[36] Univ. Hist. vol. xvi. pp. 433, 435.
[37] Univ. Hist. vol. xvi.
[38] Univ. Hist. vol. xvi.
[39] Univ. Hist. vol. xvi.
[40] M. Millot places this account among the “exaggerations which ought not to have a place in history;” but, as we have no evidence for or against the fact, it was thought proper to let it remain as related by the historians of those times. It is certain that in those days mankind assembled for the purposes of bloodshed and slaughter in prodigious numbers; the destruction was commonly in proportion to the numbers assembled. The account is not more incredible than that of Tamerlane’s filling up the harbour of Smyrna by causing each of his soldiers to throw a stone into it. Such an army could have spared the number in question.
[42] Modern Univ. Hist. Arabia.
[43] That such accounts are not to be looked upon as entirely fabulous, may be gathered from what is related by Mr. Thomson in his travels through Palestine, viz. that on the brink of the lake Asphaltites he found numbers of “small black pebbles, which are soon set on fire by being held in the flame of a candle, and yield a smoke intolerably stinking and offensive; but have this remarkable property, that by burning they lose nothing of their weight, nor suffer any diminution in their bulk. They are capable of taking as fine a polish as black marble, and are likewise said to be met with of considerable size in the neighbouring mountains.”
[44] “Symptom (says Dr. Fordyce) is the Greek name for appearance:” but, from the strict etymology of the word, it ought rather to be translated accident. The universal consent of physicians, however, has applied it to every appearance produced in the human body by any distemper whatever.
[45] Dr. Anthony Fothergill, in his prize dissertation upon the suspension of vital action, quotes some experiments of Dr. Kite, in which he was able to restore to life animals that had been immersed in water for eight, ten or twelve minutes, though he acknowledges that this operation, though performed with great attention, often failed; while other animals, that had been longer immersed, recovered spontaneously. He further adds, that if it be not attempted before the convulsions of the animal cease, which on an average of many experiments happens in about eleven minutes and a half, it will not be sufficient to renew the vital motions. But, “among the human species (says Dr. Fothergill) there are not wanting well authenticated instances of spontaneous recovery at an incomparably longer interval, and after every external mark of life had disappeared. Such is the latent energy of the heart, that it sometimes, after remaining several hours quiescent, renews on a sudden the secret springs of life, surmounts the barriers of the resisting blood, and restores circulation with all the other functions. Hence the unexpected recoveries from death-like syncope brought on by sudden terror, or great effusions of blood, even after the funeral obsequies have been prepared. Hence some persons have accidentally been brought to life, even after interment, by the rude motion produced in sacrilegious attempts to wrest rings or bracelets from the apparently dead body.”