Chapter 5 Mansfield Ingleby. No.5

Birmingham.

It would be well if every popular error were hunted down, as your correspondents have done in the case of the snake-vomiting at Portsmouth. The public need to be told, that no animal can live in the alimentary canal but the parasites which belong to that part of the animal economy. Of these the Lumbricus intestinalis is the largest, and is discharged by children even of the size mentioned in the case of Jonathan Smith.

Two years ago I met with a curious illustration of the popular ignorance of that branch of natural history which treats of our own reptiles, as well as of the mode of growth of a popular marvel. During the hot weather of the summer before last, I was asked by a respectable farmer, if I had seen the "serpent" which was lately killed in an adjoining parish. "Serpent!" I replied; "I suppose you mean some overgrown common snake-perhaps a female full of eggs?" "Well, it might have been a snake at first, but it was grown into a serpent; and pursued a boy through the hedge, but was fortunately encountered and killed by the father."

It is a moot point, whether the parasites of animals are engendered or not within the body. In the case of the bots of horses, they are known to be the larv? of a fly which deposits its eggs on the skin; from whence they are licked off, and conveyed into the animal's stomach, where they are hatched and prepared for their other metamorphoses.

I believe the only parasite taken in with water in tropical climates is the Guinea Worm; an animal which burrows under the skin of the arms or legs, and is extremely difficult of extraction, and often productive of great inconvenience. But whether the egg of this worm be taken into the stomach, and conveyed by the blood into the limbs, there to be hatched into life, or whether it enter through the pores of the skin, I believe is not determined.

The popular delusion respecting the swallowing of young snakes, and of their continuance in the stomach, is a very old one, and is still frequent. A medical friend of mine, not long since, was called on to treat a poor hysterical woman, who had exhausted the skill of many medical men (as she asserted) to rid her of "a snake or some such living creature, which she felt confident was and had been for a long time gnawing in her stomach." I suggested the expediency of working on the imagination of this poor hypochondriac, as was done in the well-known facetious story of the man who fancied he had swallowed a cobbler; and who was cured by the apparent discharge first of the awls and strap, then of the lapstone, and, finally, of Crispin himself.

M. (2)

* * *

FRENCH SEASON RHYMES AND WEATHER RHYMES.

(Vol. ix., p. 9.)

The following weather rules are taken from a work which is probably but little known to the generality of English readers. It is entitled:

"Contes populaires, Préjugés, Patois, Proverbes, Noms de Lieux, de l'Arrondissement de Bayeux, recueillis et publiés par Frédéric Pluquet, &c.: Rouen, 1834."

Where saints' days are mentioned, I have added the day of the month on which they fall, as far as I have been able to ascertain it; but as it sometimes happens that there is more than one saint of the same name, and that their feasts fall on different days, I may perhaps, in some cases, have fixed on the wrong one:

"Année venteuse,

Année pommeuse."

"Année hannetonneuse,

Année pommeuse."

"L'hiver est dans un bissac; s'il n'est dans un bout, il est dans l'autre."

"Pluie du matin

N'arrête pas le pélerin."

"à No?l au balcon,

à Pàques au tison."

"à No?l les moucherons,

à Pàques les gla?ons."

"Pàques pluvieux,

An fromenteux."

"Le propre jour des Rameaux

Sème oignons et poreaux."

"Après Pàques et les Rogations,

Fi de prêtres et d'oignons."

"Fêves fleuries

Temps de folies."

"Rouge rosée au matin,

C'est beau temps pour le pélerin."

"Pluie de Février

Vaut jus de fumier."

"Février qui donne neige

Bel été nous plège."

"Février

L'anelier" [anneau].

This saying has probably originated in the number of marriages celebrated in this month; the season of Lent which follows being a time in which it is not usual, in Roman Catholic countries, to contract marriage.

"Février emplit les fosses;

Mars les sèche."

"Mars martelle,

Avril coutelle."

An allusion to the boisterous winds of March, and the sharp, cutting, easterly winds which frequently prevail in April.

"Nul Avril

Sans épi."

"Avril le doux,

Quand il se fàche, le pis de tout."

"Bonne ou mauvaise poirette,

Il faut que Mars a trouve faite."

Poirette, in the dialect of Bayeux, means a leek.

"Froid Mai et chaud Juin

Donnent pain et vin."

"En Juignet [Juillet],

La faucille au poignet."

"à la Saint-Vincent [Jan. 22],

Tout dégèle, ou tout fend."

"Saint-Julien brise glace [Jan. 27],

S'il ne la brise, il l'embrasse."

"à la Chandeleur [Feb. 2],

La grande douleur."

Meaning the greatest cold.

"à la Chandeleur,

Où toutes bêtes sont en horreur."

Probably alluding to the rough state of their coats at this season.

"à la Saint-George [April 23],

Sème ton orge."

"Quand il pleut le jour Saint-Marc [April 25],

Il ne faut ni pouque ni sac."

"à la Saint-Catherine [April 29],

Tout bois prend racine."

"à la Saint-Urbain [May 25],

Le froment porte grain."

"à la Saint-Loup [May 28?],

La lampe au clou."

"S'il pleut le jour Saint-Médard [June 8],

Il pleuvra quarante jours plus tard."

"à la Saint-Barnabé [June 11]

La faux au pré."

"à la Saint-Sacrement [this year, June 15]

L'épi est au froment."

"Quand il pleut à la Saint-Gervais [June 19],

Il pleut quarante jours après."

"à la Madeleine [July 22],

Les noix sont pleines."

"à la Saint-Laurent [Aug. 10],

La faucille au froment."

"Passé la Saint-Clément [Nov. 23?],

Ne sème plus le froment."

"Si le soleil rit le jour Sainte-Eulalie [Dec. 10],

Il y aura pommes et cidre à folie."

"à la Sainte-Luce [Dec. 13?],

Les jours croissent du saut d'une puce."

"à la Saint-Thomas [Dec. 21],

Les jours sont au plus bas."

Edgar MacCulloch.

Guernsey.

VAULT INTERMENTS (Vol. ii., p. 21.): BURIAL IN AN ERECT POSTURE (Vol. viii., pp. 329. 630.):

INTERMENT OF THE TROGLODIT? (Vol. ii., p. 187.).

In the 4th book of Evelyn's Sylva there is much interesting matter on this subject, besides what has been quoted above; and, to those herein interested, the following extract from Burn's History of Parish Registers in England will doubtless be acceptable:

"Many great and good men have entertained scruples on the practice of interment in churches. The example of the virtuous and primitive confessor, Archbishop Sancroft, who ordered himself to be buried in the churchyard of Fresingfield in Suffolk, thinking it improper that the house of God should be made the repository of sinful man, ought to command the imitation of less deserving persons: perhaps it had an influence over the mind of his successor, Archbishop Secker, who ordered himself to be buried in the churchyard of Lambeth. The Bishops of London in succession, from Bishop Compton to Bishop Hayter, who died in 1762, inclusive, have been buried in Fulham Churchyard."[1]

Of the same opinion were Dr. Edward Rainbow, Bishop of Carlisle; Sir Matthew Hale, who used to say that churches were for the living and to churchyards for the dead[2]; Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, who "did not hold God's house a meet repository for the greatest saint;" and William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, who made a canon in his synod to the following effect:

"IX. Ut corpora defunctorum deinceps in Ecclesiis non humentur, sed nec intra quintum pedem a pariete extrorsum."

Sir Thomas Latymer, of Braibroke in Northamptonshire, by his will directed thus:

I, Thomas Latymer of Braybroke, a fals knyghte to God, &c., my wrecchyd body to be buried where that ever I die in the next chirche yerde, God vouchsafe, and naut in the chirche, but in the utterist corner, as he that is unworthy to lyn therein, save the merci of God."

Dr. Isaac Barrow, Bishop of St. Asaph, was buried in a churchyard, although, from his having generously repaired and endowed his cathedral, he might be considered to have a claim of interment within its walls; and Baldwin, the great civilian, severely censures this indecent liberty, and questions whether he shall call it a superstition or an impudent ambition. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first who made vaults under the chancel, and even under the altar, when he rebuilt the choir of Canterbury, about 1075.[3]

"The Irish long retained an attachment to their ancient customs and pagan superstitions; and the custom of burying in consecrated ground was not universal in Ireland in the twelfth century on the arrival of the English, as we find it enjoined in the Council of Cashel, held in 1172, mentioned by Cambrensis. A short time since some small earthen tumuli were opened on the Curragh of Kildare, under which skeletons were found standing upright on their feet, and in their hands, or near them, spears with iron heads. The custom of placing their dead erect was general among all the northern nations, and is still retained in Lapland and some parts of Norway; and the natives of North America bury their dead sitting in holes in the ground, and cover them with a mound of earth."-Transactions of the R. Irish Academy, vol. iii.

A Query I proposed (Vol. ii., p. 187.) in reference to the Troglodit? never having been answered, I shall, perhaps, be allowed to use this opportunity myself to furnish an apposite and explanatory quotation, viz.-

"Troglodyt? mortui cervicem pedibus alligabant et raptim cum risu et jocis efferebant, nullaque loci habita cura mandabant terr?; ac ad caput cornu caprinum affigebant."-C?lii Rhodigini, Lectiones Antiqu?, p. 792.

I shall conclude with the rationale of the erect posture, as illustrated by Staveley in his History of Churches in England:

"It is storied to be a custom among the people of Megara in Greece, to be buried with their faces downwards; Diogenes gave this reason why he should be buried after the same way, that seeing all things were (according to his opinion) to be turned upside down in succeeding times, he, by this posture, would at last be found with his face upwards, and looking towards heaven."

Bibliothecar. Chetham.

Footnote 1:(return) Cole's MSS. vol. iv. p. 100.

Footnote 2:(return) The Assembly at Edinburgh, in 1588, prohibited the burying in kirks.

Footnote 3:(return) Cole's MSS., vol. iv.

In Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 2., Don Pedro says:

"She shall be buried with her face upwards."

Theobald, Johnson, and Steevens have left notes upon this line. The following passage is part of Steevens' note:

"Dr. Johnson's explanation may likewise be countenanced by a passage in an old black-letter book, without date, intitled, 'A merye Jest of a Man that was called Howleglas, &c.: How Howleglas was buryed:

"'Thus as Howleglas was deade, then they brought him to be buryed. And as they would have put the coffyn into the pytte with 2 cordes, the corde at the fete brake, so that the fote of the coffyn fell into the botome of the pyt, and the coffyn stood bolt upryght in the middes of the grave. Then desired ye people that stode about the grave that tyme, to let the coffyn to stande bolt upryght. For in his lyfe tyme he was a very marvelous man, &c., and shall be buryed as marvailously. And in this maner they left Howleglas,' &c.

"Were not the Claphams and Mauleverers buried marvailously, because they were marvelous men?"-Johnson and Steevens' Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 310.

J. W. Farrer.

"In Oliver Heywood's Register is the following entry [Oct. 28, 1684]:

'Capt. Taylor's wife of Brig House, buried in her garden with head upwards, standing upright, by her husband, daughter, &c. Quakers.'"-Watson's History of Halifax, p. 233.

Cervus.

"Some Christians [Russians?] decline the figure of rest, and make choice of an erect posture in burial."-Browne's Hydriotaphia, ch. iv. p. 246.

Query, With the desire of meeting the Judge, face to face, when He cometh?

Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.

* * *

DO CONJUNCTIONS JOIN PROPOSITIONS ONLY?

(Vol. ix., p. 180.)

Professor Boole's communication on the above question reminds me of some remarks of mine, published in an article on Sir John Stoddart's Philosophy of Language, in the North British Review for November, 1850. In reference to the opinion maintained by Sir John Stoddart and Dr. Latham, that the conjunction always connects sentences, the preposition words, it is observed:

"It does not apply to cases where the conjunction unites portions of the predicate, instead of the subject, of a proposition. If I assert that a gentleman of my acquaintance drinks brandy and water, he might not relish the imputation of imbibing separate potations of the neat spirit and the pure element. Stradling versus Stiles is a case in point: 'Out of the kind love and respect I bear to my much honoured and good friend, Mr. Matthew Stradling, Gent., I do bequeath unto the said Matthew Stradling, Gent., all my black and white horses.' The testator had six black horses, six white horses, and six pied horses. The whole point at issue turns upon the question whether the copulative and joins sentences or words. If the former, the plaintiff is entitled to the black horses, and also to the white, but not to the pied. If the latter he has a right to the pied horses but must forego his claim to the rest. And if the latter interpretation be adopted, must we say that and is a preposition, not a conjunction, or must we modify the definitions of these two parts of speech?"

The following definitions are finally proposed in place of the ordinary ones:

"A preposition is a part of speech annexed to a noun or verb in a proposition, and serving to connect it with a noun or pronoun by which it is limited, as the subject or predicate of that proposition."

"A conjunction is a part of speech serving to unite two propositions as parts of the same complex assertion, or two words as similar parts of the subject or predicate of one proposition. By similar parts it is meant that the words so united stand in similar relations to the term to which they belong. For example, 1. As attributes, both qualifying a subject, 'Sic bonus et sapiens dignis ait esse paratus.' 2. As prepositions, both introducing limiting nouns 'without money and without price.' 3. As substantives, both forming parts of a collective subject, 'two and three are five.' Whereas with the preposition, the words united are not similar, but opposed, the limiting and the limited notion."

While differing from some of Professor Boole's views on the relation of logic to mathematics, I fully agree with him that the true functions of the several parts of speech must be determined by an analysis of the laws of thought. Both grammar and logic might be considerably improved by an accurate development on psychological principles.

H. L. Mansel, B.D.

St. John's College, Oxford.

Has not your correspondent G. Boole fallen into an inaccuracy whilst contending about the accuracy of another's logic? He seems to employ the proposition, all trees are endogens or exogens, as an example of an accurate proposition.

I forget the technicalities in which the objection to such a proposition would be properly expressed; but it cannot well be denied that all comprehends the whole genus, and expresses that whole collectively. If so, the proposition affirms that the whole genus of trees must either be acknowledged to be endogens, or else to be all exogens. Does not such an affirmation require the word every to clear it from ambiguity? Will it be cleared of ambiguity by saying, "Every tree is endogen or exogen?" Or must we say "Every tree is either endogen or exogen?"

If your correspondents should happen to take down the second volume of Locke on Human Understanding, b. III. ch. iii. § 11., on "Universals," his note will supply them with another knot to unravel, of which I would gladly see their solution. For he has there said, "Three Bobaques are all true and real Bobaques, supposing the name of that species of animals belongs to them." Is this name formed in jest? For the philosopher sometimes puts on an awkward affectation of humour in his replies to Bishop Stillingfleet, to whom this note is addressed.

H. W.

* * *

HAS EXECUTION BY HANGING BEEN SURVIVED?

(Vol. ix., p. 174.)

Two instances of criminals being restored to life after having been hanged are recorded, on good authority, to have occurred in this town. Henry of Knighton (who was a Canon of Leicester Abbey) relates in his Chronicle (col. 2627), under the year 1363, that-

"One Walter Wynkeburn having been hanged at Leicester, on the prosecution of Brother John Dingley, Master of Dalby, of the order of Knights Hospitallers, after having been taken down from the gallows as a dead man, was being carried to the cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre of Leicester, to be buried, began to revive in the cart, and was taken into the church of the Holy Sepulchre by an ecclesiastic, and there diligently guarded by this Leicester ecclesiastic to prevent his being seized for the purpose of being hanged a second time. To this man King Edward granted pardon in Leicester Abbey, and gave him a charter of pardon, thus saying in my hearing, 'Deus tibi dedit vitam, et nos dabimus tibi Cartam?"

We learn, on the authority of a cotemporary record, preserved in the archives of this borough, and quoted in Thompson's History of Leicester, p. 110., that in June, 1313, Matthew of Enderby, a thief, was apprehended and imprisoned in the king's gaol at Leicester; and that being afterwards convicted, he was sentenced by Sir John Digby and Sir John Daungervill, the king's justices, to be hanged; that he was led to the gallows by the frankpledges of Birstall and Belgrave, and by them suspended; but on his body being taken down, and carried to the cemetery of St. John's Hospital for interment, he revived and was subsequently exiled. Three instances are narrated in Wanley's Wonders of Man, vol. i. pp. 125, 126., and another will be found in Seward's Spirit of Anecdote and Wit, vol. iii. p. 88., quoted from Gamble's Views of Society, &c. in the North of Ireland; whilst in vol. ii. p. 220. of the same work, another restoration to life is stated to have taken place in the dissecting-room of Professor Junker, of Halle: but I know not how far these last-mentioned anecdotes are susceptible of proof.

William Kelly.

Leicester.

There appears to be no reason to doubt the truth of individuals having survived execution by hanging.

Margaret Dickson was tried, convicted, and executed in Edinburgh, in the year 1728. After the sentence had been accomplished, her body was cut down and delivered to her friends, who placed it in a coffin, and conveyed the same in a cart towards her native place for the purpose of interment. On her journey the dead came to life again, sat up in her coffin, and alarmed her attendants. She was, however, promptly bled, and by the next morning had perfectly recovered. She lived for twenty-five years afterwards, and had several children.

In 1705 one John Smith was executed at Tyburn; after he had hung fifteen minutes a reprieve arrived. He was cut down and bled, and is said to have recovered. (Paris and Fonblanque, Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 92.)

When it is considered that death takes place after hanging, in most cases by asphyxia, in very rare instances by dislocation of the spine, we can understand the possibility of recovery within certain limits.

That artificial means have been adopted to ensure recovery, the case of Gordon, which occurred in the early part of the seventeenth century, satisfactorily establishes.

This evil-doer had been condemned for highway robbery, and with a view to escape from his penalty, succeeded in obtaining the following friendly assistance.

A young surgeon named Chovell (concerning whose motives we will not inquire too curiously) introduced a small tube through an opening which he made in the windpipe. The hangman, having accomplished his part of the tragedy, Gordon's body was handed over to his friends. Chovell bled him, and the highwayman sighed deeply, but subsequently fainted and died. The want of success was attributed to the great weight of the culprit, who consequently dropped with unusual violence. (Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Surgery in France, Sydenham Society Publications, p. 227.)

How far the mechanical contrivance by which Bouthron, in Scott's Fair Maid of Perth, was kept alive after hanging, was founded on successful experience, I know not. Nor do I know whether Hook, in his Maxwell, had any farther authority than his imagination for his story of resuscitation, though I have heard it said to be founded on the supposed recovery of a distinguished forger, who had paid the last penalty for his offences, and who was said to have really died only a short time since.

Oliver Pemberton.

Birmingham.

The Cork Remembrancer, a chronicle of local events, which I recollect seeing among my late father's (a Cork man) books, relates the fact of a men who was hanged in that city, and on the evening of the same day appeared, not in the spirit, but in body, in the theatre. I regret I have not the book, but it is to be had somewhere. Undoubtedly your late venerable correspondent, James Roche, Esq., could have authenticated my statement, and with fuller particulars, as I only relate the record of it from memory, after a lapse of many years. I think the occurrence, of which there is no doubt, took place somewhere about the year 1782 or 1784; and after all there is nothing very extraordinary about it, for the mode of execution by hanging at that time presented many chances to the culprit of escaping death; he ascended a ladder, upon which he stood until all the arrangements were completed, and then was quietly turned off, commonly in such a manner as not to break the neck or hurt the spinal marrow. It was most likely so in the case I relate and the man having been suspended the usual time, and not having been a murderer, was handed over to his friends, who took prompt measures, and successfully, to restore animation, and so effectually, that the man, upon whom such little impression by the frightful ordeal he had passed was made, mixed in the world again, and was at the theatre that evening.

Little chance is there of escaping death by the present mode of executing.

Umbra.

Dublin.

The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. x. p. 570., after giving the names of those executed on Nov. 24, says:

"And William Duell, for ravishing, robbing, and murdering Sarah Griffin at Acton. The body of this last was brought to Surgeons' Hall to be anatomised; but after it was stripped and laid on the board, and one of the servants was washing him in order to be cut, he perceived life in him, and found his breath to come quicker and quicker; on which a surgeon took some ounces of blood from him: in two hours he was able to sit up in his chair, and in the evening was again committed to Newgate."

And at p. 621. of the same volume,-

"Dec. 9th. Wm. Duell (p. 570.) ordered to be transported for life."

Other instances will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. i. p. 172., and vol. xxxvii. p. 90; and in vol. lxx. pt. i. p. 107. is the very curious case of Anne Green of Oxford, quoted from Dr. Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, p. 197., which is well worth reading. Also, in vol. lvii. pt. i. p. 33., is a letter, containing the two following quotations from Cardan, in explanation of the phenomenon of surviving death by hanging:

"Is qui diu suspensus Bononi? jacuit, vivus inventus est, quod asperam arteriam non cartilagineam sed osseam habuit."-Cardanus, lib. ii. tr. 2. contr. 7.

"Constat quendam bis suspensum servatum miraculi specie; inde cum tertio Judicis solertia periisset, inventam osseam asperam arteriam."-Cardanus, lib. xiv., De rerum variet., cap. 76.

In the Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors' Bloody Register, vol. ii. p. 233., is the account of Margaret Dickson, who was executed for child-murder at Edinburgh, June 19, 1728, with an engraving of her "rising from her coffin near Edinburgh, as she was carrying from the place of execution in order for interment."

"By the Scottish law," says the author, "every person on whom the judgment of the court has been executed has no more to suffer, but must be for ever discharged; and the executed person is dead at law, so that the marriage is dissolved. This was exactly the case with Margaret Dickson, for the king's advocate could not pursue her any farther, but filed a bill in the High Court of Justiciary against the sheriff for not seeing the judgment executed. And her husband being a good-natured man, was publicly married to her within a few days after the affair happened."

Zeus.

For the information of your correspondent I send an extract from the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1767:

"Saturday 24th (Jan.).-One Patrick Redmond having been condemned at Cork, in Ireland, to be hanged for a street robbery, he was accordingly executed, and hung upwards of twenty-eight minutes, when the mob carried off the body to a place appointed, where he was, after five or six hours, actually recovered by a surgeon, and who made the incision in his windpipe called bronchotomy, which produced the desired effect. The poor fellow has since received his pardon, and a genteel collection has been made for him."