Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

not causelessly, wantonly to immerse his hands in their blood, or cause them to linger in cruel tortures. It is true, I have little faith in the doctrine of Metempsychosis, yet let me recommend the Christian doctrines of pity and compassion. And, however strange and singular these principles may appear to the impaling murderers in question, persons endowed with sensibility of mind, I am sure, will applaud them. 1771, Sept.

EUSEBIA.

XL. On the Process of Vegetation in Trees.
Black Bourton, Oxon, Oct. 12, 1771.

MR. URBAN, SOME consideration on the process of vegetation in trees, may not only be a matter of curiosity, but from thence some beneficial effects to mankind may possibly be deduced.

In spring and summer, the sap abounds with salts, and is perfectly fluid, by which means the nutritious juices are conveyed through all the more minute ducts, to every part of the tree, for the purposes of vegetation; but as winter advances, and that is no longer to be carried on, the sap begins to grow thick and viscid, and thereby rendered incapable of passing through the smaller vessels, by which means the leaves of all those which are classed under the name of trees with deciduous leaves, for want of their due nourishment, fall off and perish. In winter the sap assumes another form, retires to the bark, abounds with oil, and in that state seems designed by providence as a defensitive to the vital parts of the tree against the inclemency of the weather, during that torpid state. But as the spring comes on, it again liquifies, and these oleaginous parts are by nature elaborated into a thin aqueous juice, to pervade every part of it for vegeta

tion.

I have been informed, that the bark of oak is fit for tanning, only when taken off in the spring of the year, when the oily parts contained in it are digested into the fluidity of sap, and if taken off in the winter, would be totally useless for that purpose; and therefore should think that the tanning property of it, arises from the sap-aqueous juice contained in it: and if so, it may be worth while to consider whether the tapping of the oak in spring might not produce liquor in great quantity fit for this purpose; but as this would soon ferment and grow into a spirituous liquor, and thereby be so

totally changed, as not to be at all proper for this use; that fermentation might be prevented by boiling it down, and throwing off the aqueous parts by evaporation, as is every day practised in the fresh juices of the grape, and made into a rob; so to concentre its juices, as to prevent fermentation, and reduce it to a body. And in this form the sap of trees might be safely conveyed from great distances, and at any time made use of.

To this let me add, it is found that nuts, mast, and seeds of every kind, plentifully abound with oil, and perhaps for the same reason, that bark in winter is full of it, to be a preservative of the corculum, or vegetative principle; and, indeed, seeds of every kind have a much greater quantity of oil contained in them, than in the same portion of bark, as a superior care may perhaps be necessary for their preservation; and it is to be observed, that as soon as nuts, acorns, mast, &c. begin to vegetate, their juices become aqueous, rancid, acrid, and austere; and if eaten in that state, are productive of the most dangerous consequences, and in some instances fatal. From this process of nature it has occurred to me, that if acorns were artificially made to vegetate, in the manner made use of in malting of corn, a more powerful material for tanning might be produced, than the oak bark; and perhaps repeated trials and experience of other seeds in the same way, might indicate others, equally, or more, adapted for this purpose,

1771, Nov.

P. E.

XLI. Extraordinary Effects of Pestilential Winds.

MR. URBAN,

WE have an account in several authors, as noted in the margin*, of certain hot, sultry, pestilential, or rather suffocating winds, in the Levant. They blow from the deserts, and are met with in Egypt, Persia, Assyria, India, and other countries adjacent to large and extensive plains of sand. But, not to be tedious, I shall here only give you the words of two authors concerning these mortal blasts. Thevenot

* Thevenot, p. 177, 261. p. 256. Part II. p. 44. Dr. Shaw's Supplement, p. 11,

Part II. p. 54. 116. et seq. 135, 138. Tavernier,
Shaw's Travels, p. 217, 218, 379. Brvant, p. ☎
Hyde de Relig. Vet, Pers. p, 339,

1

writes, p. 177, "In this journey from Sarr to Caire, for a day's time and more, we had so hot a wind, that we were forced to turn our backs to it, to take a little breath, and so soon as we opened our mouths, they were full of sand. Our water was so extremely heated with it, that it seemed to be just taken off the fire; and many poor people of the caravan came and begged of us a cup of water, for God's sake. For our parts we could not drink it, it was so hot. The camels were so infested with this wind, that they could not so much as feed; but it lasted not above six hours in its force; and, if it had continued longer, one half of the caravan would have perished. It was such a kind of wind that the year before so infested the caravan of Mecca, that two thousand men died of it in one night."

The words of Tavernier, speaking of Bander-Abbassi, p. 256, are "March being past, the wind changes, and blowing at W. S. W. in a short time it grows so hot and so stifling, that it almost takes away a man's breath. This wind is by the Arabians called El-samiel, or the poisonous wind; by the Persians, Badesambour, because it suffocates and kills presently. The flesh of them that are thus stifled, feels like a glewy fat, and as if they had been dead a month before, &c."

Now there is a remarkable passage, in Dr. Shaw's Supplement to his Travels, relative to this matter, which I think requires a different solution from what the learned Doctor has given it. He says, "At Siabah, a few days journey beyond Ras-Sem, towards Egypt, there is a whole caravan, consisting of men, asses and camels, which, from time immemorial, has been preserved at that place. The greatest part of these bodies still continues perfect and entire, from the heat of the sun, and the dryness of the climate; and the tradition is, that they were all of them originally surprised, suffocated, and dryed up, by the hot, scorching winds that sometimes frequent those deserts*.

This, however, does not appear to me at all probable; for Tavernier observes above, and I think very justly, that the poisonous winds here spoken of, have a tendency rather to corrupt an animal body, and to cause it to putrefy, than to preserve it. And this is confirmed by Mons. Thevenot, Part ii. p. 54, where he says, "No sooner does a man de by this wind, but he becomes as black as a coal; and if one take

* Shaw's Travels, p. 379. and Supplement, p. 11. 18.

him by the leg, arm, or any other place, his flesh comes from the boues, and is plucked off by the hand that would lift him up." Wherefore I incline to believe, that the caravan Dr. Shaw speaks of, was first killed by one of these pestilential winds, and then was instantly covered with sand (storms of sand being exceedingly cominon in the deserts*) which was the efficient and direct cause of their preservation in their sound state, and not those hot scorching winds to which it is attributed by the Doctor; these, on the contrary, having a disposition to putrefy, rather than to preserve, them. The sand of the deserts has the property of drying, in concurrence with the heat of the sun, as Dr. Shaw himself tells us: "The same violent heat may be the reason, likewise, why the carcasses of camels, and other creatures, which lie exposed in these deserts, are quickly drained of that moisture which would otherwise dispose them to putrefaction; and being hereby put into a state of preservation, not much inferior to what is communicated by spices and bandages, they will continue a number of years without mouldering away." All, then, that we have to suppose is, that the sand, which first covered and preserved the bodies of this caravan, was afterwards, by the shifting of the winds, blown away from them, so as to leave them entirely exposed to view, and in that uncommon state of preservation and incorruption in which they are said to have been found. The supposition seems to be absolutely necessary, in accounting for the phenomenon, as the pestilential wind, supposed to have destroyed them, and which has been described above, could never have left the bodies in such a dry and sound condition.

1772, Jan.

I am, &c.

T. Row

MR. URBAN,

XLII. On the Leviathan,

YOU are aware, without doubt, of the dispute there has been amongst the learned about the Leviathan described in the xlist. chapter of the book of Job, and mentioned in the civth Psalm; some fixing upon one of God's creatures for

Churchill, V. p. 533

the animal intended by the sacred writers, and some upon another. Dr. Thomas Shaw may be deemed the most literate of all our English travellers, in respect of the Encyclopædia, or learning in all its branches and extent; and as he visited the Eastern parts of the world, and has touched upon this subject in his book, and particularly in his Dissertation on the Mosaic Pavement at Præneste, (see his Supplement, p. 86) one would expect something decisive upon this controverted point from him. He is of opinion, that the Levi athan is no other than the Crocodile, which (these are his words from the scaly quality and hardness of its coat, or (in the scripture phrase, Job 41, 17.) whose scales so stick together, that they cannot be sundered, is in no danger (v. 7.) of having his skin filled with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears. The Crocodile is of too great weight and magnitude likewise (v. i.) to be drawn out of the river, as fish usually are, with a hook. The Crocodile then, from these apposite cha racteristics, may be well taken for the Leviathan, as it is des cribed above in the book of Job.' This conjecture of the Doctor's is not new, for you may find it in Calmet's Dictionary, aş likewise in other writers; and I much question, though our able traveller has thought proper to adopt and revive it, whether it be the true interpretation. The Crocodile is a river animal entirely, and is never found in the sea: at this time he is not found in the lower or northern parts of the Nile, but in upper Egypt only. And yet the Royal Psalmits says expressly,

CIV. 24. The earth is full of thy riches;

25. So is the great and wide sea also; wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

26. There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan, whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein.

Where the Leviathan is plainly made to be an inhabitant of the great and wide sea, of the same ocean that is navigated by ships. We are obliged, therefore, to suppose it to have been some large sea fish, of which there were several sorts in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, not unknown to the ancients, who have accordingly given them various names, which need not be here mentioned. And it is not of any conse quence, whether we can now appropriate the name to the particular and identical fish, or not. However that the Leviathan cannot be the Crocodile, appears to me most certain. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

1773, Jan,

T. Row.

« AnteriorContinuar »