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twg_000000034900 | opinion he supported by a reference to acknowledged facts--as, that it changes its hue with the difference of the mental character in the different stages of life; that violent affections of the mind, such as grief or fear, have been known to change it in a single night. Science on this, as on other occasions, is merely augmenting and methodizing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034901 | facts that the mass of mankind had long observed--as, that red hair had always been considered indicative of warm temperament; that affliction, and even love, were believed to create baldness; and that in great terror, the hair stands on end. The different ages too, are distinguished as much by their hair as their complexion, their facial angle, or in any | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034902 | other way. He was led to this theory first, by observing at school that a boy of a stiff, bristly head of hair, was remarkably cruel. He professed to have been able, from a long course of observation, to assign to every different colour and variety of hair, its peculiar temperament and character. One mental quality was indicated by its | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034903 | length, another by its fineness, and others again as it chanced to be greasy, or lank, or curled. He would also blow on it with a bellows, to see how the parts arranged themselves: hold it near the fire, and watch the operation of its crisping by the heat: and although he had often been mistaken in his estimates of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034904 | character, by the rules of his new science, he did not lose the confidence of his disciples on that account--some of them refusing to believe the truth, rather than to admit themselves mistaken; and others insisting that, if his science was not infallible, it very rarely deceived." It was now our turn to submit our hands to Avarabet for examination. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034905 | He discovered signs of the loftiest virtues and most heroic enterprise in the Brahmin; and, near the bottom of one of his nails, a deep-rooted sorrow, which would leave him only with his life. A transient shade of gloom on the Brahmin's countenance was soon succeeded by a piercing, inquisitive glance cast on the diviner. He saw the other's eyes | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034906 | directed on the miniature which he always wore, and which discovered itself to Avarabet as he stooped forward. A smile of contempt now took the place of his first surprise, and he seemed in a state of abstraction, during the continued rhapsodies of the oracle. My hand was next examined; but little was said of me, except that I had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034907 | been a great traveller, and should be so again; that I should encounter many dangers and difficulties; that I possessed more intelligence than sensibility, and more prudence than generosity. Thus he discovered in me great courage, enterprise, and constancy of purpose. A hale, robust, well-set man, now bursting through the crowd, and thrusting out his hand, abruptly asked the wise | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034908 | man to tell him, if he could, in what part of the country he lived. Avarabet mentioned a distant district on the coast of Morosofia. "Good," said the other; "and what is my calling?" After a slight pause, he replied, that he got his living on the water. "Good again. Shall I ever be rich?" "No, not very:--never." "Better and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034909 | better," rejoined the inquirer, at the same time giving vent to a loud and hearty laugh. Surely, thought I, sailors are every where the same sort of beings, rough and boisterous as the elements they roam over. "And what is your opinion of me farther?" "You are bold, frank, improvident, credulous and good-natured." "Excellent, indeed! Now, what will you say, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034910 | old sham wisdom, when I tell you that I never made a voyage in my life; was never two days' journey from this spot, and am seldom off my own dominion? That I own the forest of Tongloo, where I sometimes hunt, from morning till night, and from night till morning, twelve out of the thirteen days in the year? | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034911 | That my wealth, which was considerable when I came to my estate, has, by my habits of life, greatly increased, and that I am bent upon adding to it yet more? I drink nothing but water; and have come here only to win a wager, that you were not as knowing as you pretended to be, and that I could | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034912 | impose on you. You thus have a specimen of my candour, improvidence, and credulity." So saying, he leaped on his zebra, gave a sort of huntsman's shout, and was off in a twinkling. This adventure created great tumult in the crowd, a few enjoying the jest, but the greater number manifesting ill-will and resentment towards the sportsman. The Brahmin and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034913 | I took advantage of the confusion, to withdraw unnoticed by the bystanders. After remaining at our lodgings long enough to take rest and refreshment, and to make minutes of what we had seen, we proposed to spend the remainder of the night in the country, the weather being more pleasant at this time in that climate, than when the sun | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034914 | is above the horizon. We accordingly set out when the earth was in her second quarter, and it was about two of our days before sunrise. After walking about three miles, the freshness of the morning air, the fragrance of the flowers, and the music of innumerable birds, whose unceasing carols testified their joy and delight at the approach of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034915 | a more genial month, we came to a large, well cultivated farm, in which a number of coarse looking men were employed, with the aid of dogs, cross-bows, and other martial weapons, in hunting down llamas, and a small kind of buffalo, which, in one of our former walks, we had seen quietly feeding on a rich and extensive pasture. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034916 | We inquired of some stragglers from the throng, the meaning of what we saw; but they were too much occupied with their sport to afford us any satisfaction. We walked on, indulging our imaginations in conjecture; but had not proceeded more than a quarter of a mile, before we beheld a similar scene going on to our left, by the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034917 | same ill-looking crew. Our curiosity was now redoubled, and we resolved to wait a while on the highway, for the chance of some passenger more at leisure to answer our inquiries, and more courteously inclined than these fierce marauders. We had not stopped many minutes, before a well-dressed man, wearing the appearance of authority, having ridden up, we asked him | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034918 | to explain the cause of their violent, and seemingly lawless proceedings. "You are strangers, I see, or you would have understood that I am exercising my baronial privilege of doing myself justice. These cattle belong to the owners of a neighbouring estate, by whom I and my tenants have been injured and insulted; and, according to the usage in such | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034919 | cases, I have given the signal to my people to lay hold on what they can of his flocks and herds, and, to quicken their exertions, I give them half of what they catch." "And how does your neighbour bear this in the mean time?" said the Brahmin. "Oh, for that matter," said the other, "he is not at all | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034920 | behindhand, and I lose nearly as many cattle as I get. But it gives me much more pleasure to kill one of his buffaloes or llamas, than it does pain me when he kills one of mine. I consider how much it will vex him, and that some of his vassals are thereby deprived of their sustenance. I have upwards | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034921 | of thirty strong men employed in ranging this plain and wood, and during the last year they took for me four hundred head." "Indeed!--and how many did you lose in the same time? "Not above three hundred and eighty." "But very inferior?" said the Brahmin. "Why, no," replied he: "as my pastures are richer and more luxuriant than his, two | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034922 | of my cattle are worth perhaps three of his." "Is this custom," asked the Brahmin, "an advantage or a tax on your estate?" "A tax, indeed! Why it is worth from four to five hundred head a-year." "And how much is it worth to your neighbour?" "I presume nearly as much." "Do your vassals get rich by the bounty you | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034923 | give them?" "As to that matter, some who are lucky succeed very well, and the rest make a living by it." "And what do they give you for the privilege of hunting your neighbour's cattle?" "Nothing at all: I even lose my customary rent from those who engage in it." "And it is the same case with your neighbour?" "Certainly," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034924 | said he. "Then," said the Brahmin, "it seems to me, if you would agree to lay aside this old custom, you would both be considerable gainers. I see you look incredulous, but listen a moment. Each one would, in that case, instead of having half his neighbour's cattle, have all his own; and, being kept in their native pastures, they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034925 | would be less likely to stray away, and you could therefore slay and eat as you wanted them; whereas, in your hunting matches many more are either killed or maimed than are wanted for present use, and they are consequently consumed in waste. You would, moreover, be a gainer by the amount of the labour of these thirty boors, whom | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034926 | you keep in this employment, and who very probably acquire habits of ferocity, licentiousness, and waste, which are not very favourable to their obedience or fidelity." The proprietor, having pondered a while upon my friend's remarks, in a tone of exultation said,--"Do you think, then, I could ever prevail on my people to forbear, when they saw a likely flock, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034927 | from laying violent hands on it; or could I resist so favourable an opportunity of revenge? Nay, more; if we were then tamely to tie up our hands, do you think that Bulderent and his men would consent to do the same? No, no, old man," he continued, with great self-complacency, "your arguments appear plausible at first, but when closely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034928 | considered, they will not stand the lest of experience. They are the fancies of a stranger--of one who knows more of theory than practice. Had you lived longer among us, you would have known that your ingenious project could never be carried into execution. If I observed it, Bulderent would not; and if he observed it, I verily believe I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034929 | could not--and thus, you see, the thing is altogether impracticable." As one soon tires of preaching to the winds, the Brahmin contented himself with asking his new acquaintance to think more on the subject at his leisure; and we proceeded on our walk. . _The travellers visit a gentleman farmer, who is a great projector: his breed of cattle: his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034930 | apparatus for cooking: he is taken dangerously ill._ After we had gone about half a mile farther, our attention was arrested by a gate of very singular character. It was extremely ingenious in its structure, and, among other peculiarities, it had three or four latches, for children, for grown persons, for those who were tall and those who were short, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034931 | and for the right hand as well as the left. In the act of opening, it was made to crush certain berries, and the oil they yielded, was carried by a small duct to the hinge, which was thus made to turn easily, and was prevented from creaking. While we were admiring its mechanism, an elderly man, rather plainly dressed, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034932 | on a zebra in low condition, rode up, and showed that he was the owner of the mansion to which the gate belonged, and that he was not displeased with the curiosity we manifested. We found him both intelligent and obliging. He informed us that he was an experimental farmer; and when he learnt that we were strangers, and anxious | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034933 | to inform ourselves of the state of agriculture in the country, he very civilly invited us to take our next meal with him. Our walk having now made us hungry and fatigued, we gladly accepted of his hospitality; whereupon he alighted, and walked with us to his lodgings. He was very communicative of his modes of cultivation and management, but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034934 | chiefly prided himself on his success in improving the size of his cattle. He informed us that he had devoted sixteen years of his life to this object, and had then in his farm-yard a buffalo nearly as heavy as three of the ordinary size. His practice was to kill all the young animals which were not uncommonly large and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034935 | thrifty; to cram those he kept, with as much food as they would eat, and to tempt their appetites by the variety of their nourishment, as well as of the modes of preparing it. "All this," said he, "costs a great deal, it is true; but I am paid for it by the additional price." I was struck with this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034936 | notable triumph of industry and skill in the goodly art of husbandry--that art which I venerate above every other; and I was all anxiety to receive from him some instructions which I might, in case I should have the good fortune to get safely back, communicate to my friends on Long-Island, who had never been able even to double the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034937 | common size, and who boasted greatly of that: but a hesitating look, and a few inquiries on the part of my sly friend, checked my enthusiasm. "Have you always," he asked, "had the same number of acres in grain and grass under your new and old system?" "Pretty nearly," says the other. "My new breed, however, though fewer, consume more | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034938 | than their predecessors." "How many head did you formerly sell in a year?" "About thirty." "How many do you now sell?" "Though for some years I have not sold more than nine or ten, I expect to exceed that number in another year." "Which you expect will yield you more than the thirty did formerly?" "Certainly; because such meat as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034939 | mine commands an extraordinary price." "So long," replied the Brahmin, "as this is novelty, you may receive a part of the price which men are ever ready to pay for it; but as soon as others profit by your example, your meat falls to the ordinary rate, and then, if I understand you aright, as you will have somewhat less | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034940 | in quantity than you formerly had, your gross receipts will be less, to say nothing of your additional labour and expense." "But who has the skill," quickly rejoined the other, "of which I can boast? and who would take the same trouble, although they had the skill?" "But stop here a moment," said our host, "till I go to see | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034941 | how my last improved oil-cake is relished by my cattle." The Brahmin then turning to me, said,--"This gentleman may, indeed, improve his fortune by the business of a grazier; but the same pains and unremitting attention would always be sure of a liberal reward, though the system on which they were exerted was not among the best. Nothing, my dear | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034942 | Atterley, is more true than the saying of your wise book--_that all flesh is grass;_ and it always takes the same quantity of one to make a given quantity of the other, whether that given quantity may be in the form of a single individual, or two or three. But in the former case, great labour is required to force | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034943 | nature beyond her ordinary limits, and the same labour must be unceasingly kept up, or she will certainly relapse to her original dimensions. This system may do, as our host here tells us it actually does, for the moon, but it is not suited to our earth. If, however, you are ambitious of a name among the speculative men of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034944 | your country, this little stone," added he, stooping, and picking up a small stone from the ground, "will answer your purpose quite as well as any improvement in husbandry. It is precisely of the same species as those which we threw over in our aerial voyages, and which, though correctly called moon-stones by the vulgar, (who are oftener right than | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034945 | the learned suppose,) some of the western philosophers declared to have been gravitated in the atmosphere." "And is this really the origin," said I, "of that strange phenomenon, which has furnished so much matter of speculation to the sages both of Europe and America?" "Nothing is more true," replied he. "These stones are common to the earth and to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034946 | moon; and some of those which have been so carefully analyzed by your most celebrated chemists, and pronounced different from any known mineral production of the earth, were small fragments of a very common rock in the mountains of Burma. In our first voyages we had taken some of them with us as ballast; and those which we first threw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034947 | over, we afterwards learnt from the public journals, fell in France, some of the others fell in India, but the greater number in the ocean. Those which have fallen at other times, have been real fossils of the moon, and either such stones as this I hold in my hand, or such metallic substances as are repelled from that body, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034948 | and attracted towards the earth; and it is the force with which they strike the earth, which first suggested the idea of a thunder-bolt. "Our party were greatly amused at the disputations of a learned society in Europe, in which they undertook to give a mathematical demonstration that they could not be thrown from a volcano of the earth, nor | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034949 | from the moon, but were suddenly formed in the atmosphere. I should as soon believe that a loaf of bread could be made and baked in the atmosphere." Finding that our landlord prided himself on his interior management, as well as on that without doors, we expressed a wish to see some of his household improvements. He readily consented, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034950 | conducted us at once into his kitchen, and showed us inventions and contrivances out of number, for saving fuel, and meat, and labour; in short, for saving every thing but money. The large room into which he carried us, appeared as a vast laboratory, from the infinite variety of pots, pans, skillets, knives, forks, ladles, mortars, sieves, funnels, and other | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034951 | utensils of metal, glass, pottery, and wood. The steam which he used for cooking, was carried along a pipe under a succession of kettles and boilers, descending in regular gradation, by which a great saving of fuel was effected; and, to perfect this part of the apparatus, the pipe could be removed, to give place to one of the size | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034952 | suited to the occasion. His seven-guest pipe was now in use. The wood, which was all cut to the same length, and channelled out to admit the free passage of the air, was then duly placed in the stove, and set on fire; but the heat not passing very readily through all the sinuosities of the pipe, he ordered his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034953 | head cook to screw on his exhauster. The man, in less than ten minutes, unscrewed a plate at the farther end, and fixed on an air-pump, made for the purpose, on which the door of the stove suddenly slammed to. Our host saw the accident, and hurrying to open the stove, fell over a heap of channelled logs, and cut | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034954 | a gash in his forehead. The cook ran to help him up; and after he was on his legs, and his forehead wiped, the stove was opened, when the fire, which had been deprived of its aliment, was entirely extinguished. I thought he was hardly sorry for the accident, as it afforded him an occasion of showing how ingeniously he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034955 | kindled a fire. He had an electric machine brought to him, by means of which he set fire to a few grains of gunpowder; this lighted some tinder, which again ignited spirits, whose blaze reached the lower extremity of his lamp. Taking the precaution of keeping the stove open this time, the air was again exhausted at the farther end | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034956 | of the pipe, and in a little time the flame was seen to ascend even to the air-pump, and to scorch the parts made of wood; whereupon I saw a glow of triumph on his face, which amply compensated him for his wound and vexation. There was a grand machine for roasting, that carried the fire round the meat, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034957 | juices of which, he said, by a rotary motion, would be thrown to the surface, and either evaporate or be deteriorated. Here was also his digestor, for making soup of rams' horns, which he assured me contained a good deal of nourishment, and the only difficulty was in extracting it. He next showed us his smoke-retractor, which received the smoke | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034958 | near the top of the chimney, and brought it down to be burnt over again, by which he computed that he saved five cords and a half of wood in a year. The fire which dressed his victuals, pumped up, by means of a steam engine, water for the kitchen turned one or more spits, as well as two or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034959 | three mills for grinding pepper, salt, &c.; and then, by a spindle through the wall, worked a churn in the dairy, and cleaned the knives: the forks, indeed, were still cleaned by hand; but he said he did not despair of effecting this operation in time, by machinery. I mentioned to him our contrivance of silver forks, to lessen this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034960 | labour; but he coldly remarked, that he imagined science was in its infancy with us. He informed us that he had been ten years in completing this ingenious machine; and certainly, when it was in full operation, I never saw exultation and delight so strongly depicted in any human face. The various sounds and sights, that met the ear and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034961 | eye, in rapid succession, still farther worked on his feelings, and heightened his raptures. There was such a simmering, and hissing, and bubbling of boiled, and broiled, and fried--such a whirling, and jerking, and creaking of wheels, and cranks, and pistons--such clouds of steam, and vapours, and even smoke, notwithstanding all of the latter that was burnt,--that I almost thought | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034962 | myself in some great manufactory. After having suffered as much as we could well bear, from the heat and confined air of this laboratory of eatables, and passed the proper number of compliments on the skill and ingenuity they displayed, we ascended to his hall, to partake of that feast, to prepare which we had seen all the elements and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034963 | the mechanical powers called into action. There were a few of his city acquaintances present, besides ourselves: but whether it was owing to the effect of the steam from the dishes on our stomachs, or that this scientific cookery was not suited to our unpractised palates, I know not, but we all made an indifferent repast, except our host, who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034964 | tasted every dish, and seemed to relish them all. After sitting some time at table, conversing on the progress of science, its splendid achievements, and the pleasing prospects which it yet dimly showed in the future, our hospitable entertainer, perceiving we were fatigued with the labours of the day, invited us to take our next _lallaneae_, or sleep, with him, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034965 | for which hospitality we felt very grateful. We were then shown to a room, in which there were marks of the same fertile invention, in saving labour and promoting convenience; but we were too sleepy to take much notice of them. Our beds were filled with air, which is quite as good as feathers, except that when the leather covering | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034966 | gets a hole in it, from ripping, or other accidents, it loses its elasticity with its air--an accident which happened to me this very night; for a mouse having gnawed the leather where the housemaid's greasy fingers had left a mark, I sunk gently down, not to soft repose, but on the hard planks, where I uncomfortably lay until the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034967 | bell warned us to rise for breakfast. As soon as I was dressed, I walked out into a large garden, and, as the sun was not yet so high as to make it sultry, was enjoying the balmy sweetness of the air, and the flowering shrubs, which in beauty and fragrance almost exceeded those of India, when I saw a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034968 | servant run by the garden wall, enter the stable, and bring out a zebra. On inquiring the cause, I was made to understand that our noble host was taken suddenly ill. I immediately returned to the house, and found the domestics running to and fro, and manifesting the greatest anxiety, as well as hurry, in their looks. I went into | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034969 | the Brahmin's room, and found him dressed. He went out, and after some time, informed me that our kind host had a violent _cholera morbus_, in consequence of the various kinds of food with which he had overloaded his stomach at dinner; that he considered himself near his last end, and was endeavouring to arrange his affairs for the event. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034970 | I could not help meditating on the melancholy uncertainty of human life, when I contrasted the comforts, the pleasures, the pride of conscious usefulness and genius felt by this gentleman a short time since, with the agony which that trying and bitter hour brings to the stoutest and most callous heart--when it must quit this state of being for another, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034971 | of which it knows so little, and over which fear and doubt throw a gloom that hope cannot entirely dispel. . _Lunarian physicians: their consultation--While they dispute the patient recovers--The travellers visit the celebrated teacher Lozzi Pozzi._ While I indulged in these sad meditations, and felt for my host while I felt no less for myself, I saw the physician | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034972 | approach who had been sent for. He was a tall, thin man, with a quick step, a lively, piercing eye, a sallow complexion, and very courteous manners, and always willing to display the ready flow of words for which he was remarkable. I felt great curiosity to witness the skill of this Lunar Aesculapius, and he was evidently pleased with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034973 | the interest I manifested. It turned out that he was well acquainted with the Brahmin; and learning from the latter my wish, he conducted me into the room of our sick host. We found him lying on a straw bed, and strangely altered within a few hours. The physician, after feeling his pulse, (which, as every country has its peculiar | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034974 | customs, is done here about the temples and neck, instead of the wrist)--after examining his tongue, his teeth, his water, and feces, proposed bleeding. We all walked to the door, and ventured to oppose the doctor's prescription, suggesting that the copious evacuations he had already experienced, might make bleeding useless, if not dangerous. "How little like a man of sense | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034975 | you speak," said the other; "how readily you have chimed in with the prejudices of the vulgar! I should have expected better things from you: but the sway of empiricism is destined yet to have a long struggle before it receives its final overthrow. I have attacked it with success in many quarters; but when it has been prostrated in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034976 | one place, it soon rises up in another. Have you, my good friend, seen my last essay on morbid action?" The Brahmin replied, that he had not yet had an opportunity of meeting with it. "I am sorry you have not," said the other. "I have there completely demonstrated that disease is an unit, and that it is the extreme | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034977 | of folly to divide diseases into classes, which tend but to produce confusion of ideas, and an unscientific practice. Sir," continued he, in a more animated tone, "there is a beautiful simplicity in this theory, which gives us assurance of its conformity to nature and truth. It needs but to be seen to be understood--but to be understood, to be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034978 | approved, and carried into successful operation." The Brahmin asked him if this unit did not present different symptoms on different occasions. "Certainly," he replied: "from too much or too little action, in this set of vessels or that, it is differently modified, and must be treated accordingly." "This unit, then," said my friend, "assumes different forms, and requires various remedies? | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034979 | Is there not, then, a convenience in separating these modifications (or _forms_, if you prefer it) from one another, by different names?" "Stop, my friend; you do not apprehend the matter. I will explain." At this moment two other gentlemen, of a grave aspect and demeanour, entered the room. They also were physicians of great reputation in the city. They | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034980 | appeared to be formal and reserved towards one another, but they each manifested still more shyness and coldness towards the learned Shuro. They entered the sick chamber, and having informed themselves of the state of the patient, all three withdrew to a consultation. They had not been long together, before their voices grew, from a whisper, so loud, that we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034981 | could distinctly hear all they said. "Sir," says Dr. Shakrack, "the patient is in a state of direct debility: we must stimulate, if we would restore a healthy action. Pour in the _stimulantia_ and _irritentia_, and my life for it, the patient is saved." "Will you listen to me for one moment?" says Dr. Dridrano, the youngest of the three | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034982 | gentlemen. "It may be presumption for one of my humble pretensions to set myself in opposition to persons of your age, experience, and celebrity; but I am bound, by the sacred duties of the high functions I have undertaken to perform, to use my poor abilities in such a way as I can, to advance the noble science of medicine, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034983 | and, in so doing, to give strength to the weak, courage to the disheartened, and comfort to the afflicted. Gentlemen, I say, I hope if my simple views should be found widely different from yours, you will not impute it to a presumption which is as foreign to my nature as it would be unsuited to your merits. I consider | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034984 | the human body a mere machine, whose parts are complicated, whose functions are various, and whose operations are liable to be impeded and frustrated by a variety of obstacles. There is, you know, one set of tubes, or vessels, for the blood; another for the lymph; another for the sweat; and so on. Now, although each of these fluids has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034985 | its several channels, yet, if by any accident any one of them is obstructed, and there is so great an accumulation of the obstructed fluid that it cannot find vent by its natural channel, or duct, then you must carry off the redundancy by some other; for you well know, that that which can be carried off by one, can | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034986 | be carried off by all. Gentlemen, I beg you not to turn away; hear me for a moment. Then, if the current of the blood be obstructed, I make large draughts of urine, or sweat or saliva, or of the liquor amnii; and I find it matters little which of these evacuants I resort to. This system, to which, with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034987 | deference to your longer experience, I have had the honour of giving some celebrity in Morosofia, explains how it is that such various remedies for the same disease have been in vogue at different times. They have all had in town able advocates. I could adduce undeniable testimonials of their efficacy, because, in fact, they are all efficacious; and it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034988 | seems to me a mere matter of earthshine, whether we resort to one or the other mode of restoring the equilibrium of the human machine; all that we have to do, being to know when and to what extent it is proper to use either. Determine, then, gentlemen,--you, for whose maturer judgment and years I feel profound respect,--whether we shall | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034989 | blister, or sweat, or bleed, or salivate." Dr. Shuro, who had manifested his impatience at this long harangue, by frequent interruptions, and which Dridrano's show of deference could scarcely keep down, hastily replied: "You have manifestly taken the hint of your theory from me; and because I have advanced the doctrine that disease is an unit, you come forward now, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034990 | and insist that remedy is an unit too." "You do me great honour, learned sir," said Dridrano. "Surely it would be very unbecoming, in one of my age and standing, to set up a theory in opposition to yours, but it would be yet more discreditable to be a plagiarist; and, with all due respect for your superior wisdom, it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034991 | does seem to my feeble intellect, that no two theories can be more different. You use several remedies for one disease: I admit several diseases, and use one remedy." "And does not darkness remind us of light," replied Shuro, "by the contrast? heat of cold--north of south?" "Gentlemen," then said Shakrack, who had been walking to and fro, during the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034992 | preceding controversy, "as you seem to agree so ill with each other, I trust you will unite in adopting my course. Let us begin with this cordial; we will then vary the stimulus, if necessary, by means of the elixir, and you will see the salutary effects immediately. A loss of blood would still farther increase the debility of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034993 | patient; and I appeal to your candour, Dr. Shuro, whether you ever practised venesection in such a case?" "In such a case? ay, in what _you_ would call much worse. I was not long since called in to a man in a dropsy. I opened a vein. He seemed from that moment to feel relief; and he so far recovered, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034994 | that after a short time I bled him again. I returned the next day, and had I arrived half an hour sooner, I should have bled him a third time, and in all human probability have saved his life." "If you had stimulated him, you might have had an opportunity of making your favourite experiment a little oftener," said Shakrack. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034995 | "You are facetious, sir; I imagine you have been using your own panacea somewhat too freely to-day." "Not so," said his opponent, angrily; "but if you are not more guarded in your expressions, I shall make use of yours, in a way you won't like." Upon which they proceeded to blows, Dridrano all the while bellowing, "I beg, my worthy | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034996 | seniors, for the honour of science, that you will forbear!" The noise of the dispute had waked the patient, who, learning the cause of the disturbance, calmly begged they would give themselves no concern about him, but let him die in peace. The domestics, who had been for some time listening to the dispute, on hearing the scuffle, ran in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034997 | and parted the angry combatants, who, like an abscess just lanced, were giving vent to all the malignant humours that had been so long silently gathering. In the mean while, the smooth and considerate Dr. Dridrano stept into the sick room, with the view of offering an apology for the unmannerly conduct of his brethren, and of tendering his single | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034998 | services, as the other sages of the healing art could not agree in the course to be pursued; when he found that the patient, profiting by the simple remedies of the Brahmin, and an hour's rest, had been so much refreshed, that he considered himself out of danger, and that he had no need of medical assistance; or, at any | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000034999 | rate, he was unwilling to follow the prescriptions of one physician, which another, if not two others, unhesitatingly condemned. Each one then received his fee, and hurried home, to publish his own statement of the case in a pamphlet. The Brahmin, who had never left the sick man's couch during his sleep, now that he was out of danger, was | 60 | gutenberg |
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