_Sic Vos Non Vobis_
The iconoclasts are turning their attention to the claims of Harvey and
Jenner. They declare that the claim of Andrea Cesalpino, of Avezzo, one
of the famous scientists of Italy in the sixteenth century, to the prior
discovery of the circulation of the blood, has been established. And as
to Jenner, they bring forward this inscription in the graveyard of Worth
Maltravers, Dorsetshire, to show that he was anticipated by several
years:
“Sacred to the memory of Benjamin Jesty, of Downshay, died April 16,
1816, aged 79. He was born at Yetminster, in this county, and was an
upright, honest man, particularly noted for having been the first person
known that introduced the cow-pox by inoculation, and who, for his great
strength of mind, made the experiment from the cow on his wife and two
sons in the year 1774.”
The “strength of mind” referred to would be laughable were it not for
the fact that Jesty had already caught the cow-pox from his cows, and so
did not need to be inoculated for it.
_The Moons of Mars_
The following passage, from Voltaire’s “Micromegas Histoire
Philosophique,” is curious in view of the discovery of the two moons of
Mars, several years ago, by Professor Asaph Hall, of the National
Observatory, Washington. The work describes a journey, throughout the
solar system, of Micromegas, a philosopher of Sirius, and a being of
enormous proportions, who is accompanied by an inhabitant of Saturn, the
latter intermediate in size between the great Sirian and the inhabitants
of our earth. The extract is from the third chapter:
“Departing from Jupiter, our voyagers traversed a space of a hundred
millions of leagues, and coasted the planet Mars, which, as is well
known, is about one-fifth of the dimensions of our little globe. _They
saw two moons which attend this planet, and which have escaped the
observations of our astronomers._ I know very well that Father Castel
will write, good-humoredly, of course (et même assez plaisamment),
against the existence of these two moons; but I am in accord with those
who reason from analogy. Philosophers of this sort know how difficult it
would be for Mars, which is so distant from the sun, to get on with less
than two moons, at all events.”
Voltaire’s philosophical romance, published in 1752, was imitated from
Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels.” It is therefore easy to trace the
quotation to the Voyage to Laputa (Chapter III.) in which Swift, writing
in 1727, says,—
“Although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they show
the stars with great clearness. This advantage has enabled them to
extend their discoveries much farther than our astronomers in Europe;
for they have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars, whereas the
largest of ours do not contain above one-third part of that number. They
have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve
about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the
primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost five;
the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in
twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are
very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from
the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the
same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.”
_The Suez Canal_
In the second part of Marlowe’s “Tamburlaine the Great,” written in
1587, there is a remarkable forecasting of one of the greatest
enterprises of modern times, the Suez Canal. In the catastrophe of this
powerful drama, Tamburlaine (the historical Timour, or Tamerlane, the
“Scourge of God”) being about to die, is made to review his conquests.
He calls upon his attendants for a map that he may see how much of the
world is left for him to conquer, and may exhibit his plans to his sons
for them to execute when he is dead. Placing his finger on the map, he
exclaims:
“Here I began to march toward Persia,
Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,
And thence into Bithynia, where I took
The Turk and his great empress prisoners.
Then marched I into Egypt and Arabia,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,
Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channel to them both,
That men might quickly sail to India.”
_The Panama Canal_
Eckermann, in his “Conversations,” under date of February 21, 1827,
says,—
“Dined with Goethe. He spoke with admiration of Alexander von Humboldt,
whose views as to the project for making a passage through the Isthmus
of Panama, appeared to have a particular interest for him. ‘Humboldt,’
said Goethe, ‘has, with a great knowledge of his subject, given other
points where, by making use of some streams which flow into the Gulf of
Mexico, the end may be, perhaps, better attained than at Panama. All
this is reserved for the future and for an enterprising spirit. So much,
however, is certain, that if they succeed in cutting such a canal that
ships of any burden and size can be navigated through it from the
Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, innumerable benefits would result to
the whole human race, civilized and uncivilized. But I should wonder if
the United States were to let an opportunity escape of getting such work
into their own hands. It may be foreseen that this young State with its
decided prediction to the West, will, in thirty or forty years, have
occupied and peopled the large tract of land beyond the Rocky Mountains.
It may, furthermore, be foreseen that along the whole coast of the
Pacific Ocean, where nature has already formed the most capacious and
secure harbors, important commercial towns will gradually arise for the
furtherance of a great intercourse between China and the East Indies and
the United States. In such a case it would not only be desirable, but
almost necessary, that a more rapid communication should be maintained
between the eastern and western shores of North America, both by
merchant ships and men-of-war, than has hitherto been possible with the
tedious, disagreeable, and expensive voyage round Cape Horn. I therefore
repeat that it is absolutely indispensable for the United States to
effect a passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean; and I am
certain that they will do it.’”
_Foreshadowing of the Germ Theory_
Dr. Samuel Johnson, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, under date of November
12, 1781, in the course of a sympathetic reference to a friend of theirs
who was suffering from dysentery, expressed the opinion that the
specific cause of that disease, one of the oldest of which we have any
record, was an amœba or animalcule. He says, “If Mr. B—— will drink a
great deal of water, the acrimony that corrodes his bowels will be
diluted, if the cause be only acrimony; but I suspect dysenteries to be
produced by animalculæ which I know not how to kill.” Long before
Johnson’s time, Morgagni’s investigations had shown the character of the
inflammation of the lower intestines, but that a century before the
revelation of pathogenic micro-organisms Johnson should have suspected
causal relations between amœboid cells and an infectious disease is very
curious. Even the term he employed is used in classification, as of the
two forms of dysentery which are recognized, one is known as amœbic, and
the other as bacillary.
_The Telephone_
More than two centuries ago, Robert Hooke, in the preface to his
“Micrographia,” said,—
“And as glasses have highly promoted our seeing, so ’tis not improbable
but that there may be found many mechanical inventions to improve our
other senses, of hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. ’Tis not
impossible to hear a whisper at a furlong’s distance, it having been
already done; and perhaps the nature of the thing would not make it more
impossible, though that furlong should be ten times multiplyed. And
though some famous authors have affirmed it impossible to hear through
the thinnest plate of Muscovy glass; yet I know a way by which ’tis
easie enough to hear one speak through a wall a yard thick. It has not
been yet thoroughly examin’d how far Otocousticons may be improv’d, nor
what other ways there may be of quick’ning our hearing, or conveying
sound through other bodies then [than] the air: for that is not the only
medium. _I can assure the reader, that I have, by the help of a
distended wire propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in
an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light_, at
least incomparably swifter then [than] that which at the same time was
propagated through the air; and this not only in a straight line, or
direct, but in one bended in many angles.”
_Stenography_
A curious little book has been dug from out the dust of two centuries,
and has been partially republished by the German newspapers for the
purpose of proving that there is nothing new under the sun. The little
book is entitled “Foolish Wisdom and Wise Foolishness,” and was written
by an old-fashioned German political economist named Becher. At the time
of its publication the book was regarded as something of a Munchausen
narrative of the author’s travels through Europe. During his wanderings
Becher became acquainted with most of the learned men on the Continent,
and acquired much information concerning the scientific work of his day.
He describes crude conceptions of the phonograph and the telephone by a
Nuremburg optician named Fraur Gründler. He gives foreshadowings of an
air-gun, aërial navigation, a universal language like Volapuk, and other
things which would have gladdened Wendell Phillips when he was preparing
his famous lecture on “The Lost Arts.”
During his tour of inquiry Becher discovered that in several regions
outside of Germany many men had learned “to write down what others said,
with wonderful rapidity, by means of strange characters.” “Englishmen
have discovered a kind of tachygraphy,” he explains, “or an art which
enables them to write as rapidly as the fastest speakers can talk. They
have brought this wonderful art to such a degree of perfection that
young persons often write out full sermons without a mistake. Orations
in Parliament can be written out by this means as rapidly as they are
delivered, which I regard as a very useful invention.” So much for
stenography two centuries ago.
_The Great Fire of London_
The ever-memorable fire which destroyed fifteen of the twenty-six wards
of the city of London, an area of four hundred and thirty-six acres,
broke out at two o’clock on Sunday morning, September 2, 1666. On the
preceding Friday London was forewarned of this calamity by a Quaker from
Huntingdon, named Thomas Ibbott. Entering London on horseback, he
dismounted and turned his horse loose; then, unbuttoning his garments,
he ran about the streets, scattering his money and crying out, “So
should they run up and down scattering their goods, half-undressed, like
mad people, as he was a sign to them,”—a prediction to which no
attention was paid at the time, but which was verified during the four
days’ conflagration.
_The Plague of London_
Astrology, with its terrestrial theory of the heavens, its belief in
planetary influences upon the earth and its inhabitants, and the
arbitrary signification it gave to the astral bodies, singly or in
conjunction, was largely concerned with the propagation of superstition.
It accounted for and predicted the great plague of London, in 1665, by a
conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Sagittarius on the 10th of October,
and a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same sign on the 12th of
November. It took no note of the real causes of that and all other
pestilences,—accumulation of sewage and filth, contamination of air and
water, effluvia from putrefactive matter, noxious gases, soil
exhalations, and overcrowding of man and beast. If, however, in his
dealings with simple unsupported superstition the astrologer failed in
his reasoning and his conclusions, we must credit him with laborious
attempts to find some rationale.
_The Reformation_
An instance of a dying man punning upon his own name is furnished in the
case of John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer. Huss was burned at the stake,
in Constance, July 6, 1415, the anniversary of his birth. Shortly before
he was overcome by the heat of the flames, he said, “It is thus that you
silence the _goose_ (huss = a goose), but a hundred years hence there
will arise a _swan_ whose singing you shall not be able to silence.” On
November 10, 1483, was born Martin Luther, who is generally regarded,
and rightly so, as having fulfilled this remarkable prophecy to the
letter.
_Emancipation_
The following lines, prophetic of our Civil War, were written in 1850 by
James Russell Lowell, in his “Capture of Certain Fugitive Slaves near
Washington:”
“Out from the land of bondage ’tis decreed our slaves shall go,
And signs to us are offered as erst to Pharaoh;
If we are blind, their exodus, like Israel’s of yore,
Through a Red Sea, is doomed to be, whose surges are of gore.”
_The French Revolution_
In the “Memoirs of Madame Du Barry” is the following anecdote:
“The duchess (de Grammont) related that one evening, when M. de Carotte
was at a large party, of which she made one, he was requested to consult
the planets and make known what would be the destiny of the persons
assembled there. This he evaded by every possible pretext, until,
finding they would take no excuse, he declared that, of the whole of the
company then before him, not one would escape a violent and public
death, from which not even the king and queen would be exempt.”
_The White Lady_
The cholera was raging in Bavaria; several of the small mountain
villages had been depopulated. King Ludwig, Queen Therese, and the Court
remained at Aschaffenburg, as the pestilence was peculiarly fatal at
Munich, a place Queen Therese disliked very much, when, unexpectedly,
either on account of some state ceremonial or from one of his usual fits
of restlessness, Ludwig announced that the Court would return to Munich
in three days. On the evening before they started, the queen and several
of her ladies were sitting in one of her apartments in the palace, the
last but one of the suite. She was in low spirits, and all were unhappy
at the prospect of the return to Munich. It was a warm summer evening,
drawing towards dusk. Presently a lady, dressed in white, came into the
room, and, making a slight reverence to the queen, passed on into the
inner room, which opened from the one in which they were sitting. A few
moments after she had passed it struck all present that they did not
recognize her; also, that none of the other ladies on that day were
wearing white dresses. The queen and some others arose from their seats
and went into the room to see whom it might be, and found it empty!
There was no mode of egress except the door by which they had entered,
and the room was on the second story, so that no one could have got out
of the window. Suddenly all felt that it must have been “the White
Lady,” whose visit is believed to foretell the death of one of the
Bavarian royal family, and some of the ladies fainted. The court went to
Munich on the next day, according to appointment, and three days after
Queen Therese died of cholera.