[86] The gold-fish is a small species of carp, brought originally from China. They are adorned with the most beautiful and resplendent colours, and are frequently kept in jars for pleasure. They subsist entirely on the water, without any other food. This is by Dr. Fordyce said to be the case with all fishes, provided the water be impregnated with oxygen.
[87] Sir John Pringle, from Stowe’s Chronicle, gives the following account of these assizes. “On the 4th, 5th and 6th days of July were the assizes held at Oxon, where was arraigned and condemned Rowland Jenkins, for a seditious tongue; at which time there arose amidst the people such a damp, that almost all were smothered. Very few escaped that were not taken. Here died in Oxon three hundred persons; and sickened there, but died in other places, two hundred and odd.
“The sessions at the Old Bailey in Westminster, in 1650, proved also fatal to many; of which Sir John also gives an account. ‘I have been informed (says he) that, at those Sessions, about a hundred were tried, who were all kept in close places as long as the court sat; and that each room was but 14 feet by 11, and seven feet high. The bail-dock is also a small room taken off one of the corners of the court, and left open at the top: in this, during the trials, are put some of the malefactors who have been under the closest confinement. The hall in the Old Bailey is a room of only 30 feet square. Now whether the air was most tainted from the bar by some prisoners then ill of the jail distemper, or by the general uncleanliness of such persons, is uncertain; but it is probable that both causes concurred. And we may easily conceive how much it might have been vitiated by the foul steams of the bail-dock, and of the two rooms opening into the court in which the prisoners were the whole day crowded together till they were brought out to be tried. It appeared afterwards, that these places had not been cleaned for some years. The poisonous quality of the air was aggravated by the heat and closeness of the court, and by the perspirable matter of a number of people of all sorts, penned up for the most part of the day, without breathing the free air, or receiving any refreshment. The bench consisted of six persons, whereof four died, together with two or three of the counsel, one of the under sheriffs, several of the Middlesex jury, and others present to the amount of above forty; without making allowance for those of a lower rank, whose death may not have been heard of; and without including any that did not sicken within a fortnight after the sessions.’”
(Pringle’s Observations p. 329 & seq.)
[88] Bee, vol. xviii, p. 282.
[89] Those of Galvani and others on animal electricity.
[90] See Medical Repository, vol. ii, No. iii.
[91] That this is the case with the atmosphere at Martinico is now determined by a letter from Dr. George Davidson to Dr. Mitchell of New York, inserted in the Medical Repository, vol. ii, p. 279. With equal parts of nitrous and atmospheric air there was an absorption of 67 parts out of 100; but when two parts of atmospheric air were used to one of nitrous, the absorption was only from 52 to 58 parts; with a mixture of iron filings and sulphur, upwards of four tenths of the air were absorbed. These experiments were attested by a number of medical gentlemen who were present. In a letter subjoined from Dr. Chisholm, he says, that, having made a trial with iron filings and sulphur, the absorption was forty parts of an hundred, or exactly four tenths, with the eudiometer fifty-six. “It appears to me (says Dr. Chisholm) to be a singular circumstance, that, although the ground on which the Ordnance Hospital Hands is a perfect morass, partially drained, yet a result almost exactly similar to that given by the experiments made with the eudiometer at my house, should take place, with the same instrument and in circumstances very different. The proportion at the Ordnance Hospital, I think, has been 58 out of 100, and at your house, a situation less swampy, and nearer the sea, it has been 67. An explanation of so singular a result, in situations so different, is perhaps more to be wished than expected.”
[92] In the account of this sailor’s speech a most essential part of the devil’s character was omitted. The speech, according to Capt. Cook, was, that the devil “was about the size of a one gallon keg, and very like it. He had horns and wings; and he was so near, that, if I had not been afear’d, I might have touched him.” (See [p. 105], n.)
[93] This is an assertion so extravagant, that is difficult to imagine what could induce any one to make it. Did our author ever hear that laurel water, &c. produced the venereal disease, the plague, yellow fever, gout, stone, small-pox, &c. &c. or to what patients and in what diseases did he ever administer this remedy with success? I mean not to deny that these substances will cure some diseases as well as produce others; but such an unqualified expression that they can not only produce but cure all diseases without exception, never can be admitted.
[94] There must certainly be some error here; for as he mentions a dissolution of the blood so soon afterwards, we should think it impossible that any coagulation would have taken place. Perhaps the word only imports that the circulation was completely stopped.