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Article « THINGS NOT GENEBALLY KNOWN."* ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
« Things Not Genebally Known."*
both bristling with curious points . "We find room for a passage upon a very old acquaintance : — " A tortoiseshell Tom cat , and a Queen Anne ' s farthing , appear in popular estimation to enjoy a corresponding rarity . The coin is scarce and so is the cat ; but neither is so rare as traditional tale would have us believe ; and this hardly allows existence . The tortoiseshell' is one of the most noted of the varieties of the domestic cat ; and its marks , resembling tortoiseshell , are ascribed to a
crossbreed of black and yellow . Males are scarce ; and every year specimens are offered for sale to the Zoological Society of London , as rarities worthy of a place in their line menagerie . In tlie autumn of 1851 , Mr . John Thurston , of Waltharn-le-Willows , in Suffolk , possessed a handsomely-marked ( tortoiseshell ' Tom , fifteen months old . "
Of the much-vexed question , whether toads can live inclosed in stone and wood , we find it stated that" Dr . Buckland and the Rev . E . Stanley , from a variety of experiments to determine the possibility of these reptiles existing within blocks of stone or wood , conclude that the commonly-received belief is perfectly false ; notwithstanding the almost numberless instances on record , apparently well attested , of the vitality of the reptiles under the joint additional singularity of exclusion of air and privation of food . " "Under " Trees and Plants / ' we are told
that" The Upas Tree of Java , of the poison of which so many fabulous stories have been reported , is now growing in the Horticultural Society ' s garden at Chiswick ; notwithstanding the fables of Dutch travellers , perpetuated by Darwin , it may be approached with safety . It is , however , so virulent a poison , that no prudent person would handle it without proper precaution . "
Of the plant whose root so nearly resembles horse-radish , as to have recently led to the poisoning of some persons in Scotland , it is stated that the fatal root ,
aconite" Was regarded by the ancients as the most violent of all poisons : hence they fabled it to be the invention of Hecate , and sprung from the foam , of Cerberus . Persons , only by smelling the full-blown flower , are said to have been seized with swooning-fits ; and to have lost their sight for two or three days ; and a criminal has been put to death by swallowing a dram of the aconite-root . "
" Natural Magic" yields a few choice anecdotic records ; but these we pass over to get to the domestic corner of the book , where we find stores " of information about ; marriages , Christenings , and burials . Next is the last relic of the barber-surgcon—his pole , — which was
nsed" For the patient to grasp in blood-letting , a fillet or bandaging being employed for tying his arm . When the pole was not in use , the tape was tied to it , and twisted round it ; and thus hoth were hung up as a sign . At length , instead of hanging out the actual pole used in the operation , a pole was painted with stripes round it , in imitation of the real pole and its bandages : hence the barber ' s pole .
" Lord Thurlow , in his speech for postponing the further reading of the Surgeons' Incorporation Bill , July 17 , 1797 , stated , that ' by a statute still in force the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole . ' " Barbers have in our time let blood and drawn tooth : the last we remember of this class was one Middleditch , of Great Suffolk-street , South wark , in whose window were displayed heaps of drawn tooth . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
« Things Not Genebally Known."*
both bristling with curious points . "We find room for a passage upon a very old acquaintance : — " A tortoiseshell Tom cat , and a Queen Anne ' s farthing , appear in popular estimation to enjoy a corresponding rarity . The coin is scarce and so is the cat ; but neither is so rare as traditional tale would have us believe ; and this hardly allows existence . The tortoiseshell' is one of the most noted of the varieties of the domestic cat ; and its marks , resembling tortoiseshell , are ascribed to a
crossbreed of black and yellow . Males are scarce ; and every year specimens are offered for sale to the Zoological Society of London , as rarities worthy of a place in their line menagerie . In tlie autumn of 1851 , Mr . John Thurston , of Waltharn-le-Willows , in Suffolk , possessed a handsomely-marked ( tortoiseshell ' Tom , fifteen months old . "
Of the much-vexed question , whether toads can live inclosed in stone and wood , we find it stated that" Dr . Buckland and the Rev . E . Stanley , from a variety of experiments to determine the possibility of these reptiles existing within blocks of stone or wood , conclude that the commonly-received belief is perfectly false ; notwithstanding the almost numberless instances on record , apparently well attested , of the vitality of the reptiles under the joint additional singularity of exclusion of air and privation of food . " "Under " Trees and Plants / ' we are told
that" The Upas Tree of Java , of the poison of which so many fabulous stories have been reported , is now growing in the Horticultural Society ' s garden at Chiswick ; notwithstanding the fables of Dutch travellers , perpetuated by Darwin , it may be approached with safety . It is , however , so virulent a poison , that no prudent person would handle it without proper precaution . "
Of the plant whose root so nearly resembles horse-radish , as to have recently led to the poisoning of some persons in Scotland , it is stated that the fatal root ,
aconite" Was regarded by the ancients as the most violent of all poisons : hence they fabled it to be the invention of Hecate , and sprung from the foam , of Cerberus . Persons , only by smelling the full-blown flower , are said to have been seized with swooning-fits ; and to have lost their sight for two or three days ; and a criminal has been put to death by swallowing a dram of the aconite-root . "
" Natural Magic" yields a few choice anecdotic records ; but these we pass over to get to the domestic corner of the book , where we find stores " of information about ; marriages , Christenings , and burials . Next is the last relic of the barber-surgcon—his pole , — which was
nsed" For the patient to grasp in blood-letting , a fillet or bandaging being employed for tying his arm . When the pole was not in use , the tape was tied to it , and twisted round it ; and thus hoth were hung up as a sign . At length , instead of hanging out the actual pole used in the operation , a pole was painted with stripes round it , in imitation of the real pole and its bandages : hence the barber ' s pole .
" Lord Thurlow , in his speech for postponing the further reading of the Surgeons' Incorporation Bill , July 17 , 1797 , stated , that ' by a statute still in force the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole . ' " Barbers have in our time let blood and drawn tooth : the last we remember of this class was one Middleditch , of Great Suffolk-street , South wark , in whose window were displayed heaps of drawn tooth . "