Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

304 The Schemer's Project for the Increase of Honesty, &c.

Continue to cheat, our tradesmen continue to break, our preachers continue to cant, our pastors continue to fleep, our poor continue to fwear, our juftices continue to drink, and our representatives to bribe, what hope has Britain to revive!

A

The ANNEXER. No. 1. Do not pretend, in this cloud of political dust, to any firft rank or degree, being only defirous of throwing in fome little hint where I find others fail, that fo I may support the general caufe, which I fhall endeavour to do B with the utmost impartiality; for I am of the fame opinion with the celebrated Dr Swift, that a man of letters is a much greater man than a lord, tho', Heavens be praised, there is at present a great plenty of both the one annexed to the H-e of L-ds, and the other to the parish of Grub-freet. Now, having declared my principles, 1 thall fay no more, but wait till I may annex my obfervations to the next paper that appears.

The DAUBER.

C

E

No. 1. THE Sun, in the space of fix thoufand years, has beheld but eight D wonders: Seven of these our ancestors claim, the eighth is reserved for us. A wonder, whofe bafis is fixed more folidly than the Pyramids of Egypt; whofe memory will need no maufoleum, as his noble deeds will be enPombed in the hearts of all his fellow fubjects; whofe virtues no fingle temple might contain; for whom no palace or hanging gardens would appear fufficiently fumptuous; who, like a Coloffus, ftrides over the enemies of his country, and like Jupiter Tonans detroys them with the thunder of his voice; and is ever watchful like a Pharos that they rife not again to deftroy his majesty's fubjects. Such a Pyramid, fuch a Mausoleum, fuch a Temple, fuch a Babylonian palace, fuch a Coloffus, fuch a Jupiter, fuch a Pharos, is the noble Earl B-.

The COMPLIMENTER. No. 1. IT is no compliment to a certain great man to fay that he is more de erving of his country, than thofe about whom our writers are quarreling and difputing; a man unbiaffed by honours, undaunted at cavils, and above a penfion. View him in every circumftance, an hero and a patriot; whether at a mob, whether at a fealt, whether at a bonfire, whether at an election. But his virtues are too confpicuous to need defcription, and his praifes too well known to want a repetition.

F

G

The GROWLER.

No. 1

IT is true that we are mafters of

North America, all but Louifiɔna z that we have conquered Pondicherry, Martinico, Belleifle, and are in Germany victorious: But what is become of Minorca ?-You will answer, It is of no value.-How then came we to expend fo much to fecure it? Why keep it at fuch a vaft expence? Believe me, you will be taught at a peace to value it; that is, if you fhould be fo lucky as to have it given you in exchange. For my part, I think our acquifitions are a trifle to the lofs of this; we have not people fufficient to awe the Americans that we have conquered. Pondicherry is a private conqueft, where the money of the nation has been exhausted to enrich a few monopolizers. The conqueft of Martinica will enrich the very planters we have conquered, and ruin our own fugar colonies, who gave fuch fums towards its reduction. ^ Belleifle is but a rock in the fea, and ferves only to starve our own troops, without harraffing or annoying the enemy, tho' we have spent three millions upon it already. And as to Germany, though one Englishman be a match for ten Germans or French, ftill the French can better spare ten than we our one. Minorca, Minorca is the place we ought never to have loft, and it should be our first attempt to regain it. The MALIGNER. No. 1.

LET us take an impartial view of our countrymen this war, and fee what reason they have to rejoice. Braddock run his pate into the fnare of a foolish Indian Blak-y lay a bed and heard the French fire at his garrifon. B-e was deaf and blind, and neither heard nor faw when it was time to run away. W-fe, like a madman, got a precarious victory, and was fhot for his pains. PF-d, though no countryman, has as much English money in his pocket as any of us; he is rich, and we are beggared and cut to pieces, to defend him. A great con

queror took a certain little inland in three months, and Sir E- H-tumbled upon a victory before he knew where he was. Such are fome of the grand characters that are to adorn our annals, which when certain facts ceafe to be known, and certain lies are invented in their ftead by fuck Hiftorians as RT-E- or S-, perhaps our progeny may fay,-We cannot dif cover by the actions of our ancesters in the laft century, whether they were wife or feelin

Harvey's Difcovery of the Circulation of the Blood juftified. 305

Mr URBAN, 7

Thought the glory of difcovering the circulation of the blood had now been univerfally given to our im mortal countryman Dr Harvey, and that the malice of his opponents was

entirely forgotten, and funk into de

ferved oblivion. But it is with particular regret that I find fo refpectable and eminent an author as Dr ABruc employed in raking together the objections of Vander Linden, Almelogpen, and others, which have been long fince fully answered and exploded.

For the fake of fuch of your readers as may not be acquainted with the affair, I shall endeavour to give a fair State of these objections, and vindicate the memory of that incomparable man from the depreciating fpirit which fome envious and malevolent foreigners haye fhewn against him.

nem intelligit, in extimas ufque corporis partes fertur, et ab externis ad interna redit fine circulari fanguinis metų? At f fequentes aphorifmos et 20, fect. 2. addidderis, ii fimul quafi demonftrationem effici ent: He allows, indeed, that the cir

Aculation is not taught fo diftinctly as to explain the impulfe of the blood through the arteries, and its return by the veins; but nobody will wonder at this, fays he, who confiders that many of the works of Hippocrates have perished, especially his book of the veins and arteries

B

In the year 1628 Dr Harvey pubJifhed his Exercitatio Anatomica de motu cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. No fooner did it appear, than all the anatomists in Europe fet themselves to oppose or defend the doctrine which he therein advanced; and this, by the D hy, must surely be allowed one strong proof of its novelty. Some of his opponents entirely denied the truth of the difcovery, because many paffages in the antients, of which, indeed, they might collect great numbers, flatly contradicted it. Others pretended to E find abfurdities and contradictions in it, and when they were beat from thefe weak holds, they had recourse to their last fort, and boldly charged him with tealing his noble difcovery from thofe very antients whofe authority had just been alledged against him. Thus Vander Linden will give it to Hippocrates, Plato, Ariftotle, Erafifiratus, Emefius, or, in fhort, to any body except the only man in the world who was able to make it.

G

It would wake time to give all their reafons; but it furprizes me to find the judicious and learned Spon inclining the fame way. Hippocrates fays + Η τροφὴ ἐς τρίχας, καὶ ἐς ὄνυχας, και ες την ἐσχάτης ἐπιφανένην ἔνδοθεν αφικνέεται : ἔξωθεν τροφὴ ἐκ τῆς ἐσχάτης ἐπιφανένης ἐνδ Tára. Upon this M. Spon obferves, Circulationem fanguinis hoc fæculo ab Har vxo detectam non latuiffe magnum Hippo- H cratem textus bie evincere videtur. Quo modo enim alimentum, quo nomine fangui

Gent, Mag, May 1762, p. 217. ↑ De Alimentis

(GINT. MAG, JULY 1762.)

ενδο

Now it may be proved beyond contradiction, from an infinite number of places, that the divine old man was totally ignorant of the circulation. If any one doubt it, let him read the books De locis in homine, de morbo facro, de regimine, nay even in his very book de corde, where, if any where, one would expect to find the circulation, there is not a word to the purpose, but many things advanced which are directly oppofite to that motion of the blood,

But it is time to come to Dr Aftruc who contents himself, I find, with giving the glory of the discovery to Michael Servetus, Realdus Columbus, and An dreas Cæfalpinus.

Seroctus, in his famous book entitled Chriflianifmi reftitutio, of which there is a copy in the library of the univerfity of Edinburgh, compares the mystery of the Trinity to the three fluids of the body, namely blood, phlegm, and fpirit. He fays the blood being fent from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, paffles through the lungs, where it receives a confiderable change, and returns to the left auricle, impregnated with æther, from whence it is diftributed through all the arteries of the body. Here he plainly leans to the notion of the antients, that the blood, in paffing thro the lungs, was elaborated and turned into I know not what æther, which was forced into the arteries to nourish, enliven, and invigorate the body, but he does not mention one word to in form us how this blood is returned.

Columbus, indeed, who was pupil to the celebrated Vefaliust, goes farther,

[blocks in formation]

306 Harvey's Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood justified.

circulation be as perfect as Dr Afruc pretends, how could the bulk of anatomifts and phyficians remain quite in the dark about it? Riolanus, who was a man of great learning, and in the highest repute for his anatomical fkill, bitterly oppofed Dr Harvey upon the publication of his firft Exercitation, and after he was forced by the doctor's plain and fimple experiments to yield to the truth, it was with many exceptions and restrictions. His own notions of it were entirely false, B as may be seen in Harvey de circulatio ne Sanguinis Exercitatio prima, addreffed to Riolanus himself, although he was no ftranger to Cafalpinus's book.

and in his chapter de pulmonibus, comes
near the truth with refpect to the cir-
culation through the lungs. He alfo
explains not only the ftructures, but
the ufe too of every part belonging to
the heart, with great exactnefs, ex- A
cepting fome fmall mistake about fome
of the valves; but he does not at all
fhew us how the blood flows from the
arteries to the veins, nor does he feem
to comprehend any communication
between them. For he affigns the
carrying of vital fpirits only to the ar-
teries, and in his chapter de Hepate,
you will find him a rank Galenif, re-
lapfing into the old opinion, that the
fiver forces the blood into all the parts
of the body.

I shall readily grant that Servetus, Vefalius, Columbus, Cafalpinus, and perhaps others, had fomne faint glimmerCings of the truth, and afforded useful hints towards the difcovery; but it was referved to our countryman alone to fee it himself in the clearest light, and to display it to pofterity in full meridian fplendour.

Cafalpinus advances ftill farther, and is very particular concerning the ufes of the valves of the heart, and gives fome good obfervations concerning the puffe, and the veins fwelling between the ligature and the extremity upon being tied up; he alfo has the word anafiomofis, borrowed, perhaps, from Servetus, who has ufed it; by which he fuppofes the native heat may pafs from the arteries to the veins in the time of fleep only, and that it returns from the veins into the arteries while we are awake, not allowing the blood to flow by a continued ftream, or with an equal motion, but going and returning frequently backwards and forwards in the fame channel. E Herein following Ariftotle who compares the motion of the blood to the tides of Euripus.

Thus far they went; and now let me afk what all this amounts to? Does it explain "the circulation exactly as it is now taught and believed? Can

this lame, obfcure, and, in fome refpects, falfe account of the motion of the blood, be compared to the compleat, clear, and juft idea which our excellent countryman gives us of the circulation. So perfect and full is his account of it, that no author fince his time has, in my opinion, treated it in fo fatisfactory a manner, his book ftill remaining the beft we have upon the fubject.

If Cafalpinus's explanation of the

F

I will conclude in the words of Boerbe one of the best judges of this matbaave, who must surely be allowed to ter. After giving an account of the circulation of the blood, he adds, Hacque eft ratio circumeuntis jugiter fanguinis, cujus inventi, abfolutâ doctrinâ, accurate explanati gloriâ immortale clues Harvei nomen.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

IN

[ocr errors]

N your last Hiftoricle Chronicle, p. 294, mention is made of a part of the country in the neighbourhood of Quefnoy in France being utterly ruined parts of Cloucestershire, Somerset bire, by a torm. In the year 1607, fome Monmouthbire, and other Western parts of England fuffered fill more dreadfully by a like accident. The relation of this event is curious, and not commonly taken notice of by Hiftorians, I have therefore fent you a Ghort account of it faithfully extracted from a pamphlet written foon after the event happened, and preferved in the Harleian library,

of the functions of the heart, and feems quite diffatisfied therewith, at the fame time throwing out feveral noble hints towards a difcovery H

of the truth. His want of fubjects for diffection in Spain, where he was phyfician to the Emperor Charles V, and the misfortunes which befel him, probably prevented him from purfuing the fubject, and, perhaps, complete Ing the difcovery.

On Tuesday, January 27, (lays my author) about nine in the morning, the funne being fayrly and bryghtly spred, huge and mighty hills of water were feen in the elements, tumbling one o ver another in fuch fort as if the great. eft mountains in the world had over, whelmed the low vallies, to the inexpreffible astonishment and terror of the

Inflitutiones Med. Apbor. 162.

specta

Account of a dreadful Inundation in England and Wales. 307

fpectators, who, at firft, miftaking it
for a great mift, or fog, did not on the
fudden prepare to make their escape
from it; but on its nearer approach,
which came on with fuch fwiftnefs as
it was verily thought the fowls of the
air could not fly fo faft; they per- A

ceived that it was the violence of the
waters of the raging feas, which feem-
ed to have broken their bounds, and
were pouring in to deluge the whole
land, and then happy were they that
could fly the fafteft. But fo violent
and swift were the huge waves, and B
they pursuing one another with fuch
rapidity that in less than five hours
space, most part of the countries on
the Severn's banks were laid under
water, and many hundreds of men,
women, and children, perifhed in the
floods. From the hills might be seen
herds of cattle, and flocks of fheep,
with husbandmen labouring in the
fields, all fwept away together, and
fwallowed up in one dreadful inunda-
tion. Houfes, barns, ricks of corn
and hay, were all involved in the
common ruin. Many who were rich
in the morning were beggars before D
noon, and feveral perished in endea-
vouring to fave their effects.

C

E

Briftol and Auft fuffered terribly, and all the country from Bristol to Gloucefter on both fides the Severne, was overflowed to the diftance of fix miles, and most of the bridges over it and the adjacent buildings, were destroyed or defaced: At Chepstow, Goldclift, Matherne, Callcott-Moor, Redrift, Newport, Cardiffe, Cowbridge, Swanfey, Langherne, and many other parts of Glamorganshire, Monmouthfbire, Carmarthenshire, and Cardiganshire, the waters raged fo furioufly and came on F fo faft, that, upon a moderate fuppofition, there cannot he fo few perfons drowned as 500, men, women, and children; befides many thoufand herd of cattle that were feeding in the valleys, together with fheep, hogs, horfes, and even poultry, all of which were fuddenly immerged in the waters, and could not escape.

But what is ftill more ftrange, says my author, there are now not only found floating upon the waters still remaining, the dead carcafes of men and cattle, but alfo all kind of wild beafts, as foxes, hares, rabits, rats, &c. fome of them upon one anothers backs, as thereby thinking to have faved themselves.

At a place in Merionethshire there was a maid a milking, who was fo

fuddenly furrounded with the waters that he could not escape, but had juít time to reach a high bank on which the ftood fecure from the inundation. but without any relief from hunger and cold for two days; feveral ways were devifed to bring her off, but in vain, till at length two young men contrived a raft, which, with long poles they pushed along, and with great labour and hazard fetched her away half dead with fear, rather than with hunger and cold; for, strange as it is to relate, the hill, or bank on which the maid stood was all fo covered over with wild heafts and vermin that came thither for fafety, that he had much ado to keep them from creeping upon her; and though among thofe there were many of oppolite natures, as dogs, and foxes, hares and hounds, cats and rats, with others of like fort, yet the one never oncè offered to annoy the other, but in a gentle fort they freely enjoyed the liberty of life without the least expreffion of enmity, or appearance of natural ferocity.

Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Cardigan and other counties in South Wales, bore their part in this dreadful vifitation; many to fave their lives afcended hills, trees, fteeples, and houses, where they might fee their cattle, and fometimes their wives and children perish without being able to give them the leaft affiftance.

At Cardiff a great part of the church next the river was carried away by the violence of the flood.

Children at school, and travellers upon the road were equally involved in this general calamity; if they fled to the house tops, or to the tops of hills, they were alike in danger of perishing by hunger and cold; but many were involved before they were aware of their danger. Some, indeed, efcaped miraculously; in Glamorganfbire a blind man that had been long bed-ridden, had his poor cottage swept Gawd into the open fields, where, beaway, and himself, bed and all, caring ready to fink in two fathom water, his hand, by providence, chanced upon the rafter of a houfe, and by the force of the wind, then blowing Easterly, he was driven to land, and fo efcaped; in another place, a boy of five years old being upheld a long time upon the water by means of his long coats that continued hollow about him, was at length carried to land, by taking faft hold of the wool of a dead theep that came floating by him

H

juit

308

Condu&t of the Dutch from their

just as he was ready to fink. A mother
and three children were faved in Car-
marthenshire by means of a trough in
which the mother used to make
her bread; many more there avere, lays
my author, that through the bandy
works of God were preserved; but there
were not fo many fo firangely fawed, but A
there were as many in number as frange-
ly drowned. What follows is in the au-
thor's own words:

"The lowe marshes and fenny
groundes neere Barnstable, in the coun
tie of Deuon, were overflowne fo farre
out, and in fuch outragicus fort, that
the countrey all along to Bridgewater B
was greatly diftreffed thereby, and
much hurt there done; it is a moft
pittifull fight to beholde what num-
bers of fat oxen there were drowned;
what flocks of sheepe, what herdes of
kine have their bin loft. There is lit-
ale now remaining there to be feene C
but huge waters like to the maine ote.
an; the tops of churches and steeples
like to the tops of rocks in the fea;
great reekes of fodder for cattle are
floating like hips upon the waters,
and dead beaftes fwimming thereon,
how paft feading on the fame. The
tops of trees a man may behold re-
maining aboue the waters, upon whofe
braunches multitudes of al kind of
turkies, hens, and other fuch like
poultry were faine to fly vp to saue
their liues, where many of them pe.
rished for want of reliefe, not being
able to fly to dry laund by reason of
their weaknes.

This mercileffe water, breaking into the bofome of the firme laund, has proued a feareful punishment as well to al other liuing creatures, as allo to al mankinde; which, if it had not bin for the mercifull promife of God, at the last diffolution of the world by water, by the figne of the raine bowe, which is still thewed vs, we might haue uerily beleeued this time had bin the very hour of Chrift his coming; from which element of water extended towards us in this fearefull manner good Lord deliver vs al. Amen.

Mr URBAN,

Ta time when the Dutch Eaft In

A dia company are endeavouring

to juftify their late intended hoftilities against the English fettlements at Bengal, H permit me to lay before the public a hort view of their conduct towards our company from their first estab ifhment in India, to the prefent time. It is, indeed, a common obfervation, That Hollanders acknowledge no natio

[ocr errors]

nal obligations whatever: It were therefore in vain for Englishmen to hope for gratitude for raifing thefe high and mighty lords of commerce to that fummit of power and opulence of which they now ftand. But one would think, that the recollection of eminent fervices paft, would fo far operate upon humane minds, as to restrain them from acts of oppreffion and cruelty to thofe who have deferved well of them, to which no nation ever had a fairer claim than the English. What follows will fet their obligations and their gratitude in the cleareft light.

[ocr errors]

When the Duke of Alva, in the reign of Philip the fecond of Spain, under whofe voke the provinces then groaned, cut off the heads of the Counts Horn and Egmont for oppofing his arbitrary proceedings against their country s when the fame governor had erected citadels to keep the turbulent spirits of the citizens in awe, and impoled grievous and intollerable taxes upon them for the maintenance of those fortreffes; when he, by order of his fovereign, had deprived them of their antient franchifes, fubverted their reDligion, and, to terrify the reformed, had established the inquifition among them, the deplorable fituation of their affairs conftrained them to fue for fuccour and protection to our illuftrious queen; they could then, in all humility, make a tender of the fovereignty of their provinces to Elizabeth, whofe wifdom, however, they could not over-reach, but whofe gracious protection they effectually obtained.

When, afterwards, to punish their rebellion, the Prince of Parma savaged their country, and carried terror and defolation through the streets of their richest and moft fplendid cities, they affected. then to admire the valour of Englishmen, to extol the generosity of those who were hazarding their lives to free them from oppreflion, and to acknowledge the friendship of that nation, without whofe aid they must have fallen a facrifice to their implacable enemies; then were their towns forced into Englishmens hands, not as pledges, folely, of their performance of covenants, but as places of refuge for their perfons against perfecution, and of fecurity for their effects from the danger of confiscation. The ftrong city of the Brille ; Flushing, and the caffle of Ramekins were of this number.

The gracious fovereign who then filed

« VorigeDoorgaan »