French (and more particularly since added, that Cherbourg was an admirable place for the demolition of the works and basin of Dunkirk, watching Portsmouth, without appearing to have
BREAKWATER. Break- 6ne6 recollected what art excellent anchorage Spit- a depth of 40 to 42 feet of water at the lowest ebb, waler. ijeac| was for watching Cherbourg. and the closing up the entrance of the port of RoDirections were accoi'dingly given to M. de Caux, chelle, which is only 740 toises in length, and the Commanding Officer of Engineers at Cherbourg, depth of water only five or six toises. 4. That the to commence, as a preparatory measure, with the upper part of the projected u.ke, being exposed to construction of a fort on the Island of Pelee, and the violent action of the sea, the stability of that another on Du Hornet, according to plans given part could not be depended on ; and besides, a dike In by Vauban in 1679 5 by these works the road- covered at high spring-tides with 18 feet water would stead would be flanked on the right and left. The not fulfil the two indispensable conditions—smooth interval, however, being found too great to afford water, and protection against an enemy. These arsufficient protection to all the ships that might re- guments were deemed conclusive, and the plan of quire to be anchored in the roadstead, M. de Caux M. de la Bretonniere was abandoned. presented a plan to the Minister at War for conIn 1781, M. de Cessart, Inspector-General of structing an intermediate fort in the sea, which Bridges and Embankments, received directions to should be casemated, and sufficiently large to con- prepare a plan that should cover a fleet of 80 to tain all the buildings necessary for a garrison. The 100 ships of war in the roadstead of Cherbourg, from -Surrounding walls were proposed to be sunk in cais- the attack of an enemy, and protect them ao-ainst sons of 6000 feet square at the base, and 52 feet the elements. M. de Cessart was fully aware that, to high. The top of the platform was to be SO feet raise a barrier in front of this roadstead, and in the high from the bottom of the sea, and the area of its middle of the sea, capable of resisting the impetuosisurface 1000 square toises. This plan, however, was ty of the waves, and repelling the enterprises of the not considered to give sufficient shelter to a fleet enemy, was no easy task. “ Nothing,” says he, “ that from the winds and waves, and new projects were I had ever performed, or that I had ever read of, in ancalled for by the Government. cient or modern history, appeared to me to be worthy In 1777, M. de la Bretonniere, Capitaine de Vais- of being placed in comparison with the grandeur of seau, one of the commissioners who had been named this project.” He suggested, as the preferable and only to report on the comparative merits of the two road- mode of answering the purpose of producing smooth steads of Cherbourg and La Hogue, had addressed water in the roadstead, that, in the place of one cona memorial to the Minister of Marine, in which he tinued dike or mole, a number of large masses, seexpatiated, at great length, on the numerous advan- parated from each other, of a circular form, with an tages held out by the former, and particularly with elevation greatly inclined, should be substituted ; in regard to the security of the anchorage. He pro- short, a series of truncated cones, which, touching posed to construct, at the distance of a league in the each other at their bases, might present to the sea at sea, a stone dike of 2000 toises in length, leaving the surface, alternate obstacles and openings, and three open passages into the roadstead it was in- thus inteirupt and break oown the waves previous tended to cover; one in the middle, and one at each to their entering the harbour. He also considered extremity. This dike, like that which was sunk be- that, as these openings at the surface would not exfore Rochelle, was proposed to have as its nucleus ceed /2 feet, a sufficient barrier would be formed a number of ships filled with masonry, floated off against the passage of an enemy’s vessel; and that, and sunk in proper situations, and afterwards to be if necessary, in time of war, it might be rendered cased with large sunken stones, to the height of 50 still more secure by placing strong chains of iron feet above the bottom of the sea. The reason as- across the intervals. It was proposed to construct signed for sinking the stone vessels was the supposi- these conical caissons, of wood, the number of which tion that an under current might cause so much to cover a front of 2000 toises would amount to go, motion at the bottom of the sea as would derange which, at 360,000 livres for each cone, would cause the level, and work away the loose stones; so little a total expence of 32,400,000 for the whole. The appears at that time to have been known of the in- number, however, was afterwards reduced to 64, creasing tranquillity of the waves of the sea, in pro- and the time estimated for completing the work 13 portion to the increasing depth of water. years. Each cone was to be 150 feet in diameter at On this plan the commissioners observed, i. That the base, and 60 feet in diameter at the top, and in order to construct a dike of 2000 toises in length, from 60 to 70 feet in heighth, the depth of water with sloping sides proportioned to its height, there at spring-tides, in thelinein which they were intendwould be required so great a number of old ships as ed to be sunk, varying from about 56 to 70 feet. could hardly be collected in all France in less than They were proposed to be sunk without any bottoms ten years ; and, if purchased from foreigners, the in them, by which the upward resistance of the water expence would be enormous. 2. That the assem- acting on a base whose surface was equal to bling and employing the necessary number of sea- 17,678 square feet, would be avoided. The caissons men would be next to impossible, but, if possible, floated off by casks, attached to their inner and outer highly impolitic, when, just at the close of a mari- circumference, being towed to the spot where they time war, commerce felt a pressing want of their ser- were destined to be sunk, were then to be filled with vices ; whereas it might be practicable, and would be stones to the tops, and left for a while to settle; advantageous, to employ the military for some time after which the upper part, commencing with the’ before disbanding them. 3. That no comparison line of low water, was to be built with masonry laid would hold good between the roadstead of Cher- in pozzolana, and encased with stones of granite. bourg with an opening to the sea of 5600 toises, and This plan ct a stone dike or Breakwater being VOL. II. partji.
449 Breakwater.
450 Breakwater,
B II E A K AV A T E R. laid in detail before the Minister of Marine, it was vessels, which were to be employed in transporting Breakwater. deemed proper, on a subject so entirely novel, and of the stones from thence by sea. On the 6th June 1784, the first cone was floated ' such great national importance, to consult the ablest men in France, before any steps should be taken for off and sunk, and the second on the 7th July followcarrying it into execution, dhe details weie ac- ing, in presence of 10,000 spectators, assembled on cordingly submitted to the four commissioners, M. the shores and quays of Cherbourg ; but before the de Borda, a naval officer and Member of the Acade- cavity of the latter could be filled with stones, a my of Sciences ; M. de Fleurieu, Capitaine de Vais- storm, in the month of August, which continued seau, and Director of Ports and Naval Arsenals, five days, entirely demolished the upper part of this afterwards Minister of Marine ; M. Peronnet, Mem- cone. In the course of this summer the quantity of ber of the Academy of Sciences, Chief Engineer of stones sunk within the cavities of the two cones, Bridges and Embankments ; and M. de Chezy, In- outside their bases, and in the intermediate space, spector and Director of the School of Engineers. amounted to 4600 cubic toises, or about 65,000 tons. In 1785, three more cones were completed and They recommended that, in the first instance, an experimental cone should be constructed, and float- sunk at irregular intervals ; and, at the end of that ed olf. Instead, however, of 60 feet in height, the year, the quantity sunk amounted to 17,767 cubic cone made at Havre was only 36 feet; the circum- toises, or about 250,000 tons. In 1786, five addiference of its base 472 feet, and having a slope of 60 tional cones were completed and sunk ; one of them degrees; the upper circumference was 339 feet« in presence of the King; and the quantity of stones Within the exterior cone, and at the distance of 5 thrown within them, and deposited on the dike confeet 10 inches from it, was an interior and concentric necting the cones, amounted, at the end of this year, cone, bound together by beams of wood, pointing to to 42,862 cubic toises, or 600,000 tons. In 1787, the common centre, each being the section of tlm five more cones were sunk and filled with stones, radius. The frame of each cone was composed of making, in the whole, fifteen ; and the distance be80 large upright beams, 24 feet long and 1 foot tween the first and fifteenth cone was 1208 toises, square. On these were erected 80 more, of 14 feet and the quantity of stones deposited within these in length, making in the whole 320 of these large cones and the connecting dike, at the end of this uprights ; the machine was then planked, hooped, year, amounted to 71,585 cubic toises, or more than 1,000,000 tons. The violent gales of wind that were and firmly fixed together with iron bolts. frequent in November and December, carried away The cone at Havre being completed, the next operation was to tow it off to the particulai spot all the upper parts of the five cones which were where it was to be sunk. Being open at the bottom, sunk this year. In 1788, three more were sunk, but it was found necessary to attach to the lower circum- the upper parts of the first two were carried away ference 284 large casks, part to the exterior and part as the others had been; the height of the third was, to the interior ■ cone ; besides 50 casks, attached by therefore, reduced, so as to be, when sunk, on a lines of equal lengths, from the bottom of the inner level with low water; but this cone was upset and circle, to float towards the centre, and thus assist in soon went to pieces. The enormous expence, and the delay that had keeping it upright and steady. It was easy enough, been occasioned in completing and sink ng these by these means, to float off a vessel of this kind. M. eighteen cones, exhausted the patience of the Governde Cessart observes, that the force of 7200 pounds produced by a capstan, was found sufficient to draw ment, so that, in the following year, 1789, d caused it on the water, to a distance equal to the length of the three cones, then on the building slips, to be its own diameter, or about 25 toises, in two minutes. sold for whatever they would fetch. The total quantity of stone that was sunk within « The success of the experiment made at Havre,” cones, and on the intermediate dike, from the says M. Curt, “ had inspired such veneration for the the year to the end of December 1790, being conical caissons, that those persons who had been seven 1784 years, amounted to 373,359 cubic toises, oi most disposed to object to the plan, were now oblig- about 5,300,000 tons. ed to be silent.” The result of the experiment at These 18 cones being sunk at irregular distances once decided the Government to commence opera- from each other, some being 25 toises, and others tions at Cherbourg. M. de Cessart was appointed at 300 toises from centre to centre, occupied, a line director of the works, with four Engineers to assist 1950 toises in length. The distance of the first him. A permanent council, consisting of Command- of cone from the Island Pelee, on the east, was 510, ers in Chief, Directors, Engineers, &c. was ordered and of the eighteenth to Fort Querqueville on the to reside, for six summer months, at Cherbourg*- and west 1200 toises; so that the whole entrance or the other six in Paris; and a considerable body of opening of the roadstead of Cherbourg was originaltroops were marched down to the neighbourhood, to ly 3660 toises, more than one-half of which was now furnish a competent number of artificers and laooin- imperfectly covered by the breakwater. ers, to be employed on this great national undertaking. The expenqe of this great undertaking was not, In 1783, the buildings were commenced for lodgwe accurately known, and could not, probaing the principal officers of the civil and militaiy de- bly,suspect, be ascertained. de Cessart estimates the partments, and their respective establishments; a eighteen cones alone, M. at 6,231,407 livres, or about naval yard marked out and inclosed,—roads or com- L. 260,000; and the total expence incurred between munication opened with the forts,—and at Becquet, the 1st April 1783 and the 1st January 179G he about a league to the eastward of Cherbourg, a small states as under: harbour was dug out for the reception of about 80
B R E A K W A T E R. Breakwater.
Livres. The value of the materials of the cones 2,462,369 9 6 The value of the workmanship 1,560,560 9 9 The conveyance and sinking of stones 14,880,074 2 5 Incidental expences for buildings, magazines, &c. 2,359,48.9 5 0 Contingent expences 395,926 13 4 Making the general total 21,658,420 0 0 or L.900,000 Sterling. In this estimate the extra pay to the troops and seamen employed, would not appear to be included ; for M. de Curt, in his report to the National Assembly, states the total expence to have amounted to 32,000,000 livres, or L. 1,300,000 Sterling; and that a farther sum would be required of 879,648 livres, to bring the top of the dike to an uniform height, namely, a little above the level of the surface, at low water, of ordinary tides. The number of people employed was prodigious. To enable M. de Cessart to complete and sink five cones a-year, he found it necessary to employ 250 carpenters, 30 blacksmiths, 200 stone-hewers, and 200 masons,—in all 680 artificers. The number of quarrymen, and others, employed in transporting 174,720 cubic toises of stone For the 64 cones originally intended, or 13,650 yearly, was estimated at 400 workmen, 100 horses, 30 drivers, 24 chassesmarees, each carrying seven cubic toises, or about 98 tons, with 100 seamen; making an aggregate, for this service, of 526 men, and for the whole operation from 1200 to 1500 artificers and labourers, to which were actually superadded about 3000 soldiers. A very considerable part of the expence might have been saved by dispensing altogether with the cones, all of which burst, as might have been expected from the superincumbent weight of a deep column of water, pressing the stones within against their sides. The 9th cone, which was sunk in 1786, went to pieces in 1800, after standing fourteen years; another reached the duration of five years; six remained on an average about four years ; and all the rest went in pieces within a year from the time of their being sunk. The failure of the cones, and the breaking out of the Revolution, put an entire stop, for some time, to all operations at Cherbourg. The attention, however, of the National Assembly was speedily called to what they considered to be an object of great national importance. In 1791 they directed their Committee for the Marine to make out a detailed report of the operations that had already been carried on. On this report being given in by M. de Curt, in the name of the Committee, it was read and approved by the Assembly, and funds to a certain extent decreed, to complete the undertaking on a new plan proposed by M. de Cessart. The principal feature of this plan was that of casing over the surface of the dike as it then stood with large blocks of stone; and to carry the height of the breakwater along the whole of its extent, so far above the high water mark of spring-tides, as to render it capable of receiving batteries on the summit, at the middle, and at the two extremities.
451 The slope of the side next to the roadstead was Breakfound on examination to sustain itself unaltered at water. an angle of 45 degrees, but the slope on the side next to the sea, whose base was three for one of height, had given way to the depth of fourteen feet below the low water mark ; and the materials being composed of small stones, were washed away, and had formed themselves into a prolonged slope of one foot only in height for ten feet of base, which was therefore concluded to be the natural slope made ■by the sea when acting upon a shingly shore; a conclusion, however, too vague to be correct, as the slope occasioned by the action of the sea must depend on the nature of the materials against which it acts, and the force and direction of the acting power. A sandy beach, for instance, has invariably the most gradual slope, gravel the next, shingles the next, and large masses of rock or stone, the most precipitous. At the present time, the stones of the breakwater, by constant friction, have worn away the sharp angles, and it has been found that the base on the side next to the sea is on the average fully eleven for one of perpendicular height. It was proposed, therefore, to cover the side with a coating of stone 12 feet thick, to consist of blocks of 12, 15, 20, and 30 cubic feet, or from one to two tons each, which casing was to be carried to the height of 12 feet above the high water mark of the highest spring-tides; the size of the stones to increase towards the summit, so as to be capable of resisting the percussion of the waves, which is there the strongest. It was calculated that this covering of 12 feet thick on both sides would require for each toise in length 70 cubic toises of stone, and that the whole length of the dike would consequently require 136,500 cubic toises, which, by deducting for the vacant spaces between the stones, would be reduced to 113,750 cubic toises of stone, or about one million and a half of tons. It was farther calculated, that the expence of quarrying, the transport ' to the qua}fs, the loading, conveyance, discharging machinery, together with the commissioners, clerks, &c. would cost for each cubic toise deposited on the dike the sum of 55 livres, which for 113,750 cubic toises, would amount to 6,256,250 livres, and, adding for contingencies 600,000 livres, the total estimate amounted to 6,856,250 livres. The machinery employed for thus casing the breakwater may be seen in Plate XXXVII., in which, Fig. 1. Represents a section of a lighter on which it is erected, AZX is an elevated deck or platform. Y, three rollers of six inches diameter. TK, two beams or sheers, moving on trunnions in grooves at T. S, hooks to hold the sheers at the proper angle of inclination. L, the axle of the windlass or wheels B, round which the rope of the pullies passes. The wheels are 12 feet in diameter. Fig. 2. A chasse-maree laden with blocks of stone. E, the block and its hook laying hold of an iron chain round a stone. F, the stone hoisted to the platform AZ. (fig. 1.) when the brace is unhooked at S; the hoisting con-
452 Breakwater.
BREA K W A T E R. tinned until the summit K of the sheers is brought more valuable, as a convenient port of retreat in case BrealU of accident; but it had no dock-yard, nor means of "aterto w]ien they rest against the frame which supports the windlass; the stone F is then lowered upon giving to a ship a large refit or repair. He might have the rollers as at M, from whence it is pushed for- thought too, as we believe most of our naval officers ward by men to the inclined plane, oh which it is do, that a fleet of ships, riding at anchor behind the breakwater, are easily attackable by fire-ships, as the rolled into the water upon the side of the dike. It was calculated that, by employing a certain same wind which carries a vessel in at one entrance number of these machines, 34,090 toises might be will carry her out at the other, and the course would deposited in one year, reckoning only six working lie directly through the centre of the fleet at anchor. months, or 5682 toises per month, or that 487 su- Besides, it might be possible, in certain winds, under perficial toises of the dike might be covered in one sea- the lee of the centre part of the breakwater, to bomson, and the whole completed in four years. Very little bard a fleet at anchor in the roadstead within it. He determined, therefore, to establish a large progress, however, had been made at the commencement of the war in 1803. At that period the centre ot dock-yard at Cherbourg, not merely for repairing, the dike only had been brought above the high water but also for the construction of the largest class of mark, in which was placed a battery and a small garri- ships of war; to dig a basin that should contain 50 son of soldiers, the whole of which were swept away or 60 sail of the line; to construct dry-docks and by a heavy sea, occasioned by a tremendous gale of slips for building and repairing, and to make it a wind in the year 1809, when all the buildings which naval port of the first rank. In 1813, this basin was had been erected on this part ofthe breakwater, the completed at an expence, as Bonaparte is said to have men, women, and children which composed the gar- asserted when on board the Northumberland, and rison, together with several workmen, were washed which has since been confirmed, of L. 3,000,000 Steraway; at the same time, two sloops of war in the ling. A wet-dock of the same magnitude, commuroadstead were driven on shore, and dashed in pieces. nicating with it, was then commenced, and is now in This disaster was such as might have been expected. progress. The only description that we have been able to The effect of sinking large stones upon the small ones, already rounded by constant attrition, could find in print of this great work, which took ten years not be otherwise ; the latter acting as so many rol- in carrying into execution, is contained in a short lers, carried out the former even beyond the extre- letter from M. Pierre-Aime Lair, Secretary to the mity of the base, to which the breakwater had natu- Society of Agriculture and Commerce of Caen, who was present at the ceremony of opening and conserally been brought by the action of the sea. At present small spots only are visible above the crating the great basin, in presence of the Empress surface of the sea at low water of spring-tides, and Maria Louisa, the 27th August 1813. He describes no where such spots exceed three feet in height; the this basin to be excavated out of a rock of granite intermediate spaces are from 3 to 15 feet below’ the schist, or gneis, the density and hardness of which surface; and, taking the average, the whole dike, increased as the workmen descended from the surfrom one end to the other, may be about four feet face. He compares it to an immense trough dug below the surface of low water at the spring-tides. out of a single stone, and capable of containing many Near the middle, however, there is about 100 yards millions of cubic feet of water. We now know, howwhere the height rises to 18 or 20 feet above high ever, that Mr Lair is mistaken; that it is not one water, but it exhibits only a shapeless mass of ruins. mass of rock, but rock and gravel mixed; that In one spot a large heap of stones has been accumu- the whole of the sides are cased with a well conlated, as if to try how much weight might safely be structed wall of red granite; and that a noble quay, trusted upon it, before the attempt be made to re- built of the same material, and extending between build the fort. The largest of the stones in this mass the two forts of Galet and Hornet, separates the bamay be about four tons, and they descend to the sin and wet-dock from the sea. The dimensions of the new basin he states to be size of 200 or 300 pounds. Of the remainder of the dike, very few parts are about 900 feet in length by 720 in width, and the visible at low water; and, at this moment, the great- average depth 55 feet from the edge of the quay ’r er part is four feet below the surface of low water; and as this edge is five feet above the high water it is sufficiently high, however, to break the force of mark of the equinoctial spring-tides, the depth of the waves, and to make the portof Cherbourg a sate an- water in the basin is then 50 feet, and the mass of water, after making allowance for a slope of the solid chorage in some winds for about 40 sail of the line. sides inward in an angle of 45° from the height of On the renewal of the war, after the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, Bonaparte began to bestow a about 25 feet, amounts to about 30 millions of cubic greater share of attention on the navy of France ; and feet; and that it is calculated to contain about 30though, for a time, the unparalleled victory of dra- sail of the line. We have reason to think that it is falgar checked his efforts, it did not induce him to considerably larger; about 1000 feet by 770 feet, and abandon them. His plans were vast, and, at the pe- consequently contains a surface of about 18 acres, riod of his fall, were in rapid progress towards their which, at three per acre, will contain 54 sail of the completion. He had determined on a fleet of 200 line, and the adjoining wet-dock, when finished, an sail of the line, and the noble port of Antwerp equal number. The latter is at this time about twogave him every facility for ship-building. For the thirds completed, and from 300 to 400 men are embetter security in forming a junction of his two great ployed in blasting the rock and building granite walls. fleets of Brest and Antwerp, Cherbourg now became The dike or breakwater seems to be abandoned; the
BREA K water. 453 works having long been stopped, and the stone ves- without the dockyard, nearly ready for launching, BreakJr-iUt-Ti_ se^s? SoinS rapidly to decay. The French officers Le Zelandais of 80, the first line of battle ship laid water, sa3 , indeed, that it has occasioned the roadstead to down at Cherbourg, and the Duguay-Trouin of 74 become shallower, by the deposition of sand that has guns; and in the roadstead were Le Polonais and taken place. Le Courageux. In the centre of the same side of The entrance canal leading from the outer har- the basin, with twro slips on each side of it, a noble bour into the basin is at right angles to the latter, and dry-dock was cut out (or built rather) of solid graits direction ENE. Its dimensions are as under: nite, in which ships of the largest class might be Feet In. built or repaired. Its dimensions were, Width between the two moles in the direcFeet. In. tion of their axis, 196 8 Length, 230 Width at its opening into the basin, 308 8 Width, .74 Length from the axis of the moles or piers Depth, 26 6 to the line of wall forming the side of the basin, 274 0 Thus the ships built on the four slips may be launched into the basin, and at once docked out of it. The basin, having no gates, is said to be excavatBut few store-houses, or other buildings necessary ed to the depth of nine feet below the bottom of the for a naval establishment, are yet erected ; but there canal, the former having, as before mentioned, 50 feet is an ample space laid out for every purpose that can water, and the latter only 41 at high spring-tides, be required to make Cherbourg one of the first nawhich, as they ebb 20 feet, would leave only 21 feet val arsenals in Europe; and a narrow canal, between in the passage or canal at low water. This inequali- the walls of Fort du Hornet and the wall of the wetty, we presume, is intended to keep the ships afloat dock, leads to a most convenient space for mastin the basin at low water, when the depth in the ponds and mast-houses. canal is not sufficient for that purpose; but after so The fortifications for the protection of the anmuch expence incurred in digging the basin, one chorage in the roadstead, and the new naval arsenal, would suppose a little more might have been ex- are, 1. Querqueville. 2. Fort du Hornet. 3. Fort pended in digging the canal to the same depth, so du Galet. 4. Fort Royal, on Isle Peiee. Fort as to let ships pass into and out of the basin in all Royal, and Fort du Hornet, have circular faces tostates of the tide; an advantage of the utmost im- wards the sea, with each two tiers of guns, and turportance for speedily securing their ships in the rets above them ; the former mounts about 80 guns, basin, when in danger of an attack from the enemy the latter 65, and Querqueville about 30 guns. in the roadstead, or of speedily putting to sea and The principal channel from the road to the sea is escaping the vigilance of a blockading squadron. at the western end of the breakwater, which, for No reason is assigned for leaving the basin without large ships, is not more than half a mile in width ; gates; but we suspect that Mr Lair is again mis- and this want of space will always make it difficult taken, and that the passage has depth of water suf- for ships of the line to work out; but, on the other ficient for ships of the largest class to run into the hand, a fleet may push out to the westward in southbasin at all times of the tide. But even here they erly winds, which lock up the English ports in the do not lie in safety ; for the wide entrance facing the Channel. NE. is covered only in that direction by the Isle The eastern channel is a very indifferent one; and, Peiee, so that the water in the basin partakes of the from the position of the Isle Peiee and the main, is swell in the road, which is sometimes so great as to likely to become worse, from the accumulation ’ of make it necessary to apply 10 or 12 cables to hold sand, which the French officers say is actually the case. ships steady in the basin. Such, as are here de>scribed, were the mighty preAnother serious inconvenience is likely to arise from parations of that extraordinary man for the destructhis particular construction of the basin. Whatever tion of the naval power of Great Britain, and, with silt or mud is carried in by the tides must be depo- it, of the national glory, pride, and prosperity; which, sited there, and cannot possibly escape. The quan- whether elated with success, or depressed "by revertity is probably not very great in the water of the ses, he never attempted to conceal as being the Channel opposite to Cherbourg, but, higher up, to- object nearest to his heartland he had sufficient wards Ostend, it is very considerable. When we cause for his hatred, well knowing that it was Engtook possession of that port, it was found that, in land, and England’s navy, that opposed the only obthe course of the Revolutionary war, the harbour, stacle between him and the subjugation of the world by neglect, was filled up with six or seven feet of to his dominion. mud. To give the greater eclat to this grand undertakSeveral pieces of cannon are intended to be mount- ing, he sent the ex-Empress Maria Louisa to be preed on the two piers, to protect the entrance into the sent at the opening of the basin. When the time basin. On one of them is likewise placed a light- arrived for the water to be let in, and the dam broken house, and on the other a Semaphoric telegraph. down, her approach was announced by flourishes of Four slips of granite, for building large ships, were warlike music and numerous discharges of artillery. at this time constructed on ther southern side of the “ Cries of joy,” says M. Lair, “ were mingled for'a basin; and on each of them w as a ship of the line long time with the thunder of the batteries. Her in progress, LTnflexible of 118 guns, Le Centaure Majesty took her place in the pavilion which had of 80, Le Jupiter and Le Genereux of 74 guns been prepared for her, when the Bishop of Contaneach. Two other ships of the line were on the stocks ces, surrounded by his clergy, advancing towards IVrak-
BREAKWATER A54 Break- her, pronounced an address suitable to the occasion. other ports, there being none at Torbay ;—in short, Breakwater. After the ceremonies and customary prayers, he turn- this open and exposed bay bore so bad a character water, ed round towards the basin, and blessed this work of among naval officers, that Lord Howe used to say, man. It is delightful to see a nation consecrating it would one day be the grave of the British fleet. It is, besides, an object of the first importance to by religious rites an event so memorable, and causing the divinity to intervene in all its grand undertak- the efficiency of every naval arsenal, to have a safe ings.” He speaks witli rapture on the gratification and commodious roadstead in its neighbourhood, like he3derived from seeing men born on the shores of that of Spithead to the harbour and dock-yard of the Tiber, and on the banks of the Guadalquivcr, Portsmouth. Here those ships which may have gone working under the direction of French engineers, at through a course of repair or refitment, or those new the establishment of a port in the channel, formida- from the stocks, may assemble and complete their ble to the English navy ; and suffers no expression of final equipment for sea; and here, also, ships returnregret to escape him at the idea of these poor Italian ing from sea may safely lie at their anchors, till the and Spanish prisoners of war being compelled to la- wind and tide may serve them to go into harbour. But, bour in chains at a work, for which they were neither in Plymouth Sound, ships coming out of Hamoaze, paid, nor in which they could take the least possible or ships going into that harbour, had no such security : by the rolling sea that set in, they were exposed interest. to the double danger of parting their cables, or strikBreakBreakwater in Plymouth Sound, is a work of ing against the hard and rocky bottom, either of water in a similar nature to that of Cherbourg, but constructed Plymouth on souncler principles, with less machinery, and fewer which would be almost certain destruction. Sound. people. Compared in extent and dimensions with It was most important, therefore, to render Ply- its History, that of Cherbourg, it is only in the ratio of about one mouth Sound, if possible, by any means, and almost at any expence, a safe roadstead for ships of war. To asto four. There is no port and harbour on the south-west certain the practicability’of this measure, Mr Rennie, coast of England possessing so many advantages as the Civil Engineer, and Mr Whidby, the Master AtPlymouth, none so well situated for assembling and tendant of Woolwich Dock-yard, were sent down by equipping a fleet to watch the movements of the ene- Lord Howick, at the suggestion, we believe, of Lord my in the harbour of Brest. Its dock-yard may be St Vincent (Earl Grey), in the year 1806, with direcconsidered as the second in the kingdom in point of tions to examine and report, whether by any, and by size, convenience, and effective strength; the margin^ what means, a sufficient shelter might be given to inof which stretches along the magnificent harbour ot sure a safe anchorage for a fleet of ships of the line. Hamoaze, a noble expanse of water, nearly land-lock- The report was favourable ; and several plans were ofed, of a capacity sufficient for mooring safely a hun- fered for sheltering this sound, so as to render it cadred sail of the line in excellent anchoring-ground, pable of containing in safety at their anchors, above and in water that carries its depth to the very quays 50 sail of the line. Nothing, however, was done or atof the yard. On the opposite or eastern side of the tempted, notwithstanding all the increased and mighty Sound, and at the distance of about three miles from preparations of the enemy, till Mr Yorke presided at Hamoaze and the dock-yard, is another sheet of wa- the Board of Admiralty; when one of his first meater, called Catwater, not quite so deep, nor so well sures was to carry into execution this grand and imsheltered as Hamoaze; but, since the progress made portant national object,—the most important that, in the Breakwater, forming a safe and commodious perhaps, was ever undertaken for the glory and the harbour for merchant vessels of every description. safety of the British navy. The delay that took These two harbours open into Plymouth Sound and place can only be explained by the frequent changes Cawsand Bay, in which ships employed in the block- of the Board of Admiralty, which, we believe, have ade of Brest, or those refitted in Hamoaze, have been been Altai to many important measures for the beneaccustomed to assemble and prepare for putting to fit and advantage of this great bulwark of the nation. sea. But the very exposed situation of Plymouth * Of the plans proposed for sheltering the sound, Sound, and the heavy swell that almost constantly one was to throw a pier from Staddon point to the rolled in, especially when the wind blew fresh from Panther rock, of 2650 yards in length ; another, to the south-west to the south-east, made it so inconve- construct a pier from Andurn point to the Panther, nient and so unsafe an anchorage for ships of the of 2900 yards ; and a third, to carry a pier from the § line, that, of late years, the fleet employed in block- same point to the Shovel rock, being only 900 yards. The objection that was urged against throwing ading Brest, has been in the practice ot beating up, when driven from its station, tor the more distant an- out piers from either of these points, and abutting chorage of Torbay, though little better with regard against the shore, was principally grounded on the to security, and, worse in every other respect, than certain effect they would have of changing the curPlymouth Sound. It is, for instance, a more, ineli- rent of the flux and reflux of the tide to the oppoo-ible rendezvous for the w’estern squadron, in the site side of the sound ; and of increasing its strength chance of the fleet being caught there by an easter- and velocity on that side, while it left all calm on ly wind, and unable to get out, when it is the most the other ; the inevitable consequence of which would favourable wind for the enemy to put to sea; in the be, a deposition of mud or silt in the calm part or danger to which the ships are liable when so caught eddv, which, in process of time, would shallow the at an anchorage, so open and exposed ; in the incon- water, already not too deep, to such a degree as to venience, the delay, and the expence of obtaining the unfit it for the reception of large ships of war. Besides, of the three passages for large ships into necessary supply of stores and provisions from the
B R E A K W A T E R. 45,5 Break- Plymouth Sound from the sea, the two best are and the summit 10 yards, at the height of 10 feet Brrakwater. those on the two sides ; the worst was that in the above the low water of an ordinary spring-tide; that watei. middle. Either of the plans, therefore, which pro- is, the dimensions of the Breakwater, in those places, posed piers to he thrown from the mainland, must should be 40 feet high, 30 feet across the top, and have destroyed one of the best passages, and left the 210 feet wide at the foundation. worst open, which was nearest to the anchorage beThe surrounding shores of Plymouth Sound and hind the proposed pier. The middle passage might, Catwater were next examined, with a view to deterin fact, be almost considered as shut up against very mine from what quarter materials for this great unlarge ships by the St Carlos and the Shovel rocks; dertaking could most conveniently be obtained, as whereas, if this middle passage should be shut up al- to quality, cheapness, and celerity of conveyance. together, it would rather serve to deepen, by giving On the west or Cornish side of the sound, nothing an increased velocity to the tide, which would scour appears but hard granite; at the head of the sound out the bottom, than to shallow, the two side pas- and in Catwater, on the Devonshire side, all is marsages. ble and limestone. In Catwater alone, it was estiOn these considerations, Messrs Rennie and Whid- mated, on a rough calculation, that 20 millions of by proposed, that an insulated pier or Breakwater tons might be procured in blocks fit for the work, should be thrown across the middle of the entrance which was about ten times the quantity that would into the sound, having its eastern extremity about probably be wanted. The time required for the 60 fathoms to the eastward of St Carlos rock, and completion of the work, would depend on a variety its western end about 300 fathoms west of the Sho- of circumstances. It is obvious that, if the two sides vel, the whole length being about 1700 yards, or of the sound had furnished proper materials for the close upon a mile; stating, with confidence, that such purpose, the time would considerably have been a Breakwater might, with every chance of success in abridged, as, in that case, when the wind was easterits favour, be constructed; and that it would give ly, vessels might deposit stones on the eastern end shelter to ships in the sound, without any danger of of the Breakwater, and in westerly winds, on the lessening the depth of water. western extremity, and the work would thus be proThe middle part of the Breakwater was proposed ceeding with an uninterrupted progress; whereas, if to be carried in a straight line for the length of 1000 the stone was to be brought from one point, and that yards ; but they recommended that the length of point on the shore of Catwater, a strong southerly 350 yards at each end should have an inclination to- and south-westerly wind, those most prevalent in this wards the straight part, in an angle of about 120°. country in the winter months, would generally imSee the figure, Plate XXXVIII. These inclined pede and frequently render it impossible for vessels ends would not only give shelter to a greater extent of to go off with their cargoes. the sound, but would, in a greater degree, prevent Catwater, however, having many advantages, and the rushing in of the tide from agitating the water especially for the convenience of loading the vessels, at the anchorage, than if the two extremities were and the facility of procuring blocks from the quarleft in the same straight line, and at right angles ries of any size, was considered, on the whole, as enwith the direction of the current into the sound. titled to the preference over any other place. BeIt vras also proposed, in order to cover the sound sides the quarries here being in the neighbourhood more effectually, that a pier should be thrown from of villages, lodgings and conveniences would be afAndurn point towards the principal Breakwater, of forded for the workmen; and, on the whole, it was about 800 yards in length, with the same inclined calculated that the work might be completed from point of 120° as the head of the Breakwater. This hence at a cheaper rate, and perhaps in less time, pier, however, does not appear to have been thought than from situations much nearer to it, but much necessary, and might have been in some respect in- more exposed to the wind and waves. jurious to the sound. It might, however, have made An estimate of the expence could not be made Bouvisand Bay a good anchorage for frigates and with any degree of accuracy, as no correct section of smaller vessels, and given them the advantage of a the bottom had been taken. $l-PP0S1‘ng’ however, the fine stream of fresh water, which falls into that bay. great Breakwater to be 1700 yards in length, 30 feet It was recommended, as the most practicable and in width at the top, when carried 10 feet above low best mode of constructing this great work, to heap water of spring-tides, with a slope on the southern together promiscuously large blocks of stone, which or sea side, of three horizontal to one perpendicular, were to be sunk in the line of the intended Break- and, on the sound or land side of one and a half howater, leaving them to find their own base, and take rizontal to one perpendicular, it was calculated that their own position; and it was conceived that stones the whole mass of stone required, would be about of the weight of one and a half to two tons each two millions of tons. If then 100 sail of vessels of would be sufficiently large to keep their places, with- 50 tons burthen each were employed in carrying out being rolled about by the tremendous swell which, stone, and that each vessel was to carry only 100 in stormy weather, is thrown into Plymouth Sound, tons a week, the quantity deposited in one week, and thus avoid the inconvenience and loss of time would amount to 10,000 tons, or say 500,000 tons a and labour which the French experienced at Cher- year; and, at this rate, the Breakwater would be bourg, by throwing down small rubble stones. It completed in four years; but making allowance for was thought, that, in those places where the water time lost in preparations, contingent delays and unw'as 5 fathoms or 30 feet deep, the base of the favourable weather, and deductions in the quantity Breakwater should not be less than 70 yards broad, of stone for the shallow parts over which the line of
T BREAK 456 Break- the breakwater was carried, the completion of the water, Work might safely be calculated within the period of six years. Nor would the building of the pier from Andurn point, if so determined, increase the time of completion. If carried from the shelving rocks within the point, leaving a passage between them, the pier would require about 360,000 tons of stone, which, by employing about 30 vessels, might be deposited in three years. It was recommended by the gentlemen above mentioned, that the great Breakwater should be begun on the Shovel and extended on both sides of it, as, by so doing, the effect produced on the sound would be observed as the work proceeded; and that buoys should be placed along the line, so that the whole of the vessels employed might, if' necessary, deposit their cargoes at the same time without interrupting each other. The rough estimate for completing this great national work, made nn the grounds above stated, was as follows: Estimate of the Probable Expence of a BreaJavater and Pier for the Sheltering of Plymouth Sound and Bouvisand Bay. 2,000,000 tons of limestone, in blocks, from 17*- to 2 tons weight each, for the .great breakwater, at 7s- 6d. per ton, L.750,000 0 0 360,000 tons in the pier, proposed to be built from Andurn point, at 7s. 126,000 0 0 Contingencies, say at 20 per cent, on the whole, 175,200 0 0 Total for the Great Breakwater, L.l,051,200 0 0 Estimate of the Probable 'Expence of a Cut-Stone Pier and Two Light-houses to be built on the top cf the Great Breakwater. 42,000 cubic yards of masonry, in the out and inside walls of the pier, at 27s. 62,000 cubic yards of rubble filling between the out and inside walls, at 6s. Paving the top of the pier with large blocks of stone, 8500 square yards, Two light-houses, with reflectors, and argand lamps, Contingencies 20 per cent. Breakwater,
L.44,700 0
0
A 8,600 0 0 22,950
0 0
5,000 0 0 28,650 0 0 L.l 19,900 0 0 1,051,200 0 0
Total Estimate of completing the works, L.l,l71>100 0
0
It was not before the opinions of the best Engineers, men of science, and naval officers eminent in their profession, had been collected, compared,
W A T E R. and seriously considered, that Mr Yorke determined Breakto carry into execution this great undertaking. The watrT. principal objection started against it was that it might cause the anchorage in the Sound to be destroyed in the course of time by the deposition of mud and silt along the whole eddy within it. There does not, however, appear to be any solid ground for this objection. The water brought by the tides from the sea is at all times perfectly clear and transparent, and that which proceeds from Hamoaze and supplied by the Tamar and the Tavy, is almost wholly free from any alluvial matter, these rivers holding their course through a fine granite soil. The fact is sufficiently proved by the circumstance of no deposition taking place in the recesses of Hamoaze along the dock-yard wall, which lead into the docks, nor in the numerous eddies that are caused by the projecting jetties and salient angles of that wall. Another objection started against the undertaking was. that, by the diminished quantity of water thrown in by the tide into Hamoaze and Catwater, the Sound would gradually till up and these harbours be destroyed. No perceptible alteration, however, has as yet taken place in the height oflthe water in Hamoaze, or in the strength or set of the tides. A rock of limestone, or rather gray marble, si-Commencetuated at Oreston, on the eastern shore of Cat-”“oni^ot tliS water, consisting of a surface of 25 acres, was purchased from the Duke of Bedford for the sum of L.10,000; quays for shipping the stone were erected in front of it; iron railways leading from the quarries to the quays were laid down; ships were hired by contract to carry off the stone, and others built at the dock-yard. Mr Whidby was appointed to superintend the work. The quarries were opened on the 7th August 1812; the first stone deposited on the 12th of the same month; and, on the 31st March 1813, the breakwater made its first appearance above the surface of the Sound at low water of the spring-tide. The system of quarrying the stone is .conducted with admirable skill, and stones of the proper size obtained with less waste of small rubble than might be expected. In working these quarries an extraordinary phenomenon was discovered in the very body of the great mass of this old marble rock. At the depth of 65 feet from the summit of the rock, and 25 from the margin of the sea, a cavity, or rather a nodule of clay was discovered, of 25 feet long and 12 square, or thereabouts, in the midst of which were found several bones of the rhinoceros, in a more perfect state, and containing less animal matter in them, than any fossil bones that have yet been dug out of rock or earth. The vessels employed for carrying off the large Machine# blocks of stone, are of a peculiar construction, a-employed, dapted to convey with ease, masses of marble weighing from three to five tons each. These great blocks of marble are placed on trucks at the quarries, and run down from thence, on iron railways, to the quays, against which the vessels lie with their sterns. The two stern ports are made sufficiently large to receive the trucks with the stones upon them. Each truck is passed separately through the port-hole, on an inclined plane, and run to the forepart of the vessel, in the hold, on an iron railway. 7
B R E A K W A T E R. 457 by hinges. This moveable deck, when raised, as at Br^akBreak- The two sides of the hold of the vessel are calculatwater. ed each to contain eight of these loaded trucks, X, allows the stones to come out of the hold ; and, vvattrwhich, at five tons on each truck, gives 80 tons of when down, as at Y, serves to convey the empty stone for one cargo. The stones thus placed on the truck from the port to the deck, in order to make trucks remain till the vessel arrives at the point in room for another stone. D Is a common windlass for heaving the trucks the line of the Breakwater where they are to be deposited. By means of a crane on the deck of the out of the hold up the inclined plane B. C The hinges of the typing-frame. vessel, the two trucks nearest to the two stern ports Ten vessels of this construction, for carrying large are then drawn up the inclined plane, and run upon a frame on moveable hirfges, called the typing-frame; masses of stone, built in the King’s Yards, and fortyby the falling of this frame, in the manner of a trap- three hired by contract, averaging about fifty tons door, the stone or stones are discharged from the each, are employed in conveying stones from the trucks on the slope of the Breakwater; but the typ- quarries. The contractors’ vessels are not of the ing-frame remains, by means of a catch, in the posi- same construction as those in the immediate employ tion in which it is left at the moment of discharging of government; they carry stones of less weight, the stones, until the empty truck is pulled up by the which are hoisted out of the hold by a chain and crane to the after-part of the deck, from whence it windlass, and thrown overboard. A load of fifty is run forward to make room for the second pair of tons is discharged from one of these vessels in about loaded trucks in the hold. The catch being now three hours. By all these vessels, the quantity of disengaged, the typing-frame returns to its former stone deposited in 1812 was 16,045 tons ; in 1813 position, ready to receive the next pair of loaded 71,198 tons; in 1814, 239,480 tons; in 1815 trucks, and so on till the whole sixteen have been 264,207 ; and in 1816 up to 12th August, 206,033 discharged, and the light trucks run upon the deck tons ; at which time, the total quantity of stone sunk, of the vessel, ready to be run out at the quay, and amounted to 896,963 tons; and at the conclusion of from thence to the quarries, to take in fresh loads of the year to upwards of 1,000,000 tons. Of this quantity, the proportions of the different stone. In this manner a cargo of 80 tons may be discharged in the space of 40 or 50 minutes. The sizes of the blocks deposited are nearly as folvessels are placed in the proper places for deposit- lows : ing the stones by means of buoys, and the exact line of the Breakwater is preserved, by observing Tons. Of one ton each stone and under 423,904 lights or staves placed at a distance on the shore. — one to three tons each 309,706 150,593 The following description, referring to Plate — three to five tons each 12,760 XXXIX., will convey an accurate idea of these excel- — five tons and upwards lent vessels for the purpose they were constructed. The original contract price for quarrying the Fig. 1. Shows the stern of the vessel, in the act of depositing the stones. The runner R being hooked stone was 2s. 9d. per ton, and the original contract to the fore-part of the truck, raises it up, and by that price for conveying it to the Breakwater 2s. lOd. means tips the stone overboard. When the stone is ton, since which the former has been reduced to in the act of being drawn up out of the hold, on the 2s. 5d., and the latter to is. lOd. per ton. The cost inclined plane B (fig. 3.), the runner is hooked to of each ton of stone sunk in the Breakwater, includthe fore-part of the truck, and lashed down to the ing the building of quays, purchase of land, salaries, Ufter-end, over the stone, which prevents the latter and every other expence, according to the nearest from sliding off the truck, in its progress up the in- calculation that can be made, amounts to about clined plane. The empty trucks are, for the most 8s. l|d., which, upon the whole quantity deposited, part, lodged on the fore-part of the deck, and some gives the total sum expended up to 12th August 1816, equal to L. 364,000. And as the w^ork may placed on an edge against the side of the vessel. Fig. 2. Shows the stern of the vessel when loaded, be considered as more than half completed, it will be finished considerably within the original estimate, with the ports up, or closed. Fig. 3. A longitudinal or sheer-section of the ves- and, if parliament had thought fit to grant the sel, when loaded, with the trucks on one side of the money, within the time. The greatest quantity of stone sunk in any one hold and deck, showing the number which the vessel usually stows on each side. The stones being week was 15,379 tons; and the part of the Breakfrequently longer than the trucks, the number car- water, at the above mentioned date, above the level ried in the hold must be proportioned accordingly. of low water spring-tides, was in length 1100 yards. In bad weather it is unsafe to send many trucks on The length completely finished to the height of three deck ; and, in general, not more than four are sent feet above the level of the highest spring-tides, and into the Sound, in that way, at one time ; the a- thirty feet wide at top, w as at the samb time 360 mount of the cargoes, therefore, vary according to feet. The large stones of the upper part of the circumstances, from 40 to 65 tons; the largest Breakwater are deposited to any nicety by means of a vessel constructed for the purpose, having the stone hitherto deposited being about eight tons. r The after-part of the deck, under the tiller, is di- same sheer or slope at the bow w ith the side of the vided into two parts, length ways, and made to move work, so that by a projecting beam or mast, the largest up and down ; the fore-parts are secured to a beam stones can be taken out of the vessel, and placed on 3M VOL. II. PART II.
' BREAKWATER. the opposite side, or middle, or any other part of the six feet higher than the usual height of spring-tides. Break* breakwater. The Jasper sloop of war, and the Telegraph schoon- water, r phe small establishment, and the quick manner er, being anchored without the cover of the Breakwith which this great work has been carried on, water, were driven to the head of the Sound, and form a curious contrast with the multitudes employ- both lost; but a collier deeply laden, and under its ed on the Breakwater of Cherbourg, the time occu- cover, rode out the^ale. No damage was sustained pied by that undertaking, and the parade and osten- by any of the shipping in Catwater; but it was the general opinion, from former experience, that, if no tation with which it was conducted. The whole establishment for carrying on the Ply- Breakwater had existed, the whole of the ships therein must have been wrecked, and the storehouses and mouth Breakwater is as follows : magazines on the victualling premises, and most of the Persons. buildings on the margin of the sea, been entirely swept away. Till this tremendous gale, the Breakwater had A superintendent, with proper officers and clerks, to keep and control the accounts 10 not sustained the slightest damage from the heavy seas that, through the winter, had broken against it with Warrant officers and masters of the ten stone unusual violence, not a single stone having moved vessels in the immediate employ of the public " 21 from the place in which it was originally deposited; Seamen and boys to navigate these vessels 90 but after the hurricane above-mentioned, and the high tide which accompanied it, it was found that the Seamen employed in the superintendents’ vessels, the light vessel, boats’ crews, &c. 45 upper stratum of the finished part, extending about 200 yards, and 30 yards in width, had been displaced, Masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, sailmakers, and labourers, employed at Oreston 39 and the whole of the huge stones, from two to five tons in weight each, carried over and deposited on In the immediate pay of Government 205 the northern slope of the Breakwater. In no other Seamen employed in the contractors’ vessels 170 part could it be discovered that a single stone had been displaced. Quarrymen, labourers, &c. employed at OresThe want of a harbour, or any place of safety to Propriety ton by the contractors 300 which ships can resort in bad weather, or in distress, of a BreakTotal establishment 675 between the ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth, led p^"', to the suggestion of Portland Roads being convert- Koa(js. Beneficial The result of this great work has completely an- ed into a secure harbour by means of a Breakwater. Results of SWered the expectation of its warmest advocates, It was estimated that the construction of such a stone this Great The g00[1 effects of it were> indeed, very sensibly dike, extending from the north-east part of Portland felt at the end of the second year, when about 800 Island, about two miles and a quarter in length, coyards of the central part, where the water was shal- vering an anchorage of about four square miles, and lowest, were visible at low water spring-tides. The completely sheltering the pier, harbour, and bathing swell was then so much broken down and destroyed place of Weymouth, would require about four milat the head of the Sound, that the fishermen were lion tons of stone, five years to complete it, and an no longer able, as heretofore, to judge of the wea- expence of about six hundred thousand pounds Sterther outside the Sound ; and ships of all sizes, and, ling. The capstone alone, which covers the Portamong others, a large French three-decker, ran in land stone, and which, not being marketable, is not with confidence, and anchored behind the Break- only useless, but a great incumbrance, would be sufwater. Since that, near 200 sail of vessels of all de- ficient to complete this great undertaking; and the spriptions, driven in by tempestuous weather, have, at elevation of the quarries, being 300 feet above the one time, found safe shelter within this insulated level of the sea, would admit of the stone being sent mole, where a fleet of 25 to SO sail of the line may, down on rail-ways to the water side, without the aid at all times, find a secure and convenient anchorage, of either engines or horses ; and, on this account, with the additional advantage of having a stream of would be deposited at less than one fourth part of excellent water from a reservoir constructed above the expence which is incurred at the Plymouth Bouvisand Bay, capable of containing from ten to Breakwater. Such a secure anchorage in this situatwelve thousand tons, or a quantity sufficient to wa- tion, in which the largest fleets, either naval or merter 50 sail of the line. This water is brought down cantile, would ride at anchor in all winds, and the in iron pipes to Staddon Point, opposite to the an- most stormy weather, in perfect security, is not unchorage, where it is intended to build a jetty from worthy the consideration of the public; and, perwhich the water will descend through the pipes into haps, in the present increased state oi our populathe ships’ boats. The whole expence of this most tion, and the difficulty of finding employment for the useful appendage to the Breakwater is calculated at labouring poor, there can be no truer policy than that of carrying on great national works of public about L. 16,000. During the winter of 1816-7? the gales of wind utility, were it only for the sake of encouraging inwere more frequent and tremendous than had been dustry, instead of expending an equal, or probably a known for many years ; and, on the night of the 19th far greater sum, for the support of idleness and the January, such a hurricane came on as had not been encouragement of vice, in those parochial buildings, (k.) temembered by the oldest inhabitant. The tide rose too frequently miscalled tcor^-houses. 10
45S Break\v,t ter,
BREAKWATER.
PLATE XXXVII.
Erup'Oi'e/L }ryW^Arch£bal^Edin}niT^hy.
BREAKWATER
Plymouth Dock ^ Lirvcs
lymoutk Town p
Sult*>n
Mill
ool
Thins tone Point Raven s Poini Redden PT
ZiiSAiH’ffi Stud don Point Kuujsand Shovet'"Rocks
Tinker Point
of five Break tk k .
looFeet
Png f by WiAfchzbald EdznX
B R E B R E BRECONSHIRE, or Brecknockshire, in which is about one-third less than the statute acre; South Wales, is divided from Radnorshire by the the poorest grounds do not let for more than four Boundaries river Wye ; its other boundaries are artificial. Its or five shillings the cyfair. length is 29 miles, the breadth of its southern basis The principal exports of the county are wool, S4, and its circumference rather more than 100. butter, and cheese; of the former, a considerable Extent. It contains nearly 500,000 acres of land, not one- quantity is spun and knit into stockings in the half of which are either in a state of cultivation, or hundred of Biulth, and in different parts of the adapted to it. Its form is irregularly triangular, Highlands; the stockings are bought by hosiers, narrowing towards the northern extremity. It is di- and carried to the English market. Some sheep, Divisions. vided into six hundreds ; and contains the county a few horned cattle, and a considerable number town, Brecon, and three market-towns besides, of swine, are frequently driven to Worcester, LonCrickhowel, Biulth, and Hay. There are in it one don, Bristol, &c. The cattle and horses are small, hundred and eleven parishes, and places paying pa- but the former have been much improved by inrochial rates, according to the last returns to Par- termixing the Glamorganshire and Herefordshire liament respecting these rates. breeds ; and the latter by the introduction of the ?ace of the Breconshire is one of the most mountainous Suffolk Punch sort. A considerable number of otCountry counties in Wales; and the Van, or Brecknock ters frequent the rivers, the furs of which form md Soil. Beacon, is one of the loftiest mountains. Ridges of another branch of the exports of this county. hills which form the separation of this from most of The principal manufactures are flannel, linsey- Manufacthe adjacent counties, shelter it in such a manner woolsey, and other coarse cloths. These manufac-turts* as to render it temperate. It appears from obser- tures are not so flourishing as they were formerly; as, vations made in the year 1802, with a rain guage, from the latter end of the sixteenth, to the beginning that 26^ inches of rain fell at Brecon. There is a of the eighteenth century, considerable fortunes were considerable variation, not only in the surface of the acquired in Brecon and its vicinity, by the manufaccountry, but also in the nature of the strata. In the ture of woollen cloths. At present, the workmen hundered of Biulth, the soil is remarkably argilla- confine themselves, almost entirely, to weaving what ceous, and the water does not sink sufficiently deep ; is spun by private families, into what is called Aanin the Vale of Usk, on the contrary, it is too porous nerg/ve, raw cloth. Latterly, several forges and to retain the necessary moisture. In general, the iron founderies have been established near the borsoil of the vales consists of a light loam, lying on a ders of Glamorganshire, which abound with coal and deep bed of gravel; the soil of the hills, for the most iron-ore; and these have succeeded extremely well. part, is argillaceous. The principal river, next to The profits of the mines for the year ending 5th April the boundary one of the Wye, is the Uske, which, 1813, according to the returns under the Property taking its rise from the black mountain, in the west- Act, were L. 2254, and of iron works L. 1006. ern side of the county, on the border of CaermarthenThe poor and other parochial rates of this county, Poor-rates shire, flows across it, through a fine valley, to the in the year ending Easter 1803, amounted to the south eastern angle, passing the town of Brecon. sum of L. 12,200, 7s. S jd. In the year ending the A little to the east of the town of Brecon is a con- 25th of March 1815, there was paid in parochial siderable lake, well stored with fish, out of which a rates the sum of L. 20,307, 3s. lOd. rivulet runs to the Wye. The Brecon Canal unites In the year 1801, the population amounted to popuia,jon with the Monmouth Canal eight miles and a half from 31,633 inhabitants; of whom 14,346 were employed Newport, and one mile from Pontypool; it crosses in agriculture, and 4204 in various trades and manuthe river Avon, is carried through a tunnel 220 yards factures. in length, passes the town of Abergavenny towards the river Uske, and proceeds parallel with that river In 1811 there were to Brecon, being 33 miles in length, with 68 feet Inhabited houses _ 7555 rise to Brecon. From the fall of this canal from BreFamilies inhabiting them 7919 con to the Bristol Channel, it appears, that Brecon is Houses building _ . gj 411 feet 8 inches above the level of the sea. Uninhabited houses 354 riculThe agriculture of this county is superior to that Families employed in agriculture 4667 e. of most of the other counties of Wales, and apDo. in trade, &c. 2239 pears to have begun to improve about the middle of Do. not comprehended in the the last century, as the Breconshire Agricultural preceding classes 1013 Society was instituted in 1775, being one of the first Males 18,507 associations of the kind in the Island. The mode of Females - 19,228 culture on the good soils is conducted in the best manner ; but where the land is naturally poor, the Total population - 37,735 tillage is very bad. In the Vale of Uske, the NorTotal population in 1801 31,633 folk rotation is followed with skill and success: and tolerably abundant crops of barley, clover, wheat, and Increase 6102 turnips are obtained. The Highland farmers, in general, are too poor to attempt any material improvements. In the vales the farms seldom exceed 150 See Jones’s History of Breconshire.—Malkin’s or 200 acres ; the rents are high ; in the neighbour- South Wales.—Agricultural Report of South Wales. hood of Glazbury and Hay, nearly 40s. the cyfair, (c.)
460 BREWING. corruptus.” (De Moribus German, c. 23.) Pliny Brewing, gives us some details respecting beer, though they are by no means satisractory. He distinguishes it by the name of cerevnia or cervisia, the appellation by which it is always known in modern Latin books. This liquid does not appear to have come into general use in Greece or Italy ; but in Germany and Britain, and some other countries, it appears to have been the common drink of the inhabitants, at least as early as the time of Tacitus, and probably long before. It has continued in these countries ever since, and great quantities of beer are still manufactured in Germany, the Low Countries, and in Britain. The first treatise published on the subject, as far as we know', was by Basil Valentine. This treatise, according to Boerhaave (for we ourselves have never had an opportunity of seeing it), is both accurate and elegant. In the year 1585, Thaddaeus Hagecius ab CHAP. I. Hayck, a Bohemian writer, published a treatise entitled De Cervisia ejusque confciendi ratione, naHISTORY OF BREWING. tura, viribus et facultatibus. This little treatise, No notice is taken of beer or ale in the books consisting only of 50 pages, is written with great of Moses, from which it is probable that they were simplicity and perspicuity, and gives as accurate a unknown till after the death of this legislator. All description of the whole process of brewing as any the ancient Greek writers agree in assigning the treatise on the subject which we have seen. In the honour of the discovery of beer to the Egyptians, early part of the eighteenth century, Mr Combrune, whose country, being annually inundated by the who’, we believe, was a practical London brewer, Nile, was not adapted for the cultivation of vines. published a book entitled The Theory and Practice Herodotus, who wrote about 4o0 years before the of Bracing. This book has gone through many commencement of the Christian era, informs us, that editions, and we believe is still reckoned the standthe Egyptians made their wine from barley, because ard book on the subject. But the attempts made in they had no vines. ’O/vwS’ sx xg/fc«v mcront/Astifi (nayj- it to give a rational theory of brew ing are far from giovlai lu yctg c tC CO tO tO 00 tol CO to ►- CD L-* 1— Q Cn 00 CO O 03 03 O 03 O
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463 Brewing.
>X
^n ^^ ^' ? 2r 5.: >5 £*.0 'E.J 1-1 /■» CO > 5 Po E2 perhaps, be owing to some commencement of The too great growth of the roots, and the too alteration which this dissolved matter experiences. high elevation of temperature, is prevented by spreadIt can scarcely be ascribed to any change going on ing the grain thinner upon the floor, and carewithin the kernel itself. fully turning it over several times a day. At first Couch, 2. When the barley is judged by the maltster to the depth is about 16 inches ; but this depth is dihave remained long enough in the steep, which is minished a little at every turning, till at last it is reVOL. II. PART II. 3N
B R E W I N G. 466 Brewing. duced to three or four inches. The number of turn- upon the kiln, which stops the germination, and Brewing, ings is regulated by the temperature of the malt; enables the brewer to keep the malt for some time ll dr * y' but they are seldom fewer than two each day. In without injury. The kiln is a chamber, the floor 0f^ ll)o Scotland, the temperature of the grain is kept as which usually consists of iron plates full of holes, * nearly as possible at 55°; but in England we have and in the roof there is a vent to allow the escape of generally found the temperature of the grain on the the heated air and vapour. Under this room is a malt floor about 62°. It has been generally sup- space in which fire of charcoal or coak is lighted. posed that the Hertfordshire method of making malt The heated air which supplies this fire passes up is the best; but, after a very careful comparison of through the holes in the iron plates, and makes its the two methods, we were unable to perceive any way through the malt, carrying off the moisture along with it. At first, the temperature of the malt is not superiority whatever in the English mode. Acrospire. About a day after the sprouting of the roots, the higher than 90° ; but it is elevated very slowly to rudiments of the future stem begins to make its ap- 140°, or even higher. We believe, that in many pearance. This substance is called by the maltsters cases, it rises at last almost as high as 212°, though the acrospire. It rises from the same extremity of we have never witnessed any such high temperature the seed with the root, and, advancing within the ourselves. But we have seen pale malt dried at a husk or skin, would at last (if the process were con- temperature of 175°, without any injury whatever. tinued long enough) issue from the other extremity The great secret in drying malt properly, consists in in the form of a green leaf; but the process of malt- keeping the heat very low at first, and only raising ing is stopped before the acrospire has made such it very gradually, as the moisture is dissipated. For a high temperature, applied at first, would infallibly progress. While the grain is on the malt floor, it has been blacken, or even char the malt, and would certainly ascertained that it absorbs oxygen gas, and emits diminish considerably the quantity of soluble matter carbonic acid gas. But to what amount these ab- which it contains. We shall here insert the table sorptions and emissions take place, has not been as- drawn up by Mr Combrune, from his own expericertained. They are certainly small; for the average ments, of the colour of malt dried in different temloss which the grain sustains when on the malt floor peratures. is only 3 per cent., a considerable portion of which Heat. must "be ascribed to roots broken off, and grains of 119° White barley bruised during the turning. As the acros- 124 Cream-colour pire shoots along the grain, the appearance of the 129 Light yellow kernel or mealy part of the corn undergoes a consiAmber-colour 134 derable change. The glutinous and mucilaginous 138 High amber matter in a great measure disappears, the colour be- 143 Pale brown comes whiter, and the texture so loose, that it crum- 148 Brown bles to powder between the fingers. The object of 152 High brown malting is to produce this change. When it is ac- 157 Brown inclining to black complished, which takes place when the acrospire 162 High brown speckled with black has come nearly to the end of the seed, the process 167 Blackish brown with black specks is stopped altogether. Colour of burnt coftee 171 At this period, it was formerly the custom in Scot- 176 Black land to pile up the whole grain into a pretty thick We have given this table, not on account of any heap, and allow it to remain for some time. The consequence is, the evolution of a very consider- information which it contains, but to put our readers able heat, while, at the same time, the malt be- on their guard against the false conclusions of this comes exceedingly sweet. But this plan is now laid writer. We have taken malt dried at the temperaaside, because it occasions a sensible diminution in ture of 175°, put it into a garden pot filled with soil, the malt, without being of any essential service. For and have seen it vegetate apparently as well as rawthe very same change takes place afterwards, while grain placed in the same situation. Now, this is the malt is in the mash-tun, without any loss what- only one degree lower than that in which Mr Combrune says malt is converted into charcoal, and it is ever. The time during which the grain continues on the four degrees higher than that in which his malt asmalt floor varies according to circumstances. The sumed the colour of burnt coffee. Certainly malt higher the temperature at which the grain is kept, reduced to the colour of burnt coffee by heat, would the more speedily is it converted into malt. In ge- be deprived of the power of vegetating. Mr Comneral, 14 days may be specified as the period which brune’s experiments were made by putting malt into intervenes in England from throwing the barley out an earthen pan, which he placed over a charcoal fire of the steep, till it is ready for the kiln ; while in in a stove, while he kept stirring the malt the whole Scotland, it is seldom shorter than 18 days, and time of the experiment. The bulb of the thermosometimes three weeks. This, no doubt, is an ad- meter was placed half-way between the upper survantage in favour of English malting; as every face of the malt and the bottom of the vessel. thing which shortens the progress, without injuring Now, the reader will perceive at once, that the the malt, must turn out to the advantage of the ma- earthen pan would be much hotter than that part of the malt where the thermometer was placed. nufacturer 4. The last part of the process is to dry the malt By the constant stirring of the malt, the whole of
BREWING. 467 Brewing, it was gradually exposed to the burning action and fall off. They are separated from the malt by Brewing, of the surface of the pan. Had the experiment passing it over the surface of a kind of wii’e-screen, allows the comings to drop through, while the been made without stirring the malt at all, and which r had the thermometer been placed near the surface, w ires are too near each other to permit the grains of in that case, the changes in the colour of the malt at malt to pass. If 100 lbs. of bax’ley malted in this manner, with Changes the surface would have indicated the temperature to r r0( uce which it was exposed. But in the way that Mr all the requisite care, be w eighed just after being P l d kiln-dried and cleaned, they will be found, on an ^ Malting, Combrune conducted his experiments, the temperatures which he obtained were entirely fallacious. average, to weigh 80 lbs. But if the raw grain be We have not the least doubt, that the temperature kiln-dried at the same temperature as the malt, it of the earthen pan, towards the end of his experi- will lose 12 per cent, of its weight. Hence 12 per cent, of the loss which barley sustains in malting, ment, was above 400°. Mr Combrune’s law7, however, that the heat of the must be ascribed to moisture dissipated by the kilnwater in mashing ought to be regulated by the colour drying ; so that the real loss of weight which barley of the malt; namely, that the paler the malt is, the sustains when malted, amounts to 8 per cent. This lower ought the temperature of the mashing water to loss, from a great many trials made in the large way, we conceive may be acbe, is founded on accurate observations. The fact with all the requisite care, T is, that boiling water would answer better than any counted for in the follcw ing manner : other for mashing, because it would dissolve most Carried off by the steep-w ater 1.5 speedily the soluble part of the malt. The only Dissipated while on the floor 3.0 reason for not using it is, that the tendency of the Hoots sepai'ated by cleaning 3.0 malt to set increases with the temperature of the Waste 0.5 water. Now, the higher the colour of the malt, ^ the less is its tendency to set; of course, we may 8.0 use w7ater of a higher temperature to mash with it. These numbers were obtained from above thirty For the same reason, when raw grain is used, the temperature of the mashing water must be still lower different makings, conducted in four different makthan when malt is employed; because raw grain has ing-houses, with as much attention to every circumstance as was compatible with practical making. a very great tendency to set. The old malt-kilns had a bottom of hair-cloth in- The matter cax*ried off by the steep-water, which stead of the iron plates full of holes, which constitute amounts to about g^th of the weight of the whole a more recent improvement. We have seen the grain, we conceive to be dissolved from the skin or thermometer in such a kiln, when the bulb touched husks. It may, therefore, be left out of view. The the hair-cloth, rise as high as 186°. In general, the waste is owing to grains of malt crushed by the temperature of the malt-kiln is very carelessly re- workmen while turning the malt on the floor, and gulated. We have seen malt for the very same pur- afterwards dissipated or destroyed during the subsepose dried at a temperature which never rose higher quent processes. We were not able to collect these than 136°; while a portion of the very same malt, bruised grains and weigh them ; the number thereput into another kiln, was heated as high as 18b°. fore given for them in the preceding table is hypoBut such a careless mode of drying malt is repre- thetical ; but from a great many circumstances, hensible, and must be more or less injurious to the which it would be too tedious to adduce here, we brewer. In general, the more rapidly malt is dried believe that, in our trials, g^oth part of the wlxole the more does its bulk increase. This method, ac- very nearly represents the” amount of the crushed cordingly, is px-actised by those who malt for sale, grains. Thus the real loss of weight by making as is the case with most of the English maltsters ; (supposing nothing lost by steeping, and no grains because malt is always sold by measure, and not by crushed) is only 6 per cent, and of this loss 4 per weight. The brewers would find it more for their cent, may be safely ascribed to the roots; so that interest to buy malt by weight than by measure. not above 2 per cent, at most can be assigned to the In that case, the maltsters would dry their malt at as carbon dissipated by the evolution of carbonic acid low a temperature as possible. But this would sig- on the floor, and on the kiln. Indeed we have reanify very little, or rather would be advantageous son to conclude, from a good many trials, that the to the brewer ; because dried malt soon recovers the greatest part of this loss of 2 per cent, is sustained on moisture lost on the kiln when kept for some time in the kiln. For, if malt dried carefully at a low temsacks. And, when malt is dried at a low tempera- perature be afterwards kiln-dried, or exposed (as ture, we ax7e sure that none of it is injured by the was our method) to the heat of a steam bath, it fire. It will, therefore, go farther in the pi'oduction never afterwards recovers its former weight by exof beer. The time of kiln drying varies consider- posure to the air. And every time this experiment ably, according to the quantity of malt exposed to is repeated, by artificially moistening and drying the the action of the heat. But when that quantity is same malt, a new loss of weight is sustained. The not too great, we may estimate the time of kiln- same observation was made by Saussure, who condrying, in general, at two days. After the fire is ceived that the loss was to be ascribed to the formawithdrawn, the malt is allowed to remain on the kiln tion and dissipation of water in the barleycorn. But till it has become neai'ly cold. we have no proof that any such formation takes By the kiln-drying, the roots of the barley, or, as place. It is more probable that the loss is owing to the maltsters call them, the comings, are dried up the formation and escape of carbonic acid gas.
468 Brewing.
BREWING. Big sustains a considerably greater loss of weight when malted than barley. The average loss of weight in our trials with barley was only 8 per cent., while that of big was 15 per cent , or nearly double. This we conceive is owing to the destruction ot a much greater number of the corns during the process of malting big than barley. But, in all our experiments on big, that grain was manifestly oversteeped. To this, perhaps, a good deal of the difference may be ascribed. Our maltsters had not been in the habit of malting big, and therefore were not likely to do it so much justice as they did to the barley. Hence it would be improper to venture upon any general conclusions from the experiments which we made upon the malting of big. The bulk of the malt is usually greater than that of the barley from which it was obtained. But this varies a good deal, according to the goodness of the grain, and the mode of drying the malt. In our trials, made all in the same way, 100 bushels of the different kinds of grain gave, on an average, the following results :— 109 English barley, 103 Scotch barley, 100.6 Scotch big,
The greatest quantity in bushels obtained from 100 bushels of English barley was 111|;, the least 106 bushels. The greatest quantity obtained from 100 bushels of Scotch barley was 109> and the least 98 bushels. The greatest quantity obtained from 100 bushels of big was 103 bushels, the least 97 bushels. Hence it appears that, on malting English barley, there is a profit of 9 Per cent., while big yields scarcely any thing more than its bulk befoie malting. The English maltster makes more bushels of malt than he pays duty for ; but the maltster of big, on the contrary, obtains fewer. We shall subjoin here two Tables, which exhibit iu one view the result of a considerable number of trials made by the author of this article, on malting different varieties of grain. The barley is distinguished by the name of the county where it Tables of grew. To understand the first table, the reader Malting. must know that Excisemen estimate the quantity of malt by subtracting one-fifth from the best or highest gauge in the steep or couch, and charge the duty accordingly. TABLE I. Bulk by Original best Produce Malt DifferGrain Bailey. bulk of Gauge iu in Malt. charged ence Duty. percent, Grain. Steep oi Couch. English. 1st Qualities. Norfolk Norfolk Kent Kent Suffolk Suffolk
100 100 100 100 100 100
123.0 121.5 128.0 119-7 123.7 116.8
109-5 98.4 104.5 97-2 111.2 102.4 106.3 95.8 101.6 98.6 100.8 93.4
Average
100
122.1
105.6
97-6
Brewing Bn Ik by Original best Produce Malt Differcharged ence Gauge in Grain Barley. bulk of Gain. >ieep or in Malt. Duty. percent, Couch. English. 2d Qualities. 100 129-6 109.2 103.7 Norfolk 100 122.0 103.9 97-6 Norfolk 100 137-9 107-6 109.5 Suffolk 100 133.2 109.2 106.5 Kent 100 125.6 105.3 100.4 Kent Average
100
129-6 107-0 104.4 2.6
3d Qualities. Norfolk Norfolk Essex Essex Essex Essex
100 100 100 100 100 100
128.2 127-1 134.5 126.3 128 0 120.5
100
127.4 103.4 101.9 1-9
Average
106.4 104.5 106.5 105.8 102.1 97-6
102.5 101.6 107.6 101.0 102.4 96.4
General average
4.03
Scotch. 1st Qualities. Berwick and Haddington Haddington Haddington Linlithgow Perth Fife Angus Edinburgh Edinburgh
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
119.8 121.0 121.0 118.7 127.3 125.3 1238 123.8 116.7
Average
100
119-6 102.9
100 100 100 100
119-4 100.9 95.5 125.8 103.2 100.6 114.2 969 91-3 119-6 94.0 95.6
100
1197
98-7
95.7
100 100 100 100 100 100
115.2 98.2 120.0 101.6 113.6 92.3 121.0 93.4 117.5 91.5 120.8 101.1
92.1 96.0 90.8 96 8 94.0 96*6
100
118.0
94.4 1-9
2d Qualities. Berwick and Haddington Haddington Perth Fife Average 3d Qualities. Berwick Haddington Linlithgow Linlithgow Fife Angus Average General aver
100.6 95.8 109.4 96.8 103.1 96.8 106.2 94.9 102.4 101.8 100.1 100.2 103.6 100.6 98.6 99-0 102.7 93.3
96.3
97-6 5.5
3.4
BREWING. Brewing. Grain Biff.
Bulk by Original best Produce Malt Differbulk ot Gauge in in Malt. charged ence Grain. Steep or Duty. percent. Couch.
1st Qualities. Dumfries Dumfries Lanark Perth Perth Perth Aberdeen Aberdeen Aberdeen Aberdeen
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
112.0 97-6 89.6 132.8 97-9 106.2 121.6 103.3 96.3 120.9 102.9 95.7 120.7 991 95.5 112.8 97.4 89-2 127-3 100.7 101.8 125.6 99-9 100.5 114.5 94.1 91-6 124.0 98.7 99-2
Average
100
121.2
99-1
Grain Big. 2d Qualities. Kirkcudbright Ayr Angus Angus Mearns
469 Brewing. Bulk by Original best Produce Malt Differbulk of Gauge in in Malt, charged ence Duty. percent Gi ain. Steep or Couch. 100 100 100 100 100
119-5 101.2 95.6 114.2 101.1 91.3 127-4 96.8 101.9 121.6 94.5 97.2 121.3 96.5 97-0
Average
100
120.8
Sd Qualities. Kirkcudbright Aberdeen
100 100
110.6 94.5 123.1 105.0
88.4 98.4
100
116.8
98.4 6.3
97.0 2.1
Average
98.1
99-7
96.6 1.5
General average
3.3
TABLE U. SwimSwim- Weight of Swell Weight Bushels mings Bushels mings in Grain per Swell Day Clean .RLEY per Bush- Measurreally lbs. A- really Hours in cent. per on Mall in el m lbs. ed out. tiush- Steeped, voirdo- Steeped Steep. in cent, in Floor. Bushels. Quality. els. pois, in lbs. Steep. Couch. LISII. blk 50.375 folk 50.375 it 49.750 it 49.914 folk 50.508 Polk 50.859
150 150 90 90 150 72
1.4 ! 148.60 1.75 148.25 1.96 88.09 1.75 88.25 2.68 147.32 1.28 70.72
43.18 43.00 56.45 40.50 84.15 29.44
7509.82 116 16 7513.50 93.75 4421.05 86 25 4442.63 52 15.7 7494.00 49 3632.40 44
erage 50.297 ITCH iwick&n ding 53.093 ilidingn 52.1*90 Piiding11 52.190 llithg 51.062 50.226 51.539 ;us 49.312 kburs. 52.164 ioburs 52.164
18 162.75 36.58 20.0 16 155.00 38.40 21.2 12 98 34.88 23.0 17 93.87 35.76 25 13 149.75 40.56 21 13 71.31 39.11 23.2
114.75 60 75 66 66 148 66 111 90
1.23 113.52 0.5 i 59.50 0.3 i 74.70 0.561 65.44 0.75 ! 65.25 1.62 146.38 1.68 64.32 1.50 109.5 1.25 | 88.75
23.87 6068.60 13.75 3117.50 11.26 3902 80 18.34 3352.81 21.00 3293.95 40.00 7578.78 44.37 3210.25 41.37 5748.82 34.47 4660.29
ip; ('ll fries 47. 000 75 tfries 47. 726 80 irk 48. 562 150 48. 585 100 48, 562 98 48. 562 90 ^deen 48. 226 90 wdeen 48. 562 150 rdeen 48. 312 90 r deen 49 172 90
3.28 2.03 2.67 2.00 3.25 3.00 2.09 2.68 2.25 2.26
71.72 77.97 147.33 98 94.75 87.00 87.91 147.32 87.75 87.74
77.00 59.96 79.65 61.84 97.45 81.06 55.81 88.19 57.50 60 75
3448, 3758. 204. 4796, 4661. 4289. 4284. 7196. 4291. 4364.
BUSHELS o/M ALT. POUNDS 0/MALT. 1 From 100 From From From Bushels 100 lbs. Il Bushel l lb. Grain. Grain. Giaiu. Grain. 0.793 0.788 0.773 0.755 0.810 0.768
109.5 104.5 111.2 106.3 101.6 100.8
2.17 2.06 2.22 2.11 2 1.96
40.063 40.152 38.816 38.926 41.227 39.435
105.6
2.09
39.736 0.781
19.8 18 114.18 39.60 25.4 119 21 92 20 64.50 38.06 21 21 21 112 19 77 39.18 23 24.5 18.7 9 69.5 39.09 19 109 27-3 57 66.86 38.18 22.49 25.3 14 146.54 38.80 25.07 81 80 25.8 23.8 8 66.6 36.76 24 23 23.8 14 108 76 4L92 21 52.5 14.8 16.7 16 91.12 40.24 22
100.6 199.4 103.1 106.2 102.4 100.1 103 6 98.6 102.7
1.88 39.840 0.746 2.07 41.618 0.787 1.97 40.386 0.773 2.07 41.520 0.810 2.03 39.131 0.775 1.93 38.843 0.749 2.07 38.074 0.763 1.88 41.345 0.787 1.95 41.319 0.787
86.5 21.7 19.6 i 13
39.09 22.6
102.9
1.98
40.23
0.775
13 70 36.81 23 5 8 76.31 37.70 23.5 18 152.25 36.44 23 13 100.94 34.44 27.5 | 13 93.86 37.57 24.5 15 84.75 36.53 28 i s 88.50 38.37 21 10 146.25 36.03 26.8 10 82.60 39.00 25 86.58 39.44 21.7
97.6 97.9 103.3 102.9 99.1 97.4 100.7 99.3 94.1 98.7
2.03 2.03 2.11 2.10 2.01 1.97 2.06 2.13 1.93 1.98
35.930 36.899 37.637 35.374 37.237 35.586 38.633 35.770 36.712 38.906
0.765 0.765 0.770 0.724 0.757 0.722 0.793 0.732 0.751 0.783
99.1
2.03
36.868 0.756
73.4 18.9 22.06; 14.8
rage 51.549
rage 48.327
23.08 21.5 28. 19.7 23.3 16.8
Weight Appaof Cleat rent Joss Malt per of Bushel. Weight lbs. per cent.
73 80 80 104 73 45 74 89 58 57 73
25.8 11 17 18 9.4 23
12 32.8 21.6 20.9 20.7 12.8 27.3 25.6 14.5 24
17.3 21.2 i 10.8
37.55 22.2
37.23 24.4
brewing
470
Weight Appa- [BUSHELS 0/MALT, Swell Swim- Weight of of Clean rent loss Clean Swell Days per Grain ming in Bushels Bushels SwimWfiglit per of FromlOO From lbs. A- really Hours in cent. per on Malt in Malt BARLEY. pa'Busli Measur- ming in really voirdulbs. cent, in Floor. Bushels. Bushel, Weight Bushels 100 Steeped Steep, el in lb^ ed out Bush- Steeped lbs. per cent. Grain. Grain. Steep. Couch. in lbs. pois. els. id Quality.
POUNDS of MALT, From From l Bushel lib. Grain, Grain.
English Norfolk Norfolk Suffolk Kent Kent
41.972 39.013 39.229 42.612 38.823
50.57 51.00 48.845 50.062 49.945
150 150 80 80 150
2.56 147.44 58.00 ,7527.50 115 88 3.50 146.50 70.87 ,7579.20 ! 3.12 76.87 85.00 3822.49 87 2.25 77.75 62.87 13942.13 84 4.43 145.57 112.37 i7385.24 89 92
Average 50.084 Scotch. I3erwick& Hadding" Hadding11 Perth Fife
50.53 126 52.26 150 48.19 66 48.51 100
1.50 124.50 44.00 6323.00 97 1.25 148.75 32.81 7807.03 118 1.90 64.10 48.37 3132.51 64 1.45 98.55 36.12 4834.25
Average 49.87 Big. Kirkcud. Ayr Angus Angus Mearns
46.87 47.94 .03 47.39 47.91
150 150 108 150 126
4.56 2.84 3.12 4.34 1.82
145.44 112.16 147.16 77-00 104.87 85.87 145.66 119.72 124.18 51.87
6109.10 7113.62 4993.50 6989.46 5985.27
3d Quality. English Norfolk Norfolk Essex Essex Essex Essex
51.937 51.625 47.633 48.414 48.000 46.410
150 150 90 100 100 100
1.75 148.25 46.0 7744.64 2.47 147.53 60.5 7663.70 3.59 86.44 107.2 4179.72 3.87 96.12 119.6 4721.77 3.50 96.50 84.0 4716.00 6.25 93.75 159.0 4482.37
Average 49.004 Scotch Berwick Hadding jLinlithg Linlithg 'Fife Angus
37.9 27.8
22
48.854 48.969 46.940 46.375 49.744 46.965
150 150 66 66 66 66
2.22 147.78 64.0 7263.63 2.90 147.10 78.0 7267.30 2.78 63.22 77.2 3021.14 2.00 64.00 57.5 3003.25 0.75 65.25 20.5 3262.22 2.50 63.50 61.7 3037.82
Average 47.974 Bigs. Kirkcud. 44.722 150 Aberdeen 44.086 40 Average 44.404
6.09 143.91 235.6 6473.00 2.25 37.75 66.0 169.74
19.4 25.8 14.2 19.6
16 125.69 38.501 23.46 100.95 103.19 19 153.50 37.298 27 96.91 10 62.12 39.531 21.6 11 92.68 40.039 23.24 94.04
81.6 22
19.7 14
89
15
83 57 57
21
19.5 14.2 27.4 21.6 21.3
22
78
24.8
74 97 47 49 56 53
20
15 16 8 13 13
20.8 13
28.2 27.1 34.5 30 22.4 26.3 28.0 20.5
91 84 98 82 73 45
38.842 23.82 147.25 148.75 101.53 137.73 119.87
36.400 37.832 37.547 38.570 37.55
23 24.8 23 21 25.5 21
36.76 23
14 145.14 37.31 25.4 15 149.43 36.82 24.3 10 58.34 40.16 22.5 9 59.78 39.09 23.5 11 59.72 40.81 25.3 10 64.22 36.41 23.0 38.43 24.0
106.41 104.50 106.55 105.83 102.13 97.66
38.865 38.490 38.310 38.669
0.765 0.733 0.784 0.767
2.037 1.998 2.202 2.149 2.090 2.036
39.033 38.774 37.423 38.923 36.417 37.772
103.84 2.085 38.057 0.767 98.21 101.58 92.28 93.41 91.52 101.13
1.998 2.056 1.931 1.990 1.831 2.114
36.656 37.399 37.057 35.980 37353 36.817
0.746 0.757 0.775 0.767 0.747 0.770
96.35 1.986 .;6.877 0.760
65 77
10.6 14 136.00 35.03 26.4 23.1 8 39.62 33.50 22.0
94.5 105.0
34.26 24.2
99.7
16.8 11
1.990 1.960 1.983 1.917
98.06 2.045 36.770 0.760
17.9 11
71
0.822 0.784 0.790 0.842 0.765
98.77 1.962 38.583 0.762
62
22
2.113 2.007 2.165 2.165 2.072
26.5 101.24 2.128 36.853 0.744 20.89 101.08 2.091 38.330 0.791 24.70 96.81 2.033 36.349 0.763 94.55 1.971 36.083 0.751 24.8 96.52 2.004 36.238 0.752 24.8
37.579 24.33
12 157.75 36.68 14 153.14 37.61 13 92.06 35.12 10 101.50 36.86 10 98.56 35.66 11 91.26 38.67
!7.4 11 15.2 19.7 13.6 20.7 17.5 20.8
109.19 103.86 107.67 109.13 105.31
37.699 20.61 107.03 2.104 40.343 0.794
29.9 29.6 13
70.45 18
Average 47.42
15 161.00 38.437 18 13 152.13 37.562 24.6 9 82.77 36.5 21 9 84.87 39.125 16 12 153.00 36.875 23.46
24
we
2.101 33.108 0.736 2.334 35.164 0.782 2.217 34.136 0.759
BREWING. J»wing.
Thus it appears that the process of malting is nothing else than causing the barleycorns to germiIfljire of nate, and stopping that process before the green tiifrocess. leaf makes its appearance. A quantity of roots are formed, which are afterwards rubbed oft and separated, and the weight of which amounts to about 4 per cent, of the grain malted. The kernel of the grain undergoes a remarkable change by this process. It consists almost entirely of starch; but it was agglutinated in the grain, so as to make a solid and very firm mass; whereas, in the malt, it is quite loose and mealy. Hence it would appear that the glutinous and mucilaginous matter of the barleycorn is chiefly employed in forming the roots ; and that this is the purpose for which it was laid up in the gram. How tar the starch is alteied does not appear. It is probable that it has undergone some change. Malt has a slightly sweet taste, much more agreeable than the taste of the raw grain, without any of that strong and cloying sweetness which distinguishes wort. But the most distinguishing character of the starch of malt is the ease with which it dissolves in hot water ; though cold water does not act upon it sensibly. Whether this property be peculiar to the starch of barley or be induced by the malting, we cannot say. We conceive it probable that barley starch is more easily soluble in water than wheat starch, from the ease with which raw grain is constantly employed by distillers to form their worts. In its other chemical _ characters, the starch of barley malt agrees with that of wheat starch. Slible part We would err very much, however, were we to e4alt. suppose that the whole kernel or starchy part of the malt is dissolved by the hot water used in brewing. At least one half of the malt still remains after the brewing is over, constituting the grains, which are known to constitute a most nourishing article of food for cattle, and therefore to contain much more than the husks or skin of the malt corn. One hundred lbs. of malt, from different kinds of grain, after being exhausted as much as usual of the soluble part of the kernel by hot water, were found to weigh as follows:— English barley Scotch barley Scotch big
-
50.63 lbs. 50.78 52.69
-
100 lbs. of raw grain being converted into malt, and the soluble part of the malt extracted by hot water, the residue weighed : English barley Scotch barley Scotch big -
51.558 lbs. 50.831 53.500
In another set of experiments, 100 lbs. of malt left the following residues : English barley Scotch barley, Scotch big,
-
-
54.9 lbs. 56.9 56.6
100 lbs. of the raw grain being converted into malt,
471
and the soluble part of the malt extracted by hot Brewing. water, the residues weighed : English barley Scotch barley Scotch big
-
-
54.8 lbs. 56.9 56.6
Hence we see that, in all these cases, the bulk of the malt was very nearly the same as the previous bulk of the barley before it was malted. In another set of experiments, 100 lbs. of malt left the following residues : English barley Scotch barley Scotch big -
-
54.0 lbs. 56.1 56.6
100 lbs. of the raw grain being converted into malt, and the soluble part of the malt being extracted by hot water, the residues weighed : English barley Scotch barley Scotch big -
54.63 lbs. 56.09 56.59
Here also the bulk of the malt differed but little from that of the raw grain. The first of these sets of experiments was made with grain of the best quality, the second with grain of the middling quality, and the third with grain of the third quality. It is probable that an additional portion of the kernel would be dissolved if the malt were ground finer than it is customary to do. The reason for grinding it only coarsely is to render it less apt to set. But this object might be accomplished equally well by bruising the malt between rollers, which would reduce the starchy part to powder, without destroying the husk. T.his method, indeed, is practised by many brewers, but it ought to be followed by all. CHAP. IV. OF BREWING. Brewing consists of five successive processes, which are distinguished by the following names: 1. Mashing, 2. Boiling, 3. Cooling, 4. Fermenting, 5. Cleansing. We shall afterwards give a description and view of the utensils employed in a large London porter brewery, where they have been carried to the greatest perfection. But we conceive it better to give a description of the processes themselves, in the first place, without referring them to any specific form of vessels; observing only, that the size of all the utensils must be proportional to the quantity of beer which it is proposed to make at once. 1. The specific gravity of malt varies a good deal, Specific according to the way in which it is dried upon the ^raYity of kiln. But its mean specific gravity may be stated Mal * at 1.201. In general the specific gravity of big malt is rather inferior to that of malt from barley. Let us suppose, for the sake of stating the comparative quantities, that it is our object to employ in a
B Tt E WING. 472 Brewin". single brewing 50 bushels of malt. The first thing bushels of malt, was only seven Inches; while the Brewing to be done is to grind the malt in a mill, and the 51 bushels of water occupied the space of 22 inches. best kind of mill for the purpose, is that in which Therefore about two-thirds of the bulk of the ungrounded malt consisted of interstices filled with the malt is made to pass between two iron rollers. We must be provided with a copper boiler, ca- air. Mashing. The temperature of the water is considerably pable of containing at least the 50 bushels of malt; or its solid contents must, at the smallest, amount lowered when it is mixed with the malt, but we to 382 ale gallons, which are rather more than have been unable to determine how much, from the 107,521 cubic inches or 62f cubic feet. This cop- impossibility of thrusting a thermometer down to the per boiler must be placed over brick work upon a centre of the mash-tun, the only place that would furnace, and there must be conveniences for filling give a correct result. But we may state A few out it with water and for letting the water off, when suf- of the many observations which we have made on the subject: 51 bushels of water of the temperature ficiently heated, into the mash-tun. The mash-tun is a wooden vessel composed of 192° were mixed with 47^ bushels of malt; after staves properly fixed by means of iron hoops, and mixture, the temperature at the surface of the mash usually placed in the middle of the brew-house. It was 140°. Two hours and a half after, when the has a false bottom full of holes at some little height wort began to run off, its temperature was 156°, and above the true bottom. Its capacity varies accord- at that tune the surface of the mash was at the teming to the extent of the brewery establishment. But perature of 136°. If we suppose in this case, that a mash-tun, capable of mashing 50 bushels of malt, the whole mash lost four degrees as well as the surmust be, at least, one-third larger than the Imlk of face, and take the mean between the bottom and the malt, or it must be capable at least of containing top, we shall have the mean heat of the whole after the mashing, 150°. So that the water has lost 32° 75 bushels. A quantity of water equal, at least, in bulk to of heat, while the malt (its temperature before mixthat of the malt, is to be put into the boiler, and ture was 48°) gained 102°. heated up to 1,90° or 180° according to the fancy of the brewer and the quality of the malt. But the The weight of the water, reckoning it at 51 bushels, was 3965.25 lbs. best brewers, in general, employ the lowest temperature. This water is then to be let into the mash- That of the malt was 1788.80 lbs. tun, and the malt, previously ground, is to be let down into it immediately after. It is then mixed This would make the specific heat of the malt with the water and all the clots carefully broken, 0.69, which is probably considerably above the truth. either by workmen, who use for the purpose very For, according to the experiments of Dr Crawford, narrow wooden shovels, or, when the capacity of the the specific heat of barley is only 0.421. So that mash-tun is very great, as in the London breweries, our supposition, that the mean temperature after by a machine which is driven by a steam-engine. mashing was only 150°, is not quite accurate. Were Great care must be taken to break all the clots, be- we to suppose the specific heat of malt to be 0.42, cause the whole of the malt within them would w hich cannot be very far from the truth, in that case otherwise escape the action of the water, and be lost the mean temperature, after mashing, would be I690, to the brewer. When the water and malt are suffi- if the water was 192° and the malt 48°, and the ciently mixed, the mash-tun is covered and left in weight of each as above stated. this state about three hours. But the time varies In another experiment, in which 60 bushels of according to circumstances. malt were mashed, the heat of the water was 180°, Though the specific gravity of a malt corn be that of the malt 56°, the temperature, on adding the greater than that of water, yet if it be thrown into malt to the water and mixing it well, was at the surthat liquid it always swims. The reason is, that be- face 141°. Four hours after, when the wort began tween the skin and the kernel there is lodged a to be drawn oft’, its temperature w^as 150°, and that quantity of air, which it is not easy to drive away. of the surface of the mixture of malt and water in Accordingly, brewers are in the habit of judging of the mash-tun, was 138°. lbs. the goodness of malt by throwing a certain quantity of it into water, and, reckoning the grains which fall The bulk of water was 66j bushels, its weight • 5147 to the bottom, these indicate the proportion of un2283.6 malted grain which the malt contains. Of course The weight of the malt was the more of them that exist in any given quantity of Any person may easilyq from these data, calcumalt, the worse must the malt be considered. But though malt, when we consider only single corns, late what the heat of the mixture after mashing is about a sixth heavier than water, yet a bushel ought to be, supposing the specific heat of the malt of malt does not weigh so much as one-third of a to be 0.42. The common formula for the calculabushel of water. For, on one occasion, the hot-wation is S — ^B x ^ * in which S denotes the ter in the mash-tun, before the addition of the malt, lion, stood at the height of 22 inches. On adding the malt, it rose to the height of 29 inches. The bulk specific heat of the malt, W the weight of water of the water was 51 bushels; that of the malt be- used, tv its temperature, B the weight of malt used, fore grinding 47^ bushels. We see from this, that /) its temperature, and m (which in the present case the real space occupied in the mash-tun by the 47| is the quantity sought) the temperature after imx6
BREWING, 473 The wort, as it first flows from the mash-tun, is a Brewing, ture. We do not think it worth while to give any more examples of these changes of temperature, transparent liquid of a fine amber colour, a peculiar though we are in possession of abundance of them ; smell, and a rich, luscious, sweet taste. If it is because we do not conceive that they can lead to cloudy, as sometimes happens, it is a proof that the water used for mashing was of too high a temperaany useful results. After the mash has continued for about three ture. We have seen the wort run cloudy from the hours (or longer or shorter according to circum- mash-tun, when the temperature of the water had stances), a stop-cock, placed below the false bottom been as high as 200° or 191°, but never when it was in the mash-tun, is opened, and the wort allowed to no higher than 180°. This affords an additional run out into a vessel prepared to receive it, and reason with the brewers for keeping the temperature known by the name of underbade. At the same of the mashing-water low. But we have some doubts time the cover is taken off the mash-tun, and quan- about the accuracy of the reason. For, when the tities of water of the temperature of 180° are occasion- wort is afterwards boiled, it always deposits a coally sprinkled over it from the boiler, which had pious flocky sediment. The boiling would doubtbeen again filled with water to be heated, as soon as less render even turbid wort transparent, and would the water for mashing was drawn off. No specific not probably increase the sediment much. At the directions can be given respecting the quantity of same time, it must be acknowledged, that some obhot-water added in this manner by sprinkling, be- scurity hangs upon this part of the process of brewcause that must depend upon the views of the brew- ing. For we have seen wort continue opaque during er. If he wishes to have ale of very great strength, the whole process of boiling, cooling, and fermenthe will of course add less water; if the ale is to be ing, and requiring ultimately to be clarified orJined, weak he will add more. The best way is to deter- as the brewers termed it, by means of isinglass. The mine the strength of the liquor as it flows into the substance which rendered the ale in this case turbid, underback by means of a saccharometer, or by tak- seemed to be a variety of starch, or some particular ing its specific gravity. When the specific gravity form of that substance ; for it was completely pre(at 60°) sinks to 1.04» or 1.05, or when it contains cipitated by infusion of nutgalls, and the precipitate only S6| or 46^ lbs. per barrel of solid matter in so- was redissolved by the application of a moderate lution, it would be useless or injurious to draw any heat. more off for making strong ale. But an additional The flowing of the wort from the mash-tun takes portion may still be drawn off and converted into up six or eight hours. As it advances, the colour small beer. We have seen the brew’ers in Edin- diminishes, the smell becomes less agreeable, and burgh continue to draw off small beer from the mash- the taste less sweet. At last the colour becomes neartun till the liquid indicated only 23| lbs. per barrel, ly opal, and the smell becomes sour, and somewhat or even till it indicated only 171 lbs. per barrel; that similar to the odour given out by an infusion of meal is, till its specific gravity at 60° was reduced to 1.027 and water left till it has become sour. Yet it proor 1.020. Indeed the strength of small-beer is often duces no change on vegetable blue colours. much weaker than this, when it is obtained from If the wort which first comes over be evaporated Constituents malt without drawing off any strong ale wort; but to dryness, it leaves behind it a yellow-coloured re- °f Wort, when it is the residue of strong ale, it is necessary to siduum, which has a sweet taste, dissolves readily in make it stronger, otherwise its quality will be bad. water, absorbs water from the atmosphere, and beAbout a dozen of years ago, it was customary with comes clammy, and similar in appearance to treacle. some of the small-beer brewers in Edinburgh, to Its specific gravity is 1.552. This does not differ make the small-beer of considerable strength ; and much from the specific gravity of common refined after the Excisemen had determined its quantity, and sugar, if we take a mean of the experiments of the duty to be paid on it, they diluted it largely with Fahrenheit and Hasscnfratz. Fahrenheit found the water, just when they were sending it out of the specific gravity of sugar 1.606'5, while Hassenfratz house. This fraud was easily put in practice, be- found it 1.4045, the mean of which is 1.5055. There cause the small-beer is usually disposed of the mo- can be no doubt that this residue contains a good ment it is mixed with the yeast, and before it has deal of sugar, precisely the same in its properties undergone any fermentation whatever. It ferments with the sugar into which starch is converted by sufficiently in the small casks in which it is sent to boiling it in a very dilute acid. But it is mixed likethe consumers. In Edinburgh it is customary to wise with a considerable portion of starch, which has bottle this small-beer, which makes it clear and very become soluble in water, without being converted brisk, and consequently very agreeable to the pa- into sugar. For wort gives a copious precipitate late. with the infusion of nutgalls, and this precipitate is Neither can any general rule be laid down for the redissolved by a moderate increase of temperature, specific gravity or strength of the wort, when it be- properties which characterize starch. gins to flow from the mash. It will obviously deFrom the experiments of Saussure it would append upon the goodness of the malt, and upon the pear, that starch sugar is nothing else than a combiquantity of mashing water employed, when com- nation of starch and sugar. Hence it is probable, pared with the quantity of malt. We have seen it that, during the mashing, a combination takes place begin to flow from the mash-tun of the specific gra- between the starch of the malt and the water, the vity 1.084, 1.0805, 1.0815, 1.0835, 1.091, 1.094; or result of which is the formation of starch sugar. containing respectively 78^, 74’g, 75*, 78, 85, and This sugar agrees in its properties with the sugar of 87| lbs. per barrel. grapes. It crystallizes in needles grouped together VOL. ll. PART 11. So
BREWING. 474 boiling of the wort, as far as we have been able to Brewing, Brewing. in the form of small sphericles like granulated honey. determine its properties, approaches nearly to the It does not go so far in sweetening as common su- nature of gluten, or vegetable albumen ; for these gar ; and, like sugar of grapes, it ferments without two substances differ very little from each other. the addition of yeast. We have attempted m vain While the wort is in the boiler, the requisite quan- Hops, to separate the saccharine part of the residue ot wort tity of hops are added to flavour the ale, and render from the starch. When alcohol is poured over it, it capable of being kept for a considexable length of no solution takes place, but such is the affinity of the time without souring. Hops, as is well known, are residue of wort for water, that it deprives the alcohol the seed-pods of the Humulus lupulus, or hop-plant, of a portion of its water, just as carbonate of potash which is cultivated in considerable quantities in the or muriate of lime does, and a very viscid liquid, south of England, especially in Kent and Hampconsisting of the residue of malt dissolved in a very shire. The seed-pods of this creeping plant are small quantity of water, is formed at the bottom oi collected when ripe, and dried upon a kiln. They tlic vessel. • are then packed up in bags, and sold to the brewers. It is exceedingly difficult to evaporate wort, with- Hops are well known to have a peculiar bitter taste, out partly decomposing the extractive residue, ihe and a wreak aromatic odour, and to possess sedative best way is to put it upon a very flat dish, and to apply qualities to a considerable extent. A pillow, filled a heat not greater than 120°. We have charred it with hops, has often been found to induce sleep,, completely in a glass vessel, filled with alcohol, with- when every thing else has failed. If they be digestout applying heat sufficient to make the alcohol ed for some days in alcohol, that liquid acquires a boil. Indeed, we never succeeded in obtaining the slight greenish colour, a peculiar taste, and an odour residue of wort, without its colour being a good in which that of the hop can be distinctly perceived. deal darker than that of the wort from which it was If the alcohol, previously freed from the undissolyed obtained. . ... matter, be distilled in a retort, there remains behind The wort which runs off last contains very little saccharine matter ; but some starch and mucilagi- a solid green-coloured oil. It is to this oil that hops owe their peculiar smell. Its taste is peculiar, sharp, nous matter may still be detected in it. The flavoui and scarcely bitter, but putting one in mind of the and beauty of the ale is increased, if we take only peculiar flavour of good ale. Ibis oil is the part ot the wort that runs first off, and throvv away the last the hops which gives ale its distinguishing flavour. drawn worts, or employ them only in the manufac- It is apt to be dissipated by long boiling. Hence, ture of small beer. . e Boiling the 2. The next process in brewing is the boiling ot when hops are too long boiled in wort, the aromatic odour and peculiar flavour are nearly dissipated, and Wort. the wort. The wort is pumped up from the undei'a bitter taste substituted in its place. It is the back into the copper boiler, where it is boiled for opinion of brewers, that the intoxicating qualities of several hours, till it has acquired the degree ot ale are to be partly ascribed to the oil of the hop. strength which is wanted by the brewer. Indeed, it has been pretty common to ascribe intdxiIt may be proper to give some examples of quan- catino- qualities to bitter tasted substances in general. tities to enable the reader to form a better idea of Thust a woman of the name of Johnston, who kept a the effect of the boiling. .■ house a little to the south side of the Meadows, From 60 bushels of malt there were obtained public near Edinburgh, about the beginning of the iast cen23.465 barrels of wort, of the strength of 64.37 lbs. tury, was famous for brewing a pleasant and very mper barrel, or of the specific gravity 1.0683. It was toxicating ale ; and the last quality was universally as boiled down to 19-736 barrels of the strength of cribed to the broom tops, which she employed as a 82.7 lbs. per barrel, or of the specific gravity 1.089- bitter instead of hops. This wqman’s name is rememFrom 60 bushels of big malt there were obtain- bered, because her ale and her house are celebrated ed 23.8193 barrels of the specific gravity 1.0648, in the poems of Allan Ramsay. But this opinion, or of 58-75 lbs. per barrel of saccharine matter. though very general, does not appear to be founded It was boiled down to 19-736 barrels of the specific upon any precise experiments or observations. We gravity 1.078, or of 72£ \bs. per barrel of saccharine are not acquainted with any volatile oil which promatter. • , . . intoxication ; though some of them, as oil of From 72 bushels of malt 15.1388 barrels of the duces turpentine, act with great energy upon the stomach. or specific gravity 1.0715 °1 60.6 lbs. barrel, it was boiled down to 13| barrels of the specific gravity No infusion of any bitter whatever, not even of hops, is known to produce intoxication ; nor is any effect 1.1055, or of 98§ lbs. barrel of saccharine mat- in the least similar to intoxication produced when ter. , . . From 50 bushels of malt 13.444 barrels of wort considerable quantities (2 oz. for example, per day) Peruvian bark are swallowed in substance. were obtained of the specific gravity 1.068, or of of Besides the volatile oil, hops contain likewise a 63.125 lbs. of saccharine matter per barrel. It was boiled down to 11.083 barrels of the specific gravity quantity of bitter principle, which may be easily extracted from them by water. As far as we were 1.1015, or of 94i lbs. per barrel. Various contrivances have been fallen upon to able to determine the point, this bitter matter poseconomize the boiling process ; but these will come sesses the characters of the bitter principle m perunder our consideration with more propriety when fection. No reagent that we tried is capable 01 a we give an account of the utensils in a London throwing it down except acetate of lead, a somew oW ambiguous precipitant, because it throws ‘J » fereweiy. . , number of vegetable substances, and becau, 0 The flocky precipitate which forms during the greater 4
475 brewing. ily to that of the atmosphere. A free current of air Brewing, tirewing. the lead in this salt is partially thrown down by car- ought to pass over them, and great care should be bonic acid, if it happens to be present in the solu- taken to keep them perfectly clean. tion. Nitrate of silver is likewise a precipitant, wort is either pumped out of the boiler into throwing down the bitter principle of hops in light theThe coolers, or it is let into them by simply opening a yellow flocks. But this precipitant is also some- stop-cock, according to the construction of the brewwhat ambiguous, for the same reason that renders house. It soon spreads itself over all the surface of acetate of lead so. The bitter principle of hops is the coolers, and a very great evaporation is the conlikewise very soluble, both in water and alcohol. sequence. This evaporation ought always to be Hops communicate both their flavour and their taken into consideration by the brewer ; because it bitter taste to wort. The quantity employed varies both materially adds to the strength of the ale and very much, according to the taste of the persons diminishes its quantity. The amount of it depends who are to drink the ale. The stronger the ale is, upon the temperature of the air compared with that the greater the quantity of hops is which it can of the atmosphere, and upon the skill with which the bear without injury. In general, English brewers coolers have been constructed. We shall give a employ a much greater quantity of hops than the few examples of the quantity of evaporation which Scotch brewers. To elucidate the subject, we sha place during the cooling of worts, in coolers by give a few examples of the quantity of hops used in took means remarkable for the goodness of their conmaking Edinburgh ale ; which is known to be mild, no and, in general, is much relished by most of those struction. who are in the habit of drinking ale. Sixty bushels of malt yielded Ilf barrels of strong I'emperaQuantity of Tempe- Quantity ale wort (measured at the end of the boiling), and lure of tlie rature Wort when Ditto when evapo- Time of of let 40 lbs. of hops had been mixed with it in the boiler. wort when Jo. whei into the cooled. rated in Cooling Ale Bar- in hours. Forty-seven and a quarter bushels of malt furnish- let into tht CohJ. Coolers in rels. coolers. Ale Barrels. ed 10.83 barrels of wort, measured after being boiled and cooled, and 36 lbs. of hops had been mixed 16o° 56° 16.1388 14.8611 1.2777 1H with it in the boiler. Sixty bushels of malt furnished fifteen barrels of 18.6666 17.2222 1.4444' ll£ 176° 51 wort, measured after boiling and cooling, and 45 lbs. of hops had been mixed with it in the boiler. 11.5555 8.7 5 2.8055 50 208° 9h Sixty bushels of malt, from big, furnished 14.7 barrels of wort, after being boiled and cooled. It 16.6388 12.0832 4.5556 14 52 208( was mixed with 40 lbs. of hops in the boiler. ( In another brewing in which 72 bushels of malt,^ 9 14.0555 10.2222 3.8333 50 208 from big, furnished 10j barrels of wort, 66 lbs. of hops had been added in the boiler. 53 208( 14.7777 10.5 4.2777 16 In general, when the ale has considerable strength, the Edinburgh brewers are in the habit of adding 13.6944 9.138S 4.5556 52 210° one pound of hops for every bushel of malt employed. Sometimes, indeed, when they wish their ale to be 13.3333 9.3055 4.0278 51 208 very superior in flavour and quality, they employ a greater quantity of hops than even this, ihus, we 12.6388 8.2777 4.3611 52 206 have seen 100 lbs. of hops boiled in the strong ale wort extracted from 72 bushels of malt. When the 14.0555 9.4444 4.6111 52 200 ale is but weak, and consequently cheap, the usual allowance is one pound of hops to a bushel and a 13.6944 9.1388 4.5556 54 200 half of the malt. !ooling the 3. After the wort has been boiled down to the re11.0833 8.5000 2.5833 53 200 Voit quisite strength, which, in Edinburgh, is commonly between the specific gravities 1.09 and 1.10, it is let 14.0555 10.6111 3.4444 56 204 out into the coolers. The coolers are floors of wood, surrounded with a wooden ledge, and water tight, Mean 3.5640 14.1067 placed in the most airy and exposed situation in the brewery. They are of such a size as to hold the In the first two examples in the above Table, the whole of the wort at a depth not exceeding three or four inches ; so that, in large breweries, they are of quantity of wort was estimated just when it was let an enormous extent. The object is to cool down down into the coolers; in all the others it was estithe wort, as rapidly as possible, to the temperature mated in the boiler before it was pumped out. It of the atmosphere ; because, if it were allowed to re- appears from the preceding table, that rather more main long hot it would run the risk of becoming than one-fourth of the whole wort is dissipated by sour, which would spoil the whole process. A evaporation during the cooling. And, if we had exgreat deal of the superiority of some breweries over cepted from the general consideration the two others, depends upon the construction of the coolers, first examples, the proportion evaporated would have or, rather, upon their being as well adapted as pos- been still greater. When the wort is let out of the boiler into the sible for reducing the temperature of the wort speed-
B R E W I N G. 4?6 Brewing, cooler, the hops still remain, and, as they are soaked called tvort, to the brisk intoxicating liquor which Brewing. 1 with wort, a considerable loss would be sustained if constitutes ale. The gyle-tuns are cylindrical woodthey were thrown away. Thus we found, in one in- en vessels, varying in size, according to the extent of stance, that 45 lbs. of hops retained half a barrel the brewery. In the London brew eries, and in the of wort after they were drained so completely that distilleries, they are of prodigious size ; but in private no more wrort would drop out. In another case, 35 houses they often do not exceed the size of a wine lbs. of hops, retained in the same way, 0.3666 of a hogshead, or even of a beer barrel. The fermentabarrel, which is rather more than one-third of a tion is perhaps conducted with the greatest economy barrel. To recover this wort it is proper to subject in large vessels; but good ale may be made in comthe hops to pressure. We do not know whether this paratively small quantities. How far this is the case is attended to by the great brewers, though it pro- with porter, it is more difficult to say. Good porter bably is. By several of the Edinburgh brewers it is has scarcely ever been made, except by those who manufacture it upon a large scale. too much neglected. The fermenting tuns are not to be filled by the wort; In cold weather, where the brewery is small, and the apartment in which the fermenting ves- because a considerable increase in bulk takes place sels are placed, cold, it is proper not to reduce during the fermentation, in consequence of wdiich the temperature of the wort so low as that of the the liquor would run over, unless allowance were atmosphere. From want of attention to this cir- made for it. The fermentation of ale or beer is never carried to cumstance, we have seen wort refuse to ferment for some time, and the brewer under the necessity of any great length. The object of the brewer is, to heating it artificially before fermentation could be retain the flavour and good qualities of the ale or beer, brought on. In such cases, the wort is very apt to not to develope the greatest quantity of spirits, be lost altogether by contracting acidity. The tem- which can hardly be done without allowing the wort perature, in such cases, ought not to be reduced to run into acidity. The violence of the fermentalower than 56°. But when the apartment in which tion depends upon the quantity of yeast added. fermentation is carried on is warm, 51° or 52° is a Brewers, accordingly, mix yeast with their worts very good temperature. When the brewer is ob- only in very sparing quantities ; while the distiller liged to make ale in warm summer weather, it is adds it in great doses, and repeatedly. Yeast is a frothy substance of a brownish-grey Nature cf material to reduce the temperature as low as possible. In such cases, great advantage would attend colour, and bitter taste, which is formed on the sur-Yeast, cooling the wort in coolers without any roof or face of ale or w ine while fermenting. If it be put covering whatever, but quite open to the sky; be- into sacks the moisture gradually drops out, and the cause, in clear nights, the wort might be cooled in yeast remains behind in a solid form. It has very this way, eight or ten degrees lower than the tem- much of the flavour and taste of cheese when in this perature of the atmosphere. The reason is obvious. state; but its colour is still darker. This dried yeast It is owing to the rays of heat, which, in such a promotes or excites fermentation; but it does not case, radiate from the wort, and are not returned answer quite so well as fresh yeast. At one period, again by the clear sky. Wort, being a good radia- some of the Scotch distillers employed considerable tor of heat, would be particularly benefited by this quantities of it; but all of them with whom we conmethod of cooling. We have no doubt that it might versed on the subject, affirmed, that it was much less be put in practice with advantage in hot climates; profitable than even the bad porter yeast which they and that, by means of it, good ale or porter might were in the habit of bringing down from London. be manufactured in the East and West Indies. Such From the resemblance which dried yeast has to a manufacture, if successful, would be particularly cheese, one would be disposed to infer that it is a relished in India, and would, we doubt not, prove species or variety of gluten. But if we attempt to a lucrative article of manufacture to an enterprising induce fermentation in wort by adding the gluten of wheat, we will be unsuccessful. man. When yeast is kept for some time in cylindrical As there is a duty levied on ale and beer according to their quantity, Excisemen are in the habit of glass vessels, a white substance, not unlike curd, gauging the wort while in the boiler and when on separates and swdms on the surface. If this subthe coolers. Not that the duty is levied accord- stance be removed the yeast loses the property of ing to the quantities there found; but to serve as a exciting fermentation. This white substance poscheck upon the more accurate guages taken in the sesses many of the properties of gluten, though it fermenting tuns. For a certain allowance being differs from it in others. Its colour is much whiter, made for evaporation, w hile the wort is in the cooler, it has not the same elasticity, and its particles do not which the excisemen, from long observation, are en- adhere with the same force. In short, it agrees much abled to do with some accuracy, they have it in their more nearly, in its properties, with the curd of milk power, from these checks, to determine whether any than with the gluten of wheat. We are disposed of the wort from the coolers has been secreted or to consider this substance as the true fermenting carried off with a view to evade the excise laws. principle in yeast; though we were never able to Fermenta* 4. When the wort is sufficiently cooled down by procure a sufficient quantity of it to put its fermenttion. exposure on the coolers, it is let down into the fer- ing powers to the test of experiment. We have menting-tuns, or, as the brewers call them, the gyle- sometimes seen a similar substance separate in the tuns, in order to be fermented ; by which process, fermenting tuns in distilleries, when the fermentation it is converted from the luscious sw'eet-tasted liquor was nearly at an end; or? rather, when such a quantity
477 BREWING. Brewing. has been carried to the greatest possible length. [Brewing. of spirit had been generated as put an end to the Hence the present mode of levying the duties on fermenting process altogether. But we could never learn that the distillers had formed any opinion re- spirits upon the wash is not only very injurious to specting this curdy substance. It did not interfere the goodness of the spirits manufactured; but is atwith the success of their operations, and, on that ac- tended with a positive and very heavy loss to the count, they bestowed little attention to it. We at- community. Distillers’ wash may be fermented a tempted, once or twice, to collect such a quantity ot second time, and would in this way yield a considerit as might enable us to try its powers as a ferment, able additional quantity of spirits. We have frequently seen it made into good small-beer. The probut we did not succeed. per mode of levying the duty would be on the quanThe only chemist who has attempted to subject yeast to a chemical analysis is Westrumb. But, tity of saccharine matter in the wash. This might though this philosopher was distinguished for his ac- easily be determined by a good saccharometer. A curacy, the task was too difficult for the resouices of certain part of the duty might likewise be levied upthe science of the time (179o) when he published on the spirits produced. This would act as a sort of his Experiments. From 15360 parts of Iresh beer check upon the first estimate, and would considerably diminish the risk of fraud. Indeed, the mode yeast he obtained the following substances: of determining the duty by the quantity of saccharine matter, would not be more liable to evasion Potash 13 than the present mode. It could be evaded in no Carbonic acid 15 other wray than by concealing a portion of the wash, Acetic acid 10 which w'ould be equally efficacious according to the Malic acid 45 present mode. Lime 69 We conceive, therefore, that when yeast is mixed Alcohol 240 with alcohol, it may retain so much of that liquor as Extractive 120 to prevent it from acting as a ferment. When we Mucilage • 240 attempt to wash away the alcohol, we may destroy Saccharine matter 315 the yeast by washing awray that portion of it which Gluten I'SO really acts as a ferment, which is probably small in Water 13595 quantity. It seems to us not unlikely, that the portion of 15142 yeast which really acts as a ferment, is a quantity Loss 218 of saccharine matter which it contains, that has begun to undergo the decomposition produced by ferTotal 15360 mentation, but has not yet completed the change. As yeast may be reduced to a dried state with- For nothing more seems to be necessary than to beout depriving it of the power of acting as a ferment, gin the fermentative process in wort; the process it is clear that the carbonic acid, acetic acid, alcohol, then goes on of itself. It would be curious to know and water are not essential to it. We cannot sup- whether a high temperature (96° or 100°) might be pose that either potash, lime, or malic acid, is essen- substituted in distilleries for the great quantities of tial. The saccharine matter, we know, is capable of yeast at present employed. We believe that the fermenting of itself; but if it were the essential in- reason why such great quantities of yeast are necesgredient, it would be quite unnecessary to add yeast sary in distilleries, is the very great strength of the to wort at all, as we know that the wort contains wash employed; as they are obliged by law to proabundance of saccharine matter in solution. We duce a quantity of proof spirits amounting nearly to know likewise, from experiment, that neither ex- -Uh of the whole bulk of the wash. Nothing can be tractive, mucilage nor gluten possesses the property more preposterous than such a method, nor more of exciting fermentation. Ihus none ot the sub- contrary to the real interest of the community, stances found by Westrumb in yeast, can be con- which obviously must be to produce the greatest sidered as the true fermenting principle. Dobereiner quantity of good spirits from a given quantity of found that, when yeast is steeped in alcohol, it loses grain. The quantity of yeast mixed with the wort in the the property of acting as a ferment. I his may be nwing to the alcohol dissolving and carrying off the fermenting tuns by brewers, is very small, amounttrue fermenting principle. But we are rather dis- ing, at an average, to a gallon of yeast for every posed to ascribe it to the presence ot a portion of three barrels of wort. The following table will give alcohol in the yeast. We know that a certain por- the reader an idea of the quantities of yeast really tion of alcohol destroys fermentation. Thus we mixed by the Edinburgh brewers with their strong have found by a great many trials, conducted on ra- ale worts in different brewings. It is obvious, howther a large scale, that the stronger a wort is made, ever, that the quantity of yeast must be regulated in the greater is the quantity of unaltered saccharine some measure by its goodness. matter which remains in it after the fermentation
478 Krevving.
BREWING. of Quantity of Specific lbs. per barrel Quantity yeast added wort iu bar- gravity. of saccharine in gallons. matter. rels. 3.5 1.106 99 10.611
Quantity Date at of Wort which it fermented was into in two theletferTuns. menting In BarTuns. rels.
Temperature at that time.
Temperature when at the highest Point of Fermenta tion.
Date at which this Temperature took place.
Strength of Wort when let into fermenting Tuns, iu lbs per Barrel.
Quantity of Yeast added in Gallons.
10.83
1.104
97i
14.944
1.096
89i
2.5
10.83
March 10.
50°
63c
March 17. 88.75
14.8055
1.093
86f
3.75
14.944 Marchl7< in 1 tun.
55
61
March21. 85.62
14.6388
1.093
86f
2.83
14.8055 March24
46
68
April 2.
78.125 3f
14.722
1.082
l
2.83
70
April 2.
80.625 2.83
1.091
57
10.201
14.6388 Marchg9. in 1 tun.'
9-75
1.091
14.722 March 31.
56
71
April 3.
73.75
2.83
11.478
1.098
9U
17-43 April 4. in 1 tun.
51
64
April 10. 65.00
2.83
9-25
1.096
89-67
8.72 April 6. in 1 tun.
50
65
April 13. 93.75
762
The four last brewings, in which the quantity of veast added was smaller than in the six first, took place during the month of May, when the heat is apt to make the fermentation run to excess. The variation in the quantity, so conspicuous m the first six brewings, is partly to be ascribed to differences in the goodness of the yeast; but chiefly to the carelessness and want of method which distinguished the brewer in question beyond any one we ever met. But we have taken his quantities, to show that ditferences in the quantity of yeast are not material; for all the preceding brewings, except the first, furnished very good ale. The wort in the first brewing had been cooled too much; the consequence was, that it fermented very badly, and finally ran into acidity. . , .. Soon after the yeast has been mixed with the wort, an intestine motion begins to appear in the liquid ; air bubbles separate from it, and a froth collects slowly upon the surface. This froth is of a yellowish grey colour. At first it has the appeal ance of cream ; but, in a few days, it collects in considerable quantities, especially if the weather be warm. At the same time, the temperature of the wort increases, and a very considerable quantity of carbonic acid gas is given out by it. The increase of temperature which takes place during the feimenting of ale may be stated, at an average, to amount to 12° or 15°. Sometimes it amounts to 20°, and some* times does not exceed 5°. But, in such cases, there is generally some fault in the skill of the orewer. But the following Table, exhibiting the highest temperatures of different ales during their fermentation, will satisfy the reader of these changes of temperature better than any general explanation ;
We shall now give some examples of the change of temperature by fermentation, when the brewings were conducted in summer, and of course assisted by the heat of the weather. Quantity of Wort fermented in Barrels. 9.75
Date of letting it into the fermenting Tun.
Temperature at that time.
TemStrength Yeast perature Date of of Wort in used in whenat ditto. lbs. per GalBarrel. lons. highest.
May 24 51
71° May 30. 95-93
11.4782 May 28 49
72
June 2. 91.56
May 31. 46
67
June 6. 89-37
9-25
10.2777 June 4.
46
67* June 13 105.82
June 7*
44
71
June 15. 102.187
10.2222 June 11. 55
82
June 15. 110.0
10.694 June 18 53
80
June 24 96.4
10.5
13.5
June 21
53
671 June 25 61.25
We shall likewise give the result of two brewings, with raw grain, made also during summer. Strength Yeast of Wort used in lbs. iu pe>' Bar- Galrel. lons.
Date of Temletting do. perainto the ture at Ferment- that ing Tun. time.
Tempera- Date of ture when at ditto. highest.
10.5555 June 26 48°
62° July 1.
56.25
14.3055 July 6.
68° July 8.
72.5
Quantity of Wort Fenneuted in Bar rels.
58
479 Brewing.
BREWING. Brewing
We see* from the preceding tables, that the length of time which elapses before the fermentation reaches its acme (supposing this to be measured by the temperature) varies very considerably. I he shortest interval in the table is three days, and the longest nine days ; the average of the whole is very nearly six days, vrhich is exactly the mean between the longest and the shortest times. If the reader will glance his eye over the tables, he will perceive that, in general, the higher the temperature of the wort is when let down into the fermenting tuns, the more rapidly does the fermentation come on. As the worts were cooled by exposure to the gieatest cold of the night, and as the coolers were screened from the effects of the radiation of heat, the temperatures given in the third column of the preceding tables may be considered as measuring very nearly the greatest degree of cold which took place in Edinburgh at the dates contained in the second column. Hence it follows, as might have been expected, that the warmer the weather, the more rapid is the fermentation. Hence the advantage of letting down the worts rather warm in cold weather, and cooling them down as much as possible in warm weather. For this purpose, we cannot too much recommend coolers which can occasionally be uncovered altogether, and exposed to the unclouded sky. A roof, perhaps, might be contrived, composed of very light materials, which might be easily slid off, or which might turn upon a pivot. For a roof would be occasionally necessary to screen the worts from rain. In warm weather, brewing should be confined to clear and unclouded days, when the cooling process could be carried farthest of all. We have little doubt that wort might easily be cooled down to the freezing point, if requisite, in our warmest summer weather. Little can be said about the length of time during which the fermentation of ale lasts; because it varies very much according to the heat of the weathei, and the degree to which the wort has been cooled down. The following Table will give some idea of the length of time which elapsed during the fermentations contained in the preceding tables : First Table. 1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th 7th
8 Days. 10 10 8 9 9 10
Second Table. 1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
6 Days. 8 9 15 10 7 7 7
Third Table. 1st 2d
9 Days. 5
The theory of fermentation has occupied the at- Tlieoiy of tention of chemists ever since the manufacture of ™ientil* ale began to be attended to by men of science; but it is only of late that much light has been thrown upon the subject. Lavoisier was the first person who attempted to give any thing like a theory of this intricate process. He attempted to determine the composition of common sugar, a substance which may be fermented just as well as the soluble part of malt, and which yields similar products. He endeavoured, likewise, to determine the constituents of alcohol, the substance formed by fermentation. \V ith these data, and with a knowledge of the composition of water and carbonic acid, he formed a plausible theory, which was valuable as a first approximation, though there can be little doubt that it was erroneous in every particular. Since that time, several experiments on the subject have been made by fhenard. Guy-Lussac and Thenard, and Berzelius, have determined the constituents of sugar with much care; and Theodore de Saussure has made very elaborate, and, we believe accurate, experiments on the composition of alcohol. These facts will enable us to forma conception of what takes place during fermentation. We shall first state the general theory, as resulting from experiments on common sugar, and then give some experiments, which we ourselves have made on the saccharine matter of malt. If a weak solution of sugar in water be kept in a warm place, it will ferment of itself, and be converted into a spiritous liquor. This we have tried more than once, and always successfully, provided the weather was warm. A solution of sugar of grapes in water ferments still more speedily. This is said, likewise, to be the case with sugar of starch ; and, of course, with the saccharine matter of malt. In our general view of fermentation, then, we may leave out of view the small quantity of yeast; because it is not absolutely necessary, but seems merely to render the effect more rapid, and consequently prevent the change of the liquid into acidity, which almost always takes place when the fermentation is slow. When the fermentation is complete, the sugar disappears altogether, and two new substances are found in its place. These are, carbonic acid and alcohol. All that happens, then, is the resolution of sugar into the two new substances, carbonic acid and alcohol. It is requisite to know how much of each of these substances is formed from a given jweight of sugar. According to Lavoisier’s experiments, 100 parts of sugar yielded, when fermented, Alcohol, _ Carbonic acid,
57-70 35.34
He does not give us the specific gravity of his alcohol, but it could scarcely be less than 0.825; for when his experiments were made, alcohol of greater
BREWING. 480 This result approaches so nearly that of Lavoisier, Brewing Brewing, strength was scarcely known. Now, such alcohol that there is reason to suspect that the coincidence ' contains at least 11 per cent, of water ; for that quanis more than accidental. tity has been actually extracted from it. From bausAccording to the experiments of Thenard and sure’s experiments, it is probable that the real quan- Guy-Lussac, sugar is composed of tity of water contained in alcohol of the specific gravity 0.825, is 18.387 per cent, or almost a tittln Un Carbon, ~ 42.47 this supposition sugar, according to Lavoisier s exOxygen and hydrogen in the same properiments, yields portion as in water, 57.53 47-1 Alcohol, 100.00 35.34 Carbonic acid, According to one analysis of Berzelius, it is com82.44 posed of or pier cent. Hydrogen, 6.802 57.1 Alcohol, Carbon, 44.115 42.9 Carbonic acid, Oxygen, 49*083 100.0 100.000 Thenard mixed 60 parts of yeast with 300 of su- and according to another, of gar, and fermented the mixture at the temperature Hydrogen, 6.891 of 59°. He informs us, that, in four or five aays, al 42.704 Carbon, the saccharine matter had disappeared. The quantity 50.405 Oxygen, of carbonic acid evolved amounted by weight to 94.0 parts. It was perfectly pure, being completely absorb100.000 ed by water. The fermented liquid being distilled, yielded 171.5 parts of alcohol, of the specific gravity Alcohol, according to the analysis of Saussure, is 0.822. When the residue of the distillation was eva composed of porated, 12 parts of a nauseous acid substance re13.70 or 3 atoms. Hydrogen, mained, and 40 parts of the yeast still continued un51.98 or 2 Carbon, altered in appearance, though Thenard assures us 34.32 or 1 Oxygen, that it had lost the whole of its azote. 1 bus . the products of the fermentations were 100.00 171.5 Alcohol of 0.822, 94.6 Carbonic acid, And carbonic acid is composed of 12.0 Nauseous residue, 40.0 27.3 or 1 atom, llesidual yeast, Carbon, Oxygen, 72.7 or 2 318.1 41.9 Hence it is obvious that sugar can be resolved inLoss, to alcohol and carbonic acid only, on the supposi360.0 tion that it contains 3 atoms of oxygen, Total, 3 atoms of carbon, 3 atoms of hydrogen, But as the nauseous residue and residual yeast, nearly make up the quantity of yeast employed, let us consider only the products of decomposed sugar, proportions which do not accord with any of the supposing the loss to be proportionally divided be- analyses stated above. Supposing its composition to tween the carbonic acid and alcohol. Now, alcohol be so, the weight of each ot the constituents per of the specific gravity 0.822, contains one-tenth ol cent, is as follows: its weight of water, which can be separated from it; 6.66 Hydrogen, and if we suppose, with Saussure, that absolute al40.03 Carbon, cohol contains 8.3 per cent, of water, then the pro53.31 Oxygen, ducts of sugar decomposed by fermentation, according to Saussure’s experiments, are as follows: 100.00 47.70 Alcohol, 35.34 Carbonic acid, On this supposition, an integrant particle of su . a frame d, which is supported by tw o pillars. The when the handle is turned into a perpendicular diframe contains a small roller behind the rack, which rection with the passage f downwards, the cock w ill bears it up towards the pinion, and keeps its teeth be open. The intention of this contrivance is, up to the teeth of the pinion. The slider A is made that there shall be no considerable projection beto fit accurately against the internal surface of the yond the surface of the tun; because it somebox C, and it is made to bear against this surface times happens that a great hoop of the tun breaks, by the pressure of a spring, so as to make a perfect- and falling down, its great weight would strike out any cock which had a projection; and if this ly close fitting. Fig. 5. is a small cock to be placed in the side of happened in the night much beer might be lost bethe great store-vats, for the purpose of drawing off fore it was discovered. The cock above described a small quantity of beer, to taste and try its quality. being almost wholly withinside, and having scarcely A is a part of the stave or thickness of the great any projection beyond the outside surface of the tun, store-vat; into this the tube B of the cock is fitted, is secure from this accident. Fig. ?. is a small contrivance of a vent peg, to be and is held tight in its place by a nut a d screwed on withinside. At the other end of the tube B, a plug screwed into the head of a common cask when the it, and it is necessary to e is fitted, by grinding it into a cone, and it is kept in beer is to be drawn off from r by a screw. This plug has a hole up the centre of admit some air to allow the beer to flow. A A reit, and from this a hole proceeds sideways and corre- presents a portion of the head of the cask into which sponds with a hole made through the side of the tube the tube B is screwed. The top of this tube is surwhen the cock is open ; but when the plug c is turn- rounded by a small cup, from which project the tw^e ed round, the hole will not coincide, and then the small handles CC, by which the peg is turned round cock will be shut. D is the handle or key of the to screw it into the cask. The cup round the upper cock, by which its plug is turned to open or shut it; part of the tube is filled with water, and into this a this handle is put up the bore of the tube (the cover small cup D is inverted ; in consequence, the air can E being first unscrewed and removed), and the end gain admission into the cask when the pressure of it is adapted to fit the end of the plug of the cock. within is so far diminished that the air will bubble The handle has a tube or passage bored up it to up through the water, and enter beneath the Rsmall ( 0 convey the beer away from the cock when it is open- cup D.
History.
BRICK, a kind of artificial stone made of baked clay. 1. The art of making bricks is so simple that it must have been practised in the earliest ages of the world; probably before mankind had discovered the method of fashioning stones to suit the purposes of building. The Book of Genesis informs us, that burnt-bricks were employed in the construction of Babel. Now, as this structure appears to have been raised about 400 years after the period of the flood, we may say, without much exaggeration, that the method of making bricks existed from the very origin of society. Bricks seem to have been in common use in Egypt while the Israelites were in subjection to that nation ; for the task assigned them was the making of brick; and we are informed in Exodus, that the Israelites built two Egyptian cities. No particulars are given in scripture of the method of making bricks; but as straw was one of the ingredients, and as it very seldom rains in Egypt, it is probable that their bricks were not burnt, but merely baked by the heat of the sun. The same mode of making bricks seems still to be practised in the East. For the ruins of the tower near Bagdad, which some have considered as the Tower of Babel, others as the Tower in Babylon described by Herodotus (lib. i. c. 181.), is formed of unburnt-bricks. We have seen specimens from that place; they are large, but thin, and have a brown
colour. It is not at all likely that structures of unburnt-brick should be able to resist the weather since the time of Nebuchadnezzar ; it is much more probable that the tower in question was raised by the Arabs in comparatively modern times. The art of brick-making was carried to considerable perfection by the Greeks. Pliny informs us, that they made use of bricks of three different sizes, distinguished by the following names; didoron, or six inches long; tetradoron, or twelve inches long; and ventadoron, or fifteen inches long (lib. xxxv. c. 14). That the Romans excelled in the art of making bricks we have the amplest evidence, since brick structures raised at Rome 1700 years ago, Trajan s pillar for example, still remain as entire as when first built. Brick-making has been carried to great perfection by the Dutch, who have long been in the habit of forming their floors, and even of paving their streets, in some cases, with bricks. And it is remarkable how long their bricks will continue uninjured in such situations. Though brick-making has been long carried on in England, and especially in the neighbourhood of London, upon a very great scale, and though the process upon the whole is conducted in this country with very considerable skill, yet it must be acknowledged, that English bricks are by no means so durable as Dutch bricks. We are disposed to ascribe this inferiority not so much to the nature of the materials employed in the manu-
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BRIG K-M A K I N G. Potter’s clay is a compound of Brick, facture of English bi'icks, as to the mode most frequently employed in London in building houses. Silica 43.5 Few of the London houses, comparatively speaking, Alumina 33.2 are freeholds. Most of them are built upon ground Lime 3.5 let for a lease of a certain number of years, which Oxide of iron 1.0 seldom exceeds 99 years. After the expiration of Water 18.0 this period, the house becomes the property of the landlord who let the ground. Thus it becomes the 99-2 interest of the builder to construct the house so, that Loss 8 it shall last only as long as the lease. Hence the goodness of the bricks becomes only a secondary obTotal 100.0 ject. Their cheapness is the principal point. The When the clay proceeds from the decomposition object, therefore, of the brickmakers is not to furnish durable bricks, but to make them at as cheap a of hornblende, as is likewise often the case, it conrate as possible. Accordingly, the saving of manual tains about 3^ parts of silica, 1 of alumina, 1 of labour, and of fuel, have been carried by the makers lime, and about 1^ of oxide of iron. Sometimes of London bricks to very great lengths. We can- the grains of sand which exist in clay consist of not but consider this mode of proceeding as very ob- fragments of felspar. In such cases the clay may jectionable, and as entailing a much heavier expence be fused by heat. No mixture of alumina and silica, in any proporupon London than would have been incurred had twice the original price been laid out upon the bricks tions whatever, can be fused by the strongest heat when they were first used, and had the houses been which can be raised in our furnaces. Hence such constructed to last a thousand instead of a hundred mixtures are best adapted for making fire-bricks, years. No doubt, certain advantages attend these crucibles, and glasshouse pots. Stourbridge clay is ephemeral structures. The inhabitants are enabled, such a mixture, blackened by coaly matter. It anonce every century, to suit their houses to the pre- swers these purposes better than any other clay in vailing taste of the day. Thus, there are no anti- England. Neither can a mixture of lime and aluquated houses in London. But as the increase of mina be fused, in whatever proportions the ingredithe price of all the materials of building has more ents be mixed. But a mixture of silica, lime, and than kept pace with the increase of the wealth of alumina, is very fusible, and the fusion is most reaindividuals, it is to be questioned whether the houses dily effected when we employ two parts of silica to are always improved when they are pulled down and one of lime. The presence of oxide of iron also renders clay fusible, but not unless its proportion be rebuilt. Nature and 2. The best material for making brick is what in much greater than ever is likely to occur in any clay Kinds of tlm English language is called loam, a terra usually used for the manufacture of bricks. For making common bricks, the most durable mixapplied to a natural mixture of sand and clay. Such a mixture may be converted into brick with- ture ought to be common clay and limestone or chalk. out any addition whatever. Marl likewise answers Perhaps the best proportions would be three parts of the purpose of common bricks very well,—indeed clay, and one part of limestone or chalk in powder. better than most other mixtures. Marl is a natural When such a mixture is exposed to heat, it would mixture of limestone and clay in variable propor- experience an incipient fusion, and would thereby be tions. Now, the more lime it contains, the better rendered much harder and denser than common does it answer for a manure ; and the less lime it bricks. The consequence would be, that it would imbibe much less water, and would therefore be much contains, the more suitable it is to the brickmaker. It would be in vain to attempt a particular detail less liable to crack and fall to pieces in winter than ©f the constituents of clays, because they vary too common bricks. For when water has insinuated itmuch from each other to admit of any correct gene- self into the pores of a common brick, and is conralization. We believe, however, that clays very verted into ice, it undergoes an expansion which disfrequently consist of decomposed felspar, in which locates the parts of the brick, and reduces it to case we may conceive them as composed of about fragments. This is often conspicuously the case three parts of silica in the state of a very fine pow- with tyles, which, from their exposed situation, are der, and one part of alumina. This is the case with more liable to be soaked with water than common porcelain clay. Indeed, the porcelain clay of Corn- bricks. Hence also covering the surface of the wall appears incontrovertibly to be nothing else than brick with a coating of paint has a great tendency decayed felspar, or perhaps felspar which never had to preserve them from cracking and breaking. This assumed any other form than that of clay. The practice is frequently followed in England. It would be foreign to the object of this article rock from which it is taken is an agglutinated mixture of quartz and this clay. The quartz is sepa- to enter into any long details respecting the chemirated by washing. Such a rock might probably be cal investigations, and the opinions entertained at converted into most beautiful brick, merely by cut- different periods respecting the nature of clay. At ting it out in the proper shape, and subjecting it to first, it was supposed to be a peculiar species of the requisite heat; or rather by kneading the whole earth, but Hellot demonstrated that it consisted at into a paste with the requisite quantity of water, least of two constituents ; for sulphuric acid had the moulding it into bricks, and drying and burning property of destroying its plastic nature, and of renthem. dering it scarcely more adhesive than sand. Ti e
493 Brick.
BRIO KM 494 Brick, portion that remained behind did not effervesce with ***\*a^/ acids. It was not, therefore, of a calcareous nature. Mr Pott went a step farther; he showed in the continuation of his Lithogeognosia that sulphuric acid formed, with the portion of clay which it dissolved, a salt possessing the properties of alum. In the year 1769, Baume published his* Dissertation on Clays, which he had drawn up in consequence of a premium offered by the Academy of Sciences at Bourdeaux, for the best solution of the following question : What are the principles and constituents of clay, and the natural changes which it experiences, and what are the methods of rendering it fertile? The Academy did not consider Baume’s solutions as satisfactory. He published his Memoir, in consequence, as a kind of defiance. He had been employed along with Macquer in making numerous experiments on clay, with a view to the improvement of the porcelain manufacture in France. Guided by these experiments, he drew as a conclusion that clay is a mixture of two different substances; 1. Silica in a state of purity ; 2. Silica combined with an underdose of sulphuric acid. It was the second of these constituents that gave to clay its fatty and plastic nature. Margraaf had long before (in 1756) demonstrated that the ingredient of clay which Baume took for a salt, and which he affirmed was soluble in water, was a peculiar species of earth, different from every other, which constitutes the basis of alum, which dissolves in sulphuric acid, but which does not form alum unless a portion of potash be added to the solution. Thus, by the labours of Ilellot, Pott, Baume, and Margraaf, the nature of clay was completely developed. It was ascertained to be a mixture of alumina and silica, in variable proportions. It was shown, also, that it sometimes contained sulphuric acid, and not unfrequently potash. Hence the reason why, in some cases, it could be converted into alum by digestion in sulphuric acid, without the necessity of adding any potash to the solution. Modern chemists have added considerably to these facts. They have shown that chalk, felspar, mica, hornblende, oxide of iron, coal, bitumen, &c. are not unfrequently mixed with it; and that these additions alter its qualities considerably, and render it fit or unfit for the different purposes to which clay is usually applied. Preparation 3. Clay intended to be made into bricks ought to of the Clay,be dug out of the earth, and exposed to the air and and Forma-weather for a considerable time before it is employtion ot the ^ jonger eXp0sure is continued, so much the better will it be fitted for making bricks. This exposure answers a variety of purposes. If the stones, by the decomposition of which the clay has been formed, are not entirely decomposed, this exposure serves to complete the process, by promoting the disentegrating action of the air and rain. The exposure serves, likewise, to pulverize the clay, which is essential to the making of good bricks. We have little doubt that the same amelioration in the clay would be produced by simply drying it in the open air, and then grinding it to powder in a mill. By such a process, the quality of the bricks would be prodigiously improved. Nor do we conceive that such an addition would greatly enhance the expen-
A K I N a. ces of the brickmaker, at least in those districts Buck, where the mill could be driven by water. When the clay has been reduced to powder, the next step is to make it into a stiff paste with water. Too much water should not be employed, because it is injurious to the strength of the bricks ; and the utmost care should be taken to mix the whole of the clay as equally as possible with the water. If some parts of the paste be nioister than others, it will occasion an inequality in the texture of the bricks formed of it will render them apt to crack, and will greatly injure both their strength and their beauty. Hence the great importance of working the clay for a considerable length of time before moulding it into bricks. It is in this part of the process that we believe British brickmakers in general are most defective. As far as we have had an opportunity of witnessing the process of kneading the clay, as conducted either in the neighbourhood of London or Edinburgh, we have always found a great sparing of labour. Hence we believe the reason why so many of the English bricks appear full of cracks, even when sold to the builder. Such bricks ought never to be purchased, as it is perfectly obvious that they cannot make a durable building. The kneading ot the clay is performed, in some places, by men’s feet; in others, by the feet of horses, and in others by machinery. The last method is undoubtedly the best; and we conceive likewise that it might be made the cheapest. It would be easy to devise machinery for kneading the clay, upon principles similar to those employed in mashing by the London porter brewers. And, if such a machine were driven by water, we conceive that it would not be nearly so expensive as either men or horses. When the clay is sufficiently kneaded, it is moulded into the form of a brick, by being put into very simple wooden mould ; and the upper part of the brick is made smooth and even by cutting off the superfluous part with a wooden knife. The process is very simple, and is conducted by the workmen with great rapidity. A good brickmaker will mould about 5000 bricks in a day. He disengages the bricks from the mould by a gentle stroke on the back of the mould; and the wet bricks are at first arranged in rows upon long boards. When sufficiently dry to be handled, they are turned, and at last pded up in loose walls, which are thatched with straw to keep off the rain. In this position they are allowed to remain till they have become as dry as they can become in the open air. In many cases, the clay used for brick-making is destitute of the requisite quantity of sand. If such clay were made into bricks, it would shrink so much in the burning, that the bricks would lose their shape, and would probably crack in every direction. To prevent this, it is necessary to add a certain quantity of sand. This sand should not be very fine. It answers best when the particles are of such a size as to be readily distinguished by the naked eye. Even when as large as coriander seeds, it has been found to answer better than very fine sand. The brickmakers in the neighbourhood of London bring their sand from the bottom of the
BRIG K-M A K I N G . Brick* Thames near Woolwich, where it is raised b}r boats bricks are known to be dry when the smoke (which employed for that purpose, and brought up the river is at first black) becomes transparent. The mouth of the kiln is then filled up with pieces of brick and for the use of the brickmakers. Bumin? of 4. No general directions can be given respecting the clay, leaving only room to introduce a faggot at a the Bricks, quantity of sand to be mixed with the clay, because time. This structure at the mouth of the kiln is that depends upon the nature of the clay, and upon called a shinlog. The kiln is then supplied with the uses for which the bricks are intended. The faggots of furze, heath, fern, or whatever vegetable more sand as added, the more accurately do the substance can be procured at the cheapest rate, till bricks retain their shape, and the less apt are they the arches look white, and the fire appears at the to crack during the burning; but, at the same time, top. The fire is then diminished, and at length altheir strength is diminished. Chemical lutes are lowed to go out, and the kiln is permitted to cool. often composed of four parts of sand and one part of This burning process usually lasts about forty-eight clay. Such mixtures do not contract much in burn- hours. The method of burning bricks in the neighbouring, and, therefore, are not apt to crack and drop off, which is the reason why chemists employ them. hood of London, is very different from this. We do But they have not the adhesiveness of brick after be- not know whether it be practised any where else. ing burnt, and would not, therefore, answer the pur- It obviously originated from the difficulty of procurposes of the brickmaker. In stone-ware, the mixture ing a sufficient quantity of vegetable matter to bum consists of about four parts of clay and one of fine the enormous number of bricks consumed every year sand. It burns to a hard, cohesive substance, capa- in London. If we consider the immense extension ble of striking fire with steel. Such a proportion of houses which has taken place in London within then, in many cases, would answer the purposes of the last thirty years,—if we consider that this vast city, containing above 1,000,000 of inhabitants, is the brickmaker. The London brickmakers make another addition almost renewed once every century, we may be able to the clay, which, we believe, is peculiar to them. to form some notion of the prodigious quantity of They add to every three parts of the clay about one bricks which it must consume. In the country round part of the ashes from the fire-places of the city of London there is a particular kind of clay, well known London. These ashes contain some earthy matter ; by the name of London Clay. This clay is almost but they consist, in a great measure, of small coal everywhere covered with a bed of gravel, which unburnt, and little altered, which has fallen through varies in thickness according to the elevation of the the interstices of the grate. The consequence is, surface. Hence the whole of the country round that such a mixture, when sufficiently heated, takes London is fit for making bricks. Nothing more fire and burns of itself, though very slowly; so that is necessary than to dig through the surface of the London bricks are burnt, in a great measure, by gravel, and get to the clay. We have already mentioned, that about a fourth means of the fuel mixed with the clay of which they part of the London bricks consists of small coal are composed. It is essential to dry the bricks thoroughly, in the kneaded up along with the clay. When the bricks open air, before burning them. For when heat are sufficiently dry, they are piled up on each other is applied to wet clay, the water which it contains in parallelopipedons to the intended height. Bebeing prevented from escaping by the adhesiveness tween each two rows of brick there is strewed a of the mixture, is converted into steam, and cracks quantity of cinders, amounting to about three inches and breaks the mass of clay to pieces. Indeed, after in thickness. At the distance of about nine feet the bricks are rendered as dry as they can become from each other, perpendicular spaces are left, about in the open air, they ought to be exposed, at first, to a brick wide, which serve the purpose of flues. a gentle heat, which ought to be raised to redness, These are made by arching the bricks over so as to very slowly, and in proportion as the moisture of leave a space between each about a brick in width. the brick is dissipated. Water adheres with such Over the whole is strewed a pretty thick covering of obstinacy to clay, that it is never all driven off by cinders. The flues are filled likewise with cinders, the heat at which bricks are burnt. But the portion or, if they cannot be had, with coal. The fire-place which remains is so intimately combined with the is usually at the west end, and is generally three clay, as to constitute one solid mass, which has no feet high. The fire, when once kindled in the firegreat tendency to absorb an additional quantity of place, propagates itself very slowly through the whole water. clamp, as bricks piled in this manner are called. So Bricks are most commonly burnt in a kiln. This very slow is the progress, that bricks in the neighis a very simple structure, usually about 13 feet bourhood of London take about three months in the long, 10^ wide, and 12 feet high. The walls are burning. The heat is very intense, and, as the fuel one foot two inches thick, and incline a little to each is mixed up with the clay itself, every part of the other as they ascend. The bricks are placed on brick is sure to be sufficiently burnt. Hat arches, having holes left in them like latticeWe conceive that the mixture of about one-fourth work. After the bricks are arranged on the kiln, of chalk with the clay of wffiich the London bricks to the number of about 20,000, they are covered are made, would greatly improve their quality. The with old bricks or tiles. Some brush-wood is then cansequence would be an incipient fusion, which kindled in the kiln, and a moderate fire kept up till would render their surface much more compact and the bricks are rendered as dry as possible. The solid. The only difficulty would be to proportion time required for this is two or three days, and the the quantity of chalk so as to prevent complete fu-
495 Brick,
B R I C K-M AKIN G. sion, which wouhi run the bricks into each other, swimming in water. This is a white earthy matter, v Biick. and destroy them entirely. Bricks made ol mate- which constitutes a bed in that place, and was rials which have undergone complete fusion, would known in Italy by the name of Latte di Luna. be greatly superior to common bricks. They would In more recent mineralogical books, it is distinguishperfectly resist the action of the weather, and would, ed by the name offarina fossilis (bergmehl). Hauy therefore, last much longer than common bricks. considers it as a variety of talc, and Brochant, In Sweden it is customary at some of the iron foun- as a variety of meerschaum. According to the anaderies, to cast the scoriae into bricks, which they lysis of Fabbroni, this substance is composed of employ in constructing their furnaces. Such fur55 Silica naces the writer of this article has seen; and he was 15 Magnesia assured by the gentleman who had the charge of the 12 Alumina works, that they answered tully better than common 3 Lime bricks. It would be easy to make any quantity of 1 Iron such bricks in some of the large iron founderies of 14 Water Great Britain. We are persuaded that such bricks might be brought into use for a variety of purposes 100 with great advantage, and might even constitute a lucrative article of manufacture. Bricks made iiom the scoriae of iron and copper founderies, would \ie But it has been recently analyzed by Klaproth, who in beauty with marble and porphyry, and would pos- found its constituents, sess a smoothness of surface and a lustre to which few marbles could reach. Silica 79 Fewr parts of Great Britain are so well adapted for 5 Alumina the making of bricks, according to the London plan, 3 Oxide of iron as the neighbourhood of Newcastle upon Tyne. 12 Water There the enormous heaps of small coal, which are of 1 Loss no use whatever, would furnish abundance of tuel, at a much cheaper rate, than even the London ashes; 100 while the magnesian limestone that occurs in such plenty in the neighbourhood of Sunderland, woulu enable the brickmaker to give the clay the requisite We see from this analysis, that this mineral is neither a variety of talc nor of meerschaum. One would be degree of fusibility. As bricks form an article of taxation, and furnish disposed to consider it as a hydrate of silica. . For a considerable revenue to Government, their size has both the alumina and oxider of iron are present in so been regulated by act of Parliament. They must not small proportions, that w e can scarcely consider as in chemical combination. be less than 8^ inches long, 2^ thick, and -i inches^ them Considering the composition of this earth, it is wride. But for various ,purposes, they are made ot rather singular that it is capable of being agglutinatvery ditferent and very considerable sizes. Fire-bricks are made in the same way as common ed by a red heat. We rather suspect that the FireBricks. bricks. But the materials are different. The best bricks of Fabbroni, w’hich swim in water, have but clay for their composition is Stourbridge clay ; and, very little strength. This, if it be the case, must instead of sand, it is usual to mix the clay with a greatly circumscribe their utility. The colour of the London bricks is not red, as is quantity of old fire-bricks, or crucibles, or glass pots, reduced previously to powder. This mixture an- the case with common bricks and tyles ; but a light swers the same purposes as sand, while it does not brownish yellow’. This colour is more pleasing to communicate the tendency to fusion, when it comes the eye than common brick red, and on that account in contact with various fluxes, that is communicated the London bricks are preferred for building houses. The brickmakers assign a curious enough reason for by siliceous sand. this colour. According to them, their bricks are There is a kind of bricks mentioned by Pliny, as Swimming Bricks. used by the ancients, which were so light as to swim kept as much as possible from the contact of air durin water. “ Pitanae in Asia, et in ulterioris His- ing their burning. The consequence of this is, that paniae civitatibus ^laxilua et Calento, fiunt Lateres, the iron contained in them is not oxidized to so qui ciccati non merguntur in aqua. ’ (Plinii ^Satur. great a degree as in common bricks. But this mode Histor. lib. xxxv. c. 14.) Pliny does not mention of reasoning is far from exact. If air were excluded the part of the world in which the earth employed entirely, the bricks would not be burnt at all, bein the manufactures of these bricks was found; cause the fire would be extinguished. But if enoug though in all probability, it could not be far from of air be admitted to burn the coal mixed with the the cities where the bricks are said by Pliny to have clay (which must be the case), that air must also act been made. He says that the material employed upon the iron, and reduce it to the state of peroxide. was a kind of pumice stone. But it was quite un- Indeed, there can be no doubt, that the iron m the known to the moderns, till, in the year 1791> Fab- London yellow bricks, is in the state of peroxide, a* broni found a substance at Castel del Piano, not far well as in the red bricks; for the peroxide ot iron from Santa Fiora, situated between Tuscany and the oaves various colours to bodies, according to circumPapal dominions, which formed bricks capable of stances. We find bodies tinged with it, red, yellow,.
496 Brick.
B R I Brick and brown, according to the substances with which the oxide is combined. We ascribe the yellow coH Bridge. lour of the London bricks to the ashes of the coals,
B R I which, by uniting with the peroxides of iron, form a kind of yellow ochre. (j.)
BRIDGE. Fhe mathematical theory of the structure of bridges has been a favourite subject with mechanical philosophers ; it gives scope to some of the most refined and elegant applications of science to practical utility; and at the same time that its progressive improvement exhibits an example of the very slow steps by which speculation has sometimes followed execution, it enables us to look forwards with perfect confidende to that more desirable state of human knowdedge, in which the calculations of the mathematician are authorised to direct the operations of the artificer with security, instead of watching with servility the progress of his labours. Of the origin of the art of building bridges a sketch has been given in the body of the Encyclo'poedia ; the subject has been rediscussed within the last twenty years by some of the most learned antiquaries, and of the most elegant scholars of the age; but additions still more important have been made to the scientific and practical principles on which that art depends; and the principal information, that is demanded on the present occasion, will be comprehended under the two heads of physico-mathematical principles, subservient to the theory of this department of architecture, and a historical account of the works either actually executed or projected, which appear to be the most deserving of notice. The first head will contain three sections, relating respectively (l) to the resistance of the materials employed, (2) to the equilibrium of arches, and (3) to the effects of friction; the second will comprehend (4) some details of earlier history and literature, (5) an account of the discussions which have taken place respecting the improvement of the port of London, and (6) a description of some of the most remarkable bridges which have been erected in modern times. Section I.—Of the Resistance of Materials. The nature of the forces on which the utility of the substances employed in architecture and carpentry depends, has been pretty fully investigated in the article Strength of the Encyclopcedia; and the theory has been carried somewhat further, in the investigations of a late writer concerning Cohesion and Passive Strength of materials. Much, however, still remains to be done; and we shall find many cases, in which the principles of these calculations admit of a more immediate and accurate application to practice than has hitherto been supposed. It wall first be necessary to advert to the foundation of the theory in its simplest form, as depending on the attractive and repulsive powers, which balance each other, in all natural substances remaining in a permanent state of cohesion, whether as liquids, or as more or less perfect solids. VOL. II. PAR?"II.
A. In all ho7nogeneous solid bodies, the resistances to extension and compression must be initially equal, and proportional to the change of dimensions. The equilibrium of the particles of any body remaining at rest, depends on the equality of opposite forces, varying according to certain laws ; and that these laws are continued without any abrupt change, when any minute alteration takes place in the distance, is demonstrated by their continuing little altered by any variation of dimensions, in consequence of an increase or diminution of temperature, and might indeed be at once inferred as highly probable, from the general principle of continuity observed in the laws of nature. We may, therefore, always assume a change of dimensions so small, that, as in all other differential calculations, the elements of the curves, of which the ordinates express the forces, as functions of, or as depending on, the distances as abscisses, may be considered as not sensibly differing from right lines, crossing each other, if the curves be drawn on the same side of the absciss, in a point corresponding to the point of rest, or to the distance affording an equilibrium; so that the elementary finite differences of the respective pairs of ordinates, which must form, with the portions of the two curves, rectilinear triangles, always similar to each other, will always vary as the lengths of the elements of the curves, or as the elements of the absciss, beginning at the point of rest; and it is obvious that these differences will represent the actual magnitude of the resistances exhibited by the substance to extension or compression. (Plate XLII. fig. 1.) It was on the same principle that Bernoulli long ago observed, that the minute oscillations of any system of bodies, whatever the laws of the forces governing them might be, must ultimately be isochronous, notwithstanding any imaginable variation of their comparative extent, the forces tending to bring them back to the quiescent position being always proportional to the displacements; and so far as the doctrine has been investigated by experiments, its general truth has been amply confirmed; the slight deviations from the exact proportion, which have been discovered in some substances, being far too unimportant to constitute an exception, and merely tending to show that these substances cannot have been perfectly homogeneous, in the sense here attributed to the word. When the compression or extension is considerable, there may indeed be a sensible deviation, especially in fibrous or stratified substances ; but this irregularity by no means affects tfie admissibility of any of the conclusions which will be derived from this proposition. B. The strength of a block or beam must be reduced to one half, before its cohesive and repulsive forces can both be called into action. We must suppose the transverse sections of the 3R
497 Brick I! Bridge.
BRIDGE. Bridsre. body to remain plane and perpendicular to the axis, whatever the point may be to which the force is applied, a supposition which will be correctly true, if the pressure be made by the intervention of a firm plate attached to each end, and which is perfectly admissible in every other case. Now, if the terminal plates remain parallel, it is obvious that the compression or extension must be uniformly distributed throughout the substance, which must happen when the original force is applied in the middle of the block; the centre of pressure or resistance, collected by the plate, acting like a lever, being then coincident witli the axis. But when the plates are inclined, the resistance depending on the compression or extension will be various in different parts, and will always be proportional to the distance from the neutral point, where the compression ends and the extension begins, if the depth of the substance is sufficient to extend to this point; consequently the forces may always be represented, like the pressure of a fluid, at different depths, by the ordinates of a triangle; and their result may be considered as concentrated in the centre of gravity of the triangle, or of such of its portions as are contained within the depth of the substance ; and when both extension and compression are concerned, the smaller force may be considered as a negative pressure, to be subtracted from the greater, as is usual when any other compound forces are supposed to act on a lever of any kifid. Now, when the neutral point is situated in one of the surfaces of the block, the sum of all the forces is represented by the area of the triangle, as it is by that of the parallelogram when the plates remain parallel, and these areas being in either case equivalent to the same external force, it is obvious that the perpendicular of the triangle must be equal to twice the height of the parallelogram, indicating that the compression or extension of the surface in the one case is twice as great as the equable compression or extension in the other ; and since there is always a certain degree ot compression or extension which must be precisely sufficient to crush or tear that part of the substance which is immediately exposed to it, and since the whole substance must in general give way when any of its parts fail, it follows that the strength is only half as great in the former case as in the latter. And the centre of gravity of every triangle being at the distance of onethird of its height from the base, the external force must be applied, in order to produce such a compression or extension, at the distance ol one sixth of the depth from the axis; and when its distance is greater than this, both the repulsive and cohesive forces of the substance must be called into action, and the strength must be still further impaired. (Plate XLII. fig. 2.) C. The compression or extension of the axis of a block or beam is always proportional to the force, reduced to the direction of the axis, at wh atever distance it may be applied. We may suppose one of the inflexible plates, attached to the extremities of the block, to be continued to the given distance, and to act as a lever held in equilibrium by three forces, that is, by the
cohesive and repulsive resistances of the block, and Bridge, the external force; and it is obvious that, as in all other levers, the external force will always be equal to the difference of the other two forces depending on the compression and extension, or to the mean compression or extension of the whole, which must also be the immediate compression or extension of the middle, since the figure representing the forces is rectilinear. And the effect will be the same, whatever may be the intermediate substances by which the force is impressed on the block, whether continued in a straight line or otherwise. When the force is oblique, the portion perpendicular to the axis will be resisted by the lateral adhesion of the different strata of the block, the compression or extension being only determined by the portion parallel to the axis ; and when it is transverse, the length of the axis will remain unaltered. But the line of direction of the original force must always be continued till it meets the transverse section at any point of the length, in order to determine the nature of the strain at that point. D. The distance of the neutral point from the axis of a block or beam is to the depth, as the depth to twelve times the distance of the force, measured in the transverse section. Calling the depth a, and the distance of the neutral point from the axis z, the resistances may be expressed by the squares of ^ a+z and | a—z, which are the sides of the similar triangles denoting the compression and extension (Prop. B.); consequently, the difference of these squares, 2 az, will represent the external force (Prop. C.). But the distance of the centres of gravity of the two triangles must always be § a; and, by the property of the lever, making the centre of action of the greater resistance the fulcrum, as the external force is to the smaller resistance, so is this distance to the distance of the force from the centre of action of the greater resistance; or 2 az 1 (£a + z)2=
/ aa a z\ ’ Vm — 3+3/.
and adding to this the distance of the centre of action from the axis, which must be %a-—a + z) — la — 3l s, we have 3
I2z
for the distance of the
force from the axis; whence, calling this distance aa y’Z=ZWy' E. The power of a given force to crush a block is increased, by its removal from the axis, supposing its direction unaltered, in the same proportion as the depth of the block is increased by the addition of six times the distance of the point of application of the force, measured in the transverse section. Since the compression or extension of the axis is invariable, whatever the distance of the force may be, that of the nearest surface must be as much greater, by the properties of similar triangles, as the half depth, increased by the distance of the neutral
499 B R I ]) G i:. Bridge- point, is greater than that distance itself, that is, in in the direction of one of Us diagonals, is twice as b’idgr. the ratio of a -f 6# to a, since z is to a as « to 12#; great as if the same force were applied in the direction ' (Prop. D.) and to | a as a to 6^ : and the strength is of the axis. This proposition affords a simple illustration of the reduced in the same proportion, as the partial compression or extension, by the operation of a given application of the preceding one. Calling the length of any portion of the axis x, beginning from the force, is increased. (Plate XLII. fig. 3.) F. The curvature of the neutral line of a beam at middle, and neglecting the obliquity, the distance of any point, produced by a given force, is proportional the force may be called y — nx, and the compresto the distance of the line of direction of the force sion in the line of the force being everywhere as from the given point of the axis, whatever that direc- „ , l^i/y . „ . \2nnxx , tion may be. 1 -1- ——, its fluxion will be da’ 4- da , and aa aa Since the distance z of the neutral point from the 4 w%3 axis is inversely as y, the distance of the force, and the radius of curvature, or the distance of the inter- the fluent x + aa , which, when y — \a, becomes section of the planes of the terminal plates from the which is twice as great as \iy were always =: 0. neutral point, must be to the distance z as the whole But if the breadth of the block were considerable, so length of the axis is to the alteration of that length that it approached to a cube, the compression would produced by the compression or extension, it follows vary according to a different law, each section paralthat the radius of curvature must be inversely as the lel to the diagonal affording an equal resistance, and distance y, and inversely also as the compression, the exact solution of the problem would require and the curvature itself must be conjointly as the x force and as the distance of its application. If the x direction of the force be changed, and the perpendi- an infinite series for expressing the value of Jn a periodical pamphlet, Robespierre. It was Brissot, however, who, as the under the title of Argus, in which he assailed the organ of the diplomatic committee, obtained the decharacter of Brissot with great bitterness, represent- claration of war against England and Holland, on ing his conduct in the most odious colours, and even the 1st of February 1793. This may be considered accusing him ot robbery,—an accusation which, as the last act of his political life ; for, from thenceforth, he was only occupied in defending himself there is reason to believe, was utterly calumnious. On the flight of the royal family, in 1791> Brissot, against his numerous enemies. The party distinguished by the name of the in concert with the Chevalier de Laclos, drew up the famous petition of the Champ de Mars, demanding Mountain had now acquired a complete ascendancy, the abdication of the king, which became the signal and meditated the destruction of their opponents, for a dangerous insurrection, that was with difficulty the Girondists, to which latter party Brissot was atquelled, by the interposition of the National Guard. tached. Having at length been proscribed, after This circumstance is said to have been the occasion the revolution of the 31st of May, he was arrested of his quarrel with M. de Lafayette, to whom he at Moulins, while attempting to make his escape into had previously been zealously attached. At this pe- Switzerland, sent to Paris, subjected to a mock-trial riod, the republican faction began to assume a con- before the revolutionary tribunal, and beheaded on sistent form, and to utter their sentiments with free- the 31st of October 1793, at the age of thirty-nine. Brissot was somewhat below the middle size, a dom and boldness. Brissot, who had been one of little deformed, and of a feeble constitution. His its first and most zealous apostles, was returned a Member to the National Assembly, in spite of the countenance was pale and melancholy, and he affectopposition of the Court, to whom he had become ed an extreme simplicity in his dress. With regard extremely formidable ; and from this time he ( is- to his intellectual character, his talents appear to played an implacable enmity to the king. T.he Na- have been much beneath his reputation, and he cerpossessed more zeal than judgment. Notwithtional Assembly, attributing to Brissot talents which tainly standing, however, the violence of his writings, declahe does not appear to have possessed, appointed him mations, and public conduct, he was not deficient in a Member of the Diplomatic Committee, of which humanity; and, in the intercourse of private life, his he became the habitual organ ; and in this capacity manners are said to have been mild and accommolie w'as the constant advocate ot the most violent dating. As an author, Brissot has not much merit, public measures, and never ceased to demand a de- his style is monotonous, verbose, and tedious ; and, claration of war against all the powers of Europe. upon the whole, it is wonderful, that, with such slenIn order to attain this object, it w as necessary to re- der abilities, he should have acquired so great an asmove the ministers, whose dispositions were favour- cendancy in public opinion. The best articles of able to peace. Brissot, accordingly, attacked them journal are said to have been written by his seall, but particularly M. Delessart, who was at the his cretary, Dupre. The following are the principal head of the department of foreign affairs; and, by productions of his pen: _ T • rt repeated denunciations, he at length succeeded in 1. Moyens d'Adoucir la Rigueur des Lois Peobtaining a decree of accusation against him. His nnies en France, Chalons, 1781, 8vo. 2. Un Inplace wras supplied by Dumouriez, under whose ad- dependant de VOrdre des Avocats sur la Decadence ministration war w’as declared against the Emperor du Barreau en France, 1781, 8vo. 3. De la Veof Germany, on the 20th of April 1792. From this period, however, the political influence of Bnssot rite, ou Meditations, &c. 1782, 8vo. 4. Le Pnibegan to decline. Robespierre, with whom he had ladclphien a Geneve, 1783, 8vo. 5. Theorie des Lois Criminelles, 1781, 2 vols. 8vo. 6. Bibhotheque previously been intimately connected, now declared Philosophique du Legislateur, du Politique, du Juhimself his enemy, denounced him at the Jacobin risconsulte, 1782-1786, 10 vols. 8vo. 7- Tableau Club as a traitor to his country, and an enemy of the people, and continued to persecute him with unre- de la Situation Actuelle des Anglais dans les hides lenting rancour, until he finally effected his destruc- Orientates, &c. 1784-85, 8vo. 8. Journal du Li/tion. Alarmed at the storm which was gathering cee de Londres, &c. published m monthly numbers, around him, Brissot, in concert with the other lead- 1784, 8vo. 9. Un Defenseur du Peuple a VEmpeers of his party, attempted to form a reconciliation reur Joseph 1L, sur son Reglement concernant VEmiwith the constitutional royalists; but this attempt gration, &c. 1785, 12mo. 10. Examen Critique des having proved abortive, he reverted to his former Pouages dans VAmerique Septentnonale, par le opinions and line of conduct, and continued to de- Marquis de Chatellux, 1786, 8vo. 11. Voyages en nounce to popular vengeance all those whom le Europe, en Asie, et en Afnque, translated from knew to be attached to the king. But although the English, with notes, 1786, and 1790> 2 vols. his writings may naturally be supposed to have 8vo. 12. Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-Ums excited those dispositions among the people which de VAmerique Septentrionale? 179L 3 vols. 8vo. gave rise to the atrocities of the times, he had To the first volume of this work was prefixed the no direct influence on the revolution of the 10th life of Brissot, which was translated into English, published separately in 1794. Besides these of August, which appears to have been planned and works, Brissot wrote a variety of pamphlets, and and directed by Danton, apd the ferocious leaders
B R I Brissot articles inserted in periodical publications, which it II is unnecessary to enumerate. See the Life of BrisBrocklesby. ^ above-mentioned, and the Biographic Universelle. (H*) BRITAIN. The history of England and Scotland is given under these separate heads in the Encyclopcedia, down to the Union of the Crowns in the person of James VI.; from which period the history of the two countries is brought down to the rupture of the peace of Amiens, under the article Britain. In order to afford more time to digest a comprehensive account of the great and important events which have succeeded, and of which Britain was the prime mover, we shall defer the continuation of the history till we reach the word England. BROCKLESBY (Richard), a Physician of considerable reputation, was born in Somersetshire, on the 11th of August 1722; and was descended from a respectable and opulent Irish family, belonging to the sect of Quakers. He received his grammatical education at the Academy of Ballytore, in the north of Ireland, and afterwards pursued his medical studies at Edinburgh, and at Leyden ; at which latter University he graduated, in 1745, choosing for the subject of his thesis, T)e Saliva sana ct morbosa. In the following year, he fixed his residence in London, with a view to practice ; and in 1751 was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, of which he afterwards became a fellow; after having received honorary degrees of Doctor in Medicine from the Universities of Dublin and of Cambridge. The first publication by which he became known to the world, was his Essay on the Mortality of the Horned Cattle, which appeared in 1746, and gained him considerable reputation ; and his practice extended itself with that gradual and steady progress, which affords the surest prospect of permanent and distinguished success. His benevolent attention to his poorer patients, and the general suavity of his manners, soon brought him into notice, and procured him the esteem of a wide circle of friends, especially among his professional brethren. In consequence of their recommendation of him to Lord Barrington, he was appointed, in I 758, Physician to the Army; in which capacity he served in Germany during the greater part of the seven years’ war ; and in the course of it was chosen Physician to the Hospitals for British Forces. The results of his observations during this period were published in 1764, under the title of Economical and Medical Observations, from 1738 to 1763, tending to the improvement of Medical Hospitals, in one volume 8vo. He had already, however, given to the public many proofs of the activity of his mind, and the variety of his attainments. The Transactions of the Royal Society for 1747 (Vol. XLIV.) contain a letter of his On the hidian Poison sent over by Bon Antonio de JJlloa ; and the succeeding volume for 1747-8, a paper On the Poisonous Root lately found mixed with the Gentian. In the Transactions for 1755 (Vol. XLIX.) are inserted his Experiments on the Sensibility and Irritability of the several parts of Animals. He also published, in different volumes of the Medical Observations, the following papers, viz. The Case
B
R
O
523
of a Lady labouring under Diabetes, in Vol. III.— Biockleshy. Experiments relative to the Analysis of Seltzer JVa' ter ; and Case of an Encysted Tumour in the Orbit of the Eye; in'Vol. IV. His Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients appeared in 1749; and his Oratio Harveiana in 1760. Dr Brocklesby was appointed, by his patron and friend the Duke of Richmond, Physician-General to the Royal Regiment of Artillery and Corps of Engineers ; an appointment that connected him much with the laboratory of Woolwich, which he always visited with pleasure. It was by his advice, indeed, that a Professorship of Chemistry was added to the establishment of the College ; and it was also by his recommendation that the celebrated Dr Adair Crawford was nominated the first Professor in this new chair. The life of a medical practitioner, absorbed in the laborious duties of his profession, is seldom diversified with much incident; and Dr Brocklesby wras now arrived at that period when the approaching infirmities of age demand some relaxation from labour, and an exchange of the anxieties and fatigue of practice, for the tranquil amusements of literature, and the solace of cheerful society. The frugal use which he had made of means originally slender, but progressively augmenting by the increase of his professional emoluments, by the addition of a pension from the Duke of Richmond, his half pay from the army, and an estate which devolved to him on the death of his father, had placed him in circumstances not only independent, but affluent, and enabled him to derive from retirement all the advantages he had contemplated. His society was courted on all sides ; and the circle of his friends comprehends some of the most distinguished literary men of the age. He was, during the whole of his life, intimate with Burke. His acquaintance with this extraordinary man, began at the school where they both were educated, and soon ripened into the most warm and most durable friendship. He was also in terms of close intimacy with Dr Johnson, and attended him in his last illness with the assiduity and kindness of a friend. Dr Brocklesby is characterized in Boswell's Life of Dr Johnson, as a man whose reading, knowledge of life, and good spirits, supplied him with a never-failing source of conversation ; and several letters, addressed to him from Dr Johnson, are preserved in that entertaining work. One trait, however, is omitted, which does him great honour. Understanding that Dr Johnson wished, in the latter part of his life, to remove to the continent for the recovery of his health, Dr Brocklesby immediately made him an offer of an annuity of L. 100 during the remainder of his life ; and when this offer was declined, pressed him to reside in his house, as more suited to his health than the one in which he then lived. The same generous disposition was manifested in his conduct to Burke, to whom he transmitted L. 1000, as a legacy he had intended leaving him, but which he thought would be of more use to him at the present time. Dr Brocklesby was, indeed, the survivor of Burke, though only for a few months ; for on his return from a visit which he paid to his widow at Beaconsfield, after dining with his two
B R O 5*24 Krocklesby nephews Dr Thomas Young and Mr Beeby, of whose he had ftaken the principal charge, he exBroII er. education pjre^ suddenly a ew minutes after retiring to bed, without the least pain or previous illness. He left his fortune, which was considerable, between his two nephews, with the exception of a few legacies to friends and distant relations. (w.) BROKER, an agent or intermediate person appointed for the transactions of special business for another, somewhat different from an ordinary factor in functions and responsibility. Of this class, there are various descriptions, exercising employments without the smallest analogy, though all are brought under the general name of brokers; and of these, the principal are, Exchange-Brokers, whose province is to ascertain the rates and relation of exchange between countries; Stock-Brokers, who negociate transactions in the public funds; Insurance-Brokers, who effect insurances on lives or property; and Pawn-Brokers. It is to the last that our attention shall here be chiefly directed. TawnPawn-Brokers are a kind of bankers who advance iroker. money at a peculiar rate of interest, on goods impledged for security of the capital; and in case of failure to redeem the goods within a limited time, they may be sold to indemnify the lender. Nature of A part of the population of every flourishing counthe Trade. try consists of necessitous people, those frequently belonging to a class whose skill contributes to its prosperity ; but whose income, often slender and precarious, cannot keep pace with the times, or support the demands of an increasing family. Exposed also to sudden disappointments and losses, they are forced, from the want of pecuniary capital, to seek a temporary relief, by impledging their property for a certain sum, while they pay interest on the advance. But this advance, in general, bears a very inconsiderable proportion to the value of the property, whence its confiscation, by the increasing difficulties of the owner, or of not being claimed on account of death or removal, proves most advantageous to the holder; for, in the one case, he may become the absolute proprietor himself, and, in the other, he secures a high rate of interest originally stipulated. Thus, a pawnbroker has an infinite superiority over an ordinary banker; the latter calculates only on the credit of his debtor, which is frequently nominal; the former never makes an advance without being put in possession of what exceeds it in value; his rate of interest is much greater, and the credit of his debtor is of no importance. Nay it is rather better that his circumstances should be desperate. It thence results, that, like other trades, the number of pawnbrokers will increase with the necessities of the people requiring their aid, and, on that account, giving them employment, just as bankers, whose issues increase when the calls of the public require a more ample supply of a circulating medium. Ihus a strong inducement is continually held out to commence the profession of a pawnbroker; for all that is required, is comprised in a licence of L. 10 yearly to Government, a small capital, and an empty warehouse. On such an establishment, business may be done to a great extent in a very short time ; because the securities increase in a much greater ratio than
B R O the debts, while the latter are void of any risk. We Broker. find in the city of London, that the number of^^V^ pawnbrokers lately amounted to no less than about 240, and it was calculated, that the property of necessitous persons in their possession, probably amounted to a million Sterling. Their numbers also had suddenly augmented, and they are still augmenting. In Edinburgh, on the contrary, which is not above a tenth part of the size of the metropolis, there was scarcely one a few years ago, and now the number does not exceed a dozen. Therefore the number is not one half in proportion to the population oi the two different places, which indicates fewer necessitous people by a half in Edinburgh; arguing, either that the inhabitants are more industrious and moi*e easily maintained, or less exposed to losses and fluctuations. But the temptations held out to those who, in this manner, obtain possession of the property ot others to such an amount, and with so little reference to its value, combined with the natural propensity of mankind to take advantage ot the necessities of their neighbours, long ago rendered legislative interference necessary in regulating the duties and interests of pawnbrokers. Besides, it was of great consequence to check the facilities with which stolen goods might be unpledged with, and sold by them. Omitting, however, the older enactments on these branches, we shall limit ourselves to those of more recent date. By the 99th chapter, of 39th and 40th George III., statutory it is provided, that for every pledge on which a Ratos of sum, not exceeding two shillings and sixpence, shall Pawning, have been advanced, it shall be lawful to take one halfpenny per month, as interest and indemnification for warehouse room; one penm for five shillings; three halfpence for seven shillings and sixpence; twopence for ten shillings; and it the loan does not exceed forty shillings, the pawnbroker may take at the rate of fourpence for every kalendar month, including that which is current. For any sum exceeding forty shillings and not above ten pounds, he may take at the rate of threepence monthly per pound Sterling. But these sums, though apparently inconsiderable, are in fact high per centages, and far surpassing the legal rate of interest. The pawner may redeem his goods within seven days after the expiry of the first month, without paying any thing as interest to the pawnbroker on these seven days; and also, if the goods are redeemed before expiry of the first fourteen days of the second month, the profits or interest of one month and a half only are due. But if he fail to redeem them until after the lapse of these fourteen days of the second month, the pawnbroker may demand the profits of the whole second month; and the like regulation is in force for every kalendar month subsequent. Should the sum advanced on the goods in pawn exceed five shillings, it is enacted that a description of the pledge shall be entered in a book by the pawnbroker, and a note or ticket, an extract copy or duplicate of the same, be delivered gratis to the impledger. If the sum advanced be above five and under ten shillings, the pawnbroker is entitled to a halfpenny for this duplicate; if above ten and under twenty, to one 5
B R 0 Broker, penny; and for a copy of the entry of goods pawned for five pounds or more, fourpence may be taken, but nothing higher. Further, an account ot the amount of profits shall be written on this duplicate when the goods are redeemed; and pawnbrokers are bound always to produce their books when required. They.must likewise exhibit a table of their profits in conspicuous characters in the place where they carry on their business, and register their name and profession over their doors, under a penalty of ten pounds. . . Time when By the seventeenth section of the statute, it is deJ awned clared that all goods and chattels which are pawned roods may or impledgedj shall be deemed to be forfeited, and 060 " may be sold at the expiration of a year, from the date of pawning. But the impledger is, to a certain degree, protected by another clause, prohibiting pawnbrokers from purchasing goods in their own custody. If any sum above ten shillings, and not exceeding ten pounds, has been lent, the goods shall be sold by public auction after expiration of the year, under strict regulations in respect to previous advertisement, and publication of catalogues, specifying, in addition to their description, the month in which they were impledged, as also the name and place of abode of the pawnbroker. But it is provided that pictures, prints, books, bronzes, statues, busts, carvings in ivory and marble, cameos, intaglios, musical, mathematical and philosophical instruments, and china, shall be sold only at four times in the year; namely, the first Monday of January, April, July, and October, and on the following day if the number of articles render it necessary. Thus the impledger may redeem his goods at any time within a year, on payment of the statutory profits on the money lent, but, on his failure, they may be sold. Should he give notice to the pawnbroker before the year closes, of his intention to redeem, the sale must be postponed until three months subsequent to its termination. When the sale has actually taken place, the pawnbroker is entitled to appropriate only so much of the price received as shall cover his own advances, the statutory profits and costs, and must pay the residue to the owner on demand, within three years, under high penalties in event of refusal. Inactments Pawnbrokers are prohibited from lending money > prevent to perS0ns below twelve years of age, or to those .buses and who are intoxicated; nor may they receive any ^ S*
goods in pawn before eight in the morning, or after nine at night, between Michaelmas and Lady-Day; nor before seven in the morning and after ten at night, during the remainder of the year; but with some exceptions which the statutes explain. A great many enactments are comprised in the statute 39th and‘40th Geo. III., respecting the penalties of unlawfully pawning goods the property of another, and those of forging any notes or memorandums regarding them ; likewise as to the apprehension and punishment of persons offering goods to pawn who cartnot give a good account of themselves. The facility with which loans might be obtained from pawnbrokers on stolen goods, had previously rendered it an object of anxiety with the Legislature to detect offenders. Hence an act was passed
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in the 29th of Geo. II. cap. 30, after many preceding ones, annexing the pain of transportation, for ~J~ v fourteen years, to the reset of stolen goods: and by a statute of the preceding year, it was made lawful for a pawnbroker, or other dealer, his servants or agents, to whom any goods should be offered to be pawned, exchanged, or sold, which he suspected to be stolen, to seize and detain the person offering the same, for the purpose of being examined by a justice, who was empowered, if he saw any reason to suppose that the goods had been unlawfully obtained, to commit the persons offering the same to prison, for a period not exceeding six days. Nevertheless all prohibitions are found ineffectual in practice ; and although pawnbrokers, in the metropolis, are entitled to carry on their trade only on taking out an annual licence of L. 10, and of L.5 if in any other part of the kingdom, nothing is liable to greater abuses. It is not uncommon for sharpers and swindlers to obtain such licences, and, taking advantage of the necessitous or unwary, to exercise all possible deceptions on them. Such persons are invariably the receivers of stolen goods, on which advances are made without scruple, from well-knowing that no one will ever return to reclaim them ; and, besides, the goods may safely be sold, for the same reason, before the statutory period expires. W ithout any regard to reputation or integrity, it has proved so easy to be established a pawnbroker, that, it is alleged, persons confined to the hulks on the Thames have even been able to obtain licences to carry on a trade in the very place of their punishment. However lucrative the business of pawnbrokers Evils iqsemay be to those who follow it, doubts are entertained J?^pawn, whether the toleration of them be not an evil to theing> public. They are, indeed, temporarily useful, to persons in the most necessitous circumstances; ' but as it is impossible, by any Legislative interference, to bring them under that control which would be desirable,—as their interests are always at variance with the interests of their employers,—and as mankind, under the pressure of necessity, are restrained by no sacrifice in seeking momentary relief, ultimate considerations are too often overlooked. Hence the first resort for aid frequently leads to a second, and then to others successively, while the property originally impledgeu remains unredeemed, and all the rest belonging to the owner gradually diminishes, until he is left destitute. It is the poor and necessitous only who avail themselves of raising supplies on their goods, to ward off some impending evil, and it is surprising how low such transactions are carried. Nay, the statute itself illustrates the nature of this miserable traffic more forcibly than could be done in other terms. It is enacted, that if, at the period of redeeming the goods impledged, there shall be a certain sum due of interest and profit, of which the lowest denomination shall be a farthing, and the redeemer “ shall not be able to produce and pay to the Pawnbroker a current farthing, which shall be to the satisfaction and liking of such person or persons as are to receive the same, but shall, in lieu thereof, tender to such person or persons to receive the same, one halfpenny, in order to discharge the said remaining farthing so due, as aforesaid, the said
526 BUG B R 0 Broker Pawnbroker or Pawnbrokers, his, her, or their ser- Greeks, and Romans, nations which subsisted long Bronzing, Bronzing. vant or aSent> to whom such tender of a halfpenny and were familiar with the most refined state of the shall be made, shall, in exchange thereof, deliver un- arts, used this compound metal in the greater part to such person or persons so redeeming goods as of the decorations of those magnificent temples aforesaid, one good and lawful farthing of the cur- and palaces, whose ruins only have remained to rent coin of this kingdom, or, in default thereof, later eras. But amidst the general wreck there are shall wholly abate the said remaining farthing from still some fragments preserved, which indicate the the total sum to be received” from the redeemer. perfection which was attained in the employment of But it is not only in the view of the indigent yield- bronze. The wealth of some ancient cities was estiing to the pressure of necessity, in parting with their mated by the number of their brazen statues ; and property for an inconsiderable value, that society Delphos, Athens, and Rhodes, are reported to have suffers an injury. The thoughtless and depraved each possessed three thousand. Some distinguished here find ready means of gratifying their propensi- Romans adorned the public edifices of their city in this ties, by the assistance of the pawnbroker’s shop, and manner ; and so strong a propensity was excited for thousands part with their apparel and furniture for multiplying such works, that an observation became -what is, the next moment, wasted in intoxication. current, that, “ in Rome, the people of brass were not Besides, the facility of obtaining the reception of less numerous than the Roman people.’’ It has been stolen goods, is attended with the most pernicious remarked, that the works which we now execute in consequences, and the most powerful encouragement iron or steel were little known to the ancients ; that to theft. Notwithstanding the law anxiously endea- their arms and armour were usually of brass, or the vours to secure property to its owners, by imposing compound now alluded to ; and a set of surgeons’ inpenalties on those who offer it in pawn, and in ordain- struments consisting entirely of bronze was found ing it to be restored by the pawnbroker, cases in- not long ago at Pompeii. numerable may be figured, where the pawnbroker Bronze is extremely hard, sonorous, more brittle cannot discriminate what is the genuine property of than brass, and more fusible than copper, from any individual in particular, and where it is not only which, and its not being liable to tarnish, it is pecudifficult, but may prove impossible, to bring an of- liarly adapted for casts of stat ues. Various nations have fender to justice. In the present year (1817), an asso- compounded the metals employed in different prociation, more immediately resulting from the pressure portions. The Egyptians are said to have taken of the times, has been formed in Edinburgh, for the two-thirds brass and one-third copper. According purpose of aiding those with advice and information to Pliny, the bronze of the Grecians was formed in who have dealings with pawnbrokers. Its special ob- the same way, with the addition of one-tenth part ject, we believe, is, to warn the ignorant of the laws of lead and a twentieth of silver ; which proportions under which their property is protected. were adopted by the Romans. In modern times, The banks called Savings’ Banks may probably prove bronze is generally composed of two-thirds of copa beneficial substitute for resort to the pawnbroker. per and one-third of brass, and sometimes small Sums amounting to a shilling and upwards are receiv- quantities of lead and zinc have been added. These ed, and bear interest at 4 per cent, when accumulated latter render the cast more compact and brilliant; to twelve shillings; thus enabling the labourer, or and the combination of different substances occasions mechanic, or artisan, to preserve the remnant of the readier fusibility of the whole than when sepahis weekly wages, and convert it to advantage. rate. The ancient bronzes, however, present a difLoans, not exceeding L. 5, are made, free of inte- ference in appearance and composition from those rest, to the necessitous under temporary pressure, executed by the moderns, and the fact is ascertained whereby their little property may remain entire. in respect to the metallic proportions by skilful cheBanks of this description are, at the present mo- mists on analysis. An illustration of this fact is ment, rapidly disseminating throughout the different sometimes given in the four celebrated horses of parishes and towns of Scotland, and their outset has bronze, supposed to be the work of Lysippus, a Greek been attended with one decided benefit, in diminish- artist; which were brought from Venice, by command ing the resort to alehouses, where the earnings of la- of Bonaparte, to the Thuilleries at Paris. bour, too small to form an object for preservation, The casting of bronze statues is a nice and diffiquickly disappeared. In some towns of Italy we have cult art, requiring long experience and the judicious underst ood there are charitable institutions of a mixed management of a great apparatus. An exact model nature between pawnbroking and banking. There, must be made of the subject to be cast, and nicely an advance seems to be made on goods impledged coated over with wax not less than an ihch thick, at a certain rate of interest by some, and by others on which the artist works the impression meant to money is received and returned, with 7 per cent., at be taken. A mould is then formed, consisting of the termination of a year. The transactions of these several hollow pieces of wood or other resisting subinstitutions, however, are not completely explained, stance, filled with a mixture of clay and sand, which either as to the security given or the advantage de- is applied to the model, in order that its outline may rived. (s.) be received. The mould being united together, is BRONZING. A combination of metals which perforated by a number of channels, and the melted lias received the name of bronze was employed by metal being discharged from a furnace by means of the ancients in the fabrication of different utensils, these into the interior, thus produces the cast. When and in casting busts, statues, and other subjects, cold, the external covering is taken off, and the subeither larger or smaller than life. The Egyptians, jects appear as if covered with spines, which are the
B R 0 . Bronzins?. channels filled with metal; they are removed by saws, files, and chisels, and any imperfections on the surface being corrected, the whole is completed. But this in detail is a tedious, laborious, and expensive process; and the difficulty of producing beautiful works in bronze, conspires to give them a high value in the estimation of the lovers of the arts. In general, the natural colour of the composition remains unaltered, and with the lapse of time, tends to black, or particular shades of green; but some artists render it black artificially, or give it a green colour from the first. It is the delicacy of the workmanship, however, that constitutes the value of bronzes, not the colour, because it is the former alone which constitutes the difficulty, and calls for the skill of the artist. Colossal figures are sometimes obtained in bronze ; but more usually, when of very large dimensions, they are formed by the union of several pieces, and are hollow within; as is also the case with some of those of smaller size. Considerable premiums have been offered by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, for promoting the execution of bi'onze figures in England, but few have been claimed. Nevertheless, British artists have produced several very creditable works, if we take the low condition of sculpture in view ; but either from want of skill or practice, neither the bronzes of this Island nor of the Continent rival the masterpieces of antiquity. Perhaps it is only the best specimens which are preserved, and many of inferior note have been allowed to decay, or cease to attract attention; and in this way we may partly account for our own inferiority. U't of The substances on which bronzing is employed Bronzing, are either metals, wood, ivory, clay, or plaster; but more general preference is given to wood or plaster. The colours are of various shades and intensity; their composition and application being in a great measure arbitrary, according to the will of the artist. This art is nothing but a species of painting, far from the most delicate kind ; and, when applied to plaster figures, may be done either with or without cement, the latter rendering it more durable. One principal ingredient in bronzing is gold-powder, for the preparation of which the following receipt is. given. A quantity of leaf-gold is ground with virgin honey on a stone, until the texture of the leaves be completely broken, and their parts divided to the most minute degree. The mixture of gold and honey is then removed from the stone, and put into a basin of water, whereby the honey may be melted, and the gold freed from it; and the basin is allowed to stand at rest until the gold subsides. When it does so, the water is poured off, and fresh quantities are added, until the honey be entirely washed away; after which, the gold is put in paper, and dried for use. This is the true gold powder; besides which, there is another, called German gold, in common use ; and also a third, called aiirum mosaicum or musicum, greatly employed in bronzing, and is thus prepared. A pound of tin, seven ounces of flour of sulphur, half a pound of purified quicksilver, and the same quantity of sal ammoniac, are taken as the necessary ingredients. The tin being melted in a crucible, the quicksilver is added to it; and, when this
B R 0 5527 mixture is cold, it is reduced to powder, and ground Bronzing, with the sal ammoniac and sulphur until the whole be thoroughly mixed. They are then to be calcined in a mattrass, and the sublimation of the other ingredients leaves the tin converted into the aurum mosaicum, which is found at the bottom of the glass like a mass of bright flaky geld-powder. Should any black or discoloured particles appear, they must be removed. The sal ammoniac used here must be very white and clean, and the mercury quite pure, and unadulterated with lead. These colours are commonly employed in bronzing; but when a shade more of a red, resembling copper, is required, it can easily be obtained by grinding a very small quantity of red lead along with them. Copper powder may be procured by dissolving filings or slips of that metal with nitrous acid in a receiver. When the acid is saturated, the slips are to be removed; or, if filings be employed, the solution is to be poured off’ from what remains undissolved. Small iron bars are then put in, which will precipitate the copper from the saturated acid, in a powder of the peculiar appearance and colour of copper; and the liquid being poured from the powder, this is to be washed clean off the crystals by repeated levigations. In addition to these compounds, we may name gold size, which is of particular use in bronzing, and several other branches of the arts. This is prepared from a pound of linseed-oil, with four ounces of gum animi. The latter is gradually supplied in powder to the oil, while boiling, and it is necessary that it should be stirred with every successive dose, until the whole be dissolved and incorporated with the oil. The mixture is still allowed to continue boiling, until a small quantity, when taken out, appears of a thicker consistence than tar, and the whole being then strained through a coarse cloth, is put aside. When used, it must be ground with as much Vermillion as will render it opaque, and, at the same time, diluted with such a quantity of oil of turpentine as will bring it to a proper consistence for working freely with the pencil. In regard to the operation of bronzing itself, if a cement is to be used, the powders now described may be mixed with strong gum water or isinglass, and laid on the subject with a brush or pencil; in doing which, some artists recommend beginning at the bottom, and proceeding upwards. By a different process, gold size, prepared with a due proportion of turpentine, may be taken, and the subject covered with it; then being allowed to dry very nearly, but still preserving a certain clamminess, a piece of soft leather wrapped round the finger is dipped in the powder, and rubbed over the work ; or, what is judged preferable, it may be spread with a soft camel-hair pencil. The whole, now covered, must be left to dry, and the loose powder then cleared away by a hair pencil also. Here the principal nicety consists in ascertaining the proper period of dryness for applying the powder, as much of the effect depends on it. But this method of bronzing is esteemed better, because the gold size binds the powders to the ground, without any hazard of their scaling or rubbing off, which sometimes happens
528 B It O Bronzing when gum or isinglass are employed. The precise it tint of bronzing is regulated taste ; and, Brosses^ ^ very perceptible differencebvappears both indeed, in anY cient and modern statues, resulting either from age or the metallic proportions. Bronzing on wood may be effected by a particular process, somewhat varying from the general rules. Prussian blue, patent yellow, raw umber, lamp-black, and pipe-clay, are ground separately, with water, on a stone, and as much of them as will make a good colour put into a small vessel three-fourths full of size, not quite so strong as what is called Clean Size in gilding. This mixture is found to succeed best on using about halt as much more pipe-clay as of the rest; but this depends on taste and fancy in preferring a peculiar tint. The wood being previously cleaned and smoothed, and coated with a mixture of clean size and lamp-black, receives a new coating with the preceding ingredients, twice successively, having allowed the first to dry ; afterwards the bronze-powder is to be laid on wdth a pencil, and the whole burnished 01 cleaned anew, observing to repair the parts which may be injured by this operation. Next, the work must be coated over with a thin lather of Castile soap, which will take off the glare of the burnishing, and afterwards carefully rubbed with a woollen cloth. The gangrenous appearance of the cavities is effected by slightly wetting them with a camel-hair pencil dipped in the lather, and then sprinkling them with a little dust of verditer gum. The superfluous powder may be rubbed off when dry. In bronzing iron, the subject should be heated to a treater degree than the hand can bear, and. Gler* man gold, mixed with a small quantity of spirit of wine varnish, spread over it with a pencil. Should the iron be already polished, it is necessary to heat it well and moisten it with a linen rag wet in vinegar, on purpose to obscure the glare, that the bronzepowder may be sufficiently incorporated with the surface. There are other methods of accomplishing the same object, as by employing some coloured mordant, when the iron is not to be exposed to heat, and spreading the bronze over the mordant, when half dry, with a pencil. . Bronze is injured by humidity ; and it is said not to preserve its proper quality beyond ten years; but it may be renew- d, in which case the subject must be completely cleaned. . There is an analogous method of silvering casts of plaster of Paris, and other substances, which is also called Bronzing, and conducted after the manner above described, but it is not in general repute. Conjectures have been entertained, that artists originally resorted to bronzing solely for the purpose of 'correcting the glare of colours; but this is exceedingly improbable, and it is certainly unnecessary to seek farther than the inducement of easily imitating metallic figures esteemed by the curious. This art has, of late years, come into very general use, and has received many improvements. (s.) BROSSES (Charles de), first President of the Parliament of Burgundy, was born at Dijon, on the 17th of February 1709* He studied law, with
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a view to the magistracy, but without neglecting Brasses, literature and the sciences, to which he discoverr ed an early and decided attachment. His study of the Roman history excited in him a strong desire to visit Italy, which he accordingly traversed in 1739, in company with his friend M- De SaintePalaye. On his return to France, he published his Lettres sur Vetat Actuel de la ViUe Souterrame d'Herculaneum, Dijon, 1750, 8vo,—the first work which had appeared upon that interesting subject. A Collection of Letters, written during his Italian tour, entitled Lettres Hidorique et Critique, in 3 vols. 8vo, was published at Paris alter his death without the consent of his family. In 176(1 he published a dissertation Sur le Culte des Dieux Fetiches, 12mo, which was afterwards inserted in the Lnci/clopedie Methodique. At the solicitation of his friend Buffon, De Brosses undertook his Histoire des Navigations aux Ferres Australes ; which was published in 1756, 2 vols. 4to, with maps, by Robert de \ augondy. It was in this work that De Brosses first laid down the geographical divisions of Australasia and Polynesia, which were afterwards adopted by Pinkerton, and succeeding geographers. In 1765 appeared his Trade de la formation Mechanique des Langues ; a work distinguished by much research, and containing many ingenious hypotheses; but, at the same time, marked by that love of theory which is so apt to imbue the cultivators of etymological science. De Brosses had been occupied, during a^ great part of his life, in making a translation of Sallust, and in attempting to supply the chasms in that celebrated historian. At length, in 1777, he published I'Histoire du 7e? Siecle de la Republique Rornaine, 3 vols 4to, a work which would probably have met with great success, had the style corresponded with the interest of the subject, and with the author s historical sagacity, and depth of research. To the history is prefixed a learned life of Sallust, which was reprinted at the commencement of the translation of that historian by De Lamalle. After the death of De Brosses, a Supplement was added to this work, from his MSS. containing the various readings, fragments, and an Index of the authors from whom they are taken. This Supplement, which should be placed at the end of the third volume, is wanting in some copies. These literary occupations did not prevent De Brosses from discharging with ability his official duties, nor from carrying on a constant and extensive correspondence with the most distinguished literary characters of his time. During the leisure afforded him by the suspension of the Parliaments, in the year 1771, he applied himself with greater vigour to literature. In 1758. he succeeded the Marquis de Caumont in the Academic de Belles Lettres; but was never admitted a member of the French Academy, in consequence, it is said, of the opposition of Voltaire, who entertained a dislike to him. De Brosses died on the 7th of May 1 established across the country from Buenos Ayres to other preparation than an exposure for some time to Lima, which is more frequented than the route to the heat of the sun. Journeys are undertaken from Chili. On this road regular stages were established Buenos Ayres to this part of the country, for the in the year 1748, post-houses were erected, and re- purpose of procuring salt, and from 200 to 300 carts lays of horses and carriages were provided, for the are annually loaded with it for the supply of this accommodation of travellers. It is likewise free city. Numerous salt-lakes of the same description from all danger of attacks from the Indian tribes, occur in the neighbourhood of the river Vermejo, who, in their predatory incursions, seldom advance and in the Chaco to the west of the Paraguay. At so far within the precincts of the Spanish territories ; the city of Assumption, situated on the Paraguay, and it is only in the first stages that it is thought in latitude 24° 47' south, and longitude 59° 35' west, necessary to place troops at the different stations for a considerable quantity of salt is refined from the the security of travellers. This was the route pur- earth. Between Santa Fe and Cordova, a still greater sued by Helms, the German Mineralogist, who has quantity is produced, and this quality of the soil published an account of his journey. In traversing reaches to St Jago del Estero, where the whole the mountainous districts of the Andes, the party ground is covered with a white incrustation of salt, were exposed to the most sudden and dangerous vi- and even quite across the barren and desert plain cissitudes of heat and cold, sometimes oppressed by which extends westward to the foot of the Cordillethe scorching heat of the deep valleys through which ra. Natural saltpetre is also produced in this coun- Saltpetre, the road winded, and within the space of a few try in great abundance. After a shower of rain the hours shivering in the regions of everlasting ice and ground appears white with it, so as to chill the feet excessively. A small quantity, however, is only colsnow. Saline There is a very large tract of country in the ex- lected, no more than is sufficient to manufacture fire plains. tensive plains of South and North America, of works for the amusement of the converted Indians, which the soil is saturated with fossil salt. In this at the religious festivals of the Romish church. In this country, as in Brasil, and other parts of viceroyalty the saline plains extend about 600 or 700 miles in length, and 150 in breadth. It has America, the cattle are accustomed to receive been generally observed, that, in all the country salt as part of their nourishment. In the prowestward of the Paraguay, in all that tract which vince of Paraguay, they eat a sort of salted clay is comprehended under the denomination of the which they find in the ditches, and when this fails, Chaco, and in the country also to the south of the which sometimes happens in the eastern cantons of Plata, from Cape St Anthony on the south to the this province, and in the missions on the banks of Itio Vermejoon the north, there is not a single rivu- the Uruguay, numbers of cattle perish in the space let, lake, or well, which is not of a brackish taste of a few months. It is incredible with what avidity during the heats of summer, when a quick evapora- they feed upon this singular nutriment, and when it for some time, no inducement, tion takes place, or during a long course of dry they have wanted r weather, when no rain falls to correct, by its fresh- not even blow s, will tempt them to quit the place ness, the natural saltness of the rivers and springs. where they have found it. The western parts of this viceroyalty, more espe- Monutaitis. All the rivers that flow from the western Andes yield excellent water, until they reach the salt ter- cially the provinces which were added from Peru, ritory, after which their waters are not fit to be are generally mountainous, comprehending within drunk until they reach the Parana. Even the great their limits some of the highest ridges of the Andes. rivers the Pilcomayo and the Vermejo have a brack- The province of Los Charcos includes a considerable ish taste during the dry season, when their waters proportion of the two principal chains that run from are low. The rivers and springs are, however, more north to south along the eastern part of Peru, and impregnated with salt in some parts than in others. between which lie the elevated plains of Cuzco, with The fort of Melincue, which is situated about 33° the districts of Los Charcos, rugged and barren, but 44' S. lat. and about 150 miles to the north-west of rich in mineral treasures. From the great chain Buenos Ayres,' is almost entirely surrounded with of the Andes, branches diverge in different parts, salt lakes, which are frequently dry when there is a and extend far into the interior. Of these, the scarcity of rain. Azara mentions that, arriving in mountains of Cordova and Achala, in the province
BUENOS AYRES. 540 Buenos of Tucuman, and those of the more westerly pro- to Lima, the traveller who undertakes so arduous a B'aeiios Ayres. vince of Cuyo, form secondary ridges; and another journey must expect to meet with every sort of priridge of this nature branches off in the latitude of vation and hardship; not only from being exposed to the3 great river Colorado, which, under the Indian the utmost extremes both of heat and cold, but appellation of Casuhati, runs nearly across to the At- from the rugged and impracticable nature of tlib lantic. These southern mountains are covered with country through which he has to pass. It is only thick impenetrable woods, and are little known. The during the summer that the passage across the Andes eastern mountains, which form the Brasilian ridge, can be attempted, and as this is the season when the are also of secondary elevation. They are generally mountain snows begin to melt, the stream^ which covered with thick forests, interspersed with exten- rush down the declivities of the Cordilleras are sive tracts wholly devoid of vegetation. They form swelled to impetuous torrents. And this often hapa cluster of mountains towards the interior provinces pens so suddenly, that the unfortunate traveller of Minas Geraes and Matto Grosso, by which the has no time to escape from the fury of the stream, tributary streams of the great river of the Amazons but is swept down with his mule, and perishes are divided from those which run south into the miserably amid the precipices and dark abysses Plata. Different ridges diverge from them to the through which the foaming waters take their rapid north and south, and" the main chain extends quite course. To facilitate the passage across those rivers, across the Continent, taking a north-westerly direc- wooden bridges are frequently constructed, of suffition towards Santa Cruz, de la Sierra, and Potosi, cient breadth to admit the passage of a traveller on ; but where the river is too broad for the and thus uniting with the great ridges of the western horseback Cordillera. In this mountainous district, the sum- construction of those bridges, other bridges are mits of the Andes rise above the regions of the thrown over of a slighter construction. Ihese are clouds, and are covered with eternal snows. In the formed of a thin elastic cane, called bijuco, and from lower parts of the mountain, where the snow is only thence they have received the name of bijuco bridges. occasional, sterile tracts of sandy deserts appear, Several of these canes are twisted together so as to which are bordered with various kinds of lichen form a large cable of the length required. Six of that grow in crevices. To this imperfect vegeta- these being stretched from one side of the river to tion succeeds a wiry kind of grass or rush, the the other, two of which are considerably higher than natural food of the guanacos and the vicunnas which the other four, sticks are laid in a transverse direchaunt those upland deserts. The mountains of se tion over the lower four, and over these branches oc condary elevation are covered with stately forests, trees. The two uppermost ropes are fastened to the and the embosomed vales which are interspersed others that are lower, so as to serve as rails for the amongst them, though frequently of a higher eleva- security of the passengers, who would otherwise be tion than the summits of the Pyrenees, enjoy from in no small danger from the continual oscillation. their sheltered situation a temperate and favourable These bridges are only tor men, the mules being climate, which adapts them to the production, in taught to swim across the rivers. But where the great abundance, of all sorts of European fruits and rapidity of the torrent, and the large stones which grain. In many of those valleys, apples, peaches, it continually rolls down, render it impracticable for cherries, plumbs, grow to great perfection. Wheat mules, a contrivance is adopted for passing them is cultivated with success, and there are extensive safely across, mimed a tarabita. This consists of natural pastures, which afford herbage for large herds two ropes made of bijaco, or of thongs 01 an ox-hide twisted together to a proper thickness. These ropes, of cattle and flocks of sheep. being extended across the river, are fastened on each In the lower districts of the country, and in the Producplains, wheat, maize, cocoa, grapes, oranges, citrons, bank to strong posts, and the animal being slung in tions. flgs, olives, and sugar-canes, are among the most com- a sort of leathern hammock which depends from the mon productions ; and the herb paraguay, or matte, ropes, and properly secured by girths round the belly, whichfurnishesthe favourite beverage of all ranks, with neck, and legs, is drawn to the opposite shore by means of ropes fastened to the hammock and exthe exception of the European Spaniards, is yielded in tending to both sides of the river. For the carrygreat abundance. This herb, which is called the tea of ing over men or baggage only one rope is required, Paraguay, is drunk as an infusion, and the Creoles are so passionately fond of it, that they never travel and on one side is a winch or wheel by ivliicn it may without a supply of this favourite refreshment. About be either tightened or slackened as circumstances require. . . 100,000 arrobas of this plant, of 25 lbs. each, are may In those upper regions heat and cold depend, it Ciuiiat',, annually exported from Paraguay to Peru. The value of each arroba is estimated at L.l, 3s. 4d. Ster- is well known, not so much on the geographical posiling, which makes the annual value of this merchan- tion of any particular place, as on its height above dize sent to Peru equal to L. l 16,666. There are, the level of the sea. In South America, accordingbesides> great quantities sent to Buenos_ Ayies from ly, which is distinguished above all other countries the city of Assumption, of which this herb constitutes by the prodigious elevation of its soil, we find everlasting ice and snow under the rays of a tropical sun ; one of the principal articles of export. Roads and The route from Buenos Ayres to Potosi, which is and throughout the whole tract of this elevated Bridges. l6l7 geographical miles, and from Potosi to Lima, country the climate is uniformly modified by the )vhich is an additional 1215 miles, passes over the height of the land. In the low country, on the other highest ricjge of the Andes, and, according to the hand, the distance from the equator fixes the climate ; plains are exaccount of fldwas, who crossed the continent by it and the extensive and unsheltered 6
\ BUENOS
A ¥ K E S, 541 was extracted by Helms from the records of the Buenos ?nos posed to the most scorching heats, more especially Ayres. res. those towards the south. At Assumption, the capital chancery. ■of Paraguay, which is situated in 25° 16' of south latitude, it is stated by Azara that, in ordinary Districts. Gold- Silvci. Copper. Tin. LtOid. summer weather, Fahrenheit’s thermometer rose, within doors, to 85 degrees ; and that, during the Tucaman greatest heat of the season, it rose so high as 100. Mendoza During the winter, in weather which would have Atacama been called cold, it fell to 45; but in seasons when Caranges the cold was unusually severe, such as in the years Lipes 1786 and 1789, the water was found frozen in a Porco court adjoining his house. The nature of the Potosi weather depends, in a great measure, on the pre- Pacages or( vailing winds. It is generally remarked, that a Benenguela j south or south-east wind brings cold weather, and Chucuito . that the weather is hot when the wind blows from Puno the north. This last is the most prevailing wind, Lampa the southerly wind not blowing, at the most, for Chicusy 1 more than a twelfth part of the year. The west Tanija j wind is scarcely ever known, and, if it is sometimes Cochabamba felt, it scarcely continues for two hours together. Sicasica . At Buenos Ayres, which is situated in south lati- Lavicaja tude 34° 35', the weather is, of course, colder than at Omasuyo Assumption; and it is considered as an ordinary winter Avanguro in which there are only three or four days when wa- Carabaya ter is slightly frozen. Here, and on the coast, the Chayanza winds are greatly more violent than in the interior. Misque The west winds, which have been already noticed, Pana are more frequent; and those from the south-east, Monte Video while they always bring rain in wdnter, are accompanied with clear weather in summer. The violent An account of the accidental discovery of the rich Silver Mints winds, which prevail both in summer and spring, mines of Potosi will be found in the Encyclopaedia un- ot Potosi. raise clouds of dust which penetrate into all the der the article Peru. In 1545, the first mine was forapartments of the houses, and greatly incommode the inhabitants. Hurricanes are rare; but they mally registered. Another was discovered some days sometimes occur. In the year 1799> the settlement afterwards. A third, surpassing the two others in of Atira in Paraguay wTas thrown down by one of wealth, was distinguished by the name of Rica, which, them ; thirty-six persons were killed, many carri- with a fourth, were soon worked with great activity. ages were blown away, and various other destruc- The mountain, which at the base is 18 miles in circumtive consequences were experienced. The atmo- ference, is pierced everywhere by the operations of sphere is everywhere filled with moisture, by which the miners. According to Helms, who visited the furniture of the houses is injured. At Buenos Potosi in 1789, above three hundred pits were at Ayres, all the apartments which have a southern ex- that time worked; but those who directed these posure have the floors continually damp ; the walls works seemed totally ignorant of the first principles are also covered with moss, and the roofs with a sort of mining. Few of them penetrated to a greater of bushy grass, three feet in height, which must be depth than 70 yards, and they were all of them cleared away every two or three years, to prevent worked as irregularly, as if it had been merely for the moisture from sinking down into the house. plunder. Many of the pits were inundated with This moisture of the atmosphere does not appear to water ; to free them from which, a main conduit had be in the least degree prejudicial to the health ol been begun in 1778, which, in the course of nine the inhabitants. In no country is thunder and years, had, at an incredible expence, been carried lightning more violent. The peals of thunder suc- two miles in length. But so unskilfully had this imceed each other with such rapidity, that there seems portant work been planned, that even at its mouth hardly an instant between them, and the whale hea- the conduit was above the level of the water in many vens appear as if they were illuminated with one flame. of the mines, after which it rose about one yard in These thunder-storms are frequently fatal to indivi- every thirty-two, which rendered it still more inefduals ; and in one of them, which happened in January ficacious. Eight new veins were intersected by this 1793, the lightning struck the town of Buenos Ayres conduit, some of them containing very rich silver ores. Another conduit was inspected by Helms in thirty-seven places, and killed nineteen persons. The precious metals, which form such an import- and the other German Mineralogists who accomant article of commerce in this viceroyalty, are en- panied him, which was begun about 100 years betirely derived from the western provinces, which fore, and which led to many rich veins of red and lie on the eastern declivity of the Cordillera, and grey silver ore. For want of proper machinery, tvhich, in 1778, were separated from Peru. The fol- however, all the pits were filled with w'ater ; though, lowing enumeration of the mines presently worked under better management, they might have been
BUENOS AYRES. 342 Buenos made to yield a considerable revenue to their pro- mation. In the elevated and cold regions of Potosi Bupsici Ayres. prietors. and Lipes, this operation requires a month or six Ayres, The one from which silver is extracted is various weeks before it is completed. But, in warmer disin its nature, consistency, and colour. The moun- tricts, it is finished in eight or ten days. The manner in which these and all the other ope- Low state tain of Potosi consists chiefly of a yellow, very firm argillaceous slate, full of veins of ferruginous quartz, rations are performed, by which the precious metals of the Art in which silver ore, and sometimes brittle vitreous are extracted from the earth, and afterwards separated °* Mining, ore, are found interspersed. There is also a greyish from their ores, is censured, in the most unqualified brown one, in which appear some small grains, and terms, by Helms. After pointing out the ignorance thin branches or veins of silver, running along the lay- which prevailed in the previous management of the ers of stone. This ore is extremely rich, yielding for mines, “still greater, if possible (he observes), was the each caxon, or 50 hundred weight, 20 marcs of silver ignorance of the Directors of smelting-houses and reor about 13 lbs. Some of the ores which are found fining works at Potosi. By their method of amalgain other provinces of this viceroyalty appear black, mation they were scarcely able to gain two-thirds of frequently from the admixture of lead. The silver the silver contained in the rude ores ; and for every is seen when the ore is scratched. These ores are marc of pure silver gained, they destroyed one, and called negrillos, from their colour, and are esteemed frequently two marcs of quicksilver. Indeed, all the very rich, yielding 50 or 60 marcs of silver per operations at the mines of Potosi, the stamping, siftcaxon. They are more valued also on another ac- ing, washing, quickening, and roasting the ore, are count, namely, that the silver is extracted from them conducted in so slovenly, wasteful, and unscientific at a small charge, in place of the usual process of a manner, that, to compare the excellent method of amalgamation with quicksilver, they are merely melt- amalgamation invented by Baron Born, and praced in furnaces, wdiere the lead, being evaporated by tised in Europe, with the barbarous process used by the fire, the silver is left pure and clean. There is these Indians and Spaniards, would be an insult to another sort of rich ore, containing a large propor- the understanding of my readers.” “ The tools of the Indian miner (he continues) are tion of the finest silver, which turns red if it is w eted and rubbed against iron. Some of the ores glit- very badly contrived and unwieldy. The hammer, ter like talc. These yield but little silver; but, be- which is a square piece of lead of 20 pounds w'eight, ing soft, the metal is easily extracted from them. exhausts his strength,—the iron, a foot and a half Some are green, from the admixture of copper, long, is a great deal too incommodious, and, in some which it is found troublesome to separate from the narrow places, cannot be made use of. The thick silver. But the most scarce and valuable ore is that tallow candles, wound round with wool, vitiate the air.” The same mismanagement prevailed in the Royal which appears in entangled threads of pure silver, so fine that it is called arayia, from its resemblance to a Mint, where every hundred weight of refined copper used for alloy in the gold and silver coin cost the spider’s web. The veins of silver frequently run through hard King L. 35 through the ignorance of the overseers, rocks, which have to be reduced to a very fine powder who spent a whole month in roasting and calcining before the ore can be fit for the process of amalga- it, and in the course of these tedious operations fremation. In order to render the ore more friable, quently made it unfit for the purpose to which it was it is frequently roasted or calcined in an oven. It is intended. Mr Helms was ordered by the Governor afterwards broke to pieces wnth iron mallets, after to introduce a more improved process for the refinwhich it is carried to the mills, where, being ground ing of the copper, and he accordingly showed, by to a very fine powder, it is passed through several actual experiment, that copper could be brought to wire sieves successively, the last being the finest. a greater degree of fineness in four hours and a half, The rude ores are also frequently broke to pieces by and at less than J^th of the expence. The other hammers lifted up and down by means of a wheel. evils in the management of the mines, he also atThese hammers weigh about 200 pounds, and fall tempted to reform, in conjunction with another perwith sufficient violence to reduce the hardest stones son of skill in the mining art, who accompanied him to powder. This powder is laid in wooden troughs, to South America for the same purpose. In order and is kneaded with quicksilver and water, until the to free the mines from water, two deep conduits two metals are completely amalgamated, after which were dug in the mountains; proper machines were the quicksilver is evaporated by distillation, and the erected; amalgamation works were set on foot, and the necessary instructions in metallurgy were given to metal which remains is cast into ingots. In some of the smaller rivers, mills with grind- six pupils, for the purpose of enabling them to reduce stones are used. The ore is ground with water, this improved system to practice. If the water in the which makes a liquid mud, that runs into a receiver. pits can be drained, the mines of Potosi would be in The mud is disposed on the floor in square parcels as flourishing a condition as ever. The total want of about a foot thick, each of them containing 25 hun- timber, however, on the naked ridge of mountains in dred weight of ore. On each of these about 200 which those mines are situated, tends greatly to retard weight of sea-salt is thrown, which is moulded and the progress of the work. Respecting the quantity of silver which has been Prodnoe of incorporated with the earth for two or three days. After this the quantity of quicksilver which they extracted from the mines of Potosi, various accounts1 judge necessary is added to the mass, which is have been published. But these have generally moulded eight times a day, and lime is frequently been founded on imperfect materials, and their acmixed with it, to accelerate the process of amalga- curacy is therefore liable to doubt. On this point,
BUENOS
543 Y R E S. Bin nos According to these calculations, the quantity of Ayres. silver yielded by the mines of Potosi, amounts L. Piastres. For 11 years, from 1545 to 1556, to 127,500,000 26,828,125 For 23 years, from 1556 to 1578, to 49,009,530 10,312,431 For 158 years, from 1579 to 1736, to 610,458,835 128,450,713 For 53 years, from 1736 to 1789, to 128,129,374 26,960,554 From 1789 to 1803, to 46,000,000 9,679,166 In this account the piastre is estimated at eight reals, or 4s. 2|d. Previous to the year 1600, it contained 13^ reals de Plata. For this add two-thirds to the produce of these years, about 250,000,000 52,604,166 The allowance for contraband is variously estimated at a third, a fourth, and a sixth. Estimating it at onefourth, it will amount to 302,774,434 63,708,780
IBuenos Humboldt’s invaluable work on the kingdom of New Ayres. Spain, contains the most complete and satisfactory information. This celebrated traveller was enabled to procure, from official papers, an account ol the value of the royal duties paid into the provincial treasury of Potosi, on all the silver brought to the mint between the years 1556 and 1789; an(l the proportion of those duties to the whole produce being known, the annual amount of the silver extracted from the mines, during this period, with the exception of what was carried away by the contraband traders, can be easily ascertained from these accounts. From the year 1545 to 1556, there are no records of the royal duty, and Humboldt has supplied this defect from such imperfect and accidental information as he could collect in the works of the earlier writers on South America. Ulloa, who proceeds upon the authority of a writer in the 17th century, estimates the silver produced, during those eleven years, when the official records are wanting, to 72,000,000 of marcs, equal to about L. 144,000,000 Sterling. But, according to the more accurate reckonings of Humboldt, this estimate must be greatly above the truth ; and he conjectures that the whole produce during this period, cannot have exceeded 15,000,000 of marcs or 127j500,000 piastres, equal, valuing the piastre at 4s. 2|d. to L. 26,328,125 Sterling. He states, however, that little reliance can be placed on the correctness of this estimate. 1,211,097,739 254,835,155 From the year 1556 to the year 1578, a duty of Add for contraband, 302,774,434 63,708,780 one-fourth, one-fifth was paid on all the silver brought to the mint of Potosi. These duties amounted, during this 1,513,872,173 318,543,935 period of twenty-three years, to 9>801,906 piastres, Total produce, which gives a total produce for these twenty-three From this estimate of the produce of these mines, years, of 49,009,530 piastres, or 5,765,827 marcs of it will be found that they were never more flourishsilver, equal to L. 10,312,431. From the year 1579 to the year 1736, including a ing during the whole period of 233 years, from period of 158 years, a duty of per cent, was paid, 1556 to 1789, than from 1585 to 1606. For seveand afterwards the fifth of the remaining 98| piastres, ral successive years, the royal fifth amounted to one which amounted to nearly 6£ per cent. The produce and a half million of piastres, which supposes an of this duty for 158 years amounted to 129,417,273 annual produce of 1,490,000, or 882,000 marcs, acpiastres, which gives a total produce of about cording as the piastre of silver is estimated at 13^ 610,458,835 piastres, or 71>818,686 marcs, and an or 8 reals. * This is the more surprising, as at this annual average produce of 3,888,272 piastres, or of period more than a third of the silver was never re455,991 marcs, in value equal to something more gistered. Adding this one-third to the annual produce calculated from the royal fifth, the quantity than L. 8,000,000 Sterling. From the year 1736 to 17895 percent, of duty, of silver produced at this time, will amount to and the half of the fifth were paid, and, during this 10,000,000 of piastres, equal to L. 2,104,166. After period of fifty-three years, the duties amounted to the year 1606, the produce began gradually to 14,542,684 piastres. The whole produce amounted diminish, although from this time to 1688, it neconsequently to 128,129)374 piastres, or 15,074,044 ver was below 350,000 marcs per annum. From the marcs of silver, and the annual average produce to commencement of the subsequent century, the produce continued decreasing, and from the year 1736, about 281,758 marcs, equal to about L. 490,000. From 1789 to 1803, there is no account of the when the royal fifth only amounted to 85,410 piroyal duties. But, according to the records of the astres till about the year 1748, the annual amount mint, the produce amounted to 46,000,000 of pi- of the duties was never equal to 200,000 piastres. astres, or to 3,285,710 piastresannum. Helms, After this period, the produce began to increase, who visited Potosi in 1789) states that there were and gradually rose to between 300,000 or 400,000 annually coined in the royal mint from 550,000 to marcs. This quantity, however, Helms, who had 600,000 marcs of silver, and about 2000 marcs in gold. the best opportunities of information, assures his * This coin, towards the conclusion of the sixteenth century, was reduced to the value of eight iaa and as it is uncertain when this change took place, we cannot exactly ascertain the quantity of silvei which was produced at this period. We can only be certain of its highest and lowest quantity.
l44
BUENOS
Buenos readers could be doubled, if the mines were drained Ayres. 0f the water with which they are overflowed, and if some other simple improvements, which he suggests, were carried into effect. In 1545, it is mentioned that ores containing from 80 to 90 marcs per quintal of 1600 ounces, were r common. I he marc is nearly equal to about eight ounces; so that, according to this account, 1600 ounces of ore were found to yield about 600 or 700 ounces of silver. The average produce was, at this period, from eight to nine ounces per quintal, which was nearly in the proportion of one ounce in twenty-two or twenty-five. Since the commencement of the eighteenth century, it is stated by Humboldt, that they reckon only on extracting from three to four marcs of silver from the caxon of ore, equal to 5000 lbs. which is only one ounce of silver out of every 2000 or 2500 ounces of mineral. According to experiments made by Helms on 300 specimens of ores, they were found to produce from six to eight ounces of silver for every caxon of 5000 lbs.; although in some ores the .silver was in the proportion of 20 marcs to each caxon, which is about one in 384. The minerals of Potosi are consequently extremely poor, and it is owing to their abundance alone, that they still produce so great a quantity of silver. From 1574 to 1789, the mean quantity of silver afforded by the ores lias diminished in the proportion of 170'to one, while the silver extracted from the mines has only diminished in the proportion of four to one. It thus appears that the productiveness of mines does not by any means depend so much on the richness or poverty of the minerals which they contain, as on their abundance, and the facility with which they are worked. It happens, accordingly, that the Mexican mines, which are the richest in the world, contain remarkably poor minerals, the best yielding, on an average, from 4,JL to 5T3(y; the middling from lT8(j to 2-/^, and the worst about lj% ounces of silver for every ifiOO ounces of ore. In some of the mines of Germany, on the other hand, of which the produce falls so far short of those of South America, the mean proportion of silver is found to amount to 10 ounces per quintal, and in fortunate periods to 15. From 1545 till 1571, the silver minerals of Potosi were all smelted in portable furnaces contrived by the Indians. These were cylindrical tubes of clay, very broad, and pierced ’with a number of holes, which, admitting the air, gave the flame a great degree of intensity. About the year 1571> the method of amalgamation with mercury was introduced ; and of the 8000 or 10,000 quintals produced by the mine of Guancunelica towards the end of the sixteenth century, above 6000 or 7000 quintals were consumed in the works of Potosi. About the year 1763, the consumption amounted to between 16,000 and 17,000 quintals annually. There are at present 2000 miners engaged in the works at Potosi, who are paid at the rate of 25s. per day. Fifteen thousand lamas, and an equal number of asses, are employed in carrying the ore from the mountain ot Potosi to the amalgamation works. Gold Gold is found in most of the mountainous districts Mines. of this viceroyalty. It is either worked in mines,
A Y R E S. gathered from >the sands, or collected from the Bneiun streams. Near the town of Mojos, there is a consi- v Ayres, derable stratum of rich magnetical iron sand, in which are found particles of gold of the size of a lentil, and sometimes as heavy as the quarter of a ducat. The Indians, however, by their unskilful mode of working the sand, lose all the finer particles of the gold, which are carried away by the .stream. From the town.of Mojos to within a short distance of Potosi, from which it is distant 180 miles, similar alluvial layers occur, and gold is washed from them, especially at the little town of St Jago de Cotagoita, which is distant about 90 miles from Potosi. In the province of Tapes there are gold mines, many of which have been abandoned. But two are now worked, and one of copper, the strata of which are intermixed with gold, silver, .iron, and loadstone. In Puno and Oruro, there are several gold mines. But most of them have gone to decay from the inactivity of the inhabitants, or they have been overflowed, and all efforts to drain them have been found unavailing. The-most abundant mines are in the province of iCochabaniba and Sicasica. The whole of the mountains in this last district, where the Indians collect ore by working, abound in rich gold ore, and when, about a hundred years ago, a projecting part fell down, lumps of pure gold, weighing from ■two to fifty pounds, were severed from the stone; and, even in the present times, in the layers of sand washed from the mountain by the rain water, pieces of pure gold are found, some of which weigh an ounce. From the ignorance of the inhabitants, however. most of these treasures lie totally neglected. A very brief and general account of the animals of this country, is all that can be attempted within our present limits. The horses and horned cattle, originally imported from Europe, have multiplied amazingly in the extensive plains of South America. Asses, mules, European sheep, stags of different species, foxes, rabbits, goats, and hogs, are numerous, and great numbers of wild dogs are to be met with. These are descended from those of a domestic kind that have left their masters in pursuit of the game, with which the country everywhere abounds. The other wild animals are the puma or American lion, the jaguar and cougar, two species of American tigers, which are strong and ferocious animals, and commit great devastations among the flocks. The jaguar, when full grown, is a large animal, some of them measuring five feet from the nose to the root of the tail, which is two additional feet long, and so strong that they will drag the carcase of a horse or bull which they have killed to the place where they intend to devour it. They are excellent swimmers, and Azara mentions, that he has seen them swimming across a large river loaded with their prey. The Puma is a weak and cowardly animal, and is now become very scarce in the parts inhabited by the Spaniards. The guazuara, called the cougar by Buffon, is 47 inches long, without including the tail, which is 26 inches long. It flies from the human species, but kills calves, sheep, pigeons, and all other smaller animals. It does not stop to eat the flesh, but is contented with licking the blood. 01 the other animals, the most remarkable are the rnita or danla, which is between the elk and buffalo
BUENOS AYRES. 545 Buenos species. It is of the size of a large ass, has no The rivers abound in great varieties of fish ; and Buenos Ayres- horns, and is of singular strength. It is frequent- of amphibious animals, there are on the coast tur- Ayres. ly found in the forests and plains of Paraguay, but tles, seals, and sea-lions; while alligators or cayhas been so much hunted both for its skin and flesh, mans, of a large size, and very voracious, swarm in Fish. that it is scarce both in Tucuman and Buenos Ayres. all the rivers. The interior of the country is infestThe armadillos are very numerous all over South ed by innumerable tribes of reptiles and insects, America, and are of various species, differing in size, which are brought into life in tire damp forests, and and in the nature of the armature with which they on the rank soil on the borders of rivers. Serpents are covered. The tamandua, or nurumi, or ant-eater, also abound in these parts, among which the most is 53% inches long, without reckoning the tail, which remarkable is the enormous boa constrictor, which is in length 22% inches, besides a thick bunch of is chiefly found in the marshy places of the forests. hair at its end, 11 inches long. Azara enumerates In regulating the colonial trade, Spain has uni- Coiuinerc^. various other small animals, which are generally car- formly proceeded upon the principle of sacrificing nivorous, preying upon birds, reptiles, or other infe- the colony for the supposed advantage of the mother rior quadrupeds. The chibi-guazu, which he consi- country; and, with this view, such restraints were ders to be the jaguar of New Spain, or the tiger- imposed on the commerce of her South American cat of other countries, is 34 inches, and the tail 13 provinces, as forced them to depend entirely on the inches. Wild cats are found of various sorts. There parent state, both for the supply of their wants, and are also several animals which have the form of the for the sale of their produce. They were not only martin, the pole-cat, and the ferret, but which are entirely debarred from trading with Europe, or with much larger and stronger. The sarigue or the fe- any other country, in their own vessels, but their incundo, is a small animal peculiar to America, which tercourse with each other was either entirely prohipreys upon pigeons, mice, insects, eggs, &c. It has bited or obstructed by many severe restrictions. a long triangular and pointed face; its eyes are Under this system, the commerce of Spain with her oblique and jutting out. Its mouth is large, and colonies centered entirely in the port of Seville ; and well furnished with teeth. Its tail is long, thick, and the cargo of every ship destined for the colonies covered with scales, which it uses to climb up trees was inspected by a board appointed for the purpose, and walls when the surface is in any degree rough. before she could receive a licence to make the It has long whiskers, and its ears are round, naked, voyage. In 1720 this commerce was transferred to Cadiz, as being a more convenient port; and the and transparent. Of the domestic animals, those most worthy of commerce was carried on by means of annual fleets, note are the lama and the paco, both natives of the which sailed periodically, and which consisted of mountainous parts of Peru, and inhabiting the higher two squadrons, known under the respective appelladistricts of the Tucuman, and the provinces of Los tions of the galleons and the flota. These expediCharcos, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The lama is tions were made exclusively to the Gulf of Mexico ; a most useful animal, and is capable of carrying hea- and it was through the ports of Porto-Bello and vy burdens in the most rugged and dangerous roads. Vera Cruz alone that the colonies of Spain were It is about four feet high ; the body, including the either supplied with European commodities or found neck, is five or six feet long. This animal bears a a vent for their own productions. Owing to this ligreat resemblance to a camel, excepting that it has mited intercourse, the produce of America was no hunch on its back. The paco, or vicunna, is a exchanged for that of Europe on terms extremely species of subordinate animal to the lama, in the disadvantageous. Her markets were always impersame manner as the ass to the horse. Their wool is fectly supplied with the commodities of Europe, fine and long, and is a valuable article of merchan- which bore, in consequence, a very high price ; while dise, The natural colour of it is that of a dried her own productions, being restricted to particular rose-leaf; and while every kind of clothing manu- ports, were always liable to arrive at a market alfactured of it possesses a peculiar degree of genial ready overstocked. The Spanish colonies lanwarmth, it is at the same time most beautifully silky guished under those harassing restrictions ; and and light. The lama and the paco inhabit the high- Buenos Ayres, whose territorial resources conest mountain-deserts amid perpetual ice and snow ; sisted neither in gold, silver, indigo, cochineal, and the cold, far from being unfavourable to them, nor in any of those precious products which are seems to invigorate and refresh them. The tapir, easily exported, but in bulky and perishable commothough more abundant in Brasil, is also found on the dities requiring the constant command of shipping, banks of the Parana and Paraguay. It is of the size remained for a long time in a state of obscurity and depression. of a small cow, but has neither horns nor tail. But the operation of this system was eventually ’tb. Of birds, the emu, which is generally known by the name of the American ostrich, and the well-known counteracted by its extreme violence and injustice; bird of prey the condor, are the most remarkable. The in consequence of which it was found impossible, in emu is bred in the Pampas. It is generally six feet cases where it prohibited tfie colonies from being high, measuring from the head to the feet; and it runs supplied with articles of the first necessity, to carry with such swiftness that the fleetest dogs are thrown it into strict execution. Salutary evasions were, out in the pursuit. Carrion vultures, which fly in therefore, connived at, and, in process pf time, a large flocks, are also very common, and feed upon contraband trade was established, which was found numerous carcases of the cattle slaughtered for the so beneficial, that it flourished in spite of all the expedients adopted to prevent it. The legitimate sake of their hides. 3z VOL. II. FART II.
546 Buenos Ayres.
BUENOS commerce was proportionably diminished, and the annual squadron gradually dwindled away from 15,000 to 2000 tons of shipping. Those encroachments on the monopoly ot the colonial trade plainly suggested the necessity of relaxing the restraints by which the colonies were oppressed, and of devising some method for ensuring to them a constant and adequate supply of European produce. In the year 1740, a considerable part ot the American trade was permitted to be carried on by register ships, which, on purchasing a licence from the Council of the Indies, were allowed to sail at any time, and which, in the year 1748, hnaliy superseded the galleons and flota, after they had been in use for two centuries. By means of this intercourse, the American market was more regularlv supplied with the productions of Europe, and Buenos Ayres was benefited, along with the other colonies, by these regulations. Other relaxations of the system of restraint soon followed. In 1774, a free intercourse was opened between several of the American provinces; and, in 1778, seven of the principal Spanish ports, to which, in 1788, five others were added, were permitted to engage in a free trade with Buenos Ayres, and with the ports of the South Sea. These regulations, together with the erection ot Buenos Ayres into an independent viceroyalty in 1778, gave it importance and stability; and, trom this period, its imports and exports have progressively increased. Previous to the year 1778, not more than 12 or 15 registered vessels were engaged in the colonial trade of South America, and these seldom performed more than one voyage in three years. But, in that year, their number increased to 170 vessels, the value of whose cargoes amounted to L.1,958,676. For the further encouragement ot the trade of Buenos Ayres, salted meat and tallow were allowed, in the year 1793, to be exported duty-free; and, by this and other regulations, the trade and population of the adjacent provinces was considerably increased. Azara gives the following annual average estimate of the trade and shipping ot Buenos Ayres, taking the average of the years between 1792 and 179b‘ Imports from Spain, Value of Value of the ProSpanish ductions and MaNo. of From what Ports Manufac- nufactures Total. tures and received. Cargoes. Produc- of other tions. Nations. 2l£ 21 4 J
Cadiz Barcelona and Malaga Corunna St Andero Vigo Jijon St Lucar
AYRES.
Value of Silver in PiTotal VaNo.of To what istres,in In- Value of Produce in lue in Car- Ports sent. gots, or in Gold in Piastre*. Piastres. Plate. Piastres. goes. 1,002,557941,798 19 Cadiz 15 Barcelona & Malaga 200,385! 83,281 8f Corunna 938,348 625,696 5,202 1,632 3f StAndei'O
617,074 233,669 56,688 10,532 6,784 287 2,545,364
In pounds Sterling, L. 535,587
447,483 2,391,845 277,301 561,568 32,685 1,656,729 57,023 50,189 4,667,166
47 In pounds Sterling,
L. 982,049
Imports from the Havannah. 13,037 artobas. 37 ditto. 132 jars. 65 arrobas. 225 ditto. 1,277 casks. 240 quintals. 505 arrobas. 37 quintals. 473^ pieces. 96 pounds. 37% quintals, 188 ditto.
Sugar Confections Honey Cocoa Coffee Brandy Rice Wax Pitch and Tar Linen Manna Dye-woods Acuna wool
L. 20,397.
Value in pounds Sterling, Exports to the Havannah Silver in piastres Salt Beef Tallow Fine furs Sea-wolf skins Common wool Sheep skins Flour Oil of the sea-wolf Copper Goose wings
17,236. 39,281 quintals. 10,617 arrobas. 147 323 80 arrobas. 113 dozen. 440 quintals. 25 ditto. 50 ditto. 70
Value in pounds Sterling,
L. 15,057.
Imports from Lima.
Piastres. Piastres. 631,615 923,313 1,554,328 595,229 21,845 223,484 75,584 32,501 24,187 6,132 4,400 4,684 2,123 287
Buenos Ayres.
Exports to Spam.
Sugar Cocoa Cinnamon Rice Salt Stones Indigo Wrought iron Value in pounds Sterling, 10
4337 arrobas. 295 do. 75| pounds. 80 quintals. 200 138 pounds. 7 L.5264#
BUENOS Exports to Lima.
Buenos Ayres.
£688 arrobas. 2800 do. 20 83 419 128 8 24
Paraguay tea Tallow _ Swan skins Negro slaves Hoes Thread Silk stockings Hats Value in pounds Sterling,
L.4723.
Imports from the Coast of Africa. 1338 1420
Negro slaves Hoes Value in pounds Sterling,
£.66,703.
Exports to the Coast of Africa. Silver, in piastres Value of goods
-
120,276 12,738
Value in pounds Sterling,
£.27,987.
In the year 1797, hostilities commenced between Spain and Great Britain; and, in consequence of this event, the trade between the mother country and her South American colonies was necessarily exposed to the maritime hostility of Britain. So effectually was this hostility carried on by the British cruisers, that, in 1798, the trade of the Spanish settlements was at a stand; and it was calculated that above three millions of hides were lying at the warehouses of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, for which no vent could be found. European goods were totally wanting, or had risen to excessive prices. £inen was not to be had, and the ootton stuffs of the country, or those which came from Peru, were substituted in lieu of it, and for brandy and Spanish wines, those of Cuyo were used. This stagnation of trade was at length relieved by the intervention of the neutral vessels ol the Americans, which brought European goods to the colonies, and took away their surplus produce in return ; and this contraband intercourse was found so indispensable to the trade of those countries, that it was eithei connived at or openly encouraged. A very extensive trade is carried on between the Interior Commerce, lower and upper provinces of this viceroyalty, and also with Peru and Chili. The herb ot Paraguay, known by the name of Paraguay tea, and the cattle and mules of the provinces of Buenos Ayres and Tucuman, form the staples of this commerce. Ihe herb of Paraguay is in such demand, that the crop on the ground is generally sold before it is gatheie . The quantity exported to Peru is estimated at 2,500,000 libs., and about 1,000,000 of libs, are annually sent to Chili. The remainder is consumed in Paraguay, Tucuman, and the other provinces. There is a continual demand for mules in Per11 and Potosi to carry on the work of the mines ; ^d it is calculated that about 60,000 of these animals are
Effects of the War with England on Commerce.
AYRES. ' 547 ne 9 annually purchased for Peru and Potosi at the price ® ®“ of between three and four piastres a-head. These t . are driven into the interior by easy journeys to Salta, where they are taken great care of during the winter, and when in good condition, they are conducted to Potosi, where they sell for eight, nine, or ten piastres a-head ; and such as are carried to Peru sell for higher prices, some for 40 and even 50 piastres. Peru and Potosi, and the mountainous districts where the mines are situated, are also supplied with large droves of cattle from the provinces of Buenos Ayres and Tucumau. These are either caught wild, or they are purchased from the immense pasture lands which extend over a great part of the province of Buenos Ayres, and are conveyed by easy journeys into the interior. A great trade is also carried on, more especially when the usual intercourse with Europe is interrupted by war, between Peru and Potosi, and the other provinces which wrere annexed to Buenos Ayres in the year 1778. These provinces being the principal mining countries, are on this account populous, while, owing to their elevated situation, the climate is bleak, and the soil barren. Supplies therefore, both of subsistence and of manufactures, must be drawn from more fertile regions; and the trade in question consists accordingly in exchanging the produce ot the adjoining provinces for the precious metals which form the great staple of the mining districts. Peru, Chili, and the provinces to the east, receive from the mining countries supplies of gold and silver, in exchange for w'hich they send maize, wheat-flour, cotton, oil, pimento, sugar, hides, wax, soap, tallow, &c. baize, woollen manufactures, and articles for the use of the mines, &c. Estalla, the compiler of a voluminous collection, Population, which contains much valuable information on South America, called Viagero Universal, estimates the population of this viceroyalty at 1,000,000 of Spaniards and Creoles, besides Indians. He estimates the population of the city of Buenos Ayres at about 40,000, of whom one half are whites or Spaniards. Though reckoned the capital of the viceroyalty, it is not so populous as Potosi, which, according to Helms, contains a population of 100,000; an amount which so greatly exceeds all preceding accounts, as to render the accuracy of his information extremely doubtful. M. Humboldt, in his general table of the population of South America, which, however, he does not give as pretending to accuracy, estimates the Spanish and Creole population of this viceroyalty at 1,100,000; which exceedsEstallas^ estimate by 100,000. Azara states the population of the province of Paraguay at 97j500, and that of the province of Buenos Ayres at 170,900. In 1806, a British squadron, commanded by Sir ‘'••''hsli ExHome Popham, appeared in the Rio de la Plata, l*6 1 l0i! from which a force was landed under the command of Major-General Beresford, for the reduction of Buenos Ayres. Some trifling resistance was offered by the Spaniards; but, in the end, General Beresford entered the town with little opposition. He appears to have been partly indebted for his success to the surprise into which the Spaniards were thrown by this unexpected invasion, for when they had suffi-
548 Buenos Ayres.
BUENOS A Y R E S. authority, proceeded to bombard the city and to destroy its commerce. On the other hand, the Junta sent their army against Monte Video, and compelled Elio to take refuge within the walls of the fortress. An armistice was afterwards concluded between the parties ; but the subsequent transactions are yet involved in considerable obscurity. We propose to reserve the account of the revolution which has been begun in these colonies, for the Article South America ; trusting that, before we shall have advanced so far in the course of our work, the cause of independence will have finally triumphed, and that we shall then be able to exhibit a distinct and satisfactory view of its progress, and of its probable results both to America and to Europe. Azara, Voyages en Amerique Meridian ale, depuis 1181 jusqu en 1801.4 vols. 8vo. 1809.—Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of Netv Spain, 4 vols. 8 vo.—Wilcocke’s History of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, 1806.—Helms’s Travels from Buenos Ayres, by Potosi and Lima.—Alcedo’s Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies, translated by Thompson, 5 vols. 4to. 1810.—Edinburgh Review, Vol. XIX. (o.) BUKHARA, or Bokhara, an extensive country in central Asia, situated to the north of the Oxus, which separates it from Khoarism and the kingdom of Caubul. Its principal cities are Bukhara and Samarcand. This ancient seat of the conquerors of Asia is now almost entirely unknown to Europeans. A few particulars, however, respecting its present state, were collected by Mr Elphinstone, during his residence in Caubul. About the beginning of the sixteenth century, the descendants of Timur were driven from this territory by the Uzbeks, who, crossing the Jaxartes, swept all before them, till they were stopt by the central barrier of mountains. They thus established themselves, and have ever since remained the ruling people in Bukhara, Bulkh, Fergannah, and Khoarigm. The Uzbeks belong to the great race of Turk or Toork, which, with the Moguls and Mandshoors, comprises all the people known in Europe under the general appellation of Tartar. The beauty of this race is celebrated by the Persian poets ; though, for this admiration, it seems chiefly indebted to the contrast with the hideous deformity of the Mogul aspect. The Uzbeks are generally short and stout. Broad foreheads, high cheek-bones, thin beards, and small eyes, form the national features. Their complexion is clear and ruddy, and their hair generally black. Part of the nation live in houses and part in tents. Of the latter description, Bukhara contains a large proportion, as a great part of the soil is fit only for pasturage. This people have not the remotest idea of travelling on foot; every man keeps a horse or a camel; even the beggar must have an ass to ride upon. Horse-flesh is the favourite food ; but can be obtained only in small quantities unless by the rich. Their drink consists chiefly of tea, and koumiss or kimmiss, an intoxicating liquor drawn from mares’ milk. The Uzbeks, having embraced Mahometanism at a time when they probably had few other positive institutions, have adopted its precepts in their fullest
ciently recovered from their panic, aad had leisure consider the inconsiderable numbers of their enemies, the British were assailed by such a superiority of force, that they were compelled to yield themselves prisoners of war on the 12th of August, having had possession of the place for about the space ©f six weeks. In the meantime, reinforcements arrived from the Cape, and Sir Home Popham, having made an unsuccessful attempt on Monte Video, took possession of the fort of Maldonado, at the mouth of the Plata. Additional reinforcements having arrived under the command of Sir Samuel Achmuty, the invaders succeeded at length in taking Monte Video by storm, and they only waited for farther succours to resume the attack of the capital. The expected reinforcements at length arrived, in May 1807, under General Whitelock, to whom was committed the chief command of the expedition; and, on the 15th June, a farther reinforcement was received under General Crawford. With this force, amounting to 8000 men, it was resolved to attack Buenos Ayres by marching into the town. But no sooner had they entered the place, than they were assailed, from all quarters, with a commanding and superior fire of grape and musketry. The streets were intersected by deep ditches secured by cannon which poured upon the assailants an incessant and destructive fire; while, from the windows and tops of the houses, they were exposed to a galling fire of musketry, to hand-grenades, bricks, and stones. In this unequal contest, about a third of the British army was either killed, wounded, or captured, without any material advantage gained ; and, next day, an armistice was concluded, which issued in a convention, by which it was agreed that the British should evacuate the Plata in two months; and that all prisoners taken on both sides should be restored. Late Revo- The project of the French Emperor to subdue lution, Spain, for the purpose of establishing his brother Joseph on the throne, gave rise to a spirit of just indignation throughout the South American colonies; and when his successes seemed to pave the way for the subjection of the mother country, their first care wras to take effectual measures for the security of their own independence. With this view, in the town of Buenos Ayres, the government of the viceroy was superseded by one of popular appointment ; and though the leaders of the revolution still professed allegiance to Ferdinand, it was generally believed that they had secretly resolved to shake off the yoke of Spain. Different view's, however, prevailed in other parts of the country. In Monte Video the Regency of Cadiz w'as recognised; and, in the interior, a counter-revolution was begun under the influence of Liniers and the adherents of the new government in Spain. To suppress this movement, a force was dispatched into the interior, at whose approach the chiefs of the counter-revolution fled, and being pursued and taken, they were barbarously murdered. The opposition to the revolution begun at Monte Video, was of a more formidable character. It w-as directed by Elio, an officer of marine, who arrived from Spain with the commission of viceroy, and who, not being able to prevail on the Junta of Buenos Ayres to recognise his
L
B l&tkfcwa II
.
U
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extent. Ali the details of civil government, and the minutest observances of common life, are regulated b tbe y precepts of the Koran. The King of Bukhara assumes the title of Commander of the Faithful; he spends a great part of the day in teaching the Mahommedan religion, and of the night in prayers and vigils. He reads prayers in his own mosque; and will sometimes perform the funeral service, even for people of low rank. In Bukhara, and in all the Uzbek countries, the form of government is almost entirely despotic. The country is formed into divisions and subdivisions, which are governed by officers appointed solely by the sovereign. The villages alone have some share in their own administration ; but. this cannot form any material check on the royal authority. The Uzbeks are brave ; they charge with shouts, drawn up in three lines which advance successively to the attack; so that, till the third has given way, they cannot be considered as finally defeated. They make admirable light cavalry from the rapidity of their movements, and from being patient of thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in an extraordinary degree. Their laws of war are entirely barbarous; infidel captives are sold as slaves ; and this treatment being unlawful in regard to Mahommedan enemies, these suffer a more cruel fate, and are butchered without mercy. Yet, in the intercourse of private life, they display many laudable qualities. They are honest and sincere; quarrels are rare, and a murder scarcely ever heard of. Their hospitality is such, that Mr Elphinstone considers Bukhara as the country of Asia through which a traveller may pass with the greatest security. The capital city, called alsa Bukhara, appears to be very considerable. Its population is said to be equal to that of Peshawer, and, consequently, exceeds a hundred thousand souls. This city contains numerous colleges, supported either by the king, or by private foundations. The sciences exclusively taught, indeed, are those of Mahommedan Theology and Jurisprudence; and, even in these, the fame of this city is inferior to that of Peshawei'. Besides these institutions for education, Bukhara contains caravansaries, on a great scale, for the accommodation of trade ; and, notwithstanding the rigid attachment of the people to the Mahommedan faith, strangers of every religion experience the most liberal toleration. (b.) BULKH, or Balk, a kingdom of central Asia, situated on the northern declivity of the immense chain of mountains, commonly called Hindoo Coosh, which separates it from Caubul. It forms thus the intermediate state between that kingdom and Bukhara. Some of its vallies, particularly along the Oxus, are lower, and suffer more from heat, than those of Caubul, on the southern side of the chain. This country was conquered, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, along with Bukhara, by the Uzbeks, who have ever since continued the ruling people. Bulkh was conquered by Nadir Shah ; and, notwithstanding several revolutions, has since generally continued in a state of nominal subjection to Caubul. Kiliich Ally, however, an Uzbek prince, exercises at present an authority almost independent.
BUN 549 The king of Caubul does not even draw any tribute Bulkh from Bulkh ; he is content if it serve as a barrier H against the northern Uzbek tribes. The country is chiefly divided into three large provinces,—Bulkh Proper, Khoolloora, and Koondooz. Its government and manners being those common to the Uzbek tribes, have been described under the head of Bukhara. Kiliich Ally maintains an army of 12,000 horse ; after paying the expence of which, he has a clear revenue of a lack and a half of rupees (about L. 19,000). He is much beloved by his subjects, and affords such effectual protection to trade, that his praises are celebrated by all the caravans which traverse this part of Asia. He seats himself daily in his public apartment, on a carpet, without pillows or cushions. Those of his visitors whom he wishes to honour, are seated by him on the same carpet; while others must be contented with the bare floor. He superintends in person every department of the administration, executes justice with strictness, and is particularly attentive to the regulation of the bazar, or public market. Bulkh is the ancient Bactria, which, for wealth and power, held a high pre-eminence among the kingdoms of central Asia. The capital was known under the name of Bactra, and seems to have been the grand emporium for the commerce of this part of the world. The Asiatics are impressed with the deepest veneration for its antiquity, and call it commonly “ the mother of cities.” Immense ruins still attest its ancient grandeur ; but the modern Bulkh merely .occupies a corner of the circuit enclosed by the ancient walls. The country round, however, is level and fertile, contains a great number of villages, and is watered by artificial canals. Tausk Koorghaun, the capital of Khoolloom, contains 8000 houses, and the capital of Koondooz still exceeds it in magnitude. (b.) BUNDELCUND, or Bandelkhand, an exten-situation sive district of the province of Allahabad, in Hindos- and Extent, tan, between the rivers Cane and Betwali, occupying a superficies of about 11,000 square miles. The south-west frontier lies in about 24*° north latitude, and 80° 45' east longitude, and the territory extends about two degrees further north. In general, the face of this country is mountainous, high, and rocky; its vegetation is scanty, and the inhabitants do not bestow much care on the cultivation of it. The summits of many of the hills, however, are covered with low copses, amidst which there is but little grass interspersed. Other parts of the district exhibit a close jungle ; and there are portions, consisting of fertile soil, which are brought under suitable culture. The most valuable of all fossils, diamonds, have Diamond been long found here, particularly near the towrn of Mines. Purna or Pannah. The mines producing them are situated in a range of hills called Bund-Ahill by the natives, extending above twenty miles in length by between two and three in breadth, and are said to be partitioned into twenty one divisions ; but we do not know that the whole belong to Bundelcund. Of these, the mines of Maharajepoor, Rajepoor, Kimmerah, and Guddaseah, contain the finest diamonds; and one dug from the last has been reputed the largest in the world. It was kept in the fort ol Cal-
BUN BUN 530 Binukl. Bund. 1- linger, among other treasures of Rajah Himmut Ba- Very little of their manners and customs is known. cund. cund. hadur. Several different rajahs are proprietors of Women occasionally burn themselves along with the v bodies of their deceased husbands, according to a tiie mines, each having the charge of his own, without any interest in the produce of the rest. A su- remarkable religious principle diffused in the east, perintendent is appointed to inspect the pioduce, and which now seems universally on the decline. The every diamond when found is registered, valued, and, inhabitants dwell in towns and villages, of which the if the rajah does not chuse to keep it, is offered for latter are much better than most others in India; and have numerous strong forts, which they are acsale. When sold, he receives two-thirds of the value. they customed to take and defend with determined viIn the reign of the Emperor Ackbar, the mines of Pannah produced to the amount of L.100,000 annually, gour. There are several considerable towns in the dis- Chief and were then a considerable source of revenue ; but for many years they have not been nearly so profitable, trict, such as Pannah, Pima or Puma, where the Ra- Towns, and it appears that about the year 1750, the govern- jah resides on account of its proximity to the diament did not derive more from them than equivalent mond mines, Chatterpoor, Ditteah, Callinger, JyghtJhansi. Chatterpoor, 30 miles distant from to L. 50,000 per annum. Their present value is not poor, Pannah, and 698 from Calcutta, is extensive, well exactly known. According to tradition, the mines built, and the houses chiefly consist of stone. Forwere discovered by a fakir or religious mendicant. merly it was in a flourishing condition, a place of Aspect of The country, at a distance from the mountains, is the country, ao-reeably diversified with clusters of eminences or great and active commercial transactions, and a kind depot for goods carried between the Deccan and small hills, separate from each other, exhibiting a of Mirzapour, which is also in the province of Allahapicturesque appearance; and the inhabitants invariably build their villages at the bottom of a bilk They bad, and one of the principal trading towns of HinThe goods were afterwards transported by are seldom seen in any other situation, and it is chief- dostan. bullocks and camels to the places of their ly around the villages that the small quantity of grain numerous destination, and so much commerce was conducted raised in the district is cultivated. But Bundelcund here, that, when Chatterpoor preserved its greatest not being a fertile country in itself, grain is brought from the banks of the Jumna and the Ganges. Many importance, the duties levied amounted to L. 50,000 other commodities are supplied from the Deccan, or yearly. It was founded by one of the rajahs of Bundelcund, and occasionally his residence. Ditteah, or middle region of the peninsula, and large herds of bul- Dutteah, is a large town surrounded with a stone locks are seen continually passing to the hilly part of the territory. The forests abound witn tigers, and the wall, and is provided with gates. It extends a mile nhil-gau or white-footed antelope, as also the wild boar, and a half in length, by nearly as much in breadth, which are all hunted by the chief men of the country. and is populous and well built, the houses being of stone, and covered with tiles. A spacious edifice, Inhabitants. The inhabitants, who are called Bondelas, are a with seven cupolas, stands at the north-west extrebrave and warlike people, entertaining high notions of independence, and impatient of constraint or in- mity, which was the former residence of the Rajahs; dignity. They act under the full impulse of those but a palace has recently been built for them on an violent passions which sway the inhabitants of the eminence without the town, close to which is a coneast, and lead to catastrophes of a nature un- siderable lake. The district of Ditteah was tribuknown to Europeans. An instance occurred not tary to the Mahrattas, and the Rajah could raise long ago, when the fortress of Adjyghur, be- 2000 horse, and as many infantry, esteemed excelsieged by the British troops, was evacuated by the lent troops. Some years ago, they testified how o-arrison. The removal of the family of the re- much they were to be dreaded in an engagement befractory Zemindar who had occasioned hostilities tween the veteran forces under M. de Boyne, a fahaving been directed, his father-in-law was desired mous French General in the Mahratta-service, where to prepare the females ol the family for it. Instead all the skill and ability of the commander could of doing so, however, he murdered the whole and scarcely preserve the latter from destruction. But their children eight in number, and then put an among the most important places ot Bundelcund is end to his own existence. But what was still more Callinger, the chief town ot a subdivision of this disextraordinary, the perpetration of this horrible deed trict, which seems to have once been an independent was apparently with the consent, and without any o-overnment, and now includes ten pergunnahs or It has a fortification built on a complaint of the sufferers. The Bondelas are either circles of villages. D Bramins or Rajpoots. About Ditteah and Jhansi, lofty rock of g reat extent, and is deemed impregnathey are a stout and handsome race of men, exhibit- ble by the natives. The walls are said to be six or ing an appearance of opulence and content. They seven miles in circuit; 170 pieces of cannon are commonly go armed with a bow and spear, both mounted on them, and a garrison of 5000 men is of which are of excellent quality; and they know necessary for their defence. Nevertheless, its navery well how to use them. They testify no ap- tural strength has enabled a smaller numbei to prehension in engaging veteran troops. Owing sustain long sieges; and the earlier invaders of Bunto the intestine commotions which Ibng pervad- delcund have been compelled to retire after unsuced this district, every man carried arms; and cessful blockades protracted during several years. many, availing themselves of superior force, attack- So lately as the year 1810, the British army, having ed and plundered travellers, or levied a contribution attempted to take it by storm, was repulsed with great from them, on pretence of guarding the passes which slaughter. However, the garrison of this fortress, they had necessarily to traverse among the hills. probably dreading a repetition of the assault, eva»
BUN Bmidel- cuated the place during the night. No fortress can cnnd. be more secure against the irregular approaches ot an Indian army. Here the Rajah kept his militai'y stores and treasure, and it was also the residence of the Europeans in his service. It is twenty or thirty miles from Pannah, and lies in 24° 58r north latitude. Jhansi is a considerable town, but smaller than Ditteah, commanded by a stone fort on a high hill, in 25° 31' north latitude, and thirty-two miles distant from Chatterpoor. There is a district dependent on the town, which, from having been seventy or eighty years in the uninterrupted possession of the Peshwa, or Chief of the Mahrattas, is in a more tranquil state, and better cultivated than most of the Neighbouring territories which have undergone frequent changes. Hence it is frequented by caravans from various commercial towns of India; and its wealth is augmented by a trade in cloths, and the manufacture of carpets, bows, arrows, and spears, the principal arms of the Bondela tribes. In the year J 790, it afforded a revenue of about L. 50,000 annually. There is an ancient city called Ouncha, but now in decay, whose Rajah was formerly the head of all the tribes of Bundelcund, and from whom their chiefs received tokens of their investiture. A castle which stands here, or in the neighbourhood, resembles a gothic building, and is said to have been erected by a Rajah of old, who in one day gave orders for building fifty-two forts. This may account for the places of strength seen in Bundelcund, for which the particular character of its surface is extremely favourable. Besides these, there are several towns, villages, and fortifications of consequence in this district, but recent events have rendered the preservation of the latter of less importance to their owners. Bundelcund from ancient times has been divided History. into many petty territories, whose chiefs have incessantly disturbed the peace of their subjects by predatory incursions on each other. The successful captures of strongholds in the mountains, was an encouragement to the subsistence of warfare ; and in addition to the numerous ordinary sources of dispute, it is not unlikely that their joint interests in the diamond mines contributed to excite dissension. Though the predominance of power induced some one of the contending parties to claim the superiority, it was reluctantly acknowledged by the rest; whence, instead of a common bond of union to defend the country, it was weakened by the distractions of the whole. The Rajahs of Callinger are mentioned by Mahometan writers so early as the year 1008, but it does not appear to have been incorporated with Bundelcund for several centuries afterwards. Sometime in the sixteenth century, it is said that a Bondela, living in Benares, removed to a fort in the district of Ouncha, then governed by a Rajah whose confidence he speedily obtained. This Bondela had a daughter of exquisite beauty of whom the Rajah became enamoured, and demanded her in marriage. But her father, considering the proposal a grievous insult, from one whom certain circumstances now unknown prompted him to consider his inferior in rank, he, in concert with his daughter, plotted a diabolical revenge. Acquiescence was given on the
551 part of both, and the Rajah was invited by his bride Bmidelcund. to the house of the Bondela, where the ceremony was to be performed. Here a magnificent entertainment was prepared, of which he partook plentifully along with his attendants; but it was soon succeeded by excruciating tortures,—poison had been treacherously administered, and when the victims became incapable of defence, they were treacherously massacred. The Bondela then placed himself on the musnud of the Rajah, which he enjoyed peaceably until his death. He was succeeded by his son Ber Sing Deo, whose descendant is the Rajah of Ouncha, and he gained an accession of power by his services to the Soubahdar of Allahabad. But he is accused of being a great plunderer, and his history is stained by the assassination of the celebrated Abul Fazel, Prime Minister of Ackbar, which is said to have been committed by a banditti under his command. Nay, it is affirmed, that he acted in compliance with the wishes of Jehangeer, the emperor’s son, who was jealous of Abul Fazel’s influence over his father, and who, on his accession to the throne of Delhi, entrusted Ber Sing Deo with the government of all Bundelcund, then called Dungush. On descending to a later period, we find that this territory was invaded during the government of the Rajah Chattersaul, about the middle of last century, by the chief of Furruckabad; and the Rajah, to aid him in repelling the enemy, applied for support to the Peshwa, Sewai Bajerow. Success having attended them, he adopted Sewai Bajerow as his son, and partitioned Bundelcund between him and his own sons. But allotting him a third of his dominions, the land revenue of which was estimated at about L. 1,300,000 Sterling, was under an express stipulation that his posterity should be protected by the Peshwa, in independent possession of the remainder. The rest of his male issue, said to exceed fifty, were in a state of dependence on their two brothers. In time this division opened the way to dissensions, a civil war ensued, and the consequent weakness of the chiefs afforded an opportunity for other invasions. Ali Bahauder, an illegitimate grandson of Bajerow, held a command in the army of Scindeah, the noted Mahratta chief, and in the same army was the Rajah Himmut Bahaudar, who not only commanded a great body of cavalry, but was the spiritual head and military leader of a numerous sect of devotees called Gosseins. Both seem to have fallen under the displeasure of the Peshwa, and the latter, after retiring to his estate in 178b, soon united with the other in attempting the conquest of Bundelcund. ’I he Rajah Himmut seems to have had it in contemplation to establish a sovereignty elsewhere; and about the year 1787, he was actively engaged in assisting the prince Mirza Jurvaim Buklit, in raising an army, but whose death, which happened suddenly in 1788, probably allowed him more leisure to attend to the other object in view. He and his associates agreed that a large portion of the territory to be conquered should be assigned to himself, and its revenue applied to the support of certain troops which he engaged to maintain in the service of Ali Bahauder. The projected invasion took place in 1789; when Ali Bahauder conquered much of the district m B
U
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BUN 552 Rumlel- the name of the Peshwa, of whom he rendered hitn** enni se|f nearly independent; and in a short time the whole was subdued except some fortresses, which the Mahrattas have never been able to reduce. Some years elapsed before the complete establishment of their authority; but an arrangement was made with the Peshwa, whereby he was acknowledged lord paramount of all the conquests effected in Bundelcund by Ali Bahauder, who engaged to obey him as his sovereign, and to pay him tribute. The latter contrived to evade both conditions, however; and, after being occupied fourteen years in endeavouring to subjugate the country, died in 1802, during the blockade of Callinger, which, during ten years, he had fruitlessly endeavoured to capture. Ali was succeeded by his eldest son, Shumshere Bahauder, then absent at Poonah; and Himmut Bahauder, who, to retain his own influence, had for years been exciting disaffection among the different chiefs, now appointed a relation of Shumshere, the young rajah, regent of Bundelcund until his return. A war next broke out between the British and the Mahrattas. Himmut Bahauder endeavoured to accomplish the transference of this district to the former, while Shumshere was determined to oppose them vigorously. In September 1803, Colonel Powell crossed the river Jumna for the purpose of entering Bundelcund, and was joined by Himmut with a body of 13,000 or 14,000 men. The united forces arriving on the banks of the river Cane, which, passing the fort of Callinger, falls into the Jumna, near the town of Oorah, found the army of Shumshere on the opposite side. It was numerous, occupied a great extent, and was strongly posted, but after a short cannonade on both sides it precipitately retreated. At this time a proposal was made by the Mahrattas, and acceded to by the British, for the cession of a portion of the territory of Bundelcund in lieu of certain districts in the Deccan, which had been ceded to them by a former treaty. Forces were then stationed in Bundelcund for the protection of other parts, and successive engagements of a conciliatory nature were made with Shumshere, and all the rest of the chiefs, whereby the British authority was rendered paramount. Himmut Bahauder had previously secured an advantageous arrangement for himself; and his death ensuing in the year 1804, Govemment provided for his family, and assumed possession of his territory. The troops who had been retained in his service, a kind of irregular force, now dispersed. Still, however, the tranquillity of the country was liable to be disturbed, and indeed the cession of some parts of it by the Mahrattas was only nominal, as they had never been able to occupy the strong holds themselves. Thus it was judged expedient by the British to bestow a considerable tract, in 1807, to a descendant of the Regent Chuttersaul, who had been long dispossessed amidst contending factions, on condition of guarding the passes and preserving his territory in peace. Other arrangements were made, conceding to the chief of Calpee, on the confines of Bundelcund, a portion of the interior, in lieu of the city and district of Calpee, and several villages on the Jumna. Meantime it be-
B U N came necessary to besiege the fortress of Callinger; BtimM. but notwithstanding the British forces had captured cund II many strongholds of the Indians, previously deemed impregnable, they were unsuccessful in attempting s Burger. to take it by assault, and, as already observed, gained possession by the garrison retiring in the night. Its reduction proved a great accession of power, and tended materially to tranquillize the district, which had previously been incorporated with the British empire in the East, and a civil establishment constituted for the regular management of its affairs. The possession of a country such as Bundelcund, occupying 11,000 square miles, is of considerable consequence in several respects; and it has been suggested that the revenue derived from it might be materially augmented, by assuming the direction of the diamond mines of Pannah. Nevertheless the occupation of the whole does not seem to have been judged an important object, more especially, as, by the arrangement above alluded to, with the chief of Calpee, he was left in the enjoyment of a third part of them, to which he was originally entitled, (s.) BURGER (Godfhev Augustus), a celebrated German Poet, born the 1st of January 1748, at Wolmerswende, a village in the principality of Halberstadt, where his father wras Lutheran minister. In his childhood he discovered little inclination to study; the Bible and the Canticles alone had any attraction for him: these he knew by heart, and his first attempts in versification were imitations of the Psalms, which, notwithstanding their defects, gave proofs of feeling and a correct ear. It is to this first direction of his studies that we are to attribute the Biblical phrases, the allusions to Christianity, and the theological style, if we may be allowed the expression., which we find even in his amatory poetry. He was fond of solitude, and indulged in all the romantic sentiments which deserts and the gloom of forests inspire. From the school of Aschersleben, where his maternal grandfather resided, and which he quitted in consequence of a severe chastisement, which had been inflicted on him for composing an epigram, he was sent to the Institution at Halle; but, at neither of these places did he make any very sensible progress. He discovered a taste only for the lessons in prosody and versification which were given to the scholars of the Institution, in which his friend Gdkingk was a class-fellow with him, who afterwards distinguished himself by his Epistles and Songs; and who has lamented the premature death of Burger in an elegy to his memory. In 1764, Burger, who was intended for the clerical office, began to attend the course of lectures given by the professors of the university. Klotz, a learned classical scholar, admitted him of the number of young people whose talents he took a pleasure in cultivating ; but this society appears not to have produced the same favourable effect on the moral character of Burger as on his genuis. His conduct prejudiced his grandfather Bauer against him, and it was w’ith difficulty that he obtained from him some farther assistance, with permission, in the year 1768, to repair to Gottingen, to prosecute the study of the law, inr stead of that of theology. This change did not make him more regular in his studies ; his manners 11
BUR Kiir^r. became corrupted, and his grandfather withdrew his protection. Burger contracted a number of debts, and his situation would have become altogether desperate, had it not been for the assistance of some friends. An association, memorable in the annals of German literature, had just been formed at Gottingen : it reckoned among its members Boje, Biester, Sprengel, Hdlty, Miller, Voss, the two Counts Stolberg, C. F. Cramer, and Leisewitz. Burger was admitted into it. All of these persons were versed in the Greek and Roman literature; and, at the same time, all of them idolised Shakespeare. The Germans are the only foreigners who seem to relish or understand the merits of this great genius in the same degree as his own countrymen profess to do ; and they do not seem to like his genius the less on account of the irregularities objected to it by other nations. Burger, in a great measure, owed his style to the enthusiasm which he showed in common with his literary friends for our celebrated tragic writer. The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published about this time by Dr Percy, gave an additional impulse to the direction which his mind had taken, and suggested to him some of the productions which his countrymen admire the most. Of all his friends, Boje was the one who exercised the greatest influence over him in the choice and management of his compositions. He taught him to make easy verses, by taking pains ; and it is to his severe observations that the poetical stanza of Burger owes a great part of that elegance and roundness which characterize it. To the same friend he was indebted, also, for some improvement in his circumstances, which, till the year 1772, had been very uncomfortable. On the recommendation of Boje, he was appointed to the Collectorship of Alvengleichen, in the principality of Calenberg. The winter following, some fragments of a ghost story, which he heard a peasant girl singing by moon-light, caught his imagination, and his Leonora appeared, which soon became popular in all parts of Germany. Soon after the publication of this ballad, a circumstance occurred to give him still greater confidence in his talents: Going a journey to his native place, he one evening heard the schoolmaster of the village, in the room next to that in which he lay, reading to the assembled audience collected at the inn, the ballad of Leonora, which had just come out, and which was received with the liveliest marks of admiration. This proof of success flattered him more than all the compliments of his friends. About this time, he married a Hanoverian lady, named Leonhart; but this union proved only a source of bitterness to him, an unhappy attachment to her younger sister having sprung up in his heart. The loss of a sum of money, of which his grandfather had made him a present, was the first commencement of the embarrassment of his circumstances. The taking a large farm, which he did not know how to manage, increased it, and the dismissal from his place, which he was obliged to submit to in 1784, in consequence of suspicions (probably ill-founded) raised against the fidelity of his accounts, gave the finishing stroke to VOL. II. FART lit
BUR 553 his misfortunes. He had, a little before, lost his Biirgcr. wife; and it is but too certain that her death was hastened by the culpable passion which Burger cherished in his heart. Left with two children, and reduced to the inconsiderable emoluments of The Almanack of the Muses, published at Gottingen, which he had edited since 1779, he removed to this city, with a view to give private lessons there, and in the hope of obtaining from the Hanoverian government, a Professor’s chair in the Belles-lettres. Five years after, this title was conferred on him, but without a salary ; yet this was the only public recompence obtained during his whole life by a man who was one of the favourite authors of his nation ; and who. while yet young, had enjoyed the highest reputation. Scarcely were the ashes of his wife cold, when he espoused her sister Molly, whose name his poems have made but too famous, and who had embittered the existence of his first wife ; but he did not long enjoy the happiness after which he had sighed. She died in child-bed, in the beginning of 178(>. From that moment, his own life only lingered on ; and the fire of his genius seemed extinguished with the passion which had so long nourished it. Hehad scarcely strength enough, in the intervals of his dejection, to finish his Song of Songs, a sort of dithyrambic or nuptial hymn, intended to celebrate his second marriage, and which is a strange mixture of frantic passion, religious devotion, and the most bombastic expression. It vras the last production of Burger. Having studied the philosophy of Kant, he had an idea of deriving some advantage from it at Gottingen, where it had not yet been taught. He undertook to explain it in a course of lectures, which were attended by a great number of young people. The satisfaction which the university expressed to him for two Cantatas which he composed in 1787, at the period of the fifty years’jubilee of this illustrious institution, and his nomination to the situation of Professor Extraordinary, reanimated his spirits. Fortune appearing to smile on him once more, he formed the design of marrying again, in order to provide a mother for his children. During one of the moments when he was most occupied with this idea, he received a letter from Stuttgard, in which a young woman, whose style indicated a cultivated mind, and her sentiments an elevated and feeling heart, after describing to him, with enthusiasm, the impression which his poetry had made upon her, offered him her hand and heart. Burger spoke of the thing, at first, only in jest, but the information which he received respecting the character, the fortune, and personal accomplishments of his correspondent, having excited his curiosity, he took a journey to Stuttgard, and brought back with him a wife who embittered and dishonoured the rest of his days. In less than three years, he saw himself under the necessity of obtaining a divorce from her, and the ruin of his health aggravated the absolute disorder of his finances. Confined to a small chamber, the favourite poet of Germany wasted the remainder of his strength in translations ordered by foreign booksellers ; but sickness and grief soon deprived him even of this resource, and he must have died m 4A
,551 BUR Burger. the most frightful state of want, if the Government of Hanover had not extended some kindness to him. He died the 8th of June 1794, of a disorder of the bowels, of which he had never believed the danger. Burger is only remarkable as a lyric poet. He has tried all the different species of this class of the productions of genius ; but he succeeded eminently only in the song and the ballad. We shall, perhaps, characterize his genius sufficiently by saying, that his imagination is more fresh than rich,—that he has more sensibility than elevation,—more naivete and good nature than delicacy or taste. His style sparkles by its clearness, its energy, and from an elegance which is rather the result of labour than of natural grace ; he possesses, in short, all the qualities which please the multitude. Allowing the title of poet only to those .whose writings were calculated to become popular, he early habituated himself to reject whatever appeared to him not sufficiently intelligible and interesting to all classes of readers. Always clear and forcible, he is never either low or trivial; and if, at certain times, there appears a want of selection and care in the details, yet the sentiments are uniformly noble, and the moral intention of the majority of his pieces altogether irreproachable. Some breathe the loftiest piety and the purest love of virtue. Wieland said of him (see the German Mercury, 1778), that in composing his poem entitled Mcennerkeuschheit (on Chastity), Burger had deserved better of the present and future generations, than if he had written the finest treatise of morality. This little piece has been inserted in most of the collections of hymns for the use of the Lutheran church. There are three editions of Burger’s works. The two first appeared in his lifetime, in 1778 and 1789, in 3 vols. 8vo, and the third, after his death, was published by his friend Ch. Reinhard, in 4 vols., 179l>* All three were printed at Gottingen. The last contains some posthumous pieces, and miscellanies in prose. We must confine ourselves to a short notice of those for which their merit or the singularity of the subject has procured the greatest degree of celebrity. I. A translation, or rather an imitation, of the Vigil of Venus [Pervigilium Veneris). It is a fine piece of poetic diction and rythmical harmony. II. Leonora, a romance, which belongs to the class which Burger himself called the epic lyric. The story is borrowed from a popular tradition, of which the traces are to be found in the different countries of the north. Leonora was translated into Danish, in 1788,—six times into English, by Stanley, Pye, Spencer, Taylor, &c.—and from English into French, by De la Madelaine, in 1811. The translation by Mr Spencer is accompanied with engravings after designs by Lady Diana Beauclerc. Two German composers have set it to music. Burger often appeared very ill-contented with the vast success of this production of his youth. He preferred a great number of his other poems, and was himself the first to blame the puerile trick of the play upon sounds which he has there indulged in. III. The Minister s Daughter of Tauben/iain. It is the story of the seduction and tragi-
BUS cal end of a young girl. There are in this, as in the Biirgei other productions of the same author, some objecil tionable details, but the whole leaves a deep impression. IV. The Inhuman Huntsman. V. The Song of the Brave ; in which the heroism of a peasant, who saves a family from the fury of the waves, is related with admirable feeling. VI. The Song oj Songs, conceived at the foot of the altar. This is a hymn or ode in praise of his Molly. VIL A Travestie of the Fable of Jupiter and Europa. This is, a piece of humour of the most clumsy kind, and in a taste the most wretched, yet it had a great run when it first appeared. VIII. A translation, in iambic verse, of some books of the Iliad. The choice of the measure is by no means happy. He was accordingly requested, ironically, to set about translating Anacreon into hexameters, when he had finished his version of Homer into German iambics. IX. An excellent Translation of Shakespears Macbeth. X. Pieces of Poetry and of Rhetorical Prose. He had begun to write critical observations on his own works, with equal severity and sagacity. But he has only left some fragments of this work. XL He was editor of the Gottingen Almanack of the Muses, from 1779 to 1794. Vetterlein, Pdlitz, and Engel, have published a selection of the poetry of Burger, with notes ; and celebrated composers, such as Schulz and Reichardt, have set a great number of his songs to music. Burger’s third wife, whom German biography has thought worthy to have her name associated with his on account of her taste for literature, and particulai’ly poetry, is author of several pieces in verse, inserted in the Collections. The one having for its title The Raillery (f a Mother, is sufficient to prove her poetical talent. See the account of Burger in the sixth Volume of the Biographie Universelle. (z.) BUSCHING (Antony Frederick). This very eminent Geographer was born at Stadthagen, a village of Westphalia, on the 27th September 1724. In his youth he laboured under peculiar disadvantages, arising from the disorderly life led by his father, and from the narrow means of education which his native town afforded. Fortunately, a clergyman of the name of Hauber, pleased with the promising talents of the young man, undertook to give him gratuitous instruction. He laid a solid foundation of learning, and also of a piety which, though fervent, was always accompanied with moderation and mildness. At the age of eighteen, young Busching w as driven from his father’s house, on account of the zeal with which he espoused the cause of his patron, on occasion of a controversy in which he was involved. Hauber, however, procured for ||im the means of continuing his studies at Halle. There, by his application to learning, and his irreproachable conduct, he acquired numerous friends. They procured him the appointment of tutor in the family of the Count de Lynars, who was then going as ambassador to Petersburgh. The observations made by Busching on this journey decided the pursuits of his future life. In travelling through Poland and Russia, he compared the actual features of those i.
BUS usdiin?. regions with the descriptions given of them. He *v thus became sensible of the miserabty defective state of geographical science, and resolved to devote his life to its improvement. He withdrew as soon as possible from the Count’s family, and went to reside at Copenhagen, devoting himself entirely to this new pursuit. In 1752, he presented the first specimen of his powers in a Description oj' the Counties oj' Slestvig and Holstein, a work which produced a favourable idea of his accuracy and ability. He soon after removed to Gottingen, and married Christiana Dilthey, a young lady of great accomplishments, authoress of a volume of poems, and to whom he had been engaged from the time of his departure to Russia. Here, on account of a work which appeared to dissent from some of the Lutheran tenets, he was excluded from the theological chair, for which he had become a candidate. The chagrin occasioned by this disappointment, induced him to accept an invitation to the German congregation at Petersburgh. He was employed there, also, in organizing a school, which, under his auspices, soon became one of the most flourishing in the north. This school was superintended by Marshal Munich, who, at first, showed great favour to Busching ; but being accustomed to entire obsequiousness from all connected with him, he did not accommodate himself to the hardy independence of the German sage. A collision arose, in consequence of which Busching announced to his congregation, that he was under the necessity of returning to Germany. The Empress expressed much dissatisfaction at the conduct of Munich, and made very high offers to Busching if he would consent to remain ; but he deemed it unworthy of him, after having resisted the intreaties of his congregation, to yield to the favours of the Court. He returned to Germany without any fixed object or establishment in life, and went, at first, to reside at Altona. Next year, however, he was called to superintend an extensive establishment for education, which had been formed at Berlin, under the auspices of the great Frederick. His appointments here were liberal, and his exertions proved of signal benefit to the institution, of which he became the head. His writings and example gave a new impulse to education throughout Prussia. He spent a number of hours every day in the Institute,—superintended the progress of every pupil,—and inspected the minutest details connected with its prosperity. He gave also courses of Lectures on the History of the Arts and Sciences. This labour did not interrupt the composition of his numerous works. The Queen loved his society, and, at first, often invited him to dine with her; but, finding that such engagements occupied too much of his time, he intreated her Majesty to allow him to devote himself, as much as possible, to his numerous labours. Though seized with dropsy, which occasioned a series of the most cruel sufferings, he did not remit his academical labours, till the disease, coming to a crisis, terminated his life on the 28th May 1793, in the 69th year of his age. His wife had died in 1777, and he had contracted a second marriage with MadIe. Reinbeck, the daugh-
BUT 5o5 ter of a clergyman at Berlin. By the first mar- Busdiing riage, he had two children, who survived him ; by , II . the second, he had six, who, except one, all died in vI^esh^\ Y infancy. Few authors, even in Germany, have produced a greater number of works than Busching. The entire number, as enumerated by Meusel, in his Lexicon oj German Authors, amounts to more than a hundred. They may all be classed under the following heads: 1. Geography and History. 2. Education. 3. Religion. 4. Biography. The first class comprehends those upon which his fame chiefly rests. Lie possessed not, indeed, the geographical genius, if we may so speak, of D’Anville; his skill in the construction of maps, his quick eye, or his sagacity in eliciting the truth from hints and imperfect notices. He may be regarded, however, as the creator of modern Statistics,—that science which exhibits the present state of every kingdom, its civil and political constitution, its wealth, the productions of nature, the exchanges of commerce, and the establishments for public instruction: all these particulars are detailed in his wmrks in the fullest manner, and from the most careful investigation of original materials. His works, devoid of the ornaments of style, and composed of minute details, are rather useful to consult, than profitable to read ; but this is a fault to which most writers of his country are liable. His grand work is the Neue Erdbeschreibung, New Geographical Description of the Globe. The four first parts, which comprehend Europe, were published in four successive volumes, from 1754 to 1761, and have been translated into all the European languages. They appeared in English, with a preface by Murdoch, in six volumes 4to, London, 1762. He published also in 1768 the fifth part, being the first volume upon Asia, containing Asiatic Turkey and Arabia. It displays an immense extent of research, and is generally considered as his masterpiece; but has not been translated either into French or English. Besides this great geographical work, Busching was the editor of a valuable collection, entitled Magazine for the History and Geography of modern times, 22 vols. 4to. 1767-88; also of ol Journal appropriated to the Notice of Maps, Berlin, 1773-87. The elementary works on education, published by Busching, are very numerous, and have long held a distinguished place, even in a country so eminent as Germany, in this branch of literature. If, in some departments, better works have now been produced, it is by labouring on the foundation of Busching. His theological writings are not very highly esteemed. In biography, he wrote a number of articles for the Historical Magazine; also A Collection of Biography, in six volumes, 1783-9, including a very elaborate life of the great Frederick. (b.) BUTESHIRE, a county on the west coast of Scotland, in the Firth of Clyde, comprehends the Islands of Bute, Arran, the Cumbraes, Inchmarnoch, and a few smaller islets. Bute, which gives name to the county, is sepa- Situation rated by a narrow channel from the district of Cow-autl Extent.
B U T 556 Butesldre. al in Argyleshire. It is about 15 miles long, and 3.1. miles broad, but so much indented by the sea that the heads of some of the bays on the opposite sides of the island are not more than a mile distant; and it contains nearly 30,000 acres, of which more than a half is susceptible of cultivation. The country is generally low, few of its hills rising more than 200 feet above the sea. The climate, though very moist, is so mild as to be compared with that of Devonshire ; and the soil is for the most part dry, and naturally fertile. Agriculture. A former Marquis of Bute, to whom seven-eighths of the island belonged, began, so early as 1758, to promote the improvement of the island and its inhabitants ; but his plans, though apparently well calculated for this purpose, do not seem to have effected any favourable alteration, probably owing to his absence from the country, and to his time having been engrossed by public affairs. The present Marquis, however, has within these few years displayed a very laudable attention to the same object. An eminent agriculturalist has been employed to survey the island, and to point out the defects in its husbandry in a small treatise which is distributed gratis; and young men have been sent to the border counties, as apprentices to some of the best farmers in that district, to whom the noble proprietor means to give a preference as tenants. All the crops common in the lowlands of Scotland are cultivated in Bute; and, though modern husbandry be yet in its infancy, its progress in the southern parts of the island, where the land is enclosed with white-thorn hedges, is by no means inconsiderable. Minerals. Slate and limestone are found in various quarters of the island, from which also there is ready access to the noted limestone quarries in the north of Ireland. Coal has not yet been discovered. Beds of sea-shells abound on the western side, and vast quantities of sea-weed are thrown upon its shores. Fisheries. The herring-fishery was formerly prosecuted by the inhabitants of Bute with great success; but of late it has declined, and at present does not much interfere with agriculture, as it is chiefly confined to the town of Kothsay. White fish and shell fish, though abounding on the coast, have been hitherto much neglected. In the town of Rothsay, the principal town of Buteshire, from which the heir apparent to the British throne takes the title of a Scottish duke, there has been a cotton manufactory for several years. The vessels belonging to this port in 1812 carried 5195 tons ; and it has a regular communication by packets with Greenock, and by a daily mail-boat with Largs in Ayrshire. Rnins. In the ruins of the castle of Rothsay, the principal residence of the Stuarts, ancestors of the present family of Bute, till it was burned in l6'85, are still pointed out the bedchambers and banquetting rooms of Robert II. and III. the last Scottish mo~ narchs who inhabited this venerable pile. Mount Stuart, the seat of the Marquis of Bute, from which he takes his second title, is an elegant house, with fine woods and pleasure-grounds, situated about two hundred yards from the eastern shore, and commanding a delightful view of the navigation of the Firth of Clyde, and of the opposite shore.
B U T Arran, lying about twelve miles south from Buteshire. Bute, is something more than twenty miles long and from eight to eleven miles broad; and contains, by Arrau, the latest estimation, more than 100,000 acres, of which only a seventh part may be fit for cultivation. It is an extremely rugged and mountainous country, particularly the northern part, in which the valleys are deep and romantic. Goatfield, a mountain Surface, nearly in the centre of the island, is about 3000 feet high, and a few others approach to the same elevation. The climate, in winter, is exceedingly severe ; and, like that of all the other western isles, moist during the other seasons. W ith the exception of a few farms, the whole island belongs to the Duke of Hamilton, who has very lately begun to take an interest in its improvement, and expended a considerable sum in making roads, bridges, and small harbours. Game is in great abundance, particularly grouse, which are surprisingly numerous on the mountains. Limestone, marl, and slate, are found in different parts, and there are indications of coal also. The herring fishery is prosecuted to great advantage. Arran has two remarkably fine harbours, Harbonja Lamlash on the east side, and Loch Ranza on the north. Its agriculture does not seem to have im- Agiicub proved much since the time when Pennant visited it. ture. The arable land of a farm is .still occupied in intermixed ridges, or what in Scotland is called Tunrig, by a society of tenants, who interchange their possessions every year, or every two years at the longest; and, adjoining to this portion, a common pasture is allotted for their cows, under the charge of a herd. The highest grounds are held in commonty by the tenantry at large; and, as soon as the crops are removed, the live-stock pasture indiscriminately over the whole island. See the Article Arran in the Encyclopedia. The Cumbraes are two small islands on the coast Curabraes. of Ayrshire, but do not, as has been inadvertently stated in the article Ayrshire, make a part of that county. The largest, which belongs to the Marquis of Bute and the Earl of Glasgow, contains about four square miles, of which a half is cultivated; and the smallest, the property of the Earl of Eglinton, only one mile, on which there is a light-house, with four or five families, and a great number of rabbits. Inchmarnoch, a beautiful islet, lies to the south- Inc! marwest of Bute, and takes its name from a chapel onnocl1, it, dedicated to St Marnoch, of which the ruins are still visible. Its surface is less than a square mile, and about a third of it is cultivated. Pladda, another islet belonging to Buteshire, Pladda* is about a mile to the east of Bute. A lighthouse was erected on it a few years ago. The only other islet worthy of notice in this county is Lamlash, which covers the harbour of that name in Arran. The county of Bute sends a Member to Parliament alternately with Caithness ; and Rothsay, the only royal burgh it contains, unites with Ayr, Irvine, Campbelton, and Inverary, in electing a Member for the boroughs. The valued rental, according to the Kea Valued en and books of the collector of the land-tax, is in Scots ’ money L. 15,042, 13s. 10d., divided among only
B U T ites.liire eleven estates ; and that of the lands held under enII . tail is a third of the whole. The real rent in 1811 was, for the lands L. 18,591, 9s* 2d., and for the
BUT 557 houses L. 2310, Is. 7d. Sterling. The following Buteshire II tables exhibit an abstract of the returns made under Cabanis. the Population Acts of 1800 and 1811.
1800. HOUSES.
PERSONS.
Persons other Persons chiefly em- All Persons not chiefly em- ployed in comprised of Males. Females. ployed in Trade, Ma- in the two Total Persons. Agricul- nufactures, preceding ture. or Handi- classes. craft.
By how many Families occupied. 1911
2501
OOCU PATIO NS.
17
5552
6239
3161
4821
3809
11,791
1811. HOUSES.
PERSONS.
By how many Families occupied. 2047
2618
OCCUPATIONS.
Families chiefly emMales. Females. ployed in Agriculture. 38
5545
6488
1214
Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft. 530
All other Families not comprised Total of in the two Persons. preceding classes. 874
12,033
CAB CABANIS (Peter John George), a distinguished Writer and Physician at Paris, was born at Conac in 1757* His father, John Baptiste Cabanis, was a lawyer of eminence, and chief Magistrate of a district in the lower Limousin; highly respected for his extensive knowledge and inflexible integrity, and entitled to the gratitude of his country for the many improvements he has introduced in agriculture and farming. He brought the culture of the vine to great perfection in his province, and introduced a mixed breed of sheep, by crossing the Spanish with those of Limousin and Berri. France is more particularly indebted to him, however, for the successful methods he discovered of grafting fruit trees, and also for contributing to render more general the use ©f the potatoe in the southern provinces. He was exceedingly anxious that his son, the subject of the present article, and who had given early indications of talent, should have the advantage of a learned education ; and, accordingly, placed him, when only seven years old, under the tuition of a neighbouring priest. It was remarked, that, even at this early age, he had acquired habits of steadiness and perseverance, from which, under proper direction, the best results might be expected. At the age of ten, he entered the college of Brive, where the severity of discipline to which he was subjected, had an injurious effect upon his temper, and fostered that habitual impatience of restraint which formed part of
his character, and which afterwards so frequently operated to interrupt his progress. When raised to the second class, he was fortunate in meeting with a master whose kind treatment soon softened a disposition, which harshness only had rendered stubborn and intractable. He was not only reconciled to study, but applied to it with the utmost diligence, and became passionately fond of the great models of poetry and eloquence that were put into his hands. At a later period, being again exposed to the rigorous control of one of the heads of the college, his spirit wTas again roused; he came to the determination of provoking the anger of his master, and even suffered himself to be accused of a fault of which he was innocent, in the hope that he might get expelled. Persisting in this extraordinary mode of conduct, he soon accomplished his object, and was sent back to his father. But far from enjoying any relaxation under the paternal roof, he now found himself under a subjection still more rigorous and insupportable than that from which he had managed to escape. Indignant at the yoke imposed upon him, he relapsed into his habits of obstinacy, and would do nothing. After a year had thus passed in sullenness, his father became sensible that other measures than those of severity must be tried, and adopted the bold expedient of taking him to Paris, and leaving him there, at the age of fourteen, without any restraint on his actions, or even commissioning
CAB 558 Cabanis. an)' one to superintend his conduct. The experiment was hazardous in the extreme ; but it was attended with complete success. Young Cabanis no sooner felt himself at full liberty to do as he pleased, than his love of literature revived, and he engaged with ardour in the pursuit. He had formerly paid n@ attention to the lectures of his professors ; but he now, of his own accord, resumed those branches of his education in which he had remained deficient, and prosecuted them with the same perseverance which throughout marked his character. He devoted himself entirely to the cultivation of his mind, and associated only with a few chosen companions of his own age, who had a congenial taste for literature, and an equal desire of improvement. Thus constantly occupied, two years passed away with a rapidity which astonished him, when he received a letter from his father, offering him the place of secretary to a Polish nobleman of high rank. He had now to choose between accepting a situation, which, although it would totally interrupt his present pursuits, might give him the power of resuming them at some future period, or returning to his family, where he felt that all his exertions must be paralysed, and his hopes blighted by neglect. He embraced, therefore, without hesitation, the offer made to him, and, though only sixteen, committed himself into the hands of strangers, in a distant country, which was represented to him as in a state of barbarism. This was in 1773, the year during which that Diet was sitting, which was to deliberate upon giving its sanction to the first partition of Poland. The corrupt intrigues and compulsory measures which were practised on that occasion, gave him an insight into the affairs of the world peculiarly revolting to a youthful and generous mind, and inspired him with a contempt for mankind, and a degree of misanthropic gloom, which are generally the fruits of a later experience of human depravity. He returned to Paris two years after, when Turgot, the friend of his father, was Minister of Finance. On being presented to him, he was received with kindness, and would soon have been placed in a situation perfectly conformable to his tastes and wishes, had not a court intrigue produced the sudden downfal of the minister. Thus, the only fruits which he had gathered from his travels, were the knowledge of the German language, and a premature acquaintance with the world. He now felt the necessity of making up for the time he had lost, and again applied to his studies with his former ardour. His father feeling it incumbent upon him to second his efforts, secured to him the means of subsistence for two or three years longer, which was all that Cabanis desired. He had contracted a friendship with the poet Roucher, who possessed some celebrity. This connection rekindled his taste for poetry ; and the French Academy, having proposed, as a prize subject, the translation of a passage in the Iliad, he not only ventured to appear as competitor, but set about translating the entire poem. The two specimens which he sent to the Academy, did not obtain any public notice; but they were judged of favourably by several persons of taste; and some other frag-
CAB ments that were published among the notes to the Cabauis. poem Des Mois, met with general approbation. He received the approbation of those critics who w^ere the dispensers of literary fame in Paris, and was introduced at once into a large circle of acquaintance, where he was everywhere greeted with acclamation. He was soon, however, sensible of the emptiness of these applauses ; and dissatisfied with successes that offered no prospect of solid advantage, he sunk into a state of melancholy, which, together with his excessive application to study, began visibly to prey upon his constitution. His father now urged him to choose a useful profession, and he at length decided for that of medicine, which, embracing such various objects of study, presented an ample field for the exertions of his active mind, while it necessitated that degree of bodily exercise, which had become so necessary for the preservation of his health. Dubreuil, whose counsels had had much influence with him in forming this determination, offered to be his guide in the new and arduous career which he was commencing. Cabanis continued for six years the pupil of this able master, following his steps both in his hospital and private practice, and conducting his studies conformably to his instructions. In 1789 he published Observations sur les Hopitaux; a work which procured him the appointment of Administrator of. Hospitals at Paris. His state of health, in the midst of his laborious professional exertions, requiring occasional relaxation in the country, he fixed upon Auteuil, in the immediate vicinity of Paris, as his place of residence. It was there that he became acquainted with the widow of Helvetius, and ever after cherished for that excellent woman the affection of a son, as she, on her part, fulfilled towards him the duties of the kindest mother. Fie spent all his leisure hours in her society ; and profited by the opportunity her house afforded him of cultivating the acquaintance of the most distinguished literary men of that period. He continued his intercourse with Turgot, was on terms of intimacy with Condillac, Thomas, and D Alembert ; and acquired the friendship of Holbach, Franklin, and Jefferson. During the last visit which Voltaire made to Paris,. Cabanis was presented to him by Turgot, and read to him part of his translation of the Iliad, which that acute critic, though old, infirm, and fatigued with his journey, listened to with great interest, and bestowed much commendation on the talents of the author. Cabanis had now, however, long ceased to occupy himself with that work, and fully engaged with the studies and duties of his profession, had renounced the cultivation of letters. He even bade a formal adieu to poetry in his Serment d'un Medecin, which appeared in 1783, and is a free imitation of the Greek of Hippocrates^ but is more remarkable as exhibiting the author in the light of a zealous friend to liberty. Political interests were now, indeed, beginning to engross the general attention, and the muses were deserted amidst the contentions of parties, the din of arms, and the various anxieties and passions, which were called into play during this eventful period. Cabanis espoused with enthusiasm the cause of the revolution, to which he was attached from principle,
CAB !abanis. and of which the opening prospects were so conge\ nial to his active and ardent mind. But however he may have shared in the intoxication which seized its early partizans, it is certain that he had no participation in the criminal excesses which followed, and which have left so indelible a stain upon the history of those times. During the two last years of Mirabeau’s life, he was intimately connected with that extraordinary man, who had the singular art of pressing into his service the pens of all his literary friends, whom he engaged to furnish him with their ideas, in writing, on the political topics of the day, that he might afterwards combine them as he chose, and adopt them as his own. Cabanis united himself with this disinterested association of labourers, and contributed the Travail sur Veducation 'publique,—a tract which was found among the papers of Mirabeau at his death, and was edited by the real author soon after, in 1791* During the illness which terminated his life, Mirabeau confided himself entirely to the professional skill of Cabanis; and though repeatedly and strongly urged, as his danger increased, to have farther medical assistance, constantly refused to have recourse to any other advice. Of the progress of the malady, and the circumstances attending the death of Mirabeau, Cabanis has drawn up a very detailed narrative, which, whatever proof it may afford of the warmth of his friendship for his patient, is not calculated to impress us with any high idea of his skill in the treatment of an acute inflammatory disease. Condorcet was another distinguished character with whom Cabanis was on terms of intimacy. The calamitous events of the Revolution, and the relentless persecution which the former was suffering from the party which had gained the ascendancy, tended only to unite them still more closely in the ties of friendship; and Cabanis exerted every means in his power to avert his impending fate. But all his efforts were unavailing; and he had only the melancholy consolation of preserving the last writings of his unfortunate friend, and of collecting his dying wishes relative to his wife and children. Soon after this event he married Charlotte Grouchy, sister to Madame Condorcet, and to General Grouchy ; a union which was a great source of happiness to him during the remainder of his life. After the subversion of the government of the terrorists, on the establishment of central schools, Cabanis was named Professor of Hygiene, in the medical schools of the metropolis. He was chosen member of the National Institute the next year, and on the following, was appointed Clinical Professor. He was afterwards member of the Council of Five Hundred, and then of the Conservative Senate. The dissolution of the Directory was the result of a motion which he made to that effect. But his political career was not of long continuance. Fie was profoundly affected at the turn which the affairs of his country were taking, so unfavourable to the cause of liberty, and so dispiriting to the friends of humanity; and the latter years of his life were, in consequence, deeply tinctured with melancholy. A foe to tyranny under every shape, he was decidedly hostile to
C A B 559 the policy of Buonaparte, and had constantly reject- Caban is. ed all his solicitations to accept of a place under his government. For some years before his death, his health became gradually more impaired, in consequence of the exertions and anxieties he had undergone; and, in the spring of 1807> he had a slight apoplectic attack, from which he soon recovered. He took, however, the warning that was thus given him, and retired from the laborious duties of his profession, spending the greatest part of his time at the chateau of his father-in-law, at Meulan, about thirty miles from Paris. Here he again solaced himself with reading his favourite poets, and even had it in contemplation to resume his translation of the Iliad, which had been the first effort of his youthful muse. The rest of his time was devoted to acts of kindness and beneficence, especially towards the poor, who flocked from all parts to consult him on their complaints. Increasing infirmity now made him sensible that his life was drawing near to a close, and he was fond of conversing on the subject of his approaching end,—an event which he always contemplated with perfect serenity of mind. A more complete attack of his disorder, at length, carried him off, on the 5th of May 1808, when he had attained his fifty-second year. He left a widow and one daughter to lament the loss of one, who united to the ornaments of a highly cultivated mind, the greatest sensibility and benevolence of heart. Besides the tracts already mentioned, he was author of several other works. The only one among them which is purely of a literary nature, is the Melanges de Litterature Allemande, ou Choix de traductions de TAllemand, &c. Paris, 8vo, 1797- It is dedicated to Madame Helvetius, and consists of translations of different works of Meisner,—of a drama of Goethe’s entitled Stella,—of Gray’s Elegy on a Country Church-Yard,—and of the Idyl of Bion on the Death of Adonis. His work, Du degre de certitude de la Medecine, appeared in the same year, and a second edition was published in 1808, containing a republication of his Observations sur les Hopitaux, and his Journal de la Maladie et de la Mart de Mirabeau Vaine; together with a short tract on the punishment of the guillotine, in which he combats the opinion of Soemmerring, CElsuer, and Sue, that sensibility remains for some time after decapitation. This tract had already appeared in the Magazin Encyclopedique, and in the first volume of the Memoires de la Societe Medicale d*Emulation. This new edition also contains his Rapport fait au Conseil des Cinq-cents sur VOrganisation des ecoles de Medecine ; and a long dissertation entitled, Quelques principes et quelques vues sur les secours publiques. In 1799, he published Quelques Considerations sur VOrganisation sociale en general, et particulierement sur la nouvelle Constitution, 12mo. His principal work, however, is that entitled, Des Rapports du Physique et du Moral de VHomme, 1808, in two volumes 8vo ; consisting of twelve essays, the first six of which had been presented to the National Institute, and were inserted in the two first volumes of their Memoirs, in the Class of Moral and Political Sciences. This work was reprinted in the following year, with the
C A B CAB 560 Cabanis addition of a copious analytical table of its contents flat tract in the vicinity, embanked from the sea, and Caemar. thenshire. R M. Destutt-Tracy, and alphabetical indexes by of singular fertility. Caermar- by The climate of this county is soft and mild, but ~*~^^ M. Sue. His Coup d'ceil sur les Revolutions et les thenshire. reformes de la Mcdecine, came out in 1803. Of this moist; the soil of the lower districts is fertile, being Ctimate. ( work we possess an excellent English translation, with for the most part either a rich clay, or a sharp or notes, by Dr Henderson. His only practical work on deep loam. Little wheat is grown ; and, except on Agriculmedicine is the Observations sur les Affections Catarr- the lighter soils, barley is not a common crop; butture. hales en general, et particulierement sur celles con- oats are extensively cultivated, and in respect both nues sous le nom de rhumes de cerveau, et rhumes de of produce and quality, are a very profitable crop. poitrine, 8vo, 1807- He wrote many interesting Great quantities are exported, chiefly to Bristol. articles in the Magazin Encyclopedique. Several of The pasture land, especially where the soil is suithis speeches to the Legislative Assembly arc given able, support a heavy stock ; they are applied either to the dairy, or to the breeding of black-cattle and at full length in the columns of the Moniteur. (w.) horses. The latter are reared in great numbers on the hills, and constitute the principal article of trade CABINET-MAKING, see Joinery. Extent and CAERMARTHENSHIRE, a county in South at the fairs of this and the adjacent counties. Much Surface. Wales, containing 926 square miles, or about 590,640 butter is exported. It is computed that 114,000 acres. The northern and eastern parts are moun- acres are in tillage ; and about double that number tainous. Near the sea the land is flat, but the gene- in pasture; the rest is unfit for cultivation, though ral surface of the county is hilly. It is intersected by no means unprofitable. According to the origiin almost every direction by valleys, from the sides nal agricultural report of this county, there are only of which the hills rise abruptly. These valleys are, about 170,000 acres of wastes and commons. This p for the most part, very narrow. The most celebrated county was formerly extremely well wooded; but, E for fertility and picturesque beauty, as well as the of late years, great waste has been made of the most extensive, is the vale of Towy, which stretches timber. Its rivers and sea-coast abound in fish, thirty miles up the county, with a breadth of only especially salmon of excellent quality, and a spetwo miles. From the celebrated Grongar Hill, and cies of trout, called Suen, in high request with epithe ruins of the Castle of Dynevor, the picturesque cures. Caermarthenshire is rich in mineral productions. Minerals. beauty of this vale are seen to the greatest advantage. Rivers. The principal rivers in Caermarthenshire are the Coals and lead are the most abundant and profitable. Towy, the Teivy or Tair, the Cothy, the Dulas, and The greatest lead-mines are not far from Llandowry. the Gwilly. The Towy rises in Cardiganshire. It Limestone also abounds, and there are considerable enters Caermarthenshire, at its north-eastern corner, quantities of iron ore. The sands in the vicinity of crossing towards the south-west, and, passing Caer- Llaugharne, according to Mr Donovan, abound in 15 marthen, it empties itself into the large bay, between shells of great rarity and beauty. On the road the counties of Glamorgan and Pembroke, called from Caermarthen to Llandillo Vawr, a medicinal Caermarthen Bay. Many rivulets join the Towy in spring has lately been discovered, containing carboits course, among which is the Cothy. 1 his stream nic acid gas ; carbonate of iron, and lime; muriate rises on the north side of the county, and, running of soda and lime; and sulphate of lime. At Kastellmostly in a southern direction, unites with the Towy Karreg there is a fountain, which ebbs and flows about six miles above Caermarthen. The Teivy rises twice in twenty-four hours. There are several rein Cardiganshire, between which county and Caer- mains of antiquity, chiefly Roman, to be seen in marthenshire it afterwards forms the boundary; soon Caermarthenshire. The inhabitants, who are not engaged in agricul-Manafkeafter receiving the Keach, it enters the county of ture, are principally employed in working the mines, tures‘ Pembroke. The principal ports in this county are Llanelly, in manufacturing the produce of these mines, or in Ports. Kidwelly, Caermarthen, and Llaugharne. Llanelly making woollen stockings. The most extensive has a good port for vessels of ten feet draught, form- manufactures of tinned iron-plates are carried on at ed by an inlet of the sea called Burry River, which Kidwelly; here are also other manufactures of iron, divides this county and Glamorganshire. Llanelly for which there are large and excellent furnaces, is the port of entry of Kidwelly and Caermarthen: forges, flatting-mills, &c. Tinned-plates and castits exports are coal and tinned iron plates. Kid- iron are also manufactured at Caermarthen, and the welly is situated on two small streams, called Givan- works in both branches are extensive. In the draeth, which form a little haven, but mostly chok- neighbourhood of Llandowry, the woollen-stocking ed with sand. From this town a canal has been cut, manufactory principally prevails. The money raised for the maintenance of the poor Poor-ratfs. at the expence of a private gentleman, between three in 1803 was L.17,046, at the rate of 12s. 9d- in the and four miles long, to his coal-mines and lime-quarpound. In the year ending the 25th of March ries ; and, by means of this canal, Kidwelly has been enabled to export a considerable quantity of coals. 1815, there was paid, in parochial rates, the sum of Vessels of 250 tons burden ascend to the bridge of L.30,354, 6s. 9^d. from 83 parishes alone, the rethe town of Caermarthen on the Towy, but the en- maining 43 not having made any return. By the Popalation. trance of the river is rather difficult, in consequence population returns, in the year 1800, there were of a bar across it. The principal exports of Caer- 13,449 inhabited houses, 67,317 inhabitants, 31,439 marthen are tin plates and cast-iron. Llaugharne, males, and 35,878 females; of this number 32,862 or a creek, is chiefly remarkable for a considerable were returned as employed in agriculture, and 4343 as 10
CAE CAE 561 streams. The mountain of Snowdon is composed of Caernni;Caannar- employed in trade. The following are the results of thenshire the last population-return, in 1811 : various cliffs of different heights ; the altitude of the von'!for®.* highest point of the mountain is about 3600 feet Caernarhnowt5on ' 14,856 from the high-water mark on Caernarvon quay. vonsbii-o. Inhabited houses, 16,083 Snow lies all the year in the hollows near the top of Families inhabiting them, 113 Snowdon, the temperature here being very low, even Houses building, 333 in the middle of summer. On the morning of the uninhabited, Families employed in agriculture, 9878 5th of July 1795, just after sunrise, Mr Aikin obin trade and manufactures, 5256 served the thermometer at 34, whereas in the vale not included in these heads, 949 of Beddgelest, at seven in the morning, it was at 62; at one in the afternoon it had reached only 48 on Males, 36,080 the top of Snowdon. Females, 41,137 The principal rivers in Caernarvonshire are tire Rivers. Conway and the Seiont. The first rises from a lake Total population in 1811, 77,217 on the confines of Denbigh, Merioneth, and Caerin 1800, 67,317 narvon. Its course is nearly in a northerly direction, along the east side of the county, for about Increase, 9,900 twenty-four miles, when it empties itself into the See Agricultural Report of South Wales.—Malkin’s sea, at the town of the same name ; it is half a mile Scenery of South Wales—Evans’s Tour—Donovan’s wide at the Tash at high-water; and not above fifty yards at low, the remaining space being sand-banks, Excursions. (c.) CAERNARVONSHIRE, a county in North which, at high-water, are covered twelve feet. boundaries. Wales, is divided by the Conway from Denbigh- These sands still abound in the pearl muscle, as they Esttent. shire; from part of Merionethshire by a rivulet; did in the time of the Romans, but they have been from Anglesea by the straits of Menai: the re- long neglected. The Conway is navigable for about sidue is bounded by the sea. In figure it is very twelve miles. The Seiont rises from a lake near irregular, a great peninsulated point running out Snowdon; its course is westward, and it discharges from it to the south-west. From the extremity of itself into the Menai Straits at Caernarvon. The this point, the length is 45 miles; the breadth bar admits vessels of about 300 tons into the haven. The sea coast of this county presents many oh-Sea Coast, varies extremely; its circumference is about 150 miles. It contains, from a late survey, 300,000 jects worthy of notice. Traeth Bach, and Traeth acres of land, of which, by one account, about Mawr, are two inlets of the sea having one entrance, 200,000, and, by another account, only 160,000 are and each receiving a little river; the greatest part of them are dry at low-water, and become quiclbands. in a state of cultivation. Surface. This county is the most mountainous in Wales. They lie between Caernarvonshire and MerionethIts central part is entirely occupied by Snowdon, shire, but as they seem more properly to belong to and its subordinate mountains, extending from near the latter county, the attempts of Mr Maddocks to Conway in the north-east to the shore that bounds embank the sands of Traeth Mawr, will more prothe Perthorian road, including the Rhifel ridges. perly be noticed under Merionethshire. Passing The Snowdon mountains are connected with another from this county into Caernarvonshire, the first seachain of hills, which approach the sea at Aberda- port is Pwllheli, on an inlet which receives three or ron. Among these are very deep passes, forming four rivulets. It has a considerable coasting trade narrow valleys, through which numerous streams, is- in small vessels. St Tudwell’s bay is sheltered by suing from various lakes, rush in some places with two small islands. To it succeeds the bay named great violence. The highest region of the moun- Hell’s Mouth, from the height and form of the tainous district is covered with snow, during the shores, which cause the wind to blow continually greatest part of the year; the middle region affords into it, while there is also a constant in-draught of fuel and pasturage, though the woods which once the current. The promontory of Lyn extends to clothed it are nearly exhausted. The bases of the the west of the mass of mountains, that occupy the mountains and the valleys are in general temperate space between the west entrance of the Menai, and and fertile. The vale of Comvay is the most exten- Traeth Mawr. At the extremity of this promontosive in the county; it is a long and narrow tract, ry lies the Isle of Bardsey, two miles long, and one equally romantic and beautiful, through which the mile broad; the tides run with great rapidity beriver of the same name runs. At first it is very tween this island and the promontory. The gulf narrow, but it gradually widens to the breadth of a between the peninsulated hundred of Lyn and mile. Its extent is about twenty miles, terminating Anglesea is called the bay of Caernarvon. It is at the town of Conway. It affords rich pasturage, lined by the high ridge of Snowdon. The only especially near Llanwost, where it is formed into the port on this coast is Porthyn Lyn, formed by a long finest meadows, corn-fields, and groves,—and exhi- point of land jutting into the sea, and sheltering a bits a striking and pleasing contrast to the bleak re- cone on the west. Port Penryhn, on a small rivulet, has been recently enlarged into a haven for vessels gions of Snowdon frowning above it. The general escarpment of the mountains, which of 300 or 400 tons; from it are exported immense rise from the sea towards the centre of this county, quantities of slate, from Lord Penryhn’s estate in fronts the sea. Rut the particular escarpment of the this county, to the amount of 500 tons a-week when detached groups, depends upon the course of the the demand is great. About seven miles to the 4B VOL. II. PART II.
c ^ s 56f2 ^ A E Caeinar- west-south-west of Conway, on the road from that On the former rest beds of primitive argillaceous Caeinar. V0I sh!re ‘ vousliiie. town to Bangor, is the stupendous precipice ot Pen- schistus. The argillaceous schistus in some places is largely mixed with carbon, forming a kind ot Caesalpinus. ^ nisen Mawr, the last ot the long Caernarvon chain. It is 1400 feet perpendicular from its base, and, ac- hard drawing slate ; and in others it is penetratcording to Mr Caswell, who was employed by Mr ed by carbon and pyrites, forming alum slate. Flamstead the astronomer to measure it, 1545 feet No mines have been opened in this district. A above the beach at low-water. In 1772, applica- hard stone, used instead of brass, for supporting the tion was made to Parliament to improve and secure pivots of light machinery, and another stone, somethe road across this precipice, which was according- thing resembling the French burr, have been found ly done ; and there is now a good road, on a ledge in this county. There are some lead mines near of the rock, defended by a wall five feet high. The Gwydir ; but the most important and valuable metal county of Caernarvon is terminated by the lofty found in this county is copper. The richest mines round promontory, called Llandudno, or the Great of it are in the vicinity of Llanberis ; it is also found Orme’s Head, on the east of the Conway river. It in various parts of the Snowdon mountains and the is a fine sheepwalk, ending in a steep precipice over green carbonate of copper lies between the limestone the sea, which is hollowed into various inaccessible strata, in the promontory of Orme’s Head. There are mines of calamine on the Caernarvon side of the caverns. river Conway. AgriculIn consequence of the elevated surface or the Many rare vegetables, met with only on the most ele** ture. greatest part of the county, and its cold, piercing, and damp atmosphere, there is little corn grown in vated spots, grow in this county. Some of the steepit. Near the sea, however, and in some of the vales, est crags of the Great Orme’s Head are inhabited by barley of fine quality is grown ; and in some ot the the peregrine falcon. Considerable quantities ot fish, higher districts, oats are cultivated. The vales yield particularly herrings, are caught on the shores of a little meadow grass for hay, which is got in with- this county ; and lobsters and oysters are found in out the aid of wheel-carriages, the uneven surface great abundance. In some of the lakes are found of the ground not admitting their use. Sheep and the char, and the gwyniad, another alpine fish. black cattle, however, constitute the principal agri- Foxes are the chief wild animals. The money raised for the poor in 1803 was poor Rates. cultural stock of the Caernarvonshire farmers. The former are pastured on the mountains, which, in ge- L. 9137, being at the rate of 4s. Ofd. in the pound. neral, are commons ; and the latter on the lower In the year ending the 25th ot March 1815, there grounds. A considerable quantity of cheese, made was paid in parochial rates the sum of L. 15,77fi> from the mixed milk of ewes and cows, is made. 17s. fid. In 1800, there were 8304 inhabited houses, population, From the peninsulated hundred of Lyn, which is in and 41,521 inhabitants; 19>586 males, and 21,935 general flat, oats, barley, cheese, and black-cattle, females, of whom 12,808 were employed in agriculare exported; of the last, about 3000 annually. Fhe ture, and 4234 m manufactures, trade, and handinumerous herds of goats, which used to frequent the crafts. The inhabitants live in a state of the utmost rocky districts of this county, are now nearly extinct. simplicity, manufacturing their clothes from the wool There are some profitable orchards in the vales, but of their own flocks, and dyeing them with lichens : a oatmeal added to the produce of their dairies in general the climate is very unfavourable to fruit- little constitutes their food. In 1811, the results of the trees. population returns were as follows: MineraloCaernarvonshire is an interesting county to the gy* Mineralogist; but we can only very briefly notice 9369 houses, the principal features of its mineralogy. The high- Inhabited 10,187 Families inhabiting them, est and interior regions of the Snowdon mountains 102 are composed of granite, porphyry, whin, and other Houses building, 154 Houses uninhabited, primitive aggregate rocks, inclosing consideraOiC 6667 Families employed in agriculture, blocks of quartz. The western side of Snowdon 2687 in trade, and manufactures, itself consists of ironstone, on which are placed ba833 not included in the above head, saltic columns, of different lengths, and about four 23,379 feet in diameter. On each side of the primitive Males, 25,957 rocks, there are mountainous banks of slate, the Females, coarsest on the eastern, and the finest invariably on 49,336 Total in 1811, the western side of the central ridge. At Nant41,521 in 1800, francon are the slate quarries of Lord Penryhn, who has constructed admirable railways from them Increase in 1811, 7815 to Port Penryhn. The banks of slate, growing finer as they descend, occupy the country between See Davie’s Agriculture of North Wales.—Aikin s Snowdon and the Menai, usually terminating within II. a few hundred yards of its banks. Ihe channel of Tour Bingley’s Tour.—Pennant’s Tour, Vol.(c') the Shast, as well as its banks, consists of limestone; CiESALPINUS (Andrew), one of those great breccia, or the fragments of the Snowdon mounand daring geniuses, who, contending with t ie tains, in a calcareous cement, and hard marl, inclosing shells. The general dip of the strata, in the mists of a dark age, elicit the most brilliant truths promontory of Lyn, is to the south-west; on the on the one hand, while they sometimes wander into was born at Arezzo north coast is chlorite slate and coarse serpentine. great absurdities on the other, it
565 CMS ^ s lesalpinus. in Tuscany in 1519- Of his family nothing is re- own copy evinces the assiduity with which he studied Cwsalpmus corded, nor does he appear to have left any pro- the book. He has laboured throughout to remedy "-""v geny, nor to have been ever married. Devoted to the defect of which Haller complains, of the want the studies of physic and natural philosophy, he of synonyms, and has subjoined his own generic attained at length the honour of being physician names, nearly to every species. He has partito Pope Clement VIII., during the chief part of cularly indicated those remarkable passages, in whose pontificate, from 1592 till his own death in p. 13 and 15, where the germination of plants 1603, at the age of eighty-four, Caesalpinus lived at and their sexual distinctions are explained. In Rome, in the highest credit and celebrity ; for which, the former we trace the first rudiments of a naas we trace the circumstances of his history, and in- tural classification of plants by the differences in quire into his opinions, it seems, at first sight, diffi- their cotyledons; or, in other words, we find the cult to account. Eminent talents have seldom origin of the natural systems of Linnaeus and Jusproved a shield against persecution. On the con- sieu ; in the latter passage we detect the fundatrary, by adding fear to its malice, they have gene- mental principle of the Linnaean artificial system. rally tended to envenom its darts. How then could On these subjects the reader may consult our arCaesalpinus, a professed Aristotelian, an open unbe- ticle on Botany. Nor were these merely incidenliever of revealed religion, whose opinions nearly ap- tal suggestions of the illustrious author. He has proached those of Spinosa, exist in the holy court of pursued his enquiries to a conclusion on which the Rome, which was then beginning to persecute the existence of Botany as a science depends, and which immortal Galileo ! This mystery will but too readily the no less eminent Conrad Gesner detected about the same time, though his ideas respecting it were unravel itself. Caesalpinus seems to have been furnished with two not then made public. The principle to which we distinct philosophical intellects, which, like a good allude is the classification of plants by their parts oi and evil genius, directed him by turns. Under the fructification alone. This was afterwards extended, influence of the one he discovered the circulation of by the greatest writers on the subject, as Ray and the blood, the sexes of plants, and the only true Tournefort, and more completely by Linnaeus, to principles of botanical classification ; under the guid- the discrimination of their genera by the same parts, ance of the other, he became entangled in the meta- more particularly considered and contrasted. To physics of the schools, the dreams of Aristotle, and this more extensive conclusion, indeed, the principle a philosophic contempt for everything, good or bad, of Caesalpinus directly and inevitably leads. He connected with the nonsense he was obliged public- pursued it himself to such a length, as to develop ly to respect. It is scarcely necessary to remind some of the most important characters for generic the reader, that however brilliant the reign of lite- distinctions, such as the flower being superior or inrature and taste in the golden age of Leo X. and ferior with respect to the fruit; the heart of the seed the times which immediately succeeded, true science situated at its summit or base; the seeds, or the cells and experimental philosophy were as yet in the of the seed-vessels, solitary or otherwise; the particradle. In this respect the time of Ctesalpinus was tions of certain pericarps parallel or contrary to their “ dark as Erebus,” and the light he struck out was valves. Linnaeus remarks that this author, though the first systematical botanist, found out as many altogether his own. We have no account of this great man, till we find natural classes, or orders, as any of his followers. him seated in the botanical chair of the University He did not indeed well define the philosophical li■of Pisa, where also he studied, if he did not teach, mits of genera in the vegetable kingdom, and thereanatomy and medicine. His first publication was fore his work cannot regularly be quoted throughout entitled Speculum Artis Me dices Hypocraticum, in for generic synonyms. The want of plates of his which it were too much to expect he should release own, and of references to other authors, render, as himself from the shackles of his venerable guide; but we have already hinted, some of his names and dehe has left evident proofs, in a passage often quoted, scriptions unintelligible. Yet Linnaeus has in manuof his having a clear idea of the circulation of the script filled up many blanks which he had been blood, at least through the lungs. In botany his in- obliged to leave in his own Classes Plantarum, quiries were conducted on a more original plan, and where the system of Caesalpinus first assumed a sytheir result was one of the most philosophical works noptical form. This author might probably have in that science, which came from the press at Ho- adopted a more clear and methodical mode of arrence in 1583, in one volume 4to. The title page ranging and explaining the botanical part of his subruns thus : De Plantis libri XVI- Andrece Ccesal- ject, had he not had in view the vague and desulpini Aretim, Medici clurissimi, doctissimique, atque tory manner of Pliny, whom he closely imitates in Philosophi celeberrimi ac subtilissimi ; yet he appears the materials of his numerous chapters, as well as in unimportant to have been himself the editor of the work, to which his style of description. A smalla and es Appendix to this work, of 19 P g ? appeared at is prefixed, in his own name, an elegant and learned epistle dedicatory to Francis de Medici, Grand Rome in 1603, which is of very rare occurrence, but Duke of Tuscany. This book, now rarely to be met may be found reprinted in Boccone’s Museo di Piwith, is not only the unacknowledged source from ante rare., p. 125. Caesalpinus printed at Rome, in 1596, a 4to vowhence various subsequent writers, and especially lume of 222 pages, entitled De Metallicis, dedicated 'Morison, derived their ideas of botanical arrangement; but it was a mine of science to which Lin- to Pope Clement VIII. which, like his botanical pubnaeus himself gratefully avowed his obligations. His lications, is now extremely rare. In the philosophy c
564 C iE S Csesalpinas. of this work, Aristotle is his guide ; in its method and composition, Pliny. A prefatory address to the Pope declares it to have been undertaken in opposition to a certain treatise on the same subject, which, though written with diligence and elegance, contained many things inconsistent with the principles of philosophy, and subversive of the peripatetic doctrines; and with the author of which, as being excommunicated by the holy church of Rome, no measures wete to be kept. In our author’s Qucestionum Peripateticarum libri quinque, published at Rome in l60S, it appears that he scrupled not to stand forth, as an open defender of the Aristotelian philosophy, without any concealment of his own peculiar opinions and hypotheses, derived from thence. By these he incurred the charge of atheism, from a physician named Taurel, who, punning on the name of his antagonist, entitled his book Alpes ccesce, hoc est, Andrea Ccesalpini monstrosa' dogmata discussa et excussa. This attack however met with little or no countenance, and the learned Aristotelian died in the course of the year, receiving, no doubt, in the very focus of sanctity itself, the funeral honours due to an orthodox physician of his holiness. Of the medical publications of Caesalpinus, entitled Praxis universce medicina, and De medicamentorumjacultatibus, we have had no opportunity of forming an opinion for ourselves. By what is to be gathered from his other writings, his ideas of the medical qualities of plants and fossils seem adopted from ancient writers, rather than from any considerable portion of actual experiment. Like other physicians of his time, he was too much occupied in ascertaining the articles of the materia medica, to find leisure for doubt, or for practical enquiry, respecting the truth of their reputed virtues. He did however promulgate some original ideas, relative to the investigation of the properties of plants by their taste and smell. With Botany he was not only theoretically but practically conversant. He left behind him a collection of above 76b dried specimens, one of the earliest upon record, which is said to have come into the hands of Micheli, and therefore is doubtless still preserved in the museum of Dr Targioni Tozzetti at Florence. A catalogue of this venerable Herbarium is reported to have been prepared for the press; but we do not find that it ever appeared. Caesalpinus having been settled at Pisa, tvhen the great Galileo first presumed to doubt the infallibility of the Aristotelian philosophy; and, most likely, when that rising character became, at the age of twenty-six, Professor of Mathematics in the same university ; we cannot presume him to have been free from the party spirit which so disgracefully manifested itself there. He must have concurred in the measures which his own associates, leagued with the ruling powers, thought proper to adopt. The ancient school philosophy, derived from the Peripatetics, whether it was considered as a mere abstract speculation, or whether, as being equally absurd and unintelligible with the orthodox establishment, it did i^ot excite alarm, was, as every body knows, allowed to go on very lovingly with that establishment; nor •ud it, in general, raise any more suspicion than the
C A I heathen mythology, studied and exemplified in the Caesalpimis same and other schools. But when a spirit of truth r . II and enquiry arose; when principles and opinions were to be submitted to the tests of reason and ex- ■ periment; the same fatal results, which the preceding age had witnessed in what was called religion, were justly apprehended for what was now, with scarcely more propriety, denominated philosophy. Hence the papal authority, which had suffered shipwreck in the one case, wanting the wisdom to avoid a similar disgrace in the other, gladly clung for support to any ally. These two celebrated occasions, the divorce of Henry VIIL, and the base persecution of Galileo, are almost the only ones in which the authority of the Pope has been exerted about any matter that human reason could determine, or that much signified, except to his own immediate dependants, how it might be determined. It is a memorable fact, that his decision was no less just in one case, than unjust in the other; yet both were equally ruinous, the former to his power, the latter to his credit. So hazardous is the exercise of usurped or over-strained authority, and so infallibly, thanks to the Author of all Good! do truth and justice rise, with renovated vigour, from such contests ! By this view of our subject, the mystery above alluded to becomes clearly unravelled. Caesaipinus, though a known heretic and infidel, professing to be an obedient son, and even a champion, of the church, tried to rise by the ruin of equally learned, and more honest, men than himself. On the side on which he was absurd and censurable, and on that side only, he was unjust and unprincipled; nor is such a character uncommon. Where he exercised his unbiassed judgment, and honestly sought for truth, he, like Galileo, enlarged the bounds of human knowledge, and made discoveries which will for ever claim the gratitude and admiration of mankind. (j. J.) CAITHNESS, a Scottish county, the most north- an( Situation ern of the mainland of Great Britain, is situated ^ ^xtent, / between 58° 20 and 59° of north latitude, and between 2° 50' and 3° 27' west longitude; and, including the island of Stroma, in the Pentland Frith, extends over 618^ square miles, or 395,680 English acres, of which 8414 acres are covered by lakes and other waters. About a fourth of the surface is mountainous, more than a half consists of deep mosses, and only about an eighth part is cultivated. The boundaries, promontories, bays, climate, wild animals, &c. having been particularly described in the corresponding article in the Encyclopaedia, we shall confine our notices at present to what is omitted there, and to the alterations which the progress of time has introduced. This county is divided into thirty-four estates, ®lv,sioj1 nt eight of which comprise two-thirds of the valued rent, which is L.37,256, 2s. lOd. Scots; and more than a third of the whole is held under entail. Nine proprietors of the names of Sinclair, one of whom is a Peer, hold more than the half of this valuation. The real rent, for the year ending April 1811, was Renta!, for the lands L.30,926, 1 s. 9d. Steriing ; and for the houses L.1,698, 7s. fid. The Earl of Caithness is the only nobleman who resides in, or is connected 6
C A I aithnesi* with the county ; most of the other proprietors have sti rc ‘ ^ , modern mansions, and reside, at least a part of the ^ year, upon their estates. Rents in this, as in almost every part of Scotland, have experienced a very great advance within the last fifty years ; in one instance, noticed in Captain Henderson’s survey ol the county, published in 1812, nearly eight-fold, jprove- from 1762 to 1809- In 1792, Sir John Sinclair euts, established a flock of Cheviot-sheep on his farm of Langwell, which have been found to prosper in that climate; and several other spirited improvements were about the same time promoted by this gentleman, though unfortunately they have not been attended with all the success that their indefatigable, but perhaps too sanguine, projector had contemplated. Several other proprietors have shown a very laudable zeal for the interests of this remote, and, till of late, much neglected quarter of the island. About twenty-four years ago, an act of Parliament was procured for commuting the statutelabour, under which L.550 has been annually ex* pended on the repair of roads ; and, within these few years, the proprietors have availed themselves of the aid granted by Parliament to the northern counties, of half the estimated expence necessary to make the great lines of road; more especially from the Ord to Wick, and from Wick to Thurso. No attempts to raise plantations in this county have yet been successful, though it appears, from the trees found in mosses, that woods had formerly grown, even on the sea-coast. As a great part of the county is nearly level, the want of plantations is much felt in this rigorous climate. Tsksmen It has been the practice in this county, from time *1 Sub- immemorial, for a few of the superior class of farmants * era, under the name of tacksmen, to take a lease for 19 or 21 years of a town land, occupied by from 10 to 40 small farmers, at a rent commonly paid in money, and not partly in kind, as was the case with smaller tenants. These men occupied only a part of the lands themselves, and subset the remainder to small tenants, for a certain money rent, payments in grain, customs, and services (the latter in many cases unlimited), so as to have, upon the whole, a surplus rent for the trouble and risk of recovering their rack-rent from these subtenants. Though this arrangement has been much, and perhaps justly complained of, both in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland, as oppressive to the lower classes, yet it seems to be the natural consequence of that minute division of farm-lands which has been so injudiciously recommended for improving the condition ol the poor. The surplus rent drawn by the tacksman is merely a charge against the proprietor for factorage and insurance ; and, notwithstanding the oppression of the small tenants, which may be the consequence of thus placing them at the mercy of one who must have a much slighter interest in their welfare than the proprietor himself ought to feel, yet there appears to be no remedy but such a one as would dislodge these small tenants altogether,—the enlargement of farms to such a size as would make them an object to professional farmers. A few young men, from the south of Scotland, have taken farms here, but it is said they have not been successful in esta-
C A I 565 Wishing a mode of management superior to that of Caithnessthe natives. A great part of the county, according- siurc ly, is still divided into small holdings, of which the .v rent is paid in money, in the Highland district of it; p^is. and, in the Lowlands, partly in money and partly in grain ; and in some instances, with customs, casualties, and services, as formerly. When the small tenants possess upon leases, the term is commonly too short to encourage any expensive improvements, or even to permit any favourable change in their modes of cultivation. The implements of that numerous class are, in Agricul. general, extremely rude and inefficient: ploughs ture. and harrows, entirely of wood, excepting some thin plates of iron nailed to the sole of the former, to prevent its wearing by the friction of the soil, with four ponies or oxen yoked abreast, attended by a driver who walks backwards according to the ancient custom ; seldom even a winnow’ing machine to separate their grain from the chaft',—and fences formed by a ditch and sod-wall. Their crops arc bear and oats, alternately on the infield or old tillage lands, and grey oats successively, for four or five years, on the outfield or inferior land. Wheat has been tried by a few proprietors, but it does not succeed so well in that climate as to encourage its extensive culture. Turnips are beginning to attract notice among the small tenants, and to come into the regular course of cropping on large farms ; and potatoes are now cultivated with the plough, as well as with the spade, in every part of the county. The cattle in Caithness have been long the worst breed in Scotland ; but a considerable improvement has been lately effected on some estates, by the introduction of bulls from Argyleshire and the Western Isles. Oxen continue to be worked at the plough and harrow. With tlie exception of a few flocks of the Cheviot breed, the sheep are of the ancient race of the island, mostly horned, bearing a white fleece, but coarser than the wool of Shetland, and weighing from seven to ten lbs. per quarter. Since twohorse ploughs have been partially established, some attention seems to be paid fo the breed oi horses, though the garrons from il to 14 hands high, are still by far the most numerous description. The native breed of swine is small, short bodied, and ge nerally of a redish or grey colour; there are a few black, but the grey are reckoned the best. In a county where the want of coal is added to Manufacthe many disadvantages under which it labours from tures. its soil, climate, and other circumstances, it is not to be expected that manufactures or commerce should have acquired any footing. A tannery, bleachfield, and woollen factory, were long ago undertaken under the direction, and chiefly at the expence, of Sir John Sinclair, of which only the first has been found profitable. A brewery is still carried on at Thurso; and a small ropework in the village of Castletown. In winter 1810, about 250 women and girls were employed in Ihurso plaiting straw for ladies’ bonnets; the straw-plait being returned to London, from whence the straw itself is imported. Caithness exports a few cattle and sheep, Commerce, but of the former not a tenth part of what has been stated by Pennant. About twenty years ago from
C A I C A I The largest%nes have two concentric walls, two Caitlmey. 20,000 to 30,000 bolls of grain were annually sold Caithnessstiire. out of it, but the quantity has diminished; and feet distant, which in some instances meet at a certhere used to be about 140 tons of kelp prepared tain height, and in others ascend parallel to the '^‘Y^ from the sea*weed on its shores. But their fish summit; the space between them being entered by Fisheries. form the most important article of export. Her- a door only two feet high, and occupied by a windrings, cod, lobsters, and salmon, bring in L.43,4-00, ing stair from the bottom to the top of the buildof which the herring-fishery alone yields L. 40,000. ing ; and these are surrounded by a broad deep Besides a great number of boats employed in the ditch, and a sort of rampart. The walls are usualseveral creeks and harbours in fishing for haddock, ly nine or ten feet thick, without cement of any ling, &c. which are consumed in the county; about kind; and from their situation on high land near twenty smacks from Gravesend fish for cod and the sea, or on the banks of precipitous rocks, ling, on the north coast of Caithness, and are said stretching in a chain from one headland to another; to have, in a great degree, destroyed the cod-fishery they are supposed to have been used either as storehouses, or as retreats tor women and children on its shores. Among the antiquities of this county, the far when the men were at a distance engaged in war. John oG i oat’s The county of Caithness sends a Member to Par- Represent!famed John-o-Groat’s house deserves to be noticed. nin House. The tradition regarding this celebrated personage liament alternately with Buteshire, on the west offi°amentParScotland, an arrangement which of late has been ^ ‘ is, that his ancestor came from Holland, and settled in this county in the reign of James IV.; and that much objected to, not only because one of. these he built this house of an octagon form, inclosing a counties must always be without a representative, to large table of the same shape, to obviate disputes which each, it is thought, is entitled, but also beabout precedency, at their anniversary meetings, cause there can be hardly any common interest beamong the Groats in his time, consisting of eight tween districts so distant from one another, and families. Each family, by this contrivance, enter- placed in circumstances so different. Five of the ed separately at its own door, and was seated northern boroughs, of which Wick, the only royal at the corresponding side of the table. A variety borough in this county, is one, join together in the Piets of these singular structures called Piets Houses, election of a Member for that department. On the low grounds, the people differ little in their Languages, Houses. are still to be seen in Caithness. Many of the stones are of an enormous size, and must have been dialect from the inhabitants of the south of Scotbrought from a distance ; fragments of earthen-ware, land ; but on the mountainous tract, where Caithand a few small copper coins, have been found in ness borders with Sutherland, the Gaelic prevails ; them ; and some singular articles made of bone fixed though many of the natives can speak both languages with nails of the same material. They are almost with nearly equal facility. By comparing the population lists taken under Population, always of a conical form, and their exterior being now covered with a thick sward of fine grass, they the acts 1800 and 1811, it will be seen that, even in have the appearance of large tumuli or barrows. this remote and comparatively unproductive portion The internal structure, as well as the size of these of the British Empire, there has been an increase of Duns, as they are called by the Highlanders, is va- numbers in the intermediate period, though not so rious. The smallest, and apparently the oldest, considerable as in most other counties. The inhahave only one circular wall which contracts as it bitants of the towns bear a very small proportion to rises, till, at the top, only a small hole must have those of the country. remained open, or been covered with flat stones. 1800. OCCUPATIONS. PERSONS. HOUSES. Persons chiefly emMales. Females. ployed in Agiiculture.
By how many Families occupied. 433
4652
Pei’sons chiefly employed in Trade, Ma nutactures, or Handicraft. 2201
140 ||lO,183 12,426 13,263
All other Persons not comprised Total of in the two Persons. preceding classes. 7145
22,609
1811. PERSONS.
HOUSES.
Families chiefly emMales. Females. ployed in Agriculture.
By how many Families occupied. 4301
4714
OCCUPATIONS.
139
10 ,608| 12,811
3270
Families All other chiefly em- Families no\ ployed in comprised Total of Trade, Ma- the two Persons. nufactures, in or Handi- preceding classes. craft. 838
606
23,419 (A.)
567 C A L C U T T A. Calcutta. CALCUTTA. The Encyclopedia contains some government business ; it also contains magnificent Calcutta* vaccount of the settlement and subsequent improve- apartments for public entertainments. The other ment of Calcutta ; and in the present article, which principal buildings are a town-house, with public is compiled from the works of recent writers, we rooms, which, though handsome, are too confined have endeavoured to comprehend whatever is most for the climate, and for the number ot inhabitants; useful and interesting in the description of this cele- the hospital and jail, which are situated on the' Esplanade; two English churches, the one ot which brated city. toation Calcutta is situated upon the river Hooghly, is a plain building, but the other has an elegant id Aspect, which forms the western channel of the Ganges, and appearance ; also a Scottish church, which is newthough not the principal, is the only one of its nu- ly finished ; and, besides these, there are various merous branches which is navigable for large vessels. churches belonging to the professors of almost every The town is 100 miles from the mouth of the river, religion in the world. Portuguese, Greeks, Armethe navigation of which is difficult and often danger- nians, Hindoos, and Mahomedans, all enjoy here ous, on account of its numerous sand-banks, many the most perfect toleration. The customhouse faces the river, and forms part ot of which are continually shifting their situation. Vessels drawing more than seventeen feet water can- the west side of the great square. It is built upon not, except at spring-tides, ascend with safety above the site of the old fort, which was taken in 1757 by Near to it is the famous Black Hole, Diamond Harbour, where the vessels of the East Surajah Dowla. r India Company usually load and unload. This is which is now converted into a warehouse; and beabout sixty miles below Calcutta, and passengers are fore the gate stands the monument which has been conveyed to the city in smaller vessels or in boats. erected to commemorate the unfortunate persons The country, from the mouth of the Hooghly to who perished there. It is surrounded by an ironDiamond Harbour, is dreary in the extreme ; the railing, but it has been struck with lightning, and banks of the river are high, and the adjacent land, has since been allowed to go to decay. In front on each side, which is perfectly flat, forms a com- of the customhouse is the quay, which has been plete wilderness of timber and brushwood, the haunt of essential service to the numerous shipping which of tigers, and of other beasts of prey. Advancing there load and unload. On the west side of the up the river, the scene gradually improves; the river, and in a beautiful situation, stands the bocountry becomes more and more cultivated, the tanic garden, at a bend to which it gives the name shipping and the bustle on the river increase, and of Garden Reach. It contains a splendid collection the beautiful country-seats on its banks announce of plants from every quarter of the globe, and is the approach to the capital. The city, with its nu- laid out with great taste, but more with a view to merous spires and other public edifices, presents, at practical utility than scientific arrangement. Above a distance, a striking appearance, and, on landing, the garden there is an extensive plantation of teak. the magnificence of the buildings command the ad- Horse-racing having been discouraged by governmiration of all strangers. The town and suburbs ment, the course, which was to the south of the extend along the left or eastern bank of the river townj is now converted into a ride ; but the pracabove six miles, but varying much in breadth at tice still continues at Barrackpore, sixteen miles up different places. In the middle of it, and very near the river, where the fashionable society of Calcutta the landing-place, is an immense square, each side assemble to partake of the amusement. The south of which extends above a quarter of a mile, and the side of the great square is occupied by the writers’ centre is occupied by a large tank or open reservoir buildings, which make but an indifferent appearance. of water, for the supply of the town. This square, They form the residence of this class of the Comtogether with the adjacent buildings and those to- pany’s servants who are newly arrived from Euwards the south, forms, what is properly termed, the rope, and who are students at the college of Forttown of Calcutta, the residence of the European in- William. The private houses in Calcutta, in the habitants and of the natives ot distinction, lo the central or genteel part of the town, are built, mostsouth, along the bank of the river, lies the Black ly, after the European fashion, but modified to the Town, which is occupied entirely by the lower clas- nature of the climate, and to the magnificence of ses of inhabitants, and is rather considered as part eastern manners. In a line with the governmentof the suburbs; and about a quarter of a mile to the house, is a range of elegant buildings, ornamented north stand Fort-William, and the barracks, which with large verandahs, and another, at right angles form, on this side, a great ornament to the city. with it, called Chouringee, formerly occupied by The intermediate space, which is an extensive open native huts. These houses are built of brick, coverplain, is termed the Esplanade. The citadel of Fort- ed with a species of stucco called Chunam. They William, which was begun by Lord Clive in 1757? are all separated from each other, every one havafter the battle of Plassey, is the strongest and most ing attached to it a considerable piece of enclosed regular fortress in India, but the works are so ex- ground, in the middle of which it is situated, fhc tensive, that they would require at least 9000 or approach is by a flight of steps, under a large por10,000 men, with 600 pieces of cannon, to defend tico. The architecture is Grecian, and the profusion them. On the west of the Esplanade stands the of columns, porticos, and verandahs, gives them more government-house, built by the Marquis Wellesley, the air of palaces than of private houses. To this which is the largest and most splendid building in part of Calcutta the Black Town forms a striking Calcutta. It is the residence of the Governor- contrast. It has been already described in the EnGeneral, where he holds levees, and transacts all the cyclopedia) but has been considerably improved
C A LC U TT A. 568 Calcutta. l>y the widening of the streets, the filling up of be possessed of pecuniary means : that is, that he can Calcutta, v ponds, and by tiling instead of thatching the houses, pay his way. Without this, he can do nothing ; and by which means the danger from fire has been much must undergo all the afflictions and miseries attendant upon despised poverty, in every part of the globe. diminished. Though building materials are abundant in the It may be proper to point out in this place, that neighbourhood of Calcutta, house-rent is not mode- what might here appear to be liberal calculations, rate. This is owing partly to the high interest of would not suit the East; where every article of money, and partly to the constant repairs which are European manufacture bears so enormous a price, required, from the casting of the wood in this hot where house-rent is so expensive, and where it is inclimate, and from the ravages of insects, particularly dispensably necessary to retain so many servants. the white ants. Though the wood-work of a house The first thing to be done (setting a letter of recomappear externally quite sound, it often turns out upon mendation out of the question) should be to report examination to be completely excavated or honey- arrival at the Secretary’s Office, depositing the cercombed by these insects, which assemble in incredi- tificate of the Court of Directors’ licence to proceed to India; without which, the party is considered as ble numbers, wherever they can find an entrance. Precautions The houses here, which are known under the an alien, and scarcely considered as entitled to British protection. This does not arise from ill-will t0 be ? k" name of taverns, are greatly inferior in respectabili- on the part of government, or of the inhabitants; t0 Slraiweis^ ty those in Europe. They are, with the excep° tion of two or three particular houses, resorted to but from that strict attention the politics of the only by the lowest company, and strangers who country imperiously demand to be paid to the seare enticed into them are exposed to every species veral characters, and descriptions, of persons reof imposition, and frequently to total ruin. A Eu- siding within our territory. “ The above relates equally to all persons in the ropean, on his first landing, is surrounded by numerous dangers and inconveniencies, which he finds it civil or military branches ; the certificate granted at extremely difficult to escape. These are so well the India House must be produced, in order to idendescribed in the East India Vade-Mecum, by Cap- tify the party ; but if it should have been lost, lie tain Thomas Williamson, that we shall extract the himself, together with the commander who received following passages, for the instruction of such of our the order for taking him on boi.rd, must attend, to countrymen as propose to visit those distant regions. make affidavit to that effect, before the appointment “ The tavern-keeper, under the plausible pretext can be admitted upon the registers in India. “ Such as appertain to the civil service, being alof aiding towards the completion of the youth’s wishes, never fails to inquire whether the gentle- ways strongly recommended, and often finding many man has any friends in town ? or even in the country ? old acquaintances of their families on the spot, reIf affirmatively answered, « mine host’ feels himself quire but little advice; nor does the cadet stand tolerably secure of his money: but will probably as- much in need of instruction, as to the manner in sert, that the friend in town is out of the way, and which he should provide himself with a home. All will not be back for some days. Should the gentle- he has to do, is to wait upon the town-major, at his man be totally destitute of friends, then comes the office in Fort-William, when he will receive the nerich harvest Imposition following imposition, swell cessary order for his admission into the Cadet Corps, the bill; which, if appearances warrant forbearance, at Baraset, about sixteen miles from Calcutta. “ He who has not these advantages, must do the is kept back as long as possible, under the pleasing assurance of perfect confidence : but, in the end, a best his circumstances may afford ; he will find temcatalogue of items is produced, which never fails to perance to be not only cheap, but indispensable; for, if he should act so indiscreetly at the outset as to inalarm, if not to ruin, the unsuspecting victim 1” jure his health, a thousand privations, and a certain “ If, unhappily, the guest should so far lower himself as to associate with the ordinary company of the increase of difficulties, must follow. The first point common drinking-room, he is irretrievably gone. must necessarily be to get under cover. This will Quarrels, riots, and inebriety, must follow; in all not be found so easy, as those who have never quitprobability rendering him subject to the notice of the ted England may suppose. It will be after much repolice. Should his face ever he seen at that office, search, that a small house will be had, and then only it xuould be next to impossible that he should be ad- the bare walls ; for no such thing is known in India mitted into any respectable circle. What with lodg- as a furnished house to be let; and lodgings are, if ing, dinners, wines, &c. of the worst description, but possible, still more out of the question. Fortunately, all rated at the highest prices, he must be a fortu- there are, among the European shopkeepers in Calnate wight who escapes under a gold mohur {i. e. cutta, some most respectable characters ; men distwo guineas) per day : in general, double that sum tinguished for their urbanity, philanthropy, and geis charged ; so that a person starts at the rate of nerosity. Application should be instantly made to L. 1000 per annum, at least; while, in all probabi- one of these firms, for aid and advice. The ,case lity, no established, or even apparent, provision ex- should be candidly stated; aad, in order to insure confidence, a deposit of money should be made, ists, whereby he may be maintained.” “ To state the evil, without pointing out the re- either with them, or at one of the banks. The conmedy, would be next to useless; but, when I sug- sequences will be, that, in a few hours, some small gest the means of avoiding those difficulties, or any tenement will be obtained, either on hire, or grantportion of them, attendant on arrival in a foreign land, ed as a temporary accommodation, and the whole of Ft must be understood, that I consider the stranger to the articles really necessary will be provided, at .
Calcntla. Comniercf.
Public Establishments.
Supreme Court.
College of Fo. t William.
CALCUTTA. some one ov other of the auctions which daily take The arrangements of the institution seemed well Calcutta, place within the central parts of the town.” adapted in many respects for this purpose. But Calcutta is the great emporium of the east. By the extensive nature of the plan did not meet the means of the Ganges, and its tributary streams, it views of the Court of Directors, and in June 1802, has an uninterrupted water communication with the their instructions were received for its abolition; whole of the north of Hindostan, on the one hand, the period of which, however, the Governor-Geneand with the whole of Europe, Africa. America, and ral delayed for various reasons till December 1803, great part of Asia, on the other. Thus advantage- having, in the meantime, addressed to the Direcously situated for commerce, it trades extensively tors a strong defence of the institution. In Jawith almost every country in the world, and numbers nuary 1804«, instructions were received to contiof vessels of every form and description are constant- nue it on its original footing. The institution accord]y arriving or departing from the river, which, in the ingly proceeded with new vigour. All promotion vicinity of the town, presents the busiest scene ima- to the service was made through the college, and ginable. Numerous dock-yards have also been esta- was regulated entirely by the merit of the students, blished, in which are built vessels of great burden among whom an unexampled emulation in literary and of admirable construction. Piece-goods, shawls, pursuits had arisen. In four years from the time of indigo, silk, sugar, opium, and rum, are the staple its establishment, one hundred original volumes in commodities of export. Treasure is imported from the oriental languages and literature had been puball quarters. From London, the imports consist lished, and the plan of translating and printing the principally of articles of consumption for the Euro- Scriptures in all the languages of the east had made pean inhabitants, consisting of porter, ale, confection- great advances. In 1805, the students of the estaaries ; and, generally, of all the finer manufactures. blishments ot Madras and Bombay were separated In 1808 a bank was established at Calcutta, under from those of Calcutta ; in consequence of this rethe name of the Calcutta Bank. Its capital amounts duction oi the extent of the college, the duties of to 50 lacks of rupees, of which ten were subscribed the Provost and Vice-Provost were united by a miby Government, and the remainder by individuals. nute of the Governor and Council in one person, There are twelve Insurance Companies. Several under the title of Provost; and in January 1807, the newspapers are published weekly. The charifiible offices of Provost and Viee-Provost were abolished ; institutions are numerous. Of these the principal are the Professorships were restricted to three,—those of two schools for the education and maintenance of the HinUostanee, Bengalee, and Perso-Arabic; the the children of Europeans in the military service of period ot attendance was reduced to one year, and all the Company, one for the children of officers, and control over the private expences or conduct of the another for those of privates ; a free school at which students was given up. On this reduced and limited about 100 children are educated, and a native hos- footing the establishment still continues. pital or infirmary. The Asiatic Society still conThe population of Calcutta, which is stated by Population, tinues its sittings, and publishes its Transactions, some to amount to 500,000, by others to 700,000, which contain much interesting matter concerning is composed of persons from every quarter of the the history, literature, languages, and antiquities of world. British, and other Europeans, Armenians, Asia. An Auxiliary Bible Society has also been Persians, Chinese, Hindoos, and Mahomedans, are established at Calcutta. all seen mixing in the streets of this metropolis. The Supreme Court consists of a Chief-Justice The occupations of these various classes are nearand two puisne judges, all nominated by the Crown. ly what might be expected in the luxurious caIts jurisdiction extends to all British subjects in pital of a great Empire, and in so great an emporium India, and to all civil actions between natives, or be- of maritime commerce. Public officers, lawyers, tween natives and Europeans. Criminal cases are physicians, merchants, and their families, make up tried in this Court by a jifry, consisting exclu- the bulk of the British inhabitants. The natives sively of British subjects; as also all criminal char- and foreigners of respectability are mostly engaged ges against the Company’s servants, and all civil in trade, or living upon their property, and the actions in which the Company, or any of its servants, lower classes are principally composed of retailare concerned ; but it takes no cognizance of the dealers, mechanics, and servants. land revenues. The law practitioners attached to The British merchants form a most respectable Different this Court are fourteen attornies, and six barristers. class of men, and contribute essentially to the pro- Classes of The College of Fort William, for the education of sperity of the settlement; many of them are pos- Mediants, the junior servants of the East India Company, sessed of large fortunes, and live in a style of suitwhich promised at one time to be so great an esta- able splendour. The Armenians are the most nublishment, is now reduced to a few lecture rooms in merous body of foreign merchants in Calcutta. the Writers’ buildings. It was begun in 1801 by the They trade extensively to all parts of India and Marquis Wellesley, then Governor-General, and its China, are uncommonly diligent and attentive to object was to remedy the evils which had arisen from business, and are considered to have the most mithe ignorance of the Company’s servants; to fill, if nute intelligence from foreign ports of any other possible, the important situations of the Empire with body of merchants. The native bankers, agents, men of learning, talents, integrity, and moderate ha- and money-dealers, are numerous. Though formerbits ; and along with a just administration of govern- ly timorous, the Hindoo now adventures in almost ment, to spread the influence of literature, science, every species of mercantile speculation; and cloths and the Christian religion, over the eastern wTorkU belonging to the native merchants, to the amount of VOL. II. PART II. 4c
CAL CAL 3?0 Calcutta L, 1,000,000 Sterling, are generally lying for sale intercourse between the eastern and western sides Caledonian of Great Britain, by rendering unnecessary the navi- Canal, II Caledonian in the warehouses of Calcutta. The native merchants gation of a circuitous and dangerous coast, induces Canal. of an inferior class, engross nearly the whole of the us to treat of it separately, and to furnish our readretail trade of Calcutta, under the titles of Banians, ers with a correct map or plan of :ts line, reduced Sircars, and Writers; and they are generally de- from the maps laid before Parliament. scribed as fond of money to excess, and most unSo early as the year 1773, Mr James Watt First idea of principled in all their dealings. of Soho, to whom mankind and the arts are sotllis Kreat Col 1 and The cold season, which lasts from September to much indebted for his improvements in the steam-Woik‘ Hot Season • April, is generally allotted to amusement and festiengine, was appointed by the t rustees or Comvity in Calcutta. It is only during part of this sea- missioners for certain Forfeited Estates in Scotson that it is possible to venture abroad in the heat land, to make a survey of the central Highlands. of the day, which, in the rest of the year, is devoted to Mr Watt, in his Report to that public body, recomrepose. The hot season begins in April. Every day mended, amongst other improvements for the Highthe heat increases until the middle of June, when the lands, the formation of the Crinan Canal, which has periodical rains begin, and last till August. The wea- long since been executed, and also of the Caledother then being extremely close, is more oppressive, nian Canal, from Inverness to Fort-William, now in and more unhealthy than before. The thermometer, progress, and which we are immediately to describe. throughout the year, generally ranges between 75° The late rapid introduction of the sheep-farming Circumand 95°, but frequently rises to 100° and 110°. system having necessarily deprived multitudes of the stances The markets at Calcutta are open at day-break^ inhabitants of their former means of subsistence, the ^ Markets. and they afford, at very moderate prices, meat of formation of roads and canals, and the multiplication every kind, and poultry, with various kinds of choice of fishing stations, came to be looked to, as affording tion> fish, fruits, and vegetables ; also game, such as the most likely means of mitigating the evils consewild ducks, partridges, snipes, &c. with various quent upon this great and sudden change of system ; kinds of ortolans. The wild venison is not nearand in pursuance of this view of things, the Lords ot ly so good as that of Britain, but the park or stall- the Treasury, in 1802, directed Mr Telford, Civil fed is equally good. The hare is very different from Engineer, to make a survey of the coasts and centhat of England, being defective in size, strength, tral Highlands of Scotland. The Report which he and swiftness. in consequence drew up, involves a variety of consiRise of the That sudden rise of the waters, termed the Bore, derations connected with the improvement of the Ganges is quite common on the Hooghly, as well as on called the the other branches of the Ganges. T he general Highlands, and the employment of the population of Bore these districts ; but the part of it which we are more cause of this appearance is sufficiently understood, particularly to consider, is that which refers to the probut it is not easy to explain the details. It is position of an inlsfnd navigation Bom Loch Beauly common on several of the rivers in England ; it is also known on the waters of the Dordogne and and the German Ocean on the eastern coast, to Loch Garonne in France, under the name of Mascaret, Eil and the Atlantic Ocean, on the western coast. and in the Amazons in South America, where it is Mr Watt proposed that the depth of this canal should termed the Prororoco. It is an immense wave, be ten feet, or two feet more than the Forth and Clyde which, in the Hooghly, heads the spring flood-tide, Canal; but Mr Telford, considering the great comtravelling before it, at the rate of 80 miles an hour ; mand of water from the chain of lochs or lakes in its and, what is most singular, not occupying the whole line, and aware no doubt of the advancing state of mabreadth of the stream, but ranging along one of the ritime adventure, and of the inconveniences which are banks, and crossing over to the opposite shore at felt from the small scale on which that navigation has every considerable bend of the river. It begins been executed, though originally termed the great about 40 miles below Calcutta, and is felt, but with canal, was induced to propose a depth of twenty feet continually decreasing effect, nearly as far above it. for the Caledonian Canal; that it might thus be capaAt Calcutta it ranges on the opposite bank. The ble of floating twenty-eight gun Frigates, and the swell is prodigious ; and, on its approach, all the largest class of Baltic traders. The Parliamentary Committee, which had been small craft fly for safety to the middle of the river, appointed in reference to the situation ot the Highwhere, though the swell is still considerable, they are not exposed to the same imminent danger. At lands, had corresponded with the Highland Society Calcutta it often causes an instantaneous rise of the of Scotland as to the means of improvement; and, before finally reporting upon this great and bold plan, water of five feet. See Williamson’s East India Fade Mecum, 2 vols. they called before them the most eminent Engineers, 8vo. 1810.—Lord Valentia’s Travels, 3 vols. 4to. 1811. nautical Surveyors, Mariners, and Merchants in the —Mrs Graham’s Journal of a Residence in India, 4to. kingdom. In particular, Mr Jessop and Mr Ren1812.—Hamilton’s East India Gazetteer, 8vo. 1815. nie, Civil Engineers, were severally examined —Milburne’s Oriental Commerce, 2 vols. 4to. 1818. with regard to the practicability and expence of the plan proposed by Mr Telford; and Captain George (o.) CALEDONIAN CANAL. The importance of Duff, of the Royal Navy, Captain Huddart of the this great national undertaking, whether considered Trinity House, London, Lieutenant Gwynn, Comas a work of magnitude and expence, as tending to mander of the Fort-Augustus galley on Loch Ness, open up and improve some of the most barren and and several others, were examined upon points touchrugged districts in Scotland, or to facilitate the ing the navigation and anchorage for large vessels.
57i CALEDON IAN CANAL. Lochy, which is about ten miles and a half in length, to Caledoniaa Caledonian Returns were also procured from the ports of Dublin, Canal. Liverpool, Greenock, Leith, and Aberdeen, regard- an additional depth of twelve feet,—the spilling or run- Coi'V"^'v jng the probable advantages of the proposed inland ning oft’ its flood-waters by a new cut into the River navigation, and to what extent it would be useful. Spean ; and some extra cutting at the summit level This Committee, after much investigation, reported between Lochs Oich and Lochy. But one of the most difficult parts of the navigation, is stated as follows : “ Your Committee, from a full consideration of to consist in the deepening and management of all the evidence laid before them, and annexed to Loch Doughfour. Mr Jessop seems to have been this Report, by way of Appendix, submit to the prepared to meet with rather an unfavourable House their opinion: That the execution of the in- soil for canal operations ; he was of opinion, that the land navigation, proposed in Mr Telford’s plan, under whole valley between Loch Ness and Fort-William, all due regulations, for the economical expenditure of has been one entire sheet of water; and that the such monies as may be employed in this great work, portions of land intervening between the lochs will be a measure highly conducive to the prospe- are the debris of the adjoining mountains. The rity and happiness of that part of Scotland in which first trial-pits dug in the neighbourhood of Inverit is situated, and of great importance to the gene- ness, did not fail to give some alarm upon this subject, as the ground consisted of sand and gravel so ral interests of the whole United Kingdom.” First Act of A Bill was, accordingly, brought into Parliament, open and porous, that the tidal waters of Loch Parliament, on the Report of this Committee, in the Session of Beauly flowed and ebbed through it. But on other 1803, entitled, “ An Act for granting to his Ma- parts of the line of the canal, the gravel was found to jesty the sum of L. 20,000, towards defraying have such a mixture of earthy particles as would be ,, the expence of making an inland navigation from sufficient to render it impervious to water. The extent of canal to be formed and cut, is stat- First Dithe Eastern to the Western Sea, by Inverness and mensions Fort-William ; and for taking the necessary steps ed to be about 21^ miles, and the loch or lake navi-and Esti towards executing the same which Act received gation at 37^, making a total distance of inland na- mateS ' vigation from sea to sea of about 59 miles ; the bot' the Royal Assent on the 27th day of July 1803. The Board of Commissioners for the Caledonian tom width of the cutting 50 feet, with slopes of 18 inches Canal, appointed by this act, accordingly met, and to a foot, with benchings at the water-line, making the made certain arrangements for the immediate com- width at the surface to be about 110 feet. The general mencement of the work ; having, in the first place, dimensions of the canal, though afterwards enlarged, appointed Mr Thomas Telford to be their Engineer. were now estimated at 20 feet for the depth; the He had formerly been employed by the Lords of width of the locks is taken at 38 feet, and their the Treasury in making various surveys of the length at 162 feet. The number of locks is estimatHighlands. But in so important an undertaking, ed to be 23. They are to be built of masonry, the Commissioners judged it necessary to call to with gates and platforms of American pitch-pine. his assistance Mr William Jessop, another emi- After critically examining the whole intended line of nent and experienced Engineer. Mr Telford, in- the Caledonian Canal, its proposed dimensions, soil, structed by the Commissioners, proceeded immedi- materials and workmanship, Mr Jessop estimated the ately for Scotland, and again made an entire sur- expence at the sum of L. 474,531, including S per vey of the whole line of the canal from Inverness to cent, for contingencies; but exclusively of the pnce Fort-Wilham. To ascertain the soil, trial-pits and of land, and the necessary moorings for the anchorborings were made from shore to shore, at distances ages at the respective lochs. Upon a joint Report not exceeding half a mile. Mr Murdoch Downie, afterwards by Messrs Jessop and Telford, this sum an experienced Marine and Nautical Surveyor^ was is proposed to be expended, and the works comemployed to make a survey of the chain of lochs upon pleted, in the course of seven years from the period the line, in order to sound and determine their respec- of their commencement. In this stage of the affairs of a work so extensive Dimentive depths and anchorages. The line of the canal, where cutting was necessary, was now carefully laid in its operation, and so important in its consequences, sions finally . out. Stone and lime quarries, timber and other ne- it became of the last importance, in finally resolving adopted, cessary materials were looked after, and some idea upon the dimensions of the first lock, to fix upon was formed as to the probable value of the land to such as would answer, in the fullest manner, all be passed through. Places were also fixed upon for the purposes of the intended navigation. To this the entrance-basins or sea-locks, at both extremities, point, therefore, the attention ot the Engineers was* and every possible information prepared for Mr Jes- again directed; especially as the dimensions of sop’s survey, which took place in the month of Oc- the first lock would not only regulate all the rest tober. He was met by Mr Telford at Edinburgh, but also the works of excavation along the whole and these gentlemen proceeded together to a full ex- line of the canal. After maturely deliberating upon amination of the whole; and, upon this survey, Mr all the information which had been obtained, reJessop reported his opinion to the Commissioners, garding the description and tonnage of the shipand furnished an estimate of the expence. The ping which navigate the northern seas, and advising chief difficulties alluded to in his Report, as inci- at large, as before noticed, with Engineers, Mariner^ dent to this great work, refer to the cutting new chan- and Merchants, upon the important subject of the , nek or courses for the rivers Ness, Oich, and Lochy,— dimensions of the canal;—it having been specified the deepening Lochs Doughfour and Oich by excava- in the act authorizing this work, that such an inland tion,-—the damming up and raising the surface of Loch navigation should be formed, as, when completed,
CALEDONIAN CANAL. 572 a Caledonian might enable ships and vessels of considerable bur- it would be most convenient to connect the line of Caledonian Caiial. den, trading between the eastern and western coasts the canal with the several lochs or lakes forming part Canal, of the intended navigation ; and also fix and arrange of Great Britain and Ireland, and the German Ocean, to avoid a long and dangerous navigation round the the price of labour, and the mode in which the senorthern ^coasts of Scotland the Commissioners, veral works would be most advantageously let or considering also that the proposed dimensions of the contracted for. During the first year (1803), the operations were v/orks of excavation, viz. 20 feet of depth, 50 feet of width at bottom, and 110 feet at the surface wa- merely of a preparatory nature, and the number of ter-line of the canal, would admit and be sufficient workmen did not exceed 150. But in the year folto float a 32 gun frigate; and as only a very small lowing they were increased to upwards of 900, when addition to the original and annual expence would be it became necessary to appoint resident Engineers, incurred by enlarging the locks for that purpose;— particularly at the extremities of the line, to which it was finally ordered, that the length ot the locks the first works were entirely confined. For this highshould be increased from 162 to 172 feet, and that ly important charge, Mr Matthew Davidson, who had the breadth should be from 38 to 40 feet, the depth acquired much experience at the works upon the to remain at 20 feet as before intended. The Com- Elsemere Canal, particularly at the great aqueduct missioners thought it their duty to prefer this large of Pontycycelte in Denbighshire, was appointed to scale of construction, as, although it would increase the eastern division, and Mr John Telford took the expence, the canal would thereby be capable charge at the western end. In the commencement of operations of this pub- Brices of of affording an occasional passage to that class of lie nature, it became an important consideration Materials His Majesty’s ships, of which there was, at that period, upwards of forty in the service, which must to interfere as little as possible with the rates of the fixed. otherwise have been excluded from it. In this re- stated labour of the country ; and therefore, as well solution, the Board of Commissioners had also in as from motives of economy, only about one-sixth view the increasing tonnage of merchant ships, as part of the work was done by day-labour, the other some of the vessels trading between Liverpool and parts being done by contract and measurement. The the Baltic, approach to the dimensions even of these rates for day-labour and workmanship, as fixed by Messrs Jessop and Telford in 1804, we shall state* enlarged locks. Side Locks. With a view to give greater facility to the passage more as a matter of future, than of present interest. of small vessels, and to avoid the consequent wear Labourers by the day, were paid from Is. 6d. to Is. of the large locks, the Engineers had been di- 8d. and 2s., according to the description of work. The rected to consider the propriety of constructing works of excavation and embankment varied accordsmall side-locks for vessels of about 200 tons, which ing to the distance of removal. That for the earthen draw about twelve feet water, or of such dimensions work of coffer-dams of the eastern division was 9d. as to correspond with the depth of the Crinan Canal. per cubic yard, exclusively of pumping water, workThis appendage of small locks, it appeared, would ing the puddle in the banks, or expence of railhave added to the original expence about L. 75,200; ways. The rate or price of iron-work to be 5£d. per and considering that two, or even three small vessels lib., when the price of Swedish iron is at L. 30 per might pass together through the large locks, the ad- ton at Inverness. Timber work in coffer-dams, and vantages attending the side-locks appeared to be sheeting to locks, 6d. per cubic foot for labour only. very uncertain, and the idea was therefore laid aside Ruble masonry, laid in lime mortar, at 11s. per cubic yard, cut stone or squared masonry at Is. 7d. for the present. New Act of It appears from the first Report of the Commis- per cubic foot, exclusively of pozzolano or tarras, Parliament. si0ners for making the Caledonian Canal, that the where necessary. In common earth cutting, insum of L. 6052, 10s. lOfd. had been expended in cluding puddling and forming the banks, the price the preparatory measures for this great undertaking. throughout the whole works was not to exceed In the Session of Parliament 1804, another act was the average rate of 6d. per cubic yard; excepting passed, entitled, “ An Act for making further Pro- in cases where the removal of the puddle should vision for making and maintaining an Inland Navi- exceed 100 yards, when an extra allowance was gation, commonly called The Caledonian Canal, from to be made by the award of Mr Thomas Telford. the eastern to the western Sea, by Inverness and Also, wherever the removal of earth by barrow exFort-William in Scotland.” By this additional act, ceeds 60 lineal yards, or 120 yards by barrow-carts, a further provision of L. 50,000 was made for this an allowance to be made over and above these prices, at the rate of fd. per cubic yard for every undertaking. Commence- In the month of June 1804, the Commissioners re- run of 20 yards by barrow, or 40 yards by barrowinent of the soiV€d that Mr Jessop should again visit the line of carts. The same rate of prices is applicable to the M oik. j.jle inten(jed navigation in concert with Mr Telford, works of the western division of the canal, only in that they might jointly inspect the progress of the such instances as the circumstances differ materially. works already commenced, and re-examine all the Part of the excavation at the western end is in rock, particulars of the former survey; that they might de- which is to be paid for at the rate of 2s. per cubic termine the position of each lock on the whole line yard, and the excavation and embankment at 8&.per of the canal, and, as far as possible, fix the situation, cubic yard. The most considerable difference here dimensions, and construction of the bridges, cul- was in the price of cut stone, or squared masonry. verts, and other necessary works ; and that they At the eastern division, the quarry of Redcastle is might take into consideration the manner in which only about five or six miles from the work; while
CALEDONIAN CANAL. 573 iialedoniau at the western division, the eut stones for hollow of the line of canal, the excavated matters, with little Caledonian Canal. quoins, coping stones, &c. were brought from the exception, are found to consist chiefly of gravel and Canal, C umbrae Island in the Clyde, distant, even by water-worn stones; these subdivisions, once formed the Crinan Canal, upwards of 100 miles; the price and exposed to the atmosphere, would acquire veo-eof cut stone work was consequently fixed at 2s. 5d. table and adventitious matters ; and in time, by the per cubic foot, instead of Is. 7d. ; or if granite from wearing of the beds of the original outlets, these Ballahulish, distant about twenty miles, should be patches of land would rapidly increase. used, the price to be at the rate of 2s. per cubic But whatever may have been the actual state of mat- Compared foot. But even these prices were, upon due investi- ters here, at an early period, the great vale, or per- vv'dli otfier gation, found to be insufficient, and the contractors haps more properly, the chasm, of the Ness and Lochy parts i'1 ^ie extended states of commerce, to derni". " ac^ niany 0f the operations of packing, sheeting, and preparing goods for shipment, and these generally form a branch of the establishment. In order to suit the great extent and variety of manufacture practised in Britain, and to adapt these to the prevalent tastes and views of the extensive range of consumers to be supplied, a multiplicity of foldings or lappings have been necessarily adopted, few of which, probably, possess much claim to entire originality. The high, and perhaps preeminent, station which the productions of the British looms have gradually attained, seem to be rather the effect of assiduous and enterprising industry, than of great originality of invention, or precedence in mechanical improvement. Certainly, she can, at the utmost, boast ot only one rcuv material, from which cloth is manufactured, as peculiarly indigenous. At an early period, no doubt, the British wool had attracted the peculiar attention of economists and statesmen, as of paramount value ; and the prohibition of its exportation became an object of legislative enactment. That manufacture, therefore, has long been the staple of England, as the linen trade, at a later period, has become that of Ireland. ^ The attempts to introduce both of these branches of industry into Scotland, although, during the latter part of the last century, they engrossed much of the attention, both of public bodies and of patriotic individuals, cannot be regarded as having proved eminently successful ; and the progress actually made, has been almost entirely superseded and extinguished, by the more recent introduction of the cotton manufacture. The latter branch of industry, since the splendid invention of spinning by the aid of machinery, has, indeed, made most rapid advances in every part of the United Kingdom ; and has attained to a height, which lias, perhaps, absorbed a greater portion of national industry, than consumers can easily be round to employ. The extension of external commerce has constantly supplied the raw material at easy, and, generally, moderate rates; and even the India Company have long ceased to oppose to it any very formidable competition in the market. The silk manufactures of Britain have never been carried to a very great extent; and whatever may have, directly or indirectly, tended to regulate the finishing, folding, and preparing of British goods for the various markets of consumption, will chiefly refer to the three former branches of manufacture. Extensively as the woollen trade is carried on, it is, in a great measure, absorbed either by internal or colonial consumption, and does not, therefore, enter
so generally into actual competition with the cloths Calender, of other nations, as to render it either peculiarly dosirable that its marketable aspect should be either servilely copied from those of other countries, or very peculiarly distinguished from them. The chief object appears to have generally been, to prevent the intrusion of foreign cloths and stuffs into our own markets ; and hence adopting their usual folds into such rolls, as most effectually preserve the dressed surface from acute cresses, is found to be most expedient and convenient, the goods bem«distinguished by letters denoting them to be “ Brw tish manufacture, on the ends of the pieces. In the Irish manufactures of cambrics and linens, the case is almost entirely reversed. From the superiority of climate, the French flax is admitted to be of finer appearance ; and although the importation of manufactured cambrics be strictly prohibited, the restraint, during periods of peace, has always been considerably evaded, in consequence of the demand.experienced, and the reputation in which they are held. Indeed, it was found generally most expedient, by many retailers, to sell Irish cambrics under the title of French, and hence the fold was correctly imitated. The pieces, after being folded into lengths of about 12 inches, and twice laterally doubled, until the whole breadth of 34 inches was ieduced to about 8^ inches, were subjected to a powerful compression in the press until fully flattened. They were then packed in purple coloured wrappers or papers, and a small engraved card or ticket was attached to each piece, specifying the length, generally about 8 or 8^ yards. The cards were attached by a silken string, so as to be easily cut away with a penknife or pair of scissors, in order to avoid seizure; and French or Irish goods were sold indiscriminately as “ foreign cambrics.” Custom has even carried this practice farther; and cotton cambrics, which are avowedly British manufacture, and subjected to no risk whatever, because easily distinguishable from any cambric manufactured from flax, are put up into the same folds, papered, and ticketed, in exactly the same manner. In linens, hollands, and sheetings, whether of foreign or Irish manufacture, the same fold is also employed; and in cotton shirtings and sheetings, is closely imitated. The form is that of a eylindric roll, somewhat flattened by subsequent compression; and, in general, all dense fabrics, whether of linen or of cotton, are rolled up and compressed in a similar manner; the object of which is, evidently, safety, and diminution of space, in land carriage or exportation. In others of the extensive varieties of cotton cloths of British manufacture, some are avowed imitations of the manufactures of Hindostan, whilst others profess no such imitation. Very few among the manufactures of Lancashire are either distinguished by Indian names, or copied from Indian cloths, although some of great extent are directly so. Calicoes, cossacs, and jaconets, for printing, as well as Ballusore, Bandana, and Pullicate handkerchiefs, are amongst the leading articles of the latter description ; whilst amongst the latter may be classed the very extensive manufactures of corduroys, thicksetts, velveretts,
CALENDERING. 584 inches, thus contains three layers of pieces ; in which Calender., Calender, velveteens, &c. although their origin is also probably package, goods for exportation to the colonies are ' Asiatic, but because well known and manufactured generally packed; the trunk there forming an article by the Genoese, French, and other European na- of merchandise as much in general demand as the tions, even before the discoveries of De Gama, and muslins which it contains. other mariners, had first laid open the maritime inEven the Indian ornaments of gilt silver threads, tercourse with India by the Cape of Good Hope. which were at first woven into one end of each piece, When, at a period infinitely more recent, the although they did not exceed the value of twopence splendid invention of spinning cotton by the agency each, have been either greatly curtailed, or totallyof machinery, to any degree of fineness, afforded new given up upon principles of economy. Even the cost scope to the British weaver, the imitation ot the of this trivial ornament has been computed to have lighter Indian fabrics fell chiefly into the hands of amounted annually in Glasgow and Paisley to about $fe Scottish weavers; for executing which, they had L. 30,000. been, in a considerable degree, previously prepared, Pullicate, and other handkerchiefs, are most comby their habits of weaving lawns in imitation of the monly folded up in dozens. For the African, and trench, as well as their lighter fabrics of silk and thread gauzes. To their share, in consequence, fell some other foreign trades, pieces containing only the bouks, mulls, and japuns, almost exclusively ; as eight handkerchiefs are preferred. These are still well as the lighter jaconets, designed for ornament, imitations of Indian precedents, confined to markets from the needle and tambour frame. And whilst where competition continues to exist, not only with they have made no successful attempt to compete the British Company, but with Americans, and with their Lancashire brethren in the dense fabrics others trading to India. A species of pale orangeof corduroys, quiltings, and other ponderous arti- coloured India handkerchief, distinguished by the cles, they have shared with them the manufacture of name of Madras, being in extensive reputation in the middling textures of cambrics, Pullicates, and the Caraccas, and other Spanish settlements in South America, at the period of the capture of Trinidad ginghams. Indeed, whatever prepossession may, at an early in 1795, patterns were procured by some British period,-have existed in favour of the real Indian fa- traders, who ordered very large quantities to be mabrics, it has now so entirely subsided, as to possess nufactured in Scotland, of the same quality and apno influence whatever in swaying general opinion. pearance. With such effect were these imitated in The British workmanship has proved itself long ago texture, in dye, in finishing, and even in the packso decisively superior to the Indian, both in spinning ages, that some hundreds of pieces sent to London and weaving, as to eradicate every doubt in the for exportation, were actually seized at the Custom minds of all who are really competent to decide the House, as India goods, either illegally imported, or question of comparative superiority. Still, however, stolen from some of the Company’s ships in the ricandour will compel us to allow, that the Indian pos- ver. A scrutiny, however, clearly ascertained that sesses advantages in the rich qualities of his cotton, these goods were not Indian, but British ; and that and the brilliancy of some of his dyes, which, in no trespass against either the privileges or the progome degree, compensate for the immense superiori- perty of the Company had been even attempted. ty of the British skill and machinery, and which, to The goods were of course released, and permitted to those who examine superficially, may appear to enti- proceed to their destination, where, after examination and trial, it was found totally unnecessary longer tle him to the preference. Nothing, therefore, exists in the cotton manufac- to conceal their real origin, and a very extensive ture which could, in general cases, prompt to a ser- trade, through direct channels, has been since carvile imitation of external appearance for the purposes ried on for similar goods. From the above general and cursory sketch, it General of deception; and the Indian mode of lapping their bse, va cloth is too rude and laborious to admit of its being will be obvious that the management of an extensive 9Ion * calendering establishment will require, on the part copied as a matter of conveniency. Their method consists merely in doubling a piece of twenty yards, of its conductor, not only a competent knowledge to reduce its length to ten yards; which is again and experience of the mechanical operations, and doubled, in order to reduce it to five; and thus they duties of his particular profession, but that a more continue to redouble, until the piece be reduced to extensive mercantile acquaintance with the demands, a moderate length, capable of being contained in a habits, and tastes of particular markets, will conduce chest or bale. Thus often redoubled, an Indian equally to his own interests, and those of his employpiece cannot be examined throughout, unless the ers. From the variations of markets, and fluctuawhole piece be again unfolded; and this, in large tions of mercantile transactions, there can be no precise or definite limit to the extent ot such knowtransactions, would be utterly impracticable. British muslins are folded generally to a yard in ledge. It is only by constant attention and sedulength, with a small allowance for extra measure; lous inquiry, that he can preserve accuracy, in what cgul as the folding is alternately from right to left, is liable to almost daily change. His immediate every part can be instantly examined upon a table or employers will, no doubt, be often both able and decounter, every fold opening as easily as the leaves of sirous to supply him with this. But, as even they must a book, in its uncut state. The piece, when folded, sometimes be liable to error or deception, he ought is reduced by doubling it longitudinally to about iq to omit no opportunity of extending his inquiries, inches, and it is then folded across to the breadth of and arriving, as nearly as he can, at the most comabout 13 inches. An ordinary sized trunk, 3Q X 19 prehensive and unambiguous information, (n. n.) 10
CALENDER
PLA/j; XIA.
CAL Calico* CALICO-PILINTING. This important art is pnntujg treated of under the article Dyeing in the EncycloCamhriiige-P&dia, in the third chapter of that article; but as the shir#. nature of this species of Printing, and the processes employed in it, require to be more fully examined and described, we shall resume the subject under the same head, or under that of Printing, as circumstances may best permit. Form and CAMBRIDGESHIRE is divided into two parts Extent. by the river Ouse. Its most northerly division, which is principally composed of the Isle of Ely, is bounded by rivers, and their communicating branches. The limits thus formed are so intermixed, as with difficulty to be traced. The southern half has an indented and undistinguished boundary-line on the adjacent counties. The form of Cambridgeshire bears some resemblance to that of the human ear, the county of Huntingdon cutting deeply into its western side by a circular projection. The number of acres assigned to it in the Encyclopedia is taken from Dr Halley, but Dr Beeke reduces them to 530,000; and they are still farther reduced in the agricultural report, and in the returns in 1803 of the poor-rates, to 443,300, and 439,040 respectively. When the original agricultural report was made in 1794 by Mr Vancouver, he calculated that, of the 443,000 acres, there were 132,000 open field, and 150,000 waste and unimproved fen ; but since that time, both these descriptions of land have been very considerably reduced by enclosure and cultivation. Siuface. The surface of this county presents considerable variety. The northern part, including the Isle of Ely, is chiefly fen land, and perfectly level, intersected with numerous canals and ditches, and abounding with windmills, for the purpose of carrying the water from the lands. This district is naturally a bog, formed by the stagnation of the water from the overflowing rivers. It comprises nearly half of that extensive tract, called the Bedford Level, the whole extent of which is 400,000 acres, and not 300,000, as stated in the Encyclopedia. This great level has been, from an early period, divided into three parts, the north level, the middle level, and the south level. The largest portion of the middle level, and a considerable part of the south level, are in Cambridgeshire, comprehending the Isle of Ely, and a few parishes to the south-east of the Isle. The principal of the drains, by means of which this immense fenny district has been, in a great measure, rendered either rich meadow or arable land, are the Bedford old and new rivers, which run navigable in a straight line upwards of 20 miles across the county, from the Great to the Little Ouse. There are some rising grounds in this part of the county, on the most considerable of which the city of Ely stands. Those parts of Cambridgeshire, which lie adjacent to Suffolk, Essex, and Hertfordshire, have their surface varied by gently rising hills and downs. The Gogmagog hills, which begin about four miles to the south-east of Cambridge, and which are one of the terminations of the range of chalk hills that commence in the south-west of England, are the highest in the county ; hut their height is very inconsiderable. The district which extends from these hills to Newmarket, is bleak and thinly iahabitedi This dkVOL. II. PART 11.
c A M 585 trict is connected with that vast tract of land, which, Cambridge, extending southwards into Essex, and northwards ^m*'* through Suffolk into Norfolk, forms one of the largest plains in the kingdom. The substrata of this county are chalk, chinch,$0\\, gravel, gault, sand, silt, and peat-earth. The chalk extends through the hilly part of the county from Royston to Newmarket. The chinch, an impure limestone, chiefly abounds in the parishes of Burwell and Iselham. On the east and west sides of the upland division of the county, gaull, a stiff blue clay, chiefly prevails. The sand enters Cambridgeshire from Bedfordshire, in the parish of Gamlingay. In the northern extremity of the county, near Wisbeach, silt, a fine sea-sand, is found. The peat-earth / extends through the whole of the fen-land. The principal rivers are the Ouse, and Granta or Rivers. Cam. Ihe Ouse enters the county between Fen Drayton and Erith ; thence it runs eastward through the fens, till, at some distance above Denny Abbey, it takes a northerly course, and, passing Streatham, Ely, and Littleport, flows into Norfolk. From this river are many cuts, called loads. The Cam enters the county to the west of Gilden Morden ; thence flowing to the east, it receives several rivulets. Near Grantchester, its stream is enlarged by the united waters of several rivulets from Essex. After their junction, it takes a northerly direction, and, having passed Cambridge and several villages, it falls into the Ouse in the parish of Streathann Besides the numerous canals in the fenny district, Canals principally for the purposes of draining the land, there are the Cambridgeshire Canal, which commences in the Ouse at Harrimere, and terminates Cambridge. A cut of 3 miles extends to Reche, amT another of 3\ miles to Harwell; and the Wisbeach canal, which joins the Wisbeach river at the old sluice in the town, opening a communication with Norfolk, Suffolk, and other places. The climate of Cambridgeshire differs considera- climate bly in different parts. In the south-east it is cold and bleak; in the fenny district damp and unhealthy, though much less so than formerly; in the south and south-western districts, the climate is the mildest, most agreeable, and healthy. Estates vary much in size. There are many large Landed ones, especially those of the Earl of Hardwicke and Properly, the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland. College tenures are numerous. There are some large farms of 1000 acres or more, but the general size is from 100 to 500 acres. Cambridgeshire is not celebrated as an agricultural ,\,.ricul* county. It may be considered as chiefly arable, tme. Wheat is grown principally in some parts of the fenny district, and in the south and south-western parts of the county. Barley is cultivated in these parts, and in some of the mare fertile portions of the southeast district. Immense crops of oats, of good quality, are grown in the fenny district, and also in most other parts of the county. It is supposed, tliat about one-fourth of the fen-lands are cropped with cole, which is principally sown to be eaten green with sheep, very little being now cultivated for the seed. The cultivation of hemp and flax is carried on to a considerable extent, in that part of the county which 4E
CAM 586 Cambiulge-borders on Norfolk, particularly in the parishes of shire Upwell and Wolney. Satfron has been very little, if at all cultivated, for upwards of 4-0 years. In some parts mustard is a favourite and valuable crop. Sedge is cultivated near Chippenham; but the cultivation of the reed is rapidly decreasing, in consequence of the improvement of the fens. White seed, or fen-hay, is grown abundantly in several places. It increases the milk of cows. Oziers are grown in the Wash, as well as in many parts of the fen; they are a profitable crop in these districts. So great is the value of turf, that the land producing it has been sold at from L. 50 to L. 80 per acre. At Ely, Soham, Wisbeach, &c. are many large gardens, producing so abundantly of vegetables and common kinds of fruit, as to supply not only the neighbouring towns, and counties, but even London. Glmd quantities of strawberries are grown in the vicinity of Ely, which are chiefly conveyed in barges to Lynn, and carried thence to Newcastle and other places in the north of England. There are numerous and large orchards in the same districts as the gardens ; their chief produce is apples and cherries. Soham is remarkable for the latter. Pasture. That district of the county which, by old authors, is termed the Dairies, comprehends the parishes of Shengay, Wengy, Whaddon, &c.; but the dairy farms in this district are, at present, much less considerable than those in the parishes of Chattris, Mepal, Sutton, Cottenham, Soham, Ely, and Streatham. The whole number of cows kept in this district is supposed to be between 9000 an^ 10,000; in the parish of Cottenham alone, about 1500 are usually kept; in Willingham, about 1200. These two parishes make the cheese, so much esteemed, which goes by the name of Cottenham cheese; the parish of Soham is also esteemed for good cheese. Little cheese is made in other parts of the county; rearing of calves and making of butter being the chief dairy management. The butter is sold, rolled up in pieces of a yard long, and about two inches in circumference: this is done for the convenience of the colleges, where it is cut into pieces called parts, and so sent to table; its quality is excellent. The cowe kept on the dairy farms are mostly the breed of the county: most of the calves that are suckled, are sent to the London market. Immense numbers of sheep are pastured on the heaths and commons, with which the south and south-western districts of this county are intersected. The downs in the vicinity of the Gogmagog Hills, are also chiefly used as sheep walks. The principal breeds kept here, are the Norfolk and west country; in the fens the most prevalent sort is a cross between the Leicester and Lincoln. The Cambridgeshire farmers think themselves unrivalled in cart-horses ; they are of the large black breed; in the fens they are a source of great profit. In Cambridgeshire there is also a peculiar breed of hogs, some of which are so large as to fatten to forty stone, fourteen lbs. to the stone, at two years old. From the nature of the northern division of the Draimug, Irrigation, county, great attention has necessarily been paid to and Warp- draining ; and, in some places, advantage has been tains. ken of the numerous rivers to irrigate and marp land.
C A M The interior drainage of the fens is performed prin- Cambiidgecipally by mills; one or two steam-engines have sl,nebeen erected for that purpose, and will probably '-*~-p~*** answer better. There is a large tract of meadow land at Babraham, which has been irrigated from the time of Queen Elizabeth, and is supposed to be one of the oldest instances of this mode of improving land in the kingdom ; it was first irrigated by Pallavicino, who was Collector of Peter’s Pence at the death of Queen Mary, and who, turning Protestant, applied the money thus obtained to the purchase and irrigation of this estate. The practice, however, though evidently beneficial, has extended very little. Near Denver sluice, on the Ouse, some land has been xmrped by letting the muddy water of that river upon it, and then throwing it back by means of a wind-mill. This is by no means a manufacturing county. At ManufacEly there is a pottery for coarse ware; and at this tares, city, Chatteris, and Cambridge, excellent white bricks are made. Lime and chalk are a source of considerable trade and profit; the lime in the greatest estimation is that which is burnt at Reach. At Cherryhinton, at the foot of the Gogmagog Hills, are great chalk pits, noted for the marine productions they contain, and for the many rare plants growing in their vicinity. Elephants’ grinders, and other animal remains have been found in a gravel pit near Chesterford, and a small tortoise in flint, at Milton. On the borders of Norfolk, a little yarn is spun for the Norwich weavers. Malt is made to a considerable amount in the north-west part of the county. There are several mills for preparing oil from cole and rape-seed, at Wittlesford, Sawston, &c., and a pretty extensive paper manufactory at the latter place. Near Cambridge is annually held one of the greatest fairs in England; it is called Stourbridge or Sturbich fair, and is under the jurisdiction of the university. It begins September the 18th, and lasts a fortnight; it has, however, been declining for many years. A very curious example, and unquestionably one Architec. of the oldest in the kingdom, of Saxon architecture,turc* occurs in the remains of the conventual church of Ely. This building is undoubtedly of as early a date as the tenth century, having been erected in the reign of King Edgar. The two transepts of Ely cathedral, afford specimens of the more massy kind of architecture introduced by the Normans; they were built towards the end of the eleventh century. St Sepulchre’s church at Cambridge, affords a curious specimen of that species of architecture, which was introduced into this country, in imitation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; it is supposed to be the oldest of this form in England, and to have been built in the reign of Henry I. There are some instances in this county of the pointed arch, enriched with Saxon mouldings; this style was the immediate forerunner of the Gothic. Soham Church, the south door way of St Giles in Cambridge, and the north and south door ways of St Mary’s Church in Ely, are specimens of this species of architecture. One of the most ancient buildings in this county, in which the pointed arch makes its appearance, is the great Tower at the west end
G A M Cambridge- of Ely Cathedral, and the south transept adjoining; shire- they were erected between 1174 and 1189« Some traces of Saxon architecture may be observed in this part of the cathedral. The early or simple Gothic may be seen in the vestibule at the west end of Ely cathedral, in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, and in the chancels of Foxton, Kennett, and Cherryhinton churches. Of the Gothic architecture of the fifteenth century, especially in the reign of King Henry VII. which was distinguished by the abundance of its rich tracery, the finest and most perfect example is found in the magnificent chapel of King’s College in Cambridge. Antiquities. There are not many remains of antiquity in this county. The most remarkable are the ditches, which formerly extended from the woods on the east side of the county to the fens. The most entire is called the Devil's Ditch, and extends from Wood-ditton or ditch-town, to Reach. Near this latter place, it is most perfect, the works consisting of a deep ditch with an elevated vallum, the slope of which measures 52 feet on the west, and 26 on the east side. The whole of the works are about 100 feet in width. The origin and intention of these ditches are not known; they are certainly very ancient, and were probably formed for the purpose of defence. Toor-rates. By returns made to the Board of Agriculture in the year 1804, it appears that the poor-rates rose between 1790 and 1803 from 4s. lid. to 5s. 8fd. in the pound; the expence of maintaining them from Easter 1802 to Easter 1803, amounted to the sum of L.55,954, 14s. lid. In the year ending the 25th of March 1815, the parochial rates in 131 parishes amounted to the sum of L,63,354, 13s. l |d.; 44 par rishes had made no returns. Population. In the year 1377, the number of persons charged in this county to a poll-tax, from which the clergy, children, and paupers were exempted, was 27,350; but it seems doubtful whether it was exclusively of the town of Cambridge and city of Ely, in each of which 1722 persons were taxed. If they were taxed separately, the total number in the county would be 30,794. In the year 1700, there are supposed to have been 76,000 inhabitants: and, in the year 1750, 72,000. By the returns made under the act of Parliament, for ascertaining the population of the kingdom, in 1800, there were then 16,451 houses in Cambridgeshire, of which 16,139 were inhabited. The total number of inhabitants is stated to be 89,346, of whom 44,081 were males, and 45,265 females. Of this total number, there were 28,045 principally employed in agriculture; and 11,988 in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts. The following’is the result of the population returns in 1811 : Houses inhabited, 17,232 Families inhabiting them, 21,022 Houses building, 93 uninhabited, 257 Families chiefly employed in agriculture, 12,831 in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts, 5303 All others, not included under these heads, 2888
c Males, Females, Total in 1811, in 1800, Increase,
A
M 50,756 50,353 101,109 89,346 11,763
It will be observed that, in the year 1800, there were 1184 more females than males in this county, whereas, in the year 1811, there were 403 more males than females. See Gooch’s Agriculture of Cambridge.—Beauties of England and Wales, Vol. II.—Lyson’s Magna Britannia, Vol. II. Part 1. (c.) CAMERA LUCIDA. Dr Hook’s instrument of this name is described in the Encyclopcedia, under the title Camera Lucida. The instrument which is to be spoken of here, and which differs from Hook’s both in its construction and in the purpose it is designed to serve, is one of the many ingenious inventions of Dr Wollaston. Its use is to facilitate the perspective delineation of objects. If a piece of plain glass be fixed at an angle of 45 degrees with the horizon, and if, at some distance beneath, there be a sheet of paper laid horizontally on a table, a person looking downwards through the glass will see an image of the objects situated before him; and as the glass, which reflects the image is also transparent, the paper and pencil can be seen at the same time with the image, so that the outline of the image may be traced on the paper. The image is an inverted one. This is the simplest form of the instrument, and may be constructed extemporaneously by fixing on a stand a plain transparent glass, with its surfaces ground parallel, or a piece of Muscovy glass, at an angle of 45 degrees with the horizon ; a card wfith a small hole in it will serve as a sight for keeping the eye steady in one situation, whilst the pencil is tracing the image. If there be a plain mirror at an angle of 22^ degrees with the horizon, and a piece of plain transparent glass be placed near it, at an angle of 221 degrees with the vertical, the rays from the object will be twice reflected before they reach the eye, and consequently, on looking down through the transparent glass, an erect image is seen, and the pencil may be drawn over the outlines of this image so as to leave a perspective representation on the paper. This disposition is seen at fig. 1. Plate XLVI. where be is the mirror, ab the transparent plain glass. As the image and pencil are at ditferent distances, they cannot be both seen in the same state of the eye. To remedy this inconvenience, a convex glass is used, of such focus as to require no more effort than is necessary for seeing the distant objects distinctly. By means of this lens, the image will appear as if it were placed on the surface of the paper. In fig. 1. bd is a convex glass of 12 inches focus, at e the eye is placed ; Jghe is the course of the rays proceeding from the object to the eye. Those whose eyes are adapted to seeing near objects alone, will not derive advantage from the use of a convex glass, but wall require a concave glass to
m Cambridgesh re j Camera Lticida.
**88 C A M Csiw’ia be placed at Jy in the coarse of the rays from the Lndftj. object to the reflecting surface. In fig. 2. Plate XLVI. j]c is a concave glass placed in the above-mentioned situation ; it is so disposed as to be turned at pleasure into its place, as the sight of the observer may require. Persons whose sight is nearly perfect, may use either the concave glass placed before the reflecting surface, or the convex glass placed between the paper and the eye. Usual form ln the actual construction of the instrument, a nf tile Ca- prjsiri i3 use£i instead of a mirror and a plain glass. Lu ‘ The rays from the object fall upon the surface be of the prism fig. 2. This surface be is inclined 22|- degrees to the horizon. The refractive power of the glass allows none of the rays in this situation to pass out; they are all reflected from the surface be to the surface ab, and from that to the eye ; ab makes an angle of 1S5 degrees with be, and 22^ degrees wflth the vertical. The eye cannot seethe pencil through the prism as it does through a plain glass; therefore, in order that the pencil may be seen, the eye must be so placed that only a part of the pupil may be above the edge of the prism, as at e, fig. 3.; and then the reflected image will be seen at the same time with the paper and pencil. There is a small piece of brass perforated with a hole, and moving on a centre at e, fig. 2.; this serves to keep the eye in one position, as it must be, that the image may be steady, and also to regulate the relative quantities of light to be received from the object and from the paper. The instrument, being near the eye, does not require to be large. The smallest size which can be executed with accuracy is to be preferred, and is such that the lens is only three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Fig. 4. shows the instrument on its stand, and clamped to a board. The joint by which the prism is attached to the stand is double. The whole instrument packs in a box eight inches by two, and half an inch deep. Its Uses. This instrument serves for drawing objects of all forms, and consequently also for copying lines already drawn on a plain surface. If it is required that the copy shall be of the same size as the original drawing, the distance from the drawing from the prism should be the same as the distance of the paper from the eye-hole. No lens will be necessary in this case, because the image and the paper being both at the same distance from the eye, coincide without the aid of a glass. In order to have a reduced copy of a drawing, the drawing is to be placed at a distance from the prism greater than the distance of the paper from the eye-hole. If the distance is twice as great, a copy will be obtained, in which the lines are of onehalf the size of the lines in the original, and so in proportion for other distances. A lens is necessary, that the eye may be enabled to see at two different distances; and, in order that one lens may serve, the distance between the eye-hole and the paper should be variable; to that effect, the stand is susceptible of being lengthened or shortened at pleasure. The length of the stem is adjusted upon optical principles. When a distant object is to be delineat-
C A M ed, the rays coming from it, and reflected by the in- Camera strument to the eye, are parallel, and it is required ^‘ucida* that the rays proceeding from the paper to the eye *“Y*^*' should also be parallel. This is accomplished by interposing a lens between the paper and the eye, with its principal focus on the paper. WTen the object to be delineated is so near that the rays which come from it to the eye are divergent, then it is required that the rays from the paper should likewise be divergent in the same degree, in order that the paper and the image may both be seen distinctly by the same eye ; for this purpose the lens must be placed at a distance from the paper less than the distance of its principal focus. The stem of the instrument is marked at certain distances, to which the conjugate foci are in the several proportions of 2, 3, 4. &c. to 1, so that distinct vision may be obtained in all cases by placing the original drawing more distant. If the convex lens be transposed to the front of the prism, and the proportional distances be reversed, a magnified image of the object will be obtained. This instrument has deservedly come into use. Its Comparison advantages when compared with the camera obscura with the are, 1st, That it is small and easily carried about. Camera 2dly, That no lines are distorted, not even those ^saua. most remote from the centre, whereas, in the camera obscura, the lines which are not near the centre of the field are more or less distorted. Sdly, In the field of the camera lucida 70 or 80 degrees may be included, whilst the distinct field of the camera obscura does not extend beyond 30 or 35 degrees at most. The specification of Dr Wollaston’s patent for the camera lucida is inserted in the Repertory of Arts, Vol. X. 1807, p. 162, and his description of the instrument in Nicholson’s Journal, Vol. XVII. If the camera lucida bd fixed at the eye-glass of a Its AppJica. telescope, it will reflect to the eye the image of the tion t0 the objects in the field of the telescope, so that a drawing Telescope, of the image may be made. See Dr Brewster’s Account of some Philosophical Instruments. A plain reflecting glass, fixed at an angle of 45 degrees with the horizon, and placed so as to receive the rays from the eye-glass of a telescope, will also give an image of the objects in the field, so situated that the image may be traced with a pencil. Varley’s patent graphic telescope is upon this principle. In order that the field may be large, the magnifying power of the telescope should be small. The inherent qualities of all the instruments for Various drawing in perspective being closely allied, it will Modes of be proper to say something of the principles on ?lakl11.8 “ which these instruments are formed, and to men- au' Object! tion some that are not described in other parts of this work. To make a perspective drawing of an object is to lay down on paper a section of the perspective cone, whose apex is at the eye, and whose base is the object. An experienced draughtsman can draw the figure of this section without the aid of instruments. Others who have not acquired the facility of drawing the image they see, must have recourse cither to measurement, or to the instruments, 'which bring the image under the pencil. 6
If c amera lucida
PLATE XLVl
C A M Camera Drawing by measurement is performed by actually Liieiila. measuring the height of the principal parts of the object, and their horizontal distance from the eye, together with the distance of the paper from the eye, and from these dimensions the drawing is constructed-by the systematic rules of perspective. Another mode of obtaining a drawing by measurement, is to measure the angles at the eye. Suited to this purpose are theodolites, astronomical quadrants, or other instruments, capable of measuring vertical and azimuthal angles at the eye. The angles to be measured are, the angles of altitude, and the angles of azimuth, between the point of sight and the principal points of the object; and if the tangents of the azimuthal angles be laid down vrith a radius equal to the distance of the paper from the eye, and the tangents of the angles of altitude with a radius equal to the distance of the paper multiplied by the secant of the azimuth, the situation of the principal points of the drawing will be determined. Or, if the instrument is capable of measuring angles in any plane, the angles between the principal points of the object and the point of sight are to be observed, and the azimuthal angles of these principal points with the point of sight; and the tangents of both are to be laid down on the paper, with a radius equal to the distance of the paper from the eye. But these two modes by measurement are long, particularly the first. Usually, therefore, the instruments to which recourse is had for facilitating the operation of drawing, are such as give an image or section of the perspective cone on a plain surface, so that the pencil may be drawn over the outline of the image. These instruments may be considered under two heads. The first comprehending those in which the pencil is immediately drawn over the lines of the image. The second those in which the pencil has a motion parallel to that of the point which moves over the lines of the image. Of the first kind are the following. 1. The tracing pane, a very simple and convenient instrument, consisting in a transparent plate of plain ground glass, or of Muscovy glass, placed vertically between the object and the eye; whilst the eye is kept fixed b y a sight, the outline of the image is drawn on the glass with Indian ink. 2. Or the upright glass may be divided into small squares by lines crossing each other, and the paper on which the drawing is to be made, being similarly divided, the particular intersections on the glass that cover the principal points of the object are observed, and these points are laid down on the corresponding intersections on the paper. 3. The image seen in a plain mirror, may also be drawn on its surface with Indian ink. 4. In the camera obscura, different forms of which are described in the Encyclopaedia under the articles Dioptrics and Optics, the image to be drawn is formed at the focus of a lens. 5. In the camera lucida the reflected image is used. In the second division of the instruments which give a section of the perspective cone susceptible of being delineated, the pencil does not move immediately over the lines of the image, but moves parallel
..
C A M m to these lines. 1. There is a rod which can be mov- Camera ed in all directions, consistent with its remaining pa- *'Un1 4 rallel to itself. If one extremity of this rod be mov- Camper, ed in space over the outlines of the image which the eye sees, a pencil at the other extremity will necessarily move with a similar motion, and form a drawing of the object on paper. In Sir Christopher Wren’s instrument, of which he has given the description and figure in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. IV., the rod is suspended by strings passing over pullies, and the ends of the strings are fixed to a counterpoise. On a similar principle is Peacock’s instrument, described in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LXXV., p. 366 ; and the instruments treated of in the Stockholm Transactions for the years 1760, 1774, and 1790. 2. The pencil may delineate the base of a cone similar and opposite to the perspective cone. If the rays from the extreme points of an object cross on the ray from the centre, as they do in passing through a small hole into a dark room, and if it be supposed, that in the place of one of the rays a slender inflexible rod is substituted, moveable on a centre at the hole, when this rod is moved, so that its outer extremity goes over the outlines of the external image, a pencil fixed to its inner extremity will form an inverted drawing of the object. Of this nature is the optigraph of Ramsden and Thomas Jones, described in the Philosophical Magazine, Vol. XXVIII. 1807, p. 67* The image of the object is seen in a telescope. There is a piece of plain glass near c in the focus of the eye-glass of the telescope F, Plate XLVI., fig. 5. On the centre of this piece of glass is a dot: a is a plain mirror, inclined so as to reflect the image of the object down into the telescope; this mirror remains fixed, whilst the telescope is moveable on a universal joint at its objectglass b. Near c is another plain mirror, which reflects the rays to the eye-glass. The eye being placed at the eye-glass at e, the telescope is to be moved by the handle h, so that the dot in the focus of the eyeglass shall pass over the outlines of the image seen by the eye, and the pencil at L performing a similar motion to that of the dot, and sliding freely in its sheath, presses with its weight on the paper : a drawing of the object is the result. If the stand and slider H be lengthened, an enlarged drawing will be obtained. The instrument packs in a box 14 inches by 6 and 3. (y.) CAMPER (Peter), eminent for his extensive knowledge in the various branches of Medicine, Zoology, and Comparative Anatomy, and for his taste in the Fine Arts, was born at Leyden, May the 11th, 1722. His family had long held distinguished situations in the magistracy of that city, where his grandfather had exercised the profession of medicine. His father, Florent Camper, was a Protestant clergyman, and had officiated in that capacity for some years at Batavia; but had returned to his native country in 1713, after marrying Sarah Ketting, who was born of Dutch parents, at Surat. Florent Camper was an enthusiastic admirer of painting, and took great delight in the society of artists, whom he treated with the greatest liberality,—his parse being
590 C A M Camper, ever open to such as needed his assistance. He was much connected with the learned men who adorned the University of Leyden at the beginning of the last century; and was on terms ol intimate fiiendship with the great Boerhaave. \oung Campex has, no doubt, been greatly indebted for his success to the fortunate circumstances in which he was placed in early life ; being thus sun-ounded by men ol enlarged and cultivated understandings, eminent for their taste r and learning, and having, at the same time, every incentive that a wise education could supply to emulate those excellent models; but nature had besides endowed him with that inhei’ent desire of knowledge, that capacity, and that vigour and activity of mind, wdxich, united as they were wuth a robust constitution of~body, enabled him to reap the full benefit of these advantages. He gave very early proofs of his possessing those mental qualities, which lay the foundation of future eminence ; and his father, discerning with delight the auspicious dawn of his genius, judiciously^ removed whatever might cramp its growth, and avoided imposing on him as a task those instructions and attainments, which he seemed so well inclined to acquire and pursue as an amusement. He applied himself, at an early age, to drawing and painting, under the tuition of Moor and of his son, both of whom were celebrated artists, and soon became remarkably proficient in these accomplishments. He derived, in the com*se of his life, immense advantage from the skill with which he used his pencil in delineating any object in which he was interested, whether among the works of art, or the productions of nature,—or whether they were the offsprings of his own conception, in the course of his philosophical researches. The value of this acquirement, as an object of early education, is not, perhaps, in general, sufficiently appreciated. The power of conceiving readily, and with correctness, mechanical forms, is one of the most useful results that pi’actice, in the delineation of objects, can confer, and is of incalculable advantage in a variety of pursuits, with which such a talent might not, at first sight, seem to be immediately concerned. There is no doubt, for instance, that it must remove many difficulties in the study of Geometry^ by facilitating the conception of figured space, the properties of which are the subjects of that science. An accurate knowledge of Anatomy is still more directly dependant upon the same power of apprehending the relations of form. The progress which Camper made in this branch of science, and the range of inquiries to which he afterwards made his knowledge subservient, are striking illustrations of this position. He was indebted to Labordes for his first lessons in Geometry, and was instructed in Natural Philosophy by Mussehenbrock and Gravesande, who were the intimate friends of his father, and whose names will be ever illustrious in the annals of science. From these studies he was naturally led to the pursuit of Medicine, of which the elementary branches have so close an alliance with the physical sciences ; and having entered the university of Leyden, became the pupil of Gaubius, Van Kooyen, and the elder
C A M Albinus; for Boerhaave was, by this time, incapaci- Camper. tated by the infirmities of age from continuing his exertions as public teacher in the university. Camper earned the first fruits of his academical labours by receiving, in 1746, the degi’ee of Doctor in Philosophy and Medicine ; on which occasion he published two dissertations; the one Be Visu, the other Dc oculi quibusdam partibus, which are mentioned with commendation by Baldinger, in his Biography of Living Physicians, and which have been preserved by Haller. In the former he illustrates and defends Smith’s Theory of Vision, and in the latter describes and gives plates of Petit’s Canal in the Eyes of different Animals. The acquaintance he had formed at college with several foreigners of merit, had long inspired him with a desix-e of travelling, and of gratifying his thirst for knowledge, by visiting different countries, and conversing with men distinguished for their acquirements in the several branches of science. But the declining health of his parents, who were now advanced in years, and required the continual presence and kindest attentions of their son, long prer vented him from accomplishing his wishes. Their death, however, which happened in 1748, released him from duties, which he had the consolation of reflecting had been so piously discharged ; and he soon after, at the age of twenty-six, embarked for England. In London he met with the celebrated physicians Mead, Pringle, and Pitcairn, with whom he became acquainted. He pursued his medical studies under Hunter, Sharp, Smellie, and Winchester, and indulged his taste for natural history, by examining diligently the cabinets of Hans Sloane and Collinson, and the collections of Hill and Catesby. He studied Botany under Elliot, and Astronomy under Short; and was instructed in the use of the microscope by Baker, who was at that time applying this instrument wuth so much success to objects of natural history. He seemed determined to suffer no opportunity of amassing a store of useful knowledge to escape him; and although his views embraced a wide range of subjects, he was never satisfied with a superficial glance, nor trusted to the reports of others, when there was a possibility of seeing with his own eyes the objects of his curiosity. His attention was particularly directed to the mechanical arts ; he visited the principal manufactories, and was indefatigable in collecting instructions from artists of eminence in every department; and his eager curiosity even extended to the details of naval architecture, to the study of which he devoted a considerable portion of time. He was in the habit, during all his travels, of making minutes of every thing he saw and learned ; and his happy facility in the employment of the pencil, enabled him to take sketches on the spot of every object of which a delineation could be useful. Knowledge thus derived from personal observation is the more valuable, as it is more strongly impressed on the memory, and as it is less liable to inaccuracy, and less likely to be tinctured with prejudice, or distorted by the medium through which it is received. He still cultivated his taste for painting, and acquired much practical skill in the art n
CAM C A M 591 Camper, of engraving. After remaining about a year in Two years thus glided by rapidly in the country, Camper, London, and visiting the universities of Oxford when he was again called to the active duties of an ''"’"‘N and Cambridge, he proceeded to Paris, and de- academical life, by the appointment which was convoted two months to the inspection of the princi- ferred upon him of Professor of Medicine, Surgery, pal public establishments in that capital. He then and Anatomy, in the University of Groningen. The travelled onwards to Lyons and Geneva: but the proximity of this city to his present habitation, the prosecution of his journey in the direction of Italy natural activity of his mind, and a conscientious dewas stopped by the intelligence he received of his sire of being useful to the community, concurred being appointed Professor in Philosophy, Medicine, with the love of fame, which retirement had not exand Surgery, at Franeker, in Friseland ; and he re- tinguished, in inducing him to undertake the office turned to Holland by Switzerland, and the banks of which he was now so honourably called upon to disthe Rhine, visiting, as he passed through Basle, the charge. He accordingly established himself and his great Bernouilli, and examining, in the library of that family at Groningen, and, at his inauguration as procity, the writings of Erasmus and the paintings of fessor, delivered a discourse, De admirabili analog!a Holbein. The itinerary wdiich he kept of his journey inter stirpes et animalia. The great interest which contains a great number of valuable remarks on agri- he took in the improvement of agriculture, led to culture and geology, and showed how wrell he was the establishment, under his auspices, of a society gifted with the talent for observation. for the purpose of conducting experiments in this In consequence of a severe illness with which he important art. To this society Camper was nominawas attacked in 1749, be was obliged to defer enter- ted Secretary. He bestowed much pains in investiing upon the duties of his new Professorship till the gating the nature of an epidemic disorder, which autumn of the following year, when, in conformity prevailed extensively among the cattle of Holland, with the custom on these occasions, he pronounced and in devising the best means of diminishing its a public inaugural discourse, choosing as his subject ravages. He made these the subject of several De Mundo Optimo. About the same period he was lectures, which he read, in 1769, to the Academy of elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. Groningen ; and his proposed method of inoculating He had reaped so much advantage by his resi- the disorder, with a view of disarming it of its virudence in England, and was so much attached to its lence, appears to have effectually succeeded in those inhabitants, and full of admiration for the great pub- districts where it was adopted. He was also much lic establishments of that country, that he returned occupied, at this period, with researches in Natural there during the vacation of 1752, and resumed his History ; and made a variety of important discoveries various pursuits, both medical and scientific, with un- in Comparative Anatomy, of which we shall afterabated ardour. Among other objects, his attention wards give a brief account. was much directed to the method of inoculating for The ten years that he spent at Groningen were the small-pox, the practice of which was as yet con- esteemed by Camper the happiest, at the same time fined to England. On his return to Franeker he re- that they were the most laborious, of his life; and sumed his lectures, which were every year more nu- he probably would never have quitted a situation in merously attended, and gained him such increasing every respect so congenial to his taste, or the circle of celebrity, that he was soon ranked as one of the friends he had formed there, by whom his talents ablest men of science in Holland. In 1755, he was were well appreciated, and in whose approbation he appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the found the reward of his exertions, if the wishes of Athenaeum of Amsterdam, and came, in conse- his wife, and his own anxiety to superintend the quence, to settle in that city, which was then the education of his family, had not induced him to make seat of opulence and learning. According to cus- the sacrifice of all these enjoyments, and once more tom, he pronounced two inaugural discourses, the remove to Franeker Academy, at which his sons first, De Anatomes in omnibus scientiis usu ; and the were to be placed. He continued, nevertheless, second, De certo in Medicina. In 1756, he married steadily to prosecute his various philosophical and the widow of the Burgomaster of Harlingen. medical researches until the year 1776, when he After continuing six years in Amsterdam, his avo- sustained a heavy stroke of affliction in the death of cations were so multiplied and fatiguing, that he his wife, in whom his affections had been centered yielded to the strong desire which Mrs Camper had during a union of twenty years, and whose domestic long entertained of retiring to Friseland ; and once virtues, and exemplary attention to her children, had more took up his abode at his country house near secured her the esteem and respect of all who knew Franeker. He, of course, resigned his Professor- her. As the most efficacious mode of soothing his ship at Amsterdam ; but was allowed to retain the grief, he determined upon varying the scene, and title of Honorary Professor of that Academy. His making occasional excursions to the neighbouring principal work, during the time he had held that parts of the Continent. He accordingly visited all chair, was the first volume of his Demonstrationes the cities that offered objects of attraction in the Anatomico-Pathologicce. But the leisure he now sciences or the fine arts ; and after gratifying his enjoyed in his retirement in Friseland, allowed him taste for painting by the sight of the masterpieces to devote his whole time to science ; and the second of Rubens, Vandyke, and of other Painters of the volume of the same work made its appearance in Flemish School, proceeded, in search of amusement 1762, together with several other publications, of and instruction, to pay another visit to Paris. Here which notice will be taken in the sequel. he enjoyed the society of Franklin, Marmontel, Di-
f92
CAM Camper, derot, Daubenton, Portal, and other distinguished characters in the literary and scientific wor d. heturning to his own country, with recruited spirits, he applied himself with fresh ardour to his favourite pursuits, and, aiming at more comprehensive views of the animal kingdom, occupied himself in pursuing the analogies which connect its several departments, and in tracing the.successive links of that extended chain, by which the different orders of beings are united in one continued series of gradation. A tour through Germany, at a later period of his life, brought him accpiainted with many treasures in Natural History, with which that country abounds. The anatomical preparations of iverkringius, and the observatory of Tycho Brahe at Hamburgh ; the collections of Natural History of Taube and Desrogues at Zell, and the superb cabinet of antiquities of the Count Walmoden at Hanover, particularly attracted his attention; and he explored with the eye of a geologist the volcanic district of Cassel. He formed also the acquaintance of Zimmerman, Soemmerring, and other eminent physicians. The following year he visited Prussia, and was presented to the great Prederick, who received him at Potsdam, with much affability and respect, conversing with him for a long time on the subject of the fine arts; and, on his return, had the honour of spending two days with the brother of the king, Prince Henry of Prussia, at Rhynsberg. In 1785, Camper was chosen Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, an honour which was the more highly prized, as the number of foreigners on whom it was conferred was limited to eight. In the same year, he paid a fourth visit to England, a country for which he had alway shown a strong partiality, and was again gratified with the society of the numerous friends he had left there, and of others whose acquaintance he then for the first time made. His literary and philosophical occupations, numerous and important as they were, did not preclude him from taking an active part in the political concerns of his country. In 1762, he was returned as deputy in the Assembly of the province of Friesland; and in 1776, appeared there as deputy for Idaarderadeel. He persuaded the Assembly to reject a proposal for the restoration of the maritime dikes of that province. In 1783, on the recommendation of the Stadtholder, he was nominated one of the Council of State of the United Provinces, and was of course obliged to reside at the Hague. During the revolution which soon after occurred in Holland, he remained faithfully attached to the party of the Stadtholder; without, however, yielding his unqualified approbation to all their measures. The triumph af hk own party was even accompanied with circumstances which gave him much concern, and embittered the latter period of his life. He died in 1789, of a violent pleurisy, on the 7th of April: and his remains were deposited in the tomb of his ancestors, in. the Church of St Peter at Leyden. To a mind enriched with vast stores of knowledge, and adorned with a taste at once elegant and refined. Camper united the most benevolent affections, and possessed all the virtues of domestic and social life.
C A M His conduct in the several relations of son, of bus- Camper, band, and of father, was in all respects exemplary. His manners were remarkably placid, and bespoke that habitual equanimity, which was the characteristic quality of his temper, and which, amidst strong sensibility to the affections of humanity, he constantly studied to preserve. Nature had bestowed upon him a dignified and graceful form, and a remarkably animated and expressive countenance. His voice, which was sonorous and flexible, was excellently adapted for public speaking. He had a singular facility in acquiring languages; and spoke fluently Latin, English, French, and German ; and had, besides, attained a competent knowledge of Greek and of Italian. Few men have received, during their lives, so many honourable marks of literary distinction as Camper. Besides those which have been already mentioned, he was chosen Member of the Academies of Petersburg, Berlin, Edinburgh, Manchester, Thoulouse, Gottingen, Harlem, Rotterdam, and Flushing; and was Foreign Associate of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris. He obtained the prize of the. Academy of Harlem, for his Memoir on the Physical Education of Children. His Researches on Specific Remedies gained him the prize of the Academy of Sciences of Dijon ; his Observations on Inoculation that of the Academy of Thoulouse ; and his Memoir on Chronic Diseases of the Chest that of the Academy of Lyons. The Royal Academy of Surgery voted him three prizes for his Memoirs on the Influence of Different Circumstances in Regimen on the Treatment of Surgical Diseases. To specify in detail the several subjects on which he has w'ritten, would be to extend this article to too great a length. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with enumerating those works which are of most importance; and, instead of reciting them in the order of their publication, shall arrange them according to the subjects to which they relate. His principal labours were bestowed on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, and his discoveries in this wide field of research are numerous and important. A posthumous collection of his works on these subjects appeared at Paris in 1803, in 3 vols. 8vo, with a folio atlas of plates, under the title of CEuvres de Pierre Camper^ qui out pour objet VHistoire Naturelle, la Physiologie, et l1 Anatomic Comparee ; to which is prefixed an Essay on his Life and Writings, by his son, and two eulogiums, one by Viqq d’Azyr, and the other by Condorcet. They contain his Dissection and Natural History of the Orang-outang, and other Species of Apes. He examines especially the peculiarities in the structure of the organ of voice of those animals, which deprive them of the power of uttering articulate sounds, and which alone would place an immense interval between them and the human species. His anatomical description of the two-horned rhinoceros, of the rein-deer, and of the elephant, are the subjects of separate dissertations ; as also his researches on the structure of the great bones of birds, and the manner in which atmospherical air is introduced into them (of which the discovery was made by Camper, prior to the time at which Hunter published his observations on the same fact); on the
C A M Camper structure of the porpoise and the whale; on the clasCampo sification of fishes, according to the system of Linmanes. naeus ; on the anatomical structure of the organs of hearing in fishes, and of the blowing-holes of the cetacea ; on the dagon of Buffon, and the sirena lacertina of Linnaeus, both of which he pronounces to belong to the class of fishes ; on the generation of the pipa, or American toad; on the croaking of the male frog; on the petrifactions found in the mountain of St Peter, near Maestricht, and the fossil bones of fish and other animals; on the analogies that may be traced between the several parts of the animal kingdom, especially in the structure of the human species, compared with those of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes; on the alteration of form in the human species produced by age; on the diversity of features which characterize different nations, and the mode of expressing these differences in delineating the human figure ; on the mode in which the passions are indicated by the countenance; on the beau physique, or the beauty of forms; and on the analogy
C A M 593 by Charles III. Fiscal of the Royal and Supreme Campo Council of Castille; that on the accession of manes. Charles IV. in 1788 he was appointed President of this Council, and afterwards Minister of State; and that he was expelled from the Council, and deprived of all his employments, when Count Florida Blanca came into power. He was Director of the Royal Academy of History, and an honorary member of most of the other similar establishments m Europe. He supported his expulsion from office and power with firmness and dignity ; and died at Madrid, according to the Dictionnaire Universel, in 1789, but according to the Biographic Universelle, not till after the commencement of the present century. The number of his works, and the variety of subjects which they embrace, show him to have been a man of uncommon activity, as well as versatility of talent, while some of them display such a depth of political knowledge, and superiority to the prejirdices of his country and age, as have ranked him in 0 ants an the class of modern writers on Political Ecor tw jr P^ d animals. In the practical branches of Medicine, he has written observations on the ino- nomyfirst and Legislation. The following list contains culation of the small pox, founded on experiment- abridged titles of his principal works, all of which on the theory and treatment of chronic diseases of we believe, were published in the Spanish language! the lungs, and a historical inquiry into the principal and none of them, so far as we know, has ever apmethods of cure employed by the ancients and mo1 derns in these disorders; on the nature, employ- peared in an English dress. 1. Historical Dissertations on the Order of the ment, and mode of operation of remedies termed Knights Templars. Madrid, 1747. 2. A Translation specifics; on the nature, causes, and treatment of oj the Fenplus of Hanno, with Notes. 1756. This dropsy, and the different indications of cure derived translation was made from Hudson’s edition of the from the symptoms; on die nature of cancer, and Periplus, and the Notes contain a refutation of the on the signs denoting those of the breast that do not a amit of cure ; on the herniae incident to new-born objections urged by Dodwell against the authenticity or this celebrated Journal, which is now universally children, &c.; on ulcers in the urethra and prolapadmitted to be one of the most curious relics of an^us am ; on the fracture of the patella; on the callus ot fractured bones; on lithotomy, and especially tiquity. The learning and ability which he displayon the method ot performing that operation at two ed in support of it procured him an unsolicited place among the corresponding members of the French yfcadifferent times, according to the plan of the cele- demy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. 3. A Geobrated Franco; on the construction of bandages tor herniae ; on bandages in general; on the abuse graphical Account of the Kingdom of Portugal. 1762. ot ointments and plasters, in the treatment of ul- 4. Two Memorials relative to the means of regulating and employing Gypsies and Vagrants. 1763-4. 5. A cers, and on improved methods of managing them ; on the noxious effects attending the admission of air Memorial on the necessity of a Free Commerce in Grain. ? o- Memorial on the provisioning of the city mto the body, and the influence of this principle on the treatment of surgical diseases. In the depart- of Madrid, drawn up and published by order of the Supreme Council. 1768, 2 vols. 8vo. 7. Discourse on ment of Midwifery, he has written a letter to Dr the 1 rotection of Industry. 1774, in 8vo. 8. Disan Gescher on the utility of the section of the on the education of Artisans. 8vo, 1775. In symphysis pubis in laborious labours, and observa- course 1777 he gave to the world an Appendix to this work tions on the use of the lever of Roonhuysen in difficontaining a view of the causes which have led to cuit parturition. Several memoirs on the subject of the decline of arts and manufactures in Spain, in 4 infanticide, and the juridical questions connected vols. 8yo. Of these two great works, the DiscursO with that subject, were published by him at Leensobre elfomento de la mdustriapopular, and Discurso warden. /w>) sobre la educacion Popular de los Artesanos, Dr RoCAMPOMANES (D.Pedro Rodrigues, Comte de), a Spanish Statesman, and Writer of great cele- bertson speaks as follows: “ Almost every point of brity, particularly on subjects of Political Philosophy, importance with respect to interior police, taxation was born in the Asturias towards the year 1710. We agriculture, manufactures, and trade, domestic as have sought in vain for biographical materials in re- well as foreign, isr examined in the course of them • gard to this eminent person, of whose life we can and there are not many authors, even in the nations find no particulars but the scanty notices contained most eminent for commercial knowledge, who have in the Bwgraphie Universelle, and the Supplement to carried on their inquiries with more thorough knowfie last edition of the Dictionnaire Universel. From ledge of those various subjects, and a more perfect t ese works we learn that, in 17fi5 he was appointed ireedom from vulgar and national prejudices, or who have united more happily the calm researches of phiVOL. II. PART II. 4F
M.
CAM 594 CAM together with Clairaut, over whom he even obtained Camns. Campo- losophy, with the ai'dent zeal ot a puhhc-spirited ci* some advantage in the ballot. manes tizeTr." (History of America. J _ 4. He communicated to the Academy, in the same 11 The above seem to be the chief productions ot year, a valuable paper on the Teeth of Wheels. Lathe pen of Campomanes; but, besides these, he hire had already laid the foundation of the investigawas author of several other pieces on historical and on its true basis, and had pointed out the use literary subjects; and he published a complete edi- tion of different epicycloidal curves for the forms of the tion of the voluminous works of Feyjoo, to which teeth of wheels in different circumstances : and M. he prefixed an account of the life of that learned Camus, in this essay, enters into some further inBenedictine. CAMUS (Charles Stephen Louis), a mathe- quiries, particularly with regard to the best propormatician and mechanician : born at Cressy en Brie, tions for the length of the teeth, and the comparanear Meaux, the 25th August 1699 ; son Stephen tive diameters of the wheels : a discussion for which Camus, a surgeon of that town, and Margaret Man- his intimate acquaintance with the art of the clockmaker made him particularly well qualified. In lard. . . His taste for practical mechanics was very early 1736 he accompanied Maupertuis and Clairaut in the demonstrated by a singular ingenuity in the con- expedition to Lapland, for the measurement of a destruction of a variety of little machines, with which gree of the meridian ; and he was enabled to render very essential service, not only as a geomehe amused himself; and he soon felt so strongly the them and an astronomer, but also by his skill in value of mathematical studies, that he urged his pa- trician various departments of the mechanical arts, which rents to find the means of sending him to a school became particularly valuable in so remote a situation. where he might apply to them. In compliance with 5. M. Camus directed his attention in 1738 to the his wishes, he was placed, when he was little more than ten years old, at the College de Navarre, in well known but interesting mechanical phenomeParis: and in two years he acquired knowledge non of a Pistol ball piercing an open door, without enough to become an instructor of others, and to re- causing any very sensible motion in the door, and lieve his friends from all further expence in his edu- published a paper on the subject in the Memoirs of cation. He was assisted, in the pursuit of the higher the Academy. He justly observes, that the effect of departments of the mathematics, by the celebrated any force depends, not only on its magnitude, but alM. Varignon; and he particularly applied himself so on the time for which it operates ; and that though to civil and military architecture, and to astro- the impulse of the ball must tend to carry the door before it, with a force paramount to the resistance nomy. 1. The first result of his studies that was destined which it opposes to the ball, yet the time of the ac.for the public eye, was an essay On the Masts of tion of this force is too short to produce a sensible Ships, a subject which had been proposed in 1727 \ effect on the whole mass of the door. 6, 7. In 1739 as a prize question by the Academy of Sciences. he presented to the Academy two hydraulic meThis essay was received with considerable appro- moirs, the one on Water buckets, the other on Pumps. bation, and was inserted in the second volume of In the latter he investigates the diameter of a valve, the Collection of Prize Memoirs^' shortly after, capable of transmitting the greatest quantity of wathe author was made an Adjunct, or Subassoci- ter, within a given barrel; a valve which is too large ate, of the Academy, in the department of Mecha- not being at liberty to rise to a sufficient height. 8. He inserted in the Memoir? for 1740 a confunics. 2. In 1728 he brought forwards a memoir on the tation of a Mechanical fallacy, which has misled Living force of bodies in motion, in which he con- many of the enthusiasts who have bewildered themcludes, from considering the actions of springs, and selves in the search of a perpetual motion : demonother similar powers, that its true measure is the strating, that when a number of weights are caused product of the mass into the square of the velocity, to descend, in any imaginable paths, at a greater as Leibnitz maintained: this product being also pro- distance from the centre of a wheel than they ascend, portional to that of the force into the space through the number of the weights descending at any one which it acts, while the momentum is proportional to time must always be smaller than those of the the force and the time conjointly. In December weights ascending ; and in such a proportion, as per1730, M. Camus was appointed Professor of Geo- fectly to compensate for the mechanical advantage metry to the Academy of Architecture, and a few apparently gained by the greater distance. In the years afterwards he became Secretary to the same following year he was received into the number of the Academicians, in the department of Geometry, body. 3. The Memoirs of the Academy for 1732 contain a on occasion of the resignation of M. Fontenelle. short paper on a Problem proposed by M. Cramer, 9. He published also, in the Memoirs for 1741, an respecting the determination of two curves bearing account of a Gauging rule, for measuring barrels of a particular relation to each other. It was the cus- different forms, by simple inspection of the logarithtom of the age to consider exercises of this sort as mic scales engraved on it, observing only some easy trials of strength, to which it was incumbent on all rules for their adjustment, according to the general geometricians to submit, for the honour of the coun- nature of the solid. 10. In 1746 he presented a tries in which they lived, and of the societies to Report, in conjunction with M. Hellot, on the Length which they belonged. The author was elevated of the Standard Ell, which was thought worthy ot in 1733 to the rank of an Associate of the Academy, being inserted in the collection of the Academy.
CAM Camu 11. We find among the Memoirs for 1747 an essay Canada ^amus on Tangents of Curves having several branches, crossing each other; which frequently require, for their determination, the use of fluxions of the higher orders, the first fluxions of the absciss and ordinate vanishing together. M. Saurin had before given a similar solution of the problem, but had not attempted to explain the metaphysical ground, upon which the apparent paradox is reconciled to the general principles of the differential method. 12. M. Camus also assisted in several determinations and reports which were referred at various times to committees of the Academy; and particularly in the remeasurement of M. Picard’s base from Villejuif to Juvisy, which was performed by eight members, and recorded in the Memoirs for 1754. 13. The latter years of his life were much occupied in various engagements connected with the offices of Examiner in the schools of the Royal Engineers and in that of the Artillery, to which he was nominated by the King. He undertook, for the advantage of the students in these schools, the laborious task of reducing into a uniform system a complete course of mathematical study, in which the geometrical method was as much as possible observed, and which is considered as highly creditable to his talents and exertions : it was entitled Cours des Mathematiques, 4 vols. 8vo. 14. He also published an Elementary work on Arithmetic. In person M. Camus was tall; his countenance was agreeable; his manners firm, and occasionally somewhat warm; but he was far from being eithe^ morose or vindictive. He was elected a foreigtr member of the Royal Society of London in January 1764. He married, in 1733, Madle. M. A. M. Fourrier, and had four daughters, the eldest of whom was married to M. Pagin ; the others died young. His last illness was supposed to have originated from a cold, taken in a professional journey, during the hard winter of 1766; and to have been aggravated by affliction for the loss of his surviving daughter: he died a few months after her, on the 4th May 1768. He left a variety of manuscripts, demonstrative of his habitual diligence, and of the extent of his researches ; but not deemed of sufficient importance to meet the hazards of posthumous publication. (Hist. Acad. Par. 1768. P. 144.) (m. e.) CANADA. In the Encyclopcedia will be found an account of the settlement and early history of Canada, with other particulars relative to the nature and productions of the country. At present we propose to add such further information as we have been enabled to collect from the works of recent travellers. In the year 1791, the territory formerly distinguished by the general name of Canada, was divided, by an act of the British Parliament, into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. These are comprehended within the 6l° and 81° of west
CAN 595 longitude from London, and between 42° 30' arid Canada. 52° north latitude; and are computed to extend from east to west about 1400 miles, and from north to south from 200 to 400 miles. The province of Lower Canada lies between 45° Lower Ca. and 52° of north latitude, and between the 63° andnat*a* 81° of west longitude. On the north it is bounded by the territory of East Maine; on the east by the Gulf of St Lawrence, the river St John, and part of the Labrador coast, now annexed to the government of Newfoundland; on the south, by New Brunswick and the territories of the United States, namely, the district of Maine, the province of New Hampshire, the state of Vermont, and the state of New York; on the west, by a line which separates it from Upper Canada, commencing at a stone boundary on the north bank of the Lake St Francis, in St Lawrence river, thence north to Ottawa river, which it ascends to its source in Lake Temiscaming, and from thence due north, till it strikes the boundary-line of Hudson’s Bay, including all the territory to the westward and southward, commonly known under the general name of Canada. This province is divided into the districts of Montreal, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Gaspe, which by proclamation of the Government were, in 1792, subdivided into the following twenty-one counties, viz. Bedford, Buckingham, Cornwallis, Devon, Dorchester, Eppingham, Gaspe, Hampshire, Hertford, Huntingdon, Kent, Leinster, Montreal, St Maurice, Northumberland, Orleans, Quebec, Richlieu, Surrey, Warwick, and York. The minor divisions are, Is#, The seignories, or the original grants of the French Government under the feudal system, which, in the year 1721, were again partitioned out into parishes. The limits of these last, however, have not been very strictly adhered to, portions of ancient parishes having been from time to time constituted into new ones. 2d, The townships or grants of land made by the English Government since the year 1796, in free and common soccage. The following are the boundaries of Upper Ca- Upper Canada: On the east, it is bounded, since the year"8^3* 1791, by Lower Canada; on the north-east, by the Grand or Ottawa river, which is the common boundary between it and the lower province; on the north, by the territories of the Hudson’s Bay Company ; on the south and south-east, by the United States of America, although the common frontier between these two states is far from being well defined. It is merely an imaginary line, beginning at the village of St Regis on the St Lawrence, in the 45th° of north latitude, passing up the middle of this river, through Lake Ontario, the Niagara river, and Lake Erie, and continuing thence through the middle of the water-communication into Lakes Huron and Superior, along the middle of the chain of lakes which leads to the Lake of the Woods, and from thence due west to the river Mississippi.* The treaty of 1815 provides for the revision of this boundary-line. On
* This is the boundary fixed by the treaty of 1783, when the country was little known, and it is therefore erroneous; the Lake of the Woods being to the north of the sources of the Mississippi. A line drawn due west from this lake would never strike the Mississippi.
CANADA. 596 Canada, the west and north-west, no limits have been assign- ridge, and which forms the height of land by which Canada, ed ; and Upper Canada may be supposed, therefore, the tributary streams of the St Lawrence are dividto extend, in this direction, as far as the Pacific and ed from those that fall into Hudson’s Bay. Of this extensive wilderness, which has been but imperfectNorthern Oceans. Upper Canada is divided into eight districts, ly explored, all that we know is, that it is covered with immense forests, whose dreary solitudes are only namely, interrupted by hunting parties of wandering savages. The Home, Eastern, On the south side of the river St Lawrence, a Johnstown, Niagara, ridge commences nearly 100 miles below Quebec, London, and Midland, taking a south-west direction ; and, opposite to this The Western. Newcastle, city, it is about 10 leagues distant from the river. These again are subdivided into twenty-three The intervening country is a fertile and well-cultivated level, with several insulated hills, or rather counties, namely, rocks, of a singular form, and thinly covered with small trees near their summits. The same chain, Prince Edward, Glengary, continuing in a south-west direction, crosses the Northumberland, Stormont, Dundas, Durham, boundary-line between Canada and the United States to the west of Lake Memphremagog, and proceeds York, Prescott, Norfolk, in the same course until it meets with the Hudson Russel, river. The tract between this ridge and the St Oxford, Grenville, Middlesex, Leeds, Lawrence, with the exception of some occasional Carleton, Lincoln, ridges, is nearly level; and, from the richness of its Haldimand, soil, is covered with populous and flourishing settleFrontenac, Lenox, Kent, and ments. Addington, Essex. Beyond this ridge, at about the distance of 50 Hastings, miles, is another and a higher ridge, generally denominated the Land’s Height, as it divides the tribuThese contain 159 townships, exclusive of Indian tary streams of the St Lawrence from those which lands, and certain other portions that are reserved flow towards the Atlantic Ocean, and its summit is for the Crown, and the maintenance of the Protest- also supposed to constitute the boundary-line beant clergy. The quantity of land in each township tween the territories of Great Britain and the United is computed by Bouchette, in his valuable and ela- States. This range of mountains commences near borate work on Canada, to amount, on an average, to Cape Rosier, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and, run61,600 acres, making the whole amount to 9,694,400 ning into the interior in a direction nearly parallel acres; of which 3,000,000 of acres are granted in feu with the course of the river, and with the former and common soccage, 2,769,828, are reserved for chain, it terminates upon the eastern branch of Conthe Crown and plergy, and 3,924,572 still remain to necticut river, being in length nearly 400 miles. The be granted. country lying between these two ridges, varies in its General The country of Canada is intersected by moun- quality and fruitfulness, according to its peculiar siAsp-t of tainous ridges, which extend from the coast far into tuation. From the 45th degree of north latitude, oun ' the interior, and between these lie extensive valleys, which is the boundary-line between Canada and the tly which are generally pleasant and fertile. On the United States, to the river Chaudiere, within a few southern shore of the St Lawrence, a ridge of heights miles of Quebec, there is a tract of excellent and rises near the eastern extremity of Lower Canada, fertile land, divided mostly into townships, many of which runs close to the river for upvrards of 100 which are settled and under cultivation. This part miles, and forms its rugged banks as far as Cape of the country, both from its luxuriant soil, and from Tourment, about 30 miles below Quebec. Here the great advantage of its being contiguous to the the ridge, taking a direction west south-west, termi- United States, and its comprehending the main roads nates on the river Ottawa, about 38 leagues above its and principal points of communication between the confluence with the St Lawrence; extending west- two territories, will probably become the most flouward from Cape Tourment along the course of the rishing portion of the province. From the river river about 300 miles. The tract of country lying be- Chaudiere eastward to Lake Temiscouata, the land tween it and the St Lawrence, which may be estimat- is broken, irregular, and of an indifferent quality; ed at from 15 to 30 miles in breadth, is beautifully interspersed, however, with some good and producpicturesque, well watered, and level. Towards the tive tracts, of which the returns would amply repay westward, more especially, it may be considered, both the expences of cultivation. in respect to population, soil, and skilful cultivation, From Lake Temiscouata eastward to Cape Rosier, * as the choicest part of the province. in the Gulf of St Lawrence, the country has been That,part of Canada which lies on the north side but partially explored. But it appears generally to of this ridge, is comprehended within the Ottawa be of a rugged and mountainous character, and such river on the north-west, the 81st parallel of west parts of it as are known exhibit an appearance of longitude, and the 52d of north latitude. It is inter- sterility which holds out no encouragement to the sected by another and higher range of mountains, labours of the farmer. On the banks of the St Lawwhich runs into the interior in a north-west direction, rence, however, some fertile spots are to be found, on at the distance of about 200 miles from the former which settlements might be established with advan* ’
CANADA. 597 Canada, tage. On the south side of the ridge, down to the Beyond these cultivated parts of Upper Canada, Canaria. shores of Gaspe and Chaleur Bay, the country is ge- there are large tracts of land, stretching far to the nerally barren and mountainous, interspersed with northward, covered with immense forests, the haunt occasional spots of excellent land, some of which, of wild animals and of wandering savages. But especially those on the shores of Chaleur Bay, are these regions, though they have never been explorwell settled. They contain about 3000 inhabitants, ed by the Europeans, are known to spread out into most of whom, being employed in the fisheries, be- valleys of a rich and fertile soil, more especially in stow comparatively little attention on agriculture. the country skirting the south-west shore of the OtThat portion of Upper Canada which has been tawa river. They are also watered by many streams, laid out into townships, extends from its eastern some of a large size, which flow both into Lake Hufrontier along the north shore of the river St Law- ron, and into the Ottawa river. The course of these rence, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake St Claire, and rivers is not, however, sufficiently known, to be the communication between it and Lake Huron, in traced with accuracy on the map. In those unexlength about 570 miles, and its breadth towards the plored countries all sorts of timber are found in the north varies from 40 to 50 miles. Through the greatest profusion. The oak, beech, walnut, ash, whole of this track the soil is excellent, and is not hickery, maple, elm, pine, sycamore, birch, and exceeded by any other part of the American Conti- many other sorts, grow to the largest dimensions, nent. It generally consists of a fine dark loam, mix- which is the best proof of the fertility and vigour of ed with a rich vegetable mould ; but it is so happily the soil in which they have taken root. varied as to present situations adapted to every speThe rivers and lakes of Canada are stamped with Rivers, cies of produce. For about 170 miles from the east- a peculiar character of grandeur. The great river ern frontier of the province to the head of the Bay St Lawrence issues from Lake Superior, and flowof Quints, on Lake Ontario, the land is spread out ing successively through Lakes Huron', Erie, and Oninto an almost uniform level of great beauty, which tario, falls into the ocean after a course of 2000 rises only a few feet from the bank of the St Law- miles. Its course is through a long and narrow valrence. It is well watered in almost every direction ley, in which, also, are contained the great lakes from by numerous streams, which are generally navigable which it derives its ample stream. This valley for boats and canoes, and which, at the same time, seems to have taken the form of the immense colpresent the most desirable situations for the erec- lection of waters of which it is the depository; it tion of machinery. From the Bay of Quinte, about is closely encompassed on every side, except on that 40 miles from the eastern shores of Lake Ontario through which the river makes its way to the sea, by to its western extremity, runs a longitudinal ridge of different ranges of mountains, which completely enno great elevation, and of inconsiderable breadth. circle the great lakes at the distance, in some points, Another ridge, called the Queenstown Heights, ex- of not more than sixty miles, and shutting them up tends eastward along the southern shores of Lake from the interior, form the dividing ridge between Ontario, between these and Lake Erie, into the State the tributary streams of the St Lawrence, and those of New York. This range never rises in any part which flow north and south into Hudson’s Bay and more than 160 yards above the level of the lake. the Mississippi. The prodigious volume of water The country which lies between the two lakes of On- which the St Lawrence rolls into the ocean, and the tario and Erie, and which extends round the western extent to which it is navigable, give it the pre-emiextremity of Lake Ontario to the Bay of Quinte, nence over all the other .great rivers of the American comprehending the Newcastle, the Home, and the Continent. Its breadth, at its mouth, may be recNiagara districts, or nearly one-third of that portion koned 90 miles, and at Saguenay river, 260 miles of the province which has been surveyed, and laid higher up, it is still 18 miles broad. It is navigable out into townships, is watered by a number both of with safety for ships of the line 400 miles from its large and small streams. The land throughout is mouth, and, to Montreal, 160 miles further, it is nauncommonly rich and fertile, and already contains a vigable, with very little difficulty, for ships of 600 number of flourishing settlements. * tons burden. For vessels of a larger size the naviThe remaining part of the tract we have been de- gation is intricate and dangerous. The St Lawrence scribing, which extends along the southern shores of is diversified by numerous islands, and its shores Lake Erie, from the river Ouse to the Lake and alternately present the pleasing view of flourishKiver of St Clair, is a complete level, abounding in ing settlements, and of sublime and picturesque the most advantageous situations for settlements ; and scenery. those places which are already occupied and under The tract of country which the St Lawrence tillage, equal any part of either province, for the drains of its waters, is confined, both on the north, plentiful crops and thriving farms with which they and more especially on the south, by ranges of abound. That portion of the country which lies mountains which run along its whole extent; so that between Lake Erie and Lake St Clair is, perhaps, there is no adequate space for the formation of such the most delightful in the whole province. The fer- immense tributary rivers as pour their waters into tility of the soil,—the diversified and luxuriant scene the Amazons, the Plata, or the Mississippi. It will, which everywhere opens to the view,—the excellent accordingly, be found that the main stream of the tish which abound in the rivers, and the profusion of St Lawrence is not increased by such vast accessions game in the woods, combine to attract a continual from the tributary waters of the territory through supply of new settlers to this highly favoured tract. wjjich it flows, as those last mentioned rivers. The
CANADA. 593 son that this excessive cold is felt. The medium Canada, Canada, principal rivers which it receives from the north, are temperature of winter may be estimated, in general, v^V-w^the Ottawa, the Masquinongg, the St Maurice, the to be from 20 degrees above to 25 degrees below 0. St Ann, the Jacques Cartier, the Saguenay, and the The pure air and cloudless sky, which always acManicouagan. From the south, it receives the Salcompany this intense frost, make it both pleasant mon river, the Chateaugay, the Chambly or Richheu, and healthy, and render its effects on the human the Yamaska, the St Francis, the Becancour, the body much less severe than when the atmosphere is Du Chene, Chaudiere, and Du Loup. Of these, with vapours. In the vicinity of the sea, tothe Ottawa and Saguenay are important rivers, and loaded wards the eastern coast of Lower Canada, fogs are bring a great accession to the stream of the St Lawrence. The Saguenay is a broad, deep, and uncom- frequently brought from the gulf of Lawrence, by monly rapid river. At its mouth it is only one the easterly wind. But to the westward they sel* mile broad, but is said to be of unfathomable depth, dom prevail, and even at Quebec they are almost attempts having been made to find the bottom with unknown. In Canada, the spring, summer, and au500 fathoms of line, but without effect. About two tumn are comprehended in five months, from May miles higher it has been found to be from 130 to to September. The rest of the year may be said to 140 fathoms deep. The Ottawa is also a large and consist wholly of winter. The summer commences important river. It has its rise from several lakes in in May, and ends with September. In October, Upper Canada, and, rushing over a bed of remarkable frost begins to be felt, although during the day, the declivity, falls into the St Lawrence a few miles rays of the sun still keep the weather tolerably warm. In the succeeding month of November, the frost inabove Montreal. creases in rigour, and one snow storm succeeds Lakes. No country in the world contains such immense depositories of fresh water as Canada. Its lakes are another, until the whole face of the country is coverhot only numerous, but they are unequalled in mag- ed, and the eye looks in vain for one solitary spot of nitude by those of any other country in the world. verdure whereon to rest. These storms are geneLake Superior, which is of a triangular form, is 381 rally accompanied by a violent tempest of wind, miles in length, and l6l broad. Its circumference which, driving along the snow with immense velociis above 1100 miles, and it is equally remarkable for ty, renders them tenfold more gloomy and terrific. the transparency of its waters and for their extra- The most severe snow storms occur in November. ordinary depth. Lake Huron yields but little, in They generally come from the north-east, from the point of extent, to Lake Superior. Its greatest frozen regions of Hudson’s Bay and Labrador. This length from west to east is 218 miles ; at its western gloomy and disagreeable weather frequently conextremity it is less than 100 miles, and at about 100 tinues to the middle or latter end of December, miles from its eastern shore it is scarcely 60 miles when the atmosphere clears; an intense frost sucbroad; but near the centre it extends southward to ceeds—the sky becomes serene, pure, and frosty, the breadth of 180 miles. Its circumference, mea- and of a bright azure hue, and this cold and clear suring all the bendings of the coast, is about 812 weather generally lasts till the month of May. The miles. At the western angle of Lake Huron is snow covers the ground to the depth of several feet, Lake Michigan, which is 262 miles in length by 55 so that wheel-carriages can no longer be used. in breadth, and whose circumference is 731 miles. Their place is supplied by carioles, a sort of sledges, Lake Erie, which is connected with Lake Huron by which, being placed on iron-runners, resembling in the river Detroit, extends from south-west to north- their form the irons of a pair of slants, pass over the east 231 miles. It is 6‘3| miles in breadth where it hardened snow without sinking deep. Those carit is broadest, and is 658 miles in circumference. riages are generally light open vehicles, drawn by From the north-east extremity of Lake Erie, the one horse, to which the snow, after it is trodden for communication to Lake Ontario is by the Niagara some time, and hardened by the frost, offers very river, and is 36 miles in length. This lake is 171 little resistance. In these vehicles, the Canadians miles in length, its greatest breadth is 59|> and its travel in the most agreeable manner, and with inconcircumference is 467 miles. In the interior, the ceivable rapidity. So light is the draught, that the country is covered with numerous smaller lakes, same horse will go in one day 80, and sometimes 90 which are so connected, that, by the help of short miles, and the inhabitants of this cold climate alpontages, and other expedients, a navigable commu- ways take advantage of the winter season, when they nication, by means of canoes, is carried to the Lake can travel so easily and expeditiously, to visit their of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, and onwards to the friends who live at u distance. Covered carioles are distance of several thousand miles in die remote re- sometimes used to protect the travellers from the weather. But, in general, open carriages are preferred. gions of the north-west country. Climate In Canada, the opposite extremes of heat and About the beginning of December, all the small and Sea* co],j are ;n aq their excess. The greatest heat rivers are completely frozen over and covered with experienced during the Rummer is from 96 to 102 snow. Even the great river St Lawrence is arrestdegrees of Fahrenheit in the shade ; but the usual ed in its course, and from the beginning of Decemsummer heat varies from 75 to 80. In the winter, ber till the middle of April, the navigable communithe mercury sometimes sinks to 31°, and it has even cation is interrupted by the frost. During this pebeen known to fall so low as 86° below 0. It never riod, the river from Quebec to Kingston, and becontinues, however, above one or two days at these tween the great lakes, except the Niagara and the extremes, and it is not above once or twice in a sea- rapids, is wholly frozen over. The great lakes are
»
5 CAN ADA. 99 Canada, never entirely covered with ice; but it usually shuts St Lawrence was diminished to 57• But in the Canada, ' up all the bays and inlets, and extends many miles course of another period of ten years, about the year towards the centre of those inland seas. In Lake 1795, not less than 128 vessels were employed in Superior, which is furthest to the north, the ice ex- the commerce of Canada. This increase was octends 70 miles from the shore. It is seldom that casioned by the scarcity of grain which prevailed the river is frozen over below Quebec. But the at that time in Britain, and in other countries ot force of the tides is continually detaching the ice Europe; to supply the augmented demands from from its shores, and those immense masses are kept this quarter, there were exported from Canada in in such constant agitation that navigation is ren- that year 395,000 bushels of wheat, 18,000 barrels dered quite impracticable. In some seasons, though of flour, and 20,000 cwts. of biscuit. The high rarely, the river is frozen completely over below prices which were procured for those necessary artiQuebec ; and this happens when large masses of ice cles, gave a powerful stimulus to industry in all its come in contact, and fill the whole space between branches, and by increasing the capital ot the coloone side of the river and the other, in consequence ny, gave it the means of carrying on a more extendof which the whole becomes stationary. If this ed commerce. The following is an account of its takes place at neap tides, and in calm weather, the exports and imports : intense frost gives it solidity before it can be deranged by the rising tides; and when it has stood For 1797, from Quebec, furs and other produce L. 295,063 some days, it remains firm and immoveable, till it is 45,445 dissolved and broken up by the warmth of the April Wneat, biscuit, and flour 32,144 sun. When the river is frozen over, it is of great Oak and pine timber, planks and staves 29>866 advantage, both to the inhabitants of Quebec, and to Pot and pearl ashes those of the adjacent country, as it affords an easy Fish, lumber, oil, &c. from Labrador and Gaspe 88,900 mode of transporting into the town all sorts of bulky commodities, such as fire-wood, and other produce. 491,419 It thus reduces the price of those necessary articles Imports from England of ^manufactured in Quebec, while by diminishing the price of cargoods, and West India produce 338,214 riage, it opens to the produce of the most distant parts of the country, a quick and easy access to all In 1799 and the three following years, large exthe most eligible markets. The snow begins to melt in April, and the thaw portations of grain took place. In 1802, 1,010,000 is so rapid that it is generally gone by the second or bushels of wheat, 38,000 barrels of flour, and 32,000 third week. Vegetation then resumes its suspended cwts. of biscuit were sent abroad; and the number powers ; the fields are clothed with verdure, and of vessels engaged in the trade of the colony was spring can scarcely be s^id to exist before summer 211, the aggregate burden of which amounted to is at hand. In Upper Canada, the winters are much 36,000 tons. Agriculture in Canada has since beep shorter than in Lower Canada, nor is the cold so in- greatly extended,—the surplus produce has of course tense. The spring opens, and the labours of the increased, and we find the exports amounting for farmer commence six weeks or two months earlier 1807 to L. 813,900; the imports to L. 467,29L than in the neighbourhood of Quebec. The climate In 1808 the exports had increased to L. 1,156,060, is not liable to the same extremes either of heat or and the imports to L. 610,000. The following is an account of the value of the cold, and the weather in autumn is usually favourexports to the British colonies in North America able for securing all the late crops. Commerce. The exports from Canada consist chiefly of oak and during four years previous to 1814 :— pine timber, deals, masts, and bowsprits, spars of all British Produce. Foreign. Total. denominations, staves, pot and pearl ashes, peltry, 1810, L.1,484,383 L.263,733 L.1,748,116 wheat, flour-biscuit, Indian corn, pulse, salt provi1,578,464 266,095 1,844,559 sions, furs of various descriptions, and other miscel- 1811, 1,658,531 251,158 1,909>689 laneous articles. The imports are wines, rum, sugar, 1812, 1,134,987 284,032 1,419,019 molasses, coffee, tobacco, salt, coals, and all sorts 1813, of manufactured articles from Great Britain. The This includes the exports to Nova Scotia and commerce of Canada has been progressively increasing since it became a British colony. In the year Newfoundland, which being deducted, the annual 1769> the value of produce exported amounted to value of the exports to Canada will not be found to L. 163,105 ; and it employed 70 vessels belonging to amount to more than one million. Since the year Great Britain and to her subjects in the different 1808, therefore, its trade does not appear to have colonies of North America. Not more than twelve materially increased. In 1808, the number of vesvessels were engaged at this period in the fisheries sels which cleared outwards from Britain to Canada of the St Lawrence, and about six were sent to the was 179, and the number of arrivals from Canada, in West Indies. In the course of the next ten years, the same year, was 202. In 1815, those which the trade appears to have greatly improved ; and the cleared outwards amounted only to 132, and those number of vessels employed in 1775 was increased which entered inwards only to 138. This, however, to 97, containing 10,841 tons. In the succeeding is probably owing to accidental circumstances; ten years, the number of vessels which entered the since it cannot be doubted that as the interior ad-
CANADA. 600 Canada, vances in population and improvement, there will be of the more refined comforts and conveniencies of Canada1, life. A newspaper is printed once a week, and its a corresponding increase of external trade. Population. F°r a l°ng period after its original settlement, the markets are well supplied with every necessary from colony of Canada was neglected by the court of the adjacent lands, which are in a high state of culFrance, and its administration was left, in a great tivation. The other towns of Upper Canada are measure, to the discretion of individuals. In 1663, Kingston, Johnstown, and Cornwall. The two latit was raised to the dignity of a royal government, ter contain only sixty or seventy houses, built of and from this period its governors were appointed by wood. The town of Kingston was founded in 1784, a regular commission from the king. Its inhabitants and it now presents a front of nearly three quarters amounted to about 7000, who, possessing the advan- of a mile in length, and extending in breadth about tages of a free trade and of regular government, be- 600 yards. It contains 370 houses, and the streets gan rapidly to increase; and, in 1714*, their numbers are regularly planned, crossing each other at right had risen to 20,000. The colony would even have angles, though they are not paved. At the time when Canada was conquered by Bri-State of increased more rapidly, but, by the rashness of its governors, it was engaged in almost perpetual hosti- tain, the lands throughout the country were univer-Landed lity with the native tribes, by whose continued in- sally held by feudal tenures, all of which being con-1>roPert-v* cursions the attention of the settlers was distracted firmed by the British Government, still remain in from agriculture to war. Under these disadvanta- force. But the townships and tracts subsequently ges, however, its population had increased, in 1759, disposed of, have been, with two or three exceptions, when it was conquered by the English, to 70,000. granted in free and common soccage. Under the The conquest of a country must be regarded as a French Government, the lands were held immediateserious evil, even in circumstances the most favour- ly from the King, either en fief or en roture ; each able ; and the revolution which took place, in conse- proprietor being bound to render homage to the soquence of this event, in the government and political vereign, on his accession to the seignorial property. institutions of Canada, tended, for some years, to The revenues of the seigneurs arise from various retard its progress. The change of allegiance from sources. They are entitled to certain fines from one sovereign to another, was rendered as easy their vassals, which are paid on the alienation of any as possible to the inhabitants, by the lenient part of the property. In the event of a sale, a sum measures of the conquerors. Their laws were of money equal to a twelfth part of the price, is payallowed to remain unaltered. They were secured able to the seignior, and he has also the right, within the undisturbed possession of their lands un- in forty days after the sale, to take the property sold der their ancient tenures, and in the free posses- at the highest price offered,—a right, however, which sion of their religion. All religious property was is seldom exercised. In the event of new lands berespected, and every concession was made by the ing granted, a fifth part of the whole purchase money British Government in favour of the peculiar cus- is payable to the seigneur, which, if paid immediatetoms and manners of its new subjects. Under this ly, entitles the purchaser to a deduction of two-thirds judicious management, the country soon began to of the fine. The vassals are also bound to grind improve, and, in the year 1775, its population, in- their corn at the lord’s mill, and this condition is cluding the new settlers in Upper Canada, who could found on many occasions to be exceedingly irksome. not amount to above some thousands, had increased In a large seigniory, for example, there may not be to 90,000. In 1814, according to a regular census, more than one mill; and though it should be ten the province of Lower Canada contained 335,000 miles distant from the tenant’s farm, and although inhabitants. Of this number 235,000 may be reck- he might have his corn ground on better terms at oned native Canadians, descendants of the original some adjoining mill, he is, nevertheless, bound to French settlers. The remainder is composed of emi- carry it to the seignior’s mill, under a heavy penalty. grants from various nations, chiefly English, Scotch, Another evil of these seignorial rights is, that they Irish, and American. In the year 1783, the settlers are by no means well defined, and that the vassal is, of Upper Canada were estimated at 10,000, of which in consequence, subjected to exorbitant and unjust the numerous frontier posts and garrisons constituted demands, when the superior happens to be of a raby far the greatest part. After this period, the number pacious disposition. In the provincial assembly, the of settlers was augmented by a great accession of loy- propriety of setting bounds to these undefined privialists and disbanded soldiers, and by emigrants from leges has been frequently urged by the English the United States, and from Great Britain, so that members. But the French party, attached to old in the year 1814 the inhabitants of the province had habits, which they found conducive to their interest, increased, according to the most accurate returns, have hitherto strenuously and successfully resisted to 95,000. Since the year 1793, the progress of any alteration of the established laws. The seignior this colony has been particularly rapid. In that is entitled to receive a tithe of the produce of all the year a solitary Indian wigwam stood where the town fisheries which are established within the bounds of of York, the capital of Upper Canada, is now built. his seigniory. He has also the privilege of felling In the succeeding spring, thb ground was marked the timber which grows in any part of his seigniory, out for the future metropolis of the country, and it for the purpose of erecting mills, repairing roads, now contains 2500 inhabitants, and is fast increas- or constructing new ones, or for any other purpose ing. It is the residence of the chief officers of go- of general utility. Many proprietors of seigniories vernment, both civil and military, and affords many have acquired wealth from these revenues, as the sales 7
CANADA. 601 Canada. and transfers of landed property have of late years Canada. become numerous. Roads and Distances in Canada. Lands held by Roman Catholics, under any of the aforementioned tenures, are still further subject From Quebec to Halifax. to the payment of one twenty-sixth part of all the grain produced upon them, for the maintenance of 1 their curates, and to occasional assessments for build- From Quebec to Point Levi, across the river Thence to the portage at Riviere du Cap 1211 ing and repairing churches. The lands of the . 35“ province, which are not held under these tenures, Thence to Timiskuata 45 are subjected to a reservation out of the produce of Thence to the settlement of Maduaska 45 two-sevenths, one of which goes to the Crown, and Thence to the great falls in River- St John jgo the other is set apart for the maintenance of the Thence to Fredericktown Thence to St John’s _ go Protestant clergy. . 189,1 Laws and The laws of England, both civil and criminal, were Thence to Halifax Govern- introduced into Canada after its conquest in 1759 ; 70S and the criminal code of Britain, which freed the Canadians from the tyrannical modes of procedure to which they were formerly exposed, was generally From Quebec to Michillimakinak, at the entrance of Lake Huron. considered as a most important improvement. But the civil code of England was not received with Miles. equal satisfaction. The inhabitants were attached To Montreal ig4 by habit and prejudice to the ancient system by To Coteau du Lac 225 tvhich property was regulated; and, by the act of To Cornwall 266' 1775, therefore, that system was restored. The goTo Matilda 301 vernment of the country was, at the same time, vestTo Augusta S35 ed in a council, composed of certain individuals, To Kingston ggS chosen by the sovereign. In 1792, by the 31st To Niagara 525 0 Geo. III., all the advantages of the British ConTo Fort Erie 560 stitution were extended to Canada. Two houses of To Detroit .
hot stones. The third poured out lava, but slowly; and it is fortunately surrounded by a rampart of rocks, the interval between which and the volcano must be filled up, before the stream could reach the cultivated fields. Humboldt observed the other islands merely by Aspect of sailing along their coasts. Lancerota exhibited evervtlie other mark of having been recently overwhelmed by vol-Islam,scanic agency. This appears to have taken place in 1730, when nine villages were entirely destroyed. The summit of its great volcano did not appear to exceed 300 toises. The coast of Graciosa is distinguished by rocks of basalt 500 or 600 feet high, which frown in perpendicular walls over the ocean,
604 CAN Canary like the ruins of vast edifices. One of them so exIslands. act]y resembled a castle, that the French captain k saluted it, and sent a boat on shore to make some inquiries of the governor. All the rocks which Humboldt observed, were thus either volcanic, or of very recent trap formation. M. Broussonnet, -however, who spent a long time upon these islands, stated, that Ciomera was composed of the primitive rocks of granite and mica slate. The Grand Canary has never been explored; but it struck Humboldt as wearing a different aspect from the rest, its mountains being disposed in parallel chains. Present The eastern side of the Island of Teneriffe is enState of tjreiy naked and barren ; but the northern and vvestand thf6 ern sides are beautil?ul and fertile- 11 does not Pr0* other duce two-thirds of the corn necessary for its own Islands. consumption, but is supplied from the other islands. Santa Cruz, the capital, is situated on the eastern side; the convenience of the harbour and situation compensating for the barrenness of the surrounding country. It supports itself by trade, forming, as it were, a great caravansary between Spain and the Indies. English ships often touch at this port for fresh provisions, which are obtained of excellent quality, though chiefly from the neighbouring island of Canary. The appearance of this city, which exhibits houses of dazzling whiteness, with flat roofs, and windows without glass, stuck against a perpendicular wall of basaltic rocks, appeared very unpleasing to Humboldt. The streets, however, are neat, with foot-walks on each side. The houses within are remarkably spacious; the halls and galleries so extensive as, in M. Bory’s opinion, to exclude the comfortable feeling of a house, and rather to suggest that of an open space. The road is excellent, and forms the chief recommendation of Santa Cruz. The harbour is well built, hut the landing difficult and even dangerous. The population is estimated at 8000 souls. Laguna is the nominal capital of Teneriffe, and contains the tribunals belonging to the island; but since the volcano of 1706 destroyed its port of Garachico, then the finest on the island, its commerce has been supplanted by that of Santa Cruz, and it has been in a state of rapid decline. It still, however, contains 9000 inhabitants. The situation is beautiful, about 350 toises higher than Santa Cruz, and crowned by a wood of laurel, myrtle, and arbutus, which maintains a delightful coolness. The situation of Orotova is still finer, and it is refreshed by numerous rivulets passing even through the streets. Its aspect, however, is gloomy and deserted, and it is chiefly inhabited by a haughty race of nobility. The population amounts to 7000, with 3000 in its port of Santa Cruz. The road is bad. The other islands have been very little examined. The Grand Canary is said to surpass Teneriffe in fertility, but has been much neglected. Its chief town, Cuidad de las Palmas, contains upwards of 9000 inhabitants, and is the ecclesiastical capital of the islands. Lancerota and Fortaventura are the most arid, and their soil so nearly resembles that of the African continent, that the camel has been introduced with success.
CAN The following statement is given by Humboldt of Canary the progressive population of the different islands.— Islands Cannon. £= a Teneriffe . Grand Canary Palma . . . Lancerota . Fortaventura Gomera . . Terro . . . Total
POPULAXTON in 1678.
1745.
1768.
1790.
73 49.H2 60,218 66,354 70,000 60 20,458 33.864 41,082 50,000 27 13,892 17,580 19,195 22,600 7.210 9,705 10,000 26 63 7,382 8,863 9,000 14 4373 6,251 6,645 7,400 7 3297 3,687 4,022 5,000 270
136,192 il55,866 174,000 \
The inhabitants are said to be of an active and industrious disposition. They have eniigrated in great numbers to the different parts of South America, where they are supposed to be as numerous- as in their native islands. They are fond of considering these as a portion of European Spain, to whose literature they have made some not unimportant additions, by the labours of Clavijo, Vievra, Yriarte, and Betancourt. A most formidable list of prohibited books is exhibited at Laguna, hut this only whets their avidity after these forbidden treasures. The chief article of export is wine; of which the average produce in Teneriffe is estimated by M. Bory. at 22,000 pipes. Lord Macartney reckons 25,000, and Mr Anderson (in Cook’s Third Voyage) 40,000; but this last amount is doubtless greatly exaggerated. A large proportion is consumed in the island; the export, chiefly to Britain and America, amounts to 8000 or 9000 pipes. The other exports are brandy, raw silk, soda, and some fruits, which, however, are not equal in quality to those of Portugal. The revenue amounts to 242,000 piastres. (b.) CANNON, the art of casting. Formerly the mould for casting cannon was of loam, and now is usually made of dry sand. Loam for making Moulds, moulds, is an earth consisting principally of clay. It is passed through sieves and then mixed, whilst wet, with horse dung, cow’s hair, chopped straw, or tow cut short; the loam being mixed up with one of these substances, they are well beat up together on a wooden board with an iron bar; by this addition, the loam becomes susceptible of being dried rapidly without cracking. The most attenuated loam is used for the surface of the mould that is to come in contact with the metal, to the end that the surface may come off smooth. The loam-moulders are a particular class of workmen different from thecommon sand-moulders. The business to which they are bred, consists in making of loam and of dry sand, the moulds for steam-engine cylinders, pipes for conveying water, boilers, guns and other large articles. Formerly on a tapering wooden spindle, entwined, with straw ropes, a model was made of loam, copied 1®
CANNON. 605 Cannon, exactly from the pattern gun; this model was paint- breech lowermost, sand is beat round it for support, Cannon, ed over with a coat of wood ashes mixed with wa- and the metal is poured in at the top of the head. Old Method ter> p>y means 0f j^is coat, no adhesion took place This method was practised in the Arsenal of Paris in the Loam- between the convex model and the loam which was 1794. The most approved metlrod of constructing the Dry Sand Moulds. afterwards applied; over this coat of ashes, successive coats of loam were applied, each being dried by mould of a gun is in dry sand, and this is the me- Moulding, fire before the next was laid on; the whole was thod now practised in Britain. Guns cast in loam bound externally with longitudinal iron bars, and do not come from the mould with a surface so corwith hoops transversely. Over this carcass of iron, rectly resembling that of the model as those cast in a coat of plaster of Paris was applied. This was dry sand, and in order to render the surface correct, dried, and then the spindle and its envelope of and to remedy defects, it was always necessary to straw was taken out. The interior convex model subject them to the process of turning. In guns being thus deprived of its core and support, fell to carefully cast in dry sand, the process of turning pieces and was picked out; and then a hollow mould might be dispensed with, the gun would then be of the gun remained. In this way the mould for strengthened by the outer skin of metal which, hathe body of the piece was formed; the moulds for ving cooled more rapidly than the other parts, is the the breech and head were made separately; these hardest; this outer skin is also less liable to rust three parts were joined together so as to form a than the surface laid bare by turning. The mould of complete mould. This method of moulding guns a guii in dry sand, at the same time that it is more required the construction of a new convex model for accurate, is also sooner made and dried than a loamevery gun that was moulded ; It was used in the mould. Dry sand-moulding is a part of the busiFrench Government founderies of Douai, Ruelle, ness of the loam-moulder. near Paris, and Strasburg, in 1794. The sand for dry sand-mouldings is made by mixAnother The following method of constructing the loam- ing a quantity of sharp refractory sand with water Method. mould, is an improvement on that just mentioned; in which clay has been diluted. After the mixture A model of wood, or to prevent change of form is thoroughly made, if a handful is grasped, and on by moisture, a model of brass or pewter is made opening the hand the sand retains the form given it, and formed on the turning lathe, with its exte- then the consistence of the mixture is good, The rior surface exactly resembling that of the gun, sand should have the following qualities: Is#, It with its head and the square piece at the casca- should not be fusible by the heat of melted castbel; if the model is of metal, it is made hollow for iron ; if it were, it would adhere to the metal, and the sake of lightness. This model is laid with its make the surface of the gun rough. 2d/y, It must longitudinal axis horizontal, and one half immersed be sharp, and composed of angular particles; if the in a bed of sand; upon that part of the model which particles of the sand were round, it would not hold projects above the sand, successive coats of loam are together on taking out the model. 3d/y, It must applied and pressed on the model. When the first not contain too much clay, for in that case it would layer is dried by fire, a second layer is applied and crack in drying. 4tthly, It must contain a certain dried, and so on till the model is covered with a proportion of clay to retain the form that the model coat of loam four or five inches thick. Over this an impresses on it. iron carcass is applied, and over the carcass another For dry sand-moulding, a pattern of wood may be The Mode!* coat of loam. The mould with the model in it is used, turned exactly to the form of the gun; or to now turned, so that the half already covered with avoid expansion from humidity, the model or pattern, loam shall be lowermost. The plain surface of the as it is termed in the founderies, may be of metal. loam which had been in contact with the sand, is Brass or pewter are preferable to iron for making painted over with a coat of blacking, composed of patterns, as a smooth surface may be more easily finely powdered charcoal mixed with clayed water; given them, so that they may leave a correct imthis prevents the adhesion of the flat surface with pression and may come out well from the sand. the loam that is to be laid on it. A layer of loam The metallic pattern is hollow, that it may be lighter is applied upon the naked half of the model. This is and more easily handled; it is in different pieces; dried, and several more layers are applied succes- each piece fits into the adjacent piece by a rabbet. sively. A carcass is put over the loam correspondThe length of each piece of the model should be ing to the carcass of the first half, so that-these two a very little greater than the given length of the carcasses can be bound together with bolts and corresponding part of the gun ; because the length wedge-formed keys, with screw-bolts and nuts, or of the mould is the length of the gun whilst hot; tied with iron-wire. When the loam is dry, the and this is longer than the length of the gun when upper half of the mould is lifted off, the model is it comes to the temperature of the atmosphere, at taken out, and the interior surfaces of both parts of which temperature the dimensions of the guns are • the mould are painted over with blacking; this pre- given. It has been estimated that some kinds of vents the loam from being melted, and from adher- Cast-iron contract six-hundredths of an inch in a ing to the hot metal. The two halves of the mould foot, in passing from the liquid state to the temperaare then put together, and the carcasses are firmly ture of the atmosphere. This contraction is not connected by their bolts; the whole is thoroughly considerable enough to be taken into consideration dried by fire. When dried, the mould is placed ver- in the diameter of the pattern. The shrinking of tically in the pit of the casting house* with the the sand in drying, though not considerable, tends like-
CANNON. 006 Cannor. wise to make the piece shorter, and is another mo- may be flush with the box; if this were not done, Cannon, tive for making the pattern a little longer than the there would be an interval between the adjacent dimensions taken from a gun at the usual tempera- surfaces of the sand, through which the metal would ture. The patterns of the trunions are attached to pass and form a fin. When every part is moulded, the box is taken to Dryingthe pattern of the second reinforce by screws, so as to be unscrewed and separated when the pattern is pieces, and the parts of the pattern are carefully Stove, taken out of the sand, for which purpose they are to be lifted out of the sand. Gun-Boxes. The gun-box, in which the dry sand mould is first struck with a wooden mallet. Each part of the mould is then carried separately to the stove to dry. to be formed, is of castThe stove is a room 12 or 15 feet square, with large iron, and cast in sand. It iron doors on one side; the fire is made in a large consists of several portions; conical grate placed on the middle of the floor ; the each of these portions has smoke issues by an aperture in the brick ceiling. flanges by which it is fixed to The heat in this stove is considerable, but it must the others, and the whole, not be so great as to make the boxes red-hot, for when connected together, then, by the expansion of the iron, the mould would form the gun-box. In the be injured; the moulds take about 15 hours to dry flanges are holes through in this situation. When the moulds are taken out which bolts are passed; the of the stove, their interior surface is painted over bolts are secured by wedgewrith a coat of blacking, that there may be no adheformed keys ; thus the differsion between the mould and the metal. ent parts of the box are firmly held together. The two The pieces of the gun-box containing the mould Putting toportions of the gun-box which are then taken to the pit, and being carefully placed ^thcr the contain the brecch-ring and the one upon the other by the crane, they are put Mo"ld• together and secured by their bolts. The mould is cascabel are single, not being divided longitudinally. Each placed with the breech undermost; the axis of the of the other five transverse mould is made perpendicular to the horizon by a portions is divided longitudiplumb-line, that the weight of the melted metal may nally into two. A handle is press equably, and not more on one side of the rfh., j fixed to each portion of the mould than on another. It is not necessary that box, for the purpose of movsand should be rammed round the mould, the box ing it. The upper transverse being strong, and its parts firmly bound together, so t portion AA contains the gunas to require no additional support. The mould is rfrr head. In each of the two now in a position for the metal to flow into it portions BB, wdiich contain through its open end, which is the extremity or the the second reinforce, there is head. Whether the gun is to be of cast-iron or a lateral projection for the brass, the construction of the mould is the same. trunions. The figure repreThe pig iron from which the gun is to be made Air-furnace, j££ sents the gun-box with the is melted in a furnace, called an air-furnace in the breech lowermost, in the posiiron-founderies, and termed by some authors a retion in which it is placed when the metal is poured in. verberatory furnace. The flame of pit coal is carForming To make the mould, the pattern of the breech is ried by a current of air, so as to play upon the pig the mould. first placed on a board, and the corresponding por- iron. The stack of the chimney is 40 feet high. tion of the gun-box is put over it, and sand is ram- By the pressure of the unrarified external air on the med between the pattern and the box. The flat ex- lower part of the rarified column of air in the furposed surface of the sand is painted over with black- nace and chimney, the current of air through the ing, which consists of charcoal and clayed waiter, furnace is produced. The grate G is larger than that there may be no adhesion with the sand of the any other transverse section of the furnace. (See next portion of the mould. The pattern of the first figure next page.) The furnace has three openreinforce is now' fitted into the pattern of the breech, ings, one C, for introducing the coals; the seand the corresponding portions of the first reinforce cond P, which has a sliding brick door, with a box adjusted on the flange of the breech box. Sand counterpoise, serves for introducing the pig iron. is well rammed, in small quantities at a time, be- The third I is for the purpose of stirring the metween the pattern and the box; and the upper flat tal, and taking out the melted iron for small castsurface of the sand is painted over w'ith blacking. ings by iron ladles coated with clay, and made Ihe mould is completed by adding the remaining red-hot. This third opening has a door of fire brick, pieces of the model and of the box, one above ano- the joints between the door and the door-frame are ther, ramming the sand, and painting the transverse luted. In the middle of the door is a hole, through surface of the sand at the top of each division of the which the state of the melted metal may be seen. box with blacking. The sand must be strongly There is likewise a smaller opening T for letting rammed and equably, that every part of its surface out the melted metal. may be able to resist the pressure of the liquid meThe furnace and stack are of brick. The interior tal. Three little wedges are interposed between the of the furnace is a coating of fire brick, 9 inches two adjacent transverse portions of the box, that the thick, detached and separate from the outer coat, sand may project a little, so that after it is dry it and the other parts of the building, in order that the
CANNON. Camion. heat may not melt the common brick of which the thrown in. T the hole through which the metal is outer parts are composed. The fire-brick is made of let out. The metal flows into the casting-house. refractory clay, which, containing little iron, arid lit- O the floor of the casting house. In this floor is the tle or no calcareous matter, burns white, and sustains pit in which the moulds of large goods are sunk, that a great heat without melting. These bricks are the metal may flow down into them. I the door, with made of Stourbridge clay, or of a light blueish grey a hole in it, for seeing the state of the melted metal. stratified clay found in the strata that accompany coal. The clay is first ground, the pieces of ironstone picked out, and then made into bricks. In making the interior coating of the furnace, the bricks must be built with moistened fire-clay, and not with lime mortar. The quantity of metal put into the furnace should be equal to the weight of the solid unbored gun with its head, and something more in case of need. It requires a large air-furnace to contain metal enough for one large gun. Quality of The pig-iron for guns should be grey, that kind the Iron. having most tenacity ; white pig-iron is too brittle, and so hard that the head cannot be cut off, nor the gun bored. Charging A bed of sand N is made in the furnace on which the Fur- the pig-iron is to be laid. The furnace is heated to nace. a white heat, till the sand is vitrified, which is known to have taken place by touching the surface of the sand with an iron ringard. The brick door is then lifted up, and the pig-iron is laid on the bed of sand. Fusion The heat should be applied so as to produce a speeshould be dy fusion, for if the iron is long exposed to heat berapid. fore melting, a portion of its carbonaceous matter is burnt, and it passes from the state of grey cast-iron to that of white. In situations where pit-coal cannot be had, wood may be used in the air-furnace, G the grate. L the lower part of the cavity of the but the heat given by wood is not so great as that furnace, into which the metal, as it is melted, flows. produced by pit-coal. To obtain the most heat that S steps leading to A, the ash-pit. N bottom of the the wood is capable of affording, it should be well furnace lined with sand. H chimney; the height of dried, cut into small logs, and the logs should be the stack is 40 feet from the surface of the ground. placed with their end upon the grate. I he stack is strengthened in different places by iron The pig-iron melted by the flame playing on it, bars, X. F is the mass of building which forms the flows down into a cavity L, which has a hole T foundation built below the surface of the ground to opening outwardly, and stopped with clay. When support the weight of the furnace and stack. R the the hole is forced open by a workman, the metal is- surface of the ground out of doors. C P N L H is sues and is conveyed by a gutter formed of sand to the course that the flame takes. the gun-mould, into which the melted metal falls It is better to cast the guns from the air-furnace Air-furnace through the open end of the head. The sand form- than from the blast-furnace ; for in the blast-furnace, Preferdble ing the gutter should be in a proper state of mois- where the ironstone is smelted, the quality of thetor Guns* ture, If it is too dry, some pieces of it will be car- metal is uncertain, and it may vary from one cast to ried away by the metal. Across the gutter is a dam another, by causes either unknown, or not under the composed of an iron-plate luted, and dipping a lit- control of the iron-master. On the other hand, in tle below the surface of the metal to retain the sco- the air-furnace, pig-iron of a quality proper for makriae. This dam is driven down to stop the current of ing guns is put in, and the quality of the iron is not metal when the mould is full. The metal is also materially altered by the process of melting. skimmed, as it passes along, by a skimmer, composed The head of the gun is like the jet (gate or geetThe Head, of a rod of iron terminated by a flat semi-elliptical of the workmen) of any other casting. Whilst the piece luted and made red hot. It is sometimes the whole is liquid, the head is a column of liquid metal practice to plunge a piece of green wood for a short that acts by its height, exerting pressure on the metime into the head whilst liquid. This is with a view tal that forms the body of the gun. The metal subto prevent honeycombs, and its action may be to jected to this pressure whilst liquid, is less subject to metallize any oxidated particles of the metal; and porosity when cooled. The head also furnishes methat the vapour from the green wood rising to the tal to fill up the cavities that occur in the piece by surface of the metal may carry with it small.air bub- the contraction and crystallization of the metal bles, or other extraneous bodies that would, if they whilst it is passing to the solid state. All the great remained, occasion cavities in the metal. contractions and crystallizations are thus transferred Explanation The figure is a transverse section of the air-fur- to the surface of the head, which is found to be o the Fi- nace. C is the opening through which the coals are composed of large cavities, sometimes containing gure introduced. P the opening at which the pig-iron is cast-iron crystallized in a fern-leafed shape. The head
CANNON. 608 r Cannon, also serves to receive any impurities that may have tin ; the bell-metal w as thus reduced to the state of Cannon, escaped the attention of those appointed to skim the a coarse powder; this powder was thrown into another quantity of bell-metal in fusion ; the metallic iron as it flows along the gutter. In ten or twelve hours, the piece is sufficiently and oxidated copper in the pow’der melted, and was cool to be removed. It is then stripped of the mould, mixed with the already fused bell-metal; the oxide and taken to the boring-mill, to undergo the opera- of tin of the powder remained on the surface. A tions described under our ?.rticle Boring of Can- melted mass w-as thus obtained, containing a larger non. Mortars, how itzers, and carronades are mould- proportion of copper than the bell-metal, and fit for making guns. ed, cast, and bored in the same way as long guns. The mould for brass guns is formed of dry sand, The English Board of Ordnance is supplied with iron guns by contract. The contractors are those in the same way as the mould for cast-iron guns aliron-masters who offer the guns at the lowest price, ready described. The furnace for melting brass for and the guns are cast at their works in the country. guns is a reverberatory furnace, the metal being exThe guns are sent to Woolwich to be examined in posed to the flame. It has no high chimney like the respect to their dimensions, the coincidence of the air furnace for melting iron, the heat required not axis of the bore with that of the piece, the position being so great as that for melting cast-iron. Brass guns are subject to melt at the interior exof the touch-hole, and to undergo a proof by powder. It is also tried whether water can be forced tremity of the touch-hole, by the heat of quick firthrough the substance of the gun. If any cavities ing ; and the melted parts are driven out by the excalled honey-combs be found in the bore, the piece plosion, so as to render the touch-hole too wide. is rejected. The proofs are at the risk of the con- To prevent this, there is sometimes a bush of coptractors, who generally examine and prove the guns per inserted, and in this bush the touch-hole is drilat their works, before sending them to Woolwich. led. The copper being less fusible than the brass, Unserviceable guns are taken to the triangle, where is not melted by the heat of firing the piece. To a large mass of cast-iron is let fall upon the gun, form the bush, a cylindrical piece of copper is hamfrom a height of 40 or 50 feet. It is thus broken mered cold, and made into the form of a male screw. into pieces of a size fit for being introduced into the A hole is then bored, reaching from the surface of air-furnace to be re-cast. Some brass guns are cast the g-un into its bore ; the diameter of this cylinand bored in the foundery of the Board of Ordnance drical hole is equal to the diameter of the cylinat Woolwich. der of copper measured from the bottom of the Brass Guns. Cast-iron guns have the advantage of not suffer- threads of the screw. The piece of copper is then ing any injurious alteration from the heat of repeat- screwed into the cylindrical hole, and the touch-hole ed firing. Brass guns, when fired rapidly in succes- is drilled in it. sion, droop at the muzzle. Cast-iron guns alone are used on board British ships ; brass guns are now The improvements in casting cannon, as in other Progress of principally used for field-pieces. Brass guns, in arts, have been gradual. Formerly cannon wrere cast the Art of strict and precise language, might be called bronze with a core, and this was pi*actised in some founderies ^astin§ guns, as the word brass is most commonly used to in Flanders, even in the year 1794. But they are Lanil0n' denote a composition of copper and zinc, whereas, now always cast solid, experience having shown that in gun-metal, there is generally little zinc, and often guns cast solid are stronger, and less liable to burst, none. Copper alone is too soft, so that the guns that and the bore is freer from honeycombs, and more have been made of it were cut and furrowed by the likely to have the same axis with the piece. The ball in firing. Use is made, therefore, of a mixture second of these qualities is still more certainly atof copper and tin; this composition being harder tained by the practice now in use, of making the than copper. Copper and tin separately are soft gun itself revolve whilst boring; in this way, as long and malleable ; when combined they form a compo- as the boring bar remains unmoved, the axis is sition that is hard and brittle ; and these tw o quali- right; but if the boring bar has a conical motion, ties are increased by augmenting the relative quan- then the point of the bit is out of the axis; when tity of tin. Different proportions have been em- the boring bar was made to revolve, the bore might ployed for guns; 10 parts by weight of copper, and deviate greatly from the axis. The improvements 1 of tin, is a proportion that is found to give the re- in the casting of cannon have kept pace with the imquisite hardness, and not too much, nor too great provements in the manufacture of cast-iron. brittleness. The copper is first melted, and the tin The art of casting iron was known to the ancients, is added. If the tin were melted first, and the cop- as appears from a small antique statue of Hercules, per added, much of the tin wmuld be oxidated be- of cast-iron, dug up at Rome. In China it appears fore the combination took place ; the metal, during to be practised with a dexterity visible in the Chithe process, is stirred with a rod of green wood. nese specimens of many other arts. In modern Bell-metal is a combination of copper and tin in Europe it has grown with the general advancement other proportions. It is made hard by means of tin, of society, and has latterly attained to a high degree in order that it may be sonorous. It contains 25per of improvement in this Island, where individuals cent, of tin, and is too brittle and too hard for making having the command of capital, and the power of guns. In the year 1794 the Revolutionary Govern- making advances for the salaries of workmen and ment of France obtained gun-metal by depriving the construction of buildings, were induced to bell-metal of a part of its tin. Bell-metal was heat- form large establishments for the smelting of ironed with the contact of air, and stirred to oxidate the stone, and for the manufacture of cast-iron. In
C A N N O N. ; 609 :) •-jrinr'°v-' ^1^nce .cas*'"*r01i ^ ^ttle used ; many of the articles drive-off its bitumen, and it is then- in a state-of cu> Cannon, ^ ^ hich in England are ol cast-iron, being there of der and called coak. it require/; a larger mass of wrouglit-iron, copper, earthenware, or wood. In coak than of charcoal to smelt ironstone. Hence the Prussian dominions, the art of casting statues and the coak blast-furnaces are large, and the machines small medals, in cast-iron, is successfully practised. employed to blow them are more powerful than the But in none of the other countries of Europe is east- wooden spring bellows invented in Germany, in iion so generally used, and nowhere is it manufiic- 1620, and which continue to be employed in the tuied on so large a scale, and with the employment charcoal iron furnaces in Germany and France. Belof so much capital, as in Britain, low's connected by leather, and worked by water, bv the U^e eas ^ltve'coal lias been'the main instrument in this ex- were used to blow the blast furnaces at Carron, at of Pit-coal. ^ ‘ uaanufacture. As it gives a better heat for the commencement of that establishment in 1760. -the melting of cast-iron, and saves the great extent Sometime after, these bellows gave place to blowing of ground required for rearing wood, the greatest machines, composed of pistons working in iron cypart .of the cast-iron in Britain is now extracted from linders, Constructed by the celebrated Smeaton, and the ironstone, and made into castings by pit-coal. described in his Reports. The blowing machines of Pit-coal began to be used in smelting of ironstone tne blast furnaces in Britain are now always comin 1619. This first operation was performed in Wor- posed of pistons moving in iron cylinders. The imcestershire, by Dudley, who describes his process in provements in the steam-engine have rendered praca book, entitled, Metallum Martis. The manufac- ticable the working of blast-furnaces in situations ture of cast-iron was not much advanced one hun- where there is no fall of water; and, on the other dred years after; for in thefirst half of the eighteenth hand, the manufacture of the various parts of numecentury, cast-iron goods were imported into some rous steam-engines, has called forth the abilities and .part of Britain from Holland. And the Dutch chim- ingenuity of the iron founder. mey-backs, with the figure of a parrot, are to be seen In consequence of the advanced state of the Engin old country houses^in Scotland to this day. lish cast-iron manufacture, several foreign nations Two kinds of mineral are smelted for iron in have been desirous of introducing the English meBritain. The first is the haematites of Ulverstone thod, and have procured English workmen for that and the neighbourhood of Whitehaven, which, as it purpose. In this way, iron-works, on the English contains much iron (60 per cent.'), is carried by sea plan, were erected in Russia, about 1780, in Silesia to smelting furnaces in different parts of Britain. in 1790, and in France, at Creusot, near MontThe second is the argillaceous ironstone, which cenis, there were three English coak blast-furnaces, constitutes some of the strata that accompany pit- begun about 1790. coal. This is more generally used than the haematites. And it is in the vicinity of the masses of stratified The strength of guns depends on the strength ofStrengtb, minerals, which yield coal and ironstone, that the the metal of which the gun is composed, and on the Calibre, principal iron-works in Britain are set down. These quantity of metal and the manner in which it is dis-a.mi I:)i'nen strata are found in various parts of the island, and are posed. This subject is considered in the article CaSnon. portions of that class of depositions called by geo- Gunnery of the Bncyclopcedia. The nature of logists the coal-formation. A stratum of coal or of the subject does not admit of determining with ironstone of considerable extent, is termed, by the coal precision the best weight and length that can and iron masters, a coal-field, or an ironstone field. be given to a gun fitted for exploding a ball of a Pit-coal cannot be employed entire in the blast- given weight. Guns of the same calibre are consefurnace ; the bituminous part would be conglutinated quently made of different dimensions, even in the by the heat, and the furnace would be choked, and same country. The four tables that follow contain the materials would no longer descend gradually as the weight, length, and other dimensions of British they ought to do. The coal is, therefore, burnt to and of French guns : I—Table of the Length, Weight, Calibre, and Charges of British Government Iron Guns. Length.
42 Pounder gun 32 Pounder gun 24 Pounder gun 18 Pounder gun 12 Pounder gun 9 Pounder gun 6 Pounder gun 4 Pounder gun 3 Pounder gun 2 Pounder gun 1 Pounder gun £ Pounder gun VOL. 11. PART II.
F. 10 10 10 9 9 6 4
Weight.
In. Cut. lb. oz. 0 67 0 0 0 58 0 0 0 52 0 0 42 0 0 34 0 0 6 30 1 0 0 24 0 0 0 12 6 7 4 2 1
Diameter Diameter Diameter of the of the Shot Bore. of the Shot. Gauge. In. 7.018 6.410 5.824 5.292 4.623 4.20 3.668 3.204 2.913 2.544 2.019 1.602
In. 6.684 6.105 5.547 5.040 4.403 4.000 3.498 3.053 2.775 2.423 1.293 1.526
In. 6.795 6.207 5.639 5.124 4.476 4.066 3.552 3.104 2.820 2.463 1.955 1.551 4H
Charge, Proof. lb. 25.0 21.8 18.0 15.0 12.0 9-0 6.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.8
Service, lb. 14.0 10.11 8.0 6.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.11 0.6 0.3
CAR CAN 610 CAPILLARY ATTRACTION. We had in- Capillary Cannon. II.—Table of the Length, Weight, and Calihre of tended, in this place, to examine at some length the Attraction Iron Ordnance used on Board British Merchant different theories which have been proposed in this Car^ca& Ships in 1811. branch of Natural Philosophy ; but we find that we 0- ^ must defer this inquiry till vve reach the article Lengthfroni Diameter of Tubes, Capillary. Base-ring to Weight. Bore. CAPMANY (D. Antonio de), one of the most Muzzle tnd. eminent of the later writers of Spain, was born in Catalonia in 1754. He lived for a considerable time in Cwt. lb. oz. Inches. Feet, Barcelona, and latterly in Madrid, where he died in 4.2 14 2 0 5 Q Pounder gun 3.668 1810. He ranks high both as a general scholar, and 1 17 4 6 9 6 Pounder gun 3.204 as a political writer, and has, indeed, in the latter cha6 3 21 4 o 4 Pounder gun racter, manifested much more sound and extensive 12 Pounder carviews than belong to most of his countrymen. In 4.52 1 0 10 o 4 ronade particular, it is to be remarked of him, that he is al9 Pounder car. most the only native who has endeavoured to expose 4.11 8 1 23 4 0 ronade the exaggerations of the earlier writers in regard 9 Pounder carto the immense population, and highly advanced 4.11 6 2 21 1 ronade light state of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, 6 Pounder carin that country, in former times. His principal 3.6 ' 6 0 8 3 6 ronade works, as noticed in the Biographic Universelle, and Dictionnaire Universel, are as follows : 1. The art of HI. Table of the Length and Weight of Iron Guns translating the French into the Spanish language. used in the French Navy in 1794. 1776, in 4to. 2. The Philosophy of Eloquence. 1777, in 8vo. 3. History of the Marine, Commerce, Length from and Arts of the ancient City of Barcelona. The two the extremiiy Length of the Weight first volumes of this work wrere published in 1779 » of the Pom- Head with of the mel to extre- which the Gtu Gun. the two last, which consist of a variety of curious is cast. mity of and important documents copied from the archives Muzzle. of Barcelona, in 1792. “ This excellent work is marked throughout with a spirit of liberality and good Pied. Pouces. Pied. Pouces. Lbs. sense, and distinguished by an attention to philoso7190 3. 0 10. 36 Pounder gun phical and general views j but seldom displayed by 5116 5-3- 3. 24 Pounder gun 9- °12 those who ransack archives, and compile papers for 4212 2. 8. 11UOJL IS Pounder gun 12 the use of future historians. We consider it a most 2995 2-1-1 2. 8. ] 2 Pounder gun •*12 valuable addition to the history of the commerce and 8 Pounder gun manufactures of the middle ages.” [Edinburgh Re2382 2. long - 8. 7j§ view, Vol. X.) 4. Historical and Critical Theatre of 8 Pounder gun Spanish Eloquence. 1786—94. 5 vols. 4to. 5. A 2056 short - 7. qelO 12 2. Dictionary, French and Spanish. 1805, in 4to. This 6 Pounder gun dictionary is prefaced with a critical examination of 1733 long - 7. 7tV 2. the two languages. 2. 6. °T2 4 Pounder Besides these, and some other pieces, noticed in IV.—Table of the Weight of Brass Guns used in the the Biographical Dictionaries already mentioned, French Land Service, in 1794, and the Weight of there is a collection of tracts by Capmany, not alluded to in either of them, entitled Questiones critithe Head with which they are Cast. cas sobre varios Puntos de Historia Econamica, Politica y Militar, published in 1807j and of which Length from there is an interesting account in the tenth volume the extrem. of Weight Weight Pommel to of the of the of the Edinburgh Review. All Capmany’s works Gun. Head. extrem. of were published in the Spanish language, and we are Muzzle. not aware that any of them has been translated into any other tongue. ib. lb. Pied. Pouces C AR ACCAS, an extensive province of South Boundaries 24 Pounderl Battering no iot52 5628 3100 America, forming part of the Spanish dominions in and Divi10 4T42 4111 2600 16 Pounderj guns that country. It comprehends five other subordi-S10DS' 12 Pounder 1 Garrison 9 9t12- 3184 1800 nate provinces or governments; namely, the province 8 Pounder J guns 8 Sf’e 2175 1200 7 of Venezuela in the centre, the government of Ma12 Pounder! 1808 1235 7 °T 2 11 _9_ 1186 racaibo on the west, Guiana on the south, the go8 Pounder > Field 950 6 12 vernment of Cumana on the east, and the Island of 4 Pounder j pieces { 4 10A 590 550 Margaretta on the north-east. It is bounded on the For light 1 Pounder ^ troops 266 3 10 250 north from the Cape de la Vela to the point of Faria, by the Carribbean sea ; on the east by the Atlantic frem the 12th to the 8th degree of north latitude; (*.) 3
CARA Caraccas. on the south by Dutch Guiana and Peru, and on the west by the kingdom of Santa Fe. Climate. This country, extending from the 12th degree of north latitude towards the equinoctial line, might be expected, from its geographical position, to be subject to the utmost violence of the tropical heats, and to be reckoned almost uninhabitable by a scorching sun. But throughout the whole continent of America, the general law of the climate is modified by the elevation of the ground; and, owing to this circumstance, the inhabitants of many parts of the Caraccas enjoy the temperature of perpetual spring. For this happy singularity in its climate, the province of the Caraccas is indebted to a chain of the Andes, which, commencing near the province of Quito, traverses the country in its whole extent, and, gradually diminishing in height in its progress to the east, finally loses itself in the Island of Trinidad. This chain of mountains, which varies in breadth from ten to twenty leagues, is generally of moderate elevation. In some points it rises to the height of 8000 feet, but its average height is not more than 4500 feet above the level of the sea. These inequalities of height give rise to a corresponding diversity of temperature; owing to which the vegetable productions of distant countries, here meeting with a congenial climate, are frequently found concentrated within a comparatively narrow compass. At intervals rich vallies open, and the sides of the mountains are covered with the finest trees. In travelling into the interior from the coast, the European experiences a great and enlivening change from the hot air of the low countries to the pure and cool atmosphere which prevails in these mountainous regions. The city of Caraccas, according to Depons, is 3000 feet above the level of the sea, and though it is situated in 10° 31' north latitude, so far from being oppressed by the insupportable heats of the torrid zone, it enjoys the mild and temperate climate of the southern countries of Europe. The highest range of the thermometer in summer is 85°, and in winter 76°, and the minimum of heat in winter is 52°. To the south, these mountains are bounded by the valley of the Orinoco. The country is here extend, ed into immense plains, known by the general name of Las Lianas. Those plains afford pasturage to innumerable cattle, the proprietors of which reside in the towns, leaving them to the care of slaves or people of colour. This race of men, accustomed to be almost continually on horseback, and being almost in a state of nature, in these immense and uninhabited plains, contract the most disorderly and lawless habits. Many of them are professed robbers; they are already beginning to form themselves into bands, and to infest the roads, so as to render travelling dangerous. In these plains the heat is intense, the thermometer frequently rising to 110 and even 115 degrees. » Seasons. The seasons here are divided into winter and summer, wdiich are not so much distinguished by cold or heat, as by rainy and dry weather. The rainy season commences generally in April and continues till November. These rains are not, however, without intermission. There are some days in which no rain falls, and there are others, though they are not frequent, in which it rains incessantly. It may
GCAS. 611 be calculated that, during the rainy season, it rains, Caraccas. on an average, three hours each day, and oftener in the morning than in the evening. The long continued and drizzling rains of the polar regions are not known here. But notwithstanding of this, the rains which in the torrid zone rush down with the violence of a torrent, produce in one hour about times the quantity of water which is ever known to fall in Europe within the same space. During the rainy season, the rivers are consequently in a continual state of inundation; the channels which, during the rest of the year, remain parched and dry, are now filled with overflowing streams; and the plain through which flows the Orinoco, is inundated by a sea of fresh water for a space extending 150 leagues in length and 40 in breadth. For about a century after the acquisition of Terra Agriculture Firma by the Europeans, no attempt was made to ^ ?r0' raise any sort of produce from the soil. Gold and ciuct-0113, silver were the great objects of research, and the pursuit after these superseded every other species of industry. The adventurers, however, who settled in the country, not finding a sufficient quantity of the precious metals to gratify their rapacity, turned their thoughts towards the pearl fisheries. Being speedily disappointed in their expectations of wealth from this source, they had recourse to agriculture, and, on trial, they found the soil of the Caraccas extremely fertile, and capable of producing ample returns. They began with cultivating cacao, plantations of which were multiplied throughout the country, and the labours of the planter were so admirably seconded by a favourable soil, that the produce was both abundant and of an excellent quality. Cacao was almost exclusively cultivated till a very late period. About the year 1774, the culture of indigo was begun, and it was speedily ascertained, that the soil was equally well adapted to raise this valuable produce. Most of the new plantations were, therefore, prepared for this new species of culture, and immense plains, till then uncultivated, were covered with plantations of indigo. The profits derived from this trade, and the great concourse of traders and cultivators, occasioned villages to spring up in the desert, and gave to many towns, such as Maracay, Tulmero, and Victoria, which were before in a state of decay, the aspect and consistence of cities. About the same time the cotton plant was introduced. The cultivation of sugar, tobacco, and generally of all the other products of the tropical regions, was also commenced. In this fine country, however, blessed as it is with all the advantages both of soil and of climate, agriculture still languishes. There is a want of enterprise and active industry among the planters ;—their plantations are committed to the care of ignorant overseers ; and the Spanish proprietor, who generally resides in town, seldom visits his estates above once in a year. This carelessness frequently produces embarrassments ; the land is mortgaged for the purpose of raising money, and the capital which ought to be laid out in improved cultivation, is thus forestalled for the purposes of extravagance. “ It is a matter of astonishment,” says Depons, “ that in the most beautiful country in nature, where everything concurs to promote luxuriance of vegetation, the plantations should be so inconsider-
C A R A 612 Caraccas. able in magnitude. A planter, whose income amounts to 4000 or 5000 dollars per annum, is considered rich. There cannot be enumerated twentyplantations in the Caraccas which yield a greater revenue. It is not, however, that the property is too much divided. It is rare to see a plantation ot which one-tenth part ot its extent is cultivated. It is a cheerless and painful sight to behold the labour of three successive centuries crowned with such pitiful results. On a soil two hundred times less spacious, incomparably less watered, and less fertile, and with not more than one-half the white population, the French have succeeded in raising, at St Domingo, ten times more produce than is raised at this day in the vast province of the Caraccas.' Abundance Besides the colonial commodities already enumeof Wood of rated, this country produces vanilla, wild cochineal, various gums, resins, roots, barks, and plants, many of which kinds are prized for their medicinal virtues. In the mountains of the interior are found the same kinds of wood as in the Antilles, and many other kinds peculiar to the country. The vast forests by which the country is covered, contain abundant supplies of timber for the most extensive ship-yards. All those inexhaustible resources are, however, useless, owing to the difficulty of transporting the wood over the trackless paths of the mountains. These difficulties might be considerably diminished, if due exertion were made to clear the channels of the rivers from occasional obstructions, so as to facilitate the intercourse with the interior. But there is neither enterprise nor industry in the country adequate for such improvements. Besides large timber for the construction of vessels and other purposes, their forests contain materials for the work of the carpenter and cabinetmaker, so various, as to embarrass them in their choice. The beams and joists of houses are, in general, made from the wood which the Spaniards call Pardillo, and in some places they use a species of very hard oak. Cedar is used for doors, windows, tables, &c.; and, for ornamental furniture, they have several kinds of wood susceptible of the highest polish. Among these is distinguished the black ebony, found in great abundance in the forests in the neighbourhood of Lake Maracaibo. Yellow and red ebony is also common ; but mahogany is not so abundant as in the West India islands, and it is, besides, inferior both in respect to its shades and gloss. Iron wood, which abounds in different parts of the country, is used for shafts to the wheels of water-mills; for the rollers of the cylinders used for pressing sugar-canes ; and, generally, on all occasions for which wood of extraordinary hardness is required. The red ebony is also applied to the same uses as the iron wood, and is even thought to surpass it in hardness. No wood has yet been found fit for dyeing, except the Brasil wood. But the immense forests which overspread the mountainous parts of this country have not been explored to any extent. They still continue, for the most part, to be the exclusive domain of ferocious animals and venomous reptiles, and we cknnot be certain, until they are more fully known, what hidden resources they may afford for the extension of commerce, or the improvement of art.
i
C C A S. On the first discovery of Terra Firma, the pearl- Caraccas. fishery formed a considerable branch of trade as well as of revenue. The pearla ronde was found to abound Pearl Fishin the shoals which extend from Cape Paria to that ery* of Vela; and the island of Margaretta, Cubagua, Coche, Punta Araya, and the mouth of the Rio la Hacha, were celebrated for the quantity of pearls which they produced. The fifth of the produce was claimed by the king, and it was estimated in the beginning of the 16th century to amount to about 15,000 ducats, which, considering that an extensive contraband trade was at the same time carried on, shows the whole amount to have been considerable. Till the year 1530, the annual value of the pearls sent to Europe amounted on an average to 800,000 piastres. Towards the end of the l6th century, the produce of the American pearl-fisheries diminished rapidly, and, according to some accounts, they were altogether abandoned by the year 1683. Various causes were assigned for the decline of this trade. But the chief cause seems to have been the increasing scarcity of the oysters which yielded these precious stones. With such persevering rapacity was this lucrative trade pursued, that the shells were destroyed faster than they could be multiplied. It is known that the animal which inhabits the pearl-shell does not live above nine or ten years, and it is only in the fourth year that the pearls begin to show themselves. Of these shells, a boat will collect in > about two or three weeks more than 35,000. At Ceylon, the government only permits the pearl-fishing to be continued for one month in the course of a year ; but on the coasts of the Caraccas there was no restriction. The pearl banks were fished at all seasons, and the consequence is, that they have been abandoned for nearly two centuries. At Cumana it is supposed, that, during such a long period of reprieve, the pearl-shells must have been greatly increased ; and, in 1812, some attempts were made to revive the fishery. But it is generally observed, that the few pearls which are now accidentally found are both extremely small, and devoid of brilliancy, w hile those found among the Indians on the arrival of the Spaniards on Terra Firma, were particularly distinguished for these two properties. It is difficult to account for this change. Humboldt conjectures that the earthquakes to which this country is peculiarly subject, may have altered the bottom of the sea, or that the changes in the submarine currents may have so far influenced the temperature of the water, as to diminish the sustenance necessary for the support of the animal which produces the pearl. The small pearls which are still occasionally found on the coasts entangled in the fishermen’s nets, are sold to the retail dealers of Cumana, at the ordinary price of a piastre, or 4s. 2d. per dozen. Mineral springs abound in these provinces, both Mineral warm and cold; and they are of various qualities',sPr,nSs* namely, the ammoniacal, the ferruginous, the nitrous, and the acidulous. Some of these waters have a degree of heat which nearly approaches to that of boiling w^ater. Owing to their situation, however, generally in uninhabited places, far from any frequented path, they are not of the same advantage to medicine as if they were differently situ-
* 613 C A R A C C A S. Caraccas. Caracca?. ated, because the patient cannot enjoy the benefit of cepting on the west, where it extends into the intethose waters, and, at the same time, all those domes- rior; and it receives the waters of twenty rivers, tic comforts which are equally necessary to his re- without any visible outlet. This circumstance has covery. He must sacrifice the one to procure the given occasion to the conjecture, that its waters must other; so that, in many cases, the disadvantage of be discharged by a subterraneous passage; and, in confirmation of this hypothesis, it is stated by Dethe change is greater than the benefit. All that portion of the coast which is north of the pons, that the boats which navigate the lake sail Salt. province of Venezuela, furnishes a considerable with rapidity from the shores to the centre, but that quantity of salt, of a beautiful whiteness. But the it requires longer time and greater exertion to remost abundant salt-pit is that of Araya, which con- turn from the centrer towards the shore. How far sists of a mixture of the fossil and marine salts. Its this conjecture is w ell-founded, seems extremely produce, under the regime of the mother country, doubtful. The contributions, from so many rivers was monopolized for the benefit of the Crown, the may be no more than sufficient to supply the drain consequence of which was, that the working of the occasioned by the constant and intense evaporation pits was little attended to, and that they did not of a tropical sun ; and, at any rate, until this quesyield anything like the quantity of salt which, under tion is determined by accurate investigation, it seems better management, they were capable of producing. idle to have recourse to the supposition of subterThe aspect of this country is agreeably diversified raneous channels to account for what may be the Lakes. by lakes and rivers. Of the lakes, those of Mara- result of more obvious causes. One fact is certain, caibo and Valencia are the most deserving of no- that, of late years, the waters of the lake have expetice. The lake of Maracaibo is of an oblong form, rienced a considerable depression, and they still lying north and south, and communicating by a nar- continue receding within a narrower space. I his is row neck with the sea. Its length, from the bar to sufficiently accounted for by the progress of cultivaits southern extremity, is 150 miles. Its greatest tion throughout the country, in consequence of breadth is 90, and it is 450 miles in circumference. which the cultivators draw an increased supply of It is navigable for vessels of the greatest burden ; water from the streams which flow into the lake, in and though it is not liable to tempests, there is al-^ order to irrigate and refresh their different plantaways an undulation on its surface; and when strong tions. In proportion as the waters recede, tracts of breezes blow, more especially from the north, its ground are left uncovered, which, having received for waves become sufficiently agitated to bury under centuries past the deposited slime and substances of them canoes and small craft Its waters are, in ge- the lake, have thence acquired a prodigious fertility. neral, fresh and fit for drinking, but, at times, the These spots are eagerfy selected for cultivation, and waters of the sea are forced, by means of storms, they reward the labours of the planter with a large retowards the lake, and it then becomes brackish as turn. The eastern shores of the lake are laid out for far as the town of Maracaibo. All the different the culture of tobacco in five plantations, which occupy species of fish which are found in the rivers of South 15,000 persons, and the remainder of the lands wdiich America, with the exception of the tortoise, abound surround it are employed in raising other productions in this lake ; but the general sterility of the adja- peculiar to the country. The woods in the vicinity cent country, and the unhealthy atmosphere which afford a haunt to numerous varieties of birds, which is occasioned by noxious exhalations from its waters, are equally distinguished by the brilliancy of their are unfavourable to the progress of cultivation; so plumage, and the melody of their notes. Reptiles that the Indians, in place of making their abode are also common. Among these are two species of on its shores, have generally dwelt on the lake it- lizards, which are considered by the Indians and self, in wooden huts, constructed for the purpose. Spaniards as delicious food, and which are eagerly To the north-west of the lake is an inexhaustible sought after. The waters of the lake are thick and mine of mineral pitch, which is of so inflammable a of a nauseous taste, which is ascribed by Depons to nature that during the night, and especially in hot the putrefaction of animal and vegetable substanweather, phosphoric fires are continually seen, which ces. Its surface is diversified by numerous islands, have the appearance of lightning. These fires are by which its navigation is somewhat impeded. Most known by the name of the lanterns of Maracaibo, of these are inhabited, and yield abundance of proand they serve as alight-house and compass to guide visions, fruits, and vegetables. The abundant rains, which fall in the Caraccas, Rivers, the course of the Spaniards and Indians who are nafind their way to the ocean by a variety of channels, vigating the lake. The lake of Valencia, though not of the same and there is, accordingly, no country w’hich is magnitude as Lake Maracaibo, presents a far more watered by more numerous streams. Every valley agreeable and interesting spectacle. Its shores, in has its rivers, and if they are not all of sufficient place of being arid and unhealthy, are clothed with size to answer the purposes of navigation, they afall the luxuriant vegetation of the tropical regions, ford ample supplies of water for the necessary pur and the temperature is mild and salubrious. This pose of irrigating the grounds which are cultivated lake is about one league distant from the city of along their shores. All the streams which rise on Valencia, and about 18 miles from the sea. It is the northern ridge of the mountains in the interior of an oblong form, stretching north-east and south- run from south to north, and fall into the Carribbeap west, and is about 40 miles in length, and about 12 Sea, while those which have their sources in the in the broadest part. It is situated in a valley sur- southern declivity of the same range of moun rounded with high and inaccessible mountains, ex- tains, traverse in a southern direction the whole ex-
514 CARA Caraccas. tent of the intermediate plain, till they reach the majestic stream of the Orinoco. The principal rivers which flow northward into the Carribean Sea are the Guiges, Tocuyo, Aroa, Yaracuy, Tuy, Unara, Never!, Manzanares. These are so strongly fenced in by the natural barriers of high banks, and the ground at the same time forms such a continued declivity, that they seldom overflow the adjacent country to any extent, so as to occasion damage. The most considerable rivers which fall into the Orinoco are the Mamo, the Pariagon and Pao, the Chivata and Zoa, the Cachimamo, the Aracay, the Manapira and Espino, and, lastly, the great river Apure, which enters the Orinoco by several channels. This river receives an immense variety of smaller streams, and is, indeed, the only channel by which all the lesser rivers, which rise in the extensive tract of country through which it flows, are conveyed to the Orinoco. During the rainy season, its waters, near its mouth, are spread over the flat countiy, which it traverses to an extent of nearly 96 miles; and, in general, all the rivers of this province, which flow through level grounds, overflow, during part of the year, a large tract of the adjacent country. This inundation covers a larger space as the rivers approach the ocean. Near the mouth of the Orinoco, one vast sea of fresh water is spread over the country to an extent, according to Depons, of nearly 200 leagues. The rise of the rivers commences in April, and ends in August, and during the subsequent month of September, there is no perceptible fall in the waters of the Orinoco. About the beginning of October they begin to retire from the flat country, and by the end of February the river has reached its lowest point. Commerce In the settlements which they established in difot' this Co. ferent parts of South America, the Spaniards, it is Policy of we^ known> were actuated solely by the desire of profile Mother curing the precious metals, and every other less valuC'ountry. able produce wTas regarded as unworthy of consideration. Under the influence of this spirit, the first adventurers in Terra Firma directed all their researches, as we have already observed, to the discovery of mines. These, however, proved so unproductive, that they were soon abandoned, and the colonists were, in this manner, compelled to have recourse for their subsistence to the cultivation of the soil. But it does not appear that their early efforts were favoured by the superintending care of the mother country. No Spanish vessel ever approached the desert shores of this new settled colony ; and it was only at the special request of the colonists, that one vessel from the mother country was annually freighted to this part of America, to supply them wdth the necessaries of life. In this languishing state, the Caraccas continued during the whole of the Ibth century. The faint hope of discovering mines, joined to the prosecution of the pearl fishery, which was at this time carried on with singular perseverance and cruelty, still continued to stifle every idea of agricultural industry ; and it was not till the year 1634, when the Dutch took possession of the island of Curacoa, that the inhabitants of Terra Firma were encouraged, by
C C A S. the vicinity of those industrious settlers, to devote their Caraccas. attention to agriculture, for the purpose of providing themselves with the means of commercial exchange. Cacao and hides constituted for a long period the two staple articles which they exchanged wuth the Hollanders for such other commodities as they were in want of. The commencement of a trade with foreigners, howrever inconsiderable, excited the jealousy of the mother country, which, though it gave no seasonable aid to the early efforts of those colonists, was resolved to claim the dominion over them, as soon as their industry could be made subservient to its profit. Two vessels were accordingly allowed to sail from Spain, freighted with merchandise for the colonies, on which enormous duties were charged. The consequence was, that the Spanish merchants were undersold by the Dutch traders, and those foreigners were left during the remainder of the century in quiet possession of the trade, which was carried on both more openly and to a greater extent. During the first thirty years of the subsequent century, the intercourse with Spain was revived; but the trade with the mother country bore no proportion to the contraband trade. The annual produce of the province amounted to 65,000 quintals* of cacao ; the legal exports were estimated at 21,000 quintals, so that 44,000 quintals still remain for the contraband trader. The Spanish Government, viewing with increasing dislike the growing connection of its colony with foreigners, resolved to stop the intercourse by the violence of power; and, with this view, confiscations, fines, and the most degrading punishments, were inflicted on those who engaged in it. Numerous families were ruined by these severities, but the trade continued as before. It originated in the necessities of the country, and such encouragements to evasion were held out, as covered all the risks of detection. These violent measures not being found to answer tbeir intended purpose, several Biscayan merchants offered to the government, in 1728, to destroy the contraband commerce, on condition of being allowed the privilege of supplying the wants of the colony, and of exporting its produce. To this proposal the government acceded, after imposing several burdensome conditions on the company. These, however, were complied with, and with such activity, prudence, and economy, were the affairs of the company carried on, that they succeeded in supplanting the contraband trade, while their management gave complete satisfaction to the colonies. From the year 1730 to 1748, 858,978 quintals of cacao were shipped from the colonies to the mother country, which amounted to one-third more than had been exported for the last thirty years. In 1742, the company had acquired such credit with the government, that they applied for and obtained the monoply of the colonial trade. Great jealousies were excited in the colonies by this concession; and to appease the universal discontent which prevailed, it w'as agreed, in 1750, that a board should be appointed, composed of an
* A quintal is 1600 ounces.
C A R A Caraecas. equal number of members of the company, and of cultivators in the colony,—the Governor-General to be President, who should regulate the prices at which the colon}’ and the company should respectively exchange their merchandise. It was, at the same time, permitted to those planters who were not satisfied with the established price, to send one-sixth part of their cacao to Spain, on their own account, and in the vessels of the company. Under this regulated monopoly, the colonial trade was carried on with less of injustice to individuals than might have been expected, and with great prudence and success. For the destruction of the contraband trade, the company maintained, at an annual expence of 200,000 dollars, an armament of ten vessels, which carried 86 guns and 518 men; besides, 102 men employed on shore. Superb warehouses w'ere constructed in the different ports to which its vessels traded, for the accommodation of its agents; and advances, without interest, were made to different planters to the amount of 640,000 dollars, on the security of the produce of their estates, at a fixed price. By the encouragement thus given to the trade of the colony, cultivation was extended,—flourishing villages arose in different parts,—and in addition to cacao, formerly the only staple of the country, other species of colonial produce were now cultivated. About the year 1735, the whole cacao produced in the province was estimated at 65,000 quintals, while, in 1763, there were embarked, Quintals. For Spain, .... 50,319 Vera Cruz, . . . 16,864 the Canaries, . . . 11,160 St Domingo, Porto Rico, and Havannah, 2316 Local consumption, . . . 30,000 Total,
110,659
During the same period the cattle multiplied rapidly on the extensive plains which stretch to the south of Caraccas, and hides were added to the other articles of exportation. By the increase of cultivation and trade, the various duties, which were hitherto insufficient to defray the expences of government, became perfectly adequate to every charge ; and the government of the mother country was freed from the burden to which it had been subject for a
C C A S. 615 period of 200 years, of sending remittances from Caraccas. Mexico, for the purpose of supporting the civil and military establishments of Venezuela. Such were the beneficial effects produced by the moderate and prudent conduct of the Company. It was evident, however, that no security existed for the continuance of this good management, farther than the discretion of the directors, who, in process of time, were corrupted by the temptations held out to them ; and, in place of trading with the colonies upon the equitable principles of commercial exchange, became eager to obtain all the unfair advantages of the most rapacious monopolists. Bribery was resorted to, in order to procure a regulation of prices favourable to their interests,—the duties were evaded,—the contraband trade was encouraged,— and by all those transactions the planters were injured, while the mother country was deprived of the trade which the Company had engaged to carry on for her benefit. The natural remedy for these abuses was a free trade. A regulation was accordingly issued in 1778, by which all the chief ports of the Caraccas and of Spain were reciprocally opened to each other’s produce, and the trade between them was, in effect, declared free. A scale of duties was at the same time established, by which the articles exported to the colonies were divided into three classes. The first of these consisted of articles the growth or manufacture of Spain, which were charged at the lowest rate, namely, 9^ per cent, on leaving Spain, and the same on being landed in America. All goods, likewise, of which the value was doubled by domestic industry, were placed in the same class. In the second class were comprehended such articles as had received a certain augmentation of value from domestic industry, but not such as to raise their value one half. These paid, on their shipment to the colonies, and on their arrival, 12^ per cent. The third class of articles, which were of foreign workmanship, were liable to a duty of 22 per cent. on leaving Spain. The colonial produce, on its importation into Spain, was made subiect to moderate duties. From the year 1793 to the year 1796, and from 1796 to 1800, Depons, in his account of the Caraccas, gives the following comparative statement of the value of the produce exported.
Exportations from 1793 to 1796. 367,819 quintals cacao, at 18 dollars, 2,955,963 libs. indigo, 12 reals, 1,498,332 libs. cotton, 20 reals, 1,325,584 Jibs. coffee,
Dollars. 6,620,742' 5,172,937 1 12,252,415 299,666 159,070 *
Exportations from I796 to 1800. Dollars. 239,162 quintals cacao, at 18 dollars, 4,304,916) 793,210 libs. indigo, 14 reals, 1,386,117 f 6,442,318 2,834,254 libs. cotton, 20 dollars, 566,850 ( 1,536,967 libs. coffee, 184,435) Diminution on the four last years,
5,810,097
€ A R A C C A S. The cargoes exported from Spain to the Caraccas Caraccas. This diminution of exports is ascribed by Depnns do not, generally, contain above one-fourth of Spato the defects of the internal administration, and nish produce and manufactures, the other threeForeign partly also to the war which, after this period, was fourths being supplied chiefly from Britain, France, greatest1'* begun between Great ilritain and Spain. This writ the Hanse Towns, and part occasionally by Italy. iequest. er does not specify particularly the faults to which The articles in the greatest demand at the Caraccas he alludes; but, in the mean time, no such change are linens, laces, black stuffs, principally serges, had taken place in the domestic administration of prunellas, satins, and taffeties. These are used for the country, as will account for such an enormous the cassocks and mantles of the priests, and for the defalcation in the value of the produce exported. dresses used by the women in their devotional exerThe war between Britain and Spain appears to be cises. Thick cloths are also in demand, and most of the most probable and satisfactory cause of this di- the whites are dressed in eassimere or in French minution. By that event, the whole colonial trade Hats are also a saleable article, and French of Spain became the prey of the British cruisers; cloths. hats are universally preferred to those manufactured and such was their unremitting vigilance, that the intercourse between the colonies and the mother coun- in other countries. No round hats are worn except by the lowest classes, or by boys, all the civil and try was almost entirely interrupted. In these cir- military officers wearing cocked hats. A considercumstances, the rigour of the colonial monopoly was relaxed ; the ports of the colonies were thrown open able quantity of boots, for the wearing of which the to neutrals ; and, in addition to this intercourse, a young Spaniards have acquired a taste, have been contraband trade, to a great extent, was carried on lately imported from the British colonies, and have with the British colonies. But of this illicit traffic met with a ready sale. As the shoemakers of the no return would of course be made in the general country cannot imitate the fashion and the make of account of the colonial trade ; and it is possible, these articles, the importer is free from competition, therefore, that the apparent defalcation of exports and he is therefore enabled to charge a high price. pointed out by Depons may have arisen from the Shoes, however, are made in the country of a sufficircumstance of an illicit having taken the place of ciently good quality, and at a moderate price. They a contraband trade. In the year 1800, the Court of do not, therefore, form so profitable an article of imSpain, swayed by the selfish representations of the portation. Among the coarse goods, the linens of Spanish merchants, revoked the liberty granted to Brittany, Rouen, Morlaix, and of Russia, are univerthe colonies of trading with neutrals ; and the con- sally used. The population of the Caraccas is stated by De- Population, sequences of this order were injurious in the expons to amount to. 728,000, and he assigns the foltreme, and would have been ruinous to the colonies, had they not resorted, as before, to the necessary lowing proportions to the different provinces: remedy of the contraband trade. This trade was carried on to a great extent with the British colo- To the province of Venezuela, including Varinas, a population of 500,000 nies, and was either connived at, or, as was affirmed, To the Government of Maracaibo, 100,000 was in some cases formally licensed, by the British 80,000 cruisers During this period, therefore, and gene- To that of Cumana, 34,000 rally indeed during the whole course of the war, no To Spanish Guiana, 14,000 custom-house account of imports and exports can To the Isle of Margaretta, be considered as affording any accurate view of the 728,000 foreign trade of this colony. The public revenues of the Caraccas arise from Revenues. Of this population the whites form two-tenths, the various taxes, namely, from the alcavala, which is a tax of 5 per cent, collected on all sales, whether of slaves three-tenths, the descendants of freedmen moveables, or of landed property. Every species of four, and the Indians compose the remainder. Some merchandise or territorial production is made subject writers are of opinion that this account of the poputo this impost, the moment it is exposed to sale ; and lation is rather exaggerated. The principal towns of the Caraccas are, Caraccas Principa 1 retail dealers are in the habit of compounding with the Government, by the payment of an annual sum the capital, containing 34,000 inhabitants, Cumana Towns. on their whole stock. This tax produced, in 1793, 24,000, Porto Cavello 7500, Valencia 6500, Mara150,862 dollars, and, in 1797, only 10,248, owing to cay 8400, Guayra 6000, Tulmero 8000, Victoria the suspension of maritime commerce. A revenue 7800, Coro 10,000, Carora 6200, Barquisimeto is also derived from export and import duties, 11,300, Tocuyo 10,000, Guanara 12,300. This country was first discovered by Columbus History, and from duties on all distillers of intoxicating liquors, Revoand on the shops where they are sold ; from the sale in the year 1498, in the course of his third voyage late llitl0n * of titles and offices, from stamps, from the sale to America. Several attempts were made to settle of bulls granting spiritual indulgencies, from the it by means of missionaries, all ol which proved unmonopoly of tobacco, and from various other local successful. The natives were at last subdued by a imports. The tithes, which are rigorously levied military force, and the management of the Spanish throughout the Caraccas, form a branch of the pub- settlements in this province were, for a pecuniary conlic revenue ; two-ninths belonging to the Crown, and sideration, consigned by Charles ^ . to a German merthe remaining seven-ninths being appropriated to the cantile company named the V elsers. Under their gopayment of the ecclesiastics, and to the building and vernment, the country experienced the most cruel oppression. The company were, in consequence upholding of religious edifices. 12
616 Cnraccas.
CAR Caraccas deprived of the sovereignty in the year 1550, and a
CAR 617 one member to Parliament; lies in the province of Ca.diganl rem shire Cardigan. ® iP j' government was appointed by the Crown, Canterbury, and diocese of St David’s; and is in the shire. oince this period, these provinces continued under North Wales circuit. The coast of Cardigan Bay ^ government of the mother country, until the (which is formed by the projecting counties of Caeryear 1810, when Spain was nearly overrun by the narvon the north, and Pembroke on the south armies of France, and when no reasonable expec- with theoncoasts of Merioneth and Cardigan in the tation could be entertained that she would be able to resist the invading force. In these circum- centre), according to tradition and appearance, have stances, the colonies being aggrieved by useless re- suffered greatly from the depredations of the sea especially on the Cardigan shore. The tradition of strictions on their commerce, and by other oppres- the is, that there was formerly a sixth hunsions, a strong party was formed, ostensibly to pro- dred,country which now covered by the sea; and there tect them from the yoke of France, but really, it is are still to beis seen, at low water, several ridges of supposed, with a view to detach them entirely from rocks, called causeways, which seem to confirm the the dominion of the mother country. At last, on truth of this tradition. Of these the most remarkthe 4th July 1811, the congress of Venezuela pub- able is St Patrick's Causeway, which extends from lished a formal decree for their independence. A de- within a mile of the point of Mochras, south of claration of rights was afterwards issued, and with Harlech, 22 miles into the sea, in a serpentine line such severity was the new system enforced, that* the It is formed of rough stones, 24 feet broad- and jails were crowded with persons suspected of disaf- at the extremity there is a round head, formed of fection to the revolutionary measures adopted ; great sixteen great stones, one of which is four yards in numbers were proscribed ; some were banished and diameter. Trunks and roots of trees are also imprisoned; others were executed, and their heads found at a considerable distance from the shore stuck upon poles, as examples of terror to others, The principal rivers are the Tivy, the Rydiol', the Riw oeveral towns, and among others Coro and Valencia, declared against the new system. Troops were Ystwyth, and the Aeron. The Tivy rises in Llyn ieefy, or Fivy Pool, in a mountain in the northimmediately dispatched to reduce the former city east of the county. On the top of this mountain by force; these were beaten back with considerable there are five lakes, of which Tivy Pool is the prinloss. General Miranda was at the same time sent cipal. It is about one mile and a half in circumagainst the town of Valencia, and after some sanguinary encounters, he obtained possession of the place, ference, is surrounded by high and perpendicular and is said never to have been fathomed. from which, however, he was soon driven with rocks I he livy at first flows through a rocky district • loss by the determined resistance of the inhabiafterwards, forming a regular channel, it passes Tretants. Being reinforced, he renewed the attack, garon ; and, at Llanbeder, becomes the boundary and finally succeeded in his object. Since this pebetween and Cardiganshire It riod, the war between the two parties has been falls into Caermarthenshire the sea about two miles below Cardigan carried on with various success; and, from the latest Ihe Rydiol rises on the south-west side of Plinaccounts, it would appear that the cause of the in- hmmon ; its course is about south-west; and it falls dependents is gaining ground. At present we have no information by which we can decide as to the into the sea near Aberystwyth. About 12 miles above this town is the Devil’s Bridge, called by the issue of the contest; and we must, therefore, defer Welch, Pont y Monach, or the Monks’ Bridge any farther account of it till we arrive at the general and Pont ar Fynach, from the confluence here of article of South America. t ie Fynach with the Rydiol. There are two arches See Semple’s Sketch, of the Present State of the Ca- one above the other. The uppermost is between raccas, 1812—Travels in South America, bu F. De- 2° and 30 feet in the chord ; and the other less than pons, 2 vols. 8vo, 1807—Humboldt’s Personal Narer 0ne was built in 1 rative of Travels in the Equinoctial Resions, 2 vols 2the i°‘ building t -i,6 Upp 753 ; the datethis of of, the lower one is not known. Near 8vo, 1814. (0 \ bridge are the falls of the Fynach. The first fall takes CARDIGANSHIRE is divided from Caermar- place where the river is much confined by the rocks thenshire and Pembrokeshire, along the greatest part The water is carried about six feet over them into a of its southern side, by the Tivy; on the north it is basm 18 feet below. The next fall is 60 feet, the third divided from Merionethshire by the river Dory; and fall is 20, and the last is 110 fret. Near this is the fall from Montgomeryshire by an artificial boundary. of the Rydiol, the scenery round which is considered Ihe boundaries on the east, between it and Radnor- very striking and grand. The Ystwyth rises among shire and Breconshire, are also artificial. On the the hills on the eastern side of the county, and falls 1 ent, west, it stretches along the sea-coast in a bending into the sea at Aberystwyth. The Aeron is be1 rom nor Divr^'eS, tuiee’ s ^10re th-east to south-west, forming part of tween six and seven miles in extent, receives six triis. ^ ‘ °f Cardigan Bay. Its extent, measured butary streams, and forms, during the whole of its along the shore, is nearly 40 miles. Its breadth course, nearly the arc of a circle. It falls into the does not average 20. It contains 726 square miles, sea at Aberaeron. or 464,640 acres. It is divided into five hundreds. That part of the country which lies along the sea Surface and The market towns are Aberystwith, Cardigan, Llan- is level, especially the south-western extremity; but Soil, bodarnvawr, Llanbeder, and Tregaron. The num- the northern and eastern parts are very rugged’ and ber of parishes, according to the last Parliamentary mountainous. I he soil of the low lands is either a returns respecting the poor’s rates, is 97. It sends light or a strong loam, lying on slate. The soil of "VOL. II. FART II. 4I
CAR CAR 618 Cardiganshire is celebrated in the literary history Cardigan, Cardigan- the mountainous division is m general thin and poor, of Wales, for having given birth to David ap Gwylim, sh,re shire. except in the narrow valhes, where it consists of who flourished between 1330 and 1370. From the day or peat. The tract along the sea coast proAgriculture, duces good crops of wheat, barley, turnips, potatoes, poems of this author, the modern literary dialect of Wales has been chiefly formed, and this dialect is language, andoal Tl/quality, as well as the produce of spoken with greater purity in this county than in any the barley grown in some parts of this tract are very other part of the principality. remarkable! Between Aberaeron and L^^tec!’ •In Cardiganshire, a custom prevails resembling singular is an extensive flat, extending from the sea to the the penny-weddings among the peasantry of Scot- custom, east mountains, which produces from sixty to eighty land. Before marriage a bidder goes from house bushels of fine barley ftr acre. This land is con- to house, inviting the inhabitants to come to the stantly under this crop, and has been so for at least wedding, and to bring money and cheese and buthalf a century. It is manured every three years ter. The marriage always takes place on the Sawith sea-weed. Potatoes are grown on the peat turday, and the guests assemble on the Friday witli mosses in such a manner as at once to secure good their presents. All these are set down on paper, crops, and to drain the land. The potatoc sets are that, if demanded, they may be repaid, but this sellaid on the surface of the bog, a little manure is dom happens. The furnishing of the woman is also spread over them, and they are afterwards covered brought home on this day. On Saturday, ten or with earth dug out of the trenches. , i u * twenty of the man’s friends who are best mounted, Very few sheep are kept on the low land ; but go to demand the bride, who is placed on a horse on the mountains they are numerous. They are, in behind her father, and rides off as fast as she can. general, the native breed, very inferior both for wool She is soon, however, overtaken. Presents are conand carcase. Cattle are kept in all parts of the county; tinued to be received on the Saturday and Sunday; in the low lands, and in the vales of the mountainous on Monday they are sold, frequently making, with district, principally for butter and cheese ; in the other the money presented, the sum of L. 50 or L. 60. parts they are bred for the English drovers. Of the In 1803, the poor’s rates amounted to L.10,16?. poor’* 464,640 acres which this county contains, it is cal- In 1815, there was collected from 92 parishesRlte8* culated that 100,000 are in tillage ; 145,000 in pasL. 15,409, 8s. 6d. ture, and the rest waste land. In 1800, the number of houses was 9040, and of population, Cardiganshire formerly was famous tor its mines Mines. inhabitants 42,956. The males were 20,408 ; the of lead but at present they are not very productive ; females 22,548. In 1811, there were the principal are two, in the vicinity of Cwmystwith. Near fal-y-bont are some that used to be very pro- Houses inhabited, 9039 ductive, but now are almost exhausted ; the matrix Families inhabiting them, 11,296 of the ore is carbonate of lime. There are also veins Houses building, 129 of copper, but they are not wrought. The want of 155 uninhabited, coal, of which there is none in the whole county, Families employed in agriculture, 5864 the rugged nature of the country, and the badness ———— in trade, manufactures, and handiof the'roads, are probably the chief causes why the crafts, I91S Slate Quar mines are not worked. Near Aberystwith are large All others, not comprehended in these classes, 3519 slate quarries; the slates lie in alternate strata with vies. shale, and are' in compact masses, of a coarse tex23,759 ture ; the inclination of the strata varies very much, Males, 26,501 Females, following the general irregularity of shale. The slate that is found near the sea coast, not being 50,260 Total, mixed with shale, lies in perpendicular strata. There Peat. 42,956 Population in 1800, are some very extensive tracts of peat, especially on the coast beyond Aberystwith, bordering on the river Increase, 7304 Dovy; and from Strata Florida, near the Tivy, to 'Llyn y Maes, or the lake of the flood; the latter See Meyrick’s History of Cardiga nsh ire.—Maltract is one continued marshy bog, abounding in Turbaries, as far as Tregaron ; according to tradition, kin’s Scenery, SfC. of Wales.—Aikin’s Tour in Wales. (c-) a town once stood in this marsh. As connected with CARLOW, the account of which in the Encyclo- Extent and the natural history of this county, it may be remarked that Mr Aikin observed near the banks of the padia, under the name of Catherlough, occupies Boundaries Rydiol, a moor-buzzard, and the horse-ant, the largest only a very few lines, lies almost entirely between species of ants that are natives of Britain. The the rivers Barrow and Slaney. It is about 33 English miles long, from north to south, and about 29 angel-fish is found in the bay of Cardigan. miles broad at its greatest breadth ; but it narrows There are few manufactures in this county; at Manufactures and Llechwydol, near Cardigan, are iron and tin works. in very much from east to west, between Kilkenny Exports. Black cattle, pigs, butter, barley, oats, flannels, and Wexford. It is divided into five baronies, Welsh-webs, bark, iron, tin, slates, and ale, are ex- and into fifty parishes. According to Dr Beaufort, ported from Aberystwyth, and Cardigan. There is its area is 214 square miles Irish, or 344 English, a great fair for cattle and sheep at Rhos, near the equal to 137,050 Irish or plantation acres, and 220,098 English acres. The principal towns are source of the Tivy. 11
Callow. Surface aud Soil.
CAR Carlow, Tublow, Lcighlin-Bridge, Rutland, Palatine Town, Hackets-town, and Gousbridge. The surface of the greater part of this county is pleasantly undulated; and, with the exception of the high and rough hills which occupy the small portion of it that lies to the west of the Barrow, and the mountainous district in the south-east, on the borders of Wexford, the hills yield little in fertility to the vales. The prevailing soil of the lowlands is a strong fertile loam, mixed with limestone, and incumbent upon it; and that of the uplands is generally a light gravel. Mr Wakefield gives the following statement of the cultivated and uncultivated land in this county : Baronies. Ruthvilly, Carlow, Forth, I drone, St Mullins,
Rivens.
Cultivated Land. Acres Irish. 28,510 18,487 21,601 38,615 16,303
Mountains and Boss. Acres Irish.
123,516
12,217
1937 7100 3171
The principal rivers are the Barrow and the Slaney; the former runs along the whole of the western borders of the county, with the exception of a jutting part of Idrone barony, which it separates from the main body. The Barrow is navigable for barges as far as the town of Carlow, and thence there is a communication with Dublin by means of the Grand Canal. The Slaney, which rises in Wicklow, crosses the eastern part of the county. Mineralogy. The mineralofy of Carlow is very imperfectly known. The river Barrow seems to separate the soil in this part of Ireland; to the west of it there is limestone in abundance, whereas there is none in Wexford and Wicklow'; the best in Ireland is found near Carlow. Marl and a great variety of clays are also found in this county. The mountains, called Black Stairs, from their black appearance at a distance, and their perpendicular height, which separate Carlow7 from Wexford, are chiefly composed of granite. It also contains iron ore, and a considerable quantity of oxide of manganese. In the time of Charles I. there appears to have been a large ironfoundery near Idof, in which, ordnance, pots, and small round furnaces, were cast. It belonged to Mr Christopher Wandsworth, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and aftenvards Deputy of that kingdom, under the Earl of Stafford (Natural History oj Ireland, p. 73, Dublin, 1726.) By the same authority we are informed, that the first coal mine was found out in Ireland, a few years before 1726, in the same hill, where the iron mine was. “ In that iron mine, after that for a great while they had drawn iron-ore out of it, and that, by degrees, they were gone deeper, at last, in lieu of ore, they met with sea-coal, so as ever since, all the people dwelling in those parts have used it for their firing, finding it very cheap ; for the load of an Irish car, drawn by one garron, did stand
CAR 619 them, besides the charges of bringing it, in nine CarJow. pence only, three pence to the digger, and six pence to the owner.”—“ These coals are very heavy, and burn with little flame, but lye like charcoal, and continue to the space of seven or eight hours, casting a very great and violent heat.” (Natural History of Ireland, p. 84.) The same author informs us, that “ little smith coals were dispersed every where in great quantity, and had been used by the smiths,, even before the mine w7as discovered.” At present, this mine is either forgotten, or not deemed w'orth w orking, as the county is chiefly supplied with coals from Kilkenny. There are no large estates in this county ; and very Agriculture, little minute division of property. The hiring tenant is generally the occupier, except of small pieces. Ihe fee has been more transferred here than in any other part of Ireland. Carlow was formerly noted for the extent and luxuriance of its pastures, being one of the greatest sheep counties in the kingdom ; but in consequence of the bounty which was granted about the year 1768, on corn conveyed by landcarriage to Dublin, Mr Young calculated that sheep-feeding had declined so much, wdien he was there in 1776-8, that four farmers had a greater number of sheep twenty years before, than w'ere kept in the whole county at that period There are still, however, some excellent flocks of large w’oolled sheep. Four sheep of the Irish breed, and five of the English are called a “ collop,” and three collops are allotted to two acres of the best land. But it is for its dairies that Carlow is famous ; and, Dairies, in this respect, it is not excelled by any county in Ireland. The farmers spare no trouble or expence to procure good cattle for their dairies. From twenty to fifty are generally kept; and, during the season, each cow produces on an average about l£ cwt. of butter. The dairy system pursued in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and some of the northern counties of Ireland, of letting cows to dairymen, is followed here ; but this custom was more prevalent when the Catholics could not legally pui’chase land, as they then employed their capital in hiring cows. The butter made in Carlow is divided into three sorts, according to its quality. The first in point of quality is sent to Dublin and England, and thence ex ported to the East and West Indies. It is highly esteemed in the London market, where it is often sold as Cambridge butter. That of the second quality is exported to Spain, and the worst to Portugal. It is all packed in large casks, weighing upwards of three hundred weight. From the following statement, given by Mr Young, Increase of it appears that the bounty on land-carriage corn soon l lllage* operated to the increase of tillage in Carlow. No great additional quantity of corn was brought from this county to Dublin till 1769, when the bounty had risen f rom about L. 150 to L. 849. In the years 1770 and 177E it declined. In 1772, it rose to L. 1025; and in 1773 to L. 2676. In 1774, to L. 2813. In 1777, the last year Mr Young quotes, it was L. 2479. There is not, however, much wheat grown, and Barley, it is not of a bright colour, or a very good quality.
620 Carlow „ IJ
CAR But the barley of Carlow' is excellent; according to Mr Young, the best in Ireland. At the time of his tour, it w^as the only interior county which produced it ; and at present more is grown here than in any other part of the kingdom. It is principally consumed by the illicit distilleries in the north of Ireland, being carried to Dublin by the canal ; by the breweries and distilleries at Cork ; or by the malting-houses at Wexford. The potatoes grown in Carlow are excellent. There is little or no flax. The county is tolerably w ooded. In the vicinity of Carlow, a great many onions are growm, which are sold all over Ireland. ManufacCarlow is not distinguished as a manufacturing tures * county. In Carlow, coarse cloth, reaping hooks, scythes, shears, &c. are, however, made. At Leighlinbridge is one of the largest corn-mills in Ireland, capable of grinding more than 15,000 barrels a-year. Population- According to Dr Beaufort, in the year 1792, there were 8763 houses, and 44,000 inhabitants ; 15.6 Irish acres to a house ; and 40-94 inhabitants to an Irish square mile. The Catholics are reckoned to be ten to one Protestant. The Catholic farmers are becoming wealthy, and have considerable property in leases and farming stock. In 1792, there were 5503 houses of one hearth; 484 of two ; 128 of three ; 69 of four; 50 offive ; 31 of six ; 15 of seven ; 8 of eight; 7 of nine ; 3 of ten ; none were returned above 44 : 268 were exempted as new', and 1822 as inhabited by paupers. The total, according to this return, was 8394. Carlow county sends two members to Parliament, and the town one. The number of registered freeholders of fifty pounds, to February 1815, was 359 ; °f twenty pounds, 295 ; and of forty shillings, 3263 : in all, 3917See Young’s Tour in Ireland.—Beaufort’s Memoir of a Map of Ireland.—Wakefield’s Statistical Account of Ireland. (c.) CARLYLE (Joseph Dacre), a distinguished orientalist, and general scholar, w'as the son of a Physician at Carlisle, and was born there in the year 1759. He received his early education, in the learned languages, at the grammar-school of that city. In 1775 he proceeded to Cambridge, obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1779> and was elected a fellow of Queen’s College in that University. He left College in 1783, after taking his master’s degree, and returned to his native city, where he obtained some church preferment. In 1793, upon the resignation of Dr Paley, he succeeded to the Chancellorship of the Diocese of Carlisle. (Gentleman s Magazine, 1804.) Mr Carlyle had early devoted much of his attention to an accurate study of the Arabic language, in wrhich pursuit he had been assisted by a native of Bagdad, who resided sometime with him at the University. Having thus attained to great proficiency in the language and literature of the Arabians, he in 1792 appeared before the Public as the Translator of an inedited historical work in that language, known under the name of the Maured Allatafet. The author of this work was Jemaleddin, a person of the rank of Emir, and distinguished among the Eastern writers by the title of Historiographer of Egypt, on
CAR account of his great attention to the improvement Carlyle, of its history. The Maured Allatafet is an Epitome, made by Jemaleddin himself, of a larger work, which comprised a complete history of that country, from the first establishment of the Arabian Government, to the eight hundred and fifty seventh year of the Hegira. In reviewing the Epitome wdth a view to its publication, Mr Carlyle thought proper to retrench that part of it which relates to the Caliphs of Bagdad, their history being, as he conceived, sufficiently illustrated in other writings ; so that his publication commences with the first of the Fatimite Caliphs wLo reigned in Egypt; and it ends, where the original Epitome also terminates, with the reign of Almalec Alashrof, the twelfth of the Circassian race of Sultans, thus comprising a period of nearly five hundred years. However creditable to Mr Carlyle’s attainments in Eastern learning, this treatise is not thought to have added much to the stock of historical knowledge, or to suggest any high ideas of the merit of that larger work from which it was abridged, and which procured Jemaleddin so much renown in the East. The title of Mr Carlyle’s publication is as follows: Maured Allatafet Jemaleddini, flii Togri Bardii, seu rerum Egypticarum Annales, ab anno Christi 971, usque ad annum 1453. E Codice MS. Bibliothecae Academiae Cambrigiensis. Arab, et Lat. 4to. In 1794, Mr Carlyle was elected Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge ; and, in 1796, he gave to the world another, and more pleasing proof of his zealous endeavours to illustrate the literature of the East, in a work entitled, Specimens of Arabian Poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the Caliphat, ivith some Account of the Authors. Arab, and Eng. 8vo. His object was, by arranging the pieces in chronological order, and accompanying each with some account of the author, and of the occasion of the composition, to exhibit a sort of history of Arabian poetry, during the most splendid period of the Mohammedan empire. Many of these pieces possess considerable beauty; but as Mr Carlyle had it in view to exemplify the different species of poetic composition, he has accordingly translated some specimens, in which he was himself sensible there was nothing to be prized, either in the thought or the execution. Like most of those who have become eminent in Eastern learning, Professor Carlyle is thought to have formed too high an estimate of its merits ; but all must admit that his Specimens, with their prefaces, form an elegant and interesting w'ork ; one which, to use his own words, cannot but prove acceptable to “ those who wish, to gain an insight into the history of manners, and who love to trace the operations of the human mind in distant countries and various situations.” A second edition of this work was published in 1810. When the Earl of Elgin was appointed Ambassador to the Porte, in 1799, Professor Carlyle w'as invited to accompany him as an accredited agent of the British government, for the purpose of literary research; and in that capacity he accordingly proceeded to the East. After remaining some time in Constantinople, he left that capital in January 1800, and proceeded through Asia Minor and Cyprus to 1
CAR Palestine; in which tour he was employed till the
Carlyle
g July> when 116 returned to Constantinople. He again quitted this city in March 1801, and visited the Troad, the convents of Mount Athos, and several parts of Greece. He appears to have spent three weeks amongst these celebrated convents, where, being furnished with recommendations from the Government, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, he was received with marked kindness, and enjoyed every opportunity for literary research. From Athens, where he spent some time, assisted in his inquiries by the artists employed by Lord Elgin, he proceeded in a Ragusan vessel to Malta, and afterwards to Naples, where he arrived in July 1801. He soon thereafter set out for England, and reached his native city early in the month of October. (Addenda to the Remains of John Tweddall. 1816. 42o.) Soon after his return, he was presented by the Bishop of Carlisle to the living of Newcastle-uponTyne ; but which he did not long enjoy ; for he fell into bad health, and died in the prime of life, in April 1804 (Gent. Mag. 1804). His premature death cut short some useful literary undertakings, and deprived the world of the full fruits of his observations on many interesting scenes, which he had surveyed with the eye of a scholar and the feeling of a poet; for all that the public has derived from his travels, is a posthumous volume of poems, with remarks suggested by these scenes, and which, though bearing testimony to his learning and taste, is but a poor substitute for such a work as, with his knowledge and means of information, he could not have failed to produce. The title of this posthumous volume is as follows: Poems, suggested chiefly hy scenes in Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece, mih Prefaces extracted from the Author s Journal. It was published in 4to, in 1805, and is embellished with some fine engravings. CARNATIC, the name of an extensive maritime province on the eastern side of the peninsula of India, which, according to Mr Hamilton’s East India Gazetteer, stretches from the 8th to the 16th degree of north latitude. In Dr Heyne’s Tracts on India, it is said to extend from the 10th to the 15th degree. The average breadth of this tract is about seventy-five miles. It comprehends the former dominions of the Nabot of Arcot, which were transferred to the East India Company, by a treaty concluded in 1801. The Carnatic is reckoned one of the hottest portions of India. The soil varies, but is generally sandy,
Carpentry.
followin
CAR 621 and in many parts water is scarce, the supplies being Caruatic wholly derived from what is preserved in tanks filled r II during the periodical rains. There are, however, some Y rivers which flow through the country from the high mountains called the Ghauts. In the inland parts, there are large spots of salt ground, containing, says Dr Heyne, either common salt, or a mixture of that salt and soda, which, from the use to which it is applied in India, is known by the name of Washermens earth. Rice constitutes the principal produce of this country, and in those places where water is scarce, great labour is employed to obtain the necessary supplies for the rice fields. The cultivators raise four difterent crops in the year, two of them from the same ground. In good seasons the first crop produces fifty fold. Sugar is cultivated, but in very small quantities, the soil not being rich enough for the cane. The indigo plant might be cultivated to advantage, if the demand for it were greater. The common dxuarf cotton is cultivated on the coast, but not extensively. The capital of this province is Madras, of the present state of which city we shall give some account when we reach that head. The other principal towns are Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tranquebar, and Negapatam, in the division called the Southern Carnatic; Madras, Pondicherry, Arcot, Wallajahbad, Vellore, Cuddalore, Ginjee, Pullicat, Chandgherry, and Nelloor, in the Central Carnatic; and Ongole, Carwaree, and Samgaum, in the Northern Carnatic. Vellore is well known as one of the principal stations of the Company’s forces. The sons °f Tippoo Sultan were placed here, and palaces on a large scale built for them, but since the well known mutiny of 1807, they have been removed to Bengal. The great mass of the population profess the Hindoo religion, the Mahommedans being but thinly scattered through the country. It contains about 40,000 Christians of all descriptions. The whole population of the Carnatic, in its most extensive sense, may be estimated at five millions. The natives are considered inferior in bodily strength to the other natives of Hindostan Proper. In no part of India are the genuine Hindoo manners more purely preserved than among the majority of the natives of the Carnatic. See Hamilton’s East India Gazetteer, 8vo. London, 1815. Heyne’s Tracts, Historical and Statistical, on India. 4to, London, 1814.
CARPENTRY. It has been judged most expedient to reprint the article Carpentry from the Supplement to the third Edition of the Encyclopcedia, in order that it
may form, with the articles Roof and Strength of Materials, * a uniform system of the most useful departments of practical mechanics, deduced, in
* It is proper to mention here, that these two articles, first printed in the third, were incorporated in the subsequent editions of the Encyclopcedia, but that the connected article Carpentry, first published in the Supplement to that edition, was not; owing to this circumstance, that the copyright of the Encyclopaedia, and or that Supplement, was for some time held bv different Proprietors.—Ed.
(322 C A R P E Carpentry, the same familiar and elementary manner, from the simple principles of the composition or forces : premising some Introductory Observations, which may be considered as a retrospective summary or the doctrine of Passive Strength, accompanied by, some of the most useful propositions respecting the resistance of elastic substances, derived from the principles which have been already laid down in our article Bridge : and subjoining a few notes, on such passages as may appear to require further illustration or correction. Some of the demonstrations will be partly borrowed from a work which lias been published since the death of Professor Robison, the able author of these three articles : but others will be more completely original: and of the remarks, the most important will probably be those which relate to the form and direction of the abutments of rafters ; a subject which seems to have been very incorrectly treated by former writers on Carpentry. I. Abstract of the Doctrine of Passive Strength. The effects of forces of different kinds, on the materials employed in the mechanical arts, require to be minutely examined in the arrangement of every work dependent on them ; and of these effects, as exhibited in a solid body at rest, we may distinguish seven different varieties: the extension of a substance acting simply as a tie ; the compression of a block supporting a load above it; the detrusion of an axis resting on a support close to its wheel, and resisting by its lateral adhesion only ; the flexure of a body bent by a force applied unequally to its different parts; the torsion or twisting, arising from a partial detrusion of the external parts in opposite directions, while the axis retains its place; the alteration or permanent change of a body which settles, so as to remain in a new form, when the force is withdrawn ; and lastly, the fracture, which consists in a complete separation of parts before united, and which has been the only effect particularly examined by the generality of authors on the strength of materials. The analogy of the laws of extension and compression has been demonstrated in a former article of this volume, and their connexion with flexure has been investigated: but it is not easy to compare them directly with the resistance opposed to a partial detrusion, the effects of which are only so far understood as they are exhibited in the phenomena of twisting : and these appear to justify us in considering the resistance of lateral adhesion as a primitive force, deduced from the rigidity or solidity of the substance, and proportional to the deviation from the natural situation of the particles. The resistance exhibited by steel wire, when twisted, bears a greater proportion to that of brass than the resistance to extension or compression ; but the forces agree in being independent of the hardness produced by tempering. Flexure may be occasioned either by a transverse or by a longitudinal force: when the force is transverse, the extent of the flexure is nearly proportion-
N T R Y. al to its magnitude ; but when it is longitudinal, there Carpentry, is a certain magnitude which it must exceed, in order to produce or rather to continue the flexure, if the force be applied exactly at the axis. But it is equally true that the slightest possible force applied at a distance from the axis, however minute, or with an obliquity however small, or to a beam already a little curved, will produce a certain degree of flexure; and this observation will serve to explain some of the difficulties and irregularities which have occurred, in making experiments on beams exposed to longitudinal pressure. Stiffness, or the power of resisting flexure, is measured by the force required to produce a given minute change of form. For beams similarly fixed, it is directly proportional to the breadth and the cube of the depth, and inversely to the cube of the length. Thus a beam or bar two yards long will be equally stiff with a beam one yard, provided that it be either twice as deep, or eight times as broad. If the ends of a beam can be firmly fixed, by continuing them to a sufficient distance, and keeping them down by a proper pressure, the stiffness will be four times as great as if the ends were simply supported. A hollow substance, of given weight and length, has its stiffness nearly proportional to the square of the diameter : and hence arises the great utility of tubes, when stiffness is required, this property being still more increased by the expansion of the substance than the ultimate strength. It is obvious that there are a multiplicity of cases in Carpentry where stiffness is of more importance than any other property, since the utility as well as beauty of the fabric might often be destroyed by too great a flexibility of the materials. If we wish to find how much a beam of nr will sink when it is loaded in the middle, we may multiply the cube of the length in inches by the given weight in pounds, and divide by the cube of the depth, and by ten million times the breadth: but on account of the unequal texture of the wood, we must expect to find the bending somewhat greater than this in practice, besides that a large weight will often produce an alteration, or permanent settling, which will be added to it: a beam of oak will also sink a little more than a beam of fir, with the same weight. With respect to torsion, the stiffness of a cylindrical body varies directly as the fourth power of the diameter, and inversely in the simple proportion of the length : it does not appear to be changed by the action of any force tending to lengthen or to compress the cylinder: and it may very possibly bear some simple relation to the force of cohesion, which has not yet been fully ascertained: but it appears that, in an experiment of Mr Cavendish, the resistance of a cylinder of copper to a twisting force, acting at its surface, was about T^j of the resistance that the same cylinder would have opposed to direct extension or compression. Alteration is often an intermediate step between a temporary change and a complete fracture. There are many substances, which, after bending to a certain extent, are no longer capable of resuming their original form: and in such cases it generally hap-
CARPENTRY. 623 Carpentry, pens that the alteration may be increased without derived from the time required for the successive Carpentry, limit, until complete fracture takes place, by the propagation of the pressure through the different continued operation of the same force which has be- parts of the substance, in order that they may gun it, or by a force a little greater. Those sub- participate in the resistance. Thus if a weight stances which are the most capable of this change, fell on the end of a bar or column with a veloare called ductile, and the most remarkable are gold, city of 100 feet in a second, and the substance of its length, without and a spider’s web. When a substance has under- could only be compressed gone an alteration by means of its ductility, its stiff- being crushed, it is obvious that the pressure must ness, in resisting small changes on either side, re- be propagated through the substance, with a velocimains little or not at all altered. Thus if the stiff- ty of 20,000 feet in a second, in order that it might ness of a spider’s web, in resisting torsion, were suf- resist the stroke ; and, in general, a substance will ficient at the commencement of an experiment, to be crushed or penetrated by any velocity exceeding cause it to recover itself, after being twisted in an that which is acquired by a body falling from a angle of ten degrees, it would return ten degrees, and height, which is to half that of the modulus of elasticinot more, after having been twisted round a thou- ty of the substance, as the square of the greatest possand times. The ductility of all substances, capa- sible change of length is to the whole length. From ble of being annealed, is greatly modified by the the consideration of the effect of rigidity in lessening effects of heat: hard steel, for example, is incompar- the resilience of bodies, we may understand how a ably less subject to alteration than soft, although in diamond, which is capable of resisting an enormous some cases more liable to fracture ; so that the de- pressure, may be crushed with a blow of a .small gree of hardness requires to be proportioned to the hammer, moving with a moderate velocity. It is uses for which each instrument is intended: al- remarkable that, for the same substance in different though it was proved by Coulomb, and has since been forms, the resilience is in most cases simply proporconfirmed by other observers, that the primitive stiff- tional to the bulk or weight, while almost every ness of steel, in resisting small flexures, is neither in- other kind of resistance is capable of infinite variacreased nor diminished by any variation in its temper. tion by change of form only. The elaborate investigations of Mr Lagrange, reThe strength of a body is measured by the force required completely to overcome the corpuscular specting the strength and the strongest forms of powers concerned in the aggregation of its particles, columns, appear to have been conducted upon prinand it is jointly proportional to the primitive stiff- ciples not altogether unexceptionable; but it is ness, and to the toughness of the substance; that is, much easier to confute the results than to follow the to the degree in which it is capable of a change of steps of the computations. One great error is the form without permanent alteration. It becomes supposition that columns are to be considered as however of importance in some cases, to consider elastic beams, bent by a longitudinal force; while, the measure of another kind of strength, which has in reality, a stone column is never slender enough sometimes been called resilience, or the power of to be bent by a force which it can bear without resisting a body in motion, and which is proportional being crushed: and even for such columns as are to the strength and the toughness conjointly, that is, capable of being bent by a longitudinal force, Mr to the stiffness and the square of the toughness. Lagrange’s determinations are in several instances Thus if we double the length of a given beam, we inadmissible; he asserts, for example, that a cylinreduce its absolute strength to one half, and its der is the strongest of all possible forms, and that a stiffness to one eighth; but since the toughness, or cone is stronger than any conoid of the same bulk; the space, through which it will continue to resist, but it appears to be demonstrable in a very simple is quadrupled, the resilience will be doubled, and it manner, and upon incontestable principles, that a would require a double weight to fall from the same conoidal form may be determined, which shall be height, or the same weight to fall from a double stronger than either a cone or a cylinder of the height, in order to overcome its whole resistance. same bulk. When a column is crushed, its resistance to comIf we wish to determine the resilience of a body from an experiment on its strength, we must mea- pression seems to depend in great measure on the sure the distance through which it recedes or is force of lateral adhesion, assisted by a kind of interbent, previously to its fracture ; and it may be shown nal friction, dependent on the magnitude of the that a weight, which is capable of breaking it by pressure, and it commonly gives way by the separapressure, would also break it by impulse if it moved tion of a wedge in an oblique direction. If the adwith the velocity acquired by falling from a height hesion were simply proportional to the section, it equal to half the deflection. Thus if a beam or bar may be shown that a square column would be most were broken by a weight of 100 pounds, after being easily crushed when the angle of the wedge is equal bent 6 inches without alteration, it would also bo to half of a right angle ; but, if the adhesion is inbroken by a weight of 100 pounds falling from a creased by pressure, this angle will be diminished height of 3 inches, or moving in a horizontal direc- by half the angle of repose appropriate to the subtion with a velocity of 4 feet in a second, or by a stance. In a wedge separated by a direct force weight of 1 pound falling from a height of 300 inch- from a prism of cast iron, the angle was found equal es. This substitution of velocity for quantity of to 32^°, consequently the angle of repose was matter has however one limit, beyond which the 2 x 12,j° = 25°, and the internal friction to the velocity must prevail over the resistance, without pressure as 1 to A66, the tangent of this angle: regard to the quantity of matter, and this limit is there was, however, a little bubble in the course of
CARPENTRY. 624 Carpentry, the fracture, which may have changed its direction prism as one fourth of its bulk is to one third of the Cai pentry. in a slight degree. The magnitude of the lateral bulk of the prism. The strength of a beam supportadhesion is measured by twice the height of the ed at its extremities may be doubled by firmly fixing wedge, whatever its angle may be : in this instance the ends, where it is practicable ; and we have althe height was to the depth as 1.57 to 1, conse- ready seen that the stiffness is quadrupled: but the quently the surface, affording an adhesion equal to resilience remains unaltered, since the resistance is the force, was somewhat more than three times as doubled, and the space through which it acts is regreat as the transverse section, and the lateral ad- duced to a half. It is therefore obviously of imhesion of a square inch of cast iron would be equal portance to consider the nature of the resistance to about 46,000 pounds: the direct cohesive force that is required from the fabric which we are conof the same iron was found by experiment equal to structing. A floor, considered alone, requires to be about 20,000 pounds for a square inch. It is ob- strong; but in connexion with a ceiling, its stiffness vious that experiments on the strength of a sub- requires more particular attention, in order that the stance in resisting compression ought to be tried on ceiling may remain free from cracks. A coach pieces rather longer than cubes, since a cube would spring requires resilience, for resisting the relative not allow of the free separation of a single wedge motions of the carriage, and we obtain this kind of so acute as was observed in this experiment; al- strength as effectually by combining a number of though, indeed, the force required to separate a separate plates, as if we united them into a single shorter wedge on each side would be little or no mass, while we avoid the stiffness, which would rengreater than for a single wedge. The same consi- der the changes of motion inconveniently abrupt. deration of the oblique direction of the plane of In all calculations respecting stiffness, it is neceseasiest fracture would induce us to make the outline sary to be acquainted with the modulus of elasticity, of a column a little convex externally, as the com- which may be found, for a variety of substances, in mon practice has been: for a circle cut out of a the annexed table. plank possesses the advantage of resisting equally in every section, and consequently of exhibiting the Height of the Modulus of Elasticity in Thousands of Feet. strongest form, when there is no lateral adhesion; and in the case of an additional resistance propor- Iron and steel, 10,000 Fir wood, 10,000 tional to the pressure, the strongest form is afforded Copper, 5,700 Elm, 8,000 by an oval consisting of two circular segments, each Brass, 5,000 Beech, 8,000 containing twice the angle formed by the plane of Silver, 3,240 Oak, 5,060 fracture with the horizon. If we wish to obtain a Tin, 2,250 Box, 5,050 direct measure of the lateral adhesion, we must take Crown glass, 9,800 Ice, ' 850 care to apply the forces concerned at a distance from each other not greater than one sixth of the II. Propositions relating to Flexure. depth of the substance, otherwise the fracture will probably be rather the consequence of flexure than A. The stiffness of a cylinder is to that of its cirof detrusion. Professor Robison found this force in cumscribing rectangular prism, as three times the bulk some instances twice as great as the direct cohesion, of the cylinder is tofour times that of the prism. or nearly in the same proportion, as it appears to We may consider the different strata of the subhave been in the experiment on the strength of cast stance as acting on levers equal in length to the disiron ; Mr Coulomb thinks it most commonly equal tance of each from the axis ; for although there is only to the cohesion: and in fibrous substances, no fixed fulcrum at the axis, yet the whole force is especially where the fibres are not perfectly straight, the same as if such a fulcrum existed, since the opthe repulsive strength is generally much less than posite actions of the opposite parts would relieve the would be inferred from this equality, and sometimes fulcrum from all pressure. Then the tension of each even less than the cohesive strength. stratum being also as the same distance x, and the It is well known that the transverse strength of a beam is directly as the breadth, and as the square breadth of the stratum being called 2j/, the fluxion 2 of the depth, and inversely as the length : and the of the force on either side of the axis will be 2x iydx, variation of the results of some experiments from while that of the force of the prism, the radius being this law can only have depended on accidental cir- r, is Zrx^&x. Now z being the area of half the porcumstances. If we wish to find the number of hun- tion included between the stratum and the axis, of dred weights that will break a beam of oak, supported at both ends, supposing them to be placed exact- which the fluxion is ydiX, the fluxion of z —-—will rr ly on the middle, we may multiply the square of the 3 , , y dx 3/Ardy xx WJ depth, in inches, by 100 times the breadth, and di- be — — -ii— or since — =1 —^. vide by the length ; and we may venture in practice rr rr to load a beam with at least an eighth as much as xxydx Sy yx / •vdx \ ^ xxydx Sxxydx this, or in case of necessity, even a fourth. And if rr r \ y / rr rr the load be distributed equally throughout the length of the beam, it will support twice as much : but for ^*CX7J(JlOC 2 2 a beam of fir, the strength is somewhat less than for ———; consequently the fluent of x j/dx is Irh — oak. A cylinder will bear the same curvature as \yax, which, when ^ = 0 becomes \r1z, or one the circumscribing prism, and it may be shown that fourth the product of the square of the radius by its strength, as well as its stiffness, is to that of the the areaofof the section, while the fluent of 2rx2dx,
CARPENTRY 625 Carpentry, that is, f rxs, the force of the prism, becomes f r‘ librium without flexure, but since it will be totter-Carpentry, f v or 2 ~j X 2r , one third of the product of the same ing, it cannot exist in nature. square into the area of the section of the prism. % applying this determination to the strength of Hence the radius of curvature of a cylindrical wood and iron, compared with the modulus of elasticity, it appears, that a round column or a square column, instead of-^- (Art.Bridge,Prop.G), will pillar of either of these substances cannot be bent by any longitudinal force applied to the axis, which it Moa can withstand without being crushed, unless its wei lt 16/^ ’ S' modulus M decreasing in length be greater than 12 or 13 times its thickness the same proportion as the bulk, when the prism is' respectively : nor a column or pillar of stone, unless reduced to a c}dinder. The force is supposed in this it be 40 or 45 times as long as it is thick. Hence proposition to be either transverse or applied at a we may infer, as a practical rule, that every piece of considerable distance from the axis: but the error timber or iron, intended to withstand any considerwill not be material in any other case. able compressing force, should be at least as many B. When a longitudinal force f is applied to the ex. inches in thickness as it is feet in length, in order to tremities of a straight prismatic beam, at the distance avoid the loss of force which necessarily arises from b from the axis, the deflection of the middle of the curvature. C. When a beam, fixed at one end, is pressed by a beam tv ill be b ( SECANT ; M force in a direction deviating from the original posibeing the weight of the modulus, e the length of the tion (f the axis in a small angle, of which the tangent beam, and a its depth. M TANG. The curvature being proportional to the distance is t, the dflection becomes dvz. at 12/ from the line of direction of the force, or to the ordinate, when that line is considered as the absciss, the elastic curve must, in this case, initially coincide with a portion of the harmonic curve, well known for . The inclination of the curve to the absciss being its utility in the resolution of a variety of problems of inconsiderable, it will not differ sensibly from a porthis kind. Now if the half length of the complete tion of a harmonic curve; and supposing the quacurve be called lc, corresponding to a quadrant of the drantal length of this curve k, we have again, as in generating circle, and the greatest ordinate y, c being the quadrant of a circle of which the radius is unity, the last proposition, k — ^ Vac) or> for a cylinthe radius of curvature r corresponding to y will be M • ac. Now, the tangent of the in—that is, a third proportional to y and - the ra- der, k u c clination of the harmonic curve varies as the sine of dius of the generating circle ; consequently —— the angular distance from the middle, consequently Wy u f e ec . Maacc ant, , , —, kk — ’ * * —'i ; but, by the 38 1 ~T~ ' c> or 9 f 18 to the radius, so is the tanccy gent t, expressing the difference of inclination €C nature of the curve, w; 4 = i: c — — sec. —r '. 1 and of the end of the beam and the direction of the * ' 2k ~ ok force, which is also that of the middle of the supy — b sec. —£ = 6 sec.V “ > which is the ordi- posed curve, to the tangent of the extreme inclination of the curve to its absciss, which will therefore nate at the middle ; and the deflection from the nabe t sec. —: consequently the greatest ordinate will tural situation is — b. It follows that, since the secant of the quadrant is , kt ec . . oe — sec. and since the ordinates are as the infinite, when V becomes equal to c, the desines of the angular distances from the origin of the flection will be infinite, and the resistance of the column will be overcome, however small the distance b curve, the ordinate at the fixed end of the beam, may be taken, provided that it be of finite magni- corresponding to the angle ~, that is, the deflection, tude: and since in this case cc, f— —-acc — •n vbe — kt sec. -jec f ec = kt TAxc. ec iS M Mac See ~~ will T T T T= ¥-at .8225 M —, which is the utmost force that the co2e Sf r J^[ > for a cylinder, £ . at tang. lumn will bear: and for a cylinder we find, by the tang. “ same reasoning, /=
>6lg9 M
^
If 5 be
supposed to vanish, we shall have in theory an equiVOL. II, PART II.
If. V/Z a M * By means of this proposition we may determine 4K
CARPENTRY. 626 , mi , 3e* , ; Carpentry. Carpentry. the effect of a small lateral force in weakening a the versed sine for the ordinate e will be maahalf« beam or pillar, which is at the same time compressed longitudinally by a much greater force; consi- of which is the actual depression. dering the parts on each side of the point, to which F. The depression of the middle of a horizontal bar, the lateral force is applied, as portions of two beams, fixed at both ends, and supporting its own weight bent in the manner here described, by a single force 5e* only, slightly inclined to the axis. ^ is d— — 32maa . D A bar fixed at one end, and bent by a transThe transverse force at each point of such a bar, verse force applied to the other end, assumes initially the form of a cubic parabola, and the deflection at resisted by the lateral adhesion, is as the distance x from the middle (Art. Bkidge, under Prop. L.); but this force is proportional to the first fluxion of the end is d - ^ • the strain or curvature, consequently the curvature The ordinate of a cubic parabola varying as x*, its itself must vary as the corrected fluent of rdrxdx, second fluxion varies as 6x (dx)2, or since the first taking here the negative sign, because the curvature fluxion of the absciss is constant, simply as the ab- diminishes as x increases; and the corrected fluent sciss x, measured from the vertex ot the parabola, will be l e2—x2, since it must vanish when x = ^ e; which must therefore be situated at the end to which the first fluxion of the ordinate will then be ^ e2xdx — 3 2 2 4 the force is applied, and the absciss must coincide | x dx, and the fluent ^ e x —^ x , or for the whole with the tangent of the bar. But if we begin from length ^ e, yf ^ e\ instead of or Tf y, which would the other end, wre must substitute e—x foi x, and have been its value if the curvature had been equal the 2second fluxion of the ordinate will be as 6 (e—x) throughout. Now the strain at the middle is the (dxl , the3 first as 6exdx—3x2dx, and the3 fluent as difference of the opposite strains, produced by the 3eX2_x , which, when x=e, becomes 2e , while it forces acting on either side ; and these are the half would have been Se3 if the curvature had been uni- weight, acting at the mean distance ^ e, and the reform, and the second fluxion had been every where sistance of the support, which is equal to the same 6c(dx)2. Now the radius of curvature at the fix- half weight, but acts at the distance ^ e, the difference being equivalent to the half weight, acting at ed end being r = —and the versed sine of a small the distance y e, so that the curvature at the middle 1/6 g/ is the same as if the bar were fixed there, and loose ee portion of a circle being equal to —, this versed at the ends, that is, as in the last proposition, subsine will be expressed by
6e3f
; and two thirds of
this,* or Maa will be the actual deflection. E, The depression of a bar, fixed horizontally at one end, and supporting only its own weight, is
stituting \ e for e,rz=.
; and the versed sine at
e2 Se* the distance ^ e being —, or
f
5e4 This demonstration may serve as an illus32maa tration of two modes of considering the effect of a 3g4 m being the height of the modulus of elasstrain, which have not been generally known, and d~ 2maa which are capable of a very extensive application. ticity. It follows that where a bar is equally loaded The curvature here varies as the square ot the throughout its length, the curvature at the middle is distance from the end, because the strain is propor- half as great as if the whole weight were collected tional to the weight of the portion of the bar beyond there, the strain derived from the resistance of the any given point, and to the distance of its centre of support remaining in that case uncompensated. The gravity conjointly, that is, to (