Notes that Emanuel SwedenborgSwedenborg, Emanuel
(1688–1772)
DSB CloseView 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).
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)
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.
Having explained that the 'philosophical instincts, of the female mind' have now been proved, asks if 'GallGall, Franz Joseph
(1758–1828)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> or SpurzheimSpurzheim, Johann Christoph
(1776–1832)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> doubts that women have instinctive faculties, not to be found in men' (42).
Regards the work of 'that devoted band of women [...] headed by Florence NightingaleNightingale, Florence
(1820–1910)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>' to be 'playing a more important part in war than any ever yet accomplished by woman' (121).
Light, Heat, Amusement, Gender, Chemistry, Military Technology, Class
Describes one 'elegant' and 'Galilean'Galilei, Galileo
(1564–1642)
DSB CloseView 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.
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)
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).
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
CloseView the register entry >>Dallas 1856Dallas, 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.
CloseView the register entry >>
[1] [Review of The Aquavivarium, by Edwin Lankester]
Subjects:
Zoology, Natural History, Display
Observes that the 'aquavivarium' is a 'new rage that rages still' and something that can bring 'the sea and its wonders to you'.
[2] [Review of A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, by William S Dallas]
Subjects:
Natural History, Publishing, Illustration
Criticises 'natural histories' for being 'too meagre or too recondite' for the beginner, but praises this book as 'the best book of its kind ever published in England'. However, regrets the poor quality of the illustrations.
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.
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).
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.
The narrator hears 'the medical student' Harry Huntley explaining to an artist, George Gray, that 'children of first cousins are commonly instruments in the hands of Providence to punish the unwisdom [...] of their parents, in violating the laws of nature'. To a baffled Gray, Huntley adds that 'a great portion of the inmates of deaf, dumb, and blind asylums, are the offspring of such marriages'. Huntley convinces Gray that the woman of whom he is enamoured, Mary Ryder, fits this description. (290)
Narrates that Mary Maberly and her doctor knew that her sickness was something that 'no earthly medicine nor earthly counsels could remove'. Adds that Mary subsequently 'applied to the Great Physician' who advised 'Change of scene!'. (293)
Continues from Anon, 'The Doctor', Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 5 (1856–57), 287–88 on the subject of the symptoms of, and treatments for, various types of poisons.
Includes a translation of a poem by Pierre J de BérangerBéranger, Pierre Jean de
(1780–1857)
CBD CloseView 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).
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)