Robert Haudwicke, 192, Piccadilly, w. 21 



Sixth Edition, Croivn Svo. price Gs. 



Curiosities of Civilization. 



Being Essays from the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews. By 



Ds, Andrew Wynter. 



CONTENTS. 

 The London Commissariat. Lodging, Food, an 1 Dress of 



Food and its Adulterations. Soldiers. 



Advertisements. The Electric Telesraph. 



The Zoological Gardens. Fires and Fire Insurance. 



Rats. The Police and the Thieves. 



"vVooiwich Arsenal. Mortality in Trades and Profes- 



Shipwrecks. sions. 



Lunatic Asylums. 



" We shall look in vain, for example, two centuries back, for any thing like an equiva- 

 lent to the volume before us. Some of the articles are mainiy derived from observations 

 made in the course of professional studies; others are at least cognate to the subjects 

 which occupy a physician's hourly thoughts ; all are more or less instructive as to 

 certain phases of our civilization, and the strange elements it holds in suspension. 

 Some of the incidents are of unparalleled magnitude, quite as striking as anything 

 contained in the wonder-books of our ancestors." — Times. 



" Dr. Wynter's papers show that he has made deep researches, and that he 

 brings to bear upon them the acumen of a well-stored mind — a perfect kaleidoscopic 

 array of subjects." — Morning Post. 



" Dr. Wynter has both industry and skill. He investigates all branches of his 

 subjects, and tells us the result easily and unaffectedly. In short, a better book of 

 miscellaneous reading has not come under our notice for a long while." — Daily New*. 



" One of the most amusing and best-executed works of its kind that ever came 

 under our notice. Everv subject that Dr. Wynter handles, even if it refers to scien- 

 tific matters, is ground down so very fine, that it is hardly competent to hum^a 

 stupidity to fail to understand it." — Saturday Review. 



" These articles form a delightful inventory of facts, in which every reader has a 

 direct personal interest, for they are such as may or do affect him and his at every 

 moment of their lives, and collectively they form a very curious insight into the 

 anatomy of some parts of our civilization past and present. Seldom have the fruits of 

 so much labour been converted into more easy and pleasant reading." — Spectator. 



" It would have been a pity if so much that is useful and entertaining had been 

 entombed in the pages of a review. The subject-matter was worthy of being put 

 ;nto a book, and we are glad that it is done." — Illustrated JS'ews. 



"The Essays are thirteen in number, and form a very delightful, instructive 

 work. It contains many good pictures of London life, and a knowledge of this 

 gigantic metropolis scarcely surpassed by any modern writer." — Press. 



"Among the various Essays by eminent and brilliant writers, none surpass Dr. 

 Wynter in instructiveness, amusing information, and easv cleverness of style. If 

 any one ' wants to know ' how our great Babylon is supplied, with unerring certainty 

 and sound calculation, with food and drink, day after day and year after year ; how 

 that food is systematically and universally doctored and adulterated ; how our 

 thieves operate, flourish, come to grief, and are affected by the police who are 

 employed to detect or capture them ; how men are slowly murdered by unhealthy 

 trades, and how the professions kill or keep alive their members ; how fires influence 

 fire insurance, and fire insurance influences fires ; how and what sort of people dwell 

 in lunatic asylums ; how many romantic and least-imagined things can be learnt by 

 studying the shipwrecks which have occurred during the last few years ; how — but 

 we will stop, and simply add, that whoever wants a. fireside book this winter, rich in 

 useful facts, and written in a manner clear, fascinating, and original, had better 

 purchase Dr. Wynter's Curiosities of Civilisation." — Mining Review. 



