On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    , now remark that in several of these experiments fungi have made their appearance , ana in some cases have been followed by the birth of acari . In one instance a crop of fungi was produced -npon the upper end of a stick of oak charcoal , plunged into a solution of silicate of potash , kept negatively electrified for a considerable time , and covered by a bell-glass inverted over it in a dish of mercury . The charcoal befo . e being used was taken red-hot from a fire . There is evidently a close fomiex «> n between animal and vegetable life : but one thing is necessary to be observed , that such experiments as those I have just touched on must be varied in every possible form and repeated over and over again with unflinching perseverance , and with the most sharp ^ sigbted caTrtion , in order to attain satisfactory results . . ^ that in the of th and other experiment

    « In conclusion , I must remark , course ese s , there is considerable similitude between the first stages of . the birth of acari and of certain mineral crystallizations electrically produced . In many of them , more especiallv in the formation of sulphate of lime , or sulphate of strontia , its commencement is deW « d by a whitish speck : so it is in the birth of the acarus . This mineral speck enlarges and elongates verticallv : so it does -with the acarus . Then the mineral throws out whitish filaments : so does the acarus speck . So far it is difficult to detect the difference between the incipient mineral and the animal ; but as these filaments become more definite in each , in the mineral they become rigid , shining , transparent six-sided prisms ; in the animal they aTe soft and having filaments , and finally endowed with motion and life . "

    Nothing can be more explicit , and after such a declaration it will be disgraceful if naturalists refuse to consider seriously the facts which Mr . Crosse announces—facts surely of a very surprising kind , and pointing to new -sources of knowledge- The mere existence and development of an animal in such a fluid is sufficiently striking , although the fact that this animal was drowned when placed in the same fluid -which , before its escape therefrom , sufficed for its development , is only paradoxical to the unphysiological mind . Plunge anew-born animal , " after it has once breathed , into the liqzwr dmnii in which it has developed , and death will be instantaneous . Plunge the perfect insect , immediately after its escape from the pupa case , into the water in which as a larva it lived and developed , and it will instantly be drowned .

    We should observe respecting the development of this acarus , as noted by Mr . Crosse , that its forms are altogether unlike that of the ordinary development of Acari % which quit the egg in the same form as that of the adult insect . Thus under every aspect the observation he has published is one -which should engage the attention of men of science , instead of being made the butt of feeble ridicule or stupid indignation . Are the facts as he states them ? If so , what is their interpretation ?

    Untitled Article

    A BOOK OF EPITAPHS , Chronicles of the Tombs . A select collection of Epitaphs , preceded by an Essay . By T . J . Pettigrew , F . R . S . H . G . Bohn . The definition of an epitaph is easier than that of a proverb— ' the wisdom of many , the wit of one '—yet many writers have attempted it and failed . Johnson considers it " an inscription engraven on a tomb in honour of the person deceased , ' * yet this does not apply to the monumental commemorations of King John , Andrew Turncoat , or Clelia , Lelia , Crispis ; Weever has a long and loose definition , defining nothing ; Sir William Dethick thinks the inscription must necessarily be placed on the tonib of a valiant

    -and worthy man , while Dr . Pettigrew says , " An epitaph is literally any inscription upon a tomb , " which may be accurate , but is not happy . "We will remark at once that Dr . Pettigrew is nowhex * e happy in style , and often obscure , but his volume contains a large variety of specimens belonging to a very curious species of literature . Men of very different characters have composed very different sorts of epitaphs . The contrast is sublime between ¦ " Ossa Ta 6 SI , " and the mortuary grandiloquence on that glorified John Gay ; between " Here lies one whose name was writ in water , " and the ponderous verses that oppress the grave of Elizabeth Inchbald . We do , however , ¦ find in Dr . Pettigrew ' s collection that most remarkable and mysterious Inscription on an old tombstone ,

    THE MOST AnSEItABLJI . Who was Iffiserimus ? Was this epitaph a hint of crime or grief , or some fearful monomania P After g lancing at examples of ancient epitaphs , Dr . Pettigrew classifies his specimens under several heads : the admonitory , the nameless , the bombastic , the laudatory , the rhetorical , the punning , the enigmatical , the acrostic , the satirical , the denunciatory , and the ridiculous . We might -question his method , which is exceedingly arbitrary , but it is more pleasant to con over a few of the verses and bits of epigrammatic prose which the living have inscribed as memorials of the dead , the most absurd being tho most laudatory , as those on TUadj Mary Digby , Sir Paul Rycout , and a certain anonymous Sivedenborgian : —

    Juuaoconoe Embellishes Divinely Comploat To Preacionoe Coogent now Sublimely Great > In tho Benign Perfecting Vivifying State $ | So Heavenly Guardian Occupy the Skies The Pre-oxistent God , Omnipotent , all Wise , ; He cam Surpassingly Immortalize thy Thomo ; And Pcjmanont thy Bliss Celestial Supremo . When Gracious Rcfulgenoo bids the Grave Resign The Creator ' s Nursing Protection bo Thine . ; So each Porapiring JEtlier will Joyfully Rise Tranaqomdently Good'Superomiaently Wise . EfeowgU to m&Jce the ether perspire , and coegence sublimely great . There Jwve boon persons who would peep and botanize about thoir mothers '

    I graves and so there have been others who would pun over a wife ' s deathbed ; but it would be unfair to accuse Dr . Greenwood of levity when he wrote this transcendental dedication : — 0 Death , O Death , thon hast cat down The fairest Greenwood in all the town ; Her virtues and good qualities were such , ¦ She was worthy to marry a lord or ajudge ; Yet such washer condescension and humility , She chose to marry me , a Doctor of Divinity , For which heroic act she stands confess'd - . Above all women , the Phamix of her sex ; And like thatbird , one young she did beget , That she might not leave her friends disconsolate . My grief for ber , ab . s ! is so sore , 1 can only write two lines more ; For this , and every other good-woman ' s sake , Never lay a blister on a lying iii woman ' s back . But some malignant punster wrote this on Mr . Chest : — Here lies at rest , I do protest , One Chest within another ; The chest of wood was very good , Who says so of the other ? And this on Mr . Stone : — Jerusalem's curse is not fulfilled in me , For here a stone upon a Stone you see . And this on Mr . Huddlestone : — Here lies Thomas Hnddlestone . Eeader , don ' t smile ! But reflect , as this tombstone you view , That death , who kill'd him , in a very short while Will huddle a stone upon you . We know not whether most to admire Ben Jonsoa ' s " Marble weepe ! for thou dost cover a dead beauty , " Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse ; JS y dney ^ s sister ! Pembrolte ' s mother ! Death , ere thou hast slain another , Fair , anil learn'd , and good as she , Time shall throw a dart at thee ! Marble piles let no man raise To her name for after days ; Some kind woman , born as she , Heading this , like Niobe , . . . Shall turn marble , and become Both her mourner and her tomb . But there have been more minute chroniclers than William Browne or Ben Jonson , as , for example , the conscientious immortalizer of James Barham : — In memory of James Barham of this parish , who departed this life Jan . 14 , 1818 , aged' 93 ; & who from the year 1774 to the year 1804 , rung in Kent and elsewhere , 112 peals , not less than 5040 changes in each peal , & called bobs , &c , for most of the peals : and April 7 th . & 8 th , 1761 , assisted in ringing 40 , 320 bob majors on Leeds bells in twenty-sevea hours . A few may be strung together at random : — Two sweetur babes you nare did see Than God amity good too wee But they wur ortaken wee agur fitts And hear they lys has dead as nitts . This couplet is from an epitaph on the great Eail of Essex : — England's sun , Belgians light , France ' s star , Sjiain ' s thunder , Lisbon ' s lightning , Ireland ' s clout ! , the whole world ' s wonder . On Sir John Woodcock ;—Hie jacet in requie Woodcock John vir generosus , Major London he , Mercerus valdo naorosus . Hie jacet Tom Shorthose Sine tomb , sine sheets , sine riches , Qui vixit sine gown , Sine cloake , sine shirt , sine britches . On Robert Trollop , architect of the Exchange and Town Hall of Newcastle : — Here lies Robert Trollop Who made yon stones roll up When death took his soul up His body filled this hole up . On Ann Jennings , the mother of an immonso family : — Some havo children—some have nouo—Here lies the Mother of twenty-one . In Oxfordshire , Mr . Pettigrew has found : — Here lies the body of John Eldred , At lenst ho will bo here whon ' lio is dead : But now at this time ho is alivo , The 14 lU of August sixty live . At Kir Keel . — Under this sod lies John Round Wuo was lost in tho son nnd nuvor was found . Tho following is very curious : — . Aa I walk'd by myself I talk'd to myself , And thus myself said to mo , Look to thyself and take oaro of thyself , For nobody caroa for thee . So I turn'd to myself , & I anawoir'd myeelf In tho solf-samo rovorio , Look to inysolf or look not to mysolf , Tho solf-samo thing will it bo . Explorers of quaint remains will bo glad to lmvo Dr . Pottigrow ' s collection , which , though imperfect , throws a valuable li&hfc upon a distinct and interesting department of historical inquiry .

    Untitled Article

    T IE LEADE B , [ No . 381 , Jrar 11 » 1857 . ¦ boo- ¦ - .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 666, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2200/page/18/