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Leader (1850-1860), 14th February 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 164, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Armada , the deaths of Henry de Guise and Catherine de Medicis , the terrorism of the League , the siege of Paris by the King of Navarre , and the death of the third Henry . The fourth , an imposing figure , then comes upon the scene ; the siege of Paris is continued , and followed by the siege of Kouen ; the peace of Vervins closes the magnificent record , and the story of France in tie sixteenth century is complete . One sketch of mannei's , as influenced by the League , is too characteristic to omit . It refers to the period of the Catholic terror : — In Paris the close of Lent was a stimulus to the prevailing excitement . A series of processions took place which w « re begun , innocently enough , by children , girls and boys , who walked two by two , with tapers , chanting hymns and litanies prepared for * h em by the priests . . . . Then came parish processions in which all the parishioners of whatever age , sex , or quality , joined ; some of the most devout

      walking to do penance as though in their shifts . Still a hew impetus was wanting . It was necessary to warm the popular heart by a great theatrical display . A priest came forward and declared that in these processions over the hard pavements of Paris , nothing could be more meritorious , nothing more agreeable to God , than that women should walk with their delicate little feet bare , however it might cause them to suffer . Immediately , many an . enthusiastic young girl devoted herself to this new mortifica . tion , and appeared , not with bare feet only , but almost naked—wearing only a slight linen drapery , not too carefully covering her form . These weeping and dishevelled Magdalens produced -more laughter than edification . At length , the Duchess of Montpensier , the Judith of the League , decided to act her part without hesitation . She abandoned robes and petticoats , and dispensed with the light drapery of the penitents , even over her bosom , -with the exception , of a simple- veil of lace . The people rushed to see her . Crowded and pressed , the heroine was by no means disconcerted . She had set the fashion . Matrons and maidens followed it . Of course , the clergy eagerly encouraged the yielding humours of these penitents , so submissive to correctional discipline ; and many were persuaded to receive , at anointed hands , the punishment of refractory vestals .

      Untitled Article

      THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMM 02 ST LIFE . The Philosophy of Common Life ' , or , the Science of Health . By Jonn Scoffern , M . B . Ward and Lock . This is a better book than its gaudy outside and frontispiece would lead tlie reader to anticipate . Mr . Scoflern writes popularly , and his compilation contains material on various topics affecting the regulation of our health . After a sketch of the human , body regarded as a machine , he gives an outline of the various kinds of food , and their digestibility . He then treats of circulation and respiration $ of adulterations in food ; of poisons , their action , their remedies , and the means of detecting them ; of the eye and its functions ; of houses considered in a sanitary point of view ; of climate ; of dress ; of cosmetics ; of medical creeds—hydropathy and homoeopathy ; of Life Assurance and of State Medicine .

      portion of the white wall or ceiling may be substituted . Whatever the kind f *" acid , nothing more can be done at the present stage . The stomach panra ° - SOUr eligible in any of these cases , even were it at hand , and a medical man to uL > * t the sour acid should happen to be oxalic acid , the treatment here indicate ) -ii almost assuredly save the patient ' s life , if administered somewhat early . If p- * h the strong mineral acids , the case i 3 not so promising . eitnerof Again : — It is of less consequence to be made aware that a certain specified poison of + V class Las been swallowed , than any one of the class ; because the treatment " h cases will be precisely similar . There is no place for chemical antidotes here at rate , their power is of a very inferior kind . Everything depends upon free ' inJ th stomach from the poisonous body swallowed , -with the least possible delay Tn fiend , an emetic , promoted by copious draughts of warm water , should be administer rf and the circumstance should be borne in mind , that the ordinary emetic , composed it usually is , of tartar emetic and ipecacuanha , is ineligible ; not only because ofY depressing tendency , but because of its promoting the absorption of any poison TrhH may not be expelled from the system by the direct operation of the emetic . Whenever an emetic is proper in the treatment of poisoning , almost the very best if not quite , is a teaspoonful of mustard , stirred up with warm water- and V action promoted by copious draughts of the latter . '

      ETumanum est errare , and Mr . Scoffern pays his tribute to this inexorable law when , at page 64 , he speaks of proteine as the ori gin of gelatine fibrine , albumen , and caseine . No organic chemist of authority now believes in the existence of proteine at aU . —it is a purely hypothetical substance . At page 71 Mr . Scoffern attributes to Harvey the discovery of valves in the veins ; the discovery was made by Fabrice d'Acquapendente in 1574 , and by means of it Harvey was led to the discovery of the circulation . Harvey's discovery was a grand physiological induction but all the anatomical facts on which it rested were discovered by others . '

      A large and attractive list of subjects , as the reader perceives , and not admitting of more than a rapid popular treatment in one volume of three hundred pages $ but in his sketchy way Mr . Scoffern contrives to indicate many interesting facts ; one of them will be new to most readers , namely , That the blood globules of an animal are subject to change of shape as the result of fright and other emotions of the mind . It has been stated by Mr . Bowerbank , that if an _ animal be suddenly alarmed , and whilst in that condition a drop of Wood be drawn and examined microscopically , each of the particles or discs contained in the blood will be found to present a ragged outline , very different to the well-defined contour which is observable if the animal had been allowed to remain calm . This fact has a physiological significance , though the precise application of it be not known . The following is worth bearing in remembrance : —

      Remembering well that the animal organism creates no element , the reader will perhaps call to mind certain dietetic fallacies of which he may have been the victim . He may remember , perhaps , -when sago , tapioca , and other starchy varieties of food were administered to him under the impression that they were strengthening , and still ho derived no benefit from them . Strengthening they undoubtedly are when administered in due proportion with other wants ; but alone , they are bo far from strengthening , that by no amount of them could life be prolonged beyond a very short period . ^ They hold no nitrogen ; they , hence , cannot make muscle ( flesh . ) , nor blood , —nor , indeed , can they make the greater number of animal constituents , except fat ; which latter does not contain nitrogen .

      The same remarks which apply to starch also apply to sugar ; between the two the difference of composition is remarkablj' slight ; hence sugar is unable to support animal life , if administered alone . To some the well-attested fact that negroes in the West Indies rapidly fatten during the sugar season , notwithstanding th . e hard work to which they are exposed , because of the amount of sugar which they swallow , will seem incompatible witli the statement just made that sugar alone , no matter in what quantity swallowed , cannot for any prolonged time support life . Fat , however , doea not confer strength 5 on the contrary , it frequently becomes a source of -weakness . The medical practitioner well knows that as a rule , fat persons bear the effect of bleeding and lowering medicines very ill ; that tliey are stricken and die under causes which would not have injuriously affected the lean and spare . Fat , indeed , may bo regarded physiologically as a sort of animal coal-cellar . Of the practical hints contained in this volume wo may select from the chapter on poisons information which it will be useful to bear in mind : —

      A person who has swallowed an irritant poison by way of suicide will be less garrulous , less apt to g , vo information , or afford any clue , than a person who has S ™ ?« * , f ^* & ° * AVh ° Jt ha 8 lMJen administered purposely by one , SSSfnhn ^ v 1 ? £ « , M ° r ovor ' a p 0 ison sallowed to the end of suicide , will in all SS t v Mt " blHl " S mcal - Meantime , tho investigator looks rf thV ' nationtfor *™ »™ l ^ wpMa ] , or other vessel ; ho examine the dress of the patient for apots or decolourations . If ho finds a phial or other vessel or atThcTrcsolv 0 ' / £ / ^ ^ ' ^ ° * cith < " ° ta 9 t «» ^ onZ ^ tXZ tLra so ™ r acTd hL hnT ^ T Xy f ° th ° » PP ««» tion of a remedy . He i 8 auro SS « &- *™ - ss * . as . 'E . * r sx ^ ute ^

      Untitled Article

      BEE ANGER'S SONGS . Stranger ' s Songs of the Empire , the Peace , and the Restoration . Translated into English Terse by Robert B . Brough . Addey and Co . It would be affectation to advise any one who can read I 3 e * ranger's songs in the original to read them in translations . Indeed , strictly speaking , scraps cannot be translated—they must be re-written . To those , however , to whom French is Grreek , we commend Mr . Brough ' s volume . Some of the lyrics , which we have compared with , the originals , are models of accurate interpretation , Mr . Brough having succeeded to an uncommon extent " in

      subduing the idiom to the necessities of his English version . No reader should remain unacquainted with these political songs of Beranger they contain , as Mr . Brough suggests , an outline history of France during the early part of the present century . As satires they are perfect—the half . lu'dden irony , running like arterial blood through epigram and carol , contrast and allusion , fable and fancy , as in The King of Yvetot , The Bead Alive , The Common Stamp , and The Petition of the Dogs of Quality . We miss Gai ! Gat ! by the way , from . Mr . Brough ' s selection . Of his style as a *•>•<*« dmor , onu example is all we can give ; it is My Recovery , and refers to a present of wine , to be taken in internal douches , received by BeVanger after an illness

      ;—After a cup of Chablis white , Spirits of tolerance on foot I found the douche , had done me good ; ' About the town in cassocks go , I cursed the Muse that made me write .. The Gospel is in practice put , Against the men in pow ' r who Btood . j After three cups of red Bordeaux ! Still , from relapse I fear'd rebuffs , — < At the last cup of Chablis white , On with tlie treatment I must go : I My eye all wet with joyful show ' , I felt inclined to write them puffs Sees Liberty in garlands bright , After a cup of red Bordeaux ! i Of olives , golden corn , and flow ' rs . Af ter two cups of Chablis white , Laws bind us with a silken thrall ; At all my past misdeeds afraid , The Future low ' rs with ne ' er a woe 5 I see my chamber crowded quite I hear the bolts and fetters fall With folks whom pow ' r has happymade . At the last cup of red Bordeaux ! The sentence of my judges kind O crystal Chablis ! rich Bordeaux ! Causes repentant tears to flow ; You twain presided o ' er the birth E ' en tow ' rds Marchangy I ' m inclined , Of fair Illusion , born , we know , After two cups of Ted Bordeaux ! Of Love and Hope , to jilt the earth . After three cups of Chablis white , 1 This vineyard fay two wands of might I see no class that need to groan ; ( Twin sceptres ) wields o ' er all below , — The press is unrestricted quite ; ¦ A silver shoot of Chablis white , The Budget censors feels alone ! ! A purple branch of red Bordeaux . The notes b y Dr . G . L . Strauss , and by Mr . Brough himself , contribute largely to the interest of this welcome volume .

      Untitled Article

      LUCY AYLMER . Lwy Aylmcr . By the Author of " Tho Curate of Overton . " 3 vols . Bentley . Jjucy Aylmcr contains a scries of careful portraits , and tenderly-tinted hindscapes , overshadowed by a dense controversial cloud . Behind the ancestral manor of the Nc \ illes , the ancestral castle of the Erresfords , tlie ancient vicarage of St . Walburga , behind the pretty young girls and the weakliearted Vicar , the hierarchy , the squirearchy , and the patricians , rises the haggard shape of Puseyism , morganitics bride of Romanism . An apparition of this kind might have warned us from opening the second volume , had not a certain interest , excited by Lucy , lured us on . The character of Lucy , uncoutu

      indeed , is a very graceful delineation , —too graceful by far for the treatment ifc receives towards tho close of the story , when the author , intent upon a tragic scene , slays her heroine , and spoils her book . Lucy A \ jhut abounds , as might be expected , in illogical impetuosities of denuneiiition directed against l < Rome" and the missal beauty of her churches ; un < l » t 13 a strong test of the writer's power that , in spite of these repulsive ingredients , the novel is thoroughly readable from beginning to end . It is " wanting in pathos , and emits from time to time a spark of satire . ( j » vcn , indeed , that it is a good thing to -write anti-Tracturian romances , iuiu to show how a gaudy chancel may bring weak hearts to misery , ami L > u <' y Aylmcr is a success .

      Untitled Article

      164 THE LEADER , [ No . 360 , Saturday

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1857, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2180/page/20/