text:
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/380

 1814. 31. ‘Ode to Catherine the Great, 21 Jan. 1785,’ translated 1815. 32. ‘Episodes from the Shah Nameh, by Ferdoosee. Translated into English Verse,’ 1815. 33. ‘Chinese Poem inscribed on Porcelain [A.D. 1776]. With a Double Translation and Notes,’ 1816. 34. ‘Two Sketches of France, Belgium, and Spa, 1771 and 1816,’ 1817. 35. ‘La Scava: an Excavation of a Roman Villa on the Hill of Chatelet, 1772. With a journey to the Simplon and Mont Blanc’ (anon.), 1818. 36. ‘Nyg,’ 1818. 37. ‘Enchiridion Romæ: the Buildings, Pictures, &c., of Rome,’ 1819. 38. ‘Extracts from a Journal, June to September, 1819 [on France, Belgium, and Germany, anon.],’ 1820. 39. ‘Chinese Chronicle by Abdalla of Beyza. Translated from the Persian,’ 1820. 40. ‘Tareek Kataice: Chinese Chronology,’ 1820. 41. ‘Voyages of Hiram and Solomon,’ 1821. 42. ‘A Trimester in France and Switzerland, July to October 1820. By an Oxonian,’ 1821. 43. ‘Visit to Vaucluse in May 1821. By the Author of the “Trimester,”’ 1822. 44. ‘Petrarchiana; Additions to the “Visit to Vaucluse,”’ 1822. 45. ‘Catechism’ of 1589; reprinted 1823. 46. ‘Annotations on the Psalms,’ 1824, 47. ‘The Englishman Abroad: pt. i. Greece, Latium, Persia, and China; pt. ii. Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal,’ 1824, a medley of pieces in prose and verse, with translations. 48. ‘Historic Notices of Towns in Greece and other Countries that have struck Coins,’ 1826; 2nd edit. 1827. 49. ‘Short Recollections in a Journey to Pæstum,’ 1828.

Weston contributed many articles to the ‘Archæologia’ on coins and medals between 1798 and 1818, and supplied notes, signed ‘S. W.,’ to Johnson and Steevens's ‘Shakspeare’ (1793), and to the new edition (1802) by S. Rousseau of John Richardson's ‘Specimen of Persian Poetry: or Odes of Hafiz.’ He was a contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ to Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (see ix. 44, 496), and to the ‘Classical Journal,’ and he supplied poems, signed ‘W. N.,’ to the two volumes of ‘Poems, chiefly by Gentlemen of Devon and Cornwall,’ 1792. Auction catalogues of the ‘remaining portion of his library’ and of his ‘Greek and Roman coins and medals’ were issued in 1830. Among the books of the Kerrich bequest, which was rejected by the university of Cambridge, was ‘a complete collection of Stephen Weston's tracts, many of them of the greatest rarity, given by the author himself to Mr. Kerrich’ (, Henry Bradshaw, p. 183).

[Boase's Exeter College Fellows, ed. 1894, p. 151; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gent. Mag. 1790 i. 179, 1830 i. 370–3; Notes and Gleanings, v. 6–9 (by R. W. C., i.e. Cotton, who possessed a bulky volume of his Collectanea); Polwhele's Devon, ii. 36; Watson's Porson, pp. 44–5.]  WESTON, THOMAS (d. 1643?), merchant and colonist, was in 1619 in close correspondence with the leaders of the English congregation at Leyden, and especially with John Robinson (1576?–1625) [q. v.], their minister. In the spring of 1620 he went to Leyden, and, finding the exiles negotiating with the merchants of Amsterdam with a view to their emigrating to New Amsterdam, he persuaded them to break off these negotiations, ‘and not to meddle with the Dutch or depend too much on the Virginia Company,’ for he and some other merchants, his friends, ‘would set them forth,’ and provide for them such shipping and money as they needed. Robinson, John Carver [q. v.], William Bradford (1590–1657) [q. v.], and the other leaders of the party believed that he was actuated by a sincere and religious sympathy with their cause, and followed his suggestions. The rigorous conditions to which he forced them to agree were passed as for the satisfaction of Weston's associates; but Carver, on arriving in England to conclude the necessary arrangements, found that little was done, and that, practically, Weston refused to advance the money unless he had the autocratic direction of the whole. The assistance which he finally gave them was much less than he had promised, and the ‘pilgrims’ were reduced to very great straits for the prosecution of their voyage.

In November 1621 the Fortune, a small vessel of fifty-five tons, came out from Weston to the colonists at Plymouth; but, though she was sent back with a cargo of clap-boards and beaver-skins to the value of 500l., Weston had thrown his old friends over, and resolved to send out a separate colony on his own venture. In this there was no pretence at any religious motive. It was for the simple advancement of Weston's interests, and the colonists were the scum and outcasts of civilisation. The council for New England petitioned against this as an infringement of their charter (, Genesis of the United States, 31 May and 5 July 1622); but the expedition set out under the government of Richard Greene, Weston's brother-in-law, and arrived at Plymouth, where they remained two months, wasting their stores in idleness. Greene died, and, under the rule of one Saunders, they finally settled at a place afterwards known as Weymouth, near Bos-


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/128

 brain, and over the whole muscular system, immediately; putting all the muscles into a state of contraction, as much as may be, i.e. making the strongest set of muscles everywhere overpower the weaker, for a certain time, and then give place to them for a certain other time, and so on alternately. Since therefore the muscles of expiration are stronger than those of inspiration, the air will be forced strongly out of the thorax through the larynx, and, by consequence, yield a sound. It contributes to this, that the muscles of the os hyoides and larynx, acting all together, and drawing different ways, must suspend the cartilages of the larynx, so as both to narrow the passage of the air, and also render these cartilages more susceptible of vibrations. As to the muscles which contract and dilate the larynx, they are perhaps about equal in strength to each other, and therefore may, by opposing each other, keep the chink in a state intermediate between its least and greatest dilatation.

That the strongest set of antagonist muscles overpower the weaker, during the great effort in crying, may farther appear from the action of the extensors of the neck, and flexors of the hand (both which sets are stronger than their antagonists), at that time.

If it be objected here, that the elevators of the lower jaw, being stronger than the depressors, ought to keep the mouth shut during the action of crying, according to the foregoing reasoning, whereas the contrary always happens; I answer, first, that when both these sets of muscles act at the same time, in proportion to their natural strength, the mouth ought to be a little opened; secondly, that the vibrations which take place in the cartilages of the larynx seem to impart a peculiar degree of force to all the neighbouring muscles, i.e. to the depressors of the lower jaw; and, thirdly, that the muscles which pass from the larynx and os hyoides to the lower jaw act to an advantage in drawing it down, in the present case, because the os hyoides is at this time fixed by its other muscles.

The distortions of the face, which happen previously to crying, and during the course of it, seem to be sufficiently agreeable to the notions here advanced; the muscles, which draw the lips from each other, being much stronger, than those which close them.

The manner in which titillation occasions laughter in its automatic state, has been already explained. We may add here, that touching the cheeks of young children gently will excite smiling.

Friction also occasions many automatic motions in young children, as may be observed when their naked bodies, or hairy scalps, are rubbed by the nurse’s hand; the motion being determined in these cases, as appears, by the strength and vicinity of the muscles.

The contraction of the hand in young children, which has been taken notice of already, may be excited by titillation, friction, and almost any impression on the palm; and is to be deduced

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/128


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/113

Rh Thus Muir was always discovering to me things which I would never have seen myself and opening up to me new avenues of knowledge, delight and adoration. There was something so intimate in his theism that it purified, elevated and broadened mine, even when I could not agree with him. His constant exclamation when a fine landscape would burst upon our view, or a shaft of light would pierce the clouds and glorify a mountain, was, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" Two or three great adventures stand out prominently in this wonderful voyage of discovery. Two weeks from home brought us to Icy Straits and the homes of the Hoonah tribe. Here the knowledge of the way on the part of our crew ended. We put into the large Hoonah village on Chichagof Island. After the usual preaching and census-taking, we took


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/129

 partly from the superior strength of the flexors here, partly from the exquisite sensibility of the palm. The contraction of the foot from impressions made on the sole is analogous to that of the hand. It may not perhaps be amiss to add here, that the cellular substance intervenes less between the skin and subjacent muscles in the scalp, palm, and sole, than in other parts, as appears both from anatomical inspection and emphysemas; and that this may increase the influence of the impressions on these parts over the subjacent muscles.

has been done, in some measure, already, in respect of the actions of crying, and contracting the hand, and their derivatives, speaking and handling; and will be done more completely hereafter in a proposition appropriated to the distinct consideration of the motions that are perfectly voluntary. I have therefore inserted the present proposition chiefly for the sake of regularity, and that the reader might have in one short view, from the propositions of this section, all the principal heads of inquiry relating to the sense of feeling.

It may not, however, be improper here to observe, that the great variety of frictions, flexures, and positions, which nurses give to young children, make a proportional variety of combinations of muscles which act together; and that these, by opposing the natural ones from juxtaposition, derivation of nerves, &c. to a certain degree, prepare the way for such voluntary combinations as are requisite in the future incidents of life.

Section II
OF THE SENSE OF TASTE.

taste may be distinguished into two kinds, as before observed of feeling; viz. the particular exquisite one, which resides in the tongue, and especially in the tip of it; and the general one, which extends itself to the insides of the lips and cheeks, to the palate, fauces, œsophagus, stomach, and whole alimentary duct, quite down to the anus; the sensibility growing

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/129


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/114

100 aboard a sub-chief of the Hoonahs, who was a noted seal hunter and, therefore, able to guide us among the ice-floes of the mysterious Glacier Bay of which we had heard. Vancouver's chart gave us no intimation of any inlet whatever; but the natives told of vast masses of floating ice, of a constant noise of thunder when they crashed from the glaciers into the sea; and also of fearsome bays and passages full of evil spirits which made them very perilous to navigate. In one bay there was said to be a giant devil-fish with arms as long as a tree, lurking in malignant patience, awaiting the passage that way of an unwary canoe, when up would flash those terrible arms with their thousand suckers and, seizing their prey, would drag down the men to the bottom of the sea, there to be mangled and devoured by the


text:
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/381

Weston ston. Here many of them died of sickness, and the rest were threatened by the Indians with extermination—a fate from which they were rescued by a party from Plymouth led by Myles Standish [q. v.] Shortly afterwards Weston himself arrived in borrowed clothes, having lost everything, and was obliged to beg a small stock of beaver to set up in trade. Presently Robert Gorges [see under ] came out with a royal commission as lieutenant-governor of the district, and, conceiving Weston to be an interloper, had him arrested. Bradford obtained his release, and he was eventually permitted to return to England. He is said to have died at Bristol during the civil war.

[Little, if anything, is known of Weston beyond what is told by Bradford in his History of Plymouth Plantation (collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc., 4th ser. vol. iii.). All other relations—Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, Prince's Chronological Hist. of New England, Hubbard's General History of New England—are merely repetitions of Bradford's story, and necessarily tinged by Bradford's bitterness towards the man.]  WESTON, THOMAS (1737–1776), actor, was son of Thomas Weston, a cook to George II. He obtained a place under his father as turnbroach, but, on account of indolence and riotous conduct, was discharged and sent to sea as a midshipman on board the Warspite (74 guns). Finding the life on shipboard wholly distasteful, he is reported to have escaped by means of a stratagem and to have joined a theatrical company playing in the environs of London. After incurring the customary and, as it appears, inevitable experiences of poverty and hardship of the strolling comedian, he found his way to Bartholomew Fair, probably about 1759, and acted at a booth kept by Shuter and Yates, his future associates. He is first traced in London on 28 Sept. 1759, when, for the benefit of Charlotte Charke [q. v.] at the Haymarket, he played Sir Francis Gripe in the ‘Busybody.’ This same autumn he married a milliner in the Haymarket, whom he brought on to the stage, where she made some slight name as an actress. The following year, under Foote, at the same house, he was Dick in the ‘Minor.’ In the autumn of 1760 he was a member of the Smock Alley company, Dublin, where he made his first appearance as Fondlewife in the ‘Old Bachelor,’ and was received with favour as the Lying Valet, Cymon in ‘Damon and Phillida,’ Old Man in ‘Lethe,’ Daniel in the ‘Conscious Lovers,’ Clown in ‘Measure for Measure,’ Old Woman in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ and other parts. At this time even he showed the peculiar naïveté and simplicity for which he became subsequently renowned.

After parting from his wife by mutual consent, Weston appeared at Drury Lane in the summer of 1761, under the management of Foote and Murphy, in several original parts: Brush in Murphy's ‘All in the Wrong’ on 15 June, Dapper in Murphy's ‘Citizen’ on 2 July, and Doctor in Thomas Bentley's ‘Wishes, or Harlequin's Mouth opened,’ on the 27th. This last piece, founded, it is said, on ‘Les Trois Souhaits’ of La Fontaine, had been rehearsed by the company at Lord Melcombe's villa, subsequently Brandenburgh House. Under the regular management at Drury Lane he was seen as Polonius to the Hamlet of Garrick on 14 Oct., and subsequently as Jeremy in ‘Love for Love,’ Butler in the ‘Drummer,’ Charino in ‘Love makes a Man,’ and Shallow in ‘Merry Wives of Windsor.’

In July 1763, at the Haymarket, he achieved the greatest success hitherto attained in the part of Jerry Sneak, a henpecked husband, written expressly for him by Foote, in the latter's ‘Mayor of Garratt.’ Back at Drury Lane, he played Foresight in ‘Love for Love,’ Abel Drugger in the ‘Alchemist,’ Maiden in ‘Tunbridge Walks,’ Nicodemus Somebody in the ‘Stage Coach,’ and Sharp in the ‘Lying Valet.’ At the Haymarket in 1764 he was the first Rust, an antiquary, in Foote's ‘Patron.’ During the two following years his name is not found in London bills.

On 23 Oct. 1766 he reappeared at Drury Lane as the Sexton in ‘Much Ado about Nothing,’ and he played during the season Tester in the ‘Suspicious Husband,’ a part unnamed in the ‘Rehearsal,’ the Maid in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ Old Man in ‘Lethe,’ and Feeble in the ‘Second Part of King Henry IV.’ He was, presumably, the first Jackides in the ‘Tailors’ at the Haymarket on 2 July 1767, played Filch in the ‘Beggar's Opera,’ the Schoolboy in the piece so named, and one of the pupils on Foote's revival of his ‘Orators.’ Foote, having recovered from the loss of his leg, continued his management of the Haymarket, at which house Weston was the original Dr. Last in Foote's ‘Devil upon Two Sticks’ on 30 May 1768, the same character in Bickerstaffe's ‘Dr. Last in his Chariot’ on 31 Aug. 1769, Jack in Foote's ‘Lame Lover’ on 27 Aug. 1770, Billy Button in Foote's ‘Maid of Bath’ on 26 June 1771, and Abel Drugger in Francis Gentleman's ‘Tobacconist’ on 22 July. In 1770 he is said to have accom-


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/115

Rh horrid beak. Another deep fiord was the abode of Koosta-kah, the Otter-man, the mischievous Puck of Indian lore, who was waiting for voyagers to land and camp, when he would seize their sleeping forms and transport them a dozen miles in a moment, or cradle them on the tops of the highest trees. Again there was a most rapacious and ferocious killer-whale in a piece of swift water, whose delight it was to take into his great, tooth-rimmed jaws whole canoes with their crews of men, mangling them and gulping them down as a single mouthful. Many were these stories of fear told us at the Hoonah village the night before we started to explore the icy bay, and our credulous Stickeens gave us rather broad hints that it was time to turn back. "There are no natives up in that region; there is nothing to hunt;


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/116

102 there is no gold there; why do you persist in this cultus coly (aimless journey)? You are likely to meet death and nothing else if you go into that dangerous region."

All these stories made us the more eager to explore the wonders beyond, and we hastened away from Hoonah with our guide aboard. A day's sail brought us to a little, heavily wooded island near the mouth of Glacier Bay. This we named Pleasant Island. As we broke camp in the morning our guide said: "We must take on board a supply of dry wood here, as there is none beyond." Leaving this last green island we steered northwest into the great bay, the country of ice and bare rocks. Muir's excitement was increasing every moment, and as the majestic arena opened before us and the Muir, Geicke, Pacific and other great glaciers (all nameless as yet)


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/117

Rh began to appear, he could hardly contain himself. He was impatient of any delay, and was constantly calling to the crew to redouble their efforts and get close to these wonders. Now the marks of recent glaciation showed plainly. Here was a conical island of gray granite, whose rounded top and symmetrical shoulders were worn smooth as a Scotch monument by grinding glaciers. Here was a great mountain slashed sheer across its face, showing sharp edge and flat surface as if a slab of mountain size had been sawed from it. Yonder again loomed a granite range whose huge breasts were rounded and polished by the resistless sweep of that great ice mass which Vancouver saw filling the bay.

Soon the icebergs were charging down upon us with the receding tide and dressing up in compact phalanx


text:
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/382

 panied Foote to Edinburgh, and to have appeared there as Launcelot Gobbo. In the autumn of 1771 he was with Tate Wilkinson in York, where he was seen in ‘Sir Harry Sycamore,’ as well as such favourite parts as Scrub, Jerry Sneak, Jerry Blackacre, Dr. Last, and Abel Drugger. Back at the Haymarket, he was Twig in the ‘Cooper’ in June 1772, Putty (a glazier) and Janus in Foote's ‘Nabob’ on 29 June, Ninny in Gentleman's ‘Cupid's Revenge’ in July of the same year, Butler in Foote's ‘Piety in Pattens’ on 15 Feb. 1773, Pillage in Foote's ‘Bankrupt’ on 21 July, Buck in the ‘Trip to Portsmouth’ on 11 Aug., Dan Drugger in Gentleman's ‘Pantheonites’ on 3 Sept., Toby in Foote's ‘Cozeners’ in July 1774, and Robin in Dibdin's ‘Waterman’ on 17 Aug. He was thus, it is seen, a mainstay of Foote in that actor's management of the Haymarket. Other parts that he played at this house included Papillion in the ‘Lyar,’ Tim in the ‘Knights,’ Richard III (a droll experiment made for his benefit on 30 Sept. 1774), Vamp in the ‘Author,’ Diana Trapes in the ‘Beggar's Opera,’ and Mrs. Cole in the ‘Minor.’

At Drury Lane, meanwhile, he was seen as Daniel in ‘Conscious Lovers,’ Scrub in ‘Beaux' Stratagem,’ Jerry Blackacre in the ‘Plain Dealer,’ and Lucianus in ‘Hamlet.’ On 17 Nov. 1768 he was the original Mawworm in the ‘Hypocrite,’ acting it inimitably, and stamping on it a character it retained with successive exponents. Subsequently he was Roger (an original part) in the ‘Institution of the Garter’ on 28 Oct. 1771, Gardener in the ‘Drummer,’ Master Stephen in ‘Every Man in his Humour,’ Clincher, jun., in the ‘Constant Couple,’ Thomas (an original part) in Garrick's ‘Irish Widow’ on 23 Oct. 1772, Servant (an original part) in the ‘Duel’ on 8 Nov., and Flash in ‘Miss in her Teens.’ In the season 1773–4 he was the first Binnacle in the ‘Fair Quaker, or the Humours of the Navy,’ on 9 Nov. 1773, Torrington (a barrister) in Kelly's ‘School for Wives’ on 11 Dec., Tycho in Garrick's ‘Christmas Tale’ on 27 Dec., and a character unnamed in the ‘Swindlers’ on 25 April 1774. He played Lory in the ‘Man of Quality’ and Justice Woodcock in ‘Love in a Village,’ imitated Hippisley's Drunken Man, and for his benefit, by way of parodying addresses delivered on the backs of asses, announced himself to speak Judge Tycho's sentence ‘riding on a rhinoceros.’ On 17 Sept., the opening night of the following season, he was King in a prelude called the ‘Meeting of the Company, or Bayes' Art of Acting;’ was the original Hurry in Burgoyne's ‘Maid of the Oaks’ on 5 Nov., Jack Nightshade in Cumberland's ‘Choleric Man’ on 19 Dec., and Spy in Bates's ‘Rival Candidates’ on 1 Feb. 1775. He was a Recruit in the ‘Recruiting Officer,’ and for his benefit gave an interlude called ‘Weston's Return from the Universities of Parnassus.’ In his last season he was the original Dozey, a parish clerk, in Garrick's ‘May Day, or the Little Gipsy,’ on 28 Oct. 1775. This was his last part and, so far as can be proved, his last performance. On 18 Jan. 1776 he died of habitual drunkenness. The third volume of ‘Dramatic Table Talk’ prints a mock will which Weston is credited with having made a few weeks before his death. In this, the ill-nature of which is at least as conspicuous as its wit, he leaves to Foote, from whom he derived it, all his consequence; to Garrick his money, ‘as there is nothing on earth he is so very fond of;’ to Reddish a grain of honesty, which is a rarity he must value; to Mr. Yeates (sic) all his spirit; to Mrs. Yeates (sic) his humility; to Shuter his example; to Brereton, a small portion of modesty; to Jacobs his shoes, for which he has long waited, and so on.

In his line Weston was one of the most genuine comedians our stage has known. He was an artist, moreover, and rarely offended, as did other impersonators of clowns, in speaking ‘more than is set down for them.’ Davies couples him with Benjamin Johnson [q. v.] as the only men who, in ‘all the parts they represented, absolutely forgot themselves.’ When their superiors in ‘the art of colouring and high finishing’ laughed at some casual blunder of an actor or impropriety in the scene, these men were so truly absorbed in character that they never lost sight of it. Weston's performance of Abel Drugger by its simplicity, Davies holds, almost exceeded the fine art of Garrick. Garrick, one of whose greatest comic parts it was, on seeing Weston in it, declared it one of the finest pieces of acting he ever witnessed, and presented Weston on his benefit with 20l. When Weston played Scrub, Garrick (as Archer) found it difficult to keep his countenance. As Daniel in the ‘Conscious Lovers,’ Weston is said to have been droll beyond the conception of those who had not seen him. His by-play was marvellous, and his breaking the phial in Abel Drugger; his returning for his shoes after his medical examination in Dr. Last; and his hurrying up with his wife's night-clothes on the well-known sound of ‘Jerry! Jerry! Where are you, Jerry?’ in the ‘Mayor of Garratt,’ are said to have shown excellence ‘that one might despair of ever seeing again.’ Hurry was


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/118

104 when the tide arose. First would come the advance guard of smaller bergs, with here and there a house-like mass of cobalt blue with streaks of white and deeper recesses of ultramarine; here we passed an eight-sided, solid figure of bottle-green ice; there towered an antlered formation like the horns of a stag. Now we must use all caution and give the larger icebergs a wide berth. They are treacherous creatures, these icebergs. You may be paddling along by a peaceful looking berg, sleeping on the water as mild and harmless as a lamb; when suddenly he will take a notion to turn over, and up under your canoe will come a spear of ice, impaling it and lifting it and its occupants skyward; then, turning over, down will go canoe and men to the depths. Our progress up the sixty miles of Glacier Bay was very slow. Three


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/119

Rh nights we camped on the bare granite rock before we reached the limit of the bay. All vegetation had disappeared; hardly a bunch of grass was seen. The only signs of former life were the sodden and splintered spruce and fir stumps that projected here and there from the bases of huge gravel heaps, the moraine matter of the mighty ice mass that had engulfed them. They told the story of great forests which had once covered this whole region, until the great sea of ice of the second glacial period overwhelmed and ground them down, and buried them deep under its moraine matter. When we landed there were no level spots on which to pitch our tent and no sandy beaches or gravel beds in which to sink our tent-poles. I learned from Muir the gentle art of sleeping on a rock, curled like a squirrel around a boulder.


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/120

106 We passed by Muir Glacier on the other side of the bay, seeking to attain the extreme end of the great fiord. We estimated the distance by the tide and our rate of rowing, tracing the shore-line and islands as we went along and getting the points of the compass from our little pocket instrument. Rain was falling almost constantly during the week we spent in Glacier Bay. Now and then the clouds would lift, showing the twin peaks of La Perouse and the majestic summits of Mts. Fairweather and Crillon. These mighty summits, twelve thousand, fifteen thousand and sixteen thousand feet high, respectively, pierced the sky directly above us; sometimes they seemed to be hanging over us threateningly. Only once did the sky completely clear; and then was preached to us the wonderful Sermon of Glacier Bay.


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/121

Rh Early that morning we quitted our camp on a barren rock, steering towards Mt. Fairweather. A night of sleepless discomfort had ushered in a bleak gray morning. Our Indians were sullen and silent, their scowling looks resenting our relentless purpose to attain to the head of the bay. The air was damp and raw, chilling us to the marrow. The forbidding granite mountains, showing here and there through the fog, seemed suddenly to push out threatening fists and shoulders at us. All night long the ice-guns had bombarded us from four or five directions, when the great masses of ice from living glaciers toppled into the sea, crashing and grinding with the noise of thunder. The granite walls hurled back the sound in reiterated peals, multiplying its volume a hundredfold.

There was no Love apparent on


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/122

108 that bleak, gray morning: Power was there in appalling force. Visions of those evergreen forests that had once clung trustingly to these mountain walls, but had been swept, one and all, by the relentless forces of the ice and buried deep under mountains of moraine matter, but added to the present desolation. We could not enjoy; we could only endure. Death from overturning icebergs, from charging tides, from mountain avalanche, threatened us. Suddenly I heard Muir catch his breath with a fervent ejaculation. "God, Almighty!" he said. Following his gaze towards Mt. Crillon, I saw the summit highest of all crowned with glory indeed. It was not sunlight; there was no appearance of shining; it was as if the Great Artist with one sweep of His brush had laid upon the king-peak of all a crown of the most brilliant of all


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/123

Rh colors—as if a pigment, perfectly made and thickly spread, too delicate for crimson, too intense for pink, had leaped in a moment upon the mountain top; "An awful rose of dawn." The summit nearest Heaven had caught a glimpse of its glory! It was a rose blooming in ice-fields, a love-song in the midst of a stern epic, a drop from the heart of Christ upon the icy desolation and barren affections of a sin-frozen world. It warmed and thrilled us in an instant. We who had been dull and apathetic a moment before, shivering in our wet blankets, were glowing and exultant now. Even the Indians ceased their paddling, gazing with faces of awe upon the wonder. Now, as we watched that kingly peak, we saw the color leap to one and another and another of the snowy summits around it. The monarch had a whole family of royal


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/124

 110 princes about him to share his glory. Their radiant heads, ruby crowned, were above the clouds, which seemed to form their silken garments. As we looked in ecstatic silence we saw the light creep down the mountains. It was changing now. The glowing crimson was suffused with soft, creamy light. If it was less divine, it was more warmly human. Heaven was coming down to man. The dark recesses of the mountains began to lighten. They stood forth as at the word of command from the Master of all; and as the changing mellow light moved downward that wonderful colosseum appeared clearly with its battlements and peaks and columns, until the whole majestic landscape was revealed. Now we saw the design and purpose of it all. Now the text of this great sermon was emblazoned across the landscape —"God is Love"; and


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/125

 Rh we understood that these relentless forces that had pushed the molten mountains heavenward, cooled them into granite peaks, covered them with snow and ice, dumped the moraine matter into the sea, filling up the sea, preparing the world for a stronger and better race of men (who knows?), were all a part of that great "All things" that "work together for good." Our minds cleared with the landscape; our courage rose; our Indians dipped their paddles silently, steering without fear amidst the dangerous masses of ice. But there was no profanity in Muir's exclamation, "We have met with God!" A lifelong devoutness of gratitude filled us, to think that we were guided into this most wonderful room of God's great gallery, on perhaps the only day in the year when the skies were cleared and the sunrise, the


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/126

112 conditions and the point of view all prepared for the matchless spectacle. The discomforts of the voyage, the toil, the cold and rain of the past weeks were a small price to pay for one glimpse of its surpassing loveliness. Again and again Muir would break out, after a long silence of blissful memory, with exclamations: "We saw it; we saw it! He sent us to His most glorious exhibition. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!" Two or three inspiring days followed. Muir must climb the most accessible of the mountains. My weak shoulders forbade me to ascend more than two or three thousand feet, but Muir went more than twice as high. Upon two or three of the glaciers he climbed, although the speed of these icy streams was so great and their "frozen cataracts"


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/127

Rh were so frequent, that it was difficult to ascend them. I began to understand Muir's whole new theory, which theory made Tyndall pronounce him the greatest authority on glacial action the world had seen. He pointed out to me the mechanical laws that governed those slow-moving, resistless streams; how they carved their own valleys; how the lower valley and glacier were often the resultant in size and velocity of the two or three glaciers that now formed the branches of the main glaciers; how the harder strata of rock resisted and turned the masses of ice; how the steely ploughshares were often inserted into softer leads and a whole mountain split apart as by a wedge. Muir would explore all day long, often rising hours before daylight and disappearing among the


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/128

114, not coming to camp until after night had fallen. Again and again the Indians said that he was lost; but I had no fears for him. When he would return to camp he was so full of his discoveries and of the new facts garnered that he would talk until long into the night, almost forgetting to eat. Returning down the bay, we passed the largest glacier of all, which was to bear Muir's name. It was then fully a mile and a half in width, and the perpendicular face of it towered from four to seven hundred feet above the surface of the water. The ice masses were breaking off so fast that we were forced to put off far from the face of the glacier. The great waves threatened constantly to dash us against the sharp points of the icebergs. We wished to land and scale the glacier from the eastern side. We rowed


text: Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/129


text: Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/130


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/131

Rh our canoe about half a mile from the edge of the glacier, but, attempting to land, were forced hastily to put off again. A great wave, formed by the masses of ice breaking off into the water, threatened to dash our loaded canoe against the boulders on the beach. Rowing further away, we tried it again and again, with the same result. As soon as we neared the shore another huge wave would threaten destruction. We were fully a mile and a half from the edge of the glacier before we found it safe to land. Muir spent a whole day alone on the glacier, walking over twenty miles across what he called the glacial lake between two mountains. A cold, penetrating, mist-like rain was falling, and dark clouds swept up the bay and clung about the shoulders of the mountains. When night approached and Muir had not


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/132

 116, I set the Indians to digging out from the bases of the gravel hills the frazzled stumps and logs that remained of the buried forests. These were full of resin and burned brightly. I made a great fire and cooked a good supper of venison, beans, biscuit and coffee. When pitchy darkness gathered, and still Muir did not come, Tow-a-att made some torches of fat spruce, and taking with him Charley, laden with more wood, he went up the beach a mile and a half, climbed the base of the mountain and kindled a beacon which flashed its cheering rays far over the glacier. Muir came stumbling into camp with these two Indians a little before midnight, very tired but very happy. "Ah!" he sighed, "I'm glad to be in camp. The glacier almost got me this time. If it had not been for the beacon and old


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/133

 Rh Tow-a-att, I might have had to spend the night on the ice. The crevasses were so many and so bewildering in their mazy, crisscross windings that I was actually going farther into the glacier when I caught the flash of light." I brought him to the tent and placed the hot viands before him. He attacked them ravenously, but presently was talking again: "Man, man; you ought to have been with me. You'll never make up what you have lost to-day. I've been wandering through a thousand rooms of God's crystal temple. I've been a thousand feet down in the crevasses, with matchless domes and sculptured figures and carved ice-work all about me. Solomon's marble and ivory palaces were nothing to it. Such purity, such color, such delicate beauty! I was tempted to stay there and feast my soul, and


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/130

 perhaps less and less, perpetually, in going from the stomach to the rectum. The sensibility of the alimentary duct is probably of the same kind with, and not much greater in degree than, that of the internal surfaces of the gall-bladder, urinary bladder, pelvis, ureters, and, in general, of the secretory and excretory vessels, and of the receptacles belonging to the glands. But I refer the sensations of this duct to the taste, on account of their connexion with those of the tongue, in respect of their causes, uses, and effects.

As to the particular and superior powers of the tongue, they may, in part, be deduced from the number and largeness of its papillæ, and from their rising above the surface in living persons more remarkably than any other sentient papillæ in the whole body, so as to be extreme parts in an eminent degree. To which we ought perhaps to add, that the tip and sides, in which the taste is most exquisite, are also extreme parts. But there may be likewise a different peculiar distribution, and other causes of an exquisite sensibility, in the nerves of the tongue.

It deserves notice here, that the friction of the tongue against the palate is necessary, in order to excite the tastes of the aliments, which we masticate, in perfection. This practice is analogous to that of rubbing the ends of the fingers upon such bodies as we examine accurately by feeling; and both appear suitable to the notion of vibrations; also to that of the distention and erection of the sentient papillæ: which may even be seen in the papillæ of the tongue.

It has been observed, that bitters and acids applied to funguses of the brain, and even to issues upon the vertex, have sometimes occasioned the sensations of the tastes respectively arising from the same bitters and acids, when applied to the tongue. This may perhaps be solved by supposing, that the bitters and acids, when applied to the nerves of the fifth pair, in the funguses of the brain, and to those of the seventh, or perhaps of the fifth also, in the issues (for the fifth pair may transmit some branches to the external integuments from the dura mater, at the vertex), send up their own specific vibrations into those regions of the brain, which are the peculiar residence of tastes, i.e. to the regions which correspond to the fifth pair, according to some anatomists. And these sensations may even afford some evidence, that the fifth pair, not the ninth, supplies the tongue with sensory nerves.

I observe, first, that heating any sapid liquid increases its taste, especially if it be of the bitter, spirituous, or acrid kind; and, conversely, that the impression of such tastes generates a

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/130


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/131

 heat in the organ, which remains after the peculiar taste ceases. Now this connexion of certain tastes with heat is some presumption, that they arise from vibrations, provided we allow heat to arise from them, according to the common opinion.

Secondly, Since disagreeable tastes must, according to the account of pain given above, arise from such a violence in the vibrations excited, as produce the solution of continuity, and pleasant tastes, from more moderate degrees of vibrations, which, though they approach to the solution of continuity, yet fall short of it; the pains of taste must proceed from stronger vibrations than the pleasures. And, agreeably to this, bodies which impress very active and disagreeable tastes, manifest great activity in other trials for the most part.

Thirdly, It is very difficult to give any plausible account of the great variety of pleasant and unpleasant tastes from the doctrine of vibrations. However, the different frequency of vibrations, which belongs to the small particles of different sapid bodies, may be, in a good measure, the source of this great variety. For if the particles of the body A oscillate twice, while those of the body B oscillate only once, the sensations excited by them may be different, though both fall within the limits of pleasure, or both pass into those of pain. The differences of degree may also contribute; for it is observable, that different disagreeable tastes, in declining, leave agreeable ones, which approach to each other. This I have experienced in aloes, lime, and green tea not sweetened. It may therefore be, that the different disagreeable tastes were such rather on account of degree than kind. And, upon the whole, it may be, that the several combinations of the differences of kind with those of degree may be sufficient in number to account for all the varieties and specific differences of tastes.

Fourthly, Tastes appear to be more different than they are from the odours which accompany some of them. And this observation, by reducing the number of tastes properly so called, does somewhat lessen the difficulty of accounting for their number. But then it is also to be observed, that part of this difficulty is to be transferred to the head of odours.

Fifthly, The power of distinguishing tastes seems to depend upon sight, to a certain degree. And this consideration also lessens the number of tastes properly so called.

Sixthly, If we suppose the sapid body to consist of particles, that excite vibrations of different frequencies, which may be the case of many bodies in their natural state, and probably must be with such as are compounded by art, compound medicines for instance, a great variety of tastes may arise, some resembling the tastes of simple bodies, others totally unlike these: just as some of the colours reflected by natural and artificial bodies resemble one or other of the simple primary ones, whilst others are colours that can scarce be referred to any of these. And we may

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/131


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/132

 farther suppose, in both cases, that where the vibrations approach so near in frequency as to overrule each other, and produce one species only, there results a taste, or a colour, that resembles a primary one; whereas, if the vibrations differ so much in frequency, as that two or more principal species keep their own frequency, the taste, or colour generated from them, cannot be likened to any primary one.

Seventhly, That there are different species of vibrations, which yet all constitute sweet or bitter, I conjecture not only from the foregoing general reasoning, but also because there are both sweets and bitters in all the three kingdoms, animal, vegetable, and mineral. Thus milk, sugar, and saccharum Saturni, all yield a sweet taste; gall, aloes, and crystals of silver, all a bitter one.

Eighthly, Some differences of taste may arise from the different time required for the solution, and consequent activity, of the sapid particles, also from the different local effect which they may have upon the papillæ, when absorbed by their venous vessels, &c.

Ninthly, Very nauseous and stupefacient tastes may perhaps arise from violent and irregular vibrations, and bear some analogy to the sensation, or want of it, impressed by the stroke of the torpedo.

Tenthly, It seems to deserve particular consideration here, that milk, and the flesh of certain domestic animals, yield tastes, which are naturally and originally pleasant, to a considerable degree, and yet not in excess, as sugar, and other very sweet bodies, are. For it is reasonable to conclude, that the particles of milk, and common flesh-meats, must agree very much in the strength and frequency of vibrations with the particles of our own solids and fluids. They may therefore just moderately increase the natural vibrations of the organ, when applied thereto, and enforced by suction, mastication, and friction of the tongue against the palate. For the same reasons we may guess, that the common diet of animals does not undergo very great changes, in respect of the vibratory motions of its particles, from its circulation, and consequent assimilation. However, there are some eminent instances to the contrary, especially in poisons. These last observations may be extended to vegetables, salutary and poisonous, respectively.

Eleventhly, Some acrid tastes, that of mustard for instance, affect the tip of the uvula, and the edge of the soft palate, in a particular manner. Now this may a little confirm the conjectures above made concerning the sensibility and irritability of extreme parts.

Twelfthly, It is easy to conceive, upon the principles of these papers, how sweets and bitters of an inferior degree should render those of a superior one less affecting, respectively, as they are found to do.

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/132


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/133

 The foregoing articles are only imperfect conjectures, and do not even approach to a satisfactory solution. They may just serve to shew, that the doctrine of vibrations is as suitable to the phænomena of tastes, as any other hypothesis yet proposed. The following methods may perhaps be of some use for the analysis of tastes.

First, To make trials upon bodies whose particles seem similar to each other. Such are perhaps distilled spirits, acid, alkaline, and fermented; also salts and oils; but they must all be sufficiently purified by repeated distillations, solutions, and such-like chemical operations; else we are sure, that their component particles are heterogeneous.

Secondly, To note the changes of taste in chemical operations, and compare them with the changes of colour; which last, by discovering the sizes of the particles, may determine many things relating to their mutual actions. The solutions of metals in acids, by affording many singular and vivid tastes, and sometimes colours, seem to deserve especial notice here.

Thirdly, There are many regular changes in natural bodies, which, by comparison with other phænomena, may be of use. Thus it is remarkable, that the juice of many or most fruits is first acid, i.e. whilst unripe, then sweet, then vinous, after the first fermentation, then acid again, after the second fermentation.

This inquiry is of great importance in medicine and philosophy. And the theory of tastes appears capable of becoming a principal guide in discovering the mutual actions of the small particles of bodies. The difficulty is to make a beginning. This theory may not perhaps be more complex than that of colours; one may, at least, affirm, that the theory of colours appeared as complex and intricate before Sir Isaac Newton’s time, as that of tastes does now; which is some encouragement to make an attempt.

will easily be conceived, that if tastes, properly so called, (of which under the last proposition) favour, or suit with, the doctrine of vibrations, the sensations of the stomach and bowels may likewise. But a particular examination of these sensations, and comparison of them with tastes, will make this more evident.

First, then, we may observe, that the stomach is less sensible than the tongue, the bowels in general than the stomach, and the inferior bowels than the superior. Thus opium, and bitters, and sometimes spirituous liquors, are disagreeable to the tongue, but fall within the limits of pleasure in the stomach. Thus bile is extremely nauseous in the mouth, and offends even the stomach; but it cannot be disagreeable to the duodenum, which it first enters, or the bowels, through which it passes. Thus also the

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/133


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/134

 fæces seem to be equally suited to the several bowels along which they descend, though they grow perpetually more putrid and acrimonious in their descent; i.e. there is an abatement of sensibility in the bowels, which corresponds to the increase of acrimony in the fæces.

If it be objected here, that honey, mercurius dulcis, &c. offend the stomach and bowels often, though pleasant or insipid in the mouth, I answer, that such bodies require time, heat, solution, &c. before the whole of their qualities can be exerted.

Secondly, The particular manner in which opiates, fermented liquors, grateful aliments, and narcotics, may act first upon the stomach and bowels, and afterwards upon the whole body, agreeably to the doctrine of vibrations, has been given above in treating of sleep.

Thirdly, The action of vomits, purges, and acrid poisons, such as corrosive sublimate, is very reconcileable to this doctrine, by only supposing, that they excite very vigorous vibrations, and that these are communicated to the muscular coats of the stomach and bowels, to the muscles of the abdomen, and, in violent cases, to the whole muscular and nervous system. I shall consider the automatic motions, which arise from these causes, below, under a particular proposition. It may serve to shew the analogy of the sensations, and the general nature of active medicines, to observe, that these will often operate in several ways, viz. as vomits, purges, diuretics, diaphoretics, sternutatories, vesicatories, and corrosives, by a change of application and circumstances.

Fourthly, Since the meats, to which particular persons have an antipathy, and from which they receive violent ill effects, are, in general, highly grateful to others, one may perhaps conjecture, that the vibrations excited by these meats in the stomachs of those who have an antipathy to them, do but just pass the limits of pleasure; so as to diffuse themselves much farther, and more powerfully, than if the first impression was very painful.

Lastly, The connexion between the sensations of the tongue and stomach, and consequently between the manners of explaining them, may be inferred from the office of the taste, as a guide and guard to the organs of digestion; which is very evident, in general, in all animals, notwithstanding a few exceptions, more especially in men.

hunger may be reckoned a pleasure in its first rise, and to pass into a pain only by increase and continuance. We may suppose therefore, that during hunger the nerves of the stomach are so irritable, as that the common motions of the muscular coat, and the impressions made by its contents in consequence of these motions, excite such vigorous vibrations, as

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/134


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/134

118 softly freeze, until I would become part of the glacier. What a great death that would be!" Again and again I would have to remind Muir that he was eating his supper, but it was more than an hour before I could get him to finish the meal, and two or three hours longer before he stopped talking and went to sleep. I wish I had taken down his descriptions. What splendid reading they would make!

But scurries of snow warned us that winter was coming, and, much to the relief of our natives, we turned the prow of our canoe towards Chatham Strait again. Landing our Hoonah guide at his village, we took our route northward again up Lynn Canal. The beautiful Davison Glacier with its great snowy fan drew our gaze and excited our admiration for two days; then the visit to the Chilcats and the return trip


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/135

 first lie within the limits of pleasure, and afterwards pass into the limits of pain. And when the sight of food, or any other associated circumstance, increases the sense of hunger instantaneously, it may be conjectured to do so, in great measure, by increasing the contractions of the muscular coat of the stomach.

But the sensibility and irritability of the nerves of the tongue are also increased by hunger; for common aliments yield a very different taste, according as the person is satiated or hungry. And it is probable farther, that the nerves of the upper part of the bowels sympathize with those of the stomach in hunger; and increase the uneasy sensation, in violent degrees of it.

Let us now consider in what way food may be supposed to lessen this sensibility and irritability of the nerves of the tongue, stomach, and bowels; and how abstinence, bitters, wines, &c. may increase them, upon the principles of these papers.

First then, As the small absorbing vessels in the mouth, stomach, and bowels, must, after eating for some time, be saturated with alimentary particles, those that are now applied will scarce make any impression for want of a sufficient attraction.

Secondly, Such as are attracted cannot make any considerable difference of vibrations, because the vibrations which they are qualified to excite, do already take place. And these two remarks, put together, shew, that a person may relish a second kind of food after being satiated with a first.

Thirdly, The actions of mastication, deglutition, and digestion, exhaust the neighbouring glands and glandular receptacles of their liquids, and the neighbouring muscular fibres of their ready power of contracting: these parts are therefore no longer susceptible of a pleasurable state, or only in a low degree.

Fourthly, Abstinence reverses all these steps; in which, however, the perpetual affusion, dilution, and ablution of the saliva has a considerable share. And thus after a proper interval the organs return to a state of great sensibility and irritability.

Fifthly, Bitters and acids exhibited in a moderate degree seem gently to increase the vibratory motions, and raise them before the due time to the degree that corresponds to hunger. A small quantity of food has the same effect, also agreeable motions of mind, fresh air, exercise, and many other things. But if the bitters, acids, &c. be carried beyond a certain degree, they occasion pain or sickness, which is very agreeable to the doctrine of vibrations, as laid down in these papers.

Sixthly, In fevers, the mouth, fauces, œsophagus, and stomach, are hot, dry, inflamed, and incrusted. They are therefore preoccupied by vibrations of a kind quite different from those which attend hunger, and therefore exclude this state.

It may not be amiss to observe here, that the sensation of hunger is a guide and guard to the organs of digestion in a still more eminent degree, than the tastes of the several aliments.

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/135


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/136

is opposite to hunger, and is a general attendant upon fevers. It follows also, in an evident manner, from all considerable degrees of heat in the fauces. The nerves therefore of the mouth, fauces, œsophagus, and stomach, are, during thirst, preoccupied by disagreeable vibrations, of the inflammatory kind, as above observed. And as the pleasures of taste may be said to resemble those of titillation, so thirst seems allied to itching.

It is agreeable to this account of thirst, that liquors actually cold afford immediate relief; also that warm diluents, which soften the parts, and wash off acrimonious particles, do it after some time. As the cause of thirst is of a permanent nature in fevers, it must return again and again, till the fever be removed. Gentle acids yield a pleasure in thirst, which seems to correspond to that which scratching excites, in parts that itch previously.

of these changes are,

That sweets generally grow less and less agreeable, and sometimes even disagreeable, or nauseous at last.

That astringent, acid, and spirituous liquids, which displease at first, afterwards become highly grateful.

That even bitters and acrids first lose their offensive qualities, and after a sufficient repetition give a relish to our aliment.

And that many particular foods and medicines become either extremely pleasant or disgusting, from associations, with fashion, joy, hope of advantage, hunger, the pleasures of cheerful conversation, &c. or with sickness, vomitings, gripings, fear, sorrow, &c.

Now, in order to account for these changes, we may consider the following things.

First, That the organs become less and less sensible by age, from the growing callosity and rigidity of all the parts of animal bodies. The pleasant savours may therefore be expected to become less pleasant, and the moderately disagreeable ones to fall down within the limits of pleasure, upon this account.

Secondly, The disposition to vibrations in the organ and corresponding part of the brain must also receive some alteration by the frequent repetition of impressions. For though this returns, at a proper distance from each meal, to its former state, within an indefinite distance, as one may say, yet some difference there probably is, upon the whole, which in a sufficient length of time amounts to a perceptible one. However, we must also suppose on the other hand, that the make of the nervous system sets some bounds to this gradual alteration in the disposition to vibrate;

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/136


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/137

 else the taste would be much more variable than it is, and continue to change more after adult age, than it is found to do in fact. It may perhaps change faster in the use of a high diet than of a low one; which would be an evidence of the reality of the cause here assigned.

Thirdly, The pleasant and painful impressions which particular foods and medicines make upon the stomach, always either accompany the taste, or follow it in a short time; and by this means an association is formed, whereby the direct pleasantness or nauseousness of the taste is enhanced, if the impressions upon the tongue and stomach be of the same kind; or diminished, and perhaps overpowered, and even converted into its opposite, if they be of different kinds. For if the two impressions A and B, made upon the tongue and stomach respectively, be repeated together for a sufficient number of times, b will always attend A upon the first moment of its being made. If therefore B be of such a magnitude as to leave a trace b sufficiently great, the addition of this trace b to A, the impression made upon the tongue, may produce all the changes in it above-mentioned, according to their several natures and proportions. This follows from the doctrine of association, as it takes place in general; but here the free propagation of vibrations from the stomach to the mouth, along the surface of the membranes, adds a particular force. In like manner a disagreeable taste, by being often mixed with a pleasant one, may at last become pleasant alone, and vice versâ: hunger and satiety may also, by being joined with particular tastes, contribute greatly to augment or abate their relish. And I believe it is by the methods of this third kind, that the chief and most usual changes in the taste are made.

Fourthly, The changes which are made by associations with mental pleasures and pains, or bodily ones not belonging to this organ, as with fine colours, music, &c. receive a like explication as the last-mentioned instances of associations. Here the pleasure excited in the eye or ear overrules the taste at first: afterwards we may suppose the organ to be so altered by degrees, in respect of the disagreeable taste, from its frequent impression, or other cause, as to have the solution of continuity no longer occasioned by its action. It is probable also, that the evanescent pleasures of sight and hearing, at least pleasant vibrations in the parts of the brain corresponding to these two organs, accompany these tastes ever afterwards.

It may be observed here, that the desire of particular foods and liquors is much more influenced by the associated circumstances, than their tastes, it being very common for these circumstances, particularly the sight or smell of the food or liquor, to prevail against men’s better judgment, directing them to forbear, and warning them of the mischiefs likely to arise from self-indulgence.

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/137


text:
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/383

 another part in which he was unequalled, throwing the audience into fits of mirth without moving a muscle of his features. He left no successor in his indefinable simplicity. Dibdin says that the French know nothing of such actors as Shuter and Weston.

Weston earned considerable salaries for his day, but was always in debt, and frequently obliged to sleep in the theatre for fear of bailiffs. He was careless in money matters, a quality sometimes imputed to him for generosity. His disorders led to his being often out of employment.

A portrait, by Zoffany, of Weston as Billy Button in the ‘Maid of Bath’ is in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club. A second, by De Loutherbourg, as Tycho in Garrick's ‘Christmas Tale’ was engraved by Phillips. A picture of Foote and Weston as the President and Dr. Last in the ‘Devil on Two Sticks’ was painted by Zoffany and engraved by Finlayson. A portrait by Dod, in the character of Scrub, was published in 1780.

[Memoirs of that celebrated comedian T[homas] W[eston], London, 1776, 8vo; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Oulton's History of the Theatres of London; Theatrical Biography, 1772; Hitchcock's Irish Stage; Tate Wilkinson's Wandering Patentee; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror; Thespian Dictionary; Clark Russell's Representative Actors; Georgian Era; Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies; Dramatic Table Talk; Smith's Cat. Engraved Portraits; Marshall's Cat. Engraved Portraits.]  WESTON, WILLIAM (d. 1540), prior of the knights of St. John in England, was the second son of Edmund Weston of Boston, Lincolnshire, by his wife Catherine, daughter and heir of John Camell of Skapwick, Dorset. Sir Richard Weston (1466?–1542) [q. v.] was his brother. His family had already been intimately connected with the order of the knights of St. John; two of Sir William's uncles had held the post of ‘Turcopolier,’ or commander of the light cavalry, an office generally conferred on the most illustrious knights of the ‘ English language,’ and a third had been lord prior of England (Sir John Weston, thirty-first prior, from 1476 to 1489); the William Weston who defended Rhodes against the Turks in 1480 was probably his uncle (Harl. MS. 1561; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 201).

The earliest trace of Sir William Weston occurs in 1508, when on 27 Oct. he arrived at Calais on some diplomatic mission (Chron. of Calais, p. 6). In 1510 he was at Rhodes, and in 1522 he distinguished himself at its siege; he was one of the few English knights who survived, and was himself wounded. After evacuating Rhodes the knights made for Crete; here, early in 1523, Weston was appointed ‘Turcopolier’ in place of Sir John Bouch, who had been slain during the siege. He was also placed in command of the Great Carack, ‘the first ironclad recorded in history. … She was sheathed with metal and perfectly cannon-proof. She had room for five hundred men, and provisions for six months. A picture of this famous ship is in the royal collections at Windsor’. In the same year Weston, with the universal consent of the English knights, was granted the right of succession to the priories of England and Ireland. In 1524 he was sent on an embassy to the court of Henry VIII on behalf of the order; on 27 June 1527 he was appointed, by a bull of the Grand Master, lord prior of England, on the death of Prior Thomas Docrai or Docwra. The lord prior had his headquarters at Clerkenwell, and ranked as premier baron in the roll of peers. There was some difficulty over the appointment, and a rumour was current that Henry intended, after conferring the office on a favourite of his own, to separate the English knights from the rest of the order, and to station them at Calais. The matter was settled by a personal visit of the grand master—Villiers de Lisle Adam, the heroic defender of Rhodes—to England, Henry assenting to the appointment of Sir William Weston and withdrawing his first claim for a yearly tribute of 4,000l. from the new prior (, iii. 280).

In 1535 Weston was present at a ball given by Morette, the French ambassador; he is characterised as one of the influential adherents of the papacy (, Anne Boleyn, 1884, ii. 54).

He died 7 May 1540, the same day on which the order was dissolved. A pension of 1,000l. a year for life had been settled upon him at the dissolution. He was buried on the north side of the chancel of the priory church of St. John's, Clerkenwell, under ‘a faire marble tombe, with the portraiture of a dead man lying upon his shroud: the most artificially cut in stone that ever man beheld’ (, Funerall Monuments, 1631, p. 430). The ruins of the church and this monument were removed in 1798. Weston is entitled to rank as the last prior, although an abortive attempt was made to revive the ‘English Language’ under Mary [see arts. , and, d. 1559]; and titular English priors, in most cases Italians by birth, continued to be appointed till the dissolution of the order in 1798.


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/138

we must lay down previously, that the uterus is in a state of distention during pregnancy; and that it propagates sympathetic influences by means of nervous communications to the stomach, so as to put it into a state of great sensibility and irritability. All this will be easily acknowledged.

It follows therefore, since the limits of pleasure and pain are contiguous, that the stomach during pregnancy may at some times have an eager appetite for food, as well as a nausea at others; that this appetite may be the more eager, because it borders upon a nausea; and that it will no more answer to the usual exigencies and circumstances of the body, than the nausea does. The same eager appetite will bring up the ideas of various aliments from prior associations; and if a new association of it, when particularly eager, happen to be made with this or that food or liquor, the sympathetic eager appetite will ever after bring in the idea of that food or liquor, and adhere inseparably to it. The same eager appetite may also be transferred upon something that is not properly a food, from its exorbitant nature, prior nauseas in respect of common food, and accidental joint appearance. And, upon the whole, the usual circumstances attending the longings of pregnant women are deducible from association, and are as agreeable to the doctrine of vibrations, as to any other yet proposed; or even more so.

It may illustrate this account to observe, that in the usual cases of melancholy madness, an uneasy state seems to be introduced into the white medullary substance of the brain by the degeneration of the humours, or other such-like mechanical cause, which carries the vibrations within the limits of pain, and raises an inflammation sui generis in the infinitesimal vessels of the medullary substance; that ideas of objects of fear, sorrow, &c. are raised, in consequence of this, by means of prior associations; and that after some time, some one of these, by happening to be presented oftener than the rest, by falling more in with the bodily indisposition, &c. overpowers all the rest, excites and is excited by the bodily state of fear, sorrow, &c. till at last the person becomes quite irrational in respect of this one idea, and its immediate and close associates, however rational he may be in other respects. And a like account may be given of the violent particular desire towards a person of a different sex, where this desire rests chiefly in the sensual gratification, and the beauty of the person. And all these three instances seem to me to favour the doctrine of vibrations a little, as well as that of association very much.

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/138


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/139

pleasures of the taste, considered as extending itself from the mouth through the whole alimentary duct, are very considerable, and frequently repeated; they must therefore be one chief means, by which pleasurable states are introduced into the brain, and nervous system. These pleasurable states must, after some time, leave miniatures of themselves, sufficiently strong to be called up upon slight occasions, viz. from a variety of associations with the common visible and audible objects, and to illuminate these, and their ideas. When groups of these miniatures have been long and closely connected with particular objects, they coalesce into one complex idea, appearing, however, to be a simple one; and so begin to be transferred upon other objects, and even upon tastes back again, and so on without limits. And from this way of reasoning it may now appear, that a great part of our intellectual pleasures are ultimately deducible from those of taste; and that one principal final cause of the greatness and constant recurrency of these pleasures, from our first infancy to the extremity of old age, is to introduce and keep up pleasurable states in the brain, and to connect them with foreign objects.

The social pleasures seem, in a particular manner, to be derived from this source; since it has been customary in all ages and nations, and is, in a manner, necessary, that we should enjoy the pleasures of taste in conjunction with our relatives, friends, and neighbours.

In like manner nauseous tastes, and painful impressions upon the alimentary duct, give rise and strength to mental pains. The most common of these painful impressions is that from excess, and the consequent indigestion. This excites and supports those uneasy states, which attend upon melancholy, fear, and sorrow.

It appears also to me, that these states are introduced, in a great degree, during sleep, during the frightful dreams, agitations, and oppressions, that excess in diet occasions in the night. These dreams and disorders are often forgotten; but the uneasy states of body, which then happen, leave vestiges of themselves, which increase in number and strength every day from the continuance of the cause, till at last they are ready to be called up in crowds upon slight occasions, and the unhappy person is unexpectedly, and at once, as it were, seized with a great degree of the hypochondriac distemper, the obvious cause appearing no ways proportionable to the effect. And thus it may appear, that there ought to be a great reciprocal influence between the mind and alimentary duct, agreeably to common observation; which is farther confirmed by the very large number of nerves distributed there.

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/139


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/140

the pleasures of taste are in general greater than those of feeling, and the pains in general less, it follows that the ideas which are affixed to the several words expressing the several pleasant and unpleasant tastes, will be of a middle nature in respect of the ideas generated by tangible impressions; and lie between the ideas of the pains of feeling, and those of its pleasures.

Agreeably to this, it seems very difficult, or even impossible, to excite a genuine vivid miniature of an acid, sweet, salt, or bitter taste, by the mere force of imagination. However, the vibrations peculiar to each of these leave such vestiges of themselves, such an effect in the tongue, and corresponding parts of the brain, as, upon tasting the qualities themselves, at once to bring up the names whereby they are expressed, with many other associated circumstances, particularly the visible appearances of the bodies endued with these qualities. And these vestiges may be called ideas. Analogy leads us also to conclude, as before observed under feeling, that some faint vestiges or ideas must be raised in the parts of the brain corresponding to the tongue, upon the mere passage of each word, that expresses a remarkable taste, over the ear. And, when the imagination is assisted by the actual sight or smell of a highly grateful food, we seem able to raise an idea of a perceptible magnitude. This is confirmed by the manifest effect exerted upon the mouth, and its glands, in such cases.

The sight of what we eat or drink seems also, in several instances, to enable us to judge more accurately of the taste and flavour; which ought to be effected, according to this theory, by raising small ideas of the taste and flavour, and magnifying the real impression in consequence thereof. For an actual impression must excite vibrations considerably different, according to the difference in the previous ones; and where the previous ones are of the same kind with those impressed, the last must be magnified.

motions dependent on the sensations of the tongue, and alimentary duct, may be thus enumerated: suction, mastication, deglutition, the distortion of the mouth and face in consequence of nauseous tastes, the peristaltic motion of the stomach and bowels, vomiting, ructus, hiccough, spasms, and violent motions in the bowels, the motions which empty the neighbouring glands, and the expulsion of the fæces.

First, then, Suction in new-born children appears to depend

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/140


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/141

 chiefly on the sensations of the lips and tongue. I say chiefly, because some predisposition thereto may be generated in utero, or otherwise impressed, and the great aptness of new-born children in sucking seems to favour this. However, when we consider, that the impressions of the cold air upon the lips and mouth in its passage to the lungs, of the nipple upon the lips, and of the milk upon the tongue, ought to excite motions in the neighbouring muscles of the lips, and lower jaw; that the motions which concur to the action of suction, are such as might be expected from these causes; and even that the motions of the head and neck, by which the child indicates the want of a breast, may flow from the great sensibility and irritability of these parts, when the child is hungry; a presumption arises, that the whole action of suction, with all its circumstances, is excited by the impressions mechanically or automatically; and that by the running of vibrations from the sensory nerves into the neighbouring motory ones.

Secondly, The first rudiments of the action of mastication are derived from that of suction, i.e. from the alternate motion of the lower jaw necessary to squeeze out the milk. After this action has been excited for some time by the taste of the milk, it will return with sufficient facility from the impressions made by solid food; and the same impressions may excite other motions in the muscles of the tongue and cheeks, viz. those which concur to make the action of mastication in its imperfect and automatic state.

Thirdly, It may appear in like manner, that the pleasurable impressions of the milk upon the tongue, mouth, and fauces, of new-born children, may excite those motions of the muscles of the tongue, os hyoides, soft palate, and fauces, which make the action of deglutition; and consequently, that this is deducible from sensation automatically.

It confirms this position, that, according to the theory of these papers, the soft palate ought to be drawn down by the impressions made on the tongue and mouth, not drawn up; since this last would be to suppose the sensory vibrations to pass over muscles that are near, and run to those at a distance, which is absurd. For Albinus has proved, both from anatomy, and the observation of the fact, that the soft palate is drawn down in swallowing; not up, according to the opinion of Boerhaave.

It confirms it also, that nauseous liquids are immediately and mechanically rejected by young children; the impressions arising from them producing such a contraction as shuts the passage.

It confirms it still farther, that young children do not swallow their saliva. For this makes no impression sufficient to generate the action of deglutition in an automatic way.

We may conjecture here, that the common vibrations, excited in the membrane of the mouth and fauces, grow particularly strong at the tip of the uvula; and that a greater power of

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/141


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/142

 contraction is transmitted to the neighbouring muscles upon this account.

Fourthly, It may be observed, that nauseous tastes distort the mouth and face automatically, not only in young children, but even in adults. And, for the same reason, pleasant ones ought to have a less effect, of the same kind; as they seem to have. And I conjecture, that the distortions of the face, which attend grief, also the gentle, smiling motions, which attend joy, are, in part, deducible from this source.

I conjecture also, that the risus sardonius, and the tendency to laughter, which some persons observe in themselves in going to sleep, have a relation to the fore-mentioned motions of the face. As the muscles here considered are, in great measure, cutaneous, they will, on this account, be more subject to vibrations excited in the mouth, or which run up to it from the stomach.

Fifthly, It may easily be conceived, that the impressions, which the aliment and fæces make upon the stomach and bowels, may excite the peristaltic motion in their muscular coats. It only remains to shew, why this should tend downwards. Now, for this, we may assign the following reasons. First, that the action of swallowing determines that of the stomach to move the same way with itself, i.e. downwards; and that this determination may, in common cases, carry its influence as far as the great guts. Secondly, that the contraction of the upper orifice of the stomach may stop the waves that sometimes come upwards in the stomach, and return them back, so as to force open the pylorus where that is less contracted; as on the other hand, where the pylorus is more contracted than the upper orifice, the motion of the stomach is inverted, and there arises a disposition to ructus or vomiting. Thirdly, that when waves ascend in the lower bowels, a gentle contraction in the pylorus may be sufficient to stop and return them. Fourthly, that one principal use of the cæcum, and appendicula vermiformis, which last is an extreme and pointed part, seems to be, to return the waves, which the constriction of the anus may send upwards. And the effects of glysters and suppositories in procuring stools, i.e. in putting the whole colon into motion, agree well with this use of the cæcum, and appendicula vermiformis. It agrees also with all the reasoning of this paragraph, that when a stoppage is made any where in the bowels by an inflammation, spasm, strangulation from a rupture, &c. the peristaltic motion is inverted.

I have been informed, that in a person who had some inches of the ilium hanging out of his body, so that the peristaltic motion might be viewed, the least touch of a foreign body would stop this motion at once. It agrees with this, that when rabbits are opened alive, the peristaltic motion does not take place till after some time, viz. because the handling of the bowels has checked it. May we not hence suspect, that the fibres of the muscular coat

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/142


text:
Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/135

Rh. Bowling down the canal before a strong north wind, we entered Stevens Passage, and visited the two villages of the Auk Indians, a squalid, miserable tribe. We camped at the site of what is now Juneau, the capital of Alaska, and no dream of the millions of gold that were to be taken from those mountains disturbed us. If we had known, I do not think that we would have halted a day or staked a claim. Our treasures were richer than gold and securely laid up in the vaults of our memories.

An excursion into Taku Bay, that miniature of Glacier Bay, with its then three living glaciers; a visit to two villages of the Taku Indians; past Ft. Snettisham, up whose arms we pushed, mapping them; then to Sumdum. Here the two arms of Holkham Bay, filled with ice, enticed us to exploration, but the


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/143

 of the bowels are contracted by an electrical virtue, which passes off, and disappears for a time, upon the touch of non-electrics? Or may we suppose, that such touches stop subtle vibrations in the small parts of the fibres?

Sixthly, Since vomiting is excited by disagreeable and painful impressions in the stomach, and requires the contraction of the diaphragm, and abdominal muscles, it agrees well with the notion, that sensory vibrations run into the neighbouring muscles for contracting them. I suppose also, that both orifices of the stomach are strongly contracted, previously to vomiting; and that the upper orifice, being most sensible, is contracted most strongly. Hence its power of contraction may be soon exhausted, and consequently it may open of itself in the action of vomiting. However, it may, in some cases, require to be forced open by the superior action of the diaphragm, and abdominal muscles. Almost all great pains and disorders in the lower belly occasion vomiting; which is very agreeable to the foregoing notion.

The nose itches, the mouth flows with water, the lower lip trembles, both are pale, and the person yawns, previously to vomiting, in many cases; all which things favour the notion of vibrations running freely along the surfaces of membranes.

Ructus, or the expulsion of wind from the stomach, is nearly related to vomiting, differing rather in degree than kind. Its suitableness therefore to the theory of these papers must be judged of from what has been advanced concerning vomiting.

The hiccough is also related to vomiting. It is supposed to proceed from an irritation at the upper orifice of the stomach, causing a sudden contraction of the diaphragm, so as to pull down the pharynx and larynx after it. May it not rather be a sudden contraction of the inferior or small muscle of the diaphragm only? This is particularly near the supposed seat of irritation; and upon this supposition, sneezing, surprise, and all other methods of making the whole diaphragm act together strongly, would remove it, as is observed in fact.

Seventhly, Permanent spasms, and violent motions, in the bowels, arise in consequence of uneasy and painful impressions there from indigested aliment, acrid fæces, irritating purges, poisons, &c. They are generally attended with the fermentation of the contents of the bowels, and the consequent generation of air; which, when confined by a spasm on each hand, distends the intermediate part of the bowel often to an excessive degree, causing a proportional degree of painful vibrations. If we suppose these vibrations to check themselves all at once, by occasioning a sudden contraction in the affected membrane, they may be propagated over the whole nervous system instantaneously, and give rise to the convulsion-fits, which happen to young children from gripes, and distention of the stomach and bowels, and to adults, from poisons, &c. This is upon supposition, that neither spasm gives way: for, if either does, the pain goes off, for a time at

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/143


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/144

 least, without farther ill symptoms. Such pains in the bowels resemble those in the bladder, when the detrusor and sphincter are both contracted violently at the same time, by the irritation of a stone. The stomach, the gall-bladder, and rectum, all seem capable of like contractions in muscular fibres, that have opposite actions. The causes of all these spasms and motions are evidently the impressions in the neighbourhood, and their circumstances are, at first sight, agreeable to the theory of these papers.

Eighthly, The glands belonging to the mouth, and alimentary duct, appear to me to be emptied, not only by the compression, which the neighbouring muscles and muscular fibres make upon them, but also by the sensory vibrations which run up their excretory ducts, into the folliculi, and receptacles where there are such, and even into the secretory ducts; by which the peristaltic motion of all these is increased, so as both to receive more freely from the blood during their state of relaxation, and to squeeze more strongly through the excretory ducts during their state of contraction. Thus tobacco, pyrethrum, and other acrids, solicit a profuse discharge from the salival glands, by being barely kept in the mouth, i.e. though the neighbouring muscles do not squeeze the glands by the action of mastication. Thus likewise vomits and purges increase both the secretions of all the glands of the intestines, and those of the liver and pancreas. It may be also, that the vibrations which run up the gall-duct are sometimes so strong as to occasion a spasm there; in which case, if the patient vomit at the same time, a symptomatic and temporary jaundice may follow.

Ninthly, The expulsion of the fæces in new-born children is perfectly automatic, and seems to follow even from very gentle compressions of the abdominal muscles, when the rectum is full, inasmuch as the sphincter ani has in them scarce any force. The same may be said of the expulsion of the urine, the sphincter vesicæ being also very weak in new-born children. To which we may add, that the least irritation from fulness or acrimony in the rectum or bladder throws the abdominal muscles into contraction in young children, both on account of the extreme sensibility and irritability of their whole nervous systems, and because they have, as yet, no associated influences over the muscles of the abdomen, whereby to restrain their contractions.

As the sphincters of the rectum and bladder gain strength, more force is required to expel the fæces and urine. However, it appears, that these muscles usually exhaust themselves, previously to the instant of expulsion, thus giving free scope to their antagonists. For, according to theory, they ought to be contracted sooner and stronger than their antagonists, as being nearer to the seat of irritation.

The actions of vomiting, and expulsion of the fæces, are very nearly related to one another in their automatic state. However, it seems to me, that an irritation in the stomach produces only a

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/144


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/145

 gentle contraction in the sphincter ani, viz. such a one as does not exhaust its power, and which therefore tends to confine the fæces. In like manner, an irritation in the rectum may gently contract the upper orifice of the stomach. It deserves notice here, that the sphincter ani lies out of the peritonæum; and consequently, that vibrations cannot run from it to the orifice of the stomach along the peritonæum, nor vice versâ. The same observation holds in respect of the sphincter of the bladder.

The circumstances attending the exclusion of the fœtus, which continues automatic perfectly or nearly, may be much illustrated by what is here delivered concerning the expulsion of the fæces.

young children continue to suck, or masticate a tasteless body put between their lips, or into their mouths, we may conceive, that the actions of suction and mastication begin to pass from their automatic towards their voluntary state. Drinking out of a vessel, so as to draw up the liquid, is learnt, in part, from sucking the breast, in most cases; but it may be learnt without, as is evident in those children that are dry-nursed. Mastication, when it approaches to a perfect state in children, is chiefly voluntary, the first rudiments receiving perpetual changes, so as to fall in more and more with pleasure and convenience. See Prop. XXII. Cor. I. In adults, both suction and mastication follow the command of the will with entire readiness and facility. The manner in which this is effected has been already explained in treating of the voluntary power of grasping.

Deglutition of insipid liquors becomes voluntary early. But it is difficult even for some adults, to swallow pills and boluses, though tasteless; and very nauseous liquids are sometimes rejected by them automatically, as well as by young children. The action of deglutition affords manifest evidences of the gradual transition of automatic motions into voluntary ones, as well as of voluntary ones into such as are secondarily automatic. For, in common cases, we swallow without the least express intention.

When the face of a child or adult is distorted upon the sight of a nauseous medicine, which has before produced distortions automatically, i.e. from the impressions made on the mouth and fauces, we see an evident instance of the power of associated circumstances; and may have the conception of voluntary powers, derived from a succession of such associations, made easy to the imagination.

The peristaltic motion of the stomach and bowels remains automatic to the last, depending partly on the vibrations descending from the brain, partly on the impressions made on the

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/145


text:
Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/146

 villous coat. It cannot depend on associated circumstances in its common state, because, being perpetual, it is equally associated with every thing, i.e. particularly so with nothing. However, as grateful aliments increase it, the sight of them may do the same by association. Could we see our stomachs and bowels, it is probable, that we should get some degree of voluntary power over them.

Vomiting is sometimes, and a nausea often, excited by associated circumstances; and there have been instances of persons who could vomit at pleasure by first introducing some of these. But, I suppose, this action never follows the mere command of the will, without the intervention of some strong associated circumstance. We have, in like manner, a semi-voluntary power of restraining vomiting, for a time at least, by means of ideas of decency, shame, fear, &c.

Some persons have a power of expelling flatulencies from the stomach in a manner which is almost voluntary; and many imitate an automatic hiccough very exactly. It facilitates these powers, that both the motions here considered are very frequent especially during childhood. Those who can hiccough voluntarily, attain to it by repeated trials, as in other cases of voluntary actions.

The spasms, and violent motions of the bowels, cannot be expected to become voluntary. They do, however, seem to return in many cases, from less and less bodily causes perpetually, on account of associated circumstances, as has been already remarked.

In like manner, the vibrations which run up the excretory ducts of the glands, must be supposed to remain totally under the influence of their original causes; unless we except the contraction of the gall-duct, which happens sometimes in violent fits of anger. This may perhaps arise from vibrations excited by associated circumstances.

Both the power of expelling the fæces and urine, and that of checking this expulsion, are under the influence of many associated circumstances, and voluntary to a considerable degree. And it will easily appear, from the principles of this theory, that they ought to be so. The filling the chest with air by the contraction of the muscles of inspiration, is a circumstance which never attends these actions in their purely automatic state. Young children learn it by the same steps as they do other methods of exerting the greatest force, and to the greatest advantage. See Prop. XXII. Cor. I.

It deserves notice here, that the action of the muscular coat of the stomach and intestines is far less subject to the power of the will, than that of the great fleshy muscles of the trunk and limbs. The efficient cause of this is the great and immediate dependence which the action of the muscular coat has upon the sensations of the villous, on account of the exquisiteness of these

title: Page:Observations on Man 1834.djvu/146


text:
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/384

  [Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer and Gairdner, passim; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 201, and authorities there cited; Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 553, iii. 676; Porter's Hist. of the Knights of Malta, 1858, ii. 285, 290, 322, 323; Taafe's Hist. of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, 1852, iii. 148, 243, 276–81, iv, App. xxx; Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, i. 133; Harrison's Annals of an old Manor House, 1893, pp. 66–71.]  WESTON, WILLIAM (1550?–1615), jesuit, also known as and, born at Maidstone in 1549 or 1550, was educated at Oxford, where he is said to have been a fellow of All Souls' College. His name, however, does not occur in the college registers, and it is more probable that he was the William Weston who was admitted at Christ Church in 1564, and graduated B.A. on 17 Feb. 1568–9, though Foster conjecturally identifies this Weston with Sir William Weston (d. 1593), who became chief justice of common pleas in Ireland. There is no doubt that Weston was at Oxford, where he was a contemporary and friend of Edmund Campion [q. v.] After graduating he went to Paris to continue his studies, but in 1572 removed to the newly founded seminary at Douay, where he was enrolled among the theological students. In 1573 he was tonsured and received minor orders at Brussels. Two years later he resolved to become a jesuit; he set out on foot for Rome, and on 5 Nov. 1575 was received into the St. Andrew's novitiate on the Quirinal Hill. He left all his property to the college at Douay, and out of respect for Campion adopted the name Edmunds or Edmonds, by which he was chiefly known in England; he also passed sometimes under the name of Hunt. After some months at Rome he was sent to Montilla in Spain to complete his novitiate; thence he removed to the college at Cordova, where he remained three years. In 1579 he was ordained priest, and stationed as confessor at San Lucar and Cadiz. In 1582 he was appointed to teach Greek at the college at Seville, where he remained until in 1584 he was selected on Parsons' recommendation for the English mission. Early in July he reached Paris, where he spent some time with Parsons, and on 12 Sept. he embarked at Dieppe, landing on the coast of Norfolk, and proceeding thence to London.

Weston's appointment was as superior of the English jesuit mission in succession to Jasper Heywood [q. v.], who was in prison, but at the time of his arrival there was said to be not a jesuit at liberty in England. His first success was the conversion of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel [q. v.], but he soon acquired great fame by his reported exorcisms of devils. These miracles had already proved a potent means of converting heretics on the continent, and Weston's introduction of the method into England is said to have been marked by equal success [cf. art. ]. ‘He went from one country house to another with a number of priests … who cast out devils and performed many prodigies upon certain maidservants and others … eye-witnesses swore to the facts. They actually saw the devils gliding about in immense numbers under the skins of the possessed like fishes swimming … A number of the devils revealed their names and offices under the interrogations of Weston; and Shakespeare has perpetuated the memory of Modo, Mahu, Hobbididance, and Flibbertigibbet, foul fiends who did homage to the relics of Campion and testified to the sanctity of Weston’ (King Lear, act iii. sc. iv;, pp. 45–50, 180; , Jesuits and Seculars, pp. xliv–xlv, and ‘Devil Hunting in Elizabethan England’ in Nineteenth Century, xxxv. 397 sqq.) Weston wrote an account of these proceedings in a ‘Book of Miracles,’ but it is only known from the extracts printed in ‘A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures … practised by Edmunds alias Weston, a Iesuit,’ published by Samuel Harsnett [q. v.] in 1603. A passage in this book quoted from Weston describing how he cast out of one Mainy ‘Prince Modu’ and the representatives of the seven deadly sins, also suggested to Shakespeare some features in the feigned madness of Edgar. Weston, who was himself ‘grossly superstitious and credulous even for his time,’ probably believed sincerely in these manifestations, and there is no need to suppose that there was deliberate fraud on his part.

The excitement caused by this fanaticism and the discovery of Babington's plot probably led to Weston's arrest on 4 Aug. 1586. He was imprisoned in the Clink and examined as to his connection with Babington's conspiracy; no evidence was found against him, and he escaped his associate Ballard's fate. The Countess of Arundel is said to have visited him in disguise and to have offered to purchase his release, but Weston declined. He remained in the Clink till 1588, when the alarm of the Spanish armada suggested to the government the plan of having all imprisoned Roman catholics, laymen, secular priests, and jesuits, confined in one stronghold, to prevent their co-operating in any invasion. Wisbech Castle was selected, and Weston was transferred thither from the Clink on 7 Jan. 1587–8 (Acts Privy Council, 1587–8, p. 332). For six years he endured