The philosophical Boyle could not conquer a strong aversion to the sound of water running through a pipe.
La Mothe le Vayer could not endure the sound of musical instruments, though he experienced a lively pleasure whenever it thundered.
The author of the Turkish Spy tells us that he would rather encounter a lion in the deserts of Arabia, provided he had but a sword in his hand, than feel a spider crawling on him in the dark. He observes, that there is no reason to be given for these secret dislikes. He humorously attributes them to the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul; and as regarded himself, he supposed he had been a fly, before he came into his body, and that having been frequently persecuted with spiders, he still retained the dread of his old enemy.
THE LACTEALS IN A MOLE.
A curious observer of nature will be delighted to know, that the lacteal vessels are more visible in a mole, than in any animal whatever. The view, however, is not of long duration. These vessels are rendered visible by the mode of killing the animal, which is by a wire gin that compresses the thoracic duct, thereby preventing the ascent of the chyle upwards. The time of demonstration is about half an hour after death. This curious fact was unknown to anatomists, till mentioned by Dr. A. Hunter, in his volume of maxims on men and manners.
LOUIS GONZAGA
TO
MARIE MANCINI.
Florence, 1649.
Il cantar che nel anima si sente.
Il pin ne sente l’alma, il men l’orecchio.