Ingenious Friend Research Articles

‘Look, My Lord, It Comes’: Ghostly Silences in the Boswell/Johnson Archive

IN the account of his and Johnson’s tour of Scotland, Boswell records the following exchange: Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly experienced, he smiled and said, ‘It is true, sir. Tom Tyers, (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory,) Tom Tyers described me the best. He once said to me, “Sir, you are like a ghost: you never speak till you are spoken to”’.1 The modesty which made him so slow to advance, and so, easy to be repulsed, was certainly no suspicion of deficient merit, or unconsciousness of his own value: he appears to have known, in its whole extent, the dignity of his character, and to have set a very high value on his own powers and performances. He probably did not offer his conversation, because he expected it to be solicited; and he retired from a cold reception, not submissive but indignant, with such reverence of his own greatness as made him unwilling to expose it to neglect or violation.2

DR. JOSEPH CLARKE IN 1797 DESCRIBES HIS TREATMENT OF OBSTINATE COSTIVENESS IN INFANTS

Many well-known physicians of a century or two ago who treated infants and children considered constipation to be a cause of violent convulsions and an incitement to recurrent fever.1 For this reason the treatment of obstinate costiveness in infants was mentioned frequently in the publications of many physicians of the eighteenth and of the first half of the nineteenth centuries. One of the most widely respected of these was Dr. Joseph Clarke (1758-1834), Master of the Rotunda (Maternity) Hospital in Dublin. His enthusiastic recommendation of calomel in the treatment of constipation in infants in one of his papers published in 1797, and quoted here, was widely accepted by practitioners as the drug of choice for this complaint for well over a century. (It wasn't until 1948 that mercury was found in the urine of children with acrodynia.) Every one, acquainted with the constitution of infants, knows that it is natural to them to have three or four stools every twenty-four hours; and that without such discharges they seldom enjoy perfect health. A few instances occur in practice where the intestines of infants never discharge their contents unless irritated by some kind of physic. I have met with a good many such cases, and trying all the ordinary laxative medicines I could not say that any of them was entitled to a preference. The effects of all were temporary only. An ingenious friend and correspondent in London first suggested to me a trial of calomel in such obstinate cases.

The Movements of Molecules

IN a very interesting little book on phosphorescence by T. L. Phipson, Ph.D., published in 1866, on p. 184 he says: “We have no proof that the molecules of bodies vibrate in straight lines; their motion is more probably circular. Indeed, my ingenious friend, M. Porro, has endeavoured to show the great resemblance which seems to exist between these molecular movements and those of celestial bodies; and it has been supposed by some philosophers that the molecules of matter are as distant from each other, in proportion to their size, as the planets themselves.” “But in the present state of knowledge, all these considerations are premature.”

Art. XVIII.—Two Plates of Coins, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society

The accompanying two plates of coins present a type which is quite new to the numismatic world, if we except two or three specimens published in the second part of Vol. I., of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, from the collection of my ingenious and indefatigable friend Colonel Tod, who has left no branch of Indian antiquities unexplored or unadorned. We are informed that he met with these coins in the whole of the district from Oujein to Cutch, as far as the Indus, and he ascribes them to the Balhara sovereigns, mentioned by the Arabian travellers of the ninth century, as translated by Renaudot, who conceives these princes to be the same as the Zamorin. In this attribution I must differ with Colonel Tod for several reasons, independent of one to which I shall now confine myself, and which is to be found in the text of the above work; viz., that the drachms coined by the Balhara princes are said to weigh one-half more than the Arab drachm, whereas the coins in question do not even reach the weight of this last.

XXX. An Account of an Illuminated Manuscript in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Mr Vertue, in his account prefixed to the portraits of our kings, says, that “the picture of that most glorious “prince, Henry V. is preserved in vellum MSS. of that time;” but does not inform us where he met with them. The accurate researches of an ingenious friend in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, have brought to light a very curious resemblance of that illustrious hero. The generality of illuminated portraits, it is true, are not greatly to be depended upon; they are frequently only the imaginary creatures of the illuminator, drawn with little skill or truth. The disposition of figures, the drawing, the colouring, of this miniature, all shew the hand of an abler master. It appears also, that the book in which this illumination is preserved was originally presented to the king himself, and was afterwards his property. This is another mark of the resemblance being genuine; for it cannot be suppofed that the author would have presented the king with so laboured a miniature of his majesty, if he had not been able to procure a real likeness. Besides these proofs of its authenticity, the profile at Kensington, and the figure of the king in the historical picture belonging to Mr. West, are plainly intended for the same person represented in this MS; and no one has yet called in question the genuineness of the two former.

XVIII. Observations on the Roman Road and Camps in the neighbourhood of Mansfield Woodhouse in the county of Nottingham. By Hayman Rooke, Esq. F.S.A. with an introductory Letter to the Secretary from Sir George Yonge, Bart, Secretary at War, F.A.S.

I transmit to you, at the request of my respectable and ingenious friend, Major Rooke, of Woodhouse, a small treatise, which he has drawn up on some Roman Roads, Tumuli, Stations, and Camps, which he has lately traced in the neighbourhood of Mansfield, and which have not hitherto been noticed. I cannot comply with his request that it might be transmitted to the Society, without explaining some particulars which gave rise to this treatise. When I first saw the account, which he sent to the Society, of a Roman Villa which he had discovered near Mansfield, I communicated to him some few sentiments of mine, on which I grounded an opinion, though I was quite unacquainted with the country, that this Villa was probably the residence of some military Roman commander, and that there was probably some Roman camp or station, or some military Roman road running near it. This did not by any means appear by his answer to be the case. And yet it still seemed to me improbable that it should be otherwise.

XXIII. Experiments and observations on the Terra Ponderosa, &c

This substance was got out of a lead-mine at Alston-Moor, in Cumberland. I first saw it in the valuable collection of my worthy and ingenious friend Matthew Boulton, Esq, at Soho; who, when he picked it up, conjectured from its weight that it contained something metallic. After two years ago I saw it in his possession; and partly from its appearance, being different from that of any calcareous spar I had seen, and partly form its great weight, I suspected it to be the spatum ponderosum.

XVIII. Four Letters from Beaupré Bell, Esq. to Roger Gale, Esq. on the Horologia of the Antients, with Mr. Gale's Answer

Since my last, I have received from an ingenious friend the following inscription, made use of in building the Benedictines church at Taloire (an inconsiderable village, half a league from Annecy, a town upon the lake of Annecy) which he observes not to be published with due exactness by Gruter.

XXXII. Experiments and observations on a new apparatus, called, a machine for exhibiting perpetual electricity. In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Horsley, Sec. R.S. from Mr. William Henly, F. R. S

Reverend Sir, My ingenious friend Mr. George Adams, philosophical instrument-maker to his majesty, lately put into my hands a little apparatus, which he called a machine for exhibiting perpetual electricity, and informed me, that it was the invention of some foreign gentleman. This machine consisted of a circular plate of glass, about eight inches in diameter, covered on one side with a coating of bees-wax and rosin, about the sixteenth part of an inch thick. This coat of wax, &c. being strongly excited with a dry warm flannel, he placed upon it a circular board, of the same dimensions, coated with tin-foil, and furnished with a glass handle screwed to, and standing upright upon it. These bodies having remained in contact some seconds, the board was raised up by the glass handle; when, applying the knuckle to the tin-foil coating, a snap was heard, a spark seen, and a small sensation felt. On replacing the board, and permitting it to remain some seconds, as before, having touched the tin-foil with a finger, on removing it again, and applying the knuckle, as at first, the same phenomena were produced; and might, Mr. Adams observed, be repeated for a long time, without any renewal of the excitation of the wax, any farther than the replacing the board might be said to excite it.

XXX. An Account of an Illuminated Manuscript in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. By the Reverend Mr. Tyson, Fellow of the said College

Mr. Vertue, in his account prefixed to the portraits of our kings, says, that “the picture of that most glorious-“prince, Henry V, is preserved in vellum MSS. of that time;” but does not inform us where he met with them. The accurate researches of an ingenious friend in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, have brought to light a very curious resemblance of that illustrious hero. The generality of illuminated portraits, it is true, are not greatly to be depended upon; they are frequently only the imaginary creatures of the illuminator, drawn; with little skill or truth. The disposition of figures, the drawing, the colouring, of this miniature, all shew the hand of an abler master. It appears also, that the book in which this illumination is preserved was originally presented to the king himself, and was afterwards his property. This is another mark of the resemblance being genuine; for it cannot be supposed that the author would have presented the king with so laboured a miniature of his majesty, if he had not been able to procure a real likeness. Besides these proofs of its authenticity, the profile at Kensington, and the figure of the king in the historical picture belonging to Mr. West, are plainly intended for the same person represented in this MS; and no one has yet called in question the genuineness of the two former.

XLVII. A letter from Richard Price, D. D. F. R. S. to Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F. R. S. on the effect of the aberration of light on the time of a transit of Venus over the Sun

Dear Sir, I cannot doubt but that the observation made by ingenious friend in the paper you sent me is right.

XVII. An account of the disease, called ergot, in French, from its supposed cause, viz. vitiated rye. In a letter from Dr. Tissot, of Lausanne, to George Baker, M.D. F. R. S. Communicated in a letter from Dr. Baker to the Rev. Thomas Birch, D.D. Sec. R. S

Reverend Sir, In the month of April, 1762, my late most amiable and very ingenious friend, Dr. Wollaston, presented to the Royal Society the history of an extraordinary case of a mortification of limbs in a poo family at Wattisham, about sixteen miles from Bury, in Suffolk, where Dr. Wollaston at that time resided. About the same time the Rev. Mr. Bones, then minister of the parish of Wattisham (whose humanity led him to shew a particular attention to the sufferings of that unhappy family) transmitted to me every circumstance, which he could observe or collect, relating to the disease. The letters, which I received on this subject, from Mr. Bones, were communicated to the Society; and both accounts were published in the second part of the fifty-second volume of the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1762.

XIX. An account of some productions of nature in Scotland resembling the giants- Causeway in Ireland: In a letter to the Right Reverend Richard Lord Bishop of Ossory, F. R. S. From Emanuel Mendez Da Costa, F. R. S

My Lord, Your Lordship having communicated to the Royal Society, at their last meeting, an account of some rocks at the entrance of the harbour of Dunbar in Scotland, which are formed into pillars, like the growth of the famous Giants-causeway, but which are solid, and not joined like them, I take the liberty to send your Lordship the following account of a like natural production in other parts of Scotland, which was communicated to me by my ingenious friend Mr. Murdoch Mackenzie, who, by order of the Lords of the Admiralty, surveyed the coasts of that kingdom, and which came too late to be inferred in its proper place in my work.

XCII. An account of a remarkable marine production: in a letter to the Reverend Thomas Birch, D. D. Secretary to the Royal Society, from Alexander Russell, M. D. Physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and F. R. S

Sir, My ingenious friend Dr. James Nasmyth, having been so kind as to send me a marine production, which apperas to be singular, I thought some account of it would not be unacceptable to the Royal Society.

LI. An account of some fossile fruits, and other bodies, found in the Island of Shepey

My Lord, Being ever desirous to promote the business of this learned Society, I could not lose the opportunity that presented, of laying before you an account, and drawings ( See Tab. XV. & XVI.), of a most curious parcel of fossil fruits, and some other bodies, sent me from Shepey-Island, by my ingenious friend Mr. Jacob, of Faversham, Surgeon, and Fellow of the Antiquary Society.

LXXXIV. A letter from Mr. John Ellis, F. R. S. to Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. concerning the animal life of those coral-lines, that look like minute trees, and grow upon oysters and fucus's all round the sea-coast of this Kingdom.

Sir, The doubts, that I find still remain on the minds of many curious and learned men of the animal nature of corallines, on account of their beautiful ramifications, and regular plant-like appearances, determin'd me to persuade our ingenious friend, Mr. Ehret, to accompany me to the sea-side, that he might there be an eye-witness of what I had advanced to you, and many other worthy members of the Society; and to make exact drawings of the several different objects, as they appear'd to him thro' the microscope.

IV. A letter from the Reverend Mr. James Bradley Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and F. R. S. to Dr. Edmond Halley Astronom. Reg. &c. giving an account of a new discovered motion of the fix'd stars

Sir, You Having been pleased to express your Satisfaction with what I had an Opportunity Some time ago, of telling you in Conversation, concerning some Observation, that were making by our late worthy and ingenious Friend, the honourable Samuel Molyneux Esquire and which have since been continued and repeated by my self, in order to determine the Parallax of the fixt Stars ;

II. An account of some experiments shown before the Royal Society; with an enquiry into the cause of the ascent and suspension of water in capillary tubes.

Some days ago a Method was proposed to me by an ingenious Friend, for making a perpetual Motion, which seem’d so plausible, and indeed so easily demonstrable from an Observation of the late Mr. <italic>Hawksbee</italic>, said to be grounded upon Experiment, that, tho' I am far from having any Opinion of attempts of this Nature, yet, I consess, I could not see why it should not succeed.

III. A letter from Mr Samuel Dale to Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr, giving an account of what manuscripts were left by Mr John Ray, together with some anatomical observations made at Padua by the said Mr Ray

Herewith you will receive divers Anatomical Observations , that were made at Padua , by our late learned and most ingenious Friend the Reverend Mr John Ray , upon the dissection of some Humane Bodies, by that great Anatomist Seignior Antonio Marchetti , and do contain, besides those things which Mr Ray did himself remarks, divers Observations of the Operators which did not occur in those Bodies, to some of which Mr Ray hath added Notes.

I. Part of a letter to the publisher from Dr Davies concerning an unusual colic

Sir, Last may, my Ingenious Friend Dr shaw of Tamworth , was pleased to desire my assistance in the following case.