CHAPTER XL

The Thaumaturgists might have worked pretended miracles with the air-gun, the power of steam, and the magnet — The compass was probably known to the Phocians, as well as the Phoenician navigators — The Finns have a compass of their own; and in China the compass has been used since the foundation of the empire — Other means of working pretended miracles — Gal- vanic phenomena — Action of vinegar upon lime — Amusements of physics — Lachryma Batavica, &c.
We approach the termination of our career. Brilliant as may have been the promises we placed in the mouth of the Thaumaturgist, we believe we have proved that it would not have been impossible for him to accomplish many of them.
The subject is not yet, however, wholly exhausted. We might draw upon the knowledge possessed by the ancients, as affording more than one means of account- ing for many marvels.
In speaking of missile weapons, we have not included those set in motion by the elasticity of compressed air. Even in the present day, the display of an air-gun, send- ing out some deadly projectile, without noise or explo- it 2
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sion, would present a miraculous appearance to men who were indifferently educated. Philo, of Byzantium,* who must have flourished in the third century before our era, has left an exact description of the air-gun. He does not claim the invention ; and no one would dare to decide how far it may or may not have been of ancient date.f
Many historians speak of poisoned needles, projected through a tube by the breath ;| and in the abridgment of Dion CassiusJ we find two instances of this crime having been committed with impunity. The rapidity with which the poison of these needles acts, must in particular cases have rendered their effects more marvel-
* Revue Encyclopédique, tome xxin. p. 529. — Philo was an architect and built a dock at Athens. — En.
t The air-gun expels the ball by the sudden expansion of strongly condensed air, in a hollow ball screwed on to the barrel of the gun, immediately under the lock. The bullet is charged with the air by means of a condensing syringe before it is screwed on the barrel. When it is to be used, the ball is introduced into the empty barrel ; and the trigger being pulled, opens a valve which admits the condensed air to rush from the hollow ball, and, acting upon the bullet, to impel it to the distance of sixty or seventy yards, according to the degree of condensation of the dis- charged air. If the condensation be twenty times that of atmos- pheric air, the velocity of the bullet will be equal to one seventh of that caused by gunpowder, the elasticity of the gas formed by the inflammation of which is equal to one thousand times that of common air. No noise accompanies the expulsion of the bullet, hence the astonishment in the mind of a person wholly ignorant of the nature of the air-gun would be greatly increased. — Ed.
% Some of the tribes in South America, and on the coast of Africa, impel small poisoned arrows through long tubes in this manner, and thus kill their prey, or victims, at a considerable distance. — Ed.
|| Xiphilin. in Domitian ... in Commod.
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lous. Some Frenchmen, employed in the service of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib, saw the prick of poisoned needles cause death in less than two minutes ; neither amputation nor any other means being of the least use in preventing the fatal event. The ancients were acquainted with poisons no less rapid.# We repeat once more, therefore, what we have frequently had occa- sion to say; namely, that with such a secret, how easy must it have been to work apparent miracles !
The expansive power of water, when converted into steam, is an agent, by the use of which, in the present day, the aspect of the mechanical arts has been com- pletely changed ; and which, engrafting upon them an ever-increasing progress, has prepared for future genera- tions an aid to industry, the results of which we are unable to predict. We may inquire, was this agent absolutely unknown to the ancients ? Did not Aristotle and Seneca, when they attributed earthquakes to the action of water, suddenly vaporized by subterranean heat, point out a principle, the application of which alone remained to be tried ? And did not Hero, of Alexandria, a hundred and twenty years before our era, demonstrate how steam might be used for giving to a hollow sphere a rotatory movement ?f We shall quote, in conclusion, two remarkable facts, one of which belongs to Anthemus
* The Gauls impregnated their arrows with so powerful a poison, that the hunters made great haste to cut from the animal they had hit, that part touched by the arrow, lest the venomous substances should infect and corrupt the entire mass of the flesh.
f Arago. Notice sur les Machines à Vapeur. — Almanack du Bureau des Lonyitudes, 1829, pp. 147, 151.
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of Tralles, a learned man of the latter empire, to whom we have already referred. It is related by Agathias, his contemporary, that in order to revenge himself upon the inhabitant of the house next his own, he filled several vessels with water, upon which he fixed copper tubes, very narrow at the upper end, but sufficiently large at the lower extremities to cover the vases to which they were hermetically sealed. He applied the upper openings to the rafters supporting the roof of the house, which was the object of his anger ; then causing the water to boil, the steam soon rose in the tubes, expanded and affected the rafters opposing its escape with violent movement.* The coppers, it may be said, would have burst a hundred times before one rafter would have been lightly shaken. True, — but we may ask were these tubes really copper ? And might not the philosopher of Tralles encourage such an erroneous opinion, in order to conceal and to preserve to himself the secret of this proceeding. Strange, therefore, as is the explanation related by the credulous Agathias, it clearly indicates that Anthemus was ac- quainted with the gigantic powers of steam.f
Another example conducts us to the banks of the Weser, where Busterich received the homage of the
* Agathias. De Rebus Justiniani, lib. v. cap. iv.
f The same historian had also adopted (he. citat.) an erroneous explanation of the marvel quoted by us at the conclusion of the twenty-sixth chapter. According to him, Anthemus had managed it by means of burning machines, and a concave mirror, the move- ment of which made the dazzling reflections of the sun to fly here and there. So slight an artifice would not have persuaded a man, Avho was, like Anthemus' enemy, a little instructed, that they were sending the lightning against his dwelling.
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Teutons. His image was of metal, and hollow ; it was filled with water, and the orifices, or openings for the eyes and the mouth were closed with wooden wedges. When burning coals were placed upon its head, the steam forced out the wedges with an explosion, and escaped in torrents of vapours from within ;* a most certain sign of the God's anger in the minds of his rude adorers.
If, passing from a nation a little civilized, we look into the very infancy of society, we shall observe a similarity between the miraculous image of the Teutonic God and the missile weapons used by the natives of New Guinea, the explosion of which, although they were not muskets,f was accompanied by smoke ; a fact which seems to indi- cate their impelling power to have been analogous to steam. It would be curious to investigate this matter !
Are we also certain that we know how far the ancient Thaumaturgists made use of the magnet? Its attrac- tive property was so far understood by them, that it was employed, it is said, for suspending a statue from the vault of a temple, j This tradition, whether true or false, shows that the ancients may probably have taken advan- tage of magnetic attraction in working pretended miracles.
* Tollii Epistolœ Itineraries, pp. 34 — 35.
f Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, tome i. p. 73.
% Vitruvius {de Archit. lib.iv.) and Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. xxiv.) says that this marvel was projected but not executed. Suidas, Cassiodorus, Isidorus of Seville, and Ausonius speak positively of its existence. According to Ausonius (Eidyllium x. Mosella, vers. 314 — 320.) Dinochares by this means elevated to the vault of the temple, the image of Arsinoe, the wife and sister of Ptolemy Phi- ladelphia : an iron hidden from sight by the hair of the statue
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The attractive power of the magnet was not unknown to the ancients ; but, following the custom adopted for increasing the veil of mystery, they affirmed, and at- tempted to make it generally believed, that this property belonged to one species of magnet only, namely, that of Ethiopia.* We are well aware, in the present day, of the effects displayed by magnetic attraction and repulsion in the exhibitions of experimental philo- sophy ; and let us remember that, in the temples, such performances would have been looked upon as miracles.
Modern Europe claims the discovery of the principle
being attached to a magnet in the summit of the vault. Suidas (verbo Mâyvrjç) speaks of a statue of Serapis which he says was of brass (probably plate copper), and supported by the same arti- fice. Cassiodorus (Variar. lib. i. page 45) and Isidorus {Origen. lib. xvi. cap. 4.) says, that suspended to the vault of one of the temples of Diana, was an iron statue (doubtless of very thin iron plate) which, according to the first of these writers was a statue of Cupid. Isidorus says that it was held there by the power of the magnet, a particular and important feature in the narrative which Cassiodorus passed over in silence. Vitruvius and Pliny being more ancient may have been better informed than the writers of the latter empire : but in order to show that these may not have sinned against probability, it will be only sufficient to state that the statue may have been hollow and light, and the magnet very strong.
The fable which is extensively known touching the coffin of Mahomet, which is said to be suspended to the vault of a mosque, furnishes an example of the inclination which men have of naturalizing among themselves wonders borrowed from a foreign country and religion ; nevertheless a gross counterfeit does not destroy the possibility of a fact, however much it may bear the appearance of improbability.
* Isid. Hispal. Origin, lib. xvi. cap. iv.
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that regulates the compass ;* but this pretension may be contested. A remarkable passage in the Odyssy has inspired an English scholar with a very ingenious conjec- ture on this point. Alcinousf tells Ulysses that the Phocian vessels are regulated and guided by a spirit. Unlike common boats, they require, says he, no helms- man or pilot ; and, in spite of the profound darkness of the night, and the haze, they traverse the ocean with the greatest rapidity, running no risk of being wrecked. Mr. William Cookj explains this passage, by supposing that the Phocians understood the use of the compass, and that they had learnt it from the Phoenicians.
Upon this conjecture we shall offer some observations : Firstly. — His author might rely upon what Homer several times|| says of the swift sailing of the Phocian
* For the sake of some of our readers, it may be necessary to state that the compass consists of a fiat bar of steel, which being repeatedly rubbed with a magnet, and fixed upon a delicate pivot, takes a direction nearly corresponding to the meridian. When used for marine purposes, the needle is placed on a steel pivot, which works in an agate socket let into the centre of the mag- netized bar. A circular card is divided into thirty-two parts, or points, and these subdivided, so as to form three hundred and sixty points at the circumference. It is attached to the needle with its point to the north pole, marked usually by a kind of fleur-de-lis. The whole apparatus is fixed in a circular box, in such a manner that the card and needle are always level, and move freely, and yet so as not to be deranged by sudden concussions. As far as regards Europe, the compass was first used at sea by Sig. B. Givaia, of Naples, in the thirteenth century .—Ed.
t Homer. Odyss. lib, vin. vers. 553 — 563.
% William Cooke. An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, 8çc, in 4to. London, 1754, p. 22.
|| Homer. Odyss. lib. vu. lib. viii. lib. xiii.
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vessels. Directed at large by the compass, their speed must, in fact, have appeared prodigious to navigators accustomed and forced to coast, from the fear of losing sight of land for too long a period.
Secondly. — The figurative style characterising the pas- sage quoted, belongs to a secret which the poet knew only by its results. Homer thus transforms a natural fact into a miracle ; and when he relates that Neptune, un- willing that the Phocians should save more strangers from the perils of the sea, had changed into a rock the vessel which brought back Ulysses to his country, adopts this opinion, the origin of which we have already pointed out,* in order to explain that the art which had rendered navigation so secure was lost from among the subjects of Alcinous.
Thirdly. — That the Phoenicians should have under- stood the use of the compass it is not difficult to believe, particularly when we remember the frequent voyages their navigators made to the British isles : but there is nothing to prove that they communicated this secret to the inhabitants of Corey ra. Homer, who is so exact in collecting all traditions relative to the communication between the ancient Greeks and the East, is silent upon this point. But he informs us that the Phocians dwelt for a long time near the Cyclops, and had but recently separated from them ; and, at the same time, he terms the Cyclops very ingenious men :f an appropriate expres- sion when applied to artists learned in the docimasic and pyrotechnic arts, and who, for more than thirty cen-
* Refer to chap. in. vol. i.
f Homer. Odyss. lib. vu. ver. 4 — 8.
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turies, have left their names on the gigantic monuments of architecture in Italy, Greece, and Asia. We have elsewhere established,* and, perhaps, with some probabi- lity, that the Cyclops, like the Curetés, belonged to a learned tribe, who had come from Asia to civilize and govern some of the Pelasgian nations of Greece. It is not surprising that the Phocians should have profited by the instructions of this caste, before becoming so tired of its despotism as to have separated from it for ever. We can even discern why their good fortune or skill in their voyages ceased soon after this separation. The father of Alcinous had decided upon it ; and under the reign of Alcinous, the Phocians renounced navigation. Might it not have been because the instruments obtained from the liberality of their ancient masters had been destroyed ; and that they were ignorant how to re-con- struct others ?
It remains only to prove that the Cyclops did possess so valuable a knowledge ; a proof which is nearly im- possible.
We only know that they came from Lyciaf into Asia ; but they might have only crossed Lycia, and have come from some more interior country of Asia, like the hyper- borean Olen, when, with hymns and a religious faith, he brought the elements of civilization into Greece.
It was from the extremities of Asia also that there came into Greece and Italy that northern or Scythian Abaris, said to be endowed by the God he worshipped with an arrow, by the assistance of which he could overrun the universe.
* Historical and Philosophical Essay upon the Names of Men, Nations, and Places, § 81. vol. n. pages 161 — 172. f Lycia was a Pelasgian settlement. — Ed,
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It has been poetically said, and repeated by Suidas and Iamblichus, that, by the virtue of this precious gift, Abaris traversed the winds.* This expression has been taken in its strictest sense ; but Iamblichus adds imme- diately afterwards, that " Pythagoras deprived Abaris of the golden arrow with which he steered his course (qua se gubernabat) ; that, having thus robbed him, and having hidden the arrow, without which he was unable to discover the track he should follow, Pythagoras compelled him to explain its nature.f If instead of the pretended arrow, we substitute a magnetic needle of the same form and large dimensions, gilded to preserve it from rust, instead of an absurd fable, we shall have in the narration of Iamblichus a real fact, related by a man who had not penetrated its scientific mystery.
All this, nevertheless, offers us only conjectures more or less probable. Let us quote a fact. The Finns possess a compass which could not possibly have been given to them by Europeans, and the use of which among them can be traced to ages unknown. It presents this pecu- liarity ; — it describes the rising and setting of the sun in summer and winter, in a manner that could only agree with the latitude of 49° 20'4 This latitude crosses in Asia the whole of Tartary, the Scythia of the ancients. It is that under which Bailly was led to place the nation, which might be called " inventors of the sciences ;"|| and
* Suidas, verbo Albaris. — Iamblich. vit. Pythagar. cap. xxvui. See also Herodot. lib. iv. § 36. — Diod. Sic. lib. in. cap. xi.
f Iamblich. loc. cit.
% Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, torn. xvn. p. 414.
|| Bailly. Lettres sur l'Origine des Sciences. — Lettres sur l'At- lantide.
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that, too, in which, as Volney# has remarked, the Boun- dehesch, or fundamental book of the religion of Zoroas- ter, was written. If we follow it, we are conducted in the East to that portion of Tartary, the population of which, sometimes conquerors — sometimes subjects, were yet intimately connected with the Chinese empire. Now, the ancient existence of the compass in China has been denied by no one ;f and we cannot regard as false the tradition, | according to which a Chinese hero, a long time before our era, successfully made use of the magnet to guide his march in the midst of dark- ness.
As the compass was known at the same time among the Chinese and the Finns, it is but natural to recollect that the use of family names, unknown in Europe for so long a period, but existing from antiquity in China, seems to have passed from the latter country to the Samoyedes, the Bashkirs, and the Laplanders. || This extension in the dark ages of so useful and popular an institution, points out
* Volney. Œuvres Complètes, tome iv, pp. 202 — 203.
f The Chinese trace the use of the compass among themselves to the reign of Hoang-ti 2600 years before the year of our Lord. There is mention made of magnetic chariots or bearers of compasses, in the historical Memoirs of Szu-ma-thsian, 1110 years before our era. J. Klaproth. Letter upon the Origin of the Compass. — Bulletin of the Geographical Society, second series, vol. ii. p. 221.
X Abel Remusat. Memoirs upon the Political Relations between the Kings of France and the Mongol Emperors. — Asiatic Journal, vol. i. p. 137. — The Hindoos made use of the compass, and there is nothing to prove that they received it from the Europeans.
|| Eusèbe Salverte. Essai Historique et Philosophique sur les Noms d'Hommes, de Peuples et de Lieux, § 21, torn. pp. 35 —44.
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to us the route which the disciples of the learned caste, the possessors of a secret capable of displaying miracles apparent, useful and brilliant, might possibly have taken in emigrating westward. It renders probable an opinion, which at first might seem chimerical, that the knowledge of the magnet came from the latitude beneath which the religion of Zoroaster sprung,* into those western countries of Asia Minor where this religion was already established, and where it had naturalized the practice of working apparent miracles peculiar to the worshippers of fire.f
* Isidore de Seville. (Origin, lib. xvi. cap. iv.) says that the magnet was first found in India, and consequently received the name of Lapis Indiens ; but this isolated and vague fact does not seem a sufficient reason for us to seek for the origin of the com- pass in Hindustan.
t The idea suggested by the author, that the knowledge of the magnet, consequently of the compass came from the East is inge- nious, and most probably correct. Both, assuredly were known in China, Japan, and India, from a period of high antiquity, although they were unknown to European nations until the twelfth cen- tury. It does not, however, appear that, although the Chinese had long before employed the compass on land, it was not used by them for maritime purposes until the dynasty of Tsin, which ex- isted in a.d. 419; at least there is no direct proof that such was the case. It is stated in the great dictionary, Poi-wen-yeu- fou, that ' ' there were then ships directed to the south by the needle." That it was generally known as a guide at sea, to the Asiatic nations, may be inferred from the following passage con- tained in a M.S. written in 1242, by Baiiak Kibdjaki, and quoted in the Penny Cyclopaedia, (art. History of the Compass.) "The captains who navigate the Syrian sea, when the night is so dark as to conceal from view the stars which might direct their course according to the position of the four Cardinal points, take a basin full of water, which they shelter from the wind b5T placing it in the
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We must hasten to add, in order to forestal objections, in which a natural partiality would be mingled with a
interior of the vessel ; they then drive a needle into a wooden peg or a corn-stalk, so as to form the shape of a cross, and throw it into the basin of water on the surface of which it floats. They afterwards take a loadstone of sufficient size to fill the palm of the hand, or even smaller, bring it to the surface of the water, give to their hands a rotatory motion towards the right, so that the needle turns on the surface of the water : they then suddenly withdraw this hand and the magnet, when the two points of the needle face north and south. They gave me ocular demonstration of this pro- cess during our voyage from Syria to Alexandria in the year 640 (of the Hegira.)" The use made of it on land by the Chinese, for- merly referred to is founded on the following story, connected with the history of a Chinese hero named Tehi-yeou, the truth of which is admitted to be undoubted.
" Tehi-yeou bore the name of Kiann ; he was related to the Emperors Yan-ti. He delighted in war and turmoil. He made swords, lances, and large cross-bows to oppress and devastate the empire. He called and brought together the chiefs of provinces ; his grasping disposition and avarice exceeded all bounds. Yan-ti- wang, unable any longer to keep him in check, ordered him to with- draw himself to Chae-hao, in order that he might detain him in the west. Tehi-yeou, nevertheless, persisted more and more in his perverse conduct. He crossed the river Yang-choui, ascended the Kieounae, and gave battle to the Emperor Yang-ti at Khoung- sang. Yan-ti was Hinan-yuan, the proper name of the Emperor. Houang-ti then collected the forces of the vassals of the empire, and attacked Tehi-yeou in the plains of Tehou-lou. The latter raised a thick fog, in order, that by means of the darkness, he might spread confusion in the enemy's army. But Hinan-yuan constructed a chariot/br indicating the south, in order to distinguish the four cardinal points, by means of which he pursued Tehi-yeou and took him prisoner."1 It appears also that the Chinese used
" Davies' Early History of the Mariner's Compass. — British Annual, 1837.
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just love of truth, that the existence of particular know- ledge in antiquity, and among nations long unknown to us, does not prove that the Europeans did not in modern times really invent the arts and sciences, the discovery of which they claim, and which they have undoubtedly re-discovered. The art of typography is as ancient in Thibet and China as the histories of these countries ; but it is less than four centuries ago since Faust, Schôeffer, and Guttenberg enriched European civilization with it. It is sixteen or seventeen lustres since the progress of science has enabled us to recognise in the narrations of antiquity the art of conducting lightning, re-discovered by Franklin. The learned, per- plexed in determining the precise period of the re-inven- tion of the compass and of gunpowder, have no less difficulty in stating that the use of either has been known over Europe for not more than five or six hundred years. The secrets of Thaumaturgy must have been very numerous, since the learned caste studied the physical sciences only with the view of finding in them, almost with every new discovery, a fresh means of astonishing, alarming, and governing the multitude. If, then, many of these secrets have irrecoverably perished with the priests and the temples, there may be others, the memory of which, entombed in some ancient documents, beneath
the compass for maritime purposes in the third century of the Christian era ; it was also, as stated above, employed on the coast of Syria, before it came into general use in Europe ; and although the Syrian compass was of a very rude construction, yet, it was sufficient for navigating their vessels at night : Vasco de Gama, when he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, found the Indian pilots expert in the use of the compass. — Ed.
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a fabulous covering will some day emerge from their graves, awakened by fortunate events, in effecting the dis- interment of which, without doing less honour to the human mind, their authors will nevertheless be but re- inventors.
We might proffer some specimens of this kind. Chance revealed to Cotugno the first phenomena of galvanism, as accident also afterwards revealed them to Galvani, who has merited the title of the discoverer, from having brought to perfection, by reasoning and investigation, a knowledge at first fortuitous. If chance had enriched some ancient Thaumaturgist with the same discovery, with what apparent miracles would he not have electrified his admirers, even although he had merely limited himself to the first principles of galvanism, and to the experiments, which they might place in his power upon the bodies of animals recently deprived of life.* Even
* Galvanism is a modification of electricity, which is capable of producing on bodies effects not usually obtained from ordinary elec- trical excitation. The first display of its power was noticed by Sub- zer, a German, who found that when a disc of lead is placed under the tongue, and one of silver over the tongue, and the edges of both metals are brought into contact, a peculiar taste is perceived :a but he pursued the inquiry no farther. Other fortuitous incidents after- wards might have led to the discovery, but, for the reason stated in the text, Galvani, Professor of Anatomy at Bologna, is justly regarded as its discoverer. It is unnecessary, here, to enter upon the general phenomena produced, both on organic and inorganic matter, by galvanism : but in order to demonstrate how it might be employed to excite astonishment and even terror ; and, conse- quently become an instrument of power over the ignorant and the superstitious, in periods of less general intellectual cultivation than
* Théorie des Plaisirs, p. 115. VOL. II. S
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in the eighteenth century we have witnessed men who pretended from some internal feeling, or by the aid of a divining rod, to discover the springs concealed in the earth at depths more or less considerable.* Edrisi re- lates that a caravan traversing Northern Africa was
the present, I will only mention a few of its physiological effects. If a piece of tin-foil, attached to the extremity of a wire connected with one pole of a galvanic pile be placed on the tongue, and the bent extremity of another wire from the opposite pole be pressed upon the inner corner of the eye, a flash of light, and a sensation of a blow on the eye will be immediately perceived by the person thus treated. "When a current of galvanism is passed along a nerve to any muscles of voluntary motion, these muscles are thrown into convulsive contraction, even if the animal has been dead for a short time, as long as the muscles retain their irri- tability. Aldini operated on the body of a criminal executed at Newgate, the convulsive movements were such as might have excited a belief that the dead man was restored to the power of sensation ; and, from the terrific expressions of human passion and agony, that he was enduring the most intense suffering. I may again repeat — what extent of power would such experiments have, placed in the hands of those who aimed to deceive the cre- dulous into the conviction that the whole was the result of super- natural agency ; a deception easily effected were the instrument concealed, and the wires only brought into view. — Ed.
* The divining rod is a forked branch of hazel, or even any tree, which, if carried slowly along, loosely suspended in the hand, is said to dip towards the ground when brought over the spot where a mine or a spring is situated. Compared with other divinations, this rod is of recent introduction, and demonstrates that superstitious credence, and impudent imposture, are not con- fined to any age ; and humanity is humbled in beholding men with considerable pretensions to science believers in the powers ascribed to the divining rod. Thevenot published a Memoir on the relation of the phenomena of this rod to those of electricity and magnetism ; and Pryce, our countryman, in his work entitled
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nearly perishing from thirst upon a barren and sandy soil, when one of the travellers, a black Berberi man, taking a little of the earth up and smelling it, pointed out a spot where they might dig and find a spring of water.* His prediction was instantly verified. Place a charlatan in such a situation, he would pride himself upon having performed a miracle, and the gratitude of his companions in danger would support his pretensions.
In the month of August, 1808, an egg was found upon the altar of the Patriarchal Church at Lisbon, bearing upon its shell the sentence of death of all the French, although there did not appear to be traces of the writing being the production of the hand of man. This apparent miracle caused much anxious excitement among the Portuguese, until the French distributed throughout the town, and had placed in all the churches, an immense number of eggs, upon the shells of which the contradiction of this lie was written ; at the same time proclamations were everywhere posted up, explaining the secret of the supposed miracle, which consisted in writing upon the shell, when covered with an oily sub- stance, and then plunging and retaining the egg for some time in an acid.f
By the same method, letters or hieroglyphics can be engraved, either grooved or in relief, upon a table of
Mineralogia Cambriensis, published in 1778, has collected accounts of many successful experiments which he affirms were performed by it. — Ed.
* Edrisi. (traduction française), lib. i. chap. xxn.
f P. Thiebault. Relation de l'Expédition de Portugal, pp. 170 —171.
s 2
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calcareous stone, leaving behind no traces of a mortal hand. Now, the ancients were acquainted with the strong action of vinegar upon such stones, although they have somewhat exaggerated it, by adopting the story which they have recorded in history of the passage of the Alps by Hannibal.*
The area of the base of a vessel compared with its height, whatever may be its form, is the measure of the pressure of the liquid it contains. This principle, which explains the powerful action of the hydrostatic press, may possibly have been known in the ancient temples ; and how easy would it not have rendered the execution of many apparent miracles ? Indeed, is it not very closely resembling a miracle, when the effect produced appears so greatly disproportioned to its actual cause? What more wonderful than the enormous pressure which the small quantity of liquid necessary to produce it causes ?f
Let us descend, however, to the amusements of expe- rimental philosophy. Let us suppose that the ancient Thaumaturgists were acquainted with inventions, the
* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxin. cap. i. and n. — Dion. Cass. lib. xxxvii. cap. viii. — Might not the story this refers to have its origin in some manœuvre employed by Hannibal to restore to his troops that courage which the multiplicity of the obstacles they had to overcome were depriving them of ?
f Without entering into any explanation of the nature of this machine, some idea of its power may be given by simply stating the fact that, in a machine the area of the section of the piston of which is sixty-four inches, that of the valve admitting the water into the cylinder is an eighth of an inch, and the power of the pump applied to it is one ton, the pressure effected by it will be four thousand and ninety-six tons ! — Ed.
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singular effects of which will always astonish the vulgar — the Lachryma Batavica,* for instance, or the Bologna mattrasses;f even the games of children, such as the kaleidoscope,| or those little dolls which, when placed upon musical tables or instruments, move in time, and turn one another round, as in waltzing. || If it be possible to effect wonders by such insignificant means, are we not right in concluding that an immense number of the assumed miracles of antiquity proceeded from similar
* Tears of glass, which may be struck by a hammer upon their spherical surface without breaking, but which fall into powder as soon as the thread which forms the tail of the tear is broken.
f Little pear-shaped bottles of unannealed white glass, within which balls of marble or of ivory may be rolled, without injuring them ; but if a fragment of flint, although no larger than a grain of hemp seed, fall into them, they break in the hand into five or six pieces. These mattrasses and Batavian tears are truly interesting to curiosity ; they are now seldom manufactured ; and when the time arrives, long after they shall have ceased to be made, the account of them will appear a fable, and we shall refuse to believe in their wonderful properties.
X The kaleidescope is a small instrument invented by Sir David Brewster. It consists of a cylindrical tube, containing two reflecting surfaces inclined to each other at any angle which is an aliquot part of 360° ; and having their edges in contact, so as to have the form of a half opened book. When any object is placed in the tube, so as to be reflected by the above surfaces, and the other end of the tube is applied to the eye, and turned round, an ever varying succession of splendid tints and beautiful symmetrical forms are perceived ; sometimes vanishing from the centre, some- times emerging from it, and sometimes playing around it in double and opposite oscillations in the most pleasing manner. — Ed.
|| This game was known, when invented, under the name of danso-musicomanes.
262 PHYSICAL SCIENCE AFFORDS AID TO MAGIC.
causes ? The means are lost, but the remembrance of the effects remain ?
We might multiply such suppositions, but we think we have said enough to attain our object. Setting aside everything belonging to sleight of hand, to imposture, or the illusions of the imagination, there are none of the ancient apparent miracles that may not be re-produced by any person well versed in the modern science, either immediately, or by applying himself to penetrate the mystery, and discover the causes. Modern science also affords facility for operating other apparent miracles, not less numerous nor less brilliant than those contained in history.
The observation of what modern jugglers are able to effect, tends, in a great degree, to explain many of the magical operations of the ancients.
CONCLUSION, 263