A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2). Johann Beckmann
in his Dictionary, but gives it as the return of an official report for the year 1831!]
82
This information is to be found in Hellot’s Art of Dyeing, into which it has been copied, as appears by the Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle, par Valmont de Bomare, from an account written by M. Porlier, who was consul at Teneriffe in 1731.
83
As the archil grows in the African islands, and on the coast of Africa, Glass supposes that the Getulian purple of the ancients was dyed with it; but this opinion is improbable, for Horace praises “Gætula
84
Lettres sur l’Histoire Naturelle de l’Isle d’Elbe, par Koestlin. Vienne, 1780, 8vo, p. 100.
85
Lib. xxvii. c. 9.
86
Nova Plantarum Genera. Flor. 1729.
87
Some translate this word
88
[According to Dr. Ure, the Dutch first reduce the lichen to a fine powder by means of a mill, then mix a certain proportion of potash with it. The mixture is watered with urine and allowed to undergo a species of fermentation. When this has arrived at a certain degree, carbonate of lime in powder is added to give consistence and weight to the paste, which is afterwards reduced into small parallelopipeds, which are carefully dried.]
89
This plant grows in the neighbourhood of Montpelier, and above all, in the flats of Languedoc. In harvest, the time when it is collected, the peasants assemble from the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues around, and each gathers on his own account. It is bruised in a mill, and the juice must be immediately used; some mix with it a thirtieth part of urine. It is poured over pieces of canvas, which they take care to provide, and which they rub between their hands. These rags are dried in the sun, and then exposed, above a stone stove, to the vapour of urine mixed with quick-lime or alum. After they have imbibed the juice of the plant, the same operations are repeated till the pieces of cloth appear of a deep blue colour. They are called in commerce
90
[Lacmus or litmus is now prepared from
91
Linn. Mantissa Plantarum, i. p. 132.
92
See Wallis’s Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland, 1769, 2 vols. 4to, i. p. 279.
93
In his Kollektaneen. Berlin, 1790, ii. p. 117.
94
Aëtii Op. 1. ii. c. 25.
95
In Stephani Artis Med. Princip. ii. p. 253.
96
De Lapidibus, lib. ii. p. 131.
97
J. J. Wecker, De Secretis.
98
I took the trouble to search for this passage in Jac. Hollerii lib. de morbis internis, Parisiis 1711, 4to, but I could not find it, though the beginning of the book treats expressly of head-aches.
99
Magia Naturalis, lib. vii.
100
Kircheri Magnes, sive De Arte Magnetica, lib. iii. c. i.
101
P. Borrelli, Hist. et Observ. Medico-physic. cent. 4. obs. 75.
102
Observations sur l’usage de l’aimant en médecine, par MM. Audry et Thouret.
103
Heberden in the Neue Hamburg. Mag. xvii. p. 219. I am convinced that many of the accounts we have of the extraordinary effects of poison are fabricated, like those mentioned in Frid. Hoffmanni Dissert. de Læsionibus externis, abortivis Venenis ac Philtris. Francof. 1729, et recusa Lips. 1755. That author, however, denies some which are true. It is, for example, certain that camphor and rue do not produce the effects ascribed to them by Dioscorides, Paulus Ægineta, and others; but there are without doubt other substances which will produce these effects.
104
Sennerti Instit. Med. ii. 2, 12.
105
He gave to Aratus a poison, not speedy and violent, but of that kind which at first occasions a slow heat in the body, with a slight cough, and then gradually brings on a consumption. One time, when Aratus spat up blood, he said, “This is the effect of royal friendship.” See Plutarch, Vit. Arati.
106
Quint. Declamat. xvii. 11.
107
With the poison of the Indians, however, the ancients could not be acquainted, as it is prepared from a plant unknown in Europe before the discovery of America. Kalm, in his Travels, does not name it, and in that he has done right; for, as the plant is now to be found everywhere, no government could guard against a misapplication of it, were it publicly known.
108
They say a poison can be prepared from aconite so as to occasion death within a certain period, such as two, three, or six months, a year, and even sometimes two years. Those, we are told, whose constitutions are able to hold out longest, die in the greatest misery; for the body is gradually consumed, and must perish by continual wasting. Those die easiest who die speedily. No remedy has been found out for this poison. – Theophr. Hist. Plant. ix. c. 16.
109
Livius, lib. viii. c. 18.
110
Taciti Annal. lib. iv. c. 8.
111
The account given by Tacitus deserves to be read; see lib. xii. c. 66.
112
The history of this horrid affair may be found both in Tacitus, Annal. xiii. c. 15 and 16, and in Suetonius, vi. cap. 33. Respecting Locusta, see also Juvenal, sat. i. 71.
113
This account is given by Aulus Gellius from the now lost works of Tuditanus. – Noct. At. lib. vi. cap. 4. Cicero often speaks of the magnanimity of Regulus; as, for example, in his Oration against Piso, and in his Offices, book iii. chap. 27; but he makes no mention of his having been poisoned. Valerius Maximus also, book i. chap. i. 14, says nothing of poison.
114
Apollonii Vit. lib. vi. c. 14.
115
Histor. Animal. lib. ii. c. 45.
116
Lib. ix. c. 48, and lib. xxxii. c. 1.
117
In Linnæi Systema Nat., through an error of the press, stands
118
J. B. Bohadsch De quibusdam animalibus marinis. Dresdæ, 1761, 4to, p. 1–53. In this work there is a full description, with a figure of this animal, under the name of
119
The accounts given by the ancients of the sea-hare have been collected in Grevini Lib. de Venenis, Antverpiæ 1571, p. 209. In the Annals of Glycas, iii. (
120
See Stenzelii Diss. de venenis terminatis et temporaneis, quæ Galli