A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume II (of 2)

Africæ Descriptio, iii. p. 136, b.

988

This book is often printed along with Mesue. See Haller’s Biblioth. Botan. i. p. 201. Biblioth. Chirur. i. p. 137.

989

Della decima, iii. pp. 298, 373; and iv. pp. 59, 191.

990

Pirotechnia, 1550, 4to, p. 36, a.

991

Magia Natur. lib. x. cap. 20. Porta was born in 1545, and died in 1615.

992

Lib. iii. cap. 8.

993

De Natura Fossil, lib. iii. p. 212.

994

Lib. ix. cap. 6, p. 131, b: also lib. ix. cap. 10, p. 141, b.

995

De Natura Fossil. lib. iii. p. 215; in which he speaks of iron pins with tinned heads.

996

Page 135, a and b, pp. 136, 375.

997

Mémoires de l’Acad. 1720, p. 195. Basil Valentine had before taught how to separate the volatile alkali from sal-ammoniac by means of the fixed alkali.

998

Nouveaux Mémoires des Missions de la Compag. de Jesus, ii.

999

Mémoires de l’Acad. 1720, p. 191.

1000

Voy. au Levant.

1001

Mémoires de l’Acad. 1735, p. 107.

1002

Mém. de l’Acad. 1723, p. 221, where a figure is given of it.

1003

Gaubii Adversaria. Leidæ 1771, 4to, p. 138.

1004

[As Dr. Royle observes, in his Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p. 41, this salt must have been familiar to the Hindoos ever since they have burnt bricks, as they now do, with the manure of animals; as some may usually be found crystallized at the unburnt extremity of the kiln.]

1005

Though the sal-ammoniac that is made in the East may consist in great part of camel’s urine, yet that which is made in Europe (where camels are rarities) and is commonly sold in our shops, is made of man’s urine. – Nat. Hist. of the Human Blood (Works, iv. p. 188).

1006

Arnot’s History of Edinburgh. Ed. 1779, 4to, p. 601.

1007

Athen. lib. iv. p. 169.

1008

Hieron. Baruffaldi Sched. de armis convivalibus. In Salengri Nov. Thes. Antiq. Rom. iii. p. 742.

1009

Mart. Epigr. xiv.

120. Ligula Argentea

Quamvis me ligulam dicant equitesque patresque,

Dicor ab indoctis lingula grammaticis.

121. Cochlearia

Sum cochleis habilis, sed nec minus utilis ovis;

Num quid scis potius cur cochleare vocer?

1010

Plin. Hist. Natur. xxi. 14. Columella, ix. 15, 13. That the ligula was smaller than the cochlear is proved by Martial, viii. 23.

1011

See this word in Pitisci, Lexicon Antiq. Rom.

1012

Clemens Alexandr. Pædagog. lib. ii. p. 161. Posidonius relates, in Athenæus, iv. 13, p. 151, that the Gauls used to take roast meat in their hand and tear it to pieces with their teeth, or to cut it with a small knife which each carried in his girdle. This was told as a thing uncommon to the Greeks. Baumgarten, who quotes this passage in Algem. Welgeschichte, xvi. p. 657, adds, that Posidonius said also that the Gauls had bread so flat and hard that it could be easily broken. But this circumstance I cannot find in Athenæus.

1013

Sat. v. 65.

1014

This word, according to the Swedish dictionaries, signifies thin cakes, hard and crisp.

1015

Homeri Odyss. xiv. 453.

1016

De Arte Amandi, iii. 755.

1017

Reisen, i. p. 268.

1018

Rec. d’Antiq. iii. p. 312. tab. lxxxiv.

1019

Bulletin des Fouilles, i. p. 17; ii. p. 131.

1020

Galeoti Martii de Dictis et Factis Regis Matthiæ Liber. This work has also been printed in Schwandtneri Script. Rerum Hungar. tom. i. p. 548.

1021

Coryate, in the year 1608, travelled for five months, through France, Italy, Switzerland, and a part of Germany. An account of this tour was published by him, in 1611, under the singular title of Crudities, a new edition of which appeared in 1776. He travelled afterwards to the East Indies, and in 1615 wrote in that country some letters which may be seen in Purchas his Pilgrims, vol. ii.; also in the second edition of the Crudities published in 1776. In page 90 of the Crudities the author says, “Here j will mention a thing that might have been spoken of before in discourse of the first Italian towne. J observed a custome in all those Italian cities and townes through the which j passed, that is not used in any other country that j saw in my travels, neither do j thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian, and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, do alwaies at their meales use a little forke when they cut their meat. For while with their knife which they hold in one hand they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten their forke, which they hold in their other hand, upon the same dish; so that whatsoever he be that sitting in the company of any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers from which all at the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good manners, insomuch that for his error he shall be at least brow beaten if not reprehended in wordes. This form of feeding j understand is generally used in all places of Italy; their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele, and some of silver, but those are used only by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any meanes indure to have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon j myselfe thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while j was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since j came home, being once quipped for that frequent using of my forke by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. Laurence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, but for no other cause.”

[The use of forks was at first much ridiculed in England, as an effeminate piece of finery; in one of Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays, “your fork-carving traveller” is spoken of with much contempt; and Ben Jonson has joined in the laugh against them in his Devil’s an Ass, Act. v. Scene 4. Meercraft says to Gilthead and Sledge: —

“Have I deserved this from you two? for allMy pains at court, to get you each a patent.“Gilthead. For what?“Meercraft. Upon my project of the forks.“Sledge. Forks! What be they?“Meercraft. The laudable use of forks,Brought into custom here as they are in Italy,To the sparing of napkins.”]

1022

Fischer’s Reise nach Madrid, p. 238.

1023

And in Greek σύμβολα.

1024

Many have written at considerable length on the congiaria, yet the difference between the missilia and tesseræ has not been sufficiently explained. The first, or at least the best account, is in Turnebi Adversaria, xxix. 9, p. 637. In a passage in the Life of Nero by Suetonius, xi. 11, p. 21, the articles which were thrown among the people are called missilia; but in regard to corn, the term tesseræ is expressly named.

The passages where a description is given of the manner in which the tesseræ were thrown out, are to be found in Dio Cassius. The wooden balls, like those of the Lotto, appear to have been hollow, and to have contained the ticket or written order. Those desirous of knowing how these tesseræ were formed, and of what they were made, may consult Hugo de Prima Scribendi Origine, Traj. 1738, 8vo, cap. 15, p. 229.

1025

Juven. Sat. vii. 174.

1026

This abuse of lotteries was mentioned by the states of Wirtemberg, in the year 1764, among the public grievances; and in 1770 the duke promised that it should be abolished. I must here mention, to the honour of our prince and government (the author alludes to Hanover), that since lotteries were found necessary in this country, not a farthing of the profit has gone to the treasury of the prince, but the whole has been employed for pious or charitable purposes.

1027

Recherches de la France. Paris, 1665, fol. viii. 49, p. 729.

1028

This word is still used in Germany by the writers on Tontines; such, for example, as Michelsen.

1029

Both the orders may be found in Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, Paris 1722, fol. i. pp. 502, 504.

1030

The whole establishment is particularly described in Sauval, Histoire et Recherches des Antiquités de Paris, 1724, fol.

1031

Sauval, pp. 71, 73, 76.

1032

Dictionnaire de Commerce, par Savary. Art. Lotterie.

1033

All the orders here quoted may be found in De la Mare. Those desirous of being fully acquainted with the nature of the first Parisian lotteries, and the method of drawing them, may consult Histoire de la Ville de Paris, par Felibien. Paris, 1725, fol. ii. p. 1462.

1034

Christ. Longolii Epistolarum libri iv. Basiliæ, 1570, 8vo, iii. 33, p. 239. The letter is addressed to Octavius Grimoaldo, who lived, I think, at Venice, and had written, it seems, to Longolius, that he was unwilling to venture his money in the lottery. That Longolius had in his hands money belonging to Grimoaldo is proved by the letters iii. 3, iii. 7, 20. “That new kind of gambling is truly ours, and is called by us Loteria, as it were, a table-vessel (vasculia); doubtless from an arrangement of silver vessels appended to the gaming-table, which are distributed amongst those whose names are in the lottery, in such a manner that one vessel is assigned to each. But as you signify your disapproval of that kind of gaming, and do not think fit to expose my money to so much hazard, I acknowledge your prudence and kindness to me.” This derivation of the word Loteria is undoubtedly false, as Menage has already remarked, in his dictionary, art. Lot. He there says, “Je n’ay point lu ailleurs que lot signifiast de la vaiselle. Et je croy Longueuil s’est mal expliqué, et qu’il a voulu dire qu’on appelloit Loterie la vaiselle d’argent d’un buffet, parceque de son tems on mettoit ordinairement à la loterie la vaiselle d’argent d’un buffet.”

1035

Dier. Canicul. 1691, fol. tom. ii. colloq. 2.

1036

See Du Cange, art. Lot. Muratori, Antiquit. Ital. Medii Ævi, ii. p. 1240. Among the oldest German words in Lipsii Epistolæ ad Belgas, Cent. 3, 44, p. 49, stands Los, sors. The t is often changed into s. Thus nut in the English and Low German, noot in the Dutch, and nöt in the Swedish, are the same as the German nuss.

1037

The convenient machine and apparatus, by which the drawing is much forwarded at present, were not then known. A description of them may be found in Savary’s Diction. de Commerce.

1038

Gent. Mag. xlviii. an. 1778, p. 470, from which I shall also transcribe the whole title of the scheme: – “A proposal for a very rich lottery general, without blanks, contayning a great number of good prizes, as well as of redy money as of plate, and certain sorts of merchandises, having been valued and prized by the commandment of the queen’s most excellent majesties order, to the intent that such commodities as may chance to arise thereof, after the charges borne, may be converted towards the reperations of the havens and strength of the realme, and towards such other public good workes. The number of lotts shall be foure hundred thousand, and no more; and every lott shall be the sum of tenne shillings sterling, and no more. To be filled by the feast of St. Bartholomew. The show of prises are to be seen in Cheapside, at the sign of the Queene’s Armes, the house of Mr. Dericke, goldsmith, servant to the queene, 1567, 8vo. Printed by Hen. Bynneman.” See also Maitland’s History of London, 1756, fol. i. p. 257. – Northouck’s History of London. Lond. 1773, 4to, p. 257.

1039

Hist. of Commerce.

1040

Commelin’s Amsterdam, i. p. 440. In the year 1561 the profit on a lottery was employed for enlarging the Orphan House. See Pontani Rerum Amst. Hist. 1611, fol. lib. ii. c. 2.

1041

[Lotto does not consist, like the lottery, of a fixed number of tickets and a certain number of specified prizes, but is, in fact, a mere game of chance, at which the stakes are indefinite, and is thus played. A given quantity of numbers are placed together, of which a few are only to be drawn: the adventurers then select any one or more, on which they bet any sum they think proper; and, should they prove successful, they draw so much more than their stake, in a settled proportion, according as their risk was increased by the quantity of numbers which they named together. Thus the usual quantity is ninety numbers, from one upwards, and five only of these are drawn: if the adventurer chooses but one number out of the 90, and that it be one of those drawn, his stake is returned fifteen fold; if two, he receives, if they be drawn, 270 times the stake; if three, 5500 times; if four, 75,000 times; and should he name the entire five, in the exact order in which they happen to be drawn, he is entitled to 1,000,000 times more than the stake he ventured. These chances are all calculated largely in favour of the banker or holder of the lotto, and there is no instance upon public record of any person having named the five numbers in regular succession; but three have been frequently fixed upon, and even four have been sometimes, though rarely, attained: by the latter chance, the lotto established in 1774 at Neufchatel was ruined.]

1042

[Several localities are now known for this peculiar variety of heavy spar; among others we may mention Amberg in the Upper Palatinate, and near Osterode in the Harz mountains.]

1043

Geschichte von Flötz-Gebürgen. Berl. 1756, 8vo.

1044

Mineral System. Leip. 1762, 8vo.

1045

Syst. Mineral. 1772, 8vo, i. p. 162.

1046

[In preparing solar phosphorus from the Bolognian stone, it should be carefully separated from any contamination of iron or other heavy metals, formed into a paste as above-described, and exposed to the heat of a wind-furnace for an hour or two.]

1047

Fortunii Liceti Litheosphorus, sive de lapide Bononiensi. Utini 1640, 4to, p. 13. He calls the shoemaker Casciorolus, which seems to be wrong, as Lemery and others write his name Cascariolo. Licetus refers to the letters of Ovidio Montalbani. Epist. var. ad Eruditos viros de Rebus in Bononiensi tractu indigenus, ut est lapis Illuminabilis et lapis specularis, calamonastos, &c., Bonon. 1634, 4to. Among the oldest accounts are those in Petri Poterii Pharmacopœia spagyrica, ii. 27, in Opera, Fran. 1698, 4to. In this work the alchemist is called Scipio Bagatellus, a name which does not occur in Fantuzzi, Notizie degli scrittori Bolognesi.

1048

An. 1666, n. 21, p. 375.

1049

Mémoires des Hommes Illustres.

1050

Cours de Chymie. Dresd. 1734, 8vo.

1051

Magnes, p. 481.

1052

De Igne. Franc. 1688, 4to, p. 350.

1053

Marggrafs Chymische Schriften, ii. p. 119. This author says the cakes must be only as thick as the back of a knife; but that which I obtained in the year 1782 from Bologna, was an inch English measure in diameter, and two lines in thickness. It still weighs, after the brass box in which I long preserved it between cotton in a luminous state, has become black, and itself has lost its virtue, three drachms. In colour it has a perfect resemblance to the star which Marggraf prepared from German stones, and presented to Professor Hollman, and which is now in my possession. It is contained in a capsule of tin plate, over which a piece of glass is cemented.

1054

Ferber’s Briefe aus Wälschland, p. 75.

1055

Polyhist. i. 1, 13, 26, p. 127.

1056

The negroes in St. Domingo cannot bear to be thought poor, or to be called beggars. They say none but white men beg; and when any one asks alms at the door, they observe to their master, “There is a poor white man, or a poor Frenchman, begging.” Labat had a negro who gave away a small part of his property, merely that he might have the proud satisfaction of being able to say, “There, white man; there is an alms for you.” But, in all probability, there will be beggars even in St. Domingo, if the negroes are so fortunate as to establish the freedom which they have obtained at the expense of so much blood, and to form a negro state.

1057

During a great scarcity at Hamburgh, when bread was distributed to the poor, one woman told another, to whose request no attention had been paid, that she brought her child with her, and pinching it so as to make it cry, excited compassion and by these means received bread. The latter begged the other to lend her the child for the like purpose, and having made it cry obtained bread also; but when she returned and wished to restore the child with thanks, the mother was not to be found, and therefore she was obliged to keep the child.

1058

In the course of nine years not a single individual announced an intention of marrying. The young people supplied their wants in another manner. Hence arose a scarcity of men, who cannot be purchased in Europe, as in the West Indies. The proprietor, therefore, was obliged to sell his estate. The purchaser improved the condition of his serfs, and marriages became common among them. See Büsch vom Geld-umlauf. vi. 3. § 35, p. 393. “La dureté du gouvernement peut aller jusqu’à detruire les sentimens naturels, par les sentimens naturels mêmes. Les femmes de l’Amerique ne se faisoient-elles pas avorter, pour que leurs enfans n’eussent pas des maîtres aussi cruels?” – Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix. Amst. 1758, 12mo, ii. p. 402.

1059

See an Enquiry by Michaelis, why Moses did not introduce into his laws anything in regard to child-murder.

1060

The cause of children being exposed in this manner has been assigned and ably examined by Lactantius, vi. 20, 21; from whose remarks one will readily comprehend how parents could be so hard-hearted.

1061

Many preparations for this purpose may be seen quoted in Hofmanni Lexicon Universale: art. Exponendi mos.

1062

Pomp. Festus de Verb. Signif. p. 203.

1063

Aristot. Polit. vii. 16.

1064

Lib. xvii.

1065

Variæ Histor. ii. 7.

1066

Such appendages or tokens were called crepundia. Instances of their use may be found in Heliodor. Æthiop. iv. 7., also in many comedies.

1067

De Mor. Germ. cap. 19.

1068

Histor. v. 5.

1069

Lib. i. cap. 16.

1070

Minucii Felicis Octav. xxx. xxxi.

1071

Cod. Theodos. lib. v. tit. 7, De Expositis, l. 1, p. 487, edit. Ritteri, where the whole has been proved and illustrated by Gothofredus.

1072

Lactant. vi. 20, 21.

1073

Astronom. lib. vii. c. 1. I shall refer those desirous of becoming acquainted with all the proofs belonging to this subject to Ger. Noot, Opera Omnia, Col. 1732, fol. p. 493. The observations on Minucius Felix, pp. 307 and 326, in the beautiful edition Lugd. Bat. 1709, 8vo, deserve in particular to be read.

1074

Cod. Justin. lib. iv. tit. 52.

1075

Codex. Theodos. lib. xi. tit. 27.

1076

Cod. lib. viii. tit. De Infant. Expos. l. 3.

1077

Cod. lib. i. tit. 2, De Sacrosanctis Eccles. 19, p. 19: “Si quis vero donationes usque ad 500 solidos in quibuscunque rebus fecerit, vel in sanctam ecclesiam, vel in xenodochium, vel in nosocomium, vel orphanotrophium, vel in ptochotrophium, vel in gerontocomium, vel in brephotrophium, vel in ipsos pauperes, vel in quamcunque civitatem; istæ donationes”… The same names are repeated in the law 23 immediately following; also in Novell. Collat. 8, tit. 12, cap. 1, p. 219, and Coll. 9, tit. 3, cap. 1, p. 245. Here not only foundling hospitals, but poor-houses in particular, are mentioned. The former are named also in Cod. lib. 1, tit. 3, De Episc. et Clericis, l. 32, p. 32, and in the same l. 42, 5 and 9; likewise l. 46, 1.

1078

The life of St. Goar is to be found in Acta Sanctorum, Jul. 2, pp. 327–346; also in Mabillon’s Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, Venetiis, 1733, fol. p. 266; but at page 273 of Mabillon there is another life by Wandelbart, in which the story is fuller and more circumstantial.

1079

Meusel’s Geschichtforscher, iv. p. 232.

1080

Du Cange, under the word brephotrophium, has quoted the passage.

1081

Muratori has printed the letter of foundation in Antiq. Ital. Medii Ævi, t. iii. p. 587.

1082

“In quo parentibus orbati pueri pascuntur.” These orphan-houses then were expressly distinguished from the foundling hospitals.

1083

Baluzii Capitularia Reg. Franc. i. p. 747; Capit. lib. ii. 29.

1084

In the Capitulare, composed about the year 744, in Baluz. p. 151.

1085

See Muratori Antiq. Ital. Medii Ævi, iii. p. 591.

1086

See Greg. Rivii Monastica Historia Occidentis. Lips. 1737, 8vo cap. 34. The name of the author was Lauterbach.

1087

The documents may be found in Von Murr Beschreibung der Merkw. in Nürnberg, 1801, 8vo.

1088

Martenne, Vet. Script. amplis. Collectio. Paris, 1724, fol. iii. p. 15.

1089

[The foundling hospital of London was founded in the year 1739, by charter of king George II., on the petition of captain Thomas Coram, and the memorial of sundry persons of quality and distinction. It maintains and educates 500 children, from extreme infancy to a period of life when they are capable of being placed out in the world. Illegitimate children are the objects of this hospital. The child must be under twelve months old when offered for admission, and the committee require to be satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the mother, and that the father has deserted both mother and infant; and that the reception of the infant will, in all probability, be the means of replacing the mother in the course of virtue and the way of an honest livelihood.]