104 



INVENTION INVERNESS-SHIRE. 



service by wounds, disease, or age, and who are 

 generally maintained for life in pubiic establishments 

 (hospitals), at the public expense. The Athenians 

 had * law, providing for the public maintenance of' 

 persons disabled in war. The Romans also made 

 some, though small, provision for invalids. At a 

 later period, they were taken care of in the monas- 

 teries. Philip Augustus of France first formed the 

 plan of an hospital for invalids. But, as pope Inno- 

 cent HI. would not permit this institution to be 

 placed under the direction of the bishop, the king 

 relinquished the plan. Louis XIV. was the first who 

 r..rri'd this design into execution. Between 1671 

 and 1679, he erected a splendid hospital at Paris, in 

 the suburb of St Germain. A church, a department 

 for the sick, a governor, and other officers, are 

 attached to it. Guards are stationed, and all other 

 forms observed which are customary in fortified posts. 

 A soldier must have served ten years, to be received 

 into this hospital on account of poverty or infirmity. 

 The invalids who mount guard are the only ones who 

 bear arms. This institution suffered very much at 

 the commencement of the revolution ; but, during the 

 imperial government, it was put in a better condition 

 than ever. The architect of the hospital was Bruant. 

 It is composed of five courts surrounded by buildings. 

 A vast esplanade, bordered by rows of trees, and 

 decorated with a fountain, gives the principal facade, 

 towards the Seine, a noble perspective. The hotel 

 has a library of 20,000 volumes ; it is capable of 

 containing 7000 men, and is governed by a marshal 

 of France. The church is considered a chef-d'oeuvre 

 of French architecture ; its dome supports a lantern, 

 which is surmounted by a cross 308 feet high. From 

 the dome were formerly suspended 3000 colours, 

 taken from different nations ; but they were taken 

 down and burnt by the invalids, at the time when the 

 allies entered Paris, that they might not be retaken 

 Works in statuary and painting, by Lafosse, Boul- 

 longne, Coypel, Coustou, Coysevox, &c., adorn the 

 ceilings, niches, and other parts of the buildings. 

 Frederic the Great, in 1748, built the hospital at 

 Berlin, with the inscription Lceso et invicto militi. 

 The British marine hospital, at Greenwich, is the first 

 institution of this kind. 



INVENTION, in science, is distinguished from 

 discovery, as implying more creative combining 

 power, and generally signifies the application of a 

 discovery to a certain purpose. But the distinction 

 is often very nice, and it is difficult, in many cases, 

 to say which word is most suitable. Every invention 

 includes a discovery. When Archimedes exultingly 

 exclaimed, E^uxa ( I have found it), after he had 

 discovered, in the bath, that his body, in the fluid, 

 displaced an amount equal to its own bulk, he dis- 

 covered; but he invented when he applied the hydro- 

 static law, thus discovered, to determining the specific 

 gravity of different substances. Inventions owe their 

 f>rupn, as discoveries do, either to chance, to somt 

 liappy idea suddenly striking the mind, or to patient 

 reflection and experiment. Many inventions belong 

 to the two former heads. Of the third class of 

 inventions, late years afford many instances, owing to 

 the great attention which has been paid to the natural 

 sciences. As man, in modern times, is always 

 inclined to consider that which is nearest him the 

 most important, he generally considers the inventions 

 of his age as far surpassing those of other times ; but 

 the study of history teaches us more modesty. The 

 invention of the screw, of the wheel, of the rudder, 

 of the double pulley, may be compared with any 

 modern inventions in mechanical science, and could 

 not, moreover, have been struck out at once by 

 chance. The history of inventions is one of the 

 most interesting branches of historical sciences 



exhibiting, in n striking light, the stages of progress 

 and decline in human activity, and the great variety 

 of motives which have actuated different ages. G. 

 Ch. A. Busch has published a Manual of Inventions, 

 12 vols., (Eisenach, 1802 to 1822, in German). 

 Beckmann's History of Inventions (Leipsic, 1780 

 1805), has been translated into English, 3 vols. 



INVENTION OF THE CROSS. The Roman 

 Catholic church celebrates a feast, May 3, in honour 

 of the finding of the cross on which Christ was exe- 

 cuted. The search was made by the order of St 

 Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, A. D. 

 326, and the cross was said to have been found under 

 the ruins of Calvary. The story is told by St Cyril. 



INVERKEITHING ; a royal burgh and seaport, 

 in Fifeshire, occupying a pleasant elevation rising 

 from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, 

 which here forms a noble bay, affording secure 

 anchorage for ships of all descriptions, including 

 the men of war on the Leith station, which in heavy 

 gales occasionally run up hither from Leith roads for 

 safety; here also foreign vessels usually perform 

 quarantine, for whose accommodation a laznretto is 

 moored at the mouth of the harbour for the purpose 

 of receiving their merchandise and fumigating it 

 under the superintendence of an inspector. Within 

 this bay is the harbour, which has been recently 

 improved and deepened, so that ships can now take 

 in or discharge their cargoes alongside the excellent 

 and commodious quays constructed close to the 

 town. Inverkeithing is a very ancient place, having 

 been a royal residence in the time of David I., when 

 it contained convents of Franciscan and Dominican 

 friars, the remains of one of which, termed The Inns, 

 is still exempt from the magisterial authority exer- 

 cised over the rest of the burgh. At present it con- 

 sists of one spacious street, intersected by several 

 others of inferior width. It was made a royal 

 burgh by William the Lion, and has since received 

 charters from other kings, all ratified by James VI. 

 The parish is three miles and a half in length by 

 about one in breadth, and includes the island of 

 Inchgarvie, the fishing village of Bruce Haven and 

 that of North Queen's Ferry, between which and 

 South Queen's Ferry, on the opposite side of the 

 Forth, passage-boats are in constant requisition. 

 Population in 1831, 3,189. 



INVERNESS-SHIRE; an extensive highland 

 county of Scotland, bounded on the east by those of 

 Aberdeen and Elgin or Moray, on the west by the 

 Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the shire of Ross 

 and the Moray Firth, and on the south by the shires 

 of Argyle and Perth, including also the islands of 

 North and South Uist, Eigg, and several others of the 

 Hebrides. It comprehends the districts, Badenoch, 

 Lochaber, Moidart, Glenelg, and Glergary, and ex- 

 tends across the entire country from the North Sea to 

 the Atlantic, having the noble Lochs Ness, Oich,and 

 Lochy, running in a direct line through the centre, or 

 vale of Glenmorenahalabin, from north-west to south- 

 east, and uniting the northern and western oceans by 

 means of the great Caledonian Canal, cut from the 

 Moray Firth to that arm of the sea termed Lochiel. 

 This extensive vale is bounded on each side by wild 

 and barren tracts, terminating in lofty mountains, of 

 which the celebrated Ben Nevis, whose summit is 

 capped with eternal snow, is elevated 4370 feet 

 above the level of the sea. The district is inter- 

 sected by numerous rapid streams, which, uniting at 

 various points, form the river Beauly-Foyers, noted 

 for its stupendous falls, Lochy and Sprey, with others 

 of minor consideration, all of them well stocked with 

 salmon, trout, and different other kinds of fish. 

 There arc evident remains of extensive forests, con- 

 sisting of several tracts of oak, fir, mountain-ash 



