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.

  • 

    there have been others who would wifede ...

  • 

    A BOOK OF EPITAPHS. 'CHronicles of the T...

• 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.

    Memoirs Ojcrosse The Electrician. Memori...

    o - **« . . forwards these filaments become legs and bristles , and a perfect acarus - ° S ^ fitrwhiibh finally detaches itself from its birth-place , and if under a fluid , is JUO res T £ , electrified wire , and escapes from the vessel , and afterwards feeds either fhT moisture or the outside of the vessel , or on paper or card , or other substance inits vicinity . If one of them be afterwards thrown into the fluid in which he was Produced , he is immediately drowned " . " I have never before heard of acari having been produced under a fluid , or of tneir ova throwing out filaments ; nor have I ever observed any ova previous to or during electrisation , except that the speck which throws out filaments be an ovum ; but when a number of these insects , in a perfect state , congregate , ova are the result . I may their

    now remark that in several of these experiments fungi have made appearance , ami in some cases have been followed by the btrth of acari . In one instance a crop of fungi was produced upon 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-glas 3 inverted over it in a dish of mercury . The charcoal before being used was taken red-hot from a fire . There is evidently a close connexion 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-sighted caution , in order to attain satisfactory results . these and other

    ' " In conclnsion , I must remark , that in the course of experiments , 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 especially in the formation of sulphate of lime , or sulphate of strontia , its commencement isdenoted by a whitish speck : so it is in the birth of the acarus . This mineral speck ¦ e nlarges and elongates vertically : 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 mow definite in eaeh , in the mineral they become rigid , shining , transparent six-sided prisms ; in the animal they are soft and having filaments , and finally endowed with emotion and life . " .

    ^ Nothing can more explicit , and after such , a declaration it -will be dis-. graceful 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 sucfaa fluid is sufficiently striking , although the fact that this-animal was < hrow ]* ed when placed in the same fluid which , before its eseape therefrom , stifficed for its development , is only paradoxical to the unphysiological mind . Piiinge a'new-bom animal , after it has once breathed , into the liquor amnii in which it has developed , and death will be instantaneous . Plunge

    theperiect insect , immediately after its escape from the pupa case , into the water an 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 HSfr . Crosse , that its forms are altogether unlike that of the ordinary development of Acari ., whichuquit the egg in . the same form as that of the adult insectw Thus under every aspect -the observation he has published is one - which should engage the attention of men of science , instead of being made lb . e butfc of feeble ridicule or stupid indignation . Are the facts as he states them ? If so , what is their interpretation ?

    There Have Been Others Who Would Wifede ...

    there have been others who would wifede ^ TEE LEADED [ No ; , 3 B 1 , Jmx 11 , 1857 ; .

    A Book Of Epitaphs. 'Chronicles Of The T...

    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 pioverb— ' the wisdom of friany , the wit of one '—yet many writers have attempted it and failed . - Jblm & on 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 lias a long and loose definition , defining nothing ; Sir " William Dethick thinks " tie inscription must necessarily bo placed on the tomb 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 nowhere happy in style , and often obscure , but his volume contains a large variety of specimens belonging to ^ very curious species of literature . Men of very different characters have -composed very different sorts of epitaphs . The contrast is sublime between ¦* , Ossa Xassi , " and the mortuary grandiloquence on that glorified John Gay ; between " Here lies one whose name was writ in water , " and the ponderous veraca : 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 , Tin !! MOST MISEKABLE . Who was Miserimus f Was this epitaph a hint of crime or grief , or ^ pme fearful monomania ? .. After glancing at exumplea of ancient epitaphs , Dr . Pettigrew classifie s bh > specimens under several heads : the admonitory , the nameless , the bombastic , tho laudatory ,. the rhetorical , the punning , the enigmatical , the alcrostio , 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 th e living have inscribed as memorials of the dead , the most absurd being the jnoat laudatory , as those on Lady Mhry Digby , Sir Paul Kycout , and a certain anonymous Swedenborgian : — Innocence Embellishes , Divinely Ooraploat To Prescience Ooogent now Sublimely Groat > In the Benign , Perfecting Vivifying State ; J So Heavenly Guardian Occupy the Skies Tlia . Pre-roxlatont God , Omnipotent , all Wise ; , H « can Surpassingly Immortalize thy Thome y And Pernaanant thy BUse Celestial Supreme . Wliaa Gracious Refulgence bids the Grove Resign Tlie Creator ' s Nursing Protection be Thitidi ) So each Perepivfog \ ^ Btber wjli Joyfully Btee Trwascendently Good . Supereminently Wise , rJSnoagh . to make the other per & pire , and coegenco sublimely groat ; Aiieea ** ve boon persons who would peep andi botanize about their mothers '

    graves , . and so pun over a ' s athbed ; but it would be unfair to accuse Dr . Greenwood of levity when he . wrote this transcendental dedication : 0 Death , 0 Death , thou hast cut down-The fairest Greenwood in all the town ; Her virtues and good qualities were such , ¦ She was worthy to marry a lord or a judge ; Yet such was her condescension and humility , She chose to marry me , a Doctor of Divinity , For which heroic act she stands confess'd Above all women , the Phoenix of her sex ; And like that bird , one young she did beget , That she might not leave her friends disconsolate . My grief for her , alas ! is . so sore , 1 can only write two lines more ; For this , and every other good woman ' s sake , Never lay a blrster on a lying iu 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 fulfiUM in me , For here a stone upon a Stone you see . And this on Mr . Huddlestone : — Here lies Thomas Huddlestone . Reader , don't smile . ' But reflect , as this tombstone you view , That death , who kill'd him , in a very short whiie Will huddle a stone upon you . We know not whether most to admire Ben Jonson ' s " Marble weepe ! for thou do 3 t cover a dead beauty , " or Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse ; Sydney ' s sister ! Pembroke's mother ! Death , ere thou hast slain another , Fair , and 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 , Beading 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-seven hours . A few may be strung together at random : — Two sweetur babes you nare did see Than God amity geed 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 Earl of Essex : — England ' s sun , Belgia ' s light , France's star , Spain ' s thunder , Lisbon ' s lightning , Ireland's cloud , the whole world ' s wonder . On Sir John Woodcock : — Hie jacet in requie Woodcock John vir generosus , Major Londoniaj , Btercerus valdo morosus . Hie jacet Tom Shorthose Sine tomb , sine sheets , sine riches , Qui vixit sine gown , Sine cloalce , sine shirt , sine britches . On Robert Trollop , architect of the Exchange and Town Hall of Newcastle : — Hero lies Robert Trollop Who made yon stones roll up When death took hia soul up His body filled this hole up . On Ann Jennings , the mother of an immense family : — Some have children—some have none—Here lies the Mother of twenty-one . In Oxfordshire , Mr . Pettigrew has found : — Hero lies the body of John Eldred , At least lie will be here when ho is dead ; But now at this time ho is alive , The 14 " of August sixty five . At Kir Keel ;— Under this sod lies Johit Round Who waB lost in the sea and never was found . The following is very curious : — As I walk'd by myself I talk'd to myself , And thus myself said to mo , Look to thyself and take care of thyself , For nobody cares for thoo . So I turn'd to myself , & I . anaweic'd myself In the self-saino reverie , Look to myself or look not to myself , The solf-samo thmg will it bo , Explorers of quaint remains will be glad to have Dr . Pettigrow ' s collection , which , though imperfeot , throws a valuable light upon a distinct and interesting department of historical inquiry .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11071857/page/18/