Genre:

Review-Essay

Publications reviewed:

White 1856 White, William 1856. Swedenborg: His Life and Writings, London: William White
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Subjects:

Spiritualism, Extra-Terrestrial Life, Supernaturalism

    Notes that Emanuel Swedenborg Swedenborg, Emanuel (1688–1772) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> saw 'palaces in heaven' whose ornaments and decorations could be described by 'neither language nor science' (21). Concludes by noting that Swedenborg 'had communication with the inhabitants of distant planets' (23).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Johnston 1852 Johnston, Alexander Keith 1852. A School Atlas of Physical Geography: Illustrating, in a Series of Original Designs, the Elementary Facts of Geology, Hydrology, Meteorology and Natural History, Edinburgh: Blackwood
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Subjects:

Physical Geography, Mapping

    Regards 'a physical geography' as the school book combining 'the greatest amount of entertainment with the most important instruction'. After noting the welter of geographical information given in the book, argues that 'if such a series of maps, with most useful introductory matter on animals, volcanoes, &c., be not the very thing to charm and instruct a boy, we have forgotten our school-days certainly'. (27)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Anatomy

    Explains that this new feature is to save time in treating dangerous medical conditions and thus 'turn the balance between recovery and death'. Includes a discussion of the treatment of bites from insects, snakes and dogs, and of dislocation of bones.

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Instinct, Gender, Physiognomy

    Having explained that the 'philosophical instincts, of the female mind' have now been proved, asks if 'Gall Gall, Franz Joseph (1758–1828) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> or Spurzheim Spurzheim, Johann Christoph (1776–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> doubts that women have instinctive faculties, not to be found in men' (42).

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Archaeology, Comparative Philology, Physiognomy

    Explains that the past lives of mummies can be read on their faces

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Medical Practitioners

    Gives instructions on treating fractured bones, bruises, brain convulsions and joint injuries, and a list of drugs needed to undertake these tasks.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Physiology

    Explains the different classes, causes of, and treatments for, burns and scalds. Concludes by explaining the causes of and treatment for eye injuries.

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Gender, Heroism, War

    Regards the work of 'that devoted band of women [...] headed by Florence Nightingale Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>' to be 'playing a more important part in war than any ever yet accomplished by woman' (121).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Physiology

People mentioned:

Benjamin C Brodie Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins, 1st Baronet (1783–1862) DSB ODNB
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    Explains the causes of, and treatment for, suffocation by the 'Choke-Damp of Mines' (127) and describes treatments for sprains, drowning, and hanging.

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

    Explains the dangers of and treatments for various types of wound.

Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Light, Heat, Amusement, Gender, Chemistry, Military Technology, Class

    Describes one 'elegant' and 'Galilean' Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> method of setting houses on fire—focusing solar rays with a globular decanter filled with water. Insists that this method will be 'acceptable to the ladies who have learnt their Ologies'. Regards such other 'scientific and chemical' methods as 'a bottle of oxymuriatic matches' as 'too vulgar' for 'so profound a treatise as this'. (202) Wryly notes the skill with which 'Carpenters, chemists, distillers, bakers' and others tradesmen set fire to buildings (203). Explains the highly combustible properties of powder from a powder mill.

Genre:

Short Fiction, Serial

Subjects:

Spiritualism, Astronomy, Anatomy, Physiology

    Describes the new tenant in a haunted house as a 'beetled-browed philosopher' who had written on 'Spectral Apparitions', and who devoted much of his time to 'astronomical observations' and who was skilled in algebra, mechanics, and the mechanisms of the human heart and eye (213). The 'Philosopher' is perceived as a warlock but leaves the house having 'proved the non-existence of ghosts, besides having a machine to catch them, a cat, and a rat-trap of his own invention'. He also concluded that it was impossible to 'make abstruse calculations' in the house owing to its poor construction. (214)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Medical Treatment

    Argues that knowledge of the symptoms and treatment of 'fits' can 'decide the question between life and death' (223). Details for its 'non-professional readers' the nature of, distinctions between, and treatment for, 'all kinds of fits' including apoplexy, epilepsy, and 'hysterics' (223–24).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Lankester 1856, Lankester, Edwin [1856]. The Aquavivarium, Fresh and Marine: Being an Account of the Principles and Objects Involved in the Domestic Culture of Water Plants and Animals, London: R. Hardwicke
Close   View the register entry >>Dallas 1856 Dallas, William Sweetland 1856. A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom: Being a Systematic and Popular Description of the Habits, Structure, and Classification of Animals, from the Lowest to the Highest Forms [...] London, W. S. Orr & Co.
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[1] [Review of The Aquavivarium, by Edwin Lankester]

[2] [Review of A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, by William S Dallas]

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Medical Treatment, Gender

    Describes the dangers, symptoms of, and treatment for, fainting fits. Moves on to describe the symptoms of, and treatments for, 'Hysterics', a 'disease' which occurs 'for the most part in young, nervous, unmarried women', whose 'true' symptoms can easily be confused with 'false' ones. (255) Concludes with a list of antidotes to poisons.

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Disease, Medical Treatment, Homeopathy, Language

    The narrator gives reasons for believing in the antiquity of the word 'influenza'. Describes how one love-stricken character, Sir Reginald, had been attended by a leech (271). Later notes that Sir Reginald had 'homeopathic leanings in his emotional pathology' (274).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals

    Continues from Anon, 'The Doctor', Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 5 (1856–57), 255–56 on the subject of the symptoms of, and treatments for, various types of poisons.

Genre:

Essay, Poetry

Subjects:

Astronomy, Prognostication

    Includes a translation of a poem by Pierre J de Béranger Béranger, Pierre Jean de (1780–1857) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> on 'The Shooting Stars'. The poem ponders the possibility that 'our earthly doom / Obeys some star's mysterious power' and that a falling star represents a dying mortal (324). Concludes by observing that 'that star controll'd a monarch's fate' and urges 'my child' to welcome 'thy lowly dwelling' rather than the transient 'stars of state' (325).

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism

    Describes a discussion with Colonel Jones about animal magnetism and clairvoyance. The narrator admits to Jones that he believes in what he calls animal magnetism and clairvoyance, but seeks proof of the stories of such powers claimed by others. From his own experiments he claims that, because a subject can find treasure hidden by himself, that is not a 'good reason' to believe that 'she can tell me what I do not know and never did know'. Questions the possibility that a subject could 'always, and with certainty' locate hidden treasure, and Jones, whose experiments on a subject had convinced him of the truth of clairvoyance, admitted the existence of 'some few mistakes' in his investigations. (346) Jones describes how a pirate called Greenleaf and his friends had buried treasure on a desolate island and agreed to retrieve it only after fifteen years. Except for Greenleaf and Thomas Taylor all the pirates perish and subsequently Greenleaf charters a new vessel to retrieve the treasure. Adds that during a 'magnetic sleep' a fortune-teller accurately identified the place and composition of the treasure, and later accurately predicted the location of a skeleton and more treasure. (346–47)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Notes, Instructions

Subjects:

Medical Treatment

    Describes symptoms of, and treatment for, colds, chilblains, and drunkenness. Details procedure for bleeding patients.