HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



129 



requisite in some superstitious treatments of hydro- 

 phobia. 



Fox. — In colics, the abdomen was ordered to be 

 "fomented all over with hot and rich oils," boiled in 

 the fat of certain specified animals, of which the fox 

 was the favourite. The same remedy was applied in 

 the form of clysters. Vide Howard, vol. i. p. 551. 



Bear. — "The bear," writes Howard at the close of 

 last century (vol. i. p. 320), "is a well-known 

 animal of the cat kind ; of some use in medicine, but 

 more in commerce and sport." "Bear's grease is 

 accounted a sovereign remedy against cold disorders, 

 ■especially rheumatisms. Some have also employed it 

 with success in the gout and against tumours and 

 ulcers. To be good, it must be newly melted, 

 greyish, glutinous, of a strong, disagreeable smell 

 and a moderate consistence. That is adulterated 

 with common tallow when it appears too white." 

 Bear's skin, too, was " in some countries " made into 

 " bags wherein to keep the feet warm in severe 

 colds." 



A hundred years previously, bear's grease was in 

 equal favour as a hair-engendering ointment. Bate 

 (p. 681) prescribes it as an "oyl for restoring hair 

 fallen," and (p. 690) includes two ounces of it in 

 •every four of his Unguentum criniscum. This is how 

 Salmon made our grandfathers apply the latter 

 preparation " to breed hair and restore bald places " : 

 " You must first rub the place a good while with an 

 onion, 'till the skin looks very red, and then you 

 must anoint it with this ointment, laying over it a 

 linen cloth dipt in the same, ... in like manner 

 repeated three or four times a day for five or six 

 weeks together at least." If either the grease or 

 onion possessed any efficacy, that ought to have made 

 the most reluctant hair sprout. 



Badger. — This animal provided surgery with the 

 softest of hair for its brushes, and pharmacy with a 

 fat that had the preference over all others for certain 

 purposes. Badger's grease was one of the components 

 of Bate's Balsamum spinak (p. 685), for rickets. It 

 was likewise one of the alternative fats mentioned in 

 the recipe for colic, quoted under the head of " Fox." 



Walrus. — I shall refer to this pinnipedal carnivore 

 in dealing with the cetaceans. 



Seal. — If the seal had been better known in 

 British latitudes there can be little doubt that it 

 would have been made very serviceable. As it was, it 

 quite likely furnished a fair share of the animal oils 

 used in medicine. In the Scottish Isles and northern 

 sea-board, where it was procurable, we are aware 

 that it was put to practical use. Smollet, writing in 

 1 768 of Uist, says* :— 



"On the western coast of North Vist rises the 



* " Present State of All Nations," vol. i. p. 478. 



rock Eousmil, famous for being the scene of an 

 annual seal-fishing in the end of October. . . . The 

 natives of these islands pickle the flesh of seals with 

 the ashes of sea-ware, instead of salt, and eat it 

 occasionally with a good appetite. This meat is 

 found to be astringent ; but the liver, being dried, 

 pulverized and given in milk, aqua vita, or red wine, 

 is counted an infallible cure in the dysentery. Even 

 persons of fashion will eat seal's flesh, when cured 

 in the manner of ham, and the vulgar Roman 

 Catholics on these islands are permitted to feed upon 

 them in Lent as natives of the sea. Their skins are 

 made into ropes, caps, pouches and girdles worn as 

 preventatives of the sciatica." 



OUR SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORY. 



[The Editor will be obliged, if, for the benefit of his numerous 

 readers, secretaries of scientific societies will send notices like 

 the following, also place and time of meeting.] 



T ONDON Amateur Scientific Society : President, 

 JL^ Professor J. F. Blake, M.A., F.G.S. Hon. 

 Secretaries, W. J. Atkinson, F.G.S., 76 Christchurch 

 Road, Streatham Hill, S.W., and Grenville A. J. 

 Cole, F.G.S., Mayland, Sutton, Surrey. Meets at 

 10 Arthur Street West, London Bridge, E.C., on 

 second and fourth Fridays at 8 P.M. Excursions on 

 Saturday afternoons. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



A HANDBOOK OF DESCRIPTIVE AND 

 *rl PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY, by George 

 F. Chambers, F.R.A.S. (Oxford: Clarendon Press). 

 Mr. Chambers' "Treatise on Astronomy" was 

 deemed a classic work nearly thirty years ago. At 

 that time there was nothing to beat it ; but many 

 aids to astronomical research and observation, now 

 in common use, were then utterly unknown. The 

 spectroscope, even if discovered, had not been 

 astronomically applied. What a marvellous series of 

 astronomical revelations is connected with that 

 wonderful instrument ! Again, what marvellously 

 increased powers of definition and magnification have 

 been gained by the telescope within that brief 

 period ! Stellar photography is hardly five years 

 old, and yet the child has grown to be almost father 

 to the man ! No wonder, therefore, that Mr. 

 Chambers, in this (the fourth) edition of his splendid 

 work, should find occasion to remark that between 

 the years 1877 and 1889 the development of 

 astronomy has perhaps been more remarkable than in 

 any precedent period. The present work to hand is 

 in two goodly and well-bound volumes, but it is 

 intended to include a third. The work will be 

 published as follows : Vol. i. " The Sun, Planets, 

 and Comets"; Vol. ii. "Instruments and Practical 

 Astronomy" ; and Vol. iii. "The Starry Heavens." 



