Part 12

Coral reefs are produced by innumerable small zoophytes, properly called _Coral-insects_. The Coral insect consists of a little oblong bag of jelly closed at one end, but having the other extremity open, and surrounded by tentacles or feelers, usually six or eight in number, set like the rays of a star. Multitudes of these diminutive animals unite to form a common stony skeleton called _Coral_, or _Madrepore_, in the minute openings of which they live, protruding their mouths and tentacles when under water; but suddenly drawing them into their holes when danger approaches. These animals cannot exist at a greater depth in the sea than about ten fathoms, and as the Coral Islands often rise with great steepness from a sea more than three hundred fathoms deep, it would seem that a great alteration must have taken place in the depth of the ocean since the time when these little architects commenced their labours. Throughout the whole range of the Polynesian and Australasian islands, there is scarcely a league of sea unoccupied by a coral reef, or a coral island; the former springing up to the surface of the water, perpendicularly from the fathomless bottom, "deeper than did ever plummet sound;" and the latter in various stages, from the low and naked rock, with the water rippling over it, to an uninterrupted forest of tall trees.

"Every one," says Mr. Darwin, "must be struck with astonishment when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral rock, often many leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green colour. The naturalist will feel this astonishment more deeply after having examined the soft and almost gelatinous bodies of these apparently insignificant creatures; and when he knows that the solid reef increases only on the outer edge, which, day and night, is lashed by the breakers of an ocean never at rest."

Coral being beautiful in form and colour, is sought after for purposes of ornament; and its fishery or gathering gives employment to many persons in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, and other places. In the Straits of Messina, the rocks which yield coral are from about 350 to 650 feet below the surface of the water. The coral here grows to about the height or length of twelve inches, and requires eight or ten years to come to perfection. In the general mode of fishing for coral, the instrument used consists of two heavy beams of wood, secured together at right angles, and loaded with stones to sink them.

MILITARY HATS IN OLDEN TIME.

WHY A MAN MEASURES MORE IN THE MORNING THAN IN THE EVENING, &c.

There is an odd phenomenon attending the human body, as singular as common: that a person is shorter standing than lying; and shorter in the evening when he goes to bed, than in the morning when he rises.

This remark was first made in England, and afterwards confirmed at Paris, by M. Morand, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in France, and by the Abbot Fontana likewise.

The last-mentioned person found, from a year's experience, that ordinarily in the night he gained five or six lines, and lost nearly as much in the day.

The cause of which effect, so ancient, so common, but so lately perceived, proceeds from the different state or condition of the intervertebral annular cartilages.

The vertebrae, or joints of the spine, are kept separate, though joined by particular cartilages, every one of which has a spring. These yield on all sides, without any inflexion on the spine, to the weight of the head and upper extremities; but this is done by very small and imperceptible degrees, and most of all when the upper parts of the body are loaded with any exterior weight. So that a man is really taller after lying some time, than after walking, or carrying a burthen a great while.

For this reason it is that, in the day and evening, while one is sitting or standing, the superior parts of the body that weigh or press upon the inferior, press those elastic annular cartilages, the bony jointed work is contracted, the superior parts of the body descend towards the inferior, and proportionably as one approaches the other, the height of the stature diminishes.

Hence it was, that a fellow enlisting for a soldier, by being measured over-night, was found deficient in height, and therefore refused; but by accident being gauged again the next morning, and coming up to the stature, he was admitted.

On the contrary, in the night-time, when the body is laid a-bed, as it is in an horizontal situation, or nearly so, the superior parts do not weigh, or but very little, upon the inferior; the spring of the cartilages is unbent, the vertebrae are removed from one another, the long jointed work of the spine is dilated, and the body thereby prolonged; so that a person finds himself about half an inch, or more, higher in stature in the morning than when going to bed. This is the most natural and simple reason that can be given, for the different heights of the same person at different times.

A SENSIBLE DOG REFUSING TO BAIT A CAT.

A dustman of the name of Samuel Butcher, residing at Mile-end, who kept a large dog, having taken it into his head to divert himself and others, a few days ago, by the cruel sport of cat baiting, which the dog refusing to perform to the satisfaction of his master, was beat by him in a most brutal manner, when the animal at length, in retaliation, flew at his unmerciful keeper, and inflicted very severe wounds about his face, limbs, and body, in some instances tearing large mouthfuls of his flesh quite clean out, and at one time clung so fast to the man, that before he disengaged from him the animal's throat was obliged to be cut. The man was promptly conveyed to the London Hospital, and there died of the injuries he received.

A HORSE GETTING HIMSELF SHOD.

A horse having been turned into a field by its owner, Mr. Joseph Lane, of Fascombe, in the parish of Ashelworth, was missed therefrom the next morning, and the usual inquiries set afoot, as to what could have become of him. He had, it seems, been shod (all fours) a few days before, and _as usual_ got pinched in a foot. Feeling, no doubt, a lively sense of proper shoeing, and desirous of relieving the cause of pain, he contrived to unhang the gate of his pasture with his mouth, and make the best of his way to the smithy, a distance of a mile and a half from Fascombe, waiting respectfully at the door until the bungling _artist_ got up. The smith relates that he found him there at opening his shed; that the horse advanced to the forge and held up his ailing foot; and that he himself, upon examination, discovered the injury, took off the shoe, and replaced it more carefully, which having done, the sagacious creature set off at a merry pace homewards. Soon after, Mr. Lane's servants passed by the forge in quest of the animal, and upon inquiry, received for answer--"Oh, he has been here and got shod, and is gone home again."

MAN WITHOUT HANDS.

The following account is extracted from a letter sent to the Rev. Mr. Wesley by a person named Walton, dated Bristol, October 14, 1788:--

"I went with a friend to visit this man, who highly entertained us at breakfast, by putting his half-naked foot upon the table as he sat, and carrying his tea and toast between his great and second toe to his mouth, with as much facility as if his foot had been a hand, and his toes fingers. I put half a sheet of paper upon the floor, with a pen and ink-horn: he threw off his shoes as he sat, took the ink-horn in the toes of his left foot, and held the pen in those of his right. He then wrote three lines, as well as most ordinary writers, and as swiftly. He writes out all his own bills, and other accounts. He then showed how he shaves himself with a razor in his toes, and how he combs his own hair. He can dress and undress himself, except buttoning his clothes. He feeds himself, and can bring both his meat or his broth to his mouth, by holding the fork or spoon in his toes. He cleans his own shoes; can clean the knives, light the fire, and do almost every other domestic business as well as any other man. He can make his hen-coops. He is a farmer by occupation; he can milk his own cows with his toes, and cut his own hay, bind it up in bundles, and carry it about the field for his cattle. Last winter he had eight heifers constantly to fodder. The last summer he made all his own hay-ricks. He can do all the business of the hay-field (except mowing), as fast and as well, with only his feet, as others can with rakes and forks. He goes to the field and catches his horse; he saddles and bridles him with his feet and toes. If he has a sheep among his flock that ails anything, he can separate it from the rest, drive it into a corner, and catch it when nobody else can. He then examines it, and applies a remedy to it. He is so strong in his teeth, that he can lift ten pecks of beans with them. He can throw a great sledge-hammer as far with his feet as other men can with their hands. In a word, he can nearly do as much without, as others can with, their arms. He began the world with a hen and chicken; with the profit of these he purchased an ewe; the sale of these procured him a ragged colt (as he expressed it) and then a better; after this he raised a few sheep, and now occupies a small farm."

THE THIEF CAUGHT IN HIS OWN TRAP.

A man having, some years since, stolen a sheep at Mitcham, in Surrey, tied its hind legs together, and put them over his forehead to carry it away, but in getting over a gate the sheep, it is thought, struggled, and, by a sudden spring, slipped its feet down to his throat; for they were found in that posture, the sheep hanging on one side of this gate and the man dead on the other.

COSTUME OF THE LADIES IN THE TIME OF THE PLANTAGENETS.

The ladies' costume may be seen to advantage in the annexed engraving from the Sloane MSS., No. 3983. A wimple or gorget is wrapped round the neck, and is fastened by pins at the sides of the face, which are covered above the ears; a gown of capacious size, unconfined at the waist and loose in the sleeves, trails far behind in the dirt. The under-garment, which is darker, has sleeves that fit closely; and it appears to be turned over, and pinned up round the bottom. The unnecessary amount of stuff that was used in ladies' robes rendered them obnoxious to the satirists of that period.

In Mr. Wright's collection of Latin stories, published by the Percy Society, there is one of the fourteenth century, which is so curious an instance of monkish satire, and is so apt an illustration of the cut before us, that I cannot resist presenting it to my readers. It runs thus:--

"_Of a Proud Woman._--I have heard of a proud woman who wore a white dress with a long train, which, trailing behind her, raised a dust as far as the altar and the crucifix. But, as she left the church, and lifted up her train on account of the dirt, a certain holy man saw a devil laughing; and having adjured him to tell why he laughed, the devil said, "A companion of mine was just now sitting on the train of that woman, using it as if it were his chariot, but when she lifted her train up, my companion was shaken off into the dirt: and that is why I was laughing."

CORPULENT MAN. NOTTINGHAM, 1819.

November 10.--Death of Mr. Henry Bucknall, confectioner, Chandlers-lane, aged forty-nine. He was excessively corpulent, weighing more than twenty-five stone, and died very suddenly, immediately after eating a hearty breakfast. In Lord Howe's memorable engagement, on the 1st of June, 1794, he had served as a marine on board the Brunswick. His interment, at St. Mary's New Burial-ground, on the 14th, drew together a large concourse of spectators. The coffin was of enormous size, and nearly equalled the body in weight. It was made of excellent oak, was 6 feet 8 inches in length, and 2 feet 11 inches across the breast; the bottom was 2-1/2 inches thick, the sides 1-1/2, and the lid 1. The whole, including the body, considerably exceeded five hundred-weight.

TAKING A MAN TO PIECES AND SETTING HIM UP AGAIN.

"Don John, of Austria," says Staveley, "Governor of the Netherlands for Philip the 2d of Spain, dying at his camp at Buge (Bouges, a mile from Namur), was carried from thence to the great church at Havre, where his funeral was solemnised, and a monument to posterity erected for him there by Alexander Farnese, the Prince of Parma. Afterwards his body was taken to pieces, and the bones, packed in mails, were privately carried into Spain, where being set together with small wires, the body was rejointed again, which being filled or stuffed with cotton, and richly habited, Don John was presented to the king entire, leaning on his commander's staff. Afterwards the corpse being carried to the church of St. Laurence, at the Escurial, was there buried near his father, Charles V., with a fitting monument for him."

ORNAMENTS OF FEMALE DRESS IN THE TIMES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

Fig. 1 is a necklace of beads, each bead being cut so as to represent a group of several, and give the effect of many small round beads to what are in reality long and narrow ones. Fig. 2 is a necklace of simpler construction, consisting of a row of rudely-shaped beads, its centre being remarkable for containing a rude attempt at representing a human face, the only thing of the kind Hoare discovered of so ancient a date in Britain. Fig. 3 is another necklace, consisting of a series of curious little shells, like the hirlas horn used by the Britons, which are perforated lengthways, and thus strung together. Fig. 4 is a pin of iron, supposed to have been used as a fastening for a mantle; it is ornamented with two movable rings. Fig. 5 is a small gold ornament, checkered like a chessboard, and suspended from a chain of beautiful workmanship, which, in taste and execution, bears a striking similarity to our modern curb-chains. Fig. 6 is an ear-ring, a bead suspended from a twisted wire of gold. Fig. 7 is a brass ornament, and Fig. 8 a similar one of gold: such ornaments are usually found upon the breasts of the exhumed skeletons of our barrows, and were probably fastened on their clothes as ornaments. Their cruciform character might lead to a doubt of their high antiquity, if we were not aware of the fact, that the symbol of the cross was worn, as an amulet or ornament, ages before the Christian era.

LARGE EEL.

Lately, near Malden, an eel was taken, measuring _five feet six inches in length, seventeen in girth_, and weighing _26 pounds_, the largest of the species ever caught, or described in natural history.

PERSEVERING DOG.

A boast being made of the obedience of a Newfoundland dog in fetching and carrying, the master put a marked shilling under a large square stone by the road side, and, having ridden on three miles, ordered the dog to go back and fetch it. The dog set off, but did not return the whole day. He had gone to the place, and being unable to turn the stone, sat howling by it. Two horsemen came by and saw his distress, and one of them alighting removed the stone, and finding the shilling, put it in his pocket, not supposing that the dog could possibly be looking for that. The dog followed the horses for upwards of twenty miles, stayed in the room where they supped, got into the bed-room, got the breeches in which the fatal shilling had been put, made his escape with them, and dragged them through mud and mire, hedge and ditch, to his master's house.

CURE FOR CORPULENCE.

A few years ago, a man of about forty years of age, hired himself as a labourer, in one of the most considerable ale-breweries in the City: at this time he was a personable man; stout, active, and not fatter than a moderate-sized man in high health should be. His chief occupation was to superintend the working of the new beer, and occasionally to set up at night to watch the sweet-wort, an employment not requiring either activity or labour; of course, at these times, he had an opportunity of tasting the liquor, of which, it appears, he always availed himself; besides this, he had constant access to the new beer. Thus leading a quiet inactive life, he began to increase in bulk, and continued to enlarge, until, in a very short time, he became of such an unwieldy size, as to be unable to move about, and was too big to pass up the brewhouse staircase; if by any accident he fell down, he was unable to get up again without help. The integuments of his face hung down to the shoulders and breast: the fat was not confined to any particular part, but diffused over the whole of his body, arms, legs, &c., making his appearance such as to attract the attention of all who saw him. He left this service to go into the country, being a burthen to himself, and totally useless to his employers. About two years afterwards he called upon his old masters in very different shape to that above described, being reduced in size nearly half, and weighing little more than ten stone. The account that he gave of himself was, that as soon as he had quitted the brewhouse he went into Bedfordshire, where having soon spent the money he had earned, and being unable to work, he was brought into such a state of poverty, as to be scarcely able to obtain the sustenance of life, often being a whole day without food; that he drank very little, and that was generally water. By this mode of living he began to diminish in size, so as to be able to walk about with tolerable ease. He then engaged himself to a farmer, with whom he stayed a considerable time, and in the latter part of his service he was able to go through very hard labour, being sometimes in the field ploughing and following various agricultural concerns, for a whole day, with no other food than a small pittance of bread and cheese. This was the history he gave of the means by which this extraordinary change was brought about. He added, his health had never been so good as it then was.

WORSHIP OF THE SUN AND MOON.

The Sun was first worshipped, probably, as a bright manifestation of God, but soon began to be regarded as the Deity himself. The Moon, in the absence of the Sun, and next in splendour, would succeed it in superstitious attention. And so we find the Romans, as well as the Saxons, dedicating the first and second days of the week respectively to these "great lights." Formerly, festivals were held on the appearance of a New Moon; and in some parts of England it is still customary to bless it, and in Scotland at the same time to drop a courtesy. And in times not long past, the influence of the Moon was considered to be so great as to regulate the growth of air, and the effect of medicine, and to cause steeples and other elevated buildings to bend from their upright positions.

A SEA ABOVE THE SKY.

This belief is curiously illustrated by two legendary stories preserved by Gervase of Tilbury. "One Sunday," he says, "the people of a village in England were coming out of church on a thick cloudy day, when they saw the anchor of a ship hooked to one of the tombstones; the cable, which was tightly stretched, hanging down from the air. The people were astonished, and while they were consulting about it, suddenly they saw the rope move as though some one laboured to pull up the anchor. The anchor, however, still held fast by the stone, and a great noise was suddenly heard in the air, like the shouting of sailors. Presently a sailor was seen sliding down the cable for the purpose of unfixing the anchor; and when he had just loosened it, the villagers seized hold of him, and while in their hands he quickly died, just as though he had been drowned. About an hour after, the sailors above, hearing no more of their comrade, cut the cable and sailed away. In memory of this extraordinary event, the people of the village made the hinges of the church doors out of the iron of the anchor, and 'there they are still to be seen.'--At another time, a merchant of Bristol set sail with his cargo for Ireland. Some time after this, while his family were at supper, a knife suddenly fell in through the window on the table. When the husband returned, he saw the knife, declared it to be his own, and said that on such a day, at such an hour, while sailing in an unknown part of the sea, he dropped the knife overboard, and the day and hour were known to be exactly the time when it fell through the window. These accidents, Gervase thinks, are a clear proof of there being a sea above hanging over us."--_St. Patrick's Purgatory. By Thos. Wright._ 1844.

THE PAPYRUS.

Paper as we now have it, that is to say, paper made of the pulp of fibrous materials, pressed into thin sheets, dried, and, when intended for writing or printing purposes, sized, is of comparatively modern introduction to Europe and Western Asia; although the Chinese appear to have formed paper out of silk pulp, mixed with the inner pith of the bamboo, as early at least as 95 A.D.:--not from time immemorial, as some authors have stated, because the circumstance is well attested, that in the time of Confucius, the Chinese wrote with a style on the inner bark of trees.

Before the invention of paper, the surfaces employed for writing upon were numerous. Surfaces of lead or other metal; tables covered with wax, skins of animals,--(parchment in fact)--all were used; but no one of these was ever so extensively employed as the Egyptian papyrus, whenever the latter material could be obtained. So soon, however, as the Saracens in the seventh century conquered Egypt, the exportation of papyrus was at an end; and writing surfaces became so scarce in Europe that many ancient documents of great value were erased in order to render them adapted for being written on once more. Thus perished many treasures of antiquity.

As the Saracens closed the avenue of supply for the ancient papyrus, so they compensated to Europe for this deprivation by discovering the manufacture of ordinary paper--at least paper made in the ordinary modern fashion,--though the material was cotton, not linen. This discovery was made some time anterior to the year 706 A.D., for at that period a manufactory of paper existed at Samarcand. In the eighth century the Saracens conquered Spain, and introduced into the Peninsula, amongst other arts, that of the manufacture of paper, which art was a long time finding its way into other parts of Europe,--in Italy not until the eleventh or twelfth century. The vast amount of papyrus which must have been employed in Italy, may be inferred from the number of rolls or _scapi_ of this substance discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii; also from a perusal of many existing documents bearing directly or indirectly on this branch of commerce. Even so late as the commencement of the sixth century, Cassiodorus congratulated the world on the abolition, by King Theodoric, of the high duty on papyrus from Egypt; and he spoke in high flown terms of the great utility of the material. The latest papyrus roll known is of the twelfth century, containing a brief of Pope Paschal II., in favour of the Archiepiscopal see of Ravenna.