isso.] 447 fPhiiiips. 



a river is flowing. It was ascribed to Octavius and is said to have fur- 

 nished seats for 23,184 persons. 



At page 249 is a description of the dialect formerly spoken in the island 

 of Sardinia. 



At page 408 is given a description of two terrible earthcmakes which oc- 

 curred at Basle in 1346 and 1356, accompanied by a wood-cut representing 

 the overthrow of the city ; the church steeples, palaces and houses being 

 raised in the air and cast upon the ground. 



At page 431 mention is made of curiosities found in the mines of Alsatia, 

 as follows : 



"There is in this region a lake extremely long and broad and deep, which con- 

 tains many kinds of living animals and reptiles reproduced by nature in pure 

 copper on the neighboring rocks so that they can be most easily recognized and 

 known. That most learned man John Hobensack sent me a specimen of one 

 of these stones which figure I have reproduced here." 



According to the picture it is a very ugly looking fish, with a large head 

 and fins close behind the junction of the head and bo'ly, and a single fin 

 lower down ; the body seems coated with plates like a crocodile, with a 

 dividing line running up the back. 



At page 488 occurs a description of the town of Mayence, in which is 

 found a description of the invention of the art of printing, which is attrib- 

 uted to John Guttcnberg. 



At page 489 is a long description of the invention of cannon and gun- 

 powder, which latter is ascribed to Bernhard Schwarz. A picture of the 

 very rude artillery in uee in those days accompanies the letter-press. 



At.page 493 occurs an account of the tradition of Bishop Hatto and the 

 Mouse-tower, where it is stated that a similar tale is told of a king and 

 queen of Poland (names not given) who, with their children, were de- 

 voured by mice. A woodcut shows the tower on an island in the Rhine, 

 with the mice swarming up the walls, climbing into the windows, and 

 gnawing at the foundations.* 



A monster born in the Palatinate is thus described on page 625 : 



"In the year 1495, in the month of September, a woman at Bierstadt gave birth 

 to a monster in the form of two girls, whose bodies were joined together at the 

 forehead, so that they always looked into each other's eyes, but in all other re- 

 spects were entirely distinct and separate. I (Minister) saw them mysel f at 

 Mayence. in the year 1501, when they were about six years old. They were 

 forced to have a common will, to walk together, to sleep and rise together; and 

 when one went forward the other went backward. Their noses a'most touched 

 each other, and their eyes, instead of being straight to the front, were crooked 

 to one side. They lived to be almost ten years old, at which time one of them 

 dying, it was necessary from the decay of the corpse to cut them apart ; but the 

 wound mortified, and the survivor quickly followed her sister to the grave. 

 The explanation given for this prodigy was that as a pregnant woman was con- 

 versing with another, a third suddenly coming up from behind knocked their 

 heads together, and the impression of the fright was communicated from the 

 mother to the foetus." 



* Vide also Camerarius, Vol. II, p. 45. 



