SAFFRON…

SAFFRON

That the Latin word crocus signified the same plant which we at present call saffron, and which, in botany, still retains the ancient name, has, as far as I know, never been doubted; and indeed I know no reason why it should, however mistrustful I may be when natural objects are given out for those which formerly had the like names. The moderns often apply ancient names to things very different from those which were known under them by the Greeks and the Romans: but what we read in ancient authors concerning crocus agrees in every respect with our saffron, and can scarcely be applied to any other vegetable production. Crocus was a bulbous plant, which grew wild in the mountains. There were two species of it, one of which flowered in spring, and the other in autumn. The flowers of the latter, which appeared earlier than the green leaves that remained through the winter, contained those small threads or filaments[471] which were used as a medicine and a paint, and employed also for seasoning various kinds of food[472].

It appears that the medicinal use, as well as the name of this plant, has always continued among the Orientals; and the Europeans, who adopted the medicine of the Greeks, sent to the Levant for saffron[473], until they learned the art of rearing it themselves; and employed it very much until they were made acquainted with the use of more beneficial articles, which they substituted in its stead. Those who are desirous of knowing the older opinions on the pharmaceutical preparation of saffron, and the diseases in the curing of which it was employed, may read Hertodt’s Crocologia, where the author has collected all the receipts, and even the simplest, for preparing it[474].

What in the ancient use of saffron is most discordant with our taste at present, is the employing it as a perfume. Not only were halls, theatres, and courts, through which one wished to diffuse an agreeable smell, strewed with this plant[475], but it entered into the composition of many spirituous extracts, which retained the same scent; and these costly smelling waters were often made to flow in small streams, which spread abroad their much-admired odour[476]. Luxurious people even moistened or filled with them all those things with which they were desirous of surprising their guests in an agreeable manner[477], or with which they ornamented their apartments. From saffron, with the addition of wax and other ingredients, the Greeks as well as the Romans prepared also scented salves, which they used in the same manner as our ancestors their balsams[478].

Notwithstanding the fondness which the ancients showed for the smell of saffron, it does not appear that in modern times it was ever much esteemed. As a perfume, it would undoubtedly be as little relished at present as the greater part of the dishes of Apicius, fricassees of sucking puppies[479], sausages, and other parts of swine, which one could not even mention with decency in genteel company[480]; though it certainly has the same scent which it had in the time of Ovid, and although our organs of smelling are in nothing different from those of the Greeks and the Romans. From parts of the world to them unknown, we have, however, obtained perfumes which far excel any with which they were acquainted. We have new flowers, or, at least, more perfect kinds of flowers long known, which, improved either by art or by accident, are superior in smell to all those in the gardens of the Hesperides, of Adonis and Alcinous, so much celebrated. We have learned the art of mixing perfumes with oils and salts, in such a manner as to render them more volatile, stronger, and more pleasant; and we know how to obtain essences such as the ancient voluptuaries never smelt, and for which they would undoubtedly have given up their saffron. The smelling-bottles and perfumes which are often presented to our beauties, certainly far excel that promised by Catullus to a friend, with the assurance that his mistress had received it from Venus and her Cupids, and that when he smelt it he would wish to become all nose:

Nam unguentum dabo quod meæ puellæ Donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque, Quod tu quom olfacies, deos rogabis, Totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.

It cannot, however, be denied that both taste and smell depend very much on imagination. We know that many articles of food, as well as spices, are more valued on account of their scarcity and costliness than they would otherwise be. Hence things of less value, which approach near to them in quality, are sought after by those who cannot afford to purchase them; and thus a particular taste or smell becomes fashionable. Brandy and tobacco were at first recommended as medicines; they were therefore much used, and by continual habit people at length found a pleasure in these potent and almost nauseating articles of luxury. Substances which gratify the smell become, nevertheless, like the colour of clothes, oft unfashionable when they grow too common. Certain spiceries, in which our ancestors delighted, are insupportable to their descendants, whose nerves are weak, and more delicate; and yet many of the present generation have accustomed themselves to strong smells of various kinds, by gradually using them more and more, till they have at length become indispensable wants. Some have taken snuff rendered so sharp by powdered glass, salts, antimony, sugar of lead, and other poisonous drugs, that the olfactory nerves have been rendered callous, and entirely destroyed by it.

That saffron was as much employed in seasoning dishes as for a perfume, appears from the oldest work on cookery which has been handed down to us, and which is ascribed to Apicius. Its use in this respect has been long continued, and in many countries is still more prevalent than physicians wish it to be. Henry Stephen says, “Saffron must be put into all Lent soups, sauces, and dishes: without saffron we cannot have well-cooked peas[481].”

It may readily be supposed that the great use made of this plant in cookery must have induced people to attempt to cultivate it in Europe; and, in my opinion, it was first introduced into Spain by the Arabs, as may be conjectured from its name, which is Arabic, or rather Persian[482]. From Spain it was, according to every appearance, carried afterwards to France, perhaps to Albigeois, and thence dispersed into various other parts[483]. Some travellers also may, perhaps, have brought bulbs of this plant from the Levant. We are at least assured that a pilgrim brought from the Levant to England, under the reign of Edward III., the first root of saffron, which he had found means to conceal in his staff, made hollow for that purpose[484]. At what period this plant began to be cultivated in Germany I do not know; but that this was first done in Austria, in 1579, is certainly false. Some say that Stephen von Hausen, a native of Nuremberg, who about that time accompanied the imperial ambassador to Constantinople, brought the first bulbs to Vienna, from the neighbourhood of Belgrade. This opinion is founded on the account of Clusius, who, however, does not speak of the autumnal saffron used as a spice, but of an early sort, esteemed on account of the beauty of its flowers[485]. Clusius has collected more species of this plant than any of his predecessors; and has given an account by whom each of them was first made known.

In the fifteenth and following century, the cultivation of saffron was so important an article in the European husbandry, that it was omitted by no writer on that subject; and an account of it is to be found in Crescentio, Serres, Heresbach, Von Hohberg, Florinus, and others. In those periods, when it was an important object of trade, it was adulterated with various and in part noxious substances; and attempts were made in several countries to prevent this imposition by severe penalties. In the year 1550, Henry II., king of France, issued an order for the express purpose of preventing such frauds, the following extract from which will show some of the methods employed to impose on the public in the sale of this article[486]: “For some time past,” says the order, “a certain quantity of the said saffron has been found altered, disguised and sophisticated, by being mixed with oil, honey, and other mixtures, in order that the said saffron, which is sold by weight, may be rendered heavier; and some add to it other herbs, similar in colour and substance to beef over-boiled, and reduced to threads, which saffron, thus mixed and adulterated, cannot be long kept, and is highly prejudicial to the human body; which, besides the said injury, may prevent the above-said foreign merchants from purchasing it, to the great diminution of our revenues, and to the great detriment of foreign nations, against which we ought to provide,” &c.

[The high price demanded for saffron offers considerable temptation to adulteration, and this is not uncommonly taken advantage of. The stigmata of other plants, besides the true saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), are frequently mixed with those which are genuine; moreover, many other foreign substances are added, such as the florets of the safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), those of the marigold (Calendula officinalis), slices of the flower of the pomegranate, saffron from which the colouring has been previously extracted, and even fibres of smoked beef. Most of these adulterations may be detected by the action of boiling water, which softens and expands the fibres, thus exposing their true shape and nature. The cake saffron of commerce appears entirely composed of foreign substances. Great medicinal virtues were formerly attributed to saffron. Its principal use is now as a colouring matter.]

FOOTNOTES

[471] [The stigmata of Botanists.]Return to passage

[472] Plin. lib. xxi. cap. 6. Geopon. lib. xi. cap. 26, and Theophrast. Histor. Plant. lib. vi. cap. 6, where Joh. Bod. von Stapel, p. 661, has collected, though not in good order, every thing to be found in the ancients respecting saffron. The small aromatic threads, abundant in colour, the only parts of the whole plant sought after, were by the Greeks called γλωχῖνες, κροκίδες, or τρίχες; and by the Romans spicæ. They are properly the end of the pistil, which is cleft into three divisions. A very distinct representation of this part of the flower may be seen in plate 184 of Tournefort’s Institut. Rei Herbariæ, [or in Stephens and Churchill’s Medical Botany.]Return to passage

[473] On this account we often find in prescriptions, Recipe croci Orientalis....Return to passage

[474] Jena, 1670, 8vo.Return to passage

[475] See Beroald’s Observations on the 54th chapter of the Life of Nero by Suetonius; and Spartian, in the Life of Adrian, chap. 19.Return to passage

[476] Lucan, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, verce 809, describing how the blood flows from every vein of a person bit by a kind of serpent found in Africa, says that it spouts out in the same manner as the sweet-smelling essence of saffron issues from the limbs of a statue.Return to passage

[477] Petron. Satyr. cap. 60.Return to passage

[478] Of the method of preparing this salve or balsam, mentioned by Athenæus, Cicero, and others, an account is to be found in Dioscorides, lib. i. c. 26.Return to passage

[479] Plin. lib. xxix. cap. iv.Return to passage

[480] Martial, b. xiii. ep. 43, praises a cook who dressed the dugs of a sow with so much art and skill, that it appeared as if they still formed a part of the animal, and were full of milk. A dish of this sort is mentioned by Apicius, lib. vii. cap. 2. The same author gives directions, book vii. chap. i. for cooking that delicious dish of which Horace says, op. i. 15, 41, “Nil vulva pulchrius ampla.” Further information on this subject may be found in the notes to Pliny’s Epistles, lib. i. 15; Plin. lib. xi. c. 37; Martial. Epig. xiii. 56; and, above all, in Lottichii Commentar. in. Petronium, lib. i. cap. 18.Return to passage

[481] Apologie pour Herodote, par H. Estiene. A la Haye, 1735, 2 vols. 8vo.Return to passage

[482] Meninski, in his Turkish Lexicon, has Zae’ feran, crocus. Golius gives it as a Persian word. That much saffron is still cultivated in Persia, and that it is of the best kind, appears from Chardin. See his Travels, printed at Rouen, 1723, 10 vols. 12mo. iv. p. 37. That the Spaniards borrowed the word safran from the Vandals is much more improbable. It is to be found in Joh. Marianæ Histor. de Rebus Hispaniæ. Hagæ, 1733, fol. i. p. 147. The author, speaking of foreign words introduced into the Spanish language, says, “Vandalis aliæ voces acceptæ feruntur, camara, azafran,” &c.Return to passage

[483] Rozier, Cours complet d’Agriculture, i. p. 266.Return to passage

[484] It is reported at Saffron-Walden, that a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his country, stole a head of saffron, and hid the same in his palmer’s staff, which he had made hollow before on purpose, and so he brought this root into this realm, with venture of his life; for if he had been taken, by the law of the country from whence it came, he had died for the fact.--Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164.Return to passage

[485] Clusii Rar. Plant. Hist. 1601, fol. p. 207.Return to passage

[486] Traité de Police, par De la Mare, iii. p. 428.Return to passage

ALUM

This substance affords a striking instance how readily one may be deceived in giving names without proper examination. Our alum was certainly not known to the Greeks or the Romans; and what the latter called alumen[487] was vitriol, (the green sulphate of iron)[488]; not however pure, but such as forms in mines. To those who know how deficient the ancients were in the knowledge of salts, and of mineralogy in general, this assertion will without further proof appear highly probable[489]. Alum and green vitriol are saline substances which have some resemblance; both contain the same acid called the vitriolic or sulphuric; both have a strong astringent property, and on this account are often comprehended under the common name of styptic salts; and both are also not only found in the same places, but are frequently obtained from the same minerals. The difference, that the vitriols are combinations of sulphuric acid with a metallic oxide, either that of iron, copper or zinc, and alum on the other hand with a peculiar white earth, called on this account alumina, has been established only in modern times[490].

A stronger proof however in favour of my assertion, is what follows:--The Greeks and the Romans speak of no other than natural alum; but our alum is seldom produced spontaneously in the earth, and several of our most accurate mineralogists, such as Scopoli and Sage, deny the existence of native alum[491]. Crystals of real alum are formed very rarely on minerals which abound in a great degree with aluminous particles, when they have been exposed a sufficient time to the open air and the rain; and even then they are so small and so much scattered, that it requires an experienced and attentive observer to know and discover them. The smallest trace of alum-works is not to be found in the ancients, nor even of works for making vitriol (sulphate of iron), except what is mentioned by Pliny, who tells us that blue vitriol was made in Spain by the process of boiling; and this circumstance he considers as the only one of its kind, and so singular, that he is of opinion no other salt could be obtained in the same manner[492]. Besides, everything related by the ancients of their alum agrees perfectly with native vitriols: but to describe them all might be difficult; for they do not speak of pure salts, but of saline mixtures, which nature of itself exhibits in various ways, and under a variety of forms; and every small difference in the colour, the exterior or interior conformation, however accidental, provided it could be clearly distinguished, was to them sufficient to make a distinct species, and to induce them to give it a new name[493].

The celebrity which the ancient alum had, as a substance extremely useful in dyeing and medicine, was entirely forgotten when the alum of the moderns became known; but this celebrity was again revived when it was discovered that real alum could be often made from minerals containing sulphur compounds; or that where the latter are found there are generally minerals which abound with it. In many of these places alum-works have in the course of time been erected; and this circumstance has served in some measure to strengthen the opinion that the alum of the ancients and that of the moderns are the same salt; because where the former was found in ancient times, the latter has since been procured by a chemical process. Some historians of the fifteenth century even speak of the alum-works erected at that period, as if the art of making this salt had only been revived in Europe.

The ancients procured their alum from various parts of the world. Herodotus mentions Egyptian alum; for he tells us that when the people of Delphos, after losing their temple by a fire, were collecting a contribution in order to rebuild it, Amasis king of Egypt sent them a thousand talents of alum[494]. In Pliny’s time the Egyptian alum was accounted the best. It is well known that real alum is reckoned among the exports of Egypt at present, but I am acquainted with no author who mentions the place where it is found or made, or who has described the method of preparing it.

The island of Melos, now called Milo, was particularly celebrated on account of its alum, as we learn from Diodorus Siculus, Celsus, Pliny and others, though none was to be found there in the time of Diodorus[495]. This native vitriol has been observed in the grottos of that island by several modern travellers, especially Tournefort[496], who very properly considers it as the real alum of the ancients.

The islands of Lipara and Strongyle, or, as they are called at present, Lipari and Stromboli, contained so great a quantity of this substance, that the duty on it brought a considerable revenue to the Romans[497]. At one period, Lipari carried on an exclusive trade in alum, and raised the price of it at pleasure; but in that island at present there are neither vitriol nor alum-works. Sardinia, Macedonia, and Spain, where alum was found formerly, still produce a salt known under that name[498].

When our alum became known, it was considered as a species of the ancient; and as it was purer, and more proper to be used on most occasions, the name of alum[499] was soon appropriated to it alone. The kinds of alum however known to the ancients, which were green vitriol, maintained a preference in medicine and for dyeing black; and on this account, these impure substances have been still retained in druggists’ shops under the name of misy, sory, &c. But a method was at length found out of procuring thence crystallized martial salts (salts of iron), which obtained the new name of vitriol. This appellation had its rise first in the eleventh or twelfth century; at least I know no writer older than Albertus Magnus by whom it is mentioned or used. Agricola conjectures that it was occasioned by the likeness which the crystals of vitriol had to glass. This is also the opinion of Vossius[500]; and it is very singular that Pliny says nearly the same thing; for he observes, speaking of blue vitriol, the only kind then known, that one might almost take it for glass[501].

By inquiring into the uses to which the ancients applied their alum, I find that it was sometimes employed to secure wooden buildings against fire. This remark I have here introduced to show that this idea, which in modern times has given occasion to many expensive experiments, is not new. Aulus Gellius[502] relates, from the works of an historian now lost, that Archelaus, one of the generals of Mithridates, washed over a wooden tower with a solution of alum, and by these means rendered it so much proof against fire, that all Sylla’s attempts to set it in flames proved abortive. Many have conjectured that the substance used for this purpose was neither vitriol nor our alum, but rather asbestos, which is often confounded with Atlas-vitriol[503]; and against this mistake cautions are to be found even in Theophrastus. But it may be asked, With what was the asbestos laid on? By what means were the threads, which are not soluble in water, made fast to the wood? How could a tower be covered with it? I am rather inclined to believe, that a strongly saturated solution of vitriol might have in some measure served to prevent the effects of the fire, at least as long as a thin coat of potters’ earth or flour-paste, which in the present age have been thought deserving of experiments attended with considerable expense. It does not however appear that the invention of Archelaus, which is still retained in some old books[504], has been often put in practice[505]; for writers on the art of war, such, for example, as Æneas, recommended vinegar to be washed over wood, in order to prevent its being destroyed by fire.

I shall now proceed to the history of our present alum, which was undoubtedly first made in the East. The period of the invention I cannot exactly determine, but I conclude with certainty that it is later than the twelfth century[506]; for John, the son of Serapion, who lived after Rhazes, was acquainted with no other alum than the impure vitriol of Dioscorides[507]. What made the new alum first and principally known was its beneficial use in the art of dyeing, in which it is employed for fixing as well as rendering brighter and more beautiful different colours. This art therefore the Europeans learned from the Orientals, who, even yet, though we have begun to apply chemistry to the improvement of dyeing, are in some respects superior to us, as is proved by the red of Adrianople, their silks and their Turkey leather. The Italians procured their first alum from the Levant, along with other materials for dyeing; but when these countries were taken possession of by the Turks, it grieved the Christians to be obliged to purchase these necessary articles from the common enemy, and bitter complaints on that subject may be seen in the works of various authors. In the course of time the Italians became acquainted with the art of boiling alum; for some of them had rented Turkish alum-works, and manufactured that salt on their own account. They at length found aluminous minerals in their own country, on which they made experiments. These having answered their expectations, they were soon brought into use; and this branch of trade declined afterwards so much in Turkey, that many of the alum-works there were abandoned.

We are told by many historians that the Europeans who first made alum in Italy learned their art, as Augustin Justinian says, at Rocca di Soria, or Rocca in Syria. Neither in books of geography nor in maps, however, can I find any place of this name in Syria. I at first conjectured that Rocca on the Euphrates might be here meant, but at present it appears to me more probable that it is Edessa, which is sometimes called Roha, Raha, Ruha, Orfa, and also Roccha, as has been expressly remarked by Niebuhr[508]. Edessa is indeed reckoned to be in Mesopotamia, but some centuries ago Syria perhaps was understood in a more extended sense. This much at least is certain, that minerals which indicate alum have been often observed by travellers in that neighbourhood.

It appears that the new alum was at first distinguished from the ancient vitriol by the denomination of Rocca, from which the French have made alun de roche, and some of the Germans rotzalaun[509]. Respecting the origin of this name very different conjectures have been formed. Some think it is derived from rocca, which in the Greek signifies a rock, because this salt is by boiling procured from a stone; and these translate the word alumen rupeum, from which the French name is formed[510]. Some are of opinion that alum obtained from alum-stone has been so called to distinguish it from that procured from schists, which is generally mixed with more iron than the former[511]; and others maintain that alum acquired the name of Rocca from the alum-rocks in the neighbourhood of Tolfa[512]. It is to be remarked, on the other hand, that Biringoccio, that expert Italian, confesses he does not know whence the name has arisen[513]. For my part I am inclined to adopt the opinion of Leibnitz, that alumen roccæ was that kind first procured from Rocca in Syria; and that this name was afterwards given to every good species of alum, as we at present call the purest Roman alum[514].

In the fifteenth century there were alum-works in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, from which John di Castro, of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter, learned his art. May not these alum-works be those visited by Bellon, and of which he has given an excellent description[515]? He names the place Cypsella or Chypsilar, and says that the alum in commerce is called alumen Lesbium, or di Metelin. The alum procured from Constantinople at present may perhaps be brought from the same spot; but I am not sufficiently acquainted with its situation to determine that point with certainty, for Büsching makes no mention of it. In some maps I find the names Ypsala and Chipsilar on the western side of the river Mariza, Maritz or Maricheh, which was the Hebrus of the ancients; in others stands the name Scapsiler on the west bank of the sea Bouron; and it is not improbable that these may be all derived from the old Scaptesyle or Scapta Hyla, where, according to the account of Theophrastus, Pliny and others, there were considerable mines.

Another alum-work, no less celebrated in the fifteenth century, was established near the city Phocæa Nova, at present called Foya Nova, not far from the mouth of the Hermus, in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. Of this work, Ducas, who had a house there, has given a particular description, from which we learn that in his time, that is under the reign of Michael Palæologus, it was farmed by Italians, who sold the produce of it to their countrymen, and to the Dutch, French, Spaniards, English, Arabs, Egyptians, and people of Syria. This author relates very minutely in what manner the alum was made, but that work has been long since abandoned[516]: alum however made in the neighbourhood is still exported from Smyrna[517]. It is much to be wished that ingenious travellers would examine the alum-works in Thrace, around Smyrna, and in Turkey in general, and give an accurate description of them according to the state in which they are at present[518].

The oldest alum-works in Europe were established about the middle of the fifteenth century, but where they were first erected cannot with certainty be ascertained; for it appears that several were set on foot in different places at the same period. Some affirm that the first alum made in Europe was manufactured in the island Ænaria, or Pithacusa, at present called Ischia, by a Genoese merchant, whom some name Bartholomew Perdix, and others Pernix. This man, who is praised on account of his ingenuity and attachment to the study of natural history, having often travelled through Syria, learned the method of boiling alum at Rocca; and on his return found alum-stones among the substances thrown up by the eruption of a volcano which had destroyed part of the island, and gave occasion to their being first employed in making that salt. Such is the account of respectable historians, Pontanus[519], Bizaro[520], Augustine Justinian[521], and Bottone[522], who wrote much later. Bizaro says that this happened in the year 1459, which agrees perfectly with the account of Pontanus; for he tells us that it was under the reign of Ferdinand I., natural son of Alphonsus, who ascended the throne in 1458. Besides, the earthquake, which had laid waste the island one hundred and sixty-three years before, took place in 1301, which makes the time of this invention to fall about the year 1464. So seems Bottone also to have reckoned, for he mentions expressly the year 1465.

The alum-work which is situated about an Italian mile northwest from Tolfa, and six from Civita Vecchia, in the territories of the Church, is by some Italian historians reckoned to have been the first. However this may be, it is certain that it is the oldest carried on at present. The founder of it was John di Castro, a son of the celebrated lawyer, Paul di Castro[523], who had an opportunity at Constantinople, where he traded in Italian cloths and sold dye-stuffs, of making himself acquainted with the method of boiling alum. He was there at the time when the city fell into the hands of the Turks; and after this unfortunate event, by which he lost all his property, he returned to his own country. Pursuing there his researches in natural history, he found in the neighbourhood of Tolfa a plant which he had observed growing in great abundance in the aluminous districts of Asia: from this he conjectured that the earth of his native soil might also contain the same salt; and he was confirmed in that opinion by its astringent taste. At this time he held an important office in the Apostolic Chamber; and this discovery, which seemed to promise the greatest advantages, was considered as a real victory gained over the Turks, from whom the Italians had hitherto been obliged to purchase all their alum. Pope Pius II., who was too good a financier to neglect such a beneficial discovery, caused experiments to be first made at Viterbo, by some Genoese who had formerly been employed in the alum-works in the Levant, and the success of them was equal to his expectations. The alum, which was afterwards manufactured in large quantities, was sold to the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Genoese. The Pope himself has left us a very minute history of this discovery, and of the circumstances which gave rise to it[524]. Some pretend that Castro was several years a slave to a Turk who traded in alum[525]; others affirm that he had even been obliged to labour as a slave in alum-works[526]; and others, that he learned the art of boiling alum from a citizen of Corneto, a town in the dominions of the Pope, and from a Genoese, both of whom had acquired their knowledge in the Levant[527]. But as I do not wish to ascribe a falsehood to the Pontiff, I am of opinion that the history of this discovery must have been best known to him. He has not, indeed, established the year with sufficient correctness; but we may conclude from his relation that it must have been 1460 or 1465. The former is the year given by Felician Bussi; and the latter that given in the history of the city of Civita Vecchia.

The plant which first induced John di Castro to search for alum was that evergreen, prickly shrub, the Ilex aquifolium, or holly, which in Italy is still considered as an indication that the regions where it grows abound with that salt. But though it is undoubtedly certain that the quality of the soil may be often discovered by the wild plants which it produces, it is also true that this shrub is frequently found where there is not the smallest trace of alum; and that it is not to be seen where the soil abounds with it, as has been already remarked by Boccone[528] and Tozzetti[529].

Among the earliest alum-works may be reckoned that which was erected at Volterra, in the district of Pisa, in 1458, by a Genoese named Antonius[530]. Others say that it was constructed by an architect of Sienna; but this opinion has perhaps arisen only from the work having been farmed by a citizen of Sienna, or built at his expense. On account of this alum-work an insurrection of the inhabitants of Volterra broke out in 1472; but it was at length quelled by the Florentines, who took and plundered the city[531]. Brutus, who wrote his History of Florence in the year 1572, says that this alum-work was carried on in his time: but this is certainly false; for Raphael di Volterra[532], who died in 1521 in his native city, expressly tells us that in his time alum was no longer boiled there; and this is confirmed by Baccius[533], who also lived in the sixteenth century. At present no remains of it are left; so that Tozzetti was not able to discover the place where the alum-stones were broken[534].

It appears from what has been said, that the art of boiling alum in Europe was first known in Italy, but not before the year 1548. That document therefore of the year 1284, quoted by Tozzetti, and in which alum-works, alumifodinæ, are mentioned, must, as he himself thinks, be undoubtedly false[535].

The great revenue which the Apostolical Chamber derived from alum, induced many to search for aluminous minerals, and works were erected wherever they were found. Several manufactories of this substance were established therefore in various parts, which are mentioned by Baccius[536], Biringoccio, and other writers of the sixteenth century. The pope however understood his own interest so well, that he never rested until he had caused all the works erected in the territories of others to be given up, and until he alone remained master of the prize. He then endeavoured by every method possible to prevent foreigners from acquiring an accurate knowledge of the art of boiling alum; and at the same time found means, by entering into commercial treaties with other nations, and by employing the medium of religion, which has always the greatest effect on weak minds, to extend his commerce in this article more and more. The price was raised from time to time, and it at length became so high that foreigners could purchase this salt at a cheaper rate from the Spaniards, and even when they sent for it to Turkey. His Holiness, that he might convert this freedom of trade into a sin, and prevent it by the terror of excommunication, artfully gave out that he meant to set apart the income arising from his alum-works to the defence of Christianity; that is, towards carrying on war against the Turks. Prohibitions and threats now followed in case any one should be so unchristian as to purchase alum from the Infidels; but every person was at liberty to make what bargain he could with his Holiness for this commodity.

In the year 1468 Pope Paul II. entered into a commercial treaty respecting alum with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; but in 1504 Roman alum had risen to such an exorbitant price, that Philip the Fair, archduke of Austria, caused a council of inquiry to be held at Bruges, by which it appeared that this article could be purchased at a much cheaper rate in Turkey. Commissions therefore were sent thither for that purpose; but scarcely was this known at Rome, when a prohibition, under pain of excommunication, was issued by Pope Julius II. This pontiff however was not the only one from whom such prohibitions proceeded: bulls of the like kind were issued also by Julius III., Paul III., Paul IV., Gregory XIII. and others[537].

But these means, like all those founded on the simplicity of others, could not be of long duration; and as soon as men became a little more enlightened, they learned to know their own interest, and to discover the selfishness of the Pope’s bulls. Unless Biringoccio, who visited a part of the German mines, be under a mistake, the first European alum-work out of Italy was erected in Spain; and is that still carried on with considerable profit at Almacaron, not far from Carthagena[538]. In the beginning of the sixteenth century very large quantities of alum were brought to Antwerp, as we learn from Guicciardini’s Description of the Netherlands.

At what time the first alum-work was erected in Germany, I am not able to determine; but it appears that alum began to be made at Oberkaufungen in Hesse in the year 1554. For the alum-work at Commotau in Bohemia, the first letters-patent were granted in 1558. An alum-work was established at Lower Langenau in the county of Glatz in 1563; but it was soon after abandoned. Several other manufactories of alum are mentioned by Agricola, such as that of Dieben or Duben, in the circle of Leipsic, and those of Dippoldiswalda, Lobenstein, &c.

In England the first alum-work was erected at Gisborough in Yorkshire, in the reign of queen Elizabeth; though Anderson[539] says in 1608. Sir Thomas Chaloner, who had an estate there, conjecturing from the nature of the plants which grew wild that there must be minerals in the neighbourhood, after making some search, at length discovered alum. As there was however no one in England at that time who understood the method of preparing it, he privately engaged workmen belonging to the Pope’s alum-works; and it is said, that as soon as the Pontiff heard this, he endeavoured to recall them by threats and anathemas. These however did no injury to the heretics; and in a little time the alum-work succeeded so well, that several more of the same kind were soon after established[540]. But what more dishonoured the Pontiff’s denunciations was, that in later times the proprietors of the English alum-works farmed those of the Apostolic Chamber, and increased in various ways the benefit derived from them[541].

At what period alum-works were established in other countries I have not been able to learn. I however know that one was erected at Andrarum[542] in Sweden in 1630.

[The process for obtaining alum from the alum-stone of Tolfa, which is also found in Hungary, Auvergne, and other parts of the world, and which contains all the ingredients requisite for the production of alum, has been fully described. The greater portion however of the alum manufactured in this country is obtained from alum-slate,--a bituminous schist containing iron-pyrites (sulphuret of iron) diffused in extremely fine particles throughout its mass. Many of these schists crumble to pieces when they are exposed to the air; the sulphur of the pyrites becomes gradually converted by the absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere into sulphuric acid, while, at the same time, the iron is peroxidized, and having in this state no very great affinity for the sulphuric acid, parts with the greater portion of it to the clay, which is thus converted into sulphate of alumina. Many of these schists are of such a loose texture, and contain the pyrites in so fine a state of division, that the requisite heat is generated by the rapidity with which the several chemical changes proceed; others, from their compactness and deficiency in combustible matter, require calcining by a slow smothered fire. When the calcination is complete, the mass is lixiviated, the solutions are run into cisterns for evaporation, and when they have attained a certain strength, are precipitated with sulphate or muriate of potash or ammonia. The precipitated alum is washed, drained, and separated from various impurities by re-solution and crytallization, and is then fit for the market.

A very interesting process has recently been patented by Dr. Turner of Gateshead[543]. It consists in fusing felspar, which is a silicate of potash and alumina, with more potash. On treating the fused mass with water, it is separated into two parts; the first, a solution containing silicate of potash, from which the potash may be obtained by passing through it a stream of carbonic acid gas, or by filtering it through a bed of caustic lime; the second, an insoluble residue, consisting of a silicate of alumina and potash. On digesting this with sulphuric acid, the silica is separated and a solution of alum obtained.]

FOOTNOTES

[487] Called by the Greeks στυπτηρία.Return to passage

[488] [It is scarcely necessary to observe, that many of the compounds of sulphuric acid with metallic oxides were formerly commonly termed vitriols from their glassy appearance; thus, the green vitriol, or briefly vitriol, is the sulphate of the protoxide of iron, white vitriol is sulphate of zinc, and blue vitriol is the sulphate of copper. Sulphuric acid is still more generally known by the name of oil of vitriol and vitriolic acid, from its having been originally obtained by distilling green vitriol.]Return to passage

[489] [There can be little doubt however that even Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not distinguish it from sulphate of iron, for he informs us that one kind of alum was white and was used for dyeing wool of bright colours.--Pereira’s Materia Medica, vol. i.]Return to passage

[490] [The alums, for at present several kinds are distinguished, are not merely combinations of sulphuric acid and the earth alumina, but double sulphates, the one constituent being sulphate of alumina, the other either sulphate of potash, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of soda, &c. The alum of this country generally contains potash, that of France ammonia, or both potash and ammonia, hence the name potash-alum, ammonia-alum, &c.]Return to passage

[491] [Although native alum is not abundant, there is no question of its occasional occurrence.]Return to passage

[492] Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 12. The same account is given by Isidor. Origin. lib. xvi. c. 2, and by Dioscorides, lib. v. c. 114. The latter, however, differs from Pliny in many circumstances.Return to passage

[493] Those who are desirous of seeing everything that the ancients have left us respecting their alum may consult Aldrovandi Museum Metallicum, Lugd. 1636, fol. p. 334.Return to passage

[494] Herodot. lib. ii. c. 180.Return to passage

[495] Diodor. Sic. lib. v. ed. Wesselingii, i. p. 338.Return to passage

[496] Tournefort, Voyage i. p. 63. Some information respecting the same subject may be seen in that expensive but useful work, Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce, i. p. 12.Return to passage

[497] Diodor. Sic. lib. c. Strabo, lib. vi. edit. Almel. p. 423.Return to passage

[498] Copious information respecting the Spanish alum-works may be found in Introduccion à la Historia Natural de Espagna, par D. G. Bowles: and in Dillon’s Travels through Spain, 1780, 4to, p. 220.Return to passage

[499] The derivation of the Latin name alumen, which, if I mistake not, occurs first in Columella and Pliny, is unknown. Some deduce it from ἅλμη; others from ἄλειμμα; and Isidore gives a derivation still more improbable. May it not have come from Egypt with the best sort of alum? Had it originated from a Greek word, it would undoubtedly have been formed from στυπτηρία. This appellation is to be found in Herodotus; and nothing is clearer than that it has arisen from the astringent quality peculiar to both the salts, and also from στύφειν, as has been remarked by Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen.Return to passage

[500] Etymol. p. 779.Return to passage

[501] Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 12.Return to passage

[502] Noct. Att. lib. xv. c. 1.Return to passage

[503] The halotrichum of Scopoli. The first person who discovered this salt to be vitriolic was Henkel, who calls it Atlas-vitriol. [The mineral halotrichite is, in a chemical sense, a true alum in which the sulphate of potash is replaced by the sulphate of the protoxide of iron. It is composed of one atom of protosulphate of iron, one atom of sulphate of alumina, and contains, like all the true alums, twenty-four atoms of water.]Return to passage

[504] Wecker De Secretis, lib. ix. 18, p. 445.Return to passage

[505] One instance of its being used for this purpose is found in Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xx. c. 12.Return to passage

[506] [This cannot be correct; for Geber, who is supposed to have lived in the eighth century, was acquainted with three kinds of it, and describes the method of preparing burnt alum.]Return to passage

[507] Joh. Serapionis Arabis de simplicibus medicinis opus, cap. 410.Return to passage

[508] Reisebeschreibung, ii. p. 408, 409.Return to passage

[509] This singular appellation occurs in Valentini Historia Simplicium, and several other works.Return to passage

[510] Jul. Cæs. Scaligeri Exot. exercitat. Franc. 1612, 8vo, p. 325.Return to passage

[511] I shall here take occasion to remark, that schist seems to have been employed for making alum in the time of Agricola, as appears by his book De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum, p. 47.Return to passage

[512] Mercati, Metallotheca, p. 54.Return to passage

[513] Pyrotechnia. Ven. 1559, 4to.Return to passage

[514] Leibnitii Protogæa, p. 47.Return to passage

[515] Bellonii Observationes, cap. lxi.Return to passage

[516] “In Phocis, which lies close to Ionia, there is a mountain abundant in aluminous mineral. The stones found on the top of this mountain are first calcined in the fire, and then reduced to powder by being thrown into water. The water mixed with that powder is put into a kettle; and a little more water being added to it, and the whole having been made to boil, the powder is lixiviated, and the thick part which falls to the bottom in a cake is preserved; what is hard and earthy is thrown away as of no use. The cake is afterwards suffered to dissolve in vessels for four days; at the end of which the alum is found in crystals around their edges, and the bottoms of them also are covered with pieces and fragments of the like nature. The remaining liquor, which at the end of four days does not harden, is poured into a kettle, more water and more powder are added to it, and being boiled as before, it is put into proper vessels, and the alum obtained in this manner is preserved as an article very necessary for dyers. All masters of ships bound from the Levant to Europe, consider alum as a very convenient and useful lading for vessels.... In the reign of Michael Palæologus, the first emperor of his family, some Italians requested a lease of that mountain, for which they promised to pay a certain sum annually.... The Romans and the Latins built Phocæa Nova on the sea-shore, at the bottom of that mountain which lies on the east side of it. On the west it has the island of Lesbos, on the north the neighbouring bay of Elæa, and on the south it looks towards the Ionian sea.”--Ducæ Historia Byzantina. Venet. 1729, p. 71.Return to passage

[517] The alum of Smyrna is mentioned by Baumé in his Experimental Chemistry, i. p. 458.Return to passage

[518] Some account of other Eastern alum-works is contained in a treatise of F. B. Pegolotti, written in the middle of the fourteenth century, on the state of commerce at that time, and printed in a book entitled Della decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal commune di Firenze. Lisbona e Lucca, 1765, 4to, 4 vols. It appears from this work, that in the fourteenth century the Italians were acquainted with no other than Turkish alum.Return to passage

[519] “I shall embrace this opportunity of giving a brief account of the situation of the island, and of the nature of its soil. That Ænaria has been at some time violently separated from the continent by an earthquake, seems proved by a variety of circumstances, such as calcined rocks; the ground full of caverns; and the earth, which, like that of the main land, being abundant in warm springs, and dry, feeds internal fire, and on that account contains a great deal of alum. A few years ago Bartholomew Perdix, a Genoese merchant passing this island in his way to Naples, observed some aluminous rocks scattered here and there along the sea-coast. About a hundred and sixty-three years before that period, the earth having suddenly burst by the effects of fire confined in its bowels, a considerable part of Ænaria was involved in flames. By this eruption a small town was burned and afterwards swallowed up; and large masses of rock mixed with flames, sand and smoke, thrown up where the shore looks towards Cumæ, fell upon the neighbouring fields, and destroyed the most fruitful and the most pleasant part of the island. Some of these huge pieces of rock being at that time still lying on the shore, Bartholomew, by calcining them in a furnace, extracted alum from them, and revived that art which he had brought from Rocca in Syria, where he had traded for several years, and which had been neglected in Italy for many centuries.”--Pontani Hist. Neapol. in Grævii Thesaurus Antiq. Italiæ, ix. part 3. p. 88.Return to passage

[520] “I must not omit to mention that about this time Bartholomew Pernix, a citizen and merchant of Genoa, who had resided long in Syria for the purpose of commerce, returned to his native country. Soon after, he made a voyage to the island of Ænaria, situated in the Tuscan sea, called formerly Pythacusa, and now in the vulgar Greek Iscla or Ischia; and being a man of an acute genius, and a diligent investigator of natural objects, he observed near the sea-coast several rocks fit for making alum. He took some fragments of them therefore, and having calcined them in a furnace, he procured from them most excellent alum. He was the first person who, to the incredible benefit of many, brought as it were again into use that art long abandoned and almost lost in Italy and the greater part of other countries. On that account his name deserves to be rescued from oblivion.”--Genuensis Rerum Annal. auct. P. Bizaro Sentinati. Antv. 1579, fol. p. 302.Return to passage

[521] “About that period (1459) Bartholomew Pernix, a Genoese merchant, sailing past the island of Ænaria or Ischia, learned that there were near the shore many aluminous rocks, that is to say, fit for making alum. He took some of them, therefore, and having caused them to be calcined in a furnace, he procured from them most excellent alum. This Bartholomew brought back to Italy from the city of Rocca, in Syria, where he had traded many years, the art of making alum, which had been neglected and lost for a long space of time.”--Annali della Republica di Genoa, per Agostino Giustiniano. Genoa, 1537, fol. lib. v. p. 214.Return to passage

[522] Dom. Bottone, Pyrologia Topographica. Neapoli, 1692, 4to. This author calls the inventor Perdix, and not Pernix.Return to passage

[523] Fabricii Biblioth. Lat. mediæ et infimæ Ætatis, vol. v. p. 617.Return to passage

[524] “A little before that period came to Rome John di Castro, with whom the Pontiff had been acquainted when he carried on trade at Basle, and was banker to Pope Eugenius. His father, Paul, was a celebrated lawyer of his time, who sat many years in the chair at Padua, and filled all Italy with his decisions; for law-suits were frequently referred to him, and judges paid great respect to his authority, as he was a man of integrity and sound learning. At his death he left considerable riches, and two sons arrived to the age of manhood, the elder of whom, following the profession of the father, acquired a very extensive knowledge of law. The other, who was a man of genius, and who applied more to study, made himself acquainted with grammar and history: but, being fond of travelling, he resided some time at Constantinople, and acquired much wealth by dyeing cloth made in Italy, which was transported thither and committed to his care, on account of the abundance of alum in that neighbourhood. Having by these means an opportunity of seeing daily the manner in which alum was made, and from what stones or earth it was extracted, he soon learned the art. When, by the will of God, that city was taken and plundered about the year 1453, by Mahomet II., emperor of the Turks, he lost his whole property; but, happy to have escaped the fire and sword of these cruel people, he returned to Italy, after the assumption of Pius II., to whom he was related, and from whom he obtained, as an indemnification for his losses, the office of commissary-general over all the revenues of the Apostolic Chamber, both within and without the city. While, in this situation, he was traversing all the hills and mountains, searching the bowels of the earth, leaving no stone or clod unexplored, he at length found some alum-stone in the neighbourhood of Tolfa. Old Tolfa is a town belonging to two brothers, subjects of the Church of Rome, and situated at a small distance from Civita Vecchia. Here there are high mountains, retiring inland from the sea, which abound with wood and water. While Castro was examining these, he observed that the grass had a new appearance. Being struck with wonder, and inquiring into the cause, he found that the mountains of Asia, which enrich the Turkish treasury by their alum, were covered with grass of the like kind. Perceiving several white stones, which seemed to be minerals, he bit some of them, and found that they had a saltish taste. This induced him to make some experiments by calcining them, and he at length obtained alum. He repaired therefore to the Pontiff, and addressing him said, ‘I announce to you a victory over the Turk. He draws yearly from the Christians above three hundred thousand pieces of gold, paid to him for the alum with which we dye wool different colours, because none is found here but a little at the island of Hiscla, formerly called Ænaria, near Puteoli, and in the cave of Vulcan at Lipari, which, being formerly exhausted by the Romans, is now almost destitute of that substance. I have however found seven hills, so abundant in it, that they would be almost sufficient to supply seven worlds. If you will send for workmen, and cause furnaces to be constructed, and the stones to be calcined, you may furnish alum to all Europe; and that gain which the Turk used to acquire by this article, being thrown into your hands, will be to him a double loss. Wood and water are both plenty, and you have in the neighbourhood the port of Civita Vecchia, where vessels bound to the West may be loaded. You can now make war against the Turk: this mineral will supply you with the sinews of war, that is money, and at the same time deprive the Turk of them.’ These words of Castro appeared to the Pontiff the ravings of a madman: he considered them as mere dreams, like the predictions of astrologers; and all the cardinals were of the same opinion. Castro, however, though his proposals were often rejected, did not abandon his project, but applied to his Holiness by various persons, in order that experiments might be made in his presence, on the stones which he had discovered. The Pontiff employed skilful people, who proved that they really contained alum; but lest some deception might have been practised, others were sent to the place where they had been found, who met with abundance of the like kind. Artists who had been employed in the Turkish mines in Asia were brought from Genoa; and these, having closely examined the nature of the place, declared it to be similar to that of the Asiatic mountains which produce alum; and, shedding tears for joy, they kneeled down three times, worshiping God, and praising his kindness in conferring so valuable a gift on our age. The stones were calcined, and produced alum more beautiful than that of Asia, and superior in quality. Some of it was sent to Venice and to Florence, and, being tried, was found to answer beyond expectation. The Genoese first purchased a quantity of it, to the amount of twenty thousand pieces of gold; and Cosmo of Medici for this article laid out afterwards seventy-five thousand. On account of this service, Pius thought Castro worthy of the highest honours and of a statue, which was erected to him in his own country, with this inscription: ‘To John di Castro, the inventor of alum;’ and he received besides a certain share of the profit. Immunities and a share also of the gain were granted to the two brothers, lords of Tolfa, in whose land the aluminous mineral had been found. This accession of wealth to the Church of Rome was made, by the divine blessing, under the pontificate of Pius II.; and if it escape, as it ought, the hands of tyrants, and be prudently managed, it may increase and afford no small assistance to the Roman Pontiffs in supporting the burdens of the Christian religion.”--Pii Secundii Comment. Rer. Memorab. quæ temp. suis contigerunt. Francof. 1614, fol. p. 185.Return to passage

[525] “The Frangipani a third time acquired lands in the kingdom of Naples. When they possessed in Maremma di Roma, Tolfa, Castello, and a jurisdiction which brings at present eighty thousand crowns annually to the Church, it happened that a son of Paul di Castro, a celebrated doctor, and a vassal of these lords, who had been many years a slave in Turkey to an alum-merchant, returned free to his own country; and observing that in the territories of Tolfa there was abundance of alum mineral, he gave notice of it to Lodovico Frangipani, his lord, and was the cause of greatly increasing his revenues. Pope Paul II., however, pretending that the mineral belonged to the Apostolic See, as supreme lord of the fief, and not being able to persuade Lodovico to give it up to the Church, he declared war against him, but was vigorously opposed by Lodovico and his brother Peter, lords of Tolfa, assisted by the Orsini their relations; so that the Pope was obliged to bring about an accommodation with them by means of king Ferrante I., and to pay them as the price of Tolfa sixteen thousand crowns of gold, of which Lodovico gave twelve thousand to the king, and was invested by him in the lordship of Serino in the year 1469.”Return to passage

[526] Ferbers Briefe über Welschland, p. 246.Return to passage

[527] “This year (1460) is distinguished by the discovery of alum at Tolfa vecchia, no one there having been acquainted with it till that period: and this happened by means of one John di Castro, who had acquired some knowledge of it from a young man of Corneto, and a Genoese, who had learned in Turkey the whole process of making it. The said John having observed that in the mountains of Tolfa there were undoubtedly veins of alum, he caused some of the earth and stones to be dug up, and the first experiments were made on them at Viterbo in the following manner. The stones were first calcined in a furnace; a large quantity of water was then thrown over them; and when they were entirely dissolved, the water was boiled in great leaden caldrons; after which it was poured into wooden vessels, where, evaporating by degrees, the result was alum of the most perfect kind. Pope Pius II., sensible of the great benefit which might arise from this mineral to the Apostolic Chamber, employed more than eight hundred persons at Tolfa in preparing it.”--Historia della Città de Viterbo, di Feliciano Bussi. In Roma 1742, fol. p. 262.Return to passage

[528] Museo di Fisica, &c. Ven. 1697, p. 152.Return to passage

[529] Viaggi, vii. p. 234.Return to passage

[530] Anno 1458. “Rock alum, which the Greeks call pharno, was at this time first discovered by a Genoese in the territories of Volterra, where being boiled and found to be good, it began to be dug up afterwards in many of the mountains of Italy. Till that period the Italians had made no use of mines of this kind; for our alum was all brought from Turkey. The above discovery was therefore a great advantage to us.”Return to passage

[531] An account of this dispute between the Florentines and the people of Volterra may be seen in Machiavelli’s History of Florence, book vii.Return to passage

[532] Rap. Volaterrani Comment. Urbani.Return to passage

[533] De Thermis.Return to passage

[534] Viaggi, iii. p. 117.Return to passage

[535] Ibid. vii. p. 51.Return to passage

[536] De Thermis, p. 293. Tozzetti, iv. p. 186.Return to passage

[537] Nicol. Rodrig. Fermosini Tractatus Criminalium. Lugd. 1670, 2 vol. fol. tom. ii. p. 63.Return to passage

[538] Pyrotechn. p. 31. He says expressly that this was the only alum-work in Europe in his time without the boundaries of Italy.Return to passage

[539] History of Commerce, iv. p. 406. “The manufacture of alum,” says he, “was first found out in England, and carried on with success in 1608. It was supported and patronized in the county of York by lord Sheffield, sir John Bourcher, and other landholders of the said county, to the great benefit of England in general, and of the proprietors in particular, to the present day. King James was a great promoter of this alum-work, after he had by the advice of his minister appropriated to himself a monopoly of it, and forbidden the importation of foreign alum.”Return to passage

[540] Such is the account of Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, 1768. “The alum-works in this country are of some antiquity; they were first discovered by sir Thomas Chaloner in the reign of queen Elizabeth, who observing the trees tinged with an unusual colour, made him suspicious of its being owing to some mineral in the neighbourhood. He found out that the strata abounded with an aluminous salt. At that time the English being strangers to the method of managing it, there is a tradition that sir Thomas was obliged to seduce some workmen from the Pope’s alum-works near Rome, then the greatest in Europe. If one may judge from the curse which his Holiness thundered out against sir Thomas and his fugitives, he certainly was not a little enraged; for he cursed by the very form that Ernulphus has left us, and not varied a tittle from that most comprehensive of imprecations. The first pits were near Gisborough, the seat of the Chaloners, who still flourish there notwithstanding his Holiness’s anathema.” The following passage, extracted from Camden’s Britannia, is much to the same purpose: “This (alum) was first discovered a few years since (anno 1607) by the admirable sagacity of that learned naturalist sir Thomas Chaloner, knt. (to whose tuition his majesty (king James the First) committed the delight and glory of Britain, his son prince Henry), by observing that the leaves of trees were of a more weak sort of green here than in other places, &c.”Return to passage

[541] “For some time past the marquis of Lepri has farmed the alum-works at Civita Vecchia for 37,000 scudi. The Apostolical Chamber supplies the necessary wood, which the marquis must be at the expense of cutting down and transporting. About two hundred men are employed in the works; and alum to the amount of from forty-five thousand to fifty thousand scudi is sold annually, particularly to the English and the French.” See Voyage en Italie, par le Baron de R. (Riesch.) Dresden, 1781, 2 vols. 8vo.Return to passage

[542] Voyages Metallurgiques, par M. Jars, vol. iii. p. 297.Return to passage

[543] See Chemical Gazette for July 15, 1843.Return to passage

FALCONRY

The question whether Falconry was known to the ancient Greeks, has been determined in the negative by Flavius Blondus[544], Laurentius Valla[545], both writers of the fifteenth century; and likewise by Rigallius[546], Pancirollus, Salmuth, and many others. It may, nevertheless, be here asked, what is generally understood under that term? However much the thousand barks which carried the Grecians to the siege of Troy might have been inferior to those floating castles lately seen by my countrymen before Gibraltar, they were nevertheless ships; and we cannot, on that account, deny that the Greeks were acquainted with the art of ship-building, though it was evidently then in its infancy. In the like manner I agree with Giraldus[547], in allowing that they had some knowledge of falconry. I do not believe that they knew the art of hawking, that is, of chasing game with birds of prey previously trained, as practised in modern times, and which serves more for the amusement of trifling princes than for any useful purpose; but that they had begun to employ the rapacity of some of the winged tribe in hunting and fowling, cannot, in my opinion, be denied[548].

So early as the time of Ctesias, hares and foxes were hunted in India by means of rapacious birds[549]. The account of Aristotle however is still more to the purpose, and more worthy of notice[550]. “In Thrace,” says he, “the men go out to catch birds with hawks[551]. The men beat the reeds and bushes which grow in marshy places, in order to raise the small birds, which the hawks pursue and drive to the ground, where the fowler kills them with poles.” A similar account is to be found in another book ascribed also to Aristotle, which appears, at any rate, to be the work of an author not much younger, but with two additions, which render the circumstance still more remarkable[552]. The first is, that the falcons appeared when called by their names; and the second, that of their own accord they brought to the fowlers whatever they caught themselves. Nothing is here wanting but the spaniel employed to find out game, the hood which is put upon the head of the hawk while it is perched on the hand, and the thong used for holding it, to form a short description of falconry as still practised. Our falconers, when they have taken the bird from the hawk, give him, in return, a small share of it; and in the like manner the Thracian hawks received some part of their booty. Other writers after Aristotle, such as Antigonus[553], Ælian[554], Pliny[555], and Phile[556], have also given an account of this method of fowling. Ælian, who seldom relates anything without some alteration or addition, says that in Thrace nets were used, into which the birds were driven by the hawks; and in this he is followed by the poet Phile. Ælian, also, in another place describes a manner of hunting with hawks in India, which, as we are told by several travellers, is still practised in Persia, where it is well understood, and by other eastern nations[557].

It seems, therefore, that the Greeks received from India and Thrace the first information respecting the method of fowling with birds of prey; but it does not appear that this practice was introduced among them at a very early period. In Italy, however, it must have been very common, for Martial and Apuleius speak of it as a thing everywhere known. The former calls a hawk a fowler’s servant, and the latter makes use of a kind of pun on the word accipiter, which signified also a species of fish[558]. It cannot indeed be said that this art was ever forgotten; but, like other inventions, though at first much admired, it was afterwards neglected, so that it remained a long time without improvement. It is however certain that it was at length brought to the utmost degree of perfection. It is mentioned in the Roman laws[559], and in writers of the fourth and fifth centuries.

Julius Firmicus Maternus, who in the time of Constantine the Great, about the year 336, wrote his Astronomicon, in which he teaches the art of casting nativities, assures us that those who are born under certain signs will become great sportsmen, and keep hounds and falcons[560]. Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, who lived about the year 480, celebrates Herdicius, his wife’s brother, and son of the emperor Avitus, because he first practised in his territories hunting and fowling with dogs and hawks. The same author mentions hawking also in other parts of his work. That this diversion, however, has not been oftener spoken of and praised, needs excite little wonder. Hunting, and all the concomitant arts, were at first employed for use; in the course of time they were practised by servants, and easy means only of catching game were sought for. But when luxury was introduced into states, and the number of those who lived by other people’s labour increased, these idlers began to employ that time which they had not learned to make a proper use of, or which they were not compelled to apply to more valuable purposes, in catching wild animals by every method that ingenuity could suggest, or in tormenting them by lingering deaths. Hunting and fowling, therefore, received many improvements by the assistance of art; and the indolent clergy even indulged in these cruel sports, though often forbidden by the church. Such prohibitions were issued by the council of Agda in the year 506; by that of Epaon in 517; by that of Macon in 585, and perhaps oftener, but never with much effect.

Before I proceed further, I shall make two remarks. First, that Pietro Crescentio gives one Daucus as the inventor of the art of taming hawks, but without proof, or even probability. Secondly, that the ancients bred up to hunting and fishing several rapacious animals which at present are not used for that purpose, such as the seal[561] and sea-wolf[562]. Astruc[563] has endeavoured to confute this idea; but his reasoning appears to me to have little weight; and I agree in opinion with Rondeletius and Isaac Vossius[564], that seals might be instructed to catch fish; I myself have seen some, that, when commanded by their master, exhibited a variety of movements and tricks which undoubtedly prove their aptness to learn.

The art of falconry seems to have been carried to the greatest perfection, and to have been much in vogue at the principal courts of Europe in the twelfth century. Some on that account have ascribed the invention of it to the emperor Frederic I., and others to Frederic II. Frederic I., called Barbarossa, was the first who brought falcons to Italy; at least Pandolfo Collenuccio[565] says that this was the common report, and Radevicus[566] seems to confirm it; but I do not know from what authority Pancirollus tells us that that emperor invented falconry at the time when he was besieging Rome. Rainaldo, marquis of Este, was the first among the Italian princes who used this method of fowling[567]; and that the emperor Henry followed the example of his father, seems proved by the words of Collenuccio. The service rendered by Frederic II. to this art, if it can be said to deserve service, is shown by the book which he wrote in Latin on it, entitled De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, and which was printed for the first time at Augsburg in the year 1596, from a manuscript belonging to Joachim Camerarius, a physician of Nuremberg. It has here and there deficiencies, because the manuscript was torn, and some additions by the author’s son Manfred, king of Sicily. In the second book, there is an account of the use and manner of making hoods, called capellæ, which we are there told were invented by the Arabs. The emperor received as a present some hooded falcons from Arabian princes, and procured people from Arabia who understood the management of them[568]. Albertus Magnus has inserted a great deal from the work of this emperor in his book upon animals.

In none of the sports of the field have the fair sex partaken so much as in falconry. The ladies formerly kept hawks, in which they greatly delighted, and which were as much fondled by those who wished to gain their favour as lap-dogs are at present[569]. What tended principally, however, to bring it into disuse, was the invention of gunpowder. After that, hawks were discarded, and the whole enjoyment of fowling was confined to shooting. Less skill and labour were indeed required in this new exercise; but the ladies abandoned the pleasures of the chase, because they disapproved of the use of fire-arms, which were attended both with alarm and danger.

Among the oldest writers on falconry, we may reckon Demetrius, who about the year 1270 was physician to the emperor Michael Palæologus. His book, written in Greek, was first printed at Paris in 1612, by Nicholas Rigaltius, from a manuscript in the king’s library, and with the Latin translation of Peter Gyllius[570]. Some other works on the same subject, the antiquity of which is unknown, were printed at the same time. One in the Catalonian dialect has the forged title of Epistola Aquilæ, Symmachi et Theodotionis ad Ptolemæum regem Ægypti de re accipitraria. All these writings treat chiefly on the rearing and diseases of hawks; and contain cures, which, though some of them perhaps may be good enough, would not undoubtedly be all approved by any person of skill at present[571]. Aloes, to the size of about a bean, are ordered as a purge; and quicksilver is prescribed for the itch and outbreaking. We are told also, that a wild and untractable falcon was confined some time with a hood on in a smith’s shop, where it was soon tamed by the continual thumping of the hammers. One precept in Demetrius respecting the art of falconry seems very ill-suited to the practice of modern times. He desires sportsmen to say their prayers before they go out to the field. Had this custom been continued to the present day, many great men would be like the people mentioned by a certain traveller, who solicit the assistance of God when they are preparing for a piratical expedition[572]; but with this difference, that these rovers plunder only strange ships, whereas the latter destroy the property and possessions of their own subjects.

FOOTNOTES

[544] This author, Blondus or Biondo, describing an Italian village, says, “I shall embrace this opportunity of mentioning a new circumstance, which is, that fowling with that rapacious bird the falcon, a diversion much followed at Arno, by the celebrated Alphonsus king of Arragon, was entirely unknown about two hundred years ago; for though Servius, the grammarian, says that Capua received that name from the augury of a falcon, because the Hetruscans, when founding it, saw one of these birds, which in their language was called capis; yet he does not tell us of what use they were to mankind. Besides, Pliny, who gives the names of many rapacious birds of the hawk kind (‘accipitres scilicet majores et minores achilvones, quos aliqui falcones fuisse volunt’), says nothing of their being employed to catch game; and, without doubt, had fowling in this manner been practised in the time of Virgil, he would have made Æneas and Dido carry such birds along with them when they went out a hunting, whereas he says only,Return to passage

‘Massylique ruunt equites et odora canum vis.’

I will venture therefore to affirm, that two hundred years ago, as I have already said, no nation or people were accustomed to catch either land- or water-fowls with any rapacious bird tamed for that purpose.” I shall here observe, that Biondo must have had a faulty copy of Pliny; for the word achilvones is not to be found in that author, who, nevertheless, mentions the practice of fowling with birds of prey.

[545] Valla, the most learned man of the century in which he lived, contradicts Antonius Renaudensis, who says, Nola is a hawk’s bell. “If Nola,” says Valla, “be an old word, it cannot signify that bell now worn by hawks, because the ancients never tamed these birds for catching game, as we do, nor ornamented them with bells. If it be a new word, let him produce the author from whom it is taken.”--Laurentii Vallæ Opera. Basiliæ, 1543, fol. p. 433.Return to passage

[546] In the preface to Scriptores Rei Accipitrariæ.Return to passage

[547] Gyraldi Dialogismi, in Op. Lugd. 1696, fol. ii. p. 870.Return to passage

[548] Those who are desirous of being acquainted with the art of falconry, may consult Pluche, Spectacle de la Nature, vol. i., or the article Fauconnerie, in the French Encyclopédie.Return to passage

[549] See Herodotus.Return to passage

[550] “In that part of Thrace, called formerly Cedropolis, the men go out into the marshes in quest of birds, accompanied by falcons. The men beat the trees and bushes with poles, and put the birds to flight; the hawks fly after them, by which means they are so frightened that they fall to the ground, where the men strike them with their poles and kill them.”--Histor. Animal. lib. ix. c. 6.Return to passage

[551] The Grecian authors above-quoted call the rapacious birds used for pursuing game ἱέρακες; and Pliny calls them accipitres. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to distinguish with sufficient accuracy all the species of these birds to which the ancients gave different names. This genus is numerous, and the species often differ so little from each other, that it is not easy to establish their characterizing marks. Besides, they for the most part change their colour, and often their whole appearance, according to their age or the season of the year; so that these characters become very uncertain. It appears that on this account the ancients often divided one species into two or more, and imagined that many species passed one into the other, or that new species were produced by the mixture of different breeds. It seems however certain that the ancients divided those birds of prey which fly abroad in the day-time, into three species: ἀετὸς aquila; γὺπς vultur; and ἱέραξ accipiter. The first and last belong to that genus which Linnæus calls falco, and are the large species of it. The vultures are the Ger-falcons, which are sufficiently distinguished by their bald head and neck.Return to passage

[552] “Respecting Thrace which is situated above Amphipolis, a wonderful thing is related, which might appear incredible to those who had never heard it before. It is said that boys go out into the fields, and pursue birds by the assistance of hawks. When they have found a place convenient for their purpose, they call the hawks by their names, which immediately appear as soon as they hear their voices, and chase the birds into the bushes, where the boys knock them down with sticks and seize them. What is still more wonderful, when these hawks lay hold of any birds, they throw them to the fowlers; but the boys, in return, give them some share of the prey.”--De Mirabilibus Auscultat. cap. 128.Return to passage

[553] Antigoni Carystii Historiæ Mirabiles, cap. 34.Return to passage

[554] “Hawks, which are no less fit for fowling than eagles, and which are not inferior to them in size, are of all birds reckoned to be the tamest and the fondest of man. I have heard that in Thrace they accompany people when they go out in quest of birds in the fens. The fowlers, having spread their nets, remain quiet, while the hawks flying about terrify the birds, and drive them into them. When the Thracians catch any birds, they divide them with the hawks, by which means they render them faithful partners in fowling; if they did not give them a share of the booty, they would be deprived of their assistance.”--Histor. Anim. lib. ii. cap. 42.Return to passage

[555] Lib. x. c. 8. In a part of Thrace above Amphipolis, men and hawks go out a-fowling, as it were in company. The former drive the birds from among the bushes and reeds, and the latter flying after them strike them down. The fowlers divide with them their prey.Return to passage

[556] Phile De Animal. Proprietate, p. 36. Gesner, in his Hist. Anim. lib. iii., has collected all the information to be found respecting that species of hawk or falcon called κίρκος, circus.Return to passage

[557] “The Indians hunt hares and foxes in the following manner. They do not employ dogs, but eagles, crows, and, above all, kites, which they catch when young, and train for that purpose. They let loose a tame hare or fox, with a piece of flesh fastened to it, and suffer these birds to fly after it, in order to seize the flesh, which they are fond of, and which, on their return, they receive as the reward of their labour. When thus instructed to pursue their prey, they are sent after wild foxes and hares in the mountains; these they follow in hopes of obtaining their usual food, and soon catch them and bring them back to their masters, as we are informed by Ctesias. Instead of the flesh, however, which was fastened to the tame animals, they receive as food the entrails of the wild ones which they have caught.”--Æliani Hist. Animal. lib. iv. c. 26. Compare with this what Pluche says in Nature Displayed, and the accounts given by Chardin and Gemelli Carreri.Return to passage

[558] Martial. Epigr. lib. xiv. 216.Return to passage

[559] Digest. lib. xliii. tit. 24, 22.Return to passage

[560] “Those born when the planet Venus is in Aquarius will be much given to hunting and fowling; in other things they will be slow, indolent, inactive, and melancholy, and will apply to no laudable pursuit. They will, however, be fond of breeding hawks, falcons, eagles, and other birds of the like kind, and horses for hunting. They will be also very ingenious in such exercises, and acquire by them a comfortable subsistence.”--Lib. v. c. 7. This nativity displays a knowledge of mankind; for one may without much difficulty find princes and great men with whose lives it exactly corresponds, and who, to the great misfortune of their subjects and tenants, have undoubtedly been born under the sign Aquarius.Return to passage

[561] Plin. lib. ix. Ælian. Hist. Anim. 1. ii. Oppiani Halieut. 1. v.Return to passage

[562] Plin. lib. x. cap. 8. Aristot. Hist. an. 1. ix. c. 36. Ælian. Hist. An. 1. vi. c. 65. Antigonus Caryst. cap. 33.Return to passage

[563] Histoire Nat. de Languedoc, p. 568.Return to passage

[564] In Obs. on Pomp. Mela. ii. 5.Return to passage

[565] Istoria di Napoli, Ven. 1613, 4to, i. p. 88.Return to passage

[566] Radevicus de Gestis Frid. I. lib. ii. cap. ultimo.Return to passage

[567] See Grævii Thesaurus Antiq. et Hist. vol. vii. p. 12.Return to passage

[568] As this work is extremely scarce, I shall here quote the following passage from it:--“The hood had its origin among the Oriental nations; for the eastern Arabs used it more than any other people with whom we are acquainted, in taming falcons and birds of the same species. When I crossed the sea, I had an opportunity of observing that the Arabs used hoods in this art. Some of the kings of Arabia sent to me the most expert falconers, with various kinds of falcons; and I did not fail, after I had resolved to collect into a book every thing respecting falconry, to invite from Arabia and every other country such as were most skilful in it; and I received from them the best information they were able to give. Because the use of the hood was one of the most effectual methods they knew for taming hawks, and as I saw the great benefit of it, I employed a hood in training these birds; and it has been so much approved in Europe, that it is proper it should be handed down to posterity.”Return to passage

[569] Sainte-Palaye, Mémoires sur l’Ancienne Chevalerie, tom. iii. p. 183. In this work may be found many anecdotes respecting the taste of the French ladies for the sports of the field in the ages of chivalry.Return to passage

[570] Rei Accipitrariæ Scriptores. Lutet. 1612, 4to.Return to passage

[571] Among the works of Sir Thomas Brown, there is one on Hawks and Falconry, Ancient and Modern, which, however, consists chiefly of old medical prescriptions.Return to passage

[572] Remarques d’un Voyageur Moderne au Lévant. Amst. 1773, 8vo.Return to passage

TURF

The discovery, that many kinds of earth, when dried, might be employed as fuel, may have easily been occasioned by an accident in some place destitute of wood. A spark falling fortuitously on a turf-moor during a dry summer often sets it on fire, and the conflagration it occasions generally lasts so long that it cannot escape notice[573]. Of the earth taking fire in this manner there are many instances to be found in the ancients. One of the most remarkable is that mentioned by Tacitus, who relates, that not long after the building of the city of Cologne, the neighbouring land took fire, and burned with such violence that the corn, villages, and every production of the fields were destroyed by the flames, which advanced even to the walls of the city[574]. This remarkable passage is not to be understood as alluding to a volcanic eruption, but to a morass which had been set on fire. In the duchy of Berg and around Cologne there are very extensive morasses, from which turf is dug up for fuel, and which undoubtedly serve to confirm this idea.

That the use of turf was well known in the earliest periods in the greater part of Lower Saxony, and throughout the Netherlands, is fully proved by Pliny’s account of the Chauci, who inhabited that part of Germany which at present comprehends the duchies of Bremen and Verden, the counties of Oldenburg, Delmenhorst, Diepholz, Huy and East Friesland. Pliny says expressly, that the Chauci pressed together with their hands a kind of peat earth, which they dried by the wind rather than by the sun, and which they used not only for cooking their victuals, but also for warming their bodies[575]. I explain also by turf a short passage of Antigonus Carystius, quoted from Phanias, in which it is said that a morass in Thessaly having become dry, took fire and burned.

The account therefore given in some Dutch chronicles, that turf and the manner of preparing it were first found out about the year 1215, and that about 1222 it had become common, is certainly false[576]. This information may be applicable to certain lands and districts, and correct as to the introduction of this kind of fuel in those parts; for the use of it was not extended far till a late period; and even yet turf is neither employed nor known in many places which possess it, even though they are destitute of wood[577]. Some improvement in the manner of preparing turf may have also been considered as the invention of this fuel, which is undoubtedly of greater antiquity. What induced Monconys to ascribe the invention of turf to Erasmus, or who first propagated that error, I can as little conjecture as Misson[578].

Scaliger has erred[579] no less than Monconys, whose account was doubted by Uffenbach[580]. According to the first-mentioned author, turf had been used in the Netherlands only about three hundred years before his time, and he adds that he did not know that this kind of fuel had ever been mentioned by the ancients.

Those however are mistaken also who believe that it is to be found in the Salic laws and those of the Alemanni. It is true that the word turpha occurs in the former, and that Wendelin and others have declared it to mean turf; but the assertion of Eccard, that it signifies a village, called in German Dorf[581], is more probable. Still less can the doubtful word curfodi, in the laws of the Alemanni, be supposed to allude to this substance, though we are assured by Lindenbrog that he found in a manuscript, in its stead, the term zurb[582]. It is also not credible that turf should be employed at that period, as wood was everywhere superabundant.

The oldest certain account of turf in the middle ages with which I am at present acquainted, is that pointed out by Trotz[583], who says that it occurs in a letter of donation of the year 1113. He has given the words in the Dutch language, as if they had stood so in the original. But he has quoted his authority in so careless a manner, that I have not been able to conjecture what kind of book he meant. I have however found a Latin copy of the letter of donation in a work pointed out to me by Professor Reuss[584]. An abbot Ludolph, in the year 1113, permitted a nunnery near Utrecht to dig cespites for its own use in a part of his venæ, but at the same time he retained the property of these venæ. Now there can be no doubt that vena signifies a turf bog, and cespites turf. The former is the same word as Fenne or Venne, which occurs in the old Frisic and the present Veen[585] of the Dutch. The nuns also could make no other use of the turf but employ it as fuel. This passage however proves nothing; though Trotz says that a great trade was carried on with turf in the twelfth century, and that the abbot wished to interdict the nuns from using it.

It is worthy of remark that the words turba, turbo, turbæ ad focum, turfa, occur for turf, in the years 1190, 1191, 1201 and 1210, as is proved by the instances quoted by Du Cange. Turbaria for a turf-moor is found in Matthew Paris, who died in 1259; Turbagium, in a diploma of Philip the Fair in the year 1308, signifies the right of digging turf, as turbare does to dig up turf. The word mor also is found in a document of the year 1246, quoted by Du Cange; who however has not introduced it into his dictionary[586]. It seems to be the same as mariscus and marescus. Brito, who lived about 1223, describing the productions of Flanders, says, “Arida gleba foco siccis incisa marescis[587].” That the last of these words signifies a turf-bog is proved by a passage of Lambert, who lived at Ardres about the year 1200: “Quendam similiter mariscum, ut aiunt, proprium perfodi fecit, et in turbas dissecari.”

The assertion of Winsem and others, that the practice of digging turf first became common after the year 1215, is undoubtedly founded on information obtained from Sibrand Leo’s Vitæ Abbatum Horti Divæ Virginis seu Mariengard[588]; but this writer died in 1588, and can by no means be adduced as an evidence: he even says himself that turf-digging in 1212 was a new occupation.

The conjecture that the Netherlanders, who in the twelfth century established themselves as colonists in some districts of Germany, and particularly Lower Saxony, first made known there the preparation and use of this kind of fuel is improbable, or at any rate not proved[589]. It is improbable, because the Chauci, the oldest inhabitants of that country, burnt turf before that period.

It is related by the Icelanders that Einar, Count or Earl of Orkney or of the Orkney islands, discovered turf there, and on that account was named Torffeinar. He was the son of Raugnwauld, or Rognwald, earl of Mören, Sued and Nordmör in Norway, in the time of the celebrated Norwegian King Harold, commonly called Haarfager or Pulcricomus, on account of his beautiful hair[590]. He must have lived therefore in the middle of the ninth century; but on so trifling a subject I shall enter no further into the labyrinth of the Icelandic Saga.

In Sweden turf was first made known at a very modern period by some navigators in the district of Halland; and in the time of Charles XI. much trouble was taken to introduce it as fuel. In 1672 the town of Laholm obtained an exemption from duty for the turf dug up in the lands belonging to it.

In later times turf began to be burned to charcoal, sometimes in kilns, and sometimes in furnaces built for that purpose, by which this advantage is obtained, that it kindles sooner, burns with less air, and forms a more moderate and uniform fire without much smoke. This method of reducing turf to charcoal, which is still practised in some parts of Bohemia, Silesia, and Upper Saxony, was, it appears, proposed about the year 1669, by the well-known John Joachim Becher, who recommended at that time a method of depriving coals of their sulphur by burning them, and the use of naphtha or rock-oil procured from them by that process[591]. The burning of turf to coal seems to have been first made known in Germany by Hans Charles von Carlowitz, chamber-counsellor, and principal surveyor of the mines of the electorate of Saxony[592]. To save wood and promote the benefit of the mines he sought for turf; and having discovered it, he then endeavoured to find out some method of rendering it fit to be employed in the melting-houses, and this was the reducing to coal, which, as he himself says[593], he first attempted in kilns at Scheibenberg, in the year 1708. At the Brocken the first experiments were made in 1744, with turf which had been dug up several years. This was announced by F. C. Brückman in 1745[594], as a new invention; but an anonymous writer stated[595] soon after, that this charring had been long used in the district of Hadeln, and that the smiths there employed no other kind of coals for their work.

[In 1842 a patent was taken out by Mr. Williams for compressing peat into a dense mass, resembling coals. It is said to be superior to coal in its properties of producing heat by combustion, forming an excellent charcoal or coke. It is asserted that this charcoal is much more combustible than that of wood, and very useful in the manufacture of fire-works. The process is as follows:--Immediately after being dug it is triturated under revolving edge-wheels faced with iron plates perforated all over the surface, and is forced by the pressure through these apertures, till it becomes a kind of pap, which is freed from the greater part of its moisture by a hydraulic press. It is then dried, and converted into coke in the same manner as pit-coal. The factitious coal of Mr. Williams is made by incorporating pitch or rosin, melted in a caldron with as much peat-charcoal ground to powder as will form a tough doughy mass, which is then moulded into bricks.]

FOOTNOTES

[573] In Siberia, a village which stood on a turf-moor was, on account of its marshy situation, removed to another place; and that the remains might be more easily destroyed, they were set on fire. The flames having communicated to the soil, which was inflammable, occasioned great devastation; and when Gmelin was there, it had been continually burning for half a year. See Gmelin’s Reisen durch Russland, vol. i. p. 22.Return to passage

[574] The rustics, in despair, when they found the fire was unquenchable either by rain or by the river-water which they poured over it, threw in heaps of stones, beat down the flames issuing from the interstices with clubs, and as the fire became subdued flung on their clothes, which being made of skins and wetted, eventually extinguished the conflagration. See Tacitus, An. xiii. 57.Return to passage

[575] Hist. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 1.Return to passage

[576] “The foresters, who had then got a new employment, that of turf-digging, which had been before unknown, or at least very uncommon, gave as a present to the monastery of Mariengard, in 1215, several turf-bogs in and near Backefeen.”--Chronique van Vriesland door P. Winsemium, 1622, p. 158. That monastery was situated at the distance of two miles from Leeuwaarden.Return to passage

In Kronijck der Kronijcken, door S. de Vries, printed at Amsterdam in 1688, the following passage occurs, vol. v. p. 553:--“About this time (1221) the digging of turf was first practised, which in some measure made amends for the damage occasioned by the sea-water, and by which several acquired great riches.”

Some Dutch writers make turf-digging to be of much higher antiquity, and in support of this opinion quote an old chronicle in rhyme, in which mention is made of a donation by Gerolf count of Friesland; but I am not acquainted with the antiquity of that chronicle, and of the letter of donation there is only a Flemish translation. See Berkhey, Nat. Hist. v. Hol. vol. ii. p. 552.

[577] The use of turf was first made known in France in the year 1621, by Charles de Lamberville, advocate of the parliament of Paris, who resided some time in Holland, to which he had been sent by the king on public business. See Anciens Mineralogistes, par Gobet, i. p. 302.Return to passage

[578] Voyages de Monconys. Lyons, 1666, 2 vol. 4to, ii. p. 129. C’est lui (Erasme) qui a donné l’invention de la tourbe, qu’on brusle au lieu du charbon. See also Misson’s Travels.Return to passage

[579] Scaligerana, ii. p. 243; Je ne sçache aucun ancien, qui fasse mention de tourbes.Return to passage

[580] Voyages, vol. iii.Return to passage

[581] Leges Salicæ, ed. Eccardi, p. 42.Return to passage

[582] Lindenbrogii Codex Legum Antiquarum. Franc. 1613.Return to passage

[583] Trotz Jus Agrarium Fœd. Belgii, ii. p. 643.Return to passage

[584] Historia Episcopatuum Fœderati Belgii. Lugd. Bat. 1719, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 130.Return to passage

[585] Wiarda Altfrisisches Wörterbuch; where it is conjectured, not without probability, that the name Finland is thence derived.--Du Cange, Glossarium, under the word Venna.Return to passage

[586] The words are, “Morum dedit dictus comes dictæ ecclesiæ ad turfas fodiendas.”Return to passage

[587] Britonis Philippidos lib. ii. v. 144.Return to passage

[588] These lives are in Matthæi Veteris Ævi Analecta, Hag. 1738, v. p. 247.Return to passage

[589] I find quoted for this conjecture the Dissertation, Eelking de Belgis sæculo xii. in Germaniam advenis, Gottingæ, 1770, pp. 162, 164. But nothing further is found there than that the right of digging turf was in all probability confirmed to the colonists. This important Dissertation was written by Professor Wundt of Heidelberg.Return to passage

[590] This information may be found in Crymogæa, sive rerum Islandicarum libri iii. per Arngrimum Jonam Islandum. Hamburgi (1609), 4to, p. 50. “Torf cujus inventor perhibetur in Orcadibus dux quidam Orcadensis, Einarus Raugnvaldi ducis Norvegici de Maere filius, tempore pulcricomi Norveg. regis, qui idcirco Torffeinarus dictus est.”Return to passage

[591] “In Holland there is turf, and in England there are coals, neither of which are good for burning either in apartments or in melting-houses. I have, however, discovered a method of burning both these to good coals, so that they shall not only produce no smoke or bad smell, but yield a heat as strong for melting metals as that of wood, and throw out such flames that a foot of coal shall make a flame ten feet long. This I have demonstrated at the Hague with turf, and proved here in England with coals, in the presence of Mr. Boyle, by experiments made at Windsor on a large scale. It deserves to be remarked on this occasion, that as the Swedes procure their tar from fir-wood, I have procured tar from coals, which is in everything equal to the Swedish, and even superior to it for some purposes. I have tried it both on timber and ropes, and it has been found excellent. The king himself ordered a proof of it to be made in his presence. This is a thing of very great importance to the English, and the coals after the tar has been extracted from them are better for use than before.”--Narrische Weisheit und weise Narrheit. Frankfurt, 1683, 12mo, p. 91. Boyle seems to speak of this invention in The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy, London, 1774, fol. i. p. 515. The burning of coals in order to procure from them rock-oil, which was used particularly by the leather manufacturers, and which on that account could not be exported, was much practised in England. It appears, however, that something of the like kind was attempted before Becher’s time; for in the year 1627, John Hacket and Octav. Strada obtained a patent for their invention of rendering coals as useful as wood for fuel in houses without hurting anything by their smoke. See Anderson’s History of Commerce.Return to passage

[592] The practice of charring turf appears however to be much older, if it be true that charred turf was employed about the year 1560 at the Freiberg smelting-houses, though that undertaking was not attended with success.--See Hoy’s Anleitung zu einer bessern Benutzung des Torfs. Altenburg, 1781.Return to passage

[593] Von Carlowitz, Sylvicultura Œconomica. Leipzig, 1713, fol. p. 430, where an account is given of the first experiment.Return to passage

[594] In Hamburgischen Berichten, p. 93.Return to passage

[595] Ib. p. 170.Return to passage

ARTICHOKE

That I might be able to investigate whether our artichoke was known to the ancients, I have not only collected a variety of scattered passages, compared them with one another and with nature, and laboured through a tedious multitude of contradictions and a confusion of names, but I have also been obliged to examine a load of groundless conjectures, heaped together by commentators[596], in order that I might understand them and ascertain their value. By these means I have learned more than seems hitherto to have been known; and I have found that more is believed than can be proved; but that the fruits of my toil will give complete satisfaction to my readers, I do not pretend to hope. Before the botany, however, and the natural history in general of the ancients can be properly elucidated, before truth can be separated from falsehood, what is certain from what is uncertain, and things defined from those which are undefined, researches of this kind must be undertaken, and the same method as that which I have followed must be adopted.

The names of plants in ancient authors which have been applied to our artichoke, are the following: Cinara, Carduus, Scolymus, and Cactus.

The Cinara, which is originally a Greek word, belonged certainly to the thistle species; and the description of its top, as given by Columella[597], seems, as has already been remarked by Nonnius[598] and others, to agree perfectly with that of our artichoke. The cinara was commonly furnished with prickles, but that was preferred which had lost them by cultivation, and for which means were prescribed that did not produce the desired effect[599]. It was raised from seed sown in spring, but was propagated also from slips or shoots which in Italy were planted in autumn, that they might bear earlier the next summer[600]. The direction given to water these plants frequently, is still followed by our gardeners in respect to their artichokes, and they expect from this attention that the fruit will be more abundant and tender. By this method many give to their artichokes a superiority which others that have not been watered so carefully cannot attain. A complaint, which occurs in ancient authors, is also prevalent, that the roots are often destroyed by mice. I do not, however, find it remarked what part of the cinara was properly used, but it may be conjectured it was the top, because the tender fruit is praised[601].

Carduus, among the Romans, was the common name of all plants of the thistle kind. It occurs among those of weeds[602], and may be then properly translated by the word thistle. It, however, often signified an eatable thistle; and this has given Pliny occasion to make use of an insipid piece of raillery, when he says that luxury prepared as food for man what would not be eaten by cattle.

It is an old and common fault, that when the Greek and Roman authors have not given us such descriptions of natural objects as are sufficient to enable us to ascertain exactly what they are, we suppose that they have been known under different names, and a variety of characteristics are drawn together to enable us to determine them. What, for example, we find respecting the cinara is too little to give a just idea of the plant; we read somewhat more of the carduus; and because between these there seems to be an affinity, it is concluded that the cinara and the carduus were the same plant; and everything told us respecting both of them is thrown into one. Some even go further, and add what they find under a third or a fourth name. It is indeed true, that many natural objects have had several names, and the species may sometimes be rightly guessed; but conjecture ought never to be admitted unless the identity can be fully established; else one may form such a monstrous production as Horace has delineated, when he says,

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas, Undique collatis membris--

I wish commentators would follow the example of our naturalists, who consider a plant as a distinct species until it has been proved on sure grounds that it is nothing else than a variety of a plant already characterized. I should not therefore affirm that the cinara and the carduus are the same, were I not able to produce the following incontestable proofs in support of my assertion.

In the first place, the Latins, Palladius and Pliny, give us the same account of the carduus that Columella and the Greeks do of the cinara. The former lost its prickles through cultivation[603]; its flowers were also of a purple colour[604]; it was propagated by seed and by shoots; it required frequent watering; and it was remarked that it throve better when the earth was mixed with ashes. Had not the carduus and the cinara been the same, Palladius and Pliny would have mentioned the latter; for we cannot suppose that they otherwise would have omitted a plant that formed a dish so much esteemed and so well-known among their countrymen. The latter claims to himself the merit of having passed over no one that was held in estimation. In the second place, Virgil has translated the word cynaros in a part of Sophocles now lost, by carduus[605]; thirdly, Athenæus says expressly, that the cinara was by the Latins named cardus and carduus[606]; and, lastly, the old glossaries explain cinara by carduus, as we are told by Salmasius. On these grounds, therefore, I am of opinion that the cinara and the carduus were the same.

We are informed by Apicius[607] and Pliny[608] in what manner the carduus was dressed by the ancient cooks. The latter gives directions for pickling it in vinegar; but neither of them tells us what part of it was eaten. Lister thinks that Apicius speaks of the tops of the young shoots, which, as far as I know, are parts of the artichoke never eaten at present. It is, however, worthy of remark, that the tops (turiones) of certain kinds of the thistle family of plants, and among these the common burr[609], are in some countries dressed and eaten like asparagus. It is not improbable also that Pliny and Apicius may have meant the ribs of the leaves; though none of the ancients has taught us the art of binding up, covering with earth, and blanching the cinara or carduus. This, perhaps, was a new invention of the gardeners; and the cooks may have had other methods of rendering the ribs of the leaves tender and eatable. Had they meant the bottom of the calyx, they would not have omitted to give a circumstantial account of the preparation previous to its being pickled.

The Scolymus is by Pliny and Theophrastus reckoned to belong to the genus of the thistles. The former says, that, like most others of the same kind, the seeds were covered by a sort of wool (pappus). It had a high stem, surrounded with leaves, which were prickly, but which ceased to sting when the plant withered[610]. It flowered the whole summer through, and had often flowers and ripe seed at the same time; which is the case also with our artichoke plants. The calyx of the scolymus was not prickly[611]; the root was thick, black and sweet, and contained a milky juice. It was eaten both raw and cooked; and Theophrastus observes, as something very remarkable, that when the plant was in flower, or, as others explain the words, when it had finished blowing, it was most palatable. What renders this circumstance singular is, that most milky roots used for food lose their milk and become unfit to be eaten as soon as they have blown. This is the case with the goat’s beard, which is eatable only the first year.

The scolymus however is not the only plant which forms an exception; for the garden Scorzonera retains its milk, and continues eatable after it has bloomed, and as long as it has milk it may be used. According to Theophrastus and Pliny, the roots of the scolymus are eatable. On the other hand, Dioscorides says that the roots were not eaten, but the young leaves only: as he informs us, however, that they were dressed like asparagus, it would appear that he meant the young shoots[612]. Theophrastus expressly tells us, that, besides the roots, the flowers also were used as food; and he calls that which was eatable the pulpy part. We have, therefore, full proof that the ancients ate the tops of some plants in the same manner as we eat our artichokes.

It may however be asked, what kind of a plant was the scolymus? That it was different from the cinara is undoubtedly certain; for Dioscorides[613] expressly distinguishes them; nor was it the eatable carduus, for Pliny compares it with the carduus, and says that it was characterized from the latter by having roots fit to be eaten. Stapel is of opinion that the scolymus is our artichoke; but this seems to me improbable, for the leaves and roots of the latter are not sweet, but harsh and bitter, and the calyx is prickly, which was not the case in the scolymus of Theophrastus. Besides, I find nothing in the whole description of the scolymus or in the accounts given us by the ancients of the cinara and carduus, that can be applied to our artichoke alone, and not to any other plant. It may be here replied, that it would be very difficult to ascertain plants from the names of the ancients, were such strong proofs required, because they had not the art of separating the different genera correctly, and of assigning to each certain characterizing marks. This I allow; and for that reason it is impossible to elucidate properly the Greek and Latin names of plants; but, in my opinion, it is better to confess this impossibility, than to deceive oneself with distant probabilities. Let the genus be ascertained when one cannot ascertain the species; let the order to which the plant belongs be determined when one cannot determine the genus; or, at least, let the class be assigned when there is sufficient authority to do so. The cinara, carduus and scolymus were therefore species of the thistle, of which the roots and young shoots, and also the bottom of the calyx of the last, were eaten. Were I appointed or condemned to form a new Latin dictionary, I should explain the article Scolymus in the following manner:--Planta composita, capitata. Caulis longus, obsitus foliis spinosis. Radix carnosa, lactescens, nigra, dulcis, edulis. Calyx squamis inermibus, disco carnoso, ante efflorescentiam eduli. Semina papposa. Turiones edules. This description, short as it is, contains every thing that the ancients have said in order to characterize that plant. It can, indeed, be understood only by those who are acquainted with the terms of botany; but what follows will require no explanation or defining of botanical names.

Should it be said that the scolymus must be our artichoke because no other plant of the thistle kind is known the bottom of the calyx of which is eatable, I would in answer observe:--First, other species may have been known in ancient times, which perhaps have been disused and forgotten since the more pleasant and delicious artichoke became known. It is certain that many old plants have in this manner been banished from our gardens by the introduction of new ones. Thus have common alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) fallen into neglect since celery was made known by the Italians, about the end of the seventeenth century; and so at present has the cultivation of winter-cresses (Erysimum barbarea), bulbous-rooted chærophyllum (Chærophyllum bulbosum), rocket (Brassica eruca), and others, been abandoned since better vegetables have been obtained to supply their place. Secondly, it is certain that, even at present, the bottom of the calyx of some others of the thistle-kind, besides the genus of the artichoke, is eaten; such as the cotton-thistle (Onopordum acanthium), and the carline thistle (Carlina acaulis), without mentioning the sun-flowers which has been brought to us in modern times from South America.

Without engaging to examine all the hypotheses of commentators and ancient botanists on this subject, I shall take notice of one conjecture, which, upon mature consideration, appears to have some probability. Clusius[614] is of opinion that the plant called by the botanists of the seventeenth century Carduus chrysanthemus, and by those of the present age Scolymus hispanicus, the golden thistle, is the scolymus of Theophrastus; because its leaves, beset with white prickles, and its pulpy, sweet, milky roots are eaten, and excel in taste all roots whatever, even those of skirret; and because it was collected and sold in Spain, Italy, and Greece. But what has principally attracted my attention to this conjecture, is the account of Bellon[615], that this plant in Crete or Candia is called still by the Greeks there ascolymbros. This name seems to have arisen from scolymos; and besides Stapel[616] found in an old glossary the word ascolymbros. I am likewise convinced that, as Tournefort[617] has said, the botany of the ancients would be much illustrated and rendered more certain, were the names used by the modern Greeks known. It is certain that many old names have been preserved till the present time with little variation; but nevertheless I can as little admit the assertion of Clusius as that of Stapel; for Scolymus hispanicus has neither the bottom of the calyx pulpy, nor wool adhering to the seeds, like the scolymus of Theophrastus; and the young roots only can be eaten, because, like those of most plants of the genus of the thistle, they lose their milk when the flower is in bloom; lastly, the leaves retain their power of pricking, even after they have become withered.

The fourth name which, with any kind of probability, has been translated by the word artichoke is cactus. This plant, which, in the time of Theophrastus and Pliny, grew only in Sicily and not in Greece, had broad prickly leaves[618]; the flower was filled with a kind of wool, which, when eaten inadvertently, was pernicious[619]; the calyx was prickly: and, besides a long stem, it shot forth branches which crept along the ground[620], and which, when the outer rind had been peeled off, were eaten either fresh, or pickled in salt water[621]. The bottom of the calyx of this plant was likewise used, after it had been freed from its seeds and woolly substance[622]. It had a great resemblance to the pith of the palm-tree[623].

That the cactus was different from the scolymus we are expressly told by Theophrastus; and Pliny also distinguishes them both from each other and from the carduus. Athenæus[624] is the only author who says that the cactus and the cinara were the same; but he gives no other proof than a very simple etymology. It must therefore be admitted that the cactus was a species of the thistle kind entirely different from any of the former.

I think I have proved, therefore, that the Greeks and the Romans used the pulpy bottom of the calyx, and the most tender stalks and young shoots of some plants reckoned to belong to the thistle kind, in the same manner as we use artichokes and cardoons; and that the latter were unknown to them. It appears to me probable that the use of these plants, at least in Italy and Europe in general, was in the course of time laid aside and forgotten, and that the artichoke, when it was first brought to Italy from the Levant, was considered as a new species of food. It is undoubtedly certain that our artichoke was first known in that country in the fifteenth century. Hermolaus Barbarus, who died in 1494, relates that this plant was first seen at Venice in a garden in 1473, at which time it was very scarce[625]. About the year 1466, one of the family of Strozzi brought the first artichokes to Florence from Naples[626]. Politian, in a letter in which he describes the dishes he found at a grand entertainment in Italy in 1488, among these mentions artichokes[627]. They were introduced into France in the beginning of the sixteenth century[628]; and into England in the reign of Henry the Eighth[629].

Respecting the origin of the name various conjectures have been formed, none of which, in my opinion, are founded even on probability. Hermolaus Barbarus, Henry Stephen, Ruellius, Heresbach, and others think that artichoke or artichaut, as it is called by the French, and arciocco by the Italians, is derived from the Greek word coccalus, which signifies a fircone, with the Arabic article al prefixed, from which was formed alcocalon, and afterwards the name now used[630]. This etymology is contradicted by Salmasius[631], who denies that coccalus had ever that signification. He remarks also that artichokes were by the Arabs called harsaf, harxaf, or harchiaf; and he seems not disinclined to derive the name from these appellations[632]. Grotius, Bodæus, and some others, derive it from a Greek word[633], which occurs in Alexander Trallianus, and which is supposed to signify our plant; but that word is to be found in this author alone, and in him only once; so that the idea of these critics appears to me very improbable. Frisch affirms, in his dictionary, that our modern name is formed from carduus and scolymus united. Ihre[634] considers the first part of the name as the German word erde (the earth), because it is often pronounced erdschoke; but I rather think that the Germans changed the foreign word arti into the word erde, which was known to them, in the same manner as of tartuffolo we have made erdtoffeln[635]; besides, Ihre leaves the latter part unexplained[636]. In the seventeenth century the plant was often called Welsch distel (Italian thistle), because the seeds were procured from Italy, and also Strobeldorn, a word undoubtedly derived from strobilus.

Were the original country of the artichoke really known, the etymology of the name, perhaps, might be easily explained. Linnæus says that it grew wild in Narbonne, Italy, and Sicily, and the cardoons in Crete; but, in my opinion, the information respecting the latter has been taken only from the above-quoted passage of Bellon, which is improperly supposed to allude to the artichoke. As far as I know, it was not found upon that island either by Tournefort or any other traveller. Garidel, however, mentions the artichoke under the name given it by Bauhin, cinara sylvestris latifolia, among the plants growing wild in Provence; but later authors assure us that they sought for it there in vain[637]. I shall here remark that the artichoke is certainly known in Persia; but Tavernier says expressly that it was carried thither, like asparagus, and other European vegetables of the kitchen-garden, by the Carmelite and other monks; and that it was only in later times that it became common[638].

FOOTNOTES

[596] See Stapel, über die Pflanzen des Theophrast. p. 618. Salmasius ad Solinum, p. 159. Casauboni Animadv. in Athen. Lugd. 1621, fol. p. 146. Bauhini Hist. Plant. iii. p. 48.Return to passage

[597] Colum. lib. x. ver. 235.Return to passage

[598] Lud. Nonnii Diæteticon. Antv. 1646, 4to, p. 56.Return to passage

[599] It was said, that if the corners of the seeds were bruised, no prickles would be produced. See Geopon. lib. xii. cap. 39. [It is a well-known physiological fact in botany, that many plants which are naturally spinous, when cultivated in gardens or rich soil, become unarmed. The production of spines seems to arise from an imperfect development of the growing point of a plant; when this development is increased by the greater supply of nutriment, the spines disappear, their places being supplied by a branch having leaves. We have instances of this in the apple, pear, &c., which are naturally spinous.]Return to passage

[600] Geopon. l. c. Columella, xi. cap. 3.Return to passage

[601] Geopon. 925, where repeated watering is directed; it is said you will then have tenderer fruit, and in more abundance.Return to passage

[602] Virgil. Geor. i. 150. Plin. xviii. cap. 17.Return to passage

[603] Palladius, iv. 9, p. 934, and lib. xi. Octob. p. 987. In the first-mentioned place he gives the same direction for preventing prickles, as that quoted respecting the cinara.Return to passage

[604] Pliny, lib. xx. says, “The wind easily carries away the withered flowers on account of their woolly nature.”Return to passage

[605] Κύναρος ἄκανθα πάντα πληθύει γύην.--Sophocles, in Phœnice.Return to passage

... Segnisque horreret in arvis Carduus...--Virgil. Georg. i. 50.

[606] Athen. Deipnos. at the end of the second book, p. 70. Salmasius, in his Remarks on Solinus, p. 159, is of opinion that Athenæus wrote κάρδον, not κάρδυον; and the Latins not carduus, but cardus.Return to passage

[607] Lib. iii. cap. 19.Return to passage

[608] Lib. xix. cap. 8.Return to passage

[609] Arctium Lappa, an indigenous weed, difficult to be rooted out. Elsholz, in his Gartenbau, speaking of the Spanish cardoons, says, “The strong stem of the large burr, Arctium Lappa, may be dressed in the same manner, and is not much different in taste.” See also Thomas Moufet’s Health’s Improvement. Lond. 1746, 8vo, p. 217.Return to passage

[610] Plin. lib. xxi. cap. 16.Return to passage

[611] Theophrastus: “Conceptus non spinosus, sed oblongus.” But Dioscorides says, “Capitulum spinosum.” This contradiction, and other small variations, have induced some to consider the scolymus of Theophrastus and that of Dioscorides as two different plants.Return to passage

[612] Dioscor. iii. 16.Return to passage

[613] Dioscor. lib. iii. cap. 10, where he says of a plant that its leaves were like those of the Scolymus, and its stem like that of the Cinara.Return to passage

[614] Rariorum Plantarum Historiæ, lib. iv. p. 153.Return to passage

[615] “In Crete there is a kind of prickly plant, which in the common Greek idiom is generally called ascolimbros. The ancient Latins called it also by a Greek name, glycyrrhizon, though different from glycyrrhiza (liquorice). It grows everywhere spontaneously, has a yellow flower, and abounds with a milky juice. The roots and leaves are usually eaten before it shoots up into a stem. We saw it exposed for sale with other herbs in the market-place of Ravenna, and at Ancona, where the women who were digging it up, gave it the name of riuci. We saw it gathered also in the Campagna di Roma, where the inhabitants called it spinaborda. This is the plant which by the modern Greeks is named ascolimbros.”--Bellonii Observationes, lib. i. cap. 18. “In Crete it is called ascolymbros, and in Lemnos scombrouolo, that is scombri carduus. This thistle abounds with a milky juice, like succory, has a yellow flower, and is excellent eating; so that I know no root cultivated in gardens which can be compared to it in taste, the parsnip not even excepted.”Return to passage

[616] Theophrast. Hist. Plant. p. 620. The figure which Stapel gives, p. 621, is not of the Scolymus hispanicus, but of Scolymus maculatus. It is taken from Clusius, who has also a figure of the former.Return to passage

[617] “I considered the heads of these poor Greeks as so many living inscriptions, which preserve to us the names mentioned by Dioscorides and Theophrastus. Though liable to different variations, they will, doubtless, be more lasting than the hardest marble, because they are every day renewed, whereas marble is effaced or destroyed. Inscriptions of this kind will preserve, therefore, to future ages the names of several plants known to those skilful Greeks who lived in happier and more learned times.”--Voyage du Levant, i. p. 34. Compare with the above what Haller says in his Biblioth. Botan. i. p. 28.Return to passage

[618] Plin. lib. xxi. cap. 16. See Theophrast. lib. vi. cap. 4. Theoocritus, Idyll. x. 4, mentions a lamb wounded in the foot by a cactus. Tertullian names this plant among prickly weeds, together with the rubus, in the end of the second chapter of that unintelligible book De Pallio. De la Cerda, in his excellent edition of Opera Tertulliani, Lutetiæ Paris. 1624, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 13, reads carecto instead of cacto; but Salmasius, in his edition of that work, p. 172, has sufficiently vindicated the latter.Return to passage

[619] Dioscorid. Alexipharm. cap. 33.Return to passage

[620] Theoph. p. 613.Return to passage

[621] The creeping branches were in particular called cacti, the upright stem pternix.Return to passage

[622] Theophrastus calls the bottom of the calyx περικάρπιον, a word which is still retained in botany. But he also says that the same part of the cactus was called also σκαλία; from which is derived the ascalia of Pliny. Galen calls it σπόνδυλον.Return to passage

[623] Theoph. This term is explained by Pliny, lib. xiii. c. 4:--“Dulcis medulla palmarum in cacumine, quod cerebrum appellant.”Return to passage

[624] Athen. Deipnos. at the end of the second book, p. 70. He gives everything to be found in Theophrastus; but either the author or some of his transcribers have so confused what he says, that it is almost unintelligible.Return to passage

[625] Herm. Barbar. ad Dioscor. iii. 15.Return to passage

[626] Manni de Florentinis inventis commentarium, p. 34.Return to passage

[627] Politiani Opera. Lugd. 1533, 8vo, p. 444.Return to passage

[628] Ruellius De Natura Stirpium. Bas. 1543, fol. p. 485.Return to passage

[629] Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164. Biographia Britannica, vol. iv. p. 2462; and Anderson’s History of Commerce.Return to passage

[630] Herm. Barbarus, in his Observations on Dioscorides.Return to passage

[631] Salmas. ad Solin. p. 160.Return to passage

[632] It is remarked in Golius’s Dictionary, p. 597, that this word signifies also the scales of a fish, and the strong scales of the calyx of the plant may have given rise to the name.Return to passage

[633] The Greek word is αρτυτική.Return to passage

[634] Glossarium Suiogothicum, i. p. 411.Return to passage

[635] Potatoes.Return to passage

[636] A variety of derivations may be found in Menage’s Dictionnaire Etymologique.Return to passage

[637] See Rozier, Cours Complet d’Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 14.Return to passage

[638] See his Travels. Geneva, 1681, fol. p. 164.Return to passage

SAW-MILLS

In early periods, the trunks of trees were split with wedges into as many and as thin pieces as possible[639]; and if it was necessary to have them still thinner, they were hewn on both sides to the proper size. This simple and wasteful manner of making boards has been still continued to the present time. Peter the Great of Russia endeavoured to put a stop to it by forbidding hewn deals to be transported on the river Neva. The saw, however, though so convenient and beneficial, has not been able to banish entirely the practice of splitting timber used in building, or in making furniture and utensils, for I do not speak here of fire-wood; and, indeed, it must be allowed that this method is attended with peculiar advantages, which that of sawing can never possess. The wood-splitters perform their work more expeditiously than sawyers, and split timber is much stronger than that which has been sawn; for the fissure follows the grain of the wood, and leaves it whole; whereas the saw, which proceeds in the line chalked out for it, divides the fibres, and by these means lessens its cohesion and solidity. Split timber, indeed, turns out often crooked and warped; but in many purposes to which it is applied this is not prejudicial; and such faults may sometimes be amended. As the fibres, however, retain their natural length and direction, thin boards, particularly, can be bent much better. This is a great advantage in making pipe-staves, or sieve-frames, which require still more art, and in forming various implements of the like kind.

Our common saw, which needs only to be guided by the hand of the workman, however simple it may be, was not known to the inhabitants of America when they were subdued by the Europeans[640]. The inventor of this instrument has by the Greeks been inserted in their mythology, with a place in which, among their gods, they honoured the greatest benefactors of the earliest ages. By some he is called Talus, and by others Perdix. Pliny[641] alone ascribes the invention to Dædalus; but Hardouin, in the passage where he does so, chooses to read Talus rather than Dædalus. In my opinion, Pliny may have committed an error as well as any of the moderns; and as one writer at present misleads another, Seneca[642], who gives the same inventor, may have fallen into a mistake by copying Pliny. Diodorus Siculus[643], Apollodorus[644], and others name the inventor Talus. He was the son of Dædalus’s sister; and was by his mother placed under the tuition of her brother, to be instructed in his art. Having once found the jaw-bone of a snake, he employed it to cut through a small piece of wood; and by these means was induced to form a like instrument of iron, that is, to make a saw. This invention, which greatly facilitates labour, excited the envy of his master, and instigated him to put Talus to death privately. We are told, that being asked by some one, when he was burying the body, what he was depositing in the earth, he replied, a serpent. This suspicious answer discovered the murder; and thus, adds the historian, a snake was the cause of the invention, of the murder, and of its being found out[645].

Hyginus[646], Servius[647], Fulgentius[648], Lactantius Placidus[649], Isidorus[650], and others call the inventor Perdix. That he was the son of a sister of Dædalus they all agree; but they differ respecting the name of his parents. The mother, by Fulgentius, is called Polycastes, but without any proof; and Lactantius gives to the father the name of Calaus. In Apollodorus, however, the mother of Talus is called Perdix; and the same name is given by Tzetzes to the mother of the inventor, whose name Talus he changes into Attalus[651]. Perdix, we are told, did not employ for a saw the jaw-bone of a snake, like Talus, but the back-bone of a fish; and this is confirmed by Ovid[652], who nevertheless is silent respecting the name of the inventor.

What may be meant by spina piscis it is perhaps difficult to conjecture; but I can by no means make spina dorsi of it, as Dion. Salvagnius has done, in his observations on the passage quoted from Ovid’s Ibis. The small bony processes which project from the spine of a fish have some similitude to a saw; but it would be hardly possible to saw through with them small pieces of wood. These bones are too long, as well as too far distant from each other; and the joints of the back-bone are liable to be dislocated by the smallest force. I am not acquainted with the spine of any fish which would be sufficiently strong for that purpose. The jaw-bone of a fish furnished with teeth would be more proper; but the words spina in medio pisce prevent us from adopting that alteration. I should be inclined rather to explain this difficulty by the bone which projects from the snout of the saw-fish, called by the Romans serra, and by the Greeks pristis. That bone, indeed, might not be altogether unfit for such a use: the teeth are strongly united to the broad bone in the middle, and are capable of resisting a great force; but they are placed at rather too great a distance. The old inhabitants of Madeira, however, we are told, really used this bone instead of a saw[653]. That Talus found the jaw-bone of a snake with teeth like a saw is extremely probable, for there are many snakes which have teeth of that kind.

The saws of the Grecian carpenters had the same form, and were made in the like ingenious manner as ours are at present. This is fully shown by a painting still preserved among the antiquities of Herculaneum[654]. Two genii are represented at the end of a bench, which consists of a long table that rests upon two four-footed stools. The piece of wood which is to be sawn through is secured by cramps. The saw with which the genii are at work has a perfect resemblance to our frame-saw. It consists of a square frame, having in the middle a blade, the teeth of which stand perpendicular to the plane of the frame. The piece of wood which is to be sawn extends beyond the end of the bench, and one of the workmen appears standing and the other sitting on the ground. The arms, in which the blade is fastened, have the same form as that given to them at present. In the bench are seen holes, in which the cramps that hold the timber are stuck. They are shaped like the figure seven; and the ends of them reach below the boards that form the top of it. The French call a cramp of this kind un valet[655].

Montfaucon[656] also has given the representation of two ancient saws taken from Gruter. One of them seems to be only the blade of a saw without any frame; but the other figure I consider as a cross-cut saw; and I think I can distinguish all the parts, though it is imperfectly delineated. One may however perceive both the handles between which the blade is fastened; the wooden bar that binds them together, though the blade is delineated too near it; and about the middle of this bar, the piece of wood that tightens the cord which keeps the handles as well as the whole instrument firm. Saws which were not placed in a frame, but fastened to a handle, are thus described by Palladius[657]:--“Serrulæ manubriatæ minores majoresque ad mensuram cubiti, quibus facile est, quod per serram fieri non potest, resecando trunco arboris, aut vitis interseri.”

The most beneficial and ingenious improvement of this instrument was, without doubt, the invention of saw-mills, which are driven either by water, wind, [or by steam]. Mills of the first kind were erected so early as the fourth century, in Germany, on the small river Roer or Ruer[658]; for though Ausonius speaks properly of water-mills for cutting stone, and not timber, it cannot be doubted that these were invented later than mills for manufacturing deals, or that both kinds were erected at the same time. The art however of cutting marble with a saw is very old. Pliny[659] conjectures that it was invented in Caria; at least he knew no building incrusted with marble of greater antiquity than the palace of king Mausolus, at Halicarnassus. This edifice is celebrated by Vitruvius[660], for the beauty of its marble; and Pliny gives an account of the different kinds of sand used for cutting it; for it is the sand properly, says he, and not the saw, which produces that effect. The latter presses down the former, and rubs it against the marble; and the coarser the sand is, the longer will be the time required to polish the marble which has been cut by it. Stones of the soap-rock kind, which are indeed softer than marble, and which would require less force than wood, were sawn at that period[661]: but it appears that the far harder glassy kinds of stone were sawn then also; for we are told of the discovery of a building which was encrusted with cut agate, cornelian, lapis lazuli, and amethysts[662]. I have, however, found no account in any of the Greek or Roman writers of a mill for sawing wood; and as the writers of modern times speak of saw-mills as new and uncommon, it would seem that the oldest construction of them has been forgotten, or that some important improvement has made them appear entirely new.

Becher says, with his usual confidence, that saw-mills were invented in the seventeenth century[663]. Though this is certainly false, I did not expect to find that there were saw-mills in the neighbourhood of Augsburg so early as the year 1337, as Stetten[664] has discovered by the town-books of that place. I shall here insert his own words, in answer to a request I made that he would be so kind as to communicate to me all the information he knew on that subject:--“You are desirous of reading that passage in our town-books, where saw-mills are first mentioned; but it is of very little importance. There is to be found only under the year 1338 the name of a burgher called Giss Saegemuller; and though it may be objected that one cannot from the name infer the existence of the employment, I am of a different opinion; especially as I have lately been able to obtain a proof much more to be depended on. In the surveyors’ book, which I have often before quoted, and which, perhaps, for many centuries has not been seen or consulted by any one, I find under the year 1322, and several times afterwards, sums disbursed under the following title: Molitori dicto Hanrey pro asseribus et swaertlingis. Schwartlings, among us, are the outside deals of the trunk, which in other places are called Schwarten. This word, therefore, makes the existence of a saw-mill pretty certain. As a confirmation of this idea, we have still a mill of that kind which is at present called the Hanrey-mill; and the stream which supplies it with water is called the Hanrey-brook. Since the earliest ages, the ground on which this mill, and the colour, stamping, and oil-mills in the neighbourhood are built, was the property of the hospital of the Holy Ghost. By that hospital it was given as a life-rent to a rich burgher named Erlinger, but returned again in 1417 by his daughter Anna Bittingerin, who had, above and under the Hanrey-mill, two other saw-mills, which still exist, and for which, in virtue of an order of council of that year, she entered into a contract with the hospital in regard to the water and mill-dams.” There were saw-mills, therefore, at Augsburg so early as 1322. This appears to be highly probable also from the circumstance, that such mills occur very often in the following century in many other countries.

When the Infant Henry sent settlers to the island of Madeira, which was discovered in 1420, and caused European fruits of every kind to be carried thither, he ordered saw-mills to be erected also, for the purpose of sawing into deals the various species of excellent timber with which the island abounded, and which were afterwards transported to Portugal[665]. About the year 1427 the city of Breslau had a saw-mill which produced a yearly rent of three marks; and in 1490 the magistrates of Erfurt purchased a forest, in which they caused a saw-mill to be erected, and they rented another mill in the neighbourhood besides. Norway, which is covered with forests, had the first saw-mill about the year 1530. This mode of manufacturing timber was called the new art; and because the exportation of deals was by these means increased, that circumstance gave occasion to the deal-tythe, introduced by Christian III. in the year 1545[666]. Soon after the celebrated Henry Ranzau caused the first mill of this kind to be built in Holstein[667]. In 1552 there was a saw-mill at Joachimsthal, which, as we are told, belonged to Jacob Geusen, mathematician. In the year 1555 the bishop of Ely, ambassador from Mary queen of England to the court of Rome, having seen a saw-mill in the neighbourhood of Lyons, the writer of his travels thought it worthy of a particular description[668]. In the sixteenth century, however, there were mills with different saw-blades, by which a plank could be cut into several deals at the same time. Pighius saw one of these, in 1575, on the Danube, near Ratisbon, when he accompanied Charles, prince of Juliers and Cleves, on his travels[669]. It may here be asked whether the Dutch had such mills first, as is commonly believed[670]. The first saw-mill was erected in Holland at Saardam, in the year 1596; and the invention of it is ascribed to Cornelis Cornelissen[671]; but he is as little the inventor as the mathematician of Joachimsthal. Perhaps he was the first person who built a saw-mill at that place, which is a village of great trade, and has still a great many saw-mills, though the number of them is becoming daily less; for within the last thirty years a hundred have been given up[672]. The first mill of this kind in Sweden was erected in the year 1653[673]. At present, that kingdom possesses the largest perhaps ever constructed in Europe, where a water-wheel, twelve feet broad, drives at the same time seventy-two saws.

In England saw-mills had at first the same fate that printing had in Turkey, the ribbon-loom in the dominions of the Church, and the crane at Strasburgh. When attempts were made to introduce them they were violently opposed, because it was apprehended that the sawyers would be deprived by them of their means of getting a subsistence. For this reason it was found necessary to abandon a saw-mill erected by a Dutchman near London[674], in 1663; and in the year 1700, when one Houghton laid before the nation the advantages of such a mill, he expressed his apprehension that it might excite the rage of the populace[675]. What he dreaded was actually the case in 1767 or 1768, when an opulent timber-merchant, by the desire and approbation of the Society of Arts, caused a saw-mill, driven by wind, to be erected at Limehouse under the direction of James Stansfield, who had learned, in Holland and Norway, the art of constructing and managing machines of that kind. A mob assembled and pulled the mill to pieces; but the damage was made good by the nation, and some of the rioters were punished. A new mill was afterwards erected, which was suffered to work without molestation, and which gave occasion to the erection of others[676]. It appears, however, that this was not the only mill of the kind then in Britain; for one driven also by wind had been built at Leith, in Scotland, some years before[677].

[The application of the steam-engine has in modern times almost entirely displaced the use of either water or wind as sources of power in machinery, and most of the saw-mills now in action, especially those on a large scale, are worked by steam. Some idea of the precision with which their operations are now accomplished may be obtained from the following fact. At the City of London saw-mills, the largest log of wood which had been placed on the carriage in one piece--a log of Honduras mahogany 18 feet long and three feet one inch square,--was cut into unbroken sheets at the rate of ten to an inch, and so beautifully smooth as to require scarcely any dressing.]

FOOTNOTES

[639] Virgil. Georg. lib. i. v. 144. Pontoppidan says, “Before the middle of the sixteenth century all trunks were hewn and split with the axe into two planks; whereas at present they would give seven or eight boards. This is still done in some places where there are no saw-mills in the neighbourhood; especially at Sudenoer and Amte Nordland, where a great many boats and sloops are built of such hewn boards, which are twice as strong as those sawn; but they consume too many trunks.” See Natürliche Historie von Norwegen. Copenhagen, 1753, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 244.Return to passage

[640] De Garcilasso de la Vega, Histoire des Incas.Return to passage

[641] Lib. vii. 1. cap. 56.Return to passage

[642] Epist. 90.Return to passage

[643] Diodor. Sicul. iv. cap. 78.Return to passage

[644] Apollodori Bibl. lib. iii. cap. 16.Return to passage

[645] Those who are desirous of seeing the whole account may consult Diodorus, or Banier’s Mythology, [or Keightley’s Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, p. 398, Lond. 1838.]Return to passage

[646] Hygin. Fab. 39, 244, 274.Return to passage

[647] Ad Georg. i. 143.Return to passage

[648] Mythographi, ed. Van Staveren, lib. iii. 2, p. 708.Return to passage

[649] In Mythogr. et in Ovid. Burm. lib. viii. fab. 3.Return to passage

[650] Orig. lib. xix. cap. 19.Return to passage

[651] Chiliad. i. 493.Return to passage

[652] Metamorph. lib. viii. 244. The following line from the Ibis, ver. 500, alludes to the same circumstance:Return to passage

“Ut cui causa necis serra reperta fuit.”

[653] See Cadomosto’s Voyage to Africa, in Novi Orbis Navigat. cap. 6. This account is not so ridiculous as that of Olaus Magnus, who says that the saw-fish can with his snout bore through a ship. [There are however many well-authenticated instances of the planks of ships being perforated by the upper jaw of this powerful animal, which it has been supposed occasionally attacks the hulls of vessels in mistake for the whale.]Return to passage

[654] Le Pitture antiche d’Ercolano, vol. i. tav. 34.Return to passage

[655] That cramps or hold-fasts are still formed in the same manner as those seen in the ancient painting found at Herculaneum, particularly when fine inlaid works are made, is proved by the figure in Roubo, l’Art du Menuisier, tab. xi. fig. 4, and xii. fig. 15.Return to passage

[656] L’Antiquité Expliquée, vol. iii. pl. 189.Return to passage

[657] Pallad. De Re Rust. lib. i. tit. 43.--Cicero, in his oration for Cluentius, chap. lxiv., speaks of an ingenious saw, with which a thief sawed out the bottom of a chest.Return to passage

[658] Ausonii Mosella, v. 361.Return to passage

[659] Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 6.Return to passage

[660] Vitruv. lib. ii. cap. 8.Return to passage

[661] Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 22.Return to passage

[662] See Jannon de S. Laurent’s treatise on the cut stones of the ancients, in Saggi di Dissertazioni nella Acad. Etrusca di Cortona, tom. vi. p. 56.Return to passage

[663] “Saw-mills are useful machines, first introduced in this century; and I do not know any one who can properly be called the real inventor.”--Närrische Weisheit. Frankf. 1683, 12mo, p. 78.Return to passage

[664] In that excellent work, Kunst-und-handwerks Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, 1779, 8vo, p. 141.Return to passage

[665] This we are told by Abraham Peritsol, the Jew, in Itinera Mundi, printed with the learned annotations of Thomas Hyde, in Ugolini Thesaur. Antiq. Sacr. vol. vii. p. 103. Peritsol wrote before the year 1547.Return to passage

[666] Nic. Cragii Historia regis Christiani III. Hafniæ 1737, fol. p. 293. See also Pontoppidan’s History of Norway.Return to passage

[667] Allgemeine Welthistorie, xxxiii. p. 227.Return to passage

[668] The account of this journey may be found in Hardwicke’s Miscellaneous State Papers, from 1501 to 1726, i. p. 71:--“The saw-mill is driven with an upright wheel; and the water that maketh it go, is gathered whole into a narrow trough, which delivereth the same water to the wheels. This wheel hath a piece of timber put to the axle-tree end, like the handle of a broch, and fastened to the end of the saw, which being turned with the force of the water, hoisteth up and down the saw, that it continually eateth in, and the handle of the same is kept in a rigall of wood from swerving. Also the timber lieth as it were upon a ladder, which is brought by little and little to the saw with another vice.”Return to passage

[669] Hercules Prodicus. Coloniæ 1609, 8vo, p. 95.Return to passage

[670] Leupoldi Theatrum Machinarum Molarium. Leipzig, 1735, fol. p. 114. I shall here take occasion to remark, that in the sixteenth century there were boring-mills driven by water. Felix Fabri, in his Historia Suevorum, p. 81, says that there were such mills at Ulm.Return to passage

[671] De Koophandel van Amsterdam. Amst. 1727, ii. p. 583.Return to passage

[672] La Richesse de la Hollande. Lond. 1778, 4to, i. p. 259.Return to passage

[673] Clason, Sweriges Handel Omskiften 1751.Return to passage

[674] Anderson’s History of Commerce.Return to passage

[675] Houghton’s Husbandry and Trade Improved, Lond. 1727, iii. p. 47.Return to passage

[676] Memoirs of Agriculture and other Œconomical Arts, by Robert Dossie. Lond. 1768, 8vo, i. p. 123. Of Stansfield’s mill, on which he made some improvements, a description and figure may be seen in Bailey’s Advancement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Lond. 1772, i. p. 231.Return to passage

[677] Anderson ut supra.Return to passage

STAMPED PAPER

Paper stamped with a certain mark by Government, and which in many countries must be used for all judicial acts, public deeds, and private contracts, in order to give them validity, is one of those numerous modes of taxation invented after the other means of raising money for the service of states, or rather of their rulers, became exhausted. It is not of great antiquity; for before the invention of our paper it would not have been a very productive source of finance. When parchment and other substances employed for writing on were dear, when greater simplicity of manners produced more honesty and more confidence among mankind, and when tallies supplied the place of notes, bonds, and receipts, writings of that kind were very little in use.

De Basville, however, in his Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Languedoc, affirms that stamped paper was introduced so early as the year 537, by the emperor Justinian. This book, written by the author, intendant of that province in 1697, for the use of the duke of Burgundy, was printed, in octavo, at Marseilles in 1734, and not at Amsterdam, as announced in the title; but it was carefully suppressed by the Government, and on that account is very scarce even in France[678]. I have never seen it; but I know the author’s ideas respecting stamped paper, from an extract in Variétés Historiques, Physiques, et Littéraires, printed at Paris in the year 1752[679]. The author of this work supports the opinion of his countryman: but it is undoubtedly false; for the law quoted as a proof requires only that documents should be written on such paper as had marked at the top (which was called the protocoll) the name of the intendant of the finances, and the time when the paper was made; and this regulation was established merely with a view to prevent the forging and altering of acts or deeds[680]. A kind of stamped paper therefore was brought into use, though different from what we have at present, the principal intention of which is not to render writings more secure, but by imposing a certain duty on the stamps, proportioned to the importance of the purpose it is employed for, to make a considerable addition to the public revenue[681]. The stamps serve as a receipt to show that the tax has been paid; and, though many law papers must be stamped, that burthen has tended as little to prevent law-suits as the stamping of cards has to lessen gaming: though some think differently. In both too much is risked and too much expected for taxes to deter mankind from engaging in either.

If in this historical research we look only to the antiquity of stamping, we shall find that both the Greeks and the Romans had soldiers marked in that manner; and, if we may be allowed to bring together things so different, we might include under the like head those runaway slaves who were marked by being branded; but I allude here only to the stamped paper now in use, which was certainly invented in Holland, a country where every necessary of life is subjected to taxation. The States of the United Provinces having promised a reward to any one who should invent a new impost, that might at the same time bear light on the people and be productive to the government, some person proposed that of bezegelde brieven, or stamped paper, which was approved; and which Boxhorn, to whom we are indebted for this information, considers as a very proper tax. He is of opinion also that it might with great advantage be adopted in other countries[682]; and this was really the case soon after his death, which happened in 1653.

Stamped paper was introduced in Holland on the 13th of August, 1624, by an ordinance which represented the necessity and great benefit of this new tax. Among other things advanced in its favour, it was said that it would tend to lessen law-suits, and, on that account, would soon recommend itself to neighbouring nations. What we are told therefore by the author of an extract in Variétés Historiques, before-quoted, that stamped paper began to be used in Holland and Spain so early as the year 1555, is certainly false. The Spaniards may, indeed, have been the first people who followed the example of the Dutch; for the author above mentioned asserts, that he saw an act, executed by a notary at Brussels, in 1668, which was written on stamped paper.

This tax was introduced in the electorate of Saxony by an ordinance of the 22nd of March 1682; and into that of Brandenburg on the 15th of July, in the same year. Bartholdus however says, but without producing any proof[683], that stamped paper was used before that period in Denmark, Florence, and Silesia. In Hanover it was first introduced, as I think, on the 20th of February, 1709.

[The stamp-tax was first introduced into this country in the reign of William and Mary, in 1693 (5 W. & M. c. 21). This act imposes stamps upon grants from the crown, diplomas, contracts, probates of wills and letters of administration, and upon all writs, proceedings, and records in courts of law and equity; it does not however seem to impose stamps upon deeds, unless these are enrolled at Westminster or other courts of record. Two years afterwards, conveyances, deeds and leases, were subjected to the stamp duty, and by a series of acts in the succeeding reigns, every instrument recording a transaction between two individuals was subjected to a stamp duty before it could be used in a court of justice. These laws have been variously altered in later times, but it is beyond our province to trace them further.]

FOOTNOTES

[678] An account of this book may be found in Anecdotes secr. sur divers sujets de littérat. 1734, p. 573, and in the preface to Etat de la France, de M. de Boulainvilliers, fol. p. 12.Return to passage

[679] Inserted in the Encyclopédie, vol. xi. p. 862.Return to passage

[680] Novell. coll. iv. tit. 23. cap. 2. nov. 44.Return to passage

[681] Such is the idea of Stryk in Continuat. altera usus moderni pandectarum, lib. xxii. tit. 4. p. 856.Return to passage

[682] “The States of Holland having laid sufficiently heavy duties on merchandise of every kind, and these not being equal to the expenditure, which was daily increasing, began to think of imposing new ones. For that purpose they issued an edict, inviting the ingenious to turn their thoughts towards that subject, and offering a very ample reward to whoever should invent a new tax, that might be as little burdensome as possible, and yet productive to the republic. Some shrewd, deep-thinking person, at length devised one on stamped paper (called de impost van bezegelde brieven), to be paid for all paper impressed with the seal of the States. The inventor proposed, that it should be enacted by public authority, that no petitions from the states, or from the magistrates of any city or district, or any public bodies, should be received; that no documents should be admitted in courts of justice; that no receipts should be legal, and that no acts signed by notaries, secretaries, or other persons in office, and, in short, no contracts should be valid, except such as were written upon paper to which the seal of the States had been affixed, in the manner above-mentioned. It was proposed, also, that this paper should be sold by the clerks of the different towns and courts at the following rate; paper impressed with the great seal of the States for sixpence, and that with the less seal for twopence per sheet: for according to the importance of the business it was necessary that the great or less seal should be used. The States approved this plan, and it was immediately put in execution.”--Boxhornii Disquisitiones Politic. casus 59. In this collection there is also Boxhornii Reip. Bataviæ Brevis et Accurata Descriptio, in the eighth chapter of which the author gives the following account of the origin of stamped paper:--“A very ingenious method has lately been invented of raising large sums of money for the use of the republic. As there are many rich people who have entrusted a considerable share of their property to the public treasury, the interest of which they receive annually on giving receipts; as many law-suits are carried on which are generally entered into by the wealthy, and which cannot be brought to a conclusion until a variety of instruments, as they are called, have been executed on each side; and as, on account of the flourishing state of trade, many contracts are made, which, for the sake of security, must be mutually signed, the States thought proper to enact by a public edict, that no receipts, law-papers, contracts, or instruments of the like kind, should be legal or valid, unless written on paper impressed with the great or small seal of the States. A price was also fixed on the paper, to be paid by those who had occasion for it; so that a sheet which before could be purchased for a half-penny, was raised to several pence; and it is incredible how great a revenue these sheets bring to the public, by so many of them being used. The poor, however, and those of small fortune, feel little of this burden, as the rich principally are concerned in the transactions above-mentioned.”Return to passage

[683] Fr. Jac. Bartholdi Diss. de Charta Signata; resp. P. Kolhart, Franc. 1690, cap. 2, § 16, p. 36.Return to passage

INSURANCE

Insurance, that excellent establishment by which losses that would entirely ruin a merchant, being divided among a company, are rendered supportable, and almost imperceptible; by which undertakings too great for one person are easily accomplished, and by which commodities brought from the most distant regions are made cheaper[684], appears not to have been known to the Romans, however near they may have come to the invention of it. If we examine closely the information from which some endeavour to prove the contrary, it will be found that it is far from sufficient to support their opinion.

Puffendorf[685], Barbeyrac[686], Loccenius[687], Kulpis[688], and others, ground their assertions on a passage of Livy[689], who says, that when the Roman army in Spain was distressed for provisions, clothing and other necessaries, a company engaged to convey to them everything they stood in need of, under the stipulation that the State should make good their loss, in case their vessels should be shipwrecked by storms, or be taken by the enemy; and we are told that these terms were agreed to. This was undoubtedly a promise of indemnification, but by no means an insurance, in which it is always necessary that a premium should be given. On occasions of this kind, however, acts of fraud were practised, like those committed at present, to the prejudice of insurers. Shipwrecks were pretended to have happened which never took place; and old shattered vessels, freighted with articles of little value, were purposely sunk, and the crew saved in boats; and large sums were then demanded as a reimbursement for the loss[690].

Little more is proved by a passage of Suetonius[691], which Kulpis and others consider as affording an instance of insurance. That author tells us, that the emperor Claudius promised to indemnify merchants for their losses, if their ships should perish by storms at sea. This passage Anderson must not have read; else he would not have said that Suetonius ascribed the invention of insurance to Claudius.

In Simon’s edition of Grotius, a passage is quoted from Cicero’s epistles[692] as an instance of insurance among the Romans, which seems to be more probable. Cicero says he hopes to find at Laodicea security, by means of which he can remit the money of the republic, without being exposed to any danger on its passage. The word prædes may here signify insurers; but, in my opinion, this quotation ought rather to be classed among those which have been collected by Ayrer, as the first traces of bills of exchange[693].

Those remains of the ancient laws which, according to Kulpis and others, allude to insurance, concern bottomry (fœnus nauticum) only; and that this is much older than insurance has been already fully proved by Stypman[694].

Malynes[695], Anderson, and others affirm, that insurance is mentioned in the marine laws of the Isle of Oleron. This island, which lies opposite to the mouth of the Charente, on the coast of France, was much celebrated in the eleventh, twelfth, and following centuries on account of its trade. It belonged then to the duke of Aquitaine, and came to the crown of England by the marriage of Eleonora, daughter of the last duke, with Henry II. Under Eleonora were framed in the island those laws so well-known by the names Roole d’Oleron, Roole des Jugemens d’Oleron, that, like the laws of the Rhodians, they were used also by foreigners. These laws were afterwards enlarged and improved by Richard I., Eleonora’s son; at least we are assured so by the French historians: but the English ascribe them to Richard alone. In order to determine the period when they were framed, I shall only observe that Eleonora died in the year 1202, and Richard in 1199; and Anderson, therefore, not without probability, places the origin of them in the year 1194. A copy of these laws, printed at Rouen, is still preserved, in which it is said that they were first drawn up in 1266. This, however, the French and the English declare to be false[696]. They are written in French, that is, in the old Gascon dialect. I am acquainted with them from the following scarce book, the author of which, in the preface, calls himself Cleirac: Us et Coutumes de la Mer[697]; but I find no traces in them of insurance. Even Cleirac himself, who has given an excellent explanation of the laws of Oleron, seems not to have found any; for where he relates everything he knew respecting the history of it, he ascribes this invention, and also that of bills of exchange, to the Jews, who made use of it when they were expelled from France. According to Cleirac, insurance was long detested by the Christians, who at that time considered it as a sin to take interest; and the use of it, as well as of bills of exchange, was first made common by the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Of this pretended service of the Jews in regard to insurance, I know no proof.

The celebrated maritime laws of the city of Wisby, in the island of Gothland, whether of later date, as the French assert, or older, which is more probable, than those of Oleron, are equally silent with respect to insurance. These laws were not written originally in Swedish, as l’Estocq[698] says, but in the Low-German. The translation into High-German by Marquard[699] is incorrect, and the French one of Cleirac is too free and too much abridged. The Dutch translation published at Amsterdam is the completest[700].

Insurance was, undoubtedly, not known at the time when the later Hanseatic maritime laws were framed, else it would have been mentioned in them. Of these laws there are various editions. One of those most used is that by Kericke, which is inserted also in Heineccii Scriptorum de Jure Nautico et Maritimo Fasciculus. Cleirac has given a French translation of them.

As little respecting insurance is to be found in Il Consolato del Mare. These maritime laws, highly worthy of notice, were originally written in the Catalonian dialect; and it seems very probable that they were drawn up at Barcelona. A part of them appears to have been framed in the eleventh, but the greater part in the thirteenth century; for the book itself proves, in more than one place, that they are not all of the same antiquity. The most correct edition is that published at Leyden in 1704[701]. Those writers who have pretended that insurance is mentioned in these Catalonian maritime laws have, perhaps, been led into this error, because, in an appendix to some of the common editions, there is a short account of insurance as once practised at Barcelona. As I have never seen this small treatise, I do not know whether it contains anything respecting the history of it. The oldest laws and regulations concerning insurance, with which I am at present acquainted, are the following.

On the 28th of January 1523, five persons appointed for that purpose drew up at Florence some articles which are still employed on the exchange at Leghorn. These important regulations, together with the prescribed form of policies, which may be considered as the oldest[702], have been inserted, in Italian and German, by Magens, in his Treatise on Insurance, Average and Bottomry[703], published at Hamburgh in 1753. I should have been glad to have found in Italian authors some information respecting the antiquity of these regulations[704], a copy of which Magens says he procured from Leghorn; but I have hitherto sought for it in vain. Straccha however mentions a Florentine order of June the 15th, 1526, which forbids common insurance, unless the goods and commodities are specified[705].

There is still preserved a short regulation of the 25th May 1537, by the emperor Charles V., respecting bills of exchange and insurance, in which the strictly fulfilling only of an agreement of insurance is commanded.

In 1549 the same emperor issued an express order, “Op ’t faict van der zee-vaerdt,” in which occur some articles respecting insurance[706], and additions were afterwards made to it in 1561.

In the year 1556, Philip II., king of Spain, gave to the Spanish merchants certain regulations respecting insurance, which are inserted by Magens, with a German translation, in his work before mentioned. They contain some forms of policies on ships going to the Indies.

On the last of October 1563, Philip II. published his maritime laws, in which some forms of policies are given[707]; but on the last of March 1568 that prince forbade the practice of insurance, on account of the bad use to which it had been often applied. This prohibition I have not been able to find. I am acquainted with it only by an order of the 20th of January 1570, in which the king expressly recals it, because the merchants at Antwerp, both subjects and foreigners, had presented strong remonstrances against it[708].

In the year 1598, the Kamer von Assurantie, Chamber of Insurance, was established at Amsterdam. An account of the first regulations of this insurance-office may be seen in Pontanus’s History of the City of Amsterdam, and in other works[709].

In the year 1600, regulations respecting insurance were formed by the city of Middelburg in Zealand.

It appears that the first regulations respecting insurances in England, which may be seen in Anderson’s History of Commerce, were made in the year 1601. We find by them that insurers had before that period conducted themselves in such a manner, that the utmost confidence was reposed in their honesty, and that on this account few or no disputes had arisen[710].

In the year 1604, regulations were formed respecting insurance at Rotterdam; and in 1610 were drawn up those of Genoa, which Magens has inserted in his work, taken from the Latin statutes of the Republic, together with a German translation.

In 1612 the Insurance Chamber at Amsterdam was established by public authority, and received several privileges.

Malynes asserts, but without either proofs or probability, that the people of Antwerp were first taught insurance by the English; and says that, as the merchants assembled for transacting business in Lombard-street, so called because certain Italians from Lombardy had lombards there, or houses for lending money on pledges, long before the building of the Exchange, it became customary, as it was in his time (1622), to be guided in policies by what was done in Lombard-street, in London.

[M‘Culloch states[711] that it is probable insurance was introduced into England some time about the beginning of the sixteenth century, for it is mentioned in the statute 43 Eliz. c. 12, in which its utility is very clearly set forth, that it had been an immemorial usage among merchants, both English and foreign, when they made any great adventure, to procure insurance to be made on the ships or goods adventured. From this it may reasonably be supposed that insurance had been in use in England for at least a century previous. It appears from the same statute, that it had originally been usual to refer all disputes that arose with respect to insurances to the decision of “grave and discreet” merchants appointed by the lord mayor. But abuses having grown out of this practice, the statute authorized the lord chancellor to appoint a commission for the trial of insurance cases; and in the reign of Charles II. the powers of the commissioners were enlarged. But this court soon after fell into disuse; and, what is singular, no trace can now be discovered of any of its proceedings.]

Guicciardini, who wrote his Account of the Netherlands in 1567, remarks, in describing Antwerp, that the merchants there were accustomed to insure their ships. Anderson says that this is the first instance of maritime insurance, which is very astonishing, as he thinks the invention of insurance is to be found in Suetonius, and in the laws of the Isle of Oleron.

A most useful imitation of insurance in trade is the institution of insurance-offices, to indemnify losses sustained by fire. As far as I have been able to learn, companies for that purpose were first formed towards the middle of the last century, though houses were insured by individuals much earlier. The fire-office at Paris was established in 1745; that of the electorate of Hanover in 1750; that of Nassau-Weilburg in 1751; those of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and Wirtemberg in 1753; that of Anspach in 1754; that of Baden-Durlach in 1758; that of the county of Mark in 1764; those of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach in 1768; and that of the Society of the Clergy in the Mark of Brandenburg[712], to insure goods and household furniture, was established in 1769.

It is perhaps known to few, that even in the beginning of the seventeenth century, a proposal was made by some ingenious person, that all the proprietors of land should insure the houses of their subjects against fire, on their paying so much per cent. annually, according to the value of them. The author of this scheme presented it to count Anthony Gunther von Oldenburg, in the year 1609, as a means of finance not to be found in any work printed on that subject. The author in his plan said[713], that “as many fires happened by which a great number of people lost their property, the count might lay before his subjects the danger of such accidents; and propose to them, that if they would, either singly or united, put a value on their houses, and for every hundred dollars valuation pay to him yearly one dollar; he, on the other hand, would engage, that in case by the will of God their houses should be reduced to ashes, the misfortunes of war excepted, he would take upon himself the loss, and pay to the sufferers as much money as might be sufficient to rebuild them; and that all persons, both natives and foreigners, who might be desirous of sharing in the benefits of this institution, should not be excluded. The author was confident that, though the damage might fall heavy at first, a considerable sum would be gradually raised, from year to year; and that every one might thus insure his houses against accidents. He had no doubt that it would be fully proved, if a calculation were made of the number of houses consumed by fire, within a certain space, in the course of thirty years, that the loss would not amount, by a good deal, to the sum that would be collected in that time. He did not however advise that all the houses in every town should be comprehended, as the money claimed might amount to too much; but only that some and certain houses should be admitted into this association.”

I shall here insert, from the same author, the count’s reflections on this plan, and the conclusion which he formed:--“It is to be considered,” says he, “what sum every proprietor of land may with certainty raise and receive; whether the proposed plan can, to the undoubted benefit of the subjects, and the advantage of their lord, be honourably, justly, and irreproachfully instituted without tempting Providence; without incurring the censure of neighbours; and without disgracing one’s name and dignity; in the next place, that this institution may not have the appearance of a scheme to bring money into the country; and still more that it may have no resemblance to a duty, tax, or impost, but rather to a free contribution, or unconstrained remuneration for being insured from danger, and by which losses being made good, houses can be sooner rebuilt, and put in their former condition.” The count allowed that the object of the plan was good, considered in every point of view, and that a company composed of common individuals might be formed to insure each other’s houses, and pay the losses sustained by fire: but he concluded, that, if he undertook the plan, Providence might be tempted; that his own subjects might be displeased; and that, improper ideas being formed of his conduct, he might be accused unjustly of avarice. “God,” he said, “had without such means preserved and blessed, for many centuries, the ancient house of Oldenburg; and he would still be present with him, through his mercy, and protect his subjects from destructive fires.” He dismissed, therefore, the ingenious author of this plan, but not without rewarding him according to his usual liberality.

[Insurance against fire has been known and carried on in England for nearly a century and a half; at present the number of British Fire Offices amounts to nearly twenty. The premium demanded for insurance varies from 1_s._ 6_d._ to 10_s._ 6_d._ per £100 according to the supposed risk; the duty is enormous, being no less than 3_s._ per cent. on the amount insured. This tax yields a considerable addition to the revenue; in 1842 it amounted to £986,420, which corresponds to £563,668,571 value of property insured, leaving out of consideration the value of insured farming stock, the duty on which was repealed in the year 1833. On common risks the duty is no less than 200 per cent. upon the premium! “Such a duty” observes M‘Culloch, “is in the last degree oppressive and impolitic. There cannot, in fact, be the slightest doubt that, were it reduced, as it ought to be, to one-third its present amount, the business of insurance would be very much extended; and as it could not be extended without an increase of security and without lessening the injurious consequences arising from the casualties to which property is exposed, the reduction of the duty would be productive of the best results in a public point of view; while the increase of business would prevent the revenue from being materially diminished.” Several attempts have of late been made in Parliament to induce the government to lower the amount of duty, hitherto without success; it is however to be hoped that some other mode of raising the revenue may be devised than that of taxing so enormously the prudence of the industrious classes[714].

In addition to the marine and fire insurance, a somewhat similar speculation has been applied to human life, in the formation of life-insurance companies. These receive small annual payments in consideration of securing to the relations of the assured, or others to whom his property may be bequeathed, a stipulated sum. This arrangement we consider of the highest importance in mercantile countries, particularly to persons engaged in professional or personal occupations, where on the decease of the principal, the agency or appointment is not usually susceptible of transfer or bequest. By means of this species of insurance property is secured to descendants, who, but for some such precaution, might be left destitute. The oldest life-assurance office in London is the Amicable. This company was chartered in 1706, in consequence of application made to her majesty, Queen Anne, by Sir Thomas Allen and others. There are now in London nearly eighty life-assurance companies, of which about sixty are exclusively devoted to that object, and the remainder unite fire-insurance. The terms vary in the different offices, although not considerably, being founded upon recognised sets of tables. A comparative table of the annual rates of premium charged by each British office will be found in Waterston’s Cyclopædia of Commerce. The premium is of course adapted to the probable duration of life; the lowest being £1 7_s._ 9_d._ per £100 on a healthy life at the entrance age of 15, the highest, at the age of 60, being about 7 per cent. A diseased condition in most incapacitates for insurance, but in some offices even diseased lives and risks of every kind are insured, of course at a proportional rate[715].

In the reign of Queen Anne several offices were opened for making insurances on marriages, births, christenings, service, &c., and fraudulent practices prevailed to such a degree that by Stat. 9 Ann. c. 6, § 37, a penalty of £500 is imposed on every person setting up such office, and £100 for any person making such assurance in any office already established.

The assurance principle has within the last few years likewise been applied, with the prospect of success, to the guaranteeing of fidelity in persons holding situations of trust. In this case the calculation is, that out of a large range of instances where individuals of good moral character are entrusted with sums belonging to their employers, a nearly regular amount of defalcation will take place annually, or within some other larger space of time. This may give an unpleasant view of human nature, but it is found to be a true one, and the question which arises with men of business is, by what means may the defalcation be best guarded against. The choice is between a guarantee from one or two persons, and from a trading company. By the former plan, the risk is concentrated upon one or two, who may be deeply injured in consequence: by the other plan, the risk is not merely diffused, it is extinguished, for the premiums paid by the insuring parties stand for the losses, besides affording a profit upon the business. Nor have we only thus a protection for private parties against the dangers of security; but individuals, who have the offer of situations on the condition of giving a sufficient guarantee, may now be able to take, where formerly they would have had to decline them, seeing that they might have failed to induce any friend to venture so far in their behalf. Practically, it has also been found that, so far from parties being more ready to give way to temptation when they know that the loss will fall upon a company, they are less so, seeing that the company exercises a more rigid supervision, and presents a sterner front to delinquents, than is the case with private securities in general. Guarantee companies are now established in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other large cities. See Chambers’ Tracts, No. 44.]

FOOTNOTES

[684] “As the Turks are unacquainted with insurance, they do not lend money but at the rate of fifteen or twenty per cent. But when they lend to merchants who trade by sea, they charge thirty per cent.”--Remarques d’un Voyageur Moderne au Lévant. Amst. 1773, 8vo.Return to passage

[685] De Jure Naturæ et Gentium.Return to passage

[686] Droit de la Nature.Return to passage

[687] De Jure Maritimo. Holmiæ, 1650.Return to passage

[688] Collegium Grotianum, Francof. 1722, 4to.Return to passage

[689] Lib. xxiii. cap. 44.Return to passage

[690] Lib. xxv. cap. 3.Return to passage

[691] Lib. v. cap. 18. Langenbec, in his Anmerkungen über das Hamburgische Schiff-und-Seerecht, p. 370, is of opinion that no traces of insurance are to be found either in Livy or Suetonius.Return to passage

[692] Epist. ad Famil. ii. ep. 17.Return to passage

[693] Ayreri Diatribe de Cambialis Instituti Vestigiis apud Romanos, added to Uhle’s edition of Heineccii Elementa Juris Cambialis.Return to passage

[694] De Jure Maritimo et Nautico. Gryphis. 1652.Return to passage

[695] Lex Mercatoria, or the Ancient Law-Merchant, by Gerard Malynes. London, 1656, fol. p. 105.Return to passage

[696] Seldeni Mare Clausum. Lond. 1636, p. 428.Return to passage

[697] Bourdeaux, 1661, 4to.Return to passage

[698] Auszug der Historie des Allgemeinen und Preussischen See-rechts. Konigsberg, 1747, 4to, p. 32.Return to passage

[699] De Jure Mercatorum et Commerciorum.Return to passage

[700] Entitled, ’T boek der Zee-rechten. Amst. 1664, 4to.Return to passage

[701] The title runs thus: Il consolato del mare, nei quale si comprendono tutti gli statuti et ordini, disposti da gli antichi per ogni cosa di mercantia et di navigare. Leyden, 1704, 4to.Return to passage

[702] In that old treatise, Le Guidon, inserted in Cleirac, it is remarked, chap. i. art. i. that in old times insurances were made without any writings: they were then called Assecurances en confiance; Confidential insurances.Return to passage

[M‘Culloch, in his Dictionary of Commerce, art. Insurance, observes respecting this passage, that “Beckmann seems to have thought that the practice of insurance originated in Italy, in the latter part of the fifteenth or the early part of the sixteenth century. But the learned Spanish antiquary, Don Antonio de Capmany, has given, in his very valuable publication on the History and Commerce of Barcelona (Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina, &c., de Barcelona, t. ii. p. 383), an ordinance relative to insurance, issued by the magistrates of that city in 1435; whereas the earliest Italian law on the subject is nearly a century later, being dated in 1523. It is however exceedingly unlikely, had insurance been as early practised in Italy as in Catalonia, that the former should have been so much behind the latter in subjecting it to any fixed rules; and it is still more unlikely that the practice should have escaped, as is the case, all mention by any previous Italian writer. We therefore agree entirely in Capmany’s opinion, that until some authentic evidence to the contrary be produced, Barcelona should be regarded as the birth-place of this most useful and beautiful application of the doctrine of chances.” Had M‘Culloch consulted the treatise on Bills of Exchange, given in a subsequent part of the work (vol. iii. p. 430), he would have found that Beckmann, in noticing the curious memoirs of Capmany, with which he had then become acquainted, distinctly mentions “An ordinance of the year 1458 respecting insurance, which required that underwriting should be done in the presence of a notary, and declared polices o scriptores privades to be null and void.”]

[703] Versuche über Assecuranzen, etc. Hamb. 1753, 4to.Return to passage

[704] I found nothing on the subject, either in Delia decima--e della Mercatura de’ Fiorentini, fino al secolo xvi. Lisbona e Lucca, 1765, 1766, 4 vols. 4to, which contains a variety of useful information respecting the history of the Florentine trade, or in Mecatti, Storia Chronologica della città di Firenze. In Napoli 1775, 2 vols. 4to.Return to passage

[705] Stracchæ aliorumque Jurisconsultorum de Cambiis, Sponsionibus, &c., Decisiones. Amst. 1669, fol. p. 24.Return to passage

[706] It may be found in Ordonantien ende Placcaeten ghepubliceert Vlaenderen. Antwerp, 1662, fol. i. p. 360.Return to passage

[707] Ordonantien ende Placcaeten, ii. p. 307. Groote Placaet-boeck der Ver. Nederlanden, i. p. 796. Magens, p. 397.Return to passage

[708] Ordonantien ende Placcaeten, ut supra, p. 335. Groote Placaet-boeck, i. p. 828, and in the additions, ii. p. 2116.Return to passage

[709] The changes which this institution afterwards underwent, with an extract from its regulations, may be seen in La Richesse de la Hollande. Lond. 1778, 4to, i. p. 81.Return to passage

[710] [The marine insurers are called in this country under-writers, because they write their names under the policy. Under the authority of statute 6 George I. cap. 18, two corporate bodies, called the Royal Exchange Assurance Company and the London Assurance Company, were chartered by the crown. There are at present seven marine insurance companies in London:--the two old chartered companies above-mentioned; two established immediately upon the passing of the act of the year 1824, the Alliance and the Indemnity Mutual; the Marine, established in 1836; and the General Marine and Neptune, established in 1839.]Return to passage

[711] Dictionary of Commerce.Return to passage

[712] Krunitz, Oekonomische Encyclopedie, xiii. p. 221; where an account may be found of other companies.Return to passage

[713] Winkelmanns Oldenburgischen Friedens- und der benachbarten Oerter Kriegshandlungen. 1671 fol. p. 67.Return to passage

[714] [The publisher of the present volumes pays upwards of £200 per annum for insurance on his stock in trade, and therefore feels strongly the force of this observation.--H. G. B.]Return to passage

[715] Life insurances have been forbidden by the laws of France and of many other foreign states, as being of a gambling nature, and opening the door to a variety of abuses and frauds.Return to passage

ADULTERATION OF WINE

No adulteration of any article has ever been invented so pernicious to the health, and at the same time so much practised, as that of wine with preparations of lead; and as the inventor must have been acquainted with its destructive effects, he deserves, for making it known, severer execration than Berthold Schwartz, the supposed inventor of gunpowder.

The juice of the grape, when expressed, undergoes what is termed vinous fermentation and so becomes converted into wine, but very soon, if great care be not taken, it passes into a different kind of fermentation, called the acetic; its spirit then becomes changed into an acid, which renders it unfit to be drunk, and of much less utility. The progress of the fermentation may be stopped by care and attention; but to bring the liquor back to its former state is impossible. Ingenuity, however, has invented a fraudulent method of rendering the acid in spoilt wine imperceptible; so that those who are not judges are often imposed on, and purchase sweetened vinegar instead of wine. Were no other articles used for sweetening it than honey or sugar, the adulterator would deserve no severer punishment than those who sell pinchbeck for gold; but saccharine juices can be used only when the liquor begins to turn sour; and even then in very small quantities, else it would betray the imposition by its sweetish-sour taste, and hasten that change which it is intended to prevent. A sweetener therefore, has been invented much surer for the fraudulent dealer, but infinitely more destructive to the consumer; and those who employ it, undoubtedly, merit the same punishment as the most infamous poisoners.

Lead and its oxide or carbonate, dissolved in the acid which spoils wine, give it a saccharine taste not unpleasant, without any new, or at least perceptible tint, and arrest the progress of the acid fermentation. The wine, however, occasions, according as it is used in a great or small quantity, and according to the constitution of the consumer, a speedy or lingering death, violent colics, obstructions and other maladies; so that one may justly doubt whether, at present, Mars, Venus, or Saturn is most destructive to the human race.

The ancients, in my opinion, knew that lead rendered harsh wine milder, and preserved it from acidity, without being aware that it was poisonous. It was therefore long used with confidence; and when its effects were discovered they were not ascribed to the metal, but to some other cause. When more accurate observation, in modern times, fully established the noxious property of lead, and when it began to be dreaded in wine, unprincipled dealers invented an artful method of employing it, which the law, by the severest punishment, was not able wholly to prevent.

The Greeks and the Romans were accustomed to boil their wine over a slow fire, till only a half, third, or fourth part remained, and to mix it with bad wine in order to improve it. When, by this operation, it had lost part of its watery particles, and had been mixed with honey and spices, it acquired several names, such as mustum, mulsum, sapa, carenum, or caroenum, defrutum[716], &c. Even at present the same method is pursued with sack, Spanish, Hungarian, and Italian wines. In Italy, new wine, which has been thus boiled, is put into flasks, and used for salad and sauces. In Naples it is called musto cotto; but in Florence it still retains the name of sapa. Most of those authors who have described this method of boiling wine expressly say that leaden or tin vessels must be employed; because the wine, by these, is rendered more delicious and durable, as well as clearer. It is, however, certain that must and sour wine by slow boiling, for according to their directions it should not be boiled quickly, must dissolve part of these dangerous metals, otherwise the desired effect could not be produced[717]. Some also were accustomed to add to their wine, before it was boiled, a certain quantity of sea water, which by its saline particles would necessarily accelerate the solution[718].

That the acid of wine has the power of dissolving lead was not unknown to the ancients; for when the Greek and Roman wine-merchants wished to try whether their wine was spoiled, they immersed in it a plate of lead[719]. If the colour of the lead was changed, which undoubtedly would be the case when its surface was corroded, they concluded that their wine was spoiled. It cannot, however, be said that they were altogether ignorant of the dangerous effects of solutions of that metal; for Galen and other physicians often give cautions respecting white lead. Notwithstanding this, men fell upon the invention of conveying water for culinary purposes in leaden pipes[720]; and even at present at London, Amsterdam, Paris, and other places water is conveyed through lead, and collected in leaden cisterns, though that practice has, on several occasions, been attended with alarming consequences[721]. This negligence in modern times makes us not be surprised when we read that the ancients employed leaden vessels. It appears, however, that it was not merely through negligence that this practice prevailed. They were acquainted, and particularly in Pliny’s time, with various processes used in regard to wine[722]; and among these was that of boiling it with lime or gypsum[723]; and the ancient physicians, who had not the assistance of our modern chemistry, thought it more probable that their wine was rendered noxious by the addition of these earths[724], than by the vessels in which it was boiled; and they were the more inclined to this opinion, as they had instances of the fatal effects produced by the use of them[725]. They decried them, therefore, so much, that laws were afterwards made by which they were forbidden to be used, as poisonous and destructive to the human body.

Wine which has once begun to spoil cannot be perfectly restored by lime; for it cannot bring back to it the spirituous part which it has lost, neither can it remove the acid with which it is incorporated; but it can render it imperceptible to the tongue by uniting with it, and forming an earthy salt of an almost insipid taste. This method of improving sour wine is still practised in the island of Zante[726], in Spain[727], on the coast of Africa[728], and in many other countries. It is, however, condemned by several physicians and chemists; because obstructions and other bad effects are to be apprehended from it. Some, on the contrary, consider it as harmless[729]; and I must confess that I should expect no bad consequences from such a small quantity of lime as would be necessary for that purpose. It will produce a salt which will have the same effects as that tartareous crust called wine-stone, and will act as a laxative, like the salts which our apothecaries prepare from that calcareous stone crab’s-eyes, by means of vinegar or lemon-juice. The lime, which the acid of the wine cannot dissolve, will fall to the bottom as a sediment, and assist to clarify the wine. Used however in too great quantity, it may hasten the destruction of the still remaining spirituous part, and render the wine weak; a caution which has been given to wine-merchants by Neumann.

Gypsum is a compound of sulphuric acid with lime, and were it always pure, its effects upon wine would be imperceptible; but as the most kinds of common gypsum contain abundance of carbonate of lime, they effervesce with acids, are dissolved in part by them, and form that salt which I have before said I consider as harmless. By means of this carbonate gypsum improves sour wine, as well as common wine. I took half an ounce of that gypsum which at Osterode is pounded and used as mortar, and which is hard, white, and shining, and almost of the nature of alabaster. When I had pounded it, I put it into strong vinegar in a glass vessel, and suffered it to boil for a few minutes. I then strained it through filtering-paper; and what remained, after it was washed and dried, weighed 215 grains; so that the vinegar had dissolved 25 grains, which were precipitated afterwards by carbonated alkali. I pursued the like process with half an ounce of burnt gypsum, such as is used here for floors; and I found that two ounces of the same vinegar dissolved half a drachm of it, which was somewhat more in proportion than of the former. Every one whom I caused to taste of this vinegar remarked that both had lost a considerable share of their acidity; but that the vinegar which had been boiled with burnt gypsum had lost the most. Few kinds of native gypsum are perfectly pure; and at any rate we have no reason to suppose that the ancients sought pure gypsum for their wines. This method is not yet disused. We are told by Arvieux, that it is still employed in the island of Milo; and I shall here take occasion to observe that salt water also is added to wine there, even at present. Christopher Vega, whom I have before quoted, reproaches the Spaniards with the use of gypsum; and it has been condemned by the modern as well as the ancient physicians. An Englishman of the name of Hardy seems to suspect that gypsum contains lead and arsenical earth[730]; but it appears that this writer doubted whether our gypsum be the same as that of the ancients; and indeed it is necessary, before we use their information respecting natural objects, to examine carefully whether they understood by any name what we understand by it; and what they meant by gypsum has been determined neither by Stephanus, Ferber, nor Gesner. We however know this much, that the ancients burnt their gypsum, and that they formed and cast images of it[731]. In my opinion wine cannot be poisoned by gypsum; and wine-merchants who employ it and lime deserve no severer punishment than brewers, who, in the like manner, render sour beer fitter to be drunk and more saleable.

That the ancients were accustomed to clarify their wine with gypsum, is proved by different passages of the Greek writers on husbandry. They threw gypsum into their new wine; stirred it often round, then let it stand for some time, and, when it had settled, poured off the clear liquor[732]. It would, however, appear that they had remarked that gypsum caused the spirituous part to disappear; for we read that the wine acquired by it a certain sharpness which it afterwards lost, but that the good effects of the gypsum were lasting[733]. This process in modern times has been publicly forbidden, in many countries, as it was in Spain in the year 1348.

Calcined shells were in ancient times used instead of lime[734]. Potters-earth was also thrown into wine, in order to clarify it by carrying the muddy particles with it to the bottom. This method I have seen employed in the breweries at Amsterdam, to purify the water. In the south of France it is used for clarifying wine-stone ley; and in my opinion it might be useful on many other occasions[735].

The ancients poisoned their wine with lead without knowing it; but at what period did that pernicious practice begin of employing sugar of lead and litharge? Litharge was not unknown to the ancients; for it is mentioned by Dioscorides, Aëtius, and others. Sugar of lead is, indeed, more modern; but I have found no information respecting the invention of it, except that it was known to Paracelsus, who died in 1541, and who ventured to prescribe it for some disorders. It was known also to Angelus Sala, one of the most ingenious of the early chemists. In the Roman laws no particular orders occur against the adulteration or poisoning of wine; for what we read in the Institutiones[736] is applicable only to the spoiling of another person’s wine, and thereby occasioning a loss to him; and this explanation is confirmed by the Digesta[737]. The German prohibitions against the adulteration of wine began in the fifteenth century, and were from time to time renewed with additional severity. In that century, we find complaints against this practice with lime, sulphur, and milk; but no instance occurs of the poisoning with lead. I however conjecture that the use of litharge was introduced in the twelfth or thirteenth century; but the framers of the laws were not acquainted with the real poison; and instead of causing it to be examined by the chemists, who it must be confessed had not advanced far in their art, they contented themselves with prohibiting the use of those things which they found considered by the ancients as dangerous.

Among the oldest German prohibitions against the adulteration of wine is that of Nuremberg in the year 1409; in which however there is no notice taken of litharge. Another of the year 1475 is mentioned by Datt[738]; but some Imperial ones of an earlier period may have been lost[739]. In the year 1487 the emperor caused an order against the adulteration of wine to be published by the governments in Swabia, Franconia and Alsace; and this practice was a subject of deliberation at the diet of Rothenburg the same year, and also at the diet of Worms, under Maximilian I., in 1495. At the diet of Lindau the use of sulphur was in particular prohibited, and also at Freyburg in Brisgau in 1498. In the year 1500 the same affair was discussed at Augsburg, and again at that city in 1548, under Charles V. It appears that this business was left afterwards to the care of the different princes, who from time to time issued prohibitions against so destructive a fraud.

Older and severer prohibitions are however to be found in other countries. By an order of William count of Hennegau, Holland and Zeeland, of the year 1327, we find that long before that period it was customary to adulterate wine with noxious and dangerous substances. In the year 1384 the government at Brussels issued a severer order of the like kind, in which vitriol, quicksilver and lapis calaminaris are mentioned[740]. In France we find an old ordonnance du prevôt de Paris, for the same purpose, dated September the 20th and December the 2nd, 1371, in which no minerals are mentioned; but in that of 1696 litharge is particularly noticed[741].

Conrade Celtes, who in the year 1491 was first crowned in Germany as a poet, gives in his panegyric on Nuremberg some information respecting the adulteration of wine, from which we learn that he considered it as a new invention, and ascribed it to a monk called Martin Bayr; but his expressions are so figurative, that little can be gathered from them[742]. We are however told by Zeller, that it was believed that this dangerous fraud was invented in France[743]. Martin Zeiler, in his Chronicle of Swabia (p. 65), says, “In the year 1453, the citizens of Augsburg began to observe this fraud in the wine-market; for during four years before, Martin Bayr, at Schwarzen-Eychen in Franconia, first taught the German tavern-keepers and the waggoners to preserve new wine from becoming sour; to clarify wine by sulphur; and likewise to counterfeit it by spices, to the great prejudice of people’s health.” In this passage there is no mention of litharge, but of other mixtures. The oldest account of the poisonous sweetening of wine is that which occurs in the French ordinance of 1696[744]; and Zeller’s conjecture that it was invented or first remarked in France, seems to me the more probable, as it appears that it was practised at Wurtemberg about the same period. In the year 1697 it was known there that some wine-merchants, particularly Hans George Staltser at Goppingen, used litharge for refining wine, and by these means deprived many persons of life, and occasioned the loss of health to others. Staltser pleaded in excuse, that he considered the process he had employed as harmless, and that Masskosky, physician to the town of Goppingen, who was accounted a man of knowledge, had employed the same for his wine. Brugel also, physician to the town of Heidenheim, had declared that litharge was not prejudicial; and as he was a person of reputation, his opinion had tended not a little to establish the use of that practice. This report was so hurtful to the wine-trade of Wurtemberg, which at that time brought a great deal of money into the duchy from other countries, that the wine at Ulm remained unsold; and duke Everhard Louis was obliged to cause experiments to be made to ascertain the nature of the substances mixed with it. Solomon Keysel, the duke’s physician, and J. Gaspar Harlin, physician to the court, both declared that litharge was noxious, but that sulphur besprinkled with bismuth was still more so. They strongly advised, therefore, that both these substances should be forbidden to be used, under the heaviest penalties; and this prohibition was put in force with the greater severity as some persons of the first rank had for several years before caused their spoiled and sour wine to be made sweet and clear in this manner by a weaver of Pforzheim, who resided at Stutgart. An order was issued on the 10th of May 1697, forbidding this adulteration under pain of death and confiscation of property, as well as of being declared infamous; and the duke requested the neighbouring states, particularly Bavaria and Eychstat, to keep a more watchful eye over their wine-merchants and waggoners, by which means it was supposed all danger would be avoided.

In the following year, the city of Ulm discovered a poor man at Giengen, within its own jurisdiction, who had sweetened with litharge some sour wine purchased at Wurtemberg. He was accordingly banished from the country; and several other persons in the duchy were condemned to labour at the fortifications. This example was attended with so good an effect, that for some time adulteration was not heard of; but eight years after, John Jacob Ehrni of Eslingen introduced that practice again with some variation, and not only employed it himself, but induced others to follow it in several other places. Greater severity was at length exercised. Ehrni was beheaded; the possessors of adulterated wine were fined, and the wine was thrown away. After this second example, which was followed in other parts of the country, the art of adulterating wine seems to have been more carefully concealed, or to have been entirely abandoned. But in the present century treatises have been published on the management of wine, in which the art of improving it by litharge has been taught, as a method perfectly free from danger[745].

For detecting metal in wine, the arsenical liver of sulphur is commonly employed; a solution of which is called liquor probatorius Wurtembergicus[746]. This appellation, in my opinion, has been given to it because it was first applied for that purpose by a public order in the duchy of Wurtemberg; though the invention is ascribed to one of the duke’s physicians[747]. The use of it however is not attended with certainty, because it precipitates several metals black without distinction, and lead is not the only one that we have reason to suspect in wine.

The operation of fumigating wine with sulphur is performed by kindling rags of linen dipped in melted brimstone, and suffering the vapour to enter a cask filled, or partly filled, with that liquor. I do not know at what period this process was invented; but it is worthy of remark, that we are told by Pliny[748], that in his time some employed sulphur in the preparation of wine. On this subject he quotes Cato; but the passage to which he alludes is not to be found in the works of that author handed down to us; and the method in which it was really used is consequently unknown. Reason and experience show that the vapour of sulphur stops the fermentation so hurtful to wine, and prevents it from spoiling; and many writers on the management of wine allow the free use of it for that purpose[749]. It can certainly do no injury to the health; and it was not necessary for the police in different countries to distribute prescriptions for employing it, to forbid it, or to limit the quantity[750].

Some wine-dealers are accustomed to sprinkle over with bismuth the rags dipped in sulphur used for fumigating wine, and this addition is a German invention[751]. It has been severely forbidden by express laws; and there are undoubtedly sufficient grounds for its being reprobated. At any rate this metallic addition is of no use in any point of view, as the most experienced dealers in wine have long since acknowledged.

In an old Imperial ordinance, milk also is mentioned as an article used in the adulterating of wine. This method was known to and practised by the ancient Grecians[752]. But in the opinion of Von Rohr milk cannot be employed for that purpose[753]. “One can scarcely comprehend,” says he, “how the framers of laws should ever imagine that a wine-dealer would be so simple as to adulterate wine with milk; and those who do so, deserve not to be punished for their folly. As they will find no purchasers to wine adulterated by so strange a mixture, that punishment will be sufficient.” The effects of milk however may be easily comprehended. It causes the wine to throw up a scum, which carries with it every impurity; and this being taken off along with it, the wine must of course be rendered much clearer. However, though this mixture cannot be called an adulteration, it is certain that wine may be refined much better by isinglass, and that method is followed at present.

I shall observe in the last place, that in the year 1472, Stum-wine, as it is called, was prohibited as a bad liquor prejudicial to the health[754]. By this term is understood wine, the fermentation of which has been checked, and which on that account continues sweet; seldom becomes clear; and, even when it clarifies, turns muddy when exposed to the air, because the fermentation, which has been stopped, again commences[755]. Wines of this kind are allowed at present. They are called vina muta or suffocata, and have a great resemblance to a sort of wine made principally at Bordeaux, to which the French give the name of vin en rage.

[In no country of the world has the adulteration and brewing of wines attained to such a pitch of perfection as in this “tight little island.” So impudently and notoriously are these frauds practised, and so boldly are they avowed, that there are books published called ‘Publican’s Guides’ and ‘Licensed Victuallers’ Directors,’ in which the most infamous receipts imaginable are laid down to swindle their customers[756]. One of these recommends port wine to be manufactured, after sulphuring a cask, with twelve gallons of strong port; six of rectified spirit; three of cognac brandy; forty-two of fine rough cider; making sixty-three gallons, which cost about eighteen shillings a dozen. Another receipt is forty-five gallons of cider; six of brandy; eight of port wine; two gallons of sloes stewed in two gallons of water, and the liquor pressed off. If the colour is not good, tincture of red sanders or cudbear is directed to be added. This may be bottled in a few days, and a tea-spoonful of powder of catechu being added to each, a fine crusted appearance on the bottles will quickly follow. The ends of the corks being soaked in a strong decoction of brazil-wood and a little alum, will complete this interesting process, and give them the appearance of age. Oak-bark, elder, brazil-wood, privet, beet, turnsole, are all used in making fictitious port wine.

The wines of Madeira are in like manner adulterated or wholly manufactured in England, which from these devices may justly claim the title of a universal wine country, where every species is made if it be not grown. The basis of the adulteration of madeira is vidonia, mingled with a little port, mountain, and cape, sugar-candy and bitter-almonds, and the colour made lighter or deepened to the proper shade, as the case may require. Even vidonia itself is adulterated with cider, rum, and carbonate of soda to correct acidity. Bucellas, cape, in short every species of wine that it is worth while to imitate, is adulterated or manufactured in this country with cheaper substances. Common Sicilian wine has been metamorphosed so as to pass for tokay and lachryma christi; even cape wine itself has been imitated by liquids, if possible inferior to the genuine article.

Gooseberry wine is often passed off for champagne; the very bottles are bought up for the purpose of filling with gooseberry wine, and are then corked to resemble champagne. It has also been made from white and raw sugar, citric or tartaric acid, water, home-made grape wine or perry and French brandy--cochineal or strawberries have been added to imitate the pink. In fact vegetation has been exhausted, and the bowels of the earth ransacked to supply trash for this most vicious practice.

Redding observes, in his valuable and most interesting work on the History and Description of Modern Wines, that the clumsy attempts at wine-brewing made a century ago would be scorned by a modern adept. It is said that when George the Fourth was in the “high and palmy” days of early dissipation, he possessed a very small quantity of remarkably choice and scarce wine. The gentlemen of his suite, whose taste was hardly second to their master’s, finding it had not been demanded, thought it was forgotten, and, relishing its virtues, exhausted it almost to the last bottle, when they were surprised by the unexpected command that the wine should be forthcoming at an entertainment on the following day. Consternation was visible on their faces; a hope of escaping discovery hardly existed, when one of them, as a last resource, went off in haste to a noted wine-brewer in the city, numbered among his acquaintance, and related his dilemma. “Have you any of the wine left for a specimen?” said the adept; “O yes, there are a couple of bottles.” “Well then, send me one, and I will forward the necessary quantity in time; only tell me the latest moment it can be received, for it must be drunk immediately.” The wine was sent, the deception answered; the princely hilarity was disturbed by no discovery of the fictitious potation, and the manufacturer was thought a very clever fellow by his friends. What would Sir Richard Steele have said to so neat an imitation, when in his day he complains that sinister fabrications were coarsely managed with sloe-juice? the science of adulteration must then have been in its infancy.]

FOOTNOTES

[716] Plin. lib. xxiii. cap. 2. Palladius, Octob. 18. edit. Gesneri, ii. p. 994.Return to passage

[717] Proofs of this will be found in Columella De Re Rustica, lib. xii. c. 19, 20. Cato De Re Rust. cap. cv. and cap. cvii., and Plin. lib. xiv. cap. 21.Return to passage

[718] Proofs that the ancients mixed their wine with sea-water may be found in Pliny, lib. xxiii. cap. 1. and lib. xiv. cap. 20. Celsus exclaims against it, lib. ii. cap. 25. Dioscorides, lib. v. cap. 7, 9, &c. p. 573. See Petri Andreæ Matthioli Commentarii in sex libros Dioscoridis de materia medica. Venetiis, in officina Erasmi Vincentii Valgrisii, 1553, fol.Return to passage

[719] Plin. lib. xiv. cap. 20. This method of proof is given more circumstantially in Geopon. lib. vii. cap. 15.Return to passage

[720] Pallad. August. c. ii. vol. ii. p. 977.Return to passage

[721] [The solvent action of water upon lead is highly interesting on account of the very general use of leaden pipes and cisterns lined with this metal. From the researches of Lieut.-Col. Yorke, published in the Philosophical Magazine for August 1834 and January 1846, it would appear that a bright leaden vessel containing pure water, such as distilled water, and exposed to the air, soon becomes oxidized and corroded; oxide of lead being readily detected in solution by means of sulphuretted hydrogen and other sensitive tests; but river and spring water exert a much less or no such solvent power, the carbonates and sulphates in such water preventing it. It is on this account that leaden vessels are used with such impunity, the crust which forms upon the metal entirely preventing all further action. However, as this crust consists partially of carbonate of lead, which is a very dangerous poison, great care should be taken on cleaning or scraping such cisterns to avoid using the water in which particles of the salt may have become diffused. Leaden cisterns are sometimes rendered unsafe in consequence of iron or zinc pipes being soldered or let into them, thus giving rise to galvanic action, which greatly facilitates the solution of the lead.]Return to passage

[722] Plin. lib. xiv. cap. 20. The same author relates a great many arts practised in regard to wine.Return to passage

[723] Plin. lib. xiv. cap. 19. That this method was practised in Italy is confirmed by Columella, lib. xii. cap. 20, and Didymus in Geopon. lib. vi. cap. 18. It is mentioned also by Dioscorides and Theophrastus.Return to passage

[724] Plin. lib. xxiii. cap. 1.Return to passage

[725] Ibid. lib. xxxvi. cap. 24.Return to passage

[726] “The wine of the island of Zante is almost as strong as brandy. It is supposed that this proceeds from the unslaked lime which is usually mixed with it, under the pretence that it then keeps better, and is fitter to be transported by sea.”--D’Arvieux, Voyages.Return to passage

[727] Christophori a Vega de Arte Medendi, lib. ii. cap. 2.Return to passage

[728] “No one sells wine at Tunis but the slaves, and this wine is not under the jurisdiction of the Tunisian government. They put lime in it, which renders it very intoxicating.”--Thevenot’s Voyages.Return to passage

[729] In Anleitung zur Verbesserung der Weine in Teutschland, Franck. and Leipsic, 1775, 8vo, the moderate use of lime is recommended. In France crude potash is put into wine instead of lime. [Acidity in wine was formerly corrected in this country by the addition of quick-lime. This furnishes a clue to Falstaff’s observation that there was “lime in the sack,” which was a hit at the landlord, as much as to say his wine was worth little, having its acidity thus disguised. Carbonate of soda is now most frequently used for the purpose.]Return to passage

[730] “The properties of lead and arsenic are well understood; but what those of the ancient gypsums were, will require an explanation; as there seems to be just reason to believe, that some of them contained a portion of metallic or arsenical earth.”--A Candid Examination of what has been advanced on the Colic of Poitou and Devonshire, by James Hardy, London, i. 8vo, p. 84.Return to passage

[731] Plin. lib. xxxv.Return to passage

[732] Geopon. pp. 462, 483, 494.Return to passage

[733] Ibid. vii. 12, p. 483.Return to passage

[734] Ibid. p. 486.Return to passage

[735] Ibid. p. 486.Return to passage

[736] Lib. iv. tit. 3. § 13.Return to passage

[737] Digestor. lib. ix. tit. 2. leg. 27. § 15. Later jurists call the adulteration of wine crimen stellionatus.Return to passage

[738] De pace imperii publica. Ulmæ 1698, p. 632.Return to passage

[739] Goldast. Constit. Imper. tom. ii. p. 114.Return to passage

[740] Mémoires sur les questions proposées par l’Académie de Bruxelles en 1777. A Bruxelles 1778, 4to.Return to passage

[741] Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, p. 514. [“In France it does not appear that lead in any form has been employed in making or altering their wines. On the 13th of March 1824, a member of the Chamber of Deputies moved for a law to punish the practice. The motion was rejected, because neither litharge nor any other preparation of lead was shown to have been used, nor was any instance cited in which it had been detected, though an ordinance was made against its use in 1696.”--Redding’s History and Description of Wines. Lond. 1836, p. 336.]Return to passage

[742] “I wish those who adulterate wine were punished with greater severity; for this execrable fraud, as well as many more deceptions, has been invented in the present age; and a villany by which the colour, taste, smell and substance of wine are so changed as to resemble that of another country, has been spread not only through Germany, but also through France, Hungary and other kingdoms. It was invented, they say, by a monk named Martin Bayr, of Schwarzen-Eychen in Franconia. He undoubtedly merits eternal damnation for rendering noxious and destructive a liquor used for sacred purposes, and most agreeable to the human body; thus contaminating and debasing a gift of nature inferior to none called forth from the bosom of the earth by the influence of the solar rays; and for converting, like a sanguinary destroyer of the human race, that bestowed upon us by Nature to promote mirth and joy, and as a soother of our cares, into a poison and the cause of various distempers. But if the debasers of the current coin are punished capitally, what punishment ought to be inflicted upon the person who hath either killed or thrown into diseases all those who used wine? The former by their fraud injure a few, but the latter exposes to various dangers people of all ages, and of both sexes; occasions barrenness in women; brings on abortions and makes them miscarry; corrupts and dries up the milk of nurses; excites gouty pains in the body; causes others in the bowels and reins, than which none can be more excruciating; and produces ulcers in the intestines; in short, his poison inflames, corrodes, burns, extenuates, and dries up; nor does it allay, but increase thirst; for such is the nature of sulphur, which, mixed with other noxious and poisonous things, the names of which I should be ashamed to mention, is added to wine, before it has done fermenting, in order to change its nature. This poison we have been obliged to purchase for our friends, wives, children and selves, at a high price; as wine has been scarce for several years past; and it would seem that Nature had denied this liquor so long out of revenge against her enemies and the destroyers of the whole human race. You ought, therefore, most prudent fathers, not only to empty their vessels, by throwing this poison into your river; but to cast alive into the flames the sellers of this wine, and thus to punish poisoning as well as robbery.”--Pirkheimeri Opera, Franck. 1610, fol. p. 136. [This writer was the friend and contemporary of Albert Durer.]Return to passage

[743] De docimasia vini lithargyrio mangonisati. Tubingæ 1707.Return to passage

[744] De la Mare, Traité de la Police, i. 615.Return to passage

[745] William Graham’s Art of making Wines from Fruit, Flowers and Herbs. Sixth edit. London, 8vo.Return to passage

[746] [A solution of sulphuretted hydrogen answers much better.]Return to passage

[747] Anleitung zur Verbesserung der Weine in Teutschland, p. 32.Return to passage

[748] Lib. xiv. cap. 20.Return to passage

[749] [It acts by keeping the wine from contact with oxygen, which is essential to the acetic fermentation.]Return to passage

[750] This was done at Rothenburg on the Tauber in 1497. It was ordered that half an ounce of pure sulphur should be employed for a cask containing a tun of wine; and that when wine had been once exposed to the vapour of sulphur, it should not undergo the same operation a second time.Return to passage

[751] In John Hornung’s Cista Medica, Norimbergæ 1625, there are two letters from German physicians (Libavius and Doldius) respecting this practice.Return to passage

[752] Geopon. p. 486, 502.--Lemnius de Miraculis Occultis Naturæ, Coloniæ, 1581, 8vo, p. 291.Return to passage

[753] See Haushaltungs-Recht, Leipsic, 1716, 4to, p. 1393.Return to passage

[754] Von Lersner, Chronica der Stadt Frankfurt, ii. p. 683. Wine seasoned with mustard, and which was sold as boiled wine, was forbidden at the same time. See p. 684. In the year 1484 wine mixed with the herb mugwort was prohibited also.Return to passage

[755] Anleitung, ut supra, p. 93, 128.Return to passage

[756] See Redding’s History and Description of Modern Wines.Return to passage