Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Cultural Geography, Nationalism, Invention, Astronomy, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Gravity, Engineering, Steam-power, Railways

    Noting the popularity of the French 'teaspoon bonnet' in England, insists that the 'French certainly do excel us in everything'. To support this argument for the superiority of the French, sarcastically notes the dearth of eminent English scientific practitioners, complaining, for example, that England has 'no famous astronomer, no chemical investigators, no anatomical and physiological discoverer' to rank with 'certain Frenchmen of the same description'. Similarly, attributes to the French, such scientific and technological accomplishments as the demonstration of 'the circulation of the blood' and the invention of the steam engine.