August 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
299 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M W 
D | D 
AUGUST 12—18, 1852. 
Weather near London 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
IN 1851. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun | Moon 
Sets. R.&S. 
i 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
— 
Day of 
Year. 
12 Til 
Michaelmas Daisy flowers. 
30.07-1 
— 30.010 83—59 
s. 
_ 
43 a. 4 
27 a. 7 I 0 51 
26 
4 
43 
225 
13 F 
Zabrus Gibbus seen. 
29.944 
— 29.841 82—52 
s.w. 
02 
44 
25 1 47 
27 
: 4 
33 
220 
14 S 
Sea Holly flowers. 
29.916 
— 29.824 74—55 
s.w. 
46 
23 1 2 53 
28 
4 
22 
227 
uson 
10 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.933 
— 29.893 79—48 
w. 
— 
48 
21 sets. 
' © 
4 
10 
228 
1 16 M 
Birds resume spring notes. 
29-999 
— 29-931 77—58 
s.w. 
02 
49 
19 1 8 a 13 
1 
3 
59 
229 
17 Tu 
Duchess of Kent born, 1780. 
29.893 
— 29.882 70 — 54 
s.w. 
28 
51 
17 8 36 
2 
3 
40 
230 
,18 W 
Ploughman’s Spikenard flowers. 
30.240 
— 30.056 70—38 
N. 
52 
15 8 7 
3 
3 
33 
231 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-five years, the average highest and lowest tempera¬ 
tures of these days are 75.4° and 52° respectively. The greatest heat, 91°, occurred on the 17th in 1834 ; and the lowest cold, 41°, on the 13tli 
in 1840. During the period 109 days w'ere fine, and on 6(5 rain fell. 
There is a class of writers who may justly he called the 
moons of literature. They have no light of then own, hut 
they reflect upon the objects over which they shine rays 
gathered from other planets, and are always truthful, and 
always useful. They are men who rarely make discoveries, 
but they duly estimate those made by others, illustrate them 
by showing how much tho ancients knew upon the same 
subjects, point out how such discoveries may be rendered 
most advantageous, and throw over the whole varied lights 
and ornaments that are always illuminating and agreeable. 
Of such writers, Dr. Johnson has well said—“It is their 
task to recommend known truths by their manner of adorn¬ 
ing them; to vary the dress and situation of common objects, 
so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions; 
to spread such flowers over the regions through which the 
intellect lias already made its progress, as may tempt it to 
return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, 
or negligently regarded.” 
Such a man was Dr. William Falconer. He never dis¬ 
regarded truth, even where scrupulous casuists think that it 
may sometimes he neglected, in maintaining the wrong side 
of a question as a display of skill and invention. “ In that 
respect,” he once said to a person who defended the practice, 
by the authority and example of Dr. Johnson, as good and 
as great a man as Dr. Falconer, “ in that respect I consider 
myself to he a better man than Dr. Johnson, for I never in 
my life maintained the wrong side of an argument, knowing 
it to be so.” 
It was no rare occurrence to hear him confess his own 
ignorance, and acknowledge his inferiority to other persons; 
and yet the late Lord Thurlow, at whose table he was almost 
a constant guest, declared, “ that he never saw such a man; 
that he knew every thing, and knew it better than any one 
else.” 
This slight sketch of his character may be closed with the 
language and sentiments in the dedication to him, of the 
elegant translator of the French play of Hector, “ I deter¬ 
mined,” says this accomplished writer, the Rev. E. Mangin, 
“ to send it into the world under the sanction of an honoured 
name, and had I known a man more venerated for profes¬ 
sional talent, polite erudition, strict integrity, and true bene¬ 
volence, I should not have made use of your’Si” 
He did not live in vain for the cause of learning, or 
science, or virtue, or religion : his writings contain sufficient 
evidence of his claim to a place among the philosophers 
and scholars of his age and country; and his life, it is 
hoped, will, through the merits of his Redeemer, obtain for 
him the blessing of “ the pure in heart.” 
He was horn at. Chester about the year 17-11. His paternal 
grandfather, John Falconer, was a faithful adherent of James 
the 2nd, and died in exile, hut his son returned to England, 
and became Recorder of Chester. Even in his youth, 
William Falconer distinguished himself by the compre¬ 
hensiveness of his knowledge, and the discursiveness of his 
studies, but when once released from school, he rarely in¬ 
dulged in any that were not in some degree, relative to his 
medical profession. In 1789, lie became physician to the 
Bath Hospital. Passing over his medical works, which are 
characterised by an endeavour to enlighten the physician’s 
practice by the torch of chemistry, we must pause to con¬ 
sider briefly, his Essay upon Ike means of preservin') the 
health of those employed in Agricultural labours. This was 
published iu 1789, and we notice it more especially, because 
its warnings apply with equal force to the gardener. 
“Neglect of changing their clothes when wet, is a great 
source of disorder among husbandmen. To remain in wet 1 
clothes when the body is at rest, subjects the person who is 
so imprudent to the united had effects of cold and moisture. 
Much worse consequences, however, may he expected, when 
they who are heated by labour lie down to sleep, as they 
often do, in their wet clothes. The diminished force of the 
circulation and other powers of life, which always take place 
during sleep, cause the bad effects of cold to operate with 
much greater danger to health and life. This hazard is 
much further aggravated, if they add to this imprudence by 
sleeping on the ground. This not only communicates 
additional moisture and cold, hut is, perhaps, still more pre¬ 
judicial from the nature of the exhalation. It is the opinion 
of a physician of great eminence, that the vapour which 
arises from moist earth is the cause of the most dangerous 
fevers. Those, therefore, who put themselves wantonly in 
the way of such danger, are guilty of little less than suicide.” 
The directions for the free admission of air and other 
sanatory modes of treating the sick, are all admirable, and 
he concludes by observing—“ The support of the spirits of 
a person labouring under disease is as necessary towards 
Ills cure as the administration of medicines. Every person 
that is ill should be comforted with hopes of recovery and 
cheerful prospects of life. To foretel a person’s death in 
his presence, who is then ill of an acute complaint, has no 
small influence in verifying tho prediction. Even those 
whose profession leads to recommend religion to others, 
should he careful not to dwell too much upon gloomy sub¬ 
jects, and giving people dispiriting ideas of their situation. 
Repentance and amendment of life are, no doubt, in many 
instances necessary to he advised, hut great care must be 
taken to administer witli advice that greatest of all cordials— 
Hope." 
Previously to the appearance of the volume we have 
quoted from, he had published, in 1789, An Historical T r iew 
of the Taste for Gardening and Layiny-out Grounds among the 
Nations of Antiquity. This is another testimony of his in¬ 
defatigable research and extensive knowledge of ancient 
literature ; and similar evidence is given by his Sketch of the j 
History of Sugar in Early Times, published during 1700, iu j 
the Memoirs of the Manchester Philosophical Society. | 
Among many other quotations, he points out that “ the i 
Sweet Cane ” was among the offerings made to the Lord j 
by the Israelites ( Isaiah xliii. 24), and that it was imported 
from “ a far country ” ( Jer. vi. 20); hut Dioseorides is the 
flrst author who specially speaks of sugar as a kind of 
honey, having the appearance of salt, and obtained from 
reeds in India and Arabia Felix. 
In 1793, he published Miscellaneous Tracts and Collections 
relating to Natural History selected from the principal writers 
of antiquity on that subject, and this is also a monument of 
his extensive learning. The most useful portion of its con¬ 
tents is the alphabetical list of plants mentioned by Grecian 
writers, which he endeavours to identify, and to assign to 
them modern names. He died of an apoplectic attack, at his j 
house in the Circus, Bath, on the 30th August, 1824, beiDg 
in his 81st year. 
No. CCII., Vol. VIII. 
