INTRODUCTION. 7 



years before the introduction of the railway system. 

 Of course, the engine is in the act of bursting ; the 

 artist intending to convey the idea that locomotion by 

 steam is too dangerous to be attempted. 



Perhaps some of my readers may have Gilray's 

 caricature of vaccination. The scene is laid in the 

 inventor's opera tin g-rcom, and Jenner is engaged in 

 vaccinating a number of patients, from all parts of 

 whose bodies miniature cows, calves, and bulls are 

 protruding themselves. Yet neither of these sciences 

 was hindered by caricatures, though they created, or 

 rather increased, the popular prejudice which is sure 

 to be aroused against any great advance or improve- 

 ment. 



In Miss Eden's charming work, " Up the Country," 

 which is a description of her travels with her brother, 

 Lord Auckland, in India, where he was Governor- 

 General, there is a most singular instance of ridicule 

 cast on a noble invention, through simple want of 

 appreciation or foresight. 



They were halting at TTmreepore, and went to visit 

 a certain physician, who had the reputation of being 

 very scientific, though slightly insane. So he was ; 

 but, in the present instance, the very facts that showed 

 his real scientific powers were accepted as proofs of 

 his insanity. 



Magnetism and electricity were his special hobbies, 

 and in his case madness was certainly allied to genius. 

 He had some fantastic notions about Solomon's 

 Temple, which he asserted to have been made by the 

 magnetic angles of a stone brought from Egypt. He 

 had found stones with similar properties at Gwalior, 



