MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



441 



superinduced by reading and edu- 

 cation ? Who was the first man that 

 had nerves ? Who first convinced 

 his fellow-creatures that they had 

 nerves ? If imported, from what 

 country did they come, and in what 

 shape ? W^ere they smuggled over, 

 or came they in the fair way of 

 trade ? If in the way of barter, 

 what did we give in exchange ? I 

 apprehend it must have been mus- 

 cles and bones, but of that I have 

 no direct proof, and therefore men- 

 tion it with submission. My infor- 

 mation is extremely scanty, and I 

 do not wish to build theories, any 

 more than I would build houses, 

 without materials. 



A very worthy friend of mine 

 has inspected the custom-house en- 

 tries for the last fifty years (a period 

 longer than nerves have been 

 known), but cannot find them men- 

 tioned, and this, in lack of other 

 proof, would induce me to suppose 

 that they have been conveyed as 

 some people think the plague is 

 usually conveyed, in bales of goods, 

 and afterwards became epidemic. — 

 It has likewise, and somewhat in 

 corroboration of this, been suggested 

 to me, that they came from China 

 in chests of tea ; but as a commo- 

 dity can onlj' come from the place 

 where it is, and never from a place 

 where it is not, I am doubtful of 

 this fact. Our information respect- 

 ing China is still incomplete. On 

 consulting Du Halde, Grosier, and 

 sir G. Staunton, I cannot find that 

 nerves are peculiar to China. 



Sometimes I have been inclined 

 to think that they may have come 

 from France, a country with which 

 we had formerly very close connec- 



tions in trade : but they are not spe- 

 cified in lord Auckland's celebrated 

 commercial treaty, and I question 

 whether the existence of nerves in 

 that quarter can be proved. If the 

 French had nerves, it must have 

 been their interest of late years to 

 get rid of them. In Holland one 

 cannot look for any thing of the 

 kind ; and in Germany, although 

 they are mentioned in those won- 

 derful moral plays which we import 

 and mend to the great edification 

 of all Christian play-goers, yet I 

 presume they exist principally upon 

 paper. 



Such are some of the casual con- 

 jectures which have presented them- 

 selves to my mind while meditating 

 upon this subject. I set no store by 

 them, I draw no conclusion from 

 them. Valeattt quantum valere pos- 

 sint. I will now proceed to facts, 

 or to such observations as I have 

 drawn from appearances under my 

 own eye. 



It is certain that they have not 

 been the subject of conversation in 

 this country until within these few 

 years. I cannot state the exact pe- 

 riod. That is precisely what I want 

 to learn from your correspondents. 

 I am not old enough myself to be 

 considered as of sufficient authority; 

 but my mother, in her seventieth 

 year, assures me that there was no 

 such thing as nerves in her young 

 days ; and my aunt Deborah, a 

 spinster in her sixty-seventh year, 

 confirms the same, although she has 

 lately contrived to procure a set of 

 nerves for her private use, the only 

 consequence of which is that she 

 gives more frequent orders than 

 usual to an Italian liqueur* merchant 



• I most earnestly entreat, Mr. Editor, that you will give express orders to your 

 printer to spell this word liqueun, as I have written it, and in Italics, to distinguish 



