LION Dogs and Cats are common in Paris.
The lion-dog greatly resembles a lion in miniature; the hair of the fore
part of its body is long, and curled, and the hinder part short; the
nose is short, and the tail is long and tufted at the extremity; the
smallest are little larger than guinea-pigs; these are natives of Malta,
and are the most valuable; those which are produced in France are
considerably larger, and the breed degenerates very soon. Their general
colour is white; they are frequently called _Lexicons_, which word is
derived, not from a dictionary, but from a French compound word of
nearly the same sound, descriptive of one of their properties.
The lion-cat comes originally from _Angora_, in _Syria_. It is much
larger than the common cat; its hair is very long, especially about the
neck, where it forms a fine ruff, of a silvery whiteness and silky
texture, that on the tail is three or four inches long; these cats
frequently spread their tails on their backs, as squirrels do. The
colour is generally white, but sometimes light brown; they do not catch
mice. This beautiful species does not degenerate speedily, and it
appears to thrive better in Paris than in any other part of Europe. The
figures of both these animals are in _Buffon's Natural History_.
About the _Palais Royal_ persons are frequently found who offer for sale
white mice in cages; these are pretty little animals, their fur is snow
white, and their eyes are red and sparkling. Other persons carried for
sale canary-birds, linnets, and two or three other sorts of small birds,
perched on their fingers; these birds had been rendered so tame that
they did not attempt to fly away.
But the greatest curiosity in Natural History which I saw there, was a
male child with two heads and four arms; it was then three months old,
the two faces were perfectly alike, the noses aquiline, the eyes blue,
and the countenances pleasing; the two bodies were joined together at
the chest, and the remainder was just like that of a common male child;
one navel, one belly, one _penis_ one _anus_, and two legs. The two
bodies were face to face, so that they could embrace and kiss each
other; in their natural position they formed an angle of 65 degrees,
like the letter Y. I remained above an hour with this child, it's mother
and the nurse, and saw it suck at both breasts at the same time. It was
tolerably strong, the skin was very soft, and almost transparent, the
arms and legs were very lean, and the latter were crossed, and appeared
incapable of being extended voluntarily; so that if the child should
live two or three years, which I do not think probable, it is not likely
it will ever be able to walk. One head would laugh while the other
cried, one head would sleep whilst the other was awake; the inspiration
and expiration of the breath, in each, was alternate, that is to say,
one inspired while the other expired its breath. There was nothing
remarkable in the mother (a peasant's wife) except her obstinacy in
refusing to disencumber these two poor heads from a couple of thick
quilted blue sattin caps with which they had dressed them, and which I
endeavoured to convince both her and the nurse would heat the heads, so
as to be the means of shortening the child's life, and consequently of
curtailing the profits arising from this _unique_ exhibition.
To this description an English physician, who likewise saw it, adds, "It
must have had two brains, as motion and sensation were equal, and
apparently perfect, in each head and chest, and in all the four arms. It
had two hearts, and two sets of lungs; it had also two passages into the
stomach, but, as was supposed, only one set of _abdominal viscera_, as
the belly was not larger than that of a common child of that age usually
is. The hearts and arteries beat more strongly than was consistent with
a long continuance of health. The action of the arteries was plainly
seen under the skin."
Mr. Buffon, in the Supplement to his Natural History, has given the
figure and description of a monster something similar to this, part of
which description I shall give in a note, as a parallel to that of the
living child.[15]
[Note 15: "In 1701 there were born in Hungary two Girls who were
joined together by the loins; they lived above twenty-one years. At
seven years old they were shown almost all over Europe; at nine years of
age a priest purchased them, and placed them in a convent at Petersburg,
where they remained till their death, which happened in 1723. An account
of them was found among the papers of the surgeon who attended the
convent, and was sent to the Royal Society of London in 1757. In this
account we are told, that one of these twins was called _Helen_, the
other _Judith_. _Helen_ grew up and was very handy, _Judith_ was smaller
and a little hump-backed. They were joined together by the reins, and in
order to see each other they could turn their heads only. There was one
common _anus_, and of course there was only one common need of going to
stool, but each had her separate urinary passage, and separate wants,
which occasioned quarrels, because when the weakest was obliged to
evacuate, the strongest, who sometimes would not stand still, pulled her
away; they perfectly agreed in every thing else, and appeared to love
each other. When they were seen in front, they did not differ apparently
from other women. At six years old _Judith_ lost the use of her left
side by a paralytick stroke; she never was perfectly cured, and her mind
remained feeble and dull; on the contrary, _Helen_ was handsome,
intelligent and even witty. They had the small-pox and the measles at
the same time, but all their other sicknesses indispositions happened to
each separately. _Judith_ was subject to a cough and a fever, whereas
_Helen_ was generally in good health. When they had almost attained the
age of twenty-two _Judith_ caught a fever, fell into a lethargy and
died. Poor _Helen_ was forced to follow her fate; three minutes before
the death of _Judith_ she fell into an agony, and died nearly at the
same time. When they were dissected it was found, that each had her own
entrails perfect, and even, that each had a separate excretory conduit,
which however terminated at the same _anus_." _Linnæus_ has likewise
described this monster. Many figures of double children of different
kinds may be seen in _Licetus de Monstris_, 4to. 1665; and in the
_Medical Miscellanies_, which were printed in Latin at Leipzig, in
several quarto volumes, in 1673.]
I went several times to the National Assembly; the _Tribunes_, or
_Galleries_, (of which there are three) entered warmly, by applauses
and by murmurs and hisses, into the affairs which were treated of.
Letters are franked by the assembly as far as the frontiers, by being
stamped with red printers ink, _Ass. Nationale._
About this time many hundreds of folio volumes of heraldry, and of the
registers of the nobility, were publicly burnt in _la Place Vendôme_,
after due notice had been given of the time and place by advertisements
pasted against the walls. A wicked wag observed, that it was a pity all
their books of divinity, and almost all those of law and physic, were
not added to the pile but he comforted himself with reflecting that _ça
viendra_.
All the coats of arms which formerly decorated the gates of _Hôtels_ are
taken away, and even seals are at present engraven with cyphers only.
_The Chevaliers de St. Louis_ still continue to wear the cross, or the
ribband, at the button-hole; all other orders of knighthood are
abolished. No liveries are worn by servants, that badge of slavery is
likewise abolished; and also all corporation companies, as well as
every other monopolizing society; and there are no longer any _Royal_
tobacco nor salt shops.
I went once to the _Café de la Regence_,[16] with the intention of
playing a game at chess, but I found the chess-men so very little
different in colour, that I could not distinguish them sufficiently to
be able to play. It seems it is the fashion for chess-men at present to
be made of box-wood, and all nearly of the same colour. I then went to
another coffee-house frequented by chess-players, and here the matter
was worse; they had, in addition to the above-mentioned fashion,
substituted the _cavalier_, or _knight_, for the _fou_, or _bishop_, and
the _bishop_ for the _knight_, so that I left them to fight their own
battles.
[Note 16: Rousseau used to play at chess here almost every day,
which attracted such crowds of people to see him, that the _Lieutenant
de Police_ was obliged to place a sentinel at the door.]
Books of all sorts are printed without any _approbation_ or _privilêge_.
Many are exposed on stalls, which are very improper for the public eye.
One of these was called the _Private Life of the Queen_, in two volumes,
with obscene prints. The book itself is contemptible and disgusting, and
might as well have been called the _Woman of Pleasure_. Of books of this
sort I saw above thirty, with plates. Another was on a subject not fit
even to be mentioned.
I read a small pamphlet, entitled "_le Christ-Roi_, or a Parallel of the
Sufferings of Lewis XVI. &c." I can say nothing in favor of it.
I found no new deistical books, the subject has already been exhausted,
and every Frenchman is a philosopher now; it may be necessary here to
recollect, that there are gradations in philosophy.
Since the Revolution, monarchs and courts are not quite so respectfully
mentioned in books as they were formerly. The following few examples are
taken from _Mr. du Laure's_ Curiosities of Paris, in two volumes, 1791,
third edition. [17] "Louis XIV. has his bust in almost every street in
Paris. After the most trifling reparation of a street it was customary
to place his great wig-block (_tête à perruque_) there. The saints have
never obtained such multiplied statues. That bully (_Fanfaron_) as
_Christina_, Queen of Sweden, used to call him, wanted to be adored even
in turn-again alleys (_culs-de-Sac._") Courtiers are here termed
_canaille de la cour_ (the rabble of the court;) the former aldermen of
Paris (_echevins_) _machines à complimens_ (complimenting machines;) and
monks _des bourreaux encapuchonnés_ (cowled executioners.)
[Note 17: The same author has likewise published, _Historical
Singularities_ of Paris, in a single volume, and a Description of the
Environs, in two volumes, 1790.]
All the following articles of information are taken from the same work:
The colossal statue of _St. Christopher_ is no longer in the church of
_Notre-Dame_; "He was, without doubt, the greatest _Saint Christopher_
in all France. This ridiculous monument of the taste and devotion of
our ancestors has lately been demolished."
"The court before the porch of this church was considerably enlarged in
1748, and at the same time a fountain was destroyed, against which
leaned an old statue, which had successively been judged to be that of
_Esculapius_, of _Mercury_, of a Mayor, and of a Bishop of Paris, and
lastly, that of J.C."
"Entering the street which leads to the _Pont-rouge_, by the cloisters
of this church, the last house on the right, under the arcades, stands
where the canon _Fulbert_, uncle to _Eloisa_, lived. Although it has
been several times rebuilt during 600 years, there are still preserved
two stone medallions, in _basso-relievo_, which are said to be the busts
of _Abelard_ and _Eloisa_."
The number of inhabitants in Paris is computed at one million, one
hundred and thirty thousand, (including one hundred and fifty thousand
strangers) two hundred thousand of which are, through poverty, exempt
from the poll-tax, and two hundred thousand others are servants.
In 1790 there were in Paris forty-eight convents of monks, containing
nine hundred and nine men; the amount of their revenue was estimated at
two millions, seven hundred and sixty thousand livres; five abbeys or
priories, estimated at six hundred and twelve thousand livres;
seventy-four convents of nuns, containing two thousand, two hundred and
ninety-two women, their income two millions and twenty-eight thousand
livres. When to these we add the revenue of the archbishoprick, and of
the fifteen collegiate churches, of one million, six thousand and five
hundred livres, we shall have a total of upwards of seven millions of
livres for the former ecclesiastical revenue in Paris only.[18]
[Note 18: Almost £300,000 sterling, about a tenth part of the Church
income of the whole kingdom. The establishment for the Royal Family, or
Civil List, is said to have been forty millions of livres. Thus the
Religion and the Monarch cost one hundred and ten millions of livres
annually (about five millions sterling) the greater part of which sum is
now appropriated to other uses. The convents are converted, or
perverted, into secular useful buildings, and their inhabitants have
been suffered to spend the remainder of their lives in their former
idleness, or to marry and mix with society. Annuities have been granted
to them from thirty-five to sixty louis per annum, according to their
age.]
There are about six hundred coffee-houses in Paris.
In the saloon of the _Louvre_ every other year is an exhibition of
pictures, in the months of August and September.