The Book Of Curiosities Part 92

Union of hearts, (a fine flower, that grew in several parts of the empire,) sincerity, frankness, disinterestedness, pity, and tenderness, (of each an equal quant.i.ty.) These were all mixed with two rich oils, which they called perpetual kind wishes, and serenity of temper; and the whole was strongly perfumed with the desire of pleasing, which gave it a most grateful smell, and was a sure restorative in all sorts of vapours.

This cordial was of so durable a nature, that no length of time could waste it: and what is very remarkable, (says our author,) it increased in weight and value the longer you kept it.--The moderns have most grossly adulterated this fine cordial; some of the ingredients indeed are not to be found, but what they impose upon you as friendship, is as follows:

Outward professions, (a common weed that grows every where,) instead of the flower of union; the desire of being pleased; a large quant.i.ty of self-interest, conveniency, and reservedness (many handfuls;) a little pity and tenderness. But some pretend to make it up with these two last, and the common oil of inconstancy (which, like our linseed oil, is cold-drawn every hour) serves to mix them together. Most of these ingredients being of a perishable nature, it will not keep, and it shews itself to be counterfeit, by lessening continually in weight and value.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This subject will be more fully explained hereafter.

[2] Besides these, amongst the internal parts are enumerated,--the lachrymal gland, which secretes the tears; the lachrymal caruncle, a small fleshy substance at the inner angle of the eye; the puncta lachrymalia, two small openings on the nasal extremity of each eye-lash; the lachrymal duct, formed by the union of the ducts leading from the puncta lachrymalia, and conveying the tears into the nose; the lachrymal sac, a dilatation of the lachrymal ca.n.a.l.

[3] An instrument, called the Pulmometer, has been invented, which enables us to measure the capacity of the lungs, and which may communicate information to the physician, of some importance, in diseases of this organ.

[4] Klopstock's Death in "L'Allemagne;" vol. i. p. 252.

[5] The places of the insertion of the muscles of the proboscis are visible on the skull; it was probably devoured, as well as the end of the tail.

[6] 9 ft. 6 in. measuring along the curve. The distance from the base of the root of the tusk to the point, is 3 ft. 7 in.

[7] On the arrival of the skin at Petersburg, it was totally devoid of hair.

[8] In speaking of the wild beasts of India, Pliny says, with regard to the animal in question,--

"Asperrimam autem feram monocerotem, reliquo corpore equo similem, capite cervo, pedibus eliphante, cauda apro, mugitu gravi, uno cornu nigro media fronte, cubitorum duum eminente. Hanc feram vivam negant capi." Plin.

Hist. Mund. Lib. 3, cap. 21.

The resemblance is certainly very striking.

[9] It was a female sheep, but by the sailors was constantly called Jack.

[10] Reaumur plausibly supposes, that it has been from observing this bee thus loaded, that the tale mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny, of the hive-bee's ballasting itself with a bit of stone, previous to flying home in a high wind, has arisen.

[11] M. Huber observes, that fecundated females, after they have lost their wings, make themselves a subterranean cell, some singly, others in common. From which it appears that some colonies have more than one female from their first establishment.

[12] See Fourcroy, _Annales du Museum_, No. 5, p. 338, 342. Some, however, still regard it as a distinct acid.

[13] See Fourcroy, _Annales du Museum_, No. 5. p. 343.

[14] One would think the writer of the account of ants, in Mouffet, had been witness to something similar. "If they see any one idle," (says he,) "they not only drive him as spurious, without food, from the nest; but likewise, a circle of all ranks being a.s.sembled, cut off his head before the gates, that he may be a warning to their children, not to give themselves up for the future to idleness and effeminacy."--_Theatr. Ins._ p. 241.

[15] _Annal. di Chimica_, xiii. 1797, Mag. ii. 80.

[16]

"And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes."

[17] _Hist. Nat._ l. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. _Plin._

[18] Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said, "And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle."--_Rev._ ix. 9.

[19] Shaw says, that the _gryllus cristatus_, which is five or six times the size of the common locust, or _gryllus migratorius_, is publicly sold, both in a fresh and salted state, in the markets of some parts of the Levant. _Gen. Zoology_, vol. vi. part. ii. p. 138.

[20] See Dr. Plot's Hist. of Oxf. ch. vi. sect. 45.

[21] The moving columns of sand.

[22] Palmistry is the pretended art of telling the future events of men's lives by the lines in their hands.

[23] And yet I have seen him, after his return, addressing his wife in the language of a young bridegroom. And I have been a.s.sured, by some of his most intimate friends, that he treated her, during the rest of their lives, with the greatest kindness and affection.

[24] A specimen of the papyrus is to be seen at the British Museum; it is the first known in England. It was brought by Mr. Bruce, and given to Sir Joseph Banks, who presented it to the British Museum.

[25] The white pebbles found on the banks of the Mersey, although not a pure quartz, answer the purpose perfectly well. It is singular, that the friction is invariably accompanied by a strong sulphureous smell.

[26] That this method of charming the serpentine race was practised at a very early period of antiquity, appears from the allusion of the holy Psalmist, in the 4th and 5th verses of the 58th Psalm.