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600051 252L 



4/. 



7 



IS. 





l'Dlfrj,AJl J--.Rl4«h.S. 



POPULAR ERRORS 



EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED. 



JOHN TIMES, 




LONDON ■. 
TILT AND BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET. 



ps. 



nRAJtnoftV AND iCVASe, PRlMtllS, WIIITBrEIAIU. 



PREFACE. 



Few of the plans which have of late yean been devised 
for the spread of knowledge, have specifically aimed at the 
object of the present volume : '' to take us from the track of 
our nuffsery mistakes, and, by showing us new objects, or 
old ones in new lights, to reform our judgments*/' Locke 
defines Error to be '< a mistake of our judgment, giving 
assent to that which is not true;" — and the illustration of 
these words is the main purpose of the *' Popular 
Errobs." 

To pass muster in well-infonned society, a man should 
be roaster of a good general judgment; by which is meant, 
that he should be weU grounded in all branches of useful 
knowledge. This is still a desideratum with many persons, 
from various causes. Not the least striking of these is the 
general inaptitude which they feel for keeping their stock 
of information up to the standard of the day — a matter of 
little surprise, if we remember the rapid flight of time, and 
the unceasing advancement of learning: our friendships 
with books and society are nearly alike ; and '' if a man 
does noc make new acquaintances as he advances through 
life, be will soon find himself left alone.'* To assist such 
persons, and another class, '^ whose education has been 

* Sterne. 



IV PREFACE. 

neglected/' is the aim of the ** Popular Errors ; '' by 
seizing upon points of frequent misinterpretation, eradi- 
cating their Error, and enriching the memory with new 
stores of Fact. 

Expositions of Error, or works exclusively devoted to 
that purpose, are not so rare in olden as in modern litera- 
ture. About one hundred and ninety years since, Sir 
Thomas Browne, a man of extensive learning and re- 
search, published a volume of Enquiries into Vulgar and 
Common Errors, which enjoys high reputation to the present 
day. This work may be said to have first suggested the 
^'Popular Errors ;*' though, while the Author has been 
stimulated by the zeal of Browne, he has not imitated 
his disinclination to admit new positions. Neither has he 
followed the celebrated author of the Religio Medici, ** the 
philosopher of Norwich,*' in his elaborate study of books, 
or in his fondness for the embellishments of classic story 
and quotation, such as might be expected from a physician 
of the seventeenth century. To Errors long since exploded, 
the Author of the present volume has been content to refer 
as the aniiquiHes, or " curiosities,'' of his design, since his 
object has been to explain the Errors uf his own day ; 
indeed, to catch them living as they rise. Moreover, he 
has striven to make his expositions of practical utility in 
the business of every-day life. He does not instruct the 
reader how ** to tell the dock by algebra," nor " to drink 
tea by stratagem ;" though he aims at being accurate and 
agreeable, by way of abstract and anecdote, so as to become 
an advantageous and amusing guest at any intellectual 
fireside. In some instances, to borrow from Sir Thomas 
Browne, he may be fair *' to wander in the un travelled 
parts of truth :" and, therefore, he may sometimes meet 



PREFACE. V 

" the Goliath and giant of authority." Possibly, some few 
of his ^' Errors" may be, at first sight, considered of scarcely 
sufficient importance to receive such correction as they 
here receive : but, it should be remembered, that *^ nothing 
is to be considered as a trifle by which the mind is inured 
to caution^ foresight, and circumspection*." 

By means of condensation — the result of thought — which 
rejects what no longer appears necessary, the reader is here 
presented with expositions of no fewer than Seven Hun- 
dred Popular Errobs, presenting, it is hoped, as many 
i^reeable accessions of novelty, and sources of rational 
curiosity, and amusing research*. 

A glance at the Table of Contents will prepare the reader 
for the variety of this volume; and a copious Index will 
enable him to refer readily to any especial subject treated 
of in its pages. — I. T. 

* Johnson. 
Gray* 8 Inn, March 1841. 



*^* In the majority of instances, the authorities are giyen. Had the 
Author been disposed to make a parade of his research, the list of books 
he has consulted would occupy some pages : for the present Work is of 
Ten Years' growth. 



We must not reoeive the opinions of oar forefatho's, as do mere 
infants, for the simple reason that our parents held them.— Marcus 

AURKLIITS. 

Man favours wonders. — Lord Bacon. 

Error is but a deception, in presuming that somewhat is past or to 
come ; of which, though it were not past, or not to come, yet there was 
no impossibility discoverable. — Hobbks. 

Few practical Errors in the world are embraced upon the stock of con- 
viction. — South. 

There is nothing strange in Errors becoming universal, considering 
how little men consult their reason. — Bavlb. 

Correct ophiions, well established on any subject, are the best preser- 
vatives against the seductions of Error.— Bishop Mant. 

All ages have been so fertile in Errors and pr^udices, that no one can 
now have the advantage of priority. — Araoo. 

It is always more gratifying to get rid of an Error in science than to 
introduce into it an additional observation. — 6koffroy-St.-Hi lairs. 

There is a wonderful vigour of constitution in a popular fallacy. — 

BULWKR. 



CONTENTS. 



PAOKS 

I. ERRORS RESPECTING THE ECONOMY OF MAN : 

Longevity —Stature— Health — Temperature— Sensibility— Struc- 
ture — Yision — Popular Medicine — PoiaonB— Madneaa— Sleep- 
Death — Drowning . 1—4 

II. ERRORS RESPECTING THE PROPERTIES OP POOD : 

Dietetics— Nourishment, Animal and Vegetable— Eating— Drink- 
ing— Cookery— Dinners and Suppers— Soups— Fish — Meat — Poul- 
try — Meat and Bread— Water — Fruits and Vegetables— Sugar — 
Tea— Coffee— Bitter Almond»— Pepper— Soy— Qrine . . 40—86 

m. ERRORS IN DOMESTIC ARTS AND MANUFACTURES: 

Brkwimg: Hops, Malt, Porter, Cider, Perr}'— Winb-makino 
Principles ; Taste, Growth, and General Economy ; Port, Sherry, 
Claftt, Chfltmpagne, Rhenish, Madeira, Gape, British, dec— ^Spirits 
— ^LioBTiNO and Hbatino: Wax, Tallow, and Spermaceti— Gas- 
lighting — Coals — Ventilation — Fires — Popular Phenomena of 
Heat — MAmTTACTURKS in Metal: Cutlery— Poiicki.ain and Pdt- 
TKRY — JsvefSLLKRY and Gbms : Diamonds and Pearls— Clothing : 
Linen. Furs, Leather ; Fashioas and Colours— Tradb and Com- 
11 BRCB : Marketing, Making, and Manufacturing— Domestic Che- 
mistry-Insurance Offices— Building: English and French Man- 
sions ; Glazed Windows, Glass-painting, Aqueducts, Theatres- 
Gardens, &c 87—166 

IV. DOMESTIC MANNERS: 

Antique and Antiquities — Feudal System — Sumptuary Laws — 
Monasteries— Ancient Living— Elizabethan Literature-^" Beef- ' 
eaters" and Roast Beef— "Sallet Oil"— Flags on Castles— The 
Curfew— Portraits on Coins— Ancient Value of Money— Queen 
Anne's Farthings— Error Half-pence- Light Guineas— Holidays 
and Trade — Impnivements — National Errors— British Loyalty 
—Suicides in November— Absurdities in Medicine — Weighing 
Machines— Cookery— Thirteen to Dinner — Almanacks and Play- 
ing Cards — Civilization and Printing— Religious Melancholy—. 
Credulity and Doubt — Education: The Classics — Arithmetic 
and Algebra — Music— Jews' Harp — Travelling — Cockneys — 
Gipsies— Fiddlers and Catgut— First English Newspaper and 
Magazine— Sabbath and Simday— Lent— Bells— Architecture- 
Ascending Mountains— Spectacles— Fears, &c. . 166—249 



VIU CONTENTS, 

PAGE 

V. ERRONEOUS LAWS AND CUSTOMS: 

Marriage — Burial— Registers — Livings — Gleaning — Dark-Lan- 
thom — Tenders— Common Rights — Legal Errors— Temporary 
Laws— Magna Charta— Penal Laws — Death-Warrants — Gibbet, 
Guillotine, and Pillory— Esquires, Peerage, Bachelor, and Gen> 
tleman — Poisons — Rhinoceros' Horn — Aqua Tofana — Venice 
Glasses— Arabs and Plague — Keeping Pigeons and Squirrels — 
Alchemy and Astrology— Roger Bacon— Friar Bacon's Brazen 
Head— Raleigh's £1 Dorado— Pedlar's Acre— Vauxhall and Guy 
Fawkes — Star-chamber — Leeks on St. David's Day — Locusts 
and Wild Honey— " Wliig and Tory "—Goodwin Sands— The 
Jew»— Edward the Black Prince— Prince of Wales's Feathers- 
Order of the Garter — Jane Shore— Statue of Charles I. — ^Free- 
masonry, 6io 249—310 

VI. ERRORS IN VARIOUS SCIENCES: 

First Experiments— Mechanics— Cameos and Intaglios— Mineral 
Tallow — Microscope and Barometer — ^Foretelling Rain — Perspec- 
tive—" Thunderbolt "—Tide— Patagonians— Diving-bell— Orrery 
— Navigation — Geometrical Terms— Caverns — Water-wheels at 
Night— Mezzotinto Engraving-Rilievo— Noah's Ark— Lot's Wife 
—Looking Back, &o .310-^39 

Vn. ERRORS IN NATURAL HISTORY: 

Fabulous Animals — Giants — Unicom — Mermaid— Phcrnix — 
Griffin — Dragon — • Adam's Apple — Gorgons — Ventriloquism 
— Nurserymen's Mi8take»— Lion — Hyaena — Elephant — Horses — 
Deer — Vampires — Wolves — Sloth — Camel— Cat — Whale not a 
Fish — Jonah's Whale and Gourd^Beaver — Hedgehog — Cuckoo 
Spittle — Turkey — Raven — Swallows — Pelican — Goat-sucker — 
Nightingale — Humming-bird— Bird of Paradise— Turtle-dove»— 
Swan— Halcyon — ^Dolphin, Dory, and Eels— Death's-head Moth 
—Death-watch — Crickets, Earwig, Lantern-fly, Bird-killing ; 
Spider— Tarantula— Bees, &c 330—368 



ERRATA. 

PAGB 

Nati(xial Errors : for " deviation," read *' duration " ... 187 

Gipsies: for "Cyguanis" read" Cy^nanw" 231 

Note: for "Archseologa" read "^rcAceo^ta** .... 233 

Star-Chamber : f or " ancient contracts " read " ancient records" . 293 



POPULAR ERRORS. 



I.— ECONOMY OF MAN. 



LONOEYITY OF AUTHORS. 

Bishop Huet observes that it is an unfounded preju- 
dice to imagine that the pursuit of literature is injurious 
to health. Studious men are as long-lived^ in general, as 
others. The literati of the French Ana were long-lived : 
two-thirds of them passed the age of 76 ; and as many of 
them attained the age of 90 as died under 60. Thus, St. 
Evremond passed the age of 90 ; Chevreau, that of 88 • 
Valesius, 85 ; Longarue, 82 ; Poggio, 79 ; and DuchaV 
and Segrais, 77 ; Fureti^re died at 68, and Cardinal 
Perron at 63. Archbishop Sancroft died at 77, Bishop 
Gibson at 79 ; Newton, Waller, and Clement XII. passed 
the period of 80 ; and Bishop Hough, Dr. Tancred Robin- 
son, Cardinal Fleury, Sir John Maynard, and Sir Chris- 
topher Wren, exceeded the age of 90. Bishop Huet him- 
self was a remarkable instance of health and longevity in 
a very studious man. Though his stu(Hes directed nim 
to the churchy he did not enter into holy orders till he was 
46 years of age. He was Bishop of Avranches 14 years ; 
and having spent the remaining twenty years of lus life 
in devotion and study, he died in his 91st year. 

HIGHLAND LONGEVITY. 

It has often been said that examples of extreme Lonee- 
vity are common in the Highlands of Scotland, and the 
tale has been repeated till it has almost become an axiom 
dangerous to doubt. A well-known and remarkable instance 

PART I.] B 



2 POPULAR ERRORS. 

is often quoted from Pennant; but it is, probably, a solitary 
one, since other inquirers have not found similar cases, 
and no satisfactory evidence has been adduced to justify 
the general assertion. The tourist who hurries through 
the country may, perhaps, adopt this notion from me 
number of old people whom he sees in the cottages, or 
engaged in some sort of labour when nearly past the 
power of labouring. But it must be recollected that the 
aged and infirm continue to reside with their children 
when no longer able to maintain themselves, and that there 
is no asvlum, like the workhouse or hospital of England, 
where these objects are concealed from the public view, 
and almost lost to the public recollection. Hence the aged 
are seen everywhere ; and hence the easy but superficial 
conclusion, that they are in greater proportion here than 
in England*. 

STATURE OF MAN. 

An erroneous notion obtains belief, that the present 
Stature of the Human Race is considerably less than it has 
been in past ages. This Error may, in part, have originated 
in the olden tales of men of gigantic stature, which are 
now almost universally discredited. At the same time, it 
is extremely probable that the size of the race, notwith- 
standing some local variations, has not sensibly dimi- 
nished; and, not only from the concurrence of many 
kinds of proofs from historical evidence from the earliest 
known periods, but from considerations of science in the 
absence of all monuments^ it may be inferred that there 
has been no material change since the origin of mankind. 

Lancashire and Yorkshire furnish the tallest specimens 
of Englishmen; a sufficient answer to the notion that 
manufacturing industry has a general tendency to produce 
physical deteriorationf . 

EXAGGERATION OF ANCIENT STATUES. 

In specimens of Statues left us by the Ancients, we see 
something that always fascinates us, at the same time 
that we find everything exaggerated in them. The reason 
is thus happily explained by Mr. Abemethy:< — *'The 
ancients did exaggerate in their statues ; but then there 

* See Dr. Macculloch's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland. 

I Edintraxsh Review. 



POPULAR ERBOBS. 3 

was to jnadi grace in their exaggeration that you did 
not see it^ but you were fascinated : their foreheads, for 
instance. Look at them, and you see them coming for- 
ward—they overhang the rest of the face. You see thev 
do not shelve away — they are broad and expanded. 
Animals, the brutes, have scarcely any foreheads: the 
monkey's forehead recedes, and the dog's forehead falls 
back completely. The ancients, therefore, with reason, 

gave a fuU projecting forehead to their statues, to dignify 
lem — to mark, as it were, the striking difference there 
was between man and other animals. Now the eyebrow 
is quite peculiar to man — no other animal has it: the 
ancients laboured that part of the human countenance 
with extraordinary care; for it is particularly adapted to 
convey expression. The eyes^ too, they managed in the 
same way. Some of the inferior animals have their eyes 
so brought forward on the surface of their face, that they 
can see sideways, they can see around them, and even 
behind them ; which is the sign of a suspicious, apprehen- 
sive, anxious disposition. The ancients gave to the faces 
of their statues eyes that looked straightly and directly 
upon you — that look sternly forward ; and they did this 
in order to convey to the beholder that the originals felt 
the very reverse of timidity, of apprehension, and sus- 
picion. Then the note, Man has a peculiar one : it has 
a bridge in it; all other animals want the nose, as it is in 
man. Those animals, instead of a nose, have a snout — 
it is a snout, not a nose. Now the ancients, in their heads, 
attended greatly to the nose : they placed the bridge of it 
very high in the face ; they placed it above the centre of 
the orbit of the eyes. The Greeks brought the nose straight 
down — the Romans gave it a bend upwards : they arched 
it, thinkiDg that to be the handsomest form. The nostrils 
they made as little like a snout as possible. In the statues 
of the ancients you see the mouth made in a peculiar way; 
it is, so to speak, as little like a devouring aperture as pos- 
sible : they knew it was made for articulating, for express- 
ing thoughts by language ; and they made it as expressive 
as they could. The lips were made muscular and strong. 
Brutes, we find, have no chins : that is a part of the face 
peculiar to men. The ancients were very particular about 
it, and formed it large and expressive. Now, if you could 
put all these features on paper, you would have the 

b2 



4 POPULAR ERRORS. 

countenance of Jupiter Olympus himself. The ancients, 
however, did not give the same face to all their statues : 
it is quite true what Dr. Spurzheim said of them, that 
they knew much better than to place the head of a phi- 
losopher upon the shoulders of a gladiator." 

EVIDENCE OF HEALTH. 

Perspiration is, by many persons, thought to denote 
health ; but this notion is only, to a certain extent, correct. 
Dr. Gregory says, of a person in high health, the exhala- 
tion from the skin is free and constant, but without 
amounting to perspiration, and the repulsion of impurity 
is a necessary consequence. In fact, it is perspiration 
so active as to fly from the skin, instead of remaining upon 
it, or suffering anything else to remain. 

GROWING FAT. 

Notwithstanding good living, and innumerable pro- 

Eositions for Fattening the person, and the encouragement 
eld forth by various remedial processes, the task still 
remains a difficult one ; and we must eveii now agree with 
what the learned Bulmer said a century ago: '* All bodies 
may be made lean, but it is impossible to fatten where 
vehement heat or dryness is by nature ; for one may easily 
subtract from nature, but to add to nature is difficult, 
when virtue does not co-operate : all other creatures, if 
they have sufficient and proper food, will grow fat and be 
franked; whereas men, although they have the best 
aliment exhibited to them, will not, in like manner, be fat, 
the chief cause whereof, as to man, is imputed to his 
temperament." 



TEMPERATURE OF MAN. 

To the uneducated it appears no less erroneous to say, 
that the body is equally warm on a cold winter morning 
as on the most sultry of the dog-days, than to affirm that 
the sun is stationary, contrary to the apparent evidence of 
the senses ; yet the one is as well ascertained as the other. 
For example, at Ceylon, Dr. Davy found that the tempe- 
rature of the native inhabitants differed only about one 
or two degrees from the ordinary standard in England*. 

• James Rexinle. 



POPULAR EBRORS. 



TEMPERATURE OF AGED PERSONS. 

Aged persons are generally thought to he more suscep* 
tible of cold than the youns. The lieat of human beings 
hasj however^ been proved to be very nearly the same^ 
iivhatever may be tlieir age, their temperature, their type, 
or the race to which they belong ; and whatever may be 
the nature of their food, as the comparative researches 
of Dr. Davy prove, from the priests of Buddha, the 
Hindoos, eaters of rice, and the Vedas, who live entirely 
on animal food. 

EXPOSURE TO THE SUN. 

Thebe are few points which seem less generally under- 
stood, or more clearly proved, than the fact, that Exposure 
to the Sun, without exercise sufficient to create free perspira- 
tion, will produce illness ; and that the (same) exposure to 
the sun, with sufficient exercise, will not produce illness. 
Let any man sleep in the sun, he will awake perspiring 
and very ill— perhaps he will die. Let the same man dig 
in the sun for the same length of time, and he will perspire 
ten times as much, and be quite well. The fact is, that 
not only the direct rays of the sun, but the heat of the 
atmosphere produce abundance of bile, and powerful 
exercise alone will carry off that bile *. 

HEALTHINESS OF LONDON. 

Considerable Error prevails respecting the salubrity 
of the air of our metropolis, from ignorance of the fact 
ascertained by Mr. Cavendish many years since — that there 
is no sensible difference in the constituent parts of the 
atmosphere, under circumstances the most dissimilar. The 
air of London, with its half-million of blazing fires, equals 
in purity the freshest breezes of the country ; nor has any 
difference been discovered between the chemical composi- 
tion of the air of a crowded room in a fever hospital and 
the common open atmospheric air. The mortality of 
London is one thing, but the mortality of its various 
parishes another ; some of them being twice, thrice, and 
even four times that of others. 

* Napier's Cefalonia. 



6 POPULAR ERRORS. 

SALUBRITY OF THE SBA COAST. 

Trees, plants, &c. rarely flourish in the vicinity of the 
sea ; but the cause of their decline is little understood. It 
is attributed to the atmosphere containing a portion of the 
muriates, or salts of the sea, over which it has passed, and 
which is pernicious to vegetable life. But these properties 
are favourable to animal life; and it has even been main- 
tained, that the air best adapted to vegetation is unpro- 
pitious to animal life, and vice versd. It may, however, 
be doubted, if nature has fixed any general rule ; since daily 
experience proves that different species of animals — ev«i 
different races of the same species — are variously affected 
by the same air. On this account, the salubrity of the sea- 
air is by no means universal, as it is commonly thought to be. 

THE SOUTH OP FRANCE. 

The benefits of this invalid-visited corner of the earth 
have been much overrated. Life is here very short, 
scarcely more than thirty years. Indeed, it appears to 
admit of little doubt, that the climate of the southern 
coast of France, deceitfully brilliant and mild, is little 
favourable to the human constitution. 

CLUIATE OF MADEIRA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

The climate of Madeira, in its restorative effects upon 
invalids, has been strangely overrated. Dr. Clark relates, 
that of thirty-five invalids who landed at Madeira within 
two years and a half, there were only six survivors, who, 
so far from being cured, could only make the best of a 
precarious existence in a low latitude. 

It should, however, be added, that the climate of 
Madeira is, in many cases, the last resort and faint hope 
of the worn-out invalid. A recent traveller (Captain 
Alexander) notes : " How painful is it to reflect on the 
many hundred fair forms and brave spirits who have been 
compelled to seek the climate of Madeira, to avert, for a 
time, the stroke of the fell tyrant — death ! How few with 
renovated constitutions have been permitted to revisit 
their father-land! Our captain had frequently taken out 
passengers to Madeira — ^young women, adorned with every 
personal grace and highly cultivated minds, but on whose 
cheeks was painted the fatal hectic flush ; and young men. 



POPULAB BRBORS. 7 

afflicted with a sepulchral coo^, which told too plainly 
that their days were numbered, and that they were shortly 
to repoeein theshadeof themyrtlesof the Funchal cemetery : 

< The genius of fhe isle that showers 
His germs of fruit, his fairest flowers. 
Hath east his robes of yemal bloom 
In guardian fondness oler their tomb.' 

Both Gibraltarand Malta are supposed to be yery healthy, 
and to afford a glimpse of hope to those who suffer under 
Consumption ; but this conclusion^ or rather impression, 
is oppugned in recent statistical reports. The authors 
state, that in the United Kingdom 6*6 per 1000 are at> 
tacked by this dreadful malady ; while in Gibraltar the 
amount is 8*2; at Malta, 6*7; and 5*3 in the Ionian 
Islands. This would seem to prove, that, with the ex- 
ception of the Ionian Islands, the Mediterranean is not, 
as is generally supposed, favourable to pulmonary com- 
plaints, but rather toe reverse. 

HOURS OF REST. 

The mind requires regular rest as well as the body, and 
does not so soon recover from any excess of exertion. But 
it is the tendency of the present state of society in Eng- 
land to produce unnatural exertions. Stage-coach horses, 
and walkers against time, are not the only creatures diat 
are worked to death in this country. Many are the 
labourers, (and it is the most sob^ and industrious upon 
whom the evil falls), who, by task-work, or by working 
what are called days and quarters, prepare for tnemselves 
a premature old age : and many are the youths who, 
while they are studying for University honours, rise early 
and sit ^up late, have recoturse to art for the purpose of 
keeping meir jaded faculties wake^, and irretrievably 
injure meir hedth for ever, if this intemperance of study 
does not cost them their lives*. 

Archbishop Williams is said to have slept only three hours 
in the four-and-twenty ; *'so that he lived tlu'ee times as 
long," says his biographer, ** as one that lived no longer." 
This is a marvellous fact ; for Williams was a man who 
employed all his waking hours, and moreover was not of 
the most tranquil disposition. *' But,'' says Dr. Southey, 
** I believe that any one who should attempt to follow his 
example would severely suffer for his imprudence.'* 

* Southey. 



8 POPULAR ERRORS. 

NIOHT STUDIES. 

ExTRAORDiNART Wakefulness, enabling persons to study 
hard for days and nights without sleep, leads to a very 
erroneous idea of the harmlessness of this excess. Intense 
thought, or abstraction, has a powerful influence on the 
circulation; and this absence of sleep is obviously the 
result of excessive action of the brain, which, if not 
relieved, must soon run on to delirium. Extraordinary, 
wakefulness is, therefore, the signal of nature for suspend- 
ing such pursuits. 

NATURE OF HAIR. 

Hair does not, as was hitherto supposed, form an 
essential part of the skin. It has a principle of existence 
of its own; and M. F. Cuvier considers the organic 
system which produces hair as forming part of that of the 
senses: the slightest touch, even thatprcducedby a hair of 
the human heeid, is sufficient to make certain animals, cats 
for example, contract their skin and make it tremble, as 
thev always do to rid it of light bodies which stick to it ; 
and of the presence of which they are apprised by this 
peculiar sense of touch. 

THE TONGUE 

Is not an indispensable organ of taste, as is commonly 
supposed. Blumenbach saw an adult, and in other 
respects a well-informed man, who was bom without a 
tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very easily 
the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on 
his palate, and would express the taste of each in writing. 

INSENSIBILITY Of THE BRAIN. 

Sensibilitt is, in reality, verv difierent from what is 
su^ested by first experience. Thus, the brain is insen- 
sible: that part of the brain which, if disturbed or dis- 
eased, takes away consciousness, is as insensible as the 
leather of our shoe ! That the brain may be touched, or 
a portion of it cut ofi^, without interrupting the patient 
in the sentence he is uttering, is a surprising circumstance I 
From this fact physiologists formerly inferred that the 
surgeon had not reached me more important organ of the 
brain. But that opinion arose from tne notion prevailing 
hat a nerve must necessarily be sensiblet Whereas, when 



POPULAR ERRORS. 9 

we consider that the difierent parts of the nervous system 
have totally distinct endowments, and that there are nerves 
insensible to touch and incapable of giving pain, though 
exquisitely alive to their proper office, we nave no just 
reason to conclude that the brain should be sensible, or 
exhibit a property of the nerve of the skin. Reason on it 
as we may, the fact is so ; — the brain, through which every 
impression must be conveyed before it is perceived, is 
itself insensible. This informs us that sensibility is not a 
necessary attendant on the delicate texture of a living part, 
but that it must have an appropriate organ, and that it is 
an especial provision*. 

BENEFITS OF SENSIBILITY. 

It may appear, at first view^ that our condition would 
have been improved had we not been endowed with the 
Sensibility which often renders disease so great an evil ; 
but in the same proportion that our ease would have been 
consulted, our danger would have been increased. It is 
by the quick sensibility of our frame that we are warned 
of a thousand dangers, and enabled to guard against themf. 

SKIN-DEEP WOUNDS. 

The extreme Sensibility of the Skin to the slightest 
injury conveys to every one the notion that the pain must 
be the more severe the deeper the wound. Tnis is not 
the fact ; nor would it accord with the beneficent design 
which shines out everywhere. The sensibility of me 
skin serves not only to give the sense of touch, but it is 
a guard upon the deeper parts ; and as they cannot be 
reached except through the skin, and we must suffer pain 
therefore before they are injured, it would be superfluous 
to bestow sensibility upon these deeper parts. If the 
internal parts which act in the motions of the body had 
possessed a similar de^ee and kind of sensibility with the 
skin, so far from serving any useful purpose, this sensi- 
bility would have been a source of inconvenience and 
continual pain in the common exercise of the frame. The 
fact of the exquisite sensibility of the surface, in compari- 
son with the deeper parts, being thus ascertained by daily 
experience, we cannot mistake the intention, that the skin 
is made a safeguard to the delicate textures which are 

* Sir Charles BeU'B Bridgewater Treatln. t Dr. PhUip. 



10 POPULAR ERRORS, 

contained therein, by forcing ub to avoid injuries : and it 
does afford us a more effectual defence than if our bodies 
were oovered with the hide of the rhinoceros*. 

SENSIBILITY OF INFANTS. 

A NOTION prevails that the young of animals are directed 
by instinct, but that there is an exception in r^ard to the 
human ofispring ; that in the child we have to trace the 
gradual dawn and progressive improvement of reason. 
This is not quite true: we doubt whether the body would 
ever be exercised under the influence of reason alone, and 
if it were not first directed by sensibilities which are in- 
nate or instinctive. The sensibilities and motions of the 
lips and ton^e are perfect from the beginning ; and the 
dread of falhng is shown in the young infant long before 
it can have had experience of violence of any kind. The 
lips and tongue are first exercised ; the next motion is to 
put die hand to the mouth in order to suck it ; and 
no sooner are the fingers capable of grasping, than what- 
ever they hold is carried to the mouth. So that the sen- 
sibility to touch in the lips and tongue, and their motions, 
are the first inlets to knowledge ; and the use of the hand 
is a later acquirementt. 

THE TERM " NERVOUS." 

There are few terms more commonly used, both in and 
out of the medical profession, than *' Nervous :" it is a word 
which has acquired great numbers of significations, and 
many people, at the same time, profess not to understand 
what it means. Certainly, to speak of *' being nervous," 
is a mode of expression which is very indefinite, from the 
use that is made of it ; but which, if properly applied, 
carries to the mind a very forcible impression of a pecu- 
liar state, for which we have no very appropriate language. 
Unfortunately, the same word has been long employed to 
express two states in direct opposition to each other : thus, 
we talk of strong, weighty ailment, delivered with bold- 
ness and energy, and in appropriate language — ^as *' a nerv* 
ous speech," and the orator as ** full of nerve ;*' whilst we, 
on the other hand, say, that the individual who deli* 
vers himself with timidity, with hesitation, and distrust 
of his own power, is '* highly nervous ;"— we regret that 

* Sir Charles Bell's Bridgevrater Treatise. f IMd. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 11 

his " j;ood sense was overpowered by his nerres." In the 
first instance, we mean to say that there is a tension 
and strength of nerve; in the latter, that there is a hudty 
and weakness of nerve ; yet, by some strange anomaly in 
our mode of expressing onr ideas, we apply the same 
adjective to both these states of the nervous system*. 

FEET OF CHINESE FEMALES. 

We read much of the smallness and beauty of the feet 
of Chinese women ; but from the examination of a foot, 
and the Report of die same, by Mr. Bransby Cooper, to 
the Royal Society, this peculiaritv amounts to deformity. 
Indeed, the specimen examined had all the characters of 
deformity consequent upon the prevalent habit of early 
bandaging for the purpose of checking its natural growth. 
He observes: — <*To an unpractised eye it has more the 
appearance of a congenital malformation, than of being 
the efiect of art, however long continued ; and appears at 
first sight like a dub foot, or an unreduced dislocation. 
From the heel to the great toe, the length of the foot 
measures only four inches ; the great toe is bent abruptly 
backwards, and its extremity pointed directly upwanls ; 
while the phalanges of the other toes are doubled in beneath 
the sole of the foot, having scarcely any breadth across the 
foot where it is naturally brcuulest The heel, instead of 

Erojecting backwards, descends in a straight line from the 
ones of the leg, and imparts a singular appearance to the 
foot, as if it were kept in a state of permanent exten- 
sion. From the doufaJing-in of the toes into the sole of 
the foot, the external edge of the foot is formed in a great 
measure by the extremities of the metatarsal bones ; and 
a deep deft or hollow appears in the sole across its whole 
breadth. The author gives a minute anatomical de- 
scription of all these parts, pointing out the deviations 
from the natural conformation. He remarks, that from 
the diminutive size of the foot, the hdght of the instep, 
the defidency of breadth, and the density of the cellular 
texture, all attempts to walk with so deformed a foot must 
be extremely awkward ; and that in order to preserve an 
equilibrium in an erect position, the body must necessarily 
be bent forwards with a painful effort, and with a very 
considerable exertion of muscular power." 

« Dr. Sigmond'8 Lectures. 



12 POPULAR ERRORS. 



LONG EARS. 

The parts of the head which least influence the phy- 
siognomy are the Ears, which have few and weak move- 
ments. It appears that if the largest are considered least 
handsome, they hear farthest, and distinguish sounds with 
most facility. Could it he this consideration which has 
induced several savage nations, who are always more inte- 
rested than the civilised in hearing at a distance, to adopt 
the strange custom, not only of piercing the ear, to hang 
in them rings, diamonds, or precious stones, hut also to 
extend the lohe excessivdy, hj piercing it, and introducing 

Eieces of wood or metal, which are successively replaced 
y other pieces still larger* ? 

THE PULSE. 

The value of the indications of the Pulse is often for- 
feited by the slight and careless manner in which they are 
taken. An inference may be formed at one moment, or 
under one posture, which the lapse of five minutes, and 
cliange of position, will altogetlier belie. It is true that 
this is less the case in fevers and inflammatory diseases ; 
but there are many others where the view of the disorder 
and method of treatment may be wholly perverted, by 
trusting to a single observation. All recent inquiry into 
the Pulse shows the need of attention to these pointsf . 

CAUSES OF LEFT-HANDEDNESS. 

The question has been much discussed among ana- 
tomists, whether the properties of the right hand, in 
comparison with those of the left, depend on the course of 
the arteries to it. It is affirmed mat the trunk of the 
artery going to the right arm passes ofi* from the heart, 
so as to admit the blood directly and more forcibly into 
the small vessels of the arm. This is assigning a cause 
which is unequal to the eflect, and presenting, altogether, 
too confined a view of the subject : it is a participation in 
the common Error of seeking in the mechanism me cause 
of phenomena which have a deeper source. 

For the conveniences of life, and to make us prompt and 

» Lac^pMe. f Dr. Holland's Medioal Notes. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 13 

dexterous, it is pretty evident that there ought to be no 
hesltatioa which hand is to be used, or which foot is to 
be put forward ; nor is there, in fact, any such indecision. 
Is this taught, or have we this readiness given to us by 
nature ? It must be observed, at the same time, that there 
is a distinction in the whole right side of the body, and 
that the left side is not only the weaker, in regard to mus* 
cular strength, but also in its vital or constitutional pro- 
perties. Tne development of the organs of action and 
motion is greatest upon the right side, as may at any time 
be ascertained by measurement, or the testimony of the 
tailor or shoemaker; certainly, this superiority may be 
said to result from the more frequent exertion of the right 
hand ; but the peculiarity extends to the constitution also; 
and disease attacks the left extremities more frequently 
than the right. In opera-dancers, we may see that the 
most difBcult feats are performed by the right foot. But 
their preparatory exercises better evince the natural weak- 
ness of Uie left limb, since these performers are made to 
give double practice to this limb, in order to avoid awk- 
wardness in the public exhibition ; for if these exercises 
be neglected^ an ungraceful performance wiU be given to 
the right side. In walking behind a person, it is very 
seldom that we see an equalised motion of the body ; and 
if we look to the left foot, we shall find that the tread is 
not so firm upon it, that the toe is not so much turned 
out as in the right, and that a greater push is made with 
it. From the peculiar form of woman, and the elasticity 
of her step resulting more from the motion of the ankle 
than of the haunches, the defect of the left foot, when it 
exists, is more apparent in her gait. No boy hops upon 
his left foot, unless he be left-handed. The horseman 
puts his left foot in the stirrup, and springs from the right. 
We think we may conclude that every thing being adapted, 
in the conveniences of life^ to the right hand — as for ex- 
ample, the direction of the worm of the screw, or of the 
cutting end of the auger — ^is not arbitrary, but is related to 
a natural endowment of the body. He who is left-handed 
is most sensible to the advantages of this adaptation, from 
the opening of a parlour-door to the opening of a pen- 
knife. On the whole, the preference of the right hand is 
not the effect of habit, but is a natural provision, and is 
bestowed for a very obvious purpose; and the property 



14 POPULAR ERRORS. 

does not depend on the peculiar distribution of the arteries 
of the arm — but the preference is given to the right foot, 
aa well as to the right hand*. 

ART OP WALKING. 

In a graceful human step» the heel is always raised be- 
fore the foot is lifted from the ground, as if the foot were' 
part of a wheel rolling forward; and the weight of the 
body supported by the muscles of the calf of the leg, rests 
for the time on the fore part of the foot and toes. There 
is then a bending of the foot in a certain degree. But 
where strong wooden shoes are used, or any shoe so stifiP 
that it will not yield and allow this bending of the foot^ 
the heel is not raised at all until the whole foot rises 
with it ; so that the muscles of the calf are scarcely used^ 
and^ in consequence, soon dwindle in size, and almost dis- 
appear. Many of the English farm-servants wear heavy, 
stiff shoes ; and in London^ it is a striking thing to see 
the drivers of country wagons^ with fine robust persons 
in the upper part, but with legs which are fleshless spin- 
dles, producing a gait almost awkward and unmanly. The 
brothers of these men, and who are otherwise employed^ 
are not so mis-shapen. What a pity that, for the sake of 
a trifling saving, fair nature should be thus deformed ! 
An example of this kind is seen in Paris. There, as the 
streets have (few or) no side-pavements, and the ladies 
have to walk almost constantly on tiptoe, the great action 
of the muscles of the calf has given a conformation of 
the leg and foot, to match which the Parisian belles proudly 
challenge all the world — ^not aware, probably, that it is a 
defect in their city to which the peculiarity of their form 
is in part owingf . 

BLACK SKIN. 

That the heat of the sun produces blackness of the 
integuments is an opinion as old as the days of Pliny. 
Bum)n asserts that '* climate may be regarded as the chief 
cause of the different colours of man ;" and Smith is of 
opinion that '* from the pole to the equator, we observe a 
eradation in the complexion nearly in proportion to the 
latitude of the country." Blumenbacb, under the same 
impression, endeavours to account for this black tinge by 

* Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, 
t Dr. Amott's Elements of Physics. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 15 

a chemical ninstration somewhat curious. He states that 
the proximate cause of the dark colour is an abundance of 
carbon secreted by the skin, with hydrogen, precipitated 
and fixed by the contact of the atmospheric oxygen. Our 
Creoles, and the British inhabitants of India, may esteem 
thoQBsdTes particularly fortunate in not being subject to 
this chemical operation. 

It would be idle to dwell further on the hypothetical 
illustrations regarding this supposed operation of climate, 
which the observation of every unprejudiced traveller can 
impugn*. 

"STOPPmO THE TEETH." 

This branch of dental surgery is treated by many per- 
sons as quackery, as its results prove what theory cannot 
account tor, viz., that the progress of the decay is sometimes 
thus permanently arrested. Professor Owen explains this 
process as follows : — " Ordinary decay of the teeth com- 
mences, in the migority of instances, immediately beneath 
the enamel, in the fine ramifications of the peripheral ex- 
tremities of the tubes, (of which the teeth consist,) and 
proceeds in the direction of the main tubes ; and conse- 
quently, by the most direct route to the cavity of the pulp. 
The soft condition of the decayed portion of a tooth is weOt 
known to all dentists : it depends upon the removal of the 
earthy salts from the containing tubes and cells, in which 
process the decay of teeth essentially consists. The main 
object of the dentist seems, therefore, to be to detect those 
appearances in the enamel which indicate decay ; to break 
away the enamel where natural adhesion to the ivory will 
be found more or less dissolved at the decayed part; to re- 
move the softened portion of the ivory, and fill up the 
cavity with gold and other substances.' The calcareous 
salts are in such cases, as it were, poured out from the ex- 
tremities of the tubes, divided in the operation, and a thin 
dense layer intervenes between the exposed surface of the 
ivory and the stoppingf." 

PERFECTION OP THE EYE. 

Fbom the time of Sir Henry Wotton to the latest writer 
on light, the Eye has been a subject of admiration and 

* Dr. Millingen's Curiosities of Medical Experience, 
t Proceedings of tlie British AMOoiation, 1838. 



16 POPULAR ERRORS. 

eulogy* But this admiration is misplaced while it is given 
to the ball of the eye and the optic nerve exclusively ; 
since* the high endowments of this organ belong to the ex- 
erdse of the whole eye^ to its extaior apparatus, as much 
as to its humours and the proper nerve of vision. It is 
to the muscular apparatus, and to the conclusions which 
we are enabled to draw from the consciousness of mus- 
cular effort, that we owe that sense by which we become 
familiar with the form, magnitude, and relations of 
objects*. 

MOTION OF THE EYE. 

On coming into a room, we think we see the whole side 
of it at once — the pictures, the cornice, the chairs : but we 
are deceived: being unconscious of the Motions of the 
Eye, and that each object is rapidly, but successively, pre- 
sented to it. It is easy to show that if the eye were steady , 
vision would be quickly lost ; that all those objects which 
are distinct and brilliant, are so from the motion of the 
eye ; that they would disappear if it were otherwise. For 
example, let us fix the eye on one point — a thing difficult 
to do, owing to the very disposition to motion in the eye. 
Mlien we have done so, we shall find that the whole scene 
becomes more and more obscure, and finally vanishes. If 
we then change the direction of the eye but ever so little, 
at once the whole scene will be again perfect before us. 
These phenomena are oonseauent upon the retina being 
subject to exhaustion, by the lights, shades, and colours of 
objects continuing to stnke upon the same relative parts, 
and thus exhausting the nerve ; but when the eye snifts, 
there is a new exercise of the nervet. 



NEAR-SIOHTED PERSONS 

Commonly attribute to distant oljects a greater magnitude 
than those who have a good common sight. This Error 
may be explained as follows : the distinct images of objects 
are made on the e^e only at the point of intersection of the 
rays of light issuing from the same point. Hie eye of 
short sight receives on the retina all those rays beyond the 
point of their intersection ; and, oonsequenUy, at a point 
where they are more extended. 

* Sir Charles BeU's Bridgewater Treatise. 1 1^1^ 



POPULAR ERRORS. 17 

SEEING WITH THE FINOER8. 

The credulity of the public has sometimes been imposed 
upon by persons who pretended to See by means of their 
fingers : thus, at Liverpool, the notorious Miss M'A voy 
contrived, for a long time, to persuade a great number of 
persons that she r^ly possessed this miraculous power. 
Equally unworthy of credit are all the stories of persons, 
under the influence of animal magnetism, hearing sounds 
addressed to the pit of the stomach, and reading the pages 
of a book applied to the skin over that organ. 

These Errors have, doubtless, gained credence from a 
belief that the functions of the nerves are interchangeable, 
as is the case with many other functions in the animal 
system. On the contrary, the function of each nerve of 
sense is determinate, and can be executed by no other part 
of the nervous system. No nerve but the optic nerve, and 
no part of that nerve except the retina, is capable, however 
impressed, of giving rise to the sensation of light — that is, 
seeing : no part of the nervous system but 3ie auditory 
nerve can convey that of sound, or hearing ; and so of the 
rest*. 

choice of spectacles. 

Among the many vulgar Errors that are daily injuring 
those who cherish them, few have done more injury to the 
eyes than the notion that all persons of the same age re- 
quire glasses of the same focus. Nothing can be more 
absurd. As well might the same remedies be applied indis- 
criminately to all diseases, provided the age of tne sufiPerer 
were the same. 

Sir David Brewster has weU observed, that *' the selection 
of glasses for imperfect vision is a point of much deeper 
importance than is senerally believed. An oculist who is 
acquainted only wim the diseases of the human eye, with- 
out possessing any knowledge of it as an optical instrument, 
is often led professionally to recommend glasses when they 
ought not to be used, and to fix on focal lengths entirely 
unfit for the purpose to which they are applied ; and the 
mere vender of lenses and spectacles is still more frequently 
in the habit of proffering his deleterious counsel.'* 

When spectacles are properly selected, they afford the 

« See Dr. Roget's Bridgewater Treatiw. 




18 POPULAR ERRORS. 

greatest aid and comfort to short or long-sighted persons, 
and may be worn for several years wiuiout diminishing 
the sight, though the contrary is vulgarly imagined. 

INOCULATION FOR THE SMALL-POX. 

It is not at all an uncommon thing for even well-informed 
people to consider one event the cause of another, because 
the one has immediately preceded the other in the order 
of time. A curious instance of this Error occurred in the 
last century. The fish, on which many of the inhabitants 
of Norway depended for subsistence, suddenly disappeared 
from their coasts ; the practice of inoculation for the small- 
pox had just then been introduced, and was instantly fixed 
upon as the cause of the calamity ; and as the people con- 
sidered the risk of that disorder a trifle in comparison with 
starvation, nothing could exceed their righteous indigna- 
tion against all who undertook to prevent their taking the 
small-pox. 

PROFITS OF MEDICAL ADVISERS. 

It is a strange Error to consider the Profits of Medical 
Attendants to be uncommonly extravagant ; because this 
great apparent profit is frequently no more than the wages 
of labour. The skill of an apothecary is a much nicer and 
more delicate matter than of any artifice whatever ; and 
the trust which is reposed in him is of much greater import- 
ance. His reward, therefore, ought to be proportionate 
to his skill and his trust ; and it arises generally, from the 
price at which he sells his drugs. But the whole drugs 
which the best employed apothecary in a large market-town 
will sell in a year may not, perhaps, cost him above thirty 
or forty pounds. Though he should sell them, therefore, 
for three or four hundred, or at a thousand per cent, profit, 
this may often be no more than the reasonable wages of his 
labour, charged in the only way in which he can charge 
them — upon the price of his drugs. 

For example, the apparent extravagance of the charge 
of eighteen-pence for a draught-phial oi medicine is obvious 
to many who do not reflect that the charge is, in reality, for 
the pay ment of professional skill. The eighteen-pence may 
be fairly divided into two parts : four-pence for medicine 
and phial, and fourteen-pence for advice. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 19 



WARM BATBINO. 

Many erroneous notions prevail respecting the uses and 
the properties of the Warm Bath. To many persons, the 
idea of submersion in warm water on a summer's day, 
would appear preposterous ; but if it be rationally consi- 
dered, it will be mund that the warm bath may be taken 
with equal, or perhaps greater, benefit in the summer than 
in the winter. During the hot weather, the secretions of 
the skin are much increased in quantity ; and consequently, 
a greater necessity exists that it should be kept perfectly 
free from obstructions. 

Another prevailing Error respecting the warm bath is, 
that it tends to relax and enervate the body ; for, experi- 
ence has sufficiently proved the fallacy of the opinion, and 
many physicians have prescribed its use to patients labour- 
ing under debility from disease, none of whom experience 
such efiects, but have all felt invigorated, and mostly re- 
stored to health and strength. 

Many persons are deterred from using the warm bath, 
espedaUy in winter, from the fear of catcmng cold ; but this 
fear is groundless, for it has been found that the warm 
bath, by increasing the circulation on the surface of the 
body, renders it more capable of withstanding the effects of 
cdd than it otherwise would have been.* 

COLD BATHING. 

Mr. Abbrnethy illustrates, in his usually forcible man- 
ner, an erroneous notion prevalent, that cold is bracing, 
and heat relaxing ; " which," he observes, " you need only 
consider to see its absurdity. Heat excites action ; how 
can it relax? Now, I grant there is a difference between 
heat and moisture, and mere heat. But cold is bracing ; 
what is meant by that? They say a cold bath is bracing: 
ah ! a man jumps into a cold bath, and he feels chilled ; he 
jumps out again, and rubs himself all over with a coarse 
doth ; he is invigorated, refreshed, and cheery ; he feels 
as if he could jump over the moon. The heat and vigour 
that he feels is not from the cold water — ^it is the result 
of the reaction which follows ; it has roused the action of 
the head and arteries, and produced a temporary vigour 
and hilarity. If a man take a glass of brandy, he feels 

* JDr. CulverwelL 
c2 



20 POPULAR ERRORS. 

vigorous enough afterwards ; but you cannot say that the 
brandy is bracing. To make the experiment fairly, you 
should keep him m the cold water a length of time^ and 
see what a poor shivering wretch he would be ; why, you 
might almost knock him down with a feather." 

There is no truth in the vulgar opinion, that it is safer 
to enter the water when the body is cool, and that persons 
heated by exercise and banning to perspire should wait 
till they are perfectly cool. It is a rule liable to no exception, 
that moderate exercise ought always to precede cold bath- 
ing ; for neither previous rest, nor exercise to a violent 
degree, is proper on this occasion *. 

BBCOVERT FROM DROWNINO. 

Little or no water is found in the stomach of a 
drowned person; and when it is present, it can in no way 
have contributed to dlath. The experiments of Orfila 
and Marc have proved that water is never found in bodies 
submersed after death ; and that it cannot be made to 
enter the stomach without the assistance of a tube passed 
into the gullet. This fact, and that of little or no water 
entering the lungs, cannot be too widely propagated, as 
the popular prejudice is in favour of the opposite opinion ; 
and bodies taken out of the water are still rolled on bar- 
rels, and held up by the heels, in order to dislodge it ; a 
practice fraught with the greatest danger, if the smallest 
chance of resuscitation exist f . 

Persons diving to bring up a body, should know that 
they can see under water, and therefore not keep their 
eyes shut. A respectable person in the north of England 
cuved for a body several times without effect ; at last he 
opened his eyes whilst under water, and saw the body at a 
little distance ; the consequence was, a fine boy was re- 
covered and restored to life. 

In cases of Drowning, inflation of the lungs by inex- 
perienced persons is often attended with fatal consequences. 
A few years since, it was proved before tlie Academy of 
Sciences at Paris, that owing to the violence of the 
method of inflating the lungs, only two-thirds of the 
persons susceptible of Recovery from Drowning had been 
ultimately brought to life ; the proportion having formerly 
been nine-tenths. 

♦ Savory. t Dr. A. T. Thomson. 



POPULAR BRRORS. 21 

ANTIPATHIES. 

Many instances of Antipathies are no better than fables, 
and a severe examination would reduce them to the class 
of vulgar Errors. There are also fictitious aversions, bavins 
their source in affectation and a pretended delicacy of 
nerves. The greater part of Antipathies arise from pre- 
judice ; many from terrors inspired in infancy ; and, in 
most cases, reflection and a gradual accustoming of our- 
sdves to the objects of our dislike will weaken or remove 
die feeling of aversion; yet there are instances of in- 
curable Antipathies^ which seem to have their seat in the 
nervous system. 

MEDICAL BOOKS. 

A BOOK which directs people how to physic themselves 
ought to be entitled Every Man his own Poisoner : because 
it cannot possibly teach them how to discriminate between 
the resemblaQt symptoms of different diseases *. 

THE USE OF POWEBFTJL MEDICINES 

Is deprecated by many who see in them only the viru- 
leaoe of their concentrated forms. What we have mainly 
to regard in estimating the medicinal value of any sub- 
fltanoe, or its just application to practice, is the well-defined 
natare of its action on some organ or function of the living 
ceonomy. If this action be dearly ascertained^ we have 
essentially a medidnal power in our hands. Every sudi 
agent, even the most simple, is capable of being misused 
by excess; and this excess, or the fitness of its use, is 
determined, not by any comparison of the power of dif- 
ferent agents, but sim^ by the amount of the effects 
appropriate to each. The prussic acid diluted as befits 
the peculiar application given to it, is not, in any practical 
■ense^ a stronger medicine than others most familiar to us, 
nor mcve dangerous in its use; and we have even some 
additional security in the more definite nature of its effects, 
and in the greater care bestowed on its administration f. 

BITTERS AND TONICS. 

BiTTERS and Tonics are often confounded; whereas 
there is a great difference between them. '' When weak- 
ness proceeds from excess of irritability, there bitters act 
* The Doctor. t l>r* Holland's Medical Notes. 



22 POPULAlt ERRORS* 

beneficially ; because all bitters are ^isons, and operate 
by stilling, and depressing and lethargising the irritability. 
But where weakness proceeds from the opposite course of 
relaxation, there tonics are good ; because they brace up 
and tighten the loosened string. Bracing is a correct 
metaphor. Bark goes near to be a combination of a 
bitter and a tonic ; but no perfect medical combination of 
the two properties is yet known •/* 

CHARCOAL TOOTH-POWDER. 

Charooal, when properly prepared, is an excellent den- 
tifrice, and will correct fetor of the breath, from its pro^ 
perty of absorbing gases. That Charcoal whicb is sold in 
boxes has, however, nothing to recommend it but its guilti- 
ness, if this be really a recommendation: it should be 
powdered with the utmost dispatch, in a very hot metal 
mortar, and quickly put into a bottle, which should be well 
corked, and even sealed. When this powder is used, it 
should be exposed to the air as short a time as possible. 

STRAMONIUM IN ASTHMA. 

The indiscriminate use of the smoke of Stramonium 
has occasioned dangerous or hurtful effects in frequent 
instances. In some cases of aged or apoplectic subjects, 
death has been the consequence. No considerate physician 
can countenance this latitude of application, or advise its 
use without well knowing the nature of the case of asthma 
on which he is consulted f. 

OIN FOR WORMS. 

Gin, taken when the stomach is supposed to be most 
empty, is a popular remedy, in many parts of the country, 
for Worms ; but violent inflammatory fever, and inflam- 
matory excitement of the brain, are not uncommonly 
produced by it. The component parts of gin, which prove 
destructive to worms in the stomach, are the oil of juniper 
and oil of turpentine; and the ingredient which proves 
injurious to the system is the spirit, which probably 
promotes the poisonous eflect of the juniper and tur- 
pentine on worms. The oil of turpentine will, however, 
act as beneficially as the gin, and, at the same time, not 
disorder the brain, or excite fever. 

* Coleridge. f Dr. Bree. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 23 

WALKING IN WET CLOTHES. 

If the Clothes which cover the hody are damp, the 
moisture which they contain will be evaporated by the 
heat of the human body so fast as to produce cold. Thus, 
we see the danger of sitting in wet clothes. By walking 
in them, however^ till they can be changed, we avoid this 
danger of taking cold; for the place of the heat carried 
off by the moisture in evaporating is amply supplied by 
the additional heat generated by the exercise. 

A DAMP BED. 

Whethea a Bed be Damp can only be ascertained im- 
mediately after a person enters it; for the longer he 
remains m it, the less damp will it appear. The object of 
the bed-clothes is to check the escape of heat from the body, 
so as to supply at night that warmth which may be ob- 
tained by exercise or labour during the day. But^ if the 
dothes be damp, the heat supplied by the body is imme- 
diately absorbed by this moisture and passes off in vapour ; 
and this effect would continue until the clothes were 
actually dried by the heat of the body. 

THE TREAD-MILL. 

The propriety of making men and women work on the 
Tread-mill nas been disputed with much warmth, but may 
be as easily decided. They work by climbing on the out- 
side of a large wheel or cylinder, which is turned by their 
weight ; and on which they must advance just as fast as it 
turns, to avoid falling from their proper situation. There 
are projections, or steps for the feet, on the outside of the 
cylinder; and the action to the workers is exactly that of 
ascending an acclivity. Now, as nature fitted the human 
body as well for climbing hills as for walking on plains, 
the work of the tread-mill, under proper restrictions as 
to duration, must be as natural and healthful as any 
other. Its effects have now proved it to be so *. 

QUARANTINE. 

Quarantine, so far from being a preventive of disease, 
tends to its increase. It cannot keep out atmospheric con- 
tagion ; *' but," as Coleridge observes, ** it can, and does 
always, increase the predisposing causes of its reception." 

* Dr. Amott's Elements of Physios. 



24 POPULAR ERRORfil. 



PRUSSIO ACID NOT RARE. 

P&ussic Acid was named from its being first obtained 
from Prussian blue; a circumstance which may have led 
to its frequent occurrence in nature being long overlooked. 
Thus, '^ prussic or hydrocyanic acid has a most agree- 
able smell, which is easily recognised in certain flowers — 
the wallflower^ for instance— and in the blossoms of 
various trees, as the peach-tree and hawthorn : this acid, 
indeed, seems to be their odoriferous prin ciple. It is found in 
various kernels, as those of the apricot, cherry, and al- 
mond; in the last, in such quantity as to have occasioned 
death. It exists in the leaves of the common laurel so 
largely, that a water distilled from this is almost instanta- 
neous poison. This fact was discovered in 1 728, at Dublin, 
where several persons who had used it as a cordial, mixed 
with spirituous liquors^ were poisoned." Yet, to this day 
a kind of flavouring for puddings which is sold contains 
a large proportion of this deadly poison. 

DANGER FROM COPPER SAUCEPANS. 

The precise Danger from the use of Copper Saucepans 
imperfectly tinned is far from being generally understood. 
It appears that the acid contained in stews, as lemon-juice, 
though it does not dissolve copper by being merely boiled 
in it a few minutes, nevertheless, if allowed to cool and 
standin itfor some time, will acquire a sensible impregnation 
of poisonous matter, as verdigris, or the green band which 
lines the interior of the vessel. Dr. Falconer has observed 
that syrup of lemons boiled fifteen minutes in copper or 
brass-pans did not acquire a sensible impregnation ; but 
if it was allowed to cool and remain in the pans for twenty- 
four hours, the impregnation was perceptible even to the 
taste, and was discovered by the test of metallic iron. 
This fact has been further confirmed by the researches of 
Proust, who states, that in preparing food or preserves in 
copper, it is not till the fluid ceases to cover the metal, 
and is reduced in temperature, that the solution of the 
metal b^ns *. 

Unctuous or greasy solutions are most liable to become 
impregnated wiw poisonous verdigris if left long in un- 
tinned brass or copper vessels. Sir Humphry Davy 

« ChristUnn on Foiaons. 



POPULAR EBROBS. 25 

asserts that weak solutions of common salt, such as are 
daily made by adding a little salt to boiling vegetables 
and other eatables in our kitchens, act powerfully on cop- 
per vessels^ although strong ones do not affect them. 

LEADEN VESSELS. 

DigASTRous effects have often followed the incautioKs 
use of Lead for the fabrication of vessels used in manufac- 
tures, and for domestic purposes. A disorder formerly 
well known in this country, and called, from the county 
where it was most prevalent^ ^' Devonshire colic," has been 
traced to the drinking of cyder in whidi lead was dis- 
solved; the malic add of the apple-iuioe exerting a pow- 
erful chemical action upon the metal, and thereby fonmng 
the malate of lead, which is strong poison. In consequence of 
these evils and their cause being known, dishes or beds of 
lead for cyder-presses have generally fallen into disuse. 
But the r^rehensible use of lead-plates in dairies is not 
altogether discontinued ; though it is well known that when 
the milk turns sour, it inevitaUy absorbs some of the metal. 

P0I80NINO BY ABSENIC. 

Examination after death is commonly believed to be 
the sure means of detecting poison ; but it happens with 
Arsenic, as with most other poisons when taken into 
the stomach, that it occasions vomiting ; and it is no un- 
common thing to find persons killed by arsenic, and yet 
be unable to detect the smallest portion of it after death in 
the stomach or bowels. 

'^OOOD FOB MAN AND BEAST.* 

When the wind is in the east. 

It's neither good for man nor heast. 

Is a common saying; whence many poor pa*sons conclude, 
that if what is bad for man is bad for beast, so what is 
good for beast is good for man. A poor small farmer 
seeing a quantity of turpentine administered to his cow, 
fancied soon afterwards that it would cure him ; and not 
being particular in the quantity, he took half-a-pint, which 
killed him. 

LUNATICS. 

Op the influence of the planets and the moon — ^notwith- 
standing the name of Lunatics, and the vulgar impressions — 



26 POPULAR ERRORS. 

no proof whatever exists. Yet physicians of eminence- 
Mead even — have said, '' the ravings of mad people kept 
lunar periods, accompanied by epileptic fits." The moon 
apparently is equally innocent of the thousand things 
ascribed to her. When the paroxysms of mad people do 
occur at the full of the moon. Dr. Burrowes inclines to 
explain the matter thus : " Maniacs are in general light 
sleepers; therefore, like the dog which bays the moon, and 
many other animals, remarked as being always uneasy 
when it is at the full, they are disturbed by the flitting 
shadows of clouds which are reflected on tne earth and 
surrounding objects. Thus the lunatic converts shadows 
into images of terror, and, equally with all ' whom reason 
lights not,' is filled with aliurm, and becomes distressed 
and noisy." 

WHAT IS MADN£S8? 

Physicians and medical writers of every age seek 
earnestly for some formal definition of Madness ; — a vain 
and unprofitable research! *'lts shapes and aspects are 
as various as those of the human mind in a sound state, 
and as little to be defined by any single phrases, however 
laboriously devised. Where such definitions are attempted, 
especially in courts of law, they fitly become matter of 
ridicule, or causes of contradiction and perplexity. Mental 
derangement, however the name be used, is not one thing, 
nor can it be treated as such. It differs in kind not less 
than in degree, and in each of its varieties we may trace 
through different causes all the gradations between a sound 
and unsound understanding, on the points where reason 
is thus disordered.*' Dr. Holland considers " one of the 
most assured practical tests of insanity, particularly in 
cases of difficult le^ discrimination, to be the sudden 
change of habitual judgments, feelings, or actions, without 
obvious cause." There are, however, instances in which 
this criterion cannot be admitted alone; but, "it is mani- 
festly more secure in general than the appeal to an 
imaginary common standard of reason, which scarcely two 
persons would describe alike*." 

" Enough to drive one mad," is a common expression 
applied to the cares and crosses of this world, and may 
lead many persons to imagine that grief is oftener than 

* Medical Notes. 



POPITLAB ERBOBS* 27 

madness the cause of joy. Yet, actual hopes or dis** 
appointments in pecuniary speculations do not appear^ 
according to Dr. Burrowes^ to occasion insanity so fre- 
quently as unexpected or immense wealth, and consequent 
joy. In the six months preceding the numerous failures 
(or the panic) of 1825-6, there were fewer returns to the 
commissioners for licensing mad-houses of insane persons 
in the London district, than in any corresponding period 
for many years hefore. 

In madness, the memory is more impaired than is gene- 
raUy suspected. Lunatics recognise readily; hut that 
appears to he the only part of their memory unimpaired. 

RELIGIOUS MADNESS. 

Among the moral causes of intellectual derangement. 
Religion has heen enumerated, mainly because so many 
insane persons have been possessed by religious halluci- 
nations. Excited to excess, every emotion and passion is 
capable of bringing on madness : if so, religion, calculated 
as are its tremendous considerations to influence our 
feelings, may well be supposed, by possibility, to be a cause 
of insanity. But still, though the hallucination be a r^ 
ligious one, the real source of insanity may be the very 
reverse of religion ; and thus the religious hallucination 
itself rather be the efiPect than the cause of insanity. 
Generally, those who go mad through religion, as it is 
called, are people of susceptible temperament, or very 
weak heads. It is quite idle to impute the effects, as most 
people do, to the mysticism of the tenets inculcated, or to 
the intenseness with which abstract theology is cultivated; 
or to the subject of religion being impressed too ardently 
on persons too young, or too much uninformed to com- 
prehend it. It is obviously much more to the purpose to 
look to the condition in which the perceptive reasoning 
powers actually were, before religion appeared to bring on 
derangement. Dr. Burrowes's great experience goes to 
show that the effect springs immediately from some per<- 
version of religion, or the discussion and adoption of novel 
and extravagant doctrines, at a juncture when the under- 
standing, from other causes, is already shaken. Nor does he 
recollect one instance of insanity, arising apparently from a 
religious source, where the party hs^ been undisturhed 
about opinions. It appeared to him always to originate 



28 POPULAR ERRORS. 

daring the conflict between opposite doctrines, before 
conviction was determined. While the mind is in sus- 
pense from the dread of doing wrong in matters of con- 
science, and the balance is poised between old and new 
doctrines, involving salvation, the feelings are excited, (he 
says,) to a morbid degree of sensibility. In so irritable a 
state, an incident, which at any other xsme would pass un* 
heeded, will elicit the latent spark, and inflame the mind 
to madness. 

RIDICULE OF H7P00H0NDRIACS. 

There is a common notion that certain invalids can be^ 
laughed out of their complaints ; than which few ideas are 
more erroneous. Thus, to ridicule the complaints of the 
Hypochondriac is very inconsiderate ; for, as the physician 
is often obliged to humour the patient, and to prescribe 
vrhat is termed a placebo^ so relations and others should, 
when the patient appears from increased irritation to 
require soothing, listen to a string of complaints, which 
they know to be in a great measure exaggerated ; rather 
than by totally disregii^ing and ridicuUng them, add to 
the irritation of the mind of the individual, who, not- 
withstanding his fancies, is actually in a state of disease. 

CURE FOR HYPOCHONDRIASIS. 

The Errors of a mind diseased" are, happily, of readier 
correction than is generally imagined. The b^t rdief for 
Hypochondriacs appears to be by usefiil and disinterested 
occupation in prmnoting the welfare of others; but there 
is not, probably, anv instance of a cure perfected in a case 
apparently so hopeless as that of Captain Blake, distin- 
guished for his exertions in the attempt to supply London 
with fish by land-carriage. The Captain was a most 
sensitive hypochondriac for several years, during which 
time he was seldom more than a week or two without 
consulting Dr. Heberden, who had not only tried all the 
medicines which he thought likely to correct any cause of 
disease arising from boduy infirmity, but every argument 
for the comfort of his patient's mind — and in vain. At 
length. Dr. Heberden heard no more of his patient till, 
after a considerable interval, he found that Captain Blake 
had formed a project of conveying fish to London firom 
some of the seaports in the west, by means of Uttle carts 
adapted for expeditious land-carriage. The arrangemoit 



FOPITLAR ERRORS* 29 

and variooB occupations of the mind in forwarding thia 
object were sufficient entirely to supersede all sense of his 
fbrmer malady, wlach from that time never returned. 

HYDROPHOBIA. 

It is an Error to imagine that a mad dog avoids the 
water ; for he will both drink it and swim in it as usual, 
and without presenting any of that horror of it which 
characterises Hydrophobia in man. 

KATURB OF SLEEP. 

It is not uncommon to hear persons attribute the sleep- 
ing of " guilty creatures " to hardness of heart, or recK- 
lessness. This is an Error, referable to ignorance of 
the nature of sleep, and of the fact '* that all degrees of 
excitement in the parts of the brain and spinal marrow, 
associated with the nerves of the sensitive system, are fol- 
lowed by proportional exhaustion. The only limit to this 
law is the capability of bearing in those parts. Exhausted 
by mental excitement, the criminal is often awakened for 
his execution ; and the soldier, both by mental and bodily 
excitement, sleeps by the roaring cannon*." 

SLEEPING WITH THE EYES OPEN. 

There are some persons who Sleep witli their Eyes 
Open ; and a man may stand before another man in such 
a situation, with a lighted candle in his hand, so that 
the image of that person who has the light may be vividly 
depicted on the retina of the sleeping man ; but does he 
see — is he sensible of it } No ! This has been magnified 
into a wonder ; whereas it only proves what Dr. Darwin 
long since asserted — that sensation does not depend upon 
impressions made upon the nerves, but upon actions ex- 
cited in them. Arouse the slumberer ; awake him that 
sleepeth ; bring but the natural excitement into his nerves 
and muscles, and he would exclaim : '' God bless me ! 
how came you here at this time of nightf ?" 

PREVENTION OF SLEEP. 

" Tatino to get to Sleep " or great anxiety to bring on 
sleep, is more or less its preventive ; the disengagement of 
the mind from any strong emotion, or urgent train of 
thought, being the most needful condition for attaining 

« Dr. Fhilip. f Abemethy. 



34 POPULAR ERRORS* 

dying state. These symptoms are painful only to the 
spectators, and not to the dying, who are not sensible of 
them. The case here is the same as if one, from the 
dreadful contortions of a person in an epileptic fit, should 
form a conclusion respecting his internal feelings : from 
what affects us so much, he suffers nothing." 

^' THE LIGHTNESS BEFORE DEATH.*' 

The brightening up of the mind previously to dissolu- 
tion, or, to use the common expression, *' the Lightness 
before Death*," has led to a notion that dying people are 
favoured beyond others with a spiritualised conception of 
things not only relating to time, but likewise to eternity; 
Or, in other words, that they have visions of angelic consola- 
tion. This lighting up of the mind is stated by Mr. 
Madden to amount to ^' nothing more than a pleasurably 
excited condition of the mental faculties, following perhaps 
a state of previous torpor, and continuing a few hours, or 
oftentimes moments, before dissolution. This rousing up 
of die mind is, probably, produced by the stimulus of dark 
venous blood circulating through the arterial vessels of the 
brain, in consequence of the imperfect oxygenation of the 
blood in the lungs, whose delicate air-cells become impeded 
by the deposition of mucus on the surface, which there is 
not sufficient energy in the absorbents to remove; and 
hence arises the rattling in the throat which commonly 
precedes death." 

NATURE OF DEATH. 

Br. Philip, in an elaborate paper read before the Royal 
Society, on the Nature of Death, has adduced many facts 
and arguments to strip a change which all must undergo 
of the groundless terrors with which, we have reason to 
believe, the timid and fanciful have clothed it 

" The approach of death,'' says Dr. Philip, " if we arc 
aware of it, must always be more or less impressive, not 
only because we are about to undergo an unknown change, 
but are leaving all that has hitherto interested and been 

* Shakspeare calls it *' the lightning :" 

'< How oft wheoa men are at the point of death 
Have they been merry, which their keepers call 
A lightning before death/' 



POPULAR ERRORS. 85 

Satefiil to us. Even here, hQweyer, for the most part, 
e laws of nature are merciful. Most diseases of con- 
tinuanoe, (for we shall find there are some exceptions,) not 
only gradually impair our sensibility, but alter our tastes. 
Thev not only render us less sensible to all impressions, 
but less capable of enjoying as far as we are still sensible 
to them. The sight of a feast to a man who has lost his 
appetite is disgusnul ; and a similar change takes place, in 
a greater or less degree, with respect to dl otlier means of 
eojoyment 

''These circumstances constitute a great part of the 
difference of our feelings with respect to what, in common 
language, is called a violent and a natural death. In the 
latter, as far as sensibility is impaired, we are more or less 
in the state of old age ; and, in addition to this change, 
our tastes are perverted. By these means, the relish for 
life is, in a great degree, destroyed before we lose it. 
Thus, in disease, the most timid often meet death with 
composure ; and sometimes, as I have repeatedly witnessed, 
with pleasure. I have even known the information that 
the danger was passed received only with expressions of 
i^;ret." 

SUFFERINGS OF THB DEATH-BED. 

The circumstance which has given rise to our notions 
respecting die Sufferings of our last moments is, that in 
certain diseases there is a convulsive action of the muscles 
at the time at which the sensibility is extinguished. 
But these are not acts of volition. The laws of our nature 
tell us that they are not the effects of suffering; and we 
never see in the patient any indication that he suffers. 
Were they indications of a struggle of feeling, necessarily 
connected with the last act of dying, as has b^n supposed, 
they would be a constant symptom ; whereas, they only 
occur under certain circumstances of the constitution or 
the disease. One of the least painful of violent deaths is 
that from loss of blood; yet here this struggle very 
uniformly attends the last act of dying, according to the 
common acceptation of the term ; and it is evident that 
here the sensibility, in consequence of the failure of drcu,- 
lation^ is almost extinguished before this involuntary 
action of the mu&des takes place. The struggles, 

d2 



36 POPULAR ERRORS. 

therefore, the laborioas and oonToLure heBYings of the 
chest, are wholly automatic (or mechanical), independent 
of the will, — a part of the mechanism of the houy, con- 
trived for its safety, which continues to act when the mind 
is unconscious of die sufferings of the fhime, or is occu- 
pied by soothing illusions*. 

DEATH BY LIGHTNING. 

Few persons who have not inspected a human body 
struck by Lightning have a correct idea of the mode in 
which the stroke effects a sudden termination of life. The 
visible alterations in the frame afford a striking contrast 
to the ordinary ravages of what is termed disease. The 
machinery of the body appears nearly perfect and un- 
scathed, and yet, in none of the multitudinous forms of 
death is the hving principle so summarily annihilated. 



UNCERTAIN SIGNS OF DEATH. 

Thb cessation of pulsation in the heart and the arteries, 
and coldness of the body, are commonly thought to be 
certain Signs of Death ; but the researches of science have 
proved them to be very fallacious. A more certain sign 
IS the suspension of respiration, for it cannot be continued 
many minutes without actual death supervening ; whereas 
the action of the heart and arteries may be suspended for 
a considerable time, if respiration be stUl carried on, how- 
ever obscurely, and yet these organs be again awsJcened to 
activity. The first object, therefore, in supposed death, 
is to ascertain whether respiration still continues. This 
can, in many instances, be perceived by baring the thorax 
and abdomen; since it is impossible for breathing to be 
carried on for many seconds without the influence of the 
respiratory muscles, the effect of the action of which is to 
elevate the ribs and depress the diaphragm, so as to push 
forward the sternum, and cause a momentary swelling of 
the abdomen. It is of sreat importance to the young 
practitioner to accustom nis eye to jud^e accurately of 
these movements, as the ordinary methods of applying a 
mirror to the mouth, or a downy feather near it, are both 

♦ Dr. Philip. 



POPULAR BRRORS. 87 

liable to error. If the mirror be warmer than the expired 
breftth, no sign can be obtained by it, because the breath 
is not condensed upon it; or, the insensible perspiration 
from the hand of mm who holds it may sully its surface; 
whilst *' the light and weighdess down," if confided in, 
will delude more than the prince, who is thus described as 
having been deceived by it, when carrying off the crown 
from the pillow of his royal father : 

" By his gfttee of breath. 
There lies a downy feather, which stirs not : 
Did he respire, that light and weighttoss down 
Perchance must xnovi^'' 

Another symptom, the opacity and want of lustre in the 
eye, is equally faUadous ; even the thin slimy membrane 
which covers the cornea in the eye of the dead, which 
breaks in pieces when touched, and is easily removed from 
die cornea bv wiping, sometimes is formed many hours 
before death nas occunred. In several instances, also, this 
appearance does not present itself even after death ; as, 
for instance, in cases of poisoning by hydrocyanic acid, in 
which the eye retains all its lustre for hours after death ; 
and the iris even contracts when approached by a bright 
light. This sign, therefore, when taken alone, is of no 
value. 

The state of collapse, which is one of the s;^mptoms of 
cholera asphyxia, has demonstrated how little is toe value 
of coldness of the body as a sisn of death. In that singular 
disease, the coldness which accompanies the state of 
collapse is that of ice, and during it no pulsation can be 
perceived, even at the heart; yet the person lives and 
oreathes, and frequently recovers. Drowned persons also, 
in whom animation is only suspended, and who may be 
recalled to life, are always cold ; whereas in some diseases, 
apoplexy for example, a certain d^ee of warmth is per- 
ceived for many hours. 

Pal^ess and lividity of countenance always accompany 
the above state of collapse; the body even becomes blue : 
this sign, therefore, wmch is usually set down as one indi- 
cating death, is of less value than any others. Cases, on 
the other hand, have occurred in which the countenance 
has remained unchanged a considerable time after death ; 
and in some instances, as Dr. Paris has remarked, '* its 
colour and complexion have not only been preserved, but 



38 POPULAR ERRORS. 

even heightened :" as if the spirit, scorning the blow which 
severed it from mortality, haa left the smile it raised upon 
tlie moveless features ; or, as Shakspeare would express it, 

" Smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber ; 
Not as Death's dart, being laughed at." 

From these, and other observations, by the same writer. 
Dr. A. T. Thomson, it is evident, that there are no certain 
signs that a person is truly dead, except the total cessation 
of respiration, and the conmiencing putrefaction of the 
body. 

DEATH NOT PAIN. 

Death and Pain are inseparable in most men's minds > 
yet, in a recent communication to the Royal Society, Dr* 
Philip stated, that death, under its various forms, whether 
arising from old age, excessive stimulants producing ex* 
haustion, debilitating causes that weaken vital action, injury 
or disease of vital organs, is always preceded by a loss of 
sensibility, so that the precise action we properly call death, 
is one unattended with pain. This is proved by the ex- 
perience of those who have been recovered after submer- 
sion or strangulation; for they all agree that no pain was 
felt when the vital actions were suspended, but that acute 
pain attended their first sensations of returning life. Death, 
then, is simply the loss of sensibility. This reminds one 
of the saying of Arcesilaus, that " Death, of all estimated 
evils, is the only one whose presence never incommoded 
anybody, and wnich only caused concern during its ab- 



sence." 



IS THE FEAR OF DEATH NATURAL TO MAN? 

*' The weariest and most loathed worldly life. 
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment 
Can lay on nature, is a paradise 
To what we fear of death." 

Many good and great men, in their lives and writings, 
have laboured to prove that the Fear of Death is not natural 
to man. In no modem writings, however, have we seen 
this interesting inquiry more eloquendy treated than in the 
following passage in Dr. Souther's (foUoquies: — ^^ Surely 
to the sincere bdiever, death would be an object of desire 
instead of dread, were it not for those ties — ^those heart- 
strings — ^by whidi we are attached to life. Nor indeed do 



POPULAR £BRORS« 39 

I bdieve that it is natural to fear death, howeyer generally 
it may he thought so. From my own feelings, I have little 
right to judge ; for^ although habitually mindful that the 
hour Cometh^ and even now may be, it nas never appeared 
actually near enough to make me duly apprehend its effect 
upon myself. But from what I have observed, and what 
I nave heard those persons say whose professions lead them 
to the dying, I am induced to infer that the fear of death 
is not common, and that where it exists, it proceeds rather 
from a diseased and enfeehled mind, than from any princi*» 
pie in our nature.** 

CAUSES OF DBOWNIKO. 

Dr. Arnott, in his popular Elements of Physics, states 
the following reasons why, in ordinary accidents, so many 
persons are drowned who might easily be saved : — 

1. Their believing that the body is heavier than water, 
and therefore that continued exertion is necessary to keep 
them swimming; and hence their generally assuming the 
position of a swimmer, in which me face is downwards, 
and the whole head has to be kept out of water to allow of 
breathing. Now, as a man cannot retain this position 
without continued exertion, he is soon exhausted, even if 
a swimmer; and if not, the unskilful attempt will scarcely 
secure for him even a few respirations. The body raised 
for a moment by exertion above the natural level, sinks as 
£ax below it when the exertion ceases ; and the plunge, by 
appearing the commencement of a permanent sinking, 
teirifies the unpractised individual, and renders him an 
easier victim to his fate. 

2. From a fear that water by entering the ears may 
drown, as if it entered by the nose or mouth, a wastefiu 
exertion of strength is made to prevent it ; the truth being, 
however, that it can only fill the outer ear, or as far as 
tiie membrane of the drum, and is therefore of no conse- 
quence. Every diver and swimmer has his ears filled with 
water, and with impunity. 

3. Persons unaccustomed to the water and in danger 
of being drowned, generally attempt in their struggle to 
keep their hands above the surface, from feeling as if 
their hands were tied while held below; but this act is 
inost hurtful, because any part of the body kept out of 
the water in addition to the face, which must be out. 



40 POPULAR ERRORS. 

requires an e£fbrt to support it, which the individual is 
supposed at the time incompetent to afibrd. 

4. The not having reflected that when a log of wood or 
a human hody is floating upright, with a small portion 
ahove the surface, in rough weather, as at sea, every wave 
in passing must cover the head for a little time, mit will 
again leave it projecting in the interval. The practised 
swimmer chooses this interval for l»*eathin^. 

5. Not knowing the importance of keepmg the diest as 
full of air as possible, the doing whidi has nearly the same 
efiect as tying a hladder of air to the neck, and without 
other effort will cause nearly the whole head to remain 
above the water. If the chest he once emptied, while 
from the face being under water the person cannot inhale 
again, the body remains specifically neavier than water, 
and will sink. 



II.— PROPERTIES OF FOOD. 



DIETETIOS. 

Much more importance is attached to medical cautions 
about the use of food than they merit ; for ^ Dietetics 
must become a much more exact hranch of knowledge 
before we can he justified in opposing its maxims to the 
natural and repeated suggestions of the stomach, in a state 
either of health or disease*." 

GOURMANDISH AND EPICURISM. 

Lady Blessinoton notes : ** Let me efi&ce the last 
term. Epicurism, which is so injuriously and so falsely 
applied to the philosopher from whom it takes its name ; 
and let me not confound his refined moral system with 
the indulgence in sensual enjoyments of those professing 
themselves Epicureans. I have never, without indigna* 
tion, heard the term applied, since I read Browne's /n- 
qniriei into Vulgar and Common Errors, and yet I was 

* Dr. Holland's Medical NotM. 



rOPITLAR BRBOSa^ 41 

aboat to use it in this injmious sense ; so prone are we to 
condnue in enors we have once believed. But how many 
of our opinions are founded on equally erroneous premiies.** 

NOURISHMENT IN FOOD. 

The wholesome or unwholesome character of any 
Aliment depends, in a great measure, on the state of the 

aestive organs, in any given case. Sometimes, a parti- 
sr kind of food is called wholesome, because it produced 
a beneficial effect of a particular chanicter on tli^ system 
of an individual In tnis case, however, it is to be con- 
sidered as a medicine, and can be called wholesome only 
for those whose systems are in the same condition. Very 
often a simple aliment is made indigestible by artificitu 
cookery. Aliments abounding in fat are unwholesome, 
because fat resists the operation of the gastric juice. The 
addition of too much spice makes many an innocent 
aliment injurious, because spices resist the action of the 
digestive organs, and produce an irritation of particular 
parts of the system. 

In any given case, the digestive power of the individual 
is to be considered, in order to determine whether a par* 
ticular aliment is wholesome or not In general, we can 
only say that aliment is healthy which is easily soluble, 
and is suited to the power of digestion of the individual ; 
and, in order to render the aliment perfect, the nutritious 
parts must be mixed up with a certain quantity of inno- 
cent substance affording no nourishment, to fill the stomach; 
because there is no doubt that many persons injure their 
health by taking too much nutritious food. In this case, 
the nutritious parts, which cannot be dissolved, act pre- 
cisely like food which is, in itself, indigestible. 

It is a very mistaken idea that the nourishment in food 
is according to the quantity : a person may eat a great 
deal of some articles, and receive very little nourishment 
from them. The quantity of nourishment depends 
greatly on the aromatic flavour contained in food ; and 
whatever is insipid to the taste is of little service to the 
stomach. Now, the difibrence between good cookery and 
bad cookery lies principally in the development of the 
flavour of bur food; articles properly cooked yield the 
whole of it : by good cookery we make the most of every- 
thing — by bad cookery, the least. 



42 POPULAR ERRORS. 



ANIMAL V, VEOETABLE FOOD. 

A MOST erroneous idea has prevailed regarding the use 
of Animal Food, which has heen considered as the hest cal- 
culated to render mankind rohust and courageous. This 
is disproved by observation. The miserable and timid 
inhabitants of Northern Europe and Asia are remarkable 
for their moral and phvsical debility, although they chiefly 
live on fish or raw nesn ; whereas the athletic Scotch and 
Irish are certainly not weaker than their English neigh- 
bours^ though the former consume but Httle meat. The 
strength and agility of the negroes is well known^ and the 
South Sea Islanders can vie in bodily exercises with our 
stoutest seamen. We have reason to believe that at the 
most glorious periods of Grecian and Roman power, the 
armies principally subsisted upon bread, vegetables, and 
fruits*. 

Contrary to the general opinion, animal food, if of a 
mild quality, is more digestible than vegetable, and solids 
are more digestible than fluids. Again, animal food is 
easier of digestion and more nutritious than fish ; but it is 
also more heating. Although salt be an assistant to 
digestion, yet saltei meat, as ham, bacon^ hung beef, and 
similar articles, are very indigestible. 

THE FONDNESS OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE FOR ANIMAL 

FOOD 

I 

Amounts almost to a National Error. Sir Francis Head 
relates, in his Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau: 
** Two German tailors had been cheerfully eating a vege- 
table dinner — so does the Italian who lives on maccaroni ; 
<— so does the Irish labourer who lives on potatoes ; — so 
do the French peasants who eat little but bread ; — so do 
the millions who subsist in India on rice — in Africa on 
dates — ^in the South-Sea Islands and West Indies on the 
bread-tree and on yams; in fact, only a very small pro- 
portion of the inhabitants of this globe are carnivorous : 
yet, in England, we are so accustomed to the gouty luxury 
of meat, that it is now almost looked upon as a necessity ; 
and though our poor, we must all confess, generally 
speaking, are religiously patient, yet so soon as the middle 

« Dr. MUlingoi. 



POPULAR ERBORSI, 4S 

classes are driven from animal to v^etable diet, they car- 
nivoronsly both believe and argue that they are in the 
world remarkable objects of distress—that tneir country 
is in distress — that * things cannot last;^ — in short, 
pointing to an artificial scale of luxury, which they them* 
sdves have hung up in their own minds, or rather in their 
stomachs, they persist that v^etable diet is low diet — that 
being without roast-beef is living below zero, and that 
mdares, or teeth for grinding the roots and fruits of the 
earth, must have been given to mankind in seneral, and 
to the English nation in particidar — ^by mistfu^e." 

RULE OF EATISQ, 

** To eat a little and often," is a rule frequently followed, 
because it is in accordance with our feelings ; but it is a 
very bad rule, and fraught with infinite mischief. Before 
the food is half digested, the irritable nerves of the upper 
part of the stomach will produce a sensation of craving; 
and, it is sufficiently evident that to satisfy this craving by 
taking food, is only to obtain a temporary rdief, and not 
always even that, at the expense of subsequent suffering. 
There can be no wisdom in putting more food into the 
stomach than it can possibly digest ; and, as all r^ularity 
is most conducive to health, it is better that the food should 
be taken at stated periods *. 

VALSE APPETITE. 

A FALSE appetite, a craving that does not arise from the 
demands of health, but from the morbid piquancy of the 
juices in the stomach, is a state in which more is taken 
than can be digested — the food being devoured rather than 
eaten. 

This condition of the stomach has led to the notion that 
the parties have had to feed another animal besides them- 
selves; and the uneducated do not hesitate to believe 
that a large worm, and even a wolf, are occasionally inha« 
bitants of that vlscusf' 

* Mr. Richards, on Nervoiu Disorders. 

t In India is found a plant, a species of hellebore, (not the hellebore 
of the druggists,) a portion of which being taken medicinally by persons 
80 afflicted with dy^epsia as to reject all food, will cause the appetite 
to retiiin. This plant is called bjr the natiree, ** the Indian's Root." 



44 POPULAR ERRORS. 



IMAGINARY THIRST. 

The development of a certain morbid feeling is often 
mistaken for Tnirst, to which it has a great analogy. Such 
is caused by the vicious habit of frequently drinking, and 
the desire of tasting some liquids, as brandy, wine, &c. 

Nothing produces thirst so much as quenching it, or 
grows more readily into habit than drinkmg. 

WikRMTH FROM SPIRITS. 

In hard winters, the lower classes, having no fire at 
home, go to a public-house and sit there; and many of 
them believe that taking Spirits internally warms them, 
and answers the same purpose as going to a fire: they 
think it a question, which of the two ways will warm them 
best, not deeming it more injurious to health to warm them 
in the one way or the other. The want of fuel is parti- 
cularly felt, and it is known that disease prevails to a much 
greater extent when the winter is severe ; from that cause 
persons drink more, and suffer more in various ways*. 

"the bilious." 

There is a popular notion that '^ butter is UUous^ 
which means, that it increases the secretion of bile to an 
inconvenient degree. This may, probably, be the case 
with some dyspeptics; but when used in moderation, 
butter has certainly not this effect with the majority of 
persons. 

There is also a general prejudice against beer in the 
case of the bilious and the sedentary; but it appeanf 
without foundation . Bilious p eople are such as have weak 
stomachs and impaired digestion ; and those who are seden- 
tary are nearly in these respects always in a similar state. 
Now, beer does not tend to weaken such stomachs, to 
become acescent (sour) or otherwise to disagree with them: 
on the contrary, it will be found, in the majority of cases, 
that beer agrees with them much better than wine, since 
it is far less disposed to acescence, better fitted to act as a 
stomachic, and, therefore, to invigorate both the digestive 
organs and the constitution at large. 

* Evidence of Dr. Amottt before the House of Commons, on th» 
Health of Towns. 



POPULAR BRRORS. 45 



ERRORS OF COOKERT. 



In the hand of the skilful Cook, alimentary substances 
almost entirely change their nature, form, consistence* 
odour, taste, colour, composition, Sec; everything is so 
modified that it is impossible for the most delicate tastes 
to recognise the original substance of certain dishes. The 
useful object of Cookery is to render aliments agreeable to 
the senses, and of easy digestion; but it rarely stops 
here: frequently, with people advanced in ciyihsationy 
its olject is to excite delicate palates or difficult tastes, or 
to please vanity : then, far from being a useful art, it be- 
comes a real scourge, which occasions a great number of 
diseases^ and has frequently brought on premature death*. 

PLAIN COOKERY. 

The culinary art engages no small share of attention 
amon^ mankind ; but^ unfortunately. Cooks are seldom 
chemists, nor, indeed, do they understand the most simple 
of the chemical principles of their art : hence their labour 
is most frequently employed, not in rendering wholesome 
articles of food more digestible— which is the true object 
of Cookery — ^but in making unwholesome things palatable^ 
foolishly imagining that what is agreeable to tne palate 
must be also healtrnPiil to the stomach. A greater fallacy 
can scarcely be conceived; for though, by a beautifiu 
arrangement of Providence, what is wholesome is seldom 
disagreeable, the converse is by no means applicable to 
man, since Uiose things which are pleasant to the taste are 
not unfrequently very injurious. Animals, indeed, for 
the most part, avoid instinctively all unwholesome food, 
probably because everything that would be prejudicial is 
actually distasteful to them; but as regards man, the 
dioice of articles of nourishment has been left entirely to 
hisreasonf. 

FRENCH AND ENGLISH COOKERY. 

The principles of French and Englisli Cooker^r are but 
imperfectly understood, else we think the superiority of 
the former would be more readily acknowledged. 

In France, most substances are exposed through the 
medium of oil or butter to a degree of temperature of at 
least 600® Fahrenheit, by frying or braizing. They are 

» Dr. Hooper. j Dr. Pxoui'B Brldgewater Treatiae. 



48 POPULAR BRRORS. 

no physical reason why the addition of any moderate num- 
ber of artides, wholesome and grateful to the palate, should 
not be equally advantageous, provided the stomach be not 
overloaded*. 

8UPPKR8 REOOMMENDED. 

Suppers are almost univereally condemned, as tending 
to produce indigestion and disturb rest; and, by many 
persons, late dinners have led to the discontinuance of 
eating suppers. Dr. HoUandt, however, considers that 
*^ we deal injuriously with the night by bringing the time 
of dinner so closely upon it. The interval of four or five 
hours between the heaviest meal of the day, and the time 
of going to bed, is by no means that most favourable to 
sound rest. The early stage of digestion is passed over, 
during which there is a natural tendency to repose ; and 
we seek it at a time when the system, as respectsj the 
influence of food, is taking up a more active state — and 
when exercise, rather than the recumbent posture, is ex- 
pedient in forwarding healthily the latter stages of this 
process. The old method of supper at bed- time, in sequel 
to dinner in the middle of the day, was better in r^ard 
to the comfort and completeness of rest at night ; ana the 
habit of good sleep may often be retrieved by adopting a 
plan of this kind, when every anodyne has failed of effect,** 

SOUP PROM BONES. 

The extraction of Gelatine for Soup from Bones has 
not met with the attention it deserves in this country. 
D'Arcet's apparatus is an improvement of Papin's dig^ 
ter; by wnich 800,000 rations of soup are made in 
Paris, weekly, from bones : and it is confidently stated, 
that if the bones of an ox were put into the digester, and 
the whole of the flesh into any other vessds, the bones 
would yield one-third more gdatine for soup than the 
whole of the meat ; t. e» the proportions of the former 
would be as three, the latter as two. The fibrine, of 
course, would be eatable and useful: it is of the soluble 
matter only that account is here taken. The refuse of the 
bones, after the gelatine is removed, forms excellent ma^ 
terialsfor making animal charcoalj:. 

* Magazine of Domettio EoQiiomy. t Medical Notes. % Medical Gaaette. 



FOPTTLAR E&BORS. 49 



TURTLE 80UP* 

A RECENT writer remarks : — *'the soup miscalled ' Turtle 
Soup' is an exceOeut soup ; but it is not Turtle Soup. 
I admit it to be a rich and savoury compound, in which 
some morceaux of its godfather may occasionally be found 
floating ; but the susdtating juices with which the occi« 
dental luxury is presented to us, are extracted from the 
hinder legs of a ciuf and an ox ; die foundation (or stock) 
is, in fact, composed of veal and beef, and a masterly in- 
troduction of appetising condiments, which are both 
palatable and pleasing; but it is no more like die Turtle 
Soup of the eastern hemisphere, than pea-soup, made 
from tiiat deHcate v^etable in the spring, is to a nan- 
keen>coloured mess, concocted in the winter, bearing the 
same name. The truth is, the turtie is too expensive a 
delicacy to warrant such a lavish expenditure of its succu- 
lent nourishment, too precious to waste. In the West 
Indies, cest une autre affaire ; the turtle is too plentiful 
to require the meretricious aid of stock and gravy. There 
the whole is consumed for soup, except the caliipee, and 
it is extremely delicious." 

COPPER nf MEAT. 

The culpable neglect of the tinning of the insides of 
Copper Saucepans has, as the reader may recollect, led to 
many fatal rcmdts. It was not, however, suspected that 
Cc^per actually exists in the Meat itself, independent of the 
venels in which it is cooked. This has been proved by 
recent analysis of the soups made by the Dutch Company 
in Paris, in an elaborate report by M. Chevreul to the 
French Academy of Sciences. He found, most unexpect- 
edly, that a very appreciable quantity of copper existed in 
a quantity of soup equal to an English quart, the produce 
of a pound of meat. To satisfy hunself that this was not 
the result of Error, or arising from the vessel in which 
the analysis was made, M. Chevreul repeated the experi- 
ments in vessels of tin, iron, platinum, porcelain, and 
glass ; when copper was constantiy found to exist in beef, 
veal, partridge, the whites and yolks of c^gs. The quan- 
tity of meat operated upon was always a pound English, 
which was placed in a quart of water; tiie time of boiling 
was five hours. The common practice of putting the 

B 



50 POPULAR ERRORS. 

meat into cold water, and raising this to boiling, was also 
proved, by experiment, to be very superior to that of 
plunging cold meat into boiling water. 

POTATOES AS FOOD. 

The economy of Potatoes has been strangely overrated: 
they are a fit esculent to lower the food of tne opulent, and 
to diminish the consumption of richer viands ; but as the 
sole support of the poor, and a substitute for bread, they are 
totally inadequate. Man cannot live upon them long in 
healtn, whatever may be said of the Irisn. Bread replen* 
ishes the system, of itself, unaided by flesh meats; whilst 
the Potato provokes and nurses a desire for ardent spirits ; 
and poor nourishment may drive a whole people into 
habits of drunkenness. 

PREJUDICES AGAINST EATING FISH. 

A CONTEMPORARY tourist (Mr. Leitch Ritchie) observes: 
there is a peculiarity of taste in certain fishing districts, 
which makes the people poorer than they need be. '* On 
the banks of the Seine, for instance, the fishermen are 
compelled to eat the John Dorys themselves, or else ta 
throw them away ; for this fish, so excellent and so whole- 
some, is not admitted on the tables 'of the genteel, and, 
therefore, fetches only a few centimes in the market. 
In England, we understand good eating better, at least 
in this respect, and very properly place the vulgar John 
Dory upon a par vrith me turbot. We should not forget 
to add, that in some parts of Ireland — for instance, in we 
county of Sligo — the skate is reckoned unfit for human 
food. The starving peasant turns away from it with 
contempt, and, when taken accidentally, either by the rich 
or poor, it is thrown back into the sea. The same pre- 
judice prevails, to a certain extent, in Scotland ; while in 
London we meet with portions of die elsewhere proscribed, 
and really excellent fish, at the tables of the opulent." 

CONSUMPTION OF FISH. 

There is but little Fish consumed in the interior of 
Great Britain ; and even in most sea-port towns the con- 
sumption is not very great. In London, indeed, immense 
quantities of fish are annually made use of; and there can 
be little doubt that the consumption would be much 



POPULAR ERRORS. 51 

greater^ were it not for the abuses in the trade, which 
render the supply comparatively scarce, and in most in- 
stances exceedingly dear. All fish brought to London is 
sold in Billingsgate Market ; and, in consequence of this 
restriction, the salesmen of diat market have succeeded in 
establishing what is really equivalent to a monopoly ; and 
are, in a great measure, enabled to r^ulate both the 
supply and the price *. 

We are inclined to attribute the comparatively small 
consumption of fish to its disagreement witb the system. 
Fish, in order to be preserved fresh for the market, are 
allowed to linger and die, instead of being put to death in 
health, as every living thing intended for food ought to 
be: this circumstance very much alters its nature and 
properties as food ; and, probably, is one cause why, with 
some people, fish is said to disagree, by exciting disturbance 
in the alimentary canal. It is less nutritive Uian the flesh 
of warm-blooded animals, and, of course, is less stimulant 
to the circulation. Fish, in proportion to its bulk, may 
be said to be almost all muscle, and it is readi^ known u 
it be in high perfection, by the layer of curdy matter in- 
terposed between its flakes. It often happens that those 
parts of the fish, viz., the pulpy, gelatinous, or glutinous, 
which are considered the most delicious, are the most 
indigestible. 

POISONOUS FISH. 

Although Barbel are rejected as a fish not to be eaten, 
they are, by no means, to be despised, if spitchcocked 
as eels. The Sea-Bream is also unjustly condemned. 

Skate, if fresh, will eat tough: it cannot be kept too 
long if perfectly sweet. An absurd prejudice prevails 
with many persons against the skate. The female skate is, 
however, more delicious than the male. 

OUT-OF-SEASON FISH. 

River Fish, out of season and unwholesome, are con- 
stantly sold and eaten in London, during March, Aprils 
and iKay ; from the purchasers being ignorant that the 
above are the fencing or spawning months for jack or pike» 
perch, gudgeon, roach, dace, carp, tench, and all river 
fish, except trout and eels. Yet, although there is a pen- 

* MaoouUoch. 
E2 



52 POPTTLAB ERRORS. 

alty for taking, having in possession, or exposing for sale, 
such out-of-season fish, it is daily done in tne metropolis, 
to the great injury of the consumers, and the destruction 
of the hreed of fish, which, if not unlawfully destroyed, 
would he good, wholesome, and plentiful, from June to 
the end of the year. 

Mr. S. Byles, the medical officer of the Whitechapei 
Union, in nis evidence hefore the House of Commons, 
attributes much of the disease in Spitalfields to the poor 
of that district eating a great deal of coarse bad fish; and, 
in reply to a question whether fresh fish is a healthy diet, 
he states it to be so occasionally, but not constantly. 

FEW FISH FOUND AT SEA. 

Paradoxical as the fact may appear, there is no class 
of persons who eat so few Fish as sailors ; and the reason 
is, they seldom obtain them. With the exception of 
fiying-fish, and dolphins, and perhaps a very few others, 
fish are not found on the high seas at a great distance 
from land. They abound most along coasts, in straits 
and bays, and are seldom caught in water more than forty 
or fifty fathoms in depth. 

WHlTE-BiklT. 

Until lately, White-bait were considered to be the young 
of the Shad ; but, in an article in the Zoological Journal, 
No. XIX., this doctrine is combated by Mr. William 
Yarrell, F.L.S., who was led to investigate the subject by 
observing the early appearance (March) of White-bait in 
a fishmonger's shop ; and knowing that Shads, which they 
were supposed to be, did not make their appearance tiu 
much later (May), he took up and persevered in a course 
of investigation, which lasted from March to August, 1828. 
The specific distinction between the two fislies, on which 
he rehes as of the greatest value, is the difference of their 
anatomical character ; and especially in their number of 
vertebrse, or small bones, extending from the back-bone. 
'* The number of vertebrae in the Shad,** he states, " of 
whatever size the specimen may be, is invariably fifty-five, 
the number in the White-bait is uniformly fifty*six ; and 
even in a fish of two inches, with the assistance of a lens, 
this exact number may be distinctly made out." 



POPULAR ERRORS « 53 



OBUELTT TO SHELL-FISH. 

It has been satisfactorily proved, by the experience of 
Mr. Saunders, a respectable London fishmonger, that 
driving pegs into the claws of Lobsters^ instead of tyine 
them, is an act of unnecessary cruelty. The custom of 
boiling Lobsters alive to improve their flavour^ is also found 
to be as erroneous as it is cruel. The best method is, 
before boiling, to deprive the Lobster of life by putting it 
into/r«A water — the hardest pump- water answers best — 
in which the fish will live but a short time. Lobsters 
thus dressed have been declared to be improved rather 
than deteriorated in their quality: the tail will be found 
to lose much of its hardness and indigestibility ; the 
watery taste is equally common to tliose dressed in the 
usual way, which arises from the fish having been sickly 
and diseased. The preceding observations apply to Crabs, 
Shrimps, Prawns, &c. The horrible cruelty of dressing 
Shell-nsh alive is the same as if another fii^, which does 
not possess their amphibious property, but soon dies when 
taken out of the water, were to be instantly conveyed out 
of its native water either into the frymg-pan or the 
saucepan. 

Fish may be crimped nearly as well a few days after 
death as wnen alive. A question, however, occurs, why 
the epicure should give the preference to Fish after it has 
parted vdth a considerable portion of its rich and soluble 
parts in boiling water, as in dressing crimped fish ? 

"green oysters." 

A VERY common and very mistaken opinion exists^ 
especially among foreigners, that not only the Green 
Oysters from Colchester, but all English oysters, are 
impregnated with copper, " which they get from feeding 
off copper banks ;" such, we believe, would be quite as 
injurious to the animal itself as it could be to U8> and the 
fancy can only have arisen from the strong flavour pecu- 
liar to this fish. Green Oysters are comparatively little 
esteemed in the present day. 

Oysters have been known to produce various accidents ; 
and, when they were of a green colour, this peculiarity has 
been generally attributed to the " copper banks." This is 



54 POPULAR ERRORI?. 

an absurdity, the green tinge being as natural to some 
yarieties of Oysters as it is to a certain fish whose bones 
are of verdigris hue. 

Some years since, supposed poisonous Oysters were 
found adhering to the coppered bottom of a ship in the 
Virgin Isles ; but the occasional accidents among the men 
that ate them have been referred to other causes. Another 
report, equally absurd, was that of the fish haying gra- 
dually quitted the Thames and Medway since coppering 
ships* bottoms has been introduced. Again, the idea of 
testaceous mollusca avoiding copper-bottomed vessels, but 
clinging to those of wood, is equally absurd ; for this 
circumstance is explained by the greater facility with 
which these creatures adhere to wood. 



EATING MUSGLES. 

Wfi frequently hear of people beine Mtucled, as it is 
termed; and it is generally supposed uiat the mischief is 
produced by some specifically poisonous quality in the 
fish. Mr. Kichards, in his Treatise on Nervous Disorders^ 
observes that he has seen many cases, but discovered 
nothing to confirm this popular opinion. In some in- 
stances, only one of a family has been affected, while all 
partook of we same Muscles. He has known exactly the 
same symptoms produced by pork, lobsters and other shell- 
fish, and can attribute them to nothing more than a 
disturbed state of indigestion. 

The vulgar opinion that Muscles are rendered unwhole- 
some by the copper of ships* bottoms, is quite untenable. 
It is, however, conjectured, that Muscles become poisonous 
from disease, particularly of the liver, or from me intro- 
duction of poisonous medusae into the shell. 

It is extraordinary that Muscles should have apoisonoutt 
effect on some persons, at certain times, whilst occasionally 
they may eat them with impunity; and other persona 
will partake of the Muscles which appear so pernicious in 
certain states of the system, without any bad effbcts. It 
appears to be quite uncertain to what this pemidous 
property may be owing ; it has often caused death. See 
Ornla, Moehring, Rondeau, Burrows, and Fodere*. 

* Mr. R. Oanier, F.L.& ; in Charlesworth*! MBgaiine of Natural History, 



POPULAR ERRORS. 55 

PUTRIDITY OF BiEAT. 

Until the experiments of the celebrated Italian phy- 
sician^ Redi^ who died in 1697, insects were supposed to 
be engendered in Putridity, and not by their own species. 
The correction of this £rror first led butchers and house- 
keepers to guard meats from flies by defending them with 
gauze coverings. The most important of Redi's experi- 
ments was the following: — He put some meat and fish 
into a large vessel, covered with very fine gauze, which 
he also put into a large box, covered with the same gauze^ 
that the air might penetrate to the meats while it remained 
free from the intrusion of insects. On these he did not 
see a single worm^ but frequently saw the little creatures 
writhing about on the outer gauze, tryins to make their 
waj through ; and it was with difficulty mat he was once 
quick enough to prevent two of them from falling on the 
meat, for they had got their bodies half through toe inner 
gauze. He also observed the flies, attracted by the meat, 
and unable to make their way to it, drop their eggs upon 
the gauze ; some of them alighting upon it, others hover- 
ing in the air during the operation ; and he perceived that 
each left six or seven eggs at a time. This was the point 
he wished to ascertain ; and he had now discovered that 
insects supposed to be engendered by corruption were, in 
reality, propagated by their own species. 

During the course of these experiments, Redi ascertained 
the curious fact, that when the common day-fly dies, it 
serves as a nest for its own species equally with any other 
kind of dead flesh. 

CHABOOAL AND TAINTED MEAT. 

The common mode of using Charcoal for removing the 
taint of Meat is utterly ineffective. The meat to be 
recovered should be flrst washed extremely wdl several 
times in cold water: it should then be put into a large 
quantity of cold water, and several pieces of charcoal, red 
not, should be thrown into the water when it is somewhat 
hot; the boiling must then be continued as long as 
requisite. 

LOSS OF MEAT IN COOKING. 

That, in whatever way the flesh of animals is prepared, 
a considerable diminution takes place in its weight, has 



56 POPULAR ERRORS. 

long been known ; but considerable Error prevails as to 
the respective loss of weight. The following are the 
results of a set of experiments, which were actually made 
in a public establishment, not from mere curiosity^ but to 
serve a purpose of practical utility. 28 pieces of bee^ 
weighing 280 Ib.^ lost in boiling 73 lb. 14 oz. Hence^ the 
loss of beef in boiling was about 20^ lb. in 100 lb. : 19 
pieces of beef^ weighing 190 lb. , lost in roasting 61 lb. 2 oz. 
The weight of beef lost in roasting appears to oe 32 lb. per 
hundred lb. 9 pieces of beef, weighing 90 lb., lost in 
baking 27 lb. Weight lost by beef in baking is 30 lb. per 
1 00 lb. 27 legs of mutton, weighing 260 Ib.^ lost in boiling 
and by having the shank bones taken off, 6S lb. 4 oz. The 
shank-bones were estimated at 4oz. each, therefore the 
loss in boiling was 65 lb. 8 oz. The loss of weight in 
boiling legs of mutton is 21 lb. per 100 lb. 35 shoulders 
of mutton^ weighing 350 lb., lost in roasting 1091b. 10 oz. 
The loss of weight of mutton in roasting was 31^ lb. per 
100 lb. 16 loins of mutton, weighing 1411b., lost in 
roasting 49 lb. 1 4 oz. Hence loins of mutton lose by 
roasting about 3dA lb. per 100 lb. 10 necks of mutton, 
weighing 100 lb., lost in roasting 32 lb. 6oz. From the 
foregoing statement, two practical inferences may be 
drawn : 1st, In respect of economy, it is more profitable 
to boil meat than to roast it. 2nd, Whether we roast or 
boil meat, it loses by cooking from one- third to one-fifth 
of its whole weight*. 

PREJUDIC£ AGAINST EATING MUTTON. 

The Antipathy to eat Mutton is a prejudice which can 
be traced in the earliest history of the sheep: to this 
cause it must be referred, for mutton is of all meat 
the most wholesome. The sheep, however, never seems 
to have been used generally for human food. Many of 
the wandering tribes of the Tartars preferred the flesh of 
the horse to that of the sheep ; and, even to this day, the 
latter is comparatively dishked in Spain f. A prdudice 
exists against it in America; and in no country does it 

* Philosophical Magazine, 
t Dr. Parry, the earliest and the latest advocate of the Merinos, 
acknowledges that the carcass of the sheep '* is an object of little or no 
▼alue in Spain ; and that, except with the poorest people, it is not con- 
sidered fit for food." Not many yean since, sheep were used as fuel in 
some parts of South Axneorioa. 



POPULAR ERROR&r. 57 

appear to have been so unirersally adopted and so much 
relished as m Great Britain ; and even here the liking is 
hut of recent growth. 
An old En^ish poet sings of the sheep: 

*< Poore beast, that for defense of man at first created wast, 
And in thy swelling adder burst the iuyce of dainty tast ; 
And with thy fleece keep off the cold that would our limbs aaaaille. 
And rather with thy lyfe than with thy death doest us availe." 

It is somewhat singular that, notwithstanding this seeming 

Erejudioe against the flesh of the sheep, all writers on diet 
ave agreed in describing it as the most valuable of the 
articles of animal food. Pork may be more stimulating ; 
beef, perhaps, more nutritious when the digestive powers 
are strong : but while there is in mutton sufficient nutri- 
ment there is also that degree of consistency and readiness 
of assimilation which renders it most congenial to the 
human stomach, most easy of digestion, and most con- 
tributable to health *. 

BANSTEAD MUTTON. 

The village of Banstead^ in Surrey, has long been 
celebrated for its sheep with shorty thick, close fleece, and 
for Mutton that could delight even a royal epicure. It is 
not, however, only in the storv of by-gone days that we 
** hear Sir Richard Sutton say now the king (Charles II.) 
loved Banstead Mutton." Many a party goes from Lon- 
don to Banstead in the summer ; and whether it is that, 
rejoicing in their temporary escape from the smoke and 
turmoil of the city, and delighted with the beauty of the 
scenery around them, they relish the plainest fare, or that 
the meat of the small South Down, or heath-sheep, 
nearly lost in the South Down, retains its wonted flavour, 
the leg of mutton, with its traditional and never-failing 
accompaniment, the cauhflower, is as delicious as it was 
in the days of the Merry Monarch f. 

DORKINO FOWLS. 

It is quite a mistake to suppose that the Dorking breed 
of Fowls have uniformly five toes: in them, the production 
of two hind toes instead of one is merely accidental : and 
douhle hind daws are certainly not peculiar to the Fowls 

* Brewster's Encyclopaedia; article, "Aliment" 
t Touatt, on Bheep. 



58 POPULAR BRR0B8. 

bred about Dorking ; for five, toed Fowls are mentioned by 
Aristotle, in Greece ; by Pliny and Columella, in Rome ; 
and by Aldrovand, in Italy, hundreds of years ago ; the 
breed being then as now reputed good layers. But the 
Dorkins fowls are of a larger size than the ordinary dung- 
hill fo¥^ the body long, and the e^s large. The colours 
are very variable: about Dorking white is most pre- 
valent, and many esteem a white colour to be no less 
distinctive of the genuine breed than the supernumerary 
hind claw. 

BANTAM COCKS. 

BooTEo or feathered Ic^ are not exclusively peculiar to 
Bantams, as is generally supposed ; so far from this, that 
Bantam-fanciers, with Sir John Sebright at their head, 
prefer those which have clean, bright l^s, without any 
vestige of feathers. 

It is worthy of remark, that the real Bantam Cock, that 
is, the native £ast Indian species of that name, is not 
diminutive, like the little feathery creatures so odled in 
Britain ; but is a very large bird, and often tall enough 
to stand on the floor and peck off a dining-table. 

STILTON CHEESE. 

It is usually held, that Stilton Cheese was first made in 
Lincolnshire, in the parish of Stilton, whence it took its 
name: but, in point of fact, it was originally made in 
Leicestershire, wnere it continues to be produced in the 
greatest quantity ; and derived its name from its being 
first brought into notice at an inn on the great north road, 
in the pariah of Stilton*. 

BOILING EGGS. 

The nourishment contained in Eggs has never -yet been 
questioned ; but few persons are aware how E^slosethia 
property in cooking. ''The yolk of eggs," says Dr. 
iJunter, '* either eaten raw or sUghtly boil^ is, perhaps, 
the most salutary of all animal substances. It is taken up 
into the body of the chick, and is the first food presented 
to it by- Nature after its departure from the shell. It is a 
natural soup, and in all jaundice cases no food is e<^ual to 
it. When the gall is either too weak, or, by any accidental 

* Yonatt, on Cattle. 



FOPUI.AR BRR0R8. 59 

meanB^ is not permitted to flow in sufficient quantity into 
the daodenum, our food, wliich consists of watery and 
oily parts, cannot form a union so as to become that soft 
and balsamic fluid called chyle. Such is the nature of the 
yolk of an egg, that it is capable of uniting water and 
oil into a uniform substance, thereby making up for the 
deficiency of natural bile. When submitted to a long 
continuance of culinary heat, the nature of the egg it totally 
changed: so that, when eggs are medicinally used, they 
ahoiud be eaten raw, or but very slightly boiled." 

8TRASBUB6 PIES. 

Thesb celebrated Pies, which are esteemed so great a 
delicacy that they are often sent as presents to distant 
countries, are enriched with the diseased livers of geese 
crammed with fat food, deprived of drink, kept in an ex- 
tremely hot atmosphere, and fastened by the feet to the 
shelves of the fattening cribs. It is, however, a mistake 
to conceive that these pies are wholly made of this arti-» 
fidal animal substance. 

BLACK GAME. 

It ia a pretty general opinion, though an erroneous one, 
that Black Game drive away the red grouse : the two spe- 
cies require very different kinds of cover, and will never 
interfere. Black game have increased greatly in the 
southern counties of Scotland and north of England withm 
the last few years*. 

SALT IN BUTTER. 

A SMALL portion of Salt is invariably used in making 
what is termed *' fresh butter," with the view of keeping 
it ; whereas the butter would keep better without it. All 
persons are aware that a sufficient quantity of salt will 
preserve butter for many months, in which case it comes 
under tlie denomination of ** salt butter *," but, every one 
is not aware that a small quantity of salt induces to putre- 
faction in all animal matter)*. 

GROWTH OF WHEAT. 

Observation has led to the conviction that much of 
the time required for the Growth of Wheat might be saved 
* Sir W. Jaidine» i Nlmrod. 



60 POPULAR ERRORS* 

by means which have been entirely overlooked. At an 
arerage, this may be estimated at ten months, though 
twelve and even thirteen are not unusual ; and eight may 
be considered as the shortest period for the ordinary winter 
wheat. By a selection of particular seed, and a dioice of 
peculiar situation, wheat sown early in March has been on 
difierent occasions ripened before tne middle of August, a 
period scarcely excecMling five months. This important 
result, and the means employed in it, were communicated 
by Mr. S. W. Hall to the British Association, in 1836. 

NOURISHMENT IN BREAD. 

The superior nutritious qualities of Bread have been 
doubted ; but the question has been set at rest in France, by 
some chemical researches into the comparative nutriment 
of various edible substances. Messrs. Percy and Vauquelin 
have ascertained that Bread contains 80 nutritive parts in 
100 ; meal, 34 in 100 ; French beans, 92 ; common beans, 
89 ; peas, 93 ; lentils, 94; cabbi^es and turnips, the most 
aqueous of all the vegetables compared, produce only 8 
pounds of solid matter in 100 pounas ; carrots and spinach 
produce 14 in the same quantity ; whilst 100 pounds of 
potatoes contain %6 pounds of dry substance. It must be 
recollected that the solid parts, when separated from the 
aqueous or moist parts, may contain a small quantity of 
extractive or ligneous matter, probably unfit for food ; 
and next, that me same substances do not act uniformly 
on all stomachs, and are relatively more or less nutritious. 
But, as a general result, the scientific reporters estimate that 
one pound of good bread is equal to two pounds and a half 
or three pounds of good potatoes. The other substances 
bear the foUowing proportions: — Four parts of cabbage 
to one of potatoes ; three parts of turnips to one idemi 
two parts of carrots and spmach to one idem ; and about 
three parts and a half of potatoes to one of rice, lentils, 
beans, French beans, and dry peas. 

THE OikK AND YEAST. 

Evelyn was willing to believe anything which did 
honour to the Oak. Its twigs, he says, twisted together, 
dipt in wort, well dried^ and then kept in barley straw, 
by being steeped in wort at any future time, will cause 
it to ferment, and procure Yeast. But the properties of 



POPULAR ERRORS. 61 

the oak have notlung to do with this ; and die handlep 
whatever it is, (a furze-bush is commonly used in 
those countries where the practice is known,) must be 
dipped in the fermenting and yeasty liquor — ^it is a mode of 
preso'ving yeast dry. See Evelyn's Syha, a work in 
which there are necessarily some errors of both kinds, 
fldentific as weU as popular ; there are likewise many 
curious things and some useful ones, which have ceased 
to be generally known. 

ALUM IN BREAD. 

Thb habitual and daily introduction of a portion of 
Alum^ however small, into the human stomach must be 
prejudicial to the exercise of its functions, and particularly 
in persons of a bilious and costive habit. And, besides, 
as the best sweet flour never stands in need of alum, the 
presence of this salt indicates an inferior and highly 
acescent food. The smallest quantity of alum that can 
be employed with effect, to produce a white, light, and 
porous bread from an inferior kind of flour, is from 3 to 4 
oz. to a sack of flour, weighing 240 pounds. By the 
avowal of a highly respectable (kug-broker, the quantity 
of alum consumed by bakers in London is ten tons per 
week. 

The hackneyed plea of the London Bakers for intro- 
ducing Alum into Bread, is to improve its colour to please 
their customers ; but this does not seem to be requisite. 
Dr. Ure has made many experiments on bread, and has 
found the proportion of alum very variable. ** Its quan- 
tity seems to be proportioned to the badness of the flour ; 
and hence, when the best flour is used, no alum need be 
introduced. That alum is not necessary for giving bread 
its utmost beauty, sponginess, and agreeableness of taste, 
is undoubted ; since the bread baked at a very extensive 
establishment in Glasgow, in which about 20 tons of 
flour were regularly converted into loaves in the course of 
a week, unites every quality of appearance with an abso- 
lute freedom from that acido-astringent drug. 

POTATOES IN BREAD. 

It is well known that Potatoes are often used by bakers in 
making Bread, and a great popular clamour has been raised 
against the practice. It is to be observed, however, that 



62 POPULAR ERRORS. 

^ben the use of them is confined within moderate limits, 
there is neither fraud nor injury to the public. Mr. Do- 
novan shows, that 5 stone of potatoes added to 4 cwt. of 
flour, and made into bread, will increase the weight only 
by about half-a-stone. In this case, the potatoes are addea 
to improve the bread ; the small advantage by the increase 
of weight being scarcely enough to repay the additional 
trouble which me use of potatoes occasions* . 

There are, however, bakers who use potatoes with an- 
other intention than that of improvement ; as well as in 
much larger quantities than above specified. Bread of 
this kind will crack and crumble much, and have a dark 
streak, sometimes a little transparent, running along the 
margin of the under crust. 

PATEI>fT BREAD. 

It is well known that in the old established way o£ 
baking Bread, the steam which arises during the process is 
allowed to escape, as of no value ; but, a few years since, 
accident discovered that this vapour, if condensed, exhi- 
bited traces of alcohol, and the collection of it became an 
object of cupidity and speculation ; and this, with some 
saving of fuel, suggested the formation of a *' Patent 
Bread Company." One of its recommendations was, 
that bread so made, though kept for any length of time, 
would not become sour ; and this, we understand, is the 
fact : but how and at what expense is this incorruptibility 
procured? Sour bread is unquestionably bad; but is not 
bread which, if kept too long, is liable to become sour, the 
very article we want ? In the new method, the distilla- 
tion is pushed as far as it can go ; the whole product of 
the fermentation is obtained and collected, so that the 
residue, or loaf, may be regarded as a caput mortuum^ 
incapable of undergomg further change; but is it not rather 
unluckily deprived, at the same time, of its saccharine 
.principle — ^in short, of all nutritive propertyf } 

FRENCH BREAD. 

Ws hear much in England of French bread; and 
those who visit France for the first time usually conceive 
bigh notions of its excellence : but this expectation is sure 
to be disappointed ; for to one who has been accustomed 

* Tk^atlse on Domestio Economy. t Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERBORS. 68 

dther to the bread of the London public bakers^ or to the 
wholesome household bread baked in the country, nothing 
can be more insipid than the white saltless bread made 
throughout the greater part of France. The reason why 
Frendti bread is baked without salt is satisfactory ; there 
being a duty of eight sous per lb. upon salt : tne same 
reason operates in preventing salt being put into butter; 
but this want, if felt to be a want, is capable of being 
supplied, whereas the fault in the bread is irremediable *. 

PATNA RICE. 

The London traders, who recommend their Rice as the 
true produce of Patna, are in Error in vending the 
grain of superior quality under that name. Rice is chiefly 
grown in the low marshy tracts of Bengal, and is not 
extensively cultivated any where else f. 

It has been suggested that, in a scarcity of corn, Rice 
may be in part substituted for it in the making of bread ; 
but the scarcity must be very great to make that an 
economical expedient in this country, where Rice is sold 
at so high a price. 

NOURISHMENT IN RICE. 

Bishop Heber thinks erroneous the common opinion 
that Rice is a nourishing grain. On the contrary, the 
Bishop, when in India, was convinced that a fourth part 
of the Rice of one meal in bulk of potatoes would satisfy 
the hunger of the most robust and laborious. Potatoes 
are becoming gradually abundant in Bengal; at first, they 
were there, as elsewhere, unpopular. Now they are 
much liked, and are spoken of as the best thing which the 
country has ever received from its European masters. 

THE PUREST WATER. 

Habd Water is generally considered to be purer than 
that which is soft Sir Humphry Davy, however, states 
that the purest water is, undoubtedly, that which falls from 
the atmosphere- Having touched air alone, it can contain 
nothing but what it gains from the atmosphere ; and in 
its descent it is distilled, without the chance of those im- 
purities which may exist in the vessels used in an artificial 
operation. 

* Inglis's Tour, 
t Miss Roberts's Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan. 



64 POPULAR ERRORS. 

WATER IN LARGE TOWNS. 

It might be expected that a river which has passed by 
a large town, ana received all its impurities, and been 
used by dyers, tanners, hatters, &c^ that crowd to its 
banks for the convenience of plenty of water, should 
thereby acquire such foulness as to be very perceptible to 
chemical examination, for a considerable distance below 
the town. But it appears, from the most accurate ex- 
amination, that where the stream is at all considerable, 
these kinds of impurity have but little influence in per- 
manoitly altering the quality of the water, especially as 
they are, for the moat part, only suspended, and not truly 
dissolved ; and therefore, mere rest, and especially filtra- 
tion, will restore the water to its original purity. 

SNOW-WATER 

Has long lain under the imputation of occasioning goitre, 
or those swellings in the neck, which deform the inhabi- 
tants of many of the Alpine valleys. But this opinion is 
not supported by any well-authenticated indisputable facts, 
and is rendered still more improbable, if not entirely over- 
turned, by the frequency of the disease in Sumatra, where 
ice and snow are never seen, and its being quite unknown 
in Chili and Thibet, though the rivers of the latter 
countries are chiefly supplied by the melting of the snow 
with which the mountains are covered. 

SPURIOUS SODA WATER. 

Most of the beverage sold as Soda Water is improperly 
named ; it should rather be called efi^ervescing water, for 
it has not a particle of soda in it : it is merely water with 
carbonic acid forced into it by using mechanical pressure, 
as that of a condensing syringe or a powerful force-pump. 
The water by this treatment will effervesce violently when 
poured out ; have a brisk, agreeable, acerb taste ; and, al- 
though in other respects an acid, is not sour. If a little 
soda had been dissolved in the water previously to its im- 
pregnation, the result would be pure Soda Water. 

END OP PART I. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 6& 

THAMES WATER. 

An undue preference has, for more than a century, heen 
given to the Water of the Thames for Brewing. Thus 
Sir Jonas More, (or Moore,) Ordnance Surveyor in the 
reign of Charles II., and one of the earliest Fellows of the 
Royal Society, in a little work which ran through many 
editions between 1703 and 1721, under Directions for 
Brewing, observes that ''the Thames water, taken up about 
Greenwich, at low water, where it is free from all brack- 
ishness of the sea, and has in it all the fat and sullage 
from the great city of London, makes very strong drink " 
This water has long been in high repute for sea-stores ; but 
Sir Jonas strangely overrates its qualities, when he says: 
*' it will of itself alone, being carried to sea, ferment won< 
derfully, and after its due purgations, and three times stinks 
ing, (after which it continues sweet,) it will be so strong, 
that severed sea commanders have told me U would hum, and 
has often fuddled their mariners. Other commanders have 
deny'd this, which I thought I had reason to impute to 
their want of observation*." 

WATER NEAR OHURCHTARDS. 

Springs in the vicinity of Churchyards are commonly 
reputed to yield ** the best water." Yet, they are often 
contaminated so as not to be fit for use, by containing 
various impurities of organic origin, sometimes in very 
sensible quantities. These are derived from the church- 
yards; such being the situation generally chosen for the 
parish pump. " This disgusting source of water should at 
all events be avoided, and the disgraceful system of burying 

* The Water of the Thames is, however, of excellent quality ; al> 
fhongh it has neither the fat nor intoxicating properties which our 
F.R.S. attributes to it. The impurities which the river receives firom 
the soil through which it flows, and from the drainage from the re- 
spective towns and villages on its stream, are so largely diluted by 
upland water, as to be partly deposited and partly diffused through the 
volume, until the river reaches London, where, the adulteration in- 
csreasing, filti-ation is requisite ; after which the Thames water is even 
purer than that procured immediately from a spring. The adulterating 
matters are also, in some measure, decomposed by the vegetation at the 
bottom and sides of the Thames ; a fact of great importance, and first 
explained by Professor Brande, who had satisfactorily proved that the 
water in ponds and rivers is rendered more pure by the vegetation oi 
aquatic plants, which absorb carbonic acid, and yield oxygen gas ; aL 
though the reverse had long beoi held to be the case.— '.^nonymcmf 
PampMetr 1840. 

PART U. P 



66 POPULAR ERRORS. 

the dead in the streets of London should he authoritatively 
discontinued. It is not only repulsive, hut dangerous as a 
source of infection. The casual observer is not aware of 
the extent of this evil, and of the extraordinary heaps of 
hodies, which, in many of the London churchyards, lie 
just beneath the surface. St. Clement's, in the Strand, is a 
fair average specimen; but there are many infinitely worse : 
and all those churchyards which are raised considerably 
above the streets, suchasSt.Bride's,St.Andrew*s,and others, 
are entire formations, as a geologist would say, of bones, 
bodies, and coffins, in difi*erent states of decomposition*." 

FORGED FRUITS. 

Forced Fruits realise a high price from the early 
period at which they are brought to market, and not from 
superiority of size or flavour, as their deamess leads many 
persons to imagine. Indeed, Forced Fruits are very inferior 
to those of natural growth : the former are obtained at a 
season when there is little light, whereas the latter are 
matured in the full blaze of a summer's sun. Thus, 
melons grown in frames, covered with mats, and carefully 
excluded from the influence of that solar light which is 
indispensable to their perfection, have, whatever may be 
their external beauty, none of that luscious flavour which 
the melon, when well cultivated, possesses so eminently. 

Our moralists have not overlooked this Error. La 
Bruyere says : " There are miseries which wring the very 
heart : some want even food ; they dread the winter ; 
others eat forced fruits ; artificial heats change the earth 
and seasons to please their palates." Hume thus refers to 
this false taste of the rich : " The same care and toil diat 
raise a dish of peas at Christmas, would give bread to a 
whole family during six months." 

RIPENING FRUITS. 

A DRY summer is not the only requisite for the Matu- 
ration of Fruit, as is commonly supposed ; for if the dry 
weather be followed by rain just before the keeping fnut 
ripens, the rain will surcharge the juices with water, and 
consequently induce premature decay. The same efiect 
every farmer knows is also produced on bread com, pota- 
toes, and roots, as well as, to a certain extent, upon hay 
and straw ; and doubtless also, upon coppice wood and 

* Brando*! Manual of Chemistry. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 67 

basket wiUow. A sort of second sap seems to have come 
into many trees from the same cause, ^hich, though it has 
not produced shoots, yet the leaves, instead of falling off 
at the usual time, (though they have become black with 
the late firosts,) still adhere. 

NAMES OF APPLES. 

In Apples, a greater confusion of names exists than in 
any other description of fruit This arises not so much 
from the great number of varieties which are grown, as 
from the number of growers, some of whom seek to profit 
by their crops alone, regarding but little their nomencla- 
ture. Nurserymen, who are more anxious to grow a large 
stock for sale, than to be careful as to its character, are leid 
into Error by taking it for granted that the name of a fruit 
^ey propagate is its correct name, and no other ; hence 
arises the frequency of so many of our fruits being sold 
under wrong names*. 

THE GOLDEN PIPPIN. 

The Golden I^ppin, one of the most celebrated and 
esteemed apples of this, or perhaps any other, country, has 
been considered by some of our modern writers on pomo- 
logy to be in a state of decay, its fruit of inferior quality 
in comparison with that of former times, and its existence 
near its termination. Mr. Lindley, in his Guide to the 
Orchard and Kitclien Garden^ says: " I cannot for a moment 
agree with such an opinion, because we have facts annually 
before our eyes completely at variance with such an asser- 
tion. Any person visiting Covent Garden or the Borough 
markets, during the fruit season, and indeed any other 
large market in the southern or midland counties of 
England, will find specimens of fruit as perfect and as 
fine as any which have been either figured or described. 
In favourable situations, in many parts of the country, 
instead of the trees being in a state of rapid decay, they 
may be found of unusuaLly large size, perfectly healthy, 
and their crops abundant ; the fruit perfect in form, beau- 
tiful in colour, and excellent in quality." 

GODLINS. 

The deterioration of this apple is referable to an Error 
for orcharfUsts in its culture. The customary method, of 

^ Lindley. 
f2 



6S POPULAR ERRORS. 

At least 150 years, has been to raise the trees from suekers, 
and truncheons, as they are called; and in every old 
rarden where they are found, they are diminutive^ ill- 
formed, unproductive, and fiill of disease ; incrusted, as it 
were, root and branch, with the greatest of all pests, the 
aphis lanigera ; in consequence of which the fruit exhibits 
scarcely anything of its original character. Healthy, 
robust, and substantial trees, are only to be obtained by 
grafting on stocks of the real sour hedge- crab ; when they 
srow freely, erect, and form very handsome heads, yielding 
mat as superior to those of our old orchards, as the ol^ 
and at present deteriorated, codlin is to the crab itself*. 

80AHGITY OF M£]>LARS AND QVINOES* 

These fruits have become comparatively scarce, from 
an erroneous view of their cultivation, which has led to 
thehr neglect The Medlar, as well as the Quince, may 
very safely be planted out in the orchard, without any fear 
of their degenerating the fruit of either the apple or the 
pear. The idea entertained by some that this would be 
the case is perfectly absurd, as there can be no deterioration 
or degeneracy of the existing fruit, through the impreg* 
nation of these or other inferior species. The efiect pro* 
duced through impregnation must appear in the rising 
generation, not in the present one : we might as weu 
expect a degeneracy in animal species by a cross impreg- 
nation with each other, as that the apples and pears now 
growing in our orchards should have degenerated, simply 
because Medlars and Quinces had been planted in the 
same orchards. Yet we find a caution given to gardeners 
to '* plant medlars and quinces at a proper distance from 
apples and pears," both by Mr. Forsytn, and by John 
Abercroinbie, sixty years a practical gardenerf, 

MORFOUL BIFFINS. 

The name Biffin, or Beefin, is corrupted from the 
Beaujtn, a Norfolk apple of great merit. Many thou- 
sands of these apples are dried by the bakers in Norwich 
annually, and sent in boxes to all parts of the kingdom. 

POISONOUS PLANTS. 

Before certain Plants are condemned as poisonous, the 
season of the year at which they are so should be taken 

* Lindley. f Lindley. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 6tf 

into consideration, which is not generally the case. Manj 
vegetables may be eaten with impunity at the spring oif 
the year, which will act with considerable energy upon 
the system in the autumn. In young plants, we find in 
the spring a mucilaginous principle, nay, some of the most 
poisonous abound in this mucilage; but, as vegetation 
advances, new principles are developed, fresh powers are 
obtained, and they exhibit their peculiar characteristics. 
The dandelion exhibits such properties : it may be eaten 
when young, but, at other times, is a powerful medicine ; 
rhubarb is another illustration. 

Sorrel {roseiUe) is a favourite item in French cookery ; 
but it may reasonably be questioned whether it is not one 
of the most poisonous of all disguises for food, as it con- 
tains a considerable quantity of oxalic acid. 

BOILING VEGETABLES. 

When Peas, French Beans, and other legumes, do not 
bcdl easily, it has been imputed to the coolness of the 
season or to the rains. This popular notion is, however, 
erroneous. The difficulty of boiling the vegetables soft 
arises from their imlnbing a superabundant quantity of 
gypsum during their growth. To correct this, throw a 
small quantity of sub-carbonate of soda into the pot along 
with the v^etables, the carbonic acid of which will seice 
npon the lime in the gypsum, and free the legumes from 
its influence*. 

MEALY AND WAXY POTATOES. 

An examination of the Potato with a microscope has, at 
length, proved the relative worth of the Mealy and Waxy 
kinds of this useful vegetable. On examining a thin sUce, 
it is seen to be almost entirely composed of cells, which 
are sometimes filled with, and sometimes contain clusters 
of, beautiful little oval grains. These grains remain un- 
changed in cold water ; but when it is warmed they dis- 
solve in it, and the whole becomes a jelly, and occupies a 
larger space than it did in the form of grains. Wnen a 
potato is boiled, then each of these cells of which it is 
composed becomes a little vessel full of jelly ; and, if there 
be not a great quantity of starch in the cells, it may be 
gelatinized without bursting them. But, if the number 
of gnins or thdr size be very great, the cells of the potato. 

* From the Freooh. 



70 POPULAR ERRORS. 

are broken on all sides by the expansion of the little 
mattes of jelly, and the appearance of mealinesB is pro- 
duced. Hence we see that Mealy Potatoes are the most 
valuable, and Waxiness denotes a deficiency of starch or 
nourishing matter. 

POTATO-PLOUR. 

Notwithstanding all that has been written on the 
substitution of Potato for Wheat Flour, it must be remem- 
bered that the farina of potatoes is nothing but pure starch; 
whereas the principal ingredient of common flour is 
gluten, of which wheat contains a larger proportion than 
any other grain. 

SPURIOUS WATER.CRE8SES. 

A DANGEROUS plant, the water-parsnip, grows in close 
companionship with the Water-cress, and, when not in 
flower, so nearly resembles that plant as to have been fre- 
quently mistaken for it. The water- cress is of a darker 
green and sometimes dashed with brown ; the leaflets are 
of a rounder form (more especially the odd one at the end» 
which is larger than the rest), and their edges are irregu- 
larly waved. The water-parsnip is of a uniform lipit 
green without any tinge of brown ; the leaflets are longer 
and narrower than those of the water* cress, tapering at 
each end and notched at their edges. The best way to 
become acquainted with the difference, and to obtain a 
confident knowledge of the two plants, is to examine them 
in the month of July, when the flowers of both are pre- 
sent, to decide between them. 

SAGE. 

Was foimerly in much repute for its medicinal pro- 
perties, but its virtues are now lowly rated. Now, there 
are seventy sorts of sage, and perhaps this mistrust is 
owing to our not using the same sort as our forefathers. 
Three sorts are used: 1, the garden sage; 2, the red 
sage ; and 3, the wood sage, which grows naturally. The 
latter is chiefly recommended for boiling as an excellent 
remedy for debility of the stomach, and with alum as a 
gargle for a sore throat. 

THE JERUSALEM ARTIOHOKE 

Presents, in its name, a strange perversion of terms ; 
it being corrupted from its Italian name, Girasole Artici- 
occo, sun- flower artichoke, as the plant was first brought 



POPULAR ERRORS. 71 

from Peru to Italy, and thence propagated throughout 
Europe. The term artichoke is applied from the resem- 
blance in tbe flavour of the roots to that of the common 
artichoke. 

The name of tliis plant, undoubtedly, arose from a weak 
notion that any one unlucky enough to get a certain por- 
tion of it into their throat must certainly be choked. This 
dangerous portion is called the chokcy and consists of the 
unopened florets or the bristles that separate them from 
each other. 

SCARLET RUNNERS. 

The Scarlet-runner has been stated by gardeners, who 
have written books on Gardening, and by several botanical 
authors, to be an annual, whereas it is a perennial plant. 
Its roots are tuberous, similar to those of the dahlia, and, 
like that, may be preserved through the winter by the 
same means ; when, if planted out in April, they soon 
make their appearance above ground and produce, for the 
second time, an early and abundant crop. This bean was 
formerly cultivated less for its fruit than for the beauty 
and durability of its blossoms, which ladies put into their 
nosqpys and garlands. Miller brought it into general 
use tot the table; and because it has l^n found so useful, 
persons seem to think it can no longer be ornamental, 
which is surely a vulgar mistake*. 

EDIBLE HU8HR00MS. 

The confused notions which most persons have re- 
specting the distinction of Edible and Poisonous Mush- 
rooms, has led to fatal ooufequences. The following 
indications may, therefore, in some degree, serve to correct 
the evil. Whenever a fungus is pleasant in flavour and 
odour, it may be consider^ wholesome; if, on the con- 
trary, it have an ofiensive smell, a bitter, astringent, or 
styptic taste, or even if it leave an unpleasant flavour in 
the mouth, it should not be considered tit for food. The 
colour, figure, and texture of these vegetables do not afford 
any characters on which we can safely rely ; yet, it may 
be remarked, that in colour, the pure yellow, gold colour, 
bluish pale, dark or lustre brown, wine-red, or the violet, 
bdong to many that are esculent; whilst the pale or 
sulphur-yeOow, bright or blood-red, and the greenish, 

* Flora DometticA. 



72 POPULAR ERRORS. 

belong to few but the poisonous. . The safe kinds have 
most frequently a compact brittle texture; the flesh is 
white ; tney grow more readily in open places, such as dry 
pastures and waste lands, than in places humid, or shaded 
by wood. In general, those should be suspected which 
grow in caverns and subterraneous passages, on animal 
matter undergoing putrefaction, as well as those whose 
flesh is soft or watery*. 

PLANTS IN ROOMS AND LARGE TOWNS. 

It is in vain to suppose that Plants will flourish in 
Rooms. They must necessarily be deficient in the three 
important auxiliaries to vegetable life, light, air, and 
moisture ; the latter of which cannot be maintained in 
apartments that are daily occupied. In Large Towns, 
plants cannot thrive even in the open air, as the minute- 
particles of soot, which are constantly floating about, 
settle upon their leaves, and choke up their pores. The 
gases produced by the combustion of coal, osc, are also 
injurious to plants. Sulphurous acid, which abounds in 
the atmosphere of London, turns the leaves yellow ; and 
the want of evaporation and absorption by the leaves, 
prevents the proper elaboration of the sap, and makes 
plants and trees stunted and unproductive. 

ODOUR OF FLOWERS. 

The idea that Perfumes of Ffewers, believed to be 
universdly delightful, should o£&nd certain perceptions, 
is often held up to ridicule and unbelief. But the follow- 
ing observations furnish evidence to correct this common 
Error. They occur in Sir James Smith's valuable Elements, 
He describes himself as peculiarly affected by honeysuckles, 
which, however grateful in the open air, afiected him in 
the house with violent pains in the temples, soon followed 
by sickness, and a partial loss of recollection. Yet the 
equally delicious and very similar fragrance of the Butter- 
fly Orchis afforded him pleasure in the closest apartment. 
He could not perceive tne scent of Iris Persica, though 
some find it extremely pleasant. Its flowers, neverthel^, 
affected him in a room almost to nausea and suffi)cation. 
The White Lily, Mezereon, Lilac, and Peruvian Helio- 
trope, with many other scents delightful in the open air, 

* Brtnde's Jouraal. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 73 

were poison in the house; and he had seen a strong healthy 
man greatly distressed hy one Carnation which had fallen 
down^ and remained concealed by a piece of furniture, in 
a spacious airy drawing-room. It may be asserted, as a 
general rule, that plants of the same genus, or natural 
order, produce, by the odour of their flowers, a similar 
effect upon the same person. But this effect often varies 
in degree, according to any person's state of health, llie 
blossoms of the Portugal Laurel, when abundant, exhale, 
in Sir James's opinion, a nauseous fcetor, which, in some of 
the same tribe, as hawthorn, is not too strong to be 
agreeable, partaking of an almond flavour. In a very 
different flower, Bolemonium C€Bruleum, a similar odour, 
though generally not very remarkable, has proved, during 
illness, quite intolerable in a room. Sir James concludes 
by observing, that roses are universally acceptable, and 
scarcely noxious to anybody ; but, perhaps, the odours of 
the various kinds of StapeUa, imitating carrion, rotten 
cheese, and foul water, may be better suited to the taste of 
the Hottentots, in whose country those singular plants 
abound. A botanist of Sir James's acquaintance could 
perceive no scent in any flowor whatever. 

KEEPING BEE8. 

It has been the custom, from time immemorial, to rub 
the inside of the hive with salt and clover, or f:ome sweet- 
scented herb, previously to putting a swarm of Bees into the 
hive. This practice, which is thought to be serviceable to 
the Bees, is disadvantageous to them ; for it gives them 
unnecessary labour, as they vviU be compelled to remove 
every particle of foreign matter from the nive, before they 
b^n to worL Equally reprehensible is the vile practice 
of making an astounding noise with fire-pans, kettles, &c., 
when the Bees ai'e swarming. It may have originated in 
some ancient superstition, or it may have been the signal 
to call aid from the fields, to assist in the hiving. If 
harmless, it is unnecessary ; and everything that tends to 
encumber the management of Bees should be avoided. 

MEfiTINO SNOW WITH SALT. 

Persons are in the habit of sprinkling Salt upon Snow 
before their doors. They could not do a more silly or 
injurious thing. The result is, to change dry snow or ice 
at the temperature of 3j2° to brine at 0. The injurious 



74 POPULAR ERRORS. 

effect of damp upon the feet at this excessive d^ee of 
cold is likely to be extreme. If, then, any one does 
sprinkle salt upon snow in the street, he ought to feel it a 
matter of conscience to sweep it away immediately*. 

NUTRIMENT IN SUGAR. 

The Nutritive Properties of Sugar are much underrated 
in this country. As an aliment, Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, 
maintains that Sugar affords the greatest quantity of nou- 
rishment, in a given quantity of matter, of any subject in 
nature. Horses and cattle were fed wholly on it at St 
Domingo for some months, when the exportation of Sugar 
and importation of grain were prevented from want of 
ships. During the crop-time in the West Indies, all appear 
fat and flourishing. The cattle fed on the cane-tops be- 
come sleek, and in a fine condition. The negroes drink 
freely of the juice, and become fat and healthy. Sir 
George Staunton observes, that many of the slaves and 
*dle persons in China hide themselves among the canes, 
and live entirely on them for a time. In that kingdom, 
the Emperor compels his body-guard to eat a certain 
quantity of Sugar every dav, that they may become fat, 
and looK portly. Sugar and rice constitute the common 
food of the people, and every kind of domestic animal is 
fed on Sugar. Plagues, malippiant fevers, and disorders 
in the breast, are unknown in the countries where Sugar is 
abundantly eaten as food. The celebrated Dr. Franklin 
lused to drink syrup every night before he went to bed, to 
alleviate the agonies of the stone. In short, Dutrone, 
with all the vivacity of a Frenchman, burst into a rhap- 
sody on the excellence of Sugar. He not only panegyrises 
it as the triumpher over seasons and climates, in enabling 
us to assemble at our tables the fruits of every season and 
country ; as the softener of asperities ; the delice of confec^ 
tionary ; the seductive charm of liqueurs; but he would 
exalt it as the panacea of life, the invigorator of infancy^ 
the r^torer of sickness, the renovator of old age. He 
mvites the "brewer, the baker, the vintner, to prove its 
beneficial influence in their several arts. He calls upon 
the apothecary to acknowledge its aid in compouncUng 
medicine ; and he recommends the surgeon to lay aside 
his unctuous plasters, and to apply saccharine lenitives. 

* Faraday. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 75 

SUGAR AND THE TEETH. 

To disprove the assertion of Sugar injuring the Teeth, 
let those who make it visit the sugar plantations, and look 
at the negroes and their children, whose Teeth are daily 
employed in the mastication of Sugar ; and they will he 
convinced of the ahsurdlty of the statement. 

ECONOMY IN SUGAR. 

ExPEBiMENT has provcd that half-a*pound weight of 
refined Sugar will give more sweetness than one pound of 
raw or moist Sugar, hesides the improved purity and deli- 
cacy of the liquid sweetened. Tliis is especially the case 
in sweetening cofibe. 

ANTIQUITY OF TEA. 

There is reason to helieve that Tea is not of very ancient 
use as a beverage in China. The ancient classical books 
make no allusion to it. Silk, fiax, and hemp, are classical 
plants ; but cotton, tobacco, and tea, are not. Pere 1 ri- 
gault, the Jesuit, says, the use of Tea is not of great anti- 
quity ; but, he adds, they have no character to represent 
it, which is not true. The popular belief is, that Tea was 
first introduced into Honan to cure the bad quality and 
taste of the water. The earliest account we have of it is 
in the relation of Mahommedan travellers, who visited 
China in the ninth century. These, after telling us that 
" their usual drink is a kind of wine nr*ade of rice,'* men- 
tion a certain herb, which they drink with hot water, 
called sah (tiha, tea), adding, that " this drink cures all 
manner of diseases." It was not, therefore, at that time 
a common beverage. Be that, however, as it may, we are 
inclined to think it is a mistake to suppose that the Chinese 
are intolerably attached to the use of Tea. That which is 
used for home consumption is of a very inferior descrip- 
tion, made up sometimes into round balls, having all the 
appearance of a ball of tarred twine ; sometimes in flat 
cakes, cemented together with a glutinous substance, and 
sometimes used in loose leaves that have been dried with- 
out any preparation. They have, besides, the essence in 
small cakes, as bitter as wormwood. The leaves of the 
Camellia Sesanqua are also used as Tea ; and we learn 
from the Abbe Grozier, that in Shantang, and the northern 



76 POPULAR ERRORS. 

provinces. Tea is prepared from a kind of moss ; and, he 
asks, if adulterated Tea is common in China, how can we 
flatter ourselves that we are not drinking the inftision of 
moss from the rocks of Mang-nig-hien * ? 

IX)CALITIES OF THE TEA>PLAKT. 

It is an Error to suppose that the Tea-plant is altogether 
the production of a low latitude, as China. On the con- 
trary, various specimens seem to be cultivated far to the 
norUi, and at considerable elevations, in that country. It 
is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that it might be culti- 
vated to an unlimited extent in Europe ; or, why might 
we not produce it in our nunierous colonies, possessed of 
every variety of climate? In Prince of Wales's Island it 
has long been introduced, and it is known that there is no 
difficulty in raising it. In almost every part of Hindostan, 
therefore, the Tea plant might be grown. Nay, there is 
reason to believe that species of it might be grown in 
Great Britain, as easily as some of our most common 
shrubs. It is said to have been planted in Breconshire 
about 1000 feet above the level of the sea, where it endured 
the winter. We suspect, however, that our ignorance of 
the modes of drying and preparing Tea operates more as 
an obstacle to its culture here than ungeniality of climate ; 
to which may be added, the higher price of labour in 
England than in China. 

VARIETIES OF TEA. 

Certain botanical writers have stated that Black and 
Green Tea are produoed from the same plant, merely by 
difference in the times of gathering, curing, &c. Mr. 
Murray, however, observes, in the Gardeneri Magazine, 
that ^' the Green Tea can, by no modification whatever, 
either of culture or clime, be obtained from the same plant 
tlukt yields the multiform varieties of Black Tea from 
inferior Bohea, through Congou, up to Pekoe, and Padre 
Souchong. The fact is, Green Tea and Black Tea are 
chemicaUy different ; by acting on Green Tea by means of 
boiling alcohol I have dissolved resin, vegetable wax, and 
the green matter of the leaf. The leaves by this treatment 
become black, and do not unfold. An officer of high rank 
in India informed me that, when his camp was visited by 

* Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS 77 

Tartar tribas, they were surprised at the Black Tea then 
nsed^ which ihej had seen for the first time. Green Tea 
that alone cultivated by and used among them." 



ADULTERATION OF TEAS. 

The deceptions practitied in the Tea-trade have long 
been a subject of great complaint and great notoriety, and 
frequent complaint ; but some of those persons who have 
written most vehemently against tea-dealers have, singu- 
larly enough, promoted their schemes by giving recipes for 
the art of mixing one quality of Tea with another, and 
entering into minute rules for improving indifferent teas, 
by the addition of the more higiily-flavoured qualities. 
Tnese writers have stated that Pekoe is seldom agreeable 
to tea drinkers alone, and recommend that one ounce of 
Pekoe should be added to a pound of Souchong. That 
Souchong or Congou may be improved by such means there 
can be no doubt; but those who have been in the habit of 
taking good Pekoe would never tliink of such a mixture. 
It is, when used unmixed, delicious : it must, however, 
to be fairly judged of, be tasted without sugar, or with tha 
smallest possible quantity, and likewise without milk*. 

Before, however, we blame our merchants and dealers 
for the adulteration of teas, we should recollect that the 
character of the Chinese is not distinguished by honesty 
or fair dealing, and that they are extensive adulterators of 
Tea. A few years since it was discovered that the Teaa 
were frequency mixed by the Chinese with iron dust, or 
an earthy detritus strongly impregnated with iron, which 
made the article weigh neavier, but was no improvement 
to the contents of the tea-pot. The test contrived for the 
detection of this was a powerful magnet, which, being 
stirred about among the leaves, came out incrusted with 
the detritus in question. We also learn from Mr. John 
Reeves, one of the East India Company's inspectors at 
Canton, that the Chinese convert genuine Black Tea into. 
Green — a trick which he represents to be practised to a 
considerable extent. 

QUALITY OF TEA. 

The main article of export from China to Europe and 
America is Tea, and the grand Error in all the continental 
nations has been, in supposing that mere importattom of 

* Dr. Sigmond, on T«a. 



78 POPULAR ERRORS. 

the leaf without regard to qualUi/^wesee all that was necessary 
to ensure consumption ; forgetting that Tea is an article 
introduced by fashion, and upheld by custom from its 
refreshing qualities. In £ngland, the successful extension 
of the consumption has been solely owiug to the quality 
having been always kept up as high as possible ; in other 
countries, such a prudent measure was neglected, and the 
result has been, that in some countries, where the people 
formerly used several millions of pounds yearly, they do 
not now consume as many hundred weights *. 

There is one irremediable circumstance which will ever 
prevent Tea being drunk in perfection in England : that 
18, the sea-voyage, which deteriorates all Teas, and causes 
them to lose their strength, freshness, and flavour. 

FINE TEAS IN CHINA. 

Although Tea is grown in many parts of China, as 
the vine is in France, it, like the latter, is dependant on soil 
and dimate. A coarse Tea, of a very inferior character, 
is grown for the use of the population of China. The 
quantity consumed by each person is generally very small^ 
its use being economised wonderfully, by putting the Tea 
into the tea-pot in the morning, and keeping it warm 
throughout the day, by a contrivance which forms a 
stratum of non-conducting air between the two vessels 
that contain it. Again, the spots which produce fine Teas, 
like the spots which produce fine wine, are exceedingly 
limited ; and the natives are the better enabled to drink tea- 
water, in consequence of the cheapness of the coarse herb 
which has not the usual export-tax of threepence per 
pound levied on it by government on shipment. The 
Chinese drink much wine at their convivial meetings, and 
Tea is only introduced, as it is among us, at the end. On 
these accounts, therefore, it is an Error to suppose that the 
Chinese are so well supplied with Tea as ourselves. 

HIGH PRICE OF TEA IN ENGLAND. 

It has been said that Tea is cheaper in America and con- 
tinental Europe, than in England ; but it has been also 
shown, that the price of any denomination of tea is no 
proof whatever of the relative' deamess or cheapness of tea 
in the two countries. In fact, the denominatiotu of teas 

* Parliamentary ETidenoe. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 79 

can be no guide whatever with respect to the value of teas. 
There is as much difierence between the quality of Teas of 
the same denomination, as there is between wine sold at a 
tavern, and that drunk at a gentleman's table, although 
they are both called sherry or madeira. This testimony 
is by Mr. Joshua Bates, an American merchant trading 
extensively with China. 

Lowness of price and cheapness are ordinarily con- 
founded, especially in purchasing Tea. But Mr. John 
Reeves, in his evidence before a committee of the House 
of Commons, founded on an experience of twenty years, 
as East India Company's Tea Inspector at Canton, states, 
that '' the lowest-priced teas are dearest to the consumer, 
and that the cheapest tea to drink is 'the back-bone' of 
tea, which could scarcely be retailed under six shillings per 
pound: this tea will yield two liquorings, while the 
strength of common tea is expended in the first water." 

KEEPING TEA. 

It is alleged that Tea is injured by being kept too long 
in England ; but this assertion is disproved by experience 
and facts: for it is well known that good black tea is 
kept in China, like wine, and improved by age ; and the 
London brokers maintain, that common black teas are 
decidedly improved by keeping, in a proper place, even if 
for only two years ; that even the common sorts of teas 
are better liked by the public, when kept, than they would 
be if fresh; they used not to be, but they are now. 
Common green tea is not much altered ; but black tea 
gets stronger, and common bohea, if kept for more than 
two years, will sell for a higher price than if fresh*. 

Neither the Chinese nor natives of Japan ever use Tea 
before it has been kept at least a year ; because, when 
fresh, it is said to prove narcotic, and to disorder the 
drinker. 

CONSUMPTION OP TEA IN ENGLAND. 

Considerable Error prevails respecting this subject ; 
for, however unfair it may be to compare the consump- 
tion of Tea in England with other articles which are pro- 
curable from a great variety of countries, and which either 
support animal life or are used in a variety of ways (as 

* Eyidence of Tei^brokers, l)efore Parliament. 



80 POPULAR EBBORS. 

sagar)^ or wlueh^ from being greater stimulants, require 
to be annuaUy augmented in quantity^ such as wine, 
tobacco, &c. ; yet we do not find that tea has augmented 
in consumption, increased the revenue to a greater extent^ 
or lessenea proportionally more in price than any other 
article whicn enters largely into the comforts of the 
people*. 

GBEEN TEA. 

Thebb was once an idea prevalent that the colour of 
the Green Tea was to be ascribed to the drying of the 
leaves on copper: but nothing can be more unfounded 
than such an opinion ; as the pans, one of which was sent 
home by an officer of the East India Company, are of 
cast-iron. That copper may be detected in tea is true ; 
but Bucholz has sliown that it exists in several vege- 
tables ; indeed, there are proofs that it enters into the com- 
position of a great proportion of animal and v^etable 
mattert. It is found in coffee in very striking quantities; 
from ten ounces of unroasted coffee* there may be obtained, 
by the proper manipulations, a dense precipitate, which 
will coat two inches of harpsichord wire with metallic 
copper. And he who eats a sandwich has much more to 
fear from the poisonous effects of this metal than the 
drinker of Green Tea ; for. the two slices of bread, the beef, 
and the mustard, all have been proved, by the examination 
of the chemist, to be capable of forming in the stomach a 
metallic crust; indeed, the only safe food would be 
potatoes, for in three pounds no copper could be traced:^. 
But, if there were any foundation for this supposition, 
▼olatUe alkali mixed with an infusion of such tea would 
detctet the least portion of copper by turning the infusion 
blue ! Now, the finest imperial and bloom teas show no 
signs of the presence of copper by this experiment. 
Others, and among them Boerhaave the celebrated physi- 
cian, have, with less propriety, attributed the verdure to 
creen copperas ; but this ingredient, which is only salt of 
iron, would immediately turn the leaves black, and the 
infusion made from the tea would be of a dull purple 
colour. Sir George Staunton informs us that it is confi- 
dently said in Cmna tliat tea is never dried upon plates 

* Parliamentary Evidenoe. 

t See *' Copper in Meat," page 43 of the present work. 

i Dr. Sigmond, on Tea. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 81 

of copper; the chief application of this metal heing for 
coin. 

Dr. Lettsom, in his valuable pamphlet on the Tea-plant^ 
asks: "Is it not more probable that some green dye^ 
prepared from v^table substances, is used for the 
colouring ? " 

EFFECTS OF TEA, 

The Effects of Tea on the human frame have been con- 
siderably overrated. They are those of a very mild nar- 
cotic, and, like those of many other mild narcotics taken 
in small quantities, they are exhilarating. The green 
varieties possess this quality in a much higher degree than 
the black ; and a strong infusion of the former will, in 
most constitutions, produce considerable excitement and 
wakefulness. Of all narcotics, however, Tea is the least 
pernicious ; if, indeed^ it be so in any degree, which we 
very much doubt*. 

THE COFFEE " BERRT." 

Coffee, such as we use daily, is not a berry, but the 
seed of a berry, which lies naked in the pulp. In the best 
wild Arabian coffee, only one seed is usually perfected, 
which is known by its round form ; while the West 
Indian plantation coffee has two in each berry, both flat- 
tened on one side. It would, therefore, be as Incorrect to 
call the seed of an orange a berry as it is so to distinguish 
eoffee. 

The refreshing properties of coffee have not been over- 
rated ; for chemists have proved it to contain much nitro- 
gen ; and its active principle, termed caffeine, is exhila- 
rating in doses of four or five grains. (- 

" TURKEY coffee." 

From the great consumption of Coffee in Turkey, it is 
generally supposed to be cheaper there than in England ; 
and the name, Turkey coffee, would lead many persons to 
conclude this kind to be grown in Turkey. It is, how- 
ever, brought from Mocha, on the Red SfS. A consider- 
able portion of the coffee consumed by the Turks is 
obtained from our West India plantations ; and Arabian, 
or Mocha^ coffee is dearer in Turkey than in England. 

* JkfaoottUoch. 

o 



82 POPULAR ERRORS. 

ROASTING COFFEE. 

CoFFEB in this country is rarely well roasted ; and in 
this consists its chief excellence. Dr. Mozeley long since 
ohserved : '' the roasting of the berry (?) to a proper degree 
requires great nicety ; the virtue and agreeableness of the 
drink depend upon it ; and both are often injured by the 
ordinary method. Bemier says^ when he was at Cairo, 
where coffee is so much used, he was assured by the best 
judges that there were only two people in that great city 
who understood how to prepare it in perfection. If it be 
underdone, its virtues will not be imparted, and in use it 
will load and oppress the stomach ; u it be overdone, it 
will yield a flat, burnt, and bitter taste, its virtues will be 
destroyed, and, in use, it will heat the body nnd act as an 
astringent." The desirable colour of roasted coffee is that 
of cinnamon. Coffee seeds readily imbibe exhalations 
from other bodies, and thereby acquire an adventitious 
and disagreeable flavour. Sugar placed near coffee will, 
in a short time, so impregnate the berries as to injure 
their flavour. Dr. Mozeley mentions that a few bags of 
pepper, on board a ship from India, spoiled a whole cargo 
of coffee. And this has been assigned as a reason of the 
inferiority of that coffee which is imported from the 
European plantations. 

OHICOR^E IN COFFEE. 

The adulteration of Coffee with Chicoree has been 
commonly mistaken for an improvement— In the Nether- 
lands, servants loudly object to their coffee being too highly 
saturated with this weed; and when settling for wages 
they frequently ask: '^ Mais, madame, combien de chicoree 
dant le cafif 

MAKING COFFEE. 

Coffee, as very commonly prepared, by persons unac- 
quainted with its nature, is a decoction, and is boiled for 
some time, under a mistaken notion that the strength is 
not extracted unless it be boiled. But the fact is just the 
reverse. The fine aromatic oil which produces the flavour 
and strength of the coffee, is dispelled and lost by boiling; 
and a mucilage is extracted at the same time, which also 
tends to make it flat and weak. The best modes are, to 
pour boiling water through the coffee in a biggin or strainer. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 83 

whidi is found to extract nearly all the strength ; or^ to 
poor hoiling water upon it, and set it on the fire, not to 
exceed ten minutes. The Turks and Arabs boil the coffee, 
it is true; but they boil each cup by itself, and only for a 
moment so that the effect is, in fact, much the same as 
that of infusion, and not like that of decoction. They do 
not separate the coffee itself from the infusion, but leave 
the whole in the cup. 

PREJUDICES AOAIMST COFFEE. 

Thkre are many prgudices against Coffee, even in its 
native country. Dr. Holland has heard from one or two 
West Indians, that the aroma of coffee, strongly concen- 
trated and long applied, is capable of producing delirium, 
or some d^ree of aberration of mind. This account the 
Doctor first received from a young man, a native of St. 
Domingo, who arrived in this country in a state approach- 
ing to mania, and died soon afterwards. His illness was 
attributed by a friend who accompanied him, (and who 
assured the Doctor that he had known similar cases,) to 
his having slept during the voyage in a cabin half filled 
with bags of coffee. Dr. Holland had no means of ascer- 
taining the entire truth of this opinion ; which, in fact, 
was disproved in the case in question, by cerebral disease 
actually discovered, and presumably of a date anterior 
to the voyage*. 

COFFEE-MAKINO IN FRANCE. 

The inferiority of Coffee made in England to that made 
in France, is the invariable observation of every one who 
has travelled from London to Paris, or even from Dover to 
Calais. If we examine the French method, this difierence 
will be no longer matter of surprise. The causes of our 
failure in making good coffee in England are, 1. Over- 
roasting the seeds ; and from this Error arise most of the 
inconveniences which are so often attributed to coffee, but 
which, in truth, are produced by the imperfect modes of 
its preparation. The coffee, Turkey or Bourbon, is, in 
France, roasted only till it is of a cinnamon colour, and 
closely covered up during the process ; and this is done in 
closed iron cylinders, turned over a fire by a handle, like 
itttLt of a grindstone. We grind the coffee too fine : it should 
be but coarsely ground soon after it is roasted, but not until 

* Medical Notes, p. 44fi, note. 
o2 



84 POPULAR ERR0R9. 

quite cool : some think its aroma is better preserved by 
beating it in a mortar ; but this is tedious. We do not 
use enough coffee ; for the usual proportion in France is 
one pint of boiling water to two and a half ounces of 
coffee ; though this is expensive. Over-boiling is another 
£rror, as it extracts the bitter principle from the coffee. 
A common method in France is to put the coffee into the 
water^ cover the coffee-pot up, and leave it for two hours 
surrounded with hot wood ashes, so as to keep up. the tem- 
perature without making the liquid boil. Occasionally stir 
it, and after two hours infusion remove it from the fire, 
allow it a quarter of an hour to settle, and when perfectly 
clear decant it. Isinglass, or hartshorn shavings, is some- 
times used to clarify coffee ; but by this addition you lose 
a great portion of its delicious aroma. 

COFFEE AFTER WINE. 

The system now adopted, in imitation of the French 
custom, of taking very strong Coffee after Wine, though so 
very agreeable, is injurious, if the wines taken during the 
meal have been Port, Sherry, and Madeira ; but not so if 
those of a lighter quality have been drunk. Great excite- 
ment attends upon this indulgence, for cofibe has a great 
influence upon the stomach, and likewise upon the brain. 
Watchfulness of long duration, with a feverish reaction, are 
its immediate effects ; but its distant ones are more upon 
the extreme capillary vessels of the surface of the body, 
which it seems to constringe : it affects the skin, to which 
it gives a peculiar harshness; and it has been said by 
some of the French writers to give it colour; and the 
sallowness of the Parisians has been, by more than one 
medical author, ascribed to their great addiction to coffee*. 

grocers' currants 

Are a kind of small clustering grape, extensively culti- 
vated in the Greek islands, where they are often called 
" corinths," of which name '^ currants " seems a corruption. 

BITTER ALMONDS. 

There was formerly a notion, but it was quite erroneous, 
that the eating of Bitter Almonds would prevent the 
intoxicating effects of wine. 

* Dr. Sigmond. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 85 

This Error bas, however, been exploded since the days 
of Sir Thomas Browne, who observes : " It hath much 
deceived the hope of good fellows, what is commonly 
expected of Bitter Almonds, and though in Plutarch con- 
firmed from the practice of Ciaudian, his physitian, that 
antidote against ebrietv hath commonly jfailed. Surely 
men much versed in the practice do err in the theorv of 
inebriation ; conceiving in that disturbance the brain doth 
only suffer from exhalations and vapourous ascensions 
from the stomach, which fat and oyly substances may sup- 
press. Whereas the prevalent intoxication is from the 
spirits of drink dispersed into the veins and arteries, from 
whence by common conveyancers they creep into the brain, 
insinuate into its ventrides, and beget those vertigoes, 
accompanying that perversion*." 



POISONOUS NOYEAU. 

The substance which gives its peculiar flavour to 
bitter almonds, and to the kernels of peaches, apricots, 
&c., as also to the leaves of all the species of cherry 
and peach, is prussic add, so well known as a powerful 
medidne and poison. It is this which renders a large 
draught of Noyeau, or other cordial of a similar kind, so 
often injurious, or even fatal. The Prussian medical 
police, therefore, which is remarkably vigilant, is in the 
nabit of examining liqueurs of this sort exposed for sale. 

In Curtis's Botanical Magazine, we read : *' In the pre- 
paration of Noyeau probably several different vegetables 
are employed, which contain prussic add. A species of 
bindweed abounds in prussic add, and is a frequent ingre- 
dient in the preparation of noyeau. But we are naturally 
led to expect prussic add in plants of the plum tribe; and 
Dr. Swartz assures us, that tne bark of the prunus (cera- 
8US,) occidentalis of the West Indies, on account of its 
peciuiar taste and smell, is used instead of the amvgdalus 
p^ica (peach) ; and of the prunus spherocarpa (noyeau 
cherry,) he says, diat the kernd of its nut resembles in 
taste that of the bitter almond. M . Guildins observes, 
that the bark, leaves, and kernel, have the smell and taste 
of those of the peach, and they are employed by French 
colonists in the manufacture of Noyeau^ 

* Yulgar Enon, book IL oh*p. 8. 



86 POPULAR BBR0R8. 

BLACK AND WHITE PEPPER 

Are both produced from the same shrub; but, although 
White Pepper is sold at the highest price> it is inferior to 
Black. It is called Black Pepper while it is in the state 
of nature, covered by its external coat. Wliite Pepper is 
merely Black Pepper deprived of this coat ; but as the 
husk contains a powerful principle, it is evident that the 
White Pepper loses much of its stimulating property, and 
is inferior to the Black. The only reasonable foundation 
for the preference of White to Black Pepper, is the fact 
that the finest pepper is the young berries which fall from 
the trees, and are whit^ed by exposure to the weather ; 
but such berries are found in small quantities, and are 
never brought to England. 

''soy from black beetles." 

Sailors have a notion that Soy is made from cock- 
roaches; and, however absurd the belief may appear, the 
reason for it is worthy of investigation. Tne Chinese at 
Canton have a large Sloy manufactory, and they are parti- 
cularly solicitous to obtain cockroaches from ships ; from 
which circumstances sailors immediately conclude that it 
is for the purpose of making Soy from them- But, it is 
better established that cockroadies are used by the Chinese 
as bait in fishing. The infusion of cockroaches is also 
used in medicine; and Mr. Webster, surgeon of H.M.Su 
Chanticleer, states that common salt and water, saturated 
with the juices of the cockroach, has all the odour, and 
some of the flavour and qualities, of Soy ; so that the 
sailors' notion, after all, may not be far from the truth. 

test of brine. 

A common test of the quantity of salt necessary to add 
to water, in making Brine for pickling meat, is to continue 
to add salt until an egg will swim in it. This, howevc^r, 
is an imperfect test of the strength of the Brine; since |tn 
egg will float in a saturated solution of salt and water, and 
will also float, if to the same saturated solution a bulk of 
pure water equal to twice the bulk of the latter be added. 
According to Gay-Lussac, seven ounces and a half of salt 
are necessary to saturate an imperial pint of water. This 
is important, since the efficacy of Brine in preserving meat 
depends very much upon getting a solution of salt at the 
exact point of saturation. 



POPULAR BBR0I18. 87 



III.— DOMESTIC ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 



BREWING. 



HOPS AND COALS NUISANCES. 

Hops are first mentioned in the statute book in 1552; 
and it would appear, from an Act passed in 1 603, that 
Hops were at that time extensively cultivated in England. 
WiUter Blythe, in his Improver Improved^ published in 
1649, has a chapter upon improvements by plantations of 
Hops, which has the following striking passage: — He ob- 
senres, that *' Hops were then grown to be a national com- 
modity ; but that it was not many years since the famous 
city of London petitioned the Parliament of England 
against two nuisances ; and these were, Newcastle Coals, 
in regard to their stench, &c., and Hops,, in regard they 
\9o\x\a tpoifl ike tatte of drink, and endanger the people; 
and, had the Parliament been no wiser than they, we nad 
been in a measure pined, and in a great measure starved ; 
which is just answerable to the principles of those men 
who cry down all devices, or ingenious discoveries, as pro- 
jects, and thereby stifle and choak improvements." 

The force of prejudice in the price of Famham Hops, 
though nothing but a hedge parts them from another 
parisn as well cultivated, is very great A higher price is 
always given at Weyhill fair, the great mart for Hops in 
this part of the kingdom, for those of the growth of the 
paiisn of Famham, than for any other*. 

HIOH-DRIED MilLT. 

The extensive addiction of the public to beer made 
from High-dried Malt, as porter and stout, is a strai^ 
specimen of the caprice and Error of public taste. The 
nourishment of the grain, barley, depends upon the pro- 
portion of saccharine matter which it contains after it is 
malted. This is done with a heat so conducted that three 

* Manntng and Bray't Surrey, toL iii. p. ISS. 



88 POPULAR ERRORS. 

distinct shades of colour shall be produced, pale, amber^ 
and brown. In the pale malt, the saccharine principle 
exists in perfection, and it affords the strongest and best 
beer. In the amber-coloured, it is scorched, and therefore 
rendered less sweet, on account of the partial decomposi- 
tion. In the brown, (or high-dried,) the scorching has 
proceeded so far that scarcely any trace of sugar can be 
discovered. If it be very brown, the taste is even bitter 
and disagreeable. Hence, we perceive, that these varieties 
consist merely in the greater or less degree of charring 
which the sugar is made to undergo ; and that the result 
is, the greater or less destruction of the value of the malt. 

THE ART OF BREWING. 

The difficulty of Brewing is not of such magnitude as 
the brewer supposes, or would lead the world to suppose. 
He often deceives himself into the belief that he possesses 
important secrets: he knows that by their application he 
can brew good drink ; but he is not aware that, by any 
other method, he might produce as good, or better. There 
art, however, few arts in which experience affords so little 
real knowledge, or in which mistaken principles are more 
likely to be adopted ; and for a very obvious reason. To 
make experiments in Brewing on a large scale is a dan- 
gerous occupation of capital. No brewer ever thinks of 
making such an experiment. If he apprehends a failure, 
when untoward circumstances occur in a brewing, his 
object is rather to correct and modify them, than to 
ascertain what would be their results if allowed to proceed 
as they threatened. On the small scale, nothing can be 
learned, as the results are so very different. Throughout 
the process, the brewer is cautious, and never willingly 
varies from that rule which he has found success&l: 
hence, the results of other modes of operating are known 
chiefly by conjecture ; disputed points remain for ever 
matters of opinion ; and, in fine, the art remains pretty 
much what it was a century since*. 

One of the secrets of Brewing appears to have been lost 
long since ; for, in a diary of the year 1 650, we find : — ** We 
have utterly lost what was the thing which preserved beer 
so long before Hops were found out in England." 

* Al»ridged from Doootbii's DomMtio Economy. 



POPULAR BRR0B6. 89 



WATER FOR BREWING. 

Most of the authors of treatises on Brewing recommend 
the use of soft water in preference to hard. The latter 
they affirm to he totally incapahle of taking a complete 
extract from malt and hops, as it is well known to he, they 
say, from tea or from meat. Others affirm that hard 
water worts do not ferment well, and that they affi)rd a 
weak and vapid heer. It is, however, difficult to conceive 
how the existence of two or three grains of saline and 
earthy matter in a pint of water comd, even in the most 
trifling degree, influence its solvent power on the materials 
used in Brewing. The niatter of malt, which partakes so 
much of the nature of sugar, cannot he conceived to dis- 
solve less readily in such water than in the softest. The 
hitter principle of the hop resemhles other hitters, as worm- 
wood, gentian, quassia, and colomba ; all which give out 
their hittemess freely to water containing salt. And, 
what in itself is ample demonstration on 3ie subject is, 
that the grains and hops left after they have been duly 
infused in hard hot water, repeatedly applied, are found 
to be perfectly exhausted of their qualities. Again, by 
boiling hard water, it is brought nearly to the state of 
soft water, when its peculiar taste, if retained, is so feeUe 
as to be covered by tne bitter of the hop. 

** On the whole," says Mr. Donovan, *' it appears that 
the olgections to hard water originated in tne distrust 
natural to mankind in matters which they do not under- 
stand. The nature of hard water was not known to 
brewers of former times : the cause of the hardness being 
not palpable to the senses, it became a fair subject of con- 
jecture, and prejudice became hereditary.'* 

THAMES WATER FOR BREWING. 

The soft Water of the Thames was once supposed to be 
superior to all other for Brewing malt liquors. This supe- 
riority is'no longer acknowledged, as Thames Water is now 
almost entirely superseded either by hard water, or by the 
New River water, in the great London breweries. It is 
known that, between a stratum of clay and a stratum of 
chalk, about 200 feet below the foundation of London, 
there is a never-failing supply of excellent hard water, 
which, for each Brewery, is obtained from pumps sunk 



90 POPULAR ERRORS. 

in ¥^ells to the necessary depth. Thus, Messrs. Barclay 
have sunk a deep wdl on their brewery premises, although 
they are but a few poles from the 1 hames itself. In short, 
the excellence of London porter affords a sufficient proof 
of the adequacy of hard water to answer all the purposes 
of Brewing. 

SALT IN BEER. 

In Scotland, it was formerly customary to throw a little 
dry malt, and a handful of Salt, on the top of the mash, 
"^ to keep the witches from it;" and, in private breweries, 
to prevent the interference of fairies, a live coal was 
thrown into the vat. 

Subsequently, Salt has been added to the water used in 
extracting the sweet matter of malt, with a view, as has 
been supposed, of exciting thirst ; but it produces other 
efiects : in particular, it moderates the fermentation, makea 
the liquor fine, and is otherwise beneficial. 

BEER TURNING SOUR. 

" The thunder has soured the beer," is a common 
expression often founded on Error. Although Chaptal 
ascribes to agitation the operation of thunder ; it is well 
known that when the atmosphere is highly electrified, 
beer is apt to become suddenly sour without the oon- 
cussion of a thunderstorm. The beer may, therefore, 
have become sour by other means. The suddenness with 
which this change is effected during a thunderstorm, even 
in corked bottles, has not been accounted for. 

Sir Thomas Browne remarks : *' Now that beer, wine, 
and other liquors, are spoiled with lightning and thunder, 
we conceive it proceeds not only from noise and concus- 
sion of the air, but also noxious spirits which mingle 
therewith and draw them to corruption ; whereby they 
become not only dead themselves but sometimes deadly 
unto others, as that which Seneca mentioneth; whereof 
whosoever drank either lost his life pr else his wits 
upon it*." 

It was formerly believed that putting a cold iron bar 
upon the barrels would preserve beer from being soured 
by thunder. This custom has lately been common in 
Kent and Herefordshire. 

* Vulgar Errors, book U. chap. 6. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 91 

BITTERS nr PORTER. 

Before we reprehend the London brewers for their adul- 
teration of Porter with Bitters, we should recollect that 
the bitter contained in porter, if wholly taken from hops, 
would require an average quantity of ten or twelve pounds 
to the quarter of malt, or about three pounds per barrel ; 
so that if we consider the fluctuation in the price of hops, 
we shaQ not be surprised at the numerous substitutes by 
which means the brewer can procure as much bitter for 
sixpence as would otherwise cost him a pound. Quassia 
is, probably, the most harmless of all the illegal bitters. 
Physicians prescribe the decoction to their patients to 
the extent of a quarter of an ounce of the bark a day ; 
as much as the brewer is accustomed to put into nine 
gallons of his porter. 

HEADING OF PORTER. 

Before the artificial Heading of Porter is condemned, 
it should be recollected that the low price unfortunately 
prevents the brewer from giving to his drink such a body 
as would spontaneously carry a close head. To conceal 
this poverty, the pubhcan lays on the porter a heading- 
stuff of a solution of isinglass in sour porter. Tms 
heading can, however, be diluted by blowing on it and 
separating it on the surface ; if it do not close in imme- 
diately again, the artifice may be suspected. To defeat 
this mode of detection, two tea-spoonfuls of powdered and 
dried green copperas are dissolved in each hocshead of 
porter. This addition causes a close head on the drink ; 
the copperas is decomposed, as soon as dissolved, and, even 
were it not decomposed, the quantity of a grain and a half 
to each gallon could not have any injurious quality. It 
may, however, be observed, that when porter is well 
brewed from good malt, and hops used in due quantity, 
there is no occasion for heading or fining, or any modify- 
ing process*. 

LONDON PORTER. 

It seems to be pretty generally admitted, that no 
brewery, either in Ensland or elsewnere, has been able to 
make Porter equal to the large Porter breweries of London. 

* Abridged irom Doiiotbii's Dommtlo Eoooomy. 



92 POPULAR ERRORS. 

This superiority has been attributed to the use of the 
Thames water ; but, in the first place, the small London 
breweries, which do not make good porter, have this ad- 
vantage in common with the large ones ; and, secondly, 
these last have long since ceased to use the water of the 
river, as experience has proved it liable to cause acidity in 
the liquor. The superiority, as far as it exists, is, doubt- 
less, owing to command of capital and consequent power 
of choice in the malt market, aided by system in con- 
ducting the business. No very good porter is made in the 
United States of America ; three mash tuns being necessary 
to make it perfect, and only one being commonly used 
in that country*. 

CroER AND PERRY. 

From a paper in the Philosophical TVansactions, anno 
1745, it appears that persons are much in Error who are 
particularly solicitous about the nature or quality of the 
apple or pear which is to be made use of for the manu- 
facture of Cider or Perry. It is not pretended that mere 
crabs will produce liquor pidatable to all persons; but 
that mere crab cider will please many ; that by peculiar 
management it can be fermented into a strong spirituous 
liquor ; and that a large intermixture of crabs with apples 
or any other auality, or pears, will aSbid excellent and 
well-flavoured liquor. 



WINE-MAKING. 
THE VINEYARD. 

A viHETARD is by no means so pleasing an object as 
our ideas of beauty and plenty would lead us to imagine. 
The hop plantations of our own country are, indeed, far 
more picturesque. In France, the vines are trained upon 
poles seldom more than three or four feet high, and are 
little more pleasing in appearance than raspl^rry stocks 
in England. In Switzerland and the German provinces, 
the vineyards are as formal as those of France. In Spain, 
vines are grown without poles. In Greece and Italy, their 
luxuriance is seen to better advantage, but it falls very 
short of the vineyard of poetry and romance. 

* Enoydopcdia Amsriouia. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 98 

THE TINE NOURISHED BT BLOOD. 

Not many years since, there was an ill-founded notion 
that Blood poured upon the roots of the Vine during spring 
would tend to increase its fruitfulness. May not this 
notion have originated from a passage of Plutarch, wherein 
he states that the Egyptians helieved the vine to grow from 
the ground impregnated with the hlood of giants that had 
been killed in the wars with their gods ? 

WHAT IS WINE? 

Vinous liquors resembling Wine may be made from 
every fruit, as well as from every vegetable, which con- 
tains acid united to its extractive matter. The term wine 
is thus applied to the produce of currants, gooseberries, 
and other fruits; while that of cider is especially re- 
served for the liquor to be obtained from apples. The 
latter term would, however, be a fitter one for many of the 
vinous liquors in question, the term mne being restricted 
to the produce of the vine. Tartarous acid, or its combi- 
nation, is especially indispensable for making wine, and 
hence it is diat the grape which contains this acid in large 
quantity produces wine ; whilst the apple and other fruits 
which contain the malic acid produce cider. 

PRINCIPLES OF WINE. 

The erroneous notions respecting Wine will no longer 
excite surprise when it is known that chemists are, as yet, 
but imperfectly acquainted with its principles. The 
agreeable tartness of the juice of the grape consists of 
tartaric, citric, and malic acids, and an acid called vinic, 
which resembles tartaric acid in many respects, but con- 
cerning the nature of which scarcely anything is known. 

The bouquet and aroma of wines are often confounded, 
whereas they are very different. The bouquet is produced 
by a peculiar substance resembling an essential oil; it 
exists but in very few wines, and is not volatile. 

BENEFITS OF WINES AND SPIRITS. 

Notwithstanding all that the advocates of temperance 
have said in depreciation of Wines and Spirits, they are, 
doubtless, beneficial when moderately employed. Dr. 
Sigmond well observes : '' Good wine is a cordial, a good 
cordial, a fine stomachic, and, taken at its proper season, 



94 POPULAR ERRORS. 

invigorates the mind and body, and gives life an additional 
charm. There can be found no substitutes for the fer- 
mented liquors that can enable man to sustain the mental 
and bodily labour which the artificial habits of society so 
constantly demand. Temperance and moderation are 
virtues essential to our happiness, but a total abstinence 
from the enjoyments which the bounteous hand of Nature 
has provided, is as unwise as it is ungrateful. If, on the 
one hand, disease and sorrow attend the abuse of alcoholic 
liquors, innocent gaiety, additional strength and power of 
mind, and an increased capability of encountering the 
ever-varying agitation of life, are amongst the many good 
results which spring from a well-r^ulated diet in which 
the alcoholic preparations bear their just proportion and 
adaptation." 

WINE AS A LUXURY. 

It is a great mistake in public hygiene to consider Wine 
as a Luxury for a few only, and to drive the middle classes 
to spirits by prohibitory duties. The late Mr. Jefferson, 
President of the United States, in his Memoirs, expresses 
his gratification at the introduction of a very cheap wine, 
(St. George,) into his neighbourhood, whicn had already 
quadrupled the number of those who kept wine. In the 
same work he says: '* I rgoice, as a moralist, at the pro- 
spect of a reduction of the duties on wine by our national 
legislature. It is an Error to view a tax on that liquor as 
merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use to 
the middling classes of our citizens, and a condemnation 
of them to the poison of whisky, which is desolating their 
homes. No nation is drunken where wine is cheap ; and 
none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent 
spirits as the common beverage." 

TASTE IN WINES. 

The art of choosing Wine is so beset with fallacies, as 
to account for the difficulty of describing what really con- 
stitutes good or bad wine. Dr. Henderson, in his ingenious 
History of Wines, throws some light upon this portion of 
his subject in the following observations : *' As tastes and 
smells reside not in the objects themselves, but in the 
senses by which they are perceived, so they are liable to 
be modified by the habits and conditions of these organs. 
The difference of tastes^ in this view of the subject, is 



POPULAR ERRORS. 95 

proyerbial ; and much of the diversity undoubtedly pro- 
ceeds from the way in which the palate has been exercised. 
Thus, strong liquors blunt its sensibility, and disqualify it 
for the perception of the more delicate flavours of the lighter 
wines*. A person accustomed only to bad wines will form 
but a very erroneous estimate of the better growths^ and 
sometimes, even, give the preference to the former. Whole 
nations may be occasionally misled by this prejudice. A 
traveller, who arrives at the end of his journey exhausted by 
fatigue and thirst, will be apt to ascribe the most delicious 
qualities to the first ordinary wine presented to him, which^ 
under other circumstances, he perhaps could hardly have 
endured: and a continued use of the inferior liquors of one 
country may lead him to overrate the vinous produce of 
another. In returning from Italy, the common growths of 
the Rhine appeared to me of excellent flavour, and their 
acidity scarcely perceptible ; but, had I come from Bur- 
gundy or Dauphiny, I have no doubt that they would have 
tasted disagreeably sour. Therefore, if it were possible for 
an individual to traverse all the wine-countries of theglobe> 
and taste all the diflerent vintages, still his observations 
and judgment would be liable to much fallacy, and could 
be reckoned decisive only when confirmed by general 
report." 

FIRST-CLASS WINES. 

As the first-rate growths of Wines are confined to a 
small number of vineyards, and these often of very limited 
extent, the supply of such wines can never equal the 
demand. Every one who can afibrd the luxury, is natur- 
ally desirous to stock his cellar with those of the choicest 
quality ; he orders no others ; and the manufacturer and 
wine-dealer are thus induced to send into the market a 
quantity of second-rate and ordinary kinds, under the 
names of the fine wines, which they are unable to furnish. 
In this way, great confusion and misunderstanding have 
arisen in those countries where there is but Uttle known 
with respect to the true characters of many wines of the 
greatest namef . 

* May not this acoount for the comparatively small consumption of 
French Wines in England, and the predilection of the English for the 
stronger wines of Spain and Portugal, which '* have disqualified their 
perceptioa of the delicate flavours " of those of France ? 
t Dr. HenderBon'a History of Wineg. 



96 POPULAR ERRORS. 



COLOUR OF WINE. 

It is an erroneous idea to suppose that white wine is 
exclusively the produce of white grapes. Fermentation 
alone determines the Colour. The juice contained in both 
the red and white grape is nearly as colourless as water ; 
except in one peculiar species^ which is called the dyer, 
*' raisin teinturier," the liquor of which is of a purple hue. 
If the juice of the grapes which have been gently pressed 
by the feet of men in the tub at the vineyard, is drawn off, 
and allowed to ferment without the skin, the seeds, and 
the stalks, which contain the colouring elements, the wine 
will certainly be white. On the contrary, if the liquor is 
left to ferment with them, the wine must be red. 

White champagne is made, for instance, from a grape 
so deep in colour, as to appear actually black; and sherry 
is indiscriminately made from coloured and colourless 
grapes, although a white wine. Red and white port are 
produced from the same grape, the former with, and the 
latter without, the husk l^ing allowed to remain in the 
must during its fermentation. The red colouring matter 
in the husk is of an astringent nature ; and it communi- 
cates the same quality to the wine, as well as a slight 
roughness. The husk is, however, capable of commu- 
nicating but a light red colour : when the red is deep, it is 
the effect of artificial colour imparted; and a deep red 
colour is never a desirable quality. 

MATURING WINES. 

It is a mistake to imagine that Madeira is the only wine 
to be benefited by a warm cellar, and the adtation of a seft- 
voyaga The effect of heat is, indeed, such in this case as 
is suspected by few. In America, it is a well known 
practice to boil Madeira, or to heat it to the boiling tem- 
perature, and the effect is that of rendering it good and 
old-flavoured wine, when previously harsh and new : the 
same practice is applicable to port. If newly-bottled wine 
be exposed to the sun, it b^ns shortly to deposit, and 
improve in flavour; and even the rawest vnne of this 
kind, by heating it in hot water, may be caused, in the 
course of a day, to assume the quality which it would have 
after many years' keeping. It is so far from being inju- 
rious, as might be imagined, that it is a valuable secret ; 



POPULAR ERRORS. 97 

and it is believed to be but little known to those whose 
interest it is to give the complexion of old wine to new, 
and who generally effect this purpose in a fraudulent 
manner, by putting it into foul and crusted bottles. 

CRUSTED WINES.—- OLD WINES. 

A THICK Crust does not always show that the wine is 
good, but often that it has been bottled too soon. 

The Error of preferring wines of great age has, at length, 
been discovered, and the excellence of the vintage nas 
proved to be of more consequence than the nuroner of 
vears. Port wine, when tawny, loses its astringency, and 
lias an increased tendency to produce gout. 

WINES AND SPIRITS. 

Some wine-drinkers may be heard to boast that they 
never touch spirits, unconscious, perhaps, that in every 
bottle of their favourite ]iqaoT they swallow a fourth part 
of alcoholic spirit, in addition to the genuine strengtn of 
wine. 

It has been proved, by analysis, that some port wine con- 
tains about one half its bulk of pure brandy, and that every 
time a man drinks two bottles of strong-bodied port he 
drinks one of brandy: yet how many are there not content 
with this quantity. Sir John Sinclair gives us an instance 
of a Mr. Vanhom, who daily, for twenty-three years, drank 
bis four bottles ; altogether thirty-five thousand six hundred 
and eighty-eight bottles ; and, as our guide to longevity. 
Sir John, quaintly observes : ^' in the course of his potation, 
he resembled a cellar more than a man, for there are many 
cellars that never contained what this man must have done, 
namely, fifty-nine pipes of port*." 

SPIRIT IN VARIOUS WINES. 

Dr. Christison, in some experiments recently made on 
the proportion of alcohol in various Wines, has arrived at 
some results which are at variance with previously received 
conclusions. Dr. C. infers that the alcoholic strength of 
various samples of the same kind of wine bears no rdation 
whatever to their commercial value, and is often very dif- 
ferent from that which would be indicated by even an 
experienced wine- taster. For a moderate term of years, 

* Dr. SigmoncL 



98 POPULAR BRR0R8. 

the proportion of alcohol increases in wine kept in the 
cask, but afterwards, on the contrary, diminishes ; and the 
period when the wine besins to lose its aloohdic streng^ 
is, probably, that at whioa it ceases to improve in flavour. 
Dr. Christison introduces a table of wines as th^ result of 
his investigations, and has been led to the general con- 
elusion, that the alcoholic strength of many wines has 
been overrated by some experimentalists*. 



BRANDY INO WINES. 

It has been disputed whether Brandy was first intro- 
duced into Oporto Wines, to enaUe them to bear sea-car- 
riage, or to please the English palate. In this country, 
however, it is believed, not only that the quality of these 
Wines is much improved by the admixture, but that they 
will not even keep any length of time without a certain 
portion of Brandy. Dt. Hmderson shows that such ad- 
dition does not ultimately improve Wine, as, he thinks, 
must be evident to ever^ one who has observed the pro- 
gress of the decomposition incident to the inferior Port 
Wines : these can never be said to be in condition, but 
after a certain period they lose what little flavour they 
possessed, and become more or less tawny ; while lig^iter 
wines, that contain no adventitious spiriti^ remain quite 
unchanged. 

MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF FORT WINE. 

The general opinion which prevails of the uniformlv 
strengthening' properties of Port Wines is ill-founded. 
Astringent and potent from brandy they undoubtedly are, 
and may be serviceable as gentle tonics. But the gallic 
acid renders them unfit for weak stomachs. The excite- 
ment they induce is of a more sluggish nature than that 
attending the use of the purer French Wines, and does 
not e^iliven the fancy in the same degree. As a frequent 
beverage they are unquestionably more pemicioust* 

* The aoouraof of Prof. Brande'f well-known Tablo of the Strength of 
Winee, printed in hie Manual ofCkemistrp, and in the PkUoiophieal 
TramaciUmit hae often been impugned ; and especially by an appa- 
rently well-infonnfld Correspondent of the MechamUfs MagoKine, 1831. 

t Dr. HoDdenon. 



POPULAB KBBOltS. 99 

PAIiE AND DARK SHERRIES. 

It hts often been said that Sherry is a compound Wine ; 
but this is a mistake. The best pale and light gdden 
Sherries fre made from the pure Xeres grape, with only 
the addition of two bottles of brandy to a butt, which is 
no mone than one two hundred and fiftieth part Neither 
are the deep goldasi and brown Sherries of the best qua- 
lity compound wines, though they may be called mixed 
wines ; for they are coloured by boiling the wine of Xeres. 
Pale Sherries are, however, the purest ; though all the gra- 
dations of colour, upon which so much stress is laid, £tye 
nothing to do with the quality of the wine, but depend 
raAteriSly upon the greater or smaller quantity of boiled 
wine used for colouring it*. 

In short, it is entirdy by the aroma^ and by the taste, 
not at all by the colour, that Sherries are to be judged. 
The wide diil&rences in colour depmid entirely upon the 
proportion of boiled wine; while those Kghter shades, 
perceptible among the pale and light golden wines, are 
owing to some smdH difierence in the ripeness of the 
frnilt. 

ADULTERATION OF SHERRIES. 

We 9xe too apt to visit the sins of adulteration upon the 
iiondon wine-merchant, forgetting, or not knowing, that 
Sherries are not usually adulterated by our wine mer- 
chants, with the exception of those extremely inferior 
wines, which, from their excessively low price, no one can 
expect to be genuine wines, and which are probably mixed 
with Cape ; but the class of wines which pass under the 
denomination of ** low-priced Sherries,** are not adulterated 
in London, but at Xeres by the grower, not by the exporter. 

It may be laid down as a fact, that genuine Sherry, one 
year old, cannot be imported under thirty shillings per 
dozen ; and, if to this be added the profit or the merchant, 
and the accumulation of interest upon capital on old wine, 
it is obvious that genuine Sherry, four years old, cannot 
be purchased in England under forty-five shillingsf. 

KANUFAOTURE OF SHERRIES. 

At Xeres, the old wines are kept in huge casks, not 
much inferior in size to tlie great tun of Heicblberg, called 

* iDglis's Bpftin. f fiigUs. 

Hd 



100 POPULAR ERRORS. 

Madre butts ; and some of these '' old ladies" contain wine 
that is one hundred and twenty years of age. It must, 
however, be confessed, that the plan adopted in keeping 
them up partakes somewhat of the nature of " une impot* 
ture delicate J* since, whenever a gallon of wine is taken from 
the one hundred and twenty year-old butt, it is replaced 
by a like quantity from the next in seniority, and so on 
with the rest; so that even the very oldest wines in the 
store are daily undergoing a mixing process. 

ENOLI8H CONSUMPTION OF FRENCH WINES. 

The Consumption of French Wines in England is very 
trifling. This is attributable to the high duties imposed 
on them, and to an erroneous notion of their being too 
cold for English stomachs. By a comparison of the 
number of gallons of wine exported from France to dif- 
ferent countries in 1832, it appears that in Holland the 
consumption of French Wines is four times, and in Russia 
twice, that in England. It is also worthy of remark, that, 
long after the Methuen treaty, Scotland and Ireland, under 
the genial influence of low duties, were still famous ior 
claret; so erroneous is the vulgar opinion, that it is a 
Wine only suited for hot weather ! Iiome, the author of 
Douglast in the following epigram, attributes the fiscal 
regulations, which introduced the heavier wine of Portu^ 
into Scotland, to a settled design to break down the spirit 
of the people : 

** Firm and erect the Caledonian stood. 
Old was his mutton, and his claret good : 
* Let him drink port,' an English statesman cried ; 
He drank the poison, and his spirit died !** 

FINE CLARET. 

A GREAT proportion of the wine which is drunk under 
this denomination is nothing but the vin ordinaire, or, at 
best, the secondary growths of Gascony and Guienne ; for 
the prime growths fall far short of the demand which pre- 
vails for these wines, not only in this country, but in 
Flanders, Holland, the north of Europe, and the East and 
West Indies. In favourable years, the produce of Lafitte, 
Latour, and Chftteau Margaux, sells at from 3000 to 3200 
francs the tun, which contains 242 gallons ; and when they 
have been kept in the vaults for six years, the price is 
doubled ; so that even in Bordeaux a bottle of the best 



POPULAR ERRORS. 101 

wine cannot be purchased for less than six francs. There 
is, however, a particular manufacture, called travail a 
fAneUastet which consists in adding to each hogshead of 
Bordeaux wine three or four gallons of Alicant of Beni- 
carlo, half a gallon of stum wine, and sometimes a small 
quantity of Hermitage. This mixture undergoes a slight 
d^ree of fermentation ; and, when the whole is sufficiently 
fretted in, it is exported under the name of Claret*. 

CLARET AND THE GOUT. 

Claret has been accused of producing the Gout ; but 
without reason. Persons who drench diemselves with 
Madeira, Port, &c., and finish with a debauch of Claret, 
may, indeed, be visited in that way ; because a transition 
from the strong brandied wines to the lighter, is always 
followed by a derangement of the digestive organs. 

FROTHINO CHAMPAONB. 

The manufacturers of Champagne, to preserve its 
sweetness, and promote efiervescence, commonly add to 
each bottle a portion of syrup, composed of sugar-candy and 
cream of tartar; the highly frothing kinds receiving the 
largest quantity. Therefore, contrary to the prevailing 
opinion, when '' the wine sparkleth in the glass, and mov- 
eth itself aright," it is most to be avoided, unless the attri- 
butes of age should countervail all its noxious propertiesf . 

The prevalent notion that a glass of Champagne cannot 
be too quickly swallowed, is erroneous ; and it is no bad 
test of the quality of Champagne, to have it exposed, for 
some hours, in a wine-glass, when, if originally of the 
highest order, it will be found to have lost its carbonic 
acid, but entirely to retain its body and flavour, which had 
before been concealed by its effervescence. Champagne 
should, therefore, not be drunk till this active effervescence 
is over, by those who would relish the above characteristic 
quality ;{:. 

Still Champagne is often mistaken by its qualities : it is 
a strong heating wine, though commonly tnought to be 
weak and cooling. 

The idea that Champagne is apt to occasion Grout seems 
to be contradicted by the infrequency of that disorder in 
the province where it is made. 

* Dr. Hendenon. t Dr. Henderaon. % 'PtoL Brande. 



102 P0PUL4R ERRORS. 



RBEKISR WINES. 



A NOTION prevails that the wines of the Rhine are 
naturally acid, and the inferior kinds, no douht, are so ; 
but this is not the constant character of the Rhine wines, 
which, in good years, have not any perceptible acidity to 
the taste, at least not more than is common to them with 
the growth of warmer regions. But their chief distinc- 
tion is their extreme durability, in which they are not 
surpassed by any other species of wine*. 

IMMENSE WINE CASKS. 

Most persons have heard of the Heidelberg tun, and 
other immense casks in which wines have been kept for 
centuries, and have considered these vessels as huge vulgar 
wonders. But such a mode of preserving certain vintages 
is not so absurd as has been imagined ; for the stronger 
wines are, undoubtedly, improved by it to a greater de- 
gree than they could have been by an opposite system of 
management. It is, however, necessary to keep the 
vesselalways full, and neglect of this precaution has led 
to the spoiling of the wine. 

The Heidelberg tun appears to have been a vain boast ; 
for, many years since, there were at Beaufoy's Vin^ar 
Works, at Lambeth, a vessel full of sweet wine, containing 
59,109 gallons; and another full of vinegar, containing 
56,799 gallons ; the lesser of which exceeded the famous 
Heidelberg tun by 40 barrels. 

^' IMPERIAL TOKAT " 

Has been strangely overrated, according to Dr. Townson> 
who allows it to be a fine wine, but by no means adequate 
to its price ; " there are few of my countrymen, except on 
account of its scarceness, who would not prefer to it good 
Claret or Burgundy, which do not cost one-fourth the 
pricef . This nectar of German wine-bibbers is not the 
produce of Tokay itself, but of its environs ; it sells in 
Vienna at 12/. per dozen; and some has been sold at 3/. 
per bottle ! 

* Dr. Headenoo. 
t It is a well-known fact, that thert is more Tokay sold on the Conti- 
nent and in England, in one year, than the limited space where it is 
grown, en th» mountains of Hungary, would produee in twenty yean. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 1(^3 

QUALITIES OF MADEIRA. 

Those persons who have formed their opinion of Ma- 
deira wine from the cargoes which have of late years been 
imported into this country, may suppose the wine to have 
been highly overrated by drinkers in the last century. 
" The truth is," observes Dr. Henderson, *' Madeira, like 
afi other wine countries, furnishes along with a few supe- 
rior growths a great many of indifierent quality. Even 
on the south side of the island, two-thirds of the wines are 
of secondary order ; and, on the north side, the greater 
part of the produce is of a very inferior description. In 
former times, England received only a small quantity of 
Madeira wine, and that cKf first-rate quaBty ; but, during 
the last twenty years, the increasing demand for this wine, 
co>operatin^ with the impediments which the late war 
had opposed to our trade with Spain and Portugal, has 
led to tne importation of a haa^ quantity of the common 
Sorts ; and these being sold lar above their value have 
necessarily brou^t the whole into disrepute, at least 
among those who are not aware of the distinctions above- 
nientioned." 

MADEIRA ON THE VOTAOE. 

The unwary are led to believe that East India Madeira 
is the best, which is decidedly wrong. The West India 
Madeii^ is the wine par excellence. The West India 
planters are the very best judges in the world of Madeira 
trine, and purchase none but the best ; and whether con- 
signed to them or sent on speculation to the several islands, 
the very first quality only is shipped. The distance is 
nothing, a three weeks' run ; and if wine of an indifi^erent 
kind were submitted for sale, it would be returned on the 
merchant's hand. Not so with the commodity sent to the 
East India market under the attractive cognomen of 
'* London Particular ;" it is a thin add potation, a second- 
growth wine in fact, and as unlike the rich, fruity, nutty 
beverage of occidental celebrity, as a hor^ chestnut is to a 
chestnut-horse*. 

BAST AND WEST INDIA MADEIRA. 

It bia been humorously observed that a contented dti- 
zen, in the innocence of his heart, iinagines that a pipe of 
Madeira stowed away in the hold of the Neptune, or Polly 

* New Monthly Magasine. 



104 POPULAR EBRORS. 

of London, and which has heen to In^y and back, mtut 
be superior ; forgetting that if the wine itself be not origin- 
ally good, all the voyages from the days of Lord Anson to 
the present time wiU never impart richness and flavour to 
any juice of the grape of a poor and thin body : a genial 
climate and perpetual motion may accelerate the prepress 
to maturity, but fifty tropical snns and as many trips 
round the cape will never make fine Madeira. You might 
as well attempt to convert table-beer into brown stout. 
With the exception of private stocks in the cellars of the 
East Indian connoisseur, there is no Madeira equal to that 
to be met with in every island in the West Indies ; and to 
have it in perfection, it should be drunk upon the spot *. 

DECANTING MADEIRA AND CLARET. 

A FREQUENT Error is that of decanting Madeira wine 
and leaving the stopper out ; it is a barbarous system and 
cannot be sufficiently reprobated. The fine nutty flavour 
so much prized by the gastronomic planters, the indescrib« 
able aroma, the nosegay in short, is destroyed by this 
senseless process; your pseudo judge says it renders the 
wine soft and silky, for which xeaAJiat and vapid. Above 
all, never put your Madeira into a decanter — it is little 
short of sacrilege. Keep it in the black bottle and never 
take the cork out but to replenish your glass. 

The Error just pointed out as regards Madeira applies 
also to Claret ; for some unthinking persons will pOur it 
into glass jugs, if not decanters. By this means, the deli- 
cate and fragrant bouquet is destroyed. Never be guilty 
of such injustice to this truly delicious wine ; there is 
never any crust or deposit in good Claret, and you may 
safely pass the bottle, but with this special observance, 
never leave it uncorkedf. 

MADEIRA AND THE GOUT. 

Some persons have thought Madeira beneficial in cases 
of atonic gout, probably without much cause ; for when- 
ever a disposition to inflammatory disorders exists, the 
utility of any sort of fermented liquors is very doubtful;];. 

* New Monthly Magazine. f Ibid. 

X Dr. Henderson's History of Wines. 



POPULAR ERROns. 105 

FAILURE OF OAPE WINES. 

Since the Cape of Good Hope became a British colony, 
vines have increased there tenfold, and the chief article ot 
oomroerce has been wine. But, unfortunately, more atten- 
tion is paid to quantity than to quality, and the manufac- 
ture is carelessly conducted. But this is not the chief cause 
of failure, as is generally supposed, such being in the day 
subsoil of the chief vineyards, whence the produce re- 
ceives an unpleasant flavour, the idea of which is insepar- 
ably associate with Cape wine. It has been well observed : 
" it is unnecessary to enter into the subject of the manu- 
facture of the wine. If the subsoil be bad, so will the 
wine be. It would be advantageous were premiums 
ofiered for wine that had not been produced from a sub- 
soil of clay, but had been reared in trellis, as requiring less 
labour than tlie standard, and being made on a pure and 
good system, instead of bdng mixed with Cape brandy^ 
sulphuric acid, &c. Notwithstanding all these disadvan- 
tages, Cape wine is generally sold in England under the 
names, and at the prices of, Madeira, Sherry, Teneriffe, 
Stein, Pontac, and, above all. Hock* !" 

It should, however, be mentioned, that Madeira is 
drunk by the higher classes at Cape Town, and is very 
superior to the Cape Madeira drunk in England. 

CULTURE OF THE VINE IN BRITAIN. 

Such writers as have taken up the manufacture of wine 
in Britain, have considered it to have been, in past agesj 
a wine-&;rowiog country ; and, reasoning upon this state- 
ment, mey proceed to describe the little attention now 
paid to British wines as a neglect of our national resources. 
There is, however, on the one hand, no sufficient testimony 
in favour of the growth of wine on a large scale in ancient 
times, but, on the other hand, some direct testimony 
against it. 

The first positive authority for the cultiyation of the 
vine in Britain is Bede, who says : " Vineas etiam quibus- 
dam in locis germinansf ." It, is important here to observe 

* Sir John Sinclair, 
t Hist. Eoclesiast., i. 1. The supposition of Dalnes Banington, that 
in this and other passages *' Yineee" refers to orchards of apple-trees 
and currant-gardens, is too improbable and unsupported to deserve 
aerioufl refutation. 



106 POPULAR ERRORS. 

the '' quibusdam in lods." Setting aside vague traditions, 
the next authentic testimony is that of Domesday Book, 
which mentions yineyards in several places. At Rayleigfa, 
in £6sez, we are told : ** there is one park, and six arpennis 
of vineyard, which, if it takes well, yields 20 modii of 
wine." (jCamderiy Essex.) But the very indication of a 
few vineyards here and there excludes the idea of any 
extensive cultivation, such as takes place in really wine- 
growing countries. At a subsequent period, many autho- 
rities, (for which see tlie Arc^ologia, vol. ii. cb. 2, and 
Miller's Gardener's DMonaiyt art. ViHs,) prove the exist- 
ence of vineyards in particular spots, and generally in 
connexion with cathedrals or religious houses. What was 
the success of these attempts of the monks to make wine^ 
*' in commodum et magnum honorem," as an old writer 
says, of their respective houses, may partly be conjectured 
from the accounts of a vineyard at Ely, given by Miller, 
where the sale of veijuice forms a considerable portion of 
the profits of the vineyard*. Only one passage has been 
quoted that would at all seem to imply an extensive culti- 
vation of the vine in Britain in ancient times ; and even 
in that, (from William of Malmesbury, boasting of the 
superiority of the vineyards of Gloucestershire,] the terms 
are too vague to allow of any positive conclusion. 

The benef in the extensive growth of th^ grape for the 
purpose of making wine has, therefore, no other authority 
than the existence of vineyards in a few localities. Plotf 
tdls us, that in the year 1685 Dr. Bathurst, President of 
Trinity Collie, made as good Claret at Oxford, '' in a 
very mean year for that purpose^" as any one could wish 
to arink ; and Pepys says, that in the reign of Charles II. 
very good wine was made at Walthamstow. Miller gives 
a list of places at which wine was made in the course of 
the last century; among which are Rotherhithe, Brompton, 
Kensington, Hammersmith, Walham Green, (wine was 
made at this nlace for thirty years,) Arundel, and Pain*s 
HiU, near Cobnam. The wines of many of these places 
are described as beinff equal, or superior, to the French 
wines of the second dace. That made by Mr. Hamilton 
at Pain's Hill, is said to have been fully equid to the best 
Champagne, and to have sold for fifty guineas a hogshead. 

« In the ISth Edward n., fhe wine from fhe vinejrKrdsat Ely sold for 
U 1S«. : the verjnke for U. 7«* In 9th Edward !¥.» no wine* ottly var- 
Jnioe, waa made. f Camden, StaflTordahire. 



POPULAR SRRORS. )07 

The testimony against the growth of wine on a large 
seale in andent times, rests on Petrarch, who, according 
to Af iUer, tpeaks of the people in England as not drinking 
wine ; and Daines Barrington has quoted Lord Bacon% 
who says that grapes require a south wall to ripen. 

All the testimony adduced merely indicates a very local 
and partial cultivation of the plant; such, in fact, as 
mmieroin experiments have shown to he practicable in 
recent times. These valuable facts have been condensed 
from a paper contributed to the Philosophical Magazine, 
Third Series, No. 109.--August, 1840. 

BRITISH WINE-MAKING. 

The popular processes for making Wine in this country 
usually fail, from the very erroneous notions entertained of 
the principles of the manufacture. The natural ill qual- 
ities of our fruits must be corrected by art ; and to do this 
with effect, and to imitate the qualities of the more perfect 
fruits of warm climates, constitutes the whole secret. 
Every receipt-book is full of processes for making a multi- 
{rficity of domestic wines. These never take into account 
that an unvarying process cannot be adopted to the ever- 
changing nature of our fruits, the qualities of which are 
different, according as the season has been wet or dry, cold 
or warm ; according as the soil was exhausted ot well 
manured ; the vines skilfully or ignorantly pruned. 

Sugar is then employed to sup^y the natural deficiency 
in the fruit ; and the great Error ues in using too small a 

gortion of fruit compared with the sugar. Hence, our 
ome wines have a sweet and mawkish taste; and, " that 
which we eall currant wine, is neither more nor less than 
red-looking, weak rum, the strength coming from the 
sugar. People deceive themselves. The thing is called 
wine, but it is rum ; that is to say, an extract of sugar*." 
Another Error is the addition of spirits to domestic 
wines: they will not check fermentation, nor prevent 
wine turning sour ; but they will spoil the flavour of the 
best wine, unless added in a very small quantity. 

Wine-making, is, in fact, a chemical process, instead of 
an every-day art of hoosewifery. An attention to the sci- 
entific principles of wine-making would, doubtless, render 
these domastie receipts m<»re complete than they now are ; 

* Cent V. Exp. 430, 438, f Cobbott's Cottage Economy. 



108 POPULAR ERRORS. 

but, much as ingenuity may be exercised by experiment, 
we are not among those who think that the disaavantages 
of climate and growth are to be entirely outmastered by art. 



HOME-MADE WINES UNWHOLESOME. 

Few persons are disposed to reject home-made Wines 
from their unwholesomeness ; especially as their manufac* 
ture at home ensures a knowledge of their component parts, 
which, though wholesome T^er se, may have contrary pro- 
perties in combination. These wines are, in general, but 
imperfectly fermented, and contain a large portion of malic 
acid and free saccharine matter, and to many of them 
brandy is added to increase their strength. These adds 
are highly prejudicial, especially to infirai stomachs ; and 
when tlie wines containing them are placed within the 
temperature of the human body, a renewal of the sup- 
pressed fermentation will take place; and what little alcohol 
they have wiU rather assist than counteract the acidifying 
process. '* Perhaps too," observes Dr. Henderson, "the 
predominant acids may undergo some transmutation in 
the stomach, which renders their presence stiU more detri- 
mental. The carbonic acid gas, nowever, which some of 
these wines give out in large quantity, cannot be regarded 
as unwholesome, unless from the distension or commotion 
which it pnxiuces ; and it may partly counteract the dele- 
terious qualities of the half-formed wines with which it is 
united." 

STRENGTH OF BRITISH WINES. 

British Wines are commonly thought to be weaker 
than foreign wines. But raisin and other wines made in 
this country, are often much stronger tlian the highest 
average of port, in consequence of the saccharine matter, 
or of added sugar which is suffered to ferment into alcohol. 

ICEING WINES. 

In cooling wine it is a common mistake to apply ice to 
the bottom of the bottle only, for only the wine nearest the 
bottom will then be cooled. Again, if ice be applied, also, 
to the top of the bottle, there will be two currents upwards 
and downwards, and the wine will be as if shaken. 



POPULAR BRRORS. 109 

The choicest wines are ordinarily iced ; whereas, (with 
the exception of Champagne, which gains strength hy cold,) 
common wines only should he iced ; and even they would 
he better if merely cooled with water, which always gives 
sufficient coolness to wine, even at the hottest temperature 
of the dog-days. 



SPIRITS. 
CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITS. 

Dr. Bowrino is of opinion that the increased Con- 
sumption of Spirits is rather apparent than real. There is 
less smuggling now than formerly, and, consequently, 
there is a corresponding increased entry of spirits in the 
official tables. Besides, an increased consumption Of spirits 
is quite compatible with less frequent intoxication in the 
people. The consumption of animal food in England 
uas greatly increased, but this is no proof of an increase 
of gmttony ; it is the result of that reasonable and mode- 
rate enjoyment of flesh-meat, in which the people of this 
country now indulge more than at former periods. So 
with ardent spirits. In France, the inhabitants consume 
much more intoxicating liquor than Englishmen, yet 
drunkenness is much less common in that country. 

AQUA YITM, 

It is pretty certain that spirit of wine was discovered 
by the alchemists about the middle of the twelfth century; 
but ages elapsed before the process of making it became 
practised as an art. Michael Savonarole, who wrote a 
treatise in Latin on the Art of Making Spirit of Wine, an 
edition of which was published in ldt)0, more than a cen- 
tury after his death, informs us that it was only used as a 
medicine. The physicians of those days attributed to it 
the important property of prolonging life, and on this 
account, it was called aqua viUs, water of life. 

UNCERTAIN TEST OP SPIRIT OP WINE. 

The most common way of testing the strength of alco- 
hol is to put a small quantity of gunpowder into a cup and 
to pour a small portion of the spirit upon it, so as to 
moisten it ; the spirit is then inflamed, and if, when burnt 



no POPULAR ERRORS. 

out» it fiiies Cbue powder, the spirit is accounted good. This, 
however^ is but a very erroneous test, as a weak spirit maj 
fire the powder if but a small portion is dropped on il, 
the quantity of water which it contains not being suffix 
cieut to wet the powder throu|;hout; whilst a stronger 
spirit, if applied in large quantity, may leave a sufficient 
portion of water to prevent the firing. A more perfect 
test is to fill a larse vial with spirit and then drop into it 
a lump of pearlash, which has oeen heated very not over 
the fire to expel its moisture, and which has not after- 
wards been suffered to become cold; the vial is then to 
be idiaken, and if the lump remains dry or nearly so, the 
siarit is good ; but if any considarable portion of it be dis- 
solved, the spirit is unfit for use. 

SMUOOLINO IN SOOTliAND. 

Tbe means taken to remedy an evil are often the 
means of increasing it. This has been illustrated in the 
recent origin of the progress of Smuggling in Scotland. 
Previous to the year 1793, Smuggling, except by a few 
individuals, was not practised by Sie people. So rare and 
little practised was distillation of any kind, either legal or 
illegal, till towards the end of the last century, that a man 
OQ the estate of Garth got the appellation of '* Donald 
AVhisky" because he was a distiller, dealer, and some- 
times a smuggler of that spirit. The small quantity of 
grain produced at that period was quite insufficient for 
the consumption of the country, especially as the ^ens 
were more populous than now, and rum, brandy, llol- 
lands, ale, and small beer, were in more general use than 
whisky, which was considered a vulgar drink. It is a 
curious fact that, until the legal disdUation of whisky was 
prohibited in the Highlands, it was never drunk at gentle- 
men*s tables. '^ Mountain dew" and such poetic names 
are of modern invention, since this liquor became fashion- 
able; and when the gentrv preferred the native spirit, 
others followed their example. 

SMUOOLED WHISKY. 

Many persons are accustomed to prize Smuggled 
Whisky aoove the legitimate spirit ; though others regard 
the preference as a fanciful distinction. A remarkable 
fact, related by Major-general Grant, encourage this pre- 



POPULAR BRRORfl. Ill 

ference, although it does not explain it. He infonns ua* 
that a spirit of the best quality and flavour has been dis- 
tilled by men with their apparatus at the side of a bum, 
and perhaps changing weekly from fear of discovery; 
malting in the open heath, far up the hills, and hurrying 
on the whole process to avoid detection ; yet, with all these 
(fisadvanta^es, they received the highest price in the market 
for the spirit thus manufactured. The quantity might, 
perhaps, be less than what could be produced by a more 
r^ular process of distillation ; but then the liquor was so 
much superior in quality and flavour as to compensate for 
the deficient quantity. Several of these men have been 
employed by way of experiment in a licensed distillery, mi 
the estate of Gartli, with directions to proceed in their own 
way, only to be regulated by the laws under the control of 
an officer ; yet, with the advantage of the best utensils, the 
purest wat^, and the best fuel, they produced a spirit quite 
inferior in quality and flavour to what they made under 
the shelt^ of a rock, or in a bum, and it sustained neitho: 
the same price nor character in the market. 

ADULTERATION OF SPIRITS. 

The British distillers have been in the habit of amelio- 
rating the flavour of their Spirit, by adding a little sul- 
phuric add to the wash, and a great outcry has been raised 
against them for so doing; but the experiments of M. 
Dubue have proved that the practice is harmlessf . 

PALE SPIRITS. 

Many persons attach to pale Spirits a value beyond their 
worth. The paleness is no criterion of excellence, since 
pure spirit of any kind has no colour : that of commerce 
has always derived it from artificial additions, as bumt 
sugar, &C., or from some matter dissolved away from the 
timber of the cask which contains it. On the latter 
account, white brandy is rarely seen, even in France. 

BRANDY IN PRESERVINO. 

Writing paper, dipped in Brandy, is usually put over 
jams and jellies, to keep them, whereas it has the contrary 
effect ; for the spirit soon evaporates, and the watery par- 
ticles produce mouldiness. 

* In the Quarteiiy Joumal of Agriculture. f Doaoyaa. 



112 POPULAR ERRORS. 



LIGHTING AND HEATING. 



COMPARATIVE LIOHT OF WAX AND TALLOW. 

Many erroneous notioDs are entertained of the relative 
economy of Wax and Tallow Candles, which may be cor- 
rected by the following experiment from a French jour- 
nal. The candles burnt were of the same length and 
weight, and composed of these substances: — 1, the wax 
of Japan ; 2, white or bleached bees' wax ; 3, tallow ; 
44Fa composition of two-thirds wax of Japan, and one* 
third tallow; 5, a composition of three-fourths of the 
same wax, and one-fourth of bees' wax. It was found, 
on extinguishing these candles, when reduced to about 
one-fourth of their length, that the remains of those made 
of wax of Japan, of tallow, and of the compositions of 
wax and tallow, were of the same len&^th ; that the bees* 
wax candle was diminished two-ninths less than those 
before mentioned ; and that the candle, in the formation 
of which two waxes were united, was of intermediate 
length. By careful experiment, it has been proved that 
the flame of a tallow candle is far more brilliant than 
that of wax lights; composition candles are equal in 
vividness of light, excepting always that into the com- 
position of which there enters a portion of tallow, which 
IS next, though at a wide interval, to the tallow candle. 
Dr Ure has ascertained that a mould candle will bum 
half an hour longer than a dipped candle of the same size, 
and give rather more light The Doctor has also proved 
that in candles generally the larger the flame, the greater 
the economy of ught. 

STORE CANDLES. 

That Candles improve by keeping is well known ; but 
the proper season for storing them is not so clearly under- 
stood. A quantity of air and water are held in solution 
in all candles which have not been kept for some time : 
hence those made in March are better than others, evapo- 
ration having generally taken place before they are 
required for use, owing to the length of the day. 

SPERMACETI. 

Spermaceti is erroneously supnosed to be found in 
the cranium of the long heaaed wnale, whereas it is the 
fat of that animaL Formerly, and indeed not long since. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 113 

Spermaceti was only used as a medicine, and annually 
many tons of it were thrown into the Thames as useless^ 
the quantity brought to this country being so much more 
than was required for medicinal purposes. It has, how- 
ever, become very valuable since candles have been made 
of it, mixed with tallow or wax. Of Spermaceti, 7000 
tons were brought to England in 1831. 

The following note, subjoined by the poet Southey to 
his Thalaba, ii. 1 55, throws some light upon the rare em- 
ployment of Spermaceti in this country : — '* The common 
people of England have long been unacquainted with the 
change which muscular fibre undergoes (when it is con- 
verted into adipocere). Before the circumstance was 
known to philosophers, I have heard them express a dis- 
like and loathing to Spermaceti, because it was dead men's 
fat." 

MANAGEMENT OF LAMPS. 

In few branches of manufacture has the ingenuity of 
artisans been better displayed than in the construction of 
Lamps of various forms and principles. Yet many of 
these inventions have failed in the hands of unskilful per- 
sons, to the injury of the inventors. It is, therefore, ob- 
vious that such contrivances must always depend for their 
satisfactory performance too much on tne careful manage- 
ment of the trimmer, to be fairly estimated : hence a 
lamp that burns beautifully in the laboratory, will often 
totally fail in the kitchen*. 

ECONOMY OF GAS-BURNERS. 

It is very generally believed by workmen and others, 
that the more freely the current of air is admitted to an 
Argand Gas-burner, the better will be the light ; and hence 
the burners of glass chimneys in ordinary use are made in 
such a way as to favour this view. No practice, however, 
can be more incorrect, or can lead to less economical re- 
sults. An attentive observation of what takes place will 
show that there is only a certain proportion of air required 

* The importance of simplicity in contrivances for popular use has 
been shown in the late Lieutenant Drummond's apparatus for illumi- 
nating lighthouses with his oxy-bydrogen light: that is a stream of 
osqrgeai and another of hydrogen, directed upon a ball of lime. Elxpe- 
rimentally, the light has succeeded beyond the expectation of the 
iuTentor; but the machinery or apparatus remains to be simplified 
before it can be worked by the keepers of lighthouses. 

I 



114 POPUIiAR ERRORS. 

fw the favourable combustion of a definite measure of gas. 
If more air than this due proportion be allowed to pass 
up the chimney, the size of the flame will be reduced, and 
the quantity of light diminished : if, on the other hand, 
less than the due proportion be admitted, the surface of 
the flame will be increased by elongation ; but it will be- 
come obscure, and the quantity of light will decrease, 
owing to the escape of particles of unconsumed carbon*. 

With respect to the economy of street lights, it may be 
mentioned that the large bat-wing, so much used in large 
public lamps, is wasteml, smokes die lantern, and does not 
give light in proportion to its expenditure. 

Gas light is indebted for its rapid diffusion, not more 
to its peculiar softness, clearness, and unvarying intensity, 
than to its comparative cheapness. According to Dr. 
Thomson, if we value the quantity of light given by 1 lb. 
of tallow in candles at Is., an equd quantity of light from 
coal gas will not cost more than 2f d., being less than a 
fourth part of the cost of the former. 

SMOKE FROM OAS-LIOHTS. 

It is pretty generally imagined that the smoking of 
ceilings is occasioned by impurity in the Gas, whereas, in 
this case there is no connexion between the deposition of 
soot and the quality of the Gas. The evil arises either 
from the flame being raised so high that some of its forked 
points give out smoke, or more frequently from a careless 
mode of lighting. If, when lighting the lamps, the stop- 
cock be opened suddenly, and a burst of gas be permitted 
to escape before the match be applied to light it, then a 
strong puff follows the lighting of each burner, and a cloud 
of black smoke rises to the ceUing. This, in many houses 
and shops, is repeated daily, and the inevitable consequence 
is a blackened ceiling. In some well-regulated houses, 
the glasses are taken off and wiped every day, and before 
they are put on again, the match is applied to the lip of 
the burner, and the stopcock cautiously opened, so that no 
more gas escapes than is sufficient to make a ring of blue 
flame; the glasses being then put on quite straight, the 
stopcocks are gently turned, until the flames stand at 
three inches high. When this is done, few chimney- 
glasses will be broken, and the ceilings will not be blacK- 
ened for yearst. 

* Sir John Robison. t Sir John Robison. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 115 



GOALS MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD. 

In respect to the natural supply of Coal, Britain, among 
the nations, is most singularly favoured : much of the 
surface of the country conceals under it continuous and 
thick heds of that valuable mineral, — vastly more precious 
to the country than would have been mines of the precious 
metals, like those of Peru and Mexico ; for coal^ since 
applied to the steam-engine^ is really hoarded power^ 
applicable to almost any purpose which human labour, 
directed by ingenuity, can accomplish*. 

'* Whenever you meet with coals, in old accounts, you are 
to understand thereby charcoal, not sea^coal ; which has 
not been in common use (as well as I can guess,) 150 years ; 
at lease, not in London ; though I find them in M. Paris, 
under the name of Carbo marmus, in the time of H. III. 
in additamentf ." 

EXHAUSTION OF BRITISH GOAL-HINES. 

The importance of Coal as a necessary of life, and the 
d^ree in which our superiority in arts and manufactures 
depends upon our obtaining supplies of it at a cheap rate, 
has naturally attracted a great deal of attention to the 
question as to the period when the Exhaustion of our Coal- 
mines may be anticipated. But the investigations hitherto 
made as to the magnitude and thickness of the different 
coal-beds, and the extent to which they may be wrought, 
are too vague and unsatisfactory to afford grounds for 
forming anytliing like a tolerably near approximation to 
a solution of this question. But, such as they are, they 
are sufficient to show that mani/ centuries must elapse 
before posterity can feel any serious difficulties from a 
diminished supply of coal. According to Mr. Taylor, an 
experienced coal-owner, the coal-fields of Durham and 
Northumberland are adequate to furnish the present annual 
supply for more Uian 1700 years. Dr. Buckland, the cele- 
brated geologist, considers this estimate as very greatly 
exaggerated; but, in his examination before the com- 
mittee of the House of Commons, he quotes and approves 
a passage from Bakewell's Geology y in which it is stated 
that the coal-beds in South Wales are alone sufficient to 
supply the whole present demand of England for coal for 

« HaocuUoch. f Biahop Fleetwood's Cbroaioun Pieoiosuxn, 174& 

l2 



116 POPULAR ERRORS. 

2000 years. Mr. MaccuUoch observes : " it is, therefore, 
Guite idle either to prohibit, or impose heavy duties on, 
tne exportation of coal, on the ground of its accelerating 
the exhaustion of the mines." 

PERPETUITY OP COALS. 

A DISTINGUISHED gcologist thus eloqucntly elucidates 
the seventh stage of the long eventful history of Coal^ 
when, having been '' burnt," it seems to the vulgar eye 
to undergo annihilation : — " Its elements are, indeed, re- 
leased from the mineral combinations they have main- 
tained for ages, but their apparent destruction is only the 
commencement of new successions of change and of 
activity. Set free from their long imprisonment, they 
return to their native atmosphere, from which they were 
absorbed to take part in the primeval vegetation of the 
earth. To-morrow, they may contribute to the substance 
of timber, in the trees of our existing forests ; and having 
for a while resumed their place in the living vegetable 
kingdom, may, ere long, be applied a second time to the 
use and benefit of man. And when decay or fire shall 
once more consign them to the earth, or to the atmosphere, 
the same elements will, enter on some further department 
of their perpetual ministration, in the economy of the 
material world*." 

WJ^STE OF COALS. 

Of the prodigious quantity of Coals consumed in Lon- 
don, a very considerable portion escapes combustion, and 
lodges in the form of soot in our chimneys, or is vomited 
forth to contaminate and cloud the atmosphere of the 
metropolis. So great is the loss, that, independently of 
the mere advantage of getting rid of smoke, its prevention 
is an important economical problem ; and, though the rage 
for smoke-burning has passed over, we are convinced that, 
of the fuel consumed in the ordinary process of warming 
our houses and cooking food, at least one-third is uselessly 
thrown away, and might be saved by a more economical 
and scientific construction of common grates and fire- 
placesf. 

* Dr. Bucklaad'8 Bridgewater Treatise* t Brande. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 117 

SALE OF GOALS BY WEIGHT AND MEASURE. 

Till the year 1831, all Coals imported into the Thames, 
instead of l)eing sold by weight, were sold by measure. 
It is curious to observe the sort of abuses to which this 
practice gave rise. It is stated by the celebrated mathe- 
matician, Dr. Hutton, who, being a native of Newcastle, 
was well acquainted with the coal trade, that, " If one 
coal measuring exactly a cubit yard, (nearly equal to Jive 
bolls,) be broken into pieces of a moderate size, it will 
measure seven bolls and a half; if broken very small it 
will measure nine bolls ; which shows that the proportion 
of the weight to the measure depends upon the size of the 
coals ; therefore, accounting by weight is the most rational 
method.** 

'^BRASS-PLATE GOAL-MEROHANTS." 

Middle-men, when numerous in retail trades, enhance the 
prices of the commodities they deal in without equivalent 
good to the purchaser. This is especially the case in the 
Coal-trade. In the late examination by Parliament into 
the state of the Coal- trade, it appears that five-sixths of the 
London public are supplied by a class of middle- men, who 
are called in the trade " firass-plate Coal-merchants." They 
consist of persons who have no wharfs, but merely give 
their orders to some true coal-merchant, who sends in the 
Coals from his wharf. The Brass-plate Coal-merchant, of 
course, receives a commission for his agency, which is just 
so much loss to the consumer. 

" OANNEL COAL.** 

There has been considerable dispute respecting the 
origin of this £rror or corrupt term. Sir George Head, 
when on his Home Tour, took some pains wtiile at Liverpool, 
and subseouently at Kendal, St. Helen's, and other places, 
to obtain tne meaning of the phrase. Some of this coal is 
procured at St Helen's, but the greater quantity comes 
from Wigan, and is dug out of the same shafts with ordi- 
nary coal, although existing in different seams. It ap- 
pears to be a substance between ordinary coal and jet. In 
Liverpool and elsewhere it is advertised by boards and 
placards : '' Coal and Cannel Coal sold here," and is in- 
variably spelt '' CanneL" If it have really taken its name 



118 POPULAR EBROBS. 

from Kendal, the people of this town are not aware of 
such origin ; neither is there any reason that it should 
(»iginally have heen called Cannel Coal, it having heen dug 
before canals were adopted, and transported iog^rher with 
larger quantities of ordinary coal. It seems to be the 
general opinion that, having been used to light the men 
at their work, and serving as candle, it became by oomip< 
tion '' Cannel " CoaL It is singular how soon words and 

1>hrases creep into use, and totally obliterate every recol- 
ection of the cause that produced them*. 

EOONOMY OF COKE AND COAL. 

Coke is not so economical as is generally supposed. Ifr 
is true that a pound of Coke produces nearly as much heat 
as a pound of Coal ; but it is equally true that a pound of 
Coal gives only three-quarters of a pound of Coke, not- 
withstanding the latter is more bulky than the former. 

WASTE OF FUEL. 

Gilbert White has well observed thi^ ''the rery 
poor are always the worst economists, and, therefore, must 
continue very poor;" the truth of which remark is strik- 
ingly evident in the mode in which the poorer dasses use 
the fuel they have, than which nothing can be much 
worse or less judicious. Indeed, poor persons make less 
of the little fuel they have than the richer dasses. Stili^ the 
poor must not be altogether blamed ; for the improve- 
ments in fire-places by sdentific men have done a great 
deal for the fire-places of the rich, but nothing for the 
habitations of the poor. It is true that about thirty or 
forty years ago. Count Rumford published some Essays 
on this bran<£ of economy ; but it was not then to the 
taste of the people to study the subject, and very few 
architects unaerstood the Essays. If the advantages were 
dearly shown to the poor, they would avail themselves of 
the improvements; for the poorer dasses are not, in this 
country, wedded to old systems: ''there are so many 
novelties exhibiting every day that they do not believe that 
the world is always to be as it is nowf/' 

It is wasteful to wet fud, because the moisture in bdng 

* Sir Qe^irge Head's Home Tour. 
t Dr. Amott'a Eridenoe before the Committee of the House of Com- 
mons on the Health of Towns. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 119 

evaporated carries off -with it as latent, and therefore use- 
less heat, a considerable proportion of what the combus- 
tion produces. It is a very common prejudice that die 
wetting of coal» by making it last longer^ is effecting a 
great saving ; but while, in truth, it restrains the com-^ 
bnstion, and for a time makes a bad fire, it also wastes 
the heat*. 

WARMING BUILDINGS. 

The first requisite is a complete combustion of the 
fuel; and the second, a complete delivery of the heat 
evolved in the place intended to be warmed. Nothing 
could be more wasteful of fuel than common open fire- 
places: only one part in fifty radiates into the room, the 
great body of heat going up with the draft of the chim- 
ney. If a kettle of water be placed before the fire, it will 
not boil in less than twenty-four hours: placed over the 
fire, it boils in half-an-hour. If a man stand in front of 
the fire, he gets only half warmed ; the half next the fire 
is wanned, while the half away from it is chilled ; but, if 
he were to place himself in the line of the draft over the 
fire, he would be burnt to a cinder all around. The ancient 
Romans understood these things better than the modems: 
they carried their fines horizontally under the pavement 
of the chamber to be heated. A few stoves on the same 
principle have been erected in and near London with 
similar success. These simple contrivances produce a 
saving of eleven-twelfths of the fuel consumea to obtain 
the same warmth by hot-air and hot-water stoves, and 
with perfect freedom from dirt, dust, smoke, and impu- 
rity (rf every kindt. 

Dr. Amott remarks, with truth, that the whole science 
and philosophy of heat have hitherto been not well under- 
stood, that there have been many Popular Errors upon this 
sulgect, and many reasons given that have been fruitless ; 
but that the facts, now famuiar to all minds, will make the 
reason dear, and a very important change may be effected 
soon. The ventilation and wanning of houses go together : 
the people being warmed, the ventilation will improve 

* Dr. Amott. 
t Loudon's Architectural Magazine. Close stores for heating apart- 
ments by the slow combustion of a large body of Coke by a slow current 
of air, are very imeoonomical, and produce ddeterious effects on those 
frequenting sooh apartn>ent8.i— Dr. Ure. 



120 POPULAR ERRORS. 

itself; it was left to mere accident and misapprehension 
of what is going on^ and when parties have interfered 
with it, it has been to make it worse than before : some 
egregious blunders have produced injury instead of 
ben^t*. 

DRAFT IN CHIMNEirS. 

When a fire is lighted in a stove-grate, the air in the 
Chimney over it becomes heated by the fire, and therefore 
lighter than the external atmosphere, and consequently, it 
ascends. Thus is produced what is called a Draft in the 
Chimney, which is merely the upward current of air pro- 
duced by the ascent of the heated air confined in the flue. 
When a grate has remained for some time without having 
a fire in it, the chimney, grate, &c. become cold, and 
when the fire is first lit, it does not heat the air fast 
enough to produce a current necessary for the draft ; and 
as the smoke will not ascend, it issues into the apartment. 
This e£Pect is often attributed to the supposed foulness of 
the chimney instead of the above cause: for after the 
grate and flue become warm, the draft is restored, and the 
chimney ceases to smoke. 

TALL CHIMNEYS. 

The important uses of lofty Chimneys, such as we see in 
all manufacturing towns, is not merely to carry the smoke 
to a great height, and thus get rid of the nuisance, but to 
increase the draught through furnaces. Oftentimes the 
heat of the smoke in these chimneys is so great, that it 
bums as a flame or great lamp, on reaching the air at the 
top; an appearance which persons uninformed on the 
subject have mistaken for a chimney on fire. 

heating by gas. 

It is greatly to be feared that the health of the public 
is frequently sacrificed in what are falsely termed im» 
provements "upon scientific principles." Such we take 
to be the case with " Gas stoves," or stoves for applying 
carburetted hydrogen and pure hydrogen gases to the 
purposes of warming buildings. Sir John Robison, in a 
paper read before the Society of Arts for Scotland, March 
13, 1809, observes: "the various forms of stoves have 

* Evideiice before the House of Commons on the Health of Towns. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 121 

been proposed, on the understanding, it would appear, 
that, by applying the ' flame of the gas' to metallic bodies, 
an increased degree of heat would be communicated by 
them to the atmosphere around. A little consideration will 
show, that however the dittribution of heat may be modified 
by such contrivances, there can beno increase of theheating 
power ; and that when a certain measure of gas is fairly 
burned, the heat evolved into the apartment will be the same 
whether the flame be disposed as a light, or made to play 
against metallic plates or other combinations of apparatus. 
In all cases where the products of the combustion are 
allowed to mix with the atmosphere of the apartment, 
without provision being made for carrying them off by 
ventilation, the effects of such processes must be more or 
less deleterious to health, according to the proportion these 
products bear to the mass of air they mix in. On the 
whole, it may be assumed, that this mode of heating 
apartments is the most expensive, the least efficient, and, 
excepting that by Joyce's charcoal stove, the most insa> 
lubrious that can be resorted to.** 

EXPERIMENTAL VENTILATION. 

Undoubtedly, ignorance is often sanctioned '^ by way 
of experiment." Dr. Arnott, in his Evidence before the 
House of Commons, on the Health of Towns, observes : 
^' The Errors committed from want of knowledge are ex- 
traordinary. I heard, at the Zoological Gardens, of a class 
of animals where fifty out of sixty were killed in a month 
by putting them in a house with no opening in it but a 
few inches in the floor : it was like putting them under 
an extinguisher ; and this was supposed to be done upon 
scientific principles." 

RAKINO OUT THE FIRE. 

This short-sighted measure of economy, so far from 
being conducive to safety, is attended with great danger. 
It was observed to the British Association, in 1838, that 
" Newcastle, notwithstanding the vast consumption of coal 
in the town, is remarkably free from fires of dangerous 
magnitude : and it was suggested whether, as the greater 
number of fires occurred in London about eleven o'clock 
at night, the practice of Raking out the Fire at bed-time, 
which is not done at Newcastle where coals are cheap, 
might not have some connexion with these conflagrations." 



122 POPULAR ERRORS. 

BISTAI70ES OP *' PIBBS." 

A coNPLAORATioN at night appears to spectators, gene- 
rally, as if much nearer than it really is ; and unthinking^ 
persons frequently run towards it with the expectation (w 
reaching the spot every instant, and are thus led consider* 
ahle distances. The cause of this miscalculation of dis- 
tance is the intense hri&htness of the fire in contrast with 
the darkness of the nignt 

EXTINCTION OP '^ PIBES." 

Th£ destruction of property hy Fire is often accelerated 
hy the very means adopted for its preservation. This has 
heen shown in the following sensible instructions in th6 
Examiner newspaper: — "Next to the safety of the inhabit- 
ants, the olject at a fire should be the exclusion of all fresh 
and the confinement of all burnt air — suffocate the flames — 
remember that burnt air is as great, if not a greater enemy 
to combustion, than even water; the one, till again mixed 
with oxygen, can never suppnort flame; the other, especially 
if poured on heated{meta], is converted into its elements ; 
the one hydrogen, in itself most highly inflammable, the 
other oxygen, the food of fire. For both purposes, of 
excluding the one air and confining the other, all openings 
should be kept as carefully closed as possible — the prevau- 
ing practice of breaking windows is peculiarly mischievous. 
The only excuse for this is the admission of water ; but, 
if the firemen were provided with proper self-supporting 
ladders, (that need not lean against the walls,) they might 
direct their branches through a single broken pane with 
ten times more accuracy than by their random squirting 
from the street Water should be made to beat out the 
fire by its impetus ; aspersion is useless." 

THE SUN EXTINOUISHINO THE PIBE. 

Thebb is a common opinion, that the direct action of 
the rays of the Sun diminisnes the combustion of a common 
Fire. This notion has often been ridiculed as erroneous ; 
and, with a view to put it to the test of experiment. 
Dr. M'Keever ascertained the actual rate of combustion of 
well-known bodies, in different circumstances. It appears 
from these trials, that the quantity of wax-taper consumed 
in broad sunshine, in the open air, is less than that con- 
sumed in a darkened room, in the same time, in the pro- 



POPULAR ERRORS. 123 

portion of ten to eleven. When the experiment was made 
with a common mould candle, an inch in length was 
consumed in fifty-nine minutes, in strong sunshine, tem- 
perature eighty degrees ; in fifty-six minutes, in a dark- 
ened room, temperature sixty-eight degrees. Other trials 
were made to ascertain the effect of the different coloured 
rays of the prismatic spectrum on combustion, and it was 
found to proceed most rapidly in the verge of the violet 
ray. The times of consuming the same length of taper in 
the different portions of the spectrum were, in the red ray 
eight minutes ; green ray, ei^t minutes, twenty seconds ; 
violet ray, eight minutes, thirty-nine seconds; verge of the 
violet ray, eight minutes, fifty-seven seconds. The com- 
mon opinion is therefore correct ; but the difference is not 
so considerable as might be expected. 

POKBB ▲CROSS THB FIRE. 

BoswELL and Johnson held a conversation upon this 
experiment, as follows : BoswelL — " Why, Sir, do people 
play this trick which I observe now, when I look at your 
grate, putting the shovel against it to make the fire bum ?* 
Johnson, — " They play the trick, but it does not make the 
fire bum. There is a better (setting the poker perpen- 
dicularly up at right angles with the grate). In days of 
superstition they thought, as it made a cross with the bars, 
it would drive away the witch." 

Upon the above it is noted : ''it certainly does make the 
fire bum : by repelling the air, it throws a blast on the 
fire, and so performs the part, in some degree, of a blower 
or bellows. — Kearney. Dr. Kearney's observations apply 
only to the shovel ; but by those who have faith in the 
experiment, the poJcer is supposed to be equally efficacious. 
A^r all, it is possible that there may be some magnetic 
or electrical influence which, in the progress of science, 
may be explained ; and what has been thought a vulgar 
trick, may be proved to be a philosophical experiment*." 

DOES THE WATER BOIL ? 

The common mode of judging whether the Water in a 
saucepan over the fire boUs, is by the heat at the surface ; 
but this must be an erroneous method. Thus, when a 
vessel of cold water is placed over a fire, theiayer of water 

• Croker's editi(ni of BotweU's Life of Johnson. 



124 POPULAR ERRORS. 

at the bottom, and next the fire, first becomes hot : it also 
becomes specifically lighter, and consequently rises through 
the water in the same manner as a cork or any other li^nt 
body would rise. This portion of heated water having 
been thus removed by its lightness, the next layer, now in 
contact with the bottom, becomes heated in its turn, and 
ascends ; and so on, layer after layer is heated and ascends 
until the water boils. It should be added, that as soon as 
a layer of water at some depth from the surface receives a 
portion of caloric, instead of transmitting it to the layer 
next beneath, it ascends to the top ; so that, at the same 
moment, the water at the bottom of the saucepan may be 
heating, that at the top may be very hot, and that in the 
middle may be nearly cold ; and this will be the case until 
the whole body of water has reached the boiling point. 

It is a sad waste to add to the fire beneath a pot of boil- 
ing water : for the water, when it has once begun to boil, 
receives no increase of heat, even from the Hottest fire. 
The reason is this, that the additional caloric goes to form 
steam, and ascends with it into the air. The steam itself, 
when formed, may, however, be raised to a much higher 
degree of temperature. 

POLISHED FIRE-IRONS. 

The Polish of Fire-irons is commonly thought to be 
ornamental, and nothing more ; but it is also of use and 
convenience. A set of bright irons may remain for a long 
time in front of a fierce fire without becoming hot, because 
the heat of the fire is all reflected by the poUshed surface, 
and none of it is absorbed ; but if a set of rough, unpolished 
irons were thus placed before the fire, they would soon 
become hot, so as not to be used without inconvenience, as 
a kitchen poker soon becomes so hot that it cannot be held 
without pain. * 

The above will also explain why polished fire-irons in 
general use, are less liable to rust than those which are 
unpolished. 

CAST-IRON AND BRIGHT STOVES. 

A STOVE made of cast-iron is much more economical in 
every respect than that which has a highly -polished front, 
which is the worst radiator of heat ; whereas, the unpo- 
lished surface is favourable to radiation, and a fire in such 
a stove will always produce a more powerful efiect. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 125 



STEAM FROM THE KETTLE. 

Many persons mistake for Steam the cloudy smoke 
which issues from the spout of the Kettle. This ap- 
pearance, however, is produced, not hy steam, hut hy very 
minute particles of water arising from the condensation 
of steam in passing through the cold air. These minute 
particles, floating in the air, hecome in some degree 
opaque, and are visihle, like the particles of smoke. Such 
cloudy suhstances, therefore, are not true vapour or steam, 
which is perfectly transparent. 

OLASS BROKEN BY HOT WATER. 

No person would he so indiscreet as to hazard the 
breaking of glass hy pouring hot water upon it if he but 
understood the simple means of accounting for its destruc- 
tion. It is as follows : " If hot water be poured into a 
glass with a round bottom, the expansion produced by the 
heat of the water will cause the bottom of the glass to en- 
large; while the sides, which are not heated, retain their 
former dimensions, and, consequently, if the heat be suffi- 
ciently intense, the bottom will be forced from the sides, 
and a crack or flaw will surround tliat part of the glass by 
which the sides are united to the bottom. If, however, 
the glass be previously washed with a little warm water, 
so that the whole is gradually heated, and, therefore, gra- 
dually expanded, then the hot water may be poured in 
without danger ; because, although the lx)ttom will ex- 
pand as before, yet the sides also enlarge, and the whole 
vessel undergoes a similar change of heat*.'' 

BLACK TEA-POTS. 

Before metal Tea-pots were brought into general use, 
preference was given to the black porcelain tea pots; than 
which nothing could be more erroneous. They were said 
to draw the tea better than others ; whereas both their 
colour and material were good radiators of heat, and caused 
the Uouid to cool with the greatest possible rapidity. On 
the other hand, a bright metal tea-pot is best adapted for 
the purpose, because it is the worst radiator of heat, and, 

* Lardner, on Heat. 



126 FOPULAR ERRORS. 

therefore^ cools as slowly as possible. A polished silver or 
brass tea-urn will better retain the heat of the water than 
one of a dull brown colour, such as is most commonly 
used. 

COOLNESS OF CELLARS. 

If in the heat of summer we descend into a cave or 
Cellar, we are sensible that we are surrounded by a cold 
atmosphere ; but if, in the rigour of a frosty winter, we 
descend into the same cave, we are alike conscious of the 
presence of a warm atmosphere. Now, a thermometer 
suspended in the cave on each of these occasions will show 
exactly the same temperature ; and, in fact^ the air of the 
cave maintains the same temperature at all seasons of the 
year. The body, however^ being in the one case removed 
from a warm atmosphere into a colder one, and in the 
other case, from a very cold atmosphere into one of a 
higher temperature, becomes, in the latter case, sensible of 
warmth, and in the former of cold*. 

SENSATION OF HEAT. 

There cannot be a more fallacious means of estimating 
Heat than by the touch. Thus, in the ordinary state of an 
apartment at any season of the year, the objects which are 
in it have all the same temperature ; and yet to the touch 
they will feel warm or cold in different degrees : the me- 
ttdlic objects will be coldest ; stone and marble, less so ; 
wood, still less so ; and carpeting and woollen objects will 
feel warm. Now, all these objects are exactly at the same 
temperature, as may be ascertained by the thermometer. 

EXPANSION OF IRON. 

'' Ajs hard as Iron " is a common simile to express soli- 
dity in a body^ but is by no means a correct one ; for 
iron is known to expand and contract according to the 
state of the atmosphere. Thus, an iron gate which, during 
a cold day, may be easily shut and opened, in a warm day 
mav stick, owing to there being greater expansion of it 
and the neighbouring railing than of the earth on which 
they are placed. The centre of an arch of an iron bridge 
is also higher in warm than in cold weather ; whUe, on the 
contrary, in a suspension or chain bridge^ the centre is 

lowered. 

• Lardner, on Heat 



POPULAR ERRORS. ]27 

▲ PIANO-FOBTB OUT OF TUNE. 

A PIANO-FORTE which has been tuned in the morning 
ifl but imperfectly in tune when the room in which it is 
placed has become overheated by a crowded evening party. 
The tuner is then blamed by unthinking persons ; but the 
i»ct is, the pitch of the instrument is lowered by the heat 
causing the expansion of the strings to be greater than 
that of the wood-work frame. 

AIRINO ROOMS. 

It is a common mistake to open all the lower part of 
the windows of an apartment ; wnereas, if the upper part, 
also, were opened, the object would be more speedily 
efiected. Thus, the air in an apartment is generally 
heated to a higher temperature than the external air, either 
by the heat supplied by the human body, or by lamps, 
candles, or fires. This renders it lighter than the external 
air ; and, consequently, the external air will rush in at all 
openings at the lower part of the room, while the warmer 
and lighter air passes out at the higher openings. If a 
candle be held in the doorway near the door, it will be 
found that the flame will be blown inwards ; but, if it be 
raised nearly to the top of the doorway, it will be blown 
outwards. The warm air, in this case, flows out at the 
top, while the cold air flows in at the bottom. 

A current of warm air from the room is generally 
rushing up the flue of the chimney ; if the flue be open, 
even though there should be no fire lighted in the stove ; 
hence the unwholesomeness of using chimney-boards. 

SECURITY FROM INTENSE HEAT. 

Stbangers on visiting a glass-house universally wonder 
at the possibility of the workmen existing in a situation in 
which their clothes are continually scorched, whilst their 
naked skin exhibits no marks of the eflects of fire. Mr. 
C. T. Coathupe, from a series of experiments* made to 
ascertain the cause of this anomaly, infers that the copi- 
ous perspiration which exudes from the skin of glass- 
makers, and of those who are engaged in similar scorch- 
ing occupations, is a suflicient protection from the burn- 
ing efibcts of a dry atmosphere of from 300 to 400 degrees 

* Communicated to the Philosophical Magazine, Third Series, No. 
108, August, 1840. 



1 



128 POPULAR ERRORS. 

of Fahrenheit ; and that whilst the clothes of such persons 
are horning to tinder, their skin may be rendered insen- 
sible to the direct effects of fire upon the inanimate matter 
around them, by simple natural laws, viz. those of Evapo- 
ration. 

FIRE-PROOF FEATS. 

The feats sometimes performed by quacks and mounte- 
banks, in exposing their bodies to fierce temperatures, 
have deceived thousands, and may be explained as fol- 
lows : — When a man goes into an oven raised to a very 
high temperature, he takes care to have under his feet a 
thick mat of straw, wool, or other non-conducting sub- 
stance, upon which he may stand unharmed at the pro- 
Eosed temperature. His body is surrounded with very 
ot air, it is true ; but the extreme thinness of this fluid 
causes all that portion of it in contact with the body at 
any given time to produce but a slight effect in commu- 
nicating heat. The exhibitor always takes care to be out 
of contact with any good conducting substance; and when 
he exhibits the effect produced by the oven in which he 
is inclosed upon other objects, he takes equal care to place 
them in a condition very different from that in which he 
himself is placed : he exposes them to the effect of metal 
or other good conductors. Meat has been exhibited, 
dressed in the apartment with the exhibitor: a metal 
surface is in such a case provided, and, probably, heated 
to a much higher temperature than the atmosphere which 
surrounds the exhibitor*. 

GOLD FISH IN A GLASS. 

A SINGLE Gold Fish in a circular vase is often^ mis- 
taken for two fishes, because it is seen as well by hght 
bent through the upper surface of the water, as by straight 
rays passing through the side of the glass. 

ACGIUENTAL BURNING-GLASSES. 

It is a common piece of neglect to leave bottles or 
goblets of water in sunny windows, and these have acted 
as Burning Glasses, and set fire to the curtains or wood- 
work. A vase holding gold fish is equally dangerous: 
water inclosed between two glasses, serving as a powerful 
lens, to draw the rays of the sun to a focus. 

* Lardner, on Heat. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 129 



*' PULL TO THE BBUf " 



Is a common phrase, used erroneously to denote a vessel 
entirely filled ; since a cup may be filled to the brim, or 
edge, and not full in the centre ; for fluids do not form a 
surface perfectly horizontal in vessels to which they adhere 
so as to wet them ; but they rise, on the contrary, around 
the brim of the vessels. Hence, a cup is not absolutely 
full when it appears so at the edge. Fluids, on the other 
hand, in vessels to which they do not adhere, sink around 
the brim, and rise in the centre. Thus, quicksilver in a 
glass forms a convex surface. 

COLD THAW. 

As extreme cold and heat liquefies, persons are apt to 
remark that certain weather is too Cold for Thaw, when 
ice is disappearing from around them. This sensation of 
cold is caused by the absorption of heat in the process of 
liquefaction : for the ice, in dissolving, takes all the sen- 
sible heat of the air and all surrounding objects, and ren- 
ders it latent. The atmosphere, and every object in it, 
may thus, in a thaw, be kept at the temperature of 32°; 
its rising above that temperature being prevented by the 
fusion of the ice. 

WOOLLEN CLOTHING. 

It is not generally understood how Clothing keeps the 
body cool in hot weather, and warm in cold weather. 
Clothes are, generally, composed of some light substance, 
which do not conduct heat ; but woollen substances are 
worse conductors than those which are made of cotton or 
linen. Thus, a flannel shirt more efiectually intercepts 
or keeps out heat than a linen or cotton one ,* and whether 
in warm or in cold climates, attains the end of clothing 
more efi'ectually. The exchange of woollen for cotton 
under-shirts in hot weather, is, therefore, an £rror. This 
is further proved by ice being preserved from melting 
when it is wrapped in blankets, which retard, for a long 
time, the approach of heat to it. These considerations 
show the Error of supposing there to be a positive warmth 
in the materials of clothing. " The thick cloak which 
guards a Spaniard against the cold of winter, is also, in 
summer, used by him as protection against the direct rays 

PART lU. K 



130 POPULAR ERRORS. 

of the sun ; and while in Engknd, flannel is our warmest 
article of dress, yet we cannot more efiectually preserve 
ice, than hy wrapping the vessel containing it in many 
folds of the softest flannel*." 

Black cloths are known to be very warm in the sun ; 
but they are far from being so in the shade, especially in 
cold weather, when the temperature of the air is below 
that of the siuface of the skin. 

SUMMER CLOTHING. 

It is commonly thought, that white hats and dresses 
are worn in Summer, because they are cool to the eye, or 
on account of their lightness and thinness. Such, how- 
ever, is not the case : for, the warmth or coolness of 
clothing depends as well on its colour as its quality. A 
white dress, or one of a light colour, will always be cooler 
than one of the same property of a dark colour; and espe- 
cially so in dear weather, when there is much sunshine. 
A wnite or light colour reflects heat copiously, and absorbs 
little; while a black and dark colour absorbs copiously, 
and reflects little. Still, fashion has great influence in the 
matter ; for a red dress, which is by no means summer 
wear, receives less heat than black, blue^ green, or yellow. 

WARMTH OF WHITE CLOTHING. 

Count Rumford having shown that the warmth of 
clothing depends much on the polish of the surface of the 
raateri^ of which it is made, concludes, that in choosing 
our winter garments, those dyes should be avoided which 
tend most to destroy that polish. Hence, there is reason 
to think that, contrary to the general opinion, white gar- 
ments are warmer than any other in cold weather : indeed, 
if they are well calculated to reflect calorific rays in 
summer, they ought to be equally well calculated to reflect 
those frigorific rays by which we are inconvenienced in 
winter. White horses are both less heated in the sun, and 
less chilled in winter^ than those of darker hues. 

SHEETS WARMER THAN BLANKETS. 

A Blanket would be a cooler covering than a Sheet on 
a summer night; though the reverse be the general 
opinion. Sheets feel colder than the blankets, because 
* Dr. Amott's Elements of Fbydcs. ^ 



POPULAR ERRORS. 131 

they are better conductors of heat^ and carry off the heat 
more rapidly from the body ; but when^ by the continu- 
ance of the body between them, they acquire the same 
temperature, they will then feel even warmer than the 
blanket itself. 

COALS AT BLACKHEATH. 

It is a commonly-receiyed opinion, that Coals are to be 
found as near London as Blackheath, but that the seeking 
for them is forbidden, on account of the Newcastle coal- 
trade being so excellent a nursery for seamen. But 
Geologists have ascertained that, the great coal-field of 
Britain, which is composed of numerous subordinate coal- 
fields, crosses the island in a diagonal direction, the south 
boundary-line extending from near the mouth of the 
river Humber, to the south part of the Bristol Channel, 
on the west coast; and the north boundary-line ex- 
tending from the south side of the river Tay, in Scotland, 
westward, by the south side of the OchU mountains, 
to near Dunbarton, on the river Clyde; within which 
boundary-lines. North and South Wales are included. 
This area is about two hundred and sixty miles in 
length, and, on an average, about one hundred and fifty 
miles in breadth ; and no coal-field of any consequence 
has been found, either to the north or south of the lines 
mentioned, excepting some small patches of thin coals 
of inferior quality ; and the coal-field of Brora, in Suther- 
landshire, in Scotland, which is far disjoined from any 
other coal-field.* 

LOW STOVE ORATES. 

If the fact that warm air is more expanded, and 
therefore, lighter than cold air, were more attended to, 
the fire in the stove would be placed much nearer the 
hearth or floor than at present. Warm air should always 
be admitted at the lower part of a room, because, if 
admitted above, it forms a stratum, or layer, at the top of 
the apartment, there remains, and escapes by any aperture 
to wnich it may find access. It must, however, be 
allowed, that if there be no means of escape, except at the 
lower part, the warm air admitted at the top will gradu- 
ally press the cold air downwards, and force it out through 
the aoors, windows, or flues. 

* Saturday Bfagazin^ 
k2 



132 POPULAR ERROBfi. 



LIGHT FROM STALE FISH. 

Dr. Hulme has established that the quantity of Light 
emitted by dead animal substances^ is not in proportion 
to the degree of putrefaction in tiiem^ a^ is commonly 
supposed; but^ on the contrary, the greater the putres- 
oence> the less light is evolved. It would seem, that 
this element^ endowed with pre-eminent elasticity, is 
the first to escape from the condensed state of combina- 
tion, in which it had been imprisoned by the powers 
of life; and it is followed, after some time, by the 
relatively less dastic gases, die evolution of which con- 
tributes to putrefaction. 

TINNING VESSELS. 

Not only were untinned Vessels formerly considered to 
be detrimental to health, but likewise those in which any 
portion of lead was mixed with the tin; this notion, 
nowever, has been shown to be erroneous, even if the two 
metals be used in equal quantities. 

TIN AND TIN-PLATE. 

Tinned Plate, such as is used in making saucepans, 
&c., is mostly termed Tin, a misnomer which must 
mislead many persons as to the uses of tin. Tliis plate is 
merely thin iron washed with tin, or, as the French call 
it, ftr blanc, or white iron. So little tin is used for this 
purpose, that a vessel which contained a surface of 254 
square inches, and which weighed 26 ounces, when 
tinned, has been increased only half an ounce in weight : 
consequently, half an ounce of tin was spread over 254 
inches. The method of tinning, by dipping the vessels 
in melted tin, appears to have been practised in the time 
of Phny. 

In tms country, few artides are made exclusively of 
tin, the greater part so used is in the state of leaves, 
or what is called tin-foil ; for which purpose the tin is 
hammered and rolled, until it is hardly the thousandth part 
of an inch in thickness: this is the substance which, 
covered with a portion of mercury, composes what is 
called the silvering of looking-glasses. Tin is also of 
important use in dyeing. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 133 

% 

DISUSE OF PEWTER-WABE. 

The disuse of Pewter-ware, as plates and dishes, has 
been usually attributed to the introduction of cheap and 
beautiful potterv. This was not, however, exclusively 
the cause ; for, it was not until the last war with France 
had raised the price of tin so greatly that pewter disap- 
peared generally; when the pedlar found them a profit- 
able exchange for his wares. 

BRITANNIA METAL TEAPOTS. 

The cheapness of these teapots results mainly from 
the application of machinery in making them, and the 
extreme lightness of body with which they can be pro- 
duced. It is, however, generally overlooked that such 
lightness is always obtained at the sacrifice of durability, 
as well as of shape : hence, it is common to find these 
thin tea-pots sadly bulged and warped from their original 
form ; an efiect which the hot water therein used, with 
the constant lifting and placing the pot upon the table, 
unitedly produce in a very short time. 

Britannia metal is very fusible, and this property has 
led to some whimsical mishaps in the attempts of travel- 
ling tinkers to mend tea-pots, &c. when injured: the 
soldering iron has been applied ; and, instantly, instead of 
stopping a small hole, the inexperienced botcher has made 
one large enough to receive his thumb.^ 

THE 6EBMAN SILVER, 

Which is now coming into vogue, has been introduced, 
as its name denotes, by the Germans into Europe ; but it 
is nothing more than the white copper long known in 
China. It does not contain a single particle of real 
silver; for it is only an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc. 
Although but now getting into general use in England, it 
has been no novelty to the manufactories of Birmingham 
for these thirty years. 

SPURIOUS GILDING. 

Much of this work is executed without a particle of 

old, but it speedily becomes tarnished and discoloured. 

he cheap gilding of picture and looking-glass frames 

* Treatise on Manufactures in Metals 



T 



134 POPULAR ERRORS. 

is thus executed, and consequently, is liable to these 
defects ; wherefore it is false economy to employ any but 
gold leaf. 

The common " gilding " metal is copper beaten out into 
very thin plates, and afterwards rendered yellow like 
gold, by exposing them to the fumes of zinc, without 
any real mixture of it in the metal. Girgerbread toys 
for children are mostly gilt with this spurious metal, and, 
therefore, poisonous, and should be forbidden. 

In few situations is the exceQence of fine gilding more 
severely tested than on the points of public buudings, 
exposed as they are constantly to the weather. They are 
mostly doubly or triply gilt. Thus, the upex of ^e 
London Monument is triply gilt, at the cost of ^120. 
The gilding of the Queen*s state carriage is also triple, and 
cost £933 14$. 6d,; exclusive of the carving, which cost 
£2,504. 

WHAT IS TUTENAGUE? 

The exact nature of Tutenague is still a problem. Some 
state that tutenague is a name given by the Chinese to 
zinc ; others consider it to be an artificial mixture of dif- 
ferent metals ; while the tutenague, which was formerly 
exported from the East Indies, is pure zinc, without any 
alloy of lead. M. de Guignes affirms, that it is a native 
mixture of lead and iron, peculiar to China. It has fre- 
quently been confounded with the white copper of China, 
which is of a different composition, and not allowed to be 
carried out of the empire. Upon the authority of a mer- 
chant trading between India and China, tutenague was 
an article of very extensive commerce between those coun- 
tries, until the year 1820, when it was superseded by the 
introduction of German spelter into India. 

COPPER SPRINOS. 

When first it was observed that bars of iron exposed 
to the action of these Springs became coated with rust, 
(oxide,) or Copper, the result was described by persons 
deficient in chemical knowledge, as an actual transmuta- 
tion of the iron into copper ; pieces of the former metal 
appearing to be decomposed in proportion as the oxide 
of the latter was produced. This Error is the less sur- 
prising, when it is considered that, not only were many 



POPULAR ERRORS. 135 

appearances, now familiarly explained by chemistry, form- 
erly imperfectly accounted for; but, because travellers, 
especially, were not always the persons most conversant 
with such knowledge as might be deemed authentic 
on these matters. 

TOWN-MADE CUTLERY. 

The mercantile part of the Sheffield trade is performed 
chiefly by travellers, but the principal shops in London 
deal directly with the manufacturers at Sheffield. To 
humour public prejudice in regard to <' Town Make,** 
as it is calied, and to serve as an advertisement for 
various retailers in London and other large towns, their 
connexions in Sheffield keep steel brands, with which 
their names are placed on the articles, and they thereby 
pass with the public as the real manufacturers. The trutn 
18, that in London there are no manufactories of such 
articles to any extent ; and the cutlery-jobbers could not 
make a thousandth part requisite for the London con- 
sumption. In different workshops in Sheffield, may be 
seen the steel brands of our famous town makers, and the 
articles in wholesale quantities being packed up to meet 
the demand in London for " real town made."* This is a 
standing joke among the Sheffield cutlers, at the expense 
of Cockney credulity*. 

But, a penalty of 10/. per dozen, exclusive of forfeiture, 
is imposed upon every person having articles of cutlery in 
his possession for sale, marked with the words, '^Londouy '' 
or " Londonrmade," unless the article so marked have 
been really manufactured within tlie city of London, or a 
distance of twenty miles from it. 

CUTLERY MARKS. 

The figure of a hammer stamped on knives and other 
articles of Cutlery, is intended to denote their excellence, 
though it is often unwarrantable. The act 59 Geo. II L 
c. 7, gives the manufacturers of cutlery made of wrought 
steel, the privilege of marking them with the figure of a 
hammer ; and prohibits the manufacturers of any articles 
of cutlery, edge tools^ or hardware, cast or formed in a 
mould, or manufactured otherwise than by means of a 

* Bir Richard FhilUpB*8 Personal Tour. 



136 POPULAR ERB0R6. 

hammer, from marking or impressing upon them the 
figure of a hammer, or any symbol or device resembling 
it, on pain of forfeiting all such articles, and 5L for every 
dozen. 

UBINO A RAZOR. 

It has long been disputed whether the line of the Blade 
of a Razor should be straight, or whether it should have a 
convex edge of considerable curvature, that is, hollowed 
inwards. The matter may be settled by reference to the 
mode of using a razor, which is by scraping rather than 
cutting. Did men cut off their beards, the straight blade 
would be most effectual ; but, as almost every one who 
uses a razor scrapes, the convex edge has the advantage : 
" passed over the face obliquely from point to heel, or 
drawn straight downwards, it must of necessity, cut even 
where a straight-edg'ed razor would do nothing but fret 
or tear the skin, without removing the beard. After all, 
it must be admitted, that the advantage which a circular 
or full* edged razor has over the straight one in point of 
cutting, arises chiefly from a very defective maimer of 
shaving ; so long, however, as this defect exists, so long 
will the full-edged razor claim a decided superiority. It 
often happens that men, groaning under die operation of 
shaving, attribute their bleedings and wincings to the 
badness of the razor, when the principal fault is in 
themselves."* 

RAZOR AND HOT WATER. 

It was long supposed that the effect of dipping a Razor 
in Hot Water was to remove from its edge a kind of resi- 
nous substance, which was thought to injure its sharp- 
ness. Such, however, is not the real effect. The fine edge 
is given to all blades of steel by tempering them, that is, 
heatins them, and plumping them into cold water. Now, 
it has been proved by experiment, that the heat of 212^ is 
the exact point at which razor edges are admirably tem<« 
pered ; and, as the heat of boiling water is 212'', by dip- 
ping a razor into it, you, as it were, again temper, or give 
a new edge to the razor. 

* Rhodes, on the Manufacture of a Razor. The unoertain results of 
tempering Steel appear to be the only explanation of a low-priced 
Razor often provixig more serviceable than an expensive ona 



POPULAR ERRORS. 137 



ANTIQUITY OF FORKS. 

Beckmann, generally an accredited authority upon 
domestic antiauities, states Forks to have been brought 
into use by the Italians, about the end of the fifteenth 
century : this conjecture being founded on a passage in the 
Life of Corvinus, king of Hungary, written by an Italian 
who was resident at his court sometime between the years 
1458 and 1490 ; in which it is mentioned that forks were 
not used at table, as then in Italy, but that each person 
took his meat out of the same dish with his fingers. 
Beckmann likewise states forks not to have been introduced 
into England until the seventeenth century, his authority 
being ti£en from a singular book of Travds, published in 
1611, entitled Crudities, by one Coryat, an Englishman, 
who having seen forks used in Italy, says : " hereupon I 
myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by the 
forked cutting of meat; not only while I was in Italy, 
but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I 
came home, being once quipped for that frequent using of 
my forke, by a certain learnt gentleman, a familiar friend 
of'^mine, one Mr. Lawrence Wliittaker, who in his merry 
humour, doubted not to call me at tab\e,furcifer, for only 
using a fork at feeding, but for no other sense." 

Upon these two statements, until within these few 
years, the use of forks in Italy and England was believed 
to be a modem refinement; and they may probably have 
given rise to the adage : ^' Angers were made before forks." 
In both respects, however, is Beckmann incorrect. First 
as regards the use of Forks in Italy ; we find them men- 
tioned by Peter Damiani, an Italian writer of the eleventh 
century. To warn a lady to whom he is writing, of the 
great danger of setting her heart on luxurious living, he 
proceeds to tell her a story which he had heard from a 
person of veracity. '* The doge of Venice had married a 
lady from Constantinople, whose luxury surpassed all 
imagination. She would not even wash in common 
water, but had the cruelty to compel her servants to 
collect rain water for her ! * • • But, what is most 
monstrous, this wicked creature would not eat with her 
fingers, but absolutely had her food cut into pieces, rather 
small (minutius), by her attendants, and then — she actually 
conveyed them to her mouth with certain golden two^ 



138 POPULAR ERRORS. 

pronged forks!" With the judgment which, of course, 
befeU this profligate slave of luxury, we are not concerned; 
but, we at least discover the important fact, that the luxury 
of forks was a novelty in Italy in Damiani's days, t. e. 
about the time of William the Conqueror*. 

That forks were used in England upwards of three 
centuries before the date stated by Beckmann, is proved 
by their being mentioned in an inventory of furniture be- 
longing to Edward I. Yet, Mr. Hallam refers to Beck- 
raann's History of Inventions, whence the above statements 
are quoted, as "a work of very great research f." 

It should, however, be added, that the erroneous belief 
here elucidated, may have received some sanction from the 
comparatively recent introduction of forks into the High- 
lands of Scotland, where. Dr. Johnson asserts, not only 
forks, but even knives, have been introduced at table, 
since the period of the Revolution. Before that period, 
every man had a knife of his own, as a companion to his 
dirk or dagger. The men cut the meat into small morsels 
for the women, who put them into their mouths with 
their fingers. The use of forks at table was, at first, con- 
sidered as a superfluous luxury ; and, therefore, they 
were forbidden to convents, as was the case in regard to 
the congregation of St. Maur. 

ANTIQUITY OF KNIVES. 

From an era not now to be ascertained, down to the 
time of Queen Elizabeth, England was supphed with 
Knives from the Continent; and, ''theknyves of Almagne, 
knyves of France, knyves of CoUogne, are among the 
articles enumerated in the custom-house rate books of the 
time of Henry VIII." At what period our native manu- 
facture of knives was introduced, it is impossible to say. 
In Stow's Chronicle occurs the following passage : *' Richard 
Matthews, on Flete Bridge, was the first Englishman who 
attayned the perfection of making fine knives and knife 
hafts ; and in the fift year of queen Elizabeth, he 
obtained a prohibition against all strangers, and others, 
for bringing any knives into England from beyond the 
seas, which until that time were brought into this land by 
shippes lading from Flanders and other places. Albeit 
at that time and for many hundred yeares before, there 
were made, in divete parts of this kingdom, many coarse 

* (Quarterly Review. f Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. iii. p. 425. 



POPULAR ERRORS. s 139 

and uncomely kniyes ; and at this day the best and finest 
knives in the world are made in London." Although the 
chronicler, in this passage, directly refers to the early 
existence and extent of the cutlery trade, inconsiderate 
copyists have drawn from it a loose statement, to the effect 
that ''knives were first made in England in 1563, by 
Thomas Mathews, on the Fleet Bridge, London." Aeainst 
this assertion, besides the testimony of Stow, and the 
common tradition of the HaUamshire cutlers, has to be set 
the undoubted fact, that, so early as the year 1417, the 
cutlers of the metropolis sought and obtained a charter of 
incorporation from Henry V. That knives were made at 
Sheffield, at least a century earlier than the preceding date, 
appears indisputable, from the incidental testimony of the 
poet Chaucer, who, in his " Reve's Tales," states of the 
miller of Trompington, that, among other accoutrements — 

<< A Sheffield twytel bare he in his hose." 

A twytel^ or whittle, was a knife carried by a person who 
was not entitled to wear a sword. We find *' a case of 
HaUamshire whittles," mentioned by tlie Earl of Shrews- 
burv, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, in the vear 1575 ; and 
''whitteir' is, among the Sheffield manuracturers to this 
day, the name of a common kind of knife. 

BRITISH PORCELAIN AND POTTERY. 

The designs upon Porcelain and Earthenware manufac- 
tured in Britain, have long been referred to as a proof of 
the bad taste of the manufacturers ; though, in tois case, 
the censure should be thrown upon the pumic themselves*. 
For example, the common eartnenware manufacture takes 
its style of ornament from China, which was brought to 
this country many years since, and is continued in use to 
this day. A very great improvement has, however, lately 
been made in multiplying the copies of superior designs 
for transfer to the surnice of the ware, by printing off cy- 
linders a continuous sheet; but such is the constant demand 
for the old Chinese barbaric omamentsf, from the bad taste 

* Indeed, in most cases, it will be found that manufacturen follow, 
and do not lead, the public taste, as is commonly supposed. 

t In a Chinese picture, owing to the absence of perspective propor- 
tions, an extensive subject is only a collection of portraits of men and 
things, drawn on the same scale, and placed near one another, and 
where all the colours are as vividly shown, as if the objects were only a 
few feet from the eye : there the figures at the bottom or foreground 



140 POPULAR ERRORS. 

of the public, that the manufacturers have been compelled 
to engrave these faulty designs upon the new cylinders ; 
notwithstanding they have, at the same time, produced 
much more tasteful designs of their own. 

MUSCOVY OLASS. 

Mica, in lai^ thin transparent lamine, is termed Mus- 
covy Glass, from the Russians, especially the Siberians, 
using it iu their windows instead of elass ; but it soon be- 
comes soiled, and in some measure loses its transparency 
bv exposure to the air. Another variety of mica in span- 
gles of a yellowish gold, or whitish silver colour, is known 
all over the world, by the ridiculous names of cat's gold, or 
cat's silver. The " gilt sand," agold-coloured powder which 
the paper-makers use for ornamental purposes, is only mica 
in small fragments. 

WBITINO INK. 

Old Writings are remarked to retain their colour better 
than those of later date ; a difference which is commonly 
referred to the ink used, but is not altogether the case. 
Before the early part of the eighteenth century, alum was 
not used in the manufacture of paper; now it is; but, 
on paper manufactured without alum, ink retains its colour 
better*. 

INDIAN INK. 

This Ink is strangely miscalled Indian ; for it is manu- 
factured in China, entirelv from lamp-black and gluten, 
with the addition of a little musk to ^ve it a more agree- 
able odour. 

POMATUM. 

The article now sold under this name, is very different 
from the original composition. This was called pomatum 
from its containing apples, pomuni, Lat. Gerarde tells us : 

are supposed to represent the objects nearest to the spectator, while the 
flgnres higher up are supposed to be of more remote objects ; all ap- 
pearing as they might be seen in sucoession, by a person who had the 
power of flying over the country. This kind of picture or representa- 
tion, although not natural if all viewed at once, may communicate 
more information than a single common painting, for it is equi- 
ralent to many such.— i>r. AmotVt Elements o/Phpsics, (This principle 
has been extensively acted upon in the bird'a-eye views of some old 
engravers, as weU as in some pictorial representations of the lines of 
rivers and roads in our time. ) 
* Mr. Reid, in the PhUosophical Macasine. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 141 

" there is made an ointment with the pulp of apples^ and- 
swine's grease, and rose-water, which is used to beautify 
the face and to take away the roughness of the skin, which 
is called in shops pomatum, of the apples whereof it is 
made.'* As the pomatum of the present day contains not 
a particle of apple, it is improper to apply the original 
name to perfumed grease. 

EAU DE COLOGNE. 

Evert dealer in this delightfully perfumed water will tell 
you that his article is veritable de I'arina ; hut it is essen- 
tial to know that at Cologne there are no fewer than three 
Farinas, one only of whom is the genuine descendant of 
the inventor and proprietor of the secret. Dr. Granville, 
from inquiries maae at Cologne, estimated the whole quan- 
tity of Cologne water, actually sold in that town for ex- 
portation, to amount to 38,000 bottles annually. It is 
manifest, therefore, that a large quantity of Eau de Cologne 
must he spurious ; for a much larger quantity than the one 
just mentioned is consumed in Europe. The facility with 
which this perfume may be imitated, has probably led to 
the manufacture of it in most of the large Dutch towns. 

FRENCH WATCHES. 

This term, in many instances, applies only to the cases 
of the articles, which are of French manufacture. Thus, 
it is estimated that 1 50,000 watches are annually made in 
France, and about S00,000 are finished only, the move- 
ments of which are made in Switzerland. 

STANDARD GOLD. 

Gold, when refined from all impurities and alloys of 
inferior metals, is denominated pure, or gold of twenty-four 
carats, this being the standard of purity rec(^ized by the 
mint-master and the dealers in gold. In reality, however, 
there is no gold so very pure, but that it wants about a 
quarter of a carat of this standard. The carat is divided 
into h\i-^i Aiid ^7. These degrees serve to distinguish the 
greater or less quantity of alloy therein contained: for 
instance, gold of twenty-two carats has two parts of silver, 
or one part of silver and one of copper, and twenty-two of 
fine gold : that of twenty-three carats has half a part, or 
half a twenty-fourth of each*. 

* Treatise on Manufactures in Metal. * 



142 POPULAR ERRORS. 



jewellers' gold. 



This is, by no means, so definite a term as is generally 
supposed : it may either mean gold of half-standard purity; 
an alloy of copper, gilt ; or a fine yellow composition metal, 
consisting of copper and zinc in about equal proportions : 
One or more of these aUoys is named " Birmingham gold." 
Nor must the dark colour of gold articles be taken as a 
standard of purity ; for this appearance is obtained by 
dipping the articles in a solution of copper. 

Foreigners are astonished, and witn good reason, that 
the En^ish government permits the sale of that nonde- 
script substitute for gold, called ** Jewellers* Gold,'' which 
does not even stand the ordeal of aquafortis. It will 
rarely be taken, even in exchange for similar articles 
abroad, where it is called *' English compound." 

Mosaic Gold is an alloy which does not contain a 
particle of gold, as its name implies ; it being merely tin 
and sulphur. 

The imitation of Gold sold with the taking name of 
Petit-Or, is nothing more than the alloy formerly called 
Pinch-back, which is made by melting zinc in a certain 
proportion with copper and brass, so as in colour to ap- 
proach that of gold. 



" BEAUTY " OP THE OPAL. 



Tne noble or perfect Opal, as it is termed, is a milky 
resinous quartz, exhibiting a beautiful display of colours, 
like those in the rainbow, and varying their shades accor- 
ding to the positions. It is highly prized on account of 
this brilliant appearance, which, however, arises solely 
from imperfections^ that is, very minute cracks or fissures 
with which it is filled. When divided, it no longer dis- 
plays this pleasing and changeable efinlgence. * 

SAPPHIRE. 

This term is applied by mineralogists to a precious 
stone in very high estimation, and, after diamond, the 
hardest substance in nature. But jewellers apply dif- 
ferent names to the several varieties of Sapphires : thus, 
the crimson and carmine red are the oriental rubj/ of the 

* Newton and HaOy. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 143 

jeweller; the blue variety is the sapphire; and the 
yellow the oriental topaz. Another reddish violet variety 
is the asterias, or star-Uone ; and the white and pale blue 
sapphires, by exposure to heat, become snow-white, and 
when cut, exhibit so high a degree of lustre, that they are 
used in place of diamond. 

THE RUBY AND DIAMOND. 

The Diamond is not unexoeptionably the most valuable 
gem. A perfect Ruby of a carat, or six grains, may be 
deemed rare, and falls little short of the value of the dia- 
mond : nay, in some cases, rubies of two, three, or four carats, 
if very fine, are much scarcer and even more valuable than 
diamonds of equal weight. The finest ruby in England, 
or perhaps, in Europe, is in the collection of the late Mr. 
Hope, author of Anastasius. 

CRYSTAL. 

This term may be properly applied to any symmetrical 
solid, whether transparent or opaque, though custom has 
almost restricted it to colourless bodies; as we say, the 
crystalline lens of the eye, and of water ; *' the crystal 
well."* On its discovery, the ancients believing it to be 
water permanently congealed by extreme cold, from its 
transparency, called it Krmtallos, signifying also ice ; but 
in time, the term became used without attention being 
paid to its original meaning, and was applied to all the 
regular figures observed in minerals. 

Rock Crystal, when of a violet or purple colour, becomes 
amethyst ; when blue, it is the sapphire ; when rose-colour, 
it is the ruby ; when yellow, it is the occidental topaz : in 
short, the crystals take the names of the different gems 
which they resemble in colour. 

Sir Thomas Browne appropriates a chapter to Crystal, 
commencing thus: ''Hereof the common opinion hath 
been, and still reraalneth amongst us, that crystal is nothing 
else but ice or snow concreted, and by duration of time, 
congealed beyond liquidation. Of which assertion, if pre- 
scription of time, and numerosity of assertors, were a suf- 
ficient demonstration, we might sit down herein, as an 

* •< His food, the fruits ; his drink, the crystal well." 

ParneWt Hermit, 
—Hence also, the popular comparison, " olear as a well." 



144 POPULAR ERRORS. 

unquestionable truth ; nor should {there need ulterior dis* 
quisition. For, few opinions there are which have found 
80 many friends^ or been so popularly received, through all 
professions and ages. Pliny is positive in this opinion: 
' Crystallui fit gelu vehemenHus concreto! The same is 
followed by Seneca, elegantly described by Claudian, not 
denied by Scaliger, somewhere affirmed by Albertus, Bra- 
savolus, and directly by many others. The venerable 
fathers of the Church have also assented hereto : as Basil, 
in his Hexameron ; Isidore, in his Etymologies ; and not 
only Austin, a Latin friar, but Gr^ory the Great ; and 
Jerome upon occasion of diat term expressed in the first 
of £zekiel. 

'^ All which notwithstanding, upon a strict enquiry, we 
find the matter controvertible, and with much more reason 
denied than is yet affirmed. For though many have passed 
it over with easy affirmatives, yet there are also many 
authors that deny it; and the exact mineralogist hath 
rejected it. Diodorus, in his eleventh book, denieth it, 
(if crystal be there taken in its proper acceptation, as Rho- 
diginus hath used it, and not for a diamond, as Salmasius 
hath expounded it ;) for in that place he affirmeth : ^ Cry*' 
teUlum esse lapidem ex euma purd concretum, non tamen 
frigore sed divini caloris vi ? Solinus, who transcribed Plin j, 
and, therefore, in almost all subscribed unto liim, hath, m 
this point, dissented from him: ' Putant quidam glade cotr^, 
ei in crystaUum corporari, sed frtisira* Mathiolus, in his 
Comment upon Dioscorides, hath, with confidence, rgected 
it. The same hath been performed by Agricola de natura 
fossilium ; by Cardan, Boetius de Boot, Ccesius Bemardus, 
Sesraertus, and many more." 

The chapter extends through nine small quarto pages 
and towards the close is Sir Thomas's coincidence with 
the origin of the Error, as stated above : '' The second and 
most common ground is from the name Crystallus, whereby, 
in Greek both ice and crystal are expressed ; which may 
not, duly considering, have from their community of 
name, conceived a community of nature ; and what was 
ascribed unto the one, not unfitly applicable unto the 
other. But this is a fallacy of equivocation, from a society 
in name inferring an identity in nature. By this fallacy 
was he deceived, that drank aqua fortis for strong water : 
by this are they deluded, who conceive spermaceti, which 



POPULAR ERRORS. 145 

is found about the head, to be the spawn of the whale : 
or take Sanguis Draconis (which is the gumine of a tree) 
to be the blood of a dragon.'*— (Ttt/^flr Error$, book ii. 
chap. 1.) The Error of supposing spermaceti to be found 
only in the head of the long-headed whale, as Browne 
supposed it to be, has already been explained at p. 112 
of the present work. 

PROPERTIES OF THE DIAMOND. 

Among the ancient philosophers, effects were continually 
attributed to causes the most inconsistent, and the most 
contrary to nature; in fact, merely wild or fanciful guesses. 
Many, of course, were made as to the origin and proper- 
ties of the Diamond, respecting which even the chemical 
philosophers of our own time scarcely agree. But the 
notions of the ancients about the diamond seem to have 
been altogether confused and indistinct. It was sometimes 
considered a talisman, and when under the planet Mars, 
esteemed favourable. It was supposed to cure insanity, 
and to be an antidote to poisons ; notwithstanding which, 
Paracelsus was said to have been poisoned by diamond- 
powder ; though it is believed to be as inert in the one 
case as it is harmless in the other. The Gredcs called this 
gem " unconquerable;" and the name of *' Adamant" was 
given to it in consequence of this suppositious virtue, in 
that it was esteemed victorious over fire, and capable of 
resisting the hardest substances. Ancient Greek writers 
describe the diamond as only found in Ethiopia, between 
the island Meroe and the temple of Mercury. According 
to Pliny, there existed between the diamond and the 
magnet a natural antipathy : '' there is," he says, " such a 
disagreement between a diamond and a loadstone, that it 
will not suffer the iron to be attracted ; or, if the loadstone 
be put to it, and take hold of it, it will pull it away.'* 
(Pliny, lib. 37, chap. 4.) It is needless to observe that no 
such antipathy can now be discovered in the case. " We, 
at least," states Mr. John Murray, " have found no dimi- 
nution of the attractive powers of the magnet, when we 
interposed between a magnet and a fine needle no less 
than five fragments of diamond." It has also been stated, 
that the diamond was able to resist the power of the 
highest temperature; but it has ^>ieided to the <^ torture 

L 



146 1*0PULAR ERRORS. 

and inquisition of modern chemistry/* and its combusti- 
bility has been completely ascertained ; so that a diamond 
may be easily consumed by being placed in a cavity of 
charcoal, and urging on it the flame of a spirit-lamp^ by 
means of a stream of oxygen. 

" Artificial diamonds '* are among the scientific curiosi- 
ties of our day ; and, experiment having demonstrated the 
diamond to be pure crystallised carbon, some approxima- 
tion has been made to the natural gem, by acting with a 
powerfulgalvanic battery on charcoal in vacuo, when minute 
hard crystals were said to be formed round the superior 
wire. It has also been stated in France, that a solution of 
phosphorus in sulphuret of carbon yields minute diamonds. 
Both these processes have, however, proved unsatisfactory. 

HARDNESS OF THE DIAMOND. 

Many authors have permitted their fancy to rove on 
some attribute peculiar to the Diamond, either real or sup- 
posed. Thus, we are told that a diamond is softened and 
broken if steeped in the blood of a goat ; but not, accord- 
ing to others, unless it be fresh and warm, nor even 
then fractured, without blows; and that it will also 
break the best hammers and anvils of iron. Sir Thomas 
Browne says, that a diamond being steeped in goat s blood 
rather receives thereby an increase of hardness : " for," 
he observes, *' the best we have are comminuible without 
it, and are so far from breaking hammers, that they sub- 
mit to pistillation and resist not an ordinary pestle." The 
truth is, as far as the goat's blood is concerned, it makes 
no difierence either way ; and we know very well that it 
is a matter of no difficulty to crush the diamond in a steel 
jnortar ; from its lamellar texture it is also capable of 
beins split and cleaved, and jewellers are by these means 
enabled to work it* 

It is, therefore, altogether an Error to suppose that dia- 
monds vrill not wear out In the shops of wholesale 
glaziers, where the diamond is in constant use, one of 
Uiese instruments is worn down in a month or six weeks, 
so as to require resetting ; after which, with the same wear, 
it usually lasts another month, and then becomes useless. 
It may, however, be presumed that diamonds travel over 

* Murray, on the Diamond. 



A- 



148 POPULAR ERRORS. 

experiinentB of the kind were made in Bohemia, without 
auccess. Northwaite gives an account in some respects 
similar, but still less credible, from a Chinese work ; but 
he himself allows that it does not appear probable. It is 
time, however, that such fables were exploded, and left 
out of works professedly scientific, and bearing on the 
title-page the name of some learned editor, assisted, as we 
are told, by " eminent professional gentlemen.** 

The ancient opinion appears to have been, that pearls 
were formed by drops of dew faUing into the shell, for 
which purpose it periodically rose to the surface; and 
Pliny gravely informs us, that if the atmosphere was thick 
at the time, they were dark and clouded ; if it was dear, 
they were white and brilliant. It is singular that the same 
belief is found to prevail at the present day, among the 
natives of Ceylon ; and very similar to it is the account of 
the formation of pearls, recorded in one of the Sanscrit 
books of the Brahmins. A similar fancy also exists in the 
interior of Hindostan. 

Pearls, from their consisting of carbonate of lime, are, 
of course, very soluble in acids. Hence may have originated 
the account of Cleopatra dissolving a pearl in vin^ar, and 
drinking it to Marc Antonyms health, at supper ; which is 
now regarded as. an historical fiction, to show the inventive 
talents of the voluptuous queen in her allurements for An- 
tony, in whom she found a companion to her taste. It is, 
however, pretty certain that a pearl, or pearls, of great 
value, were in Cleopatra's possession. 



CLOTHING. 
BLEACHED AND UNBLEACHED LINEN. 

There appears to be an £rror in the manufacture of 
Linen, which it is reasonable to suppose common care 
might prevent Flax, of which linen is made, is naturally 
white, and owes the grey colour which it assumes solely to 
the processes through which it passed to separate its fibres 
•^as immersion in bog-streams, and other such injurious 
treatment. The linen is, therefore, necessarily bleached 
yiith chlorine, which, if applied in its pure state, and not 
suffi,cj.ently diluted, or otherwise corrected, invariably de- 



POPULAR ERRORS. 149 

stroys the strength and texture of the linen ; wherefore it 
is a dangerous agent in the hands of the inexperienced. 

In Paris, the blanchisseuses are suspected of employing 
bleaching liquid in ordinary washing, the effects of which 
are visible in the rapid deterioration of linen washed by 
these Frenchwomen. 

COTTON POISONOUS. 

Popular prejudice long held that Cotton was poison- 
ous : this Error originated in the {lain felt on holding a 
cotton handkerchief to the eyes or nose of a person with a 
cold in the head ; for the cotton^ by not allowing passage 
to the heat, increased the temperature and the distress; 
whilst a linen or cambric handkerchief, by conducting, 
would readily absorb the heat, and diminish the inflam- 
mation. 

VARIOUS FURS. 

The name of Sable can only be literally applied, with 
propriety, to the finest skins of the animal called a Sable^ 
a species of weasel, found in the northern parts of Asiatic 
Russia and America. The colour of this fur is generally of 
a deep glossy brown, and only occasionally of a fine glossy 
black, which is most esteemed. Sable skins have some- 
times, though rarely, been found yellow and white. FUch, 
or the fur of the Fitchet, or Polecat, is principally imported 
from Germany : it is soft and warm, but tne unpleasant 
smell whicb is inseparable from it depresses its value. 
Marten and mink, (the latter commonly called minx,) are 
principally imported from the United States and Canada. 
The greatest variety of furs, or wool, as it may be more 
properly called, is our lamb-skins, which differ so widely 
from each other in size, qu^ty, colour, and value, that, to 
most persons, they would appear as the produce of so 
many different species of animals. 

PRICE OF FURS. 

The fluctuating Prices of Furs appear sometimes to 
border on monopoly or injustice on the part of traders. 
But furs being entirely the produce of nature, which can 
neither be cultivated nor increased, their value is not 
regulated by fashion alone, but depends materiallv upon 
the larger or sm^er supplies received. - The weather nas 



150 POPULAR ERRORS* 

great influence upon the quality and quantity of furs im- 
ported from all quarters of the globe; and this circumstance 
renders the fur-trade more difficulty and perhaps more pre- 
carious, than any other. The quality, and consequently the 
price, of many furs^ will dimr eyery year. It would be 
impossible to state the value of the uifierent articles of 
fturs, the trade bein^ the most fluctuating imaginable. The 
same article has risen and fallen 100, SOO^ and 300 per 
cent in the course of a twelyemonth ; nay, in several in- 
stances, in the space of one month only. 

It is a remarkable feature of the fur-trade, that almost 
every country or town which produces export furs, im- 
ports and consumes the fur of some other place, frequently 
the most distant. It is but seldom that an article is con- 
siuned in the country where it is produced, though that 
country may consume furs to a very great extent. Mr. 
Maculloch, from whose Dictionary of Commerce these par- 
ticulars are abridged, acknowledges himself indebted for 
them ** to one of the most extensive and intelligent fur- 
merchants of London.*' 

WARMTH OF FUR. 

It is commonly thought that Warmth would be best 
obtained by wearing Fur with the hair inwards, and that 
the practice of wearing it outwards has been adopted from 
its ornamental richness. Such, however, is not the case; 
for fur garments have been found by experience to be 
much warmer in cold weather when worn with the hair 
outwards, than when it is turned inwards. Hence the 
disadvantage of lining cloaks and gloves with fur. 

The above is alleged as a proof that we are kept warm 
by our clothing, not so much by confining the heat of our 
bodies, as by repelling those frigorific rays which tend to 
cool us. 

"beaver hats." 

The entire Hat is now rarely made of so costly a mate- 
rial as Beaver fur, which is only used to cover the outside. 
This fur is almost entirely brought from North America. 
It is gradually becoming scarce and dearer, being now 
obtainable only in inconsiderable quantities from the most 
northerly and inaccessible districts. The fur of the 
middle-aged or young animal, called cub-beaver, is most 



POPULAR ERRORS. 151 

esteemed, it being the finest, most glossy, and taking the 
best dye. There are also used for hatting, the furs of the 
musquash or musk-rat, otter, neutria, hare, and rabbit 

*' WHALEBONE." 

This substance is improperly named, since it has none 
of the properties of bone : its correct name is baleen. It 
is found attached to the upper jaw, and serves to strain 
the water which the whale takes into its large mouth, and 
to retain the small animals on which it subsists. For this 
purpose, the baleen is in plenty^ sometimes SOU pieces in 
one whale, placed across each odier at regular distances, 
with the fringed edge towards the mouth. 

Seeing that the head furnishes the baleen, the record of 
the ancient perquisite of our Queens Consort, evinces 
gross ignorance of the natural economy of the whale. This 
privilege was, that on the taking of a whale on the British 
coasts, it should be divided between the King ai)d Queen; 
the hcaui only being the King's property, and the tail the 
Queen's. Trie reason for this whimsical distinction, as 
assigned by our ancient records, was to furnish the Queen's 
wararobe with whalebone ! 

MAROOCO . LEATHER 

Is not SO called from its being brought from Marocoo^ but 
from the art of dressing it being originally introduced 
from that country. The true Marocco leather is made of 
goat-skins tannea and dyed on their outsides ; sheepskins 
are also similarly treated. The goat-skins are not only 
more pliant, but their surface is smoother ; they are also 
more aurahle than those of sheep, but thdr employment 
is restricted on aooount of their high price. 

NANKEEN. 

Nankeen or Nankin takes its name from Nankin^ 
in China, where the reddish-yellow thread of which the 
stuff is made was originally spun. In £ngland, we erro- 
neously apply the term Nankeen to one colour; though, 
in the East Indies, vast quantities of white, pink, and 
ydlow nankeens, are made. 

LOGWOOD 

Seems to have been first brought to England soon after 
the accession of Queen Elizabeth; but the various and 
beautiful colours dyed from it proved so fugacious, that a 



152 POPULAR ERRORS. 

general outcry was soon raised against it ; and an Act of 
Parliament was passed in the 28rd year of her reign, which 
prohibited its use as a dye under severe penalties, and not 
only authorised, but directed the hunung of it, in whatever 
hands it might be found within the realm ; and though 
this wood was afterwards sometimes clandestinely used, 
(under tlie feigned name of blackwood), it continued sub- 
ject to this prmiibition for nearly a hundred years, or until 
the passing of the Act of 13 and 14 Chas. II. ; the pre- 
amble of which states the dyers to have learned the art of 
tixing the colours ; though, at this time, the colours of 
Ins: wood are notoriously deHcient in regard to their dura- 
biUty*. 

POISONOUS DYES. 

Many cutaneous affections, it is said, of which the 
cause has hitherto been unknown, are occasioned by the 
absorption of deleterious dyeing substances. The govern- 
ment of Lombardy. acting upon this suggestion, has 
issued a law, which, under pensdty of confiscation, forbids 
the use of any poisonous substance, such as arsenic zinc, 
lead, and other mineral colours, in the printing or dyeing 
of fabrics which are intended for dothing, or may come 
in contact with the human body. 

MOTHS FROM CLOTHES. 

An ill-founded opinion prevails, that Moths may be 
kept from Clothes by placing in or near them camphor, 
pepper, cedar-wood, Russia leather, &c. ; whereas these 
precautions are useless unless the clothes be also taken 
out frequently, brushed, and aired. That camphor and 
the above substances are insufficient to keep away insects, 
has been proved by moths being hatch^ in an atmo- 
sphere impr^;nated with camphor, and the substances re- 
ferred to. 

'' DEFECTS IN BOOT AND SHOE MAKING. 

The defects which arise frem ordinary leather not pos- 
sessing that degree of pliability and elasticity which is 
requisite to admit of the natural action of the foot, have 
led to the introduction of various substitutes. When the 
foot is under the pressure of the body, it is elongated. 
This principle of elongation seems to have been long ad- 

* Dr. Bancroft, on Permanent Colours, 



POPULAR ERRORS. 153 

mitted, inasmuch as all boots and shoes have hitherto been 
made a little longer than the foot of the wearer ; but the 
difference in the degree of extension in the feet of differ* 
ent individuals appears to have been, in some measure, 
oyerlooked, as it rarely happens that allowance is made 
for this di^renoe ; and the result is, that many persons 
have never obtain^ shoes long enough fur their feet when 
thus extended, the measurement bein^ generally taken 
when the foot is not under the pressure of the body. 
Another important consideration arises from the circum- 
stances connected with the altered position of the foot in 
walking. As the foot extends in length from heel to toe 
in proportion to the height of the arch, the strength of 
the ligaments, and the weight it has to support, — the elon- 
gation has been found by actual measurement, to vary 
from a quarter of an inch to a whole inch.* 

FRENCH GLOVES. 

The preference given in this country to French Gloves 
is no matter of fashion or prejudice as is commonly sup- 
posed, but of judgment on the part of the purchaser. Not 
only is the kid finer and better dressed, of which gloves 
are made in France, but the gloves themselves are better 
cut, than in England ; and their superior fitting must be 
from the French manufacturers possessing a correct or 
scientific knowledge of the shape of the hand, as we gather 
from the evidence of a first-rate London ** warehouseman'' 
before the Parliamentary Committee upon Arts and 
Manufactures. It should, however, be added, that there 
are very few manufactures in which the French excel so 
much as in gloves ; and this circumstance has strength- 
ened the evidence in favour of the necessity of establish- 
ing Schools of Design in this country, to enable our 
manufacturers to compete with the taste as well as mate- 
rials of the Continent. 

Although the disposition on the part of our legislature 
to raise the standard of public taste is full of promise, we 
are not unmindful that good taste in every department 
cannot be established by dictation, but must be left to 
force its way gradually through example ; and its rules, 
when once exemplified, are pretty sure to be followed, 

*From a papo- read March 15, 1839, to the Edinburgh Society of 
Arts, by Mr. J. Dowia 



154 POPULAR ERRORS. 

though slowly. Let any one recollect the ugly forms of 
our ordinary crockery and potters' ware forty or fifty 
years since, when the shapes were as deformed as that of 
the pipkin which cost Kobinson Crusoe so much trouble ; 
and observe the difierence since the classical outlines of 
the Etruscan y^aes have been adopted as models for our 
Staffordshire wS*e. 

FRENCH FASHIONS. 

A FEW years since, Mr. Reinagle, R.A., in a lecture 
delivered by him at the Royal Institution, observed that 
taste was definable, was reducible to laws, and was not 
that vague principle that many authors asserted. Hence, 
the fallacy of the expressions, " It is all a matter of taste/' 
*' There is no accounting for tastes," &c. Mr. Reinagle 
then proceeded to lament that taste in this country was 
poisoned by the weeds of fashion — that the fair forms of 
our women and the manly character of our men, were 
perpetually undergoing tasteless variations by following 
the fashions of a neighbouring nation, whose character we 
disliked, but whose costume we imitated. He concluded 
with a sketch of a lady's head, and said if our ladies would 
wear such monstrosities of bonnets, they ought to put 
them on inclining to one side or the other, and not hori- 
zontally ; so that the oval form produced by such arrange- 
ment, might contrast with the beautiful oval forms of their 
faces, which could not be effected in the fashion at that 
time. This hint, from a high authority upon matters of 
taste, will not be lost upon our fair readers. 

COLOURS FOR DRESS. 

M. Chevreul, in some novel Experiments on Colours, 
explains certain incongruities of which few persons are 
aware. Thus, wheu the eye has looked at a red object for 
a considerable time, it has a tendency to see all things 
tinted with the supplementary colour, green ; and hence, 
if a lady about to purchase a red silk, examine fourteen 
or fifteen pieces in succession, the four or five last will 
appear less red to her than the first ones did, although 
they are identical in colour and brilliancy. The dealer, m 
this case, ought to show the purchaser some pieces of 
green silk ; and if the eye dwell on them so long that the 



POPULAR ERRORS. 155 

normal state of the eye is altered, it will have a tendency 
to see all things tinted with the complementary colour, 
red ; and then, a piece of red silk presented to her will 
appear more red than it really is.* 

"CONTRAST OP COLOURS." 

The word " contrast *' is here used without a definition, 
or without an exact comprehension of its meaning. Now, 
the effect of colours, on heing placed together, is produced 
through the motion of the eye, combined with the law of 
sensibility of the retina. When we imagine that we are 
comparing colours, we are really experiencing the effect of 
the nerve oeing exliausted by awelling on one colour, and 
becoming more susceptible of the opposite colour. There 
has been a great deal said about contrast and harmony in 
painting, as resulting from certain colours placed together 
— the idea being that we see these colours at the same 
time— whereas, the effect, of which we are sensible, results 
from alternately looking at the one and the other.f 

YELLOW A VERY PERMANENT COLOUR. 

Contrary to the general opinion, animal and vegetable 
Yellows are much more permanent than all other colours. 
This may be proved by holding a hghted match under a 
flower, heartsease, for example, when the purple tint will 
instantly disappear, but the yellow will remain unchanged : 
the yellow of a wall- flower will continue the same> though 
the brown streak will be discharged. 



TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
COMMERCE IN PAST AND PRESENT TIMES. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the familiar intercourse 
of nations is a thing of modem growth, and that turnpike- 
roads and mail-coaches, canals and steam-boats, are the 
only methods by which we can bring together distant 
lands. Commerce, undoubtedly, does great things in this 
way now, but so it did heretofore by ouier ways ; and it 
may even be doubted whether the custom of resorting in 
person to the sreat fairs holden in various parts of Europe, 
lasting for eighteen or twenty days, and whilst they lasted, 

* Translated from the French ; In the Literary Gazette, 
t Sir Charles Bell> Bridgewater Treatise. 



156 POPULAR ERRORS. 

giving to an unenclosed waste the appearance of a populous 
and well-ordered city : it may be doubted, we say, whether 
Hhese points of annual concourse did not bring together a 
greater number of foreigners, (limited as trade then was.) 
than can be seen upon all the exchanges of a country at 
this day, when the safe and rapid transmission of letters, 
and the universal institution of banks, have rendered any 
closer communication among merchants, for the most part, 
unnecessary.* 

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING. 

Cheapness is an attraction to the majority of purcha- 
sers, though they rarely understand in what actual cheap- 
ness consists. Mr. Babbage well observes : " The cost of 
any article to the purchaser includes, besides supply and 
demand, another element, which, though often of little 
importance, is, in many cases, of great consequence. The 
cost, to the purchaser, is the price he pays for any article, 
added to the cost of verifying the fact of its having that 
degree of goodness for which he contracts. In some cases, 
the goodness of the article is evident on mere inspection ; 
and. in those cases, there is not much difference of price 
at different shops. The goodness of loaf-sugar, for in- 
stance, can be discerned almost at a glance; and the 
consequence is, that the price of it is so uniform, and the 
profit upon it so small, that no grocer is at all anxious to 
sell it : whilst, on the other nand, tea, of which it is 
exceedingly difficult to judge, and which can be adulte- 
rated by mixture, so as to deceive the skill even of a 
practised eye, has a variety of different prices, and is that 
article which every grocer is most anxious to sell to his 
customers ** A f ler enumerating several instances of fraud 
on the part of the seller, Mr. Babbage observes: " his ol^ect 
is to get a higher price than his goods would really pro- 
duce if their quality were known ; and the purchaser, if 
not himself a skilful judge, (which rarely happens to be 
the case,) must pay some person, in the shape of an addi- 
tional money price, who has skill to distinguish, and 
integrity to furnish, articles of the quality agreed on. 
But, as the confidence of persons in their own judgment 
is unusually great, large numbers will always flock to the 

* Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 157 

cheap dealer, yrho, thus attracting many customers from 
the honest tradesman, obliges him to charge a higher . 
price for his judgment and character than, without such 
competition, he could afford to do*.'' 

There are other circumstances which influence the price 
of articles, such as durability, which must be considered 
before they can be pronounced cheap. 

AIAKINO AND MANUFACTURING. 

These terms are commonly regarded as synonymous. 
There is, however, a considerable difference between them. 
Making refers to the production of a smalls Manufacturing 
to that of a very large, number of individuals. Thus, a 
person who makes boots for private individuals is correctly 
termed a boot-maker ; but, another who makes boots for 
the army, is a boot-manufacturer. 

EFFECTS OF NEW INVENTIONS. 

The anticipated injury which any New Invention may 
prove to other interests is mostly inaccurately estimatea. 
On the first establishment of steam-boats from London to 
Margate, the proprietors of the coaches running on that 
line of road petitioned parliament against them, as likely 
to lead to the ruin of the coach-proprietors. It was, how- 
ever, found that their fear was imaginary ; and, in a very 
few years, the number of coaches on that road was consi- 
derably increased, apparently through tlie very means 
which were thought to be adverse to it. 

MANUFACTURING BY MACHINERY. 

There is no idea so groundless and absurd as that which 
supposes that an increased facility of production, (as by 
Machinery,) can, under any circumstances, be injurious to 
the labourers. Xhe Cotton Manufacture affords one of the 
most striking proofs of this fact. It is doubtful whether 
80,000 persons were employed in all the branches of this 
manufacture, in 1767, before Arkwright*s inventions; 
whereas, in consequence of those very inventions, wliich 
the workmen endeavoured to destroy, there are now up- 
wards of one million persons directly engaged in dilBerent 
departments. 

* Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, page 107- 



158 POPULAR ERRORS. 

FRENCH AND ENGLISH MANUFACTURERS. 

Tt has often been held as an argument, and rather 
pertinaciously adhered to, by manufacturers, that a French 
article (as silk) would sell without reference to its 
peculiar merit, but merely because it is French. Such 
may have been the case a few years since, but there is 
now no prejudice of the kind : in purchasing such 
articles, persons choose that which is most liked, with- 
out the question being put whether it is French or 
English. 

DOMESTIC CHEMISTRY. 

The transformations of Chemistry, by which we are 
enabled to convert the most apparently useless materials 
into important objects in the arts, are opening to us every 
day sources of wealth and convenience, of which former 
ages had no idea, and which have been pure gifts of 
science to man. What strange and unexpected re>ults have 
not this science brought to light in its application to some 
of the most common objects ! Who, for instance, could 
have conceived that linen rags were capable of producing 
more than their own weight in sugar, by the single agency 
of one of the cheapest and most abundant acids, (the 
sulphuric;.'^ — that dry bones could be a magazine of 
nutriment, capable of preservation for years, and ready to 
yield up their sustenance in the form best adapted to the 
support of life, on the application of that powerful agent, 
steam, which enters so largely into all our processes, or, 
of an acid at once cheap and durable.'^ — ^that sawdust 
itself is susceptible of conversion into a substance bearing 
no remote analogy to bread ; and though certainly less 
palatable than that of flour, yet no way disagreeable, and 
both wholesome and digestible, as well as highly nutri- 
tive.* What economy, in all processes where dbemical 
agents are employed, is introduced by the exact knowledge 
of the proportions in which natural elements unite, and 
their mutual powers of displaying each other! What 
perfection in all the arts where fire is employed, either in 
Its more violent application, (as, for instance, in the 

* See Dr. Prout's aooount of the experiments of Professor Antenrieth 
of Tubingen. Phil. Trans. 1827, p. 381. This discovery, which renders 
famine next to impossUtU, deserves a higher degree of celebrity than it 
has obtained. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 159 

smelting of metals by the introduction of well-adapted flues, 
whereby we obtain the whole produce of the ore in its 
purest state,) or in its milder forms^ as in sugar-refining, 
the whole modern practice of which depends on a curious 
and delicate remark of a late eminent scientific chemist, 
ou the nice adjustment of temperature, at which the 
crystallisation of syrup takes place ; and a thousand other 
arts which it would be tedious to enumerate. We quote 
these luminous facts from Sir John HerscheFs Discourse 
upon the Study of Natural Philosophy ; since, by indica- 
ting a few of the brilliant discoveries of modern science, 
they contribute to the enlightenment of Error. Further, 
in expatiating upon the advantages of this progress of 
science, how forcible is the following illustration from the 
same eloquent pen: *'The condition of an European 
prince is now as far superior, in the command of real 
comforts and conveniences, to that of one in the 
Middle Ages, a& that to the condition of one of his 
dependants ! ** 

" PROFITS " OP INSURANCE OFFICES. 

The general use, by insurance offices, of the word 
''profits'' is an abuse of the term, they being wholly 
contingent and remote. It cannot for a moment bie 
questioned, that, instead of *' profit," the insurance offices 
must sustain a loss by every insurer who dies before the 
amount paid by him in premiums, with the accumulated 
interest, shall be equivalent to the amount of his policy, — 
say, from fifteen to thirty-five annual premiums, according 
to the age of the insured — yet, in most of these offices, the 
representatives share in the profits^ should the insured die 
immediately after seven payments. The equitable rule 
would be, to assign the bonus to such only as had survi- 
ved the expectation of life, according to the generally 
received law of mortality ; or who had paid in premiums, 
with interest upon them, a sum equal to that for which 
the life was insured.* 

CHEAP INSURANCES. 

It is a fallacy to suppose that a reduction of a few 
shillings per cent, in the premium, can be of any advan- 
tage to the insured, more especially when there is a 

* Qnartwly Review. 



160 POPULAR ERRORS. 

participation in the profits ; while it operates as a serious 
drawback on the profits of the office, and consequently of 
the insured also. The higher the premium, and the 
stricter the caution in taking none but good lives, the 
larger will be the profits to be divided.* 

Some insurance-offices hold out to their subscribers a 
certainty of numerical profit; but, these attempts will 
cease, when it shall come to be clearly understood that 
m every office, some must pay more than they receive, in 
order that others may receive more than they pay,f 

OBJECTIONS TO LIFE ASSURANCE. 

It is scarcely worth while to enter into an agreement with 
persons who object to all Life Assurance as a species of 
gambling — ^nor, with those who, looking to the incorrect 
phrase, lose sight of what is really meant, and prose about 
impious interference with the Jiat of Providence. There 
is, nowever, a more business-like class who object to the 
plan. These contend that, if the annual sums paid by 
the assured, as premiums, were put out at compound 
interest, the produce would exceed what the insured, on 
his representations, will receive from the office. This 
is looking at the subject in a very narrow and mis- 
taken point of view : it supposes life certain to a given 
extent. 



BUILDING, &c. 
OLD ENGLISH MANSIONS. 

It is an Error to suppose, that the English gentry, (in 
the Middle Ages,) were lodged in stately or even in well- 
sized houses. Generally speaking, their dwellings were 
almost as inferior to those of their descendants in capacity 
as they were in convenience. The usual arrangement con- 
sisted of an entrance-passage running through the house, 
with a hall on one side, a parlour beyond, and one or two 
chambers above; and on the opposite side, ji kitchen 

Eantry, and other offices. Such was the ordinary manor, 
ouse of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as appears 
not only from the documents and engravings, but, as to 
the latter period, from the buildings themselves, some- 

* Quarterly Review. f De Morgan. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 161 

times, though not very frequently, occupied hy families of 
consideration, more often converted into farm-houses, or 
distinct tenements. Haddon-Hall and Penshurst still 
display this ancient arrangement. Larger structures were 
erected hy men of great estates during the reigns of Henry 
VI. and Edward IV.; hut very few can he traced higher; 
and such has heen the effect of time« still more through 
the advance or decline of families, and the progress of 
architectural improvement, than the natural decay of these 
huildings, that it is conceived difficult to name a house 
in England, still inhabited hy a gentleman, and not be- 
longing to the order of castles, the principal apartments of 
which are older than the reign of Henry VII. The 
instances, at least, must he extremely few. Single rooms, 
windows, doorways, &c. of an earher date may perhaps 
not unfrequently be found ; hut such instances are always 
to he verified hy their intrinsic evidence, not by the 
tradition of the place. The most remarkable fragment of 
early building which I have anywhere found mentioned, is 
at a house in Berkshire, called Appleton, where there exists 
a sort of prodigy, an entrance-passage, with circular arches 
in the Saxon style, which must, probably, be as old as the 
reign of Henry II. No other private house in England, as 
I conceive, can boast of such a monument of antiquity.* 

FRENCH MANSIONS. 

The name of chateau, (castle,) is retained to this day in 
France, and erroneously applied to villas, built without 
any means of defence against an enemy. But, even so late 
as the sixteenth century, defence was an object in con- 
structing a French mansion-house ; a circumstance which 
will explain its general plainness ; for where defence is to 
be regarded, splendour and convenience must give way. 
The name of chateau has, therefore, not been retained in 
all cases without meaning. 

CHESTNUT AND OAK ROOFS. 

A MISTAKE has been made, both in England and on the 
Continent, in supposing that the woodwork of Westminster 
Hall, and that of the roofs of many of the oldest of the 
continental churches, are of the sweet Chestnut, and not 
of Oak. The fact is, that there are two, if not three, dis- 
tinct kinds of British oak. The two which are clearly 

♦ HaUam, Hist. Mid. Ages. toI. iii., pp. 4SS, 4S». 

M 



162 POPULAR ERRORS. 

distinct, are the querent robur pedunculata^ and querctu 
robur sessiftora; and the differences between these are found 
alike in every soil and situation. The third, or deer- mast 
oak, is not so strongly marked ; and in many situations it 
appears to approach so nearly to the quercus robur sesti/lorat 
as to be scarcely distinguishable from it. The wood of the 
quercus robur ietdflora, though not suitable for ship-build- 
ing, as it decays m salt water, is yet very strong and dur- 
able when kept dry. The wood of the quercus robur pedun- 
cuiata, when planed, is found to contain a large proportion 
of the silver grain or medullary rays, which the workmen 
call the flower in the wood. Toe wood of the quercus sessp- 
flora, on the contrary, is so deficient in this, as not to be 
distinguishable at first sight from the chestnut ; and hence 
the mistake alluded to. The wood of the chestnut, however, 
though tough and tolerably durable when yoimg, is not at 
all so wlien it has attained the size of a timber-tree. It is, 
indeed, very rare to meet with any chestnut-trees, the 
trunks of which are above a foot in diameter, that have not 
their wood rendered quite worthless by a disease called 
dialling*. 

DURABILITY OF BRICKS. 

An impression exists in reference to the want of Dura- 
bility in Bricks, as a building material, of the correctness 
of which a little reflection will convince us there is some 
doubt, provided they be properly made. So far from being 
the most perishable, they are the most durable, substance; 
and the bricks of Nineveh and Babylon, in the museums, 
show that they were selected by the ancients as the most last- 
ing material Plutarch thinks them superior in durabihty 
to stone, if properly prepared; and it is admitted that the 
baths of Caracalla, tho^e of Titus, and the Thermse of 
Dioclesian, have withstood the effects of time and fire 
better than the stone of the Coliseum, or the marble of the 
Forum of Trajan ; yet the bricks of Nineveh and Babylon 
(and we believe those of the Romans also,) were only sun- 
dried — not baked or burned, as the modem practice is. 

GLAZED WINDOWS. 

The invention of Glass Windows is referred to by Mr. 
Hal]am,t as an essential improvement in the architecture 
of the Middle Ages, which had been ** missed by the sagacity 

* Loudon's Arboretum et Fnitioetum Britannicum. 
\ Hist. Mid. Ages, rol. iii. p. 434. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 163 

of Greece aad Rome." Mr. Hallam then passes to the 
introduction of glazed windows from France into some 
new churches in England, in the seventh century ; and 
concludes tliat glass was not employed in our houses before 
the fourteenth century. "Nor indeed did it come into 
general use during the period of the Middle Ages. Glazed 
windows were considered as moveable furniture, and, pro- 
bably, bore a high price. When the earls of Northumber- 
land, as late as the reign of Elizabeth, left Alnwick Castle, 
the windows were taken out of their frames, and carefully 
laid by*." 

These statements have long been received as facts in 
proof of the comparatively modern use of glass in win- 
dows ; whereas, the discoveries of our times have proved 
them to be erroneous. *' That the ancients were acquainted 
with the use of glass windows, is sufficiently proved b^ the 
quantity of flat glass discovered during the excavations ; 
and also by its having been found ingeniously fitted to 
those rare and minute openings which were dignified with 
the name and office of windows in Pompeiif .* That the 
Romans had also glazed windows in their buildings, in 
Britain, may be reasonably inferred from the discovery of 
glass in some of their stations: as at Camalodunum (Col- 
chester), Aqius So&s (Bath), &c. Indeed, Pennant is of 
opinion that glass-making dates prior to the Roman inva- 
sion ; and glass is stated by St. Jerome to have been used 
to form windows in his time (a.d. 422), at which period 
the Romans quitted England. Hence, we may conclude 
the art to have been lost in this country ; and tne periods 
usually referred to as the dates of its invention, to be those 
of its revival. 

DECORATION OF THE INTERIOR OF HOUSES. 

In this branch of ornamental art, the results are often 
unsatisfactory, from want of a proper acquaintance with 
the eflects of particular colours. Thus, rose-colour, though 
common in paper for rooms, gives a green tint to female 
complexions ; whereas, alight green makes the complexion 
more rosy than it really is. All reds, orange tints, and 
violets, are extremely disadvantageous to the complexion ; 

* Northumberland Household Book, preface, p. 16. Bishop Percy 
says, on the authority of Harriaon, that glasa was not commonly used 
in the reign of Henry VIIL 

t Pompeii, (Lib. Ent Knowledge,) voL i. p. 119. 

m2 



164 POPULAR ERRORS. 

dark colours are difficult to light up. Among the light 
colours, the best are yellow, or light green, or light blue ; 
all these being favourable, not only to the woods used for 
furniture, but also to the complexions of females*. 

STYLE OF LOUIS QUATORZE. 

A STYLE of ornament is now fostered to a great extent, 
and is erroneously termed that of Louis XiV., but which, 
in fact, is the debased manner of the reign of his successor, 
in which grotesque varieties are substituted for classic 
design. It is, in truth, what the French call the style of 
Louis XV. The best style of Louis XIV. is the Roman 
and Italian styles made more sumptuous ; but the mo- 
ment that the grotesque scroll, so common in the reign of 
Louis XV., was introduced, it interrupted the chasteness 
of tlie Roman stylet. 

ANCIENT GLASS -PAINTING. 

Glass-painting has fallen almost to the level of china- 
painting ; but it might be greatly superior now to what 
it was in ancient times. There is an ignorant opinion 
among people that the ancient art of glass-painting is 
completely lost : it is totally void of foundation, for we can 
carry it to a much higher pitch than the ancients, except 
in one particular colour, and we come very near to that 
We can blend the colours, and produce the effects of light 
and shadow, which they could not do, by harmonizing 
and mixing the colours in such a manner, and fixing by 
proper enamelling and burning them, that they shall 
afterwards become just as permanent as those of the an* 
cients, with the additional advantage of throwing in 
superior art j;. Under patronage, and with the advance of 
chemistry, we could achieve the above triumphs; but 
the past will blind us to the advantages whicn we pos- 
sess in our own times. Messrs. Hoadley and Oldfield 
have executed a window for Upwell Church, near Wis- 
beach, which shows that England can boast of artists in 
this way, equal in talent to any in the world. At Hud- 

* M. Chevreurs Experiments on (Colours ; ut ante, p. 155. 

t From the Evidence of Mr. J. B. Papworth, before the Parliamen- 
tary Committee on Arts and Manufactures. 

I Evidence of Mr. John Martin, the historical painter, before Parlia- 
ment. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 165 

dersfield, Yorkshire, is an east window, by Messrs. Ward 
and Nixon, which proves the fallacy of the opinion of the 
art being lost. In this performance, there are some 
splendid ruby tints, which would vie with those of old. 

ANCIENT AQUEDUCTS. 

Many have believed that the ancients were ignorant of 
the law that fluid in pipes will rise to the level of its 
source, because in all the ruins of their Aqueducts, the 
channel is a regular slope. Some of these aqueducts, as 
works of magnitude, are not inferior to the great wall of 
China, or the Egyptian pyramids ; yet, at the present 
day, a single pipe of cast iron is made to answer the same 

Eurpose, and even more perfectly. It is now ascertained, 
owever, that it was not ignorance of the prindple, but 
want of fit material for mdcing the pipes, which cost our 
forefathers such enormous labour*. 

MISCONSTRUCTION OF THEATRES. 

Oua Theatres are susceptible of much improvement ; 
being so planned at present, that many of the audience 
can neither see nor hear properly. This has been erro- 
neously attributed to the large size of some of our houses ; 
for, in the largest of them, all might both see and hear 
distinctly, were it not that accommodation in the way of 
mere sitting, is made for a far greater number than can 
possibly be accommodated in regard to the purpose for 
which it is to be presumed they come thither — namely, 
to enjoy the performance. Many are placed, not at top 
great a distance, but much too near — thrust quite dose 
upon the proscenium, and up to the actors themselves ; 
some directly on one side, so that they can see the stage 
only obliquely; while others are elevated so much above 
it, both in front and on the sides, as to look (juite down 
upon it, and obtain almost a bird*s eye view of it. These 
inconveniences are increased, when, as is the case at 
Covent Garden, and in many foreign theatres, the house 
expands from, or in other words, contracts towards the 
stage ; so that those in the side boxes cannot obtain even a 
side view without turning very considerably to the right 
or left Besides which, every variety of such form, the 

* Dr. Amott'8 Elements of Physics. 



166 POPULAR ERRORS. 

oyal or elliptic, is architecturally disagreeable in itself, 
being attended with a d^ee of irregularity offensively 
perceptible to the eye. The semicircle is^ unquestionably, 
the best figure, because it brings all the spectators, even 
those placed at the extremities of its chord, facine towards, 
though not exactly in front of, the sta^ ; for it, in fact, 
cuts off what can properly be termed side-boxes, or such 
as are at right angles to the diameter or chord*. 

ORNAMENTAL GARDENS. 

One great Error into which we have fallen in England 
is, that nearly all our Gardens, such as they are, are alike. 
The small walled-in gardens of the yillas in the neighbour- 
hood of London ; the distribution of shrubs and flower- 
beds of the London squares ; the college gardens of Oxford 
and Cambridge; the pleasure- gardens of our country resi- 
dences, both great and small, from those of Buckingham- 
place and St. James's Park to the humblest parsonage ; are 
on precisely the same model. They may be said, one and 
all of them, to be formed on a plan, of which the gardens 
of the Petit Trianon of Versailles is an admirable carica- 
ture : indeed, we know of no better method of properly ap- 
preciating and understanding our style, as well as of learning 
now a too strict adherence to its principles rapidly exposes its 
errors, than a visit to some of the imitations of it on the 
Continent, of which the gardens of Malmaison and the 
Trianon will afford happy examplesf . 



IV.— DOMESTIC MANNERS. 



THE ANTIQUE. — ANTIQUITIES. 

Thk term antioue is often erroneously applied to old or 
ancient works ot art; whereas, it properly implies the 
beauty and perfection, and not the age, of such labours. 
Thus, the '< buildings of the Egyptians, although of much 
higher antiquity than even those of the Greeks, are called 

* W. H. Leeds. t Loudon. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 167 

ancient, not antique* P The word antiquity is rarely ap- 
plied with precision. Mr. V^Toods remarks : *' How terms 
change their signification in difierent places ! Four hun- 
dred years give a monument a full claim to antiquity 
in England ; but in Italy they leave it quite modem. 
The name of antiquary is supposed to have been first 
used in England : ** if it be true that Henry VIII. conferred 
it in an especial manner on Lelandt.' The adjective 
antiquarian is often used erroneously for antiquary. 



THE STUDY OF ANTIQUITIES 

Is often denounced as puerile and unprofitable, and not 
without some show of reason. The main Error of our 
English antiquaries has arisen from their narrowing their 
views to particular points of research, and thus confounding 
the interest arising from singularity with the interest of 
history. 

Mr. Hallam acutely observes, with respect to the 
minute details of the antiquary^ that, although '*it is 
hard to say what may not supply matter for a reflecting 
mind, there is always some danger of losing sight of grand 
objects in historical disquisition, by too laborious a re- 
search into trifles t*^* 



PAST AND PRESENT TIMES. 

There are two Errors into which we easily slip when 
thinking of Past Times. One lies in forsetting, in the 
excellence of what remains, the large overbalance of worth- 
lessness that has been swept away. The second habitual 
Error is, that in this comparison of ages we divide time 
merely into Past and Present, and place these into the 
balance to be weighed against each other ; not considering 
that the present is in our estimation not more than a 
period of thirt}r years, or half a century at most ; and that 
the past is a mighty accumulation of many such periods, 
perhaps the whole of recorded time, or, at least, the whole 
of that portion of it in which our own country has been 
distinguished §. 

* Britton. f Archcologia, vol. i. X Hlat. Mid. Ages, vol. ill. p. 303. 

§ Coleridge. 



168 POPULAR ERRORS. 

THE FEUDAL STSTElf. 

In the present days of boasted liberty, it is more than 
probable that the benefits of the Feudal System have been 
forgotten amidst its abuses. " The system of servitude 
which prevailed in the earlier periods of our history was 
not of that unmitigated character that may be supposed. 
No man, in those days, could prey upon society unless he 
were at war with it as an outlaw — a proclaimed and open 
enemy. Rude as the laws were, the purposes of law had 
not then been perverted ; it had not been made a craft ; 
it served to deter men from committing crimes or to 
punish them for the commission; never to shield noto- 
rious, acknowledged, impudent guilt, from condign pun- 
ishment. And in the fabric of society, imperfect as it 
was, the outlines and rudiments of what it ought to be, 
were distinctly shown in some main parts, where they are 
now well-nigh utterly effaced. Every person had his 
place ; there was a system of superintendence everywhere, 
civil as well as religious. They who were born in villein- 
age were born to an inheritance of labour, but not of inevi- 
tSblc depravity and wretchedness. If one class were 
regarded in some respects as cattle, they were at least 
taken care of: they were trained, fed, sheltered, and pro- 
tected; and there was an eye upon them when they 
strayed. But, how large a part of our present population 
are unowned, unbroken to any useful purpose, subsisting 
by chance or by prey; hving in filth, mischief, and 
wretchedness ; a nuisance to me community while they 
live, and dying miserably at last*." 

ENGLISH GLUTTONY. 

A QUAINT writer, of the time of Henry II., tells us that 
''the English were universally addicted to drunkenness, 
continuing over their cups day and night, keeping open 
houses, and spending the income of their estates in riotous 
feasts, where eating and drinking were carried to excess 
without any elegance." Upon this passage, Lord Kaimes 
observes : ** People who live in a corner imagine every- 
thing is peculiar to themselves. What is here said of the 
Engush IS common to all nations in advancing from the 
selfishness of savages to a relish for society, but who have 
not yet learned to bridle their appetites." 

* Southey's Colloquies. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 169 



TBE SUMPTUARY LAWS. 

Few enactments have been mote erroneous in principle, 
or in operation more detrimental to national prosperity, 
than the Sumptuary Laws; by which, among ancient 
nations in the midst of their highest luxury, and in the 
earlier ages of our own history, the legislature so vainly, 
and it may be added so unjustly, endeavoured to prevent 
the various ranks of men from enjoying the fruits of their 
industry or of their patrimonial possessions. ^* There is 
hardly," says Mr. Macculloch, ''a single article among 
those that are now reckoned most indispensable to exist- 
ence, or a single improvement of any sort, which has not 
been denounced at its introduction as a useless super- 
fluity, or as being in some way injurious. Few articles of 
clothing are at present considered more indispensable than 
shirts ; but there are instances on record of individuals 
being put in the pillory for presuming to wear so expen- 
sive and unnecessary a luxury ! Chimneys were not com- 
monly used in England till the middle of the sixteenth 
century ; and, in the introductory discourse to Holin- 
shed's Chronicles, published in 1577, there is a bitter 
complaint of the multitude of chimneys lately erected, of 
the exchange of straw pallets for mattresses or fiock-beds, 
and of wooden platters for earthenware and pewter. In 
another place, he laments that nothing but oak is used for 
building, instead of willow as heretofore; adding that 
* f(»inerly our houses indeed were of willow, but our men 
were of oak ; but now that our houses are of oak, our men 
are not only of willow, but some altogether of straw, 
which is a sore alteration.' " 

Mr. Hallam remarks that the Sumptuary Laws enacted in 
France and England, during the fourteenth century, by 
the governments, to restrain the extravagance of their 
subjects, may well justify the severe indignation which 
Adam Smith has poured upon all such interference with 
private expenditure. '* The kings of France and England 
were, undoubtedly, more egr^ous spendthrifts than any 
others in their dominions ; and contributed far more by 
their love of pageantry to excite a taste for dissipation in 
their people, tiian by their ordinances to repress it*." 

* Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. Ul. p. 413. 



170 POPULAR ERRORS. 



" OVEB-BEFINEMENT." 



This is a commonly misapplied term, if not altogether 
an erroneous one. " Refinement on the pleasures and con- 
veniences of life has no natural tendency" says David 
Hume, *'to b^et venality and corruption. The value 
which all men put upon any particular pleasure depends 
on comparison and experience ; nor is a porter less greedy 
of money, which he spends on bacon and brandy, than a 
courtier who purchases champagne and ortolans. Riches 
are valuable at all times, and to all men, because they 
always purchase pleasures such as men are accustomed to 
and desire ; nor can anything restrain and regulate the 
love of money but a sense of honour and virtue, which, if 
it be not nearly equal at all times, will generaUy abound 
most in ages of knowledge and refinement." 

BENEFITS OF MONASTERIES. 

Upon the suppression of the Monasteries, the poor, of 
course, missed the doles which they had been accustomed 
to receive at their gates ; and wheat rose to three times its 
former price, whereas it had varied very little for three 
centuries previously. The people attributed this solely to 
the dissolution of the Monasteries, as indicated in an old 
Somersetshire song of the day : — 

** m tell thee what, good yellowe, 

Before the vrian went hence, 
A bushel of the best wheate. 

Was zold for vourteen pence ; 
And Torty eggs a penny 

That were both good and newe ; 
And this I say, myself have se^i. 

And yet I am no Jewe." 

The people were in Error here; although there was, 
undoubtedly, much almsgiving at the monasteries. Meek- 
ness, self-denial, and charity, ''rather than justice and 
veracity, were inculcated by the religious ethics of the 
Middle Ages ; and in the reuef of indigence, it may, upon 
the whole, be as^-erted, that the monks did not fall short of 
their profession*.* Upon which the author notes : " but it 
is a strange Error to conceive that English monasteries, 
before the Dissolution, fed the indigent part of the nation, 

♦ Hallam, Hist Mid. Ages, vol. UL p. 350. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 171 

and gave that general relief which the poor laws are in- 
tended to affi>rd." — The greater cause of the ahove rise in 
the price of wheat was the'pouring of the precious metals 
into Europe, or, in other words, the increase of money, 
through the discovery of America ; when the money-value 
of provisions hecame greater, although the real value 
remained the bama 

LIVING IN ANCIENT TIMES. 

We have reached, in this age, so high a pitch of luxury, 
that we can hardly believe, or comprehend, the frugality 
of Ancient Times ; and have, in general, formed mistaken 
notions as to the habits of expenditure which then pre- 
vailed. Accustomed to judge of feudal and chivalrous 
ages by works of fiction, or by historians who embellished 
their writings with accounts of occasional festivals and tour- 
naments, and were sometimes inattentive enough to transfer 
the manners of the seventeenth to the fourteenth century, 
we are not at all aware of the usual simplicity with which 
the gentry lived under Edward I., or even Henry VI, 
They drank little wine, they had no foreign luxuries; 
they rarely or never kept male servants, except for hus- 
bandry ; their horses, as we mav guess by the price, were 
indifferent; they seldom travelled beyond their county. 
And even then nospitality must havel)een greatly limited, 
if the value of manors were really no greater than we find 
it in many surveys. Twenty-four seems a sufficient 
multiple when we would raise a sum mentioned by a writer 
under Edward f • to the same real value expressed in our 
present money ; but an income of 10/. or 20/. was reckoned 
a competent estate for a gentleman ; at least, the lord of a 
single manor would seldom have enjoyed more. A knight 
who possessed \50L per annum, passed for extremely 
rich*. Yet this was not equal in command over commo- 
dities to 4000/. at present, fiut this income was compara- 
tively free from taxation, and its expenditure lightened 
by the services of his villeins. Such a person, however, 
must have been among the most opulent of the country 
gentlemen. Sir John Fortescue speaks of five pounds 
a-year as " a fair living for a yeomanf .** So when Sir 
mUlam Drury, one of the richest men in Suffolk, be- 

* Macpheraon, Annals, p. 424. from Matt Paris. 

t DifRarenoe of Limited and Absolute Monairchy, p. 133. 



172 POPULAR ERRORS. 

queaths, in 1493, fifty marks to each of his daughters, we 
must not imagine that this was of greater value than four 
or five hundred pounds of this day ; hut remark the family 
pride, and want of ready money, which induced country 
gentlemen to leave their younger children in poverty*. 
Or, if we read that the expense of a scholar at the uni- 
versity, in 1514, was but five pounds annually, we should 
err in supposing that he had the liberal accommodation 
which the present age deems indispensable ; but consider 
how much could be afforded for about sixty pounds, which 
would be not far from the proportion. And what would a 
modern lawyer say to the following entry in the church- 
wardens* accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, for 1476 : 
''Also paid to Roger Tylpott^ learned in the law, for his 
counsel-giving, 3*. 8rf., tuith J'ourpence for his dinnerf." 
Though fifteen times the fee might not seem altogether 
inadequate at present, five shillings would hardly furnisli 
the table of a barrister, even if the fastidiousness of our 
manners would admit of his accepting such a dole;];. 

ELIZABETHAN LIVING. 

It is the vulgar idea that Queen Elizabeth's maids of 
honour breakfasted on beef-steaks and ale, and that wine 
was such a rarity as to be sold only by apothecaries as a 
cordial. The science of good living was as well understood 
in those days as it is now, though the fashion might be 
somewhat different : the nobility had French cooks ; and 
among the dishes enumerated, we find *'uot only beef, 
mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, rabbit, capon, pig;" but 
also red, or fallow deer, and a great variety of fish and 
wild fowl, with pastry and creams, Italian confections, 
and preserved fruits, and sweetmeats from Portugal ; nay, 
we are even told of cherries served up at twenty shillings 

* Hist, of Hawsted, p. 141. 

t Nichols's Illustrations, p. 2. One fact of this class did, I own, 
stagger me. The great Earl of Warwick writes to a private gentleman. 
Sir Thomas Tuddenham, begging the loan of twenty pounds, to makeup 
a sum he had to pay. Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 84. What way shal 
we make this commensurate to the present value of money ? But an 
ingenious friend suggested, what I do not question is the case, that this 
was one ofmany letters addressed to the adherents of Warwick, in order 
to raise, by their contributions, a considerable sum. It is curious, in 
this light, as an illustration of manners. 

t Hallam, Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. iiLpp. 451-453. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 173 

a pound. The variety of wines can hardly be exceeded at 
present : for a writer of Elizabeth's time mentions fifty- 
six different kinds of French wine« and thirty-six Spanish 
and Italian wine, imported into England*^. 

ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE. 

When we speak of the Elizabethan style^ or the Eliza- 
bethan period, of Literature^ we use an expression which 
is not altogether correct; for the forty-four years of 
Elizabeth's reign embraced more than one period of style, 
both in poetry and in prose. The literature of the earlier 
years of this reign exhibits much of the simplicity of tlie 
olden literature, but is ratlier mediocre : in the middle of the 
reign the taste for learning and foreign languages, mixed 
witii the peculiar character of the court of the virgin 
queen^ proiciuced a style that was full of pedantry and far- 
fetched conceits; whilst in the latter years of this century 
we have the first examples of that pure nervous style which 
characterised so many of the writers of the following age. 
In illustration of wiiat we have just said, we need only 
observe, that the celebrated play of '* Gammer Gurton's 
Needle" war written in the earlier years, and that some of 
the best pieces of Shakspeare appeared in the latter years, 
of the reign of Elizabethf. 

BEEF-EATERS. 

From Henry VIII. it is thought that the yeomen of the 
guard derived the sobriquet by which they are known to 
every child in the realm — that of Beef-eaters, through the 
King's trick upon the surfeit-sick Al)00t of Reading. The 
roysl frolic has been often related : it is enough here to 
remark, thatit was performed in the disguise of a yeoman, 
and ended by restoring to the Abbot his appetite for beef. For 
certain inquirers, however, this explanation was too literal, 
or, perhaps, displayed too little learning : so, etymologists 
condemned the explanation as a vulgar Error, and traced 
Beef-eaters to BuffeHers, from the yeomen of the guard 
who waited at the royal table at great solemnities, and 
were ranged near the buffets, or sideboards!]:. The former 
origin, nevertheless, seems the more probable, if any, than 
the obvious looks and living of the men themselves, is at 
all wanted. 

* Mrs. Jameson. f Literary Gazette. 

^ See Antiq. Repert. edit. 1806. vol. ii. p. 396. 



174 POPULAR ERRORS. 



'^ THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND." 

In the Notes to Hume*s History of England, voL i., SS, 
are some extracts from the Household Book of the establish- 
ment of the fifth earl of Northumberland, begun in 1512 ; 
and no baron's family lived on a more splendid scale. Yet 
they lived mostly upon salted meat. Thus : '* Six hundred 
and forty-seven sheep are allowed, at twenty-pence apiece ; 
and these seem to be all eat salted, except between Lammas 
and Michaelmas, p. 5. Only twenty-five hogs are allowed, 
at two shillings apiece ; twenty-eight vesus at twenty- 
pence ; forty lambs at tenpence or a shilling, p. 7. These 
seem to be reserved for my lord's table, or that of the upper 
servants, called the knights' table. The other servants, as 
they ate salted meat almost through the whole year, and 
with few or no vegetables, had a very bad and unhealthy 
diet: so that there cannot be anything more erroneous 
than the magnificent ideas formed of the Roast Beef of Old 
England" Probably, this national dish is not older than 
the time of Charles II., when a roast chine of beef was a 
favourite supper viand ; although this inference is from 
better authority than the anecdote of Charles kniehting a 
loin of beef (Sir-loin), upon an oak table lately shown at 
Friday Hill House, Chin^ord, Essex. 



^' BALLET OIL." 

Persons generally imagine this term to be a vulgar 
corruption of '' Salad Oil;" whereas it applies to a different 
kind of oil to that used in salads. The trudi is, the sallet 
was the head-piece in the times that defensive armour was 
so much in use, and the sallet-oil was that sort of oil which 
was used for cleaning and brightening it. Thus, we have 
'' a sallet and ij sculles " in the inventory of Mr. Lawrence, 
Rector of Stawely, co. Derb. The word occurs again in 
the inventory of Pet. Tretchvile, Esq., anno 1581 ; and 
also in the description of the sarcasticsd coat of Cardinal 
Wolsey : — 

'* Arise up Jacke, and put on thy salatt." 

We see, therefore, that the oH retained the name long 
after the sallet was out of use. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 175 

FLAGS ON CASTLES. 

That noblemen and gentlemen of ancient families should 
not more frequently display a banner of their arms on their 
castles^ instead of the national flag, which, properly speak- 
ing, they have not the slightest right to use, arises perhaps 
as much from ignorance and indifference as from modesty. 
They would laugh at the idea of painting a shield charged 
with the union badge on their carriages ; and yet they pkce 
it over their residences, though it would be as appropriate 
in one place as in the other How much more in character 
with all the associations which our inhabited castles, and 
ancient family mansions, are calculated to excite, would be 
a banner of the quartered coats of the family, to denote the 
presence of the owner, than the incongruous combination 
which is usually adopted for the nationsd flag*. This obser- 
vation applies, mutatis mutandit, to Arundel and Alnwick 
Castles ; Chatsworth, Wobum, and other noble seatsf . 

"up with the sun." 

To rise with the Sun, implies, in common parlance, very 
early habits, of difficult attainment. But, " we rise with the 
sun at Christmas : it were but continuing to do so till the 
middle of April, and without any perceptible change, we 
should find ourselves then rising at five o'clock ; at which 
hour we might continue till September, and then accom- 
modate ourselves again to the change of season, regulating 
always the time of retiring in the same proportion. They 
who require eight hours' sleep would, upon such a system^ 
go to bed at nine during four months;];. 

THE CURFEW. 

Th£ erroneous notions which long prevailed upon the 
original object of the Curfew, show how liable men are to 
overcharge the memory of an oppressor, and to mistake 
good for evil intentions, simply because they emanate from 
a man usually characterised tor cruelty. The custom of 
covering up fires about sunset in summer, and about eight 
at night in the winter, at the ringing of a bell, called the 

* These standards are sometimes very costly. The rojral standard at 
Windsor Castle is fourte^i yards in length, and eight in hreadth, and 
cost two hundred pounds. 

t Retrospective Review. } Southey's Colloquies. 



176 POPULAR ERRORS. 

cnuvre-feu* or curfew-bell, is supposed to have been intro- 
duced by William I., and to have been imposed upon the 
English as a badge of servitude ; and it oas often been 
quoted to show with what severity the Conqueror sought 
to press his cruel government, even to the very fire-sides 
of our forefathers. Thus> we read of the Battle of Hast* 
ings becoming a tale of sorrow, which old men narrated 
by the light of the embers until warned to silence by the 
tolling of the curfew. Thomson, in his Seasons, counte- 
nances this opinion of the tyranny of the custom : 

*< The shivering wretches at the curfew sound, 
Deflected sunk into their sordid beds* 
And through the mournful gloom of ancioit times. 
Mused sad, or dreamt of better." 

Henry, in his History of Britain^ qto. edit., vol. iii. p. 567, 
however, says this opinion does not seem well-founded ; 
for there is sufficient evidence that the same custom pre- 
vailed in France, Spain, Italy, Scotland, and probably in 
all the other countries of Europe, at this period: it was 
intended as a precaution against fires, which were then 
very freauent and very destructive when so many houses 
were built of wood ; and of such fires the Saxon Chro- 
nicle makes frequent mention. Again, the Curfew is 
stated to have been used in England at a much earlier 
date than the Conqueror *8 reign, and by one of England's 
best monarchs, Alfred, the restorer of the University of 
Oxford ; who ordained that all the inhabitants of that city 
should, at the ringing of the Curfew- bell at Carfax, cover 
up their fires and go to bed ; which custom, it is stated in 
Peshall's History of Oxford^ '* is observed to this day, and 
the bell as constantly rings at eight as Great Tom toUs at 
nine.** It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that the 
Conqueror revived or continued the custom, which he had 
previously established in Normandy, and regarded in botli 
countries as a beneficial law of police. 

We likewise find the Curfew mentioned to a very late 
period as a common and approved r^ulation, which would 
not have been the case had it been originally imposed as 
"a badge of servitude," or a law to prevent the people 
meeting to concert by their fire-sides the means of resist- 

* The name is also traced to the Norman earr^au. Pasqulur states 
It to be derived from car/ou or ffarefoUt as being fotended to adverti-e 
the people to secure themselTee from the robbers and rereUen of tho 
night. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 177 

ing William's oppressive rule. We even find the ringing 
of the Curfew*beU provided for hy bequests of tracts of 
land or other property ; although this ringing was but the 
relic of the custom ; for the people are not supposed to 
have been compelled to put out their fires and lights 
beyond the reign of William II. Henry I. restored. the 
use of lamps and candles at court in the night, after the 
ringing of the Curfew-bell, which had been prohibited by 
his predecessors*. 

Polydore Vergil favours the vulgar notion of the cus- 
tom being oppressive, by observing: *'in order that he 
(William) mignt convert the native ferocity of the people 
into indolence and sloth^ he deprived them of their arms, 
and ordained that each head of a family should retire to 
rest about eight o'clock in the evening, having raked the 
ashes over his fire; and that for tliis purpose a sign should 
be made through every village, which is even now pre- 
served, and called in the Norman Coverfeu.^ Voltaire, in 
his Universal Dictionary ^ on the other hand, ridicules the 
idea of the Curfew being a badge of degradation, and 
r^ards it as only " an ancient police.** 

In further proof that the custom cannot justly be con- 
sidered as evidence of an unworthy state of subjection, is 
the fact that the obligation to extinguish fires and lights 
at a certain hour was imposed upon his subjects by 
David I., King of Scotland, in his Leges Burgorum ; and 
in this case, no one ever imagined that it conveyed any 
sign of infamy or servitude. 

ANCIENT VALUE OF MONEY. 

In reading the many curious records which are pre- 
served to us of the comparative expense of living in past 
ages, its amount, at first sight, appears almost incredibly 
lowt; the reader, in few cases, rightly estimating the 
Comparative Value of Money in the past and present times. 

« Wm. Malmab. fol. 88. 

t In 1299, the price of a fat Iamb in London, from Christmas to 
Shrovetide, was 16d. (Stillingfleet'6 Chronicutfi itu«t{ctim,p.€6.) Three 
years afterwards, the price of a fat wether was U., and that of a ewe 8d. 
(Dugdale's Hist. 8U Paul's Cathedral) ; and in 1309, there is a notice 
of an extravagant price given on occasion of an installation feast : 
two hundred sheep cost 30/., or 3s. per head. (W. Thorn, inter Decern 
Bcriptores.) The reader will not much err, if he multiplies these sums 
by 15, as expressive of their proportionate value at the present day. 

N 



178 



POPULAR ERRORS. 



Tha8> the silver shilling in the twelfth century, and for 
some centuries afterwards, weighed three times as much 
as it now does ; and, on account of the scarcity of money, 
the expense of living varied from one-fifth to one-eighth 
of what it does at the existing period. The real propor* 
tioa is continually varying; but, in order to avoid 
exaggeration, and to arrive at an even sum, 6| has 
been assumed as the general average, and this multiplied 
by three gives twenty ; or, in other words, the value of a 
certain sum then was equal to twenty times as much as at 
the present day. From the increasing quantity of the 
circulating medium, soon after this period the difference 
in the expense of living decreased to the average of five ; 
and ther^ore, and for some centuries to come, the multi- 
plier will be fifteen instead of twenty «. 



PORTRAITS ON OOINS. 

Thb fidelity of the likenesses of the English monarchs 
on their Coins, has been strangely overrated ; and has led 
to many erroneous impressions of the persons! characteris- 

* Youatt, on Sheep, p. 200. 
The following Comparative Table of English Money is from Sir Frede- 
rick M. Eden's State <^ the Poor^ i^e. The unit, or present Talne 
refers, of course, to that of the shilling before the last coinage, which, 
reduced It : — 



Conquest 1^^ 

18 E.I 1306 

18 E.III 1344 

80 E. Ill 1346 

87 E.III. 1353 

13 H. IV 1412 

4 E.IV. 1464 

18 H. VIII 1527 

34 H. VIII 1543 

86 H. VIII 1945 

37 H. VIII 1646 

5 E. VI 1551 

6 K. VI 1552 

1 Bfary 1553 

2 Elii. 1560 

43 Blia. 1601 



vutt0 OE roana iwrung 
present Money. 


Proportion. 


£. i. 


d. 




2 18 


U 


2.906 


* 17 


5 


2.871 


2 12 


H 


2.622 


2 11 


8 


2.583 


2 6 


6 


2.825 


1 18 


9 


1.937 


I 11 





1-55 


1 7 


H 


1.378 


1 3 


H 


1.163 


13 


Uk 


0.698 


9 


H 


0.466 


4 


n 


0.232 


1 


61 


1.028 


1 


51 


1.024 


1 


8 


1.033 


1 





1.000 



POPULAR ERRORS. 179 

tics of our sovereigns; although there is an epoch at which 
these representations assume some claim to authratidty. 
An ingenious writer has compared the monarchs anterior 
to Henry VIII. to ''the visioned line of Banquo, imagi- 
nary creations, with so strong a family resemblance even 
in tueir dresses, that we may exclaim with Macbeth, the 

* other gold-bound brow is like the first, 
A third is like the former. 
Why do you ahow me this? ' 

The time is fast arriving, however, when it will be gene- 
rally acknowledged, that to stamp such false impressions 
upon the ph'ant but retentive mind of youth, is worse 
than leaving it a blank altogether. To a child a picture 
is a picture, and it is as easy, and much wiser, to place the 
authentic instead of the fictitious resemblance before it, as 
soon as it is capable of being interested by either*." 

Numismatists are not, however, uniform in their opi- 
nions as to the extent of the reliance to be placed upon these 
medallic portraits. Mr. J. Y. Akerman observes : " it is 

Suite evi(^nt ^at the effigies of the English monarchs on 
iieir coins are not likenesses until the time of Henry VIII., 
whatever the ingenious may say to the contrary. Some 
have supposed mat the rude figures on the Saxon coins 
are likenesses, but the idea is ridiculous. Folkes, in his 
Table of English Silver Coins, remarks that the kings of 
England are represented bearded on their great seals, but 
always smooth-faced on their coinst." 

Mr. Till observes upon this interesting point of identity : 
''having paid some attention to the portraits of our 
sovereigns, I am decidedly of opinion that we occasionally 
see a real, though rough, likeness in profile of our earliest 
kings, even of William I. As to Henry I. and Stephen, 
any one who is a judge of portraits may find, on compS^ 
rison, a certain profile preserved throughout. With full- 
faced coins, the case is different ; though I have seen a 
halfpenny and a gold noble of Richard II., both struck 
when he was a boy, and conveying, to a certain extent, 
the image of the youthful sovereign. But, it is not until 
the reign of Henry VIII. that we obtain a real likeness on 
a fuU-taced coin t-" 

* Planch^'s History of British Costume, p. 233. 
t Nnmismfttic Manual, page 139» note. 
% Eaaay on the Roman Denarius, dec. p. 67i note. 

Nl2 



180 POPULAR ERRORS. 

Want of judgment in the engravers at the Royal Mint 
has, doubtless, multiplied these Errors in modern as in an- 
cient times. This is especially instanced in the coinage of 
George III. The head of this monarch upon his croivn- 
piece by Pistrucci is, as to likeness, completely erroneous. 
Indeed, this artist, Mr. Till infers, " never could have seen 
George III. It excites our risibility to notice the first 
half-crown of tliis monarch, exhibiting our respected old 
king with a neck like unto a gladiator. This, it appears, 
did not please : another was executed ; the fault, if any, 
was mended, and, still no likeness, * * If the head on 
the crown-piece was a likeness, why not then have engraved 
the half-crowns from the same model ? They present very 
different portraits altogether; surely, this must be very 
absurd — what can be more ridiculous, than to see three 
coins representing the same person, issued at one and the 
same time, all bearing different countenances ? Why not 
have taken the copper twopenny piece, engraved at Soho, 
(near Birmingham,) by Kutchler, as a copy ? — this is like 
the Sovereign, probably one of the best likenesses extant ; 
or, if at a loss, many fine medals by the same artist, or the 
Wyons, convey a faithful resemblance of George III." 

^till, the scepticism as to likenesses on coins may be 
carried too far ; and, to guard against any misconception 
on this point, a competent writer observes : *' the tyro in 
numismatics must not be led into the notion that little 
dependence is to be placed on the fidelity of medallic por- 
traits in general. No conclusion would be more false. 
The instances commented upon are peculiar exceptions, 
thoroughly understood by experienced numismatists ; and 
so far from misleading, (them,) merely amuse by the skill 
and ingenuity they display. The fact that these ingenui- 
ties are so easily detected, proves the truth of the standard 
likenesses with which the regular coins abundantly furnish 
us. Certainly, excessive flattery prevailed on ancient coins, 
though scarcely more so than it does on most modern 
medals; but this was worked into the legends, and imagin- 
ary devices, while the portraits were studiously copied 
from the reality*." 

4 Numismatic Journal, April 1837. Inoomiexion with the ahove 
inquiry, we may remark, that the authenticity of Houbraken's cele- 
brated portraits of English sovereigns, whence the illustrations to our 
popular histories have mostly been copied, rests upon very slender 
inferenoe. ** Houbraken, as the late Lord ,Orford Justly obswes, was 



POPULAR ERRORS. 18l 



QUEEN ANNe's FARTHINOS. 



Few Errors have become more popular than that of the 
extreme rarity of the Farthing coinage of Queen Anne. 
Many a tyro in numismatics^ on inspecting the cabinet of 
a com collector, has exclaimed : *' But you have not a 
Farthing of Queen Anne? You know there were only 
three of them struck*/* And so current has been this belief, 
that, probably, no practical Error has occasioned more 
mischief and mortification to those who have been misled 
by it, than that which we are about to elucidate. This task 
has often been attempted, but has never been so satisfacto- 
rily performed as by our friend, Mr. William Till, the 
respectable medallist, in London ; who, at our request, in 
the year 1885, drew up as complete an explanation of the 
Error as his extensive acquaintance with numismatics, 
and his long experience in coin-dealing, enabled him to 
accomplish. 

Mr. Till observes : ** it will scarcely be believed, that 
persons from almost all parts of England have travelled to 
the metropolis, on the qui vive to make, as they supposed, 
their fortunes, with a Farthing, or a presumed Farthing of 
Anne, in their possession ; and which, on being taken to 
the British Museum, has been found to be almost or 
entirely worthless|f . From Y ork, and even from Ireland, 
persons have come : a poor man from the former, and a 
man and his wife from the latter, place. Indeed, it is to 
be r^etted, that these are not the only instances known 
by many. Most of our countrymen labour under the 
delusion, that Queen Anne struck only three Farthings : 
/ beg leave most unequivocally ^ and with deferenceyto assure 

ignonint of our history* unfnquisitlTe into the authenticity of the 
drawings which were transmitted to him, and engraved whatever was 
«ent; adducingtwoinstance8,namely,Carr,Earlof Somerset, and Secre- 
tary Thurloe, as not only spurious, hut not having the least resemblance 
' to the persons they pretend to represent. An anonymous, but evidently 
well-infonned writer, (in the Qentleman*t Magazine^) further states, 
that Thurloe's, and about thirty of the others, are copied from heads 
painted for no one knows who."— Lodge's Illustrated Biography. 

* If you answer in the affirmative, he is ready for you, armed at all 
points, with the old story: <*Why, there never were but three: the 
Museum has two of them, and would give a large gum for the third ! " 
t In the Titnest Sept 26, 1826, a magistrate relates the circumstance 
of a poor man coming to London from Bedfordshire with a real hut com- 
mon Farthing of Queen Anne, in the hope of making his fortune by it. 



182 POPULAR ERRORS. 

them, that Farthingi of her were ttruck to the number of tome 
hundreds. To trace, with any degree of certainty, this 
fable to its original source, would be extremelv difficult ; 
but from information obtained from our chief medallist, 
it appears that some years since, a lady in Yorkshire 
having, by accident, lost a Farthing of Anne, which, from 
some circumstance or other, was rendered valuable to her, 
she offered a reward for the same, thereby stamping a 
fallacious and ridiculous value on it. Others, on the con- 
trary, believe that only three were struck, and that the die 
broke on striking the third f. 

* Mr. Till states, that there mnst have been from 900 to 500 of the tax- 
things issued, as they are, by no means, rare ; and he has seen no lees 
than 38 of them at one time. 

In the O^erver newspaper, date 1837* it is stated : '* we have heard 
from good authority, that the keepers of the British Museum are con- 
tinually pestered with letters and applications upon this subject ; and 
It la not rery long since a noble Earl addressed a letter to the trustees, 
or some of the officers, for information, in consequence of one of his 
lordship's tenants having discovered what he thought was * a Queen 
Anne's Farthing." ** It may be in recollection of some of our readers, 
that the famous Mr. Christie, the auctioneer, sold one of these spurious 
coins for several hundred pounds." The Rev. Dr. Dibdin (in his 
Northern Tour^ p. 733) relates: ** One of Uiem, of 1713, was shown to 
me by a father, who said he should leave it to his son, as a 500/. legacy." 

t The Britiih Press newspaper of the 14th of February, 1814, and 
the Numismatic Joumai, April, 1837, contain the report oi a very 
curious trial which took place at Dublin, relating to one of these pieces. 
In the Observer^ just quoted, the writer. In an attempted explanation of 
the Error, states : ** What will the reader think when he is informed that 
there is not, nor ever teas, a tingle Queen Annexe Farthing in esritteneef 
yet such is the truth. The following particulars are derived from a 
source on which the most confident reliance may be placed, and they 
will abundantly clear up the whole mystery. Some time before the 
death of Queen Anne, it was her,intention to issue a coinage of Far- 
things, and she gave directions to that effect. Those directions more 
particularly were, that three dies of different patterns should be sank, 
and a specimen of each struck off for the queen's inspection, and she 
was to select one out of the three. This was accordingly done; but 
before the queen had signified her approbation of either, she expired ; 
and, of course, there was no issue of a further coinage in her reign. 
The dies became useless ; but it is probable that before th^ wen 
destroyed, many other impressions were taken from them, and given 
away as curiosities. Hence it is easy to account for the number of 
Queen Anne's Farthings which have, from time to time, been hronghk 
to light ; but it is obviously a mistake so to call them, because they 
never could become the coin of the realm without the sovereign's sanc- 
tion ; and no such prodamation is on record." Unfortunately for 
this explanation, the specimen with the date 1714, the year of Anne's 



POPULAR ERRORS. 183 

'* In the British Mnseam;' continues Mr. Till, ** are six 
distinct varieties of the Farthings of Queen Anne : indeed, 
there may he said to he seven ; but one wrt alone really 
drculatecC and this is the variety on which we see the 
figure of Britannia on the reverse, and below it, in the 
exergue, the date 1714, (No. 6.) I count, in my own 
cahinet, from fifteen to twenty of them. 

'' The other six varieties are what are termed pattern 
pieces, struck for approval, but from whidi no copies for 
circulation have been taken. The portraits on theooverses 
are much the same; the busts ornamented with drapery, 
and the head adorned with a string of pearls. The reverses, 
except in one instance, differ from the common Farthing 
which circulated; and, on the pattern, in which no dif- 
ference exists, we find, instead of ' Anna Dei Gratia,' the 
l^nd * Anna Regina,' surrounding the queen^s bust 
This pattern is rare." 

The value of these Farthings varies from U to 3/. ; but 
the scarcest has brought upwards of 5/. at a public auc- 
tion. It is, however, only important here to specify the 
value of the common and real Farthing of Anne, which 
was current generally, and which is stat^ by Mr. Till 
to bring from 78. to 12*., " and if extremely fine in preser- 
vation, may be worth a guinea. Some are found with a 
broad rim, and are considered more scarce than the others. 
I speak of these coins as being in copper." Dr. Dibdin 
states the value of this Farthing to be under 5s. Mr. J. Y. 
Ackerman, a numismatist, recognises ** the common current 
farthing of Anne " as scarce, but scarcer with the broad rim*. 

** Having described the real and pattern Farthinss of 
Queen Anne, (adds Mr. Till,^ it may be desirame to 
mention a lot of trumpery tOKens of brass, which have 
caused much trouble to the possessors, as well as annov- 
ance to others, particularly to the officers attached to the 
medal-rooms of the British Museum. 

death, is by no means rare. Dr. Dibdin states, tkat "Anne was always 
arerse to a copper coinage, though much wanted. Croker ezorted his 
abilities in engraving the dies, hoping their elegance and beauty would 
merit her attention ; but it was to no purpose. The queen could not be 
brought to hear of a copper coinage ; and the nominal Queen Anne's 
Farthings are these trial pieoeB.''^Northern Tourt page 733. 

* For further details, see the Mirror ^ No. 722. Mr. Till has reprinted 
his communication, with additions and corrections, in his ingenious 
little Essay on the Roman Denarius and English BUTor Penny, 1897. 



184 POPULAR ERR0R9. 

*' These tokens of brass are thinner than the real copper 
Farthings of Aime. On the head side, they present you 
with an execrable bust of the queen, with a long, scra^y 
neck, unlike that of this sovereign, with the legend * Anna 
Dei Gratia.* On the reverse, me royal arms in the shape 
of a cross, (roses are sometimes seen between the quarter- 
ings ;) indeed, very similar to the shilling of Anne before 
the Union : their date, generally, 171 1. These worthless 
counters have caused an immense deal of trouble: the 
lower classes becoming possessed of them, and starting off 
(as before stated) for London, to make their fortunes. They 
would not be worth noticing here, were it not to publisn 
them as pieces of no value whatever *." 



ERROR HALFPENCE. 

Of all the blunders which have emanated from our 
National Mint, those of the two Error Halfpence of 
George II. and George III., formerly termed " Tower 
Halfpence," stand pre-eminent. Indeed, it must ever 
remain a matter of astonishment, that such a circumstance 
could have taken place. If the collector of these coins 
will take the trouble to search, he will find, in the year 
1730, one of the halfpence of the first-named sovereign 
spelled GEOoius. This certainly is very extraordinary ; 
but, is it not much more so to find, subsequently, one 
issuing from the Mint of his successor, George III. , like- 
wise mis-spelt ? This reads oeokius instead of georgius, 
and was issued in 1772. There is reason to believe, that, 
after the latter coins were circulated, a reward was ofiered 
for each piece, if returned to the Mint. This is probable, 
as they were more rare than those of George II f . 

LIGHT GUINEAS. 

W£ are too apt to consider a much-worn Guinea to be 
of short weight. Mr. Hatchett has, however, proved that 

* A publican once procured one of these counters, which he placed in 
his window, as the real Farthing of Queen Anne- Credulous persons 
eame far and near to view this " great curiosity," and the landlord 
turned his deception to good account ; for deception it was, as one of the 
first medallists of the age appointed a meeting with this man, and ex- 
hibiting a real, but common Farthing of Anne, attempted to convince 
him of his Error, but the hoax was too profitable to be relinquished. 

t TiU'8 Essay e& the Roman Deoariusy &o.— p. 96, note. 



POPULAR ERRORS. i 185 

the obliteration of the impressions on gold coins is not 
always attended with a diminution of weight; but that the 
supposed abrasion of the prominent parts is, in fact, a 
depression of those parts into the mass, bringing them to 
a level with the rest. 



PROHIBITED TRADE. 

Sat, the great political economist of France, quotes a 
forcible instance of the effects of Prohibition. During 
the reign of Napoleon, vessels were despatchedffrom Lon- 
don, freighted with sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cotton 
twist, for Salonica (Macedonia), whence these articles of 
merchandise were carried by beasts of burden, by way of 
Servia and Hungary, to Germany and France : so that an 
article consumed at Calais was brought from England, 
only twenty miles distant, by a route, which, in point of 
expense, must have been equivalent to a voyage twice round 
the globe. 

HOLIDAYS AND TRADE. 

Public Holidays are much less prejudicial to Trade 
than is generally imagined. Thus, '* if by an agreement 
amongst themselves, or by a statute, the shops of trades- 
men were shut on one other day besides Sunday, in every 
month, fortnight, or week, as much of their wares would 
be sold as ever ; the business that would have been trans- 
acted on the new holiday, would be done on one of the 
remaining days; some ease would be gained, and no 
custom lost by the whole company. It is no inconvenience 
to the public that nutmegs and pepper cannot be procured 
on a Sunday — nor would it be if the same disability were 
extended to a Wednesday. It would, however, be very 
inconvenient if there were only one day in the year on 
which spices could be transferred. In mechanical opera- 
tions, it is somewhat different. Whilst the saw and the 
shuttle are still, the gains of the joiner and weaver stop 
also; but, if there be an adequate motive for vigorous 
exertions, every one must have observed, that in mecha- 
nical arts, although it may not be possible to put the 
labour of a monm into a week, it is very easy to do the 
work of ten days in nine*." 

* Edinburgh Review. 



186 POPULAR ERRORS. 

OBSOLETE HOLIDAYS. 

The non-observance of Holidays is a matter of greater 
moment than most persons imagine. " Festivals, when 
duly observed, attach men to the civil and religious insti- 
tutions of their country : it is an evil, therefore, when they 
fall into disuse*." 

A holiday that has been spent in an agreeable and 
rational manner, has an invigorating effect ; and the anti- 
cipated holiday is still more aniroatine : besides, unceasing 
toil is injurious, and an excess of labour, like all other 
excesses, is mischievous, and destroys the power of 
labouring. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE WORLD. 

Certain persons believe the World to be in a rapid 
state of sure improvement; and in the ferment which 
exists everywhere, they behold only a purifying process : 
not considering that there is an acetous as well as a vinous 
fermentation ; and that in the one case the liquor may be 
spilt, and in the other it must be spiitf . 

UNPOPULAR improvements. 

There is not one single source of human happiness 
against which t^^e have not been uttered the most lugu- 
brious predictions. Turnpike-roads, navigable canals, 
inoculation, hops, tobacco, the Reformation, the Revolu- 
tion. There are always a set of worthy and moderately- 
gifted men, who bawl out death and ruin upon every 
valuable change which the varying aspect of human affidrs 
absolutely and imperiously requires. It would be ex- 
tremely useful to make a collection of the hatred and abuse 
that all those changes have experienced, which are now 
admitted to be marked improvements in our condition. 
Such a history might make foUy a little more modest, and 
suspicious of its own decisions {. 

PUBLIC taste. 
The public are commonly said to '' run after anything 
new ;" but the chances of novelties in success are by no 
means so numerous as is generally imagined : they usually 
offend those whom they fail to attract ; and of all innova- 
tions, there are none of which the sovereign public is so 
intolerant as innovations in taste. 

* Southey. f Southey. t Sydney Smith. ? 



POPULAR ERRORS. 187 



A KINO WITHOUT HIS CROWN. 

In ancient times, our Kings observed the principal 
feasts with great hospitality and pomp, particularly those 
of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, when they always 
wore their Crowns of state. This observance of wearing 
the crown was first n^lected by Edward I., and after- 
wards the custom gradually became forgotten ; so that we 
need not wonder at a crowned sovereign being a rare sight 
in our times. Yet, a crown is inseparable from our ear- 
liest notions of a king. 

ABSURD NOTIONS UNIVERSAL. 

The ingenious author of the Plurality of Worlds ridi* 
cules the Chinese, because, says he^ they see a thousand 
stars fall at once into the sea. It is very likely that the 
Emperor Kam-hi ridiculed this notion as much as Fonte- 
nelle. Some Chinese almanac-maker had, it should seem, 
been good-natured enough to speak of these meteors after the 
manner of the people, and to take them for stars. Every 
country has its foolish notions. All the nations of anti- 
quity made the sun lie down in the sea, where we for a 
long time sent the stars. We have believed that the 
clouds touched the firmament; that the firmament was a 
hard substance, and that it supported a reservoir of water. 
It has not long been known in our towns, that the Virgin- 
thread (Jil de la Vierge), so often found in the country, is 
nothing more than the thread spun by a spider. Let us 
not laugh at any people. Let us reflect that the Chinese 
had astrolabes and spheres before we could read ; and that 
if they made no great progress in astronomy, it is throush 
that same respect for the ancients which we have had for 
Aristotle*. 

NATIONAL ERRORS. 

An hundred years is a very little time for the deviation 
of a National Error ; and it is so far from being reasonable 
to look for its decay at so short a date, that it can hardly 
be expected, within such limits, to have displayed the fuU 
bloom of its imbedlityf . 

• Voltaire'8 PhiloBophical Dictionary, New TranBUiion, vol. i. 

t Sydney Smith. 



188 POPULAR ERRORS. 



LOYALTY OP BRITISH SAILORS AND SOLDIERS. 

It is a remarkable fact that the American Nayy is prin- 
cipally manned by British seamen. "It may be sur- 
mised," observes Captain Marryat, " that British seamen 
would refuse to be employed against their country. Some 
might; but there is no character so utterly devoid of 
principle as the British sailor and soldier. In Dibdin's 
Songs, we certainly have another version : ' True to his 
country and his king,* &c. ; but I am afraid they do not 
deserve it Soldiers and sailors are mercenaries: they 
risk their lives for money; it is their trade to do so ; and 
if they can get higher wages, they never consider the 
justice of the cause, or whom they nght for *.'* Southey 
has truly observed, that in England we have more of the 
pride of independence than of independence itself. 

*' jews' oranges." 

Thb very low rate at which itinerant venders of Oranges 
of the Jewish persuasion are accustomed to ofier their 
fruit, has doubUess led many persons to question the 
honesty of the means by which the slip-shod marchands 
obtain their stock. Such an impression is, however, erro- 
neous and unjust ; and is explained by the fact that the 
Rabbis of the London Synagogues are in the habit of 
a£S)rdiiig both employment and maintenance to the poor 
of their persuasion by supplying them with oranges at an 
almost nominal price. 

SUICIDES IN NOVEMBER. 

The popular notion that more Suicides are committed 
in the month of November than at any other period of 
the year, is founded on erroneous data. Taking Uie ave- 
rage number of suicides in each month from the years 
1817 to 1826, it was as follows:— 



January 


813 


July . 


301 


February . 


. 21S 


August 


. 296 


March 


276 


September 


246 


April 


. 374 


October . 


. 198 


May 


328 


November 


131 


Jane 


. 336 


December . 


. 217 



Total 3,133 
* Diary in America, 1839. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 189 

It has been clearly established that in all the European 
capitals, where anything like correct data can be obtained, 
the maximum of suicides is in the month of June and 
July, and the minimum in October and November, It 
appears from this, that the disposition has most to do 
with high temperature; for it has been proved that when 
the thermometer of Fahrenheit ranges from 80° to 90^, 
suicide becomes more prevalent *. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH SUICIDES. 

The English have been accused by foreigners of being 
the beau ideal of a suicidal people. The charge is almost 
too ridiculous to merit serious refutation. It has been 
clearly established, that where there is one suicide in 
London, there are five in Paris. In the year 1816, the 
number of suicides committed in London amounted to 
188, the population of Paris being some 400,000 less than 
that of London. From the years 1827 to 1830, no less 
than 6,900 suicides occurred in France; that is to say, an 
average of nearly 1,800 per annum! 

The English, therefore, are not, par excellence, a suicidal 
people. When the inhabitants of a country are indus- 
trious and prudent, the crime of self-destruction will be 
rare. Out of 120,000 persons who insured their lives in 
the London Equitable Insurance Company, the number 
of suicides in twenty years was only fifteen. The Irish 
are stated to be the least disposed of all nations in the 
world to commit suicide. Dublin and Naples are the 
two cities in which fewest suicides occur; yet in both 
the poorer classes are poor indeed. Dr. Graves observes, 
that an Irishman often murders his neighbour ; but he has 
too high a sense of propriety to think of killing himself. 
The fact is, that the prevalence of murder prevents the 
necessity for suicidef. 

ABSURDITIES IN MEDICINE. 

The industrious nosologist, Sauvages, has calculated 
that there are about 2,400 disorders to which the human 
frame is liable, and for which it is our sacred duty to 
investigate every object in nature that can alleviate them. 

* Mr. Forbes Winslow's Anatomy of Suicide, 
t Ibid. 



190 POPULAR SRBORS. 

At first, almost everything was indiscriminately received, 
and then as arbitrarily rejected. Experience has, at 
length, enabled us to select from the vast farrago those 
which reallv possess the reparative power, and to establish 
a system which is pretty universally recognised through- 
out all parts of the 'globe that have been illuminated oy 
the torch of science. No longer does the talisman, the 
amulet, work upon a disordered imagination. Charms, 
witchcraft, and astrology, have lost their influence ,* and 
although for a time some daring quackery absorbs the 
public attention, the good sense of the community, aided 
by the scrutinising vigilance of the medical world, over- 
whelms it with the contempt it merits. The sponge that 
wiped the consecrated table of the Pope is no longer 
superstitiously venerated as a healer of wounds ; nor does 
a mrong of unhealthy individuals surround the carriage of 
oar kings to obtain the royal touch, once thought to be a 
specific against scrofula. We no longer find, as in our 
first pharmacopoeias, remedies in human sculls pow- 
dered, in parings of the nails, in wolf's liver, in common 
bed-bugs, all of which, in their appropriate Latin names, 
obtained the sanction of our learned bodies. The pro- 
gress of the Materia Medica is now less impeded by super- 
stition, by credulity, ignorance, impudence, false theory, 
avarice, and a blind obedience to the writings of tHe 
ancients. Still, however, much remains to be done, and 
diligent examination is necessary, before we rashly receive 
into our pharmacopceias, substances whose effects upon the 
tissues of the human body are not thoroughly understood*. 

"the scotch." 

Popular notions in general are apt long to survive any 
basis of fact which they originally nad. There is a dis- 
agreeable disease, supposed by the lower orders in England 
to be particularly prevalent in Scotland. What prevsdence 
it may have had years ago, we cannot tell ; but it is a 
curious fact, that though we have spent all the years of 
our life in Scotland, we never once saw a person known to 
be afflicted with that disease ! f This reminds one of the 
following passage in fioswell's Life of Dr, Johnson: — 
" Boswell — * Pray, sir, can you trace the cause of your 
antipathy to the Scotch ?' Johison — ^I cannot, sir.' " 

* Dr Sigxnond. f Cauunbero'a Edinburgh Journal, 



POPULAR ERRORS. 191 



IMAGINATIVE CURES. 

The power of Imagination in curing diseases is much 
stronger than many persons are disposed to credit. To 
audi influence may be attributed much of the success of 
many nostrums ; as of the anodyne necklace, which are beads 
formed of the roots of hyoscyamusy or henbane, worn by 
children tu assist their teething. 

This mode of applying medicaments appears to be now 
out of fashion ; but it formerly obtained a high reputation. 
It is said that the fourth book of the Iliad has often 
cored intermittent fever in this way; the strength of the 
language and the warmth of action that pervades this 
portion of Homer*s magnificent poem being such, that it 
was metaphorically said to be sufficient to cure a sick 
man of an ague. Some individuals, not understanding 
poetic metaphors, actually converted this saying into 
a remedy, and wore a portion of vellum containing 
this book round the neck. Serenus Sanamonicus^ a very 
learned physician, has ordered that, for the relief of ague, 
it should be applied to the head ; and cures are said to 
have been thus effected. Such is the power of imagina- 
tion. Dr. Sigmond relates^ that a poor woman, having 
applied to a physician for a cure of an affection of the 
breast, he gave her a prescription, which he directed 
should be applied to the breast. She returned at the end 
of a few days, to offer her grateful thanks for the cure 
which he had effected ; and, on making inquiry as to the 
mode of action, he learned that his patient had very care- 
fully tied the prescription round her neck ! 

OURE-MONOERINO QtTACKS. 

If we may judge by the prosperity of the proprietors 
of nostrums^ belief in miraculous cures is almost as sound 
as in the days before the schoolmaster's rule. As a record 
of the fallacy of the system, it is related that the late Lord 
Gardenstone, himself a valetudinarian, took the pains to 
inquire for those persons who had actully attested mar- 
vellous cures, and found that more than two-thirds of the 
number died very shortly after they had been cured. Sir 
Robert Walpole, Lords Bblingbrdke and Winnington, 
wpre killed by cure-mongers. 



192 POPULAR ERRORS. 

DROP MEASURE. 

Nothing is more fallacious than measuring fluids by 
Dropping ; since the drops from the lip of a vial vary, 
chiefly according to the different force of the attraction. of 
cohesion in difierent liquids. Thus, 60 drops of water fill 
the same measure as lUO drops of laudanum from a lip of 
the same size. The graduated glass measure used by 
apothecaries is the only certainty. 

OATS AND VALERIAN. 

Valerian is a powerful nervous tonic : most Cats are 
fond of gnawing it, and seem to be almost intoxicated by 
it into outrageous playfulness. But this is not so peculiar 
an effect as is imafi;ined ; for the nerves of cats afford a 
very tender test of the powers which any substances possess 
of affecting the nerves. The poisoned darts of the Indians, 
tobacco, opium, brandy, and all the inebriating nervous 
poisons, are far more sensibly felt by the cat than by any 
other animal of equal size. 

WEIGHT OF THE HUMAN BODY. 

Weighing-machines, or contrivances for ascertaining 
the precise weight of the Human Body, are known to 
most persons, but the natural impediments to their accu- 
racy are not so familiar. Indeed, the variation in the 
weight of the body will not admit of any degree of accu- 
racy, from various circumstances referable to physical and 
vital causes. Among the first may be reckoned temperature 
and pressure, dryness and humidity, repose or agitation of 
the air; and among the second are, the constitutional 
health, repose and activity of the body, &c. ; while some of 
the physical causes possess a double influence, both vital 
and physical, such as RghL This is termed Transpiration^ 
to which it is impossible to allude without immediately 
conjuring up in imagination the figure of old Sanctorius 
and his balance; the honest physician accurately weighing 
himself, so as to calculate his losses by transpiration at 
different periods, and compared with the quantities of 
food which he swallowed. But, in his days, the know- 
ledge of physics was at a verv low ebb, and hence his 
aphorisms require the more nnished touch of modern 
physiology*. 

* From the French of Dr. Edwardt. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 193 

▲ MAN WEIGHS MORE BEFORE DINNER THAN AFTER. 

This ridiculous Error is easily disproved ', but much rea- 
soning has been wasted on the subject, the reasouers for- 
getting, or not being acquainted with a story told of James 
uie Sixdi of Scotland. It seems that, in his time, it was 
the general belief that a pail of water weighed less with a 
soose in it, than it did without the bird ; much discussion 
had arisen in the presence of James as to the cause of this 
singular result, but the philosophers could arrive at no 
satisfactory conclusion. At length, the wary monarch asked 
them whether it would not be as well to ascertain whether 
the fact was true before they argued on the matter. They 
took his advice, and discovered their error. 

Sir Thomas Browne notes on this Error : " Many are 
of opinion, and some learned men maintain, that men are 
lighter after meals than before, and that by a supply and 
addition of spirits obscuring the gross ponderosity of the 
aliment injected ; but the contrary hereof we have found 
in the trial of sundry persons in different ages and sexes. 
And we eoncdve men mav mistake if they distinguish not 
the sense of levity unto uiemselves, and in regard of the 
scale or decision of brutination. For, after a draught of 
wine, a man mav seem lighter in himself from sudden re- 
fection, although he be heavier in the balance, from a 
cc»:poral and ponderous addition ; but a man in the morn- 
ing is lighter in the scale, because in sleep some pounds 
have perspired; and is also lighter unto himself, because 
he is refected*." 

A man is, however, taller on his rising in the morning 
than at night ; for the cartilages between the vertebrae of 
the back-bone^ twenty-four in number, yield considerably 
to the pressure of the body in an erect position in the day, 
and expand themselves during the repose of the night. 

GOOD AND BAB COOKERY. 

A CLEVER critic of the day observes that after good wine 
and a good dinner, even though composed of a variety of 
dishes, he feels well and in good spirits, whereas a single 
plate of bad food puts him out of tune. In explanation of 
this, he allows that a multitude of physiological causes may 

* Vulgar Enron, b. iv. o. vlL p. 831. 
PART IV. 



194 POPULAR ERROBS. 

be assigned ; but, looking at the matter from a refined and 
moral point of view, good taste is in itself meritorious, and 
meets with its reward ; but bad food reduces a man nearer 
to the level of a beast, and he is punished accordingly. 

RATIONALE OF COOKERY. 

'* Taste and try ** will alone ensure success in cookery ; 
and a few years' experience is better than a volume upon 
the art. A medical man once asked Ude why cooks had 
not weights and measures, as apothecaries, to which Ude 
replied : " Because we taste our recipes, whereas doctors 
seldom taste those they are mixing ; wherefore they must 
have exact measures/* Dr. A. Hunter acknowledges : " I 
was once so presumptive as to suppose that the seasoning 
might be weighed out after the manner directed by phy- 
sicians in their prescriptions, but I soon found that my 
plan was too mechanical. I have, therefore, abandoned it, 
and now freely give to the cooks the exercise of their right 
in all matters that regard the kitchen*." 

DINING ALONE. 

Dr. tloLLAND advises the dyspeptic to dine from a sim- 
ple but discreet table, at regular hours ; but he well adds, 
that " if this rule should bring him to a solitary meal, set 
apart for himself, more of ill man of good resultsf .** 

Again : Solitary dinners ought to be avoided as much 
as possible, because solitude produces thought, and thought 
tends to the suspension 'of the digestive organs^ 



READING AFTER MEALS. 



The homely maxim of " Do one thing at a time," was, 
perhaps, never better illustrated than in the prejudicial 
effects of Reading immediately after Meals, an Error which 
alike leads to the sacrifice of time and health. "When 
the stomach is full, the less the mind has to do with it the 
better — a lesson on which all who endeavour to digest at 
the same time tough chops, and mental food of equal re- 
sistance, in the shape of reports legal aud parliamentary, 
should ponder. There are few individuals more dyspeptic 
than those who pursue day after day the above regimen, 
and fewer who are not surprised at the efiect of only two 
mutton chops and regular hours§." 

* Receipts in Modern Cookery. t Medical Notes. t Walker. 

§ Quarterly ileview. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 195 



" THIRTEEN TO DINNER." 



TherbIs a prejudice existing, generally, on the pre- 
tended danger of being the thirteenth at table. If the 
probability be required, that out of thirteen persons, of 
different ages, one of them, at least, shall die within a 
year, it will be found that the chances are about one to one 
that one death, at least, will occur. This calculation, by 
means of a false interpretation, has given rise to the preju- 
dice, no less ridiculous, that the danger will be avoided by 
inviting a greater number of guests, which can only have 
the effect of augmenting the probability of the event so 
much apprehended*. 

OLD ALMANACS. 

The superstitious practice formerly observed in our Al- 
manacs, but now almost exploded, of placing each limb of 
the body under a particular sign of the Zodiac, is of high 
antiquity, being attributed to Nechepsos, or Nerepsos, an 
Egyptian, and author of several treatises on astronomy, 
astrology, and medicine, who lived in the age of Sesostris. 
Its object, we are told, was to enable the medical prac- 
titioners, (who are supposed to have been of the priestly 
order,) to apply suitable remedies to diseases afiecting any 
particular member. From Egypt this superstition passed 
to the Greeks and Romans ; from them to the Saracens; 
and being, by the latter, transmitted to the school of Sa- 
lerno, it was acted upon in the medical practice of every 
European country. Such absurdities, assuredly, afford no 
very favourable indication of the vaunted science of that 
extraordinary people among whom they took their rise ; 
but it would be rash to conclude, that the attestations of 
the highest ancient authorities to the progress of the 
Egyptians in the sciences, at a remote period, are ground- 
less, because their knowledge was mixed up with super- 
stitions inconsistent with truth and sound philosophy f. 

The Almanac superstitions of the last century were, 
certainly eclipsed by those of the two preceding cen- 
turies. In Shakspeare's day, for example, Leonard 
Digges, the Francis Moore of that period, not only prog- 
nosticated for the day, week, or year, but "for all time," 

* M. Quetelet on the Calculation of Probabilities, 
t Proceedings of the Royal Society of Literature, 1836.' 

o 2 



196 POPULAR ERRORS. 

as the title-page of his almanac shows : '' A Prognostica- 
tion euerlastinge of right good effect, fruictfully augmented 
hy the auctour, contayning plain, hriefe, pleasaunte, choien 
rules to iudge of the Weather by the Sunne, Moone, 
Starres, Comets, Rainebow, Thunder, Cloudes, with other 
extraordinarye tokens, not omitting the Aspects of the 
Planets, with a briefe iudgement /or euerj of Plenty, Lncke^ 
Sickness, Dearth, Warres, &c., opening also many natural 
causes worthy to beknowen." 1575. 

It is true that we still have^our prophetic almanacs, but 
they are now looked on with the eye of curiosity rather 
than belief. It is singular how long the human mind will 
cling to folly to which it is accustomed, long after the un- 
derstanding is satisfied of its want of truth. As far back 
as 1607, we find the following prohibition of prophetic 
almanacs ; and yet even in the present day, some wretched 
trash is published under the same title. ^' All conjurors and 
framers of prophecies and almanacs, exceeding the limits 
oi allowable aj^ro%^, shall bepunished severely in theirper- 
sons. And we forbid all printers and booksellers, under the 
same penalties, to print, or expose for sale, any almanacs or 
prophecies, which shall not first have been seen and revised 
by the archbishop, the bishop, (or those who shall be 
expressly appointed for that purpose,) and approved of by 
their certificates signed by their own hand, and, in addi- 
tion, shall have permission from us or from our ordinary 
judges." 

Such follies as the above have been smartly satirised 
in " The Comic Almanack," a humorous attempt to laugh 
mankind out of their weaknesses, by the force of pleasant 
ridicule. The idea is altogether original, and we believe 
pecuHar to our times. 

moore's almanac. 

The largest impressions of any single book, perhaps, 
ever sold, have been those of Moore's Almanac, a proof 
of the prevalence of superstitious error. For many years, 
during the late wars, when political excitement was ex- 
cessive, the Stationers' Company sold from 420,000 to 
480,000 of Moore's Astrological Prophesyiiig Almanac, 
About fifty years since, the Company resolved no longer 
to administer 1o this gross credulity, and, for two or three 
years, omitted the predictions^ when the sale fell off one 



POPULAR ERRORS. 197 

half; while a prognosticator, one Wright, of £aton, near 
Woolstrope, puhlished another almanac, and sold 50,000 
or 60,000. To save their property, the Company engaged 
one Andrews, of Royston, also a native of Woolstrope, to 
predict for them, and their sale rose as before*. 

POLITICAL PROPHECIES. 

The belief that some human beings could attain the 
power of inflicting ills on their fellow-creatures, and of 
controlling the operations of nature, is one of the highest 
antiquity. " Time was, when the astrologer acted no in- 
considerable part in the world of poUtics : but, yielding to 
the stem decree of fate, his occupation now is gone. 
Jacob's staff is broken. The brazen astrolabe is green and 
cankered. Dust and cobwebs cover tlie tomes of Ptolemy 
and Haly ; and the garrets of Spitalfields and the Seven 
Dials are untenanted by the Seers, who whilom dealt out 
their awful prognostications of changes in church and 
state. So far we seem to have gained a victory over the 
superstitions of the middle ages; btit our sv/penority, in 
some respects, exists rather in apprehension than in reaUty ; 
and we have only changed the appearance of the disease. 
Those who would have been misled in ancient times are 
equally deceivable in modem days. Human folly is as 
immortal as the race; and, though we have dragged the 
astrologer out of his arm-chair, there are others who have 
succeeded to his contemned honours, for he was guided in 
his lucubrations by an imperishable instinct." The sage 
who would heretoiore have foretold plague and pestilence, 
war and bloodshed, from the Zodiac, now acquires the 
same popularity by deducing the calamities of this nether 
world from the assemblage of monarchs at a congress ; 
and, instead of watching tne orbit of the planet, he fulfils 
bis duty by reporting the course of the minor star that 
glitters on the breast of the plenipotentiaryf. 

One of HowdPs rambling Letters, though dated from 
the Fleet prison, August 9, 1684, contains much pleasant 
gossip of tne predictions of *' some of the British Bards." 
'' They sing of a Red Parliament, and a White King ; of 
a race of people which should be called penguins ; of the 
fall of the Churdi; and of divers other things which 
glance upon these times. But I am none of those that 

* Sir R. FbillipB. f Qnarterly Review. 



198 POPULAR ERRORS. 

afibrd much faith to rambling prophecies, which, as was 
said elsewhere, are like so many odd grains sown in the 
vast field of time, whereof not one in a thousand comes to 
grow up again and appear above ground. But that I may 
correspond with you in some part for the like courtesie, I 
send you these following prophetic verses of White Hall, 
whicn were made above twenty years ago, to my know- 
ledge, upon a book called BalaanCi Ass^ that consisted of 
some invectives against King James and the Court, in 
statu quo tunc ; it was composed by one Mr. Williams, a 
counsellor of the Temple, but a Roman Catholic, who was 
hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing Cross for it ; 
and I beheve there be hundreds that have copies of these 
verses ever since that time, about town, yet living. They 
were these: 

* Some seven years since Christ rid to Court, 

And there he left his ass ; 
The courtiers kick'd him out of doors. 

Because they had no grass : 
The ass went mourning up and down. 

And thus I heard him bray. 
If that they could not give me grass. 

They might have given me hay : 
But sixteen hundred forty-three. 

Whoso e'er shall see that day. 
Will nothing find within that Court 

But only grass and hay,' &c. 

" ^V^lich was found to happen true in White Hall, till 
the soldiers coming to quarter there, trampled it down> 

''Truly, sir, I shall find all tilings conspire to make 
strange mutations in this miserable island. I fear we shall 
fall from under the sceptre to be under the sword : and 
since we speak of prophecies, I am afraid among others, 
that which was made since the Reformation will be 
verified : * The Churchman was, the Lawyer is, die Soldier 
shall be/ Welcome be the will of God, who transvolves 
kingdoms, and tumbles down monarchies, as moldiills, at 
his pleasure." 

VALUE OP POPULARITY, 

Popularity is, by no means, so certain a test of virtue 
as it is commonly thought to be. ** It is often an honour- 
able acquisition ; when duly earned, always a test of good 
done, or evil resisted. But to be of a pure and genuine 



POPULAR BRRORS. 199 

kind, it must have one stamp — the security of one safe 
and certain die ; it must be that popularity that follows 
good actions, not that which is run after*. 

PARSIMONY AND ECONOMY. 

BuBKE thus felicitously distinguishes these opposite 
lines of conduct^ which, in domestic affairs, are too often 
confounded. '' Mere Parsimony is not Economy. JEx- 
pense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true 
economy. Economy is a distributiye virtue, and consists, 
not in saving, but in selection. Parsimony requires no 
providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no 
comparison, no judgment Mere instinct, and that not an 
instinct of the noblest kind, may produce this false eco- 
nomy in perfection." 

DOCTRINES OF CHANCE. 

The Doctrines of Chance are of much less importance 
than most persons are inclined to regard them. Tne cause 
is thus explained by a popular writer: — '* Chance very 
little disturbs events, whidi, in their natural constitution, 
were designed to happen or fail according to some deter- 
mined law. It may produce the appearance of inequality 
in the turning up of me head or reverse of a coin ; still, the 
appearance, one wa^ or other, will perpetually tend to the 
proportion of eauality. Thus, in all cases it will be found, 
that although chance produces irregularities, still the odds 
wlU be infinitely great, so that in process of time, these 
irregularities will bear no proportion to recurrence of that 
order which naturally resiuts from original designf. 

OAMINO HELLS. 

The room in St. James's, formerly appropriated to 
Hazard, was remarkably dark, and conventionally called 
by the inmates of the palace, " Hell." Whence, and not 
as generally supposed, from their own demerits, all the 
Gaming-houses in London are designated by the same 
fearful name. Those who play, or nave played, English 
Hazard, will recollect that, for a similar inconsequent rea- 
son, the man who raked up the dice, and called the odds, 
was designated *' the groom- porter];.'' 

* Edinburgh Review. f Facts in ▼arknu Sciences. 

X Theodore Hook. 



200 POPULAR ERRORS. 

GAMV OF '^ BEOOAR MT NEIGHBOUR*'' 

*< I CANNOT call to mind (says * The Doctor ') anything 
which is estimated so much helow its deserts as the game 
of Beggar-my-Ndghhour. It is generally thought fit 
only for the youngest children, or for the very lowest and 
most ignorant persons into whose hands a pack of cards 
can descend ; whereas, there is no game whatever in which 
such perpetual opportunities of calculation are afforded to 
the scientific gamester ; not indeed for playing his cards, 
hut for hetting upon them. Zerah Coihum, George 
Bidder, and Professor Airy, would find their faculties upon 
the stretch, wore they to attempt to keep pace with its 
chances. 

" It is, however, necessary that the reader should not 
mistake the spurious for the genuine game, for there are 
various modes of playing it, and, as in all cases, only one, 
which is the orthodox way. You take up trick by trick. 
The trump, as at other games, takes every other suit. If 
suit is not followed, the leader wins the trick ; but if it is, 
the highest card is the winner. These rules being ob- 
served, (I give them, because they will not be found in 
Hoyle), the game is r^ular, ana afibrds combinations 
worthy to have exercised the power of that calculating 
machine of flesh and blood, called Jedediah Buxton.** 

INVENTION OF CARDS. 

The general opinion respecting; the Origin of Flaying 
Cards is, that they were first ma£ for the amusement of 
Charles VI. of France, at the time of his mental derange- 
ment, which commenced in 1392, and continued for seve- 
ral years. This supposition depends upon an entry in 
the account-book of the treasurer of the unhappy monareh, 
whidi states a payment of fifty-six sols of raris to have 
been made to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three 
packs of cards^ gilded, and painted with divers colours and 
different devices, for the diversion of his majesty. Upon 
this statement, Strutt observes : <' If it be granted — and I 
see no reason why it should not — that this entry alludes 
to playing-cards, the conseauenoes that have been deduced 
from It do not necessarily follow. I mean that these cards 
were the first that were made, or that Gringonneur was 
the inventor of them ; it by no means precludes the possi- 



POPULAR ERRORS. 201 

bility of cards haying been previously used in France, but 
simply states that those made by him were gilt and diver- 
sified with devices in variegated colours, the better to 
amuse the unfortunate monarch. 

" Some^ allowing that Gringonneur was the first maker 
of playing-cards, place the invention in the reign of 
Charles V ., upon the authority of Jean de Saintre, who 
was page to that monarch, and who thus mentions card- 
playing in his chronicle : ' £t vous qui etes noyseux, 
joueux de cartes et de dis, — And vou who are contentious, 
play at cards and at dice.' This would be sufficient 
evidence," (adds Strutt,) *' for the existence of cards before 
the accession of Charles VI. to the throne of France, if it 
could be proved that the page did not survive his master ; 
but, on tne other hand, if he did, they may equally be 
ap^ed to the amusements of the preceding reign*." 

This position receives some support from a passage 
discovered in an old manuscript copy of the romance of 
Renard le Contre fait, where it appears that cards were 
known in France [about 1340. They were, probably, 
known in Spain as early as in France; for, in 1387, 
John I., kin^ of Castile, issued an edict against card- 
playing in his dominions. Baron Hdneken claims their 
invention for Germany, where he states them to have been 
known as early as the year 1376. And an English author 
produces a passage cited from a wardrobe account of 1377, 
the sixth year of £dward I., which mentions a game 
entitled ''the four kings f ;'* and hence he reasonably con- 
jectures that the use of playing-cards was then known in 
England. 

It is the opinion of several learned writers well 
acquainted with Asiatic history, that cards were used in 
the East long before they found their way into Europe]:. 
If this position be granted, when we recollect that Ed- 
ward I., before his accession to the throne, resided nearly 
five years in Syria, he may reasonably be supposed to 

* Btrntt'a Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, b. !▼. c. ii. 

p.ai3. 

t •* Waltero Sturton, ad opus Regis, ad Indendnm ad qnainor regee," 
▼iiis. Td."* Anstis, History of the Garter. 

X Warton says, it seems probable that the Arabians were the inven- 
tors of cards, which they communicated to the Constantinopolitan 
Greeks^Hist Eng. Poetry, toL VL p. si 6. Indeed, it is very likely that 
they were brought into the western parts of Europe during the Crusades. 



202 POPULAR ERRORS. 

have learned the game of '* the four kings " in that coun- 
try, and introduced it at court upon his return to £ngland. 
An argument against the great antiquity of playing- 
cards is drawn from the want of paper for their fabrication ; 
paper made with linen rags not having been produced in 
Europe before the middle of the fourteenth century. 
Here, however, it is presupposed that cards could not 
possibly be made with any other material, which is by no 
means certain. 

POPULATION AND PROSPERITY. 

The ratio of increase in a Population has almost univer- 
sally been taken as an accurate test of prosperity. Such, 
however, appears not to be the fact : for more recent opinions 
state, that a community nearly stationary promises better 
for enjoyment*. 

POPULARITY OF AUTHORS. 

The failures of the English genius, and the success of me- 
diocrity, are matters of general surprise, for want of due con- 
sideration of their causes. It has been well observed by 
a contemporary critic, that *' it is a melancholy and humi- 
liating truth, to which the whole history of literature bears 
evidence, that mediocre writers often are, in their genera^ 
tion, more successful than excellent ones ; and that the 
vicious not seldom bear away the meed of popularity from 
both. Nor is it difficult to account for tnis. The great 
majority of men, whatever pains may be bestowed in 
educating them, will ever be incapable of any high degree 
of intellectual devation. Give all we can, this never can 
be given to those who have not received from nature 
higher faculties than are required for the ordinary business 
of the world :** but such individuals constitute tne public : 
'^ and it is to the sovereign majesty of the public, and its 
will and pleasure, that they who would prosper must 
address themselves. Lord Byron sneered at those who 
looked to the third and fourth generations for their reward. 
Milton thought differently, and so his audience were fit, 
was contented that it should consist of few. He looked to 
after ages for fame, and therefore was regardless of popu- 
larity : he left that to Cleveland, and WaUer, and Cowley, 
for tneir verse, and to Sir Roger TEstrange for his prosef ." 

* Proc. Brit. Assoc. 1838. f Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 203 



CLEVER STATESMEN. 

However great talents may command the admiration 
of the world, they do not generally best fit a man for the 
discharge of social duties. Swift remarks, that *' Men of 
great parts are often unfortunate in the management of 
public business, because they are apt to go out of the com- 
mon road by the quickness of their imagination. This I 
once said to my Lord Bolingbroke, and desired he would 
observe, that the clerk in his office used a sort of ivory 
knife with a blunt edge to divide a sheet of paper, whicn 
never failed to cut it even only by requiring a steady hand ; 
whereas, if he should make use of a sharp penknife, the 
sharpness would make it go often out of the crease, and 
disfigure the paper.** 

popular philosophy. 

In estimating the opinions of a Philosopher, it is too 
often forgotten, that, as Coleridge quaintly expresses it, 
" his ordinary language and admissions in general conver- 
sation, or writings ad populum, are as his watch compared 
with his astronomical timepiece. He sets the former by 
the town clock, not because he believes it right, but because 
his neighbours and his cook go by it." The " table-talk '* 
of illustrious men has too often been made to misrepresent 
their opinions. Notes of the table-talk of Luther, pub- 
lished many years after his death, and then perhaps very 
inaccurately, continued to furnish the viler sort of antago- 
nists with means of abuse, in the ardent phrases which ml 
from him amidst the negligence of familiar conversation*. 

WRITING FOR THE MANY. 

The great Error of those who write for the masses is, 
their rating too highly the average intellect of those whom 
they strive to attract as readers. Moliere's justification to 
some one who had censured him for preferring broad, 
homely merriment, to elevated comedy, may be quoted by 
those who aim at wide popularity by common means, but 
are capable of better things ; and the observation may ap- 
ply to almost any pursuit. " If I wrote simply for fame," 
said Moliere, '* I should manage very differently : but I 

* Bayle, art. Luther. 



204 POPULAR ERRORS. 

write for the support of my oorapany. I must not address 
myself, therefore, to a few people ox education, but to the 
mob : and this latter class of gentry take very little interest 
in a continued deyation of style and sentiment." 

COMMON CAUSE OF FAILURE. 

Where a thing requires a great deal of care, it is well 
done, because the whole attention is directed to it— where 
a little attention would suffice, eyen that little is refused, 
and some accident follows*. 

''a bosom friend." 

Almost every man in the world possesses some friend, 
to whom he confides more of his secrets than he imparts 
to others. That such associations are eenerally beneficial 
cannot be denied ; but they have also their disadvant^es, 
which are thus lucidly shown by a contemporary. — '* The 
greatest pleasure in life is the society of a friend, with whom, 
in unrestrained exposition of one's thoughts, one may un- 
ravel and disentangle each skein of knotted prejudice and 
many-coloured' opinion. In such intimacies, however, 
cultivated exclusively, what Lord Bacon termed tdoHa spe- 
cus are sure to be worshipped. The principles may be 
right, the understanding may be sound, but the world is 
viewed from a single point, and to a certain extent inevita- 
bly erroneously. A true estimate of mankind, and of the 
value of human pursuits, can alone be formed by one who 
corrects his closest speculations by the collective judgment 
of societ y ." 

OBSTINACY AND FIRMNESS. 

Obstinacy is almost always found to exist in proportion 
to the weakness of the intellect where it is lodged, and, 
strange to say, is often mistaken by its possessor for Firm- 
ness. He, however, is the only person who can entertain 
any doubt on this subject ; for all who come in contact 
with him are soon aware of the difference, a difference un- 
like many others, because it has a striking distinction. 

SECRET OF happiness. 

Happiness is by no means so rare as is generally 
imagined ; and its secret lies in a nutshell, as in the fol- 
lowing passage from " Conversation Sharp's" delightful 

* Earl Dudley. f Mayo's Philosophy of Living. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 205 

Essays: — **^ If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy 
in another: and this facility of disposition wants but littfe 
aid from philosophy; for health and good-humour are 
almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like 
an absent man hunting for his hat while it is on his head, 
or in his hand*." Yet, with all these ^' means and appli- 
ances," there is much counterfeit happiness in life, recall- 
ing the elegant simile of the poet:-^ 

*' As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow, 
Whfle the tide runs in darkness and coldnees below ; 
Soothe cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile. 
Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while.'* 

WANT OP A PURSUIT. 

There are no greater mistakes in social philosophy, 
than the supposition that idle persons are happy ; or that 
those who aim at all things must succeed in many. *' A 
man without a predominant inclination is not likely to be 
either useful or happy. He who is everything is nothing." 
Again : ** the most important principle in life is to have a 
pursuit — a aseful one if possible, and at all events, an 
mnocent onet." What truth then lies in these quaint 
rhymes: — 

** The working fire is Action strong and true, 

And helps ourselTes and friends ; 
And Si>eculation is the chimney-flue 

Whereby the smoke ascends : 
Be busy in trading, receiving, and giying. 
For life is too good to be wasted in living." 

WHAT IS CHARITY ? 

The frequent misuse of the term "Charity," by ap- 
plying it only to almsgiyiug, or casual assistance to tne 
yery poor, is thus pertinently corrected by a sound divine 
of tne last century :— 

" It is not in everybody's power, because he has not a 
fortune answerable to it, to form a standing habit of Cha- 
rity, by redressing the injured, relieving the distressed, 
and cherishing men of merit; but it is in everybody's 

Cower to beget in himself this lovely disposition of mind, 
y studying to adjust his temper to theirs with whom he 
lives, by complying with their humours as far as he inno- 
cently can, by soothing their distresses, bearing with their 

* Sharp's Essays. f Sir H. Davy. 



206 POPULAR ERRORS. 

infirmities, and bv inoommoding himself in some points to 
gratify others. On the contrary, the indulgence of an 
occasional fit of ill-humour paves the wa^ to an habitually 
bad temper. And to those who think it a small matter, 
Solon's answer is a very just one : ' Yes, but custom is a 
great one* Did we consider seriously, that, as often as we 
are exerting a spirit of needless contradiction, or venting an 
ill-natured wit to mortify those about us, we are cherish- 
ing a principle of ill-will, the very temper of the damned, 
it woiud, it is to be hoped, put some stop to this practice. 
But here the misfortune lies : men are more ambitious to 
display the abilities of the head, than to cultivate the good 
qualities of the heart; though the latter are in every- 
body's power ; the former, few have any title to*." 

CORRECTION OF ERROR. 

To unlearn is harder than to learn ; and the Grecian 
flute-player was right in requiring double fees from those 
pupils who had been taught by another master. '' I am 
rubbing their father out of my children as fast as I can," 
said a clever widow of rank and fashiont." 

Sir Thomas Browne attributes the belief in fallacies to 
the want of knowledge ; and, speaking of the persons who 
are under the influence of such belief, says : — *' Their un- 
derstanding is so feeble in the discernment of falsities, and 
averting the errors of reason, tliat it submitteth to the 
fallacies of sense, and is unable to rectify the error in its 
sensations. Thus» the greater part of mankind, having 
but one eye of sense and reason, conceive the earth far 
bigger than the sun, the fixed stars lesser than the moon, 
their figures plane, and their spaces from the earth equi- 
distant. For thus their sense informeth them, and herein 
their reason cannot rectify them ; and therefore, hopelessly 
continuing in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdi- 
ties, passing their days in perverted apprehensions and 
conceptions of the world, derogatory unto God, and the 
wisdom of the creation.:}:** 

* Seed. t Sharp. 

t A contemporary thus points to a common Error of this class : '* Men 
talk of Nature as an abstract thing, and lose sight of Nature while they 
do so. They charge upon Nature matters with which she has not the 
smallest connexion, and for which she is in no way responsible." I This 
is one of those happy quips of world knowledge which abound in the 
writings of Mr. Charles Diokens, and which bid fair to outliye the goa- 
samer of his genius. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 207 



UNPOPULAR IMPROVEMENTS. 

There is not one single source of human happiness 
against which there have not heen uttered the most lugu- 
brious predictions. Turnpike roads, navigable canals^ ino- 
culation, hops, tobacco, the reformation, the revolution. 
There are always a set of worthy and moderately-gifted 
men, who bawl out death and ruin upon every valuable 
change which the varying aspect of human affairs abso- 
lutely and imperiously requires. It would be extremely 
useful to make a collection of the hatred and abuse that all 
those changes have experienced, which are now admitted 
to be marked improvements in our condition. Such an 
history might make folly a little more modest, and suspi- 
cious of its own decisions*. 

BENEFITS OP CIVILISATION. 

Many travellers, Peron in particular, have mentioned a 
fact which is worthy of notice, viz., that savages, far from 
being stronger than civilised people, are weaker ; an addi- 
tional proof that civilisation is beneficial to the destiny of 
human nature, and that the state of nature, of which 
Rousseau, in his disquiet at a corrupt state of society, has 
formed an ideal felicity, is far from bringing us in con- 
tact with physical perfections. Everything demonstrates, 
that man is sociable, and in a progressing state ; but this 
progress is often shackled, his sociability rendered tortuous 
by individual egotism, and by the vicious nature of our 
institutions. 

EFFECTS OP PRINTING. 

Many persons, in their a£fection for works of antiquity, 
are apt to rate the present generation for their neglect of 
ancient art, or their depreciation of its labours; forgetting 
that the ingenuity of man is accomplishing greater won- 
ders by other means. This position may be illustrated by 
a note in Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater TVeatise, Speak- 
ing of that grand revolution which took place when lan- 
guage, till then limited to its proper organ, had its repre- 
sentation in the work of the hand. Sir Charles says: 
Now that a man of mean estate can have a library of 

* Sydney Smith. 



« 



208 POPULAR ERRORS. 

more intrinsic value than that of Cicero, when the senti- 
ments of past ages are as familiar as those of the present, 
and the knowledge of di£ferent empires is transmitted and 
common to all, we cannot expect to have our sages fol- 
lowed, as of old, by their five tnousand scholars. Nations 
will not now record their acts by building pyramids, or by 
consecrating temples and raising statues, once the only 
means of perpetuating great deeds or extraordinary vir- 
tues. It is vain that our artists complain that patronage is 
withheld: for the ingenuity of the hand has at length 
subdued the arts of design — printing- has made all other 
records barbarous, and great men build for themselves a 
* live-long monument.* " 

Yet Howell observes, in one of his Familiar Letters, date 
1646 : " Nor did the art of printing much avail the Chris- 
tian commonwealth, but may be said to be well near as 
fatal as gunpowder, which came up in the same age." 

ERRORS IN PRINT. 

Every statement in print receives, from this very cir- 
cumstance, a kind of authority; and what has not been 
said in print ? Newspapers, much as they contribute to 
general information, also contribute much to the propaga- 
tion of unfounded reports. The counter statements of 
opposite papers serve, indeed, in some measure, to correct 
each other's misrepresentations ; but, as the mass of people 
read only the papers of their own party, misstatements 
will inevitably gain a footing ; and a man who is desirous 
of believing only the truth, must subject the stories ad- 
mitted on hearsay by his party to a critical scrutiny. It 
was long believed that a female was raised to the papal 
chair, under the name of John VIII. ; and how many per- 
sons have credited the stories that Napoleon used to beat 
his wife, which are repeated in some miscalled histories of 
Buonaparte ! 

LIMIT OF KNOWLEDGE. 

The impossibility of arriving at certain points of in- 
quiry is often advanced by weak inquirers as a reason for 
not commencing the pursuit ; as though approximation to 
knowledge were not more desirable than extreme igno- 
rance. 8ir Charles Bell forcibly illustrates this position, 
in his invaluable Bridgewater Treatise, "Voltaire has 



POPTTLAR ERRORS. 209 

Baid that Newton, with all his science, knew not how bis 
arm moyed ! So true it is that all such studies have their 
limits. But, as he acknowledges, there is a wide difier- 
ence between the ignorance of the child or of the peasant, 
and the consciousness of the philosopher that he has ar- 
rived at a point beyond which man's faculties do not carry 
him. We may add, is it nothing to have the mind 
awakened to the many proofs of design in the hand, — to 
be brought to the conviction that everything is orderly 
and systematic in its structure, — that the most perfect 
mechanism, the most minute and curious apparatus, and 
sensibilities the most delicate and appropriate, are all com- 
bined in operation that we may move the hand ? What 
the first impulse to motion is we do not know, nor how 
the mind is related to the body ; yet it is important to 
know with what extraordinary contrivance and perfection of 
workmanship the bodily apparatus is placed between that 
internal faculty which impels us to the use of it, and the 
exterior world." 

KNOWLEDGE AND HAPPINESS. 

The well-meaning advocates for the Diffusion of Know- 
ledge have been accused of overrating its increase of 
human Happiness ; with what justice, may in some mea- 
sure be estimated by the fact that *' the extension of know- 
ledge has not necessarily the effect of raising the mind to 
more consolatory contemplations. We may consider man, 
before the lights of modem philosophy had their influence 
on his thoughts, as in a state more natural ; inasmuch as 
he yielded unresistingly to those sentiments which flow 
directly from the objects and phenomena around him." 
But, when man b^an to make natural phenomena the sub- 
jects of experiment, or of philosophical inquirv, then there 
was some danger of a change of opinion, not always benefi- 
cial to his state of mind. *' This danger does not touch the 
philosopher so much as the scholar. He who has strength 
of mind and ingenuity to make investigations into Nature^, 
will not be satisfied with the discovery of secondarv causes 
— ^his mind will be enlarged, and the objects of his thoughts 
and aspirations become more elevated. But it is otherwise 
with those not themselves habituated to investigation, and 
who learn, at second-hand, the result of those inquiries. 
If such an one sees the fire of heaven brought down in a 



210 POPULAR ERRORS. 

phial, and materiab oompounded^ to produoe an explosion 
louder than the thunder, and ten times more destructiTe, 
the storm will no longer speak an impressive language to 
him. When in watching the booming waves of a tempes- 
tuous sea along the coast, he marks Uie line at which the 
utmost yiolence is stemmed, and by an unforeseen influ- 
ence thrown back, he is more disposed to feel the providence 
extended to man, than when the theory of the moon's 
action is, as it were, interposed between the scene which he 
contemplates, and the sentiments naturally arising in his 
heart. Those influences on the mind which are natural 
and just, and beneficently provided, and have served to 
develop the sentiments of millions before him, are dis- 
missed as things vulgar and to be despised. With all the 
pride of newly-acquired knowledge, his conceptions em- 
Wrass, if they do not mislead him ; in short, he has not 
had that intellectual discipline, which should precede and 
accompany the acquisition of knowledge *." 

MORAL SCIENCE. 

Uncertainty is the common reproach of all branches of 
Moral Science ; but the reproach is often made without 
fair consideration of the limits to which it should be subject 
The principles of moral science ought not to be confounded 
with the uncertainty which belongs to the complex and 
variable subject-matter to which they are made to apply. 
Some assert that the uncertainty flows from the doubt as 
to what mind is, while no such doubt exists as to what they 
see and feel. This is a mental mistake arising from inatten- 
tion to the evidence upon which conviction of the existence 
of a thing depends f. 

PLURALITY OP WORLDS. 

Dr. Jenkin, in his Discourses upon the Reasonableness 
and Certainti/ of the Christian Religion, takes into his con- 
sideration the opinion of those persons who thought that 
the stars would shine to little purpose unless there were 
other habitable worlds besides this earth whereon we dwell. 
One of the uses for which they serve, he supposes, to be 
this : that in all ages the wits of many men, whose curiosity 
might otherwise be very ill employed, have been busied 
in considering their end and nature, and calculating their 

* Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater Treatisa 
t Mr. Field; Proc. Royal Institution. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 211 

distances and motions ; a whimsical argument^ in advan- 
cing which he seems to have forgotten the mischievous 
purposes to which so much of the wit which had taken 
this direction had been applied *. 

RELIGIOUS MELANCHOLY. 

To guard against the Errors and sufferings of Religious 
Melancholy, persons should observe, carefully, whether the 
state of their feelings is not materially afiSected by dieir 
bodily healthy and whether they do not find die former 
depressed in proportion as the latter is disordered. If they 
acknowledge this to be the case, they should avoid the 
weakness of supposing the health of their souls dependent 
on the state of their bodies : which in fact they do, by 
connectingthe state of their salvation with the state of their 
spirits. They are guilty of the absurdity of making Uie 
favour of Heaven depend on a diseased liver^ a weak sto- 
mach, or a checked perspiration. Let them go to Dr. Paris, 
and not to the Tabernacle. 

REASON AND REVELATION. 

Much scepticism has been engendered, of late years, by 
tyros in science straining after identities of physical truths 
with Scripture. " There are, indeed," observes the Rev. 
W. L. Harcourt, ** certain common points in which Reason 
and Revelation mutually assist each other ; but, in order 
that they may ever be capable of doing so, let us keep their 
ptiths distinct, and observe their accordances alone ; other- 
wise our reasonings run round in a circle, while we endea- 
vour to accommodate physical truth to Scripture, and 
Scripture to physical truth f .'* 

RELIGIOUS ERRORS. 

In forming our estimate of a religious life, we must not 
only beware of that partial view which takes in devotion 
and overlooks the active duties of Christianity ; but also of 
the common Error respecting devotion, wnich makes it 
consist, not in a piety equally removed from indifference 
and enthusiasm, but in a passionate orgasm of theopathy ; 
and of the not less common Error respecting Christian 
duty, which makes it consist, not in self-government, but 
in the mortifications of an ascetic discipline ; not in that 

* The Doctor, vol. Ui. p. 21£. f Addreaa Brit. Assoc. 1839. 

p 2 



212 POPULAR ERRORS. 

course of action which a merciful God has caused to be the 
most effectual proof of faith, whilst he has appointed it 
the indispensable condition of receiving eternal blessings, 
but in a course of suffering which would purchase etemsd 
happiness by temporal misery*. 

SCRIPTURAL MIRACLES. 

Ignorant sceptics are accustomed to explain their doubt 
of Miracles by their non-occurrence in the present times. 
Such persons overlook, in reading the Scriptures, the strik- 
ing difference between the dispensations of Grod in the 
times of our Saviour and his apostles, and in our own. 
Then miracles were wrought on the bodies and minds of 
Christians, in order to establish the truth of the Gospel. 
That object being effected, miracles became rare, or ceased 
altogether. 

THE BEST FLATTERY. 

It has been remarked that deference is the most el^ant 
species of Flattery ; and that reciprocal flattery often passes 
for mutual merit; though such base coin, when detected, 
ought to be nailed to the counter, to prevent it any further 
passing current. Swift observes, "This is a sensible 
author — he thinks as I do." " My wife*s nephew," says 
The Doctor, *' is a sensible lad. He reads my writing, 
likes my stories, admires my singing, and thinks as I <£> 
in politics : a youth of parts and considerable promise." 

CAUSE AND EFFECT. 

The misplacement of Effect for Cause was, perhaps, 
never better illustrated than by the old lady, on showing tne 
tapestry at Bayeux, observing in praise of the descriptiye 
pamphlet she offered for sde: '^depuis qu'on a vendu 
ces Lvres, beaucoup de personnes sont venues voir la tapis- 
serie !'' It is presumed that the old lady had never read 
the folios of Montfaucou. 

ERRORS OF THE IMAGINATION. 

The faculty called Imagination has caused more ab- 
surdity and misery in the world than many persons are 
aware of. Gibbon has well remarked, that " persons of 
imagination are always positive:" and, we need not add, 
that to oppose a positive man is, generally, to confirm him 
in his opinion. 

* Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 213 



CREDULITY AND SUPERSTITION. 

Credulity, although it is nearly allied to Superstition, 
yet differs from it widely. Credulity is an unbounded 
belief in what is possible, although destitute of proof, and 
perhaps of probability ; but superstition is a belief in what 
is wholly repugnant to the laws of the moral and physical 
world. Crediuity is a far greater source of error than 
superstition ; for the latter must be always more limited 
in its influence, and can exist only to a considerable ex- 
tent in the most ignorant portions of society; whereas, 
the former difiuses itself through the minds of all classes, 
by which the rank and dignity of science are degraded, 
its Yaluable labours confounded with the yain pretensions 
of empiricism, and ignorance is enabled to daim for itself 
the prescriptive right of deliyering oracles, amidst all the 
triumph of truth and the progress of philosophy. Credu- 
lity has been justly defined belief without reason, while 
scepticism, its opposite, is reason vnthout belief, and the 
natural and invariable consequence of credulity; for it 
may be observed, that men who believe without reason are 
succeeded by others whom no reasoning can convince^. 

BENEFIT OP DOUBT. 

With equal eloquence and acumen has Mr. W, S. Lan- 
dor observed : " All schools of philosophy, and almost all 
authors, are rather to be frequented for exercise than 
freight ; but this exercise ought to acquire us health and 
strength, spirits and good-humour. There is none of 
them that does not supply some truths useful to every 
man, and some untruths equally so to the few that are 
able to wrestle with them. If there were no falsehood 
in the world, there would be no doubt ; if there were no 
doubt, there would be no inouiry ; if no inquiry, no wisdom, 
no knowledge, no genius. Fancy herself would lie muffled 
up in her robe, inactive, pale, and bloated/* Sharon Turner, 
too, has acutely remarked: " Doubt and obscurity are but 
additional temptations to aspiring genius. To great minds, 
the unknown is as attractive as the wonderful ; and un- 
tried danger is but a mysterious incentive to explore it.*' 

* Dr. Paria'8 Pharmaoologia. 



214 JPOPULAB ERRORS. 



EDUCATION. 
LOVE OF CHILDREN. 

It is a false and mistaken notion altogether, that men 
of great mind and intense thought are easily wearied or 
annoyed by the presence of ChUdren. The man who is 
weaned with children must always be childish himself in 
^ind ; but alas ! not young in heart. He must be light, 
superficial, though perhaps inquiring and intelligent jbut 
neither gentle in spirit, nor fresh in feeling. Such men 
must always soon become wearied with children ; for very 
great similarity of thought and of mind — the paradox is 
but seeming — is naturaSy wearisome in another ; while, 
on the contrary, similarity of feeling and of heart is that 
bond which binds our affections together. Where both 
similarities are combined, we may 1^ the most happy in 
the society of our counterpart ; but where the links be- 
tween the hearts are wanting, there will always be great 
tediousness in great similarity*. 

BENEFITS OF EDUCATION. 

It is only within the last thirty or forty years that the 
children of the English poor have received any kind of 
Education, save what they were taught orally by their 
parents, or by the clergyman on Sunday afternoons, when 
he catechised the children in the church. Of course, very 
few of them could either read or writet. The rising gene- 
ration, however, have all had some share of instruction in 
the parochial schools which are now generally established. 
Whether the effects anticipated from these establishments 
will ever be realised, is at present doubtful. It has cer- 
tainly enabled some of the cnildren to obtain for therosetves 
better situations in life; and, though extreme ignorance 
in school-learning is not now so prevalent as it was, diere 

* The King's Highway, hy G. P. R. James. 

t The English church service is admirahly adapted for an uneducated 
congregation. The poor, who cannot read, haye opportunity to hear the 
whole of the Scriptures read oyer once in every year. They repeat the 
confession and many of the supplicatory prayers and creed after the 
cle^[yman and precentor ; and to every petition they give an audible 
assent; so that an attentive hearer soon becomes acquainted with 
everything he should believe, as well as all he should do, as a Christian. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 215 

are yet no very visible signs of moral amendment Edu- 
cation, like all other blessings, is valuable only so far as it 
is rishtly used. If the resolution to make a prop^ use 
could be enjoined along with the dissemination of it, all 
the expected good e£Pects would undoubtedly follow from 
it, but not otherwise. 

CULTIVATION OF THB CLASSICS. 

One of the educational Errors of the day is a disparage- 
ment of the stores of Classic knowledge, ^' whicn have 
floated on the bosom of time, carrying riches and deh'ght 
wherever they flow," and possessing great advantages over 
modem authorship. *' That literature which has stood 
the test of so many ages, and which, under all varieties of 
soil and climate, customs and manners, is found to contain 
something satisfactory and analogous to the best feelings 
of the mind, seems to have attained a sort of moral cer- 
tainty in its truth and taste, which leaves no room for 
doubt or speculation. Hence, to the cultivators of ancient 
literature there appears to belong somewhat of that con- 
scious sense of security, and certainty, and enjoyments, 
which Adam Smith assumes to be peculiar to the cultiva- 
tors of the exact sciences, the algebraist and geome- 
tridan*." 

The Latin and Greek classics stand by far too deeply 
rooted in the minds of the great and good to be shaken 
''arbUrio popularis aur<B;* and from their beauty and merit 
alone, must ever remain identified with the literature of 
modem nations: — on the mere ground of utility, as a 
branch of study, ten or twelve per cent of the English 
words in any ordinary book are to be directly traced there- 
from ; but surely the dead languages, instead of being 
taken merely for what they are worth, should be rather 
acknowledged and received by a civilised people, as the 
elements of livingjtongues, and the earliest record of human 
intelligence illustrative of the gift of speech t. 

UTILITY OF THE CLASSICS. 

Years ago. Dr. Watts said all that could be said in 
reply to the arguments against Classical Learning, when he 
asxed the use of a boy learning Latin who was intended 
for a soap-boiler. The answer is obvious: a school must 

* Quarterly Review. f Sir George Head's Home Tour. 



216 POPULAB BRRORS. 

teach something that will generally apply to the education 
of all, and leave the more particular education to he modi- 
fied according to circumstances. To carry out the utilita- 
rian scheme of accommodating education to the future 
profession of the scholar^ every academy should he provided 
with its professors of soap-hoiling, hreeches-making, cork- 
cuttings &c. But even this would not succeed ; ror how 
many are the youths whom fortune turns from a profession 
they were in their earliest years destined to pursue, and 
whose education, if merely given with a view to that pro- 
fession, would be entirely thrown away ! How would the 
utilitarian youth^ educated for a soap-boiler, when his 
unde, a rich tanner, bequeathed him his business, mourn 
that he had consumed his juvenile years in studying tallow 
and barilla! As every literary work presumes some know- 
ledge of classical allusions at least, can any substitute be 
found more generally useful ? As for commercial schools, 
a few years in a merchant's counting-house will throw 
every light on the mysteries of double-entry ; and it is a 
notorious fact, that persons who come from these commer- 
cial schools, assert that they have learned a system of 
book-keeping utterly unknown to any man of business, a 
number of barbarous handwritings, used only for the 
decoration of Cluistmas-pieces, and a cumbrous arithmetic, 
which would excite a roar on 'Change. We are so heartily 
disgusted with an antipathy to that branch of learning in 
which our best and most distinguished men were edu- 
cated — a familiarity with which will add so much to the 
relish for £nglish and other modem literature, (instead, 
as the utilitarians would have it, of operating as a bar,) 
that we cannot resist pointing out its fallacies wherever it 
may he found*. 

QUOTATION OF THE DEAD LANGUAGES. 

The custom of quoting the Dead Languages has been 
adverted to by Murray and other English grammarians, as 
a reprdiensible Error ; but it has been well observed that, 
" those who feel the charms of lan^age as a mere vehicle 
of thought, experience a delight in the ancient tongues 
which no modem language can give; because, from meir 
inflexion and compactness, the images rise at once to the 
mind,unweakened by any circumstances of juxtapositionf . 

* Times Journal. t Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 217 

In short, all experience shows, how materially the taste 
and manners of a gentleman are improved hy classical 
attainments. 

PRECOOIOUS TALENTS. 

No common error is attended with worse consequences 
to the children of genius, than the practice of dragging 
Precocious Talent into early notice; of encouraging its 
growth in the hothed of parental approhation, and of en- 
deavouring to give the dawning intellect the precocious 
maturity- of that fruit which ripens and rots almost simul- 
taneously. Tissot has admirably pointed out the evils 
which attend the practice of forcing the youthful intellect. 
'* The effects of study vary/' says mis author, " according 
to the age at which it is commenced : long-continued ap- 
plication kills the youthful energies. I have seen children 
mil of spirit attacked by this literary mania beyond their 
years, and I have foreseen with grief the lot which awaited 
them ; — they commenced by being prodigies, and ended 
by becoming stupid. The season of youth is consecrated 
to the exercise of the body which strengthens it, and not 
to study, which debilitates and prevents its growth. Nature 
can never successfully carry on two rapid developments 
at the same time. When the growth of intellect is too 
prompt,its faculties are too early developed; and mental ap- 
plication being permitted proportioned to this development, 
the body receives no part of it, because the nerves cease to 
contribute to its energies ; the victim becomes exhausted, 
and eventually dies of some insidious malady. The parents 
and guardians who encourage or require this forced appli- 
cation, treat their pupils as gardeners do their plants, wno, 
in trying to produce the first rarities of the season, sacri- 
fice some plants to force others to put forth fruit and 
flowers which are always of a short ouration, and are, in 
every respect, inferior to those which come to their matu- 
rity at a proper season.'' 

WHAT IS GENIUS ? 

Genius and talents are often confounded. *' To carry 

on the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood ; 

to comlnne the child's sense of wonder and novelty with 

the appearances, which every day for perhaps forty years 

had rendered familiar 

With sun, and moon, and stars, t)iroughout the year. 
And man and woman, 



218 POPULAR ERRORS. 

— ^this is the character and privilege of genias^ and one of 
the marks which distinguish genius from talent Genius 
must have talent as its complement and implement, just 
as, in like manner, imagination must have fancy. In 
short, the higher intellectual powers can only act through 
a corresponding energy of the lower *.'* 

STYLE OF WRITINO. 

To say a person writes a good style is originally as 
pedantic an expression as to say he plays a good fiddlef . 

PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

One of the leading arguments of the advocates of spe- 
cial interference for regulating Education generally 
throughout the country, is that such a measure would not 
only tend to the beneht of the lower classes, hut work in 
tender mercy towards the higher; from the apprehension 
that from this " march of intellect," the lower classes may 
gain undue pre-eminence. We are inclined to consider 
this a partial and erroneous view of the question, and to 
agree with Sir George Head, that " the matter may very 
well be allowed to rest in the old hands, and that parents 
and guardians may safely, as usual, continue to direct the 
course of education, particularly as experience shows that 
the energies excited have been simultaneous, instead of 
partial, and that all classes of society, not the lower classes 
exclusively, have been awakened by a sympathetic stimu- 
lus ; for it might be shown that knowledge has shed 
light in equal proportion over the higher ranks, were only 
the numerous public lectures delivered continually, year 
after year, on every branch of science, and in every great 
town of the kingdom^ to be given as an example." Again : 
" the imperfections in our forms of education are, proba- 
bly, more attributable to the apathy of parents and guar- 
dians than to the system itself: for though public schools 
may be said partly to lead public taste, they hold always 
in due deference public opinion ; the intelligible definite 
expression of which, without special interference, will, no 
doubt, prove alone sufficient to investigate all necessary 
alterations % " 

* (Toleridge. fShenstone. X Home Tour. 



POPULAR ERROBS. 219 

ABITHMETIC AND ALGEBRA. 

Amidst the numerous educational Errors which it is 
harder to unlearn than learn, is the neglect of the study 
of Arithmetical Algehra, which might certainly he made a 
more primary ohject of interest than has hitherto heen the 
practice. " It was a trite adage when Horace was a hoy^ — 

ut pueris oUxn dant crustnla blandi 



Doctores, elementa yeliBt ut dieoere prima ; 

yet, common custom tends rather to give a distaste to the 
science of numbers and quantities, than inspire the pupil 
with a sense of its beauty ; as it is, the study is taken up 
altogether in a desultory way, and may rather be said, 
after a couple of hours' labour, to spoil a naif-holiday than 
to aiSbrd direct advantage. Under the present system, a 
youth has scarcely shaken off the heavy machinery of pri- 
mary rules, than he leaves school, and bids adieu to the 
subject for ever; and this notwithstanding the accumulat- 
ing rapidity with which difficulties disappear in proportion 
to progress. It is really absurd that since, even in the 
further stages, there is no mental exercise more painful, 
one which requires more fixed attention, or more tenacity 
of thought, than the mere primary, mechanical process of 
multiplication, the student should be thus propelled, as it 
were, through stormy weather, and then be obliged to 
abandon his course the moment the light of reason illumi- 
nates his track, and teaches him to a£ipt principles pain- 
fully acquired to easy practice. Provided arithmetic be 
made a part of education, the student should never stop 
short of Algebra, (as he does in nine out of ten cases,) of 
which, by any one versed in common arithmetic, a toler- 
able insight may be obtained in a few months. By it he 
not only oecomes thoroughly master of theory, but arrives, 
as it were, in an element; where, with every new object 
calculated to delight and surprise, he breathes afresh, in- 
hales new life, and reposes in peace, half-suffocated by the 
turbid waters of the immortal Cocker. A problem in 
Algebra once arranged and commenced, no matter how 
frequent the interruptions, how sudden or how long the 
interval, an hour, a day, a week afterwards, — it is resumed 
and pursued, precisely with the same interest and the same 
facility as if no interruption at all had taken place. By 



220 POPULAR ERRORS. 

the help of Algebra, the student not only at once perceives 
the use of all his early labours, and views the general 
principles of arithmetic laid bare in surprising beauty, but 
obtains, moreover, a master-key, wherewith to advance, at 
will, as fancy or interest in future days may lead, within 
the pale of mathematics *." 

LEARNING ARITHBIETIC. 

The order of the rules of Arithmetic appears to be sin- 
gularly erroneous: for instance, as relates to Decimal Frac- 
tions. According to the present plan, a boy is led through 
all the primary rules before he is taught that a decreasing 
scale exists, to the right of the unit, precisely similar to 
that which increases to tlie left As nothing can be more 
simple than the whole theory of Decimal Fractions, which 
operations are, in fact, the same as those in whole num- 
bers, there is no reason why they should not be taught 
from the very beginning ; which early insight would cer- 
tainly tend to encourage reflection, at the expense of 
hardly any additional incumbrance of the mind. 

Again, — the Ride of Three is universally learned by rote ; 
a barrier at the beginning to the range of thought, beyond 
which the mind of a boy has no more scope than if he were 
taught to reckon with nis Angers. It is administered after 
the manner of a quack medicine, or a charm of unknown 
ingredients, to be swallowed without further inquiry, as if 
to suit all manner of purposes in life. This is of the Rule 
of Three Direct As for the Rule of Three Inverse, it may 
be, for aught many know to the contrary, the other rule 
set to music ; while the Double Rule of Three being some- 
what complicated and unintelligible, few are inchned to 
take it in hand. 

Yet all these three rules are, in fact, no rules at all, 
taken in a primary sense ; but they are secondary rules^ 
founded upon anomer rule or elementary law of Propor- 
tion, which latter rule, or elementary law, is the simplest 
of the two ; its principle lying, as it were, in a nutsheU ; it 
being simply as follows, namely, — that of four numbers 
being proportionals, the sum of the two middle terms mul- 
tipliai together is equal to the sum of the two extremes 
multiplied togetherf . 

* Sir George Head's Home Tour. t Ibid. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 221 

The plan of teaching arithmetic usually adopted in 
schools is the syntheticau mode, which is very disadvan- 
tageous in compmson with the strictly analytical plan. 
Thus, in arithmetic, a system of rules is placed hefore the 
pupil, and he is told to do a certain number of sums by 
those rules. When the boy has succeeded in doing so, he 
receives praise, and believes he has done all that is neces* 
sary, whereas he has scarcely done anything. He sees not 
the principle on which the rule is founded. His reason- 
ing powers have scarcely been called into exercise. His 
memory is thus burdened with a load of rules without one 
connecting principle. It is a very common observation 
with a boy when he cannot solve a question in arithmetic, 
that he has forgot the rule. Had he got principles instead 
of rules, arithmetic would have become, as it were, a part 
of himself. He could no more forget these principles tnan 
he could forget his own name*. 



ARITHMETICAL PHRASEOLOGY. 

CoLE&iDOE thus happily exposes a common Error. "It 
used to be said that four and five make nine. Locke says 
that four and five are nine. Now I say, that four and ^ve 
are not nine, but that they will make nine. When I see 
four olgects which will form a square, and five which will 
form a pentagon, I see that they are two different things ; 
when combined, they will form a third different figure 
which we call nine. When separate tliey are not it, but 
will make it" 

THE " TALENTED." 

Coleridge has cleverly exposed the freouent use of 
** that vile and barbarous vocable — talented^ wnich is steal- 
ing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews and 
most respectable publications of the day. Why not shtl- 
Unged, farthinged, tenpenced^ &c. ? Tne formation of a 
participle passive from a noun is a licence that nothing but 
a very peculiar felicity can excuse. If mere convenience 
is to justify such attempts upon the idiom, you cannot 
stop till the language becomes, in the most proper sense of 
the word, corrupt. Most of these pieces of slang come 
from America." 

* Dr. Ritchie. 



222 POPULAR SBROItS« 



*' TRANSPIRE." 



F£w words of modern introduction have had greater 
success than " Transpire," — for it is not only in general, 
but even in yulear use. Johnson's awkward substitute of 
" get-abroad," does not seem to express exactly the same 
meaning : a secret may gel abroad by design, by accident, 
by breach of confidence ; but it is said to tran^ire when 
it becomes known by small indirect circumstances — by 
83rmptoms — ^by inferences. It is now often used in the 
chrect sense of '* get abroad^ but, as appears to me, in- 
correctly *, 



^^ FAMILY EDITIONS." 



A SENSELESS outcry has been raised against the improper 
ideas suggested by reading our old dramatbts, and Editions 
of some of their works, omitting the passages objected to, 
have been prepared for *' Family Reading,** as the Family 
Shakspeare, &c. But let us hear what Sir Walter Scott, 
one of the healthiest writers of our time, says upon this 
critical subject: — '* It is not the passages of ludicrous indeli- 
cacy that corrupt the manners of a people ; it is the son- 
nets which a prurient genius like Master Little sings, vir- 
ffinibus puerisque, — it is the sentimental slang, hau lewd, 
half methodistic, that debauches the understanding, in- 
flames the sleeping passions, and prepares the reader to 
give way as soon as a tempter appears." 

PRACTICE OF MUSIC. 

It has been asserted, and believed extensively, that the 
Practice of Music is injurious to the human form: this is 
positively untrue, for the practice at the pianoforte, which 
is the most general favourite with ladies, is as favourable 
to the figure as any exercise that can be devised ; the prac- 
tice upon the harp, indeed, if not managed carefully, may, 
under some circumstances, be injurious; Wt when the 
form hss been injured by imprudent practice at the harp, 
those injuries may be easily cured, and, with moderate 
care, may always be preventedf . 

AN EAR FOR MUSIC. 

It is commonly thought, that to be susceptible of asso- 
^ations of ideas awakened by music, we must have a 
Musical Ear. The following quotation from the London 

* Croker. f Sheldnke. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 223 

Magazine, however, proves this idea to he erroneous : — 
'' I knew at Paris, the widow of an Irish patriot, who 
could not hear the ' Exile of Erin ' sung^ without hdng 
overpowered to such a degree, that it would have heen 
truly alarming^ had not a flood of tears come to her relief. 
TVhat is wonderful, so far from having a fine musical ear, 
she had not even a common-place relish for music The 
same efiect was produced on her by the ballad of the 
' Minstrel Boy.* A young friend of the writer, who has 
no taste for music, is similarly overpowered, even in a 
crowded theatre, when * Home, Sweet Home,' is sung." 

Coleridge observes: " I have no ear whatever; I could 
not sing an air to save my life, but I have the inteusest 
delight in music, and can detect good from bad. Naldi 
once remarked to me at a concert, that I did not seem 
much interested with a piece of Rossini's which had just 
been performed. I said it sounded to me like nonsense 
verses. But I could hardly contain myself when a thing 
of Beethoven followed." 

THE JEWS'-BARP. 

Jews'-harp is, probably, a corruption of Jaws'-harp, 
from its being placed between tibe jaws when played. It 
is also called Jews*-trump, a corruption of Jeu-trompe, a 
play- thing, or play-trump. A single Jew's-harp must 
necessarily be very incomplete; for, as Prof. C. Wheat- 
stone has shown, its sounds mainly depend on the recipro- 
cation of columns of air in the mouth of the performer, 
and these sounds are perfectly identical with the mul- 
tiples of the original vibrations of the instrument. By em- 
ploying two or more instruments, however, the deficiencies 
are supplied ; and a few years since, Mr. Eulenstein used, 
in London, sixteen instruments of different sizes, and was 
thus enabled to modulate into every key, and to produce 
effects not only original but musical and agreeable. 

TYROLESE MUSIO. 

It is a common idea in England, that the Tvrolese are 
a musical people: we have Tyrolese airs and songs in 
abundance, and Tyrolese minstrels, who lead every one to 
believe from their performances, that the Tyrol is full of 
minstrelsy and song ; but Mr. Inglis, a recent tourist, found 
nothing of this; ne observed no symptom of musical 



224 POPULAR ERRORS. 

taste either in public performances, or amongst the people 
generally, who never fail in those districts of Germany, 
where music is really a passion, to give a thousand proofs 
of its existence, even to the most unobservant traveller who 
passes through a villaga We are strangely hoaxed in these 
matters, and ridiculed too ; for, in an American work we 
read of the music of the four Jews, who sung dressed at 
the Argyle- Rooms, as Tyrolese minstrels. 

TRAVELLINO ENGLISHMEN. 

It is a fact deeply to be regretted, that many vulgar and 
half-witted Englishmen think, if they leave home with 
money, they can command anything ; that it is mean to 
be civil, and beneath them to be grateful for any efibrts 
to oblige them made by those for whose services they pay. 
The presumption of our countrymen is proverbial on the 
Continent ; fortunately the exceptions are numerous, and 
we are spoken of as an unaccountable people, when some 
men of unquestionable character and fortune display ez-> 
amples of suavity and true gentility, which cannot be sur- 
passed on earth : the foreigner is thus puzzled to know how 
to estimate our national character. It is a vulgar prejudice, 
that all foreigners cheat the English, and that caution is 
necessary to guard against the constant attempts to over- 
reach them. That some such characters are met with 
cannot be denied; but those whose capacity is thus made 
to characterise a class* have often been created by the 
meanness and prejudices, and thoughtless extravagance, of 
the travellers themselves *. 

Nothing appears more ludicrous than those persons, 
who, after a short stay in some foreign country, come back 
with an opinion cut and dried upon people whom they 
scarcely know, and transactions, the real nature of which 
has been studiously concealed from them ; and yet, this is 
wliat we see every dayt. 

THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN TRAVELLING. 

It is too common an Error to suppose that a good know- 
ledge of French is sufficient for the wants of a traveller on 
the Continent. French will carry a traveller through the 
Netherlands, the southern parts of Holland, and some of 
the cantons of Switzerland, with perfect comfort ; through 

* Brockedon. f Earl Dudley's Letters. 



POPULAR ERRORS: 225 

the north of Italy, the other parts of Holland, and others 
of the Swiss cantons, without extraordinary inconvenience; 
and in all the cities of hoth Italy and Germany, it is true 
that some person may always be found to whom French h 
intelligible, if not familiar ; whilst in the higher grades of 
society, through all Europe, a traveller who understands 
Frendi will never or rarely be at fault. But more is re- 
quired by the traveller than all this. French will not even 
obtain for him the common necessaries of the day in some 
parts of Germany, particularly in the east. It will do 
nothing for him in tne Tyrol, or in the Swiss Grisons ; he 
would starve upon it in Hungary and Turkey, and grow 
thin upon it in Italy, as well as in Sweden and Denmark. 
A traveller roi^t as well go to Spain with a knowledge of 
Sanscrit as of French ,' for it is entirely a mistake to sup- 
pose, that the occupation of Spain by the French army, 
caused any general diiSUsion of the language. Besides, in 
many of those countries and districts in which a knowledge 
of French will procure the common needs of a traveller, 
it will procure nothing more ; it will not command advice, 
still less, information. A traveller through the German 
cantons of Switzerland, or through any part of Germany, 
and many parts of Italy, although he may very probably 
find a French waiter in the hotel, may ask in vain for any 
information on the road, and will, most probably, be seated 
every day at a Table d'Hote, between two persons who 
know nothing of French beyond Monsieur or voules voiis*, 
French has, therefore, b^n improperly called <^ the al- 
gebra of tongues," from the notion of its being a sort of 
general medium of communication current over the greater 
part of the earth. 

TRAVELLING IN FRANCE. 

A LOUD outcry has been raised against th^ mode of 
Travelling in France, and French Diligences are ridiculed 
by stay-at-home tourists for their tardy rate ; but these 
carriages perform their journeys at the average of six 
miles per hour, including stoppages. They are greatly 
more roomy and commodious than the English stage- 
coaches, and quite as well hung ; and what does it signify 
to the traveller, who finds hiinself seated in a place in 
every way upon an equality with an EngUsh post-chaise^ 

* IngUft's Tyrol. 



226 POPULAR ERRORS. 

if half-a-dozen others* with lighter purses, are shut up in 
the rotonde behind ? and, so long as the coach performs 
the journey within the stated time, of what importance i» 
it if the horses are rough and long-tailed, or if the harness 
be made of ropes? and to this add, that coach £ires in 
England are greatly higher than they are in France. The 
distance from Paris to Strasbui^ u three hundred and 
forty miles, and the fare for the bestv place is 37 francs, 
or 30s. lOd. ; or outside, with a cabriolet covering, 10 francs 
or 8s. 4d. less*." 

ROADS ON THE CONTINENT. 

It is quite a mistake to suppose that good Roads are to 
be found only in England. In Bavaria, in most parts of 
Switzerland, and the Tyrol — in many parts of the Nether- 
lands, and throughout all Sweden, — nay, even in some 
Sirts of Spain, there are as fine roads as are to be seen in 
nglandf. 

FRENCH WOMEN. 

A FINE countenance is a rarity among the French 
country girls; and, although there is something very 
charming in the pictures and prints we have all seen, of tlie 
fetes du viliage, and in tlie portraits of viUage belles with 
sylph-like forms, who are represented as gracing these 
rustic assemblies, an actual visit to a few of these scenes 
will quickly dissipate the romance t, 

BAVARIAN BROOM OIRLS. 

Mr. Inous, in his recent Tour, states, that from the hour 
he entered Bavaria, until the hour he quitted that comitry, 
he never saw one woman whose dress, still less whose 
brooms, recalled to mind the Broom- Girls who are seen in 
every street in England. He much questions whether 
these persons are Bavarians ; the greater number are, more 
probably, Dutch and Belgian. Bavaria is far distant from 
England, and Mr. Inglis saw nothing among the inhabit- 
ants to induce him to think they were driven by necessity 
from their native country. 

INTELLIGENCE OF THE IRISH. 

A NOTION is pretty general in Great Britain, that the 
Irish poor are exceedingly ignorant ; but this is by no 
means the case. If dementary knowledge, or being able 

* Inglia'a Tyrol. f Ibid. t Ibid. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 227 

to read, write, and perform ordinary arithmetical opera* 
tions, be regarded as education, it is more generally dif- 
fused in Ireland than in England. " Where in England," 
asks Mr. Bicheno, in his Report on the Poor Laws, *' could 
the Ordnance Surveyors find persons among the lowest 
dass^ to calculate the sides and areas of their triangles, at 
a halfpenny a triangle^ as they do in Ireland, and abun- 
dance of them *?" 



FLOGGING SLAVES. 

Many absurd stories are told of the conduct of drivers, 
and the licence allowed them by the planters in the West 
Indies. A driver always carries a whip ; and it is alleged 
in Britain, that no small use of it is daily made, while he 
stands behind those at work in the field. Mrs. Carmichael, 
who resided many years in the West Indies, and visited 
one or other slave estate daily, declares that she never 
saw a whip once used, either by the driver or by any other 
person ; neither did Mrs. Carmichael hear a negro com- 
plain of such a thing, although she used often to make 
inquiry. It is true that every driver carries a whip ; and 
the use of the whip is this : — The driver always goes out 
first in the morning, and cracks his whip three times 
loudly ; and as the crack is heard distinctly at the negro 
houses^ this is a warning to go to labour f. 

PLEASURE TOURS. 

Sir Francis H£Ad, in his delightful Bubbles, after 
enumerating the economical comforts at the hotel of 
Schlangenbad, observes : — '' I have dwelt long upon these 
apparently trifling details, because, humble as they may 
sounds I conceive that they contain a very important 
moral. How many of our country people are always 
raving about the cheapness of the Continent, and how 
many every year break up their establishments in England 
to go in search of it ; yet, if we had but sense, or rather 
courage, to live at home as economically and as rationally 
as princes and people of all ranks live throughout the rest 
of Europe, how unnecessary would be the sacrifice, and 
how much real happiness would be the result ! " 

* M*Culloch. 
t Domestic Manners and Society in the West Indies. 

Q % 



228 POPULAR ERRORS. 

" DUTCH " CLOCKS AND " TOYS." 

The wooden clocks^ which we erroneously call " Dutch," 
are nearly all made in the Black Forest ; and are, in fact, 
German clocks. The village of Freybure is the centre of 
this manufacture, whence wooden clocks are exported, 
'' to the number, it is said, of 180,000 yearly, under the 
name of Dutch Clocks, not only throughout Europe, but 
even to America and China*." Yet Shakspeare, with 
his wonted accuracy, called these clocks rightly, thus : — 

" A woman that is like a German dock, 
Still a repairing ; ever out of frame ; 
And never going aright." 

Love's Labour Lost, Act iii. so^ie i. 

In like manner, the various *' Dutch Toys " are, in reality, 
'' Sonnenburg wares,'* being made in me little town of 
Sonnenburg, in Saxony. These wares consist of toys, 
dolls, boxes of various kinds, including pill-boxes; also, 
boot-jacks, chess-boards, and the endless variety of articles 
for the amusement of children, which help to nU the toy- 
shops of every quarter of the globe. 

WHO ARE COCKNEYS? 

Etymologists have referred the term Cockney to 
Cockenay, from the Latin coquinator or coquinarius, a 
cook, as in Chaucer's " Reve's Tale," — 

« And when this jape is told another day, 
I shall be holden a daffe or cokenay." 

But, we may venture to ask, why should a term of the 
kitchen be applied as one of contempt exclusively to 
Londoners ? In Chaucer^s line, above quoted, the term 
evidently implies a silly person ; and, if we mistake not, 
the word "daffe" is used in our day as daft, or stupid. 
Shakspeare, too, in the Twelfth Night, employs the term 
in a similar sense, when the clown says, *' I am afraid 
this great lubber world will prove a cockney ;*' although 
the expression in King Lear, — " Cry to it, nuncle, as the 
cockney did to the eels," — has been interpreted in favour 
of cockney being originally a term of the kitchen. 

• Hand-book of Northern Germany, 1838 — The Editor of the Picto- 
rial Shakspere notes, " It is most probable that' the Germaa iMk 
was of the common kind, which we now call Dutch clocks. 
* Still a rejMdring ; eyer out of frame ; 
And never going aright ;' ** 



POPULAR ERRORS. 229 

Fuller, in his Worthies, gives the two following explana- 
tions of die term : — 

" 1. One coaks'd or cocker'd, made a wanton or nestle- 
oock of, delicately bred and brought up, so that, when 
grown men or women, they can endure no hardship, nor 
comport with painstaking. 

" 2. One utterly ignorant of husbandry and housewifery, 
such as is practised in the country, so that they may be 
persuaded anything about rural commodities; and the 
original thereof, and the tale of the citizen's son, who 
knew not the language of the cock, but called it neighing, 
is commonly known." 

** The tale of the cock neighing is gravely given by 
Minshieu in his Guide into the Tongues ; and is repeated 
in succeeding dictionaries. Whatever be the origin, there 
can be no doUbt that London was anciently known by the 
name of Cockney. Fuller says : ' It is more than four 
hundred years old ; for, when Hugh Bigot added artificial 
fortifications to the natural strength of his castle at Bun- 
j^ay, in Suffolk, he gave out this rhyme, therein vaunting 
It for impregnable : — 

Were I in my castle of Bimgey, 

Upon the river of Waveney, 

I would ne care for the King of Cockeney : 

meaning thereby King Henry the Second, then peaceably 
poaiessed of London." Tyrwhitt, in his N^otes on Chaucer, 
mgeniously suggests that the author of these rhymes, " in 
ciming London Cockeney might possibly alluae to that 
imaginary country of idleness and luxury, which was 
anciently known by the name of Cokaigne, or Cocagne ; a 
name which Hicks* has shown to be derived from Coqui- 
na. Boileau, in his Satires, speaks as if the same appel- 
lation had been bestowed upon the French as upon the 
English metropolis, thus, — 

'* Paris est pour un riche un pajrs de Cocagne f." 

" The festival of Cocagna at Naples, described by Keyslor, 
appears to have the same foundation t" 
According to Fynes Moryson, the Londoners, and all 

* Oram. Anglo-Sax. p. 231. 

t The ** Mdt deCocoffnt "the Mast of Cocagne, Is, to this day, one of 
the fayourite sports of the Champs Elyse^s, in Paris ; and.is known in 
England as the greased pole with a shoulder of mutton at its apex : yet 
with us it is strictly a country sport— Ed. Pop. Errors. 

% Pictorial Shakspere : notes to King Lear, p. 489. 



230 POPULAR ERROItB. 

within the sound of Bow-bell, are in reproach called 
Cockneys, and eaters of buttered toasts." 

All tnat we can arriye at is, that the term Cockney had 
less reference to the kitchen than the parlour. 

WHO AKE THE GIPSIES? 

GiPST, corrupted from Egyptians^ is a name given in 
England to a wandering race of people, from the notion of 
their having originally migrated from Egypt into Europe : 
but it has been proved that they were not originally from 
that country; tneir appearance, manners, and language 
being totally different from those of either the Copts or 
Fellahs. 

Indeed, the Error of supposing Gipsies to be Egyptians 
is thus exjploded by Sir Thomas Browne: ''Common 
opinion denveth them from £gypt> and from thence they 
derive themselves, according to tneir own account hereof, 
as Munster discovered in the letters and pass which they 
obtained from Sigismund, the emperor; that they first 
came out of Lesser Egypt, that having defected from the 
Cliristian rule, and reLsipsed into Pagan rites, some of 
every family were enjoined this penance to wander about 
the world* ; or, as Aventinus delivereth, they pretend for 
this vagabond course, a judgment of God upon their fore- 
fathers, who refused to entertain the Virgin Mary and 
Jesus, when she fled into their country. 

*' Which account, notwithstanding, is of little probabili- 
lity : for the generid stream of writers, who inquire into 
their origin — all insist not upon this ; and are so little 
satisfied in their descent from Egypt, that they deduce 
them from several nations : Polydore Vergil accounting 
them originally Syrians; Philippus Bergomas fetcheth 
them from Chaldsa ; ^neas Sylvius, from some part of 
Turkey ; Bellonius^ no further than Wallachia, and Bul- 
garia ; nor Aventinus, than the confines of Hungaria. 

" That they are no Egyptians, Bellonius maketh evi- 
dent : who met droves of Gipsies in Egypt, about Grand 
Cairo, Matierea, and the villages on the banks of Nilus ; 
who, notwithstanding, were accounted strangers unto that 
nation, and wanderers from foreign parts, even as they 
are esteemed with us. 

'* That they came not out of Egypt is also probable^ 

* ThiB statement of Browne is too parallel with the &te of the 
Iraelites to be entertained as better than conjecture. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 231 

tiecanse their first appearance was in Germany since the 
year 1400. Nor were they observed before in other parts 
of Europe, as is dedudfale from Manster, Genebrard, 
Crantisius, and Ortilius. 

" But that they first set out from Germany is also pro- 
bable from their language, which was the Sclayonian 
tongue ; and when they wandered afterwards into France, 
they were commonly called Bohemians^ which name is 
still retained for gipsies. And, therefore, when Crantisius 
deliyereth, they first appeared about the Baltic Sea, when 
Bellonius deriveth them from Bulgaria and Wallachia, 
and others from about Hungaria, Uiey speak not repug- 
nantly hereto : for the langua^ of those nations was Scla- 
▼onian, at least some dialect thereof^." 

The name of Bohemians here mentioned by Browne, 
appears to have been given to Gipsies by the French, from 
some of them having come into France from Bohemia : 
others derive the word from Boem^ an old French word 
signifying a sorcerer. (Moreri, art. Bohemiens^ and Du- 
cange's Glossary, art. ^gyptiaci.) This statement is at 
variance with that of Pasquier, who^ in his Reckerches 
Historiques, says they first appeared at Paris in Au- 
gust 1427, when they represented themselves as Chris- 
tians driven out of Egypt by the Mussulmans, and the 
women assumed the ctuling of fortune-tellers. The Ger- 
mans gave gipsies the name of Zigeuner^ or wanderers ; 
the Dutch called them Heiden, or heathens ; the Danes 
and Swedes, Tartars. In Italy, they are called Zhtgari ; 
in Turkey and the Levant, Tchingenes ; in Spain, Gitanos; 
and in Hungary and Transylvania, where they are very 
numerous, they are called Fharaoh-Nepek, or Pharaoh's 
people. A recent travellerf considers there is not any coun- 
try in Europe where the genuine gipsy is now to be foimd, 
80 thoroughly addicted to nis original habits, as in Hungary, 
where they are called Cyguanis, 

It is, however, now no longer disputed whence gipsies 
originally came, for they are believed to have migrated 
from India at the time of the great Mohammedan invasion 
of Timor Beg ; and to have belonged in their own coun- 
try to one of the lowest castes, which resemble them in 
their appearance and habits. Pottinger, in his Travels, 

* Vulgar Errors, b. vL c. xiii. p. 387. 
t The Rer. O. R. Oleig, in his TraveU in Gennany, Hungary, an 
Bohemia. 



232 POPULAR ERRORS. 

saw some tribes in Beloochistan ; and there is a tribe neu* 
the mouths of the Indus called TMnganci, The gipsies in 
their language^ call themselves Sind ; and their language 
has been found to resemble some of the dialects of ludia^. 
Gipsies exist at this moment in great numbers in all the 
countries of Europe, and a large portion of Asia ; in parts 
of Africa; but not in America: and it is calculated that 
there are thus five millions of sipsies scattered over three 
quarters of the globe. In England, however, they are by 
no means so numerous as is commonly imagined : for the 
term gipsies is erroneously applied to Uie majority of wan- 
derers, as travelling tinkers and musicians, makers oS. 
wooden spoons, lacfles, &c. They must be considered 
mere pretenders to astrology, as fortune-tellers ; for al- 
though they talk of tdling *' by the stars," not one in a 
thousand of the so-called gipsies knows one star from an- 
other. They also pretend to understand palmistry, or telling 
fortunes by the lines of the hand : 

'* As o'er my palm the silver pieoe she drew. 
And traced the line of life with searching view. 
How throbb'd my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears. 
To learn the colour of my future years." 

Rog&rs's PUamres of Memorp, L 107. 

But they have mostly passed into common beggars, or taken 
to a trade or business for a livelihood. The laws are too 
stringent to allow them to live by stealing as of old, when 
forests and unenclosed places were less rare than at present ; 
and, moreover^ the spread of knowledge among all classes 
has rendered their pretended arts of little benefit to them. 
StiU, a few '^ tell the ladies what their lovers hire them to 
tell them — and the gentlemen what the ladies request them 
to tell them ; " but they rarely now get five or six guineas 
from a newly married couple, as they did of old, when also 
they never wanted a shilling or a meaJ as they passed the 
houses of their dupes. 

Many of these facts have been condensed from a paper* 
by J. Grisoom, in the Revue Encychp^dique, 1833. 

BRITISH AND ROMAN ROADS. 

Notwithstanding all that has been written upon the 
quettio vexata of the Roman Roads in Britain, many au- 
tnors fall into the Error of attributing the formation of all 

* Bombay Transactions, 182a. 



POPULAR ERRORB. 238 

the Roads in South Britain to the Romans; whereas, 
this portion of our island was, undoubtedly, traversed 
by roads made by the Britons long before the arrival of 
the Romans in this country. Mr. Kempe, the intelli- 
gent antiquary, adopting the opinion of Whitaker, consi- 
ders the Guetheling or WatUng Street, to have been a 
British road before uie Romans made it their grand route 
from the point of' their first invasion to the metropolis, 
and thence upon the site and line of the present Great 
North Road : " with the Britons," he observes, ** it was 
a forest lane, or trackway ; with the Romans, it became 
a stratum, street, or raised road, constructed according 
to their well-known manners*." We entirely concur 
in this opinion : for it is unreasonable to suppose that a 
people like the Britons, acquainted with the use of carriages, 
(as in their thousands of war-chariots,) could have l^n 
ignorant of road-making, or could have traversed the 
country save by roads of some description however rude. 
The Watling Street, which has been denominated one of 
the four grand Roman ways in Britun, was, doubtless, 
adapted, not originally constructed, by the Komans, who 
used it as a strat^c route in war, on which account it has 
been too generally regarded as a military road ; notwith- 
standing it is still one of the roads of the country. The 
discovery of British remains on the Watling Street is 
important toward the settlement of its origin. Altogether, 
we can scarcely believe any country, in which carriages 
are employed, to be long without roads. In Persia, at this 
day, there are no roads ; but wheel carriages are unknown 
there. 

It 18 worthy of remark, that from the period of the Ro- 
mans quitting England, (a.d. 420,) to the middle of the last 
century, the roads pf the country, as left by them, almost 
sufficed the wants of the people. '* These important works 
of the masters of the ancient world must auke excite the 
admiration of the antiquary and the practical man : and 
their durability is best attested by extensive portions of 
them being used as roads to this day ; whilst m vastness 
of design, they are exceeded only by the stupendous 
railway of our own scientific timesf. " 

* Archaeoli^pa, vol. xxri. p. 467. 
t Ed. Pop. Errors ; in Brayley'8 History of Surrqr, vol. L p. 1 1. 



234 POPULAR ERRORS. 

TURNPIKE ROADS. 

DsFOB appears to hare escaped the Error of condemn- 
ing the introduction of Turnpike Roads in England ; for, 
writing of them in his Touvy in 1714, he says: ^This 
custom prevailing, 'tis more than probable that our poste- 
rity may see the roads all over England restored in their 
time to such perfection, that travelling and carriage of goods 
will be more easy, both to man and horse, than ever it was 
since the Romans lost this island." 

CiESAR IN BRITAIN. 

The roigority of our popular histories of England com- 
mence with the invasion of Julius Cesar, just as if he had 
been the creator of the country, instead of its benefactor ; 
for, assuredly, the Roman dominion in Britain must have 
been by far the most brilliant period of its early history, as 
the remains of Roman magnificence attest to our own times. 
This educational Error ought promptly to be corrected : for, 
although Ctesar may ber^;arded as one of tlie earliest wri- 
ters by whom any authentic particulars respecting our 
island are given, it must be recollected that he could speak 
from personal knowledge of none but the tribes that dwelt 
near tne mouth of the Thames, and that, consequently, his 
information respecting the remainder of the island must have 
been furnished by others. Again, he sought to justify his 
invasion ; and, like other Roman authors, to justly Roman 

Elunder,he misrepresented the victims. Hencje, he may 
ave termed the poor Britons barbari with as little discri- 
mination as the term savages has been used in our day ; 
and his distinctions of people may have been not more 
exact than our designation of Indians applied to the native 
Americans. 

It is not, therefore, surprising to find innumerable spots 
throughout the country, which are the imperishable natu- 
ral features of the district, associated with CsBsar's domi- 
nion of Britain. In the south of England, many sndi 
instances occur. 

In like manner, Ceesar's name has been associated with 
many structures of date far subsequent to his time. Tra^ 
dition assigns to Julius Cssar the erection of a fortress 
on the site now occupied by the Tower of Lond(»i, and 



POPULAR ERRORS. 235 

Leland, Pennant, and others^ adopt this opinion ; " but 
it is certain that Caesar did not remain long enough in 
this part of the island to have erected any permanent 
edifice of defence ; and had such been the case, so remark- 
able a work would not have passed unnoticed in his Com- 
mentaties*. The nonexistence of such a structure after 
the extinction of the imperial power in Britain, may be 
presumed, from the silence of the writer of the Saxon 
Chronicle, and other early annalists^ whot although they 
make frequent allusion to the dty, port, and walls of 
London, during the wars of the Danes and Saxons, do 
not mention the Tower, or any fortress in that situation, 
previous to the time of the Norman invasion +." 

Yet *' the White Tower," as the Keep is called, has been 
often denominated " Cesar's Tower ;" and the hypothesis 
is supposed to have been confirmed by Fitz-Stepnens, a 
monlash historian of the period of Henry II., who states 
that ** the city of London hath in the east a very great 
and most strone Palatine Tower, whose turrets and walls 
do rise from a deep foundation, the mortar thereof being 
tempered wi^ the blood of beasts ;]:." The concluding 
words of this statement we take to be as tenable as its 
commencement. 

FIDDLERS. — CATGUT. 

Fiddler does not signify what we now understand by 
the word, — player on the violin. Thus, in Fletchers 
Knight of the Burning Pestle — 

*' They say it is death for these fiddlers to tune their rebecks." 
And^ in Shakspeare's Taming of the Shrew — 

«« call me fiddler I " 

which is applied to a lutanist The violin, according to 
Anthony Wood, seems not to have been known in Eng- 
land till the time of Charles I. It appears to have been 
borrowed from the old Welsh instrument called a crwth% ; 

* This Error of referring to CBsar the things which are not Gnar's, 
is thus quaintly noticed by Dulanre in his History of Paris : " Bvery old 
building, the origin of which is buried in obscurity, is referred to Caaar 
or the deviL" 

t Memoirs of the Tower of London^ by J. Brltton and E. W. Brayley, 
pp. 2, 3l 
X Alnsworth's Tower of London, p. 130. 

4 Romanuaque lyr& plaudat tSbi, barbarus harpft, 
Oraecus Achilliaoft, Crotta Britanna canat.**— Fenaniiw. 
" Merrinia for her hills, and for her matchless crowds." 

Drayton's Polpofbion, song the 9th, 



236 POPULAR ERRORS. 

which is not, however, tuned in the same manner as a 
violin. As for the reheck, Mr. Percy, in the introduction 
to his collection of ancient ballads, informs us that it was 
a violin with only three strings. 

" It is remarkable, also, that the word crwdyr is supposed 
by Richards, in his Welsh Dictionary, to signify a vaga- 
bond. I conclude, however, it must also be used for the 
player on this instrument, who is, in Butler's Hudibraty 
styled crowdero*" 

We suspect rather that the violin was introduced into 
this country from France; for Charles II. kept a band of 
twenty-four violins, in imitation of the French king; 
and in this rdgn the violin first came into general use in 
England. 

The idea that the viscera of the cat are employed for 
violin strings is altogether an Error. In the old copy of 
Shakspeare's Cumbeline occurs, *' horse-hurs and calves'- 
guts,'* which Kowe changed to cats'-guts; and he has 
since been foUowed. Upon which the editor of the 
Pictorial Shakspere notes : " We believe that there is not 
an example of it in any old author. In Bacon's Natural 
History we have a passage, in which gut, a musical 
string made of animal substance, is thus spoken of : 'A 
viol diould have a lay of wire-strings below, close to the 
belly, and the strings of guts mounted upon a bridge.' 
Why not, then, calves' guts as well as cats' guts ? We 
know not how the name catgut arose ; for cats have as 
little to do with the production of such strings as mice 
have." To this fancied association of the cat and strings 
of the violin, some imaginative persons have referred the 
sign of the Cat and the Fiddle, which so puzzled the 
Spectator, Another attributes it to a zealous Protestant 
innkeeper, who having survived the iron yoke of Mary, 
in the days of her successor, likened himself to the old 
Roman, and wrote over his door, "FHosteUe du Caton 
Fidelle,"' after corrupted to the Cat and Fiddle. A third 
etymologist traces it to the custom of a cat being shown 
about the streets, dancing to a fiddle ; and he refers to an 
old book entitled T\uists and Turns about the Streets of 
London, wherein is described *' a poor, half-naked boy, 
strumming on his violin, while another little urchin was, 
with the help of a whip, making two poor starved cats 
go through numerous feats of agility." 

* Barrington, On the more Ancient Statutes, 4 Hen. IV. p. 328. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 237 

SIGNATURE OF TBI;: CROSS. 

The mark which persons who are unable to write are 
required to make, instead of their signature^ is in the form 
of a cross (+); and this practice having formerly been 
followed by kings and nobles, is constantly referred to as 
an instance of tne deplorable ignorance of ancient times. 
This signature is not, however, invariably a proof of such 
ignorance : anciently, the use of this mark was not con- 
fined to illiterate persons ; for, amongst the Saxons the 
mark of the cross, as an attestation of the good faith of the 
person signing, was required to be attached to the signa- 
ture of those who could write, as well as to stand in the 
place of the signature of those who could not write *. In 
those times, if a man could write, or even read, his know- 
ledge was considered proof presumptive that he was in 
holy orders. The word clencus, or clerk, was synonymous 
with penman ; and the laity, or people who were not 
clerks, did not feel any urgent necessity for the use of 
letters. 

The ancient use of the cross was, therefore, universal ; 
alike by those who could and those who could not write ; 
it was, indeedy the symbol of an oath, from its holy 
associations, and, generally, the mark. On this account, 
the ingenious editor of the Pictorial Shakspere explains 
the expression of '' God save the mark," as a form of 
g'aculation approaching to the character of an oath. 
This phrase occurs three or more times in the plays 
of Shakspeare ; but hitherto it had been left by the com- 
mentfitors in its original obscurityf . 

THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. 

This celebrated collection is supposed to have been the 
largest collection which was ever brought together before 
the invention of printing, and is stated to have amounted 
to 700,000 volumes, a number which has been often 
doubted. It is not, however, so generally known that the 
rolls, (volumina,) here spoken of, contained far less than a 
printed volume : for instance, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, 
m fifteen books, would make fifteen volumes; and one 
Didymus is said by Athensus to have written 3,500 
volumes. This consideration will bring the number 
assigned, at least, within the bounds of credibility. 

* See Blackstone's Commentaries, 
t See Illastiatioiu of Romeo and Juliet, p. S6 : Pictorial Sbakapere. 



938 POPULAR ERRORS. 

THE FIRST ENGLISH NEWSPAPER. 

'*Thb earliest English Newspaper** was, until very 
lately, believed to be uiat contained in the coUection in the 
British Museum, and entitled The English Mercurie, which, 
by authority, " was printed at London in 1 558, and gave an 
account of the Spanish Armada, in the British Channel/ 
This statement, by Chalmers^ in his Life of Ruddiman, 
was put forth in 1794, and has been repeated by all who 
have since illustrated the history of English Literature, 
and copied into encyclopaedias, magazines, class-books 
for schools, and innumerable volumes of anecdotes, and 
other light reading. Few persons suspected the genuine- 
ness of this account, and fewer still were disposed to inves- 
tigate the matter; till an accidental reference to the 
accredited newspaper proved the whole story to be an 
imposition of the grossest nature ; and the Error, which 
haa passed current for nearly half a century, has thus been 
exploded. 

The details of the discovery are at once amusing and 
instructive, and must afford a valuable lesson to the wor- 
shippers of the rarities of literature. It appears that on 
Nov. 4, 18.39, Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, having 
occasion to refer to The English Mercuric upon some point 
respecting the Spanish Armada, and the book being 
brought, lie had not examined it two minutes before he 
was forced to conclude the whole to be a forgery ; and 
'' the unaccountably successful imposition of fifty years 
was shattered to fragments in five minutes.'* Passing over 
several minor circumstances, the evidence of the fo/gery 
rests principally on the following points: — 1. The type 
employed is not that of the period, but that of a century 
ago ; the distinction between the u, v, and i, and j, which 
are shown in The Mercurie, being utterly unknown to the 
printers of the sixteenth century. 2. The orthography is 
almost always at variance with an accredited work entitled 
A Pack of Spanish Lies, printed in 1588. In this work, 
for example, is spelt *' Arte Royalle,'* but in The Mercuric 
it is '' Ajk Royal." 3. The style of the composition is not 
of the date to whii^h it pretends. Words, phrases, and 
modes of expression are made use of, which were either 
unknown at the time, or were employed in a sense which 
did not become familiar to English ears until a period much 
later than the date of The Mercuric. 4. Mr. Watts is of 



POPULAB ERBORfl. 239 

opinion that an article of news in The Mercuric of July 
23rd, 1 588, purporting to give an account, written by the 
lord-admiral, of events of which we now possess a most 
minute relation, could only be the work of a newspaper 
manufacturer copying from a confused statement of the 
same events by Camden. 5. There is a hiatus of nearly 
four months between Nos. 53 and 51 of The Mercuric, 
although four of the numbers were published within eight 
days. 6. The manuscript copies of The Mercuric, which 
are bound up with the printed copies, contain ^ the most 
convincing, the most irrefragable evidence that the whole 
affair is a fraud.** The hand-writing of the manuscript is 
as modern as the type of the printed copies, and the spell- 
ing is also modem; while in the printed copies the 
printer has endeavoured to give the spelling '* the proper 
antique flavour,** and has not succeeded very well. More- 
over, the paper bears the water-miark of the royal arms, 
with the initials *' G. R."» 

The question, '^ Who was the forger? ** remains to be 
answered. Mr. Watts thinks that the printed and manu- 
script copies were got up for the purpose of imposition, 
that the attempt was detected, and that the whole of the 
papers were preserved as a memorial of the occurrence. If 
this be the case, is it not singular that no record of the 
matter has been made ? if the papers were interesting enough 
for preservation in the British Museum, surdy some 
account of the transaction would have been preserved. We 
rather incline to the belief that the forgery had never before 
been detected, and had been inadvertently admitted as 
genuine. The Mercurie is in the collection of Dr. Birch, 
by whom it was bequeathed to the British Museum in 
1 766 ; and, in all probability, the Doctor had been imposed 
on by some accomplished literary forgert. 

Even had tliis Mercurie been genuine, it would not have 
been so great a rarity as represented ; for there has lately 
been added to the collection in the British Museum, a 
Venetian Gazette of the year 1570, detailing the defeat by 
the Venetians, of the Turkish Armada in the mouth of 
the Gulf of Lepanto. 

* These details have been abridged from a Letter, addressed by Mr. 
Watts to Mr. Panizzi, of the British Museum. It is but justice to add, 
that the genuineness of the English MercuriehvA been previously much 
questioned in the Penny Cyclopadiat art. Newspapers. 

t See Literary World. voL it. p. 2S9. 



240 POPULAR ERRORS. 



ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS. 

The Newspaper was long stated to have originated in 
Venice, in 1563, and to have been called Gazetta, whence 
our appellation, Gazette. This was^ however, an £rror : 
for the Venetian newspaper was a written sheet, for hear- 
ing which read, each person paid a gazetta, a coin no 
longer in use. The paper was, in fact, called " A Parti- 
cular Relation" a title borne by many English newspapers 
of the seventeenth century*. 

THE FIRST MAGAZINE. 

Appended to Mr. Watts's account of the forged 
English MercuriCi just quoted, is the exposition of an 
Error which has obtained almost as extensive a currency 
as that concerning the origin of newspapers. '' The Gen- 
tlemarCi Magazine^* he ooserves, " unaccountably passes 
for the first periodical of that description, while, in fact, 
it was- preceded liearly forty years by the Gentleman^ s 
Journal of Motteux, a work much more closely resembling 
our modem magazines, and from which Sylvanus Urban 
borrowed part of his title and part of his motto ; and 
while on the first page of the first numbers of the Gentle- 
mans Magazine itself^ it is stated that it contains ' more 
than any book of the kind and price.' 



it 



SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 

These words are so often erroneously applied, and the 
differences as to the observance of Sunday are so imper- 
fectly understood, that the following explanation will be 
acceptable : — *' The founders of the English reformation, 
after abolishing most of the festivals kept before that time, 
had made little or no change as to the mode of observance 
of those they retained. Sundays and holidays stood much 
upon the same footing as days upon which no work, 
except for good cause, was to be performed; and the ser- 
vice of the church was to be attended, and any lawful 
amusement might be indulged in. A just distinction, 
however, soon grew up ; an industrious people could spare 
time for very few holidays; and the more scrupulous 

* See Literary World, vol. ii, p. 859. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 241 

party, while they slighted thechurch-festiyalsasof human 
appointment, prescrihed a strict observance of the Lord's 
day. But, it was not until about 1595, that they began to 
place it very nearly on the footing of the Jewish sabbath, 
interdicting not only the slightest action of worldly busi- 
ness, but even every sort of pastime and recreation ; a 
system which, once promulgated, soon gained ground, as 
suiting their atrabilious humour, and affording a new 
theme of censure on the vices of the great*. Those who 
opposed them on the high-church side, not only derided 
the extravagance of the Sabbatarians, as the others were 
called, but pretended that the commandment having been 
confined to the Hebrews, the modem observance of the 
first day of the week as a season of rest and devotion was 
an ecclesiastical institution, and in no degree more vener- 
able than that of the festivals or the season of Lent, which 
the puritans stubbornly despised. Such a controversy 
mignt well have been left to the usual weapons. But 
James I., or some of the bishops tp whom he listened, 
bethought themselves that this might serve as a test of 
puritan ministers. He published accordingly a declaration 
to be read in churches, permitting all lawful recreations 
on Sunday after divine service, such as dancing, archery, 
May-games, morrice-dances, and other usual sports ; but 
with a prohibition of bear-baiting, and other unlawful 
games. No recusant, nor any one who had not attended 
die church-service, was entitled to this privil^;e ; which 
might consequently be regarded as a bounty on devotion. 
The severe puritan saw it in no such point of view. To 
his cvnical temper. May-games and morrice-dances were 
hardly tolerable on six days of the week ; and they were 
now recommended for the seventh. And this impious 
licence was to be promulgated in the church itself. It 
was, indeed, difficult to explain so unnecessary an insult 
on the precise clergy, but by supposing an intention to 
harass those who should refuse compliance." This de- 
claration was not, however, enforced until the following 
reign. 
" The house of commons displayed their attachment to 

* The first of these Sabbatarians was a Dr. Bound, whose sermon was 
suppressed by Whitgif t's orders. But, some years before, one of Martin 
Ifar-prelate's charges against Aylmer was playing at bowls on Sundays: 
and the word Sabbath, as applied to that day, may be found occasionally 
imdar Elisabeth, thoiigh by no means so usual as afterwaids. 

R 



242 POPULAR ERRORS. 

the puritan maxims, or their dislike of the prelatical 
der^^ by bringing in bills to enforce a greater strictnew 
in wis respect A circumstance that occurred in the ses- 
sion of 1621, will serve to prove their fanatical violence. 
A bill having been brought in * for the better observance 
of the Sabbath, usually odled Sunday,' one Mr. Shepherd, 
sneering at the puritans, remarked that^ as Saturday was 
dies Satbali, this might be entitled a bill for the observance 
of Saturday, commonly called Sunday. This witticism 
brought on his head the wrath of that dangerous assembly. 

* * Yet, when the upper house sent down their bUl 
with ' the Lord's day ' substituted for ' the Sabbath,* ob- 
serving, ' that people do now much incline to words of 
Judaism,' the commons took no exception. The use of 
the word Sabbath, instead of Sunday, became in that age a 
distinctive mark of the puritan party*." 

OBSERVANCE OF LENT. 

The Lent Fast was called by the Latins, Quadragesima, 
but whether on account of its being originally a fast of 
forty days, or only forty hours, has been much disputed. 
Bingham inclines to the opinion that, at first, it was only 
forty hours. St. Jerome, St. Leo, St. Augustin, and others, 
consider this fast to have been first instituted by the apos- 
tles : by others it is asserted not to have been known in 
the earlier ages of the Christian church. 

Lent was first observed in £ngland by our Saxon ances* 
tors; whence its name, Lencten, implying Spring, the 
season when the day increases in length, about the com- 
mencement of which this fast usually fiuls. The observance 
of abstinence at Lent, in this country, however^ appears to 
have been more a matter of secular moment than religious 
mortification ; so that altogether, the r^ulations after the 
Reformation enacted abstinence in as strict a manner, 
though not ostensibly on the same grounds, as it is en- 
joined in the church of Rome, A statute of 1548 (2 and 
8 Edward VI. c. 19) runs thus — ''in the time commonly 
called Lent — the King's Migesty considering that due and 
godly abstinence is a mean to virtue, and to subdue men's 
bodies to their soul and spirit, and considering also espe- 
cially that fishers and men using the trade of fishing in the 
sea may thereby be set to work, and that by eating offish 

* Hallam« Constitutional Hist. England, vol L pp. 542—547* abridged. 



POPULAR ERRORS. ^ 243 

muchflesh will he saved and increated^ enacts, after repeal- 
ing all existing laws on the subject, that such as eat flesh 
at the forbidden season shall incur a penalty of ten shil- 
lings, or ten days' imprisonment withoutjlesh, and a double 
penalty for the second oflence. 

The next statute relating to abstinence is one (5th Eliz. 
c. 5) enHrefy for the increase of the jUhery, It enacts, 
§15, &c. that no one, unless having a licence, shall eat flesh 
on fish-days, or on Wednesdays, now made an additional 
fish-day, under a penalty of sI, or three months' imprison- 
ment. Except that every one having three dishes of sea- 
fish at his table, might have one of flesh also. But, 
*' because no manner of person shall misjudge of the intent 
of this statute," it is enacted that whosoever shall notify 
that any eating of fish or forbearing of flesh mentioned 
therein is of any necessity for the saving of the soul of 
man, or that it is the service of God, otherwise than as 
other poMc laws are and be ; that then such persons shall 
be punished as spreaders of false news : § 39 and 40. 

Many proclamations appear to have been issued in order 
to enforce an observance so little congenial to the propen- 
sities of Englishmen. One of those in the first year of 
Edward was before any statute ; and its very words re- 
specting the indifi[erence of meats in a religious sense, 
were adopted by the legislature next year^ In one of 
Elizabeth's, a.d. 1572, as in the statute of Edward, the 
political motives of the prohibition seem, in some mea- 
sure, associated with the superstition it disclaims; for 
eatine in the season of Lent is called '^ licentious and 
camtU disorder, in contempt of God and man, and only to 
the satisfaction of devilish and carnal appetites;" and 
butchers, &c " ministering to such foul lust of the flesh," 
were severely mulctedt. Again, in 1 ^19%, and, as far as 
Mr. Hallam$ has observed, in all of a later date, the en- 
couragement of the navy and fishery is set forth as their 
sole ground. This compulsory observance of Lent was 
continued long after the Reformation; although, from the 
beginning, the system was only compulsory on the poor ; 
licences for eating flesh and white meats during Lent, 
being easily obtainable by payment 

* Strype*8 Eccle& Memor. ii 81. t Strype's Annals, li. 108. 

% Ibid, ii. 608. { Constitutional Hist. England, vol. i. p. 543, note 

e2 



^44 POPULAR ERRORS. 

The monstrous inconsistency of the excesses of the 
Carnival of Shrovetide, making sin a preparation for a state 
of penance, hy the agents plunging themselves into duMir- 
ders at the very time they pretended to be disposing them- 
selves for a perfect conversion, did not escape the wit of 
Selden, who quaintly says, *' What the Church debars us 
one day, she gives us leave to take out in another : first, 
we fast, and then we feast ; first, there is a Carnival, and 
then a Lent*." , 

Howell, in one of his amusing Letters, dated Aah- 
Wednesday, 1654, throws additional light upon this secu- 
lar observance of Lent, as follows: — " Now that Lent and 
Spring do make their approach, in my opinion, fasting 
would conduce much to the advantage of the soul and 
body ; though our second institution of observing Lent 
aimed at civil respects, as to preserve the brood of cattle, 
and advance the profession of fishermen, yet it concurs 
with the first institution, viz. a pure spiritual end, which 
was to subdue the flesh, and that being brought under, our 
other two spiritual enemies, the world and the devil, are 
the sooner overcome. The naturalists observe, that mom> 
ing spittle kills dragons ; so fasting helps to destroy the 
devil, provided it be accompanied with other acts of devo- 
tion : to fast for one day only, from about 9 in the morn- 
ing till four in the afternoon, is but a mock fast : "—or, in 
his lame verse: 

** This is not to keep Lent aright* 
But play the juggling hypocrite: 
He truly Lent obserres, who makes the inward man 
To fast, as well as make the outward feed on bran." 

" MARRY !" 

In popish times, the term ** Marry ** was a mode of 
swearing by the Virgin Mary ; q. d. by Mary, So also, 
" marrow-bones," for tlie knees : " I'll bring him down 
upon his marrow-bones," t. e. I'll make him bend his knees 
as he does to the Virgin Mary t. 

BELLS IN CHURCHES. 

Spelman says, that Bells were first introduced into 
Churches about a.d. 400, by Paulinus, bishop of Nola, and 
were thence called Nola, Bingham, ( Works, voL i. p. 16,) 

* Table Talk. f EUis's Notes to Brand's Popular Antiquities. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 245 

considers this a vulgar error. Bentham, {Hist. Ely, Supp. 
by Stephenson, p. 150,) remarks, that the earliest use of 
campanse (bells) was about 605, when Pope Sabinianus 
ordered some to be fixed in churches. Bede mentions them 
as early as 608*. 

The reason is not generally known, but Church Bells 
have a sensible effect on the ear, according as they are more 
or less perfectly tuned. No set of bells is ever cast quite 
in tune; in general, the third is too fiat, and the fourth 
18 too sharp, ue effect of which is doubly discordant. The 
only certain mode of having a peal perfectly harmonious^ 
is to tune the bells by a monochord divided into intervals. 
A peal of bells can be thus brought to musical perfection ; 
and any one, without knowing tne reason, would perceive 
the sweet effect This mode of after-tuning is never 
practised ; and therefore, a peal gives all its discord often 
zbr centuries, as the bells happen to be cast. 

Webster libelled the most exhilarating and the most 
afibcting of all measured sounds, when he said 

'* Those flattering bells have aU 
One sound, at weddings and at funerals. " 

SIXiVER IN BELLS. 

A prejudice has long existed, that the old church bells 
contain^ a smaller or larger portion of silver ; and the 
large bell of Rouen cathedral was, from its beautiful sounds, 
called the Silver Bell, M. Girardin, professor of chemistry, 
has, however, by a careful analysis, ascertained that the 
Rouen bell does not contain any silver. One hundred 
parts of it by weight contain 

Copper ... 71 

Brass . . . S6 

Zino 1 . 80 

Iron I . SO 

Modem French bells diflfer little from the above, being 
composed of 

Copper ... 78 

Brass ... 22 

" GOTHIO " ARCHITECTURE. 

The word " Gothic " is very generally used to contra- 
distinguish the buildings of the middle ages from those of 
ancient Greece and Italy ; but the term is scarcely ever 

* Britt<Hi*8 Arobitectural Dictionary. 



246 POPULAR ERRORS. 

used with any precise or definite meaning. It is fre* 
quently appli^ by the authors of popular works on archi- 
tecture, to the Norman or semi-circular arched, to the first 
pointed or Inncet, and to all the other varieties of ecclesi- 
astical buildings of the middle ages. John Evelyn and 
Sir Christopher Wren applied it to the pointed as well as 
semi-circular arched buiJaing, though Wren used the word 
Saracenic in reference to pointed architecture. To show 
the prejudiced and absurd notions of these writers, we 
need only notice their language on the subject of the 
pointed style. Evelyn says : " Gothic architecture is a 
congestion of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish piles." 
Wren's language is equally absurd and inappropriate : he 
calls the EngUsh cathedrals and churches "' mountains of 
stone ; vast, gigantic buildings ; but not worthy the name 
of architecture. This/' he adds, *' we now call the Gothic 
manner; so the Italians called what was not after the 
Roman style." Later architects and authors have regarded 
the architecture in question with very different feelings, 
and it is now duly appreciated ; though there is still much 
discrepancy of opinion and confusion of ideas, even among 
the b^t informed, as to a proper and judicious nomencla- 
ture of it. The term *' Gothic," it must be admitted, is 
calculated to mislead and confound both the student and 
the veteran architect.* 

SAXON ARCHITEOTURE. 

There is a very common Error of attributing the erec- 
tion of buildings with massive columns and semi-circular 
arches to the Saxons. '' According to the best authorities, 
there are very few specimens of architecture now in exist- 
ence in this country which can properly be called Saxon, 
that is, of a date anterior to the Conquest, and not of Ro- 
man origin ; and those few are of the rudest and most 
inferior description. Saxon, therefore, as far as the archi- 
tecture of this country is concerned, is an improper termf." 

DIFFICULT breathing IN ASCENDING MOUNTAINS. 

The sensations experienced in reaching a high moun- 
taui-summit are commonly attributed to rarefaction of 
the air breathed, though better observation has proved 
them to be chiefly owing to the expenditure of bodily 

* Britton's Architectural Dictionary, 
t Mr. Ho6kins> in Encydopcedia Brit, 7th edit 



POPULAR ERRORS. 247 

power that has heen incurred by muscular exertion^ hur- 
ried breathing, and quickened action of the heart These 
sensations, in great part, subside when the immediate 
causes of lassitude and disorder are removed. Or^ if we 
yet need explanation of that singular fatigue in the limbs, 
which is alleged to occur when walking in elevated regions^ 
even without the toil of ascent, we may, perhaps, find it in 
Humboldt, who conjectures that this sensation may depend 
on the mechanism of the joints and equipoise of the bones 
being disturbed by the low atmospheric pressure ; and the 
experiments of the two Webers, recently made at his sug- 
gestion, have afforded a singular confirmation of this idea*. 

The observations in ascent by balloons, now become so 
&miliar to us, show, even unexpectedly in degree, the 
extent to which the body can undergo the most sudden 
changes of atmospheric weight, without any obvious effect, 
where the health is unimpaired, and no causes of bodily 
fatigue are conjoined. Mr. Green, who has now ascended 
in oalloons with more than four hundred persons, under 
every possible variation of height, rapidity, and state of 
atmosphere at the time, states that none of these indivi- 
duals were sensibly affected, otherwise than by the sudden 
change of temperature, and by a noise in the ears, com- 
pared by some to very distant thunder ; the latter sensation 
being far less distressing than that produced by descent in 
a diving-belL He has never felt his own respiration hur- 
ried or oppressed, except when exerting himself in the 
management of the balloon, or when suddenly passing into 
a very cold atmosphere. In no instance have his com- 
panions experienced vertigo, or sickness ; thus rendering 
doubtful one of the statements current on this subject ; for 
the aeronauts breathed with the utmost ease, and as freely 
as when walking on the earth's surface. 

In the great experiment made by Mr. Green and Mr. 
Rush, in September 1 838, in ascending to the height of 
27,136 feet, or 5^ miles above the level of the sea, (the 
greatest elevation ever reached by man, and very exactly 

* Poggendorf 's Annalen fUr 1837. Na 1. These experiments, made 
upon the hip-joint after the two bones had been detached by cutting the 
capsular membrane through, show that^the pressure of air will stiU re- 
tain the h^ of the thigh-bone firmly in'the socket, from which it sinks 
down when the air is artificially rarefied underneath : the joint thus 
becoming a sort of air-pump, in which the head of the thigh-bone acts 
as a piston. 



248 POPULAR ERRORS. 

correBponding with the highest ascertained sommit of the 
Himalaya mountains,) the barometer fell from 33"* 50^ to 
11 o, the thermometer from 61° to 5°. The first 11,000 
feet were passed through in about seven minutes. Yet, 
under these remarkable circumstances, the aeronauts suf- 
fered no inconvenience but from cold *. 

CHOICE OF SPECTACLES. 

The oval Spectacles now made are very superior to the 
larger sized ones formerly employed, which, indeed, were 
constructed upon an erroneous principle. For, when the 
eves are not directed near the centre of the spectacle 
glasses, the object appears confused, more of the glass 
being employed at one view than a portion equal to the 
size of the pupil of the eye ; this on an average is the 
eighth of an inch in diameter ; but, as it would be tedious 
always to look through a small aperture, the glasses are of 
a sufficient size to admit of a moderate degree of motion ; 
and, as we require a greater latitude horizontally than ver- 
ticaUy, their figure is of an oval form. 

WHAT ARE TEARS? 

The distinction of Tears shed from various causes are 
but imperfectly understood. Let us, therefore, hear Mr. 
Abernethy on the subject : — '* What are the tears ? 
Now, anybody making such an inquiry would really 
surprise a person who had not reflected on the subject. 
What are tne tears ? Does not any body know what the 
tears are? One would think that a person who instituted 
such an inquiry had never seen a blubbering boy with the 
salt water running down his cheeks. Aye, but are these 
tears ? Those are tears to be sure, such as are shed from 
irritation or from sorrow, but they are not the common 
tears. They inflame the eye, they excoriate the very 
cheek down which they run. What are those salt-water 
tears ? O, they are the product of the lacrymal gland, 
whicb is lodged in a slight fossa of the orbitary part of the 
08 frontis. It is the property of these glands — the salivary 
glands — to secrete occasionally, and not continually, and 
to secrete profusely at times. This is the source of the 
s alt water which is shed for our grief, or when anything 
irritates the surface of the eye; but it is a kind of salt 

* Abridged from Dr. Holland's Medical Notes. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 249 

water not calculated for lubricating the surface of the eye ; 
that you may be assured of. What are the common 
tears ? Unquestionably, a very lubricous fluid to facilitate 
the motion of the eyelid upon the front of the eyeball, — 
a mucilaginous liquor — a thin mucilage—secreted from 
the whole surface of the concavity. That it is mucilage 
is manifest ; for, where it is abundant in quantity, and 
perhaps having a greater abundance than common, in 
consequence of inflammation, does it not gum the eyelids 
t(^ther? I say it is a mucilaginous secretion, excellently 
calculated for preserving the front of the eye, and for 
preserving it moist, so that it may be transparent." 



V.~LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 



EXEMPTIONS BY MARRIAOB. 

Formerly there was entertained a vulgar notion, that 
a woman's marrying a man under the gallows would save 
him from the execution. This, probably, arose [from a 
wife having brought an appeal against the murderer of 
her husband, who afterwards, repenting of the provoca- 
tion of her lover, not only forgave the ofience, but was 
willing to marry the appellee. 

In like manner, it was imagined, that when a man 
intended to marry a woman who was in debt, if he took 
her from the hands of the priest clothed only in her shift, 
he would not be liable to her engagements. Another 
version of this Error is, that the woman might clear 
herself of all debts by crossing the street in which she 
lived, only wearing her shift. 

It has often been believed that second-cousins may not 
marry, though first-cousins may. 

There is a vile custom among the most profligate of 
the lower classes, which some of them have magnified 
into law. It is that of selling wives. A brute of a husband, 
wanting to get rid of his wife, takes her into the market 
on some fair or market day, with a rope round her neck, 
sets her up to be bid for by the surrounding clowns, and 
the bargain is completed for half-a-crown or five shillings. 



250 



POPULAR ERRORS. 



To foreigners, this proceeding naturally enoogh seems 
monstrous ; and they scoff at our affectation of morality. 
The truth is, that this practice exists but among the 
lowest classes — the dregs of society ; that it does not con- 
stitute a divorce ; and that it is directly punishable by 
law ; the object of the whole shameless ceremony being 
merely an acknowledgment that the husband surrenders 
all idea, or right, of tiding an action against the man who 
lives with the separated wife. 

It is also a very prevalent Error, that those who are 
born at sea belong to Stepney parish. 

FLEET MABRIAOES. 

Before the passing of the Marriage Act, in 1754, a com- 
mon notion prevailed, that the solemnization of a marriage 
by a person in holy orders rendered it sacred and indisso- 
luble. This erroneous idea, doubtless, arose from the 
fact of marriage by civil contract being valid in some 
cases, whilst in others its performance in the church was 
indispensable. Hence arose the scandals and indecencies 
of the notorious Fleet Marriages, which were performed 
in the Fleet prison, by a set of drunken, swearing parsons, 
with their myrmidons who wore black coats, and pre- 
tended to be clerks and registers to the Fleet In this 
way, from October 1704 to February 1705, there were 

Serformed in the Fleet 2594 marriages, without dther 
cence or certificate of banns ; and the nefarious traffic 
continued until the passing of Lord Chancellor Hard- 
wicke's Act in 1754, abolishing all clandestine and irregu- 
lar marriages. 

GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGES. 

In Scotland, nothing further is necessary to constitute a 
man and woman husband and wife, than a declaration of 
consent by the parties before witnesses, or even such a 
declaration in writing, without any witnesses ; a marriage 
which is considered binding in all respects. Still, a mar- 
riage in Scotland, not celebrated by a clergyman, (with 
the exception of the notorious Gretna Green marriages*,) 
is rarely or never heard of; a result of the nearly uni- 
versal feeling in favour of a religious celebration of the 

* And those performed at Lamberton Toll-bar, about a mile north of 
Berwlck-up<m-Tweefl. 



POPULAR ERBOBS. 251 

contract, and which would look upon the neglect of that 
solemnity as disreputable. The plain state of the case is 
— what the Scottisn people have eschewed as evil, the more 
lax English have availed theraselyes of to ward off the 
rigour of their own law ; and matches so made appear to 
have been almost exclusively "stolen" or •* runaway," and 
the parties all English. The trade was established by a 
tobacconist, not a blacksmith, as is generally believed; 
and the name of '' Gretna Green *' arose from lus residence 
on a common or green between Graitnay and Springfield^ 
to which latter village he removed in 1791. In 1815, the 
number of marriages celebrated at Gretna was stated, in 
Brewster's Edinburgh Encydopcedia, at sixty-five, which 
produced about 1,000/., at the rate of fifteen guineas each. 

ROYAL MARRIAOES. 

There is a common but erroneous idea abroad that the 
Royal Marriage Act prevents the marriage of the members 
of the royal family with English women. The act pro- 
vides that no descendant of George the Second shall marry 
any subject without the consent of the reigning sovereign ; 
but, if that consent be given, the marriage will be vtdid. 
By the common law of England, independently of the 
marriage act, the reigning sovereign has always the right 
to control the marriages of his children and heirs, and of 
the heir presumptive to the throne. The royal marriage 
act only provides that no descendant of George the Se- 
cond shall have a right to marry without that consent*. 

THE WEDDINO-RINO FINOER. 

The origin of wearing the Wedding-ring uponthefourth 
finger of the left hand has been much disputed. Sir 
Thomas Browne appropriates a chapter to this inquiry, 
observing : ** An opinion there is, which magnifies the 
fourth finser of the left hand^ presuming therein a cordial 
relation, that a particular vessel, nerve, vein, or artery, is 
conferred thereto from the heart ; and therefore, that 
especially hath the honour to bear our rings." Sir Thomas 
then refers to this practice as common notonly in Christian 
but heathen nuptial-contracts ; but does not consider the 
reasons alleged sufficient to establish the pre-eminency of 
this finger. He then observes, that it was not customary 

* Bir John Cainpl>ell, Attorney-General. 



25S POPULAR ERRORS. 

with the andenti to wear their rings either on the left 
hand or finger : thus^ in Jeremiah, it is said : " though 
Goniah, the son of Joachim, kine of Judah, were the sig« 
net on my richt hand, yet would I phick thee thence.'* 
Pliny states that in the portraits of the gods the rings 
were worn on the finger next the thumh ; that the Ro- 
mans wore them on the middle finger, as the ancient 
Gauls and Britons ; and some upon the fore-finger, as is 
deducible from Julius Pollux, who names that ring Corio- 
nos. Since, therefore, the practice differs in various coun- 
tries, we can scarcely refer it to any natural cause, which 
would alike affect alL 

Sir Thomas next examines the anatomical details of 
nerve, vein, and artery ; adding that inspection does not 
''confirm a particular vessel in this finger," and that 
*' these propagations being communicated unto both hands, 
we have no greater reason to wear our rings on the left 
than on the right/' 

** Now that which begat or promoted the common opi* 
nion, was the common conceit that the heart was seated 
on the left side," which is likewise an Error. Strictly 
speaking, it is as nearly as possible in the middle of the 
diest; and if a line were drawn down the centre of the 
breast*bone, to divide the heart into two portions, we 
should find rather the larger half on the right side. The 
point is directed towards the left side, close to the fifth 
rib ; and the reason we attribute its position to the left 
side, rather than the right, is this, that we can more rea- 
dily feel the pulsation on this side than we can on the 
other, because the last of the four great cavities of the 
heart, namely, the left ventricle, is placed on the left side ; 
from this the blood is forced over the whole system, and we 
readily feel its pumping action through the ribs. Notwith- 
standing this specimen of Error justified by Error, mar- 
riage being an affair of the heart, there may be more in 
the poetic^ association of the left hand and the heart than 
Sir Thomas seems willing to allow. 

The most reasonable inference as to the origin of wear- 
ing the ring on the left hand, however, appears to be a 
matter of convenience. Macrobius, a Latin author of the 
fifth century, says: " At first, it was both free and usual 
to wear rings on either hand ; but after that luxury in- 
creased, when precious gems and rich insculptures were 



POPULAR ERRORS. 253 

added, the custom of wearing them on the right hand was 
translated unto the left; for that hand heing less em- 
ployed, thereby they were best^ preserved. And for the 
same reason they placed them on this finger, for the thumb 
is too active a finger, and is too commonly employed with 
either of the rest ; the index or fore-finger was too naked 
whereto to commit their pretiosities, ana hath the tuition 
of the thumb scarce untp the second joint; the middle and 
little finger they rejected as extremes, and too big or too 
little for their rings ; and of all chose out the fourth, as 
being least used of any, as being guarded ou either side, 
and having in most this peculiar condition, that it cannot 
be extended alone and by itself, but will be accompanied 
by some finger on either side*/' 

BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 

We read much of the ornamented cemeteries, and supe- 
rior respect paid to tombs, on the Continent; but, however 
prejudiced tourists may interest the reader ou this subject, 
sober truth maintains, that, in no country are the dead 
more hallowed than in Great Britain. In France, where 
graves and tombs are decked with flowers, the stealing of 
bodies for anatomical purposes is connived at by the priests, 
so as to justify the supposition of a recent tourist, — diat 
*' the laws had an eye to the resurrection-men, when they 
ordained, that all persons should be interred, under a heavy 
penalty, within twentv-four hours after death. The law- 
givers were anxious that science should have them fresh 
and fresh ; though, of course, the health of the survivors 
is the pretence." So abundantly is science thus supplied, 
that the price for unopened subjects in the Paris hospitals 
is five francs, or 4a. Id, ; and three francs, or 2s, 6d.y for 
opened ones. Many of the English, who have the mis- 
fortune to lose friends in France, being aware of the small 
respect in which the grave is held there, contrive to have 
their remains conveyed over to their own country ; and 
the methods to whicn they have recourse are various. 

RIGHT OF WAT AND FUNERALS. 

An opinion is prevalent in many parts of this country, 
that whatever may be the path of a Funeral towards the 
place ^of burial, a public Right of Way along such path 

* Vulgar Errors, b. iv. c !▼. pp. 217—219, 



254 POPULAR ERRORS. 

arises. A few years since, an action was br(n;^ht for the 
purpose of contesting a claim of this nature ; but the judge 
declaring that it was founded upon a foolish £rror, the 
pinion of a jury was not allowed to be given upon it. 
The Error is of some antiquity, as the following occur- 
rence in the fourteenth century proves. A chaplain of the 
Bishop of Exeter died, and ought, according to a rule still 
observed, to have been buried in the parish of Farringdon. 
The bishop directed the interment to take place in the ad- 
joining parish of Cliff Tomeson. One Tomeson, hearing 
that the body of the chaplain was about to be brought over 
his ground, and that, as the chronicle states, a Itck-way 
would be made through them, assembled his servants, and 
attempted to stop its progress as it was carried over a 
bridge. A scuffle ensued, and the body was thrown into 
the water. The lick-way was not made ; but the Bishop 
of Exeter amply revenged himself for the proceedings*. 
Lick is a Saxon word signifying a dead body; and lick- 
gate is a shed or covered place at the entrance to a church- 
yard, intended to shelterjthe corpse and mourners from rain. 
A correspondent of the GentlemarCs Magazine notes, 
that in Somerset and Devon, the leach (or lich) road is 
the path by which a funeral is carried to church. It often 
deviates from the high road, and even from any path now 
in use; in which case the country people will break down 
the hedges rather than pass by an unhallowed way. 

BURTINO IN CROSS-ROADS. 

The practice of burying in Cross Roads has, in modem 
times been regarded as a mark of indignity; but such was 
not its originid intention. In ancient times, '* it was usual 
to erect crosses at the junction of four cross roads, as a 
place self-consecrated, according to the piety of the age ; 
and it was not with a notion of indisnity, but in a spirit 
of charity, that those excluded from My rites were buried 
at the crossing roads, as places next in sanctity to conse- 
crated groundf .** 

ENTRIES IN BIBLES. 

As the Entries in family Bibles, prayer and other books, 
when made by a parent or head of a family, of births, 
marriages, deaths, and other circumstances, happening 

* Penny Magawne. t British Magacine. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 255 

within his own knowledge, are good evidences of such 
transactions, it is surprising that so little regard should he 
paid to the regular entries of events of so much importance. 
No search can he too earnest to discover the family Bihle, for 
innumerable are the individuals in £ngland not r^stered 
in the parochial book of Baptisms. Some parents are 
Roman Catholic or sectarian, some are too poor, some too 
careless, whilst others erroneously think that all is accom- 
plished by half-baptism ; and unless the Bibles or private 
manuscripts of both parties contain entries of their families, 
there may, perhaps, not be a single proof in existence, by 
which their descents can be traced. Such also has been 
the neglect which many of our parish registers have suffered 
from political troubles during the time of Charles I., and 
from individual negligence since, that the utility of a 
family register is often greater than there ought to be 
occasion for. At the Shrewsbury assizes in 1834, a family 
Bible, containing the plaintiff's pedigree, was produced, 
and it was allowed to be read ; the judge receiving it on 
iJie authority of the case Doe dem. Cleveland, York 
assizes. The memorandum had been written by one 
person at one time. Although comprising the family 
events of nearly half a century, the entries were, however, 
received as evidence. In the important case of Hans v. Has- 
tings, argued in 1818, contesting the right to the earldom 
of Huntingdon, there was produced before the Attorney- 
general, to whom the petitioner's claims were referred, a 
Bible, from the Countess of Moira, deceased, the heiress of 
the late £arl of Huntingdon, in which she stated that the 
petitioner's uncle, and, on failure of his issue male, the 
petitioner's father, was next heir to the earldom. This was 
received in evidence as good and sufficient proof of the 
various statements in the petitioner's pedigree. 

PRESENTATION TO LIVINGS. 

Much Error prevails as to the right of purchasing Pre- 
sentations to livings. The right of presenting may be 
purchased, but the exercise of the right for money is 
simoniacal. Hence, during a vacancy, the presentation 
cannot be sold; neither is it legal to buy the right of 
presenting a particular person. The right, whether of 
perpetual presentation, or of single presentation, must be 
conveyed absolutely and unconditionally, if conveyed atall *. 

* Bishop of LandaflTs Charge. 



256 POPULAR ERRORS. 



RIGHT OF GLEANING. 

" There are those, in modern times, to whom, (such is 
their acuteness of intellect,) no law or custom, however 
venerable by age, and confirmed by immemorial usaee, is 
supportable. Philosophic minds, such as those, with ta- 
lents to refine, reform, and amend, even the Scriptures 
themselves, denounce the command of God, to leave the 
gleanings for the poor and the stranger, as inevitably 
kading to idleness, immorality, pilfering, and looseness of 
disposition. Blackstone treats of this custom, thus im- 
piously arraigned, as being, in law, of dubious validity : by 
others it is asserted, that the laws of this countnr, (re- 
quired ever to be in conformity with the laws of'^ God), 
give to the poor as perfect a rignt to the gleanings as they 
give to the farmer his right to the crop*." 



CARRYING A DARK LANTHORN. 

There is an absurd vulgar Error that it is not lawful to 
go about with a dark lanthom : which Mr. Daines Bar- 
rington refers to a clause in a law of police, Statuta Civita^ 
lis London, 13th £dw. III. Stat, iii.^ enacting^ that in 
consequence of continual affrays in the streets of London, 
" no arms of any kind should be carried, but by a grant 
seigneur i ou autre prodome de hone conyssaunce ; and even 
if such a person was in the streets during the night, he is 
enjoined to have a light with him t." Elsewhere, the same 
writer attributes this Error to Guy Fawkes's dark lanthorn 
in the powder-plot J. 

Equally unwarranted was the belief that it was illegal 
to carry an Air Gun, which has been in our times r^arded 
as a toy, except in the few instances where it has been the 
instrument of covert and cowardly revenge. 



the miller's toll. 



The practice of Millers taking a certain quantity out of 
every sack of corn sent to them to be ground, is not so 
direct an act of knavery as is commonly supposed ; for we 
find it justified by law in a statute incerti teniporis, no 
editor naving been able to say whether it belongs to the 

* Gleasing, note 21 to the Laws of the Hebrews relating to the Poor, 
by Maimonldes. 
t Observ. on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 13d. t Ibid. p. 429. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 257 

reign of Henry III., Edward I. or II. ; but it is appended 
to the eighteenth year of Edward III. Its direction with 
regard to the toll seems, however, to be very vague and 
uncertain, as it is to be regulated '^ secundum foriiiudinem 
cursus aquce," (according to the strength of the water- 
course) ; ** which,** observes Mr. Daines Barrington, " would 
puzzle a Smeaton of the present times to estimate with 
accuracy, and, I am afraid, was infinitely beyond the natu- 
ral philosophers and civil engineers of those reigns *." 

ARREST AFTER DEATH. 

It was long erroneously believed that the body of a 
debtor might be taken in execution after his death ; which 
idle story we remember to have been repeated in connex- 
ion with the embarrassments of Sheridan, at the time of his 
death, in 1816 Such was, however, the practice in Prus- 
sia, till its abolition by the Code Frid^nque, 

TENDER IN PAYMENT. 

A Tender in Payment is rarely made in a l^al 
manner. People commonly clog it with some condition, 
which makes it no Tender in law. One man goes to 
another, and says, '* Here is your money ; but I must have 
a receipt in full of all demands.** A Tender, to be good, 
must be an unconditional one, clogged with no stipulation 
whatever t ! 

LIABILITY OP DRUNKARDS. 

We frequently hear Intoxication pleaded in extenuation, 
if not exculpation, of offences against the laws ; but those 
who take such a course must be unaware of the maxim in 
legal practice, that those who presume to commit crimes 
when drunk must submit to punishment when sober. 
Indeed, acts of violence committed under the influence of 
drunkenness are held to be aggravated rather than other- 
wise ; nor can the person reasonably bring it forward as 
an extenuation of any folly or misdemeanour which he 
may chance to commit. A bond signed in intoxication 
holds in law, and is perfectly binding, unless it can be 
shown that the person who signed it was inebriated by the 
collusion or contrivance of those to whom the bond was 
given. 

* Obsenrations on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 187- 
t Mr. Uaron Maule. 

PART v. 8 



258 POPULAR ERRORS. 

COMMON BIGHTS. 

It is generally thought that any man has a Right to 
ramble over a Common at his pleasure. But this is not 
the law. It is so far from it, that the lord of the manor 
in which the common lies may bring his action for 
trespass against any person tbund on a common without 
his permission, and, after notice given, can recover with 
all costs against the trespassers *, 

In South Wales, it is usually believed that any person 
who can enclose a portion of land around his cottage 
or otherwise in one night, becomes owner thereof in fee. 
These persons are called Encroachers, and are liable to 
have ejectments served upon them by the lord of the 
manor, (which is often done,) to recover possession. The 
majority of the Encroachers pay a nominal yearly rent 
to the lord of the manor for allowing them to occupy 
the land. Such as possess these encroachments for sixty 
years without any interruption, or paying rent, become 
possessed of the same. It is usual to present the encroach- 
ments at a court leet held for the manor ; upon perambu- 
lating which, (and this is generally done every three or 
four years,) these encroachments are thrown out again to 
the waste or common. 

WASTE LANDS. 

The Wastes of this country, as they have been managed 
for ages, have been partly taken out of the hands of Nature, 
without having been wholly taken into the hands of man. 
The constant depasturing of cattle on wastes and commons 
counteracts the means which Nature makes use of in pro- 
ducing fertility ; and, in consequence, greatly retards the 
period when the soil becomes sufficiently deep for agricul- 
tural purposes. There is not, perhaps, a healthy waste in 
England, which would not become a forest, were the com- 
moners restrained from setting their fiocks upon itf .j 

TREES IN FIELDS. 

There is a strange prejudice against planting Trees in 
Fields ; but that trees are not so prejudicial to the field in 
which, or around which they grow, is proved by the prac- 
tice of those countries where the people are much better 
and more economical agriculturists. 

* The Attorney-Gencxal, in Parliament, 1837. t Quarterly Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 259 

LEGAL ERRORS. 

It might be expected that the "uncertainty" of the 
Law would lead to many Errors and absurdities as to its 
provisions ; and from a host of such baits for credulity, we 
select the following: — 

1 . That if a Criminal has hung an hour and revives, he 
cannot afterwards be executed. 

2. That it is necessary, in some legal process against 
the Sovereign, to go through the fiction of arrest ; which 
is done by placing a ribbon across the road, as if to impede 
the royal carriage. 

3. That Deeds executed on a Sunday are void. 

4. That Leases are made for the term of 999 years, be- 
cause a lease of 1000 years would create a freehold. 

5. That in order to disinherit an Heir-a^law, it is neces- 
sary to give him a shiUing by the will ; for that otherwise 
he would be entitled to the whole property. 

6. That a Surgeon or Butcher, (from the barbarity of 
their business.) are ineligible as jurors. This Error, Bar- 
rington attributes to surgeons receiving protection and 
encouragement from a'statute of the 5th of Henry VUL, 
which exempts them from an attendance upon juries; the 
object of which was, doubtless, that they might not be 
taken from their duties to their patients. '* A ridicule has 
been thrown upon surgeons from their having been incor- 
porated formerly with barbers, from which union they 
have but within these few years separated themselves. 
The ridicule, however, arises from the change in the 
barber's situation, and not that of the surgeon .- before the 
invention of perukes, barbers were not employed often 
in the low office of shaving; and as for the making of 
wigs, it is a branch of trade which hath no sort of con- 
nexion with chirurgeons*." 

7. That the old statutes have prohibited the planting of 
Vineyards, or the use of Sawing-mills. Upon this last 
notion, now extinct and almost forgotten, Barrington, 
writing in the middle of the last century, conceived it ** to 
have been occasioned by 5 and 6 £dw. VL cap. xxii., for- 
bidding what are called gig-milht, and are supposed to be 
prejudicial to the woollen manufacture. There is likewise 
an Act of 23 Eliz. cap. v., which prohibits any iron mills 

* Obscn'ations on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 423. 

S 2 



260 POPULAR ERRORS, 

within two-and-twenty miles of London, to prevent the in- 
creasing dearness of wood for fuel. As for sawing-mills, I 
cannot find any statute which relates to them; and they are 
established in Scotland, to the very great advantage of both 
the proprietors and the public* " We are indiued to attri- 
bute this assumed iUegality of saw-mills to the absurd preju- 
dice that they would prove disadvantageous to the working 
classes, by substituting machinery for manual labour. The 
second saw-mill constructed in £ngland, about the year 
1 767, was, indeed, destroyed by a misguided mobf. 

8. That pounds of Butter may be any number of ounces. 

9. That Bull- beef should not be sold unless the bull have 
been baited previously to being killed. 

UNREPEALED TEMPORARY LAWS. 

Laws made on the spur of the occasion, should have a 
short and limited duration; otherwise in the course of 
years, it will be said, *' magis sceculum suum saphint, quant 
rectam rationem." 

It is still a felony to steal a Hawk^ and death to associate 
one month with Egyptians!, or to wander, being a Soldier 
or a Mariner §^ without a testimonial under the nand of a 
justice. 

Obsolete and useless statutes should be repealed ; for they 
debilitate the authority of such as still exist and are neces- 
sary. Neglect on this point is well compared by Lord 
Bacon to Mezentius, who left the living to perish in the 
arms of the dead. 

Persons carrying subjects out of the northern counties ||, 
or giving black-mail for protection ; jailors forcing pri- 

- * Obseryations on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 422. 
f The fallacy of considering manufacturing by machinery injurious 
to operatives, will be found explained at p. 57 of the present work. — M. 
Arago has thus pertinently illustrated the benefits deriyed by the 
working classes from machinery : — * * Lancashire is the most manufactur- 
ing county in England. In it are situated the towns of Manchester, Pres- 
ton, Bolton, Warrington, and Liverpool. Here, we may say, machinery has 
been most rapidly and most generally introduced : and with what effect? 
If we compare the total amount of the poor-rate in Lancashire with the 
amount of that raised throughout the country, and ascertain the share 
of each individual, we shall find that in this county it amounts to'only 
one-third of the mean paid in the other counties." 

t 5 Eliz. c. 20, p. 23. See the declaration of Louis XIY. " centre les 
Boh^miens, et ceux qui leur donnent Tetr&ite.**— Code Pinal, p. 114. 
S 3i» £Uz c. 17. I 43 Eli2. c. 13. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 261 

soners to become approvers*; masons confederating to 
prevent the statutes of labourers t ; purveyors, in certain 
cases :(, though purveyance is abolished; are all capital 
offenders : and none shall bring pollardz and crockardz, 
(which were foreign coins of base metal), into the realm, 
on pain of Forfeiture of life and goods §. The alterations 
in our government have rendered these particular provi- 
sions totally ineffective; but there are other obsolete 
statutes, which exist, the possible instruments of mischief 
in the hands of tyranny || . 

MAGNA CHARTA. 

To attack- " the Bulwark of English Liberty," as the 
Great Charter has been termed, may be hazardous ; but 
we suspect that, in a few years, this bright sun of ireedom 
wiU be shorn of its beams by the rapid advances of the 
age, in what may be termed the philosophy of history. 
Already, " the tide of opinion, which since the Revolution, 
and indeed, since the reign of James I., had been flowing 
so strongly in favour of our liberties, now seems, among 
the hieher and more literary classes, to set pretty decidedly 
the other way. Though we may still sometimes hear a 
demagogue chattering about the wittenagemot, it is far 
more usual to find sensible and liberal men who look on 
Magna Charta itself as the result of an uninteresting 
squabble between the king and |he barons. Acts of force 
and injustice which strike the cursory inquirer, especially 
if he derives his knowledge from modem compilations, 
more than the average tenors of events, are selected and dis- 
played as fair samples of the law and of its administration. 
We are deceived by the comparatively perfect state of our 
present liberties, and forget that our superior security is 
far less owing to positive law, than to the control which is 
exercised over government by public opinion through the 
general use of printing, and to the diffusion of liberal 
principles in policy through the same means. Thus, dis- 
gusted at a contrast which it was hardly candid to insti- 
tute, we turn away from the records that attest the real, 
though imperfect, freedom of our ancestors; and are 
willing to be persuaded, that the whole scheme of English 

* 14 Ed. m. c. 10. t 3 Henry VI. c. 1. 

^ S8 Ed. I. Stat. iii. o. 1. § 27 Ed. L ex Rot. in Ter. 

I Edeo, Principles of Penal Law. Third Edit. pp. 18—21. 



262 POPULAR ERRORS. 

polity, till the commons took on themselves to assert their 
natural rights against James I.^ was at best but a mockery 
of popular privileges, hardly recognised, in theory, and 
never regarded in effect. 

'* This system, when stripped of tho^-e slavish inferences 
that Brady and Carte attempt to build upon it, admits, 
perhaps, of no essential objection,' but its want of historical 
truth. God forbid that our rights to just and free govern- 
ment should be tried by a jury of antiquaries ! Yet it is a 
generous pride that intertwines the consciousness of here- 
ditary freedom with the memory of our ancestors; and 
no trifling argument against those who seem indifferent 
in its cause, that the character of the bravest and most 
virtuous among nations has not depended upon the* 
accidents of race or climate, but has been gradually 
wrought by the plastic influence of civil rights, transmitted 
as a prescriptive inheritance through a long course of 
generations*." 

CRIMINAL TRIAL. 

Barrinoton observes that the common question asked 
a criminal, viz., '* Culprit, how wilt thou be tried T* is 
improperly answered, "By God and my country." It 
originally must have been, " By God or my country," i. e. 
either by ordeal or by jury ; for the question asked, sup- 
poses an option in the prisoner ; and the answer is meant 
to assert his innocence, by declining neitlier sort of trial f. 

CONTRADICTORY PENAL LAWS. 

It is one of the unavoidable imperfections of legislatures, 
that they are necessitated to assign the same name and 
penalty to whole classes of crimes, each of which differs 
from the other by an infinite variety of unsearchable 
circumstances. Yet, some offences are so intimately and 
so undistinguishably classed in their nature, that it is 
difficult to conceive any possible reason for a diversity in 
their punishment. 

It seems a strange incongruity, that the offence of coun- 
terfeiting foreign coint, legitimated by proclamation, should 
work a corruption of the blood; vihich is saved§ by special 
proviso in the offence of counterfeiting current coin of the 

* Hallam, Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. iii. pp. 234-^. 

t Obsenr. Ancient Stat. p. 73. % Foster, p. 226. 

§ 5 Eli2. c. 11, and 8 and 9 W. III. c 29. dec. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 263 

kingdom. Again, it is a clergyable felony, by our law, to 
destroy or damage the bridge of Brentford or Blackfriars ; 
but it is death to commit the same offence on the bridges 
of London, Westminster, or Putney. There is a similar 
unaccountable distinction between prison-breakers con- 
victed of peijury^, or committed for entering black-lead 
minesf with intent to steal, and such as are convicted of, 
or committed for, any other offence within clergy:}:- 

IN£FF1CACY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. 

The Error of supposing Capital Punishment to be the 
preventive of crime, is thus pertinently shown by a popu- 
lar writer : — " Those sras are in history found fatal to 
liberty, in which cruel punishments predominate. Lenity 
should be the guardian of moderate governments : severe 
penalties, the instruments of despotism, may give a sudden 
check to temporary evils ; but they have a tendency to 
extend themselves to every class of crimes, and their fre- 
quency hardens the sentiment of the people. Une loi 
rigoureute produit des crimes. The excess of the penalty 
flatters the imagination with the hope of impunity, and 
thus becomes an advocate with the offender for the per- 
petrating of the offence. 

"' The convicts who have stolen cloth§ from the tenters, 
or fustian from the bleaching-groundll,' or a lamb from their 
landlord's pasture, knew the law to have assigned death, 
without the benefit of clergy, to each of their ofiences : 
but, in the depth of ignorance and profligacy, mere instinct 
informed them that common humanity would recoil at the 
idea, and they relied for their security on the ingenuity of 
mercy to evade the law. 

*' L^slators should then remember that the acerbity of 
justice deadens its execution ; and that the increase of 
human corruption proceeds, not from the moderation of 
punishments, but from the impunity of criminalslf. 

" We leave each other to rot, like scare-crows in the 

* 2Geo. II. c. 26,$S. 

t 25 Geo. XL c 10. A law of Edward L enacts, that for the third 
offence of theft from the lead mines in Derbyshire, ** almife should be 
struck through the hand of the criminal fixed on the table ; and that in 
his agony and attitude he should continue, till he had freed himself by 
cutting off his hand."— Fuller, and Observ. on> the More Ancient Sta- 
tutes, p. 380. X Eden, Principles of Penal Law. p. J 8. 

{ S2 Car. n. c. 25, 9 3. | 4 Geo. I. c. 16. and 18. Geo. IL c. 19. 

^ Eden, Principles of Penal Law, third edit. 1785, p. 14. 



264 POPULAR ERRORS. 

hedges; and our gibbets are crowded with human carcases. 
May it not be doubted, whether a forced familiarity with 
such objects can have any other effect than to blunt the 
sentiments and destroy the benevolent prejudices of the 
people* ?" 

Nearly half a century later, we find an able writer thus 
enforcing the policy of abolishing the practice of public 
executions : — " Far better would it be, if in the f5ew cases 
for which death ought to be inflicted, the execution were 
to take place within the walls of the prison, none being 
present except the proper officers, the clergyman, and those 
persons whom the sufferer might desire to have with him 
at his departure. The effect might, possibly, be impressive 
to some good end, which most certainly it is not now, if 
there were no other announcement than that of a tolling- 
bell when all was over, and hoisting a black flag, where it 
might be seen far and wide ; and if the body of a murderer 
were carried under a pall, with some appropriate solemnity, 
to the place of dissection. Executions ought never to be 
made a spectacle for the multitude, who, if they can bear 
the sight, always regard it as a pastime ; nor for the cu- 
riosity of those who shudder while they gratify it. Indeed, 
there are few circumstances in which it is not expedient 
that a veil should be drawn over the crimes and sufierings 
of our fellow- creatures ; and it is greatly to be wished that 
in all cases of turpitude and atrocity, no further publicity 
were given to the offence than is necessary for the ends of 
justice. For no one who is conversant with criminal 
courts, or who has obtained any insight into the human 
mind, can entertain a doubt that such examples are 
infectiousf.*' 

DEATH-WARRANTS. 

It has long been a popular but erroneous notion, that 
the " Death Vv arrants " of those criminals to whom mercy 
is refused are signed by the Sovereign. The sort of formal 
procedure whicn constitutes the legal authority for the 
taking away of human Ufe is as follows : — The Recorder 
of London waits on the Sovereign in council, with the 
report of the convicts under sentence of death, and takes 
the royal orders with respect to the convicts whose sen- 

* Eden, Principles of Penal Law, edit 1785, p. 80. 
t Quarterly Review, 1831. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 265 

tences of death, previously pronounced at the Old Bailey, 
are commuted or confirmed. With regard to the latter, 
the Recorder writes out his warrant in his own hand, 
(no printed form being used on this occasion,) and seals 
it with his own black seal. This instrument he does 
not despatch to the Sheriffs, whose duty it is to see it car- 
ried into effect. He merely deposits it with the governor 
of Newgate, who, on receiving it, writes a note to each of 
the Sheriffs, who thereupon visit Newgate, and satisfy 
themselves of the authority on which they are to act, by 
inspecting the document lodged there. This being done, 
and the Sherifis being satisfied that it is under the hand 
and seal of the Recorder, attend, on the day specified in 
the document and demand of the keeper the body of the 
criminal for execution. The substance of this explanation 
appeared, a few years since, in the Morning Herald news< 
paper, and is, we are assured, oonect. 

" hangman's wages." 

The sum of thirteenpence-halfpenny has been com- 
monly beUeved as the sum received by the common hang- 
man for the execution of each criminal ; whereas, it has 
no reference to the payment made to that officer. Butler, 
in his notes to Hudibras^ has satisfactorily proved this to 
be the fact : he says — 

*' I cannot really say whence that sum, (thirteenpence- 
halfpenny,) was called " Hangman's Wages," unless in 
allusion to the Halifax Law, or the customary Law of the 
Forest of Hard wick, by which every felon, taken witliin 
the liberty or precincts of the said forest with goods 
stolen to the value of thirteenpence-halfpenny, should, 
after three market-days in the town of Halifax, after his 
apprehension and condemnation, be taken to a gibbet 
there, and have his head cut off from his body.'' 

The common hangman, or carnifex, of Rome appears 
to have been held in such odium, that he was not allowed 
to dwell within the city. In our country, however, in past 
i^, he was an officer of rank ; Sir Henry Spelman, in his 
Glossary, states: " under our Danish kings, the carnifex was 
an officer of great dignity, being ranked with the Arch- 
bishop of York, Earl Goodwin, and the Lord Steward. 
Sir WiUiam Segar, Garter King at Arms, was imposed 
upon by Brook, a herald, who procured him by artifice 
to confirm arms to Gregory Brandon, who was found to 



266 POPULAR ERRORS. . 

be common hangman of London* And from him, proba~ 
bly, (says Butler,) the hangman was called Gregory for 
some time. The name of Dun, which succeeded that of 
Gregory^ is mentioned by Cotton, Virml Travestie^ pub- 
lished in 1640 ; and was continued to these " Finishers of 
the Law," or '' Squires," as they have sometimes called 
themselves, by virtue of Gregory s heraldic honours : next, 
one *'Jack Ketch" was advanced to the office, and his 
name has descended to our time. 

If we may trust the subtle wit of Dryden, there is an 
accomplishment even in hanging a wretch : thus, '' a man 
may be capable, as Jack Ketdh's wife said of her servant, 
of a plain piece of work, a bare hanging ; but to make a 
malefactor die sweetly was only belonging to her husband." 

THE GUILLOTINE. 

There are two Errors in the common history of this 
instrument of death, employed to this day in public exe- 
cutions in France. It is said to have been invented by 
Dr, Guillotin, who is stated to have been one of the very 
first that suffered death by its stroke : but upon reference 
to the biography of Dr. Guillotin, we find, that during 
the French Revolution, Guillotin merely pointed out the 
adoption of this machine, which had been long knownf as 
proper for the infliction of death without giving any pain 
to tne sufferer. Unfortunately for Guillotin, some wags 
gave his name to the machine of which he was not the 
inventor, and which he had only brought into notice. It 
is true that Guillotin was imprisoned, and nearly fell a 
victim to the carnage of the revolution ; but he escaped, 
and after the termination of his political career, resumed 
the functions of a physician, and became one of the founders 
of the Academy of Medicine, at Paris. He died May 26, 
181 4, aged seventy-six. after enjoying, up to his last mo- 
ments, the esteem of all who knew him. 

THE PILLORY. 

By a statute, 51 Hen. III. a.d. 1266, dishonest bakers 
are to be suspended by the coUistrigium, or stretch-neck ; 
by which the neck was stretched in the same manner that 

* Anstis's Register of the Garter. 
t Upon this machine, termed Mannaia in Italian, and which is en- 
graved in the Spmbolica Qutitiones of Achilles Bocohius, 4to, 1555, see 
the Travels of Father Labat in Italy. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 267 

children ftre sometimes put into swings, in order to stretch 
their necks and make tnem grow: the ridicule attending 
the delinquent, in which suspended situation, must have 
been infinitely greater than when he stood or walked upon a 
floor. CoUistrigium has,'however, been improperly translated 
Pillory j for Sir Henry Spelman observes, that pillory was 
formerly used to signify the offence, and not the mode of 
punishment. Pilleurie is frequently used in the old 
French chronicles in this sense; and even by later writers, 
as Favin, in his Th^dtre d'Honneur, expresses himself 
thus : — " Nos Francois libertins et desobeissans par leur 
desordre et/w//^r*e. '— (Vol. i. p. 751, Paris, 1620.)* 

WHO ARE ESQUIRES? 

The present use of the distinction ''Esquire" conveys 
not the remotest idea of its origin, or appropriation in past 
ages. The esquire originated in chivahric times, when the 
sons of gentlemen, from the age of seven years, were 
brought up in the castles of superior lords ; which was an 
inestimable advantage to the poorer nobility, who could 
hardly otherwise have given their children the accom- 
plishments of their station. From seven to fourteen, these 
boys were called pages, or varlets ; at fourteen, they bore 
the name of esquire. They were instructed in the manage- 
ment of arms, in the art of horsemanship, in exercises of 
strength and activity, so as to fit them for the tournament 
and tiie battle, and the milder glories of chivalrous gal- 
lantry. Long after the decline of chivalry, the word 
esquire was only used in a limited sense for the sons of 
peers and knights, or such as obtained the title by creation 
or some other legal meansi*. Blackstone defines esquires 
to be all who bear office or trust under the crown, and 
who are styled esquires by the king in their commissions 

* This barbarous ponishment has only been effaced from our Statute- 
book within the last quarter of a century. The glossaries tell us that 
eoUittrigium wa^intended magis ad ludibrium, et infamiam, quam ad 
pcmatn ; upon which Barrington well obserres : ** it may therefore well 
deserve the consideration of a Judge, who inflicts the punishment of the 
pillory, (as it becomes at present, (1769,) the great occasion of mobs and 
riots,) whether it can be reconciled to the original intention of the law 
in this mode of punishment ; and particularly, if this riotous scene ends 
in the death of the criminal, (as in the case of one Egan, in 1766,) whe- 
ther the judge isnoty in some measure, accessory both to the riot and 
the mvader"—Obterv.Ant. Stat, p. 48—9. 

t By the/rankUifn of Chancer, we are to understand a country squire. 



268 POPULAR ERRORS. 

and appointroeuts ; and being once honoured by the 
king with the title of esquire, they have a right to that 
distinction for life*. These distinctions are now almost 
totally disregarded, and all gentlemen are generally termed 
esquires boUi in correspondence and in deeds; except 
solicitors and attorneys, who, in course of business, are 
called gentlemen. 

THE PEERAGE. 

Much has been said of the antiquity of the English 
Peerage, though it appears without the consideration that 
"the main body of the Peerage are a modem nobility 
raised out of an ancient gentry. The description is, how- 
ever, only accurate when the words are strictly confined 
to their English sense ; for in the vocabularies of Conti- 
nental nations, the class whom we call * gentry' would be 
considered as a portion of the nobilityt." 

BAOHETiORS. 

The word Bachelor has been commonly derived from 
bas chevalier ; in opposition to banneret. But this, how- 
ever plausible, is unlikely to be right We do not find 
any authority for the expression bas chevalier, nor any 
equivalent in Latin, baccalaureus certainly not suggesting 
that sense ; and it is strange that the corruption should 
obliterate every trace of the original term. Bachelor is a 
very old word, and is used in early French poetry for a 
young man, as bachelette is for a girl. So also, in Chaucer: 

" A younge Squire, 
A lover, and a lusty bachelor *." 

WHAT MAKES A GENTLEMAN? 

The very vague sense in which the term Gentleman is 
used, has, assuredly, led to many erroneous notions of its 
origin and appropriation. It is, doubtless, a corruption 
of gentiihomme, our Saxon ancestors having very early sub- 
stituted "mon," or "man," for the corresponding term of 
Norman-French from which they originally received the 
term. Selden says, "in the beginning of Christianity, the 
Fathers writ contra gentes, and contra gentiles — they were 
but one : but after ful were Christians, the better sort of 

* Blackstone, Commentaries, Christian's notes (19). 
t Sir J. Mackintosh, t Hallam, Hist Mid. Ages, voL ill. p. 507, note. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 269 

people still obtained the name of gentiles, throughout the 
four provinces of the Roman Empire ; as Gentilhomme in 
French, Gentiluoms in Italian, GeniUhombre in Spanish, and 
Gentleman in English*." Yet, the same author says: 
'' What a gentleman is, 'tis hard with us to define ; in other 
countries, he is known by his privileges : in Westminster 
Hall, he is one that is reputed one ; in the Court of Honour, 
he that hath arms. Tne king cannot make a gentleman 
of blood, (what have you said?) nor God Almighty, but 
he can make a gentleman by creation. If you ask which 
is the better of these two : civilly, the gentleman of blood — 
moraUy, the gentleman by creation, may be the better ; 
for the other may be a debauched man, this a person of 

worthf." 

In the feudal ages, ''a gentleman in France or Ger- 
many could not exercise any trade without derogating, 
that is, losing the advantages of his rank. A few excep- 
tions were made, at least in the former country, in favour 
of some liberal arts, and of foreign commerce:}:-" 

'Mt was not till the reign of Henry VI. that the word 
'Gentleman' began to be used in somewhat of that 
modem sense which distinguishes it legally from a noble- 
man, and morally from an uneducated plebeian. In the 
farther stages of the progress, heralds and genealogists 
b^an to complain of its indiscriminate appUcation ; while, 
in their antiquarian pleasantry, they represented it as being 
usurped by every idle and useless upstart §.'* 

Yet the term has not always been an honourable dis- 
tinction. ''The word GentUhomme^ (says Barrington,) 
though at first applied to persons of the greatest rank and 
consequence, from its being afterwards indiscriminately 
used in addressing any one, became, by the time of 
Francis I. of France, almost a term of offence ; as Bran- 
tome informs us that his uncle. Monsieur de la Cha- 
taigneraye, resented this appellation from the Princess de 
la Koche sur Yon. On her complaining to the king of 
some expressions which Chataigneraye had made use of, 
Francis 1. said she roust thank herself for having addressed 
him so improperly ||. Sir Thomas Smith, in his Common- 
wealth, distinguishes tlie English below the rank of 

* Table Talk, voce Gentleman. f Ibid. 

% Hallam, Hist. Mid. Ages, voL i. p. 208. 

S Sir James Maokintosh, Hist. Rngland, vol. 1. p. 269. 

I Brant tome i. p. 37ft, ed. 1GG6. 



270 POPULAR ERRORS. 

Esquire, into Gentlemen, Yeomen, and rascals, — Ch. xxi., 
London, 1662, 4to. In another place he uses the word 
rascality in the above sense * ." 

According to one of our old dramatists, the distinction 
rests upon very slender claims. Ben Jonson says : " Your 
legs do sufficiently show you are a gentleman bom, sir ; 
for a man born upon little legs is always a gentleman 
born." 

After all, the terra, although it is traceable to the earliest 
form of the Roman constitution, derives its present signi- 
fication from a much later age. It is, indeed, a relic of 
chivalrous times ; although it may suit the measure of a 
rhetorical roulade to say, the age of chivalry is gone, — 
one of cold calculation has succeeded. ** The spirit of 
chivalry, (says Hallam,) left behind it a more valuable 
successor. The character of knight gradually subsided in 
that of gentleman ; and the one distinguishes European 
society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as much 
as the other did in the preceding ages. A jealous sense 
of honour, less romantic, but equally elevated — a ceremo- 
nious gallantry and politeness — a strictness in devotional 
observances — a high pride of birth, and feeling of inde- 
pendence upon any sovereign for the dignity it gave — a 
sympathy for martial honour, though more subdued by 
civil habits — are the lineaments which prove an indis- 
putable descent The cavaliers of Charles I. were genuine 
successors of Edward's knights ; and the resemblance is 
much more striking if we ascend to the civil wars of the 
League. Time has effaced much also of their gentlemaTily, 
as it did before of the chivalrous, character. From the 
latter part of the seventeenth century, its vigour and purity 
have undergone a tacit decay ; and yielded, perhaps, in 
every country, to increasing commercial wealth — more 
diff'used instruction — the spirit of general liberty in some, 
and of servile obsequiousness in others — the modes of life 
in great cities — and the levelling customs of social inter- 
course-!-." 

In a narrower sense, a gentleman is generally defined 
to be " one who, without any title, bears a coat- of- arms, 
or whose ancestors have been freemen ; and by the coat 
that a gentleman giveth, he is known to be, or not^ 

* Obeeryations on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 260. 
t Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. iii. p. 510. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 271 

descended from those of his name that lived many hundred 
years since*.* This reminds one of the great Lord Bur- 
leigh's maxim : " Gentility is nothing but ancient riches." 
Shakspeare thus ridicules this heraldic claim, in Hamlet : — 

■ 

" 1 Clown. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditohers» and 
grave-makers ; they hold up Adam's profession. 
2 Cloton. Was he a gentleman ? 

1 Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms. 

2 Clown. Why, he never had none. 

1 Clown. What, art a heathen ? How dost thou understand the 
scriptures. The scripture says, Adam digged ; Could he dig without 
arms ?" 

There is likewise said to be a Gentleman by office and 
in reputation, as well as those that are born such t ; and 
according to Blackstonc, quoting Sir Thomas Smith t, 
" Whosoever studieth the laws of the realm — who studiem 
in the universities— who professeth the liberal sciences — 
and, (to be short,) who can live idly and without manual 
labour, and well bear the port, charge, and countenance of 
a gendeman — he shall be called master, and taken for a 
gentleman.'' Upon this confused definition, it is well 
observed: '^ The learned author must have been somewhat 
puzzled with his definition of a gentleman, as under- 
stood in his time. Having defined a gentleman to be one 
who studieth the laws, &c., he adds, (to be short,) that he 
who can live idly, and bear the port, &c. of a gentle- 
man, is a gentleman ; that is, if he can live idly, and if 
he can do as a gentleman does, (it not being defined what 
this is,) he is a gentleman. Perhaps, a definition of the 
term, as now used, would not be easily made ; it being 
extended by the courtesy of modern manners to many 
who do not come within the ancient acceptation of the 
term, and denied by public opinion to many whose rank 
and wealth do not make up for the want of other qualifi- 
cations §." 

" FITZ. 

It was a custom among the ancient Irish, when the 
father died, for his son to take the name, lest it should be 
forgotten : hence the names i^i/z-herbert, i^'i/z-gerald, 
derive their origin, not as denoting the individuals to be 
of spurious birth, as some have imagined, but in com- 

♦ Jacob's Law Dictionary. t 2 Inst. GG8. X Commonwealth, p. 406 
§ Penny Cydoprodia, voce Gentleman. 



272 POPULAR ERRORS. 

pliance with the custom ohseryed before the use of sur- 
names, when a person took his father s name, with the 
addition of his being his son ; the prefix Filz being a 
Norman word, derived from the French JOs, a son*. 

ANTIDOTES TO POISONS. 

There is a common notion that every Poison hath its 
Antidote ; upon which Sir Thomas Browne quaintly 
observes : — " Though it be true that God made all things 
double, and that, if we look upon the works of the Most 
High; there are two and two, one against another ; that 
one contrary hath another ; and poison is not without a poi- 
son to itself: yet hath the curse so far prevailed, or else our 
industry defected, that poisons are better known than their 
antidotes ; and some thereof do scarce admit of any. And 
lastly, although to some poison men have delivered many 
antidotes, and in every one is promised an equality unto 
its adversary, yet do we often find they fail in their effects. 
Moly will not resist a weaker cup than that of Circe ; a 
man may be poisoned in a Lemnian dish ; without the 
miracle of John there is no confidence in the earth of 
Paul ; and if it be meant that no poison could work upon 
him, we doubt the story, and expect no such success from 
the diet of Mithridatesf." 

This piece of olden philosophy has been beautifully 
illustrated by Shakspeare, in the Friar's soliloquy, in 
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2. sc. iii. 

*' The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ; 
What is her burying grave, that is her womb : 
And from her womb, children of divers kind 
We sucking on her natural bosom find : 
Many for virtues excellent, 
None but for some, and yet all different . 
O mickle is the powerful grace, that lies 
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities : 
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live. 
But to the earth some special good doth give ; 
Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from their fair use. 
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse ; 
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; 
And vice sometime's by action dignified. 
Within the infant rind of this weak flower. 
Poison hath residence, and med'cine power : 



* Camden, Remains. f Vulgar Errors, b. vii. c. xvii. pp. 432—3. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 273 

« For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part ; 

Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart 
Two such opposed kings encamp them still 
In man as well as herbs,— grace, and rude will ; 
And, where the worser is predominant. 
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant" 

POISONS OF THE ANCIENTS. 

At the annual conversazione, at the College of Physi- 
dans, in the year 1832, Sir Henry Halford, the accom- 
plished President, read a paper embodying much patient 
research ; in which he investigated the causes of the death of 
certain celebrated characters of antiquity, with especial refe- 
rence to the knowledge of Poisons possessed by the Ancients. 
The only portions of the classical anecdote in this paper 
which are suited to our present purpose, are those which 
correct certain erroneous notions as to the deaths of Han- 
nibal and Alexander the Great. 

IVhat was the poison by which Hannibal destroyed 
himself? It Is improbable that we shall ever know. 
Modem chemistry nas discovered a variety of subtle 
poisons that might be introduced into a ring, and under 
certain circumstances destroy life. One drop of prusdc 
acid might produce paralysis, and if taken into the stomach 
would instantly arrest the current of life. But, it was not 
likely that the Carthaginians were acquainted with prussic 
acid. Libya, most probably, produced poisons sufficiently 
subtle and destructive to accomplish the fatal purpose of 
Hannibal As to the report of its being bullock's blood, 
that, (Sir Henry observed,) must be a fable, as well as 
in the case of the death of Themistocles ; for it is well 
ascertained that the blood of the ox is not poison. An 
accomplished nobleman told Sir Henry that ne had been 

E resent at a bull-tight in Spain, when, after the matador 
ad killed the bull, a person ran up, caught the animal's 
blood in a goblet, and drank it off as a popular remedy for 
consumption. 

Alexander the Great is said to have been poisoned : but 
this is inconsistent with the very detailed account of his 
illness given by Arrian. The, report is that the poison 
was sent by Antiphon, and was of so peculiar a nature 
that no silver or metallic substance would contain it, and 
it was conveyed in the hoof of a mule. But the article 
was. really onyx, as Horace: — 

" Mardi pamis onyx."* 



274 POPULAR EHRORS. 

Now, the word onyx, in Greek, signifies not only a stone 
but unguit^ a hoof or nail ; and the second sense has evi-* 
dently been given instead of that of a precious stone. 
Alexander really died of a remittent fever, caught at 
Babylon. As to the cause of it, Arrtan expressly states 
the king was temperate and forbearing in the pleasures of 
the table ; and when we consider the laborious oocupationsof 
Alexander, amidst frost and snow, and especially tne marsh 
miasmata of the Babylonian lakes, Sir Henry thinks there 
is no difficulty in conoeivinff this to be too much even for 
his frame of adamant The diary of Arrian, containing 
die details of Alexander's illness and death, vindicates his 
memory from the imputation of his having brought on his 
fate by intemperance*. 

POISON IN THE NAILS. 

The douUe meaning of the term ont/x, referred to the 
above abstract, explains the Popular Error of Poison being 
retained by persons in their Nails. 

THE RHINOCEROS HORN. 

The allied preservative virtues of the Rhinoceros* horn 
in the detection of poison must be regarded as a Popular 
Error. From the earliest time, this horn has been supposed 
to possess mysterious properties, — ^to be capable of causing 
diseases, and discovering the presence of poison ; and in 
all countries where the rhinoceros exists, but especially in 
the East, such is still the opinion respecting it. In the 
details of the first voyage of the Englieli to India, in 159 1 , 
we find rhinoceros horns monopolised by the native sove- 
reigns on account of their reputed virtues in detecting the 
presence of poison. 

Thunberg observes, in his Journey into Ct^aria, that 

* Sir Thomas Browne thus notices the jmisoning of Alexander: 
" Surely we had disoovered a poison that would not endure Pandora's 
box, oould we be satisfied in that which for its coldness nothing could 
contain hut an ass's hoof, and wherewith some report that Alexander 
the Great was poisoned. Had men derived so strange an effect from 
some occult or hidden qualities, they might have silenoed contradictbm; 
but, ascribing it unto the manifest and open qualities of oold, they 
must pardon our belief ; who perceive the coldest and most Stygian 
waters may be included in glasses: and by Aristotle, who saith, that 
glass is the perfectest work of art, we may understand they were not 
then to be invented.">-yu]gar Errors, b. vii c. xvii p. 431. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 275 

''the horns of the rhinoceros were kept hysome people 
both in town and country, not only as rarities, but also as 
useful in diseases, and for the purpose of detecting poisons. 
As to the formor of these intentions, the fine uiavings 
were supposed to cure convulsions and spasms in children. 
With respect to the latter, it was generally believed that gob- 
lets made of these horns would discover a poisonous draught 
that was poured into them, by making the liquor ferment 
till it ran quite out of the goblet. Of these horns, goblets 
are made which are set in gold and silver, and presented 
to kings, persons of distinction, and particular friends, or 
else sold at a high price, sometimes at the ratcjof 50 rix- 
dollars each." Thunberg adds : '' When I tried these horns; 
both wrought and unwrought, both old and young horns, 
with several sorts of poison, weak as well as strong, I 
observed not the least motion or effervescence; but when 9 
solution of corrosive sublimate, or other similar substance, 
was poured into one of these horns, there arose only a few 
bubbles, produced by the air which had been inclosed in 
the pores of the horn, and which were now disengaged." 

Kankin, in his Wars and Sporii, observes that going 
through the sunderbunds of Bengal, he fell in with a man 
who ''possessed a small horn of a rhinoceros that had been 
killed in the woods, and this man, (a PortimLese^) bad 
the same universal opinion of its virtues. On being asked 
how it ought to be used, he said that he put a small quantity 
of water in the concave part of the root, then held it with 
the point downwards, and stirred the water with the point 
of an iron nail till it was discoloured, when the patient 
was to drink it." 

Calmet, in his DicHonarv of the Bible, published about 
120 years since, observes tnat the horn 01 the rhinoceros 
is made use of by the Indian kings at table, because, as is 
believed, "it sweats at the approach of any kind of poison 
whatever." 

**It would not be difficult to muster a host of authorities 
on this point. Indeed, most travellers who have visited 
the native regions of the rhinoceros have alluded to the 
great value set upon the horn for its imaginary virtues; 
and as no other horn has been or is now regarded in the 
same light, we are inclined to consider this horn of power 
and excellence, in which the poisoned draught of secret 
malice discovers itself^ to be that to which the psalmist al- 

T 2 



276 POPULAR BRR0R8. 

luded: (<<My horn thalt thou exalt like the horn of a 
unicorn") ; and consequently^ that its hearer, the *< unicorn" 
was the rhinoceros. In conjunction with these almost 
miraculous properties^ the forroidahle nature of this horn 
as a weapon of defence, before which, used as the rhi- 
noceros uses ity no enemy can stand, might also have been 
taken into account.' " 

SLOW POISON. 

In the reign of Edward V I., there was a prevailinc notion 
that Slow Poison might be given to a person, which would 
infallibly kill him within a given number of months or 
years. Shakspeare alludes to this in his Winter s TpJe : 

** I would do this, and that with no rash poison ; 
But with a lingering dram that should not work 
Malieiotuljf like poison." 

— Barrington supposes the word *' ma&ciousli/ " to be here 
used in the sense it bears in the common forms of indict- 
ment for murder. 

The notion of a Slow Poison has long been exploded b^ 
physicians^ who have accordingly struck out all the anti- 
dotes to prevent the effects of it from the new Pharmacol 
pceia, 

AQUA TOFANA. 

It was, for a long time, supposed that there actually did 
exist in Italy a Secret Poison, the effects of which were 
slow, and even unheeded, until a lingering malady had 
consumed the sufferer. No suspicions were excited ; or^ 
had they led to any post mortem examination, no trace of 
the effects of the terrific preparation could have been 
detected. The class of persons who practised this wicked 
art were known under tne name of *' Secret Poisoners : " 
they were believed to possess the power of destroying life 
at any stated period^ from a few hours to a year; and, 
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were 
regarded in all the nations of Europe with extraordinary 
terror. 

The most infamous of these poisoners was an Italian 
woman, named Tofana, who, about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, invented a poisonous fluids afterwards 
called Aqua Tofana. It was towards the year 1659, 
during the pontificate of Alexander VII., that the exist- 

* The Menagerieib vol. ill. p. 19—28. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 277 

ence of this baneful preparation was suspected. It was 
then obseryed at Rome, that many young married women 
became widows; and that many husbajids^ suspected to 
be not agreeable to their wives, '' died off" The govern- 
ment used great vigilance to detect the poisoners ; and 
suspicion at length fell upon a society of young wives, 
whose president was an old woman, who pretended to 
foretell events; and, in her horoscopic predictions, named 
very exactly the death of many persons. By means of a 
crafty female, their practices were detected ; the whole 
society were arrested, and put to the torture ; and the old 
woman, whose name was Spara, together with four others, 
were publidy executed. It appears that Spara, who was 
a Sicilian, derived her art from Tofana at Palermo ; the 
latter selling the poison, hence called Aqua delta Tofana^ 
in smaU vials with this inscription. Manna di San Nicolas 
di Barig and ornamented with the image of the saint. 
At length, Tofana was dragged from a monastery in which 
she had taken refuge, and put to the torture, when she 
confessed having b^ instrumental to the death of no 
less than 600 persons ! 

Garelli, physician to Charles VI., writing to Hoffinan 
on the subject, says : '' Your elegant essay on the popular 
errors respecting poisons brought to my recollection a 
certain slow poison, which that infamous poisoner, still alive 
in Naples, employed to the destruction of six hundred 
persons. It was nothing else than crystallised arsenic dis- 
solved in water, with the addition, but for what purpose I 
know not, of the herb Cymbalaria (" antirrhinum J.** The dose 
of this poison was six drops; yet, though it was in this 
state of concentration, its nature could not be detected, so 
little was that age acquainted with the art of chemical 
analysis ; whereas, at the present time, even when arsenic 
has been dissolved in the stomach, and mixed with vege- 
table and animal fluids, it may be reduced to its metallic 
form, and made to exhibit all die physical properties of 
the metal to the naked eye, with as much distinctness as 
in any quantity, however large, when only the twentieth 
part of a grain has been procured. M odern chemistry, has, 
therefore, deprived the poisoner of all chance of escape, by 
concealing or disguising the poison administered. 

By an old Scotch statute (James II. Pari. vii. cap. 30), 
it was made high treason to bring any poison into the 



278 POPULAR ERRORS. 

kingdom ; which law, Barrington conjectures, was chiefly 
intended to provide against the importation of poisons from 
Italy, where assassination, and this kind of murder, have 
hut too much prevailed : " I have heen informed," he adds^ 
" that it is not uncommon in Italy to say, upon a man's ex- 
pressing himsplf with r^ard to another, from whom he 
hath received an injury, / wish he ufovid hut drink a cup of 
chocolate with me,** 

** An Italian's leyenge may pause, Irafs ne'er forgot." 

Fi.ncHSit'8 Fair Maid of the Inn. 

The ingenious author of the Memoirs of Petrarch, how- 
ever, supposes that this prejudice against the Italians arose 
from two or three supposed murders of this description at 
Avignon, during the residence of the French popes at 
that place. 

VENICE GLASSES. 

Drinkin6-glA9se8 were formerly manufactured atVenice, 
which the credulous helieved to nave the property of ex- 
ploding upon a poisoned Hqnid heing poured into them ! 
We can only refer this ahsurd belief to an exaggeration of 
the celebrity of Venice Glass. Thus, we find it to have 
heen proverbial as a standard of perfection. Howell says : 
" A good name is like Venice glass, quickly cracked, never 
to be amended, patched it may be."* Of this reputed 
romantic propoiy of Venice Glass, Mrs. RadcUfib has 
availed herself in the Masteries of Udolpho ; and Lord 
Byron thus adverts to it in The Two Fotcari, Act v. 
scene 1 : — 

** D(^e. I do feel athirst ; will no one one bring me here 
A oup of water ? 

* « • 4t 

I take yourt^ Loredano, from the hand 
Most fit for such an hour as this. 

Lor. Why so ? 

Doge. 'Tis said that our Venetian crystal has 
Such pure antipathy to poisons, as. 
To burst if aught of venom touches it. 

Lor. Well, sir ? 

Doge. Then it is false, or you are true ; 
For my own part, I credit neither : 'tis 
An idle legend." 

Sir Thomas firowne thus touches upon this l^ndary 
Error: — *' Though it be said that poison will break a 
Venice glass, yet have we not met any of that nature. 

* Familiar Letters, p. 3ia 



POPULAR EBBORfiU 279 

W&e there a truth herein, it nvere the best preservatiTe 
for princes and persons exalted unto such fears ; and 
surely far better than divers now in use. And though 
the best of China dishes, and such as the Emperor doth 
use, be thought by some of infallible virtue to this effect ; 
yet will they not^ I fear, be able to elude the mischief ci 
such intentions*." 

Venice glass had likewise the reputed property of mira^ 
culously remaining sound under verv extraordinary cir- 
cumstances. Credulous old Aubrey relates in his Miranda : 
^ in Dr. Bolton's Sermons is an account of the Lady Hony- 
wood, who despaired of her salvation. Dr. Bolton endea- 
voured to comfort her; said she, (holding a Venice glass 
in her hand,) * I shall as certainly be damned as this glass 
will be broken ;' and at that word, threw it hard on the 
ffround, and the glass remained sound ; which did give 
her great comfort. The glass is yet preserved among the 
dmelia of the familyf .'^ 

ARABS AND THE PLAGFE. 

The Arabs seldom employ medicine for l^e Hague ; 
but, though predestinarians, me common belief in Europe 
is erroneous, that supposes ihey use no precautionary mea- 
sures. Burckhardt states, that many of the townsmen fled 
from Medina to the desert; alleging as an excuse, that 
akhongh the distemper was a messenger from heaven sent 
to call them to a better world, yet being conscious of thdr 
unworthiness, and that they did not merit this special 
mark of grace, they thoueht it more advisable to decline 
ijt for the present, and m&e their escape from the town. 
The Sembawees have a superstitious custom of leading a 
she-camel through the town, covered with feathers, balls, 
and all sorts of ornaments, after which it is slaughtered, 
and the flesh thrown to the dogs. By this process, they 
hope to get rid of the maladjr at once, as they imagine 
that it has been concentrated in the body of the devoted 
animali^. 

THE ADnER^STONB, 

Angumum Ovum, was a fabulous kind of egg, said to be 
produced by the saliva of a cluster of serpents, and possessed 
of certain magical virtues ; the superstitious belief in 

* Yulgar Errors, b. tIL c. xviL p. 431. 
t MiaceUanies. By Jobn Aubrey, Esq. F.R.S. p. 132. 
. 4: Hist Arabia. By ▲. Criohton. 



280 POPULAR ERR0R8. 

which was very prevalent among the ancient Britons, and 
there still remains a tradition of it in Wales. This won- 
drous egg seems to have heen nothing more than a head 
of glass, used hy the Druids as a charm to impose upon 
the people, whom they taught to believe that the possessor 
of it would be fortunate in all attempts. The method of 
ascertaining its genuineness was no less extraordinary than 
the powers attributed to it. 1 1 was to be enchased in gold 
and thrown into a river, and if it was genuine it would 
swim against the stream. Pliny gives a similar account 
of it». 

THE BHONB AND THE LAKE OF GENEVA. 

John Evelyn, in his Diary ^ repeats the so-often-repeated 
assertion, that the Rhone passes through the Lake of Geneva 
with such velocity as not to mingle with its waters. Of 
all the faUes which credulity delights to believe and pro- 
pagate, this should appear the most impossible to obtain 
befief ; for the l^one, when it enters the lake, is both of 
die coloiur and consistency of pea-soup, and it issues out 
of it perfectly dear, and of so deep a blue that no traveller 
can ever have beheld it without astonishment. Evelyn 
had seen it in both places, and yet repeats the common 
story, which, had it been fact instead of fable, would have 
been less remarkable than the actual, and as yet uneK- 
plained^ phenomenon of its colour at Genevaf . 

ARAB HORSES. 

Thouoh the Arabs justly boast of their Horses, it is a 
common Error that supposes them to be very abundant in 
Arabia. In the Sacred Writings, and down to the times 
of Mohammed, they are seldom mentioned ; camels being 
mostly used both in their warlike and predatory excur- 
sions. The breed is limited to the fertile pasture-grounds, 
and it is there only that they thrive; while the Bedouins, 
who occupy arid mstricts, rarely have any. In Neged> they 
are not nearly so numerous as in the rich plains of Sjrria 
and Mesopotamia. In Hejar, they become scarcer ; and 
dience towards Yemen, they become fewer still, both the 
climate and pasture there being reckoned injurious to their 
health. The great heat of Oman is also deemed unfavour- 

* la not this fable the origin of our nuneTy tale of Mother Gooie and 
the Golden Egg? f Quarterly Reyiev, voL xiz. p. 14. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 281 

able to them. In the district of Gebel Shammar, there are 
many encampments that possess none ; in Medina they 
are not seen, and in Mecca there are, perhaps, not more 
then 60 belonging to private individuals; so that the 
estimate of Burckhardt is, perhaps, correct, when he 
affirms, that from Akaba to the snores of Hadramant, 
comprising the great chain of mountains and the western 
plains towards the sea, the amount of horses is not more 
than 5000 or 6000 ; while the aggr^ate number in the 
whole peninsula does not exceed 50,000 — a numbex far 
inferior to what the same superficial extent in any other 
part of Asia or Europe would furnish. Neither are all 
the Arab horses of the most select race— of the most per- 
fect or distinguished quality ; and perhaps, not above five 
or six in a whole tribe deserve the name of first-rate in 
respect to size, bone, beauty, and action. Still, their num- 
bers are considerable ; each of which may be bought, if 
purchased in the desert, at from £150 to j£200. 

It may be remarked that the Arabs have great faith in 
certain superstitious charms, which they suppose will pro- 
tect their horses from accidents. They use talismans 
written on a piece of triangular paper, which are put into 
a leathern purse of the same shape, and fastened round 
the animal s neck, as a defence against witchcraft from 
unlucky eyes. A couple of boar's tusks, joined at the 
extremities by a silver nng, are suspended from their mane 
to keep them from the farcjr*. 

KEEPING PIGEONS. 

The Statute for view of Frank-pledge, 18 Edw. II., 
sec. 33, mentions the punishing of those who take Pigeons 
in the winter, which proves that they never could have 
been considered, (according to some writers on the law,) 
as a nuisance, and that the keeping of them was indictable 
in the leet ; the contrary of whicn is most expressly de- 
clared. " The nuisance apprehended from pigeons is their 
eating up the seed-corn after it is sownf ; It hath of late 

* Hist. Arabia. By A. Crichton. 
t Hartlib, (in his Legaep €/ Husbandrpt) rappoBes that there were in 
hifl time 26,000 doye-houees in England, and allowing 500 pair to each 
houae, and four bushels yearly to be destroyed or consumed by each 
pair, makes, by this calculation, the loss of com very amazing : 26,000 
XMO« 13,000,000 bushels I— See Fuller's Worthies, p. 879. 



282 POPULAR ERRORS. 

been discoyered, however, that, like most other aDiinab 
who are persecuted for supposed mischief, pigeons are of 
singular use, in consuming the seeds of weeds, as also the 
eggs of noxious insects, and the insects themselves. Every 
one who hath woods belonging to him orders the bird 
called a woodpecker to be destroyed. This bird, however, 
cannot perforate with its bill a tree that is sound, and 
therefore, gives timely notice of its decay ; after which it 
only buriheneth the ground, and should leave room for a 
more profitable one to grow in its place. I could wish 
that a proper fable was added to the common collection, 
to impress an early sense of tenderness in children to 
animals of all kinds ; their barbarity being often excused, 
under pretence of daBtroying what does hwm*." 

BARBAROUS SQUIRRElrCAOKS. 

"The barbarous practice of 'spinning a cockchafer,' 
provided the tail of the insect be callous, and itself void 
of fear during the operation, is a less exquisite refinement 
in the art of tormenting, than to confine a poor Squirrel in 
a revolving cage" which is erroneously thought to bean 
enlargement of the animal's enjoyment. Whereas, **if 
there be one method more efficacious than another to de- 
prive it of liberty, it is this very contrivance, whereby, 
constituted the centre of a system, a govanor of Barataria^ 
do what be will, he never can possibly be in a state of 
rest — for, let him vary ever so little, even for a moment, 
from his centrical position, everything b^ns tumbling 
about his ears. 1 have many times/' says Sir George HeaiJ^ 
^observed, with pity, the panting sides of an unfortunate 
animal ; its state of anxious tremor, in its hall of torment; 
its breath exhausted by galloping, kicking, and straining ; 
worried and alarmed, without enjoying a single inch of 
progressive motion, or one refreshing cnange of attitude, 
for minutes together, within his tantalizing, turn-about 
treadmill. Some, no doubt, will say that tne animal is 
happy, and that of exercise, the soul of nature, he has 
his fuL A man sitting out of doors in a thoroughfare, 
and pelted with mud, may believe himself hunting; or ly- 
ing on his stomach on wet grass, mistake it for swimming, 
as reasonably as a poor squirrel, in the midst of a whirUng 
maze of wood and iron, can enjoy liberty and the delight 

* Baningtoiu Obserr. Ant Stat. p. 184~ik 



POPULAR ERRORS. 283 

of running ! — the dog, confined by his chain, rooyes un- 
molested in a circle; the prisoner changes position in his 
ceU. Home is home^ be it ever so homely; but if the 
house itself runs round, its homeliness surely is destroyed 
altogether*. ** 

THE HAWTHORN, OR MAY-BUSH, 

Is common throughout England, and is to be seen in 
erery hedge : 

" And every shepherd tells his tale. 
Under the hawthorn in the dale."— Milton, L* Allegro. 

'* We must not, however, let our fancies run so riot, as 
to suppose that the poet here intends that we should con- 
ceive a beautiful and youthful nymph sitting by the 
shepherd's side, to whom he is pouring forth his fond tale 
of love: for, in very truth, the real image present in the 
poef s mind was simply that of a shepherd telling his tale, 
or, in unpoetic language, counting his sheep, as he lies 
extended m the shade of this tree; and to those who take 
pleasure in a country life, and rural associations, perhaps 
this image wiU appear scarcely less poetical or less pleasing 
than tlie former interpretation, which many readers give 
to this passage at first sightf." 

MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE. 

M. Abaoo, in his brilliant ^loge of Fourier, observes : — 
" The ancients had a taste, or rather a passion, for the 
marvellous, which made them forget the sacred ties of 
gratitude. Look at them, for instance, collecting into one 
single group the hish deeds of a great number of heroes^ 
whose names they nave not even deigned to preserve, and 
attributing them all to Hercules alone. The lapse of 
centuries nas not made us wiser. The public in our 
times also delight in mingling fiction with history. In 
all careers, particularly in that of the sciences, there is a 
desire to create Herculeses. According to die vulgar 
opinion, every astronomical discovery is attributable to 
Herschel. The theory of the motions of the planets is 
identified with the name of Laplace; and scarcely any 
credit is allowed to the important labours of D'Alembert, 
Clairaut, Euler, and Lagrange. Watt is the sole inventor 

« Home Tour. t Flora Domeetloa. 



284 POPITLAR ERRORS. 

of the steam-engine; wliilst Chaptal has enriched the 
chemical arts with all those ingenious and productive 
processes which secure their prosperity/ To oounterTail 
this error, Arago continues: ** Let us hold up to legitimate 
admiration those chosen men whom nature has endowed 
with the valuable faculty of grouping together isolated 
facts, and deducing beautiful theories from them ; but do 
not let us forget that the sickle of the reaper must cut 
down the stalks of corn, before any one can think of col- 
lecting them into sheaves." 

TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. 

In the ridicule which has been thrown around the 
labours of the Alchemists, the fact that they possessed a 
certain portion of useful knowledge has been lost sight of, 
as well as the disadvantages of their practice: for the 
secrecy which the alchemists affected repelled improve- 
ment, and almost every discovery died with its inventor. 
Mr. Brande observes, that *' the Transmutation of baser 
Metals into gold and silver, which was the chief, and in 
most cases the only, object of the genuine alchemists, was 
not merely regarded as possible, but believed to have been 
performed, by some of the more enlightened chemists of 
the seventeenth centurv. And, before we treat this belief 
with ridicule, we should consider the slender means then 
existing for the detection of the delusive errors of alchemy. 
Thus, in perusing the history of these transmutations, 
as recorded by Helvetius, Boerhaave, Boyle, and other 
sober-minded men, it would be difficult to resist the 
evidence adduced without the aids of modem science. 
Lord Bacon's sound sense has been arraigned for his belief 
in alchemy, though he, in fact, rather urges the possibility 
than the probability of transmutation : and, considering 
the infant state of the experimental sciences, and m 
chemistry in particular, in his age, and the plausible 
exterior of the phenomena that the chemists were able 
to produce, he is rather to be considered as sceptical than 
credulous upon many of the points which he discusses." 
*' It is true that the alchemists were guided by false views, 
et they made most useful researches; and Lord Bacon 
as jns% compared them to the husbandman who, search- 
ing for an imaginary treasure, fertilised the soil. They might 
likewise be compared to persons who, looking for gold. 



I 



POPULAR ERRORS. 285 

discover the fragments of beautiful statues, which sepa- 
rately are of no value, and which appear of little value to 
the persons who found them, but which when selected 
and put together by artists, and their defective parts sup- 
plied, are found to be wonderfully perfect, and worthy of 
conservation*.'' 

It was the fashion of the alchemists to adopt one of the 
youngest of the fraternity as a son. Thus, Ashmole in 
the diary of his life : — " 1651, June 10 — Mr. Backhouse 
told me I must now needs be his son, because he had 
communicated so many secrets to me;" and again: — 
*' 1653, May 13 — My father Backhouse, lying sick in 
Fleet-street, over against St. Dunstan's church, and not 
knowing whether he should live or die, about eleven of 
the dock, told me, in syllables, the true matter of the 
philosopher's stone, which he bequeathed to me as a 
l^cy. However, Backhouse recovered. 

BENEFITS OF ASTROLOGY. 

In former ages, the influence of Astrology over an indi« 
vidual often added to his energy. As such, it may have beeh 
a benefl cial fallacy. N o great undertaking, perhaps no good 
one, was ever accomplished but by him who firmly felt 
that he was called upon and named to accomplish the task. 
A philosopher of France has told us that modem science 
earns its chief honours by dispelling this enthusiasm. 
" Astronomy," he observes, *' is the proudest monument of 
the human mind, and the noblest evidence of its powers. 
Equally deceived b^ the imperfections of his senses and 
the illusions of sel^love, man long considered himself to 
be the centre of the movements of the stars. And his 
vanity has been punished by the terrors to which they 
have given rise. At length, ages of labour removed 
the veil which concealed me system of the world from 
him. He then found himself placed on the surface of a 
planet so small as to be scarcely perceptible in that solar 
system which itself is but a point in the infinity of space. 
The sublime results to which his discoveries have con- 
ducted him, are fit to console him for the rank which they 
assign to the earth. Iherefore, we should employ every 
endeavour to preserve and increase these exalted sources 
of knowledge, the delight of all diinking beings. They 

* Sir H. Davy, Conaolations in Travel, p. 236. 



286 POPULAR ERRORS. 

have rendered important serrioes to navigation and geo^. 
graphy ; but the greatest of all benefits which they have 
conferred upon society must be found in ^e removal of 
the fears excited by the celestial phenomena, and the 
confutation of errors created by our ignorance of the true 
relations which we bear to nature*." 

ALL ASTROLOGERS NOT IMPOSTORS. 

Certain Astrologers were not impostors^ as they are 
often described by Uie hasty, or the ignorant Partridge, 
who was severely bantered by Swift, was not the impostor 
that the Dean would make him appear. ** Partridge," says 
an acute and original writer, " believed smcerefy that the 
stars were indices of fate ; and he wrote and acted in that 
belief, however much he may have been deceived by aj^ 
pearances. He found, as all students in astrology find, 
that every horoscope enabled him to foretel a certain 
number of events ; and if his prognostics failed in some 
cases, he ascribed the failure to no defect of his celestial 
inteliigences, but to the Errors or short-sightedness of 
his art+." 

DOUBTFUL INVENTIONS OF ROGER BACON. 

Few of the illustrious characters in the history of 
philosophy have been so thoroughly misrepresented as that 
of Roger Bacon. He was the victim of contemporary 
malice. His writings, destroyed or overlooked, only existed 
in manuscript, or mutilated printed versions, tiU nearly 
the middle oi the last century. In ^e mean time, tradition 
framed his character on the vulgar notions entertained in 
his day of the results of experimental science ; and the 
leamea monk, searching for the philosopher's stone in his 
laboratory, aided only by infernal spirits, was substituted 
for the sagacious advocate of reform in education, reading, 
and reasoning, and what was equally rare, the real in- 
quirer into the phenomena of nature, x et, he was accused 
of practising witchcraft, thrown into prison, and nearly 
starved, for exposing the prevalent immorality of the 
clergy ; and, according to some, he stood a chance of being 
burned as a magician. 

The first charge brought against Bacon by his Fran- 
ciscan brethren was that of Magic, which was then fr^ 

* La Place. t Sir R. FhillipB, Walk to Kew. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 287 

quently adduced against those who studied the sciences^ 
and particularly chemistry. Yet, in his tract De NvUitate 
MaguB, Bacon declares uiat experimental science enahks 
us to investigate the practices of Magic, not with the in- 
tent of confirming them^ hut that they may he avoided hy 
the philosopher. 

But due allowance must he made for the times in which 
Bacon lived. Even his Astrology and Alchemy, those two 
great blots upon his character, as they are usually called, 
are, whm considered by the side of a later age, harmless 
modifications; irrational only because unproved, and neither 
impossiUe nor unworthy of the investigation of a philoso> 
pher, in the absence of preceding experiments. 

The two great points by which Bacon is known are his 
reputed knowledge of Gunpowder, and of the Telescope. 
With regard to the former, it is not at idl dear that wnat 
we call gunpowder is intended, though some detonating 
mixture, of which saltpetre is an in^Wient, is spoken of 
as commonly known, in Bacon's Opus Majut, There 
are also passages in his De Secretis Operibus, which ex- 
pressly mention sulphur, charcoal, and saltpetre as in- 
gredients. But, independently of the claims of the Chinese 
and Indians, Marcus Grscus, who is mentioned by an 
Arabic physician of the ninth century, gives the receipt for 
^mpowder. The discovery has sometimes been given to 
Bartholomew Schwartz, a German Monk, and the date of 
1320 annexed to it, a date posterior to that which may be 
justly claimed for Bacon. Upon the authority, however, of 
an Arabic writer in the Escurial collection, referred to by 
Mr. Hallam, there seems little reason to doubt that gun- 
powder was introduced throuch the means of the Saracens 
into Europe, before the middk of the thirteenth century ; 
though its use in engines of war was, probably, more like 
that of fireworks than artillery. Many authorities might 
be adduced to prove the common use of gunpowder early 
in the fourteenth century. Edward III. employed artil- 
lery with memorable effect, at ^e battle of Cressy ; and in 
the fifteenth century, hand-cannons and muskets came 
into use, and gunpowder was commonly employed*. 

*ItiB aaid that gunpowder was used in China as early as the year 
A.i>. 85> and that the knowledge of It was conveyed to us from the 
Arabs on the return of the Crusaders to Europe ; that the Arabs made 
use of it at the siege of Mecca in 690 ; and that they derived it from the 
Indiana 



288 POPULAR ERRORS. 

** Bacon's disooTery of o^dc lenses has been estaUkhed 
beyond a doubt Dt, Smith, indeed, in his TVetUise on 
OpHct^ has endeavoured to prove that his conclusions on 
liie theory of these instruments were purely theoretical, 
and that Bacon had never made any actual experiments 
on the sul^ect. This has been controverted by Mr. 
Molyneux, who contends that Bacon was not only ac- 
quainted with the properties of lenses theoretically, but 
tnat he also applied them practically. We may mention, 
however^ that some passages in Bacon's writings, which 
were pointed out by Digges as early as the year 1591, 
and were interpreted by him and others as referring to the 
principle of the telescope, seem to have been completely 
misunderstood^ and to contain, in reality, nothing of the 
kind*." 

Among other inventions attributed to Bacon is that of 
the introduction of the Arabic numerals into England ; 
but this has been completely disprovedf . 

FRIAR bacon's brazen HEAD. 

The following abridged version of this legend, from a 
rare tract entitled, The Famous Historie of Friar Bacon, 
4to. Lond. 1652; with the pendent, shows how little the 
story has to do with the veritable history of Bacon, al- 
though he is more popularly known by this fictitious fame 
than by his real merit. Friar Bacon, it is pretended, dis- 
covered, " after great study," that if he could succeed in 
making a head of brass, which should speak, and hear it 
when it spoke, he might be able to surround all England 
with a wall of brass. By the assistance of Friar Bungay, 
and a devil likewise called into the consultation, he accom- 
plished his object, but with this drawback — the head whoi 
finished, was warranted to speak in the course of one 
month ; but it was quite uncertain when ; and if they 
heard it not before it had done speaking, all their labour 
would be lost. After watching for three weeks, fatigue got 
the mastery over them, and Bacon set his man Miles to 
watch, with strict injunctions to awake them if the head 
should speak. The fellow heard the head at the end of 
one half hour, say " Time is ; " at the end of another, 
"Time was;" and at the end of another half-hour^ 

* New General Biograph. Diet. 1840. 
t HalliweU'8 Rara Mathematica, p. 114, &o. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 289 

*^ Time 's past ;'* when down it fell with a tremendous 
crash, but the blockhead of a servant thought that his master 
would be angry if he disturbed him for such trifles! 
" And hereof came it," says the excellent Robert Recorde, 
''that fryer Bacon was accompted bo greate a n^roman- 
cier, whiche never used that arte, (by any conjecture that I 
can fynde,) but was in geometric and other mathematical! 
sciences so experte, that he coulde doe by them suche 
thynges as were wonderful in the sight of most people*." 

Bacon died at Oxford, in the year 129*2 ; where existed, 
nearly until our own times, a traditionary memorial of 
" the wonderful doctor,** as be was styled by seme of his 
contemporaries. On Grandpont,or the Old Folly Bridge, 
at the southern entrance into Oxford, stood a tower called 
" Friar Bacon's Study/' from a belief that the philosopher 
was accustomed to ascend this building in the night, and 
*' study the stars.** It was entirely demolished in 1778. 
Of the bridge. Wood says : *^ no record can resolve its 
precise beginning.** 

The resemblance between Roger Bacon and his illus- 
trious namesake Chancellor Bacon has scarcely been 
noticed by the historians of his period : it has, how- 
ever, not escaped Mr. Hallam's observation, who adverts 
to it in his History of the Middle Ages. Whether 
Lord Bacon, he says, '* ever read the Opus Majus, I know 
not; but it is singular that Ids favourite quaint expression, 
prerogativdp scienfiarmn, should be found in that work ; 
and whoever reads the sixth part of the Opus Majus^ 

* Pathway to Knowledge, 4to. Lond. Ifi-tl. 
t The following detached paaaages of the Optu Majvu^ no doubt, 
eontain opinions which Bacon was in the habit of expressing, and 
which must have rendered him especially obnoxious to the clergy of his 
time :— •*' Most students have no worthy exercise for their heads, and 
therefore languish and stupify upon bad translations, which lose them 
both time and money. Appearances alone rule them, and they care 
not what they know, bat what they are thought to know by a sensclem 
multitude :-^There are four principal stumbling-blocks in the way of 
arriving at knowledge— authority, habit, appearances as they present 
themselves to the vulgar eye, and concealment of ignorance combined 
with ostentation of knowledge. Even if the first three could be Rot 
over by some great effort of reason, the fourth remains ready.— Men 
presume to teach before they have learnt, and fall into so many errors, 
that the idle think thonselves happy in comparison — and hence, 
both in science and in cimimon life, we see a thousand falsehoods for 
one truth.— And this being the case, we mnst not stick to what we heard 
read, bnt must examine moat strictly the oplnioas of our ancestors, 



290 POPULAR ERRORS. 

upon experimental science, must be strack by it as the 
prototype in spirit of the Novum Organon. The same 
sanguine, and sometimes rash, confidence in the eiSect of 
physical dlscoyeries ; the same fondness for experiment ; 
the same preference of induotive to abstractive reason^ 
pervade both works." 

£L DORADO OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 

The term El Dorado is commonly considered to have 
been the sovereignty teeming with precious metals, which 
had long been sought for in vain by Spanish adventurers. 
Their expeditions in quest of it were directed to the in« 
terior of the vast r^on lying between the Orinoco and the 
Amazon, or Guiana. Tite rocks were represented as im- 
pregnated with gold, the veins of which lay so near the 
surface, as to make it shine with a dazzling resplendency. 
The capital, Manoa, was said to consist of houses covered 
with plates of gold, and to be built upon a vast lake^ 
named Parima, the sands of which were auriferous. 

The \&cm El Dorado was not, however, originally used 
to designate any particular place: it signifi^ generally 
"the j^ded," or "golden," and was variously applied. 
According to some, it was first used to denote a religious 
ceremony of the natives, in covering the anointed body 
with gold dust. The whole of Guiana was, on account of 
the above usages, sometimes designated by the term El 
Dorado ; but the locality of the fable which came to ap- 
propriate that name, was successively assigned to difi^nt 
quarters of that vast r^on, and the expeditions in search 
of it varied accordingly . The question , however, to be solved 
is, whence arose the belief that a district so marveliously 
abundant with the precious metals existed in the interior 
of Guiana ; and the solution appears to have been left to 
Humboldt. While exploring the countries upon the 
Upper Orinoco, he was informed that the portion of 
Eastern Guiana lying between the rivers Essequibo and 

that we may add what is lacking, and correct what is erroneous, but, 
with all modesty and allowance.— We must, with all our strength, 
prefer reason to custom, and the opinions of the wise and good to the 
perceptions of the vulgar : and we must -not use the triple argument ; 
that is to say* this has been laid down, this has been usual, this &as been 
common, therefore it is to be held by. For the very opposite conclusion 
4oes much better ^follow from the premises. And though the whole 
world be possessediiy these causes of error, let us freely hear opin'ons 
«eatrary to established usage." 



POPULAR ERRORS. !29l 

Bratico is *' the classical soil of the Dorado of Pariina." 
In the islets and rocks of mica, slate, and talc which rise 
ap within and around a lake adjoining ^e Parima river, 
refiectine from their shining surfaces the rays of an ardent 
sun, we nave materials out of whidi to form that gorgeous 
capital^ the temples and houses of which were overlaid 
with plates of heaten gold. With such elements to work 
upon, heated fancies, aided hy the imperfect vision of 
distant and dubious ohjects, might easily create that fabu- 
lous superstructure. We may judge of the brilliancy of 
these deceptions appearances, from learning that the 
natives ascribed the lustre of the Magellanic Clouds, or 
nebula of the southern hemisphere, to the bright reflec* 
tions produced by them*. There could not well be a 
more poetical exaggeration of the lustrous effects produced 
by the metallic nues of rocks of talc. These details, in 
which M. de Pons, a somewhat later traveller, who long 
resided in an official capacity in the neighbouring countries, 
fully concurs, in all probability point to the true origin 
of this remarkable fable. The well-known failure of 
Raleigh did not discourage other adventurers, who were 
found in quick succession ; the last always flatteringthem- 
selves with tlie hope that the discovery of £1 Dorado 
would ultimately be realisedf . 

OREOULITT OF GREAT HINDS. 

Of things palpably fabulous in our eyes, it is not enougH 
to say that they could not possibly be believed by this or 
that man of great intellectual endowments. To what 
absurd conclusions would not this principle carry us ! 
We should be obliged by it to hold that no instructed 
man ever believed in witchcraft, in judicial astrology, or 
the philosopher's stone ! If the steady mind of the great 
discoverer of America could be seduced by the belief that 
he had there found the site of the terrestrial paradise ; and 
if Raleigh could seriously discuss the question, as he does, 
in his HUtory of the World, whether that site ought not 
rather to be sought near the orb of the moon, he might 
well be allowed also to believe in El Dorado, without pre- 
judice either to his sincerity or mental sanity. Was it 
half as extraordinary that Raleigh should, in his day, 
believe in the fables in question, as it was that Dr. Johnson 
♦ Humboldt f Edinburgb Reriew, aluridged. 

U 2 



292 POPULAR ERRORS. 

should, in his^ believe in the second-sight? It has been 
justly observed by this vigorous thinker, that " it is the 
great failing of a strong imagination to catch greedily at 
wonders/' 

THE FLOWER-DE-LUCE. 

Although the Iris is not considered as a lily, the 
French have given it the name of one : it is the Fleur-de- 
lis which figures in the arms of France. The Abbe La 
Puche> in Le Spectacle de la Nature, gives the following 
conjectural origin of this name : — " The upper part of one 
leaf of tlie lily, when fully expanded, and the two conti* 
guous leaves beheld in profile, nave." he observes, '* a faint 
likeness to the top of the Flower- de-Luce : so that the origi- 
nal Flower- de-Luce, which often appears in the crowns and 
sceptres in the monuments of the first and second race of 
kings, was, most probably, a composition of these three leaves. 
Lewis the Seventh, when engaged in the Second crusade, dis- 
tinguished himself, as was customary in those times, by 
particular blazon, and took this figure for his coat of arms : 
and as the common people generally contracted the name 
of Lewis into Luce^ it is natural," says the Abbe, *' that 
this flower was, by corruption, distinguished in process of 
time by the name of Flower-de-Luce" But some anti- 
quaries are of opinion tliat the original arms of the Franks 
were three toads ; which, becoming odious, were gradually 
changed, so as to have no positive resemblance to any 
natural object, and named Fleur-de-Lys*. 



PEDLAR*8 ACRE. 



The well-known piece of ground at Lambeth, known 
by this name, is traditionally said to have been bequeathed 
to the parish by a Pedlar, upon the condition that his 
picture, with that of his dog, should be perpetually pre- 
served in glass, in one of the windows of the church ; and 
in the south window of the middle aisle, such a picture 
exists. It has been suggested, however, and with greater 
probability, that this portrait was intended rather as a 
rebus upon the benefactor (Chapman), than as descriptive 
of his trade: for in the church at Swaffham, in Norfolk, 
is the portrait of John Chapman, a great benefactor to 
that parish; and the device of a pedlar and his pack occurs 

* Flora DomestSca* pp. 205—206, 



POPULAR ERRORS. 293 

in several parts of the charch ; which circumstance has 

fiven rise to nearly the same tradition at Swaffham as at 
lamheth*. Besides, Pedlar s Acre was not originally so 
named; but was cadled the Church Hope, or Hopys; 
and is stated in the register to have been bequeathed by 
*' a person unknown/* 

VAUXHALL AND GUY FAWKES. 

There does not appear to be the least ground for the 
tradition that Vauxhail, or Fauxhall, was the residence 
of Guy Fawkes, except the common coincidence of names. 
Jane Vaux, or Faukes, mentioned in the History of Lam- 
beth as holding a copyhold tenement at Vauxhail in the 
year 1613, was the widow of John Vaux, The infamous 
Guy, or Guido, was a man of desperate fortune, and not 
likely to have a settled habitation anywhere, much less a 
capital mansion. It appears, however, that the conspi- 
rators of the detestable plot in which he was concerned, 
held their meetings in Lambeth, at a private house, which 
was accidentally burnt in the year 1635t. 

THE STAR CHAMBER. 

The origin of the name of this infamous Court has been 
much disputed ; but Mr. Caley has satisfactorily traced it 
to the ceiling of the chamber being ornamented with 
gilded stars. Barrington's reference is to Sior or Storrum, 
a Jewish contract in ancient contracts. 

ERA AND EPOCH. 

Much confusion frequently occurs in the use of these 
terms among chronoiogers: the accurate use is as follows : — 

Era is any indefinite time ; period is a time included 
between two dates. The beginning and end of the period 
are epochs, though in common parlance, epoch is generally 
confined to events of some distinction. 

the first ENOIilSH* monarch. 

The claims of Egbert to have been the first Monarch 
of all England, are, says Sharon Turner, ^' unquestionably 
surreptitious. The competition can only be between 
Alfred and Athelstan. Our old chroniclers vary on this 

• Preface to Heame's Edition of Caii Antiquitates, p. 84. 

t Lyaons. 



294 POPULAR ERRORS. 

subject: some denominate Alfred the fint monarch; some 
give it to Athelstan. The truth seems to be, that Alfred 
was the first monarch of the Anglo-Saxons, but Athelstan 
was the first monarch of England. The Danish sove- 
reigns to whose colonies Alfred chose, or was compelled, 
to yield Northumbria and East Anglia, divided the island 
with him; therefore, though he first reigned over the 
Anglo-Saxons^ from llie utter destruction of the octarchy, 
it was not till Athelstan completely subjugated the Anglo- 
Danish power, that the monarchy Df En^and arose." 

** OLD ENGLAND." 

This is a misnomer, as applied to our own country. 
The Jutes and Angles, two of toe three tribes of Germans 
hy whom Britain was subdued, dwelt in the peninsula of 
Jutland, and in the adjoining Holstein, where there is still 
a district called Anglen. That, in fact, is the real Old 
England ; and, properly speaking, our " Old England" is 
New England, though we have given that name to a state 
of North America. 

WEARING LEEKS ON ST. DAVId's DAY. 

The adoption of the Leek as the national erohlem of 
Wales, and the custom of wearing it on the 1st of Mardi, 
are traditionally referred to the following story: — On the 
1st of March, in the year 640, the Saxons being about to 
attack the Britons, put leeks in their caps, in order, if 
dispersed, to be known to each other; but the Britons 
having gained the victory, transferred the leeks to their 
own caps, as signals of triumph. Mr. Brand adds, that 
the general commanding the Britons was vulgarly named 
St David. Sir Samuel Meyrick considers the above, 
''like many other traditions, to have been invented for the 
nonce ;'* and we incline to his opinion ; more especially as 
there is nothing to warrant this belief in the high anti- 
ouity of the custom. ** Not one of the Welsh bards, 
tnough there exists a tolerable series of their compositions 
from the fifth century till the time of Elizabeth, has in 
any manner alluded to the leek as a national emblem. 
Even at the present day, the custom of wearing leeks on 
the 1st of March is confined to the members of modem 
clubs. But the Harleian MS.^ No. 1977, written by a 



POPULAR ERRORS. 295 

Welshman, of the time of James I., contains the following 
passage: 

** I like the leek above alllierbs and flowers ; 
Vfhva first we wore the same, the field was oun. 
The leek is white.and green^ whereby is meant. 
That Britons are both stout and eminent : 
Next to the lion and the unicorn, 
The leek 's the fairest emblem that is worn ! 

*^ Now, the inference to he drawn from these lines is, 
that the leek was assumed upon, or immediately after, the 
battle of Bos worth-field, which was won hy Henry VIL, 
who had many Welshmen, (his countrymen,) in his army, 
and whose yeomen guard was composed of Welshmen ; 
and this inference is derived from the fact, that the 
Tudor colours were vhile and green : and, as may be seen 
in several heraldic MSS>, formed the field on which the 
English, French, and Irish arms were placed. ' The 
field was ours/ alludes to the victory, of course, as well as 
to the heraldic field. 

*' This view of the case would account for the leek being 
only worn by Welshmen in England, and its having 
been a custom of comparatively modern origin in the time 
of Shakspere*.*' 

Vet, this correction of a Popular Error may be, in some 
degree, invalidated by the leek being a native of Switzer- 
land, and, according to the Hortus Kewensis, not intro- 
duced into England till about the year 1562. 

SHJkKSPEARE's PLAY OF HENRY V. 

The extraordinary confusion of place and time per« 
▼ading the Second Part of King Henry IV.., is only 
equalled by the mistaken view which the writer gives of 
the character of Flenry of Monmouth. News of the over- 
throw of Archbishop Scrope is brought to London on the 
very day on which Henry IV. sickens and dies ; whereas, 
that king was himself in person in the North, and insisted 
upon the execution of the archbishop, just eight years before. 

* Communicated to the Pictorial Shakspere : Henry V., Illustrations 
of Act V. p. 384 : *♦ But why wear you your leek to-day ? St David's Day 
is past."— Seene I. Again in Act IV. scene 7. Fluellen says to the 
king : <' If your mi^jestiee is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot 
fervice in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Mon> 
mouth caps; which your majesty knows, to this hour, is an honourable 
padge of the service ; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to 
we»r the leek on Saint Tavy'spay.** 



296 POPULAR ERRORS. 

The archbishop was beheaded on Whit- Monday, (June 8% 
in the year 1 405. Henry IV. died March 20, 1 413. And, 
instead of Henry, the prince, being either at Windsor, 
hunting:, or in London with Poins and others, his conti- 
nual followersj when his father was depressed and per- 
plexed by the rebellion in the North, he was doing his 
duty well, eallantly, and to the entire satisfaction of his 
father. We have a letter, dated Berk ham pstead, March, 
13, 1405, written by the king to his council, with a copy 
of his son Henry's letter, announcing the victory over the 
French rebels atGrosmont, in Monmouthshire, which waa 
won on Wednesday, the 11th of that month. The king 
writes with great joy and exultation, bidding his council 
to convey the glad tidings to the mayor and citizens of 
London, that ** they (he says) may rejoice with us, and 
join in praises to our Creator." Thus, does history prove, 
that in every instance of Shakspeare*s fascinating repre-> 
sentdtions of Henry of Monmouth's practices, the poet 
was guided by his imagination, which working only on 
the vague tradition of a sudden change for the better in the 
prince, immediately on his accession, and magnifying 
that change into something almost miraculous, has drawn 
a picture which can never be seen without being admired 
for its life, boldness, and colouring ; but which, as an his- 
torical portrait, is not only unlike the original, but mis- 
leading and unjust in essential points of character*." 

JOHN THE baptist's L00U8T8. 

When the Locust-tree is named, and its pods said to be 
a palatable article of food, an impression is very commonly 
made on the mind of the hearer, who has forgotten his 
Greek, that this vegetable locust must have been the food 
on which, with wild honey, John the Bantist lived in the 
wilderness ; and persons often lament their stupidity in 
having ever supposed that it could have been a nasty 
insect — but such it was. ''And his food was locusts 
((derides) and wild honey." Bochart has proved that the 
insect locusts have been eaten by many nations in Africa 
and Asia, both in ancient and modern times. There is, 
indeed, no doubt about the word akris, which means the 
insect; and the mistake has arisen from the English 
names alone. The word arbah^ or locust, of the Old 
Testament, is translated akris in the Septuagint Greekt. 

* Tyler's Life and Character of Henry Y. f Literary Gaiette. 



POPULAR ERRORfi* 297 



ROttULUS AND RBJUl/S. 

The two brothers, Romulus and Remus, were suckled 
by a wol/^. The truth was, that the good woman's name, 
who took them to her breast, was Lupa. '' Sunt/' says 
Livy, "qui Larcntiam vulgato corpore Lupam inter pas- 
tores vocatam putent: uude locum fabuis^ ac miraculo 
datum." 

DRUIDIOAL CIRCLES. 

Concerning the many Druidical stones to this day 
remaining in Great Britain, the popular superstition pre- 
vails, that no two persons can number the stones alike, 
and that no person will ever find a second counting con- 
firm the first. Dr. Southey, speaking of the Druidical 
stones near Keswick, says: '<My children have often dis- 
appointed their natural inclination to believe this wonder, 
by putting it to the test and disproving it." 

The puerilities of antiquarian zeal we suspect to be 
often demolished by the powerful battery of science. 
Thus, Professor Buckland laughs at the antiquaries' 
notions of the above Druidical stones, which have been 
stolen from the irr^ular surface wells, (pits in chalk, 
puiu naturels,) of the geologists. 

THE MINSTER. 

The word minster^ in Saxon, minstre, from the Latin 
Tiionatterium^ we apply, generally, to our collegiate churches, 
as when we say, York-minster, or Ripon-minster ; yet 
these churches are, at present, very far from having any- 
thing of the nature of monasteries. 

ORIGIN OF "whig" AND " TORY." 

Considerable Error prevails respecting the Origin of 
these terms, which haslately been thus satisfactorily corrected 
by a Correspondent of the AthencBum: — "No two writers 
have agreed respecting the origin or etymology of the terms 
Whig and Tory, which have become so universally known. 
There is still room for conjecture; and it is the more 
interesting to ascertain the real cause of these famous de- 
signations, as it is not improbable they may shortly dis- 
appear from the face of our future history, giving place 

«SeeLiTy,Ub.i. 



S98 POPULAR ERRORS. 

to those of Liberal and Conservative. Rapin, in his Di»' 
sertation nor let Whigs et let Totys^ 171 7, p. 3i, saya, that 
the term Tory was first applied to certain brigands or 
outlaws of Ireland, in the time of Charles I., and that the 
same banditti were known in his time under the name 
of Rapparees; and he adds farther, p. \6, that the Cava- 
liers became distinguished in the reign of Charles II. by 
the appellation of Tories, and the Roundheads under that 
of Whigs, though he cannot precisely tell at what period 
of that reign Uiis took place. This statement of a fact 
does not throw any light on the meaning of the words. 
No person conversant with the Gaelic language appears to 
have attempted their explanation ; but the terms being 
neither English nor Scottish, their signification must be 
sought for in that language. The Irish partisans of Sir 
Phelim O'Neal called themselves, and were designated by 
others, as the King's friends or party, that is Taobh-Righ, 
pronounced Taorie, a word equally used by the same party 
tn the Highlands of Scotland. ' The word Co-thuigse, 
pronounced shortly Cuigse, is also a Gaelic term, and ia 
applied to persons who mutually understand each other, 
who think alike on a given subject, people who enter into 
^, compact to defend an opinion — in fact, Covenanteis. 
It is, indeed, the most expressive and definite term that 
could be found for persons entering into a covenant against 
the law. It amounts almost to a demonstration that the 
above derivation of Whig is correct, from the fact that it 
was first imposed when the 'Highland Host/ as it was 
caUed, was brought down and quartered on the Covenanters 
of the west of Scotland. The word was readily adopted 
by the more unmerciful soldiers of the Low country ; but 
the persecuted people, to whom it was applied as a stigma, 
took pride in it; and it was ultimately adopted by the sup* 
porters of liberal principles, and the preachers of similar 
feeling, both in England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is re< 
markable, that terms of so local and limited a character 
should finally become the designations of the two political 
parties so long known in these kingdoms, and, arising 
among the enuiusiasts of a comer of the empire, should 
become widely spread, even beyond the limits of Europe 
and America." 

It should be added that in the explanation of '' Tory," 
the writer of the preceding had been anticipated by Mr. 



POPUIiAR EKR0R8. 299 

George Olaus Borrow, who in the year 1 88*2^ communicated 
to the Noffo/k Chronicle, a paper of interesting research 
upon the subject of dispute. Mr. Borrow, who has de- 
voted his attention specially to the Celtic dialect, suggests 
that **Tory may be traced to the Irish adherents of 
Charles 11., during the Cromwellian era. The words 
Tar a Ri, pronounced 'Tory/ and meaning. Come, 
O King, having been so constantly in the mouths of the 
Royalists as to have become a bye- word to de^ignate them." 

THE GOODWIN SANDS. 

The southern boundary of the Downs, opposite Deal, 
and known as the Goodwin Sands, have in thdr history 
two or three notable Errors. There was a popular opinion 
for ages that these Sands possessed "a voracious and 
ingurgitating property; so that should a ship of the largest 
siae strike on them, in a few days it would be wholly 
swaUowed up by these quicksands, so that no part of it would 
be left to he seen." Shakspeare probably alludes to this 
belief, when in the Merchant of Venictfy act 3, scene i., 
Salarino refers to "a ship of rich lading wrecked on the 
narrow seas,~the Goodwins, I think they call the place ; a 
very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many 
a tall ship lie buried." More accurate observers have, how« 
ever, found the sand to be of the same quality as that 
of the opposite shore. 

Tradition, grounded upon some Monkish Annals, repre- 
sents these Sands as having been formerly an island, 
belonging to the great Groodwin, Earl of Kent; and that 
** it sonke sodainlyinto theses," as a mark of the vengeance 
of Heaven against the sins of that nobleman, a.d, 1097, 
Others, with greater probability, consider it to have been 
a shallow, previously covered with a depth of water suffi- 
cient to admit the passage of vessels over it, but made bare 
about the above-mentioned period by the accumulation of 
sand. 

A more absurd Error remains to be explained, viz., the 
ancient saying that *- Tenlerden Steeple was the cause of 
Goodwin Sands," or, in other words, that these Sands first 
appeared in the year that Tenterden church was erected. 
It would rather seem, from the Dialogues of Sir Thomas 
More, that the adiu;e was first applied to the decay of 
Sandwich Haven, the funds for the preservation of which 



300 POPULAR BRRORS. 

are represented to have been expended by the monks in 
erecting the steeple of Tenterden church : and if we credit 
Fuller, who says " it was erected by the Bishop of Ro- 
chester with a collection of money that had been made to 
fence i^ainst the sea in East- Kent.*' 

The belief in " the ingurgitating property of the Sands*' 
will also be shaken by the fact of a Safety Beacon having 
been erected upon them in the year 1840. It consists of 
a column about forty feet above the level of the sea ; the 
foundation being several feet below the surface of the 
sand. 

PERSECUTION OP THE JEWS. 

''One of the causes of the Persecution of the Jews 
arose from a notion that they killed the children of Chris- 
tians, in order to use their blood in medicine. Gower, (in 
his second book De Confessione Amantis,) states it to have 
been prescribed to Constantine for the cure of his leprosy, 
but that he refused to try the medicine, and for that piety 
was miraculously healed : 

* The would him hathe in childes bloode, 
Within seven winters' age, 
For as tbei sayen, that shulde assuage 
The lepre.* F. 45. B. 

''A notion still (1769) prevails in Austria, that when a 
criminal is beheaded, the blood, drank immediately that it 
springs from the neck, is a certain cure for the falling 
sickness. Brown, who mentions this, was an eye-witness 
to its being received in a jug for the above purpose*." 

The Jews have likewise been charged with using human 
blood as an ingredient of the food compounded for the 
Passover festival. This abominable charge was revived in 
the year 1 840, and gave rise to the disgraceful persecution of 
certain Jews at Damascus ; but, for the honour of humanity, 
the atrocious accusation has been satisfactorily refuted, and 
proved altogether groundless. Mr. Salomons, who has 
written a small volume upon this painful subject, argues 
that — ^'^ The strict injunction against the use of blood in 
food is ever regarded as one of the highest importance by 
those who adhere to the principles of the Jewish religion. 
Were it possible to imagine, for a moment, that the Jew 

* Travels, p. 155, quoted by Borrington, Ohserv. on the More Ancient 
statutes, pp. 199> 200. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 301 

could be 80 lost to every feeling of nature, as to engage 
in a murder for the attainment of any ordinary pur- 
pose whatever^ it may be safely asserted that, dependent 
as the Jews are entirely on tneir religious teacners, it 
would be an entire violation of all their principles to in- 
terfere in any matter connected with religious objects^ 
without the express direction of their rabbinical au- 
thorities. The remark, therefore, lightly made, that 
superstitious, fanatical Jews may, in a spirit of Eastern 
bigotry, do what other persons of the same faith, but 
not imbued with the same sentiments, would hesitate to 
commit, is quiet fallacious, A total ignorance of the 
nature and structure of the Jewish religion is exhibited 
by those who make this observation. The Jew receives 
from his priest, or rabbi, the exposition of the principles 
which should regulate his moral and religious conduct 
The rabbi himself has no authority, except to administer 
the law as it is written ; he has no power to make any 
chance, either in the oral or traditional law; neither 
can he introduce any new construction, by which the de- 
fined rule of religious conformity may be undermined. 
** Since therefore, the use of blood is prohibited by the 
Law, all the care of the rabbi has been directed to pre- 
vent, by minute restrictions, the possible intrusion of 
the smallest particle of blood into any kind or description 
of food ; and this practice prevails wherever the Jewish 
code is in operation. The ecclesiastical precautions al- 
ways adopted to insure the purity of therassover diet, 
and that it should be composed of the best and simplest 
materials, are conducted with the severest scrutiny, in 
obedience to a written code, and are extremly minute and 
rigorous. The Passover food consists of a mixture of 
the finest flour with the purest water, to form biscuit, or 
unleavened bread, and it is eaten in reference to the 
Divine command, to observe the Passover, in commemo- 
ration of the dehverance from the land of Egypt" (Exo- 
dus, chap. xii. 15^.) 

The antipathy of the Jews to Pork is thus noticed by 
Sir Thomas Browne; — *'The Jews abstained, at first, 
from swine symboUcally, as an emblem of impurity ; and 
not for fear of leprode, as Tacitus would put upon themf .*' 

* An Account of the Recent Persecutions of the Jews at Damascus^ 
By P. galooions, Eaq. 1840. 

t Vulgsu: Errors, b. iU. c. xzv. p. 19S. 



302 POPULAR BRROM. 



jews' ear. 



In old books of receipts, such as interested the Lady 
Boundfuls of other times^ we read of '* a Jew's Ear" pre- 
scribed as a domestic medicament: to within a strange 
farrago, entitled One Thousand Notable Thingg, Many 
readers have, doubtless, smiled at the oddity and apparent 
absurdity of the expression, from not being aware of its 
actual meaning. "In Jews' Ears/' says Sir Thomas 
Browne^ ''something is conceived extraordinary from the 
name, which is, in propriety, but Fungus Sambudnus, or an 
excrement about the roou of Elder, and conoerneth not 
the nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, upon account 
that he hanged himself on this tree ; and it has become a 
famous medicine for quinsies, sore throats, and strangula- 
tions, ever since. And so are they deceived in Horse^ 
Radish, Horse- Mint, and Bull-rusn, and many more; 
conceiving therein some prenominal consideration, whereas, 
indeed, that expression is but a Grsccism, by the prefix of 
Hippos and Sous — that is, Horse and Bull — intimating no 
more than Great *.** 

EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE. 

*' Thc story of Edward being called the Black Prince, 
from the colour of his armour, rests on no better authority 
than Barnes, who in his Life of Edward III., merely says: 
' Edward, the young Prince of Wales, whom, from this 
time, the French began to call Le Neoir^ or the Black 
Prince,' and quotes, apparently, a certain chapter of Froia* 
sart, in which, decidedly, there is no mention of any such 
title. At tournaments, he might have worn a sable surcoat^ 
with ostrich feathers upon it, in accordance with his 
shield of peace, and the caparisons of his horse being of 
the same funereal hue, might have suggested the appel- 
lation ; but it is equally probable that he was called ' the 
black,' from the terror his deeds inspired in the bosoms 
of his enemies ; and iEneas Sylvius, the historian of Bo- 
hemia, expressly says, ' On the feast of St. Ruffus, the 
battle of Cressy was fought between the French and the 
EngU^ ; hence is that day still accounted black, dismal, 
and unlucky, which took away the lives of two kings by 
the sword of the enemy :' alluding to John, king of 

* Vulgar Errors, b. ii. c. vli. p. 112. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 803 

Bohemia, and James, king of Majorca ; the fall of the 
latter monarch ia, however, disputed. The^r^^ mention 
of £dward as the Black Prince in England, occurs in a 
parliamentary paper of the second year of the rdgn of 
Richard !!•:* 

Barrington remarks : " I have somewhere read a pas- 
sage in one of the old chroniclers, where Edward is styled 
the Black Prince before he had distinguished himself in 
arms ; besides this, all princes and generals wore the same 
armour for the greater part of their campaigns, and yet 
we never hear of a Blufor a Red Prince. To this it may 
be added, that in England, where he seems to have obtained 
this appellation, he could seldom have had occasion to 
wear armour of any colour f." 

Mr. James, however, considers the colour of the surcoat 
to be the most probable method of accounting for Edward 
having received the name of Black Prince* '' It was a 
very common custom of the times to designate knights by 
the colour of their arms ; and, in some instances, 3ie real 
name is almost entirely lost in the fictitious one. Thus, 
shortly after the days of the Black Prince, we find a person 
called the Green Knight, continually mentioned in the 
old chronicles, while his real name is scarcely to be met 
with J. 

^' THE PRINCE OF WALEs's FBATBERS." 

The assumption of a plume of three feathers b^ Edward 
the Black Prince, is commonly referred to their having 
been the crest, arms, or badge, of John, King of Bohemia, 
slain at the battle of Cressy ; but this explimation is not 
traceable to any credible authority. It is first mentioned 
by Camden in his Remains, who says :— *< The victorious 
Black Prince, his (Edward III.'s) sonne, used sometimes 
one feather, sometimes three, in token, as some say, of his 
speedy execution, in all his services, as the posts in the 
Koman time were called ptetophori, and wore feathers, to 
signifie their flying post haste; hut the truth it that he 
wonne them at the battle of Cressy from John, King of 
Bohemia, whom he there slew." Yet, Camden does not 
state his authority for this" truth ;** and neither Froissart, 

* Plaaoh^, History of Britiflh Costume, pp. 144—145. 

t Obflenr. on the More Ancient Statutes, p. 31i. 

t History of Edward the Black Prince. 



304 POPULAR BRRORS. 

Walsingham, Knighton, nor any oontemporary historian, 
alludes to so interesting an incident. Sandford, in his 
Genealoftical History^ quotes Camden ; but admits that, 
even in his time, it was a disputed point, by giving another 
and not very improbable derivation, circulated at that 
period. 

'< The German motto, * Ich Dien,' generally rendered 
' I serve,* first seen upon the tomb of Prince Edward at 
Canterbury, has perhaps helped to give currency, if not 
give birth, to the belief of the Bohemian origin of the 
feathers ; but Camden himself did not credit this part of 
the story, for he goes on to state, though still without 
quoting his authority, that to the feathers the prince him- 
self adjoined the old English word ic dien (IhegnJ that is, 
' I serve ;' according to that of the apostle, ' the heir, while 
he is a childe, differeth nothing from a servant.' " 

Mr. Planch^, from whose History of British Costume we 
quote these details, considers there to be no reason for 
Edward's selecting a German motto, (for it is absurd to 
call it old Englisn), to express his own service to his 
father. Again, the crest of John of Bohemia was the 
entire wing or pinion of an eagle, apparently from its 
shape, as may be seen on his seal, engraved in Olivarius 
Vredius, and not one or three distinct ostrich feathers. In 
the same work, however, we meet with crests of wines or 
pinions surmounted by distinct feathers, and one or three 
such might have been plucked from the crest of the King 
of Bohemia, as a symbol of triumph ; and granted as a 
memorial of victory and heraldic distinction by Edward III. 
to his gallant son. But the silence of contemporary his- 
torians on the subject, and the fact of the feathers being 
borne singfy by all the descendants of Edward III., induce 
Mr. Planche to regard the three feathers as a fanciful 
badge, adopted by the prince from caprice, or suggested 
by some very trivial circumstance, or quaint conceit, no 
longer recollected ; as were hundreds of devices of that 
period, to account for which stories have been ingeniously 
invented in after ages, and implicitly believed from the mere 
force of repetition. Mr. Planche then hazards some con- 
jectures : as, ostrich feathers being a symbol of equity 
among the Egyptians ; next, the vulgar belief of the ex- 
traordinary digestive powers of the ostrich has afforded 
a remarkable simile to a writer of Prince Edward's own 



POPULAR ERRORS. 305 

time, where fae says, ^'many a hero, like the ostrich, (at 
Poictiers,) was obliged to digest both iron and steel, or to 
overcome, in death, the sensations inflicted by the spear 
and the javelin." Among the far-fetched conceits of the 
middle ages of Knighthood may be found more obscure 
and fantastical devices than an ostrich feather assumed in 
allusion to the bearer's appetite for, or mastery over, iron 
and steel. It should be added, that a writer in the Quar-^ 
terly Review attributes the feathers to the banner of the 
King of Bohemia, " and not to the helmet, as is generally 
supposed." 

THK ORDER OF THE GARTER. 

£vERY school-boy has read of the symbolical origin of 
the decoration which gave a name to the Order of the 
Garter, assigning it to the accidental fall of a lady's garter, 
(theQueen's or a Countess of Salisbury's,) at a grand festival; 
and the motto, **Hom soil am maly penset* to the gallant 
indignation of the monarch at the sneer of his courtiers. 
This popular tradition has been rejected as erroneous by 
most writers of credit. Sir E. Ashmole, in his History 
of the Order, considers the garter as a symbol of union ; 
and in this opinion he is followed by Sir Walter Scott 
and Sir Samuel Meyrick. The above origin is not, how- 
ever, entirely given up as a fable ; for, to use the words of 
Hume, '' although frivolous, it is not unsuitable to the 
manners of the times ; and it is, indeed, difficult by any 
other means to account either for the seemingly unmeaning 
terms of the motto, or for the peculiar badge of the garter, 
which seems to have no reference to any purpose either of 
military use or ornament." Mr. James considers that 
although the accounts long current of the amours of 
Edward III. and the Countess of Salisbury are proved to 
be false in so many particulars, '^ the whole tale becomes 
more than doubtful, ' and the statement which connects 
her name with the Order of the Garter is neither disproved 
nor improbable. ''That a lady might accidentally drop 
her garter in the midst of the court is certainly within the 
bounds of possibility ; and that a gallant and graceful 
monarch might raise it from the ground, and rebuke 
the merriment of his nobles by the famous words * Honi 
soil qui mal y peme,^ is not at all unlikely. Another story, 
however, is told by the famous historian of the order, 



306 POPULAR ERRORS. 

which is still more probable. The Queen herself is said 
to have met with the same accident on quitting the King 
on some occasion of ceremony. Several persons trod upon 
the blue riband, of which the garter was composed ; and, 
at length, Edward himself raised it saying, he would em- 
ploy tnat riband in such a way that men should show it 
greater reverence. He then carried it to the Queen, 
asking playfully what she imagined the court would think 
of such an occurrence, to which she made the famous 
reply which affords the motto of the order. 

" It has been argued, that such an accident as the loss 
of a lady's garter was unworthy as a cause for so noble an 
institution; but matters of less import have often pro- 
duced events of far greater consequence ; and when Ed- 
ward adopted a garter as the badge of an order he was 
about to found, he did not probably contemplate, at first, 
giving to that order all the solemnity which afterwards ac- 
companied its progress. No suppositions, of all the many 
which have been raised in regard to the origin of the order, 
offer so reasonable an explanation of the words embroidered 
on the garter ; and as it was the common custom of chival- 
rous times for knights to carry, both into the lists and to 
the battle-field, any part of their lady's dress which could 
be obtained as a boon, the ordinary tale connected with 
the institution is well in harmony with the habits of the 
day*,*' 

Lastly, we have yet to learn that garters were worn by 
men in the above davs. There was no need of them ; for 
the chatuses or long hose were attached to the doublet, or 
at least, ascended to the middle of the thigh, where they 
were met by the drawers. It is, however, very probable 
that garters were then worn by the ladies, whose hose 
were, in shape, precisely the stockings of the present day. 

DBATH OF JANB SHORB. 

Dr. Percy, in his Reliqttes of Ancient Poetry, has 
printed from an old black letter copy in the Pepys collec- 
tion a ballad entitled ''The Woful Lamentation of Jane 
Shore, a goldsmith's wife in London, sometime Ring 
Edward IV. his Concubine. To the tune of * Live with 
me,' " &c. Herein the poet makes Jane die of hunger, 
after doing her penance : 

* SUstory of Sdward the Blaok Prince, vol. i. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 307 

** I could not get one bit of bread. 
Whereby my hunger might be fed : 
Nor drink, bat such as channels yield. 
Or Btinking ditches in the field. 
Thus weary of my life, at lengthe 
I yielded up my vital strength. 
Within a ditch of loathsome soent. 
Where carrion dogs did much frequent : 
The which now since my dying daye. 
Is Shoreditch called as writers saye." 

From tl^is passage, the story of Jane Shore dying in a 
ditch, and thus giving name to Shoreditch, doubtless, 
became a Popular Error. This ballad is not considered 
to be older than the. middle of the seventeenth century ; 
and no mention is made of Jane so dying, in another bal- 
lad, by Th. Churchyard, dated 1587. Dr. Percy notes that 
Shoreditch had its name ''long before, being so called 
from its being a common sewer, vulgarly shore, or drain*." 
It was, however, named from the yery wealthy and worship- 
ful family of Sir John Shoreditch, who was lord of a manor 
called Shoreditch, long before Jane Shore was born. Shore- 
ditch church was in this manor, and had its name from it. 

Shore Place, at Hackney, is stated to have been named 
from its having been the site of the residence of Jane 
Shore: which idea is preposterous. Jane's father was 
never able to live in such a house, previous to her mar- 
riage with Shore ; and then, probably, she was not more 
than sixteen or seventeen years old ;' she lived with him 
seven years; she then left him for Fdward IV., when, doubt- 
less, she removed to, or near to, Westminster ; perhaps she 
had apartments in the palace there. Af ^er that monarch s 
death, she lived in London ; for the Sheriffs seized her 
goods, by command of Richard III., during whose reign 
she was a prisoner in Ludgate. When enlarged, stripped 
of all she possessed, she was so far from owning or renting 
a mansion, that she lived upon alms until her death. 

The story, of Jane's doing penance in Lombard- street is 

thus referred to in the Jirst named ballad : — 
** Then for my lewd and wanton life, 

4! ♦ « « 

I penance did in Lombard-street, 
In shamefull manner in a sheet." 

This is likewise a fiction ; as is also the tale of a man being 
hanged for relieving Jane : — 

* See Stowe. 

x2 



SOd POPULAR ERRORS. 

— " Ydt one friend among the rest, 
Whom I before had seen distregt, 
And nved his life, oonderon'd to die. 
Did give me food ' to succour me' 
For which by lawe, it was decreed.. 
That he was hanged for that deed. 
His death did grieve me so much more. 
Than had I dyed myself before. 
Then those to whom I had done good. 
Durst not afford me any food : 
Whereby I b^ged all the day. 
And still in streets by night I lay." 

The fact is, Jane was lodged and fed in Ludgate^ after her 
penance, (by order of Gloucester, in Cheapside,) and she 
survived that disgrace nearly half a century. 

8TATCE OF CHARLES I. AT CHARINO CROSS. 

A COMMON Frror prevails, which reflects on Le Soeur, 
the artist of this Statue, viz , that the horse is without a 
saddle-girth ; but on a close inspection, one may certainly 
be discovered. To this misrepresentation it is sometimes 
added, that Le Soeur, having finished the statue, defied any 
beholder to point out a defect in his performance, when on 
a person detecting the absence of the girth, Le Soeur, in a 
fit of indignation, destroyed himself. Both stories are 
equally void of truth. 

ANCIKNT ANJD MODERN FREEMA«:ONS. 

They who take their notions of the original objects of 
Freemasonry from the Brethren of the present day, are 
lamentably in the dark. — " The connexion between the 
operative masons, and those whom, without disrespect, we 
must term a convivial society of good fellows — who, in the 
reign of Queen Anne, met at the * Goose and Gridiron, in 
^t l^aul his Church-yard,* appears to have been finally 
dissolved about the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. The theoretical and mystic, for we dare not say 
ancient, freemasons, separated from the Worshipful Com- 
pany of Masons and Citizens of London about the period 
above-mentioned. It appears, from an inventory of the 
contents of the chest of the London Company, that, not 
very long since, it contained * A book wrote on parchment, 
and bound or stitcht in parchment, containing an 113 
annals of the antiquity, rise, and progress of the art and 
mystery of Masonry.* But this document is not now to 
be found *." 

* Edinburgh Review. 



POPULAR ERRORS* 309 



POPULAR lONORANCE. 

It is a general Error of the day to overrate the intel- 
ligence of the present day, and underrate our forefathers 
in the intellectual scale ; for, although our Nomadic an- 
cestors were long without the cultiration of knowledge 
and literature, they were not, therefore, mentally inert. 
'* There is an education of the mind, distinct from the 
literary, which is gradually imparted hy the contingencies 
of active ]ife. In this, which is always the education of 
the largest portion of mankind, our ancestors were never 
deficient. The operation of practical, but powerful intel- 
lect, may be traced in the wisdom and energy of their 
great political mechanisms and municipal institutions. It 
pervades their ancient laws; and is displayed in full 
dimensions, as to our Saxon and Norman ancestors, in 
that collection of our native jurisprudence, which our 
firacton has transmitted to us. The system of our 
common law there exhibited was admirably adapted to 
their wants and benefit ; and has mainly contributed to 
form the national bulwarks, and that individual character, 
by which England has been so long enriched and so 
vigorously upheld*." 

EARTHENWARE BOATS ASCRIBED TO THE EGYPTIANS. 

Juvenal describes the Boats of the Egyptians as if 
they were Earthenware. We are told that such earthen- 
ware ships were used on the Nile : that in the Delta, navi- 
gation was so easy, that some used boats of baked earth ; 
that such were used in some of the other canals of Egypt ; 
and that they are called picta (painted), because uiese 
boats of baked earth were marked with various colours. 

Now, all this appears very strange. That earthenware 
may be so made as to swim, is easily understood: the 
experiment may be made at any tea-table, by putting one 
of the cups into a basin of water. But that a boat, of a 
size to be of any use to the Egyptians, should be made of 
such materials, and commonly to be seen in the Delta, and 
other canals of Egypt, appears incredible, since they must 
have been of earth baked or burnt in the fire, which could 
only be done with difficulty; and when effected, what a trifle 

* Sharon Tamer, Hist. Anglo-Saxons. 



310 POPULAR ERR0R9. 

would demolish them, and how unsafe must have been such 
a navigation ! 

But all this is deciphered by modern travellers : for all 
that is meant is, that sometimes the Fgjrptians make use 
of rafts, which are made to float, by empty vessels of 
earthenware fastened underneath them. 

"In order to cross the NUe," Norden tells us, "the 
inhabitants have recourse to the contrivance of a float, 
made of lar^ earthen pitchers, tied close together, and 
covered with leaves of palm-trees. The man that conducts 
it, has commonly in his mouth a cord, with which he 
fishes as he passes on." These are, undoubtedly, the 
Egyptian earthenware boats of Juvenal. 



VI.— VARIOUS SCIENCES. 



FALLACIES OF FIRST EXPERIMENTS. 

It is a frequent Error with some Experimenters, with 
unfortunate precipitancy, to dignify as general laws the 
consequences which result from their first experiments. 
Sometimes, we have only to take up an instrument, and 
use it in some research, in order to stumble upon some 
new fact. But, in prosecuting the work with becoming 
assiduity, in varying our modes of experimenting, and in 
analysing the phenomena in difierent aspects, it will most 
generally be found, either that the novelty is only appa- 
rent, and that the true explanation may be found among 
the already established truths of science; or, if on the 
other hand it turns out to be a real discovery, it will 
almost invariably contradict those alleged general laws 
which first of all presented themselves to our minds with 
so much apparent certainty and clearness.* 

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN MECHANICS. 

The primary importance of Theory has, in too many 
instances, led to the underrating of construction. It has 
been well observed, that "it is not sufficient to have a good 

* ComptesRendua de TAoad^ie desSoienceo, k Paris: M. Melloni. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 311 

theory; the powers of mechanical construction must be 
considered. Many inventions which, thirty years ago, 
might have been lost, because they were antecedent to the 
march of the mechanical art, would now, in the wonder- 
fully advanced state of this art, be generally introduced*." 

FALL OF A GUINEA AND FEATHER. 

A LARGE body, or mass of many atoms, naturally falls 
with the same velocity as a smaller body or a single atom ; 
for gravity pulls equally at each atom, and must overcome 
its inertia equally, whether it be alone or with others. 
This remark contradicts the popular opinion, that a large 
and heavy body should fall to the earth much faster than 
a small and light one ; an opinion which has arisen from 
constantly seeing such contrasts as the rapid fall of a gold 
coin and the slow descent of a feather. The true cause of 
the contrast is, that the atoms of the feather are much 
spread out, so as to be more resisted by the air than those 
of the gold. If the two be let fall together in a vessel frem 
which the air has been extracted, as in the common air- 
pump experiments, they arrive at the bottom in exactly 
the same time ; and even in the air, if the coin be ham- 
mered out into gold leaf, it will fall still more slowly than 
the featherf . 

PERPETUAL MOTION SEEKERS. 

What an infinity of vain schemes for Perpetual 
Motion, and new mechanical engines of power, Sic, 
would have been checked at once, had the great truth 
been generally understood, that no form or combination of 
machinery ever did or ever can increase, in the slightest 
d^pree, the quantity of power applied. Ignorance of this 
is the hinge on which most of the dreams of mechanical 
projectors nave turned. The frequency, and eagerness, and 
obstinacy, with which even talented (!) individuals, owingto 
their imperfect knowledge of this part of natural philo- 
sophy, have engaged in such undertakings, is a remarkable 
phenomenon in human nature:^. 

SOUND AND NOISE. 

Philosopheim make this distinction between Sound and 
Noise : — Those actions which are confined to a sinele shock 
upon the ear, or a set of actions circumscribed wiuin such 

* Proo. Brit. Aawo. 1838. f Ur.Anott'a Elements of Pbyidos . t Ibid. 



312 POPULAR ERRORS. 

limits as not to produce a continued sensation, are called a 
noise ; ^while a succession of actions^ which produce a con- 
tinued sensation, are called a sound. 

SOURCE OF BALT IN SEA- WATER. 

It has been supposed by some naturalists, that the Salt 
in the Sea has been graduaUy augmented by saline particles 
brought into it by rirers ; but this cause is totally inade- 
quate to explain the immense quantity of salt existing in 
the whole mass of the ocean. If the average depth of the 
sea be ten miles, and it contain two and a half per cent of 
salt, were the water entirely evaporated, the thickness of 
the saline residue would exceed 1000 feet*. * 

COMPONENTS OP SWEET AND BITTER. 

Dr. W. Herschel has discovered, that the mixing of 
nitrate of silver with hypo-sulphate of soda, both remark- 
ably bitter substances, produces the sweetest substance 
known ; a proof how much we are in the dark as to the 
manner in which things affect our organ of taste. So, 
Bitter and Sweet, as well as sour, appear not to be an 
essential quality in the matter itself, but to depend on the 
proportion of the mixtures which compose it. 

CONVERSIONS OF CAMEOS AND INTAGLIOS. 

The same indetermination of judgment which causes 
a drawing to be perceived by the mind as two different 
figures, frequently gives rise to a false perception when 
objects are regarded with a single eye. The apparent 
Conversion of a Cameo into an Intaglio, and an intaglio 
into a cameo, is a well-known instance of this fallacy in 
vision ; but the fact does not appear to Professor Wheat- 
stone to have been correctly explained, nor the conditions 
under which it occurs to have been properly stated. 

This curious illusion was first observed at one of the 
early meetings of the Royal Society. Several of the mem- 
bers looking through a compound microscope of a new 
construction, at a guinea, some of them imagined the image 
to be depressed, wnile others thought it to be embossed, as 
it really was. Professor Gmelin, of ^Vurtemburg, published 
a paper on the same subject in the Philosophical Transact 
tions for 1 745 : his experiments were made with telescopea 

* Bakewell. ■ 



POPULAR ERRORS. SIS' 

and compound microRCopes, which inverted the inaages ; 
and he observed that the conversion of relief appeared in 
some cases and not in others, at some times and not at 
others, and to some eyes and not to others. He endea- 
voured to ascertain some of the conditions of the two 
appearances ; " but why these things should so happen," 
says he, " I do not pretend to determine." 

Sir David Brewster accounts for the fallacy in the fol- 
lowing manner: ^'A hollow seal being illuminated by a 
window or candle, its shaded side is, of course, on the 
same side with the light. If we now invert the seal with 
one or more lenses, so that it may look in the opposite 
direction, it will appear to the eye with the shaded side 
furthest from the window. But, as we know that the 
window is still on our left hand, and as everybody with 
its shaded side furthest from the light must necessarily 
be convex or protuberant, we immediately believe that 
the hollow seal is now a cameo or bas-relief. The proof 
which the eye thus receives of the seal being raised, over« 
comes the evidence of its being hollow, derived from our 
actual knowledge and from the sense of touch. In this 
experiment, the deception takes place from our knowing 
the real direction of the light which falls on the seal ; for 
if the place of the window, with respect to the seal, had 
been inverted, as well as the seal itself, the illusion could 
not have taken place. The illusion, therefore, imder our 
consideration is the result of an operation of our own minds, 
whereby we judge of the forms of bodies by the knowledge 
we have acquired of light and shadow. Hence, the il- 
lusion depends on the accuracy and extent of our know- 
ledge on this subject ; and while some persons are under 
its influence, others are entirely insensible to it*." 

These considerations, (observes Professor Wheatstone.) 
do not fully explain the phenomenon, for they suppose 
that the image must be inverted, and that the light must 
fall in a particular direction ; but the conversion of relief 
will still take place when the object is viewed through an 
open tube without any lenses to invert it, and also when 
it is equally illuminated in all parts. The true ex- 

{>lanation Professor Wheatstone bielieves to be the fol- 
owing : " if we suppose a cameo and an intaglio of the 
same object, the elevations of the one corresponding ex- 

* Natural Magic, pp. 10(^-102. 



314 POPULAR ERRORS. 

actly to the depresstons of the other, it is easy to show 
that the projection of either on the retina is sensibly the 
same. When the cameo or the intaelio is seen with both 
eyes, it is impossible to mistake an elevation for a depres- 
sion ; but when either is seen with one eye only, the most 
certain guide of our judgment, viz. the presentation of a 
different picture to each eye, is wanting; tlie imagination, 
therefore, supplies the deficiency, and we conceive the 
object to be raised or depressed according to the dictates 
of this facultv. No doubt, in such cases, our judgment 
is, in a great d^ee, influenced by accessory circumstances, 
and the intaglio or the relief may sometimes present itself 
according to our previous knowledge of the direction in 
which the shadows ought to appear ; but the real cause 
of the phenomenon is to be found in the indetermination 
of the judgment, arising from our more perfect means of 
judging being absent*". 

BIINERAL TALLOW. 

At one of the sittings of the Academy of Dijon, in 
1817, M. Ballot gave, on the authority of M. Hermann, 
at Strasburg, the following explanation of a fact in 
Natural History, which on the credit of that celebrated 
naturalist had been received for the preceding forty or 
fifty years in many elementary books of science: — 

In the year 1764, the father of the naturalist Hermann 
visited, for the recovery of his health, the baths of Bar ; 
when he remarked upon the surface of the water, a fat sub- 
stance, resembling melted tallow. He sent an account of 
this observation to his son, who wrote on the sulject to 
Gueltard, in Paris. The latter read Hermann's letter in 
the Academy of Sciences. Some time after, Hermann 
convinced himself that this pretended Mineral Tallow was 
a mere cheat of the cunning attendant of the bath, who, 
in order to procure his master's baths more customers, 
threw balls of clay and tallow into die copper. The Stras- 
burg naturalist immediately informed his Paris corre- 
spondent of this, and begged him to destroy his first com- 
munication. Gueltard read this second letter to die 
Academy, and here the matter rested for the time. 

Ten years later, Hermann, to his great surprise, found 
his original observation printed under his name in the 

* Phil. Trans, part ii. 1838. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 3] 5 

Journal de Physique for May 1 774 ; but he was still more 
surprised to find it also in Kirwan's Elements of Mine- 
rahgy, from which it was copied into other works ; so 
that, for instance, Gmelin, in his edition of Linnsus*s 
System of Nature (t. 2. p. 18), mentioned the newly dis- 
covered substance under the name of *' Bitumen Snevum." 
In spite of Hermann's repeated protestations, this gross 
error continued to be propaj^ated, and is still received as 
truth — so difficult is it to eradicate errors that have once 
taken root. 

MICROSCOPIC ILLUSIONS. 

Observers with the Microscope should be particularly 
on their guard against iUusions of this kind. Raspail has 
detected*, that the hollow pyramidal arrangement of the 
crystals of muriate of soda appears, when seen through a 
microscope, like a striated pyramid in relief. He recom- 
mends two modes of correcting the illusion. The first is, 
to bring successively to the foeus of the instrument the 
different parts of the crystal ; if the pyramid be in relief, 
the point will arrive at the focus sooner than the base will ; 
if the pyramid be hollow, the contrary will take place. 
The second mode is to project a strong light on the py- 
ramid in the field of view of the microscope, and to observe 
which sides of the crystal are illuminated ; taking, how- 
ever, the inversion of the image into consideration, if a 
compound microscope be employedf . 

THE BAROMETER. 

Owing to its faulty construction, the domestic wheel 
Barometer is getting into sad, disrepute. A little conside- 
ration will show that its results must be of trifling worth. 
A small column of mercury is acted on by every fluctu- 
ation in an elastic gaseous medium ; and can we suppose 
this delicate action can take place, if we load the mercury 
with the additional task of working a clumsy piece of 
mechanism, constantly getting out of order ; and, when in 
its best trim, requiring a force of atmospheric pressure, 
perhaps, nearly equivalent to the tenth of an inch, to 
overcome the inertia ? 

* Nouveftu Syst^me de Cbimie Organiqne, 2ine edit 1. 1, p. 333. 
t Profesmr Wheatstone: Phil. Trans. pUii. 1838. 



316 POPULAR ERRORS. 

THE BAROMETER AND THE WIND. 

The older natural philosophers have erroneously as- 
cribed the state of the Barometer to fine or bad weather ; 
whereas the direction of the Wind is the ascertained cause; 
in connexion with which stand, on the one hand, the tem- 
perature and pressure of the air, and on the other, the 
cloudiness and serenity of ihe sky. Now, the barometer 
is not low during rainy weather because it rains ; but 
because the south winds blow, which are not only moist, 
but at the same time warm. If we had not the Atlantic 
ocean to the south-west, but an extensive sandy desert in 
its stead, the barometer would, under these circumstances, 
still sink, but the sky, would be clear*. 

PROGNOSTICATIONS OP RAIN. 

Before we can predict the weather satisfactorily, an 
accurate knowledge of the whole atmosphere above us is 
requisite ; which, from the very nature of things, is per> 
fectly impracticable in reference to temperature and 
moisture. Travellers have shown us how these relations 
change, as we proceed from the lower to the upper strata 
of the atmosphere ; but these investigations relate to the 
mean state of the atmosphere, and very important errors 
are possible when they are applied to particular cases. 
We know, (to adduce only one example), that during a 
certain mean state of the hygrometer, rain generally takes 
place ; the barometer sinks at the same time, and the pro- 
babiltty of the precipitation becomes greater, especially if 
the sky begins to be obscured by clouds. 'But, in order 
to predict with certainty if it will raia or clear up, a 
knowledge of the temperature of the upper region is 
requisite; and as this is wanting, there must always be a 
great degree of uncertainty in uur prognostications. Sup- 
posing the temperature at a height of 10,000 feet to be 
some degrees lower than usual, a great precipitation would 
be the consequence ; whereas, if the temperature should 
rise an equal number of degrees, the sky would clear up 
with rapidity t. 

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF THE EYES. 

Place an object so near the eyes, that to view it the 
optic axes must converge, and a different perspective pro- 
jection of it will be seen by each eye ; these perspectives 

* From the German of Profoasor E[aemtz. t Il>id. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 317 

being more dissimilar as the convergence of the optic axes 
becomes greater. This fact may be easily verified by 
placing any figure of three dimensions^ an outline cube for 
instance, at a moderate distance, (say seven inches,) before 
the eyes ; and while the head is kept perfectly steady, 
viewing it with each eye successively, while the other is 
closed. The appearances, which are, by this simple expe- 
riment, rendered so obvious, may be easily inferred from 
the established laws of perspective; for the same object in 
relief is, when viewed by a different eye, seen from two 
points of sight at a distance from each other equal to the 
line joining the two eyes. Yet, they seem to have escaped 
the attention of every philosopher and artist who has 
treated of vision and perspective. Professor Wheatstone 
ascribes this inattention to the results being contrary to 
a principle which was very generally maintained by 
optical writers, viz. : that objects can be seen onlv when 
their images fall on corresponding points of the two 
retins ; and if the consideration ever arose in their 
minds, it was hastily discarded under the conviction that 
if the pictures presented to the two eyes are, under certain 
circumstances, dissimilar, their differences must be so small 
that they need not be taken into account. 

It will now be obvious why it is impossible for the 
artist to give a faithful representation of any near solid 
object ; that is, to produce a painting which shall not be 
distinguished in the mind from the object itself. When 
the painting and the object are seen with both eyes, in the 
case of the painting two similar pictures are projected on 
the retina, and in the case of the solid object the pictures 
are dissimilar : there is, therefore, an essential difference 
between the impressions on the organs of sensation in the 
two cases, and, consequently, between the perceptions 
formed in the mind ; wherefore, the painting cannot be 
confounded with the solid object*. Professor Wheatstone 
has also proved, by beautiful experiments, that there is no 
necessary physiological connexion between the corre- 
sponding points of the two retine—a doctrine maintained 
by so many authors. 

SUPERIOR VISION WITH ONE EYE.- 

Every one must be aware how greatly the perspective 
of a picture is enhanced by looking at it with only one eye ; 

* Phil. Trans, pt ii. 1838. 



818 POPULAR ERRORS. 

especially when a tube is employed to exclude the vision 
of adjacent objects, whose presence might disturb the 
illusion. Seen under such circumstances, from the proper 
point of sight, the picture projects the same lines, snades, 
and colours on the retina, as the more distant scene which 
it represents would do, were it substinited for it. The 
appearance which would make us certain that it is a 

Eicture, is excluded from the sight, and the imagination 
as room to be active. Several of the older writers erro- 
neously attributed this apparent superiority of monocular 
vision to the concentration of the visual power in a single 
eye. " We see more exquisitely with one eye shut than 
with both, because the vitd spirits thus unite themselves 
the more and become the stronger : for we may find, by 
looking in a glass whilst we shut one eye, that the pupU 
of the other (Mlates*." 

ILLUSION OF PERSPECTIVE. 

Thb&f is a well-known and very striking lUusion of 
Peispective, the reason of the effect of whidi does not 
appear to be generally understood. When a perspective 
of a building is projected on a horizontal plane, so that the 
point of sight is in a line greatly inclined towards the 
plane, the building appears to a single eye placed at the 
point of sight to be in bold relief, and the illusion is almost 
perfect. This effect wholly arises from the unusual pro- 
jection, which suggests to the mind more readily the 
object itself than the drawing of it ; for we are accustomed 
to see real objects in almost every point of view, but per- 
spective representations being generally made in a vertical 
plane with the point of sight in a line perpendicular to the 
plane of projection, we are less familiar with the appear- 
ance of other projections. Any other unusual projection 
will produce the same effect f. 

"the thunderbolt." 

A SINGULAR variety in the appearance of the flashes of 
lightning during a severe thunder-storm, is usually desig- 
nated a Thunderbolt by the uninformed, from its resemblance 
to a large and rapidfy moving ball of fire, which is erro- 
neously supposed to fall as a solid body. 

* Lord Bacon's Works, Sylva Sylyarum, art. Vision. Quoted by 
Prof, Wheatstoneon Vision, Phil. Trans. 3838. part ii. 
t Prcf. Wlieatstun, Ibid. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 819 



DANGER FROM STORMS. 

Wfi are often told that there is no danger if a certain 
interval of time can be counted between the flash and the 
report of the thunder : this is true enough ; but it is 
equally true, that if we can count at all we are safe. 

RISE OF THE TIDE — OLD LONDON BRIDGE. 

There is frequently considerable ambiguity in the use 
of the term, Rise of the Tide, and misconception as to the 
effect of the removal of Old London Bridge upon the rise 
and fall of the tides. The water falls lower by three or 
four feet, that is, by the height of the sill which was re- 
moved; but the difference of level of high- water is very 
small, not more than a few inches. The Old London 
Bridge caused a sort of weir, varying from eight to 
eighteen inches, as the water ran up, but depending in a 
great measure on the quantity of upland water which was 
coming down ; and sometimes there was scarce any diffe- 
rence of level on the two sides of the bridge. 

HEIGHT OF THE PATAGONIANB. 

The height and appearance of these famous people,— 
these 

** Anthropophagi, whose heads 
Do grow beneath their shoulders." 

have occasioned much wonder, doubt, and controversy, 
from the period of their being first seen by the great Ma- 
galhaens*, who represents them as being about seven feet, 
French, or seven feet six inches, English measure, to Le 
Maire, whose skeletons were ten or eleven feet long ; and 
from Captain Byron, who states them to be between seven 
and eight feet, to the Jesuit Falkland, whose maximum was 
seven feet eight inches, giving six feet as the middle 
height. 

The subject is, however, considered to have been nearly 
stripped ot its fable and Error by Messrs. King and Ftz- 
roy, in their recent expeditions to the South, in H.M.S. 
the Beagle. The aborigines of Patagonia wear a large 
mantle of guanaco skins, sewed together, which hangs 
loosely to their ankles, and adds so much to the bulkiness 

* Common^ but erroaeously called Magellan. 



320 POPULAR ERRORS. 

of their appearance, that it is no wonder they have been 
called "gigantic/' Their peculiar habit of folding the 
arms in these mantles renders them very high-shouldered, 
and greatly increases their apparent height and bulk; and 
it was this, doubtless, that led to the description of their 
wearing their " heads beneath their shoulders." 

" I am not aware," says Captain Fitzroy, " that a Pata- 
gonian has appeared during late years, exceeding in height 
six feet and some inches;" although he sees no reason to dis- 
believe Falconer's account of the Cacique Cangapol, repre- 
sented as seven feet some inches . Among two or three hun- 
dred natives, scarcely half-a-dozen men are seen whose 
height is above five feet nine or ten inches; the wonien 
being tall in proportion. Captain Fitzroy adds, that he has 
nowhere met with an assemblage of men and women, 
whose average height and apparent bulk approached that 
of the Patagonians. Until actually measured, he could 
not believe that they were much taller than was found to 
be the case. 

Captain King gives the average height at between five 
feet ten inches and six feet ; one man only exceeding six 
feet, whose dimensions, measured by Captain Stokes^ were 
in height, six feet one inch and three quarters : around 
the chest, four feet one inch and one eighth ; round the 
loins, threefeet four inches and threequarters. Captain King, 
however, thinks, that the disproportionate largeness of 
head and height of body of these people, has occasioned 
the mistakes of some former navigators : he suggests, that 
the preceding generation may have been a larger race of 
people ; but by a different mode of life, or a mixture by 
marriage with the southern or Fuegian tribes, which he 
states is known to have taken place, they may have dege- 
nerated in size, and lost all right to the title of giants. 
Captain King also states^ that, from a mirage or haze, 
during very fine weather and a hot day, arising from the 
rapid evaporation of the moisture so abundantly deposited 
in the Strait, an optical deception takes place^ wnich causes 
the natives, seen at a little distance, to "loom very large." 
This may be another cause of their being taken for 
•• giants " by former navigators. It has been that the 
footsteps of the Patagonians in the sand were first noticed, 
and excited some such exclamations as " que patagones,'^ 
what large feet ! 



POPULAR ERRORS. 321 



INVENTION OF THE DIVINO-BEI^L. 

In (be United States of America generally, and to some 
extent, in England, the Invention of the Diving-bell has 
been attributed to Sir William Phipps ; who was, however, 
one of the first persons who used uie Bell advantageously, 
in recovering nearly 300,000/. treasure from a Spanish 
wreck, near the Bahamas. The invention, or the earliest 
use, of the Diving-bell, was upwards of a century before Uio 
birth of Phipps ; the first instance of its use being at 
Cadiz, in the presence of Charles V., in 1538; whereas, 
Phipps was bom at Pemaguid, in America, in 1650. 
There is likewise a popular American opinion, that the 
Mulgrave family, of which the present head is the 
Marquess of Normanby, is descended from Sir William 
Phipps, which is a mistake ; the founder of the Mulgrave 
family being Phipps, one of the earliest explorers of the 
Arctic regions. 

Notwiustanding the great improvements made in Div- 
ing-bells, since their invention, we agree with Sir George 
Head, that, after all precautions, a roan in a diving-bell is 
certainly in a state of awful dependence upon human aid : 
in case of the slightest accident to the air-pump, even a 
single stitch of the leathern hose giving wav, long before 
that ponderous vessel could be raised to tne surface of 
the water, life must be extinct. 

THE ORRERY. 

The invention of this machine is often erroneously at- 
tributed to the Earl of Orrery, from its being named after 
his lordship. The origin of tlie term is uus given by 
M. Desaguliers, in his Course of Experimental Philosophy, 
4to. London, 1 734, i. p. 481. After stating his belief that 
Mr. George Graham, about the year 1700, first invented a 
movement for exhibiting the motion of the earth about 
the sun at the same time that the moon revolved about the 
earth, he remarks : ** this machine being in the hands of 
the instrument-maker, to be sent with some of his own in- 
struments to Prince Eugene, he copied it, and made the 
first for the late £arl of Orrery, and then several others 
with additions of his own. Sir Richard Steele, who knew 
notliing of Mr. Graham's machine, in one of his lucubra^ 

PART VI. Y 



822 POPULAR ERRORS. 

tions, thinking to do justice to the first encourager, as well 
as to the inventor of such a curious instrument, called it 
an Orrery, and gave Mr. J. Rowley the praise due to Mr. 
Graham. * 

THE "zinc tree." 

It is vulgarly supposed to be an efflorescence of crystal- 
lised zinc, which is exhibited by suspending a piece of 
that metal in a bottle containing pure water saturated with 
sugar of lead: the real cause, however, is, that the lead is 
precipitated upon the zinc, so as to form that brilliant me- 
tallic leafage, which has been called, not inappropriately, 
the arbor plumbi, or lead tree. 

FALSE ESTIMATES OF NAVIGATION. 

The ordinary means for estimating distances at sea are 
subject to much uncertainty. To estimate the distance 
gone over by a vessel requires a knowledge of the effect 
of currents, which act at once on the vessel and on the 
logt which sailors throw into the sea, and which serves as 
a fixed point for them, from which they count how much 
they advance in a given time ; commonly, half a minute. 
This motion is measured by means of a cord divided by 
knots, the intervals between which answer to the 120th 
part of the hour. But when the vessel and the log are 
subjected to the action of the same current, the distance 
by which the vessel exceeds the log, only indicates the 
relative quickness of the ship with respect to the current ; 
and we nave still to determine the velocity which this 
current impresses at the same time on the log and on the 
vessel. Such is the principal origin of the differences, 
often very considerable, between the place where pilots 
think they are, according to the estimate of their routes,, 
and that where the vessel really is. In consequence of 
these errors, the lands discovered by the Magalhaens, the 
Mendanas, and the Quires, have been so ill-placed in longi- 
tude that geographers have had great difficulty to ascertain 
them. We have seen, if we may say so, Solomon's Isles, 
so remarkable for their beauty and riches, and for the 
detailed description of them by their discoverer, Mendana, 
fioating through nearly a quarter of the circumference of 
the globe. None of the navigators who went over these 
parts after him, beginning with Quiros, his companion^ 



POPULAR ERRORS. 323 

and who followed him immediately, could break the charm 
which seemed to forbid mankind the access to a land, 
which the imagination, stimulated by obstacles, clothed in 
the most brilliant colours. More sober minds began to 
doubt their existence ; when Dalrymple and Fleurien 
showed that thejr must be identical eitner with the New 
Britain of Dampier, or with the land of the Arsacides, and 
the adjacent isles visited by Bougainville and Surville. In 
the latter hypothesis, the latitudes first assigned to them 
were not very exact ; but the currents which go from east 
to west, in the great ocean^ had accelerated very much, 
without his being able to perceive it, the vessel of Men- 
dana, who reckoned himself to be only 1500 Spanish 
leagues, or about 1700 marine let^es of France, from 
the coast of Peru, when he was really near 2,400*. 

IMPERFECTION OF NAUTIOAL MAPS. 

What a Military Map is for the ground. Nautical 
Maps are for the seas: they even interest the physical geo- 
grapher, as they represent, thoush very imperfectly, the 
irregularities of the bottom of those basins covered with 
water, which occupy so vast a portion of the globe. The 
rocks, reefs, sand-banks, scattered through &e seas, are 
submarine mountains and hills ; and a complete knowledge 
of them would throw great light on the geography of the 
terrestrial mountains. Unfortunately, Nature seems to 
forbid the hope of our ever completing this part of 
geography. ''Navigators," says the celebrated mariner. 
La Perouse, ''can only answer for the routes they may 
have made, or the soundings they have taken ; and it is 
possible, that, on the finest seas, they may have passed 
close beside banks or shoals where there were no breakers, 
that is to say, whose existence was not betrayed by the 
foam of broken waves." 

MISAPPLICATION OF GEOMETRICAL TERlfS. 

Jfi Physical Geography, what an abuse has been made 
of the appellations pyramidal, conical, and others of a 
similar kmd ! Yet, what a striking difierence is there 
between the winding or abrupt lines of our mountains, 
and the regularity of geometrical figures ! How often has 
the term crystallisation been employed to conceal the in- 

* Malte-Brun'g Universal Geography, b. vi. pp. 141~8. 

t2 



324 POPULAR ERRORS. 

significance of a shallow remark! This famous word, 
like the sword of Alexander, has enabled many to cut 
knots which they knew not how to untie. In the cabinets, 
almost every thing is crystallised; in Nature, almost every 
thing is irregular in its figure. 

SUBTERRANEAN WORLD — ORIGIN OF CAVERNS. 

The causes which have produced these cavities, have, 
unquestionably, had a sphere of activity to which our 
observations are far from being commensurate. Many 
phenomena, particularly earthquakes, seem to indicate the 
existence of much more considerable cavities than those 
which are known to us. But, the wisest course we cap 
pursue is to acknowledge our perfect unacquaintance with 
their nature. We no longer Uve in an age when Athana- 
sius Kircher dared to describe the Subterraneous World as 
if he had travelled through it in every direction. The 
unknown is now banished from the land of science, and is 
become the exclusive patrimony of romance-makers. In 
Caverns, frequently the first excavation is only the first 
vestibule to another much deeper and larger ; but the 
dimensions of caverns have been much exaggerated. The 
Great Kentucky Cavern is stated at ten or twelve miles 
in length. Near Frederickshall, in Norway, according to 
Pontoppidan, there is a hole into which, if stones be 
thrown, two minutes appear to elapse before they reach the 
bottom ; from which it has been concluded, that the depth 
was upwards of 1 1 ,000 feet. Among the numerous caverns 
of Camiola, that of Adelsberg is said to afford a subter- 
ranean walk of two leagues; but this computation, of rather 
too enthusiastic a writer, requires to be confirmed. Sir 
Humphry Davy describes me grotto of Maddalena, at 
Adelsberg, as ''many hundred i'eet below the surface," 
where "a. poet might certainly place the palace of the 
King of the Gnomes." 

velBcity op water-wheels in the night. 

We are not aware that anv popular notion is more ex- 
tensively diffused among millers, (though many of them 
may not believe in it,) than that which ascribes a greater 
Velocity in the Night than in the day to a Water-wheel 
under the same head. Why there should be any differ- 
ence, none of the believers in this doctrine have ever been 
able satisfactorily to explain. To argue against it has 
been futile, because early prejudice was stronger than the 



POPULAR ERRORS. 325 

powers of reason ; and« therefore, no other way remained 
that could prove efiectual, but to bring it to the test of ex- 
periment For this labour we are indebted to Professor 
Cleaveland. His statement, which follows, is contained 
in a letter to Professor Silliman, and published in the 
American Journal of Science and the Arts : — ** In a former 
letter, I mentioned the opinion existing in this part of the 
country, that saw- mills move faster during the nisht than 
the day. The explanation usually given by the workmen is, 
that the air becomes heavier after sunset. I selected a fine 
day in August, and requested that all the mill-gates might 
remain stationary for twelve hours. At two o'clock p.m. 
I suspended a barometer in the mill ; the pressure or the 
atmosphere was equal to 30*1 9 inches ; the temperature of 
the water just before it passed the mill-gate was 72^ Fahr. 
The log was then detached from the saw, and the number 
of revolutions of the wheel, being repeatedly counted by 
different persons, was ninety-six in a minute. At mid- 
night, I again visited the same mill. The barometer stood 
at 30*26 inches, the pressure of the atmosphere having in- 
creased seven-hundredths of an indi. The temperature 
of the water was 72^ the same as at the preceding obser- 
vation, although it had been a little higher during the 
afternoon. The log being detached as before, the wheel 
was found to revolve precisdy ninety-six times in a mi- 
nute, showing the same velocity as at the preceding noon. 
The depth of the water was the same during both experi- 
ments. The workmen were satisfied that the result of the 
experiment was correct, but still they seemed to believe 
that it would be different in a cloudy night *." 

DEOEPTIYE APPEARANOB OF WAVES. 

If we observe the Waves continually approaching the 
shore, we must be convinced that this apparent motion is 
not one in which the water has any share : for were it so, 
the waters of the sea would soon be heaped upon the shores 
and would inundate the adjacent country: but so far from 
the waters partaking of the apparent motion of the waves 
in approaching the shore, this motion of the waves conti- 
nues, even when the waters are retiring. If we observe a 
flat strand when the tide is ebbing, we shall still find the ^ 
waves moving towards the shore f. 

* Amerioaa Railioad JonmsL f Dr. Lardner. 



326 POPULAR ERBOIUI. 



MEZaSOTINTO ENOBAVINO. 

The discovery of the art of Engraving in Mezzotinta 
has heen a subject of some controversy and misrepresenta- 
tion, and has only been recently cleared up. The account 
commonly given of its discovery is, that Prince Rupert, 
observing one morning a soldier engaged in cleaning from 
his musket the rust which the night-dew had occasioned, 
and perceiving upon it, as he thought, some resemblance to 
a figure ; it occurred to him whemer or not, by corroding 
or grounding a plate all over in a manner resembling the 
rust, he minit not afterwards scrape awajr a design upon 
it, from which impressions might be obtained. In short, 
it is said that he tried and succeeded, and thus became the 
inventor of Mezzotinto Engraving. This anecdote obtained 
currency from its being related by Lord Orford, in his 
celebrated work upon the Arts ; as well as from the avi- 
dity vdth which origins of the arts are set down as the 
results of accident. 

The discovery has likewise been claimed for Sir Chris- 
topher Wren ; but his communication to the Royal So- 
ciety on the subject is of date four years subsequent to the 
date of the earliest of the mezzotinto plates engraved by 
Prince Rupert. Still, the pretensions of the Prince are 
alike invahd ; for he was guilty of an act of meanness in 
imposing upon John EvSyn, and this to the extent of 
allowing a man of his high character to impose, in turn, 
however unconsciously, upon the world, by claiming for 
Prince Rupert the honour, of an invention to which the 
Prince welt knew all the while that he had no tide. 

The real inventor of this art was Louis von Siegen, a 
lieutenant-colonel in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse 
Cassel, from whom Prince Rupert learned the secret when 
in Holland, and brought it with him to England, when he 
came over a second time in the suite of Charles II. Some 
curious and very rare prints recently purchased on the 
Continent, and now deposited in the British Museum, 
place the claims of Von Siegen beyond doubt. In this 
collection is a portrait of the Princess Amelia-Elizabeth of 
Hesse, dated 1643, which is fifteen years anterior to the 
earliest of Prince Rupert's dates. In the same collection, 
is another curious work by Von Siegen, a portrait of the 
Queen of Bohemia, dated 1643, whidi places the question 



POPULAR ERRORS. 827 

beyond all dispute. There is likewise still another plate 
by Von Siegen, which bears the most conclusive evidence 
of its having been produced in the very infancy of the art ; 
besides which, is the fact that Von Si^en frequently at- 
tached the words "primus inventor'^ to his works*. 

THE TERM RILIEVO. 

This term, improperly spelt Relievo, as applied to sculp- 
ture, signifies the representation of any object projecting 
or standing forth from the plane on, and commonly out of 
which, it is formed. Of rilievos there are three kinds — 
basso, mezzo, and aito : the first is, when the projection is 
less than one-half of the natural thickness, such as is seen 
on coins or medals; the second, when one-half of the 
figure emerges ; the third, when the figure is so completely 
siJient, that it adheres to the plane only by the narrow 
strip. 

noah's ark. 

There is much difference of opinion about the form of 
the Ark "made** by Noah, previous to the Flood. The 
common figures are given under the impression that it was 
intended to be adapted to progressive motion; whereas, 
no other object was sought than to construct a vessel which 
should float for a given time upon the water. For this 

Cpose, it was not necessary to place the ark in a sort of 
t, as in the common figures ; and we may be content 
with the simple idea which the text gives, — namely, that 
of an enormous oblong box, or wooden house, divided into 
three stories, apparently with a sloping roof. Indeed, 
Noah*s Ark was so named from its supposed resemblance 
to an ark or chest ; by which name it occurs both in the 
Gothic and Anglo-Saxon versions of the passage in Luke 
xviL 27. Wiclif, in this passage, instead of Ark, reads 
ship ; and hence may have arisen the Popular Error of 
representing Noah's Ark in the form of a huge boat or 
vessel In the north of England, to the present day, the 
word ark is used for the chest which is employed for 
containing meal. 

How few readers are aware of the identity of the dimen- 
sions of Noah's house upon the waters with those of the 
stupendous steam-ships that are at this moment ploughing 
the Atlantic Ocean ! Yet, such is shown in a volume by 

* Alnidged fxom the Penny Cyclopaedia, voce Meziotinto. 



328 POPULAR ERRORS. 

W, Radford, R.N., entitled. On the Conttrucium of the Ark, 
at adapted to the Naval Architecture of the present day. 
** How strange," says the author, '' that for a period of 
4,000 years and upwards, men should have gone on, each 
in his own way, when positive proofs and direetions are 
plainly and forcibly laid down oy the Almighty himself, 
in language and terms intelligible to the meanest capacity, 
— in language so plain and forcible that the greatest sceptic 
cannot attempt to dispute it, either by subtracting from it, or 
adding to it ! For this is Uie plain and forcible passage of 
the Holy Writ, in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis, 
and the fifteenth verse: — ' And this is the fashion which 
thou slialt make it of: the length of the Ark shall be three 
hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the 
height of it thirty cubits.' This passage of Holy Writ is 
very remarkable, and has always engaged the attention of 
scientific men ; more particularly so, when in working oat 
the tonnage of the Ark, as therein laid down, both by arith- 
metic and logarithms, the amount of burthen in tonnage 
is precisely the same. But this passage has lately received 
an additional stimulus, as well as a striking proof of its 
correct and true principle in ship-building, through the 
instrumentality of those two splendid vessels, the Great 
Western and the British Queen ; the proportional part of 
these ships being precisely the same as those laid down 
for the construction of the Ark. This happy event has 
caused a new light to shine forth on the all-important and 
engrossing topic of naval architecture ; and it is not too 
much to infer, that the dimensions of the Ark, as given by 
the Almighty himself to his servant Noah, were as much 
intended for man's mechanical guide and rule, as the cross 
has since been set forth for liis moral guidance and go- 
vernment" 

LOT S WIPE. 

In the account of the destruction of the five Cities of 
the Plain, the text*, *' She became a pillar of salt,'' does 
not afibrd any ground for the common impression, that 
Lot's wife became a statue of rock salt. The word ren- 
dered ''a pillar," denotes, generally, any fixed object, and 
that rendered '' salt," denotes also bitumen. So the text 
would seem to denote, that the woman was overwhelmed 
by the encroaching matter, which formed a mound over 

* Genesis, chap. six. ▼. 26. 



POPULAR ERB0B8. 829 

her, and fixed her where she stood. The '' pillar of salt" 
is one of the wonders which travellers have been in the 
habit of looking for in this district ; and masses of salt 
have, accordingly^ been shown them, but in such different 
situations as to manifest that the natives were imposing 
upon them for the sake of their money*. 

Professor Daubeny, in his work on Volcanoes, explains 
the above phenomenon with more scientific precision 
than the writer in the preceding note. The Professor 
supposes that volcanic agency was the physical instrument 
employed by the Almighty to destroy the five Cities of the 
Plain ; that the Salt or Dead Sea, arose either from the 
subsidence of the plain, or from the damming of the 
Jordan by a current of lava ; that the showers of fire and 
brimstone were occasioned by the fall of volcanic ejections ; 
and, (agreeing in this with Mr. Henderson, the celebrated 
missionary traveller in Iceland), that Lot's wife, lingering 
behind her friends, may have been first suffocated, and then 
incrusted with saline and other volcanic materials. 

LOOKING BACK. 

The superstition of the III Luck of Looking Back, or 
returning, is nearly as old as the world itself; having, 
doubtless, originated in Lot "having looked back from 
behind him,'* when he was led, with his family and cattle, 
by an angel outside the doomed City of the Plaint. 
"Whether walking or riding, the wife was behind her 
husband, according to a usage still prevalent in the East, 
where no woman goes before or beside her husband.** Mr. 
Roberts, in his curious Oriental IliustraiinnSy remarks, that 
it is considered exceedingly unfortunate in Hindoostan 
for men or women to look back when they leave their 
house. Accordingly, if a man goes out, and leaves some- 
thing behind him which his wife knows he will want, she 
does not call him to turn or look back, but takes or «ends 
it after him ; and if some great emergency obliges him to 
look back, he will not then proceed on the business he 
was about to transact If we mistake not, some similar 
feeling is entertained in some parts of England, though 
not carried so far into operation :{;/' 

• Notes to the Pictorial Bible, p. 50. 

t Genesis, chap, xix., v. 26. 
t Notes to the Pictorial Bible, p. 5a 



d30 POPULAR ERRORS. 



VII.— NATURAL HISTORY. 

FABULOUS ANIMALS OF THE ANOIENTS. 

The greater number of these Animals have a purdy 
mythological origin, as is unequivocally denoted by the 
descriptions given of them ; and, in almost all of them, we 
see merely the different parts of known animals united by 
an unbridled imagination, and in contradistinction to 
every established law of Nature. 

Those which have been invented by the poetical fancy 
of the Greeks have, at least, some grace and elegance in 
their compositions, resembling the fantastic decorations 
whicli are still observaUe on the ruins of some ancient 
buildings, and which have been multiplied by the fertile 
genius of Raphael in his paintings. Learned men may 
be permitted to employ their time and ingenuity in at- 
tempts to decipher the mystic knowledge concealed under 
the form of the Sphynx of Thebea, the Pegasus of Thes- 
saly, the Minotaur of Crete^ or the Chimera of Epirus ; 
but it would be folly to expect seriously to find such mon- 
sters in Nature. We might as well endeavour to find the 
animals of Daniel, or the beasts of the Apocalyp8|e, in 
some hitherto unexplored recesses of the globe. Neither 
can we look for the mythological animaik of the Peru- 
vians, — creatures of a still bolder imagination, — such as 
the Marlichore, or destroyer of men, having a human head 
on the body of a lion, and the tail of a scoipion* ; the 
griffin, or guardian of hidden treasures, half eagle and 
half lion f ; or the Cartazonon, or wild ass, armed with a 
long horn on its forehead 1:. 

Ctesias, who reports these as actual living animals, has 
been looked upon by some authors as an inventor of 
fables; whereas, he only attributes real existence to 
hieroglyphical representations. The strange composi- 
tions of fancy have been seen in modem times on the 
ruins of Persepolis^* It is probable that their hidden 

* Plin. yiii. Sl^Aristot.— Photii BibL, art. 7S.— Ctes. India— iBUaa. 
Anim. L f -^^ian. Anim. 

t Id. xvi. SO^Photii BibL art. 72— ^te& Indio. 

§ Le Brun, Toy. to Muscary, Porsia, and India, vol. ii. See also the 
German work by M. Heeren, on the Ck)mmeroe of the Ancients. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 381 

meanings may never be ascertained; but, at all events, we 
are quite certain that they were never intended to be re- 
presentations of real animals. 

Agatharcides, another fabricator of animals, drew his 
information, in all probability, from a similar source. The 
monuments of ancient E^ypt still furnish us with numer- 
ous fantastic representations, in which the parts of dif- 
ferent kinds of creatures are strangely combined — men 
with the heads of animals, and animals with the heads of 
men; which gave rise to Cynocephali, Satyrs, and Sphynxes. 
The custom of exhibiting in the same sculpture in bas- 
relief, men of very different heights, of making kings and 
conquerors gigantic, while their subjects and vassals are 
represented as only a fourth or a fifth part of their size, 
must have given rise to the fable of the Pigmies. In 
some comer of these monuments, Agatharcides must have 
discovered his Carnivorous Bull, whose mouth, extending 
from ear to ear, devoured every other animal that came in 
his way*. But a naturalist will scarcely acknowledge the 
existence of any such animal, since Nature has never 
joined cloven hoofs and horns vdth teeth adapted for 
cutting and devouring animal food. 

Imaginary animals are likewise to be found among 
every people where idolatry has not yet acquired some de- 

See of rdinement ; indeed these animals are their idols, 
ut, is there any one who could possibly pretend to dis- 
cover, amidst the realities of animal nature, what are thus 
90 plainly the productions of ignorance and superstition ? 
And yet, some travellers, influenced by a desire to make 
themselves famous, have gone so far as to pretend that 
they saw these fancied beings; or, deceived by a slight 
resemblance, into which they were too careless to inquire, 
they have identified these with creatures that actually 
exist. In their eyes, large baboons, or monkeys, have be- 
come Cynocephalii and Sphynxes, real men with long tails. 
It is thus that Saint Augustin imagined he had seen a 
Satyr. 

Real animals, observed and described with inaccuracy, 
may have given rise to some of these ideal monsters. Thus, 
we can have no doubt of the existence of the hyena, 

* Photii BibL. art SfiO.— Agatharcid. Excerp. Hist., cap. aa— iBlbn. 
Anim. xvii 45.— Plin. viU. 21. 



332 POPULAR ERRORS. 

dtboaffh the back of this animal be not supported by a 
dnglebone, and although it does not change its sex yearly, 
as alleged by Pliny. Perhaps, the Carnivorous Bull noay 
have only been the two-homed rhinoceros, falsely de- 
scribed. 

This yery luminous and interesting disquisition has 
been somewnat abridged from Cuvier*s celebrated Essay 
on the Theory of the Earth. To this we may add that the 
tales of the Anthropophagi are as old as Pliny, and were 
resuscitated by Raleigh, in his account of El Dorado. 
*' The fables of tlie supposed natural deficiency of beard in 
the Americans, the Syrens, Centaurs, and others of the 
same stamp," says Blumenbach, *'can only be excused 
by the simple, easy, credulity of our ancestors." 

The existence of the Giraflfe was formerly received as 
fabulous, on account of the absence of that animal from 
Europe for three centuries and a half; whence the ac- 
counts of its extraordinary height and apparent dispropor- 
tions, caused it to be classed with the unicorns, sphynxes, 
&c., of ancient naturalists and poets. 

GIANTS. 

The belief in the existence of Giants appears to have 
been founded upon so many seeming evidences of au- 
thority, that, in the fondness of man for wonders, it is not 
surprising that he has, nearly to our own times, enter- 
tained this fallacy. 

First among the circumstances which have fostered 
this belief, is tne very common opinion, that in the earliest 
ages of the world, men were of greater stature than at 
present. Pliny olnerves of the human height (vii. 16), 
that " the whole race of mankind is daily becoming smaHer;** 
a most alarming prospect if it had been true. But all the 
statements made on this subject, tend to convince us that 
the human form has not degenerated, and that men of the 
present age are of the same stature as in the banning of 
the world. In the first place, though we read both in 
sacred and profane history of Giants, yet they were at the 
time of their existence esteemed as wonders, and far above 
the ordinary proportions of mankind. All the remains of 
the human body, as bones, (and particularly the teeth,) 
which have been found unchanged in the most ancient 
ruins and burial-places, demonstrate this point clearly. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 333 

The oldeiit coffin, or rather sarcophagus, in the world, is 
that found in the great pyramid of Egypt, and is scarcely 
six feet and a half long. From looking also at the height of 
mummies which have been brought to this country, we 
must conclude that the people who inhabited Egypt two or 
three thousand years ago, were not superior in size to the 
present inhabitants of that country. Neither do the in- 
lerenoes from the finding of ancient armour, as helmets or 
breast-plates, or from buildings designed for the abode 
and accommodation of men, concur in strengthening the 
proofs of any diminution of stature in man. 

Passing over 'the fables of the Giants of profane history, 
we come to their mention, in Scripture, before the Flood, 
in the sixth chapter of Genesis, v. 4: {'' there were Giants 
in the earth in those days**;) where, the Hebrew word 
Nephilim does not signify Giants, as commonly translated, 
but violent men. Some think that instead of Giants in 
stature, monsters of rapine and wickedness were intended 
to be represented ; and Dr. Johnson says, that the idea of 
a Giant is always associated with something fierce, brutal^ 
and wicked. The context in the next verse, that *' the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth," renders the 
above interpretation more probable than any relation to 
the stature of man. In the mirteenth chapter of Numbers, 
V. 33, the reference to *' the Giants, the sons of Anak, which 
came of the Giants," implies the family of Anakim to 
have been men of great stature, and the context states cir- 
cumstances of comparison, in the people being as grass- 
hoppers in their sight ; still, the fears of the spies may have 
magnified the dimensions of this family into the gigantic. 

The notion of the existence of Giants formerly, has, 
also, in many instances, been founded on the discovery of 
the bones of different large animals belonging to extinct 
species, which have been ascribed to human subjects of 
extraordinary stature. The bones of an elephant have 
even been figured and described by Bufibn as remains of 
human Giants, in the supplement to his classical work. 
The extravagance of such suppositions has been com- 
pletely exposed by geologists, and the supposed fossil re- 
mains of gigantic human bones are proved to have 
belonged to the Megatherium and Palceotheriumf and 
other individuals ; which certainly proves that in remote 
ages there existed animals of mucn larger dimensions than 



S34 POPULAR BRRORS. 

any now in being, though we have no reason to suppose 
that this variety extended to our own species. 

In more modern times, the betief in Giants has been 
fostered by the exaggerated accounts of the colossal sta- 
ture of the Patagonians, such as have been already ex- 
plained*. Blumenbach observes : *' the supposed Patago- 
nian giants have sunk, in the relations of travellers from 
Magiuhaens' time down to our own, from 12 feet to 7 
feet, and at best are but little taller than any other men 
of good staturet." 

The practice of associating certain stupendous pheno- 
mena of Nature with Giants has, doubtless, strengthened 
belief in them, especially in the minds of the young : the 
*' Giants' Causewuy," in Antrim, is an example. Indeed, 
the majority of such phenomena, which strike the be- 
holder with their magnitude, have been referred by igno- 
rant persons to Giants, or '* the Devil." Such are <' the 
Devil's Punchbowl," in Hampshire ; " the Devil's Arrows," 
in Yorkshire; and ''the Devil's Jumps," a conspicuous 
group of barren and somewhat conical nills in Surrey, ap- 
parently the remaining portion of a stratum of sand re- 
duced by abrasion to their present irr^ular form. Crom- 
lechs and other huge stones, and Barrows, or burial-places 
of heroes, and even Stonehenge itself, have probably caused 
the existence of Giants to linger in the minds of weak par- 
sons, until an acquaintance with geology has enabled them 
to trace these phenomena to natural causes. 

Coleridge has appositely exposed the fallacy of the be- 
lief in Giants, by imagining a traveller in some unpeopled 
part of America to be attracted to the mountain burial-place 
of one of the primitive inhabitants. He digs into it, and 
finds that it contains the bones of a man of mighty stature ; 
and he is tempted to give way to the belief, that as there 
were Giants in those davs, so that all men were Giants. 
But, a second and wiser thought may suggest to him, that 
this tomb would never have forced itself upon his notice, 
if it had not contained a body that was distinguished from 
others; that of a man who had been selected as a chieftain 
or ruler for the very reason that he surpassed the rest of 
his tribe in stature, and who now lies thus conspicuously 
inhumed upon the mountain-top, while the bones of his 
followers are laid unobtrusively together in the plain below. 

* See page 319. 
t Manual of the Elements of Natural History, p. 38. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 335 

' The best account of Giants, at once scientific and popu- 
lar, that we have seen, will be found in Jameson's Journal, 
1833: it is by the eminent naturalist M. Geoffiroy-St- 
Hilaire, and extends to nearly fifty pages of the above 
joumaL 

THE UNICORN. 

The most famous among the Fabulous Animals of the 
Ancients, was the Unicom, whose real existence has been 
obstinately asserted, even in the present day ; or, at least, 
proofs of its existence have been eagerly sought for. Three 
several animals are frequently mentioned by the Ancients 
as having only one horn placed on the middle of the fore- 
head, viz. the Oryx of Africa, having cloven hoofs, the hair 
placed reversely to that of other animals, its height equal 
to that of the bull, or even of the rhinoceros, and said to 
resemble deer and goats in its form ; the Indian Ass, hav- 
ing solid hoofs; and the Monoceros, properly so caUed, 
whose feet are sometimes compared to those of the lion, 
and sometimes to those of the elephant, and is, therefore, 
considered to have divided feet. The horse-unicorn and 
the bull-unicorn are, doubtless, both referable to the In- 
dian Ass, for even the latter is described as having solid 
hoofs. We may, therefore, be fully assured that these 
animals have never really existed, as no solitary horns have 
ever found their way into our collections, excepting those 
of the rhinoceros and narwal. Again, in all cloven- 
footed animals, the frontal bone is divided longitudinally 
into two, so that there could not possibly, as very justly 
remarked by Camper, be a horn placed upon the suture; 
a conclusion fatal to the identity of the Oryx and the Mo- 
noceros. 

It has, however, been suggested that the straight-horned 
Antilope Oryx of Gmelin may have furnished Uie idea of 
the Unicom being an Oryx. Supposing an individual of 
this species to have been seen which had accidentally lost 
one of its boras, it may have been taken as a representa- 
tive of the entire race, and erroneously adopted by Aristotle, 
to be copied by all his successors. All this is quite possi- 
ble, and even natural, and gives not the smallest evidence 
for the existence of a single-homed species of antelope. 

One of the most eminent zoologists of the day, however, 
refers the Unicorn to the Indian Rhinoceros; and his ex- 



S30 POPULAR ERRORS. 

planation is at once brief and satisfactory. He observes : 
** The Indian Rhinoceros affords a remarkable instance 
of the obstructions which the progress of knowledge may 
suffer, and the gross absurdities which not unfrequently 
result from the wrong application of a name. This anim^, 
to whose horn the superstition of the Persians and Arabs 
has in all ages attributed peculiar virtues*, became known 
to the Greeks through the description of Ctesias, a credu- 
lous physician of that nation, who appears to have resided 
at the court of Persia in the time of^ the younger Cyrus, 
about 400 years before the birth of Christ His account, 
though mixed up with a great deal of credulous absurdity, 
contains a very valuable and perfectly recognizable descrip- 
tion of the Rhinoceros, under the ridiculous name, however, 
of the Indian Ass ; and as he attributed to it a whole hoof 
like the horse, and a single horn in the forehead, specula- 
tion required but one step further to produce the fabulous 
Unicorn, such as it appears in the Royal Arms of Eng- 
land, and such as it has retained its hold on popular cre- 
dulity for the last two thousand yearsf ." We suspect that 
Heraldry, with its animal absurdities, has contributed 
more to the propagation of error respecting the natural 
world, than any other species of misrepresentation. 

It should be added, that the Rev. John Campbell, in 
his Travels in South Africa^ (vol. ii. p. S94,) describes the 
head of another animal, which, as far as the horn is con- 
cerned, seems to iipproach nearer than the common rhino- 
ceros to the Unicorn of the ancients. While, in the 
Machow territory « the Hottentots brought to the traveller 
a head different from that of any rhinoceros that had pre- 
viously been killed. '' The common African Rhinoceros 
has a crooked horn resembling a cock's spur, which rises 
about nine or ten inches above the nose, and inclines 
backward ; immediately behind which is a straight thick 
horn. But the bead they brought, had a straight horn 
projecting three feet from the forehead, about ten inches 
above the tip of the nose. The projection of this great 
horn very much resembles that of the fanciful Unicorn in 
the British arms. It has a small thick horny substance 
eight inches long, immediately behind it, and which can 

* See page 274. 
t Mr. Ogilby ; Dr. Rojle's Natural History of the Himalayan Honn- 
taios. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 337 

hardly be obsterved on the animal at the distance of 100 
yards ; so that this species must look like a Unicorn, (in 
the sense ' one-homed/) when running in the field."* The 
author adds : " the animal is considered by naturalists, 
since the arrival of the skull in London, to be the Unicom 
of the ancients, and the same that is described in Job 
xxxix/' A fragment of the skull, with the horn, is depo- 
sited in the Museum of the London Missionary Society. 

THE MERMAID. 

The absurd notion, ** that there are Mermen and Mer« 
maids, half man or woman, and the remainder fish,** was 
of long standing, but is now exploded. '^ Few eyes,** says 
Sir Thomas Browne, " have escaped tlie picture of Mer- 
maids, (for he does not admit their existence,) that is, 
according to Horace, this monster with woman's head above 
and fishy extremity below ; and these are conceived to 
answer the shape of the ancient Syrens that attempted 
upon Ulysses. Which, notwithstanding, were of another 
description, containing no fishy composure, but made up 
of man and bird ; the humane mediety variously placed^ 
not only above, but below." Sir Thomas is, on the con- 
trary, inclined to refer the Mermaid to Dagon, the tutelary 
deity of the Philistines, which, according to the common 
opinion, was half human and half fish— that is, with a 
human female bust and a fish-like termination : though 
the details of this fish-idolatry are very confined and con- 
jectural. 

The progress of zoological science has long since de- 
stroyed the belief in the existence of the Mermaid. If its 
upper structure be human, with lungs resembling our own, 
how could such a creature live and breathe at the bottom 
of the sea, where it is stated to be ? for our own most ex- 
pert divers are unable to stay under water more than half 
an hour. Suppose it to be of the cetaceous class, it could 
only remain under the water two or three minutes together, 
without rising to the surface to take breath ; and if this 
were the case with the Mermaid, would it not be oftener 
seen? 

The olden accounts of the taking of Mermaids are too 
absurd for quotation : but it is truly surprising that the 
exhibition of a pretended Mermaid in London, so lately 
as in 1822, should have caught thousands of dupes; 300 



338 POPULAR ERRORS. 

or 400 of whom paid daily one shilling each for the indul- 
gence of their credulity. The Imposture was, however, 
too gross to last long ; and it was ascertained to he the 
dried skin of the head and shoulders of a monkey, attached 
y^erj neatly to the dried skin of a fish of the saunon kind, 
witn the head cut off; the compound figure heing stu£^ 
and highly varnished, the better to deceive the eye. This 
grotesque olgect was taken by a Dutch vessel from on 
board a native Malacca boat ; and, from the reveroice 
shown to it by the sailors, it is supposed to have represented 
the incarnation of one of the idol-gods of the Molucca 
Islands. The Chinese and Japanese are very skilful in 
dressing up such Diatters ; and this was, doubtless, a ma- 
nufacture of the Indian Seas *. 1 1 is remarkable that another 
pretended Mermaid shown in Holland is stated to have 
oeen brought from Japan: this specimen, has but one 
fin at the tail, so that if the object was ever in the water, 
its head must have been, at all times, lower than any other 
part. Both specimens are, however, so unsightly as to 
reduce Dryden's " fine woman ending in a fish's tail," to 
a witty fancy. 

The existence of Mermaids has, however, been attested 
by so many witnesses, as to induce us to seek for the means 
by which they have, doubtless, been imposed on. Most 
of these observers have known but little of natural history, 
and many of them have been superstitious seamen, who 
have, in all probability, mistaken for a Mermaid a Dugong, 
which, of all the cetacets approaches the nearest in form to 
man ; and which, when its head and breast are raised 
above the water^ and its pectoral fins, resembling hands, 
are visible, might easily be taken by the above observers 
for a semi-human being. 

We have omitted to state that the Mermaid is related to 
have been seen using a comb and toilet-glass, which ac- 
cessories to the fable, together with the origin of the crea- 
ture, ^ir George Head thus ingeniously attempts to explain 
in his popular Home Tour : — 

The resemblance of the Seal or Sea-calf to the calf con- 
sists only in the voice, and the voice of the calf is certainly 

« It is but Justice to state, that the Editor of the Literarp Oaxette was 
one of the first, if not the first journalist, to expose the fabrication of 
the Mermaid of 1822; which other less sagacious obserrers were induced 
to regard as a natural wonder ! 



POPULAR ERRORS. 339 

not dissimilar to that of a man; therefore, the connexion 
of the seal to humanity is, perhaps, farther preserved by the 
Greek word signifying a man, being ^ws, and a seal ^otinj. 
But the daws of the seal, as well as the hand, are like a 
lady's back hair-comb ; wherefore, altt^ether, supposing 
the resplendence of sea-water streaming down its polished 
neck on a sun shiny day the substitute for a looking-glass, 
we arrive at once at the fabulous history of the marine 
maiden, or Mermaid, and the appendages of her toilet." 

After 80 many exposures of the absurd belief in Mer- 
maids, we certainly did not expect to find any person in 
Europe weak enough to report the existence of one of 
these creatures to an eminent scientific body. Yet such 
has been the case: for, on June 22, 1840, the First Secre- 
tary of the Ottoman Embassy at Paris addressed a not 
to the Academy of Sciences at raris, stating, seriously, that 
his father, who is in the Admiralty department of Con- 
stantinople, had recently seen a Mermaid, while crossing 
the Bosphorus ; which communication caused a great ded 
of hilanty ! 

THE PflOBNIX. 

Sir Thomas Browne devotes a chapter to the ancient 
history of this "wonder of the world," commencing — 
*' That there is but one Phoenix in the world, which after 
many hundred years burneth itself, and from the ashes 
thereof ariseth up another, is a conceit not new, or altoge- 
ther popular, but of great antiquity ; not only delivered by 
humane authority but frequently expressed also by holy 
writers . . . All which notwithstanding, we cannot pre- 
sume the existence of this animal ; nor dare we affirm 
there is any Phoenix in nature." Sir Thomas then shows 
there to be no " ocular describer," and that Herodotus, who 
*^ led the story unto the Greeks, plainly saith, he never 
attained the sight of any, but only in the picture." A 
number of erudite guesses are addea ; such as, " that the 
Phoenix was a Bird of Paradise, and alike the emblem of 
the Kesurrection and the Sun:" again, **that it was a 
palm-tree, and that it was only a mistake upon the ho- 
monymy of the Greek word Poenix, which signifies also a 
palm-tree." The common story may be told in a few 
words : — The Phoenix was thought to abide one hundred 
years in the deserts of Arabia, and at tlie expiration of 

z 2 



340 POPULAR ERRORS. 

that period to appear in the Temple of the Sun at Helio- 
polis, fall upon ttie biasing altar, and during its cremation, 
pour forth a melodious song from, or through, the orifices 
of its feaUiers, which thus formed a thousand organ-pipes: 
the feathers of the belly and breast being reported of a 
gold colour. 

This fable has been attempted to be exnlained by the 
supposition, that in warm countries, wnere sacrifices 
usually took place in the open air, many birds of prey, 
particularly vultures, undeterred by the fire and smoke of 
the altars, have dropped down, impelled by hunger, to 
seize the raw fl^ laid upon them ; wnen,if some perished 
in the flames, and others escaped, a sufficient iMisis was 
afibrded to the marvel-loving ancients for the erection of 
their fabulous structure. 

The adoption of the Phoenix by chemists, as a shop- 
sign, doubtless originated in its association with Alchemy. 
Sir Thomas Browne says — ** Some have written majes- 
tically (of the Phcenix), as Paracelsus, in his book De 
Azoth, or De Ligno et Linea Vitee ; and as several hermeti- 
cal philosophers, involving therein the secret of their 
Elixir, and enigmatically expressing the nature of their 
great work." The appropriateness of the Phoenix as a 
fire-office emblem is still more evident. 

The Phoenix is sometimes metaphorically applied to 
persons, as, *' He is a Phoenix of his kind f — ^' She is a 
Phoenix among women ;" the expression referring to the 
idea that only one Phoenix ever existed at one time ; where- 
fore, by a figure of speech, perfection is intended. Lastly, 
Metastasio, in a neat stanza, compares the fidelity of lovers 
to the Phoenix, which, says he, '' everybody talks of, but 
nobody has seen." 

ORIFFINS. 

Sir Thomas Browne refers to the supposed Griffin, as 
" a mizt and dubious animal, in the fore part resembling 
an Eagle, and behind the shape of a Lion, with erected 
ears, four feet, and a long tail," the belief in which " many 
affirm, and most deny not." Sir Thomas then shows this 
twofold nature of bird and beast to be monstrous, '' if 
examined by the doctrine of animals," or, in other words, 
the state of zoological knowledge in his time. The Grypes, 
or Griffins, of Scripture he regards as a large species of 



POPULAR ERRORS. 341 

eagle. The story of Griffins defending mines of gold, 
near the Arimaspi, or one-eyed nation, he treats as a 
poetical fable — a' mere hearsay of Herodotus. Yet, 
hieroglyphically, Sir Thomas allows the Griffin to '* make 
out well the properties of a guardian ; the ear implying 
attention, the wings celerity of ^execution; the lion-like 
shape, courage and audacity ; the hooked bill, reservance 
and tenacity. It is also an emblem of valour and magna- 
nimity, as being compounded of the Eagle and Lion, the 
noblest animals in their kinds ; and so it is applicable 
unto Princes, Presidents, Generals, and all heroic Com- 
manders; and so is it also borne in the coat-arms of 
many noble families of Europe." 

But Sir Thomas Browne claims for the Griffin a far 
more ancient appropriation than as an heraldic distinc- 
tion ; since he considers it to be a hieroglyphic of the 
Egyptians, implying the great celerity, strength, and 
vigour of the Sun. Thus, " in antient coins, we meet 
with Gryphins, conjointly with Apollo's Tripodes and 
chariot- wheels; and the marble Gryphins at 8t. Peter's, 
in Rome, as learned men conjecture, were first translated 
from the Temple of Apollo*." 

We find the Griffin to have been a favourite emblem 
with the Greeks ; and a distinguished naturalist of our 
times has offered an ingenious idea of its origin from the 
Tapir, now known as me largest land animal in South 
America. M. Roulin observes, that the Greeks, who traf- 
ficked across the Black Sea, came in contact with the 
Scythians ; and they, on their part, traded with the Argi- 
peans, a Tartar people inhabiting the vallevs at the foot of 
the Ural Mountains ; the rich mines of wfdch, doubtless, 
were known to the Greeks through the Scythians. In 
those early and superstitious ages, every treasure was 
supposed to possess its peculiar guardian : such warders 
were chosen for their strength and frightful appearance; and 
hence arose the compound images of the wmged Serpent, 
the Dragon, and the Griffin with the beak of an eagle and 
the claws of a lion. This kst figure, our author conceives, 
was originally the guardian monster of the treasures of the 
Ural Mountains, the Cordilleras of the Argipeans ; and its 
representation and its fabulous history were conveyed to 
the Greeks by the intervention of the Scythians, mingled 

* Vulgar Erxon, b. iii. c. zi. pp. 144—140. 



342 POPULAR ERRORS. 

with traditions of the gold mines, in a manner confcNin- 
able with the spirit of the times. 

This animal, as it is evident by the illustration of M. 
Roolin's memoir, which we have copied, (tee Frontispiece,) 
possesses, in its general outline, a close resemblance to the 
Tapir in a sitting attitude (a) ; and the learned naturalist 
thus accounts for its possession of the various addenda of 
wings, crest, and tail It is evident^ he adds, that the 
original image of the Griffin, when introduced into Greece, 
was destitute of wings; as Heredotus, the oldest author 
who describes it, does not mention the wings ; and his 
silence upon that point is important tesimony. But the 
more ancient dras^ons of the caverns of Greece were nearly 
all furnished with those members ; wherefore, upon ^e 
introduction of a new monster, it would appear requisite, 
according to the preconceived notions of the people, to 
add them to its figure ; and it was no very great stretch of 
imagination to accord the wings of an eagle to an animal 
which seemed alreadv to possess its head ; for the pro- 
boscis of the Tapir, wnen bent down in its usual position, 
bears no little similitude to the beak of that bird. 

The sculptors, who considered the Griffin in a pictur- 
esque point of view, employing it in their arabesque orna- 
ments, again contributed to alter its original form. To 
bestow additional gracefulness to its nedc, they surmounted 
it with a mane, lixe that of their horses, making the hairs 
short, straight, and erect ; and it is not impossible that they 
might have retained the genuine hogged mane of the 
tapir. Afterwards, to render still more fantastic a being 
wnich was already intermediate between a quadruped and 
a bird, they converted this crest into the likeness of the 
dorsal fin of a fish. 

The division of the toes of the tapir caused, with the 
Greeks, the same error as with the Chinese in the fabrica- 
tion of their Me ; and, accordingly, they substituted for 
them those of the lion. As to the tail, it was almost cer- 
tain that they would attempt to supply that appendage ; 
and whilst some merely gave to the animal one conforma- 
ble with its feet, othera desiring to make the figure wholly 
imaginary, bestowed upon it a spiral scroll, and orna- 
mented it with the leaves of the acanthusi'(6). 

It remains to be explained how the Tapir was known to 

* Annales des Sciences NBturellea. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 843 

the Greeks ; whereas, at present, only three species are 
known, two peculiar to South America, and the third 
lately discovered by M. Roulin, in Malacca and Sumatra. 
There have^ however, been discovered by Cuvier, at Paris, 
the fossil remains of PaUeotherium^ a genus apparently in- 
termediate between the rhinoceros, horse, and Tapir, and 
in outline closely approximating to that of the American 
and Indian Tapirs. 

DRAGONS. 

The belief in the existence of Dragons was fostered by 
so many circumstances, that we are scarcely surprised to 
find traces of it retained even in the nomenclature of mo- 
dem science. Meanwhile, it is hard to tell the origin of 
this belief^ unless the Dragon of fable* be an exaggeration 
-of the crocodile by old naturalists : for it resembles a huge 
lizard more than any other animal. And the name of Fly- 
ing Dragon is, to this day, applied to a small Saurian found 
in the East Indies; which, being furnished with a kind of 
wing, Hke that of the bats, but independent of the four 
feet, sustains itself like a parachute, when it leaps from 

* Of all Dragons, that of Wantley is the most celebrated. ** This 
famous monster had, according to old story, forty-four teeth of iron, and 
some historians say he used to swallow up churches full of people» Att 
parson and all, and pick his teeth with the steeple ; but this was probably 
only scandal. Little children, however, it is certain, he used to munch up 
as we would an apple. He had eyes like live coals, with a long sting in 
his tail, and his sulphurous breath poisoned the country for ten miles 
round. The knight who went to fight this monster very wisely got 
himself a suit of armour stuck all over with iron spikes, so that he 
looked like a great hedgehog, and when the dragon tried to worry him, 
he was obliged to leave go again : then the knight gave him some pro- 
per kicks in the ribs with the spikes at the end of his iron boots, and 
once ran his sword right into him, and killed him ; but the dragon, 
forgetting he was dead, still fought on, till a great part of his tail being 
lopped off, and his blood pouring out by buckets-full, he cried out 
* Murder!' most lustily, and afterwards fainted away, and groaned, and 
kicked, and died ; but, after all, the knight ran his sword into him several 
times, rightly conceiving that such a villain could never be too dead ! If 
this story should not be true, it's founded on truth, and that's all the same 
fUng. An overgrown rascally attorney, at Wantley, near Rotherham, 
in Yorkshire, dieated some children oat of a large estate ; but a gen- 
tleman in the neighbourhood, arming himself with the spikes of the 
law, recovered their property for them ; and the attorney having lost it 
and his character for ever, sickened, grieved, and died. But what 
would such a dry every-day story of villany be worth without some 
poetical flourishes about it? or, as Flutter says, — * Really the common 
occurrences of this little dirty world are hardly worth relating, without 
fltme embellishment.' "— P«rcy'« Reliques c/ Aneient Poetrp. 



344 POPULAR ERRORS. 

branch to branch : still, it does not possess the faculty of 
beating the air, and so raising itself into flight like a 
bird ; wherefore, the epithet ** flying*' is an exaggeration. 

The Dragon, Draco, is one of the constellations referred 
by Higinus to the fable of the Hesperides of Greek my- 
thology. These three nymphs dwelt in a beautiful garden 
in the western parts of the earth, in which grew the cele- 
brated tree which bore golden apples. These apples were 
guarded by a flerce dragon named Ladon, who never 
luept ; but Hercules killed this dragon, and carried ofi^ the 
precious fruit. 

In the Apocaljrpse, the Devil is called the Dragon , on 
which account St George, the patron saint of England, is 
usually painted on horseback, and tilting at a dragon under 
his feet^ as emblematical of the saint's faith and fortitude. 

If the old naturalists believed in the terrors of Dragons, 
they were as credulous respecting an antidote to them. 
'< The naturalists observe, (says Howell,) that morning 
spittle kills Dragons*." They also gave the name of 
" Dragon's Blood" to a resinous exudation from a palm- 
tree in the East and West Indies ; the colour of the resin 
being that of blood. Again, the term ^ Dragon-fly" has 
been applied to a harmless insect, from an erroneous notion 
of its possessing a sharp sting. 

Recently, however, an ingenious attempt has been made 
to identify the Dragon of fable with the crocodile. 

M. de Freminville has written a short Essay on the ex- 
istence of Dragons, of which we meet such constant men- 
tion in the legends and histories of the middle ages. He 
will not believe these monsters to be the mere creations of 
romance, and adduces several ingenious reasons for believ- 
ing them to have been real crocodiles. He cites many 
known facts of natural history, to prove that there is no 
reason to believe that these creatures never inhabited 
western Europe, merely because we do not now find them 
there. And, above all, he adduces the fact that, in the 
sand, at the mouth of the Seine, at Harfleur and Quille- 
boeuf, entire skeletons of crocodiles have been found in a 
state only half fossilized. From all which he concludes, 
that the continual battles of the heroes of the middle ages 
with dragons were, in truth, real encounters with croco- 
diles f. 

* Familiar Letters, 
t Trollope's Tour in Brittany, voL it pp. 120, 121. 



POPULAR BRRORS. 345 

Adam's apple 
Is the name given to the protuberance in the fore part of 
the throat, occasioned by the projection of the thyroid car- 
tilage of the larynx. This name originated from a super- 
stitious tradition, that a piece of the forbidden fruit, which 
Adam ate, stuck in his tnroat, and occasioned the swelling. 

THE OOROONS. 

Many contradictory opinions have been held concerning 
the Grorgous. Some critics have considered them as lovely 
young women, whose beauty was so powerful as to fix 
every beholder in motionless amazement; others have 
supposed them to be frightful old hags, whose deformity 
was so hideous, that no one could look at them without 
shuddering ; and some late writers, with a sceptical refine- 
ment, have denied their existence. " But I (savs Hay ley ) 
adhere to the evidence of that very respectable old Grecian, 
Paloephatus. who wrote a treatise expressly to explain the 
poetical riddles of his country ; in wnich he declares, that 
the three princely Gorgon sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and 
Medusa, were three voluntary old maids*." 

CREOLES. 

The word Creole is often, in England, understood to 
imply a Mulatto ; but the term means a native of a West 
Indian colonjf, whether white, black, or of the coloured 
population. 

^'man has one rib less than a woman." 

Sir Thomas Browne observes, *' that a Man hath one 
Bib less than a Woman, is a common conceit, derived from 
the History of Genesis, wherein it stands delivered that 
Eve was framed out of a Bib of Adam ; whence it is con- 
cluded the sex of the man still wants the rib that our 
father lost in Eve. And this is not only passant with the 
many, but was urged against Columbus, in an anatomy of 
his at Pisa, where, having prepared the skeleton of a 
woman that chanced to have thirteen ribs on one side, 
there arose a party that cried him down, and even unto 
oaths affirmed, this was the rib wherein a woman ex- 
ceeded. Were this true, it would ocularly silence that 
dispute out of which side Eve was framed ; it would de- 
termine the opinion of Oleaster, that she was made out of 

* Ezaminer Newspaper. 



846 POPUI<AR ERRORS. 

the ribs of both sides, or such as from the expression of the 
text maintain there was a plurality of ribs required ; and 
might indeed decry the parabolical expression of Origen, 
Cajetan, and such as fearing to concede a monstrosity^ or 
mutilate the integrity of Adam, preventively conceiYe the 
creation of thirteen ribs V 

But this '' will not consist with reason or inspection," 
which prove that both man and woman have ou each side 
twelve ribs: seven true, which are fixed to the breast-bone 
as well as to the back-bone ; and five fali^e ribs, which are 
merely fixed to the back. 

VENTRILOQUISM. 

What reference the word VentrUoquum can possibly bear 
to a faculty whereby the whole mystery is performed by 
the muscles of the throat, I am at a loss to know ; whereas, 
by the etymology, one might fairly presume that that in- 
dolent organ the belly, whose province, proverbially^ is to 
do nothing but eat, were now about to assume a new pri- 
vilege, break silence, and talk. At all events, no matter 
how the sound be generated, the artist has positively no 
control over its transmission ; and although indistinctness 
of utterance may create a sort of impression of distance, 
yet for the rest of the deception, the hic-et-ubique sensation 
of a voice proceeding down the chimney, or upwards 
through the window, such fantasies exist, even to their 
unlimited extent, solely in the imagination of the bearer. 
A familiar, or doll, is an indispensable member of a Ven- 
triloquist's establishment ; and, for aught we know to the 
contrary, the Grecian sage, with his demon, was merely 
a Ventnloquist ; or, at all events, an autoloquist, or thinker 
aloud. The author then notices an occasion, when the 
office was performed by a small wooden effigy, in like^ 
ness of an old man with a wig, whose lips, when 8up<- 
posed to speak, moved extremely naturally; so as by 
alluring the eye to a definite point, e6Pectually to imbue 
every spectator with a notion of reality f . 

MISTAKES IN NATURAL BISTORT. 

f 

How continually are the Nurserymen and Gardeners of 
this country complaining of extensive damage done to their 
crops and their fruit-trees by difierent species of Insects! 

* Vulgar Errors, book vii. c. ii, p. 994. 
t Sir George Head's Home Tour. 



POPULAR . ERRORS. 347 

Yet, these very insects^ from being called by Yulgar pro- 
yincial names, are almost totally unknown to naturalists, 
who cannot, therefore, supply that information which is 
desired. It is surely not too much to expect that a gar- 
dener should be able to tell the difference between a beetle 
and a fly ; between an insect with four wings, and one 
without. Yet so little has this information been thought 
of among the generality of this profession, that not one in 
twenty has any knowledee on the subject! Country 
gentlemen complain of their fruit being devoured by 
birds, and orders are given for an indiscriminate destruc- 
tion of birds' nests : the sparrows, more especially, are per- 
secuted without mercy, as being the chief aggressors; 
while the robin redbreast, conceived to be the most 
innocent inhabitant of the garden, is fostered and pro- 
tected. Now, a little acquaintance with the Natural His- 
tory of these two birds would set their characters in oppo- 
site lights. The sparrows, more especially in country 
situations, very rardy frequent the garden ; oecause, grain 
being their chief food, they search for it round the rarm- 
yard, the rick, and the stable : they resort to such situa- 
tions accordingly. The robins, on the other hand, are the 
great devourers of the small fruits : they come from the 
nest just before the currants and gooseberries are ripe, and 
they immediately spread themselves over the adjacent 
gardens, which tney do not quit so long as there is any- 
thing to pillage. It may appear strange, as it certainly is, 
that no writer on our native birds should have been aware 
of these facts ; but it is only a proof how little thoi^e per- 
sons, who are, nevertheless, interested in knowing such 
things, attend to the habits and economy of beings conti- 
nually before their eyes. In like manner, we protect 
blackbirds for their song, that they may rob us of our wall 
and standard fruits with impunity. It behoves every one 
to show humanity to animals, although we are authorised 
and justified in destroying such as are found by experience 
to injure our property. Under this latter head, however, 
we are committing so many mistakes, that, ere long, some 
of the most el^ant and interesting of our native animals 
will probably be extirpated. Country gentlemen give 
orders to their gamekeepers to destroy all ''vermin*' on 
their preserves; and these menials, equally ignorant with 
their masters of what " vermin*' are really injurious, com- 



848 POPULAR ERRORS. 

inenoe an indiscriminate attack upon all animals. The 
jay, the woodpecker, and the squirrel, three of the most 
elegant and innocent inhabitants of our woods, are doomed 
to the same destruction as the stoat, the polecat, and the 
hawk. Yet these former peaceful denizens of our woods are 
destroyed and exterminated, from sheer ignorance of the 
most unquestionable facts in their history. The jay, in- 
deed, is said to suck eggs ; but this is never done except in a 
scarcity of insect food, which rarely, if ever, happens. The 
woodpecker lives entirely upon those insects which destroy 
trees, and is therefore one of the most efficient preservers 
of our plantations ; while the squirrel feeds ezdusiyely on 
fruits and nuts. To suppose that either of these are pre- 
judicial to the ^gs or the young of partridges and phea- 
sants, would be just as reasoname as to believe that goat- 
suckers milked cows, or that hedgehogs devoured poultry*. 

THE LION. 

The Lion has been styled ''The King of the Beasts" 
from his surpassing in physical strength m other animals. 
His generosity and courage are more doubtful. Mr. 
Burchell, the traveller in Africa, says : " when men first 
adopted the Lion as an emblem of courage, it would seem 
that they regarded great size and strength as indicating it; 
but they were greaUy mistaken in the character they have 
given to this indolent, skulking animal ; and have over- 
looked a much better example of true courage, and of 
other virtues also, in the bold and faithful dog." Still, 
very different accounts are given by travellers of the 
cruelty or generosity of the Lion's nature, which result^ in 
all probability, from a difference in time or circumstances, 
or the degree of hunger which the individual experienced 
when the respective observations were made upon him. 

The Lions of Lord Prudhoe, in the British Museum, 
are the best sculptured representations of the animal in 
this country ; although the Lion is our natural hierc^lyphic, 
and there are many hundred statues of him, yet not one 
among them all appears without a defect, which makes our 
reprci^entations of him belong to the class cavis, instead 
oifelii — a fault not found in any Egyptian sculpturet- 

* Cabinet Cyclopaedia of Nat Hist. 
t M. Bonomi ; Proceedings of the Royal Society of Literature, Jan. 
9, 1840. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 349 

UNTAMEABLE HYiENA. 

Colonel Sykes has taken some pains to correct the 
Popular Error respecting the ferocious and untameahie 
disposition of the Hyaena. In India, the Colonel pos- 
sessed a female cuh. which was allowed to run about the 
house, and would play with the sailors on board ship: 
indeed, it was as playful and good-humoured as a puppy. 
Subsequently, Colonel Sykes placed this Hyaena in the 
gardens of the Zoological Society ; and there, when full- 
grown, it fondly recognized its master by rubbing its head, 
neck, and back against his hand*. 

Cuvier states that, in the day-time, the cage of a 
Striped Hyaena may be entered with impunity, when it 
will fawn upon those it knows ; *' and, were it not for the 
prejudices of the public on this subject, a Hyaena thus 
tamed might be entrusted with as much liberty as a com- 
mon dog.*' 

"The laughing Hyaena" may be traced to a belief 
among the Greeks and Romans, that the Hyaena could 
imitate the human voice, and charmed shepherds, so as to 
rivet them to the spot on which they stood. 

Pliny, from the great strength of the Hyaena's neck, 
believed it to consist of only one jointless bone ; and fur- 
ther, he credited the efficacy of the neck in magical in- 
vocations. A relic of this superstition lingers among the 
Arabs, who, according to Shaw, when they kill a Hyaena, 
bury the head, lest it should become the element of some 
charm against their safety and happiness. 

THE ELEPHANT. 

The Elephant has superstitiously been made an object 
of veneration, from an exaggerated notion of his intelli- 
gence. Indeed, he appears more sagacious than he really 
is, because the facial line, or the vertical height of the 
skull, when compared with its horizontal length, is ele- 
vated by causes which have no connexion with the volume 
of the brain. The stories of Elephants dancing upon 
ropes at Rome to gratify Nero and Galba, are examples of 
this exaggeration. Sir Thomas Browne terms *' grey- 
headed errors," the absurd notions that elephants had no 
joints and could not lie down, but slept against a tree, 
which being almost sawn asunder by the hunters, the beast 
fell with the tree, and was securely captured. 

* Proceedings of the Zoological Sooietj, 1833. 



850 POPULAR ERRORS. 

Thftt Elephants were fonnerly used in war is well 
known ; but the coninion representation of the Elephant 
hearing a castle, couYeys a very erroneous notion of the 
matter. Sir Thomas Browne observes : " the Pictures of 
Elephants with Castles on their Backs, made in the form 
of land castles, or stationary fortifications, and answerable 
unto the arms of Castile, or Sir John Old Castle ; whereas, 
the towers they bore were of wood, and girt unto their 
bodies ; as is delivered in the books of Maccabeet^ and as 
they were appointed in the army of Antiochus*.'* 

In an engraving of Kublai Khan, in his wooden castle, 
borne upon the backs of four elephants, in the thirteenth 
century, the "castle" is of square shape, open at the 
sides, with a semicircular roof, bearing the imperial 
standard ; and, altogether, more resembling a roofed how- 
dah than a castle or fortress built of stone. 

SLOW HORSES. 

The horse-jockey runs his hand down the Horse's neck 
in a knowing way, and says, *' This Horse has got a heavy 
shoulder: he is a Slow Horse." He is right ; but he does 
not understand the matter. It is not possible that the 
shoulder can be too much loaded with muscle, for muscle 
is the source of motion, and bestows power. VHiat the 
jockey feels, and forms his judgment on, is the abrupt 
transition from the neck to the shoulder, which, in a horse 
for the turf, ought to be a smooth, undulating surface. 
This abruptness, or prominence of the shoulder, is a con- 
sequence of the upright position of the scapula, or shouU 
der-blade: the sloping and light shoulder results from its 
obliquity. An upright shoiuder is the mark of a stum- 
bling horse : it does not revolve easily to throw forward 
the foott. 

WHITE-HOOFED HORSES. 

The rejection of Horses with White L^s and feet is 
mostly considered a matter of caprice, though the distinc- 
tion is reasonable enough. Even in a wet soil and climate, 
white hoofs are more brittle and more liable to accident 
and lameness than black ones ; and in the stony and more 
arid soils and climates, white hoofs do not stand nearly so 
well, and are much more liable to break and contract tnan 
those of a dark colour %, 

* Vulgar Errors, b. iv. c. xix. p. 904. 
t Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater Treatise. } Ibid. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 351 



THE VAMPIRE BAT 

Has been accased of destroying men and animals by 
sucking their blood ; but *' the truth," says Cuvier in his 
Regne Animal, ** appears to be that the Vampire inflicts 
only small wounds, which may, probably, become inflam- 
matory and gangrenous from the influence of dimate." 

LONGEriTY OP THE DEER. 

The traditional opinion that the Deer sometimes attains 
the age of upwards of a hundred years, is not worthy of 
countenance. In the superstitions of the Highlands of 
Scotland, however, are some arguments in favour of the 
longa et cervina senectus of Juvenal ; and the Gaelic 
adage, " Thrice the age of a man is that of a Deer," is 
supported by marvellous stories, attested by chiefs of 
honour and veracity. With all his respect for marvellous 
traditions, Mr. Scrope, in his work on Deerstalking, does 
not hesitate to inform us, that all the accounts he has 
received from park-keepers in England, where there are 
red deer, contradict their supposed longevity, and establish 
the fact that the longestuved Deer has not exceeded 
twenty years of age*. 

WOLVES IN ENGLAND. 

The naturo-historical accounts of the Wolf tell us that 
it was extirpated in Britain by the salutary edicts of King 
Edgar, who accepted their tongues and heads as tribute, 
or as a commutation for certain crimes. This appears to 
be a Vulgar Error ; for in the reign of Edward I. wolves 
had increased to such a degree that officers were appointed 
to promote their destruction, and lands were held by 
hunting them and destroying them. 

TARTARIAN LAMB. 

In many books of natural history we find engraved the 
*' Scythian Lamb," sometimes the " Tartarian Lamb :" it 
was said to be an animal, and although rooted to the 
ground, to have so deadly an effect on vegetation in its 
neighbourhood, as to prevent grass of any kind from grow- 
ing. So singular a creature, of course, attracted great at- 

* Edinburgh Review, No. oxlUi. 



352 POPULAR ERRORS. 

tention, and it was thought worthy the notice of the Royal 
Society ; since which it has heen discovered to be a species 
of moss, curiously twisted, so as to have some resemblance 
in form to an animal. 

THE SLOTH. 

The excellent account of this animal, in Waterton's 
Wanderings in South Ametica, corrects the endless Errors 
of naturalists, with respect to its natural history, — errors 
which have been continued even to the present day. 

'* Those who have written on this singular animal, (says 
Mr. M^aierton,) have remarked that he is in a perpetual 
state of nain ; that he is proverbially slow in his move- 
ments ; tnat he is a prisoner in space; and that as soon as 
he has consumed all the leaves of the tree upon which he 
had mounted, he rolls himself up in the form of a ball, and 
then falls to ihe ground. This is not the case. If the na- 
turalists who have written the history of the Sloth had 
gone into the wilds in order to examine his haunts and 
economy, they would not have drawn the foregoing con- 
clusions ; they would have learned that, though all other 
quadrupeds may be described while resting on the ground, 
the SIoui is an exception to this rule, and that his nistory 
must be written while he is in the tree. This singular 
creature is destined by Nature to be produced, to live, and 
to die, in the trees. It mostly happens that Indians and 
Negroes are the people who catch the Sloth and bring it to 
the white man ; hence it may be conjectured that the erro- 
neous accounts we have hitherto had of the Sloth have not 
been penned with the slightest intention to mislead the 
reader, or give him an exaggerated history, but that these 
Errors have naturally arisen, by examining the Sloth in 
those places where Nature never intended that he should 
be exhibited." 

With respect to the alleged tardiness, from which the 
Sloth has been erroneously named, Mr. Waterton states : 
"He travels at a good round pace, and were you to see him 
pass from tree to tree as I nave done, you would never 
think of calling him a Sloth." 

the camel. 
Camels are very patient under thirst: it is a Vulgar 
Error, however, to believe that they can live any length of 



POPULAR ERRORS. 353 

time ivithout water. They generally pine, and die on the 
fourth day ; and, with great heat, will even sink sooner*. 

There is no reason for supposing this useful animal to 
be exdusively an inhabitant of the Desert The Camds in 
European Turkey are indigenous, and are said to be of an 
exceJlent stock f . 

THE CAT. 

It is a very prevalent notion that Cats are fond of 
sucking the breath of infants ; and consequently^ of pro- 
ducing disease and death. Upon the slightest reflection, 
nothing can be more obvious than that it is impossible for 
a Cat to suck an infant's breathy at least, so as to do it any 
injury; for even on the supposition that it did so, the con- 
struction of its mouth must preclude it from interrupting 
the process of breathing by the mouth and the nose at the 
same time. This vulgar Error must have arisen from 
cats nestling about infants in beds and cradles^ to procure 
warmth. 

Cats are generally supposed to be subject to fleas ; but 
this idea is erroneous : the small insect which infests the 
half-grown kitten being a totally difierent animal, exceed- 
ingly swift in running, but not salient, or leaping, like the 
flea. 

THE WHALE NOT A FISH. 

Although tbe home of the Ceiaceis, (to which class of 
animals whales belong,) be entirely in the waters, they 
have several features in common with the larger qua- 
drupeds. They belong to the Linnsan dass of Mammalia, 
or suck-giving animals : they produce their young alive ; 
their skin is smooth, and without scales; their blood 
warm, and the flesh tastes somewhat like coarse beef. 
They have a head with two ventricles, and lungs through 
which they respire; and being unable to separate the air 
from the water, as fishes do by means of their gills, they 
must come to the surface in order to breathe. // is thus, 
by no means strictly scientific to call the Whale a Fish ; yet 
lie is entirely an inhabitant of the sea, having a tail, though 
placed differently from that of ordinary fishes, while his 
tront limbs much more resemble fins than 1^, and are 

* Lieut Bumee's Travels into Bokhara, 
t Soutbgate's Trarels in Turkey and Persia. 

A A 



354 POPULAR ERRORS. 

solely used for pawing the deep. Hence, the vulgar* fol- 
lowing a natural and descriptive classification^ obstinately 
continue to give the name of Fish to the Whale*. 

In representations of the Whale, we generally see two 
spouts of water mounting into the air nom his nostrils, 
when he is above the water, like artificial fountains. These 
are occasioned merely by the mode in which the animal 
breathes ; and it is an Error to suppose that he ejects the 
water through the nostrils. It is^ on the contrary, the 
breath which is tlius discharged, mixed with mucous 
matter, and perhaps, the foam of a wave which may 
happen to dasii oyer them. When this vehement breath- 
ing or blowing is performed under the surface, much water 
is thrown out into the air. 

The Whale too has been regarded as an ill omen, Aubvey 
says : *' a little before the death of Oliver Protector, a 
\y hale came into the river Thames, and was taken at 
Greenwich. ' Tis said, Oliver was troubled at it" 

Jonah's whale and oovrd. 

Thb Rev. Dr. Scot, of Corstorphine, in a paper read 
before the Wemerian Society, in 1828, has shown that 
the great fish that swallowed up Jonah could not be a 
Whale, as often supposed, but was, probably, a white 
shark. It is true that " a Whale" is not used in the text of 
Jonah, but " a great fish ;" still ** a Whale" is mentioned 
in the reference to this passage which our Saviour makes 
in Matt, xxii. 40. 

While the Greek version makes the plant undo" which 
Jonah sat a Gourd, the Vulgate reckons it a species of Ivy. 
The Castor-oil tree, with its broad palmate leaves, has, 
however, been more closely identified with *•*• the Gourd" 
of Jonah; which is corroborated by local traditions, as 
well as by the fact that it abounds near the Tigris, where it 
sometimes grows to a size more considerable than it is 
commonly supposed to attain. 

THE beaver. 

Of the sagacity and even social polity of the Beaver, 
many wonderful tales have been told. It has been repre- 
sented as an accomplished architect, gifted by Nature with 
a head to design, and instruments to execute wdl-planned 

* Hugh Mumj, F.R.S.E. 



POPULAR BRR0R8. 355 

houses containing chambers^ each set apart for its appro - 

Eriate purpose. The lovers of the marvellous, when they 
ad once given the reins to their imagination, soon con- 
verted the tail into a sledge and a trowel, and astonished 
the world with an elaborate account of the mode in which 
the plaster was laid on with this, according to them, ma- 
sonic implement ; nay, they even turned it into an instru- 
ment of office. With it the overseers, (such officers, ac- 
cording to the accounts given of their civil institutions, it 
was the custom of the Beavers to appoint,) were said to 
give the signal to the labourers whose employment they 
superintended, by slapping it on the surface of the water. 
All this, and more than this, has faded away before the light 
of truth. Their houses have sunk into rude huts, in the 
construction of which their tails are never used> being 
altogether unfitted for such operations ; and for mixing 
up uie mud, the Beaver employs the fore-paws and the 
mouth. The pile-driving, (for, among other feats, the 
Beaver was said to drive stakes of the thickness of a man's 
leg, three or four feet itito the ground) has turned out to 
be a mere fable ; and the polity of Beavers has proved to 
be nothing more than a combination of individuals, such 
as we see among many of the inferior animals, impelled 
by an instinct common to all who perform a task in the 
benefit of which all participate*^. 

THE HEDOE-HOO SUCKINO G0W8. 

The idle stories that the persecuted Hedge-hog sucks 
Cows is thus quaintly refuted by an old writer. In the 
case of an animal giving suck, '* the teat is embraced 
round by the mouth of the young one, so that no air can 
pass between ; a vacuum is made, or the air is exhausted 
from its throat, by a power in the lungs \ nevertheless, the 
pressure of the air remains still upon the outside of the 
dug of the mother, and by these two causes together, the 
milk is forced into the mouth of the young one. But a 
Hedge-hog has no such month, as to be able to contain 
the teat of a Cow ; therefore, any vacuum which is caused 
in its own throat, cannot be communicated to the milk in 
the dug. And, if he is able to procure no other food 
but what he can get by sucking Cows in the night, there 

* Penny Cyclopedia, voce Beaver. 
Aa2 



356 POPULAR ERRORS. 

is likely to be a vacuum in his stomach too*." Yet> ac- 
cording to Sir William Jardine, the Hedge-hog is very 
fond of eggs; and is, consequently, mischievous in the game 
preserve and hen-house. 

8INOINO-BIRDS IN THE OLD AND NEW WORJLD. 

It is a very unfounded notion, that in the New World, 
the brilliant nues of the Birds takes the place of the power 
of song. On the contrary, it would appear from Wilson's 
American Ornithology , that the American song-birds are 
infinitely more numerous than those of Europe, and many 
of them superior to our most celebrated songsters^. 

birds' egos. 

In Gloucestershire, exists a foolish superstition respect- 
ing the Eggs of Birds : the boys may take them unre- 
strained, but their mothers so dislike their being kept in 
the house, that they usually break them. Their presence 
may be tolerated for a few days ; but by the ensuing Sun- 
day, they are frequently destroyed, under the idea that 
they would otherwise bring bad luck, or prevent the 
coming of good fortune: as if in some way offensive to the 
domestic duties of the hearthit. 

CUCKOO SPITTLE. 

This absurd name has been given to the froth seen 
upon blades of grass, and in great abundance upon willow- 
trees, from a notion that it is the Spittle of tne Cuckoo, 
on account of its being most plentiful about the arrival of 
that bird. This froth is, however, expelled by an insect 
named Cicada spumaria, which has first sucked in the sap 
of the tree. A stupid fellow seeing this froth on almost 
every blade in his garden, wondered where all the cuckoos 
could be that produced it ! 

THE TURKEY. 

Our name for this bird, one of the useful benefits con- 
ferred by America on the rest of the world, is very absurd : 
as it conveys the false idea that the Turkey originated in 
Europe or Asia, owing to the ridiculous custom formerly, 

* New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors. By Stephen Fovargne, A.M. 
1786, p. 186. 

t Magazine of Natural History. ^ Journal of B Naturalist. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 357 

of calling every foreign object by the name of Turk, 
Indian, &c. The fact is, the Turkey is a native of the 
middle and northern parts of America, and was brought 
to Germany in 1 536, where it was first domesticated in 
Europe. 

THE RAVEN. 

The Raven is one of the chosen birds of superstition, 
from its supposed longevity, and its frequent mention and 
agency in holy writ : die obscure knowledge we possess of 
its powers and motives, and the gravity of its deport- 
ment, like an all-knowing bird; which circumstances have 
acquired for it, from very remote periods, the veneration 
of mankind. The changes in our manners and ideas in 
respect to many things, nave certainly deprived ravens of 
much of this reverence; yet the almost supernatural infor- 
mation which they are reputed to obtain of the decease, or 
approaching dissolution, of an animal, claims still some 
admiration for them. This supposed faculty of '' smell- 
ing death," formerlv rendered their presence, or even their 
voice, ominous to aU, as 

'* The hateful messenger of heayy things. 
Of death and dolour telling ;" 

and their unusual, harsh croak, still, when illness is in 
the house, with some timid and affectionate persons, 
brings old fancies to remembrance^ savouring of terror and 
alarm*. 

DISAPPEARANCE OF SWALLOWS IN WINTER. 

The old story of Swallows passing the Winter in a state 
of torpidity at the bottom of rivers, lakes, and ponds, has 
been frequently agitated ; asserted to be a fact by one 
party, and totally disproved by anoUier. A distinguished 
naturalist thus succeeds in settling the question : '* Swal- 
lows, being much lighter than water, could not sink in 
clusters, as they are represented to do. If their feathers 
are previously wetted, to destroy their buoyant power, in 
what manner can they resist the decomposing effect of six 
months* maceration in water, and appear in Spring as 
fresh and flossy as those of other birds ? Swallows do not 
moult while they remain in an active state ; so that, if 

* Jonmal of a Natorallit. 



358 POPULAR BRR0R8. 

they submerge, they either do not moult at aSl, or •perform 
the process under water. In the case of other torpid 
animals, some vital actions are performed, and a portion 
of oxygen is consumed ; but in the submerged swallows, 
respiration and, consequently, circulation, must cease. 
Other torpid animals, too, in retiring to their winter 
slumbers, consult safety; while the swallow, in sinking 
under the water, rushes to the place where the otter 
and pike commit their depredations. It is now ascer- 
tained that migration is, in ordinary cases, practised by 
the swallow ; yet their submersion has been belieyed by 
many natundistSy-^as Klein, Linnsus, and others."^ 

THE PELICAN. 

Sia Thomas fiaowNs says: "In every place, we meet 
with the picture of the Pelican, opening her breast with 
her bill, and feeding her young ones with the blood dis- 
tilling from her. Thus, it is set forth, not only in com- 
mon signs, but in the crest and scutcheon of many noble 
families ; hath been asserted by many holy writers, and 
was an hieroglyphick of piety and pity among the Egyp- 
tians ; on which consideration they spared tliem at tndr 
tablefft**" Sir Thomas refers this Popular Error to an 
exaggerated description of the Pelican s fondness for her 
young, and is indmed to accept it as an emblem " in coat- 
armour," though with great doubt. 

By reference to the actual economy of the Pelican, we 
find that, in feeding the nestlings, — and the male is said to 
supply the wants of the female when sitting, in the same 
manner, — theunder raandibleispressedagainsttheneck and 
breast, to assist the bird in disgorging the contents of the 
capacious pouch ; and during this action the red nail of the 
upper mandible would appear to come in contact with the 
breast, thus laying the foundation, in all probability, for the 
fable that the Pelican nourishes her young with her blood ; 
and for the attitude in which the imagination of painters 
has placed the bird in books of emblems, &c., with the blood 
spirting from the wounds made by the terminating nail 
of the upper mandible into the gaping mouths of her 
offspring. 

* Dr. Fleming, Philosophy of Zoology, t ViUgar Errors, b. r. c. L p. 271. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 359 

In A Choice of Embiems and other Devices, by Geoffrey 
Whitney^ 1586, beneath the cut are the following lines : — 

'* The pelican, for to revive h^ younge, 

Doth pierce her breste, and geve them of her blood. 
Then searche your breete, and as you have with tonge, 

With penne procede to do your countrie good : 
Your zeal is great, your learning is profounde. 
Then help our wantes with that you do abound." 

Sir Thomas Browne hints at the probability of the Peli- 
can occasionally nibbling or biting itself on the itching part 
of its breast, upon fulness or acrimony of blood, so as to 
tinge the feathers in that part. Such an instance is re- 
corded by Mr. G. Bennett, of a Pelican living at Dulwich, 
which wounded itself just above the breast; but no such 
act has been observed among the Pelicans kept in the Zoo- 
logical Gardens, and elsewhere ; and the instance above 
recorded was, probably, caused by local irritation. 

THE GOAT-SUCKER. 

The term Goat-sucker has been vernacularly applied to 
the European-Night jar, or Night>swallow,from the absurd 
idea of this bird sucking goats ; whereas, according to Mr. 
Kennie, 'Mt is as impossible for the Night-jar to suck the 
teats of cattle, (though most birds are fond of milk), as it is 
for cats to suck the breath from sucking-infants, of which 
they are popularly accused." 

THE NiaHTINGALB. 

It is a vulgar Error to suppose that the song of the Night- 
ingale is mdancholy, and that it only sings by night. There 
are two varieties of the Nighting^ale, one wnich sings both 
in the night and day, and one which sings in the day only.* 

HUHMINO-BIRDS. 

These splendid birds have generally been stated to feed 
only on the juice of flowers; whereas, it has lately been 
proved that they eat insects, and that the chief object of 
their fluttering about flowers is more for the purpose of 
their obtaining insect food, than for the allied object of 
sucking the honey from the nectaries of the plants. f 

* M. Wichterich, of Bonn, 
t Prof. Traill ; Trans. Wernerian Society. 1840. 



360 POPULAR ERRORS. 

THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 

This bird being worn as an ornament, on account of its 
beaudfol phimage, when sold for euch purpose has its feet 
cut off by the Papons of New Guinea, which led our cre- 
dulous forefathers to believe the feet to be actually Teanting 
in the bird*^. This belief may likewise have been fostered 
in casual observers, by the peculiar habit which the Para- 
dise bird has of shunning the bottom of it^eageyasif afraid 
of soiling its delicate plumage ; although, like the crow, 
(which it resembles in many respects), it has feet formed 
for walking. 

Besides die absence of l^s, the following wonders were 
once credited of this bird : — That the egg was laid in the air> 
and there hatched by the male in an orifice of his body ; 
that it hung itself by the two long feathers of its tail on a 
treewhen sleeping ; that it never touched the ground during 
any period of its existence, and fed wholly on dew. The 
Indians also believe, that the leader or king of the Bird-of- 
Paradise is black with red spots, and that he soars away 
with the rest of the flock, which, however, never quit him, 
but settle where he does. 

TURTLE-DOVES. 

Although the poets have adopted these birds as em- 
blems of faithfulness in love, Blumenbach assures us, that 
*' as to its highly-prized fidelity and chastity, setting aside 
idle fables, the Turtle-dove presents nothing superior to 
other birds which lead the same mode of life." 

SWANS. 

" The Swan with Two Necks " tavern sign, would lead 
weak persons to credit such an anomaly ; whereas, it is, 
in itself, a corruption of ** two nicks," or notches on the 
bill, by which means swans were formerly marked by 
their owners. But this custom becoming almost obso- 
lete, and the term not being understood, the sign-painter 
invented the ivfo-necked bird. 

The " Swan-hopping " of the London citizens is a cor- 
ruption of Swan-upping, or the taking up of Swans on the 
river Thames. 

* J. R. Forster, on Paradise Birds and the Phoenix ; Indian Zoology, 
Halle, 1795. B. 2a 



POPULAR ERRORS. 361 

THE HALOTON. 

It was anciently believed that during the Halcyon Days^ 
or that time when the Halcyon, or Kingfisher, is engaged 
in hatching her eggs, the sea, in kindness to her, remained 
so smooth and calm, that the mariner might venture on 
the main with the happy certainty of not being exposed 
to storms or tempests. 

The Earl of Kent, in King Lear, speaks of rogues who 

. ..._—_ « turn their Halcyon beaks 

With every gale and vary of their masters." (iL 1 .) 

This is an allusion to the old superstitious belief that a 
dead Kingfisher, suspended from a cord, would always turn 
its beak to the direction from whence the wind blew. 
The earliest mention of this, after Shakspeare's allusion, 
seems to be in Marlow's Jew of Malta^ 1633: 

" But how now stands the wind ? 
Into what comer peers my Haloyon'b bill. ** 

** I have once or twice," says Mrs. Charlotte Smith, 
'' seen a stuffed bird of this species hung up to the beam 
of a cottage ceiling, and imagined that the beauty of the 
feathers had recommended it to tliis sad pre-eminence, till, 
on enquiry, I was assured that it served the purpose of a 
weather-vane ; and though sheltered from the immediate 
influence of the wind, never failed to show every change 
by turning its beak to the quarter whence the wind blew*." 

AFFECTION OF FISHES. 

It is asserted by naturalists, that no Fishes are known to 
take any care of their offspring. This statement is, how- 
ever, erroneous; for two species of hastar, found in Africa, 
make a regular nest, in which they lay their ^gs in a flat* 
tened cluster, and cover them over most carefuuy. Their 
care does not end here : they remain by the side of the nest 
till the spawn is hatched, with as much solicitude as a hen 
^ards her eggs ; both the male and female steadily watch- 
ing the spawn, and courageously attacking any assailant. 
Hence the negroes frequently take them by putting their 
hands into the water close to the nest, on agitating which 
the male hassar springs furiously at them, and is thus 
capturedf. 

* From a paper ** On Sbakspeare's Knowledge of Natural History." 
By J. H. Fennell ; Gent. Mag. 

t Zoological Journal, No. XIY. * 



362 POPULAR ERRORS. 

COLOURS OF THE DOLPHIN. 

The changes of hue displayed by the dying Dolphin 
are peculiar; 'but have been much exaggerated by the 
poetical descriptions of travellers. Soon after the fish has 
been removed from the water, the bright yellow with rich 
blue spots, which constitutes the normal colour of the 
animal is exchanged for a brilliant silver, which a short 
time after death passes into a dull grey, or lead colour. 
The original golden hue occasionally revives in a partial 
manner, and appears above the silver field, producing a 
very interesting display of colours ; but the diversity of 
tints is not greater than here described*. 

THE JOHN DORY. 

Sir Joseph Banks's observation, that the name of this 
fish should be " adoree^ from its being worshipped, is 
needlessly far-fetched. In all the Italian ports, it is called 
Janitore, or the gate-keeper, by which title St. Peter is 
most commonly designated among Catholics, as being 
keeper of the keys of Heaven. In this respect, the name 
tallies closely with the superstitious legend of this being 
the fish out of whose mouth the Apostle took the tribute^ 
money. The breast of the animal is certainly much flat- 
tened; but, unfortunately for the credit of the monks, 
this feature is exhibited in equally strong lineaments, by at 
least twenty other varieties of fish. As for the name, the 
English sailors naturally substituted John Dory for the 
ItaUan Janitore. Quin was, doubtless, quizzing this cor- 
ruption when he proposed ** Ann Chovy " as the best com- 
panion for ^* John Dory.** 

crab's etes. 
The two rounded masses, one on each side of the stomach 
of the crab, have received the absurd name of "Crab's Eyes." 
Nothing can be more erroneous ; these rounded masses 
being magazines of carbonate of lime, which the Crab has 
collected for forming itself a new shell. 

THE GORDIAN WORM EELS. 

There is a ridiculous belief in some parts of the coun- 
try, that the hairs from a horse's tail, when dropped into the 
water, become endued with life ; in England, this trans- 

* Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Olobe, from 1836 to 1837. 
By F. D. Bennett/Esq., F.R.G.S. &o. 



POPULAR ERRORS. 863 

fonnation is supposed to produce the Gordius aquaticus, a 
small thread-like worm, of a red colour, which is found in 
groups knotted together in the water. In Scotland, we 
understand, the product of the hair is supposed to be a 
small Eel ; we need scarcely say that both tnese ideas are 
perfectly erroneous. It is certainly puzzling, at first sight, 
to understand in what manner ponds or other pieces of 
water, in which previously no fish were known, should be 
suddenly found full of small eels ; but the difficulty van- 
ishes on referring to the natural history of the ed tribe* 
There it will be seen, that they, (the young eels in particu- 
lar,) perform very long migrations over uie moist grass, 
chiefly in the night-time ; even full-grown eels will leave 
their native water after dark in search of food. 

INSECTS FOREBODING DEATH. 

It has been observed that Fleas and other parasitic 
insects never infest a person who is near death ; and so 
frequently has this been remarked, that it has become one 
of the popular signs of approaching dissolution. This is, 
in all probability, caused by the alteration in the state of 
the fluids immediately under the skin, either in quality or 
quantity. It must be upon the same principle that women 
and children are always more infested with the bed-bug 
and other parasitic insects, than old men, whose sub-cuta- 
neous fluids are scanty, and their skin, in consequence, 
more rigid and dry*. 

THE DEAThVhEAD MOTH. 

The yellow and brown-tailed Moths, the Death-watch, 
and many other insects, have long been the subjects of 
man's fear; but the dread excited in England by the 
appearance, noises, or increase of insects is petty appre- 
hension compared with the horror that the presence of 
the Death's Head Moth, (Ackerontia atropot,) occasions to 
some of tlie more fanciful and superstitious natives of nor- 
thern Europe. In German Poland, this insect is very 
common ; and it is here called the '^ Death's Head Phan- 
tom," the "wandering Death Bird," &c. The markings 
on the back represent, to a fertile imagination, the head of 
a perfect skeleton, with the limb-bones crossed beneath ; 
its cry becomes the voice of anguish, the moaning of a 

* iDMct MiBoellanie^, p. 90. 



364 POPULAR ERRORS. 

child, the signal of grief ; it is regarded, not as the creation 
of a beneyolent being, but as uie device of evil spirits, 
spirits, enemies to man, conceived and fabricated in the 
dark ; and the very shining of its eyes is supposed to re- 
present the fiery element, whence it is thought to have 
proceeded. Flying into the apartment in the evening, it 
sometimes extingui^es the light; foretellingwar, pestilence, 
famine, and deaths to man and beast. This insect has 
also been thought to be peculiarly gifted in having a voice, 
and squeaking like a mouse, when handled or disturbed ; 
but, in truth, no insect that we know of has the requisite 
organs to produce a genuine voice; it emits sounds by other 
means, probably all external*. 

THE DEATH-WATCH. 

The Death's-head Moth is not the only insect whose 
sound alarms the superstitious. Insects, which are much 
more common, though, from their minuteness, not so 
often heard, often strike the uneducated with terror as the 
messengers of death. We refer to the sound which most 
of our readers may have heard issuing from old timber, or 
old books, resembling the ticking of a watch, and hence 
popularly called the Death-watch. 

Sir Thomas Browne considered this marvellous story of 
great importance, and remarks that the man " who could 
eradicate this Error from the minds of the people, would 
save from many a cold sweat the meticulous heads of 
nurses and grandmothers;'' as such persons are firm in the 
belief that 

" The solemn Death-watch clicks the hour of death." 

Swift endeavoured to perform this useful task by means 
of ridicule, thus : 

" A wood worm 
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form. 
With teeth or with claws it will bite, it will scratch. 
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch ; 
Because like a watch it always cries click. 
Then woe be to those in the house that are sick ! 
For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost. 
If the maggot cries click when it scratches the i>ost. 
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected. 
Infallibly cures the timber affected : 
The omen ii broken, the danger is over. 
The maggot will die, the sick will recover." 



* Abridged from the Journal of a NatoraUst 



POPULAR ERRORS. 865 

Seriously speaking, a little entomological knowledge 
will dispel all such fears for ever. It is now a received 
opinion, adopted upon satisfactory evidence, that the 
above sound is produced by certain beetles belonging to 
the timber-boring genus, Anobium ; though some tick 
louder than others. When Spring is far advanced, these 
insects commence their ticking as a call to each other, 
which is thus produced : raising itself upon its hind legs, 
with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with 
great force and agility upon the plane of position ; and its 
strokes are so powerful as to make a considerable impres- 
sion if they fall upon any substance softer than wood. 
The general number of custinct strokes in succession is 
from seven to nine, or eleven. They follow each other 
quickly, and are repeated at irregular intervals. The 
noise exactly resembles that produced by tapping mode- 
rately with the nail upon a table ; and when famOiarised, 
the insect will answer very readily the tap of the nail. 
The superstition that the clicking of this insect is a death- 
omen 18 mentioned by Baxter, in his World of Spirits, 
which obtained currency for its belief upwards of a century*. 

CRICKETS. 

It is singular that the House- Cricket should by some 
weak persons, be considered as unlucky, and by others, a 
luck^, inmate of a dwelling: those who hold the latter 
opinion, consider its destruction the means of bringing 
misfortune on their habitations. '* In Dumfries-shire,*' 
says Sir William Jardiue, '* it is a common superstition, 
that if Crickets forsake a house which they have long in- 
habited, some evil will befall the family ; generally, the 
death of some member is portended. In like manner, the 
presence or return of this cheerful little insect is lucky, and 
portends some good to the family.*' 

THE EAR-WIO. 

Many persons have a dreadful idea of the effect of an 
Ear- wig getting into the ear, and by penetrating the brain 
causing madness ; this notion is founded on a want of know- 

* In the Frontispiece to the present ▼olume, is a representation of the 
Death-niratch, natural sise, and magnified. Blumenhacb, we perceive, 
refers the name of one species to a cause not yet hinted at, — that, when 
touched, it extends its feet, and lies as though dtad, firom which state it 
cannot easily he made to moTe. 



866 POPULAR ERRORS. 

ledge of the construction of the ear. If one of these insects 
should by chance get into the ear, it would no doubt be an 
unpleasant inmate ; but the membranum tympani^the drum- 
head of the ear> would effectually prevent the progress of the 
insect ; and the unwelcome visitor could be either Idlled, or 
dislodged with ease by means of a few drops of oil. There 
is anotner Error with respect to the Earwig, namely, that it 
is without wings : this is not the case ; it has a very delicate 
pair of wings^ curiously folded up under its short wing- 



THE LANTERN-FLY. 

Many years since, Madame Merian, in her splendid work 
on the Insects of Surinam, stated that the Lantern-fly emit- 
ted light strong enough from its lantern-like head to read a 
newspaper by. This was too pretty a phenomenon to be 
omitted from any succeeding account of the insecL But, 
according to the more recent observations of M. Richard 
and M. Sieber, and our countryman, Dr. Hancock, the 
whole statement is erroneous : even the native tribes of 
Guiana agree in treating the story as fabulous ; and Dr. 
Hancock lately stated to the Zoological Society, that *' it 
seemed to be an invention of Europeans, desirous of assign- 
ing a use to the singular diaphanous projection resembling 
a horn lantern, in front of the head of the insect" Yet, Mr. 
John Murray, F. L. S., asserts, that he has read a letter by 
the exclusive light of the lampyris nocti/uca, another lumi- 
nous insect ; and that in a dark night he once picked up a 
lampyria aplendidula, which showed him distinctly the hour 
by a watch. 

THE BIRD-KILLINO SPIDER. 

The story of a Spider which catches and devours Birds, 
is likewise believed to have had its origin with Madame 
Merian, in her work on the Insects of Surinam. The natu- 
ralists, Oviedo, Labat, and Rochefort, do not mention any 
Spider as possessing such habits ; the two latter writers only 
stating, that in the Bermudas there exists a Spider which 
makes nets strong enough to entangle small birds. Madame 
Merian, however, asserts, that one Spider not only catches, 
but devours small birds: and has figured a spider in the act 
of preying on a humming- bird. Now, this particular kind 
of Spider does not spin a net, but resides in tubes under 
ground, and in all its movements keeps close to the earth ; 
while humming-birds never perch except on branches. A 



POPULAR ERRORS. 867 

living hummiog-bird, when placed in one of the Spider's 
tubes, was not only not eaten by the Spider, but the latter 
actually quitted its hole, which it left in possession of the 
intruding bird. A geometrical web, spun by the largest 
spider that spins in the West Indies^ may^ perhaps, occa- 
sionally be strong enough to catch the smaller among the 
humming-birds ; but it is not likely that the spider would 
eat the birds. A small species of lizard, introduced into 
one of these nets, was enreloped in the usual manner by the ' 
spider ; but^ as soon as the operation was completed, the 
insect cut the lind and allowed the prisoner to fall to the 
ground. The existence of any Bird-lulling Spider, is conse- 
quently, disbelieved by the distinguished naturalist, Mn 
MacLeay, who has reported these interesting facts to the 
Zoological Society. 

The Spider to which Madame Merian attributes this 
bird-killing propensity, in the night-time, destroys the 
cockroaches in the houses at Surinam. It is never killed 
by the negroes, who believe that if they were to destroy 
this Spider, it would cause them to break cups and glasses. 
Thus, an absurd superstition serves to protect an useful 
creature. 

THE TARANTULA SPIDER. 

Sir Thobias Browne gravely says: "Some doubt 
many have of the Tarantula, or poisonous Spider of Cala- 
bria, and the magical cure of the bite thereof by music. 
But, since we observe that many attest it from experience ; 
since the learned Kircherius hath positively averred it, 
and set down the songs and tunes solemnly used for it; 
since also some affirm the Tarantula itself will dance upon 
certain strokes, whereby they set their instruments against 
its poison ; we shall not at all question it*." 

Many years since, an Italian gentleman communicated 
to Stephen Storace, the celebrated musician, a circumstan- 
tial account of the effect of the bite of a Tarantula upon a 
poor ploughman, and its cure by the tune called *'the 
Tarantella," being played to him, when, after dancing; 
wildly till he was extiausted, he was bled and put to bed, 
and so recovered ; the latter treatment having, doubtless, 
far more to do with his recovery than the music. Still, 
the narrator states, that, not knowing the air of '^ the Ta- 

* Vulgar Errors, b. iii. c. xxtu. p 208. 



368 POPULAR ERRORS. 

rantelU^*' he tried several jigs* but to no purpose ; for the 
man was as motionless as before, until be caught the pro- 
per air. 

Blumenbach gives the following explanation of the mys- 
tery : — ** The fable of the supposed inevitable consequence 
of the bite, and of the cure by music, may be explained, 
by supposing that travellers of easy faith have been de- 
ceived, partly by the representations of hypochondriacal 
and hysterical patients, but more commonly by the arti- 
fices of beggars. This much is certain, that this Spider, 
which lives in little holes in fields, may inconvenience the 
reapers by its bite during harvest ; and that, like that of 
many other insects, its bite may, in the heat of summer, 
become dangerous, and even cause a kind of chorea, (St. 
Vitus's dance)*." 

BEES. 

To enumerate the Errors and superstitions respecting 
Bees would occupy several pages; so that we can only 
relate a few instances. In some parts, when any one of 
the family is buried, as the corpse passes out of the house, 
every hive is loosened and lifted up ; otherwise it is be- 
lieved that the Bees would die, or desert the hive, and seek 
other quarters. Another mode of communicating the in- 
telligence to the little community, with due form and 
ceremony, is to take the key of the house, and knock with 
it three times against the hive, telling the inmates, at the 
same time, that the master or mistress, as the case may be, 
is dead ! In Bedfordshire, it is not uncommon for the 
peasantry to sing a psalm in front of hives of Bees which 
are not doing well, after which they are believed to 
thrive ! 

Bees are likewise believed to grow, from their great dif- 
ference in size and colour, which is referable to another 
cause. Bees hatched iti very old cells, are smaller; as 
each maggot leaves a skin behind, which, though thinner 
than the finest silk, layer after layer contracts the cell, and 
somewhat compresses the future Bee. 

* Manual of Natural History, p. 230. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Absurd Notions, Universal, 187 

Absurdities in Medicine, 189 

Adam's Apple, 345 

Adder-stone, the, 279 

Aged Persons, Temperature of, 5 

Airing Rooms, 127 

Alchemists, Practices of the, 284, 285 

Alexander the Great, Death of, 273 

Alexandrian Library, the, 237 

Almanac, Moore's, 196 

Almanacs, Old, 195 

Animals, Fabulous, of the Ancients, 

330 
Antelope and Unicom, 335 
Antipathies, 21 
Antique— Antiquities, 166 
Antiquities, Study of, 167 
Appetite, False, 43 
Apples, Names of, 67 
Aqua Tofana, History of« 276 
Aqua Yitffi, 109 
Aqueducts, Ancient, 165 
Arab Horses, 280 
Arabs and the Plague, 279 
Architecture, " Gothic," 245 
Architecture, Saxon, 246 
Arithmetic and Algebra, 219 
Arithmetic, Learning, 220 
Arithmetic, Phraseology of, 221 
Ark of Noah, 327 
Arrest after Death, 257 
Arsenic, Poisoning by, 25 
Artichoke, Jerusalem, the, 70 
Ass, the Indian, 335, 336 
Astrologers not all Impostors, 286 
Astrology, Benefits of, 285 

Bachelor, Origin of the term, 268 
Bacon's (Friar) Brazen Head, 288 
Bacon, Roger, Doubtful Inventions 
of, 286 



Banstead Mutton, 67 

Bantam Cocks, 58 

Barometer, Imperfections of the, 31 5 

Barometer and the Wind, 316 

Bathing, Cold, 19 

Bathing, Warm, 19 

Bavarian Broom Girls, 226 

Beaver, Habits of the, 354 

" Beaver Hats," 161 

Bed, a damp one, 23 

Beef-eaters, Origin of> 173 

Beer, Salt in, 90 

Beer turning sour, 90 

Bees, Errors respecting, 368 

Bees, Keeping, 73 

Bells in Churches, 244 

Bells, Silver in, 245 

Bibles, Entries in, 255 

••Bilious." the, 44 

Bird of Paradise, the, 360 

Birds, Destruction of, 347 

Birds' Eggs. 356 

Birds, Song of, in the Old and New 

World, 356 
Bird-killing Spider, the, 366 
Bitter Almonds, 84 
Bitters in Porter, 91 
Bitters and Tonics, 21 
Black Game, 59 
Blackness of Skin, Cause of, 14 
"Bosom Friend," 204 
Boot and Shoe Making, Defects in, 

152 
Brain, Insensibility of, 8 
Brandy, Preserving in, 111 
Brass-plate Coal-merchants, 117 
Bread, Alum in, 61 
Bread, French, 62 
Bread, Nourishment in, 60 
Bread, Patent, 62 
Bread, Potatoes in, 61 

fi B 



370 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Braathing, Difficult, in atcmding 

MountainA, 246 
Brewing, Art of, 88 
Brewing, Thames Water for, 89 
Brewing, Water for, 89 
Briclu. Diuabillty of, 163 
Brine, Tests of, 86 
Britannia Metal Tea-pots, 13S 
Burial in Cross Roads, 2M 
Bull-beef. 260 
Burial of the Dead, 253 
Burning-glasses, accidental, 128 
Butcher on a Jury, 259 
Butter, Pounds of, 260 
Butter, Salt in, 59 



Cssar in Britain, 234 

Camels, Thirst of, 352 

Cameos and Intaglios, Conversions 

of, 312 
Candles, Store, 112 

"Cannel Coal.** 117 

Cape Wines, Failure of, 105 

Capital Punishments, the Inefficacy 

of, 263 
Cards, Invention of, 200 
Cat sucking Breath of Children, 353 
Cats and Valerian, 192 
Cause and Effect, 212 
Caverns, Origin of, 324 
Cellars, Coolness of, 126 
Champagne, Frothing and Still, 101 
Chance, Doctrines of, 199 
Charcoal and Tainted Meat, 55 
Charcoal Tooth-powder, 22 
Charity, What is it? 205 
Charles L, Statue of, at Charing 

Cross, 308 
Chemistry, Domestic, 158 
Children, Love of, 214 
Chimneys, Draft in, 120 
Chimneys, Tall, 120 
Chinese Females, Feet of, 11 
Cider and Perry, Manufacture of, 92 
Civilization, Benefits of, 207 
Claret, Fine, 100 
Claret and the Gout, 101 
Classics, Cultivation of the, 215 
Classics, Utility of the, 215 
Clothing, Summer, 130 
Clothing, White, Warmth of, 130 
Clothing, Woollen, 129 



Coals at Blackheath, 131 

Coal and Coke, Econonsy of, 118, 

Coals more valuable than Gold, 

115 
Coals, Perpetuity of, 116 
Coals, Sale of. 117 
Coals, Waste of, 116 
Coal-mines, British. Exhaustion of, 

145 
Cockneys, who are ? 228 
Codlins, 67 

Coffee after Dinner, 84 
Coffee " Berry,- the, 81 
Coffee, Chicor^ in, 82 
Coffee, to make, 82 
Coffee, Prejudices against, 83 
Coffee, Roasting, 82 
Coffee, " Turkey," 81 
Coffee-making in France, 83 
Coins, Portraits on, 179 
Commerce, past and present, 155 
Common Rights, 258 
« Contrast of Colours," 155 
Cookery, Errors of, 45 1 
Cookery, French and English, 45 
Cookery, Good and Bad, 193 
Cookery, Plain, 45 
Cookery, Rationale of, 194 
Copper in Meat, 49 
Copper Saucepans, Danger from, 94 
Copper Springs, 134 15 
Cotton, Poisonous, 149 
Crabs' Eyes, 362 
Credulity of Great Minds, 291 
Credulity and Superstition, 213 
Creole, the term, 345 
Crickets in a House, 365 
Criminal hanging an Hour, 259 
Criminal Trial, 262 
Crocodiles and Dragons, 344 
Cross, Signature of the, 237 
Crystal, Varieties of, 143 
Cuckoo Spittle, 356 
Cure-mongering Quacks, 191 
Cures, Imaginative, 191 
Curfew, the, 175 
Cutlery Marks, 135 
Cutlery, Town-made, 135 



Dark Lanthom, carrying, 256 
Dead Languages, Quotation of the, 
216 



GENERAL INDEX. 



371 



Death, Fear of, 33 

Death, Fear of, natural to Bian, 38 

Death by Lightning, 36 

Death, Nature of, 3S— 34 

Death not Pain, 38 

Death, Uncertain SIgng of, 36 

Death'bed, Sufferings of the, 3ft 

Death's-head Moth, the, 363 

Death-warrants, 284 

Death-watch, the, 364 

Deeds executed on a Sunday, 359 

Deer, Longevity of the, 351 

Diamond, Hardness of the, 146 

Diamonds, Prices of, 147 

Diamond, Properties of the, 14ff 

Dietetics, 40 

Dining Alone, 194 

Dinners, Plain, 47 

Diving-hell, Invention of the, 321 

•< Does the Water boil ? " 123 

Dolphin, Colours of the, 362 

Dorking Fowls, fi7 

Doubt, Benefit of, 213 

Dragon of Wantiey, the, 343 

Dragons, Origin of, 343 

Dreams, Morning, 30 

Dreams, Traces of, 30 

Dress, Colours for, 15 

Drop Measure, 192 

Drowning, Causes of, 39 

Drowning, Recovery from, 20 

Druidical Circles, Counting, 297 

Drunkards, Liability of, 267 

*« Dutch " Clocks and ** Toys,'* 888 

Pyee, Poisonoas, 158 

Ears, Long, 12 

Eating, Rule of, 43 

Eau de Cologne, 141 

Eel, Migrations of the, 363 

Earthenware Boats ascribed to the 

Egyptians, 309 
Ear-wig, the, 365 
Education, Benefits of, 214 
Education, Public, 218 
Edward the Black Prince, 309 
Eggs, to Boil. 58 

El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh, 290 
Elephant, Exaggeration of, 349 
English Monarch, the First, 293 
Era and Epoch ,293 
Error, Correction of, 206 



Error, Halfpence, 184 

Errors, National, 187 

Errors in Print, 203 ' 

Errors, Religious, 211 

Esquires, Who are ? 267 

Executions, Public, 264 

Experiments, First, Fallacies of, 310 

Eye, Motion of the, 16 

Eye, one, Superior Vision with, 3J7 

Eye, Perfection of the, 15 

EyeSidifferent Perspectives of the,316 

Failure, common Cause of, 204 

"Family Editions," 222 

Farthings of Queen Anne, 181 

Feudal System, the, 168 

Fiddlers and Catgut, 235 

Fmger, the Wedding Ring, 251 

Fingers, Seeing with the, 17 

Fire extinguished by the Sun, 122 

Fire, Poker across, 123 

Fire, Raking out the, 121 

" Fires," Distances of, 122 

" Fires," E^ttinction of, 122 

Fire-irons, Polished, 124 

Fire-proof Feats, 128 

Fish, Consumption of, 50 

Fish, few found at Sea, 52 

Fish, Out-of-season, 51 

Fish, Poisonous. 51 

Fish, Prejudices against eating, 50 

Fishes, Affection of, 361 

« Fita," the prefix, 271 

Flags on Castles, 175 

Fhittery, the Best. 212 

Flower^de-Luce, the, 292 

Flowers, Odour of, 72 

Food, Animal, for Children, 46 

Food, Animal, the English fond of, 40 

Food, Animal and Vegetable, 48 

Food, Nourishment In, 41 

Food, Properties of, 40 

Forks, Antiquity of, 137 

France, South of, 6 

France, Travelling in, 225 

Freemasons, Ancient and Modem, 
308 

Froich Fashions, 154 

Frmch Language, the, in Travel- 
ling, 224 

Frendi Gloves, 153 

French Women, 286 



372 



OBNBRAL INDEX. 



PraiU, Forced, 68 

Fruita, Ripening, 06 

Fuel, Waata of. 118 

*« FuU to the brtm." 129 

FuneraU Right of Way at, 353 

Fun, Price of. 149 

Pun, Tarioua, 149 

Fur, Warmth of, IfiO 

Game of ** Beggar myNeighbour,'*a00 
Gaming Hells, 199 
Gas, Heating by, 120 
Gardens, Ornamental, 166 
Gaa-bumen, Economy ot, 113 
Oaa-lighta, Smoke from, 114 
Genius, what is it? 217 
Gentleman, what makes one ? 268 
Geometrical Terms, Misapplication 

of, 323 
German Silver, the, 133 
Giants, Belief in. 332 
Gilding, Spurious, 133 
Gin for Worms, 22 
Gipsies, who are the ? 230 
Glass broken by Hot Water, 125 
Glass painting, Ancient, 164 
Gleaning, Right of, 256 
Gloves, French, 153 
Gluttony, English, 368 
Goatsucker, The, 359 
Gold Fish in a Glass, 128 
Gold, Jewellers', 142 
Gold. Standard, 141 
Golden Pippin, the. 67 
•* Good for Man and Beast," 25 
Goodwin Sands, the, 299 
Gordian Worm, the. 363 
Gorgons, Who were they? 345 
Gourmandism and Epicurism, 40 
Griffins, various. 340 
Grocers' Currants, 84 
Growing Fat, 4 
Guillotine, the. 266 
Guinea and Feather, Fall of, 311 
Guineas, Light, 184 
Gunpowder. Invention of, 287 

Hair, Nature of, 8 

Hsloyon, or King-fisher, the, 361 

Halfpence, Error, 184 

*' Hangman's Wages," 265 

Hannibal, Death of, 273 



Happiness, Secret of, 904 
Hawthorn, or May>buah, the, 283 
Health, Evidence of, 4 
Heat, Intense, Security from. 127 
Heat, Sensation of, 126 
Hedgehog sucking Cows, 365 
Heir-at-Law, to Disinherit, S69 
Holidays, obsolete, 186 
Holidays and Trade, 185 
Hops and Coals, Nuisances, 87 
Horses, Slow, 350 
Horses, White-hoofed, 350 
Houbraken's Heads, Authenticity 

of, 180 
Houses, Interior Decoration of, 163 
Human Body, Weight of the, 192 
Humming-birds, Food of, 350 
Hydrophobia, 27 
Hyena, Un tameable, 349 
Hypochondriacs, Ridicule of, 28 
Hypochondriasis, Cause of, 28 

Ignorance, Popular, 309 
Imagination, Errora of the, 212 
<* Imperial Tokay," 102 
Improvement of the World, 186 
Improvements, unpopular, 186 
Indian Ink, 140 
Infants, Sensibility of, 10 
Insects foreboding Death, 363 
Insurance Offices, ** Profits of," 159 
Insurances, Cheap, 159 
Inventions, New, Elffeots of, 157 
Irish, Intelligence of the, 226 
Iron, Expansion of, 126 

Jane Shore, Death of, 307 

Jews' Antipathy to Pork, 301 

** Jews' Oranges," 188 

Jews' Ear, 302 

Jeweller's Gold, 142 

Jews' Harp, the, 223 

Jews, Persecution of the^ SOO, 

John the Baptist's Locusts, 897 

John Dory, the, 362 

Jonah's Whale and Gourd, 354 

Jury, Surgeon and Butcher on, 259 

King without his Crown, 187 
Knives, Antiquity of, 138 
Knowledge and Happiness, 200 
Knowledge, Limit of. 208 



GENERAL INDEX. 



373 



Lamps, Management of, 113 
Lantern-fly, the, 366 
Laws, Misconstruction of, 254 
Laws Penal, Contradictory, 262 
Laws, Temporary, Unrepealed, 260 
Leaden Vessels. Poison from, 25 
Leases for 999 Years, 259 
Leeks worn on St. David's Day, 294 
Left-handedness, Cause of, 12 
Legal Errors, 259 
Lent, Observance of, 242 
Life Assurance, Objections to, 160 
Light from Stale Fish, 132 
Light from Wax and Tallow, 112 
" Lightness before Death,"34 
Linen Bleached and Unbleached, 1-^8 
Lion, Courage of the, 348 
Literature, Elizabethan, 173 
Living in Ancient Times, 171 
Living, Elizabethan, 172 
Livings, Presentation to, 255 
Logwood, Misuse of, 151 
London, Healthiness of , 5 
London Porter, 91 
Longevity of Authors, 1 
Longevity of the Deer, 351 
Longevity, Highland, 1 
Looking Back, 329 
Lot's Wife, a " Pillar of Salt," 338 
Louis Quatorze, Style of, 164 
Lunatics and the Moon, 25 

Machinery, Manufacturing by, 157, 
260 

Madeira, East and West India, 103 

Madeira and Claret, Decanting, 104 

Madeira and the Grout, 104 

Madeira, Qualities of, 103 

Madeira on the Voyage, 103 

Itfadeira a|id the Mediterranean, 
Climate of, 6 

Madness, What is it ? 26 

Biadness, Religious, 27 

Magazine, the First, 240 

Magna Charta, 261 

Making and Manufacturing, 157 

Malt, High-dried, 87 

** Man has one Rib less than a Wo- 
man,** 345 

Man, Stature of, 2 

Man, Temperature of, 4 

Manstona, French, 161 



Mansions, Old English, 160 
Manufactures, French and English, 

158 
Marketing, Principles of, 15C 
Marocco Leather, 151 
Marriage, Exemptions by, 247 
Marriages, Fleet, 250 
Marriages, Gretna Green, 250 
Marriages, Royal, 251 
" Marry," the phrase, 244 
Meat, Loss of, in Cooking, 55 
Meat, Putridity of, 55 
Meat, Roast and Boiled, 46 
Mechanics, Theory and Practice of, 

310 
Medical Advisers, Profits of, 16 
Medicines, Powerful, Use of, 21 
Medlars and Quinces, Scarcity of, 68 
Melancholy, Religious, 211 
Mermaid, the Pretended, 337 
Metals, Transmutation of, 284 
Mezzotinto Engraving, Discovery of, 

326 
Microscopic Illusions, 315 
MiUer's Toll, the, 256 
Mineral Tallow, 314 
Minster, the, 297 
Miracles, Scriptural, 212 
Monasteries, B^iefits of, 170 
Money, Ancient Value of, 177 
Moral Science, 210 
Moths in Clothes, 152 
Mulgrave Family, Origin of the, 321 
Muscles, eating, 54 
Muscovy Glass, 140 
Mushrooms, Edible, 71 
Music, Ear for, 222 
Music, Practice of, 222 
Music, Tyrolese, 223 
Mutton, Banstead, 57 
Mutton, Prejudice against eating, 56 

Nankeen, 151 

Natural History, Mistakes in, 346 
Nautical Maps, Imperfection of, 323 
Navigation, False Estimates of, 322 
Near-sighted Persons, 16 
*' Nervous,**, the term, 10 
Newspapers, Origin of, 240 
Newspaper, the first English, SSft 
Nightingale, the, 359 
Noah*sArk, Form of, 327 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Norfolk Riffint. (» 
NoyoaUt Poiaonous, 8ft 



Oak and Yeaat, the, 61 

Obctinacy and FimmaM, 804 

Old England. 9M 

Opal, ** Beauty " of the, 149 

Opus Majiw, the, 989 

Order of the Garter, Origin of, 300 

Orrery, the. 391 

Oryx and Unioom, 335 

*« Over-Refinement," I70 

«* Oysters, Green,'* fi3 

Farsiniony and Economy, 199 
Past and Present Times. 167 
Fatagonians. Height of the, 319 
Pearls. What are they ? 147 
Pedlar's Acre, 992 
Peerage, Antiquity of the, 968 
Pelican feeding her Young with her 

Blood. 358 
Penal Laws. Contradictory, 269 
Pepper, Black and White, 86 
Pwpetual Motion Seekers, 311 
Perspective, Different, of the Eyes, 

317 
Perspective, DIudon of, 318 
Pewter-ware, Disuse of, 133 
Philosophy, Popular. 203 
Phceniz, Fable of the, 339 
Pianoforte out of Tune, 127 
Pigeons, keeping, 981 
Pillory, the. 266 
Plants, Poisonous. 68 
Plants in Rooms and Towns, 79 
Pleasure Tours, 927 
Plurality of Worlds, 910 
Poison, Antidotes to, 979 
Poison in the Nails, 974 
Poison, "Blow," 276 
Poisons of the Ancients, 973 
Poisoning by Arsenic and Lead, 95, 
Poisoning by Copper, 94 
Poker across the Fire, 193 
Pomatum, 140 
Popularity, Value of, 196 
Population and Prosperity, 209 
Porcelain and Pottery, British, 139 
Porter, London. Bitters and Head- 
ing of, 91 
Port Wine, Medicinal C^uaUtiesof, 96 



Potato-flour, 70 

Potatoes in Bread, 61 

Potatoes as Food, 50 

Potatoes, Mealy and Waxy, 69 

«< Prince of Wales's Feathers, tbe/ 

303 
Printing, Effects of, 907 
Prohibited Trade, 185 
Prophecies, Political, 197 
Pruasic Acid not rare, 94 
Pulse, on the, 19 
Pursuit, Want of one, 905 

Quarantine, on. 93 

Queen Anne's Farthings, 181 

Rain, Prognostications of, 316 
Raking out the Fire, 191 
Raleigh. Sir WaL his El Dorado, 29 
Raven, the, 357 
Raaor and Hot Water, 136 
Razor, to use one, 136 
Reading after Meals, 194 
Reason and Revelation, 911 
Rest, Hours of, 7 
Rhinoceros's Horn, the, 974 
Rhone, the, and the Lake of Ge- 
neva, 980 
Rice, Nourishment in, 63 
Rice. Patna, 63 
** Rilievo," the term, 327 
Roads, British and Roman, 239 
Roads on the Continoit, 226 
Roads, Turnpike, 234 
" Roast Beef of Old England," 174 
Romulus and Remus, 297 
Roofs, Chestnut and Oak, 161 
Ruby and Diamond, the. 143 

Sabbath and Sunday, 940 
Sage, Varieties of, 70 
Sailors and Soldiers, British, Loy- 
alty of, 188 
"Sallet-oU,"174 
Salt in Sea-water, 319 
Sapphire, Varieties of, 149 
Saw-mills, Statutes against, 859 
Scarlet Runners, 71 
Science, Mythology of, 283 
"Scotch, the," 190 
Sea-coast, Salubrity of, 6 
Seed-corn destroyed by Pigeons, 281 



GENERAL INDEX. 



375 



SeUingaWlfe,249 
SensibUity, Benefits of. 9 
Sensibility of Infants, 10 
Shakspeare's Play of Henry Y., 295 
Sheets warmer than Blankets, 130 
Shell-fish, Cruelty to, 53 
Sherries, Adulteration of, 99 
Sherries, Dark and Pale, 99 
Sherries, Manufacture of, 99 
Slaves, Flogging in the West Indies, 

227 
Sleep of Aged Persons, 32 
Sleep, Nature of, 29 
Sleep, Prevention of, 29 
Sleep, Sound. 30 
Sleeping with the Eyes Open, S9 
Sleep-walking, 31 
Sloth, Economy of the, 352 
Small-pox, Inoculation for, 18 
Smuggling in Scotland, 110 
Snow melted with Salt, 73 
Snow-water, 64 
Soda-water, Spurious, 64 
Sound and Noise, 311 
Soup from Bones, 48 
Soup, Turtle, 49 
Sovereign, Arrest of the, 259 
"Soy from Black Beetles," 86 
Spectacles, Choice of, 17f 248 
Spermaceti, Waste of, 112 
Spider, Bird-killing, 366 
Spider, the Tarantula, 367 
Spirit of Wine, Test of, 109 
Sphits, Adulteration of, 111 
Spirits, Consumption of, 109 
Spirits, Pale, 111 
Spirits, Warmth from, 44 
Squirrel Cages, barbarous, 282 
Star Chamber, the, 293 
Statesmen, Clever, 203 
Statues, Ancient, Exaggeration of, 2 
Steam from the Kettle, 125 
Stilton Cheese, 58 
Storms, Danger from, 319 
Stoves, Cast-iron and Bright, 124 
Stove-grates, Low, 131 
Stramonium in Asthma, 28 
Strasburg Pies, 59 
Studies, Abstract, 32 
Studies, Night, 8 
Style of Writing, 218 
Subterranean World, the, 324 



Sugar, Economy in, 75 
Sugar and the Teeth, 75 
Sugar, Nutriment in, 74 
Suicides, English and French, 189 
Suicides in November, 188 
Sumptuary Laws, the, 169 
Sun, Exposure to the, 5 
Suppers Recommended, 48 
Surgeon on a Jury, 259 
" Swan with Two Necks," 360 
Swallows, Disappearance of in Win 

ter, 357 
Sweet and Bitter, Components of, 312 

"Talented," the, 221 

Talents, Precocious, 217 

Tarantula Spider, the, 367 

Tartarian Lamb, the, 35] 

Taste of the Public, 186 

Tea, Antiquity of, 75 

Tea consmned in England, 79 

Tea, Effects of, 81 

Tea in England, High Price of, 78 

Tea, Green, 80 ; 

Tea, keeping, 79.' 

Tea, Quality of, 77 

Tea, Varieties of, 76 

Teas, Adulteration of, 77 

Teas, Fine, in China, 78 

Tea-phmt, Localities of the, 76 

Tea-pots, Black, 125 

Tears, What are they? S48 

Teeth, Stopping the. 

Telescope, Invention of the, 288 

Temperature of Aged Persons, 6 

Temperature of Man, 4 

Tender in Payment, 257 

Tenterden Steeple and Goodwin 

Sands, 299 
Thames Water, 65, 89 
Thaw, a Cold one, 129^ 
Theatres. Misconstruction of, 165 
Thirst, Imaginary, 44 
"Thirteen to Dinner," 195 * 
•• Thunderbolt, the," 318 
Tide, Rise of at Old London Bridge 

819 
Tin and Tin-plate, 132 
Tinning Vessels, 132 
Tongue, the, 8 
Trance, Causes of, 31 
" Transpire," 222 



376 



GENERAL INDEX. 



TraTellIng EnffliBhmen, S24 
Travelling in France, S2ft 
Tread-mill, the, 23 
^ Trees in Fields, 258 
Tnrkey, the, 3fi6 
Turtle-doves. Fidelity of. 360 
Tutenague, What is it? 134 

Vampire Bat. the, 351 
Yauxhall and Guy Fawkes, 893 
Vegetablesr. Boiling, es 
Venioe Glasses, 278 
Ventilation, Experimental, 121 
Ventriloquism, on, 346 
Vine, Culture of in Britain, 105 
Vine nourished by Blood, 93 
Vineyard, the, 92 

IJnioom. the, 335 

•• Up with the Bun," 175 

Walking. Art of, 14 
Warming Buildings, 119 
Waste Lands in EngUmd, 258 
Watches, French, 141 
Water near Churchyards, 65 
Water in Large Towns, 64 
Water, the Purest, 63 
Water of the Thames, 65 
Water-cresses, Spurious, 70 
Water-wheels, Velocity of in the 

Night, 324 
Waves.Deceptive Appearance of, 325 
Wax and Tallow, Comparative Light 

(»f. il2 
Weight before and after Dinner, 193 
Weight of the Human Body, 192 



Wet Clothes, Walking in, 23 

Whale not a Fish. 353 

" Whale " and " Gourd - of Jonah, 354 

Wheat, Growth of, 59 

•• Whig •• and •• Tory," Origin of, 297 

Whiskey, Smuggled, 110 

White-bait and Shad, 52 

Windows, Glazed. 162 

Wine, Brandying, 98 

Wine, Colour of, 96 

Wines, Crusted, 97 

Wine as a Luxury. 94 

Wine,Port,Medicinal Qualities of, 98 

Wine, Principles of, 93 

Wine. What is it ? 93 

Wines. British, Strength of, 108 

Wines, First-class, 95 

Wines, French, Consumption of, 100 

Wines, Home-made, unwholesome, 

108 
Wines, Iceing, 106 
Wines, Maturing, 96 
Wines, Rhenish, 102 
Wines, Spirit in, 97 
Wines and Spirits, 97 
Wines, Taste in, 94 
Wines and Spirits, Benefits of, 93 
Wine-casks, Immense, 102 
Wine-making, British. 107 
Wolves in England, 351 
Wounds, Skin-deep, 9 
Writing for the Many, 203 
Writing Ink, 140 

Yellow a permanent Colour, 155 

"Zinc Tree," the, 322 



THE END. 



LONDON : 
BRAOBVIiY AND E' ANiS. PliIM'EKS, WHITEPl'IARS.