CORRESPONDENCE. 
741 
to any one. A society did at one time exist, 
and was supported by such men as Messrs. 
Noakes, G. Watkin, Cornish, Savage, Brew, 
etc. An institution in the town supplied a 
room to meet in, and things flourished for a 
while. I think such societies of the greatest 
importance to our young and rising che¬ 
mists. They produce a good feeling, stir 
up the zeal and energy of our young men in 
their noble and arduous pursuits, and are 
the nurseries of our future great chemists. 
A little fresh and young blood is all that is 
needed to resuscitate the local society in 
Brighton, and make it of advantage to the 
suri’ounding county too. One or two spi¬ 
rited men in the town can do it, and help on 
a great cause. Another suggestion was also 
thrown out to me, viz. that many men in 
Brighton wanted a few weeks’ holiday in 
the course of the year, and a roving “ locum 
tenens ” might find profitable employment, 
and in tui’n supply the places of those men 
taking a holiday. 
As the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ circu¬ 
lates far and wide, and I meet with it in my 
journeys in France, Scotland, and most 
parts of England, I have thought it the best 
medium to ventilate these ideas, as other 
towns may be similarly situated ; and as our 
object is for the good of the whole body, 
perhaps you will kindly publish these hints, 
and oblige, 
Dear Sir, yours truly, 
G. Scott. 
46, G-reat Coram St., Russell Sq., W.C., 
April 20th, 1870. 
The Micbocosm. 
Sir,—Your correspondent “ It. W.” (Wis- 
beach), and probably some other of your 
readers, would, I think, be amused by the 
following absurd amplification of the micro- 
cosmic idea, copied from a little old-world 
book, entitled ‘ Perspicillum Microcosmolo- 
gicum; or, a Prospective for the Discovery 
of the Lesser World, wherein Man is in a 
Compendium ; Theologically, Philosophi¬ 
cally, and Anatomically described, and com¬ 
pared with the Universe. To the end that 
Men may understand that Self-knowledge 
is delightful and necessary to he enquired 
after. London: Printed by F. G.for Nath. 
Brook, at the Angell, in Cornhill. 1656.’ 
The author is W. Coles, whose treatise on 
the ‘Art of Simpling’ precedes, in the volume, 
the work in question. 
The gentle reader is, in the preface, ad¬ 
vised that the object of the work is to con¬ 
duce to “ a knowledge of ones selfe and thus 
to know God the better, he being to be 
known as by the book of Scripture so by the 
book of the Creatures also.” 
In the first chapter the author bewails 
that “ Satan, that arch Politician and grand 
Enemy of Mankinde, should by his subtill 
impostui*e3 so blind the understanding, that 
it chooses rather to wear out it selfe in 
studying the knowledge of the Celestriall 
and Terrestriall Globes then ever to re¬ 
member the most necessary Study of all, 
the study of it selfe.” The dignity of man 
is next strongly asserted, and reference made 
to the terms in which his attributes have 
been epitomized by early writers, such as 
the <£ Royall Temple and Image of God,” 
“ the Measure and Rule of all Bodies,” “ the 
Abstract, Modell, and briefe story of the 
Universe,” “ the Utriusque Natures vincu¬ 
lum,” “ the terrestriall transitory God,” 
the “ Microcosme or little World.” This 
last is justified by the consideration that 
“ first we are a rude Masse, and only in the 
rank of Creatures, -which only are, and have 
a dull kind of being, not yet privileged with 
Life or preferred to Sense or Reason ; then 
we live the life of Plants, then the life of 
Beasts, then the life of Men, and at last the 
life of Spirits.” The anatomy of the soul 
that follows is of a kind that no fellow can 
be expected to understand, and, being also 
excessively dry, I omit further reference 
to it. 
When, however, our author comes to 
treat of the cosmical analogies of man’s 
body, he must at least be confessed to be 
both ingenious and entertaining. 
He first takes the division of the world 
into three parts—the uppermost, middle¬ 
most, and lowermost—as taught by the 
Egyptian priests, and shows “ how fitly and 
elegantly these three parts may be applyed 
,to the Body of Man.” 
“ The Head, which is the Fort of Mans 
minde, the Seat of Reason, the Place of 
Wisdome, the Shop of Memory, Judgement, 
and Contemplation, doth aptly resemble the 
highest and Angelical part. 
“ The middest and Heavenly Region is 
lively expressed in the Breast or middle Re¬ 
gion of a Man,”—chiefly, it seems, because 
“ the Sunne is the Heart of the World, and 
the Heart the Sunne of Man.” 
“ And who doth not see the lower part of 
the World expressed in the lower Region of 
Man?” Who doth not indeed, when in¬ 
formed “ that in it the parts which are for 
Nutrition, Digestion, and Procreation are 
contained, so that we need not stand longer 
to prove that all things are found in the 
body of Man, which are in the whole Uni¬ 
verse ?” 
Descending now to particulars, he invites 
you to “ behold the other Planets in the 
little World of Man. The flowing marrow 
of the brain doth resemble the moist vertue 
of the Moon. The Genitalis supply the 
place of Venus. The Instruments of Elo¬ 
quence doe represent the various Nature of 
ingenious Mercury. The Liver, which is 
the fountaine of Blood, is rightly compared 
