SCIENCE, INVENTION, DISCOVERY. 



343 



in Greece, about 595 B. C. Pythagoras en- 

 deavored to explain the philosophy of disease 

 and the action of medicine, about 529 B. C. 

 From him, together with Plato and the Peri- 

 patetic Schools, it descended into Italy and 

 the rest of Europe. 



Pianoforte. Invented by Schroter of 

 Dresden, in 1717 ; he presented a model of 

 his invention to the court of Saxony. Some 

 time after, Silberman, a musical-instrument 

 maker, began to manufacture pianofortes with 

 considerable success. The invention has also 

 been ascribed to Cristofalli, an Italian instru- 

 ment maker of Florence, and Marius, a 

 Frenchman, early in the eighteenth century. 

 The square pianoforte was first made by Fried- 

 erici, an organ builder of Saxony, about 1759. 

 Pianofortes were made in London by M. 

 Zumpie, a German, 1766, and have been since 

 greatly improved by Clementi, Broadwood, 

 Collard, Kirfeman, Erard, Pleyel, Chickering, 

 Steinway, and others. Upright pianos, first 

 made in the United States, were suggested by 

 Isaac Hawkins, in 1800, and Thomas Loud, 

 in 1802. 



Pins are first mentioned in the statutes of 

 England, A. D. 1483. Brass pins were 

 brought from France in 1540, and were first 

 used in England it is said by Catherine How- 

 ard, queen of Henry VIII. Before the in- 

 vention of pins both sexes used ribbons, loop 

 holes, laces with points and tags, clasps, hooks 

 and eyes, and skewers of brass, silver, and gold. 

 Pins were made in England in 1543. They 

 were first manufactured by machinery in 1824, 

 under a patent of Lemuel Wellman Wright of 

 the United States. 



P laying-Cards. The invention of play- 

 ing-cards has been variously attributed to In- 

 dia, China, Arabia, and Egypt, There seems 

 to be but little dou" /t that they originated in 

 Asia, and were introduced into Europe by the 

 Saracens about the close of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury. There is historical mention of the game 

 of cards in Germany in 1275, in Italy in 1299, 

 but not in France until 1393. An active trade 

 in cards sprung up in Germany as early as the 

 fifteenth century, where they were manufac- 

 tured for other portions of Europe. One hun- 

 dred years later we find the manufacture of 

 cards a flourishing business in England, and 

 under Edward IV. their importation was for- 

 bidden, thus protecting the home industry. 

 Owing to their supposed immoral influences 

 they were at times prohibited by various Eu- 

 ropean governments. The marks upon the 

 suits of cards are believed to have been chosen 

 to represent symbolically the different classes 

 of society. Thus, the hearts stood for the 

 clergy, clubs for the soldiery, spades for the 



serfs, and diamonds for the merchants. In 

 the early French cards the kings were pictures 

 of David, Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne, 

 representing the monarchies of the Jews, 

 Greeks, Romans, and French ; the queens were 

 Argine, Esther, Judith, and Pallas. The num- 

 ber of the cards, the ace, and the knave, were 

 probably based on similar ideas. The suits 

 of the earliest German cards were designated 

 by hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns. Italian 

 cards had swords, batons, cups, and money. 

 The court cards at first were ti'e king, cheva- 

 lier, and knave. The queen was first substi- 

 tuted for the chevalier by the Italians. The 

 English cards in the seventeenth century were 

 embellished with heraldic designs, the king of 

 clubs bearing the coat-of-arms of the Pope of 

 Rome, and those of hearts, diamonds, and 

 spades being adorned respectively with the ar- 

 morial device of the kings of England, Spain, 

 and France. The club of modern cards de- 

 rived its form from the trefoil, a French 

 design. A pack of Hindustani cards in the 

 possession of the Royal Asiatic Society of 

 England is supposed to be fully 1,000 years 

 old. It consists of eight suits of divers colors. 

 The kings are mounted on elephants ; the 

 viziers, or second honors, upon horses, tigers, 

 and bulls ; and some of the common cards have 

 such curious marks as a pineapple in a shallow 

 cup, and a something like a parasol without a 

 handle, and with two broken ribs sticking 

 through the top. 



Post Offices, Origin of. The name 

 post office originated in the posts placed at in- 

 tervals along the roads of the Roman Empire, 

 where carriers were kept in readiness to bear 

 dispatches and intelligence ; but the posts of 

 ancient times were never used for the convey- 

 ance of private correspondence. The first 

 letter post seems to have been established in 

 the Hanse towns in the early part of the 

 thirteenth century. A line of letter posts 

 followed, connecting Austria with Lombardy, 

 in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, 

 which are said to have been oi'ganized by the 

 princes of Thurn and Taxis ; and the repre- 

 sentatives of the same house established another 

 line of posts from Vienna to Brussels, con- 

 necting the .nost distant parts of the domin- 

 ions of Charles V. In England, in early times, 

 both public and private letters were sent by 

 messengers, w y ho, in the reign of Henry III. 

 wore the royal livery. They had to supply 

 themselves with horses until the reign of Ed- 

 ward I., when posts were established where 

 horses were to be had for hire. Camden men- 

 tions the office of "Master of the Postes " as ex- 

 isting in 1581, but the duties of that officer 

 were probably connected exclusively with the 



